Ever found yourself chuckling at a celebrity impersonation so spot-on it feels as though the star themselves has jumped through the radio waves? Lauren O'Brien has mastered this art, and in our latest podcast, she spills the secret to nailing the essence of pop culture icons. As Jack Hopkins, who is NOT a stand-up comic, I share my own tales of mirth and missteps on the comedic battlefield. Together, we unravel the threads of laughter that bind impersonation to resilience, proving that even in the darkest moments, a well-timed joke can be a beacon of light.
The evolution of stand-up has stumbled into breweries and donut shops, with voices from all walks of life taking the mic. This episode isn't just about belly laughs—it's a salute to the courageous women reshaping the comedy landscape and the unexpected places where we find relief from life's punches. Join Lauren and me as we reflect on my rollercoaster ride through the comedy scene since 2008, including the birth of a female-dominated comedy show and the therapeutic power of stand-up. We also peel back the curtains to reveal the offstage realities comedians face, the blurred lines between public persona and private life, and the delicate dance with audience perceptions.
Navigating humor's tightrope over sensitive topics, we ponder the balancing act of comedy in today's complex world. With anecdotes ranging from handling family grief with a smile to missteps that teach us to tread more thoughtfully, this conversation underscores comedy's role in our collective healing process. We close the curtains with a look at the resilience needed to chase the spotlight, the quest for balance between fame and family, and the light-hearted lessons learned from mispronounced names. Life, like comedy, is full of unexpected turns, and in our podcast, we embrace them all with open arms and a ready chuckle.
Ever found yourself chuckling at a celebrity impersonation so spot-on it feels as though the star themselves has jumped through the radio waves? Lauren O'Brien has mastered this art, and in our latest podcast, she spills the secret to nailing the essence of pop culture icons. As Jack Hopkins, who is NOT a stand-up comic, I share my own tales of mirth and missteps on the comedic battlefield. Together, we unravel the threads of laughter that bind impersonation to resilience, proving that even in the darkest moments, a well-timed joke can be a beacon of light.
The evolution of stand-up has stumbled into breweries and donut shops, with voices from all walks of life taking the mic. This episode isn't just about belly laughs—it's a salute to the courageous women reshaping the comedy landscape and the unexpected places where we find relief from life's punches. Join Lauren and me as we reflect on my rollercoaster ride through the comedy scene since 2008, including the birth of a female-dominated comedy show and the therapeutic power of stand-up. We also peel back the curtains to reveal the offstage realities comedians face, the blurred lines between public persona and private life, and the delicate dance with audience perceptions.
Navigating humor's tightrope over sensitive topics, we ponder the balancing act of comedy in today's complex world. With anecdotes ranging from handling family grief with a smile to missteps that teach us to tread more thoughtfully, this conversation underscores comedy's role in our collective healing process. We close the curtains with a look at the resilience needed to chase the spotlight, the quest for balance between fame and family, and the light-hearted lessons learned from mispronounced names. Life, like comedy, is full of unexpected turns, and in our podcast, we embrace them all with open arms and a ready chuckle.
Welcome to the Jack Hopkins show podcast, where stories about the power of focus and resilience are revealed by the people who live those stories. And now the host of the Jack Hopkins show podcast, jack.
Speaker 2:Hopkins, I'm so excited to introduce you to this week's guest Comedian, Lauren O'Brien. Now, I say comedian, but she's also a writer and a producer. She's open for the likes of Michael Che, Arsenio Hall and Kevin Nealon. It's probably best known for her appearances on First Impressions with Dana Carvey, Jimmy Kimmel Live and, of course, celebrities stuck in traffic. She's also an actress, and we'll learn more about that in just a bit.
Speaker 2:I think what I'm most excited about is that you are going to learn some things from a perspective that you've probably never taken on before the perspective of comedian, somebody who views the world in a really different way and whose job it is is to find something funny, very often in things that nobody else really finds funny, and as a former Navy hospital corpsman who worked for a time on an oncology floor, I know how I used dark humor, cope with the things that really weren't too enjoyable to experience, and I think comedians experience the world in much the same way, just with a little different flavor. So I'm really excited for you to have these fresh new perspectives and learn about how comedians look at the world, how they cope with the world and how they create the resilience to be able to go out on stage, face rejection and keep on going. So let's don't wait another minute, let's get right into the conversation with Lauren O'Brien. I've got to tell you I've been really looking forward to this For one particular reason I've always wanted to be funny.
Speaker 2:I've always wanted to be funny, but at 58 years old I figured something out I'm not funny. And I've kind of figured out too and it took me most of those 58 years that for the most part, being funny isn't something you buy a book on and learn. You can probably become funnier than you are by doing that, but you won't be comedian-level funny. I think it's kind of something you're born with. As we get into talking about your impersonations, it's what you are able to do with your facial expressions, which you do masterfully. So welcome, and just know that. Even though I would like you to be able to tell me how to be funny, I know that's probably not something you can do.
Speaker 3:The good news. I was going to say a lot of the comedy comes from trauma. So you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I've had plenty of that, so maybe I have hope.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just dig. You got to dig in there, and the stuff that causes the most pain is usually the stuff you want to talk about the most and you want to shed some light on the most. So, yeah, just go a little deeper into the psyche and you'll be fine.
Speaker 2:Just dive into the pain. You know it's interesting that I used to do training something down the East Coast for companies on time management, a variety of subjects, and of course every book you read on presenting always says you know, kind of be funny in the beginning, warm the audience up to you, but I was never funny. So what I found that got more laughs than any kind of funny thing I ever tried to do. I would tell this story which was true by the way about my wife after having attended one of my I think it was a keynote where I tried to introduce a little humor, and on the way home she said can I tell you something? And that when somebody asked you that you know what's coming is not going to be good, I said sure, she said you're not funny. So I started telling that story as kind of the introduction and everybody laughed.
Speaker 2:So, my way around not being funny was just to tell people I'm not funny, and somehow that made them laugh. So let's talk about your. Your funny At what age? I know that you kind of started doing the impersonations at around seven. Donald Duck I think was one of your first. And I've listened to that, and I listened to it with my eyes closed as well. That's about as good of Donald Duck as I've ever heard. I don't know if Mel Blanc was in your genealogy stream, or.
Speaker 3:You know I haven't done the ancestrycom or the 23andMe yet, but I would be open to discovering that. But no, that actually came from a family friend. There was an older boy who did a Donald Duck impression and I was so transfixed because when he would do it his whole face would sort of change. And I just I've always been this way. I like to break down the mechanics of why things work, how things work, and so I just kind of systematically would stare at him while he would do it, then go to the mirror and see if my face was doing the same thing, and once I figured it out it was like, ok, that's an achievement unlocked, and it's still how I do impressions actually.
Speaker 2:You've kind of already answered one of the questions I was going to ask you. I want to kind of dive into it a little deeper, because the question I was going to ask is do you first focus on the physiology and on the physical, or is it the auditory and the speaking?
Speaker 3:And so I'm guessing you get into the movement first, yeah, absolutely, and I think there are some people who they emulate so perfectly tonally and they have this voice match where, like you said, you could close your eyes, and that's that person and I think I'm close enough. But I think the physicality is what tricks people's brains into thinking that it's closer than it is. So I think I try to take on the whole picture and if I find that tonally I can't match it or I'm just not quite there, I think I amp up and make it more of a caricature. So my impression will be like whatever physical thing or mannerism that I notice that they do, I think I just, whether subconscious or not, I amplify it to kind of make up for any shortcomings.
Speaker 2:I like that explanation of kind of equating it to a caricature, because really a caricature is just an amplification of your most dominant features, and so that's interesting. Last night I called my wife over and I was looking at some clips of your impersonations and one that just like gave me goosebumps because it was such a transformation. I mean, it was just like in that moment I forgot that it was you doing somebody, because visually you became this person, visually Angelina Jolie.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I said, my God, look at this. And she was like holy cow. That's insane, because in that moment I'm looking at Angelina Jolie. Right right right, it's crazy. Do you find that that's a necessary element for you to be able to access the spoken?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and she's a great example of someone who I don't even think I really knew what she sounded like. I think a lot of people, if you try to just right now think of what Angelina Jolie sounds like, you're probably going to have an easier time visualizing her, Because she's obviously she's gorgeous, but she has very prominent features and a certain way she stands and carries herself in a poise. So much easier to access that for me and sort of imitate that, because originally when I did Angelina Jolie, someone had requested I'd like to see that one In the early days when I was like who else can I, can I give a whirl to?
Speaker 2:Right, well, another one that I noticed, and I noticed one aspect of it that really stood out. When you do Drew Barrymore, it seems like the lips are really important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I couldn't. I mean because I have to go off to the side. If I do a Drew Barrymore impression, it's just if I just bring my mouth back to center. I just can't possibly like it. Just gravitationally it pulls over to the side or else it can't be completed.
Speaker 2:So the physiology, then when you hook into that, everything else just syncs up pretty much now at this point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, and I think for me, what I love more than watching somebody in a movie or a TV show and watching their character is I generally love to watch them in like a late night show, a couch interview, because that's usually when they're they're letting off those little idiosyncrasies and they're strange little quirks that they have, or you kind of get a better essence of that person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd never thought of that because, like you said, when they're on the big screen, well, first they're usually playing a role, so they are somebody else and while certain things, the unique things about them, still leak out, like you said, they're more suppressed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah everything's measured and edited and very well planned and executed. So I like watching people, unfiltered, candid, as true to themselves as they can be, while being under intense scrutiny 24 seven.
Speaker 2:Right, right, Did you get into comedy because of the impersonations? Meaning, when you first started doing them, you found that when you did them, people laughed and you, you were like hey, I like this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the impressions that I started doing, you know, after Donald Duck, would just be. Naturally I would be just telling a story to my family, like oh, and then remember when Aunt Diane said you can't hold the chips that way or you're going to drop the whole bag, like then I would make them laugh. That sounds just like her. Well, and I wasn't doing it on purpose, it was just that in my retelling of stories I just I still do this.
Speaker 3:I just can't help but sort of embody a person that I guess has larger than life characteristics. So I did that with with family and then with friends. I would like it would do teachers or their parents or coaches, and it always got a good laugh. And then people would say like do it again, or do this person or try this person, so that kind of just was one of these little like parlor tricks I always had that people seem to enjoy, and it was sort of like oh, okay, well, you know it's people like you if you do those things, so I'll keep doing the things. That makes people like you.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and I'm sure it's nice too. Here's what I used to always say when I did a lot of public presenting. People would say, oh, I could never do that. You know, most people are freaked out by public speaking and I'd say, no, no, no. I'll tell you the people I admire and then I'll tell you why I really admire. Stand up comedians, and let me tell you why. If I, in my presentations, I wouldn't tell jokes, I would tell stories, and if you happen to find there was something in that story that was funny, you could laugh. But since it was just a story, if you didn't laugh, I hadn't bombed.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, but in your world whether people laugh or not is like the measurement.
Speaker 3:That's, that's the point right.
Speaker 2:Right and you are on stage and unlike with with myself, where it was kind of impossible to fail with a story, it's not impossible to fail with something you say on stage. So I think people in comedy are way above people who do key notes and things of that nature, just because the risk factor of bombing is so much greater.
Speaker 3:Well, interestingly enough, I mean it's funny you say that because the reason I got when I was a kid and I would make people laugh, it only occurred like in my little fiefdom I would make my friends and family laugh, and then if you tried to put me on the spot or on a stage, it was like no, no, no, I don't want that, I just want I want to be safe and I know that. I'm in my little crew and I know what makes them tick. But then when I once I got my first jobs out of college, I was working, I went to school for marketing and I went into the marketing and sales roles and then when I had to actually make presentations, I found myself kind of seizing up, like I would shake and I would get so nervous and I felt like it undermined my intelligence, it undermined my the successes that I had and the work that I had done, and so I was just like I have to take up do toastmasters or I got to get over this because it's making me look weak and I don't like it one bit. So I started taking some improv classes to help me get up in front of people and that was good. But I also felt like, oh, I always have a scene partner, so I can always sort of rely on somebody else. But when I'm up there doing a presentation in front of my coworkers who I was fine with five minutes ago, but all of a sudden, when I'm on the spot, I'm so nervous. I need something that emulates that. And so I decided I was gonna do stand up comedy, purely out of the most fearful thing I could think to do.
Speaker 3:And the first time I did it it didn't really go well. I mean, it was like I kind of blacked out. I'm sober, but I kind of blacked out and I was like that was terrible. I am never doing that again. I'm glad I got out of my system, but it was not like I felt like nobody was laughing. I ended up actually filming it and then watching it back about a month later and it was like I heard someone say one time you're never as bad as you thought you were, but you're never as good as you thought you were. It was definitely one of those. Oh, it was not as bad as I thought it was. Maybe it was just good enough for me to try it again. So anyway, long story short is I got into it only because I was envious of people like you who could get up and speak in front of a crowd of people comfortably.
Speaker 2:And in the end, having done that, did that help your presentation skills in movie? Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I would say I've bombed so many I'm not even gonna try and put a number on how many times I've bombed. And then, additionally, I've the percentage of auditions that I've done and actually booked has to be below 1%. So many auditions where you just you go and you don't hear, you don't get any feedback. It's just like no, you just that's it, you didn't book it. And so getting rejected time and time again makes everything else so much easier.
Speaker 3:It makes job interviews, it makes presentations easier, it makes confronting my kids' principle about things I have to talk about that make me very uncomfortable yeah it's just like okay, well, I've faced the worst thing, which is just standing there with a spotlight on you and your thoughts, out there for the world and nobody's entertained, right.
Speaker 2:You've kind of dipped into an area that I was really wanting to talk to you about, and that is, even though I really know nothing about the comedy world, my intuition tells me that there is a lot of rejection, even if it's in the form of a heckler or just that nobody laughs, but also on the end of booking things, just because I'm sure, like the speaking industry, it's a fairly saturated market with other people you know trying to come into the business. What's been the belief or the thought or kind of the idea about rejection that's kept you? Because I'm sure you know people who've tried to get into the business who couldn't take the rejection and just threw in the towel and said I'm not doing it. So what has separated you from somebody like that?
Speaker 3:Well, number one, I'm still very much at it. I wouldn't say I have necessarily achieved any level that I have come close to wanting yet in terms of success, but I think it's just one of those things where I know from the casting process I've been a little bit on the other side of it as well and you know that oftentimes it has absolutely nothing to do with you and it's not personal. Sometimes it can be the time of day that somebody saw you. Sometimes you're two inches taller than the coaster that they went with and they want a more even match. Sometimes you remind someone of an ex-girlfriend, or sometimes they just wanted somebody with different color hair or whatever. So I know very much that on the casting side of things that it's not personal With audiences.
Speaker 3:In terms of stand-up comedy it's very easy to just blame an audience all the time, and oftentimes when everyone in the lineup is bombing, that feels better because you can at least get off stage and be like what is wrong with them? And then you'll have six comedians in the lineup and somewhere the fourth person comes through and they do something that breaks through and they connect and they win them over. So I think sometimes it's just easy to be like. I'm just not connecting and I'm not for everybody, and that's okay. It's very dynamic live performances, live comedies. It's why I don't enjoy taped specials as much as I enjoy watching live comedy, because it's oftentimes it's a dance and sometimes you can just win people over and figure it out. Sometimes you don't figure it out, yeah, but I think that's kind of what I like about it. I used to surf a lot and it's almost like surfing. It's like the ocean is never the same place twice. You kind of have to improvise and sometimes you just get completely slammed and you're just lucky to drown.
Speaker 2:That's why, when I lived in San Diego, where I lived there for seven years- I miss it. But a boogie board was my best friend because I could just grab it and lay on it right.
Speaker 2:Didn't require a lot of gymnastic skills. I did a little bit of surfing, but not enough to. I mean, you've got to get in the groove physically where you can hit it every time and, as you said, even then the ocean may have a different plan for you, even though your body's where it should be. Let me share something with you just to get your feedback on this and see if this makes any sense to you.
Speaker 2:I think the thing that stands out about you a lot of comedians, and I think it's something that's a plus for them. But some time ago I actually heard a comedian talking about this, though I can't remember who it was but a lot of really funny comedians also look funny in the sense that they have either maybe big ears or a Jay Leno with a really really dominant chin or something about them that really so they don't look like anybody else and because of it, that in and of itself is kind of funny. And yet with you and I mean my wife the first thing she said and maybe this is just a woman thing I was calling her over to show her your humor- and her first thing, was oh wow, she's really pretty.
Speaker 3:So you are not, I love your wife.
Speaker 2:Ha ha ha ha. There's not really that thing about you, that kind of odd physical feature that people, for example, if I were doing a caricature of you, there's really nothing to focus on that. Oh okay, she has big ears or she has a big nose. So the fact then, that you Are still able to go on a stage and get people to laugh Is it fair to say that there are more people like those I describe in the business than people who Don't have those features?
Speaker 3:Well, there's probably now, and I just recently, because I have a two-year-old and so I took a little bit of time off. I have a two-year-old and a seven-year-old, so I've gone through these sort of ebbs and flows of when I'm up doing stand-up again, when I take a just self-inflicted hiatus, when I prioritize sleep over doing stand-up, but now that I'm back doing it again, there are more comedians than there have ever been since I started. You know that the first time I actually took the stage was December 1st 2008. Did I stay consistent after that for many, many years? No, I didn't really get back into it again For a couple years after that, and even then I wouldn't say I was consistent for another five years down the road from there. But there are way more women than when I you know, I used to sort of be like when I lived in San Diego. It would be like we need a woman to round out the lineup. You're the only one that we can think of. There's a handful of us. And now I would say, you know, like I just produced a show last week where it was mostly Females you know, mostly women on the show, and we had two men and we we actually said I think we need to get man on the show Round it out. But I would say, now it's, it's.
Speaker 3:There's so many avenues for First stand-up. You know, like we did our show in a brewery, I've done shows in Donut shops, laundry mats, coffee shops outside, kind of anywhere you can think of. There is this, there's an appetite for comedy, so it doesn't feel oversaturated in the way that like, well, I guess you know I can't do it now because, like how am I ever gonna break through because there's so many different avenues. I personally, you know, I'm sure every comedian would love to have a Netflix special or an HBO special or something like that, but for me it's I've always loved the live aspect of it then great than anything like that. So there are so many places to do it, which I think attracts More and more audiences, and so you don't have to necessarily just be this sort of like outlier.
Speaker 3:It's people. They want to see themselves reflected more than ever. I find that my best audience, my best target demo right now our moms that are around the same age as me and the whole it's funny because it's true Resonates with them. It's like if I talk about my kids and it's self-deprecating about how I am as a mom and I don't have it all figured out and put together. So I think to that point it's someone wants to see someone that's struggling with dating like they are. Someone wants to see, you know, someone with you know similar sexual orientation or or, you know, struggling to find a job or Feeling too old or or any any number of things to be represented. I just think that that's. That's just kind of why there's comedians of every shape, size, color, age, you know, gender, all right, everything.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this Are there people after you've done a show who come up to you and have a story that goes kind of like this I Needed this so badly and then tell you some story about some trauma or some tragedy they've gone through and that they haven't laughed like this for a while, and when you realize you Were also playing the role of a therapist and didn't even know it.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, absolutely, and it's what. It's what keeps me Making even though I'm not as consistent with making you know videos for social media anymore when it feels like how could you possibly find anything funny when you turn on the news right now? I'm think of the person at my show who said, like you know, my mother passed away last week. I wasn't gonna come, but I can't believe how much I needed this. Or you know, they're going through illnesses, or you know, just, I haven't left the house in a while.
Speaker 3:I heard that so much and oftentimes it felt really flippant that I would be like, oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for saying that. I'm so glad you know that I could make you laugh it. But it, but truly it was one of those things where I like I, I Originally wanted to be a pediatrician when I was a child because I always was like I want to help people and I loved kids. And then, once I got to seventh grade and I couldn't dissect the earthworm, my biology teacher Is like, well, you're never gonna make it through med school. So, anyway, I Many times when you're especially a night after you bomb or you're hitting your head against the wall, you're not booking auditions.
Speaker 3:You're kind of like, why do I do this? And then you have something like that sprinkled in between where you got somebody through a divorce or you know. Every once in a while I'm having a bad day and I go back and I watch your Ted lasso video. I'm like, wow, okay, so I am Not, I'm not saving anyone's life, maybe on an operating table, but you know, if I can just bring a smile, even in, even in the 10 minutes, 15 minutes I'm on stage, it's, it is very like gratifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is there an element for you? I'll explain mine so I can better explain what I'm asking you. For 30 years I worked with people to help them overcome things like anxiety, ptsd, different emotional traumas and the reason I got or the reason I was interested in all of that in the first place. From a very young age I was Really trying to Unscrew myself right.
Speaker 2:That was the initial interest how? How do I take these tools and work through my issues, because I feel like I've got a lot of issues. So do you find there's a therapeutic element of comedy For you personally?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, absolutely. And still, because I'm trying to write new material, all the time, it's Examining who I am as a mom, and then it's like you start thinking about huh, there's, there's hints of my inner child that are still coming out and I'm, even though I am supposed to be in charge of these two small humans my, I'm still a small human in some ways, and so I think about that a lot. When my, my dad passed away, I had in 2016 it was my son was born. Two weeks later, my dad passed away and then, a month after that, trump got elected and and 2016 felt like a Very dark, tumultuous time, but I produced some of the best Content.
Speaker 3:I wrote some of the best jokes because it had to go somewhere or else it was gonna fester inside, and so I was just trying to be like well, how are we gonna turn this around? So I don't cry and wallow, I guess we're gonna. I'm gonna have to laugh and I'm gonna have to make other people laugh with me and, right, it's an interesting thing trying to get people to laugh about your dad dying, but it's it's tough. A lot of people don't want to hear that, like when you, when you tell an audience like my dad died, and then they're like, oh no, it's so sad. I'm like I know, and he didn't give me his HBO go password before he passed away it's, but you know right as a hospital Corwin in the Navy.
Speaker 2:I worked for about a year on an oncology floor and I think something that's very common in Healthcare workers they adopt this dark humor to cope. So if, if you Would have listened to a group of Navy Corwin and the things they were joking about in private, of course, as An outsider you might think what a sick punch of idiots right right, but the outsider wouldn't understand that it's a coping mechanism.
Speaker 2:That when you're dealing with the death and dying every day, you've got to be able to find something about it. That where you can inject some humor, because if you don't, you're not going to last.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:How did? How did Trump change the world of comedy? Meaning, is there's something that's Become off limits because of Trump, or is there an increased need for people like you? Those are just a couple of examples, but I'll just ask you in what way has Trump changed?
Speaker 3:comedy. Well, he, he unlocked an impression In a ton of people. I mean better or for worse, I don't. I don't do a jump impression, but it kind of became like the Christopher Walken of impressions. It was like everybody had a take, everybody was focusing on on different things.
Speaker 3:I will say, I Live in LA and it can be, you know, a bit of a bubble and an echo chamber, and so, you know, you do Jokes and you assume, oh, I'm in a blue area and I and I make fun of Trump or whatever, and it's like we're all on the same team, right, which that's a whole side thing, I believe, about how bad the two-party system is and how we're all on teams right now. That's part of anyway, you know. And then you go to a different area and you say the same thing and all of a sudden is, and you have to Divert course Because it's now okay. Well, now you've, now you've just outed yourself as it's an us and them thing, and so I usually do.
Speaker 3:You know a quick thing to recover from that and turn it back on myself or just make fun of my you know, my lack of political knowledge or Things along those, along those lines, but I do think for a touring comedian, someone going all over the country. It has made it very Kind of either have to be really smart about the way you talk about politics or your own political views, or you stay away from it all together, or you lean in really, really hard. And so I Think I've been along the middle where I just kind of just you know, I'm just not gonna go down that road because I don't want to further drive the wedge and and contribute to the divisiveness, so I just kind of try to stay away from it.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you, then, about Somebody. I watched a couple of nights ago, wanda Sykes I think it was from 2019 and she opened, and maybe the first 20 minutes she Hammered Trump and it was funny, yeah. But my question while I was watching that does somebody like Wanda Sykes, do they just kind of decide, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to kind of have a niche market here for myself, I'm going to cater to this group of people and Screw the rest of them, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think she probably decided. I mean back to what I said before. It's like you to keep facing Rejection over and over again. You do have to accept, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3:I mean mother Teresa someone out there thought she was an a-hole you know right just you cannot please everyone, so you kind of have to decide, like I'm gonna try and go down the middle and sort of appeal. But if you want to swing for the fences, then you're like I'm just gonna go for 50% of the Demographic here and I'm gonna lean in really hard and I'm just gonna I'm gonna say Really, really outlandish things and I'm gonna make them laugh really hard and then I'm gonna be completely vilified by this other side. So I know it's interesting, like with my impressions. I don't really do a ton of political impressions, but I would say most of the celebrities that I have Lampooned my.
Speaker 3:My impressions are usually not me and spirited, but I had people from both sides. Omg, that's so funny. You know they had no problem when I was making fun of any you know liberal Celebrities or anything. And then as soon as I did an Ivanka Trump impression and I used her own father's words in the impression, it was like People came out of the woodwork. You know, you like calling me all kinds of names and and all these things and it's like, well, you guys had no problem when I was, you know, making fun of or not making fun, but just poking fun at anybody else. But as soon as I went after that side and all I really did was use her own father's words in a speech, right right.
Speaker 2:It is interesting Because I it's funny to me how many people on social media who come to my page Think that I'm gay, all because I have a pride flag in my profile showing support. For the LGTBQ community and I'm okay with that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I think sometimes it's almost a compliment. You know it's, it's it's like. But here's my thing. You gave an example about Mother Teresa, and the example I've always used is Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, two of the biggest acts in rock and roll history. Right, but rest assured, even during their heyday there were people who hated the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and that's always kind of been my guide. When you get that hateful feedback, it's like look, if the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin couldn't win, who am I to think I could win everybody?
Speaker 2:over Right, you know let's talk a little bit about the acting that you've done.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How different is that, other than the ways everybody would probably know on the surface? But in what ways is acting different from comedy? And then, how are the two the same?
Speaker 3:For me, like most of the acting that I've gravitated towards or been called into audition for or just been cast one way or another, is rooted in comedy. I think I do the best acting the farther away I can get from myself, whether that be some sort of self loathing or my need to create a character. So you know, in that way it's a lot more mechanical and less magical when you're on set, because there's obviously there's people all around, there's a script of words that usually you didn't write. I mean, sometimes if you're lucky enough to film your own projects and write your own projects and get them made, but usually it's stuff that other people wrote and you're not even necessarily talking to another person. You're looking at, you know, an X on the side of a pole that's next to the camera. That's supposed to be a person's eye line.
Speaker 2:Interesting. I did not know that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, sometimes they'll, they'll have. I mean, it just depends on the budget. They'll have a person standing in. It may not even be the other actor, or you know. I think that's why they have stand ins for people who are actual celebrities. They have the back of someone's head or a wig that looks like the actual actor. Meanwhile the actor is in their trailer just doing whatever they're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of. There's just a lot of smoke and mirrors and a lot more like. This is a business, this is a machine. This part happens. Okay, let's move the lights around, let's film this all out of sequence, let's edit this down, let's just get this one line let's say it 400 times to the point where you're like is umbrella a word? Umbrella, umbrella that sounds weird because I've said it 400 times.
Speaker 3:And with comedy you know, live comedy, at least to stand up, there is a lot more. That's just spontaneous and, like I said, with an audience there's there's more of a dance and a conversation that's happening, and you know in the videos that I do, I start to feel a little bit somewhere in the middle because it's only me that's saying like that take wasn't good enough, or like that wasn't funny enough, or oftentimes, when I actually do impressions and characters, I just roll with no necessarily, with no script or line in mind and I just start riffing as that person. Then I often forget what I said and then I got to go back and edit and that's the part where I really hate myself. I'm like why don't you just pick a line and say it, instead of making yourself go through 10 minutes of you riffing as this person and now you got to dissect and find the parts that are the funniest or, you know, say like oh, I like that one, oh, I like that one.
Speaker 3:Which one looks more like her, when I say, you know, pumpkin, I don't know, you really hit the P in that one. So yeah, so. So there is definitely in those like videos, and I'm sure any creator would say that. Any influencer or creator would say that as well that you know you get it down to a point where sometimes it's not as much fun, but you know the final product.
Speaker 2:Well, and as you were saying that, as I was kind of comparing what you were saying to comedy, I remember the advice that Eddie Van Halen said that his father had given him, and it was and this is regarding music, of course while you're playing, he said if you make a mistake, do it twice, and then people will think you meant to do it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, you know so I'm guessing, then, that in comedy, when there's whatever you would consider a slip up or a mistake, or the word didn't come out right, I would guess you a lot of times capitalize on that, pivot off of that and make it part of the dialogue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or sometimes you obsess over it for two hours after the show and say, why did I skip that joke? Why did I say it? But no, nobody actually knows where you're going except for you, so you have much more control. Sometimes you have those happy accidents. I'm sure you see a lot of the videos that are on social media now of comedians interacting with audience members or hecklers. People actually go to shows now wanting to be a part of for better, for worse because sometimes it's not a productive I'd say 99% of the time is not a productive heckler.
Speaker 3:But yeah, you do have a lot more like all right, let's see where this goes. And you don't have to be so precious with your words. Or, you know, you don't have to stick to a script at all, you just completely dive into this audience member, or you can think of a story on the spot. Or, yeah, you really, you really your own captain, but you're your own worst critic at that point too. So for me personally, I definitely go home and I'm like I completely botched that I was supposed to say this word and not this.
Speaker 2:Right, but nobody, nobody knew.
Speaker 3:I don't know that, but of course, of course I mean it's. I'm sure every comedian is different, but I'm one of those that just has to go home and and say, All right, what could you have done better? Let's play the tape back in your mind, even if you didn't film it.
Speaker 2:I think what I used to beat myself up on the most is a speaker, and again, nobody knew. But you go into it with kind of this rough outline in your head of things you are going to say or talk about and then, when you're done, maybe it's an hour later, two days later, and you're going Holy shit, I didn't even bring that up, right, it was some of the best stuff. Yeah, does that happen in comedy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, absolutely, absolutely. Oh. I mean, and sometimes, depending on how you're doing, you know, let's say you have a 12 minute set that night. 12 minutes can feel like three hours. If the audience is just not feeling you, you're just, you're looking at the back of the room waiting for whoever is running the show to give you the light and you're like, just please, I'm dying a thousand deaths up here, I gotta get out of here.
Speaker 3:And then other times you go off course or something goes better than you than you thought it would go, and you know something called tagging that comedians do. You say you do your setup and your punchline and then it works well, and while they're still laughing, and on your side you add a little, and then this and then this, and you're kind of just you're milking the same joke, yeah, you're getting it's the same premise that you're getting. And punchline you're getting the laugh off of. You're just sort of like Upping the ante and one upping yourself. So a lot of times for me personally, I find those tags Just as I've got the audience on my side on adding things, spur the moment, or you know, just kind of like oh, they like that.
Speaker 3:Well, I just thought of this and it's and it's improvising, and then all of a sudden you're like oh my goodness, I just got the light. I only got to two of my jokes. I had a whole. If they like that, they would have loved this part of it and you can beat yourself up about. Well, I stayed on this section for so long and I never even got to the stuff about you know how I hit puberty late. So, but again, they don't know, but, and they loved you, but you're like but they would have really loved that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope you understand what a gift you are giving to the listeners and myself, because this is such a. You may think I'm talking about comedy, and you are, but you are also talking about life lessons from a different perspective than people normally think, about life lessons and the trials and tribulations of a stand up comic, and I think there's really I know there has been for me there's so much to draw from from how a comedian thinks.
Speaker 3:I mean I looked, I looked at the list of guests that you're going to have on the season and I'm like, jack, are you sure, are you sure you want to talk to me from my kid's space themed bedroom? But again, I mean, I'm sure, honestly, you could have another comedian on. That has a completely different perspective. But I do think, by and large, from just years and years of having conversations before and after shows, you know, just being friends with comedians I mean there was a time in my life where just everyone I knew, everyone in my social circle, was a comedian there is definitely a shared like I am going to be the harshest on myself A lot of comedians are not necessarily the life of the party and I mean I get a lot of like you when I tell somebody a pickup or drop off that I do comedy because it's not necessarily how I present in everyday life is my cell from this interview.
Speaker 3:But there is a commonality, I think, with people who are they're not surface people, they're very deep thinkers. They feel very empathetic and deep feeling and they're very deep people. And a lot of the comedians that I know they're dark, they have, they're harder on themselves than than any comment on YouTube will ever be. Trust me, if you're listening to this and you're someone who leaves mean comments on social media or YouTube, they've already thought it or worse. You don't need to say that. But yeah, I think. I think there's a dark passenger to a lot of us. And then you have someone.
Speaker 3:You know that the ditch just is like no, I've never. I've never felt that a day in my life. I just like people, make people laugh. I'm very happy, but I would say by and large the comedians that I know share that commonality.
Speaker 2:Right, you know you were talking about how you present yourself differently and, you know, in just a casual setting, my wife laughs at her. Her comment was I showed her a, I guess, a lead in clip of of my first podcast and in the introduction, where I do a separate video that for the introduction of the leads into the actual conversation with the guest, at the very beginning I say Hello and welcome to the Jack Hopkins show podcast. I'm your host, jack Hopkins, and my wife bust out laughing. She said your voice. I said what Of course I do. She was talking about and I said what do you mean? And she said you don't talk like that at home. And I said At home is not my podcast. They're two different worlds you know yeah.
Speaker 2:So I've often thought of that. If somebody were to run into me at McDonald's, for example, yeah. I'm not going to be talking like I do in the introduction. Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:And then some of it is showmanship and I think for some, for some people, some of it is it's a layer of protection to say, well, if you don't like that character, that's, that's not me, that's the amplified version of me, or that's the podcast version of me, or that's that's my phone voice. That's not real me. So, right, yeah, we all have different. I mean, I'm definitely a different person at my kids school than I am in a group of my closest friends and then, and with my family and other person, and on stage and other person. So we all do it. We all have these layers.
Speaker 2:And I said, like when I hear somebody say oh, you know, bill is such a nice guy, and my thought process is always this, except when he's not. Yeah. But it goes the other way to. You know, Sally's such an asshole, Except when she's not. Right, you know none of us are this thing all the time it's. It's changing constantly throughout the day and unfortunately, some people catch us when, when we've rolled into a less favorable aspect of ourselves, and others catch us at the peak and unfortunately that's how we get tagged for that person.
Speaker 2:Exactly you know when you think about. First let me tell you, I guess, about this experience. It was back in the late 90s in San Diego and I think he just passed away within the last year or two Taylor Negron. He was the pizza guy in fast times at Ridgemont High.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Who was also a stand up comedian, and I went to see him in a comedy club and I didn't intentionally do this, but I wound up sitting basically on the front row and he, he beat me up. Good and it was. It was awesome. I'm into that kind of thing. I realize it's, it's part of the act, right, and I almost kind of secretly hope on that guy that gets beat up.
Speaker 2:Because, you feel like at that moment you are, there's a connection between you and that comedian. But what was interesting, he actually did a break and he came back on after the break. But I went to the restroom on the break and I'm standing at a urinal and this is my claim to fame Taylor Negron was in the urinal right next to me, right? So I realize it's him and I'm thinking, okay, this is kind of awkward, we're both standing at a urinal, do I say something? And so I did, and we had this nice little conversation. But it was like night and day, right.
Speaker 3:Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It was part of the act. Out there and at the urinals, we're just two human beings that are getting along fine and there's, you know, and I think I wish that's what More people understood about comedy. Right, Because I don't know where you are personally with this, but it kind of hurts me inside to think about the limitations some people are wanting to put on comedy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I realize we are in a period of time where in the real world there's a lot of hate that's contributing to hate crimes and deaths and shootings, and I get that and I understand what a problem that is and at the same time, just like as a corpsman or later as a nurse, I knew the importance of dark humor With with other health care workers in in our survival. I almost think that for the survival of Society there needs to always be this place when people can go and when the things that aren't okay to talk about or say in the real world Can be talked about or said. And my feeling on the, the people who are offended by certain things. Comedians say you don't have to buy the ticket right you.
Speaker 2:You don't have to turn on the special. In other words, there's a there's an element of choice in being offended when it comes to comedy, and I really hate to see that. Because I Can see, so I'm sure it's really magnified for you. I can see the degree to which some Comedians have dialed it back. And it's really cramped their style, so you don't have to go into that in great detail. But on the surface, what are your thoughts about that subject?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean again, I think it's. I Don't think you can ever say this particular topic is off limits. It's, it's the way, because some people Just get really creative with how they present it. You know, like I, I have a sister that has down syndrome and Everybody has these, these hot buttons that make you sort of tense up when you hear somebody going that way.
Speaker 3:And and I found myself, you know, when I first was in comedy clubs all the time and hearing, you know, people Say some people, especially at open mics, they say things just for the shock factor and it's really just if I can't get a laugh, at least I can get a reaction.
Speaker 3:So I'm not standing up here just to silence. So there's definitely that which comes from inexperience and immaturity, but the more season comedians that you're seeing, it's they're usually if you just give it a second, they're gonna come back around and they're gonna make themselves the butt of the joke or they're gonna make Society and the way we treat these things the butt of the joke. Obviously, not always. I mean, obviously some people are just like, hey, I'm gonna say this thing, I don't care who it offends. And because, because the pendulum has has swung so far, there are definitely, I think, some comedians that are like the goal is to offend, because then they they isolate a certain audience member that they don't want and they really win over ones that they do want by that Whole look at this guy, he says whatever he wants to say and he doesn't care.
Speaker 3:But I I do think there's, I think, a difference between what is said in the club and then a difference between what people are willing to say, you know, even on podcasts, or that they're gonna put on their social media because you know nobody wants to get it wrong. There's, there's definitely that element.
Speaker 2:One of the best examples I and I'll get your feedback on this one of the best examples for me that I can come up with for the difference between when something in a comedy club crossed the line and where I feel it should be okay the Michael Richards incident. That was not part of his act exactly that.
Speaker 2:That that was Said With a different intent. Yes, and it was meant to be hurtful. Right to me that he crossed the line. But If it's part of the act where it's clear to at least most of the audience that there's it's not being said out of hate and that it's it's part of trying to get at least the majority of the people to laugh, and it's said knowing that there are probably going to be A few people scattered here and there that are offended or at least they don't laugh, right.
Speaker 2:But if, if we are looking at being able to only say what makes people laugh but offends no one.
Speaker 3:Right you lose the element of comedy right, right and I think, if there's one thing, that comedy.
Speaker 2:Does? It prepares people to to better navigate through the real world. Right, because it almost highlights what's unacceptable in the real world. Right, you, you the the audience response is so strong and and the the laughter to something sometimes is the result of Everyone knowing that it's off limits in the real world exactly right and so, in a way, comedians are reinforcing, but this isn't okay to say out there rather than feeling it Is that? Do you see it that way? No, that's great.
Speaker 3:I mean I love the way that you articulated that, because I absolutely agree with that and and and again it's it's always nuanced, because if you say it's not the way you want it to be, because if you say like, oh yeah, they can say whatever they want, it's like, well, with what intent and with what part that is? You know part of the joke. And, like you said, you know, just because you have a microphone, you're standing on stages. I mean you can just spew out hateful things that are not part of your act. But you know, if you can't Point out the absurdity in things, you run out of and if you can't offend anyone, you run out of topics. I mean, what is what is safe to really talk about? And so, yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It's like, well, yeah, I wouldn't say this in a conversation, because I'm also not. The goal is to not talk at you and make you laugh or having a conversation, but there's a heightened Reality going on when you're on stage.
Speaker 3:You know, I used to make a joke about September 11th and it wasn't, it was just about, you know, comparing sand castles to the Twin Towers, which I realize when I say it like that, there's probably people that are going to cringe hearing that. I'm not going to say the whole joke, but it was. It wasn't too Downplay the absolute tragedy and the horrifying events. It was really more like I don't even know how to process how terrible this is without drawing some sort of parallel To sort of ease the tension that we're all feeling at all times. Right, how terrible that was, you know because it it happened at a time where everyone can remember where they were and everyone has. When you bring it up, it's oh gosh. I mean it's awful. It is universally awful. So if we can like universally also just have a quick laugh and then go back to realizing that it's awful.
Speaker 2:Absolutely my mother. About a year ago, little over a year ago I guess, she had a massive stroke and she's now. I think we've had her in a long term facility now for Well, six months I guess, and we're fortunate in that when we go out there I'll say, do you know who I am? And and she'll say, well, my son. But then from other than recognizing you from there, it's all just gibberish, right.
Speaker 2:And so I found one of the I really rely on humor to kind of cope with that whole thing, in that you know she's still alive, but my sister and I were talking, but yet we're also grieving because we've lost the mother that we used to talk to every day. But the humor that I use, like I told my wife the other day, I said, well, I said we probably ought to go out and see mom. I said we can see what color of food we need to wipe off of her chin today, because usually when they wheel her back from the dining hall, you know she'll have something that it didn't get wiped off and I think you almost have to be willing to go there to most effectively cope with the shitty part of it, right?
Speaker 3:right, yeah and sometimes it's, it's from the perspective. You can joke about that, because it's it's your grieving process, it's your mother, it's your experience that you're living right now. If you heard her nurse say the same thing, then obviously that would be completely insensitive because that's not her role and there's no existing relationship and there's there's no grief there for her. There's supposed to be, you know, caregiving and only that. So Right, so yeah, in that example it's. Sometimes it is about the perspective and the lived experience and and I don't know I hate to play comedy police of who gets to say things and who doesn't, but again, it's so nuanced, that a lot of it just comes down to intent and yeah, and I'm sure we all get it wrong and people have varying levels of acceptance as well.
Speaker 2:And I think that's such a powerful lesson for just society at large is the realization that every day, all of us whether it's in being a parent or you know, whether you work at a newspaper office, your comedian, your therapist every day we're all getting it wrong Time to time. We can't not get it wrong. And I think one thing about comedy that is such a powerful life lesson is you just have to understand that's part of life, right and? And that if you focus on what you've gotten wrong, the life's probably going to be more miserable than you want it to be. But if you just acknowledge what you got wrong but focus on what you're getting right, you're probably going to have a pretty decent experience.
Speaker 3:Right right.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I also think if, if you're willing to listen to the reasons of maybe why that was wrong, then there needs to be a lot more room for redemption and forgiveness and less quick to judge of people and their intentions.
Speaker 2:so again, it's all so very nuanced in realizing that people are flawed inherently, and everyone I mean again, rather Teresa, she had gotten it wrong at some point, right, right, well, and, as you said, being open to feedback, I don't know if you recall or have ever seen, but my four years, my profile picture on social media. It's actually something that I was goofing around on years ago on on a Facebook app for your profile picture and in the picture I've got aviator sunglasses on which are just a digital overlay, and then it's got a cigarette hanging out of my mouth.
Speaker 2:You know with a cherry on the end, a little smoke going up, and I thought that's, that's cool, I really like that. So for years, that was my my profile picture. Now, interestingly enough, I never smoked in my life, which is what made it funny.
Speaker 3:Right, right.
Speaker 2:But as time went on and people would occasionally comment on that profile picture. The one thing that that really stuck out one day was somebody said you know, jack, a lot of people follow you. Do you really want to promote smoking for kids? And because they asked a question instead of just shoved it down my throat, Right.
Speaker 2:And then later my wife I had I had kind of made a statement on social media that I'll I'll probably have that cigarette on there forever. You know, it kind of helps scream out the people who are too uptight and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Right and my my wife saw that video that I had done and she said is it really that big of a deal? She goes it doesn't bother me, it doesn't bother you, but it may impact some kids who follow you and go. Oh well, jack smokes. She said, just ditch it and my tracker record with the advice my wife gives me is that the advice that I ignore.
Speaker 2:I'm probably wrong. You know I pay for it later somehow, and so I had it deleted. So even though you and I are talking about there shouldn't be limits on comedy, it doesn't mean that you, as a comedian, are insensitive to feedback and are unwilling to look at it and consider whether, okay, is this something, that where I can talk about something else than this? I'm sure you, you do that sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think some, some comedians and some people are just more willing to consider other perspectives than others. And you know, I think that's that's all you know. If you, if you're looking at comedy as art, then that's up to the artist to take the feedback and do something with it, or to take it and say thank you for your feedback. However, I still want to do this.
Speaker 3:I personally, personally, I'm a little too sensitive if I hear that it upset somebody. I can't unhear that, and so I tend to either dwell or see how I can change it or just end up cutting it. So, yeah, so I can only imagine, you know, I'm I'm really on such a small scale level than some of these comedians that are have international followers and you know millions of followers or comments coming in. I can't imagine. At some point they probably do just have to turn it, turn off the noise, and just. You know, in the end you're going to make what makes you happy, what makes you laugh. I hope. But it's just, it's. It's maybe it's a personality thing or an emotional thing, how much you can just tune out, how much it affects people.
Speaker 2:So I think you have what would be considered international appeal and I really I'm I'm shocked really, after having watched your body of work, that it's not peaked over that crest, but I think it, without question, it almost has to. You just have that thing. You know that, that special thing and yeah.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that. Yeah, I think some of it is. You know you have these and I'm sure many people who are in in different fields can have these. You feel like you're pushing this boulder up a mountain and then it's always just rolling back on you a little and you push it, and it's rolling back and push it and then all of a sudden something happens where you're like, well, this is it. And then all of a sudden you get a team of people shoving it behind you and you're reaching the top of the mountain. Then you're like, oh, all this work, it's finally paying off.
Speaker 3:I've had a couple of moments like that where I thought it would happen and then back to reality. But you know, a lot of it is is also what you put into it. I have a lot more balance in my life self, self chosen, self-inflicted, where you know I also I don't eat, breathe and sleep comedy. I also enjoy my children and my husband and my Friendships and travel and other things. So so, yeah, I I'm definitely not Not Feeling any huge lack like I used to. There was, there was a time where there was so much that my self-worth was driven on or derived from the success of my career the success of any one video, or you know something like that. So Thankfully I'm a much more well-rounded, healthy person now that I see things in the big picture.
Speaker 2:I completely Identify. I'm doing this podcast Because I just wanted to do a podcast. If it has a hundred views or a million, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it because, at the end of the day, I enjoy. Yeah what we've got right. Yeah, it's fine. So the last question will close out on kind of a crazy question. Was kind of funny too. How many people mispronounced your first name and as? Is it Lauren or Lauren?
Speaker 3:Well, here's the thing. I'm from New Jersey, and so I say Lauren right but there are a Very small percentage of people who actually say that, and usually they're from the same regional area. Right even though in my mind I'm like, well, it's spelled a you. You know if you, if you said the word caught you would say to me it makes sense.
Speaker 3:But most people say Lauren or Lauren, but yeah, my jersey accent. The longer I've lived away from Jersey, the more deluded it's gotten. But I used to be Lauren and now it's just. You know. You can say hey, you, or Right, right well just heard of me by my kids name and then follow that up with mom.
Speaker 2:There you go. Well, just be warned when, when you see the, the final Production and my introduction with my kind of hard to explain Accent, people guess me to be from all over different places. I'll do my best to get the Lauren and it may come out still sounding like Lauren, but my husband doesn't say it right, and and neither did my children.
Speaker 3:So I mean, my kids just recently learned that I have a name, so but I was gonna get. I was actually I was getting hints of the Dakotas, and then I was getting hints of of Southern accents when I was talking to you, so I couldn't quite figure it out either you know what's?
Speaker 2:what's funny is I had some facial trauma back in 95 and it two things that you were either going to be crushed by or Used to your benefit. Remember, I did a video one time, a YouTube video or something, and I'm reading down through the the comments and somebody wrote dude, what's up with your lips? I thought that was the funniest damn thing I had ever read. You know what I did for a long time, kind of the moniker that I used was the guy with the crazy lips right.
Speaker 2:I just I just used it, I just pivoted off of it, but what happened, is it? It the trauma that I had, it kind of gave me this Really weird hard to pin down Accent. But you know what, now people remember my voice. If somebody hasn't spoken to me forever, they'll say I heard that voice and I knew who it was. So hey. You know, a plus for a facial trauma right. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3:See, this comes back to what I said. You found your comedy and your trauma you know you really did.
Speaker 2:I can't thank you enough, particularly because I've taken you about 16 minutes over what I promised you in terms of no worries, no worries, this is great. But I've just enjoyed it so much and things are rolling. I kind of hate to just say well, because I said an hour. Yeah, I'm gonna shut you down, you know.
Speaker 2:I Love to have you back sometime down the road, just because I there's just been a nice flow to this. It's very conversational and relaxed and yet, at the same time, so many life lessons scattered throughout, and I for that I can't thank you enough, and I'm sure the Listeners, the viewers, are going to love that as well.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, yeah hopefully my, my kids will feel the same way someday about my wisdom.
Speaker 2:Isn't that the truth? Yeah, I just had one of those visits with the school principal yesterday that you you talked about, so I know exactly what you mean. You know I've got a a soon-to-be 16 year old son whose I Into a bit of a rebellious stage, so it's, it's just part of life. Yeah but it's one that I'll be glad when we we speed through it and get.
Speaker 3:I remember that phase.
Speaker 2:Well, you tell San Diego, although I know you don't live in San Diego anymore, but you're close enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I get down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to love the gas lamp district.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I live. I lived in Ocean Beach for okay. Two or three years I used to go around and hang out on dog beach and, yeah, all the little beach restaurants and yeah, one of those.
Speaker 3:One of the first places I did comedy was at Winston's and Ocean Beach really yeah, they're no longer, but but for years. That was a room that I did, and if you could do that room, you could do a lot of rooms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw a jewel in a little coffee shop there before Before anybody knew right was you know? So it was always California's cool like that, in that that's where everybody goes to start out and if you're lucky you, you get to catch them before they're a household name.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I did my first set, I think, in a coffee shop that they at least claimed the jewel used to perform at called listats.
Speaker 2:so that might have been. Yeah, I can't remember the the name, but Ocean Beach is only so big, so right pretty good chance. That was it All right.
Speaker 2:Well, you have a great day and, like I, said I'll get with you down the road and talk about having you back and and thank you, that was fun. What a bubbly personality and what a treasure trove of fresh new ways of looking at things, seeing with new eyes, new tools for being able to Really focus when you need to focus and, more importantly perhaps, being able to develop the kind of resilience that fills you up with confidence inside and let you Be able to think. You know what, no matter what comes my way, I Know I can handle it. I've got a tool get here of beliefs, of strategies that work, and I'm going to keep adding to it. It gets better and better every week, so I hope you had as much fun and enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Speaker 2:Now be sure To hit like and subscribe. You can always go to the jack hopkins show dot com, where you will find every episode that's available, and also check out Jack hopkins now dot com, and that's where I've got a newsletter when I publish articles and videos each week that are really aimed at the same thing Teaching people how to cope more effectively. And, yeah, I talk about politics. I Want to thank you for being here for this second episode of the jack hopkins show podcast. I See you next time.