Bear Hunting in Canada, Never Been on a Dating App, and Finding Freedom Through Comedy w/ Alison Lujan | Ep 100

🎉 Episode 100! Thank you to everyone who has been rocking with us so far!

In this episode I sit with Alison Lujan, a Canadian comedian visiting Berlin. We talk about her growing up and life in Canada. 

From hunting bears to chopping wood and more. We also talk about how she has never been on a dating app. How she is still out in the world meeting people the old fashioned way. And Alison shares how stand up comedy set her free from caring what people think.

Alison's Socials
Instagram | Tiktok

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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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Email: nya@nyamean.com

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Music: "Chill Day" by Lakey Inspired

Transcript

— Intro & Berlin street treasure

Speaker 0:00

I had uh had my own chainsaw, loved chopping wood, loved the chores, but we hunted bear and this okay. And we hunt black bears. Just a different landscape now. I've never been on a dating app, so I'm still like out in the world smiling at people.

Speaker 6 0:19

Welcome to the third culture talk podcast. I'm your host, Nya Yenefehn. 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 into today's episode.

Speaker 0:38

Box of wigs and costumes, and you should let people put on a funny getup if they so desire. I should come in.

Speaker 6 0:47

You know, but that's a that's a different uh production value in terms of getting those type of props. You know, I feel like then you gotta commit to it. It does start exposing a little bit of your personality, maybe your subconscious, one would say.

Speaker 0:58

Uh yeah, yeah, I would absolutely get costumes involved. There's so much fun stuff on the street to pick up. You could have I'm I'm finding all kinds of treasure on the street in Berlin. You could definitely find sunglasses, wigs, thongs, condoms, toys. I I've turned into a real raccoon here. Because I walk around for hours every day and uh people leave all kinds of treasure out on the street.

Speaker 6 1:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1:26

Have you ever picked anything up off the street?

Speaker 6 1:28

Uh nah, mom. I still have uh ego uh from the United States. So if I look like I'm picking something from off the ground in the street, I feel homeless. Or I feel like not homeless. Let me, you know, I know it's on house, on house. There you go. See, I've been on social media, I pay attention. I feel a certain type of way. I feel like, hey, whatever I'm doing, I must really need this to be picking it off the street. But clearly I need to uh undo my mind and the teachings of uh late-stage capitalism.

Speaker 1:57

So how is your American-ness uh showed up here in a way that's that you feel is out of step with European culture? Because you're you're terrified of saunas.

— American-ness in Europe

Speaker 6 2:06

Yes, that is so but yeah, terror, yeah, uh random naked bodies that I have not consented to wanting to see. So I still believe in consent of seeing naked body, right? Uh second is that uh paranoia is that the paranoia I didn't realize how deep it was until other people observe how I naturally interact with the environment. So some people would be like, whoa, or is everything okay? I'm like, no, no, fine. They're but yeah, you kind of seem kind of a little tense. And I realized, like, oh, I'm in a new place, I don't know anybody in here. So I'm like sizing people up. I'm like, who's that? Who's there? Let me see what the exits are, this and that, all that stuff. So that's like naturally happening.

Speaker 2:42

Like the exits of a supermarket and a bar?

Speaker 6 2:46

And like if something go down, I'm like, all right, so where I can where can I run to, you know? Because like, you know, I've been in a situation where it's like, all right, you need to know where that exit is because something may go down and you might have to. So that holy shit.

Speaker 2:59

Did you used to be a navy SEAL or something?

Speaker 6 3:01

Navy SEAL. Nah, I used to grow up in an environment where digits had guns and uh in you know enclosed spaces. So you just wanted to know if something went down, where to go.

Speaker 3:12

So you're always surveying the landscape.

Speaker 6 3:15

Always.

Speaker 3:16

Do you are you still doing that here? Yes. Really? I did it today. Where did you where did you survey? Where did you feel paranoid today?

Speaker 6 3:22

Where oh, look at that. You feel like okay, it's that it's like therapy. Well, you're a cool therapist. I'm a cool therapist. Well, yeah, you got the hat and everything. Yeah, you're my Berlin therapist. Oh my god. Wow, look at that. I got myself a Berlin therapist. But I where was uh today? Hmm, maybe it was actually sitting right here at my table, right? Is that I heard like a yellow like a yelling, and it's like and I'm just kind of like, what's going on? And then there's two guys that were happily dancing in front of each other, and they both was holding cigarettes, and they were just kind of like dancing, and it was like laughing, like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I was like, and it was like an 8 a.m. So I'm like, at first I heard yelling, I'm like, oh, is a fight happening? What's going on? More curiosity and paranoia, but it was just two dudes dancing with cigarettes in their hands, and they were just kind of like doing a particular dance from the part of the world I couldn't identify, and I was just like, huh, Berlin.

Speaker 4:14

Okay, so because it's in Germany, it sounds more threatening. It's unknown, right?

Speaker 6 4:20

Yeah, like if I'm in a particular part of uh if I'm in, like say where I last lived in New York City, and I heard a sound of black, all right, like I know what's about to happen. Either somebody fighting, somebody arguing, somebody cheated, something like that, right? Uh, but here I'm I don't know. So it's just like, you know, that yelling, I thought somebody was about to get into a fight, not knowing that's like the sound of happiness or the beginning of it in cigarettes.

Speaker 4:44

And cigarettes.

Speaker 6 4:45

Yeah, without the cigarettes, it would have been a problem.

Speaker 4:48

But two cigarettes if they're smoking together, you know, it's it's still somewhat platonic.

Speaker 6 4:53

Yeah, no street fight's gonna happen when two dudes are holding a cigarette dancing in front of each other.

Speaker 4:57

Yeah, it's amicable. That's the word I was looking for. Yeah, I was trying to decipher what was happening on a uh on the train on the way here today with uh an older Turkish woman who was pushing a pram and ran over another Turkish lady's foot. And then they start the one lady, I was like, okay, this lady's clearly pissed, and they're going back and forth, and and then she went around to the front of the pram and then was leaning on the handle, and then they were just chatting, and then I was like, Are they together? Like I it morphed from this is an altercation, they were right beside me too, and I was doing the full I was I was glancing and I was like, something's gonna go down. She had the headscarf on and everything. I was like, she's bullying this old lady, and then she walked around and and was just leaning on the pram, and and they were just chatting like they're having a catch-up, and I was like, I don't understand what's going on here. I thought I could uh figure out what was happening because of the tone, but the tone is all different everywhere you go.

Speaker 3 5:58

Right.

Speaker 6 5:58

So you don't know what they could have been talking about like I don't know, making their own making bread after rolling over someone's foot and you know, rah, you know, right?

Speaker 6:10

Yeah, I I'm learning I'm learning a lot here, and I got real lazy with learning German. As soon as I got here, I was like, I got a babble subscription, I'm making notes every day. And you just start talking to somebody in English, and you can just manually change the language setting on the people here. And I was like, I wasted $165 on a babble subscription.

Speaker 3 6:33

Wow.

Speaker 6:34

And everyone's everyone speaks way better English than I will ever speak German. So I'm like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna focus on English. I gotta do stand-up in English, I gotta write every day. I can't be trying to get better at English stand-up and then just learn another language for the the fun of it.

Speaker 6 6:53

And it's your first time in Germany, you did all this to prepare.

Speaker 6:57

Uh yeah, I mean the the German lessons, the self-directed German lessons lasted about, I think I had a four-day streak on Babbel. And then I was like, and I was like, I don't know. People have come up to me that there's a guy that came up to me at the train station who was so high on drugs that his nose was running in through his mustache into his mouth, yeah, and he didn't notice, and came over, and I was like, uh, this happens to me all the time because like my face is Canadian, so people are just like, she's approachable.

Speaker 3 7:29

Your face is Canadian.

— The drug addict who spoke better English than her

Speaker 7:30

He's he started talking to me about how he wanted to say so many things to me, but words would be insufficient and it would take so much time to convey what he truly wanted to express. And he was so eloquent and well spoken, completely gacked out of his mind, that I was like, I I'm never gonna speak German the way that this tweaker speaks English. I mean, was he presentable enough to where it caught you off guard, or was it kind of like because I mean I'm too friendly to ever tell anybody to fuck off. So we talked for at least 10 minutes. You talk for 10 minutes to this dude after what?

Speaker 6 8:11

Yo, you Canadian is tell that is 10 minutes is egregious.

Speaker 8:16

And I'm a comic too, so I'm yes anding him. I was like, well then how how would we communicate if we I was improving with really really so high.

Speaker 6 8:25

You were yes ending a dude that has snot connected from his nose to the top upper lip with a mustache? That's a lot of snot too, by the way. Go cutting through the mustache.

Speaker 8:34

It's been a long winter in Berlin. I'm lonely. I'm lonely.

Speaker 6 8:37

I mean, hey, I didn't want to jump to that conclusion, but I mean, 10 minutes, you gotta start making some assumptions.

Speaker 5 8:44

But hey, at least you're yes ending life wherever it comes, right?

Speaker 8:48

I do. Uh it it did catch me off guard here how little people look at each other and talk to each other. And so if I there are some days, this is a very like lynchi in existence where you spend all day alone not talking to anybody, and then you get on a stage and you just talk at a crowd of people, and they don't talk back to you. You're like, shh, no, it's my turn now, and then you get off stage and you go back to not interacting with anyone. Yeah, do you find that sometimes? Oh, yeah, where you're like, This is too much about me, right?

Speaker 6 9:24

I mean, sometimes I get that, but what will happen is that off stage somebody be like, oh yeah, I really like that one bit, I'll read like that thing you said, having long deep conversations, and you're like, hold on. So, all right, you weren't interacting. I thought you didn't really was feeling what I was saying, but clearly you are because you're talking to me after for a while.

Speaker 9:39

But then they're talking to you about you. Yeah, it's so weird.

Speaker 6 9:42

It's like, hold on, so you really give a fuck about me, but not in the moment where I'm doing the thing that I want you to give the most a fuck about.

Speaker 9:49

Do you or do you feel like an introverted or extroverted person when you get off stage? Do you like to chat to other people?

Speaker 6 9:55

Oh, good question. I am extroverted, I but I I do like introvert, I like being introverted, but I I I am an extroverted person. So like I'm one of these crazy people that off stage I'll go talk to people, you know, then I'll go hang out after we're talking, this and that, food, you know. So yeah, I can go as long.

Speaker 10:13

You like a hang?

Speaker 6 10:14

I do, I do.

Speaker 10:15

I love a hang. You do after the show? Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 6 10:19

Have you found people here hung out a lot or no?

Speaker 10:21

I've had I've had a couple of good hangs where because usually everyone is rushing off to another show or they just want to go home because they have day jobs.

Speaker 3 10:31

And losers.

Speaker 10:33

Uh I've had a when people actually just stay after the show, even just for a couple minutes and hang out. It's great because everyone's in the post-show glow, and it the oh man. Yeah, it feels so good to be done. I love being done. Of course. Getting off stage is my favorite part about comedy. Yeah, right. It's it's just oh my god, being done.

Speaker 6 10:56

Let's wrap this up. Five minute set. Oh my god. Quickest way to get to where I want to go.

Speaker 11:07

That's the moment I live for.

Speaker 6 11:09

Will this set connect with all these uh people in the audience that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about? Let's see what's gonna happen. Will they even get my existence? Nonetheless, what I'm saying?

— Stand up in Canada vs Berlin

Speaker 11:19

Yeah, I I I love a chat after a show with the comics or or the audience members. It's so diverse here in Berlin. Like where I was doing stand-up in Canada, it's middle, slightly middle, lower class white comedians in hoodies talking about how they can't buy a house. And it it's very much it's super homogenized, the perspectives. Like uh as a female comic, there it's like three of us would go on stage and talk about spin class or hiking, and it the everyone's living the same life, so you everyone kind of ends up with the same material, and it's just it's just not as interesting uh when you come from kind of a small town where it's here in Berlin, every night is just the United Nations on stage, everyone is from a different country, everyone speaks multiple languages. When I came here, I was like, I was like, ooh, I'm gonna be like exotic. I like I have two passports, I have two passports, Canadian and American. And then they're like, oh, cool. So uh you're from Canada, you speak French. And I was like, nah. Yeah, and they're like, oh, you're uh American family's from California, and your last name is Spanish, and you speak Spanish, and now and I'm like, fuck, I have a boring white lady in Berlin. Everyone else is so much more interesting than me.

Speaker 6 12:41

Look at that, Berlin has reduced you to just a normal white lady. Oh, what are the odds? Hold on, so you left you. Your last name is Spanish?

Speaker 12:48

Yes, Luhan. With a J. Oh, with the J that sounds like an H. Ah, look at that. Oh I I speak Spanish. Uh but my mom was born here in Germany and I don't speak German either. It's a damn it's a damn shame. Hold on, what? Yeah, my mom was born in Germany uh in Münchengladbach. I feel like every time I say something in German, I get possessed by the devil. But they left when she was eight months old. It was like in 1956. I think the vibes were pretty bad at that time. Yeah, yeah. The vibes were off. Yeah, 10 years after some things happened. So they went to Canada and everyone's like, let's just chill on being German.

Speaker 6 13:35

So no German spoken in the household, nothing.

Speaker 13:37

Just at home, and then they just tried to kind of assimilate into Canadian-ness, which is that is the Canadian way. You come over to Canada and people just completely lose their their language and culture and history. Wow.

Speaker 6 13:51

Yeah, homogeneous, huh? Forced homogeneity.

Speaker 13:55

No, I think I think at the time, yeah, voluntary. Uh but that's that's like everybody there. What you know, what blend of white are you? Um unless you're in Vancouver.

Speaker 6 14:09

Vancouver has more uh diverse, right?

Speaker 14:12

Uh yeah, a lot of Chinese, Indian more, yeah, not not a lot of white people left in Vancouver, and that's probably the best thing for Vancouver. But have you been have you been to Canada?

Speaker 6 14:25

I only been to Toronto, and I was there for was it ahead of uh that that uh festival? So then the um JFL? No, not the JFL Festival, it's the other one, the one uh Caribbean. Uh yeah, it's the Caribbean festival or something like that. Where like I think for a couple days. So yeah, that's the only time I went there. Drove from Jersey all the way up there through Niagara Falls, everything. And then I went to that festival, and that was a that was a good time. Yeah, that was a very good time. But other than that, Toronto, yeah, I was there and very quiet, very nice.

Speaker 14:56

Nice and quiet.

Speaker 6 14:57

Yeah, that's the first time I encountered like a very nice place, all like a whole city that's just nice. Where like you ask, I don't know, there's something random where me and my friend was talking about the free healthcare shit or something like that, you know, and then one lady just stopped and and just entered our conversation to correct us or to give us better context about this healthcare and who pays into it. And we're just like, yo, it's mad nice. What the fuck? She could have just left us alone, but like, yo, these dumbasses, what the fuck are they talking about? But she was like, No, no, actually, we pay with our tax dollars and it's a certain percentage, and then after a certain threshold, I'm like, what?

Speaker 15:29

Just very politely dropping knowledge on you.

Speaker 6 15:31

Yeah, I was like, okay, this is very different out here, you know, didn't have no mustache, no drippy nose.

Speaker 15:37

I mean, you know, and uh what what other impression did you get f of Canada while you were there?

Speaker 6 15:45

Ooh, other impression that's very outdoorsy, right? I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 15:50

Even Toronto people gave you the impression of being outdoorsy.

Speaker 6 15:53

Nah, well, I guess maybe the impression before I got there, I was thinking like, okay, outdoorsy, um, just I ain't gonna lie, probably nothing, which is which I feel like that's a I feel messed up. I feel messed up for even saying that. Because at least like you have like some thoughts about a place like, oh, Germany is gonna be like this. It's gonna be some bread, sausage, it's gonna be some sauerkraut. Toronto, I was like, it's a place that has good health care and you know, no guns that I heard about, and there's a festival that I'm going to, and you know, and trees and hiking, and maybe some off-brand of Patagonia.

Speaker 16:26

Other than that, I don't know. Did you incur an injury while you were there just to test out the healthcare?

Speaker 6 16:32

Hell hell nah. Yeah, because it look, I I I heard about it, but I ain't really, you know, I ain't what I ain't know how it's gonna work. I ain't know it was gonna translate. You know what I mean? I'm like, I'm in these people's country. I don't know what they're gonna, they're gonna be like, hey, that's your fault. You you know, you should have known where to walk. I don't know. I did not try anything. I was like, hey, look, I yeah, don't even use the use uh what's the Canadian dollar?

Speaker 16:53

The Canadian dollar.

Speaker 6 16:54

That was something why I had to get used to, being like, ah shit, my money doesn't work here. You know, that's stupid, you know, US coming out like, yo, y'all got different money. What the fuck? I thought y'all right here. Why y'all using that money for? You know, and they're like, Yeah, because we have our own fucking uh system here.

Speaker 17:08

Yeah, you can use American money in Canada, though. I guess you can, but like lots of places will take it, but they're like, we'll take it straight across. We're not gonna like convert it.

Speaker 6 17:18

Yeah, yeah. So you kind of have to like play that game.

Speaker 17:21

So although I'm not sure how that is now, uh if they're I mean after what's going on now, they're like, hey, keep your money. Yeah.

Speaker 6 17:29

I keep the change, no, you change first before I take your change.

Speaker 17:32

And I think the cross the border tourism is down like 70%.

Speaker 6 17:37

Really? 70?

Speaker 17:38

I mean, I just made that up, so it could be completely wrong.

Speaker 6 17:41

But yeah, I mean you got sunglasses, so whatever you wanted to be.

Speaker 17:44

You know what? Behind these shades, I have access to all the knowledge.

Speaker 6 17:49

Um wow, so okay, well, let's let's let's let's you know let's let's circle back here because I know you, you know, you right now you're too cool for some of the setup questions here.

Speaker 17:58

The sun, the sun is moving to the right. I'd I thought it was gonna move this way behind the curtain, and it's coming all the way across the window, which is great because it means I have more time than I thought with these shades on.

Speaker 6 18:09

Wow, you really know about the nature to just already know where the sun is. For you to even have that internal tracking of where the sun's gonna go. For me, I didn't give a fuck about like I'm not facing this. I'm like, hey, but it's daytime, whatever, it's not evening yet. You know, that's as far as I go.

Speaker 18:24

I know about nature. The sun moves throughout the day.

Speaker 6 18:28

Yeah, but you knew where. For me, I could look at the sun, I'm like, huh, where's it gonna move again? I'm like watching it move. I'm like, is this north? Is this east?

Speaker 18:35

I had to guess, I'd say it's 3.20 p.m.

Speaker 6 18:40

Jesus. No, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, no. You looked at the screen, didn't you? No? What time is it? It's 3 20.

unknown 18:45

There you go.

Speaker 6 18:47

You that was not real.

Speaker 18:49

No, for sure. Are you serious? Dude, I used to live in the forest in Canada. There's not much to do out there except stare at the sky and the trees, and uh I'm good, I'm good with the time of day and the sun, and I'm good with judging uh distance, like I can find perfect level with my eyes. Other than that, um, I don't have I don't bring a lot to the table, but I could tell you what time of day it is by looking at the sun.

Speaker 6 19:17

You know what you can do there, you'll uh hopefully keep us alive to get to a table. I mean, for you to know where the sun is going in the direction. If I looked at the sun now, I'm like in an empty wilderness. I'm like, ah, well, you know, if I get some phone reception, I don't know.

Speaker 19:32

Have you spent time in the wilderness? Have you camped?

Speaker 6 19:35

I have a little bit. Not glamping, because it wasn't glorious. It was just a we just happened to be around a lot of trees, and that was camping.

Speaker 19:41

Um, do you think glamping is glorious camping?

Speaker 6 19:44

That's what that's what it is, right? Glorious camping, glamping.

Speaker 19:48

No, glamping is glamorous camping. Yeah, that's it. But I like glorious better.

Speaker 6 19:52

Glorious. Oh, shit. What did I say? Hold on. I said glorious.

Speaker 19:56

You said glorious camping, but it's it's glamorous camping.

Speaker 6 19:58

Oh, that's a Freudian slip. All right. I don't know which one is different, which one's more.

Speaker 20:04

Glorious camping, uh, I think I'm gonna, I'm always gonna think of it that way. Glorious now. Why not think? Well, can't I think camping is always glorious. Your nature is you're I know you've been in a Did you like it? Is the question.

Speaker 6 20:17

I'm one of these people where I if again back to paranoia, if something goes down, I want to be able to live off the you know the earth and stuff like that. So I like I have that type of like connection where I'm like, oh man, you know, okay, cool. I know how to dig a hole if I gotta use the bathroom or you know, I know how to start a fire or something like that. You know what I mean? These type of basic things that you need to know.

Speaker 20:36

Do you know how to start a fire?

Speaker 6 20:37

Uh yeah.

Speaker 20:38

I saw you feel like you could.

Speaker 6 20:40

I saw a couple of reruns on Discovery Channel about uh how somebody, you know, bear bear grills or whatever the fuck, you know. Okay, so in theory, in theory, I in terms of me trying, I you know, I I had stuff to do, you know. I already had something on the stove, so why try to do all that? I know I'll light a match.

Speaker 20:57

That's a good start. You do need to know how to do that. I mean, that's important you're not gonna get farther than that with lighting a fire, right?

Speaker 6 21:03

Especially when you try to strike it a few times, you get frustrated. So you're like, all right, how do you gotta do it? You gotta scrub it a couple times to the side to eat for it to really because some people try once and then throw it away, but they throw a whole entire box away. They're like, Oh my god, these matches, they gave me uh defect matches. And you're like, no, no, you gotta, you know, you gotta know how to get the angle right of the flint on top of the stick, and just like you know, not too rough, not to you know, you gotta get gentle, you gotta take your time, you gotta warm it up a little bit, you know. You'd be like, Oh yeah, you like that? And then boom, up.

Speaker 21:30

Yeah, you're speaking my language now. Yeah, this is like dirty talk to a Canadian.

Speaker 6 21:34

There you go. It's the this is turning to a comedy podcast real quick.

Speaker 21:41

Uh oh man, like building a good fire is so satisfying. Getting a good split on a round of wood. I miss that.

Speaker 6 21:50

Somebody's gonna watch this podcast and be like, wow, they need to tone this down. All right, they're talking about dude.

Speaker 21:56

I'm nasty with a seven pound split. Litting mall, look out. Can't touch me.

Speaker 6 22:04

Okay, so um I'm always fascinated by people that live in the wilderness and they're still alive to tell the tale. So you're from Canada, you used to live in a forest. Sorry, used to what what I say live in a forest.

Speaker 22:19

Is that technically Yeah, I lived rurally.

Speaker 6 22:22

You live rurally, okay.

— Living off grid in rural Canada

Speaker 22:23

Rural Canada. I would say I was a 25-minute drive from the closest town. So I'm not like on the show alone or life below zero, where people are like, have you seen that show, Life Below Zero? No. They're up in Alaska, and it's just some war vet that's like, I just do better on my own. And they're like, oh, they don't have human contact for like seven months out of the year. And everyone agrees.

Speaker 6 22:49

They're like, yeah, we agree.

Speaker 22:50

And everyone's like, that's better for all of us. Um, yeah, it wasn't quite like that. And I would say uh because the property that we lived on, the house that was on it, it was very modern. I would say it was the the glamping version of off-grid living. Oh nice. So we had a well. Uh so the water gets pumped from the well. All the only heat in the house is wood, so you gotta chop the trees down and chop the wood. You know how to chop wood? Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 23:18

Oh shit.

Speaker 23:18

Yeah, I had I had my own chainsaw. Wait. I almost brought it with me to Berlin, and then I was like, only the necessary.

Speaker 6 23:26

Yeah, but you know, a TSA and then they're bullshit, right?

Speaker 23:29

It was so cute though it had a 12-inch bar on it, and it could just fit in. You could I could wield it one-handed if you wanted to like cut branches off. Oh man, love running a chainsaw, and then I have your my own little file and you file all the teeth on it.

Speaker 6 23:45

You uh hold on, you you hold on.

Speaker 23:48

Do you think you would be talking about chainsaw maintenance? Not at all.

Speaker 6 23:51

I thought I was gonna be talking about trees and you probably seen a weird squirrel or something like that that we never seen before, not knowing that you fucking was uh an actual chainsaw wielder.

Speaker 24:01

Yeah, I had uh had my own chainsaw, love chopping wood, love the chores, but uh it's it's there's like a chunk of my day missing now that I live in Berlin and everything is just at the flip of a switch. So my mornings are like I used to get up so early in Canada. In the winter, it'd be at least two hours of chores in the morning, like snow blowing the driveway, getting wood in, lighting a fire. Um, you have to charge the batteries for the house. So in the winter, there's not enough sun hitting the solar panels, so you have to run a generator to charge the batteries, and so there's all this like machinery happening and snow clearing and wood chopping, and and then you're like, okay, cool, now everything's up and running. Now I can make coffee and go about my day. And uh, yeah, so in the middle of winter, that's like if you're by yourself, it can be like two and a half hours of chores in the morning.

Speaker 5 24:57

What so you know how to live in the wilderness for real?

Speaker 25:02

Well, in a house in the wilderness.

Speaker 6 25:05

In 2026, that is wilderness. Are you serious? I didn't hear 5G, no internet, not once.

Speaker 25:10

You yeah, yeah. We have Starlink, we had Starlink. Okay. Um, because the the house that we had the upper level was my tattoo studio. So that was the business area was upstairs. So we had full-on Starlink and uh people could get to the property, you know, there was parking. Oh, okay. All right, so they're very glamorous. Yeah, and had two bathrooms, you know, with normal flesh toilets. And so if you if you came in and no one told you that it was an off-grid house, uh you it you would feel like you're in a regular home. Wow. Yeah, it was nice. Uh, but people when I say I lived off-grid, people imagine a wooden shack that you can like see through the slats in the wall. It wasn't like that at all. It was a normal house.

Speaker 6 25:54

Wow, hold on. Because so there's a lot of questions I have, right? Uh that's my roommate. Um, so is he making popcorn? I don't know what he's doing. Uh, there's too early to make popcorn. It's three something. No.

Speaker 26:05

It's never too early for popcorn.

Speaker 6 26:06

Really? Well, I mean, I guess coming from where you coming from, yeah. It's like whatever food I can get. Fuck it. What kind of there's no subconcept of lunch, dinner, breakfast, whatever I can get from the land.

Speaker 26:15

Time is a construct. Three, three twenty-seven p.m. Perfect time for popcorn.

Speaker 6 26:21

You got a bag of popcorn kernels and no other food available? Well, this is uh breakfast, lunch, and or dinner.

Speaker 26:26

Yeah, that's a Berlin, that's a Berlin meal, uh, three in the afternoon. That's crazy.

Speaker 6 26:31

So, okay.

Speaker 26:32

So you know Ask all the questions you want.

Speaker 6 26:34

I'm trying to figure out where to start. So, okay, first of all, how long you was out there for? Five years. Five years, okay. And what led you to go out into, I guess, in quote, the wilderness in Canada?

Speaker 26:47

Uh, my ex and I bought it together because we were looking for a place to buy, and that one was for sale. So we bought it and we moved out there. Wow. And uh yeah, it was a massive learning curve to just um get used to power tools and self-sufficiency, and we got into hunting, we got a hunting license, and so learned all about how to butcher animals and process game and uh garden. Kind of sucked at the gardening, honestly. Uh every year it was like the tomatoes are better, but these cabbages are shit, or like uh yeah, it it was hit or miss with the gardening, but it in the summer you could live off of fish and meat, like we'd hunt uh rabbits and grouse. Do you know what a grouse is? No, it was grouse. It's like a forest chicken, it's a heavy bird that is surprising it's not extinct because it doesn't fly away when you approach it. It's a ground bird. And like a chicken, they can fly, but only when they're really forced to. So you could walk almost right up to a grouse, and at the last second, it's like, all right, I guess I'll get out of the way. And they fly up right in front of you and they go and it gives you a fucking heart attack every time. If you've ever been startled by a grouse, you know the feeling. But our friend, he lived out in the woods proper because he was a mushroom picker, so he'd spend the whole summer living out in a tant or van picking uh gourmet edible mushrooms in Canada. And he was walk up on a grouse, and when it would try to fly up and away, he would just spike it out of the air like a volleyball. That's how he would hunt them and you'd just take it back to camp and eat it.

Speaker 6 28:42

Okay, so this bird is really defenseless. You can slap it and then that's it.

Speaker 28:46

It'll yeah, if they're if you come up on them and they fly away too late, you can smack them out of the air, and you hit them all the time with your cars because you you're heading down the road and you'll see one and they walk in slow motion, then they're like, oh, a car's coming. I better get to the other side of the road, and then they just stop and you run right over them. That's why it's a it's amazing that they're still so plentiful because they're so slow. Um, but I think a lot of time the predator will just miss them entirely if they stay still enough. And maybe that's a metaphor for life. Like if you just stay still and unnoticed.

Speaker 6 29:27

There you go. And you just fly Time will pass you by. You just fly right into the you just fly right into the opportunity at the last minute. You're just like, ah, okay. Then you can finally get spiked by uh the joys of life.

unknown 29:38

Yeah.

Speaker 6 29:38

And get consumed by uh what the universe has to consumed by the universe.

Speaker 29:44

There you go. Canada's so nice.

Speaker 6 29:46

You can just have defenseless birds, it's available for you to just spike in the ground and eat.

Speaker 29:50

Yeah, and fish, and the fish are still pretty clean and tasty.

Speaker 6 29:53

And oh, yeah, good fish then.

Speaker 29:55

Uh we hunted bear and this okay.

Speaker 6 30:00

I I love talking to white people sometimes that do these things because you guys talk about this just so as if yeah, hunted a bear. And you know, what do you mean and no? It stops at bear and then followed by this is how I hunted a bear. So let's go back to bear. Okay, so you hunt you, I'm again not, you know, I know you got muscles and this and that, you got a beanie, so you know, a very strong, willing person, right?

Speaker 4 30:25

But you hunted a bear.

Speaker 30:27

Yeah, I didn't shoot the bear, I was uh on a hunt with people, other people got the bear. Uh I've been on a few bear hunts, but I am the the butcher, I'm the Hannibal Lecter of the group. Nobody can wield a knife like me.

— Hunting bears

Speaker 6 30:44

Jeez, I should have asked you a question before you came in here. Now my paranoia is on a thousand. You already got me with chainsaw and file each.

Speaker 30:52

I didn't bring my chainsaw or my knife or my guns. I left them all in Canada.

Speaker 6 30:57

That doesn't leave you. That that that type of uh know-how file. I didn't know you could even do that. I just thought you get a new chainsaw, you just throw that one in the garbage and you get it, you just tuck it in the forest.

Speaker 4 31:07

And you just put it in a garbage pail or whatever, right? I don't know the recycle list, but whatever, they'll take care of it.

Speaker 6 31:14

They'll sell it in some other country. But so, and you hunted bears, and then you know how to butcher a bear. So you've been on a couple bear hunts, right? Wow, this is uh man. So let's go, let's go back to bear because I love the revenants or something with Leonardo DiCaprio, right? Very good.

Speaker 31:29

Okay, so that uh that is a grizzly bear, and we hunt black bears. Ah from you can hunt grizzly, but there's limited entry, they're called limited entry tags. So there's certain animals that because of their low numbers, you can't just go out and pew pew pew pew and be shooting endangered species like mountain goats or bighorn sheep. So for those limited entry tags for these rare animals, uh, you pay to enter this lottery, yeah, and then they pull a couple of names a year for these animals, and then you have the legal right to go and hunt that animal. And some of these tags are so hard to get that people will spend their whole life every year entering the lottery to go and hunt a mountain goat or a bighorn sheep and never get a tag. Like they could they could uh be applying for 20 years in a row and still not get drawn.

Speaker 6 32:24

What? Yeah, or a mountain goat for wow, that is okay. So that's some all right. So black bears you hunted, right? Yeah, and he's a part of the hunting.

Speaker 32:34

Yeah, and black bears are super plentiful in plentiful, like they're juicy apples. Uh they're their numbers are really high. They're one of the few animals that their their numbers are actually increasing, which is not that common for like a megafauna animal. Most of the large animals like grizzly bears and elephants, anything that's really massive because of biodiversity collapse, those big animals are struggling and their numbers are falling. But black bears are doing great because they're so adaptable, they go into towns and cities and rummage around in the trash. I mean, little little mischievous scamps.

Speaker 6 33:09

They can open car doors. I saw that on TikTok a few times.

Speaker 33:11

Yeah, yeah. They're just like big raccoons, like they get around and they manage, they're fine, they're doing fine.

Speaker 6 33:17

They can go upstairs and shit. Not open a fence. It's crazy.

Speaker 33:20

Yeah, yeah. They're uh they're very dexterous with their little fingies. Yeah, and um, yeah, so you can hunt, uh, you can get a couple of black bear tags every year. Uh those ones you just pay for directly, so you don't have to enter a lottery.

Speaker 6 33:32

Yeah, did I please get rid of them?

Speaker 33:34

And then yeah, when you go out, you need to know how to identify the difference between a male and a female, and is it old or young? And because you're looking for old boars. They the males and females are they're called the same thing as pigs, boars, and sows.

Speaker 6 33:50

Wow.

Speaker 33:50

Yeah, boars and sows and cubs and the the baby. Right. Yeah. And so you're looking for an old an old boar. Uh but like a big old bear, if you kill a really big old stinker, they're like the meat's like not that nice. But depending on where you hunt, the meat will taste different. Because if you go out to the prairies, uh where the bears are eating a ton of berries, the meat will be like purple-y and will have like a sweet fruity flavor. But then if you're on the coast and you get a coastal bear, it just tastes like fish. Because that's all they eat.

Speaker 5 34:27

What? Yeah. Yo, this is I would have never thought that. I mean, it makes sense, right?

Speaker 6 34:33

I guess.

Speaker 34:33

Yeah, you are what you eat. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 34:35

Wow, for real. Damn. So, okay, so you used to hunt bears from different sides, from either the ones that eat berries to the one on the coast.

Speaker 34:41

Uh, I didn't hunt those bears because we were just in our little valley area where they're mostly eating just uh grass and sedges, and they're just rummaging around for for roots. And so they're not like uh the kind of bears where their specific diet is like purely fish to the point that they would taste like fish. But it just bear tastes like a little bit like beef, like it's just kind of like a plain red meat. It's great. Make tacos out of it, chili, it's awesome.

unknown 35:10

Make tacos out of bear.

Speaker 35:12

Yeah, bear tacos are so good. So good.

Speaker 6 35:15

Um oh, you was out there, bear. Oh yeah, you was on you was off the grid. And that was the only meat available. He's like, hey, I still like tacos. So you know, it's the only meat I have. And these, you know, these little fowls or chickens, they're not uh they're not. Oh yeah.

Speaker 35:30

The grouse, the grouse are my favorite to hunt. Because it even if you you hunt them with a 22, which is basically the level up from like a BB gun. And uh, if you take a shot at them and you miss, they'll still be like, You seriously? What's going on? Like they don't move, they're like, oh, so you you don't have to be a very good hunter to hunt grouse because they give you like five chances to kill them.

Speaker 6 35:51

Is it like a starter animal? Kind of like before you upgrade to bear, you're kind of like, all right, this is how you hunt. You you look at this bird and you know try five times.

Speaker 35:58

Yeah, a grouse is a great starter animal to hunt. And this uh sounds, I'm sure maybe some people listening are like your brutal cold-blooded killer. But I used to be vegan for 11 years, which now that I'm in Berlin, I'm like, oh, vegans are so annoying.

Speaker 6 36:16

I thought it was being an oasis for you because there's so many.

Speaker 36:20

I'm over it, dude. That's old news. Well, I was vegan for yeah, over a decade, and then I just got to the point where I was like, this is not actually the best diet for the environment, and this is not without consequence to animals in the planet, and uh if you're gonna try to eat like sustainably and ethically, be hunting animals in your local area is like the best way to do that.

Speaker 6 36:49

Well, so when did did you get to that conclusion before or after your the whole uh living in the wilderness experience?

Speaker 36:58

Yeah, pretty pretty much as soon as uh I would say I stopped being vegan like two years before we moved off grid. And then once we got out there, I was like, Yeah, this makes way more sense.

Speaker 6 37:09

Yeah, because being vegan out there, I mean that literally you won't be able to survive. Like, I mean, you can't.

Speaker 37:14

I was digging up roots.

Speaker 6 37:17

Yeah, you'll be fighting with the black bears, being like, all right, so yeah, this is my this is my tree bark, this is my roots. You go, yeah, this is my fish. You know, not fish, but we can't eat fish, right?

Speaker 37:26

But yeah, uh oh, I'm I'm vegan, but I'm pescatarian. People do that. Pescatarian is the one I don't understand.

Speaker 6 37:33

What do you mean?

Speaker 37:34

Pescatarian?

Speaker 6 37:34

Come on, pest if there's a lot of fish. You got octopus, you got tuna, you got salmon if you want to be fancy.

Speaker 37:41

Yeah, I'm aware those things exist, but I uh I I don't understand the philosophy of pescatarian. Like, do you know why people are pest pesky?

Speaker 6 37:50

Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, maybe from like a rastafarian standpoint or so, that people of that uh, you know, religion, I don't even know religion or whatever, but they eat like fish and stuff. I think because something about it where they can't eat meats or something like that so you have like a lot of Jamaican Rastafaris or so like that that might either be vegetarian or pescatarian.

Speaker 38:07

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, so like okay, now it's my turn to learn something.

Speaker 6 38:11

There you go. So yeah, you yeah, if you go to like Brooklyn, you go to certain parts in uh Brooklyn that like any Jamaican spot you go to, that they they actually got like fish, like fish dishes, like all the time. Like there's no ones that they're like, ah, we don't have any fish. It's like you see that on the menu because part of their I don't I won't even say religion, but I think Rastafarianism, that's a religion. I guess so. But the way it's marketed is not really not marketed, but the way people live is kind of like of a movement. Okay, like a movement, a spiritual movement rather than a religion. Because they don't try to like indoctrinate, not they don't try to indoctrinate people, they're kind of like, hey, look, if you're part of it, you're part of it. If you're not, you're not, or we're you know, I mean, every religion's gonna be like that. Eh, so really you like so you read like that oxtail? Uh you really like that fowl, that bit blackberry, because you know, over here is a little bit better, you know. You should think about it, but not like on some like you're going to hell, you know, they're not doing that.

Speaker 39:06

So the uh so they don't eat red meat or not pescatarian.

Speaker 6 39:11

From what I know, they're mostly pescatarian, if not all.

Speaker 39:15

Are you on any kind of specific diet? Do you follow anything like that?

Speaker 6 39:18

To be honest, because it's funny, because my family, like uh, they're from Liberia, right? So, like majority of my family, they lived on a farm and stuff. So, like rural living is not is only is like literally I'm the first person. I was like, what? Trees, what are you talking? You know, so I'm the only, I'm the American boy, right? Okay, but like anytime I like visited Liberia or something like that, we go into the village and like in there, that's where like they live in, like people farming, like on some waking up early, uh making sure to, you know, tend to the field, like to the uh to the grow, you know, the field and everything, the garden, uh hunting, you know, everyone comes together, you know, somebody knows who how to use the dogs to bring the people into the bush and then know where to shoot and the yeah. So it's like so.

Speaker 40:01

Have you been around that then? Yeah, I've been around.

Speaker 6 40:03

I've been around a couple times. So I this is me feigning it a little bit in terms of like being like, what? Then I'm like, hold on, wait. Majority of my family they'll tell me stories about how they had to make like a fishing rod from a stick and some weird thing from the tree to make a string, and then some other little wooden piece to make the buoyancy thing, and then add like the piece of meat on the ed of the of the uh string or something like that and tie it in a certain way, and then that's how to fish. And like I say, majority of my family members that are like um that are born before I was born, like they all know how to like they go into the they go, they already know. Like it used to be something growing up that we used to go to the farm and actually pick like the peppers and everything. So like I have family members that they refuse to go to the supermarket to get their uh you know peppers or like certain type of uh you know vegetables. They'll go to the actual farm, like in somewhere in like Pennsylvania and go there. And like I had to do it myself where I had to like find what's the best pepper, what's the best, you know, uh, you know, potato leaf and collard greens and all that stuff.

Speaker 41:05

Oh dang. So when was the last time that you were there visiting family?

Speaker 6 41:09

Uh in Liberia. Yeah. Ah man, it's must have been like what five years, six years, something like that. Because um, yeah, last time I was there, I was with my my cousin. And uh, yeah, he has to go back since like could they have like a civil war there? So like he has to go back since then. So it was like kind of going back with him. And then I went to the um to the village as well. And um, I remember I was going, like, they just came back from hunting, like like literally the guy with the you know, with the whatever. And he's like, Oh yeah, let me put my gun over there and then you know, say, howdy guys, hey, you know, got you know, give you food. It's like rice soup and some kind of unidentified meat. Uh-huh. You don't ask no questions, you just say everyone eating it and no one died in the last 10-15 minutes. I think I might be good.

Speaker 41:51

Those soups are good. A rice soup with mystery meat on top? Hell yeah.

Speaker 6 41:55

So good. Oh my god, you don't know what it is. You you and you don't ask. Don't ask. If you don't if you ask, that means you're not hungry enough.

Speaker 5 42:03

Oh, yeah, from Berlin. What is this? This how much protein is this? What's the fat percentage?

Speaker 6 42:08

You know, yeah, give me the bowl, you're not hungry.

Speaker 42:11

Oh wow. So five years ago. So uh this is gonna be a dumb question, but is there still a war going on there? No, what's happening there? Yeah, that was ages ago.

Speaker 6 42:22

Yeah, long yeah, this is that war started from like 89 till and it ended like in like 2000 like 2007, eight, nine?

Speaker 42:32

Civil war.

Speaker 6 42:33

Civil war, yeah. That was uh very, very serious.

Speaker 42:36

Um yeah between what two groups?

Speaker 6 42:39

Yeah, so you had like uh I think the L uh LRD, the Liberian Revolution something front, and then uh Liberian Unit United Revolutionary something, Lord or something, and then some other group. But basically what happened was like a coup d'etat that happened like in the 80s somewhere. Then there's an then there was like a um then that guy who did a coup d'etat and was present for a little bit, he got um, he got you know off or whatever, like on TV. Like you still see it, like where, you know.

Speaker 43:07

What?

Speaker 6 43:08

Yeah, it was like crazy.

— Liberia, civil war & history

Speaker 43:09

Like the guy was, you know, executed or assassinated?

Speaker 6 43:12

Um, no, it's good. Like you saw like it guys, office the videotape, and you know, there's like the guy like ah, you know, like somebody drinking like a Budweiser and was like, but that then the Civil War happened because um, you know, fight for there's a vacuum power fighting, right? And uh a lot of yeah, a lot of my family was uh in that or whatever, caught up in that. And then and then yeah, then it stopped because uh after a while, some internal, like you know, the what uh UN, all these people started coming in peacekeeping, they came in and fixed it. But yeah, that that civil war even extended to Sierra Leone. Okay, yeah, the Sierra Leone thing that happened because of the Liberian president. He some of like his dealings and stuff went up to Sierra Leone. Yeah.

Speaker 43:54

And so what is it like there now? Is there still political fallout? Is there Damage to the country. Like when you go there, are you like, oh, there's it's obvious that there's like wreckage?

Speaker 6 44:06

No, it's much better now. Yeah, like now it's like much better. You go there, you know, have a good time, like in terms of like the food that's out there, if you want to like just state it for a little bit, it's actually pretty dope now. Like you would not, I mean, obviously still has some effects of it and stuff, but like it's not to a level where you're like, ah shit, like, yo, am I safe to even go here?

Speaker 44:24

Has it been fully infiltrated by American capitalism?

Speaker 6 44:28

Like, are there KFCs and I mean Liberia is basically Liberia and Estonia, not Estonia, Liberia and Ethiopia are the two countries in Africa that have never been in quotes colonized. Uh Liberia, yeah, Liberia, a lot of American influence. Uh like if anything, because the uh Liberia was the place where the free slaves from America, when they were freed, came to uh Liberia. Like, so they had like a resettlement thing because I guess America didn't want to like a lot of free slaves.

Speaker 44:57

So they went back to Africa.

Speaker 6 44:59

They went back to Africa. First they landed in Cherub Island, and then from there, I guess some detour happened and it came to Liberia. So Liberia is kind of where like the uh the first free slaves came back to in in Africa, from what I understand. Wow. And then um, you know, that was an interesting dynamic because you had indigenous, then you had like the freed, uh, you know, American um people that just recently, you know, black people that came out, and then it was in Liberia, but then there's like some tension there because it's kind of like it's funny about power. Because like basically America was like, hey, whatever we did, we're expecting you to kind of do the same. You know, because like what do you know about a governmental structure outside of the one that you lived in? That type of thing, right? Or or power structure or something, right?

Speaker 45:43

Yeah, what would have been the vibe and the relationship between the freed slaves that came back and local people that were already there? Like, was there struggle? Yeah, struggle, hierarchies, like what was the perception of each other?

Speaker 6 45:58

Um, the perception was that I mean, for one, I guess from America's standpoint, they kind of like started like saying, Hey, this is your land, and people are like, nah, this is mine. Who are you? And they're saying, like, yeah, we're this. And it was like, you know, I mean, because in Africa is more based on the tribe, like tribal lines instead of like skin color. Everyone black. So it's like, all right, well, you know, that's yeah, but what what who are you? And you know, that that had a factor that I think people that came from America back didn't like incorporate or even think about or gave weight to. So like there's a lot of like infighting and stuff that was happening because it's like, you know, they're like, oh yeah, this is uh this is ours, or we're all together. And it's like, no, we're not. No, we speak different languages, and this we just fought this tribe a couple of you know decades ago. So we still got beef. What are you talking about? And then it's a lot infighting, a lot of uh American dealings in terms of like uh taking a lot of land, rubber farms, contracts that are for 99 years, all this stuff.

Speaker 46:59

Oh yeah.

Speaker 6 47:01

Yeah, wow, yeah. It's like yeah, Liberia's an interesting uh place of power assumptions and implied homogeneous, homogeneity, uh homogeneity. I don't know, whatever.

Speaker 47:17

Homogene.

Speaker 6 47:17

Homogene, there you go. Okay, look at you. Yeah, homogeneous. Alright, there. So it's like uh interesting not case. I always go to Claudine.

Speaker 47:28

Would you say there are many political and historical undercurrents?

Speaker 6 47:33

Yeah, I would say so, yeah. Because I mean, you know, most African countries are gonna have tribes and stuff like that. Each tribe has their own specific, like, all right, assumptions, like like in Nigeria, for example, you got Igbo, you got Yoruba, you got Hasa, and each of those tribes have like distinct things that like are actually like it is almost to the point. If I if I if I meet a Nigerian person and a way to act now, I'm like, ah, I think I know what tribe you're from.

Speaker 47:56

Oh, okay. Or you understand the subtleties, yeah.

Speaker 6 48:00

Because you just, you know, you just you part of it, so you just kind of see it or whatever.

Speaker 48:04

It's like British Columbian people and Albertans. You're like, I know I know what you're about. Like, what's the difference between they're just they're just both white Canadians, but they're it's a it's a very different culture, just one province to the next.

Speaker 6 48:16

See, I wouldn't even know. I'm like, oh, y'all all Canadian and white.

Speaker 48:19

And then in the middle is all just I mean, you can just kind of skip the middle, the prairies. Uh but it yeah, uh I understand what you mean, but I'm I'm sure that it's one of those things where it's so subtle and complex that like you'd have to be from one of these places to even understand. Like, I was listening to a a Swiss girl after a comedy show last night talking about she was trying to describe this type of person that's from her home village, this kind of like housewife person that's like evasive but also rude to your face. And and she like I could tell that in her mind she had a very clear picture of this type of person. But to me, I'm like, I I can't picture what you're talking about. I under you I can tell that you're struggling to convey who this person is, but uh I just had no context for that uh lifestyle in a village where it's conservative in Switzerland. Uh it's I mean, I'm sure there's some crossover with small Canadian towns, but I I couldn't envision the person that she was describing. And uh so I I'm sure that there'd be you know inside jokes or stereotypes and and uh yeah, like things that one group thinks about the other that it's all it's only for them to to know and understand.

Speaker 6 49:43

Yeah, and it's like even in Germany too, like the north and south, the east, the west Germany, like those are and and when you live here longer enough, you'd be like, oh, I can okay. You so you start picking up on it. Like if I start talking to someone, I'm like, okay, probably from the south. Okay, this person, all right.

Speaker 49:58

So do you feel like you have a good beat on like what kind of German person you're talking to?

Speaker 6 50:03

Uh I'm it's starting to grow now, especially now we start traveling different places and you hear other people reference it, then you're like, oh, I didn't know, okay. So that is a thing. I didn't I thought I was like all maybe, and then like you know, you hear people general generalize basically. You're like, no, that's people from the south. They they're kind of like, you know, and then you might hear somebody say that about themselves from the south. So you're like, oh yeah, I'm from Bavaria. So of course we're like, I'm like, oh, so y'all, so you agree too. Interesting. I thought this was just person which is biased in general, but you all go also agree with the bias, and you you know.

Speaker 50:33

So do you feel like doing stand-up here? Because everybody that is doing English language stand-up comes from all around the world, and they go on stage and everybody seems to have a bit or at least an opening line about where they're from, and and then reference to some kind of stereotype about their culture or country. And kind I feel like people lean in to the stereotypes that exist about where they're from because it puts everybody at ease to be like, oh, yeah, you're American and you're poking fun at this aspect of your own culture, and and now we, you know, now we know for sure you're American. And like I nobody here seems to be trying to dismantle or break any stereotypes about where they're from. It's everyone seems to be leaning into it more. What do you think about that?

Speaker 6 51:25

That's a good point.

Speaker 51:26

I think um Do you have American jokes? Yeah, I do.

Speaker 6 51:29

Yeah, I mean, sure. You see my sta, you know, you see my uh social media is always like, oh wow, you know, Europe and but um I think the maybe the dismantling, I feel like maybe not that many people, because it does take some type of like it's it's there, so why not? And it's kind of easy, I would say, in terms of like, yeah, you already think about it, maybe there's some truth to it. All right, let's, you know, it might be funny, but in terms of dismantling it, I think it is happening, but it just doesn't get that much attention. Or maybe it's it's maybe with stand-up or comedy you've seen it or content is that maybe people uh don't dare to, or it's just like a thing that is like people like it, so it just kind of gets more attention. Whereas like um, I don't know, maybe for me on my side of it, it's kind of like I look at the small things or something, so I'm like I don't know. Like I might sometimes I've realized about the rap or something like that out here. Like I didn't realize how big rap was. Like I kind of had a sense, but I didn't know how big. Because like I went to I was in Italy and I was in this I don't know, rap thing where everyone was there for rap, but everyone, it was all these white dudes with do-rays. So I was kind of like, huh, alright. And I'm the only black dude. So I'm like, well, you know, hey, I'm just gonna be in the corner and just uh silently observe and have my thoughts.

— Rap & hip hop culture across Europe

Speaker 52:46

And but like American rap they were playing there?

Speaker 6 52:51

Yeah, they was playing some old like they was playing, like they was playing some shit. There's a DJ there, there was rap in the it was like yo, the vibe in there was good. It didn't feel like a strong appropriation of something, it was like an actual thorough respect. It was in a community center, there was kids, they were breakdancing. What? They had like three breakdance circles at once, and they were doing good. It wasn't like no I'm talking about they were like white Italian kids?

Speaker 53:12

White Italian kids.

Speaker 6 53:13

They had like from the kids that had a girl, you could tell like they had the newcomers coming in. You could tell somebody had like some heart they wanted to prove themselves to the OG, so he was like doing like a whole bunch of spins, he kept on going in, he was going crazy his feet. And you were the only black guy there. I was like, I there was one black dude, but I think he had enough. And then uh I was like, fair point. But I was there, I was like, I just couldn't help but smiling.

Speaker 5 53:37

And then there's one Italian dude, he was rapping, but the thing is, like I didn't know he was saying, but he was like flowing, so I was like, yo, I'm the old, I'm in this small, not small, but like in the part of Italy no one goes to.

Speaker 6 53:51

I'm there, I'm seeing like white dudes in do-rags and you know, early 2000s type of clothing styles, and they break dancing at the same time. The kids are there running around, breakdancing, the women are breakdancing, they rapping, some two dudes they rapping, everyone's like, yeah, you could tell he's like the main guy of the city. They, you know, everyone, you know, he's from there, people were giving respect. I was just like, I didn't know what they were saying, but I knew what was going on based on just the vibes of just hip-hop and rap. It was like crazy. It was something where I was like, yo. Not like and again, I was not like me, like, oh white, you know, but I was just like, no, I was like, yo, what? I was like, beside myself. I think I was with some people they're like, no, are you okay? I'm like, no, I'm just I'm just taking it in. You're just witnessing. I'm smiling, I'm not in my I don't know what the fuck he said.

Speaker 5 54:36

I'm just like, I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 54:41

I mean, did it sound good? It was good. Yeah, it was it was good. I think it doesn't matter what they're saying, it sounds good.

Speaker 6 54:47

And I was talking about they had their hands, this and that, whatever, and you just bouncing back and forth with the flow. It was I was like, yo. Like, you know, hey, you know, check on my fucking rhythm. You know, hey, it was just like more of these. Yeah, that's funny. Nah, those just kind of like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You know, it was like yeah, you know, yeah. Some guy, some guy just making a pizza in the back of the, you know, somebody with like a big pepper, whatever the one with the shoulder.

Speaker 55:14

Over the shoulder pepper grinder.

Speaker 4 55:17

She was like, hey, get your get your mind out of the gutter, but it's just somebody just needs pepper in the corner, right?

Speaker 55:22

And so have you seen that in other places in Europe where there's a like a big rap scene?

Speaker 6 55:27

Yeah, here in Germany.

Speaker 55:28

Okay.

Speaker 6 55:29

I did one post about like uh how old school rap here, like like old school rappers do very good out here. Like you see posters that get sold out, and I'm talking about first of all, like almost like I mean like half a million views, like just immediately on that, right? And then like I'm getting DMs constantly being people like, yo, you know, I grew up in a small village in Poland, and every time I used to walk home, I used to leave listen to Rum DMC, and it just got me through the day because I just knew that whatever darkness I was in, it's gonna get me at the end of the light of the tunnel. I was like, the amount of messages I got about how impactful it has taken someone in their childhood to where they are now, and how they used to go home and listen to it, I was like, hold on, wait, what I'm talking about, like some not like Drake or you know, whatever. I'm talking about like some old school stuff. Yeah, like somebody Memphis rap.

Speaker 5 56:15

I'm like, how the we don't even know about that. Well, on the East Coast, we don't give a fuck about and then you all the way over here. So yeah, it's it's yeah.

Speaker 56:23

It's more more global than you thought.

Speaker 5 56:25

So global.

Speaker 56:27

I was just listening to a podcast last night from do you know the Irish podcaster Blind Boy?

Speaker 3 56:33

Blind Boy, no.

Speaker 56:34

Blind Boy Boat Club. Uh, you gotta listen to his podcast. It's everything, it's everything I've ever wanted in a podcast. And he uh he grew up in Limerick in the 90s, and that was the earliest memories he has of music is uh getting it uh having an ice tea album and um and listening to The Prodigy and yeah, just and his his dad like letting him listen to this music because he's like some good messages in here, but like speaking is speaking your truth to power. Wow, you know, uh so yeah, just like a little white kid in Limerick in the 90s growing up with American rap music and he said it influenced his whole life.

Speaker 6 57:17

That shit is wild, like but I'm talking about impact. So, like, you know, again, as a black dude, you see you, you know, I mean, kind of you looking at a white dude listening around, you're kind of like, all right, you're trying to, but it's like, nah, this should have some thorough impact on your actual being. I I went to an after party after that's just playing some you know, music and shit. People break I'm talking about it. Was like I felt like I was in a different universe. I'm like, yo, I don't even feel something like uh it's like yo, what I'm like, hold on.

Speaker 57:46

So does that just from your perspective, do you don't feel the defensiveness of this is being appropriated? Do you feel like it it's really being appreciated?

Speaker 6 57:57

Yeah, I mean at first I felt it, but then it then after you saw how people were just for this this is how I knew because when appropriate when appropriation sometimes happens, you can tell that the person appropriating it, they're trying to check in with the people they're appropriating from. You can kind of see like they're trying to like, all right, is it good enough or is it this or whatever? So it's like a check-in, you can kind of feel these people didn't give a fuck. I was like, they I was only black dude, I ain't getting no eye contact, nothing. They was like, hey, I don't know you, whatever. We're breakdancing.

Speaker 58:24

You can join our culture if you want.

Speaker 6 58:26

Yeah, it looked like good based on shoes, you don't know how to break dance, so just stay on the side. I'm like, oh shit. Oh I'm I'm irrelevant in this place full of white dudes with do-rags. Oh my god. I was like, yo, no one's checking in on me. No one's like, oh, that's what easily feel. No one gave a fuck. Everyone's like, we're breakdancing with the lights on in this community center in Torino, Italy, and this is what we're doing. I was like, shit. So yeah, they were in their own world. That's that's what made it where I couldn't even feel some type of. I'm like, no, this is what they do, and they haven't, and they're doing it well. Like they're they're breakdancing. I'm talking about they were doing, they were doing some 50-year-old guy fucking break. I'm talking about breaking, he was like the best one there. I'm like, yo, 50 year olds breakdancing? That's not appropriation. That is like real, this is your life.

Speaker 59:08

That's just plain impressive.

Speaker 6 59:09

Yeah, you can't just appropriate breakdancing. That is not an appropriation type of uh movement to do.

Speaker 59:15

So, what do you like about Berlin culture when it comes to music and festivals and art? Like what feels different or interesting to you here?

Speaker 6 59:27

I'd say that the support of art is very like I don't you probably feel it, but like people really support art in general. Like if it's art, people are willing and open to see what it is about or like to take it in. So that was something that was like new for me, especially coming from like the states, living the East Coast, you know, living in New York City for a while. So art there is of who are you first? And should why should I listen to your stuff? Here it's like, oh, what kind of art is it? Let me find out more about it, and let me find out more about this person. So it's like people are really purely sensitive to the art in a way that they're willing to explore it.

Speaker 1:00:02

And in the States, it's more about the the cult of celebrity, like they won't buy a book unless they recognize the name or the person on the cover.

Speaker 6 1:00:10

You're not a New York bestseller, you're in this rusty bookstore. So why would I spend my time to read a book from a rusty bookstore? You know, whereas here they're like, oh my rusty bo what? Like rusty, bro, that like rusty bookstores here is like the best. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like people, you people they sometimes packed, you know, and then people are in there and they're like, Oh my god, you know, hey, do you take car reader? Uh I don't know, you got PayPal and please do it on friends and family so I don't get taxed. Oh my god, wow, what you're not even in business. You're just some guy who has a flat that he just hallowed out and just put bookcases in there and was like, hey, this is my business.

Speaker 1:00:43

There are a lot of shop shops that I walk past here where I'm like, I can't tell if this is somebody's ground level living room or if it's a store. You don't know because that that is kind of a vibe here. Like it's it's the the stores are half the size. We're in your is this we're in your bedroom. Yeah. The stores stores are half the size of your bedroom. And uh like it looks casual in there. There's a couch, and I'm like, is is this a shop or is this someone's house? And you don't even no advertisement either, no sign to say like this is what it is.

Speaker 6 1:01:13

They got like a ch a chalkboard that's like five blocks away, being like, hey, go on the street. Wow, great. I don't even know how to pronounce the street that I'm on now.

Speaker 1:01:22

I have six items for sale. Come check them out.

Speaker 6 1:01:25

Just on a rusty board. That's the aesthetic of Berlin, you know, just something rusty that it got on Zooferschenken, right? You know, or for you know, for I like the aesthetic.

Speaker 1:01:33

It's gritty, it's post-apocalyptic. I came here in December. So I've been here December, January, February. I came for the bleakest months that you could experience Berlin. And I kind of like the vibe. It's grown on me. I'd I I'll definitely come back for Berlin summer.

Speaker 6 1:01:50

But you got, I mean, these tattoos you got.

Speaker 1:01:53

I mean, this is I know I gotta I haven't even shown off the tats in the weak Berlin sun. There you go.

— Berlin's gritty esthetic & tattoo culture

Speaker 6 1:02:00

Um Yeah, I mean when the minute you shake so many hands, you see all those tattoos on your fingers. That I mean, that's a rap. They're gonna be like, oh, welcome.

Speaker 1:02:06

Welcome. Yeah, there are uh the tattoo aesthetic here is different to me. It's like everybody collects a little tattoo that they're it's like everyone's gone, just like fuck it, put it anywhere, and like don't finish drawing it just either.

Speaker 6 1:02:24

Somebody's grandma on one arm, you know, a raccoon on the other. And it's like, why you get that? It's like ah, you know, I I just felt you know nutty. And it's like, well, all right.

Speaker 1:02:33

The the aesthetic is to look like you don't care about the artwork or where it goes on your body.

Speaker 6 1:02:41

So you look at somebody's tattoo uh, you know, arrangement, you're kind of like, wow, that makes no sense.

Speaker 1:02:46

Says a lot about you as a person, how you arrange your tattoos. Because there's some people I've encountered, there everyone has their own theory about how they organize their tattoos. I've worked with people where their left side is only done by female artists and the right side's only done by male artists, and other people have only black and gray or uh only color on the bottom half, only black and gray on the top, and everyone's got a different method to their madness. And Berlin, it's like people are like, I don't even know how this happened to me.

Speaker 6 1:03:22

Just probably drunk somewhere or high on whatever, and it's like you know, yeah, and then they woke up and they're like, This looks fucking cool.

Speaker 1:03:29

And you know what? I'm I'm about it. I think it does look fucking cool, and I mean show it off too.

Speaker 6 1:03:34

Yeah, yeah. Keep on going, keep on going. Do you want to make sure things are all good? Perfect.

Speaker 1:03:38

Um, do you have any tattoos?

Speaker 6 1:03:40

No, I don't. No, I don't. People, you know, it's funny. If people for a while was like, yeah, why don't you get tattoos, you know? And um, I don't know why, to be honest. I don't know why. But tattoos is um, it is, yeah, it is uh something that um I don't know.

Speaker 1:03:53

Is this just not on your radar as a thing to think about? Not at all. It's not.

Speaker 6 1:03:57

I don't even know what to get, you know? I wouldn't even know.

Speaker 1:04:00

What would you get if you had to get a tattoo? What's the first thing that comes to your mind where you're like, this is me?

Speaker 6 1:04:05

Um I would something definitely from like Liberian culture. I would do that.

Speaker 1:04:11

Okay.

Speaker 6 1:04:11

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:04:12

What what's uh image of Liberian culture?

Speaker 6 1:04:15

So like uh in in uh in Liberia there's about I think 30 how many tribes? I think 13 or 50, something around like that. And I know like my mom is from one and my dad is from another, and uh maybe I get like the the each tribe has a mask. Oh yeah, to get identified. Like, so for example, this mask here is like from my mom's tribe or whatever, right? I see. Can I touch it? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:04:41

Well, so some some of these items you're not supposed to touch. I got given a uh pipe really um last summer by uh an ayahuasca maestra, and she said no, no one else is allowed to touch it except for me. So when I'm not I'm not I'm not just trying to grab artifacts, all uh okay.

Speaker 6 1:05:03

She didn't have no insurance. That's just like please don't touch this pipe. I'm out of business.

Speaker 1:05:08

So does this have a specific name?

Speaker 6 1:05:12

Uh the tribe?

Speaker 1:05:13

Yeah, or this type of mask.

Speaker 6 1:05:15

Yeah, uh, I don't know. The name of the mask is like the mask type, I don't know, but it's like from the uh Pele tribe. Okay. So um that tribe and then this mask is uh is uh my dad's uh so mono tribe.

Speaker 1:05:28

So they're from different tribes, different tribes, yeah. And are those tribes chill with each other? They're it was okay that they got together, yeah, yeah, for the most part.

Speaker 6 1:05:36

I mean, um, you know, definitely there's like tribes that are more amicable with each other versus others. So it's kind of like uh I'm not gonna say on some Game of Thrones stuff, because that's a whole different, you know, situation, but similar to like, all right, different types of groups of people in different regions tend to have alliances, then one may not, others may just be like, I don't like you. My grandfather didn't like you, and he raised me so. So I don't like you.

Speaker 5 1:06:01

We never did anything wrong, but you know.

Speaker 1:06:03

Just bad, bad blood over the ages. They don't even know what they're doing. You guys got dragons.

Speaker 6 1:06:08

I'm not really a dragon fan.

Speaker 5 1:06:10

You know, uh how did your parents meet?

Speaker 6 1:06:13

How did they meet? Oh, look at you with the questions. All right. They met actually um on hit No. Bumble. Yeah, there you go. My mom said hi, and uh there was some time, and my dad had to say hi back and say how you doing. But uh they met uh actually, I think my mom was working like in this office or like this uh whatever, and he used to come all the time and uh you know just kind of be like, Hey, hey, and like I guess she was kind of like who's this guy?

Speaker 1:06:38

What kind of office?

Speaker 6 1:06:39

Um, I think insurance office or something like that, or whatever. Yeah, back in the day.

Speaker 1:06:43

Village insurance office, selling insurance, yeah.

Speaker 6 1:06:46

And then I guess he kept on coming, and then you know, eventually he kind of, you know, she warmed up to him.

Speaker 1:06:51

Okay. And uh he just put in put in the FaceTime.

Speaker 6 1:06:53

Put in the FaceTime, I think also to my um, so like every so sometimes you got these things called, I mean, in uh Liberian culture called admission or something like that, but it's like this boarding school, boarding school and stuff. And my mom had her, they call we call her uh play mother, right? But like basically her mom in that mission because they'll send the kids there to this to this place. So like they'll have like a mother there that'll act like the mother to all the like younger women and stuff there, right? So like that would be considered their playmother, like not real mother, but their playmother, right? Okay, so I guess my dad and my play and um my mom's playmother knew each other slightly that. So I guess you know, he always maybe asked, was asking about her. So then eventually my I call her my grandma, but basically my grandma or my mom's playmother was like, Hey, this guy keeps on asking about you. She's like, who's this guy? And she's like, Yeah, you know, and then from there did an introduction and then yeah, they've been yeah, it was together for a while, yeah.

Speaker 1:07:48

Wow, how old were they when they met?

Speaker 6 1:07:50

Oh, I think like in the 20s or something. Like the 20 in their 20s or something like that? Yeah, in the 20s.

Speaker 1:07:55

Are they are they still together?

Speaker 6 1:07:56

No, no, no. Actually, um, so yeah, my mom is uh my mom's here, my dad actually passed away. Okay, yeah, so yeah, so they're together till till that part or whatever.

Speaker 1:08:05

They were they stayed together until he passed away.

Speaker 6 1:08:08

Yeah, they stayed together for like, yeah, I mean, pretty much till yeah, that but um yeah, they came, yeah, they met there in Liberia, they came over and everything. And uh yeah, so they met like way back then by him, which is by the way, is this something of uh of a certain culture, the way how people court. Um, because like in African culture, sometimes it's like the woman definitely plays hard to get sometimes, and it's kind of like up to the guy to be very like all right, all right, all right, all right. And she's like persistent, she's like, Oh, okay, all right, what do you want? And I, you know, it's like come on, you know what I want, come on, I want to be with you, and this is blah blah.

— Never been on a dating app

Speaker 1:08:44

And then, you know, then they're together for what would today now be considered like stalking or harassment, pretty, yeah, and you know, there's a there's a there's a finesse to it, you know? That's what oh my god, somebody just told me last night directly, like, hey, I think you're cool and funny, and I'd like to hang out with you again. And I was like, that's refreshing as hell. Like, I don't want to hang out with you, but I'm so flattered that you asked. Because I the German flirting with just the the side eye and the staring and the blinking, the bl the yeah, or lack of blinking. If you uh it's I mean, I like just say, just say directly, you seem really cool, I want to hang out again. Uh, I think that's why people aren't getting together or fucking or um yeah, enjoying the company of other people is because everyone's like, what if I say something and I get rejected? It's like so everyone's just gonna be alone forever? Like there, uh I think it's Jana who asks people sometimes like how they're yeah, how their parents met. And people come out with these stories that you would just never hear now. Somebody in the audience a couple weeks ago said that his dad composed a piece of music on the piano and recorded it and gave it what to the woman he was interested in. That's how he made his first move. He's like, I'm just gonna compose a little ditty on the piano and give the give the I heard I heard it.

Speaker 4 1:10:24

Sorry, sorry. You're from Canada, uh from a culture where bad boy was uh had too much power.

Speaker 1:10:31

But no one would ever do that now. It would be seen as like very American psycho-y to do that. But back then that was romance, and uh it's just a different landscape now. I've never been on a dating app, so I'm still like out in the world smiling at people and and starting conversations with strangers, and um I feel like everybody else is part is on is part of a network of connection and communication and like romantic courtship that I'm just like I'm not plugged into.

Speaker 6 1:11:06

So it wow. So yeah, because it's funny because I'm not on the dating apps either, I haven't been on it for like uh so for some years now. And uh it is something where because yeah, it does affect you and how you meet people when you're on the dating apps. Especially if you're you know, I mean, for one, it's always on your pocket, so that's how you're gonna at some point primarily date. Uh and you know, it does kind of nah. Let me take a step back. I ain't gonna lie to you. Because maybe I, you know, I'm from a time where you had to approach women all the time. So like that's not, you know, that's just what it was. To the point to where your friends would be like, yo, go talk to her, yo, come on, talk to her. You'd be like, nah, yo, you're like, yo, stop acting scared, yo, go ahead. So your friends will like push you. You almost had to be in that realm of like also for your friends' sake of respect, being like, approach. I got some friends who are great friends to this day that it's like, yo, the reason why, bro, is that I I saw two girls and like, let's talk, and everyone said no except for you. And you was like, Hey, let's go.

Speaker 2 1:11:59

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 6 1:12:00

I'm talking about, yeah, you just had a kid or whatever, great friends. I consider my brother, he drive, you know, come, yeah, it's crazy off of him being like, Yo, man, you just had the balls to go up to her, and we just talked to the two girls that we were interested in in college.

Speaker 1:12:11

I was like, Yeah, you know, but so have you met people that way and dated where you like you just went in cold and you walked us up to somebody with an opening line? Yeah, do you have uh do you have an opening line that works?

Speaker 6 1:12:22

Nah, I just go.

Speaker 1:12:23

It goes goes based on like what's happening in in the context.

Speaker 6 1:12:26

I just go with confidence, I go with straight confidence and being like, Yeah, you know, you was looking at me, I was looking at you. So this is what's supposed to be happening. Okay, yeah, and that's that's how I come through.

Speaker 1:12:35

This is what's supposed to be happening. Yeah, so I just saw it.

Speaker 6 1:12:38

This is how this is going to unfold. This is how it's gonna happen. Yeah, you know, come with that confidence and shit. And yeah, definitely. I respect it, yeah, definitely met people that way, you know. Um, and then obviously when you I mean, because now going out to the club and or like lounges and stuff is a little bit nah, it's actually still the same. It's that you know, you there, and to be honest, like you know, maybe again it maybe just like a cultural thing, especially maybe like you know, in um, you know, when it comes to black people, like I mean, as let me say black dudes that I know is that when we're going out, we try to see where the ladies at. We ain't just gonna be like, oh, good music. Oh my god, the ambiance and wow, good cocktails, and oh whoa. Have you seen what they've done in the decorum here in this cow? You know, it's like nah.

Speaker 1:13:14

All shit that white people say when they go out. Yeah, I love the aesthetic in here, it's kind of like industrial and austere.

Speaker 6 1:13:21

Wow, you ever heard this one track from this band? Oh my god, it just reminds me of the time where I was in my basement and had a lot of people.

Speaker 5 1:13:29

Nah, what yo, you see these, yo, you see these women?

Speaker 6 1:13:31

Oh my god, like what? You know, so that was our thing. So we went out, we'd be like, Hey, yo, oh, you see how yo, yo, so yo, you know, so then you know, of course you got one friend you're gonna talk to some girl, then you don't want to be the one just standing around with just a drink in your hand because everyone's there to meet. That's the thing, right? So no one's there to be like, oh, good sound system. It's like, no, ladies are there, kind of, you know, all right, let me be here. I know some dudes here that you know look nice, same with the dudes with the women, right? And then yeah, you make you move.

— Best compliment she ever got at a Berlin club

Speaker 1:13:56

Yeah, I've been to one club since I've been in Berlin, and I was I went by myself to have just I just I was like, if you're in Berlin, you need to go out uh at at least once to a club. And so I was in my own, I was having my own I was in my own auric field. Okay, I had a scarf and I had a mushroom microdose happening, I had a hard candy in my mouth, and I was at the very back so I could have space to fucking I'm there to dance, I'm there to do white people shit. I'm there to appreciate the music and dance weird with my elbows. And this black guy came up beside me and like very gently touched the small of my back and whispered in my ear. He had a British accent too, which was like and he was like, I love the way you dance. And I was like, Oh my god, I will never need another compliment ever again. If a black guy's gonna whisper in my ear, I love the way you dance, I'm like, I could quit comedy tomorrow. There you go. I could ride this compliment into the next one. You're doing the right thing with your elbows.

Speaker 6 1:15:02

Don't ever call them weird. You know, black dudes touch the lower uh small of your back, your elbows are doing the right thing.

Speaker 1:15:08

Yeah, I don't think he was looking at the elbows. But I was like, I it was the confidence, he came in, it was so refreshing. I was like, I respect it. And then I was like, oh, thanks. And then I was like, Do you want to dance with me? Because now all these Germans are giving me weird side eye from 30 meters away. That it's like I'm not I'm not gonna come up to you and be like, I saw you blinked twice at me.

Speaker 6 1:15:34

I count your blinks and I just knew you was uh feeling me just as I was feeling you. Yeah, it's uh it's a different time. I think like um, you know, I think so you're saying you're single now. Yeah, I'm single.

Speaker 1:15:45

Are you actively dating anyone?

Speaker 6 1:15:46

Actively dating?

Speaker 1:15:47

No, not active. Are you in active dating mode?

Speaker 6 1:15:50

No, I'm not in active dating mode.

Speaker 1:15:51

I'm you're in touring mode.

Speaker 6 1:15:52

I'm in touring mode, definitely touring around a lot and shit like that. So not in active uh dating mode. But I mean, obviously, if something happens and you know I meet somebody, then you know I'm not one of people like, no, not right now.

Speaker 1:16:02

You know, it's like do you wanna like get married and have kids and all that American dream? Yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 6 1:16:09

Yeah, I'm one of the uh rare weirdos who uh one of the few left that wants to have a wedding and children and yeah. I mean, but you know, that's that's my family. I mean, that's kind of like that or whatever. But um, you know, I mean it's that's it's it's crazy times.

Speaker 1:16:24

Does that come from your family? Like, did you have such a good experience with your family that you're like, I want to do this again? Yes, okay. Yeah, like I didn't know that's so wholesome.

Speaker 6 1:16:33

Yeah, I didn't know what divorce was until like uh I was in my like 20s or something like that.

Speaker 1:16:37

That people actually got divorces?

Speaker 6 1:16:39

Yeah, I didn't even know that was a con.

Speaker 1:16:41

Okay, this is explaining a lot because you and I have been around each other a little bit in Berlin around shows, and every time I'm like, you're too wholesome to be trusted. Like I'm still gets it's still negative, you're you're you're so denyed, dude. You're so kind, so thoughtful. You're like, you know, you get interrupted by something, you come back, you're like, okay, I'm sorry, what were you saying? And uh yeah, you're an active listener. And I'm like, you came from an unbroken home for sure. And that's a problem. I didn't know what divorced was until I was in my 20s.

Speaker 6 1:17:23

Yeah, I was like, I was like, wow, people can do that. I'm like, why? They're like, we mean one.

Speaker 1:17:26

See, that's yeah, see, now you're you've you've overshot. You're too wholesome for anybody. Yeah. So you're gonna you're gonna struggle to date. I'm doing just fine. Yeah, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 6 1:17:39

If I if I'm approaching the women I'm approaching, yeah, I mean I I've seen the world in some other ways. Yeah.

Speaker 1:17:44

Okay, so then I'm like, hey, would you want flowers?

Speaker 6 1:17:46

Nah.

Speaker 1:17:47

You had a good, you had a good childhood, your parents stayed together, and you want to get married and have kids.

Speaker 6 1:17:54

And that's an idea, you know, in terms of it.

Speaker 1:17:56

It's an idea. It's a it's a concept, it's a concept of the world.

Speaker 6 1:17:58

It is a concept that is appealing. Yeah. Let me just say appealing in terms of you know.

Speaker 1:18:02

So you had a you had a good example set for you.

Speaker 6 1:18:04

I did. I actually, I'm not gonna lie. That's actually I can't say, yeah, majority of the people around my, you know, my like my dad's friends are all married, you know, they had kids, then you know, we come to each other's house. Like, so it was always like uh somebody together in one in one house all the time. Like that was just my work, like I didn't, you know, my cousins, yeah. Oh my oh yeah, like in my family, if you're not married or together, that's like actually like uh an anomaly.

Speaker 1:18:31

Right.

Speaker 6 1:18:32

Like the amount of marriages that I used to, I used to go to like a wedding almost like once a year every summer for like my whole entire childhood. Like it was always a wedding a wedding. Now, again, now looking back, it was definitely some people broke up and they just needed a you know, for the fit for their own uh face of the community, they was like, hey, I need to get married again. I can't be no you know, I can't be in my third marriage and not have not not be married. So in hindsight, I was just aloof, but probably the amount of marriages that were happening per year every summer, not all new. Yeah, you know, there's some probably some people that are like, you know. Second time around.

Speaker 1:19:08

Second time around, you know. Like, hey, haven't I been to one of your weddings before?

Speaker 6 1:19:12

Right, I've been for the marriage, but in terms of the actual relationship, you know, has it did it survive? Probably not.

Speaker 1:19:18

So have you come close to getting engaged? Have you been in a very serious relationship?

Speaker 6 1:19:22

Nah, I mean serious relationship, yeah, but in terms of engaged, no.

Speaker 1:19:25

I haven't uh circled around.

Speaker 6 1:19:27

Nah, because engagement, I mean, that's a it's a thing. And then um also too, I mean, I think as you start dating more, you just you start realizing what it is you want when you didn't realize what like either realize what you actually want and or whatever you thought it you want is not actually as important, if that makes any sense. So like you start realizing like this is a not non-negotiable, but let's just say I've really nice to have. I don't think I can see myself. And we have you're like, ah, you know, hey, there's some other pricing issues that not issues, there's other pricing things that I should look for rather than this small thing.

— The four quadrant dating exercise

Speaker 1:20:00

Have you ever done a a a four quadrant exercise with uh like manifesting your perfect person? Nah. You get, oh man, okay, we should do some arts and crafts after this. You get a piece of get a piece of paper, divide it into four quadrants, right? And the each each section, you have uh your non-negotiable, non-negotiables, your must-haves. Right. Then you have your deal breakers, uh-huh, and then the other two quadrants are would love but could live without, and then don't love but could live with. And so it kind of makes instead of just having a pros and cons list, which it can be a little too harsh and abrupt, uh-huh, that uh you have more of a you know, malleable mind map of what kind of person you're after. So it can be things that are, you know, not as important. Like one of mine in the would love but could live without. Like I've met people that this might sound silly, but as a tattoo artist, if I meet people that are just like, oh, I would never get a tattoo, I'm like, okay, it kinda it doesn't work in their favor for me to be attracted to them because I'm like, well, it's my career, it's your whole thing, it's something I'm super passionate about, and I could talk at length about tattoo history and tattooing in other cultures and what it means for humanity to express through the ritual of marking an adornment, and for someone to just be like, Yeah, I don't want to like be a joiner because everyone has tattoos. I'm kind of like, okay, but if they were like like yourself, where you're just like, oh, I just haven't thought of it. Like, I might get one, I just haven't thought where they're they're just kind of neutral about it. I'm like, I could live with that, I could still date that person. But if somebody's like, oh, I would never get a tattoo, like just because everyone has them, and it's like, well, that's not what it's that's a turnoff for me as a tattooer, someone who's like anti-tattoo. It doesn't mean they're a a bad person or or have undesirable qualities or traits as a person, but it's it doesn't green light me for attraction. So that's kind of in the like in-between quadrant of like, I don't love that, but I could live with it.

Speaker 2 1:22:10

Yeah.

Speaker 1:22:11

Um, do you have do you have deal breakers or or absolute green green lights where you meet a girl and she says something where you're like, that's a yeah, that's a plus.

Speaker 6 1:22:21

Um I like I mean, I like the maybe they like the classical thing. I actually this is funny. This is something I used to, and then it didn't really matter as much in terms of like a woman that like uh, you know, I mean like cooks or whatever. I like food a lot. Like I really like food, like on a way that I the size that I am now doesn't do justice for the love of food that I have. It's like really I'm I'm sorry for whoever, you know. But anyways, that I'd say like that's something that like a nice to have, and then it was something where it's like, all right, well, look, I mean, if life gets to a certain point where we can eat out all the time, then that's not really a big thing. Now don't get wrong, I like not that you do, I just if you just know how to, I just like the fact that you just knowing it's kind of like maybe I would assume with a woman and like a guy, the woman would just like to know that the guy could defend or do something physical. Not that he has to do it, build everything every two, every weekend and shit, but just the ability that I just know you're good with your hands to fix some shit.

Speaker 1:23:18

He doesn't need to run a chainsaw or hunt a bear. You're right.

Speaker 6 1:23:21

He just knows how where to shoot the bear.

Speaker 1:23:23

Okay.

Speaker 6 1:23:24

Not in the shoulder, not in the fucking, you know, ankle right to where it needs to be, right?

Speaker 1:23:31

You know, don't baseline physical, uh not even prowess, just like capability.

Speaker 6 1:23:38

Capability.

Speaker 1:23:38

So like what you know So that would be baseline for you, is like a woman knows her way around making a soup. Just something. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 1:23:46

I I I would say more specifically rice. Like uh, I ain't gonna lie, I did date a girl.

Speaker 1:23:51

She needs to make know how to make rice.

Speaker 6 1:23:52

Yeah, I did date a girl that she didn't know how to make rice, and I didn't realize that was a thing that I needed in my life. Like, and that would that was a turnoff for you.

Speaker 1:23:58

I couldn't make rice.

Speaker 6 1:23:59

I think that was the first time I had like I I objectively had bad rice and I knew why it was bad. And when I asked her, I it was correct, and I was like, oh wow, I did not know like it was something where I was like, okay. What made it bad? Uh she didn't wash the rice.

Speaker 1:24:15

Oh, gotta rinse the rice.

Speaker 6 1:24:16

Yeah, she didn't wash the rice, and then there was like some cheese and almonds and it like it was just it was just it, but but she was an artist, so like again, that's maybe back to she was an artist. She's a white girl, uh she's Spanish. Uh I mean, based, you know, artists.

Speaker 1:24:28

She put she put cheese and almonds and didn't rinse the rice. This is like an entirely different dish that you're just not familiar with.

Speaker 6 1:24:34

Yeah, but then on the flip side, it's kind of like the pros and cons, right? Because like again, she like you know, she was a magician, so like she really like and a good one, like very good, like playing in uh you know, Guggerheim and all like so very like dedicated and very Oh, you were being literal, she's a magician. No, not mag not uh a musician.

Speaker 1:24:49

Oh, musician, okay. You're like, well, she was a sorceress, so she's doing weird shit with the rights.

Speaker 6 1:24:54

You know, she almost saw me in half. You know, I still got some scars to prove it, but no, she like so maybe I don't know, this is like a long about way to not answer your question, but it was more of like back to active listening, right?

Speaker 1:25:08

That I guess in terms of uh you said something that I would not what do you have any specific deal breakers or green lights where you're like yeah, this is an absolute no or or a hell yes.

Speaker 6 1:25:23

Okay, uh fuck yeses or fuck no's heavy smoker, oh smoker, yeah, heavy smoker in general, weed.

Speaker 1:25:29

Love that, yeah.

Speaker 6 1:25:30

Because uh I yeah, I've dated a girl that like she really smoked weed a lot and uh oh weed or cigarettes or both? Uh weed, weed. But she smelled like uh more like blunts or whatever. Okay. And like that was something that whenever we kissed, I was like, yeah, nah. And again, she was very like, you know, well, like, you know, like everything, like, you know, in terms of like, you know, everything had to be clean, this and that, whatever. So like, I mean like Except for the mouth. You know, I'm like, if this is not if you got all this all dialed down, you got like 80 vials in here for every body part that to make sure it's clean, but then I'm kissing the main one, and that one's like I'm talking about to the point where it's like, oh, this is the reason why I'm not so that that had become a deal breaker the uh yeah, if somebody smokes too much, then it's like okay, like I I will feel the effects of this.

Speaker 1:26:17

I feel like that too, but I do do you have a type? Do you find that you date the same person with a different face? Yes, I do. What's your type? Describe.

Speaker 6 1:26:25

Uh my type is uh um it's not it's it's like general, I guess like uh not bullish women, but like power like women in power positions or whatever. That makes any sense. Like, yeah. So like say more. Um like say in a sense, like a woman that like has to deal in had to be in some power position or something like that. I've realized like um either being like at some dominatrix. Not dominating no, no, not not that. Yeah. If anything, I'll be yeah, because I'm I'm I'm one of those like people where I'm like, nah, you know, I ain't I I'm not curious.

Speaker 1:27:01

I've heard your bit on stage about the girl that was trying to get in your beehole. Yeah. Did that how I was dying laughing, peeking through the curtain, watching that on stage. That was so funny. It was like a sword with like.

Speaker 6 1:27:15

She started from the shoulder, not from like uh, you know, the elbow. She was like, yeah.

Speaker 5 1:27:18

I was like, she got her weight behind it. Yeah, she shifted pick a book boxer. Yeah, I was like, yo, when you try to just go from your leg, turning on the ball of her foot. She did a little backfoot pivot, like you know, I was like, whoa way.

Speaker 6 1:27:34

Kept on trying. What a wow.

Speaker 1:27:35

I've yeah, dude, I I'm I'm with you on that. Uh I don't know what it is with the gen the Gen Zers and the Zillennials and all the the beehole stuff and the ass eating. And I'm like, I hear in Berlin. Can we just in enjoy the normal?

Speaker 6 1:27:51

I hear in Berlin, that's a specific thing. Like, I I weren't say that joke, and a couple dudes after it was like they said the same thing when they dealt with a woman out here, like, hey, that it's wild that people.

Speaker 1:28:00

People are just throwing digits and holes without asking first, being like, they'll like this.

Speaker 5 1:28:05

Yeah. But like a couple times. No. Oh.

Speaker 6 1:28:07

It's like, hey, look, I get it, maybe whatever. But like, yo, we trying to couple. I'm like, I I look, if I was with it, I'm not gonna Some serious communication lacking there. No talking about it after. Just going, ah, you know, I'm just like, all right, how do I, you know, how do I enforce boundaries after you know?

Speaker 1:28:27

This is one of the tenets. This is one of the four agreements because you never make assumptions, and that is a massive assumption to make to be like, someone will enjoy my finger in their asshole.

Speaker 5 1:28:37

Yeah, it's like, nah, yo, nah. That ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 6 1:28:40

That, yeah, after that, um, you know, I shit. I now have a type that I don't go to.

Speaker 1:28:46

Can you can you tell when you see a a girl that you're like, she for sure is gonna poke me in the butt. Uh can you see can you see it coming? Is it in the is it in the bangs? Is it in the glasses?

Speaker 6 1:28:57

There's some assumptions, I mean, one can say.

Speaker 1:29:00

I mean, you can yeah, then you're going ahead and making assumptions for yourself.

Speaker 6 1:29:04

Like, oh, I'll go to KitKit every day. And you're like, well, you know, hey. You're probably doing some wild stuff in there. It's like, hey, well, you know, you know, shame on me for assuming something otherwise in a finger somewhere. There it should not be.

Speaker 1:29:16

I just learned about the chemsex scene here in Berlin. The what? Oh, let me drop the knowledge on you because I just learned about it two days ago. That there's a whole scene, a whole community of people that have chemsex, which is getting on certain substances that make an orgy feel real nice. And they could go get get a little bit of crystal meth in your system and just have a gay orgy for like two days straight. It's a whole you've lived here longer than me. No about that.

Speaker 4 1:29:51

It's clear I haven't been living here though. You've been living.

— Berlin's drug culture

Speaker 1:29:54

Uh I've not I've not partaken in it any of the chemsex. But uh yeah, or or GHB or whatever people are getting in some MDMA, but that's a that's a whole activity. There's a fine line, I think, between uh yeah, a nice uh squishy time and a little G and a Pappy.

Speaker 1 1:30:18

Uh not the big G.

Speaker 1:30:19

A mix, a little bit, yeah, lowercase G. Um, but that yeah, that people are doing that. That's a whole that's a whole activity here. It's chem sex.

Speaker 6 1:30:27

And for it to have a label, that means it's happening a lot. Oh, yeah. Like for it to have a catch term, be like, oh, you know, chem. It's not like, hey, we're taking this and this, it's not the literal explanation.

Speaker 1:30:37

They now have shortened it to a and drug dealers have handed me very professionally printed business cards on the street. That's a thing out here. That's a thing. And they have the little menu uh of what they offer, and I had to look some of them up. I'm like, what is MMC? And it's like a fucking boomer. I'm like, what's Tina?

Speaker 6 1:30:57

You should you should have probably messaged them. They probably have automation where AI answers. They're probably like, oh yeah, I hear you got any questions. What are your thoughts? They're probably like a chat bot.

Speaker 1:31:04

I've done what I've done one drug deal in Berlin, and I thought it was gonna be real sketchy because they're like, meet me in the in the train station. And so I was standing there and I was like texting. I was like, I'm the girl in the yellow hat. And like we know. We've been watching. And uh the guy came over and it was the most pleasant, sophisticated drug handover I've ever had. The guy was so friendly and chatty, uh, spoke five languages. He had been trained as a chef, used to live in Dubai. We rode the train together back towards where I was coming from and had a wonderful, wonderful time. I was like, that was delightful.

Speaker 5 1:31:46

You knew about his life?

Speaker 6 1:31:47

What kind of safe shit is this? He was a chef? He told you where his last word is too that my that will brought my paranoia up. I'm like, this is a drugs thing, and I'm part of some some shit going on.

Speaker 1:31:58

It's uh this this is life as a Canadian, is that you just you get to know everyone. You just you be chatting. You be chatting.

Speaker 6 1:32:06

I'm like, yo, chef is colder for after this next stop. We're gonna get arrested. I'm gonna get arrested. This guy's undercover. He's like, yeah, I'm a chef. Go get down, come on. It's like, ah, fuck, I didn't know. I just wanted mushrooms.

Speaker 1:32:17

I I I heard it was nice. Yeah, that I the drug culture here is a very, it feels very sophisticated, very mature, and uh, it's honestly like going back in time because they didn't have an opioid crisis here.

Speaker 6 1:32:31

Yeah, crack is now making a comeback.

Speaker 1:32:33

And like throwback to heroin, there's no heroin in Canada. I'm like, oh, uh very yeah, there's a vintage uh drug use feel here where there's a lot of drug use, there's a big culture around partying here, but people like get up and go to work in the morning.

Speaker 6 1:32:49

It's that's the part. People go to work after it's like these, you know, you know, in the States, somebody somebody on any of them drugs. You can you ain't gotta they ain't gotta tell you. You're like, you you you you don't have you said enough. I know I made an assumption and I was right. Here, you'd be like, nah, they own three businesses, you know, they probably got like two flats and very, very functional drug users here. Very functional. That's uh culture shock here. Very functional people on drugs to the point where they're doing better in life than you, and it just happened to be a pastime. You're like, all right, I mean sure, what what what's in them drugs that got you this successful? What's going on?

Speaker 1:33:24

Yeah, and well, maybe that's that's the secret is uh they're just not as not as strong. Like I've shared a joint with somebody here, and I could still have a conversation after it's like you smoke weed in British Columbia where I'm from, and it's like you're going fully nonverbal, deaf, deaf mute, you've become the furniture. Like it's not a it's not a pleasant drug experience. I quit cannabis in Canada because I'm like, I would go to a weed store and I'd be like, what's the weakest weed you have? What's the lowest THC content? And they'd be like, uh like they don't they don't get asked that question.

Speaker 3 1:34:09

They're like, why?

Speaker 1:34:10

You're like, yeah, why are you even buying it then if you don't want to get completely blotto? Yeah, why uh so here it has like a throwback feel to when you could do drugs and be functional and that it was not so stigmatized. Like you you do drugs in North America and it's like you you lose everything. You're on the street and immediately immediately weed, not even more.

Speaker 6 1:34:37

Man, the amount of stories from CEO to now on the street, you know, you know, begging for shoes is like it's it's like almost like it's not far-fetched.

Speaker 1:34:45

Do you party here? Do you like the party culture here?

Speaker 6 1:34:47

Party is, I mean, I don't party to them places, you know, over there, you know that. But uh I did it's it's all right. It's all right. Like I'll go out. Uh I I go out here and there. Like I like my thing now is more going to like lounges and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:35:00

Or like, you know, it's a lounge experience.

Speaker 6 1:35:02

Like lounges for meeting people. That's the thing. Like I like don't get me wrong, I'll go out if it's like because now it's like, all right, depending on where we're going out to, if it's a music and shit like that, I'm like, all right, cool for the music, but like nine times out of ten, uh, if I'm going now, it's usually like to to see where the ladies at. That's usually kind of the situation. So big events, loud noise, it's hard to meet people in that type of way.

Speaker 1:35:30

Yeah, if you're having to yell in somebody's ear, that's the I mean I've done that before, but it's just a doesn't really work for flirting.

Speaker 6 1:35:36

Yeah, you know, but you gotta be very like, you know, like, yeah, you know, I've done that before, but it's just like a another thing you gotta prepare for and shit.

Speaker 1:35:43

So lounge is a quieter area, people are sitting in the antique furniture smoking, there's a candle dripping.

Speaker 6 1:35:51

Every everything is set up for people to meet with each other. That's the thing. So they're not playing it too loud, but not too quiet where it's awkward. It's like nice tone, they got nice, you know, aesthetics there, nice drinks, enough chairs for people to sit down and shit, or where to stay. So everything's all set up for people to meet or like to conversate or whatever. Whether that be all right, you know, you enter somebody, boom, like talk, or just in general. Like, all you would, you know, typical, like maybe you know, women in a group of friends just want to go out and they don't want to kind of you know be in some we you know, you know, bump to bump side to side from uh random people. Nice place where they can sit down, nice little table, got the cocktails, this and that, they're talking about blah blah blah. You know, of course, you know, one girl might be like, you know, kind of the most attractive in the group, so you're getting all the attention. Somebody's jealous over here. You try to say hi, you talk, you know, she's kind of like, so what do you do? You're like, all right, I get it. You know, hey friend, can you come over and talk to her, please? Look, I promise I'll pay you back later. And you know, you just uh you just meet in in interesting ways.

Speaker 1:36:51

And um this kind of goes back to the meeting people in the analog way of just going in cold and talking to them. Are you do you feel like you excel at small talk? Like, do you get into those? You're you're a chatter.

Speaker 6 1:37:05

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimes I don't even know why I'm gonna, I literally I'll just walk up to the person I know. You know, I don't I don't got nothing, my mind be blank.

Speaker 1:37:13

Okay, so uh every day is improv for you.

Speaker 6 1:37:16

Yeah, yeah. Your whole life is improv. Improv. I I have no like I'm gonna say, I'm just like, oh, you know.

Speaker 1:37:21

Oh, okay. I like to go off script because I I feel allergic to small talk when people get into either like, okay, let's get into the rut of like weather um gigs, you know, like how was your weekend? How are you? Boring, boring question. Someone texted me, how are you? And I left them on red for like six days. And then I was like, I have to address this. Like, I had to say directly, I was like, bro, I love you, but I don't text like this. Like it's like you're it's the laziest way to get a how are you? It's like now I have to write you a novel of like how I'm doing, you know, physically, mentally, spiritually.

Speaker 6 1:38:04

I ain't gonna lie to you. If I saw that one tattoo on your left arm, I'd be like, I can't say hi, how you doing? You got the beanie, you fucking handle chainsaws. I hi, how you doing is not gonna cut it. I'm gonna be like, yo, I saw a bear in Berlin and almost wrestled it to the ground.

Speaker 1:38:18

I guess I I have more um there, there's more angles.

Speaker 6 1:38:23

You'll be a tough person to date. You lived a life that a lot of people have not lived, and also you have lived a life that most dudes aspire to, but couldn't even come close to.

Speaker 1:38:32

Yeah, this is the thing. Yeah, that is it's especially in North America, it's very aspirational to be like, fuck society. I'm gonna go live out in the woods and hunt. And I'm like, okay.

Speaker 6 1:38:43

And they're talking about it aspirationally. You lived it, so it's even more annoying to you because you're probably like, all right, look, what personal.

Speaker 1:38:49

Give it a year, see if you still like doing that many chores and um washing your hair with hard water.

Speaker 5 1:38:55

I just want to like hunt, you know, this and that, blah, blah. I just want to make my own meat. You'd be like, you really, you, you want to.

— Why she left the wilderness for comedy

Speaker 1:39:01

It's kind of all you're doing. That was one of the main reasons that I left that life and lifestyles because the people that are living that way, that is their whole life. Like they're that's their for a lot of them, their full-time job because they turn it into a YouTube channel. And then the and people love it. Like, if I put a video up of me chopping wood, it people were so interested in it, and it's it's so attractive to people to live like that that they want to live vicariously through your you know off-grid YouTube, but to pursue something like a comedy career.

Speaker 6 1:39:40

Oh, yeah, you just find it weird for doing that.

Speaker 1:39:42

When you live in the woods and you have to drive 90 minutes to the closest open mic, is like they're such incompatible lifestyles that I was like, I and I tried for two the first two years that I was doing stand-up to drive to gigs and travel and then come back and be like, oh yeah, there's still like this rock wall that hasn't been built, or this garden hoop that isn't finished, or you this thing that you know, meat that hasn't been processed, it's still in the freezer. Like there is just shit was not getting done at the property when I was away trying to do stand-up. And then when you're doing hours of chores every day and sharpening your fucking chainsaw, then you're like, I'm not writing jokes, I'm not yeah, I'm like living.

Speaker 6 1:40:31

I'm I'm trying to keep myself alive.

Speaker 1:40:33

Or your material is not at all relatable because you're like, you know how it is, you know, when you're you're equalizing the batteries and you want to go and do something else, and then you your levels are like you my life wasn't relatable. I couldn't really talk about because I wasn't in society anymore.

Speaker 6 1:40:51

So I but you know all that is like hilarious. Whenever you crack that or whatever, not crack it, but whatever you decide to incorporate it, just like the way you look doesn't map to whatever you have done years like the years you was in the wilderness. Like if I also look at you, the way you dress, your demeanor, everything like it'd be like, yeah, you have lived a life of music and entertainment and and vibes, but you have lived a life of which most people for centuries have lived and aspired to be, which is you know how to chop wood, make fire, you you you you hunted a bear and and you still had you still have extra stuff to eat. Look, I'm even choking on my own spit. That's all crazy, you know. I'm like, what the fuck? Bear you you you you you you know how to make the meat, which by the way, that is impressive. I mean, most dudes they'll probably look at that and be like, I don't know if I can, I don't know if I'm if I'm for this girl, I don't know if I have enough skills to fucking talk to a girl who fucking carved bear meat. Are you serious? Every Berlin the fucking mascot is a bear. So you fucking shot black bears, carved it, you're like, that's my mascot.

Speaker 1:41:56

Yeah, don't tell Berliners. Yes. Don't tell them.

Speaker 6 1:41:59

No, but we'll tell we'll we'll edit this part out. Yeah, the whole everything, everything that said black bear will edit out because we're in Berlin.

Speaker 1:42:05

Well, what was your life before comedy?

Speaker 6 1:42:07

My life, ah, interesting. That was uh I was working in uh I was working in corporate, I was working in tech, yeah.

Speaker 1:42:12

In tech?

Speaker 6 1:42:13

I was working in tech, yeah.

Speaker 1:42:14

Ah, it's very Berlin.

Speaker 6 1:42:15

Yeah, so I was working in tech. Uh no, it was in uh New York. So I was working in tech, but I was doing comedy and that's very Berlin to used to work in tech. Yeah. It's funny because um I didn't go to school for it. I went to like a coding boot camp or something, so I like had to learn it through those coding boot camp things. Okay, yeah, which that was uh very difficult. Yeah, that was very like to not have gone to school for it and then learn how to do it in a short period of time, like it was in three months, that was like probably one of the most difficult things uh yeah in my life. That was like wild. But yeah, I was doing that, and I was doing comedy. Um and then also I was doing acting, I was doing sketch, so I was writing sketches, like live on stage sketches, and uh yeah, that was what I was doing, that was my life. That was in New York, that was in New York City, so yeah, I used to like literally do work in yeah, work in corporate tech or whatever. Uh and then on at night then do comedy. Yeah, and just like literally do comedy or acting or sketch or yeah, play like doing plays or films or whatever.

Speaker 1:43:12

The sun has moved. It has moved, so now it is uh So I'm gonna I'm gonna wager that it's 442.

Speaker 5 1:43:25

Jesus Christ, you're not yo, it's 446, but what the fuck? Is it yeah?

Speaker 1:43:29

Is it 44? I was four minutes off. Yeah, what the yo okay I'm good with the sun.

Speaker 6 1:43:34

You told you I know you're doing your thing on social media about 30 days of weird stuff. After you're done, now time to go into the fucking wilderness shit you've been doing. Yeah, this is the the your you're I'm telling you, the way your setup right here would never lead to saying, I think she knows how to carve meat and know how to unjam a chainsaw or some shit.

Speaker 1:43:54

Yeah, I've lived a couple of lives.

Speaker 5 1:43:57

Yeah, you got the tattoos on your hand like that, like what?

Speaker 6 1:44:00

If you just chop wood and somebody just saw your hand, they're like, oh my god, this is for me. Wow, who the fuck? Oh my god, this is a life I didn't think any of us can live, but here we are, our representative, our messiah.

— Dream: tattooing comedians on tour

Speaker 1:44:17

Uh that's that's been like a crossover. Uh I haven't tattooed at all since I've been here, but I got a couple of jobs here, yeah. Yeah, yeah, there is there's some tattoos around. Um but I wanna I wanna start my own podcast interview show where I just sit around and tattoo a comedian and then we just shoot the shit while I'm tattooing them. Because comedians, they're the best hang. Comedians are the best hang, but they have no money, and I'm like, I think well maybe I'll just get I'll get them to pay me in their presence and the and the content, and then we can just hang and tattoo, and it doesn't have to be about that's really my whole I'm putting it out there, I'm saying it out loud, that my whole vision, my dream for my career is if I could just tour as a stand-up and then just tattoo comedians and anyone else that wants to pay me for tattoos. But if I could just hang out in hotels and Airbnbs and green rooms and just sit around with comics and tattoo them, and that'd be a job, that's it. That's all I need in my life.

Speaker 6 1:45:26

That's fucking dope right there.

Speaker 1:45:27

And I've made it. That's it. I don't need anything else. I don't need I don't need a wedding or children.

Speaker 6 1:45:32

That'll be that'll be your life right there. So, all right. So, um, damn, this is man, this uh there's so much I want to fucking ask you. Like, we haven't gotten to the house on the detail about the bears and everything, maybe like a part two or something. Yeah, there I think we covered, I think we covered bears and chainsaws and wood and I think enough that will be allowed for before any judgment would have been made, been like, okay, who are these people and why are they going in this detail? I thought it was about culture, but now we're getting into meats and everything.

Speaker 1:45:56

Hey, that is culture. That is my that is my white Canadian culture. Yeah, we learned a lot. Camo and wood chopping and uh and weed that takes you into another dimension. That's it. That's my culture. Weed that's too strong and shooting bears.

Speaker 6 1:46:14

I'm telling you, you're from a part of America. A lot of people not America.

Speaker 1:46:19

I was born in the States.

Speaker 6 1:46:20

You were born in the States, yeah. Okay, so okay, so I wasn't she said it earlier, so yeah, don't get into the whole target.

Speaker 1:46:25

Another layer is revealed. Oh my god! And I have an American passport, but I love it. Identify Canadian. I left it as home. I identify as Canadian. Yeah, I'm I'm trans-American. And uh yeah, I was born in Washington. So all my family on my dad's side are down in uh Southern California. Wow. Yeah, it's it's warm and it's dry, and I'm such a novelty to them too. They're like, you change your tires in the year? Like, they don't know what snow tires are. And uh yeah, it's great. It's made it very easy to go back and forth across the border, except for the one time that I I because I was born in the States, it says that on my Canadian passport that I was born in federal way, Washington. Uh, but the border control agent asked me one time, like, oh, why aren't you you're born in the States, why aren't you traveling with an American passport? And I thought it was kind of like a trick question. I was like, uh the Canadian passport is just generally more well received. That's exactly what I said. And I said it like real slow too, because I was like, I don't, I'm just gonna answer this question with the words that are coming out of my mouth, I guess. And he got so triggered by it and was like, well, you know, then soon you're gonna have to use your American passport to come through the border, and got all huffy and was like threatening that I I would only be able to use my American passport to cross the border. And I was like, I don't think that's right. Is it American border? I think your feelings are just hurt. It's American particularly. Oh, yeah. When you come when you go from the States into Canada, they're like, get on in here. Yeah, they're like, come back, we'll go back. Wait, let me check your passport first. Let me check your passport. Okay, get on in here. Yeah, that's the that's the vibe going back and forth. So yeah, I've been stopped a couple of times where uh they just didn't read on the passport. Like I lived with my dad down in the states for a little while, and I was coming, I was visiting in Canada and then coming back to California to live with my dad, and and they're like, and I was traveling by myself, I was in eighth, eighth grade. And yeah, my sister and I have flown a lot um since we were little kids, just by ourselves, and just coming back down to the states, and they're like, Oh, what are you doing here? And I was like, Oh, I live with my dad. And then that was like 45 minutes in a little detainment room, and then someone finally came in and was because they had actually finally read on the passport, like, oh, she was born in the states, so she has citizenship, and they were all like, Did you know, did you know that you were born in the states? And I was like, Yeah, did you? Like, you clearly didn't read the password.

Speaker 6 1:49:06

At the end of the day, it's just egos being protected by power, and anytime it gets like challenged, but but but do you know it's like, hey, look, I get it. You didn't make the high school football team and you thought he was gonna make it a D1, you made it a D zero, and uh don't take that out of me. And now you work at the border in Oliver British Columbia. And in that time you didn't learn how to read, so now you're confronted with your reading abilities on a passport, which should be only one line that says location or state or whatever.

Speaker 1:49:32

Would you go back to live in the States?

Speaker 6 1:49:34

Ah, I don't know. I don't know now. Obviously, what's going on in the States, yes, but even to like a large extent, it's just like living out here, there's so many like things that I'm I'm experiencing, like traveling in different cities and different countries and shit now with the touring. Um, you know, also just the health.

Speaker 5 1:49:53

I mean, things are just like food's better. Food's better. I'm able to travel to Italy, like you know, if I'm

Speaker 1:50:00

Go this weekend, I can go. You can go and eat food in Italy, and uh yeah, the chicken's not dipped in bleach and right, and so now when I go back, is it now it's like people want to go back?

Speaker 6 1:50:12

I I say it out loud. I'm not I'm thinking about it. Like, no, no, no, they're like we're trying to get to where you're going. So, anyway, yeah.

Speaker 1:50:17

I guess the stand-up scene is it's pretty strong in states, very strong, but it's like there's a lot of money in it, more money, yeah.

Speaker 6 1:50:27

But I'll say out here in Europe, it's like it's more open to what you can do, what you're able to do, and people don't have like such a strong uh assumption of what it is that they're gonna watch. So it kind of gives you a lot of room to be whatever you want to be, don't you know?

Speaker 1:50:41

Yeah, people have more creative kind of genre blending one-man shows that they'll take to fringe or and they can self-produce and be like, Oh, I'm gonna go on tour, because I organized a tour. Whereas in North America, I mean, I just kind of figured out in the last couple weeks that people are like, Oh, I'm on tour, but they come home after every weekend because they everything is so close that they're like, I'm on tour, but I just go out on the weekends and I come back to my apartment in Berlin all week. And I'm like, oh, on tour in North America means you're gone for months.

Speaker 6 1:51:13

You live for your family, you're detached, you're in weird best westerns, or you know, uh days in, you know, uh parking lot right to your hotel, which that's a perfect scene for any murder-esque type of movie, right? You know, weird people.

Speaker 1:51:31

I yeah, I th I think I'm gonna give it a shot to like become a proper stand-up. Yeah, you maybe funny.

Speaker 6 1:51:38

You might as well. You out here, you got your eye, you know, you're gonna be Ireland soon, right?

Speaker 1:51:41

Yeah, I'm gonna be in Dublin.

Speaker 6 1:51:43

Dublin.

Speaker 1:51:44

Oh man, I have a good feeling about Ireland because I went to the embassy, the Irish Embassy here in Berlin to get my passport certified, and it was empty. Uh you know, so I'm leaning on the counter having a chat. Yeah, love a chat and just so friendly and uh asking questions, and at the end of it, he was like, Oh, don't worry about the fee, and just waved the 40 euro fee for the stamp. And and I was like, a German would never. And what? German would never, and I was like, I love the Irish, the mischievous, rule-breaking culture of like, oh, like a little wink and a like, don't worry about it. Oh, don't worry about it. And I was like, I think I'm gonna love Ireland.

Speaker 6 1:52:32

Look at you, we got the accent.

Speaker 1:52:34

Just go in there, flash a little bit of red hair. They're like, yeah, get it, get it. You know, jump up first before they do the wind, but a little heel click. Um but it's just uh it's a culture that's so rich in mythology and storytelling and um singing, singing and dancing that that I think that's my kind of place. I came to Germany being like, oh, I loved I love when people are direct. Uh do I? Yeah. After three months, I'm like, you could do a little more evasive people pleasing.

Speaker 6 1:53:09

And it's like, all right, these blinks are not covering up from the lack of conversation or emotional connection. All right. So I'm curious, right? All right, so uh I so I have um actually I won't give you this one question, right? This is like the closing question I get to everyone. Yes.

Speaker 1:53:24

I'm ready. So oh god, I'm so excited. I'm sweating.

Speaker 6 1:53:26

All right, cool.

Speaker 1:53:27

I wear my best t-shirt for this. This is the t-shirt that has the least amount of kebab sauce.

Speaker 6 1:53:32

Wow, you've been living life here, kebab sauce all over, huh? Look at that.

Speaker 1:53:36

That's me dressing up for real. Okay, okay, ask me questions, I feel pretty. Okay, all right.

— Closing advice: nobody's watching as much as you think

Speaker 6 1:53:42

I apologize, I'm a little nervous asking about this, but you have the lived a life. You lived a life and still living a life, right? In terms of you living in the wilderness, from you from Washington States, yes, and now living you living in Canada for a bit, you living in uh the bot underneath a tattoo shop in a building that uh you were living in where you had to charge batteries and hunt bears and uh also uh unclogged chain, not unclogged, but you had to sharpen the teeth of the chainsaw. Uh, you have also traveled here to Berlin, where now you have uh experienced Germany culture in in an interesting way about uh you going to a party and uh no one's talking, you know, and then you being validated in terms of how you're moving your elbows by a black man with a British accent who touched the lower part or the small part of your back, as you said, and validated that hey, your elbows are doing the right thing. Or maybe there's some other things about you that are right. But you have lived in life and you try to learn German and uh you realize that was an ill attempt, and you're not gonna try that again.

Speaker 1:54:45

No, oh man, we didn't even cover we I lived in Australia, I was married in Australia, and I used to live in Cambodia, I used to work on a boat, we're just we're just scratching the surface here.

Speaker 4 1:54:57

Well, we're gonna have you back, is what we're saying. What the fuck?

Speaker 1:55:00

Let's do a part two.

Speaker 6 1:55:01

We're gonna do a part two, yeah. Because already the first half is like, wow. All right, so you've been through all that. So if you used to give advice to your younger self with you going through all these different cultures and experiences, what would be the number one advice you'll give to your younger self?

Speaker 1:55:23

Just do exactly what you want to do because nobody's paying that much attention.

Speaker 6 1:55:35

That's a good ass reminder right there. Always in our own heads or in the heads of other people and what they may think.

Speaker 1:55:43

Well, yeah, I've I mean I've spent the first thirty years of my life very much imprisoned in my own insecurities and uh self-loathing, and uh I would I've never done any kind of performing or singing or acting uh until I did a comedy open mic. That was the first time I'd ever done performance in front of people, and the threshold you step over when you go from, oh, I could never, you know, what would people think? Like, like after the show last night, we were just goofing around and drawing uh black mustaches on each other, and then I just rode the trains home with these mus with this mustache on my face, and like five years ago, I never, I never would have done that because oh my god, what if people saw my face with a mustache drawn on it in public and uh just the the amount that you think people care or are judging? Uh it's like this you think you're gonna die a social death if you do something humiliating or embarrassing in public, and becoming a comedian absolutely set me free from that kind of constrictive thinking. And now, like the just the freedom to do something like cutting my own bangs on Instagram, and then just watching this title wave of trolls come in that are all like, what does your hairdresser do for a living? And is he a landscape gardener? And people are like, he's also her dentist, and just like the the comments that you would just it's like the the fear of that is so much worse than it actually happening to you. Does that make sense? Like the the fear of making a mistake is so much worse than the fallout, the fallout of actually making that social mistake. So yeah, riding the train with a mustache on my face or doing stand-up or cutting my bangs on the internet, like to feel free to do that and have no self-consciousness that uh that's like a wrong thing to be doing. I just I cannot imagine my life if I if I never went and tried stand-up and I just kept living like that my whole life. And people live like that their whole lives. Yeah. Where they would never, they would never ever be seen on a public train with a mustache on their face. And I'm like, that is such a small, sad, sad way to live. And like that's why anybody I've talked to so many people that are like, oh, I'm thinking about trying stand-up, or I'd love to do that, or I secretly want to be a stand-up, and I say, like, absolutely try an open mic because not everybody is meant for super stardom. You don't have to all be hurtling towards a Netflix special. But if you get on stage and you just once step over that threshold where you go, like, oh, I could stand up here and embarrass myself or bomb and realize that you're fine and that nothing bad is gonna happen, and actually nobody even remembers the next day. Like that's the thing, too. No one remembers. Like, I've bombed and it haunts me for weeks. And then but nobody else is out there, even 48 hours later, going, I'm really disappointed in that redheaded lady. I really think she should have done better. No, they're thinking about their own insecure thing that they did, and yeah, it just like however it works for you, whether you're doing stand-up or public speaking or like anything that will free you from that thinking, fucking do that thing like as early as you can. If you're just thinking about it, and like it took me six months to get on stage. I every single week I was like, okay, Thursday's coming up, you're gonna go, you're gonna go to the open mic, and then Thursday morning would come, and it just felt like there's no fucking way I'm driving to that open mic and doing that. And every week I would chicken out for six months, and I was like, this is torturous. I think if I don't do it, I'm gonna regret it for the rest of my life. And I it just I started to have dreams about being on stage, and I would wake up in the morning and my brain would be like, Are you gonna try comedy? And I'd be like, Leave me alone. I don't want to do it. But yeah, how uh whatever the thing is that you're afraid of that you think will cause that social death, fucking do that thing.

Speaker 6 2:00:35

Oh, this is that right there, because like even just seeing listening to you, I mean, you know, we only know each other for a little bit, but just I couldn't even imagine you'd be any any any other way, to be honest.

Speaker 2:00:47

I was so insecure, so small, so like my life was so controlled by what I thought other people would think of me, and I was not the class clown that so many comedians claim they were growing up. Right now, your energy and everything, literally, I couldn't imagine you'd be anything else. That's how I feel now, where I go, oh my god, I was I was trapped for so for my whole life until two and a half years ago.

Speaker 5 2:01:17

Yeah, look at you now. Now you travel, you're gonna fucking, you about to go to a different country and then another country then.

Speaker 2:01:22

So it's such a way off to feel like it doesn't matter that I have kebab sauce on my shirt, or like right now, you know, because I'm doing comedy, I'm like, I'm you know, I'm not working out. The Turkish dates here are amazing. I'm putting, I'm putting on date weight. It's all going it's all going to my face and my forearms, which are the most forward-facing parts of me as a comedian. And I'm looking at videos of myself, I'm like, look at your face. Why is your face so puffy? And then like it just does like it doesn't matter, like being yourself and being relaxed about your date face or your weird bangs, like whatever you got going on, if you're not worried about it, like nobody else is either. It's just it's such a free way to live when you let that go. And yeah, like that would be my advice to my younger self or to anybody right now who's listening to this is you can probably think of what your threshold is. And it for most people, the number one fear is public speaking, public speaking or performing. And if you just try it even once, just just to show yourself that you can do it and that you'll be fine after, it will probably change your life.

Speaker 6 2:02:42

Wow, that is some good advice right there. I'm gonna leave on that note for some more jokes to come and mess it up. We're two comedians, so you know okay.

Speaker 2:02:52

Well, keep it sincere. Everyone's like veins bursting out quick. It's like, make fun of it. Please, you gotta make fun of me.

Speaker 6 2:03:00

I was on YouTube and uh, but um no, thank you very much for doing this. Um, you know, this is I mean, yeah, this man, this is this is a good ass. I mean, I didn't know you live this kind of life, you know, like in terms of what you did and in Canada and everything, but definitely part two. Whenever you're in town, I always invite people whenever they want to come back to the podcast, they can come. Um, you know, at least you have content. Uh, you know, I will definitely clip this and uh put this out. I need to be more consistent with the podcast's a whole different story. Let me not vent here.

Speaker 2:03:29

Nobody needs to see that on camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 2:03:31

We won't cut this out.

Speaker 2:03:32

I'm not inconsistent with anything. But uh that's awesome. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a nice chat. I got to wear your shades, I got to have sun on my face.

Speaker 6 2:03:39

Yeah, that was wow. Look at that, you know. Yeah, you I'm telling you, the aesthetic was aestheticizer. You know what I mean? There you go. Yeah, I don't know if that's the right word.

Speaker 2:03:48

It is it is for me.

Speaker 6 2:03:49

Okay, there you go. But uh Allison Luan. Okay, Alison Luan, you can uh find her uh on Instagram, on Instagram.

Speaker 2:03:58

Um, I'm getting absolutely roasted on TikTok right now, so go and check that out. Okay, go check out the roasting Allison Lujan comedy and Allison Lujan tattoos.

Speaker 6 2:04:07

All right, yes, go ahead. She got all the tattoos and nice tattoos by the way. So if you need some tattoos, boom. She'll there you go. Ah, look at that. She got a hand with an eye in there. So, you know, got another crystal.

Speaker 2:04:19

The hairy Berlin legs. I'm part I'm part of the the culture now.

Speaker 6 2:04:22

There you go. You knew what you knew where you're coming to. You was like, hey, let me blend in a little bit, you know. So there you go. Right. You you know, things are gonna work out for you before you leave. Thanks, Nya. Thank you very much for doing this. And guys, thank you for listening and or watching to the third Culture Talk podcast. I'm your boy Nya Yeanafehn, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.

Speaker 5 2:04:40

There you go. Wow. That was a good, good, good.