From Idaho to Germany, Learning German on Hard Mode, and Mermaid Swimming w/ Jake Wiest | Ep 72

Today I sit with Jake Wiest. We talk about his upbringing in Idaho and his move to California. And his time living in Oakland and Berkeley. He shares how he learned German by taking intensive courses. Also learning it by working at the Berlin Dungeon.

Jake talks about mermaid swimming. And having a family in German in comparison to USA

Timestamps
(2:02) Difference Between Berlin And German Cities
(10:07) Moving From Idaho To Oakland
(20:58) Having A Kid In Berlin
(28:41) AI And Impact On Art And Life
(35:23) Why Move To Berlin, Germany?
(38:37) Art And Life Since Living In Berlin
(44:14) Busking In San Francisco And South Germany
(54:28) Hack And Slack Podcast
(1:00:00) Swabish And Berlin
(1:12:39) Life With A Family In Berlin
(1:14:52) Process Of Learning German
(1:20:00) Learning German On Hard Mode
(1:23:55) Top 3 Places To Visit In Berlin
(1:29:44) Mermaid Swimming Courses
(1:38:52) Advice To Younger Self
(1:42:21) Artists And ADHD
(1:45:08) Balancing Family And Performing As An Artist

Jake's Socials
Instagram | Website

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Third Culture Talk Podcast is about people living in different cultures. Different than the culture they are from. Culture meaning, way of life, culture a person raised in, or place of birth. Guests ranges from third culture kids, artists, to comedians, to everyday people. We all are living in changing cultures and have a story to tell

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Music: "Chill Day" by Lakey Inspired

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;27;26
Unknown
Next time you go out of Berlin when you're on the train, just notice each stop. You know, if you're on the Deutsche Bahn like you'll you'll notice people will stare at you more and more like increasingly until you're about an hour or two outside the city, like maybe the Wolfsburg or Magdeburg or so. And you're about there. You'll notice, like, everyone's kind of staring at you and the train gets quieter and quieter and like, you notice this gradual, like getting out of Berlin.

00;00;27;26 - 00;00;46;18
Unknown
This. Welcome to the third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your host Nya Yeanafehn. This podcast, we talk with people that are raised in a culture different than their parents, home culture or way of life or nationality. And now they're living in today's culture, which is vastly different than the days of our parents or even back in the day. So let's get in.

00;00;46;18 - 00;01;06;10
Unknown
Today's episode. What's going on? How are you doing? Hey, pretty well man. Nice to see you. It's nice to be here. Yeah. Super cool. As I mentioned, it's it's, nice to be hanging out and chatting with you after enjoying, you enjoying you online so much. Enjoying all your stuff on on Instagram as great. Well, thank you for watching, man.

00;01;06;10 - 00;01;30;11
Unknown
Thank you. And, you now, how long you been living in Berlin? I, I've been in Berlin for five years. Holy shit. Coming up on six. Wow. And, yeah, almost six years. And then, to, like, calibrate my sense of time. There is five, six, ten. Berlin's a time where I don't know anymore. I've forgotten.

00;01;30;13 - 00;01;55;12
Unknown
Is it the year, 2022? What is this? I don't know, so, but I, I live in Germany for, for for eight years now. Yeah. I lived in Freiburg. Embrace now for three years. Okay. So I got a taste of, like, Germany, Germany, and then Berlin, which, you know, doesn't necessarily represent the rest of the country so much culturally or otherwise.

00;01;55;15 - 00;02;15;07
Unknown
I hear this a lot, and, I mean, I kind of get. I've been to Munich, I've been to other, cities in Germany, but, like, what was the difference for new between, like, Germany, Germany or like, I guess the outside of Berlin and then Berlin? I think, you know, Berlin, just like super multicultural. And you, you get that a lot.

00;02;15;07 - 00;02;51;11
Unknown
You just, you just you really feel like you're in an international city here. Which which you are. You feel it? And you're you're just likely to encounter people on the street that are not exuding German ness. You know, you're you're hearing other languages, you're seeing other behaviors, you know, and like when I was in southern Germany, the people there were just, like, a lot more, quiet, and, and one of the biggest, craziest things, I think, to get used to as an American in Germany is, is the staring.

00;02;51;11 - 00;03;15;20
Unknown
You know, the Germans stare. I was you experience with that when you first encountered it. You don't you don't get that as much in, in in Berlin compared to other parts of Germany. And like my wife for example, has lived in Berlin for like 11 years, but, I took her down to southern Germany at one point, and it's like, this is where I used to live.

00;03;15;20 - 00;03;33;24
Unknown
Let's check it out. And it's near the Black Forest. So it's a great place to bring, a loved one on a vacation, because it's actually a really lovely part of Germany. Like, geographically. Right. And I kept on being, like, how the Germans stare and kind of bothers me. And she's like, the whole time she's like, it doesn't.

00;03;33;26 - 00;03;57;06
Unknown
It's not that big a deal. Like the Germans don't stare as much. I think you're exaggerating. I think you're it's all in your head. I'm like, no, seriously, I'm like, you don't. You don't encounter as much in Berlin, so you don't you don't know what I'm talking about, but I swear it's it's a thing. When we went down to southern Germany together and we just went into this, restaurant, near where I was staying, I work as a tour guide to.

00;03;57;06 - 00;04;21;14
Unknown
So I work in, bridges. I used to work, down there and gave e-bike tours of the Black Forest. It's a little town that is, like, right on the Rhine River. Right on the border of Germany and France. And, so we went to a nice restaurant there. It's up on the hillside, like by this old castle, a really cool, old, city park is super cool.

00;04;21;17 - 00;04;43;10
Unknown
And so we went in there and it's dead silence. But there was a lot of people in there. It was just a lot of people were in there, and it was dead silence. What? How many people were in it? I'd say like maybe, a dozen or dozen to 20 people. And there was like, was the outside part.

00;04;43;10 - 00;04;59;24
Unknown
It was a lovely summer day, you know, it wasn't like a cold Berlin winter day. Nobody has an excuse to just be miserable. It was actually nice. It was nice. There's a view. You can see the whole Rhine River valley below you. It's kind of on this hill. It's a beautiful place, the kind of environment you would expect people to be enjoying themselves.

00;04;59;27 - 00;05;04;15
Unknown
And we walk in and everyone just.

00;05;04;17 - 00;05;31;22
Unknown
Just staring. Yeah. Like that record Skip or something, you know, and and then, we we're like, okay, it's like the Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, you know, and we're like, let's just have a seat. And there we go. And then the couple that is the there's two couples of old people, and they're just like what they were doing, I think before we got there, was staring in silence at each other for fun or whatever.

00;05;31;24 - 00;05;53;00
Unknown
And now they turn their gaze to us and my wife says, like, audibly like, so they can hear. But what else are you going to do? She's like, wow, I see what you mean. You weren't exaggerating. I'm like, I told you, I told you he wants to get out of Berlin. But especially when you're down in this part, this is how it is.

00;05;53;03 - 00;06;08;14
Unknown
That's you know what? Now you put in the things together, right? If they were just standing each other for the whole time sitting there, I mean, you know, it it makes sense to stare at you. Kind of like. All right, well, I'm. I'm done staring at your face. Yeah. Let's switch it up. Let's do it. Yeah, let's let's make it spicy.

00;06;08;14 - 00;06;31;19
Unknown
Let's spice up the relationship. So let's look at other people. Look. Other people came in to stare at. It's like change the TV channel to like a brand new cable station. Oh my God, it's foreigners too. It's going to be extra entertaining. Oh, this foreign. This is foreign cinema. Watch television. Yeah. So, Oh, and I had when I lived in Freiburg, too.

00;06;31;19 - 00;06;59;28
Unknown
I had, some friends come in to visit me that were, like, here to party, you know. And, they said the same. This is before I had been to Berlin really very much. And so they were like, yeah, we love, we love doing drugs and partying. But I tell you, when you're on the public transit in, in, in Freiburg, it's scary because everyone stares at you, you get on the train and like, literally everyone on the train kind of looks up at you and holds the stare.

00;07;00;07 - 00;07;18;14
Unknown
Wow. And if you're like on some drugs, you're just going to be like, well, I would be freaking out, you know? Right, I even have I was just a little bit stoned. I'd be like, this is, you know, normally I'm not the kind of stoner that gets paranoid, you know, I, I smoked weed for a long time, so my tolerance is beyond that and everything.

00;07;18;14 - 00;07;35;08
Unknown
Your valence level stoner. Yeah. Although, although when I moved to Germany, I smoked a lot less weed. So my tolerance went down a lot from when I lived in the U.S. And but still, like, even if I just had a little bit of weed and would go out on the public transit, I quickly learned don't do that is so scary.

00;07;35;10 - 00;07;53;00
Unknown
Like everyone looks at you and you're just like, you know, it's just too off putting. And then my friend said that too. And then they went to Berlin and they came back and visited me a few weeks later and they were like, oh yeah, dude, Berlin. It was so nice. We went and partied. The party culture, they're so cool.

00;07;53;00 - 00;08;11;18
Unknown
It's so welcoming. You can you can go out. You can be on the transit. People aren't going to stare at you. You can you can be going from party to party and going to the clubs. And it's very comfortable. And we didn't have this same issue of like being on drugs and getting the the shit freaked out of us by this.

00;08;11;20 - 00;08;27;25
Unknown
The looky loos on the public tram, you know, look at us staring at you. Yeah. And and I was like, oh, okay. That's cool. And then, you know, a couple of years later I moved up here and I remember what they said, and I was like, that that totally makes sense for sure, dude. Yeah. Wow. Like, I can be baked in Berlin and just be chilling, you know?

00;08;27;25 - 00;08;56;23
Unknown
It's fine. Like, yeah, no. No issues, no. No paranoia, no freaky deaky. I also noticed that when you go out of the city, though, this is a thing. Check it out next time you go out of Berlin. Right? Right. When you're on the train, just notice each stop. You know, if you're on the Deutsche Bahn, like, you'll you'll notice people will stare at you more and more like increasingly until you're about an hour or two outside the city, like maybe the Wolfsburg or Magdeburg or so.

00;08;56;23 - 00;09;17;16
Unknown
And you're about there. You'll notice, like, everyone's kind of staring at you and the train gets quieter and quieter and like, you notice this gradual, like getting out of Berlin. This, you know, that's when you feel like you go into a dangerous neighborhood. You started noticing some changes like, oh, wow, I was getting quieter. They were staring at me more.

00;09;17;18 - 00;09;40;13
Unknown
Oh, I think I missed my stop. Oh, no. I'm stranded in Brandenburg. Please help me. Everyone's looking at me and not saying anything. It's so silent in here. This is a scary movie. I will get addicted. Help! Yeah, man. I there is that feeling. Sometimes it's a little. It can be a little offputting. But on the other hand, to be fair, I totally get that.

00;09;40;13 - 00;10;02;19
Unknown
Like a lot of people say, the Americans are a very loud and foreign American. I have come it's been the unconscious of the fact that I am loud, a loud person, even for an American, which is nice for when I'm, I'm doing my stage performance work, but when I'm just chilling at a restaurant or something like, oh, I think I'm annoying people, I forgot.

00;10;02;21 - 00;10;25;17
Unknown
I better tone it down a little. So. So what part of, the states are you from? I'm from, Idaho, but, I grew up in Idaho, and then I moved to California, and, I lived in California. Oregon. Off and on as an adult. Wow. And my family then moved to Colorado. So I spent a lot of time in Denver as well.

00;10;25;19 - 00;11;04;21
Unknown
But even that man, like, I had I had a big culture shock moving even from, like, Idaho to California, you know? Really? Yeah. Because, when I, when I graduated university from University of Idaho, the first place I went and lived was in Berkeley, and, Berkeley and Oakland, off and on, depending on which side of Ashby I was, I was on that year, which I was living on with my subletting, is a little like Berlin, you know, bouncing back and forth, the sublets and but I the, the first, the first, like week I was there, I was living in like, North Oakland and, you know, I lived in

00;11;04;21 - 00;11;31;11
Unknown
a I was just like, I was a naive young country boy coming from Idaho to the big city to pursue my dreams. And it's really like out of a, like it's a stupid character out of movie. Yeah. I was just like, straight out of Idaho. The university town I was at was like a very rural, safe, like white place where just everyone was getting drunk all the time.

00;11;31;14 - 00;11;59;23
Unknown
A lot of just stupid, people, you know, going to bars and being drunk on the street and coming home and, like, just, then, the cops would look the other way. And then I moved to to, like, Oakland, right? Yeah. And I'm like, okay. All of a sudden I'm in, like a very, very urban place.

00;11;59;25 - 00;12;28;28
Unknown
The crime there is, is, is a little different than in Boise and everything, you know, where I grew up and, you know, people say, hey, look, you gotta, you gotta, be careful. You know, there's like streets you can go down and streets you can't go down. And people say, like, keep your keep your windows rolled down to your car, or because people will break into your car to steal your stereo anyway.

00;12;28;28 - 00;12;48;29
Unknown
So at least you can make sure your windows aren't broken yet. Oh yeah, you was in use in Oakland. For real? Yeah. And and then I'm like, well, okay. I listen to the words, but, you know, you like what not. This is a this is a shortcut to get home. I should take this street. Yeah. Yeah.

00;12;48;29 - 00;13;07;01
Unknown
And I got really too drunk at this bar, and I'm like, I live close enough. I walked from Berkeley to Oakland, and then that the first, like, two weeks, I got. I got jacked like this guy. Like, just straight up. But I was because I was so stupid. Yeah. I was like, just, I was drunk and singing.

00;13;07;01 - 00;13;30;07
Unknown
I was remember singing as gone. You were singing in the middle. Oakland. Yeah. It's been like la la la la la la la la. Seriously. Like a stupid movie character just from the rural sticks of of, like, backwater USA and just being like, golly, jeepers, la la la la la la. And this guy's like, all right, give me the whole thing.

00;13;30;07 - 00;13;51;10
Unknown
And I'm like, okay. And yeah. Then then I was, I just, I was like very browned out. So I don't completely remember the whole thing, but I remember coming back and then that was my educational experience to have my shit together. Did you sing? Did you sing after you got out? Maybe I sang into my tears later.

00;13;51;11 - 00;14;19;03
Unknown
Singing the blues? Yeah. It's just like how I. Those things. Sad music. Yeah, it was, it was. I was sad, and then I was like, okay, but I then I watched my ass. From then on, I did learn. I was like, okay, this is not like, fucking Idaho anymore. Dude. This is like, yeah, but to be singing on the streets in Idaho, like I'm, you know, that's that's a you think, that's just me.

00;14;19;03 - 00;14;37;13
Unknown
No. Yeah. That's just me. Yeah. It's not something we do in Idaho. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to assume. I mean, no, this is this is. You're the first person I really kind of talked to from Idaho. So singing it's not part of the culture. Okay? If I start singing in the new, yeah. We all, we all, we all just walk down the street singing Garth Brooks.

00;14;37;13 - 00;15;02;12
Unknown
And I was in cowboy boots and doing line dancing. And it's like the music man, you know? Just that's the best way to find your way home, you know? You know, at this, at this hook or whatever. This is where I gotta make it, right? Oklahoma. Okay. Oklahoma. Okay. Make a right here. All right. Now, it's that just me being a nut, being a fucking loon, and being being,

00;15;02;14 - 00;15;22;07
Unknown
Yeah. Sometimes I like to sing, you know, on the street, I mean, hey, that's though. I mean, you are an artist, so that's. You're a true artist. If you singing in the middle of Oakland when you first got there, that is some real art artistry right there. That's. Yes, it's fucking dumb. It's fucking dumb. It's dumb, but creative, you know?

00;15;22;12 - 00;15;44;07
Unknown
But yeah, I survived, I learned, you know, I got you get the wisdom out of the experience. So, that, that whatever it could, it maybe it saved my ass from, from making that mistake in some other context. Some other some other time, some other place. So. Yeah, but that was, that was like the the biggest culture, like the third called like stepping outside.

00;15;44;07 - 00;16;04;15
Unknown
It wasn't leaving a different country. It was just going to a different state, you know. Right. Yeah. And I mean, I guess in terms of I was going to ask you this in Idaho, do you guys have like streets you not you should not walk down on because it's like a danger street or anything. Is there such a concept as of a dangerous street in Idaho?

00;16;04;17 - 00;16;22;09
Unknown
Not really man. Yeah. I mean, I think, I don't know, maybe like in Garden City or something. I guess it used to be kind of, but nothing like nothing like when you live in a real big city. Nothing like Portland or the Bay area or New York or something. You know, it's you can you can walk down.

00;16;22;11 - 00;16;39;19
Unknown
I, I lived there as a teenager and would drive my bike all over the city at night and stuff, and yeah, there was there was no place I ever felt like. Like I really had to watch my ass, you know? Wow, that is so interesting. I don't I don't even know that word because, like, you know, I grew up there was always.

00;16;39;26 - 00;16;55;28
Unknown
There was. It was so crazy. Those streets. It's like if you walk on the street, you will get punched in the face. This is get punched in the face Street. Yeah. If you get here, you will get punched. And it happened like it happened consistently. Unless the you knew the people that did the punching in the face. And even then you had to be friends with them like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;16;56;04 - 00;17;12;26
Unknown
You know you gotta you, you gotta at least be able to be on the terms or you give them a fist bump or else the fist gets bumped into your face. Right? Yeah. But yeah, man. That's that's how it was. Of course. Yeah. When I lived in, like, the other cities, like when I lived in, in Portland and in the Bay.

00;17;12;26 - 00;17;34;04
Unknown
So. Yeah. So I learned that's normal. That's like in a normal city. But, Idaho was just so it's so it's so backwater, you know, it's just so, Yeah, so, so kind of really a rural, a rural, the most, the most of that state is covered in, in like, the woods, you know, like 70% of it is actually like wilderness, forest land.

00;17;34;05 - 00;18;07;01
Unknown
It's us. I thought it was farmland for some reason. This it's a forest. Well, yeah. Last I checked anyway, which was many years ago. Maybe it's different now, but, like. Yeah. Yeah, maybe they sounded like 60%. Who knows what they're chopping away, right. But, it's it's a it's, you know, the state is notable for its, its redneck culture, I think because it attracts those people that want to go and live out of the way and, and be like extreme introverts live that, live in the woods and have their cabin and stuff, you know?

00;18;07;02 - 00;18;25;05
Unknown
Yeah. So, yeah, that that was that was a huge shock to me, though, when I went to the Bay. Man, I loved it. It was a nice it was a, it was a in a lot of ways a nice place to be living in in the Bay area. Expensive as shit though. Yeah, yeah. Expensive. Good food though.

00;18;25;07 - 00;18;44;27
Unknown
Really nice food. Yeah, really nice food. Good, good. Japanese food. Good. Good. Tacos too. Yeah. That's what I miss is, one thing I miss about living in the US is the Mexican food. Yeah, especially on a West Coast world. You live in life eating all that Mexican food because, like Mexican food on that on the West Coast.

00;18;44;27 - 00;19;19;09
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, it's like I grew up with that as, like one of the main things I loved about food culture. So it actually took me a while to find some places in Berlin where I could, I could have a good Mexican. But I found finally this place called Shapiro. It's over in Kreuzberg, and the guy that runs it is like from Mexico, I think, and he really puts the work into like, he, he soaks the peppers and grills it in their own oils for hours to.

00;19;19;09 - 00;19;36;13
Unknown
So it soaks up the flavor. And the spice is like, that's one thing I miss is the spice, you know? Yeah. And he is like authentic sizing the spice. It is, it is just wow. It's like fire. It is so good. You know, I got to go check it out. Yeah. It's not another taco spot on the top.

00;19;36;18 - 00;19;53;04
Unknown
I mean, Mexican spot is in his food hall. Something that. I don't know the name of it. Something Oro. Something similar to all nine, I think. So, yeah, I think he's in there as a. Yes, very, very good. But I mean, you know what? Like a couple handful of good Mexican spots here in Berlin it seems like. Yeah.

00;19;53;04 - 00;20;14;08
Unknown
Well I used to say when people say, what do you miss about the US? I'd say I miss, Mexican food, legal weed and my friends and family. But now that I found a good Mexican spot and they legalized weed in Germany. That's that's two down and, last one replaceable. So I guess that's it. Yeah. I mean, kind of start your family here a bit, you know?

00;20;14;08 - 00;20;41;06
Unknown
Yeah. It's true. Yeah. I'm. I'm now a, a proud dad. So, I'm really looking forward to to Christmas. Actually, it'll be our first. My first Christmas in Berlin. Just with with my my new son and my wife. And last year we went back. So I'm really, really looking forward to that actually, because, you know, travel, travel, stress, a lot of the travel stress last year like canceled out any, any joy of being with your family at the holidays.

00;20;41;08 - 00;21;05;23
Unknown
Oh have my family got Covid. And then also we went on the 11 hour plane ride with this, boy who's not even a year old, just cried. And, you know, it's it's. Yeah. Now it's just going to be the most chill Christmas. I'm so stoked. Yeah. Wow, that's so crazy, though. I think you're the first person I talked to maybe on this podcast who just recently had a kid in Berlin, you know, and as a, you know, as an American living, you.

00;21;05;29 - 00;21;26;19
Unknown
Yeah. Like, how was that navigate? Because there's so many like, things you have to mindfully like deal with when you're, you know, especially like, you know, you trying to find unloading or like you trying to like register your name, say this and everything. Was it like very complicated when you had your kid and like how to deal with German accuracy?

00;21;26;22 - 00;21;45;01
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, it wasn't it wasn't too much more complicated than anything else, I guess, you know, the same kind of paperwork you gotta do for a lot of the other stuff. It was we did have to have a lot of papers, though, man. Yeah, a lot of a lot of, from what I understand, papers that you don't have to have.

00;21;45;04 - 00;22;19;15
Unknown
In other if you're, if you have a kid in other parts of the world, you know, we we'd have our own birth certificates and stuff, and we, we had to we had to get a collection going. Wow. And then, yeah, we, we went and we weren't sure I remember it was like, you know, it's just a stressful time anyway, when you're having when you're during the birth and then you go to, you go to get the birth certificates printed out afterwards and, or you want to get sent to you.

00;22;19;15 - 00;22;52;05
Unknown
So you bring the paperwork and then you give it to them, like, all right, it'll be it'll be in the mail. And you're like, there's always in Germany, you know, you're like, hey, are you sure it's going to be in the mail? You know, there's always we've been kind of trained that there's is it actually going to happen, you know, because sometimes like in this bureaucratic processes in this country, like sometimes the, the, the, the bureaucratic agency will fuck it up and then you're, you're left like, hey, what's happening?

00;22;52;05 - 00;23;09;06
Unknown
What's happening, what's happening? And then when you finally badger them enough to to get their attention and, and then they're like, oh yeah. And then you know, like, oh yeah, I guess we made a mistake. Anyway, now you have to take care of our mistake, kind of, you know, attitude. You know, you've ever that that's that, that's the thing.

00;23;09;06 - 00;23;26;09
Unknown
And so I'm like I don't want that to happen. I really hope it gets here. And then we waited and we waited and then it got there and it was totally fine. It was like, okay, cool. Yeah. But it was like a couple. They said it would be there in a couple weeks and then it wasn't. And then you're stressing like I just gave like my birth certificate to these people.

00;23;26;10 - 00;23;42;28
Unknown
Sensitive paperwork. I want to trust they're not going to mess it up. Yeah. He also knows mail doesn't arrive and you're like, where's the package? You know, like you're like, if I didn't lose my birth certificate. Yes, sir. You wasn't you wasn't at home. So, we actually return it back to the sender. What? Yeah. Like, how are you talking?

00;23;42;28 - 00;24;13;03
Unknown
Where's my birth certificate? You mean I'm the person? And why do you need my birth certificate for my kid? Like, But, it also, I've heard it. Yeah. Like mothers have said. Hey, it's a little. There's extra work you got to do with the paperwork when you're when you're having having a kid in Germany. But the other hand, I mean, the health care is so good and everything, and, so that was part of the reason I wanted to come here, long ago, was I thought it would be a good place to have a family.

00;24;13;03 - 00;24;36;25
Unknown
Wow. Back then, it was sort of like, I in my head is unlikely that was ever going to happen, but I'm like, it would be nice. Maybe it'll happen. And, and then now that it has is like the system here is, is so, helpful, so set up for families, you know, the union MPs is there and offers so much, so many resources for you.

00;24;36;27 - 00;25;00;02
Unknown
They have a husband may actually come in. A woman who helps, help helps the the the the new mother. And then the family comes into the house. A trained professional that comes in answers your questions. How to take care of the kid, helps away the kid. Helps to. And you really need. Especially when you're, like, just two foreigners and you're like, not sure.

00;25;00;02 - 00;25;23;21
Unknown
And it's your first, first kid. Yeah. It is so helpful, man. It's so like really good. Oh, you know how to say diapers and you're like a be so, you know you know I mean she's is like shit right? But yeah. Yeah it's rough Vert Vulgate, Vulgate dishes. It is, is kind is is like, excuse me, I should have that question number one.

00;25;23;24 - 00;25;41;04
Unknown
I read a reusable diaper is a good idea. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Reusable. That's a thing. If we don't do it, I I'm, I like, consider myself. I want to try and be good for the planet with my consumer choices. But the reusable diaper was just. No, we just sorry isn't a to with the environment is okay.

00;25;41;04 - 00;26;02;29
Unknown
All good until this shit involved. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't need to be disposable and never reusing it. Yeah, yeah, that's the line, dude. I want my cardboard to have no shit on it ever. I don't yeah I don't want like, the shit particles to be in my washer. And you know, it's just of like yeah, yeah. You see, you smell a faint smell of shit.

00;26;02;29 - 00;26;22;16
Unknown
You. But, I need to throw the washer away. I think I need throw it away. I can't what I what am I going to do? Is that is going to save money on the diapers and Stem. Just buy a new washer every fucking year. Just, by the time your kid turns five, you it down. A thousand washes have backfired.

00;26;22;19 - 00;26;42;21
Unknown
But yeah, man, the bomb comes, and then there's, like, the, the state support. You get Elden geld, you get, you get money to help support you while you're off of work. You also get a fraction of your salary, like 70% or so, while you're, for the first months, you get to have time off of work if you want.

00;26;42;21 - 00;27;04;10
Unknown
Wow. You get, like, the first. I forget what it was there already. I think I want to say the first year, you or so you can get that fraction of the salary, but you can actually get, like, take leave off of work up to like, three, I think 3 to 8 years of the kid's life just to, like, you won't get paid or nothing, but you can just be off of work and sort of, yeah.

00;27;04;10 - 00;27;25;16
Unknown
I mean, it's it's unbelievable from an American perspective. It's crazy. That's, Yeah. Wow. I'm like I'm like, yo, you gotta be. They some stuff this crazy. The joke. What's the joke like? You know, they, they the the state provides so well for you in your first year of parenthood that if a German had a kid every year, they would never have to work again.

00;27;25;19 - 00;27;40;17
Unknown
I mean, I guess maybe that's their promotion of having more kids or something. Maybe, I don't know. Yeah, I mean it like. Yeah. Please. Yeah, just. Yeah, we'll cover it. Don't worry. The country has it like a negative, birth rate, I think. Right. So. Right. Just like everywhere. Yeah, yeah. So, Yeah, they need some encouragement.

00;27;40;17 - 00;27;59;25
Unknown
Say like. Yes, please. You need people to pay into the system. Let's go. You know? Yeah, there's the, you know, the the it's facing, like this crisis where the elderly population is going to be bigger than ever. And then there's not going to be enough people of working age putting money into the system to help take care of the old people.

00;27;59;25 - 00;28;19;19
Unknown
You know, it's like a thing that's projected for, for some years from now. Yeah. There is. Yeah. I mean, Germany, United States, South Korea, right. Oh, really? Yeah. That's all. Yeah. Also that having this, this this issue. Yeah. Even Japan. Japan. I hear so crazy that they actually building robots to help take care of the elderly.

00;28;19;22 - 00;28;39;06
Unknown
So it's so serious. Dang, that sounds okay. Kind of cool. I mean, if I was elderly. Yeah, but then it's going to be a civilization full of robots, you know, I guess I don't know. Yeah. The Japan man, they're they're ahead of the game and all robot technology, a civilization of robots. That's. We're all heading anyway, though. Whatever.

00;28;39;07 - 00;28;55;07
Unknown
Like, you know, we all got ChatGPT, right? You know, the I still have resisted. I just had a discussion, with this about this, with this guy the other night about, like, I resist the ChatGPT, but I know I'm gonna. I know eventually it'll get me. I'll get it. It's so good, bro. I'm alive. I like to chat.

00;28;55;07 - 00;29;18;23
Unknown
I mean, I'm knee full deep into that pool of AI. Yeah. I mean, I'm not. I'm not chest. I'm. I'm knee. So, like, I still have hope. And, you know, I still think of, like, reality as being better, but yeah, my mom use it. That's a when my mom said she used it for something. Yeah. Without me being involved I was like, all right, AI's getting a little too far.

00;29;18;23 - 00;29;36;10
Unknown
What's going on? Whoa. You're taking over my mom now. What's happening? Yeah. Usually calls me for help. Now. You taking over my job as a son? I don't like this. Soon she will come to chat with GPT for love. She's like my son doesn't ever call anymore. Can you just replicate my son's voice and tell him that he missed me?

00;29;36;13 - 00;29;53;00
Unknown
Yeah, right. I call, I just go straight to voicemail. She blocked me. She is just like, yeah, I already had the call today. You said you call on Sunday. It's eight in the evening. I had it at noon with P. Thanks. Now I gotta I gotta make an appointment with my mom just because I has now taken all the slots.

00;29;53;03 - 00;30;10;13
Unknown
But that's why I like, I, I, I'm resisting because I don't need it. But that's what the point I realized with the discussion I had with this guy the other night, I was like, when would I actually. And he's like, well, look, I it helps me save me time at work, you know? And I get that's what a lot of people are using it for.

00;30;10;13 - 00;30;31;21
Unknown
And I'm like, okay, I think, it'll save me time. Then if, if, if I have a job and it saves me time at work, then yeah, of course I would use it. Yeah. You know. Of course. Yeah. So when it gets to that point, when there's a necessity and it's time consuming and there's something else I'd rather be doing and, and it's not my own creative thing.

00;30;31;21 - 00;30;48;04
Unknown
And I like doing my own creative thing. I don't want a robot to replace it. Then. Yeah, sure, sure. If I had a job, I'm getting like X amount per hour and I can have a little bit that time back to myself if I just get a robot involved. Bring on the robots. There you go. Bring on the robots.

00;30;48;04 - 00;31;04;27
Unknown
I won't do the job anymore. Take care of it. You know what? Yeah, we all don't want, you know? I mean, that's hopefully what I would do, but then it is taking over the the creativity stuff, you know, and that's where, that's where my, I was something about a creative project I was working on. And I'm like, I'm having trouble figuring out.

00;31;05;02 - 00;31;39;04
Unknown
I think it was like something with, with social media videos or something. And he's like, ChatGPT, I'll help you. I'm like, no, I want to, I want to do my creative work myself. I don't want the robots to replace my creative work. Even if the my creative work sometimes involves struggles and challenges and things that aren't my forte, like working with social media and and editing videos and stuff like, I want to do that work myself, because then when I do master it, it's rewarding to to creatively make those videos, you know, and to creatively use social media that I want.

00;31;39;05 - 00;31;52;15
Unknown
I want to do that. Right? No, I mean, that's exactly and I think to your point, to a guy to talk with a friend to, he he was very doom and gloom about AI, which I mean, reasonably so. Right. Yeah. We all watch Terminator, right? One inch. Right. We all kind of know how it could play out, right?

00;31;52;19 - 00;32;15;20
Unknown
Yeah. You know, a black guy with a lab coat and a key get shot and and, you know, everything. Yep. That's it. All's downhill from there, man. Is is what black. I would allow code that we need to protect if he dies, Skynet is going to win. It's that. And then robots and nuclear bombs. Dude, real quick, I predict anyone with the last name Connor.

00;32;15;22 - 00;32;33;02
Unknown
But, you know, with, with AI and Art, I think that the thing I was arguing with him. Right. Because he was like. Well, aren't you scared that this may take over your art or so in terms of doing comedy or acting and things? And I was like, well, I think us human beings still have this way of synthesizing information quickly or like in different ways.

00;32;33;02 - 00;32;49;12
Unknown
Like, for example, you can look at the sky, I look at the sky. We're going to have to we can create two different stories from it. Right. I don't know you, you know, or they always say like when somebody two people see a car accident, there's two different stories. I, somebody can see the same thing. I have like a oh my gosh are flames and this and then and blah blah.

00;32;49;12 - 00;33;09;16
Unknown
And somebody is you know person who did a Tom cruise movie or something for me, I'm like, I was a Fender better. Yeah. But I think what the synthesis, the synthesis ization of information and like how you and your life I grew up in Idaho got robbed in Oakland singing. Right. So the way you're going to interpret this is going to be different.

00;33;09;16 - 00;33;28;12
Unknown
It you know you might turn into a musical I don't know. Right. Like oh I can't do that. Hey I was going to be like but for you, you, I'm like a la la, you know. And then they get it's a, you're the human wildcard factor. You know, how fucking nuts can this human being get the I I'll never get that crazy at all.

00;33;28;16 - 00;33;53;26
Unknown
Yeah. It's too irrational, you know. Yeah. The irrationality demon. Irrational factor. I was like, I would never sing in Oakland. Yeah. You know, it's like, all right, I, I'm I'm a being of logic. I'm not going to stumble through Oakland night singing fucking idiot. We are. We already calculate the probability of me being safe doing that. So ain't like, oh no, I forgot about, I just want to sing more.

00;33;53;26 - 00;34;11;10
Unknown
You know, that was back before the internet. To which, I notice the difference to it. Like, I mean, the internet as we know it. That was back in the mid 2000s when I moved over there. So, you know, you weren't using the internet to like, research a bunch of stuff before you went to a place. Yeah, that was a different thing too, when I moved to Germany.

00;34;11;12 - 00;34;32;04
Unknown
By then I moved Germany in 2016, and then the internet had become a tool where you could, you know, it was it was a regular thing to be looking stuff up before you did it, you know? So that's why, like, yeah, I went to Freiburg actually was because it looked like a cool part of Germany had the Black Forest.

00;34;32;04 - 00;34;53;22
Unknown
I looked up all the stuff about it, had the university. It was, it was a fairly international city. And you can look up stuff about the culture, you know, like when you, when, when people moved to German, when I, when I first was like looking at Germany way back in the mid 2000, it was like language course.

00;34;53;27 - 00;35;12;17
Unknown
I was like looking up. I'd get stuff from the library. It was talking a lot about the language. There was a lot of stuff about the culture. Now you can Google and you just go to all the articles. They're all saying a lot of the same stuff. They're like, hey, it's so crazy. People don't walk across the street at traffic lights and everything is closed on Sundays, so make sure you got your shit together on Saturday, you know?

00;35;12;17 - 00;35;32;12
Unknown
Yeah. And so you can you can get that information before you're you're going out into the real world, you know? Wow. And you came to Berlin with. No, I mean, okay, let's let's even talk about that because you lived in all these places in the States. So, what made you move to Berlin? Who was it you said you kind of said because of the societal things, but what was like the real.

00;35;32;12 - 00;35;54;11
Unknown
What was the number one thing that made you move to Berlin? I think that, I was well, I tried to get into the university in Freiburg for a for a couple, a couple tries to this grad program that was really high in demand. It was a long shot for me to try it. But after a couple tries, I thought, you know, I've been.

00;35;54;11 - 00;36;15;19
Unknown
I've been doing music for for decades now, and I love it. I think I, I was thinking of trying to just do a little career change and get a job that makes more money and stuff, but I was like, whatever. You know, I've been putting a lot of work my whole life into just, you know, working a at performance career.

00;36;15;22 - 00;36;40;28
Unknown
And Berlin's got that going on. Oh, yeah. Freiburg did not. So there was not very many, opportunities to, to play music there or do do acting and stuff and do live performance. So I came up here, as, as a draw for the, the, the big city, you know, of the what I call the Berlin nightlife circus.

00;36;41;01 - 00;37;03;08
Unknown
Where there's just so much stuff going on here. I mean, you know what I mean? It's like it's even overwhelming, like the, this, this whole phenomenon that some people experience where, you know, you get here and then you want to do all this stuff, and then you're doing all this stuff, and then you get burnt out because you're doing so much stuff, and then you just take some time to chill and do nothing for a few weeks because you're just like, dude, I just oh my God.

00;37;03;08 - 00;37;27;03
Unknown
Like, there's so much stuff happening all the time. It's very over. It can be overstimulating, you know? But when I totally worked now, I'm so, I'm so happy with with with it. It's so cool. When I first came here, was actually doing stand up also for the first three years I was here. Wow. And then when I had my kid, I had, kind of focus on.

00;37;27;03 - 00;37;43;06
Unknown
I was doing a lot of stuff, and then I had to focus on just doing certain stuff. I'd gotten back into doing improv after taking a long time off of it, but I used to do improv frequently when, I was younger, and I'm. I got back into it here. I took some classes, and I thought improv would help my standup.

00;37;43;06 - 00;38;08;08
Unknown
I basically took improv classes to help with my crowd work. And then as I was taking the improv classes, I was just like, dude, I missed improv and I missed the stagecraft of it. I missed how that's a little more linked into the theater world. And, so I because as time becomes limited after you become a parent, I was like, okay, let's let's lock it in and just work on improv and doing rock and roll music.

00;38;08;08 - 00;38;28;24
Unknown
And that's going to be like the two things. But I started doing like musical stand up here and, as you know, man, like the stand up scene alone in Berlin is like, just so explosive. It's so there's so much going on, let alone everything else. Music nights and whatever else, dance, art, performance, all that stuff.

00;38;28;24 - 00;38;51;08
Unknown
There's so much of it. It's nuts. It's crazy. And then, you know, you came in during 2016, so things are probably a lot different than it is now. Yeah. I moved to Berlin in 2019, so I had one solid, pre-COVID year in Berlin. Okay. Yeah, he's in Freiburg for three years. But yeah, they were a little different.

00;38;51;08 - 00;39;14;26
Unknown
But, you know, I, I'm actually, quite happy with with how, a lot of the, the performance nights and events in Berlin are, even, even after Covid on this side of Covid are still, really well attended. A lot of people go out to enjoy live entertainment in Berlin. That's something I really love about it.

00;39;14;28 - 00;39;33;29
Unknown
In, in Portland, when I was there, I was in a rock band. And sometimes, you'd go to, to your band to be playing or you go see other bands or whatever. And the crowd, it could be sparse, even if the band was, like, really awesome. And would it should have kind of a more of a draw, you know?

00;39;34;01 - 00;39;55;06
Unknown
And I've heard some friends in Ireland, my, a friend of mine in Ireland say the same thing. They're like, it's hard to get people out in Ireland and stuff, but here, like, I think people come here and they want to go out to have their entertainment, to have some live entertainment. It keeps it keeps the the it keeps the pond full of life here, you know?

00;39;55;08 - 00;40;14;06
Unknown
Yeah. Stimulation is, and it was like that before Covid. And I remember thinking, I wonder if that'll change, but those things have kind of reemerged, when you, when you, when I go out to see things or do things, there's often very, very, a lot of people there. I think that's really cool. Yeah. And it's very as you said, it's very explosive.

00;40;14;06 - 00;40;32;17
Unknown
You, you know, a lot of people support art here, like as, person who lived in New York City for a while, and that's where I started comedy, did acting, improv, I did improv, I did clown. Really. Did you do, like, professional clowning? I guess professional, I did classes, yeah. So awesome. I went to this guy.

00;40;32;17 - 00;40;53;08
Unknown
He he basically study. He studied under a gargoyle here in, Paris. Okay. That clown school, daily athlete here. And, it's. I take it it's a famous clown. I, I don't know, my clown. Yeah. We've, you know, Dino and Vigo. Let me see you some other people. Sacha Baron Cohen. Oh, he he has he has background in clowning, too.

00;40;53;09 - 00;41;12;08
Unknown
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I mean, that dude's a complete. But being out there, like, you know, art is supported only in this in the guys that if you're famous or if you at that level where you should be supported, it makes sense to then people will. But they won't support you at the starting level, i.e. and what do they support?

00;41;12;08 - 00;41;28;05
Unknown
Just like coming out to the show, right? Yeah. And even come down to like some of your family friends. That's a common thing of a performer in the States of like you tell your friends or stuff, hey, come on to my show. This, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then yeah. And then you're like, where did where were you at in my show?

00;41;28;06 - 00;41;47;10
Unknown
You said you'd come to the show. Yeah, it's kind of busy. You know, I was watching jeopardy and and just going to make it, you know, have popcorn. Anyone get it cold? It was slightly raining, so you know, you know, hydroplaning. You know, as dangerous as the thing, you're like, all right, you know. Yeah. But here, I mean, that was the thing that made me move here to Berlin.

00;41;47;10 - 00;42;10;09
Unknown
People are like, oh, I like the thing you're doing. Where else can I see you? And I'm actually come for real. And you're like, oh, wow. Yeah, I, I'm not used to this. Yeah, I know, I yeah, I'm, I know exactly me and, and I always feel like so much gratitude for it. It's like after, after years in the states of, of that struggle and, and then becoming sort of almost calloused to it.

00;42;10;11 - 00;42;28;10
Unknown
And then you're here and then, I actually did like my first show since my son was born again, I focused only on improv and rock band for the last two years. And then I did my first, kind of solo show where I was doing a lot of my own stuff on my acoustic guitar just a couple weeks ago, the first one since since my son was born.

00;42;28;10 - 00;42;46;06
Unknown
So I was really it was it was a really big deal for me. And I wanted I wanted people to come and and then then they did. And now the end. Sometimes, sometimes I get a little bit like gushing, you know, I'm like, be conscious of your gushing, Jake. Do not gush. Do not, do not give the thanks too much.

00;42;46;06 - 00;43;03;05
Unknown
It'll make it awkward, you know, because I'm like a thank you. Oh my God. Like I love you guys so much. It means so much to me. Like, really? I just want people to know that I'm not bullshitting. I'm not. I'm just not fake. It's not flattery. It's like when they all come out, you're really like that.

00;43;03;11 - 00;43;22;08
Unknown
That really, really means so much to me. It is. It is. Yeah. I put, you know, you put so much work into it, so much hours and hours of work and your heart and your soul. And then when people come in support and they're enjoying what you're doing, you're just like this is this is so, so cool and so rewarding and so different from it used to be.

00;43;22;10 - 00;43;41;11
Unknown
It's like you got to pull people's teeth to, for them maybe to come out in a state. Yeah. It's like crazy. Yeah, yeah. It's the shows are not okay. That's interesting that you mentioned that that that's like that in New York too though, because you know, I mean yeah, I mean New York because also New York has this thing of where it is like the best of the best goes, goes there.

00;43;41;14 - 00;44;01;18
Unknown
So like on any block you can find like the best of the best, I mean, there's even people that busk and there like, like, almost award winning back in the day like singers. But these have, you know, fell on bad times. Things happen, but they can really sing like you can feel it, but ain't nobody putting the dollar into the bucket, you know?

00;44;01;18 - 00;44;15;00
Unknown
I mean, literally people will be saying about, oh my gosh, you're so great. Thank you. Yeah. My subway just came in, so I'll see you later. Bye. And then just go in and play, you know, like how much does it touch you that you can take out some at least a dollar. Like a dollar I know. Yeah. Man.

00;44;15;05 - 00;44;34;26
Unknown
Man, I did, I did busking for a long time too, so. Oh, really? I know the pain yet. Yeah. Do you do busking here or back in? No, I, I, I did it for a while in the, in the U.S, for, like about. Yeah. For, for, for quite a few years. For me like seven years.

00;44;34;27 - 00;44;55;13
Unknown
Wow. Sometimes it was, it was actually, I'd quit my job in, in Berkeley. It felt like a bit of a dead end. And I was suffering from some really bad mental health at that time in life and needed a little change of direction. The new life plan needed to do something that was going to fulfill me, and I thought I started.

00;44;55;13 - 00;45;29;03
Unknown
I was, I was busking, I started busking like in, San Francisco, and I go to Haight Ashbury and stuff. The it was that was a very romanticized. There was like a big I was like, Holy shit, that's cool. And Haight-Ashbury, how cool the home of the hippies, playing the Grateful Dead. I had Haight Ashbury and, so I people start to put in, I start to see how much money I could be making just from busking and realized I could probably, I mean, not making as much as I would at my job, but, like, still, I can quit and I can, I can maybe try and do that.

00;45;29;05 - 00;45;59;21
Unknown
And, so I did for, for quite some time, and traveled around the West Coast, and started to learn the, the, the tricks of the trade. But part of what I didn't like about it eventually, which is also part of my move from Freiburg to Berlin, is that, in order to make money off of, doing that, just being a guy with a guitar, a lot of people want you to play specific songs, and they're not necessarily songs that you like.

00;45;59;28 - 00;46;23;25
Unknown
So this guy like once I was busking and he said, learn Wagon wheel, wagon wheel. We'll get you the money. So what are you doing this for? I was like, as I kind of complains as a bad money day, people aren't giving my day. And he's like, dude, if you play this song, you'll get money. And I'm like, yeah, I kind of wanted to play songs that that I like because that's my whole, you know, if I'm doing covers, then I have I want to do songs that I like.

00;46;23;25 - 00;46;42;09
Unknown
So, I remember I learned Wagon Wheel. I got all the money from Wagon Wheel. So it did work, of course. Yeah, it's a formula. Yeah. The guy was right. Yeah. It's like. Yeah, like, don't reinvent the wheel. Just, you know, go with the wagon wheel or the wagon wheel. Yeah, that's the wheel. Why reinvent the wheel of the wagon?

00;46;42;14 - 00;47;03;20
Unknown
Yeah. Which I did, actually, I made my own cover of it eventually because I went to change it, but make a parody of it, and that in that the song itself is about hitchhiking around the South. I never been to the South, so instead I rewrote the lyrics, as a song about me busking up and down the West Coast.

00;47;03;22 - 00;47;23;20
Unknown
And, then it was my song and it was fun for me again. But, that then that that started to lead me into the world of what I call commissioned work as a street musician. Yeah. And, where where you're playing songs like, I do, like cover songs, like, my band plays cover songs, but we're playing songs I love.

00;47;23;20 - 00;47;43;12
Unknown
We play a lot of like, rancid. We play, we play green Day, you know? This is like punk rock music that I really like. I mean, Green Day's kind of accessible to most people, but like rancid, that's a little more obscure, you know, like, if I cover Anti-Flag or something, people aren't going to, you know, if they're walking down the street, they're not going to be like, oh, let's give him five bucks.

00;47;43;12 - 00;47;59;26
Unknown
But they hear Wagon Wheel. They're like, oh, is give him five bucks. They're Bob Dylan, they're like five bucks, you know? But I do like Bob Dylan. That's the thing is like trying to find the Venn diagram where something I love, it's going to make me money because other people who give money for music love it to, a Venn diagram.

00;47;59;26 - 00;48;20;04
Unknown
But then I was I was like playing in southern Germany. And I was actually making starting to make some pretty decent money playing it. The taverns around the Black Forest, it was cool. But they all want you to play like country roads, dude. And I'm like, I don't really like this song. Like it's okay. Yeah. You know, it's just not.

00;48;20;04 - 00;48;39;02
Unknown
I would never choose to play country roads. It was never, ever. Like, it's not on my list of, like, things I would want if I could. It's like thousands and thousands of songs down the list of songs I'd want to cover. I don't really. I'm not West Virginia. Is. Is that really a cool place? You know, I don't think so.

00;48;39;05 - 00;48;57;04
Unknown
I mean, it's very. Yeah, I don't know, I've never been there, but it's not. It doesn't seem very cool. I don't see why was that the big deal about it. Yeah. I don't know man. Like, but so, so then you go and the, the Germans, they love country roads. Country roads is the wagon wheel of Germany. Wow.

00;48;57;04 - 00;49;14;04
Unknown
The same way I learned that, by by just trying to play music, you're usually like, I would add something. I started to notice the pattern. Hey, will you play country roads? Hey, you play country roads? Hey, you're from America. You have a guitar. You must play country roads. And I guess I don't know what I'm assuming.

00;49;14;04 - 00;50;00;12
Unknown
They tipped a lot to probably. Of course. Yeah. No. Yeah. It's, Love it. Everyone's. The whole bar is singing along. Everyone's. It gets crazy. Everyone gets whipped up into a frenzy of country roads. Yeah. That's wild. Wow. So you experiencing Germany on a different level? Yeah, but. But I'm like, let let up in Berlin. There's, there's more outlets and avenues, and, and and then an audience for people who like, originality and, and creativity and more niche cover stuff, you know, so that's, that's that's again also part of what, what drew me here because then I was like, I was like in Freiburg and I'm like, I don't know.

00;50;00;12 - 00;50;20;17
Unknown
I feel like a little bit of a dead end. And let's go see what happens if I go. And again, success. Like, people here are very open, receptive and loving of of new cool, interesting shit. So yeah, they are. Yeah. So it's, it's all working out. It's all working out. That's cool. That is working out, man.

00;50;20;17 - 00;50;52;26
Unknown
And, what what would you say were some of the things that you learned from busking that has applied well to, like you doing art in Berlin? I mean, I think I think, that being being a live performer, one of the main differences between doing that versus doing just purely videos and film work and maybe social media stuff is like the, the crowd work and how, how, how to, how to interact with with, with your with your people, with the audience, with the crowd.

00;50;52;28 - 00;51;25;04
Unknown
And the busking is that is just so valuable for that. Really, really just, just being able to talk to the people and it's instead of like when you're on a stage and in a venue, you know, then, then there's this kind of like there's, there's the fourth wall, there's, there's a separation. There's the like the audience is like they're very aware I'm in the audience and you're on the stage, but on the street you're just at the same level, and people come, for better or worse.

00;51;25;04 - 00;51;47;26
Unknown
I mean, sometimes people harass you, and, you know, that's really annoying. But this corner, yeah. Or like. Yeah, drunk people and. Yeah, coming and bothering you and stuff, but like, then also you on the plus side, you really get to talk with people and sometimes they say why they liked your song. They're going to give you feedback more negative and positive.

00;51;47;28 - 00;52;04;28
Unknown
Like, you know, being like, oh, I really love that. I remember even one guy being like, hanging out and enjoying my music. And he's like, I love that song. You play it. I can't believe those people sat there and listened to a whole song and didn't give you any money. And I'm like, yeah. What was an original, you know?

00;52;05;06 - 00;52;22;09
Unknown
So, and he's like, yeah, I'll tell you what. He's like, you know how you play Johnny Cash? And he's like, and he's like, you play Johnny Cash? Again. Then. Then the next people that come by, I bet they'll give you five bucks. It's like, all right, let's do some more cash for the cash. Here we go.

00;52;22;09 - 00;52;41;08
Unknown
And boom, once again, like, there the. He was. It was so funny. Somebody came to listen to my Johnny Cash cover. Really put five bucks in. And that was just from, me chatting with this guy who was liking my original stuff. And then he gave me a little money, too. And. But, like, you have the interaction you have, do you have a lot of the crowd work?

00;52;41;08 - 00;53;11;01
Unknown
You have a little more honest communication, I think, that public space makes it so that, you know, all the world's on stage and all the men and women merely players. But, when you're just on the street that street is truly that stage of of you and everyone else, you know, you're all the same. They're kind of in a way where in your establishment, it's there's this social contract of like, there's the performer and there's the audience, but and it's all blurred when you're just out in the public space.

00;53;11;01 - 00;53;27;11
Unknown
I think there's no walls, literally. So there's no fourth wall to be even constructed. Yeah, yeah. The street. Yeah. People are just like, oh, okay. This is I'm here in the subway and this chick's here in the subway playing some tunes. Cool. Let's chat a little bit, I don't know. Yeah. Nice. You know. Oh. Where are you from?

00;53;27;11 - 00;54;01;17
Unknown
Where's the stand? How are you doing this work? Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, I think I think it it really helped, it really helped craft in that respect. Also, other aspects of my performance, work, like, I, I've hosted pub trivia nights and doing stand up and stuff and so much of all that being, having to do with, with interacting with your crowd because before I was busking, a lot of my training and, and background was like in, like scripted theater and like, like, you know, doing rehearsed stuff, right?

00;54;01;19 - 00;54;27;13
Unknown
Other than my, my improv, that I stuff I was doing for, for music and for a lot of my, I was in plays and stuff, but there's always like, there's a script, but it's nice to work those muscles where you get off script and you, like, are just completely improvising, bullshitting with the people and, and building that, that connection in that way, which is, as a performer, the most powerful thing, you know, so powerful, so powerful.

00;54;27;13 - 00;54;47;00
Unknown
Yeah. And also two, you have a podcast, you said, right, you have like a. Yeah. Or have you, I don't know, you said podcast as it's it's out there. It is. It's on hiatus right now because my co-host is, out on sabbatical. I and he, he's a German guy. Okay. And then I was busting his balls.

00;54;47;00 - 00;55;02;00
Unknown
God is as he's a social worker, I'm like, sabbatical. Are you professor or something? And he's like, you get really pissed off. He's like, it is a sabbatical. It's a sabbatical. Why are you making fun of me? I'm like, you know. And I was like, whoa, is this where I'm from? Where we're at? Yeah, we're we're we're in the US.

00;55;02;00 - 00;55;20;25
Unknown
It's like for professors and like, hoity toity people, you know, just the regular Joe. And then he sent me the definition and it's like, texted me, like, see, I am going on sabbatical is just an extended period of leave from any job, but not necessarily without a context of the profession. Like, okay, fair enough. You're on a sabbatical, dude.

00;55;20;25 - 00;55;44;00
Unknown
You're not on a vacation. You're on a sabbatical. Sabbatical from a podcast. It's hilarious. Oh, no, he's I mean, we're we're subsequently on a sabbatical from the podcast, but he works at a real job. Oh, okay. I thought we don't make any money. Okay, okay. Well, what kind of podcast don't have to be issuing sabbaticals? Yeah. Let me know how to run that type of podcast, I guess.

00;55;44;00 - 00;56;05;23
Unknown
Yeah, we run a D&D podcast, but we're not Dungeons and Daddies. That's that's a that's now that's a podcast that can that's famous enough to have a sabbatical. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. The the the, yeah. But us, we're we're teeny. We're a niche. We're we're nothing. He just he works as a as a social worker. So, very stressful job.

00;56;05;25 - 00;56;27;08
Unknown
So, so he's out in like, Nepal or something, enjoying the sabbatical. But, we'll be back in 2025. But, yeah, we have, we have like a quite a few, I think like 15 episodes out there or something. 14 and it's, it's about Dungeons and Dragons. But it's about the second edition, which is the version that was out in the 90s.

00;56;27;11 - 00;56;47;07
Unknown
And, I was, I was actually going to mention, we did talk a little bit about that, because there's a little bit of a third culture aspect. Yeah, that we cover on our podcast, which is, talking about, sometimes we, we tend to drift to other topics, but at least try and have Dungeons and Dragons be like that.

00;56;47;13 - 00;57;10;12
Unknown
The core, the anchor. But then if we are drifting off at something that's kind of somehow related, but we we often end up discussing the differences between German and American culture, particularly about, growing up. It's also kind of a 90s nostalgia podcast. So we talk about what it was like growing up in the 90s, playing Dungeons and Dragons, like in Germany or in the US.

00;57;10;15 - 00;57;41;15
Unknown
And and the first episode, we, we talk about the story of how we met, which was, I was at a no effect show and, then, had gotten gotten pretty drunk at the no effect show. I was visiting from Freiburg to see the show here in Berlin, and we got on the train and, you know how after a show, sometimes the train becomes the unofficial after party, or a sporting event, you're like, oh my God, here come the here to the the hurt, the fans.

00;57;41;15 - 00;58;06;14
Unknown
Look out like you're they everyone comes charging on. You're like, oh, there's like you're acting and and stuff. Right. And so like, we the train was like the no effects after party and I met, I saw this guy and he was, had an affect shirt and he was cool. And we were talking. And one thing we love about new effects is that they're kind of like, they're a little bit of a comedic punk band.

00;58;06;14 - 00;58;28;23
Unknown
Are they were they just broke up, you know? All right, you know, effects. But, they have, this comedy to they're, they're, they're songs a lot of times a lot of tongue in cheek stuff. And this was back in 2018. So they had just been canceled for making a shitty joke. Which they did. They their whole career, they've just been saying offensive stuff.

00;58;28;23 - 00;58;52;16
Unknown
But then the cancel culture started to become really prevalent. And around that time, and it caught up with them and beat them in the ass because they, talk some shit about some, some shooting victims in Vegas, which I do not think is cool, but like, I also I'm like, they're assholes. And it's kind of their thing. So, you know, like, it's not unexpected for them to be saying stupid shit, that I don't agree with necessarily.

00;58;52;18 - 00;59;13;27
Unknown
And but then they had all their shows canceled and stuff because like, the US and then they were still allowed to tour in Europe. So they were here and then at the end of their show, they did a little lip sync, to a song from Avenue Q. Do you know that the everyone's a little bit racist?

00;59;13;27 - 00;59;37;26
Unknown
Nice. It's an intentional un-pc song, and they, like, it's, it talks shit about the PC culture and stuff. And so they intentionally, of course, did that at the end of their set to say, like, look, we apologize for making the shitty joke, but like the song, it's like everyone's an asshole, like, we're assholes, like, whatever.

00;59;37;29 - 00;59;57;26
Unknown
And, so I was talking with this guy on the train about that, and I said, you know, I wrote my first comedy song, in German, and he's like, oh, let's hear it and see. I had been couch surfing in Berlin, and I was asking about the different neighborhoods of Berlin, and I was staying with this German woman.

00;59;57;26 - 01;00;13;24
Unknown
And she I asked her, like, what's the neighborhood's like? And she said, she's rattling them off, talking about their like. And she was like Prenzlauer Berg. And she's like, Prenzlauer Berg. I don't like Prenzlauer Berg. And we were talking in German and I go, what do you what do you not like about Prenzlauer Berg? And she goes, as is full mitzvah.

01;00;13;27 - 01;00;34;29
Unknown
Are they gonna Swabian Frauen? And then subtitle find is, how's your German? Yeah, Frauen is one. Is the fat one is coming. Okay. And then, they gonna swab Asia for Ireland for Ibiza? The swab is, it's some region. It's not type of German. Yeah, I know, I know, you've been learning. I've seen on your side.

01;00;34;29 - 01;00;58;03
Unknown
Okay. Learning German. I do know, like two now. Or be one. Yeah, I don't even. I, I'm nervous to even test myself on, the. This is, this means, the Swedish is, like, from Swabia, which is southern Germany. Yeah. But it, has it also can kind of become more of a blanket term for people who have moved to Berlin.

01;00;58;03 - 01;01;22;08
Unknown
That are stuffy and transforming the city's culture for the worse. Because a lot of after the wall came down, in the 90s, a lot of the, you know, the property was cheap here and a lot of the rich people from southern Germany kind of right near where I used to live in Freiburg. Technically, it's the former Duchy of Botin in Swabia is a little bit more to the west, but I shouldn't extrapolate on that.

01;01;22;11 - 01;01;42;23
Unknown
The Swedish people from southern Germany would come up here, buy property, bring kind of their, their money into the city and their snobby attitudes. And they would try and like get a lot of the clubs shut down the clubs, which were these cultural cornerstones of the city, which are reasons people come to the city. And I discuss all this stuff, like on my walking tours of Berlin.

01;01;42;23 - 01;02;22;13
Unknown
It's a big part of the city's story, like an ongoing one still today. Right? But like, I think the Schwab enhanced the hatred of Swabia people, I don't know, I think that that's past the peak, from what I understand, I want to say, I don't know, but like, I think around like the 2000, the early 20 tens, there was like people were really, really upset that that that these transformations that were happening to their city and these, these attempted kind of eradication of their culture, you know, I even heard like, there was a thing a couple of years ago where they were going to try and shut down spaces, you know, the late,

01;02;22;13 - 01;02;42;22
Unknown
the late night shops that are open all night for, for Berlin party people. That's crazy. Yeah. Because because it's an exception. Because the law of the rest of Germany doesn't have that. Again, that's another difference because there's it makes Berlin different part of I love it. You know, I, I'm a night person myself. So I love that there's spaces on but then yeah, they want to quiet the rest.

01;02;42;22 - 01;03;01;12
Unknown
The Germans love it. Quiet. You know, all Germans kind of do, I think. But like, even more in the rest of the country, they love their quietude. And then they come from Swabia. They come here and they're like, hey, it's really nice that there's clubs everywhere, but can everyone, shut them the fuck up and and, close them at ten?

01;03;01;14 - 01;03;33;07
Unknown
Yeah. It's like, was that always a thing here, Berlin? Or was that something that kind of came along with that whole transformation? You mean this us? Yeah. Oh, no, I think I don't know for sure, but I, I'm, I am sure that, even if it was around before the 90s, it became more prevalent after that because that's when, people from, from southern Germany, came to, to, again, cash in on there's this open there's this cheap, cheap, real estate basically, you know.

01;03;33;07 - 01;03;52;24
Unknown
Yeah, the cheap, the cheap cost of living and, like, oh, shit. Like, you know, the wall just came down. There's a lot of, cheap property here. There's property that's been neglected that we can renovate, maybe. Or or just, buy for a cheap price, and then it'll go up in value, and we can invest in it, and and then we start moving up here.

01;03;52;24 - 01;04;25;19
Unknown
But then it became this blanket term for people that just weren't from southern Germany, but also like, anybody who's like that kind of coming in here and trying to shut the spaces down and stuff this rubbish. Bastards. You know, it could be an American bastard. You, And so, but anyway, so Prenzlauer Berg is like, was one of the biggest places where that happened because that that got transformed by the Swiss influx, I think more than any place in Berlin.

01;04;25;22 - 01;04;46;28
Unknown
You know, it was like people started gentrifying and now the, the gentrification is complete. Prenzlauer Berg is kind of famous for being this gentrified neighborhood, you know, and, so that's why this woman, that was talking shit about it, threw that adjective on in their noggin on it. And the other two words is, stronger.

01;04;47;00 - 01;05;16;21
Unknown
She is pregnant. Yeah. And vegan. A vegan. So these pregnant, vegan, slavish women of Prenzlauer Berg, she was she was complaining about them. Wow. It's so specific. Is that the stereotype? That is the stereotype of Prince Alberto? Really? And and true enough, in my experience. Yeah. The Prenzlauer Mammies are like these, kind of hoity toity. Embodiment of gentrification type mothers who, are all over Prenzlauer Berg in.

01;05;16;25 - 01;05;37;14
Unknown
In 2005, Prenzlauer Berg had the highest toddler to adult ratio in the world. And still today, there's many, many kids there and families and stuff. So, it's also really expensive. So that's why I moved out to Pankow. Yeah. Frank Lautenberg is very, but, Pankow. Pankow was more and more like that, too, from what I understand.

01;05;37;22 - 01;06;06;06
Unknown
But like, the. Anyway. So I thought this woman's phrasing stronger of a garnish. Maybe. She frowned and had to add a flow to it. You know, there's this phrase and I'm like, that could be a fun comedy song in German, a love song, a love song to the women of Prenzlauer Berg. And it would go Suranga vegan, Schwab, chef Rao Lieber ish dish ganz good now Larsson.

01;06;06;06 - 01;06;32;07
Unknown
Vier uns noch Lindahl. Well and stronger. They garnish Webby chef round. Yeah. I don't know what you're saying, so I don't, Yeah. You know. Yeah, I did snappier because it was on beat. I'm like, I like the melody that the like I was not talking to adventure shit. My my German 0.5. So, I don't know what you're saying, but it sounded good and a good.

01;06;32;07 - 01;06;50;19
Unknown
But this is, it's just, it goes like, you know, let's let's travel to southern Germany together and, and, but, like, it's, anyway, that I, I thought that was fun, and I wanted to write some comedy German songs. So I told this guy on the train, I said, I like no effects, I write comedy German songs.

01;06;50;19 - 01;07;13;04
Unknown
So let's hear a comedy German song and I sang that for him. And he looks at me kind of like. I'm like, oh shit. This is like the normal Germans stare or shit. We were having a fun time. What's going on? And like, he's like, you know, we all live in Prenzlauer Berg, dude. I'm like, like, okay, well, that was a joke.

01;07;13;08 - 01;07;33;13
Unknown
That was a joke. Just getting in. I'm not you guys. Of course not. You guys. You guys are cool. You guys, you guys interested in my music? Yeah. You like no effects. So, you're not boring. So then, then then he goes, he goes. Look, I'll tell you what. Why don't you come and party with us?

01;07;33;15 - 01;07;53;19
Unknown
Because we're having an after party at my apartment. Of course we're going to get crazy. And then you can say you have been to Prenzlauer Berg and you've spent some time there, because you can spend time in a place before you make fun of it. Don't you think? And I'm like, you know, that is the rules and making fun of things, isn't it?

01;07;53;21 - 01;08;12;01
Unknown
You got a point there, Yeah. I never been there. I just heard this lady talking shit and, jumped on the wagon. So, let's let's tour. Let's go. I hope I didn't get killed in the middle of friends. Berg. Yeah, I'm like, okay, I'm feeling good vibes in this guy. My judgment has improved since the Oakland days.

01;08;12;01 - 01;08;33;05
Unknown
I hope this this should be you as a singer. This time. Going to the apartment? Yeah. This time. Are you silent? We were singing the same song. Yeah. You know, effects together. Yeah. You like him? Quite. Schwab was, Yeah. All right. So, yeah. Let's get Schwab ish. Actually. Let's Schwab it up, and hanging out with these fuckers.

01;08;33;07 - 01;08;57;24
Unknown
So we went, and then we came into the apartment. This dude, had all these, like, comic books and stuff, and he had all these Dungeons and Dragons books that were from the old school game from the 90s, the second edition, which is what I played. But everyone's fifth edition now, like the the version of Dungeons Dragons, everyone's plays fifth edition has been around for years.

01;08;57;24 - 01;09;15;01
Unknown
It's like, you know, all the all the old editions are. It's like playing an Atari or something, you know? Yeah. Like it's an old game system that is like very retro and like, evokes nostalgia for people who were there or when people who are younger look at it, they go, oh, that's like the kind of dandy my dad played or whatever, you know?

01;09;15;04 - 01;09;38;15
Unknown
And he had all these books and they were all in German. And I was like, Holy shit! Like they published Dungeons and Dragons second edition in the 90s in Germany. Like I never even crossed my mind. I never thought about that before. Yeah. You know, and I got we got really excited and me and this dude just started geeking out and looking at all these D&D books, and I'm like, wow, the the Player's Handbook in German.

01;09;38;15 - 01;10;01;10
Unknown
This is so incredible. So cool. Everyone else was like, these guys are so fucking weird. Yeah. What's going on? Get a room, fellas. I know we thought we was partying. Yeah, exactly. This is daddy is not a afterparty event. Yeah, exactly. Like it's, Okay. It's cool. Loads of fun. Loads of fun, guys. Loads of fun. All right, all right, Dragons and I await your turn.

01;10;01;10 - 01;10;25;23
Unknown
And, all two sided dice. All right. Sounds like fun, This is really. Yeah. Cool party. You guys are like, fuck off. We're having. We're initiating a bromance over here. So leave us alone. So we we we became really good friends. And I ended up moving in with this guy. A few months later, I said, I'm moving into, move, move to Germany.

01;10;25;23 - 01;10;47;06
Unknown
Do you have you know of a place? And this is crazy because you you know how it is to find a place in Berlin. Yes. And, it's it's it's impossible. It's like for some people, it's literally impossible. It's sublet to sublet. It is so hard. The housing is. There's no housing, there's a shortage. Everything's expensive. You have to live in flats with roommates.

01;10;47;11 - 01;11;06;08
Unknown
Like ten roommates for for six months. And then you find the next place. And, you know, I know I know the deal, but, this is one of the things that I felt like the universe was just really on my side. It's like when you really. There's some there's some synchronicity, there's some shit going on cosmically in your favor at this time, you know?

01;11;06;10 - 01;11;25;24
Unknown
And he said, why don't you come? I'm going to move out with my, my girlfriend eventually. I'm just kind of waiting. I want to get someone to live here because I have an altimeter for track. Let's, Do you know what that is? Oh, it's an old. Oh, that's an old. It's an old rental contract.

01;11;25;27 - 01;11;44;09
Unknown
Whoa. Do you know the secret of the old rental contract? Raise it. Yeah, yeah. They can't raise it, so they can't raise the price. Except for to keep up with inflation. So if you're in Berlin and you have a place with, like, an old rental contract, you can, keep the price of, like, the year you moved in.

01;11;44;09 - 01;12;08;20
Unknown
More or less like it goes up a little bit. But like he'd been living there since 2009. This was then in 2018, I was moving in. So ten year old contract. Wow. It was like insanely, insanely cheap. And it was a room for me with one roommate. Like it's insane. Like, yeah, I the luck is. And anybody who who lives in Berlin knows exactly I'm talking about.

01;12;08;23 - 01;12;31;19
Unknown
If you don't trust me, it is fucked. It is? Yeah. It was a culture shock on my end. Yeah. You know, exactly the struggle there and exactly how lucky I must have felt. And then I moved in. He did. And we, we we we geeked out with dad. He moved out, to live with his girlfriend eventually.

01;12;31;21 - 01;13;01;28
Unknown
And then I moved, and then during Covid, I met a nice girl, and she moved in with me, and then she got pregnant. And then I realized I've become one of them. Wow. Look at that. Oh. It's okay. You had a whole entire song, and now the song is playing against you. Yeah, I've become the character in the the, the stereotype of this neighborhood, and, not entirely vegan.

01;13;01;28 - 01;13;16;11
Unknown
We do a lot of vegetarian stuff at home, but, you know, I mean, you know, slowly. Yeah. This all happens. You know, you don't go straight for me to veggie. You know, my meat is increased. I used to be hardcore. Now I'm. Oh, really? This guy has gone the other way with me. Yeah. I'm like, And they can change me.

01;13;16;11 - 01;13;36;06
Unknown
I'm keeping a real. You know, that's part of it. I we we we we cook meat for him. And then I'm like, oh, at first I was like, yeah, we'll make him some chicken and I'll just make a chicken alternative. Yeah. I didn't I didn't anticipate how, every single minute you can save when you have a kid as valuable, say, like I'm just cooking the chicken.

01;13;36;13 - 01;13;53;17
Unknown
I'll make. I'll eat later. Damn, that chicken looks good. Yeah. Sounds good to me. Smells like the real thing. And then. And then and then the boy's eating it, and then he's like. So I'm kind of only eating what you're eating. You know? That's how this works. I'm watching what you're doing. Like. All right, all right, I'll eat this.

01;13;53;17 - 01;14;13;29
Unknown
This is how we eat the chicken here right now. Because of you. You got to learn how to eat chicken, right? I don't want to do this. It's just. It's only because of you. It's. Yeah. I yeah, it's it's kind of. I'm only a vegan until he turns 18 after 18. That's why I. Then, then I'm. Then I'm going full fruitarian dude.

01;14;13;29 - 01;14;39;07
Unknown
Yeah. Okay. Just fruit that falls off the tree of its own accord. There you go. But, yeah. Then this was this was like one of the biggest, third culture things. And that's why on the podcast, I started a podcast with this guy. We still like to talk a bit about the difference between, life in Germany and life in the US and tying that together.

01;14;39;07 - 01;14;59;13
Unknown
We have a German word after our break. We do each time where we talk about, a certain Dungeons and Dragons word and how it's different. What's the difference? What is in German and why and how that's funny and stuff. Wow. Yeah. So how long it took? How long did it take for you to learn German? I still don't.

01;14;59;15 - 01;15;25;14
Unknown
It's weird because I don't know if I speak it or not. You have a song that's fully so good that somebody Prenzlauer Berg was like, hey, come to my afterparty and let's talk about Dungeons and Dragons. In German. You speak you you're Vance. Lovely. Well, he didn't know it was. Is. That would be our surprise. But he, I sometimes I talk to people, and I have big conversations with them, and I say, yeah, I know my German is not so good.

01;15;25;14 - 01;15;53;23
Unknown
And they're like, dude, you're Germans. Good. Don't worry. And then other times, you know, you talk with some Germans and they're like, Your German is horrible. Let's switch to English. And it's really situational. And what I've come to understand that is, is like, the, my accent's not very good. And the getting, getting the, the, the the words change, you know, the, the differences in words, they, the verbs and, everything.

01;15;53;23 - 01;16;11;29
Unknown
The ending of the verb depends a lot on all these different factors of how the sense is constructed. So those aren't always perfect. My grammar is not always 100%, my accent's a little off. Right. So if you're in the U.S, you know, and, sometimes, I mean, the biggest city I lived in was like the Bay area.

01;16;11;29 - 01;16;32;01
Unknown
So that's kind of my point of reference for the most multi quality place I ever lived in the U.S and sometimes people with an Asian background, maybe at a, at a kiosk like a speakeasy or as we call them in the US convenience store. Yeah. Might, they might have an accent, you know, so you, they ask you for your change and at first you're like, not exactly sure what they said.

01;16;32;01 - 01;16;50;11
Unknown
And you're like, how much was it again? And then they say it again, and you, your brain has to work a little bit to get around the, the accent. Right. And it's not very much work. It's it's really easy, actually. All you have to do is just be like, oh, he said he said, $10.50. But he said it with a, like an accent.

01;16;50;11 - 01;17;07;25
Unknown
So, that took me a minute to. But that's the thing I think is what's happening with the German people that criticize my German. I think they're like, just being assholes. And they're kind of being like, I don't want to do that. That extra work in my head. And I expect you to, like, have the language down.

01;17;07;25 - 01;17;26;01
Unknown
Really perfect if you're going to live here now. So, if I, if I have to do any work at all to try and figure out what you're saying because of your accent or your lack of grammar, then that that kind of upsets me. And and I tell you, you have bad German and we're gonna switch to English because my English is better than your German.

01;17;26;01 - 01;17;50;05
Unknown
All their English is better than than everybody's. Yeah. You know. Yeah, they all speak English. Really good. So very good. Like the, the. And I think that's because they have those in their head. Those standards. Like where for that if somebody is fucking up the grammar in German when they're talking to them, they're like and so when they're learning English they're, they're doing a really good job of getting all that grammar down.

01;17;50;07 - 01;18;12;13
Unknown
And if that grammar is a little bit off, they're that's embarrassing for them. It's not perfect enough. And then they're like, that's why they're always saying, oh, my English is not so good. What's the joke? Then they, they launch into some my English is not so good. You know, I find that when the cultural similarity and they just start, you like why you have you have actual opinions and you think English is bad.

01;18;12;13 - 01;18;32;13
Unknown
That's great. They give you like a college thesis about, like why they think their English is bad in English. And you're like, your English is really good, dude. Yeah, you like better than mine. This is crazy. What has happened? I needed to, you know, tighten up my English. Yeah. You're like, can I learn English from you? Like, are you having classes?

01;18;32;16 - 01;19;00;14
Unknown
I have a horrible accent. Please help me correct it. But. Yeah. So, then, most of the time, I can, I can when I speak with people, I think it works. And I have confidence in my maybe b b to one b 2.1, I go to that one. I think that's where I'm at because bro, I mean, again, you spoke about Dungeons and Dragons in German and then also had a song.

01;19;00;14 - 01;19;29;11
Unknown
You have a song, bro, that you made. That's easy, that's rehearsed lines. True. But I mean, okay, okay. I guess you know what I mean. Fair enough. Having a conversation that's spontaneous, that's when the. But that's that's exactly how how my German got good, was when. And I've heard other people talk about this, too. You have to put yourself in a situation where they don't speak English, and you have to get those muscles working without any cop outs.

01;19;29;13 - 01;19;53;24
Unknown
And the two, the two biggest spurts I had in my language learning. One was, an intensive course I took in Freiburg, where it was like three hours a day, five days a week in class, and then 1 to 2 hours of homework each day on top of that. Oh, your your brain is just so flooded with German that repetition, you know, you're not getting away from it.

01;19;53;24 - 01;20;14;04
Unknown
You're not just there for an hour a day, and then the whole rest of your day is in English is like, that's a pretty significant chunk of your day, a percentage of your time being a week that is being spent in German, you know. Yeah. So that that was really helpful. But the other big growth spurt was, when I worked at the Berlin Dungeon.

01;20;14;07 - 01;20;30;19
Unknown
And that was, that's this tourist trap in Berlin where it's like a bunch of. Yeah, it's stupid as fuck, but it it can be pretty funny if you if you if you have the right mind about it, if you're, if you're into that sort of thing is like or if you're, if you're, if you're stoned and drunk enough, I guess I don't know.

01;20;30;21 - 01;20;54;27
Unknown
You you it's it can be pretty funny. Like there's, there's all these actors that are, just, giving you this horrific history of medieval, Germany and, it's like a lot of gore splatter comedy, and it's it's cheesy, cheesy, cheesy humor. But I had to learn scripts in German for it as an actor, and, that put me the test.

01;20;54;27 - 01;21;35;25
Unknown
But then you also have to, so that really first off, gets your mind into German when you have like a monologue, a 1 or 2 page monologue where it's like all German. And then on top of that, you have to improvise and interact with and do crowd work with people in German, but not just regular people. A lot of them are regular people, but also lots and lots of school groups of smart ass kids who are making fun of you, who are dogging on you, who are heckling you in German, and you got to fucking deal with that, that that is getting thrown to the fucking wolves.

01;21;35;28 - 01;22;03;20
Unknown
Damn, bro. So you had an extreme German crash course. You had to learn German monologues and then deal with gory German like, you know, you did evil history and then fucking roasting kids. The main thing was the kids, dude, they come in and they're like, just talking shit, and you got to be like, talking shit back and and like, talking there, you know, let alone in English is tough to to do that, I think.

01;22;03;20 - 01;22;34;03
Unknown
Yeah. For regular English. Yeah. Just because kids are ruthless, you know, like they're completely there's another no holds barred dude. There's you know you had a that okay. That's how you know okay. That's. Yeah. You of course you learn German quickly. That was like really? Really. Yeah. Every day must be nerve wracking because I mean, like, you just had to know the words to just combat against, like, some of this, these factors like yeah, yeah, you learn them, but it makes it forces that there's no bigger fire that was under my ass about it, you know?

01;22;34;03 - 01;22;55;28
Unknown
And that's your job. So you had a really. Oh, wow. Yeah. So that's, I don't know how you replicate that in other contexts. If you're not, if you're an actor working at the Berlin Dungeon, but like, yeah, I guess any, any situation where you have to, like, go to go to the neighbors with those really old German people.

01;22;55;28 - 01;23;19;03
Unknown
Yeah. Like the 50 plus crowd. And, they they can be pretty unapproachable, as is maybe, you know. Yeah. But, like, just try and try and find a way. Especially if you're out of Berlin, I noticed. And when I lived in southern Germany, I first got to Germany. Sometimes I'd go there and be chatting with some of these old guys, and, they're actually little more curious because they're not in Berlin, where it's multicolored and there's armies everywhere.

01;23;19;07 - 01;23;50;19
Unknown
I'm is I'm is everywhere. But like, because little more rare to me, to an American, sometimes they'd be a little more interested in chatting with you and and then like, they don't speak English. So you, you know, when you're struggling with A1, like, just being like, okay, I have to be talking German here with these guys, you know, and then you have some drinks and then things start getting flowing and conversational and then there's, there's a little bit more of that, that spontaneity, you know.

01;23;50;22 - 01;24;12;18
Unknown
Yeah. So okay, two question I have to ask you. Right. So you're a tour guide. You're still tour guide here. Yeah. All right. So what are the top three places that someone needs to visit here in Berlin as a tour guide. Well see this question. It depends on who you are and what you're looking for, because the city is, again, why I moved here.

01;24;12;18 - 01;24;54;22
Unknown
It's there's so much shit going on. So it depends on what you're into. I can't recommend the same thing to the same person. Okay. The one thing that's I say is in the middle of everybody's Venn diagram, though, that, like, no matter who you are or what you want out of the city, if you're here for five hours on a layover at the train station, East Side Gallery, dude is like, just, the coolest thing, the East Side gallery, because it's it's the Berlin Wall and the art on it, the murals on it, have to do with the themes of the wall, the freedom, the dictatorship, the, the division, the unity,

01;24;54;24 - 01;25;31;02
Unknown
the East, the West, you know, and so powerful, and it's it's technically the world's largest open air art gallery. So you can go there any time. And, I think there's just something beautiful and crazy about that, that on this, this, piece of former military hardware that literally divided the world in half that you get murdered for trying to jump across, now has all this beautiful, art on it, that, that, that evokes these, these, these emotions and these thoughts about those kinds of things.

01;25;31;05 - 01;25;46;23
Unknown
It's very powerful and very cool. And I also think it just, because of all those things, it sums up a lot of what the rest of Berlin is all about. Anything else I might recommend for you to go to do some how I can maybe tie it in to that. Do you like the history of Berlin?

01;25;46;23 - 01;26;09;00
Unknown
Well, you're seeing the Berlin Wall. Do you like the arts? Are you here for the clubbing? Well, check out the art on this wall, you know? Yeah. So. Okay, let's take me, for example. Right. You know, I'm. I'm a newly apprec. I'm newly appreciating nature, meaning that I wasn't really a naturist person and to Covid forced that for me to have to care about nature more.

01;26;09;02 - 01;26;34;08
Unknown
You have to be outside. So I'm getting more into nature, history. I'm into museums. I'm into, partying. Yes. You know those king spot? That's the solo. That's a little far left field for me. But, let's go with that. And I like good food generally. So you've been you've been to the party. I loved your thing where you were talking about, you went to the club and it was the,

01;26;34;10 - 01;26;56;11
Unknown
Was it the saddest happy people or the happiest sad people? Yes. Happy to be happy to be sad and sad. It'd be happy. Yeah. So I know you checked out. That was hilarious. I know you checked out the scene. Yeah, I've noticed that we're not that much smiling, but a lot of music that would. You would think there would be some at least some happiness, you know?

01;26;56;13 - 01;27;20;17
Unknown
So. But you're, you're thinking more of the nature and the food, nature, food and history. I mean, let's see what which part of history now, because everyone, you know, people I give a lot of the wall Third Reich themed tours. Right. And and of course, people love that. And this is the place to go and planet Earth if you're into that history.

01;27;20;17 - 01;27;40;09
Unknown
Of course. So, that's what most people enjoy. But I think there's also a lot of other cool stuff. But, let's see. So food nature has to be like, I think for, well, for food I'd say say Mark tell and I did. We talked about that a little earlier, but like, so that's, you know, there's so much food there.

01;27;40;11 - 01;28;06;09
Unknown
And that place is cool. It was historically a food hall. It's been around since, like, before the war is one of many market halls. There was like 40 of them. And then they were all just named after numbers because Germans are so creative at naming things. So there's, like, mock tile irons based fights. This year is marked how nine is like that one survived the war, so it's still marked online market Hall number nine.

01;28;06;12 - 01;28;28;26
Unknown
But the food, they're so diverse and, good. And so that's what I love about it. You can you can get a lot a slice of a lot of different stuff there. Nice. And I give food tours of Kreisberg and that's, that's, our last stop on there because it's like the biggest and coolest display of of the it's actually a food and immigration tour.

01;28;28;26 - 01;28;57;12
Unknown
It's about how a lot of the food culture in Berlin, the good food culture, has been shaped by people who come here from other parts of the world. And, you really see that, mash up. So, so, well illustrated in the market hall nine times. So that's what, I'd recommend for the food because, because otherwise I would just say there's one place here, one like Shapiro, like if you want Mexican food, you know, best Mexican food, but then that's just one place.

01;28;57;12 - 01;29;26;26
Unknown
But like Market Hall nine, you get like, so much, you can and you can explore, whatever you kind of like, there. But so for, nature, I mean, there's so many, like, little lakes that are just outside the city in Brandenburg. They can kind of take your pick, I don't know, like, if I'd say one spot over another, you know, I still and been to Vons, but, from what I understand, that is like a really nice place to be.

01;29;26;26 - 01;29;48;05
Unknown
I get the feeling maybe on the days where you would want to go there, everyone else does too. So it's kind of crammed. Yeah, that's what I've come to understand. But, one of my favorite lakes is, the Taylors. A, that's a beautiful lake. I also teach, I get well, I, I did give mermaids swimming courses.

01;29;48;05 - 01;30;08;16
Unknown
Yes. Here's a whole other thing. Murphy. Now I have to talk about that. But I, I, where you take mermaid tails and I teach you how to swim as a mermaid person. With a mermaid tail on. So you have you have your feet are tied together in a mono fin. Yeah. And then you swim there, but I.

01;30;08;21 - 01;30;33;12
Unknown
I haven't done that in a couple of years because I've been too busy since my son was born. And I think I'm going to try and get back into it this year. I'm participating in the Merlin epics over in Wolfsburg in May with, the Wolfsburg, mermaids school and some. I've just started retraining as a mermaid myself, but I used to give this mermaid lessons over a tailor's a because there's this really beautiful beach there.

01;30;33;15 - 01;30;54;22
Unknown
There's also this ferry boat that, takes you over to an island, and there's a lot of, like, cool trees and stuff, and there's, a restaurant there where we had we had our lunch as part of the Mermaid Island experience. But, yeah, a lot of, a lot of, like, trails to walk around the lake and stuff.

01;30;54;24 - 01;31;25;20
Unknown
So, I don't know, man. It's like, not nature as we know it back in the US, you know, because, we're again coming from Idaho and in the West, California and everything. Like in Oregon. There's there's like just that, like miles and miles of of of nature, real, real nature. You know, Germany has these like, parcels of tree farms, kind of it seems like, you know, you're not really getting like nature as we know it in, in the, in the US, in the west of the US.

01;31;25;20 - 01;31;46;20
Unknown
But if you just want to be around some trees around the lake, there's so many lakes all around, Brandenburg, the surrounding, areas in Brandenburg. So just any of those lakes, a lot of them are kind of the very similar, I would say. So, you can just go to them and usually there's, you can have a walk around and there's paths and stuff.

01;31;46;22 - 01;32;03;13
Unknown
But the one that's quite close, is Taylors a and it's a great. You go swimming in the, in the water. It's really nice man. Got a really nice beach to check that out. Yeah, I know you did mermaid stuff. That's a whole different. The whole thing. Yeah. So that's a whole thing. I mean, we'll get to that another time, but that's crazy.

01;32;03;13 - 01;32;23;02
Unknown
So yeah, that's that's something I, I wanted to do more when I came to Berlin, but, I found out. And the swimming pools, they they only allow you to do mermaid swimming in, like, 1 or 2 pools at, like, certain times in the evening. And I thought maybe I could regularly give swimming lessons. And there are people doing that.

01;32;23;02 - 01;32;55;25
Unknown
That's where I'm starting to retrain with, with somebody who's doing that. But, yeah. Then I thought, like, I'm just going to do this in the summertime at one of the actual lakes. Because it's I don't want to get a pool. I want to do the daytime. I want to do it when I can. Yeah. And, so, yeah, we did a photo shoot, and, we, we we would dress you up in makeup, and you get the former May experience, you learn how to be beautiful, confident with your body and then how to be a real ambassador to the water elemental world.

01;32;55;25 - 01;33;12;11
Unknown
And you learn how to swim like a mermaid and do a basic, 101 mermaid swimming lesson. I might bring it back. I'm going to work on bringing it back this summer, so I do want to plug that just a little bit. Yeah. I mean, yeah, if you want to learn to be a mermaid, come to this guy.

01;33;12;11 - 01;33;27;26
Unknown
You know, that was. I thought I was only in movies. I know I was a real guy. I saw some photos of it, and I thought I was like, for a photo shoot, but now here. And. Wait, how you explaining it? This is like a full blown. I mean, how do, I'm just trying to think, like, suppose you're trying to, like, you know, just tread water.

01;33;27;26 - 01;33;43;01
Unknown
I mean, is can you tread water is a mermaid? Yeah, it's it's it's a little easier, I think, actually, even because, your tail is going back and forth and you're kind of like moving your, your toes, you know, to move your tail. But then if you do that movement combined with just this, with your hands. Yeah.

01;33;43;03 - 01;34;06;25
Unknown
Something about it. Something about that just, Yeah. It keeps it keeps you up. And you gotta have, like, strong toes to be a mermaid, Yeah. Works your core. It works your your, works muscles that aren't worked with, like, regular swimming. Yeah. See, ankles probably made out of steel, bro. It's just, like, just ankles are still, like, you know, stuck on my aunt or, you know, so I deal with those cobblestones all over the city, you know, like.

01;34;06;25 - 01;34;27;06
Unknown
Yeah, it's like these things are painful. I gotta figure out a way to get calluses on these suckers. Mermaid training will help, walk better on land. It's a recreation of the emergence of life. This is just that's that's. Wow. Oh, Berlin. He gotta love it. So many different things you can do. And then the the.

01;34;27;06 - 01;34;48;27
Unknown
Did your question about the historical place where I would go. I mean, I think that, you know, the Deutsches Historicist Museum, it's I think it's still closed whenever it's going to reopen, I don't know, I went there, was open. It was awesome. Such a comprehensive look at all of German history. And I think that's super cool.

01;34;48;27 - 01;35;05;06
Unknown
I also think it's good for people to look at other parts of German history, other than just the wall in the Third Reich era, because that's like in our the public consciousness. The 20th century is like all we kind of know of Germany. So I think it's kind of cool to look at all the other stuff, but that's me personally.

01;35;05;06 - 01;35;29;14
Unknown
I also think that for people just wanting to learn about German history, go get that big window comprehensive look by going to the museum and seeing the whole thing. But because those parts of 20th century history are so fascinating, I'd say like the the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, is, is, a really nice place to go.

01;35;29;14 - 01;35;54;17
Unknown
And if you go on Sunday, when the Mauer Park, party is happening, then you can make a whole kind of day of it where you're going and seeing the Berlin Wall, visiting all these interpretive sites about how that all went down. Also a very powerful reminder of why division and war are bad, m'kay. And, and unity is good.

01;35;54;20 - 01;36;11;22
Unknown
And, just the horrible things that happened in the Cold War with the Berlin Wall. But it's not so dark like that. You're visiting a concentration camp, you know, where you're just all kind of like, after you go to a place like that, you're going to have to. You don't want to go to them. Our park party after that.

01;36;11;22 - 01;36;32;08
Unknown
You want to just sit in a bench and stare into space and cry for an hour or so, you know, like it's so dark to do concentration camp tourism. So is a little dark to see the Berlin Wall. But you're and people did die trying to get across. So, you know, it's like you can't say value one life for another when people are killed in tragic circumstances and stuff, I guess.

01;36;32;08 - 01;36;54;19
Unknown
But like, you're still not, like, so mentally fucked up by seeing the Berlin Wall as you are from visiting some of the Holocaust tourism and stuff in Berlin. So you get to go and see that, and then at the end of it, it's like quite a few blocks and it's really cool, a lot of interesting information and then seeing parts of the wall that are still standing, which is cool.

01;36;54;19 - 01;37;16;04
Unknown
So you're actually seeing an authentic part of history, not a recreation, which is in a lot of places, all things are and then, at the end, if you're there on a Sunday, boom, our park party. And what's cool about that is then you just saw all this history of the wall, all this dark stuff, and then you're in a park where the wall used to stand, and you couldn't.

01;37;16;04 - 01;37;35;09
Unknown
You weren't allowed in this park. It was like Sabaton because it was where the Berlin Wall used to be. So during the Cold War, during the wall era, it was closed off, but now you're seeing it and it's like a bunch of people having a fun time together. It's families enjoying the from all around the world, all different kinds of cultures.

01;37;35;09 - 01;38;08;03
Unknown
A huge melting pot. Wow. Just great food, great drinks. And then there's like the famous karaoke that happens there, which like so yeah, yeah, there's a, there's a karaoke. And so literally I know it literally is an overused word, but here I literally mean literally, you're in, a place where if you traveled back in time, 40 years ago and were standing in that same spot, you'd get shot and killed because it was the dividing zone between two halves of like, the Earth.

01;38;08;06 - 01;38;33;05
Unknown
And then now you're, in a place where people from around the world are literally having fun and singing together, you know, that is how you how. Yeah. Especially put in historical context of, like, how things used to be not too long ago. Yeah, 40 years ago. Like less than 40 years ago. Yeah. That's like still alive even like, you know, during that time.

01;38;33;05 - 01;38;56;24
Unknown
Still. Yeah. Yeah. It's nuts man. So yeah, I had to check that out, man. Yeah. All right, so one more question I have to ask you. Right. Yeah. So all the things you've been through in terms of from Idaho, from you being to Oakland, you singing along the streets and having a fun experience there. From you moving to Berlin, you know, doing what you're doing now, what's the one piece of advice you give your younger self?

01;38;56;26 - 01;39;22;11
Unknown
Oh, that's a good question. Oh, man. It's all it's a yeah. You've been to a lot of different cultures, man. So, well, you know, I wanted to move to. To Europe, like in 2008. They should have done it. Then the thing was, I was going to move. And then the global economy collapsed a week before. This is the global crisis.

01;39;22;11 - 01;39;52;06
Unknown
Yeah. I had a one way ticket to Barcelona. And, I, I, I did, I didn't, I didn't go because then a week before I was going to go, the global economy collapsed. So I just said, I'm not fucked. No way. You know, not a good time. There's no. All of a sudden the police are beating the shit out of everyone in Barcelona on the street, and, people under 30 or all of a sudden at a 50% unemployment rate, because my age at this time.

01;39;52;06 - 01;40;17;12
Unknown
So I'm not going to find work if I go there. And if I'm playing street music, I don't think is going to give me money. So, let's, let's, let's not do it. And then life took other paths and end up coming here. But, I think, you know, I wish I would have, instead of waiting eight years to come over, I wish I would have just waited for, like, a couple of years and then followed through with that plan.

01;40;17;15 - 01;40;38;25
Unknown
But, I think a lot in my life, it's not just that situation, but many others where, I, I, I, I haven't, like, stayed committed to one thing long enough. That's why I, I do so much. It's still today and I've had to, like, cut some shit because, parenthood forces you to do that.

01;40;38;28 - 01;40;58;10
Unknown
So, like, like, instead of doing, like, this and that and this, I would still love to be doing stand up, honestly. Like, it was so fun. As you know. Right. It's like a super fun, performance art, super fun way to to be on stage. But, I, I had to get serious and, like, cut that and, like, stay focused.

01;40;58;10 - 01;41;24;10
Unknown
And now I'm, like, a little because the parenthood fired my ass. Staying more focused on the things I'm doing. Like, so I think if I go back to the younger self, I'd say, hey, look, dude, just just just remember to to stay focused and go for it, and, and, and work on following through with things.

01;41;24;10 - 01;41;56;22
Unknown
And don't let, hardship and obstacles frustrate you out of of of following through, stay resilient. If something seems tough, just just stick with it. Yeah. Okay. The global economy collapse, but you want to go live in Europe like, I mean, just just just just got, like, now it's 20 now is 28, ten, like, things have gotten little, you know, they bounce back a little bit like things have resurfaced.

01;41;56;25 - 01;42;26;10
Unknown
Your life is, is, is is, you know, things are a little bit back to normal. Go for it. Now, you know, just just just go for it and stay focused. That's a good that's short simple like you know, I mean obviously with the background of what you mentioned, but just the capsule you know just stay focused and and do it, you know, which we all need as artists because one thing about art is ADHD is pretty much one and one that's.

01;42;26;16 - 01;42;45;25
Unknown
Yeah. Let me do that. This is, you know, so yeah. And that's what I was when like I say, when I came to Berlin, I was like, and like, I wanted to make comedy music. And then I was like, oh, okay. There's, there's open stage nights for music, and there's also standup nights. And then, oh, I could maybe I could do that.

01;42;45;25 - 01;43;04;20
Unknown
And just all of a sudden like, oh yeah, ju ju ju ju ju ju. And I'll take improv classes so that I can, learn to do crowd work better. Oh, I kind of. I do improv, too. Again. Oh, yeah. And, like. Yeah. You just it's, you know, you stay. So just just just focus it up by the end.

01;43;04;20 - 01;43;26;21
Unknown
Just just choose the one thing. Follow through with that. And, of course, yeah. Got got my ass into gear on that. Now that my time is, is extremely limited, for those things, that'll force it. Now, are you doing anything musical? Improv. Right. Yeah. So I'm doing, we do some musical improv in my improv troupe, but I'm with the naked Flamingos comedy troupe.

01;43;26;23 - 01;43;49;16
Unknown
We have a regular monthly show at Improv Works, and then occasionally other shows as well, where it's, short form improv comedy where we just, take suggestions from the audience and do games and scenes and sometimes musical stuff, for, for comedic purposes, make fools of ourselves to make you laugh. And then I've got my rock band, which is something I've been wanting to do since I came to Germany.

01;43;49;16 - 01;44;06;07
Unknown
But, I just hadn't found the right people. And I finally did my. Which is really great. And that is, doing and doing pretty well. We're playing around places. We don't have anything set up at the moment in, in Berlin, where we're playing in Netherlands this weekend. But we're actually in a transition where we getting a new drummer.

01;44;06;07 - 01;44;28;17
Unknown
So we're going to get our new drummer trained up, and then we're going to have some shows coming up in 2025, I'm sure. And then, yeah, those were the two things I've been doing the last two years. And so now, and giving, tours and of course, tour guide work is it tends to make a little more money than the all that other stuff.

01;44;28;19 - 01;45;09;18
Unknown
I also do in the podcast. So that was once a month. So, yeah, the, the hack and slash, the ad and podcast will also be back next year. But now, this year I'm trying to bring back also doing some of my solo stuff, my solo, musical comedy show and then also, the mermaid swimming stuff because, I'm just thinking, of with a lot of the, the time I spend doing the tour guide work, I've just kind of slowly replacing that with some of these other things, but it's a huge balancing act, you know, doing all this stuff and being a stay at home

01;45;09;18 - 01;45;29;10
Unknown
dad is like, you know, there's a lot going on. Yeah. So I'm, still always finding the balance, but, and. God, God damn dude with my wife, just a freaking angel and put up with with me. Like to to put out. She. I just love her so much. She I cannot believe like that. She's like. Yes.

01;45;29;13 - 01;45;43;09
Unknown
I feel like as soon as I feel like I feel bad, I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm just juggling like, sorry. You married an artist, you know? Yeah. So, like, I know I'll marry a juggler. Yeah. Just comes along with the territory. Just. She knew that before we had the kid and before we got married, to be fair, like.

01;45;43;09 - 01;46;11;15
Unknown
Okay, well, that's good. And, but, Yeah, she she's so supportive of it, and, I'm really lucky that that is that is something that's a a factor in this lifestyle that cannot be ignored. And, and actually should, should be given the most props to you out of anything, really. Because, but I just love, I love this, life of of being a dad and, being an artist and, doing all this stuff.

01;46;11;15 - 01;46;39;08
Unknown
And I think Berlin is just such a great city for it, because it has actually a big family support in this city. Yeah. You know, there's there's playgrounds, like, everywhere. There's places for kids to go be creative everywhere for kids to go be kids. It's a very family friendly city. And then at the same time, it's this big nightlife city, you know?

01;46;39;11 - 01;46;57;06
Unknown
So like, that's part of the reason that I'm so thankful for being here and that as much as like, it's easy to complain sometimes about shit, like where you're like, these staring people are people just barking at you on the street. The translate all the time. The weather's so gloomy for eight months straight, you know, blah, blah.

01;46;57;14 - 01;47;20;18
Unknown
Like the, the, the pros still outweigh the cons. And a lot of that has to do with just being an artist who's a dad. Those two, those two lifestyle is just so supported so well here you know. Yeah he juggling it well man I mean can you still have your sanity. So that's good. And well whatever level of it I originally had or maybe I still.

01;47;20;21 - 01;47;42;13
Unknown
Have you seen my act where I dress up like a giant chicken? I have not, so, Yeah, I felt like I was, I've been assessed youthful, yet I really missed that. Yeah. Super, bro, thank you very much for doing this, man. Yeah, man. Thanks. It was been great. Yeah. Okay. This thank you very much. And, guys, thank you very much for listening.

01;47;42;13 - 01;47;49;16
Unknown
And are watching the Third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your boy Nya Yeanafehn. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace. Yeah.