Victor Pãtrãşcan: Comedy Without Borders, First English Show in Uzbekistan & Touring Europe | Ep 95

In this episode, I talk with comedian Victor Pãtrăşcan. He travels the world to tell jokes and does not stay in one place for long.

Victor shares why the stage feels like his home, what it’s like growing up in Romania. And the funny and strange things he sees while touring. He even tells the story of doing the first English comedy show in Uzbekistan. We also talk about his trips to the USA and how cultures can feel so different.

Highlights:

😂 Why Victor keeps touring all the time 

🌍 Stories from shows in Europe, Asia, and more 

🇷🇴 Romanian culture and family life 

🇺🇸 Visiting the United States 

🎤 The first English comedy show in Uzbekistan

Victor's Socials

Instagram | Youtube | Tiktok | Website

-------------------------------------------------------------------
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

Support The Podcast
https://patreon.com/thirdculturetalkpodcast

Subscribe to Third Culture Talk Podcast YouTube channel:
https://youtube.com/@nyayeanafehn

Nya's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nyamean

Podcast Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thirdculturetalkpod/

Podcast TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@thirdculturetalkpod

Email: nya@nyamean.com

-------------------------------------------------
Music: "Chill Day" by Lakey Inspired

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;19;02
Unknown
I went to the United States that same year. I went to Egypt and Denmark and totally different, all of them compared to where I was from. You also have this ability to connect with people in the audience and also have a patience to, like, hear these people out. I'm telling you stories. You're connecting, you know, and you have this, these two different energies.

00;00;19;02 - 00;00;42;08
Unknown
Let me say, of like, comedy and then also connecting with people. How do you manage those two energies in a show? I don't know how to give you what answer to give you because this is totally unchartered territory. It's a big thing to, to realize like how much the image of American culture has been ingrained in my in my, in my brain.

00;00;42;08 - 00;01;06;26
Unknown
And when I actually saw it, I saw just how fake and just actually not that good it actually is, right? Welcome to the Third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your host Nya Yeanafehn. In 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 it is of our parents or even back in the day.

00;01;06;28 - 00;01;25;12
Unknown
So let's begin today's episode. There is a kindred spirit that I see in you. And like you told me the other time, the other day that, you just left New York, you just left everything behind, and you just were like, okay, I'm going to put everything in a bag and just move to Berlin. And I did that too.

00;01;25;16 - 00;01;47;21
Unknown
Really? Yeah. What? Yeah. Like five years ago, I used to live in London, and I just left everything during the pandemic because I was like, I was going crazy, right? Being locked into into a room. And I was like, I'm not living my life like this. Remember, there was an afternoon when I was trying to kind of force myself to fall asleep at five in the afternoon, because I was just waiting for the day to be over, because it was in the middle of the pandemic.

00;01;47;22 - 00;02;06;28
Unknown
Oh, so there was nothing to do, right? I couldn't do anything. And, I saw like, I this is not a life to live where I'm just waiting for life to pass. And I just left everything. So that was like over five years ago. And I've been on the road since. And then I heard that you did something like that, and I was like, oh my God, what?

00;02;06;28 - 00;02;30;28
Unknown
The same person we have with me. Yeah, we have some, serious things in common. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's this there is a particular type of person that is willing to do something like this, you know. I have a think like I think romantically Americans. Okay. Are this what they left everything from their, their countries and they just moved to a new place.

00;02;31;00 - 00;02;49;10
Unknown
Yeah. You know what I mean. And now we're doing this. But without the colonization you know. Yeah. Right. You know, slave trade and all of those things. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. There's all the nasty parts are removed. It's just for fun jokes, parts, you know, kebabs. Mostly cultural. Yeah. You know. Baklava. Right? Yeah. Have you tried the baklava down here?

00;02;49;13 - 00;03;08;26
Unknown
I tried it in Nikon, but I don't know what specific one you talk to. Baklava is, you can find them in the least turkey in the Turkish people do really well. A Lebanese that would. Well, you know, but what the Turkish people have, discovered is baklava, via with milk. It's called cold baklava.

00;03;08;27 - 00;03;30;13
Unknown
One. Yeah. You can find it in, in Syria, like northern Syria and sometimes in Lebanon as well. Yeah. So instead of that heavy sirup, sometimes could be just too much too. Yeah. I like that sirup, bro. Yeah, yeah. Imagine instead of that it's the same thing. But just milk the milk makes everything's just kind of fresh. It's it's not level.

00;03;30;13 - 00;03;53;13
Unknown
It's it's one of the best desserts I've ever had in my life. That sounds good. I'm not really that big a fan of milk, but just. It sounds so good. Those two things together. Yeah. Oh. That's crazy. So. But, No, you bring up the the thing about, I mean, jumping into Intuit that, you know, you've been traveling, you been on a road for five years, but then, hearing the backstory behind it of, like, you living in London when it shut down and then you just packing everything up and leave.

00;03;53;19 - 00;04;17;13
Unknown
Like, so. Yes. You went. You went kind of crazy. Not crazy. But you go now, okay? Crazy. Yeah. Cause it's like you couldn't. You could leave the house for, like, just twice a day. That was the mandatory, allowed amount of exits that by the government. And I remember one day my housemates went like, this is the third time you left the house on all those count?

00;04;17;20 - 00;04;34;15
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was a crazy times, bro. Like, everyone was in, even me, like, in New York City. I was, you know, there was no. Well, those restrictions in terms of what places you can go in and stuff. Yeah. But, it was like just very loose and, you know, for a city like New York City to be shut down like that was so crazy.

00;04;34;19 - 00;04;52;17
Unknown
I would imagine much fun. It, yeah. So during the pandemic time, and I remember the day before everything shut down, I remember I was at a mic and, me and my friend and, you know, we're kind of talking. I was like, yeah, I think I'm about to go home, or so I think. Doesn't sound serious because I was working near Penn Station and had the first case in New York City, nine not too far from it.

00;04;52;17 - 00;05;07;27
Unknown
And Penn Station is at the most busiest station. So, like, literally that that whole Covid was probably circulating a lot already. Yeah. But this sign was serious. People were shutting things down, food was being scarce. So then I was like, I think I should go home. He's like, yeah, man. I mean, you know, I guess you got to do what you gotta do.

00;05;07;27 - 00;05;23;12
Unknown
I remember going home and then the next day everything was just shut down. Yeah, everything was shut down. And so for months you are locked in your apartment in New York. Locked in. Bro, I was going I mean, I was almost going crazy, too, and that I was near the hospital that had the most high that has the highest amount of cases.

00;05;23;12 - 00;05;38;25
Unknown
So you you heard, ambulance sirens every hour, every two hours for like, months. So, like, it was just like you hear sirens. That's somebody who has a just somebody that's going on and, did a lot of writing. I was part of this group that we did a thousand words every day for a month. Oh, wow.

00;05;38;28 - 00;05;57;19
Unknown
How crazy we're going. We're like, okay, let's just do something. Yeah. And, yeah, comedy was shut. Oh, comedy was still going on a little bit. Really? Yeah. Oh, what, like outside. Right. Like parking lots and, you know, people honking their horns when they found something funny. That's the same. Just so with zoom. What about you? Did you do any zoom?

00;05;57;24 - 00;06;17;07
Unknown
I did, I think two, and I realized that, no, this is not a problem because people are just turning off the cameras to laugh because I was saying just outlandish shit. And people were like, oh, I can't see, you know, I can't have my friend see me laughing at this stuff. And the worse is that if you're bombing to see yourself.

00;06;17;07 - 00;06;32;24
Unknown
Yeah, I see your face responding to what's happening in the reflection. Yeah, bro. Wow. The amount of times I turned my screen off, I was like, oh, let me turn my screen off. I want to see how I look like this is too much information. Yeah, yeah. But then you're looking at yourself and the faces you're making and you're like, what is that?

00;06;32;29 - 00;06;49;08
Unknown
What's that on my face there? You know what I mean? Right? It's kind of, you know, when you do face time with people, I don't you don't do face. No, because I just be looking at myself. No. I mean, I'm looking like. Because not just nice. Because I know obsessive way, but it's just like, is this what I look like?

00;06;49;08 - 00;07;07;22
Unknown
Is this what people see when they're talking to me? How are they taking me seriously? You know, I mean, like, I'm just. Yeah. Why not blink in this way? Yeah, because I think the mirror is one of the most evil things in society. Evil? Yeah. Because you're not supposed to look at yourself, but. Yeah, but suppose you, you know, there's always once in a while we have something on your face that you didn't remove.

00;07;07;23 - 00;07;24;04
Unknown
And that's why you need friends. That's why you need a community around you to tell you, hey, man, you have something and just do this community. So expensive though. Amir is like, what, 5999? No community is free. Yeah. What kind of free? On the back end? On the back end, it cost money, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You can like long term.

00;07;24;09 - 00;07;40;29
Unknown
Yeah. But I think it's just being us being able to look at ourselves at all is just insane. This is not a natural thing to do. Right? I think we'll look it in the pond. Right. You know. Yeah. But that's, you know, like the Greek story of the guy who looked at himself in the palm of themselves, you know, that's that's not good.

00;07;40;29 - 00;07;58;04
Unknown
Wow. So, yeah, I guess during those times, ever since that story, you had to close your eyes when taken a. Exactly right. Because think about, like, the history of, like, human beings, like we've never been able to look at ourselves. We never knew how we looked. Yeah, right. We just lived. And then the mirror came and then now would like this.

00;07;58;04 - 00;08;19;03
Unknown
Just kind of looking at ourselves. You know what I find very weird? When people have, photos of themselves as, the wallpaper on their phone, I mean, you know, they there's no one else in your life that's you you care about. Why is your face there? It's a reminder of good times. Maybe the time during is kind of right under their friends, but, like, photo shoots.

00;08;19;05 - 00;08;38;22
Unknown
Oh, people do photo shoots. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People like. Yeah. That's a red flag. Yeah. That's just too much right. Yeah, yeah. That person's not going to pay you back if you give them money or something. But if you, I can sometimes understand, you know, people having photos of their kids or their spouse or partner, their family or whatever, you know, but of themselves just posing in a park.

00;08;38;26 - 00;08;55;25
Unknown
Okay? I mean, we oppose it. Oh, posing in a park? Yeah. Yeah. That's not that's crazy. You can see that it's shot to the professional camera because of the bokeh behind. It's just. Yeah. Oh, with the bokeh too. Oh yeah. That's that's crazy. Yeah, yeah. The more high quality it is of your self-portrait you have on your phone, the worse it is.

00;08;55;25 - 00;09;14;05
Unknown
It's like. Okay. Yeah, right. Yeah. This is too much. But this is the strange thing because we're aware of this, but it feels like our entire life is dedicated to how important our thoughts are. I mean, because the field that we're in. Right. You know what I mean? Basically, our job is like, you shut up, everybody don't make a noise.

00;09;14;07 - 00;09;34;05
Unknown
If they interrupt, you get upset, and then you tell them, hey, I have my thoughts here, my precious little gems. You know what I mean? You have to listen. You paid for it. Yeah, right. Yeah. This is our job. We chose to. We did this. So self involved. I mean, how did you choose this? This job is a child, a childhood dream.

00;09;34;07 - 00;10;00;06
Unknown
I've always wanted to do this. It's just making people laugh is the just the. My ego just gets tickled inside. So. Yeah. Okay. Was you a funny guy in school? Like, in, like, you know, early childhood, you know? Yeah. Try to, you know, now, looking back, it's just it's very strange, you know, looking from a professional kind of, lens to like, it was just ego and narcissism, you know?

00;10;00;06 - 00;10;20;21
Unknown
I mean, that's kind of the step one and two of comedy. Yeah. What about you? Yeah, I was, Yeah. Funny kid, weird kid to, like, imitate stuff on TV. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I imitate cartoons a lot. And I used to, really be specific about, like, certain cartoons. Yeah, and, like, laugh at it. So how, like, what was weird is that I can have a good time just laughing at cartoons by myself.

00;10;20;21 - 00;10;40;12
Unknown
Yeah, but watch cartoons. So we talking about Ed and and Eddie. Johnny Bravo. What else? Some other ones. I, I mean, you know, you got the classic Tom and Jerry, but those, like, reruns long back and, also Cartoon Network. Cartoon network. Yes. There you go. Also, too, old school stuff too. That really, I think helped shape me like, watching Three's Company.

00;10;40;12 - 00;11;07;23
Unknown
Okay. All in the family. Yeah. You know, so there's like 70s, 80s type of, like American sitcoms. Yeah. I used to watch. Yeah, that was probably weird as a kid. Like, I actually used to watch it and, like, envision myself in those scenarios or something like, you know, you know, like John Ritter and, like, you know, the three girls and Three's Company and like, you know, having the, the theme song and knowing it as a young kid and people were like, yo, how old are you?

00;11;07;23 - 00;11;25;16
Unknown
I'm like, yeah, just, you know, that's what's all. Yeah, yeah. Would you be calling people Meat Head? And what's, you know, I would have sharp sarcasm. That was just unplaced. Yeah. It would just be like the stakes involved were just toys and someone not playing with it. Right. And I just come with sharp sarcasm. I'm like, yo, whoa.

00;11;25;16 - 00;11;39;06
Unknown
What? Yeah. Like, what are you. Whoa, whoa, bro, what are you. What's going on? These are just Legos. You know, I might not like, you know, you you kind of weird by playing with these Legos in a certain way. Like, what are you in my head, you know, and then, yeah, people are like, I don't I didn't think that was part of your vocabulary yet.

00;11;39;08 - 00;11;59;20
Unknown
Hockey puck. Hockey puck. There you go. Another one. Yeah. Okay. So you you also. Yeah, I watched a few because I was fascinated. I've, I've been fascinated with like American culture like all my life and I, I watched all of these things to understand the differences and to understand like what the standard is and what the basis of like, modern comedy is in the United States.

00;11;59;21 - 00;12;32;11
Unknown
In order to understand what's happening now, I wanted to watch, you know, like, just be familiar with stuff like I Love Lucy. Yeah, I know I Love Lucy. Yeah, but I mean, what? Yeah, that was a good. That's a good one. Just to understand, you know, why do references, exist? Yeah. Did you have, did it also, did you also have, like, not a reality TV shows, but like these talk shows like marry or, you know, not not to the same extent as the United States, you know, you guys invented that to the level where it's,

00;12;32;14 - 00;12;49;08
Unknown
Yeah, it's affecting society, you know? Yeah. Did it affect Jerry Springer type of stuff? You know, everybody kind of learned. Yeah, yeah. Like they, you know, you are not the father. You are the father. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're both the father. I mean. Yeah. That too. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, it happens. Yeah. Yeah. You learn a lot about dramatization.

00;12;49;08 - 00;13;08;28
Unknown
You know, I learned that early in life. You know, kind of like different camera angles and, like, you know, my mom never took care of me. No bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep. You know she was never you know she was never looked after you know. And and it's what it feels like. It's a turned life. It's exploitative of just people's lives and hardships and you know dramas.

00;13;09;05 - 00;13;28;18
Unknown
It's. Yeah because it used to be like you know, when you watch all these sitcoms, it's it's controlled, right? It's made up. True. But this was like actual people that you could go and visit that house and go like, oh, look, that's where they did that. You know, man, that's where he cheated on his wife. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can visit those places because it's just attached to reality.

00;13;28;21 - 00;13;45;26
Unknown
But yeah. But for example, like watching Seinfeld, you go to the restaurant and like, oh, this doesn't actually look, you know, the restaurant is. I felt that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been there. I went to New York specifically to see this type of stuff. Wow. Yeah, yeah, I, I went to the restaurant and I go inside and it's just photos of Kramer.

00;13;46;02 - 00;14;04;03
Unknown
I'm like, oh, this is great for you. Like, this is the actor. You know what I mean? It's there's no booths. There's no, like, places where George and, and Jerry would sit. This a place? Yeah. Plays with Kramer all over the place. Just overpriced bad hamburgers there, right? Yeah. He didn't know what to do. Yeah, fortunately, he did.

00;14;04;03 - 00;14;25;00
Unknown
Like. Yeah, we knew somebody's going to come from, somewhere out of Europe and come visit him. But this was a big thing to to realize, like, how much the image of American culture has been ingrained in my in my, in my brain. And when I actually saw it, I saw just how fake and just actually not that good it actually is, right?

00;14;25;00 - 00;14;41;27
Unknown
Yeah. So imagine, like slice pizza. I was like, oh my God, I'm going to go to York. I'm going to get a dollar slice pizza. Yeah. It's horrible. Oh you got, you got probably got the wrong one. Yeah. Blame me. No no no. You know it's it's it's it's the way you set up every time I criticize someone's, like, cuisine in their culture.

00;14;41;27 - 00;15;00;16
Unknown
Just like you didn't just go to the right place. And I'm like, but it's everyone's culture. Like, if I go to Romania, right? Okay. If I go to Romania, what's the dish to get in Romania? Like if I was to go like, oh, just, Papa, Papa is pretty good, but it's basically like, a donuts. The, like the different type of donuts and sour cream and jam on top.

00;15;00;19 - 00;15;16;28
Unknown
Wow. Yeah, it's pretty good. Damn. Oh, that sounds series. Yeah. Okay. So is there a place to get the best kind or, like, is there anything I. Yeah, it's just that, you know, if you, if you don't like the Papa Nash after your experience in Romania, I would also blame you for not getting the right one now. Okay, well, we both have to go.

00;15;16;29 - 00;15;35;09
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, we have fried in different places. Yeah. You have pride in sour cream and jam and my dough and not have it in Dallas slice pizza. But just to have, like, jelly beans. That was insane. Yeah. There's no jelly beans at home. Like, at the time, they wouldn't know I went to the United States like 2010, I think.

00;15;35;11 - 00;15;53;01
Unknown
So in 2010. You know, jelly beans are in a row or they were like, I couldn't find them. I had like jelly beans, like peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. You know those like jiffy. I think it is a jiffy. Yeah. It's like a it's like a rainbow of, just grape jam. Yeah. And peanut butter.

00;15;53;01 - 00;16;10;29
Unknown
Yeah. You liked it? I was disgusted by it. Okay. But I was enamored with the idea. Well, I mean, great idea. Yeah. Just, just not practical at all. Yeah. Just not having more than one. Nice to clean. Yeah. So, yeah, it's terrible. And the thing is that when we do the first goobers. Okay, when we open that jar and look at it again, you're like, this is a mess.

00;16;11;04 - 00;16;27;21
Unknown
Yeah. So it's like I where, where I thought I was going somewhere in life. Yeah. It looks like the flag of Macedonia is a flag of Macedonia. Yeah. Actually yeah. Was also like yeah, yeah. It's like, well yellow and red or something. Yeah. Yes. Yeah I know, know something. Yeah. See I didn't think I knew but Yeah.

00;16;27;21 - 00;16;49;06
Unknown
So okay. So Romania, you, you born and raised there. Yes. Yes. And you know, it's interesting here about the American influences that you had comic like, from a comedic standpoint. Yeah. Because I feel like that shapes you and your comedy moving forward. But this was the standard for everybody. Like, I assume everybody from Berlin that you've done this podcast with.

00;16;49;08 - 00;17;13;16
Unknown
This is how they learn about, standup as an art form, as a thing to do professionally. Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, you know, fluffy. Fluffy gave. Yeah. Places. Yeah, yeah. Pablo. Francisco. Oh. With the voices. Oh, yeah. That was fantastic. You know, the movie guy voice. Yeah. That just blew everybody's minds.

00;17;13;21 - 00;17;35;05
Unknown
Back home, Romania and I do. So funny. These guys were so popular and so good. I saw Romanian comedians translate these jokes word for word and do them in Romanian. That's a big thing out in parts of Europe. Yeah, like the direct translation of, And pretend like it's their bit. I saw a guy in Romania do Bill Cosby's dentist, you know, stop laughing.

00;17;35;06 - 00;17;51;29
Unknown
Yeah. You know, like the bit where the spit just goes from the mouth to the, whatever sink. And you can see the rainbow. I remember the guy say it. In Romania, it's the rainbow. And I'm like, I knew it. I was the only one in the room. And I remember the clap. There's like, oh my God, genius, genius.

00;17;51;29 - 00;18;12;27
Unknown
Wow, look at that local legend. Based on some legends. Other jokes. Yeah, yeah. So this is the standard. Yeah. And everybody here, and I assume you've noticed we're trying to emulate American style comedy, the shows that are designed in the same way, the, but the the style of writing the, the, the attitude is American and. Right.

00;18;12;29 - 00;18;34;15
Unknown
Yeah. Sometimes with British influence depending like the alternative, I think they have a very heavy British influence, like, but yeah, this is, this is the standard medical interest in that like because UK is right there and UK has comedy there as well. But like they speak funny and they speak funny. Yeah I agree, but I mean you're so close there.

00;18;34;21 - 00;18;54;17
Unknown
Yeah. But we the first interaction with English is American movies, right. We don't, we don't watch like Fawlty Towers. You know, we watch Seinfeld in France. That's a good. Yeah, that's a good point. Thank you. Yeah, if you want. Yeah. You, you you're a smart guy. You know, you have you have degrees and you went to college, so, you know, you're smart guy.

00;18;54;17 - 00;19;18;06
Unknown
Yeah. And you traveled a lot a. Yeah, but this is, just to kind of, go back to the point of, American comedy and the comedy here. I think, it's starting to become something different where it's just purely not just necessarily European because this is happening all over the world. But I'll, comedy in English as a second language for the performer and the audience.

00;19;18;08 - 00;19;40;15
Unknown
Right. Because you in the audiences that you play for here in Berlin, maybe a few native speakers, everybody's from somewhere else. Yeah. Different temperaments, different type of, was it, understanding of like, jokes and things, which is, I mean, it must be interesting for you because you, you travel a lot like, you know, performing and like, you know, dealing with those differences.

00;19;40;18 - 00;20;03;03
Unknown
At it almost feels like sometimes at a per show or per region level or not even per country, let me say like in terms of how people receive jokes, you know, like, yeah, but it's the difference, is they're quieter or louder, you know what I mean? That's the only difference. They understand the same thing, but it's culturally, not that I don't know of accepted.

00;20;03;06 - 00;20;23;28
Unknown
For example, the further up north you go in Europe, they are more, like, did not that expressive. You know, I mean, they are stone faced throughout the show and at the end they go like, this is the best show I've ever seen in my life. And I'm like, you not smile at all. I'm not going to lie, man, for the first couple years, being here.

00;20;23;28 - 00;20;43;05
Unknown
Right, it threw me off because it's like, whoa. But then, you know, so you can they learn how to behave, right? You don't show emotion in public. You don't, start yelling. You don't make all sorts of noises. And the more you go south, you know what I mean? The more people are loud and they interrupt and, you know, interrupt you.

00;20;43;09 - 00;21;09;24
Unknown
Yeah, that's. But that's it. It's just a cultural thing, you know? But people understand the same words, the same concepts, right? Actually, to a, I think to a greater extent than, native, speakers in, in countries that speak English natively. I think here you can talk about much more complex things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I would imagine because Berlin has also a lot of people from like majority speaking or primarily English speaking, you know cultures.

00;21;09;24 - 00;21;27;15
Unknown
Right. But they're also smart, right. In order to speak English as a second language, well enough to go into a comedy show where there's wordplay, all sorts of references, people are, are very educated. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm from everywhere, you know what I mean? From all corners of the world. It's fantastic. Yeah, that definitely makes sense.

00;21;27;15 - 00;21;44;10
Unknown
Film. Yeah. I mean because the same joke works. Right. The same joke that works in Berlin. Works in Copenhagen, works in Estonia, you know. Yeah. They don't respond as loudly, but they still enjoy it. They still understand it. Yeah. Which is, which is interesting. I mean, because, you know, as an American, we come out here and you do a certain joke.

00;21;44;10 - 00;22;00;13
Unknown
I mean, don't get wrong, there's some jokes where the references are not 1 to 1. Yeah. So there's that. But like American football, nobody cares about them. Who cares? And probably no one cares. Like in a, in a very direct way. They're like, hey, I kind of know what you're talking about, but I refuse to care about it.

00;22;00;13 - 00;22;17;24
Unknown
Yeah. Because it's it's just it's a game for children. If you really want to play American football, rugby. Yeah. No, no, I mean no pads. Yeah. Just for week men. Yeah. I mean, but our football has a lot of capitalism in there, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. You know we've got a jerseys with the stars on there and like you know the little patches.

00;22;17;25 - 00;22;37;13
Unknown
Have you seen a rugby game ever. You know I ain't gonna lie. Rugby every time I see it I my I cannot stop watching. Yeah. It's just proper concussions you know. Right. I just I think the best thing you can hear the noise. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. And because they've just clashed so it's just an insane sport. But it's the same.

00;22;37;14 - 00;22;55;11
Unknown
Rugby is the same. You know, it's, like American football but for men. Yeah. True I guess, but not sad about just throwing a ball far down the field, you know. But you can throw it. This is the thing with rugby. You can throw it, forward. You have to always if you, to the back. Really? Yeah.

00;22;55;11 - 00;23;16;10
Unknown
That's the that's one of the main rules. Yeah. Oh, so Americans like a quarterback can throw the ball over everybody, and then a guy catches it and just scores whatever. I don't know the terms, but in, rugby you can't throw it for. I mean all this has to be that probably signifies it. Makes it so much more difficult.

00;23;16;12 - 00;23;34;28
Unknown
It really has to advance. Yeah. You really have to advance. I say difficult in different ways, like that I don't know. You gotta throw it behind you. That's kind of crazy. Yeah. You be running it. Somebody's about to, like, run into that door behind you. That's like crazy. But I think, like, the whole throwing a ball to somebody so far away, it's like a this weird now.

00;23;35;01 - 00;23;56;03
Unknown
So I was talking about it. So weird. Like American football. A quarterback has to throw the ball far down the field to like to a wide receiver. That's like being actively, you know, being defended on by somebody else and like, get it into his hands. Yeah. And like the vision that you need like you know there's big dudes coming at you Deshaun I literally break you apart like you literally like hey I'm trying to injure you so you don't move.

00;23;56;06 - 00;24;14;09
Unknown
Yeah but they have helmets. So yeah even a helmet too I mean you know your head bounces around, you know somebody's back you know, still. Right. But like really trying to jam into you. You got to throw this ball far and got to keep on going. But I think that's a such an American thing because like, about precision is it's kind of like a pseudo form of shooting.

00;24;14;09 - 00;24;28;04
Unknown
Right. It's kind of like, all right, I'm trying to make sure I hit my target. Yeah. All the way there. So I would see why people here in Europe don't give a fuck about it. No. Yeah. We're like, yeah, yeah, this, this animalistic, sport it. No no no it's not about that because rugby is much more aggressive.

00;24;28;11 - 00;25;08;13
Unknown
But it's more it feels more real because there's no protection now that just kind of going at it. Yeah. It's just insane. Yeah. It's very crazy. Yeah. Anyway, cultures, cultures. Yes, yes. So you're of you're from, your culture. Is that a Romanian culture? Yeah. But you've been in different cultures, like London and you've been traveling around kind of lost this whole Romanian, thing, because I've been on the road for so long, and I've seen how everybody kind of tells themselves the story that they are something and, how, that has changed over time and how the version that they are believing in now is just random.

00;25;08;15 - 00;25;37;00
Unknown
Most most of the time it's sometimes connected to like, the nature and the dialog and the things that they have locally. But it's it's all manufactured. All manufactured. Yeah. Like culture is, is is a social construct. It's not a real thing. And culture changes over time. When you say is a social construct that constructs itself, given that there's a certain group of people within a region that tends to coalesce or, you know, come together and work amongst each other.

00;25;37;01 - 00;26;02;22
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, that's kind of what it is. I mean, it's almost like inevitable war because every, every culture has been renamed, redefined, changed by invasions, religions, all sorts of thing. So culture is not a monolith. It's been traveling through history like it's here. Every part of the world that you can pinpoint, 2 or 300 years ago, people spoke different languages, believed in different things, eight different things.

00;26;02;24 - 00;26;30;27
Unknown
Sang different songs, dance different dances. So I guess culture then would be like, I guess you can think of it as a snapshot. Yeah. In time. Yeah. So, you know, I guess in terms of Romanian culture in this particular snapshot in time, what is that to you? Right. Well, it's trying to it's very, difficult to pinpoint what Romanian culture is now because there is a resurgence of traditional values.

00;26;30;27 - 00;26;57;25
Unknown
And, you know, people looking back 100 years ago and trying to resuscitate that type of culture because it was kind of wiped off, wiped off. Yeah. Wiped off, wiped out, I think. Wiped out, by communism. So communism, actually is this belief that, you know, what prevails is you humans and the human society. So culture is a made up thing, so it has to be erased.

00;26;57;28 - 00;27;17;28
Unknown
Right. My point is I don't want to erase culture. I'm just observing that this is what it is. Yeah, but the communists deleted everything and re rebuilt, national identity and cultural identity, to suit them. Yeah. So in a sense, culture is not only a snapshot in time, but is something that's very valuable. Yeah.

00;27;18;01 - 00;27;39;15
Unknown
Because culture look at culture here in in Europe nobody cared about Halloween ten years ago. Fair enough. Now, every time October comes, know, you see like spiders and, you know, pumpkins and everything. And I'm like, what? What is this? This is how everything at some point came into being. Yeah. You know what I mean?

00;27;39;16 - 00;28;04;08
Unknown
That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's something that's always malleable. It always changes. And things. But, I guess in terms of culture and you bring up a good point because now I would assume in reference to you since, moving out of Romania and, living in London and you performing in all these different countries, are you seeing cultures in a very close way that a lot of people don't like?

00;28;04;11 - 00;28;30;07
Unknown
What have let's, let's, let's do this right in terms of culture. Right. What was do you remember, like the first country that you went to that the culture was, like drastically different than the one you, was aware of, like the ones you were, well, when, I went to the United States that same year, I went to Egypt and Denmark and totally different all of them compared to where I was from.

00;28;30;07 - 00;29;01;01
Unknown
Wow. Egypt. I lived in, Denmark for about a year. I stayed in the United States for about three months and in Egypt for two months. Wow. Just all sorts of, like, random reasons. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then the US, I went with Virgin Travel, which is this great. Program, where as a student from a third world country, you get a visa to work in the United States, in, laundromats, Burger Kings, and, you know, parking lots and all sorts of stuff like the lowest, like, minimum wage.

00;29;01;01 - 00;29;17;12
Unknown
I was I was getting paid. I was in New York State, in Binghamton, New York. Binghamton. Oh, they put you there? Yeah. One year after the one of the biggest, like, mass shootings. Yeah. There was a guy who went into a post office and just shot a bunch of people. And I remember Obama spoke about it like, publicly.

00;29;17;12 - 00;29;34;01
Unknown
There was just, like, quite big. And I went there like the the year after. Not because of that. I didn't go there. Yeah. No, no, no, you seem like a sane person. You want to do that now? But what I've gathered, you seen me? You know, when I went there and I worked in the laundromat, I don't know, between 12 and 15 hours a day.

00;29;34;04 - 00;29;59;11
Unknown
Yeah. And I remember I got $6, 15 out of which they took tax and I would pay. I was paying, like over $100 for accommodation for a room, but per week. Oh, yeah. Just insane. Yeah. Just taking advantage. And everybody that was working there was Romanian and Moldovan, which Moldovans are very like Romanians. But, you know, it's a part of Romania stolen by Russian.

00;29;59;13 - 00;30;17;19
Unknown
Okay. So, so that's pretty much the same. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much the same language, the same a lot of things. And yeah there were like over 60 of us and just watching underwear of kids from all sorts of camps in the United States that they were sending trucks, loads of truckloads of like, dirty laundry.

00;30;17;22 - 00;30;34;18
Unknown
Yeah. Man it to you right into the gear. But for us, we were like, oh, I can make some dollars in Romania. Because then after this, after I worked in this place for two months, I traveled by myself for three weeks. Yeah, I saw all of the things that I wanted to see. I went to see Niagara Falls.

00;30;34;21 - 00;30;55;00
Unknown
I went to see, like the Philadelphia staff. So Rocky goes in the museum at the top. I was like, yeah, I like, Philly cheese, Philadelphia cheesesteak. Oh, you had the. Yeah, of course. That's where the women. Oh, great. Wow, bro. Yeah. Oh, so you really saw like that the a good part of, like, the American culture?

00;30;55;01 - 00;31;12;23
Unknown
Yeah, I went to, like, the Smithsonian Museum on the mall in Washington, DC. Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge and all. All of the things. Yeah. Oh, so you were you okay? So, yeah. You had this bomb. Because I want to see this, I want to yeah. I grew up with this idea, you know? And you went. Did you go by yourself or you.

00;31;12;24 - 00;31;31;25
Unknown
Yeah, by myself man. So, yeah, you had this bonding, your body, this exploration. Yeah. Traveling, seeing these new places. Yeah. Because comedy was always the thing that I wanted to do. So this was like, oh, how do I understand more about this. Yeah. I mean did you understand because this is something I'm always curious about. So I went to the Comedy Cellar.

00;31;31;25 - 00;31;49;21
Unknown
It was the year where Louis, brought out his first season. I remember I was buying the New York Times because I was fascinated. I could by the New York Times and I would reading the New York Times. Right, right. Yeah. And I remember there was a review of, Louis the show. Oh, yeah. Just came out. Oh, these are do.

00;31;49;22 - 00;32;07;15
Unknown
Yeah, MacDougal Street right there. Yeah. Right. So all the craziness that was going on and I started watching that, in the States and I remember I went to the Comedy Cellar to see what's what. It's like. I went to see, like, the taping of The Colbert Report. Oh, huge fan of The Colbert Report. One of the best shows ever made.

00;32;07;21 - 00;32;29;03
Unknown
Yeah, bro. You was in there. Yeah, yeah, it's really traveling. Traveling? Yeah, man. So before going to, like, you know, places like New York and things, do you, did you understand or know the concept of, like, standup comedy at that time? Okay. You did. Yeah. Because, you know, with standup comedy, people know about comedy. Sometimes standup comedy is like, still like new.

00;32;29;03 - 00;32;47;22
Unknown
Different. Yeah. Even I know for me personally, like, I knew about stand up comedy, but I know how to get in. Or. Like what? I didn't know that even. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know the ins and outs. I knew that it's an art form. I was watching specials like I knew of, you know, so many comedians at the time.

00;32;47;24 - 00;33;15;16
Unknown
Yeah. I just watch everything. I could just pirated, pirated stuff. Just downloaded it on torrents. Yeah. And just watch as much as I could. Yeah. Like Comedy Central presents. Like all of the people from David tell to, you know, Kathleen Madigan. Yeah. You know. Oh man. And then I'll premium blend. Remember that. I don't know that, that was like, there's like pretty much the same, like Comedy Central Presents, but, yeah, something similar like comedy Central has so many different like, lineup shows, the showcase shows.

00;33;15;19 - 00;33;38;24
Unknown
I still remember Comedy Central Presents. That was just groundbreaking because you could you I saw the people that now are like, consider some of the best in ever. They're, you know, like Mitch Hedberg had. Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, yeah. Kathleen Madigan, man, huge fan of such a underrated comedian. Wow. Yeah. I'm trying to remember some of our stuff.

00;33;38;24 - 00;33;55;05
Unknown
I think, like, you know, you had to face in the name, try to put it there, but, so. Yeah, you track, so you travel to all these places. I mean, to be honest, bro, every time I hear someone that comes from, like, outside of America, like, say, from Europe or other countries and, and or to, United States of America and then go to these, these places like Binghamton, New York.

00;33;55;05 - 00;34;18;25
Unknown
Yeah. I didn't know it was just go anywhere. Yeah. I mean, it didn't matter to me. You know, I just went there to work. I wouldn't, I wouldn't I wasn't able to do anything aside from work because it was just so exhausting. Yeah. Just working all day just to make some money and then, travel. It just so sad, though, because, like, if I was in Binghamton, New York, like, I will be sad.

00;34;18;25 - 00;34;36;09
Unknown
Like, I was like, oh. So then, yeah, your first exposure to, American culture is that of, like, Binghamton, New York. Yeah. But you made it out alive, so that's that's good. It's just always interesting to hear someone, like, go from, like, oh. I travel from France. And the first place I went to was, you know, Kansas City, Missouri, you know, like, what?

00;34;36;12 - 00;34;57;04
Unknown
I, I never been and never plan on going. Yeah. And you went there. That is. Wow. But then you see, like, for example, one of the things was like how, bad the houses are here, man, because here you come. This is just this is solid, right? In the United States. This is just, you know, a thin sheet of something that you just can punch through.

00;34;57;07 - 00;35;14;02
Unknown
Yeah. And I'm like, are these the houses that people live in? Yeah. It's just mind blowing, like sunny D trucks. Yeah. Seeing sunny day, you know, having sunny day. It's just horrible. But I saw it on TV and I was like, oh my God, this great orange drink that the Americans have. And I was like, oh, this is horrible.

00;35;14;02 - 00;35;33;08
Unknown
Yeah. Y'all got like fresher juice than the one. Yeah, yeah. We just have good marketing but not good ingredients. That's all we have. Yeah, that's kind of what I saw. Yeah. You like how the marketing is. The marketing is so good, taste so nasty. But the marketing could. And another shark was. I knew so much about America and American culture and history and everything.

00;35;33;15 - 00;35;54;21
Unknown
And Americans didn't know anything. Not just about the other countries, but about, like, I would tell people about Colbert, The Colbert Report, and they were like, we don't know what that is. I'm like, how can you not watch in New York right now? Not in New York City, but Binghamton, you know, the people that worked in the laundromat with me, you know, the manager, they I had no clue about nothing.

00;35;54;26 - 00;36;12;15
Unknown
Wow. Hey, I I'm surprised they didn't know either, because at least on the East Coast. Yeah. Like, at least some knowledge about it, but they didn't know anything about it. Did you know that Mitch Hedberg joke about, you might have seen this next comedian on the David Letterman show saying nobody saw him on the David Letterman show?

00;36;12;15 - 00;36;33;19
Unknown
A better introduction to be. You might have seen this next comedian at the store, and people would be like, oh yeah, I actually saw him. That's a fair enough. Yeah. I mean, that that makes sense that each place has their own connection with certain like, you know, type of formats and like, you know, late night show or you know, yeah, things, but just normal people wouldn't know about these things because they have their own lives to live.

00;36;33;23 - 00;36;49;16
Unknown
But I was just so just obsessed that I thought that everybody knew, you know what I mean? I thought like, oh, Jon Stewart, everybody knows Jon Stewart. And he's like, no, we don't. Yeah, yeah, you're talking about my landlord, who, by the way. No, I'm talking about the guy who's on Daily Show. Like that's exactly what he's talking about.

00;36;49;18 - 00;37;09;20
Unknown
Yeah. Wow. So you okay, so let's now go into so you're well known for not only your comedy, but also to the amount of places you travel and did. Yeah. And like the amount of country cities and things. And so as of right now, how many how many countries have you performed in like about 60 countries. 60 countries.

00;37;09;20 - 00;37;40;20
Unknown
Yes. Wow. Yeah. And what what made you want to go to so many countries like, oh, it's just this is the thing. It's just transformed into this. You know, you can't plan this because, the way that I, do my shows is I, I, I'm self-produced, so I produce my own shows independently. This has never been done before, but, you know, like, everybody that's toured, ever has done shows at comedy clubs, you know, local promoters organize a show.

00;37;40;23 - 00;37;59;00
Unknown
Come on over to a spot headlined do a weekend, whatever. All right. What I'm doing is never been done before. And it's me, Dragons. And now you. And, you know, like, a little just fringe, like a few people here, and they're starting to do this. But this has never been done before. Yeah, because that must have been scared.

00;37;59;00 - 00;38;16;25
Unknown
Of what? I mean, like, I sell the tickets, I promote the tickets, I rent the place. That's totally not with local promoters, with very few exceptions. For example, Hong Kong, I can't, you know, organize my own shows in Hong Kong. The the rules are so strict now. Okay. You know what I mean. So what gave you the confidence to do that?

00;38;16;25 - 00;38;37;29
Unknown
Because I mean, just ignorance and having to do this, having to wanting to do this. And there's no alternative, you know what I mean? It's like, what is the alternative? Because at the beginning, until you, get into, people's, you know, the, the promoters, they start liking you and start booking you for long. Sponsor takes years.

00;38;37;29 - 00;39;02;09
Unknown
You know what I mean? At the beginning to ask you to do seven minutes for like, €15 in another country. And I'm like, how am I going to travel there? Right? I'd rather organize my own show, you know? Yeah. Because that is a bold move. Like just in, just period. Not even in standup comedy, but just in entertainment for you to see a place that you want to perform in or just it comes to interest and then you making the things on your own to they find a venue.

00;39;02;10 - 00;39;28;07
Unknown
Yeah. To set up the tickets to do all this stuff. The average to do the promotion, advertising and everything like that is a very big deal. You know, that's the there's multiple factors. One necessity, the other one is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It kind of teaches everybody in the UK. And that was the kind of model that I kind of learned from, from the British, of, just I realized after a while that all of the venues at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival did it.

00;39;28;07 - 00;39;45;22
Unknown
Just a closet that someone transforms into a venue and I'm like, oh, it's just a room with a light and a microphone. Oh, I can find this anywhere, right? And you start like running your own open mics, little showcase shows here and there. So this is kind of the model, but nobody takes that from the festivals and applies it somewhere else.

00;39;45;24 - 00;40;07;15
Unknown
And that is where the the last factor in this was, drag. So drag was she's a comedian here based in Berlin and basically I started coming into Berlin about like 2017 I think 20, you know, I did a show, I remember I did a show, I do beast, there is this body, you know, going, oh, the beast did.

00;40;07;16 - 00;40;27;10
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And it fits 60, 50 people. And I had 65 shows. People were just standing and, couldn't believe it. I this was done just through sharing it, sharing the show on the groups here in Berlin. Wow. Blew my mind. I remember I just I was like, I can't believe how much money I made. You know, I made a few hundred euros.

00;40;27;14 - 00;40;47;00
Unknown
But to me, it just blew my mind. I was like, how is this possible? Right? And then I kind of started coming back and doing like spots throughout, Europe and sometimes trying to organize my little show. But then I saw dragons. Dragons. In 2019, he did 106 shows. And I remember I saw this and I was like, what the fuck am I doing?

00;40;47;06 - 00;41;05;25
Unknown
106 yeah. And I saw him and he started doing, you know, like, trying to use Facebook, like advertising, thinking about shows in a different way, touring to a way a more complex level than I was doing at the time. And I was like, oh, I should be doing this as well, because it's like there's space for everybody.

00;41;05;28 - 00;41;31;06
Unknown
So I it just it was just kind of, a cumulative, this is just a bunch of things happening at the same time. Just kind of pushed me to do this. These were the factors. Yeah, yeah. And since then I've just been doing this for the last five years. And something now. Okay. And something that, I guess the word on the street or even on your profile on your website is that you don't have a home.

00;41;31;10 - 00;41;51;13
Unknown
Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. So you've been. Because I'm on the road like I'm in a different place. It doesn't make sense to have a, home because I'm. Where am I? I'm not in a place for more than a few days, for a year, maybe a week or so. Yeah. I mean, yeah, practically. Yes. But I'm talking about in terms of, like the emotional spiritual, like saying I don't have a home.

00;41;51;13 - 00;42;09;14
Unknown
It's all. But then every bit, well, everywhere else becomes home. Well, how do you make a place home? Because home, you just go there because Berlin feels like home? Because I know how to get here. I know where you, kind of the area where you live. I know where to find good food in the area. I know how to get a public transport.

00;42;09;14 - 00;42;33;13
Unknown
I know how to, you know, find my way around, this place, and I'm learning this amount, over a hundred other cities in Europe. Okay, so because you go to. I know where the train station is, I know where to find good food. I know where to stay. I know where the venue is. You know, after a while, you get to know all these places because, yeah, there's still some cities that you haven't been to yet or some new cities you've been to.

00;42;33;13 - 00;42;57;03
Unknown
Yeah. Of this year. Yeah. So like, how does that work for you going to a new city and like just all the new cities, the new. But then after a while if, if I go there, like I've been coming to Berlin since probably 2016, 2017. Okay. So yeah, I know what the train station is. I, I can walk through Berlin, certain parts of Berlin without a map because I've just been here so many times.

00;42;57;05 - 00;43;17;05
Unknown
Yeah. Wow. But that yeah, that concept of not having a home is so and so actually, but at the same time it seems like the stage is at home. And that's what matters. Absolutely. Yeah. So do you remember like the first couple cities you went to and how that like, felt for you when you started like, you know, venturing out so scary.

00;43;17;05 - 00;43;35;10
Unknown
So because, you know, I know some shows were good, some shows are not good, some shows are just horrible. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to what to expect. I didn't know how to think about things. So it was just a crash course of learning all of these. All of these things.

00;43;35;15 - 00;44;03;26
Unknown
You know, sometimes when we talk about, like, producing the show in a, in a city and, you know, I maybe tell you, hey, don't go to this venue means that I had a horrible, you know, evening and now I know, okay, I've learned not to do this. I've learned not to do that. I've learned how to go here and, you know, so, the first cities were Berlin, Prague, Lisbon, I think Barcelona.

00;44;03;26 - 00;44;35;07
Unknown
Amsterdam. Copenhagen. Wow. Okay. Those are solid places. Yeah, yeah, I like the the the big cities in, in, in, you know, the cities that now have and then had, quite, substantial accommodation, specifically in English. Yeah. At the beginning you go into a spot, you know, and then you go back and then you do a longer response, and then you do more response, and then you go for a few days and then, you know, okay, you kind of started it or like organically and say like, yeah, you know, check it out.

00;44;35;07 - 00;44;57;29
Unknown
Yeah. Like what we're doing now, you're doing the same thing that I'm doing. You know, they're producing along shows all over the place. It was not a thing to do, really. You know what I mean? Nobody was really doing this. So I didn't even consider that this would be a possibility. You know, until you start hearing about, you know, oh, there's a few to there's two guys in Vienna that do this, you know, Jacqueline's and Reggie badass.

00;44;58;01 - 00;45;31;08
Unknown
It's like, oh, they keep going through Europe and they promote, the shows on that, Facebook. And then you hear about Daniel Reinhardt Spalding, which now is just an insane Zionist. I don't know what happened to him. But he was a pioneer at the beginning. There was stories about him, you know, because you start hearing these stories about, oh, there's a guy who does shows, you know, in a few countries, and they go to these places and they post about the show on Facebook, and people find out about it, and he just sells out and, you know, so just kind of developed, you know, I never knew that I was going to get

00;45;31;08 - 00;45;47;21
Unknown
to this place because I never knew that this was a possibility. And I know, I don't know where things are going to go from now on because I don't know. Yeah. Because nobody knows. That's so interesting to hear from you. Because, yeah, you do. You know, some cities that you've gone to that I didn't even know existed?

00;45;47;21 - 00;46;08;19
Unknown
Yeah. Like I mean, what goes through your mind about going to some cities that don't have a scene because you've been. Oh, now it's just about adventure on top of everything, right? It's going to, Fishing village and Iceland. It's. You know what I mean? Let's see what happens there. You know, I did a show in Iceland in, a place called The Sculptor.

00;46;08;22 - 00;46;32;20
Unknown
In a bait shack. A little bit shack? Yeah, yeah, that has, like, a little restaurant attached to it. And they have, like, a room, and they have, you know, like local people. Come in and, you know, sing songs and do all sorts of stuff like that, and we're like, oh, let's do a comedy show. Yeah. But like, how does that conversation even go for you to contact a bait shop to be like, hey, I want is the only venue in town.

00;46;32;20 - 00;46;52;12
Unknown
There's no they don't have a theater. They don't have a comedy club. They don't. It's like, where can I find a place that has a microphone and a like what? Oh, so, man, there's so many. I don't even know how to even answer this question here about, like, yeah, it's for the adventure or like, at what point did your venture start going to these far flung places?

00;46;52;13 - 00;47;10;21
Unknown
I don't know if you want to go. Okay. Yeah. When I, for example, I wanted to do, Iceland and I spoke to, the lady who now is my, tour manager, Holly Bly. Let's do Iceland and let's see if we can do something. And we did, I think, three cities at the beginning. This was probably 40 years ago.

00;47;10;24 - 00;47;27;20
Unknown
And, after that, we were like, oh, we managed to sell tickets. You know, people came to the shows. Let's go back. So a year later, I went back and I did like seven cities in Iceland. Yeah. And I took a car with, my friend Mike rice. I don't know if you met my wife from the UK.

00;47;27;20 - 00;47;45;09
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And we we took a car and we drove around Iceland, and each night we did a show. And then, last year I went with Rado. Rado, also a friend of mine. We did this, and now I'm going back in, but now I'm just doing two cities because, you know, I've done the the whole adventure thing.

00;47;45;09 - 00;48;02;08
Unknown
Now I'm just going there to do, like, the two big cities and, maybe next year I'll do another trip. Wow. So you just man, you just having an adventure in life because. Really? Yeah. Because this is not known in comedy like this. Especially because, you've been doing it like. For what? How many like how many? 13 years.

00;48;02;08 - 00;48;22;13
Unknown
13 years. Right. So there's. Yeah. So, like around this time maybe and again, I'm coming from like an American New York City specifically standpoint about like how this type of like way of doing comedy is so unique. Yeah. And even the way you talk about it, you're like, yeah, for adventure, you know, because usually touring or doing comedy outside of your realm is for career advancement.

00;48;22;15 - 00;48;48;20
Unknown
Yeah. But for you, you're like, hey, I don't care about career advancement. I care about doing shows, getting better at comedy or giving people a good time. But also because I don't live anywhere. I don't have to go back home. So I have a I have free days and I'm like, okay, let's just try a show in Narva in Estonia, which is the city, close to, Russia, where you can see Russia cross a river where 95% of the population speaks exclusively Russian.

00;48;48;22 - 00;49;06;11
Unknown
I'm like, let's go there. Then you did a show there. Yeah, I had like 25 people. I need more, but it's in a place that even Estonians don't go. Oh, you know what I mean. Let's do a show in Uzbekistan. You know what I mean? This is the first show in English in the history of the country. Why not?

00;49;06;14 - 00;49;24;05
Unknown
I did Kazakhstan first show, the first solo show in the history of of the country in English. And then I went back and then I did more show because I loved it. I had such a great experience. You know what's funny is that probably someone who's trying to recreate you, like your system or your model, you're probably like, oh, man, if Viktor did it here, then we should go.

00;49;24;05 - 00;49;41;06
Unknown
You're like, yeah, I just like, fresh fish. I'll go in there. And for them, they're like, oh, so why does only 25 people you like, you don't need more because it's like it's not about, having like a, 300 people every single day. Yeah. I can, get 300 people in Reykjavik, you know what I mean?

00;49;41;09 - 00;50;01;16
Unknown
The capital of, Iceland. But then on the other day, I can go on the island in the south of, you know, where there was an active volcano like 30 years ago. And you can see the lava just stop at certain streets, and then you know what I mean? You do understand that to go to a place where there used to be an active volcano, you can see lava for 25 people.

00;50;01;16 - 00;50;27;04
Unknown
Yeah. It's, but now it's so solid. It's not, you know. Yeah, but, you know, but this is an active volcano that can, you know, you dropped any. Yeah. Anything. Look, I don't want I want to sound hoity toity or a very like, you know, superior here, but to go to an active volcano and if it's one of five people, I'm like, you know, that that takes a different type of, let's just say, a different outlook on life to be like, okay, you know, this is, you know, living life on the edge is laughable.

00;50;27;07 - 00;50;43;12
Unknown
25 people. Yeah. It's, you know, how to here, you know, I mean, like, so that's interesting that warzones, you know what I mean. Yeah. You okay. Let's talk about that. So I seen that you went to Ukraine. Yeah. And it's like yeah, yeah, yeah. You was I saw like some of your videos. You was like in bunkers and slight performance.

00;50;43;12 - 00;51;03;15
Unknown
So thousand people in total, 2000 people in total came to you shows. Yeah. So first of all, amazing. What what led you to go to Ukraine to perform? I went there the first year of the full scale invasion. Because my friend was there like a few months prior, and he told me, like, like the people really need the shows.

00;51;03;16 - 00;51;24;08
Unknown
It's a great thing. And we were like, okay, let's do this for charity. So we just raised the money for, some Ukrainian charities, and we had the experience of going there and actually talking to the people and seeing how it actually is, you know, I mean, yeah, I went to Lebanon. That shows in Lebanon, like a few months ago, same raise money for charity just to kind of see what the life is like and talk to the people there.

00;51;24;11 - 00;51;49;04
Unknown
Yeah. That's the the that's what can be done with comedy. But then if everything is for career advancement and, getting a TV deal, you know, I mean, then that's what you end up doing. Yeah. Because. Yeah, the, the place that you go to also, like, I mean, active war zones and stuff like, I mean, I think that's where it really starts to become like, wow.

00;51;49;05 - 00;52;05;22
Unknown
Like you're doing this for like, you know, not only for your own. Like, yes, you want to make people laugh and stuff, but you also doing it for benefits, like you done things for, help and raising funds for the family in Gaza. Yeah. You know, for, like, the people in Lebanon for, like, you know, Ukraine. So you also have these shows mind, are like.

00;52;05;29 - 00;52;22;29
Unknown
But the people man, the that's the thing you see the humanity in everywhere you go and in the eyes of the people that come to the shows and you see the jokes work on the same thing, and it's it's a human connection, but it's also, for example, I went to Isar Bhaijaan, which is one of the most strangest, like dictatorships in the world.

00;52;23;01 - 00;52;44;17
Unknown
And, I feel like people came to reconfirm their humanity and their place in the world that, you know, even if they live in a bubble, they're still up with, like the news and everything that's happening that hip there, you know, they know that, like this crazy guy that's kind of let's see what he has to say. You know what I mean?

00;52;44;17 - 00;53;04;14
Unknown
And I reconfirmed my humanity by being there and talking to them. These people that, you know, live in this type of environment where they there's no freedom of press. So it's beautiful. It's this beautiful. This is the thing that keeps me on the road is the people that come to the shows. It's beautiful to meet them, to talk to them, to do the show.

00;53;04;15 - 00;53;36;24
Unknown
So yeah that's, that's, that's the reason why I do this. It's the laughing with people that are so interesting and kind and smart and clever and. Yeah, but this is like another could I've been to some of your shows and we talked about it before the podcast. Right. That in your shows, man, you talk about some topics and the way you connect with people or in ways that are like on the edge of, comedy and then like POC has or kind of not commentary, let's just say something that's like of like you connecting with people in a way.

00;53;36;26 - 00;54;00;10
Unknown
And how do you how do you balance that, like between, okay, this is a comedy show. Your comedians, you got stand up, you, your jokes and stuff. But then, you also have this ability to connect with people in the audience and also have a patience to, like, hear these people out. I'm telling you stories. You connecting, you know, and you have this, these two different energies, let me say, of like, comedy and then also connecting with people.

00;54;00;12 - 00;54;24;13
Unknown
How do you manage those two energies in a show? I don't know how to give you what answer to give you, because this is totally unchartered territory. I don't know where this is going. So I'm just exploring some, some new, new things because as we were talking earlier, this is not like any other place that comedy has done before.

00;54;24;19 - 00;54;54;05
Unknown
The audiences are I don't think an on an average audience in Berlin is like, you could find people from such different backgrounds in New York, in L.A., in London, in Melbourne, anyone? But you can find them here, right? And they all speak English as a second language, and they all come from such interesting backgrounds where you can, re again reconfirm the humanity in all of these experiences.

00;54;54;12 - 00;55;29;00
Unknown
This is like we're all figuring out, like, oh, this is just me living in a dictatorship. Oh, this is me dealing with life. You know, when there's not, electricity, it doesn't run 24 hours. Oh, this is me, you know, living in the whatever other environment people come from. Yeah. I wonder if you the amount of traveling you done into the many places you've traveled to and the amount of people spoken in each of these places had an effect on you in a way where you have this, this connection with humanity to where you have to not have to you almost like, feel compelled to talk to people in a way that's like

00;55;29;00 - 00;55;53;07
Unknown
very, you know, deeper than just like, jokes and things. It's just interesting to see that in a show because it's so it's so not done and it's so rich and so interesting. Right? Yeah. Because bro sometimes you shows may inject political. I'm just like yeah this is something I'm in. I'm like whoa Yeah okay. You know, but I mean you, you know but you, you're there and you're not you're not moved.

00;55;53;07 - 00;56;20;18
Unknown
No, no no I'm, I'm saying move. But you're not like, shaken by it because once I realized I'm in the audience, I'm like, bro space, cause I'm doing this every day, and I know that people are, me. Yeah. I mean, I know that the, the, the reason why they might think that the difference for me is because they're thought that they're different, but I believe in their them being humans like me.

00;56;20;20 - 00;56;43;08
Unknown
At the end of the day even if we have these conversation I know that oh you're just you're just believing this because whatever circumstance. But you're you're a human like me. You care for your family. You care for, the people around you. You want to be a decent person. You want to just live in a peace.

00;56;43;10 - 00;57;08;03
Unknown
You know, you want to live with other people, but sometimes there's just all sorts of beliefs, all sorts of concepts, all sorts of ideologies seep into people. And it might make them, make them think that they're special. That is a thing that I've probably noticed from some of the things I watch. And also from your last show about, like this, this, this feeling or thought about, we're all the same.

00;57;08;03 - 00;57;26;17
Unknown
Yeah. And that is not there's not so much differences as we've been taught. Yeah. So that's interesting for me to hear that from you. And how you, you know, your thought process around that. Yeah. So, so, you know, you obviously got a show soon, but, last question I have for you, right? So you've been through many different cultures, man.

00;57;26;18 - 00;58;00;05
Unknown
Like, I mean, you're probably one of, few people that are known that have, have access to so many different cultures. And not only that, but spoken to these people in these cultures, right? You yourself, you also been to different cultures from London to Romania, to New York. All these places, if you go back to your younger self, will be the number one advice you give to yourself or,

00;58;00;07 - 00;58;27;18
Unknown
Maybe jump sooner. Yeah. I feel like I've, I thought that things are supposed to be a certain way, and I was trying to reconstruct how things are supposed to be, do comedy in a way that I thought was supposed to be done. Build a life that I was supposed to, I thought that I was supposed to have or like or, I think.

00;58;27;20 - 00;58;54;15
Unknown
Yeah. Just jump and see what happens. Just like I'm some. That's the the connection with you. You've made the same, same thing. Yeah. Trust people more. I don't think people are as bad. What? As mean as we might think sometimes because of our, previous, experiences. English. Learn English. I think this is learning English.

00;58;54;16 - 00;59;17;19
Unknown
This is the best advice that I could give any young person learning English. Learning a third language, a first language. This is going to open your mind. And you can talk to the people that you can. You hear, you know, sometimes you hear people on public transport speaking in a different language. You're like, what are you saying? Why are you you know, I mean, sometimes you're in an international, group of people, everybody speaking English, and then someone switches.

00;59;17;21 - 00;59;37;15
Unknown
I'm like, oh, you know what I mean? It makes you feel removed and like, why are they speaking in a different language? You know, I mean, they're probably talking about you, but, you know. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's the feeling all the time are you're like, oh, this switch because I'm here. And yeah, but just knowing other languages, it's just opened so many doors to, information, to people, to anything.

00;59;37;15 - 01;00;00;06
Unknown
It's. Yeah. Nice. I mean, that's good practical advice. Jump in English, you know? Yeah. Just kind of, you know, just live. Your life is not supposed to be lived in one way. There's no correct way to live as long as you're not harming people. Just do whatever you want and say, bro, you definitely doing it right? And I look at you, you know, as well, right?

01;00;00;07 - 01;00;19;03
Unknown
I mean, like, this is this is the thing. I'm not doing something, extraordinary. I'm just, a part of, you know, comedy. I mean, bro, you did comedy in a bait shop in the middle of nowhere Iceland. That is, that is different. Yeah, that is different. That just the confidence to do that. Yeah. Is very.

01;00;19;03 - 01;00;37;10
Unknown
But this is the thing, if you look at it as, oh, it's a bait shop and the, the part of Iceland that's least inhabited, then it seems like something exciting. But the show that we're going to do together tonight, it's also in a room with a light and a microphone. They're all rooms with lights, a microphone, that's all it is.

01;00;37;10 - 01;01;00;20
Unknown
A whole bunch of beer, not bait. Everything. And the Madison Square Garden, it's also a room with the, like, a, like the microphone if you look. Because this is the thing I was looking at. Things are like venues, right? But then you start doing the the circuit, the comedy circuit in the UK and US, and you end up, oh, this is a comedy club because online is just like the whatever Village comedy club, come to the comedy club and you go there.

01;01;00;20 - 01;01;17;25
Unknown
Oh, it's in a room upstairs in the pub. Yeah, the camera angles and everything. They really do a good job of making it seem so big. Yeah, you just the room with the lights and chairs and the microphone. You know what? That's actually good advice there too. And it's off there to look at things as is. What it is, is a microphone.

01;01;17;25 - 01;01;39;27
Unknown
The stage. And you just they're having jokes and connecting with people. Absolutely. And this is the thing because it's, it's removed by, middle people, middle men to make themselves seem important and necessary. Right. They go like, oh, what have you thought about marketing? Just like, what's your unique selling point? You know what I mean?

01;01;39;27 - 01;02;03;08
Unknown
Yeah. All of this bullshit. You know what I mean? But do you have the credits? I'm like, what the fuck is this all about? Nobody cares about all of these things. Yeah, right. People care about a human thing. Comedy is. It's an extreme version of just talking. Right? You see someone talking because they have the microphone and they've prepared.

01;02;03;11 - 01;02;24;18
Unknown
Right? All right. But when you meet with your family, don't people tell jokes that people are not trying to make each other laugh at people who are trying to tell stories and share? It's the same. I mean, true, that's my roommates. Yeah. That's true. I mean, that's that's certainly true. Every time I talk to somebody that has done that does comedy to like the level you're doing, it just always challenges my brain.

01;02;24;21 - 01;02;40;19
Unknown
Well, yeah, I mean, definitely does, because I I'll say my brain is now far removed out from New York City a bit, but still has these remnants of, like, these things like, you know, credits and middlemen and all this, like that. So it's always dope to hear. Yes. You're part of it. Your reasoning about why doesn't matter as much, especially here.

01;02;40;22 - 01;03;10;06
Unknown
Because then it gives hope to people to go out and do it. Now, of course, they got some other things such as, you know, social media marketing or other, funny stuff. But this is the thing. It's there is no Picasso of advertising. And I mean, it's like it's not an art, it's a skill. It's just letting it's it's basically if you think about all of the people in your life that you know, or that you grew up with that now do marketing and advertising that are the stupidest kids in class, I couldn't do anything else.

01;03;10;12 - 01;03;30;07
Unknown
Oh, yeah. They just because a small few smart ones don't. Yeah. But yeah, you know, this is the real smart ones. They become, you know, actual, you know, doctors, engineers, you know, like agents, you know. Agents. Yeah. Agents. Yeah. I mean, look, I know there's a lot of agent managers out there that are not. Yeah, but the ones that are.

01;03;30;09 - 01;03;42;26
Unknown
Yeah. You know what? And what do the agents get you? They get you a room with chairs, a light and a microphone. Well, I me agents out here, I don't know how they work out here. Yeah. You know, it seems like. And. Oh, you don't need one in. Yeah. In the United States. What they get you?

01;03;42;29 - 01;03;58;16
Unknown
An agent makes you feel good. Yeah. You know, you get to, you know, use that. Well, something like, who's your agent? Yeah. Anybody? This is my agent. You know him? Oh, yeah, I know him. You like? Yeah, that's my credit. Yeah. Credit is the agent that I have. Yeah, that represents me. So, like, having, like, a good pair of shoes.

01;03;58;18 - 01;04;19;06
Unknown
Yeah. I'm like, what shoes are those. Oh they're like well Nike they're people. So you know, they have nice shoes. Yeah. But you know, they, they may cause. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they make calls on a nice new iPhone. Yeah. You know, but this is the thing I like doing something that me and you can't do. We can call a guy.

01;04;19;13 - 01;04;35;14
Unknown
True. I mean, we can call a guy and go like, hey, is your venue free on that date? Cool. Can you leave it the, you know, open for me? Well, yeah, I'll come and bring, you know, 50, 70 people. Oh, well, you know what I mean. Look at you, Mr. Big Show. You, you know, 50, 70 people. That's what they know.

01;04;35;19 - 01;04;59;17
Unknown
But that's all you need. Yeah, right. You don't actually, you don't need more than 100 people. That's enough, make enough money. Enough. Everything. Just, 80 to 100 people. The perfect size room. It's a perfect size crowd. As you enough. This is the thing. It's enough. Okay. It's, 1111 more question. This is the last one.

01;04;59;17 - 01;05;26;04
Unknown
We have to go soon. What are the top three tips you can give to someone that would like to start doing comedy in Europe and like do tour. I wouldn't, I don't know, like just general things. I don't know if that comes to mind for any of the people that are comedians or entertainers that would like to start going to different places and do their own show.

01;05;26;06 - 01;05;52;10
Unknown
I don't know. Top three things. I don't even know where to start. It's a very complex oh, I come to Miami Cliffs. A lot of, a lot of things take into consideration top ticket. So can you, going back then? Yeah. So, the scenario is that, say there's a let's go with comedian is just pocket a comedian wants to do a show in a different country or a different city.

01;05;52;10 - 01;06;13;25
Unknown
Let's just say they want to do it in, Poland. Yeah. Or something. And of of something. Love. What's not love versus love? Yes. Okay. Wow. That place, And they want to do a show there. Yeah. What are some of the top three tips or tips that you can give to that person to do a show and say, that place in Poland.

01;06;13;27 - 01;06;34;14
Unknown
Okay. First of all, find a venue, that will, have your show make sure that you, you booked that, don't, agree to high rent. A lot of people are trying to screw comedians with, like, 5050. You know, like I keep 50. You give. That's just, you know, daylight robbery. Start a company.

01;06;34;17 - 01;06;57;14
Unknown
You, to sell the tickets through, sell the tickets yourself. Don't leave it to other people. Learn how to do to promote your own show. Use the videos that you already have on your social media that are going viral. They're proven that they work and people respond positively to to them. So the videos that organically go viral use them as promotion.

01;06;57;16 - 01;07;24;20
Unknown
Figure out, simple, title for the show at the beginning. People don't come for the comedian to come for the show. Try to figure out a clear way to tell people what type of mood the show is, what type of comedy you're going to do, and make it very clear that it's in English, try to get local comedians to exchange experiences to kind of meet, people from the local scene.

01;07;24;23 - 01;07;40;00
Unknown
And I think that's, that's in. No, that's good. That's good advice, man. Yeah. Some people don't know. So that's good advice, you know. But this is this is what can be done. But yeah, just, getting a company doing everything, you know, by, by the book. So you know what I mean. You don't have, like, tax issues.

01;07;40;00 - 01;07;59;22
Unknown
Make sure that the country you're going to, is it's okay for you to organize your show. So by itself, some countries have all sorts of odd rules. And when it comes to think it's selling and, but if you do everything legally through, a company, it should be, fine. Try not to book one show.

01;07;59;22 - 01;08;33;05
Unknown
So you, have expensive like, thing travel where you fly in and fly out of a city. Right? Try to, organize a little tour where you can take, like, busses and trains from one place to the next. Yeah. So if you go to Wroclaw, go to, would go to Poznan, go to Krakow, go to Warsaw, go to task stretching, then go through Slovakia, Czech Republic, go through Berlin, you know, and put things like close to each other where you can take a train.

01;08;33;12 - 01;08;51;17
Unknown
And then the next day you have another show. In another show, book small rooms at the beginning. You know what I mean? With 50 people in the room, you make enough to cover your cost. Accommodation, promotion and other things. Yeah. Nice, bro. That's a very that's very helpful information telling me for the people here, but for me too as well.

01;08;51;24 - 01;09;12;28
Unknown
Graphics that it looks professional so that people see that, oh, there's effort and intent in the way that the show looks. Yeah. You know, but make sure that it's very clear that the show is in English, because, local comedians will also do standup comedy in Polish, but they call it standup comedy. So how do people know that it's in English?

01;09;13;04 - 01;09;30;16
Unknown
Because it's very niche. You know, in a country that does not speak English, as a national language, you know, they need to know exactly that. It's in English. It's very important detail. Yeah. That's it. All right. Cool. Well bro thank you very much for doing this is a very good talk as usual. Thank you very much.

01;09;30;16 - 01;09;58;02
Unknown
Yeah I'm, I'm fascinated with what you're doing. I think you're doing a great, thing. I am a fan. I am obsessed with your, with your obsession of minutia and the little detail. I'm, of big fan of the videos that you make, like you're fascinated with everything, and I'm like, there's just something so genuine about, like, man in Berlin, they have trees, you know, new York, you don't have trees.

01;09;58;02 - 01;10;17;27
Unknown
If they do have trees, they're just guys want to stab you. But in Berlin, man, the trees and the leaves, sometimes they they float the leaves and they fall on your head, and it's so nice. They make, like, a crunching sound. And then you see, like a squirrel man in New York that stab you. The squirrel just come in and just Shanggu in the in the ribs.

01;10;17;29 - 01;10;38;18
Unknown
But Berlin man with fire that's you know, that's funny because a brain as a laugh. I was working my heart. Any difference? This. Yeah. The squirrels. The squirrels, man. Oh, shit. That is hilarious. Well, look, I'm glad we didn't do that in this podcast. I could have gone deep into like. Yeah, I'm very nuanced. Yeah, I like to specific this stuff.

01;10;38;18 - 01;10;56;20
Unknown
That's fantastic. Do your thing. I'm very happy that, things are going well. You're doing a great job. Oh, and, all the best, man, bro. That means a lot, man. Thank you very, very much. And, I make sure to do a video about the squirrels. Thank you for that idea. All right. Guys, thank you for listening or watching the Third Quarter Talk podcast.

01;10;56;20 - 01;11;09;24
Unknown
I'm your boy, Nya Yeanafehn. This is Victor Pãtrãşcan . Pãtrãşcan. Pãtrãşcan. There you go. I want make sure I said it correctly, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace. There you go. Perfect. My man. That was very good, man. Thank you very much.