The Laughter Clinic
The Laughter Clinic Podcast brings a refreshingly different approach to mental health education. Your host Mark McConville, is an Australian professional Comedian of 25+ years who also has a Masters Degree In Suicidology from Griffith University. Mark delivers you evidence-based self-care strategies, curated research insights, and meaningful conversations that inspire, educate and entertain.
The Laughter Clinic
Chatting with comedian Ivan Aristeguieta: Walking the Camino, inner lives of comedians’ and Venezuela’s stand‑up origins.
In this ep I catch up with Ivan Aristiguieta, award winning stand-up comedian, writer, and now he's just added acting to his already impressive CV.
Originally from Venezuela, Ivan now proudly calls Australia home, and the audiences have been returning the love all around the country.
Ivan talks about walking the famous Camino De Santiago, a brutal, beautiful route that ends with the important reminder: we’re all on borrowed time. From there, we peel back common myths about comedians and talk about the quiet, analytical work that turns life into laughs. Becoming an Australian citizen for example is one of his favorite topics to talk about.
Our conversation moves effortlessly through social health and community—rural green rooms stocked with homemade biscuits, and the power of shy patrons who brave the outside world for an hour of joy. Finally, Ivan shares lessons from his acting debut in the dark comedy 'Yesterday Island'.
Ivan is a lovely guy, a great comic, and he has some wonderful insights into the inner workings of a professional comedian. Honestly we could of kept going for another 2 hours, needless to say, he'll be back...
As always, thanks for listening my friends, be kind to yourself, and be kind to those around you.
Contact Ivan here : https://ivancomedy.com.au/
Follow on Instagram: @ivancomedy
Yesterday Island Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mj7sY1BfnU
Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelaughterclinicAus
"If you or someone you know needs support, please contact one of these Australian mental health services. In an emergency, always call 000."
Lifeline Australia
Phone: 13 11 14 (24/7)
Web: lifeline.org.au
Suicide Call Back Service
Phone: 1300 659 467 (24/7)
Web: suicidecallbackservice.org.au
Beyond Blue
Phone: 1300 22 4636 (24/7)
Web: beyondblue.org.au
Kids Helpline (for people aged 5-25)
Phone: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
Web: kidshelpline.com.au
MensLine Australia
Phone: 1300 78 99 78 (24/7)
Web: mensline.org.au
SANE Australia (complex mental health issues)
Phone: 1800 18 7263
Web: sane.org
QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
Phone: 1800 184 527
Web: qlife.org.au
Open Arms (Veterans & Families Counselling)
Phone: 1800 011 046 (24/7)
Web: openarms.gov.au
1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
Phone: 1800 737 732 (24/7)
Web: 1800respect.org.au
Headspace (youth mental health, ages 12-25)
Phone: 1800 650 890
Web: headspace.org.au
13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support)
Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
Web: 13yarn.org.au
Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com
Welcome to Ivan Aristiget, my friend. It has been a while. How are you going, Ivan?
SPEAKER_01:I I'm great, Mark. So good to see you.
SPEAKER_02:How good is technology? It's awesome, isn't it? Seriously.
SPEAKER_01:It's great. And I wish more comedians can have more podcasts.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I tell you, I'll tell you what, mate, I'm very I'm very grateful for you agreeing to do this because we've got a lot to cover in our chat because it's been a while since we've caught up. First cab off the rank, and it relates to the saying laughter is the best medicine. So this is a saying that's been around for thousands of years, and now we have modern day research supporting the physical benefits of laughter and the psychological benefits of using your sense of humor for your mental health. So when you hear the term laughter is the best medicine, what does that conjure up for you?
SPEAKER_01:It's a long answer.
SPEAKER_02:Are you Yeah, go for it, mate? We've got all the time with the world, so you just let us have it.
SPEAKER_01:Great. So first backstory on on because I've been thinking a lot about that lately, and I'm gonna put you into context of my new ideas of why laughter is the best meditating, and why why do you think about that? I just recently did the the Camino de Santiago with my brother and friends.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Camino de Santiago is a it's a it's it's a long pilgrimage walk in in Spain that uh has been people have been doing it since since the 800s.
SPEAKER_02:Now, this is the one that am I right in saying that this is the one that the entire walk, if you do it in its entirety, is like a thousand kilometers. Is this the one?
SPEAKER_01:There is a destiny, which is the cathedral in in Galicia, that's the name of the of the region in Spain, and you can do the Camino from many different spots, and the one that you're talking about is one of them, and that's the French one. So you do the walk from France across the border and go all the way to that place in the western side of Spain. So, and that's the one that you said that is over a thousand kilometers. The one, the one I did is called El Primitivo. Primitivo means the primitive, but it's also as referred to as the first one, the pr the prime, the first Camino. And this was done from uh this one is 330 Ks. Wow, and we did that period of time two weeks. So it was two, two so 15 days, 330k, seven middle-aged men, and three CPAP machines.
SPEAKER_02:Three C three CPAP machines. Yeah, where on earth did uh I so many questions. Like I wanted to know over that 300 Ks, did you have to have like three half a dozen little adapters to plug these things in everyone?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, this guy, so so it's seven middle-aged men. So this was a beautiful thing. It was a reunion of of friends from the same school, different generations. So I was the youngest, I'm 46, the oldest was uh 58, and we all know it's from each other from the same neighborhood and the same school. And it was my father's 50th birthday, and he put it together. And and imagine seven middle-aged men, at least three CPAP machines, you're gonna find that. Like there's so much sleep apnea and snoring. So, what we we did, we we we we as we were middle-aged men, we didn't do the whole backpacking thing and looking for hostels and and you know uh getting bed bugs. We actually hired a company that took our our big luggage from destination to destination, and and we stayed in little motels. So the the CPAP machines were traveling by car while we while we were walking for eight hours to 12 hours every day to get to the decidation. We did an average of 20 26, 28k a day. Wow, that's too much, man. So back to laughter is the best medicine. This answer, this conclusion that I uh landed comes from two different moments of of thinking about this. Because um in in the camino, I to to to summarize my experience of the camino was I was tired and in pain every day, but I laughed so much every day because I was with my friends from childhood.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So I think uh and it the whole Camino is a great metaphor for life because you end up the you don't go to a cathedral, the the whole point, which I didn't do the do the Camino for religious purposes or an any religious angle at all. It was just like a catch-up with friends and family. But but you're supposed to end up it's not the cathedral, is it you visit a grave site of apostle Saint James that was actually buried. He was the one sent I didn't know about this, but Jesus sent apostles all over the world, and Saint James was go to the Iberian Peninsula, which is uh Spain, Portugal, a bit of France. It found out it turns out that he died in that area, and hundreds of years later this this uh king in an area called Asturias was told that the the remains of this this apostle was in that part of Spain, and he's like, I want to go see that. So he walked there 330k, which is the first that same route that I did with my friend's family, to to check out the remains. The same way people go to France to see the tome of tomb of Jim Morrison or go to Graceland to see Elvis Presley. It's I think it's it's the same thing that people go and see go to a graveyard and see the remains of a famous person. And philosophically, I think is we have to be constantly reminded that we're gonna die as a good thing. To be aware of our mortality is actually a good thing, and and I I think the whole trip is this is painful, we're gonna die, as a metaphor, right? Yeah, this is painful, we're gonna die, but I'm laughing and I'm having fun. Yeah, uh so that's that's one part of my conclusion. The other part of my conclusion was I was having a conversation with all the comedy friends. We uh and that's I don't know if people know these about comedians, but we are very self-aware, and our our conversations like this one are great and deep, and we don't we can take tangents to do a joke, but we love talking about the real stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Some of the some of the most fascinating conversations I've had in my entire lifetime have been with comedians in the back of a car and we've been driving for hours to a gig or something like this, you know. Like it's yeah, I totally get what you're saying there. I totally get what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01:It's one of my favorite parts of being a comedian.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and and sometimes we're not doing it now. It might happen in in this podcast, but most of the time we have these conversations while we're also helping each other to write jokes.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that, and that for me is like the super best thing of being a comedy. Like just catching up with a mate, talking about real stuff, at the same time, finding the funny, having a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. Yeah. Is life, there's no better job.
SPEAKER_02:So that that concept, what you were saying about the comedians joining, you know, what we get out of our conversations with each other, aside from you know, deep philosophical solving the world's problems as you know, and having help each other write some jokes as a byproduct. Uh it actually is a bit of a lead into a question that I had lined up for later on in the in the podcast. But I'll I'll we'll have a chat about it now. So and it comes what do you think, Ivan, is one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about comics, about comedians.
SPEAKER_01:I'll answer it right now, but I haven't answered the first question yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I tell you, it was a long answer. The biggest misconception of that people have of comedians is that we are constantly funny. Um we're not switched on all the time. I get these a lot. I don't know, probably you've heard it many times. I'm pretty sure you've heard it many times. If you wanna if you want a boring trip, just bring comedians.
SPEAKER_02:Say that again if you want to.
SPEAKER_01:Like when I when I'm on the road with other comics, and there's there's usually like a a road manager or a producer whose job is to make sure all the shows are great, like a roadshow, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_01:They all say that if you want a boring trip, just bring comedians because we go very deep. And and that comes from expectations because the people who are not comedians, they think if they go on a trip with five comedians, they're actually going on a trip with five clowns.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's not at all.
SPEAKER_02:It couldn't be further from the truth, could it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So so if you want to have a good chat, bring comedians, but don't expect comedians to be switched on switch on with the funny all the time. I I heard a good I we can be funny, funny citizens, but we are not I've heard uh a definition like the difference between a a comedian and a funny person is the funny person you had to be there and the comedian takes you there.
SPEAKER_02:So it's great, I like that. That's cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so our job is to is to take in everything of the funny situation and find a way of bringing that moment every night to the different audiences that we have, so they can be there in that moment when something was happen wh something funny happened or a funny thought happened while witnessing that moment. And that's why the problem is when when when someone says a funny person, oh you're so funny, you should be a comedian, and then they try, they go on stage to do an open mic, and they they they they bomb and they hated it and they don't like it because it's not about that spontaneity of the moment, it's about the analysis of the situation and finding the funny and then enhance that when you go on stage and bring it and give everything in the story so it's the funniest you can be. It can be. So that's a great misconception of of uh of comedian, I think. Because uh people have been so disappointed in me when I'm in a non-comedy comedic situation and they meet me.
SPEAKER_02:It's one of those jobs that only other comics get what it's like to be a comic. You know, like if you're a mechanic, you know, you don't have to be a mechanic to understand what it's like to what it would be like to walk on work on cars all day. You don't have to be a builder to understand what it would be like to be out in the sun building a house. You know, but when it comes to doing stand-up, night in, night out in front of everyone from uh a small audience of ten to an audience of a thousand and ten.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And no matter how you're feeling, no matter what you're going through, you find a way to to do it. You just you just do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's it's it's a beautiful thing on how when you meet comics from other countries, uh you know backstage in a green room from any reason the show will be you already have an immediate connection with that person, and that person is one of your people, and you haven't met that person. Like you already know it. It's like I think other jobs that that there has to be jobs where the the experience is something that you had to be there. Without saying any negle there's nothing negative about being a mechanic, there's a great example, by the way, because it's something very objective. There's there's the machine it doesn't work, you fix it or you maintain it. It's very outside. There's it's it's it's it's a thing that you can see and fix it. But for example, it's tangible. That's the bright word, thank you. When when being a comedian, or I might say being a nurse, uh because I've seen nurses connect immediately when they meet another nurse, and it's a similar feeling of between a comedians is like, oh, you've been there in the battlefield, and nobody understands what it's like to be there in the battlefield until you are in the battlefield. Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. Right. Like, you know, I know I'm sure it's the same with you know, police and fireies and paramedics and and teachers. Teachers is a big one, you know. Like Pete, like, you know, people say to me, I've got a hard job, and I go, What? You know, have you can you imagine what it would be like to try and be a teacher in this day and age?
SPEAKER_01:You know, like I agree. Uh and and and you can see every comedian there's a lot of comedians who have been teachers before doing comedy, and when they do comedy shows about being teachers, they sell so well because the support from other teachers is incredible. Uh and and we know Georgie Carroll, nurse. Yes her uh when she started her career, like now now she she's a a a world comedian, and and a lot of people know uh a lot about her, and she's super funny. And and but at the start of her career, her career was built from the the building blocks of of audiences that were just nurses because the big support the nurses because they oh, that's one of us that has been in the field. I want to listen to those stories. The support was incredible.
SPEAKER_02:So yes, and and and yet and yet, if you were doing a gig in front and all of your audience was comedians, that's that's a pretty tough gig.
SPEAKER_01:It is a very the comedians. That's that's another thing that people don't don't know about comedians. The jokes that we do behind the closed doors in a green room are jokes that nobody can listen to. They're they they will think so bad of us. But it's it's it's a different language. I don't say this the content of the joke, it's like we're just speaking a different language that only comedians understand, and that's that's where we laugh from each other. And when you're the audience of a comedian, if a comedian is laughing, he's actually not laughing with you, he's laughing at you when something is not going well. Yeah and it's yeah, it's very funny.
SPEAKER_02:But that that's a that's a great point that you bring up there about you know what we laugh at backstage. Like I do a lot of work with the police, the cops, in relation to, you know, in their post-traumatic growth, getting over PTSD and trauma and all that sort of stuff. And and I talk about the fact that there's a thing called self-enhancing tumor, which is if you're able to use tumour as a way of coping with trauma and and a highly stressful environment, uh it's one of our most powerful coping mechanisms. And what I say to people is like, I can tell you now, what makes a police officer laugh is probably going to offend a secretary or a promise of teacher or something. Does that make it wrong? Absolutely not, because in their context, amongst their people, they're using humor as a way of dealing with an exposure to some traumatic, messed up shit.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I I agree a hundred percent with you, and that's what I meant when I said they are speaking their own language, they're their comedy is in a different language. You you don't don't listen to it in the with the ears of of English language and the society that you're involved in. You have to listen in with the ears of a police who have gone through that experience, and what this what might sound horrible to you is it's very funny and makes a lot of sense in in in in police language.
SPEAKER_02:So what a what a wonderful segue to, by the way, because I I wanted to talk about language.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I I I really need to answer the finish the question of the first question. I haven't finished it. I I thought I thought I I go for it. So about laughter being the best medicine. Yeah, yeah, go for it. So one which one so one side is very it's connected to what you just said about police, which is uh it's the coping mechanism. Like, so in that camino, it was so hard, and I was in so much pain that all of us that we were kept doing jokes all day and we laughed at the situation, we laugh at each other, and it was so much fun to to do that trip and to go through that with people you love so you can laugh a lot. So that was one side. The other side I was talking about comedians having deep conversations. I was having this conversation with two comedy friends, two comedians, and we were talking about addictions and how how addictions are uh a a coping mechanism to to to escape from to escape, did you say? Yes, escape from reality, right? And and a friend was saying, oh my I've I've gone through all of them, like from alcohol and drugs and and food and sex and and I went like oh for me, for me, my my coping mechanism to escape and I see it as an addiction, my issue is sleeping.
SPEAKER_02:Like is sleeping, sleep. I okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So when I'm too overwhelmed I ignore everything and I will take a three hour, four hour nap. And I see it as an addiction because it's it has it like after I do it I have guilt and but I I I feel like needed and it's it's uh it's uh I I think it's affecting my life. Like just when something is too much, I just it's like I wanna I wanna disappear and the easiest way to disappear is by sleeping.
SPEAKER_02:And and is that is that coming from maybe an underlying anxiety coming through there?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I I've I've been uh I've been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder a long time ago, and I've been um I I was on medication for over six years, and this year, guided by my psychiatrist, stopped taking the medication, and I have my other coping mechanisms. But but yeah, in in my worst days with a lot of anxiety, I will spend the entire day sleeping and feeling and hating myself for doing it.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Waking up feeling guilty.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So what I want to say is when I when I laughter is the best medicine, I've I've noticed that laughter is the only coping mechanism or let's put it the same words of uh addictions, of escaping that uh is actually great and non-addictive. It's like Mother Nature's real drug that uh when you when you do it you don't feel guilty. When when the the last time you did it is equally as good as the first time you did it, you're there's no chasing the dragon. There's no uh you can laugh as many times as you want, and it's not addictive, uh it's not something you crave, it's just something that happens.
SPEAKER_02:And there's no there's no negative uh connotations attached to it unless you know you find yourself in an audience and yeah, and a comedian says something and you start laughing at, and you're going, Oh, should I be laughing at this person? Yeah, you know, and even that's great in itself.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So when I say it's the best medicine, I would like to say like it's the best drug, as in terms of a drug. Yeah. If we if we call drug something that is addictive, but this one is not, and it's for free, and it will make you escape in a very healthy way that anxious situation or stressful or depressing situation.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and laughter is well linked with uh I've I've read once that that laughter and crying is this is is both sides of the same coin.
SPEAKER_02:Crying.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they're they're both they both release tension, and after that release of tension, it generates endorphins. And and the thing that I read was like it have you noticed that when you laugh a lot for a long time, you end up crying, and when you cry so much for a long time, you end up laughing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and and it's yes, that it it's it's an is but I'm not using the same example for crying because as someone who has gone through depression, I feel that crying could be addictive.
SPEAKER_02:And uh right, I can see that, yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:With for the wrong crying can be used for the wrong purposes. But I think laughter is uh it's uh it comes, it helps you and it goes and it's so organic, you know, it's so and it's freeing, you know. And the rest the residue is positive, it's not negative.
SPEAKER_02:Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. And not only for yourself, you know, like I one of the things I talk about when I'm doing the live presentations is I ask audiences uh to have a think about when was the last time you really laughed hard at something where like you're talking about, you know, you you end up in tears. And then I say were you either by yourself, right? Like watching funny video clips or a movie or something like that, or were you with other people, right? Were you with your friends, your family, whoever? And 95% will say that it was with other people. Yeah. And that's why it doesn't surprise me that and and look, uh that Camino that you did, having that connection with those guys, like that is something that is uh so important. Like what you would have what you and not only you, but all of the guys that did that together, what you would have got out of that uh far, you know, you will be wreaking the benefits from that connection and that shared experience for the rest of your lives.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And uh I think at the moment I was hating the walking. I think walking for two weeks is too much.
SPEAKER_02:And yet when you think about it, you know, if you just go about your day-to-day life, you know, you're walking every day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, walking every day, it's too much. But I think the beauty of of finding that the the the contrast. I think when you have contrast is when you can see things more clearly. Like if you are if we would have done this trip to to Vegas, right? Uh where there's it's you wake up uh whatever time you like if it was a proper holiday, you would have you know, sleep in every day and then go to a buffet and then just drink and do fun activities every day.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:There's there'll be no contrast of it would be so much fun, but when you do the opposite, when you remove all that fun and it's actually an arduous 30k walk every day. And that's that's when you connect with other people a lot better because you're you're you're doing it together, like it's a shared experience, like we're going through this, we have to find a way of making this positive. And where's the the the the the the shared effort of seven guys trying to make it positive it's way more enjoyable than when is the outside making it positive to you? Like of course a week in Bali with mates is awesome. But but but going camp that's what I I think that's why people go camping or fishing. Fishing, not you get a fish every, I don't know, if you're lucky, every every three hours.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's just a struggle of just waiting to get to catch a fish.
SPEAKER_04:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:And and I think and then how are we gonna make this boredom or this uh fun? And and I think that's the when when you get the the the human to make the connect and make the most out of situation, how how hard it is, it's it's when the beautiful stuff happens.
SPEAKER_02:Well mate, just I I am I bet on day one, before you even set out, before you even started walking on day one, all seven of you would have been impressed at the fact that it was you organized it for all seven of you that come from around the planet to be in the one place at the one time to do this together. Because I've tried organizing a game of golf, mate, you know, with people that just look down the road and it's hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was my brother. We were all very grateful to my brother who it was to celebrate his 50th, and he was the one to put it together. And and so one came from Costa Rica, one from Canada, one from North Carolina, one from Portugal, Qatar, and two from Australia. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:That is so impressive, man.
SPEAKER_01:And and then, and then it was so nice to to to understand and catch up on on the other on your friend's life in North Carolina or your friend's life in Canada in Montreal, or what is like to live in Costa Rica or in or in in Madeira, which is an island in Portugal. What's so it's a beautiful sharing the experiences on our lives of all of us being immigrants who went through the same school in Venezuela who are no longer living in Venezuela?
SPEAKER_02:And how how long ago did you do this?
SPEAKER_01:I returned no more than a week ago.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, so it's fresh, fresh new. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:The blisters are still there. Say that again, sorry. The blisters in my feet. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, seriously. So did you uh how like how do you prepare for something like that? Did you, you know, did you try and train for it in some way?
SPEAKER_01:We all thought we prepared, but we did. We no one can prepare for that.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, how do you? It's it's because nobody has the time to walk six to eight hours in one day. No one. Like unless uh you can you can just put a a Sunday aw in the calendar and tell your loved ones, I'm gonna disappear for the entire day, I'm gonna be walking. But even if you do that, the terrain where we walked, it was It's just rocky. Like with the the one within the Primitivo is considered to be the toughest one. That's the one that my brother picked. You have to go through two mountain ranges. And and there's a lot of uphill and downhill.
SPEAKER_02:Did you have the poles, mate? Were you a pole guy?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I wasn't at the style, and then halfway through I got I got one because my knee was screaming every time we went down. We went downhill. And so I had to support my knee and I got a knee brace. Two of my friends that were doing the the they look like a four-legged mammal, both of them, because they every time it's just walking with the two poles. But it it it was good for them. The oldest in the group woke up one day with his left ankle twice the size of his right ankle. And uh and he couldn't he had to take a break for two days, so he met us on the next, took a taxi to the next destination. And we all supported that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, what do you do? What do you do? You gotta do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't train. Like for for me, the worst thing was the feet. My feet, not the blisters, not the skin, but the muscles of the foot are working in, we're working in working in ways that never worked ever. Like there's so many rocks. So to stabilize the foot, the foot is moving in a way that when you walk in pavement, and then even if you go for a bushwalk, it's just trails that are very flat. But these ones are very, very rocky uh trails and uphill and downhill. So every night we were walking up when we uh got to a destination, we look like very old arthritic men because of the pain in our feet. Yeah. It's hard, it's it's it's too much.
SPEAKER_02:Well, congratulations, man, because that's a that's that's a massive, that is a that's a bucket list item, really, at the end of the day, isn't it? That's a bucket list item, and to do it with these guys that mean so much to you that you've known for your entire life. I mean, kudos to you, man. That's very that's um, you know. That's I'm so happy for you that you got to experience that.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, man. Thank you so much. Highly recommend it. But do it for a week, highly recommend it, but don't do it for two weeks, do it for one.
SPEAKER_02:Do it for a week, yeah, right. So I wanna I want to have a chat about going from because I know when you're in Venezuela and you know you've talked about the guys that you you grew up with there. Because prior to doing stand-up, I remembered you were in working in the food industry over there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:As a brewery. Okay, so were you a brewer?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, brewmaster, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:A brewmaster?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So I studied food technology. Food technology is for people who don't know, is everything that is not everything, let me put it this way, everything that is made in a big factory that involves quality control, quality assurance, and productivity.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So it depends on what part of you end up working, you could be more in the quality of the product or of the product or more like a like a productivity or continuous improvement of the process. Well, and so how do you keep in the quality?
SPEAKER_02:So what's the what's the transition from that because you were doing stand-up when you were still in Venezuela, weren't you?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So I I started doing stand-up and I was still working in a brewery. And uh so my friend, when I started doing stand-up, I got a friend who was like, listen, let's start doing stand-up. But because it's not like in Australia, like in Venezuela, we had we didn't have comedy clubs, we didn't have open mics, no festivals. We only had the only comedy shows that you go watch was the shows from people who were already famous from the telly. They were television comedians who had their solo shows because they were famous. So nobody knew that the basic normal citizen was able or allowed to perform in front of an audience to tell jokes.
SPEAKER_02:Did you have a level of freedom of speech over there at the at that time?
SPEAKER_01:At the beginning, yes, but very, very when when someone started the open mics and started the stand-up comedy scene in Venezuela, we started very quickly there was a need for more comedians. And the the freedom of speech was indirect, which is when you're controlling a country, it's so much better and more efficient than than putting it as a law as freedom of speech.
SPEAKER_02:In the ways that how do you mean, sorry?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, let me put it this way. One of the main reasons, one one one of the few reasons why I left Venezuela. You go to a comedy club and someone and the owner of the club will say, You can say anything, but if if there's someone from the government in the audience, they're gonna close my venue, they're gonna they're not gonna do anything to you. They're gonna shut down my venue. So please. I want to keep my job.
SPEAKER_02:Hang on, so if if there's someone from the government in the audience, yeah. So let's say let them in. How can you uh how do they, you know, you can yeah, you can let them in.
SPEAKER_01:So this this thing happened for real when I was living there. There was a group of improv, a famous group of improv, and a lot of people who did improv there. I never did improv, but a lot of them were friends of mine. And I I love to go and watch their shows, and they had they were they had like this residency in a in a in a theater, in a small theater. And they had uh every year they had a long season in this theater. And this and the theater, it was a public theater, it was owned by the council. You know how improv shows they they they pass the hat before the show, they get ideas, they get ideas, yeah, pieces of paper from the audience, and then they grab something from the piece of paper from the audience, and then they do they play with that idea. That year, not in I was uh in a particular show in that year a member of the government uh died in uh in an interesting way. Which was also to blame Venezuela was uh the maintenance of the entire system and the structure of Venezuela has been so poorly that floods uh on because the sewage is so bad that that uh roads in the city get flooded so quickly that you can there's no way out. And this guy was dragged towards a creek in the middle of flood and drowned. Terrible death. Nothing funny about it. But someone wrote something like a pun. Someone from the audience wrote a pun that was related to that. And then but the comedian when grabbed a piece of paper instead of going, nah, next, he read it and they played it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Someone there was a member in the audience that was who worked for the government and went these guys did that so they they lost their residency for life in that theater that they've been working on for the last six years.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And nobody noticed in the audience that that happened. It was after the show that the thing came. Like nobody said anything or and people laughed and they continued because everybody hated the government and they were actually very happy that somebody did that. But then so that's and that happened, and then that that thing created a thing in the comedy world, and where this there was only not that many comedy clubs, but one of the most popular ones, the owner told us, hey guys, I don't please don't do any jokes like that, because we can get in trouble. Like it's never it's never directed to the like instead of f fine putting a fine on the comedian or or take him to jail, whatever, it's like let's remove the places for this comedian to perform.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. Which is instead of giving the comedians incentive not to do the wrong thing. Let's let's remove the vehicle in which all of them get to say something.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And so was that something that uh you're saying one of the there's a few reasons why you made the move from Venezuela to Australia. Was Australia always on the on the cards? Like when you were thinking that you were gonna leave Venezuela, or did you have a few options and you you ended up on Australia?
SPEAKER_01:Options were Australia and Spain. And Australia because my brother already was already living here. Yeah. And I wanted to go where my brother was living, but also I came to Australia before that and I really, really liked it.
SPEAKER_02:And were you speaking English? Like, do they teach English as a second language in Venezuela?
SPEAKER_01:No, no, not as a second language. They if I I learned English because my dad. My dad he was a visionary with with the power of speaking English, the power that gives you speaking English in this world. And he he knew that my brother and I were gonna need it in the future. And he was so strict. I'm very grateful for him today, but when I was a kid, I hated it. Because twice uh twice a week in the afternoons from from year one to year 11 when when my friends were playing outside, I had to go to English lessons.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:But but it worked. Like the English lessons you have in a in a average school in Venezuela will be so basic that you you will never you will never be fluent. You learn how to say yes, no, black, white, stop, go. Yeah, hello. Those are the that's the vocabulary you learn.
SPEAKER_02:And then you must have got it, you must have got it quite a shock when you came to Australia and went, okay, God, they don't speak English yet. What have they done to the English language these days?
SPEAKER_01:You speak strium, Mike. You speak striand. Can we swear in this in this podcast? Sorry? Yeah, yeah, you go for it, mate, as well. Oh mate, the the just the use of because I didn't know uh there's things that you don't learn in in courses or like nobody tells me that uh fac all means nothing. Like like there's no teacher or or course or or or English book that tells you that fuck all means nothing. So you can imagine how confusing it is when you like when something's got all in it and it means nothing. Like you don't know that the prefix of fuck can turn all into nothing. It's it's yeah, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So when you when you got here, so when you came to Australia, I think I read 2012, yeah. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. What how how long was there between when you got here and when you went, I'm gonna have a crack at doing stand-up in this country? Or was it immediate?
SPEAKER_01:Immediate. So because I missed it when I started doing stand-up in Venezuela and I and and I left the brewery, so I started doing stand-up while working in the brewery in the while while working in the brewery, and then I went, I I had to leave the brewery because it was going my career in stand-up was going so well so quickly.
SPEAKER_02:So you'd got to be like a headliner in Venezuela, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because because imagine in a world where there's no stand-up, and then the first 20 guys that start doing it in two years, they're already the headliners of their own movement.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't that great? Yeah, that's what happens. So imagine it was so new to us that the people who run rooms, they were given 15 minutes to try new material. Wow, that's inconceivable in the in the in in the world of stand-up. Yeah, so I I come from from that. So I was a headliner and I was already I was part of a podcast that uh that a radio station straight away bought it, and then that podcast became a radio show. And and uh I was being interviewed in the on the telly, I was doing a show with two other friends, it was a showcase show of three comics. We were touring the country, we took it to America, to America for Venezuelans only, for Venice for the Venezuelan community in Miami, which is huge.
SPEAKER_02:And what sort of population are we talking about, Ivan over there?
SPEAKER_01:In Venezuela, yeah. It's it's Venezuela is smaller than Queensland and it has the same population as Australia.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So it was I I left when I left the brewery, they were like, Oh, yeah, you should do this. Of course, you're very funny. You you can't stay here. So I was like, but you've got to go, you've got to go forth and be funny. Just go. And I was like, well, drinking beer is still part of a job, so it's fine. Uh so uh yeah, as I was like, from from drinking beer and telling jokes to drinking beer and telling jokes, there was not much difference because I didn't do much in that brewery. I I pretty much think my job was to keep people in a in a in a uh happy man mindset, and uh because I was told to do that, like brewers in there was it was a huge company, so there was more than one brewer. Like there was like three of me in my level, and we had a boss, and then he had another boss, and we were all the ones who studied brewing as as a science, yeah. And and so there were so many, like uh my my my biggest skill was people, so they didn't put me into quality control or productivity, they put me in people's management. So it's like okay, your job is to know everyone's names, to know if they're if they have a mom who is sick, if they have a son who likes football, like you just keep everybody and and and if something was going if someone was not doing their job properly, they will send me to have a chat, yeah. Right, yeah, but then I I I did impersonations of every other person who worked in the brewery. When I started doing stand-up, they actually accommodated me a space for myself on Fridays inside the brewery to just tell jokes after work. Yeah, yeah. Wow, and and and then there was a point where I felt, oh, I'm making a living telling jokes, I can be a comedian, and that would be. That was it for me. They'll tell you the specific moment. It was very epic. I um, you know, I said there were three of us, and then my boss, and then another boss. So that the high one, the director of the entire brewery, huge brewery. Like, if if someone listening knows about the size of breweries, this one had 14 bottling lines. 14 bottling lines is like four times for X brewery in Milton.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, massive, massive, massive, massive.
SPEAKER_01:So I was having lunch and I get with my direct boss, and I get a message on my phone. I'm sorry, I get a phone call on my phone. It's like it was the boss of the boss, the high guy, the big guy. And it's like the equivalent of hey kid, like that. Yeah, what are you doing? I'm having lunch. Oh, come to the come to my office. And I I told my boss, well, it's the big boss, he's telling me to go. It's like he's like, you gotta go. So that brewery was so big, it from from from the um the mess hole from where like we were having lunch to to his office was a 20-minute walk.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:This is how big that place was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, okay. And do you think it to yourself the whole time, what is he want? What is he what yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So at the time, when I when I I when I arrived, let me give you two concept. I didn't know this was happening. I knew this was happening, but I didn't know this was the reason why I was going there. I still had no idea. But that week, that brewery, which is part of a huge corporate group in Venezuela, was was the host of uh of a meeting of all the big managers of all the other companies of that corporation. So when I arrived to the office, the the assistant was I was like, Hey, I'm here, and the boss called me. Oh, yeah, he's expecting you. Like these breweries, I don't know here in Australia, but back that one in particular in Venezuela, like they will all have like a private, amazing-looking traditional Bavarian German wooden bar, yeah, yeah, which looks incredible, right? Yeah, so you enter that.
SPEAKER_02:They do the brewery tours, people come in, they go around the brewery, and then it all ends at the bar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but imagine that one, but private.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, wow, okay, cool.
SPEAKER_01:So there was one for that, for the tours, but that one was private. That was the boss's bar.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So when I enter, I see so many people. It turns out to be that that meeting of all the big bosses of all the other uh companies of that corporation, and there was two paellas, this this bigger than twice the size of Captain America's shield. Two of them in the huge paellas being cooked, and it was a Friday afternoon, and then the boss looks at me and he comes to me and he goes, like, hey, all right, it was great in here, and then he he he was a tall guy, so he he he holds me with one arm as introducing me to the rest, and the guy goes, like, this is one of my new brewers. This kid tells amazing jokes, and then he goes, Off you go, off you go, go God one on the way phone, no stage, nothing, and and I wasn't doing stand-up. The what I did there was to tell jokes, you know, street jokes. Yeah, but at the time, before you do stand, before I did stand-up, I had in my brain, in my database, four hours of jokes. Like I used to love telling jokes, and with different impersonations and voices, and I uh with the years, I I I turned a basic street joke into my own joke and expanded it with so many things naturally, like that was my for fun. So I I did all those jokes, and that was the moment where I there was a genuine moment when I thought, fuck I'm I'm making a living telling jokes because I'm at work, I get a salary out of this, yeah. Like I'm I'm I'm it was still before five o'clock, and that's what I was saying. That was your first corporate, yes, that was your first corporate, yes, it was so that gave me a lot of uh validation to to leave the the brewery and start telling jokes, and because of that, that that reputation that I had in the brewery of telling jokes. When when people knew that I started doing stand-up and um they offered me a space to do stand-up after that, and then I left, they were like, Yeah, man, do it. This is this is your call, this is what you should be doing.
SPEAKER_02:One of the qu one of the questions that I ask all the comedians is can you remember a time where an audience member or someone has come up to you after a gig and expressed their appreciation? For having needed a laugh at that point in time. And and what you're talking about in in relation to the comedy scene in Venezuela as opposed to what you're now experiencing here in Australia and in other places that you performed around the world. I dare say the level of appreciation from the audience members over there must have been enormous because it was such a fledgling thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Would that be right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, but it yes, absolutely. But there was also what do you call what's that emotion uh when you are when you're woed, wooed, like when you're like, whoa, when you're like overwhelmed. Yes, I think the audience, not overwhelmed, was surprised that uh uh other people that were not the famous guys from the telly could make them laugh as good as the famous people from the telly. They were surprised at a stranger that they never heard of, and they gave the opportunity because of the buzz that was on the street that there's this new thing called stand-up comedy, and people go and and there's just just strangers who are actually really good, and they may make you laugh, telling their own stories and their old jokes, and these aren't street jokes, these are people talking. There wasn't that thing of gratitude, it was more validation of kid, you're good, keep doing this. You guys are amazing. I didn't know we had that in this country in Australia. They already because because that's people go for a laugh, they don't go to support, they don't go to to check it out, they already know they're going for a laugh. So so the feedback is from from a user of of of the service. In Venezuela at the time, not even the audience the when the audience didn't know they were stand-up audience. Yeah, they were just curious people checking it out. So their feedback wasn't that but in Australia uh so much uh beautiful feedback of INA.
SPEAKER_02:How do you think audiences vary around the world? Because you know, you and I both know that the energy that we get out of an audience is what we feed off when we're on stage, and and because the audience is always the unknown factor. You know, like we know what we're capable of doing when we go out there, but the audience is is always the the the unknown factor in it. And so you've performed in so many countries around the world now, you must surely notice a difference around the world.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and even uh even within Australia, yeah, right.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I believe for for example, that Sydney audiences laugh the loudest.
SPEAKER_02:The loudest.
SPEAKER_01:The loudest as a decibel.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And my my explanation for that is that traffic in Sydney is so bad that the tension they accumulate after working and then being in traffic, once they're in the in the comedy venue and watching the show, they the release of the valve is escaping more pressure than usual.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:There's the loudest laughter.
SPEAKER_02:And you think they're tough audiences because they're sitting there going, I sat in 20 minutes of traffic to get here, mate. You better be bloody funny.
SPEAKER_01:No, I think it's the opposite. I think Melbourne is tougher. Melbourne is like, we know this. We we've just had a great meal. Can you top that?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like, can you top that uh we we we we put put away? I think Melbourne audiences they it's there's not that much tension in it because Melbourne is such a city of of of libation. It's it's about drinking coffee all day and and having brunch all day and and then having all the and and and it's it's there's one city in Australia that's probably got the most European culture. Yes. So when when when when they give you their time, it's like this better be good. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But but I I think when when you go to cities like Sydney, they're like, yes, it's fucking traffic. And then you give them this the the smallest jokes. They're like, ah, they just want to let it out.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Do you have a favorite part of Australia that you like going to? Every time you see it come up on your roster, you go, oh, I'm looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_01:I'm I I like oh, there's so many.
SPEAKER_02:Um you're pretty popular up here, mate, I gotta tell you, in Queensland.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Brisbane is always so good. When I do the comedy festival there and and I do the the sit-down comedy, there's there is a beautiful combination of because part of my comedy I talk to, I talk to Aussies. I say, Aussies, this this is the way you are. And the in in Queensland, there's there's no shame in being Aussie. And and I get a my reception, the reception and receptivity of my comedy is huge in from the Aussies, but at the same time, that's mixed with Queensland has the most Latinos.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, really? Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So when I go to Queensland and I combine Aussies being being proud of all the jokes that I tell about them, plus Latinos being proud of this is one of us. Like the the energy in the shows in Queensland are by far the best. Yeah because of that combination. Yeah, there's so many Venezuelans and Colombians and Chileans and Mexicans living in in Brisbane and and you know and other Queensland cities that are uh it's um they all go there because of the weather. Yeah because we're very tropical, and I get it, it makes sense. When I go to when I land in Brisbane Airport and I and the doors are all or or Cairns Airport, and the doors of the airport opens, and it's just that when that hot humidity hits the airport.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah, doesn't it? The humidity up in Cairns.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, I feel like in Venezuela. That's and then then you look up, there's a mango tree, and like, yeah, I'm in Venezuela.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Hey, so when did you you know you talk about uh being one of them, but you're also one of us now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So when did you get your citizenship?
SPEAKER_01:2022. After COVID. After COVID, right after COVID, because yeah, I used doing nothing during in COVID is when I had the time to sit down and apply for my citizenship because it takes a long time.
SPEAKER_03:Study the test.
SPEAKER_01:You study the test and go through a lot of paperwork. Like one of the one of the one of the things in the paperwork, so you know, it's like you have to list with all the dates of entry and living, and entry and living of all the places in the world that you've visited in the last 10 years.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, how many people can do that?
SPEAKER_01:So you have to go through your passport and look at the stamps and then go to your old emails to remember when when did I bought that ticket?
SPEAKER_02:When was the wonder what they need to know all that for?
SPEAKER_01:All of it for the last 10 years. I've got people living overseas, so I travel overseas a lot, uh, and then you know, holidays, and then sometimes for work because I did a comedy festival Mel Road Show in Asia. And it's it's it's big, man. It's it's a so it's you you need like a week to get the shit together just to fill that form.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well.
SPEAKER_02:So it was obviously it was obviously something that you thought, don't care, I'm doing it. This is happening.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, man. And then and then the the citizenship test, it's it's fun. Like I I have many jokes about it. I have things that I've learned that I didn't know of. Like like the governor general. I didn't know there was a thing called a governor general. And I make fun of the audience. I'm every time when I do that joke, I ask the audience, because I explained that the governor general is the most powerful politician in the country. Like the governor general can't change anything like that without asking any questions. And then I go, raise one arm if you know for sure that you can bet on it, the name of the current governor general of Australia. Yeah. And no one of course not.
SPEAKER_02:No one that's the fascinating thing. That's the most fascinating thing I find about this whole citizenship process, you know, like because now there's there's tens, hundreds of thousands of people like yourself that actually have a better knowledge of what the fuck's going on than what yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that's that's that I I also did you know that this year around March, there was an article in the ABC that mentioned that they they they gave children kids in year 10, 11, and 12 all over the country the citizenship test.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01:The overall score, the average scores was 20%. No, why? Yes. So kind of like if you want to learn about Australia, how how old are you doing do you know how old?
SPEAKER_02:Like, were they high school kids?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, 10, 11, and 12, like the year, year 10, year 11.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah. Right. Well, 20%. 20% just goes to show you what's with the where the gap is in the education there as to what they've been taught in the world.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the citizenship test in Australia, it makes sense. It's like, oh, because the big difference between a permanent resident and a citizen is the citizen the permanent resident cannot vote. Citizens can vote.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So if you're gonna vote, you need to know the sociopolitical structure of the country.
SPEAKER_02:Sure, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And that makes sense that a foreigner will never understand, know that. Like I didn't know about voting for you don't vote for the person, you vote for the party. Because those those things change in different countries.
SPEAKER_02:Like in Venezuela, the upper house, lower house, state, yeah, prime, you know, polit premiers versus prime ministers and local government, and like it's there's a lot, there's a lot of, you know, we're quite over well, I believe we're quite overgoverned in this country.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. By the way, if for Venezuelan, that all those things you said, it's very hard to understand because we have one dictator, easy. Okay. Easy, yeah, yeah. Yeah, just one dictator, you don't have to think about it.
SPEAKER_02:Vote for him or go to the end of the line.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:They took they refer to the Commonwealth much in the uh in the questions, like a lot. Right. So it's very much swayed towards maintaining the Commonwealth Association as opposed to at some point independence, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that doesn't factor into it. Yeah, I there's not is it's not on the it's not on the cards. Right. It's all very commonwealth. That's why I wrote these jokes about okay, this is just information that not that many Australians handle. But if you really want to learn how to be Australian, you have to solve that. That's what my wife actually is like, you don't you don't know much about being Australian, and then that joke that I have about the mathematical problem that only Australians can have. Like they don't teach you that in the citizens.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, this is the uh is this to do with the distance?
SPEAKER_01:No, no, I go like uh this is a mathematical problem that only Australians can solve. Oh, the sick if imagine you're gonna quit your job in three months' time and there's seven sick days that you haven't used. Yeah, that's that's when you learn to be an Aussie. Those are the things they really have to learn.
SPEAKER_02:So getting back to the the people coming up to you after gigs and appreciating a gig and all that sort of stuff, like now that you've been traveling around Australia doing stand-up and this sort of stuff, have you has there been any instances that come to mind where you know you've done a gig and it's either been a little country town or something like this where you just come away from it going, you know, that was we did a really good thing tonight for these people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And even before the show, you already know that you're doing a really good thing for the people. Like when you go to the green room, the more stuff you find in the green room, the more grateful they are you're there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I had that recent had that on Friday night in Country Victoria, little jelly beans and chips and bananas, and and the thing when it becomes personal in is when they're more grateful.
SPEAKER_01:When you go, when you when someone goes like this biscuits were they were made by a lady that loves comedy, and she's very happy that you guys are here, and she's on third row. So if you know after the show, you can see and there's there's biscuits, or there's a there's a bit of uh you know cupcakes, or and that's so beautiful when you go, oh, they needed us here, they're very grateful that we're here, and the the the and they're so grateful when you go to a small town, it's hard to explain how much they miss and the humans in particular need that interaction with the arts that when you're in a small town, the way they embrace it and and and welcome it. Like when you're you're a bit numb if you're if you're in a big city when there's constant things happening around you, but in your small town when there's not that much, it's just the everyday grind of, especially whatever the the the biggest uh commercial or economic thing of of the town is, whether it's farming or or mining, or they they that's all they have. And uh they're so happy.
SPEAKER_02:Well that's that's that's social health, you know. That's one of the big things we talk about in in mental health and suicide prevention is you know, you can talk about physical health and mental health, but there's an actual thing called social health. And that that connectedness, we need the company of other human beings because we're social creatures. And and that is where real to me, that's where real suicide prevention is at its core, at its heart, is when you're out engaging in communities. You know, and in actual fact, there's a lot of research progress uh projects done in Japan where they reduce their suicide rate by some crap, like 60% in some regions because they hold in solely focused on community engagement, bringing people out and connecting them with each other. And and you know, we live in a country where, you know, it is so spread out that people that live in these little outback towns don't have access to the mental health services that they do in the city. And even people that live in the city aren't seeking those mental health services because of cost of living, you know. Like the I think I read a report recently where it was it was either one in four or one in six Australians aren't seeking mental health help, professional help, purely due to cost, you know. And so going out and getting together as a community and bringing people, you know, total strangers all sitting in the one room. And if comedy's the vehicle to bring them together and and have them all laughing and walking away having had a good time, man, it's uh it's one of those things that I I say to a lot of comics, you never know who's in your audience and what they're going through and how much it means for them to just have you on stage going about your business and making them laugh.
SPEAKER_01:Well, one one very memorable audience member this year after my show, because um when I can I I wait for the audience at the end of the show just to put photos and shake hands. I used to do that a lot before COVID, and then I stopped because of shaking hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now I'm bringing it back little by little. And this year, it was just I want to be very respectful here. This was a person who was by by themselves extremely shy looking person with some mannerisms that suggested some sort of spectrum.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Was I Yeah, no, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, some yeah, so you something was going on.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Yeah. He didn't look at me in the eye, but approached me and avoided eye contact and very shy in the way he uh presented himself physically with his arms and body language. And he said to me, he waited in the line to just approach me. He didn't want a photo, he didn't shake hands. Sure, he had a thing with physical contact. But he said to me, I don't go out of my house too much. And the first time I saw you was last year, and I like going out of the house to come see your show.
SPEAKER_04:Awesome.
SPEAKER_02:That yeah, it's yeah, and the there's so many layers to that because you've bought this you've bought this guy Joy so much in in a way that you know he's a guy that's admitting, you know, hit it maybe social anxiety that he has or or whatever that that that inhibits him from leaving the house. But he is so drawn to how you make him feel by going to one of your shows. Yeah. And and not only the fact that he f he follows you, he likes your comedy, that's awesome. He's bought a ticket, he's left the house, he's come to the gig. Yeah, but for him to then follow it up by waiting at the end of the night to engage with you and to say this is this is what it's meant to be.
SPEAKER_01:And it was so obvious that it was so hard for him. It was so obvious.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah. Yeah. It's moments like that that you you know, you go away from the gig or you wake up the next morning and you think to yourself, you know, that that fills your cup. It really does. You know, what we what we do is to have that impact on a total stranger and to know that you're bringing, you know, something meaningful into the lives of these little communities and all of that sort of stuff. You know, it's like like Mick said, and I totally agree, it's a it's a privilege. It is a privilege to be able to do what we do.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. It is a we get to do this, we don't have to do this. And we that with that interaction with that guy made me think these are things that this is for people who don't know our brains, but this is nothing new for you, Mark. Because you know when we are on stage and we look at that person that is not laughing, yeah, and there's something inside like, you motherfucker, I'm gonna make you laugh. You're ruining my show for for not reacting.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's that famous cartoon, isn't there? That drawing where there's like the it's from the comedian's point of view where he's on stage and looking out, and he can see a thousand people laughing, right? But there's one person that's not laughing, and that's all you care about.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and this this guy, that story I just told, it was a great it it it reminds it's like sometimes that person that is not laughing, it's not because of you, it's going through so much shit that they're not still able to express vocally and physically that they're listening to you. But they're probably are and they're probably enjoying themselves. But the must the the they might sometimes can be like they actually hate you, they don't think you're funny. That's one option, always. That's the first one we always think about. But another one could be that person is thinking about something very you anything you said reminded the person to about something going on in their lives that made them think about it and they're actually distracted and not listen to a joke because there's just some deep shit important stuff they're going through, or they have an issue or an affliction that is not letting them express themselves the way that society expects.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that that analysis what you've just given, that comes from maturity as a comedian, maturing as a comic over years, over decades of doing it, and in front of tens of thousands of different audiences all around the world, you get to realize those those insights as to what you see as to why that person might might not be laughing when everyone around them is.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So it it's hard to get out of our heads, but we have to. Like if we're decided to be a comedian, it's because we it's for them, not for you. Uh sometimes we make it about it, uh not sometimes, more is about us.
SPEAKER_02:And yet there is research to show this that uh the difference between generating humor and appreciating humor, so when when we're on stage generating humor and the audience is there laughing and appreciating it, as big a psychological hit as what they're getting, believe it or not, it's actually proven to be more beneficial for us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:When you make someone laugh, the person initiating the laughter is getting a bigger hit out of it than actually the person laughing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, that connection.
SPEAKER_01:I I had a podcast of um he was a comedian, but he was talking about artists in general, and this he said that artists. Imagine this is a fake simulation, like a metaphor. Yeah, humanity. This is artists, it's as if all humans were inside a room. Yeah, the job of the artist is to open a window because the artists know that there's something very cool outside the window.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_01:The artist already knows what's that's what's there, and then we're telling the audience look at the window, and then us as artists, we just step and look at the audience looking out the window. And that's when we get the we're that's when we get the hit. Like yeah, when you see that when you see like oh they're they're enjoying what they're looking out the window, or in whatever way they're enjoying it, whether it's funny or deep or profound or or or whatever emotion we get to, and that's when we get the hit. It's like see you you saw that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so talking about the artistry of it all, and you know, humanity doing, you know, the importance of the arts, yeah. Your latest project has you acting. Yeah. And is this so we'll talk about the project in a moment, but I just want to is is acting something that was always on your radar, or is this something that's come out of the blue? Out of the blue. Wow. So talk to us about yesterday island and and and what the film's about, how did it come about, and and when people are going to be able to see this?
SPEAKER_01:I wish I had the answers of all those questions. Okay. Especially. So it wasn't a personal project. Out of nothing, I got this director contacting me to be the lead actor of his movie. The audition wasn't even an audition, it was just like a a chemistry test between him as a director and myself understanding him directing me.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Very, very lucky. I still have no idea. He just he did he saw my stand-up on videos, he didn't see my stand-up live ever. And he went, This is the guy.
SPEAKER_02:When you know, you know. That's that's what they talk about. Directors know, you know, like when they know they know who they want.
SPEAKER_01:And did the director, did the director actually write this? Yes, he wrote, wrote, and directed the movie and edited it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a very personal independent film for uh director, Sam Vutas. Vutas as V-O-U-T-A-S. Amazing guy. I learned so much from him. The experience, I loved it so much, and I really liked it to the point that I want to keep doing it. I want to find options to act because I really like connecting with with a I'm a very sensitive person, and I like to connect with my own emotions and find that, and very oh, if I have to portray this emotion, how can I do that? And I I really enjoy that. And I you went to acting school, but I didn't know things like that in camera, especially in a film when you're in a close-up, you have to do the complete opposite when you're on stage. Because I am very loud and expressive as a comedian on stage because I'm just that, yeah. But when the camera is here, I have to internalize, yeah. And he was like, Don't act. If we can see it in your eyes, you're acting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that blew my mind. Like, I didn't know about that. I didn't know about that, and just learning that and understanding that and trying to do it was I think being a comedian.
SPEAKER_02:I think being a comedian sets you up beautifully to be a dramatic actor. And so is it is it is it a dramatic role?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, so it it it's a dark comedy, but the tone was very dark and very obscure. And uh he wanted there was a moment where the the character related so well to you you find things in your life to connect with, so because I don't because I didn't study acting. I I I know there's method, but I know there are other ways of not being personally involved, like method acting can be dangerous. But I didn't know, so I think the nate, although that's a theory created by some guy, I think it was a Russian name, Stanislavsky. Yeah, that guy. So but I think that's a natural way of doing it. Like if you if you have to convey an emotion, you go, okay, the character is going through this. When in my life I went through something similar, so I can connect with that and then feel it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the substitution, you know, if you're losing someone if you're in in a scene and you're losing someone you love, what would that equate to be in your personal life?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yes, exactly. And I this character had a lot of depression and it was put in a in a very anxious situation. So I did something that I don't recommend doing because he was bad. I I got myself anxious and sad on purpose to the to one day I couldn't bring myself back.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_01:And I had a the director never knew this because I w went to my car and I started keep shaking and crying and not knowing what to do and calling my wife because I probably wasn't able to drive.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm so lucky that my wife is a psychologist and she and uh and I'm very vocal of my self-awareness that I can communicate to her some things that she already knew about me, and she helped me out. Like a proper breathing, you know the breathing exercises guided the breath work, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she did that to me through the phone, so I can you want so your your wife's psychologist? Yeah, yeah, well, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't know my dad was a psychiatrist, and my mom was a psychologist.
SPEAKER_02:Is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I grew up in a mental institution, man.
SPEAKER_02:And you married into one as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02:So is she is she uh is she practicing your wife? Is she in like yeah, uh clinician? Yeah, yeah, well, okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. There's a whole raft of questions there that I want to like, you know, like dating a psychologist when you first find that moment where you first find out what she does, you know, it's just like as because the comedian in you, I know the comedian in me would want to go down one path, and the person in me that suffers from ADHD would want to go down another path, and then the person that suffered depression would want to go down another path.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's it's so many things, so many things I can talk about this, but one thing I can tell you is that I think for I've seen this is a a theory with no base. I'm not gonna I don't want to get people go like you're wrong. Yeah, I'm probably uh I'm probably I'm probably wrong.
SPEAKER_02:It's all good, mate. We have a disclaimer at the end of the show, so you can't.
SPEAKER_01:It's a theory with no base. The comedians that I know that are in good, healthy relationships with their partners, most of them their partners are in jobs that are very human driven. As in as in psychologists, nurses, social workers, teachers, those something in the arts.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like it's very rare to see a comedian married to a lawyer.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right, okay. I can get I see where you're going with this, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:Or or a real estate agent.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:When there's a different corporate uh mindset.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And in my case with with Alicia, I think it needs it needs someone to understand the comedian's brain.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:For the relationship to work. Yeah, because we don't get it.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Exactly. Wow, that's cool, man. So uh okay, so going back to the film. So you've you've you've done something you didn't rec you don't recommend. You got yourself worked up into this state, and and and and you've luckily enough uh been in a position to call your wife and she's helped bring you back to the the present moment. So does the film explore like you know, deep mental health and or maybe suicide or suicide ideation and that sort of stuff?
SPEAKER_01:It not directly with words, but this is the life of of a man who whose life took a turn and he never he was never out of it. He never evolved after something after after a divorce from cheating. This person after years blamed everybody for and and still lived with uh in a in a bedroom in a shared house. His stuff is still in boxes after after six years of of getting divorced. And and then something happens and it's this movie has a little bit of magic realism sci-fi. It's called Yesterday Island because it's it's got that element of uh Groundhog Day.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's about forgiving, it's about moving on on, moving forward and not staying in the pit of darkness. So I've been through a divorce not from cheating, thank God. But the divorce got me really hard at the time. And uh so to connect with the character, I went into that place. Plus, I'm already why with a lot of anxiety. So there was moments where the the the characters completely scared, so much uncertainty, didn't know what was going on. So I very quickly I didn't know I knew how to get me in that place like that. And because I wanted to do my best. Yeah, of course. Whatever it takes. Like this guy is I'm the lead actor, I'm the lead character. I don't I don't I haven't seen the film. I don't know if I'm um if I'm a good actor.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if I can't, especially given you is this your maiden voyage into yes, you know into a a feature film, like a proper length film. So how long ago you said you haven't seen the finished uh product yet. So this is quite recent, this is wrapped then.
SPEAKER_01:So it was we finished recording in filming in uh November 2023. That's when we finished filming.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And uh because it's independent film, what I've learned, I still learn out much. You have to put them in film festivals around the world. Um the more film festivals accept you, the more in your breast me have to come and show it in Australia in uh in a main mainstream theatre in the yeah, in the cinema. So yeah, I don't so so far as I've done the the Warsaw Film Festival in Poland. Okay and he's gonna do the Houston Film Festival. And I've only seen the trailer. I haven't seen the film yet. Well, and I'm sh I I I would love if my wife can see it before I can watch it, because I don't want to watch it, I'm afraid. Really?
SPEAKER_02:And so uh okay, so there's a hesitancy of you watching it. Yeah, because you purposely not watched the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01:Because when you do stand-up, if you fuck it up, you fuck it up for yourself. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, plus the the Yeah, and the that's the thing is about acting, the difference between acting and stand-up. Like I remember when when I was studying acting, we were doing a subject, it was the last year. We did a lot of method acting stuff, right? And the la and the last year, one of the things we were doing was emotional risk, right? Was a subject. It was an actual subject, right? And and I remember the teacher at the time going, okay, I want you know, you to do this, this, and this, you to do, uh no, you to do this, you to do this, you to do this, Mark. I want you to do this, this, and this. And I went, hang on a minute, why do I have three things to do when everyone else has only got one? And they said, because you do stand up. Oh, you take a bigger risk every single time. Time you walk on that stage, then these guys will ever understand because it is the feedback is instantaneous.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right? The audience is right there. Whereas if when you're acting in a a play, you've got scene partners, you've got a director, you've got staging, you're in a movie, you know, the you you filmed it two years ago, you're not, you know, and it's two and a half years before people get to sit down and watch it, and you're not going to experience that feedback.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But the only the honestly, the only feedback I care, and I I don't know if that will ever be honest, because it's it's from the director and the people who put uh all they have for this movie.
SPEAKER_02:And he's obviously happy with it. I hope so. Well, if he's farming it out to all these film festivals, mate, he wouldn't be doing that if he wasn't happy with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I hope so, because oh man, I've I have so much respect for an independent director, man. So much respect.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I saw that you uh you put the link up to the trial. I watched the trailer the other day. It looks fascinating to me, mate. And and your your presence in that role, you hold the you hold the camera brilliantly.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I hope it works because I didn't know, man. Like the getting the grants, that's years of paperwork.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then what I see behind like for me, this is all new to me. Like, now when I see the credits after a movie, I always thought, like, what so many people? I'm like, now I know, like, yeah, you need that many people. Yeah. And you probably need more of that, more than that people to make it drawn. And then like something that is so common for everybody to watch, which is a movie. I don't think people are understand what it means to make a movie and how hard it is. Like things I didn't know, for example, like the way it looks on the screen is so much different from what is happening in in the set. And sometimes now I know when I watch a film that I know that when I see two people in a close-up talking to each other, they're probably not looking at each other. Someone's probably looking at the wall and the other one looking at the floor. But in the camera, that's how that's that's when it looks that they're looking at each other.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so well that's some. So what an exciting thing for you have to have uh to done, mate. So are you happy for me to put the link to the trailer in the show notes for this?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, please.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, do excellent. And so if anybody wants to follow you aside from the trailer, where's what's the best? Is it insta Instagram? What do you do? Instagram, what's it yeah?
SPEAKER_01:Instagram, Ivan Comedy, because I I know my surname is very hard to to to spell. So for all the socials, you just swap Aristagietta for comedy. That's that's and instead of Ivan, just got woven.
SPEAKER_02:I am so embarrassed about the first time that I met you. Um I was wondering whether or not it was gonna come up in conversation today because I was I was telling someone about it the other day, and I'm just like, I'm sometimes I amaze myself at as to how much of a bogan I can be. You know, just an Aussie. Because I remember, I remember exactly the night. Um I'm still traumatized by it, you know, we're we're at the Brook, we're at the Brookfield Golf Club, it was for a fidelity, yeah, and I was hosting and you were headlining, and I've seen your name on the bill, and I'm like, how the fuck am I gonna pronounce that right? And so I'm more concerned about pronouncing your surname right that my first words to you, excuse me, mate, I I'm your MC for tonight. How do you pronounce your surname, Ivan? And I will never forget the look on your face. You just and you God love you, you're so gracious, you just put your hand on my shoulder. Well, well, it's it's a van, actually. And at that point, I was just like, oh look, you're fucking good on your chair. Great. Hey, um, okay, mate, we're gonna wind it up. I've I'd like to finish all of our chats with what I call the feel good five. Right. The feel good five. So five questions, your answers can be as long or as short as you like. It's totally up to you, no rhyme or reason. So the first one is what makes you happy, mate.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it makes me happy, seeing other people happy and my involvement in that. Like that, I think I love cooking when I cook something and I see that my wife liked it, that makes me happy.
SPEAKER_02:First of all, a big party alive, obviously. The fee, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Of course, making people laugh, but also just people enjoying themselves. I think it's very contagious when you see someone having a good time, whether you were involved in it or not. That's awesome. Like, yeah, I think that's one of the reasons we see we have dogs, because dogs can have a time of their life just on their own. And when you see a dog being happy, this they get happy so quickly, and then you see a dog happy, and then you get happy. I mean, I think it's it's it's so contagious to be surrounded by by by people having a good time. That's what makes me happy when and if I see my wife just laughing at something that she saw on the phone, I'm like, yeah, she's having a great time. That makes me happy.
SPEAKER_02:Happy wife, happy life, my friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, second way, I love it. Second one is what are you grateful for today?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the the people in my life.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Everyone, and the people that are used to be in my life, but they're no longer directly in my life, but they still I'm being grateful for all the the people I've been uh gone met through my path in life. They've all I've learned something from them, I've got support from them, connection, compassion, just valid validation, love. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, relationship.
SPEAKER_01:People is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's everything, isn't it? And you know, right at this wheeling back right to our the start of our conversation where we're talking about, you know, sometimes it we forget how much we enjoy this uh and to be grateful for this life that we have because it's it's unfortunate that sometimes it can take going to a funeral of a loved one for you to really appreciate every single day that we got, you know. Yeah, yeah, relationships fantastic to be grateful for those, mate, each and every one of them.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and okay, I think a reminder of death, I I'm still I'm I I think we I follow this philosopher, he's a modern day philosopher, he's uh alain the bottom, alain the bottom. He's English, he's written a few books, and he's part of this thing called um the the school of life. I don't know if you heard about it. No, and he one of his theories is he's very atheist, but he put together all the good stuff that had uh on all the religions that has nothing to do with actual religion. And one of the religions all have a calendar, or have a fasting period, or have, as you said before, that that social hap uh what do you call a social connection?
SPEAKER_02:Social health, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Social health that going to a place together and sing together or laugh in our case together, it's a beautiful so religions have that thing, they gather people, sing together, there's a social health there. Listening to learning together, like in religious will be the whoever priest or whatever will say a sermon, and but if if if you learn together at school, or if you learn together someone who is an expert in something that you're not like going to one of your chats about mental health and suicide prevention, as a community, people connect. Like when you go, that's that's the thing that that that we can connect through religion. And what I said they are in those calendars that every religious have, they have one part of the calendar where it's actually a reminder that we're gonna die. Or events.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And so never when you get invited to a funeral or a birthday party go consciously because the funeral is not for the person who just died, it's for the everyone who is around is still alive. And the birth and the birthday party is a very similar thing. It's a reminder that of those things that we forget. We forget that we're gonna die, we forget that we were born and this is great. And uh it's I I like this trip to the Camino that that that simple comedy brain that goes, oh, we're gonna end up in a grave as a joke, made me think, oh, but yes, I should enjoy today and everything and take the things what is really the important bits. Am I worrying too much about things that are at the end of the day are not that important? Because we're gonna die. I shouldn't spend my time thinking of that. Let's let's stay with the good stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's fine because that that that that that all comes under the gratitude, you know. Yeah, it all comes under the banner of gratitude.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so okay, happiness, gratitude. Okay, so the third one is what are you looking forward to at the moment? What's coming up in your life that you're looking forward to?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, different work will be writing a new show every year. I'm this is the time of the year when I'm writing a new show. It's scary, but I'm looking forward to there's a voice in my head that goes, in February last year, the show will be ready and and and at least ready enough to start the season, and and you were gonna say, see, it wasn't that hard. Just enjoy the process. I'm looking forward to enjoying more after that lesson of the Camino. Enjoying more. I'm looking forward to use that in my life a bit more of don't don't get hooked on the stuff that there's nothing you can do about it. Like we can have another whole podcast about how I feel about AI, and I think the end of the world is coming.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'll book I'll I'll tell you what, I'll book you in for that one in about six months' time, mate. And we'll uh we'll we'll revisit that conversation because that's a uh yeah, that's one that um keen to dive into all that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:So so that's something to look forward to is our next time we catch up with yes, yes. Absolutely. Okay. Okay, so that's work-wise. You're looking forward to something personally, like what you've got.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, my family's finally coming to visit. So my mom went came last year to Australia, but my brother, who six years ago left Australia to live in another country with his daughters and wife, and they're finally coming back home, and nobody it's so hard, man. Like, nobody comes visit to when you live in Australia, it's too far, too far away.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm looking forward to that. They're coming and and having that that moment with my brother and nieces and my sister-in-law, who I also love very much. Nice my and my mom and all of us together in one one place.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's gonna be special. How how far away is that? When's that happening?
SPEAKER_01:They're uh they're coming for Christmas, uh, around of December 15th. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Beautiful. Oh, that's yeah, that's um very cool to look forward to, mate. Okay, second last one on the list. What's your me time when you want to switch off from the world and you want to do something wholly and solely just for you? Where do you what do you what do you dive into?
SPEAKER_01:You know, that's a crazy because I don't have children and I am a comedian who doesn't have a day job. In theory, I have a lot of me time, yeah. Yeah, but for a comedian, I think me time is when you switch off the looking for jokes writing mode, which is very hard to switch off.
SPEAKER_02:So switching off the comedic part of the brain.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, switching off the not just the comedic, but I have to write jokes because I have a job and any experience, any thought, any situation in my life can help me make money.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and potentially turn into a bit.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Potentially turn into a bit, and therefore make people laugh, therefore have a job make money. And it's hard to go. I think me time is after festival season, before I start writing a new show, is when I have mental space for me time because I'm home alone all day, I can have all the me time I want.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But if if I'm worried about a thing of a joke, that I don't enjoy that me time. So if in that circumstances, how would I enjoy myself? I my middle life crisis translated into watching baseball. Because baseball used to be a thing in Venezuela. It is a it's it's the main sport in Venezuela.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I just rekindled with baseball as a as a fan like two years ago, and I'm enjoying it. On Disney Plus, there's the SPN and they show some and um now because I picked a team because it's fun, much more fun if you pick a team. I picked the Dodgers, and now as me time will be just home watching Dodgers, and I probably cook whatever I think I'm craving that day. Something very simple. I just enjoy something simple instead of cooking big things for myself. I just like cooking for my wife, but for myself, it'll be a very good sandwich. I just go to the deli, get all the good sliced stuff, freshly sliced, get a good bread, and just make myself a very European, Italian style massive sandwich in front of the telly watching the baseball.
SPEAKER_02:Mate, I love that. I love that, I tell you. Uh, you know, lunch is is probably my most favorite meal of the day.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:As much as I as much as I enjoy having dinner with my wife and cooking the whole process of going around dinner, you know. I just really like lunch.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Lunch is great. How good is lunch?
SPEAKER_02:You know, and plus it's it's usually my first meal of the day, lunch, because I did like the intermittent. So I've I've kind of stopped eating and and I don't have breakfast, I have black coffee in the morning or green tea or whatever. So my first meal of the day is lunch.
SPEAKER_01:Of course it's your favorite meal then. It's the first one. You're hungry, man. Yeah, well, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:And let me tell you, I I I spent about an hour before lunch thinking about what I'm gonna have.
SPEAKER_01:That's a great preparation. I love that. That that that that's a great time. Like, what am I gonna eat? Yeah, and if and if you have the time to to satisfy that crave of exactly what you want for lunch, that's the that's the best me time. Yeah, that's the best.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Last one, last one on the list is what has made you laugh recently. Uh it can be something that you've thought up, something you've seen, you've been at a gig, one of our colleagues is okay.
SPEAKER_01:Well, on the plane home from Spain, I watch a movie with Brian Cranston. Cranston?
SPEAKER_02:The guy from Brian Cranston, the guy from Breaking Bad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looked very indie as well, very indie film.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:The movie was okay. But there was a line that was such so unexpected that I was in the playing by myself, you know, with a headphones, and I went like very loudly. The guy next to me did that. And it's it's hard to put into context, but there's so much it was a very heartfelt moment between two siblings that fought and separated, and then one of them is going through a lot of uh terrible things in their life, and they get back together as siblings helping each other after 20 years of not talking to each other. Which is very deep, and and then the the the older brother who was the one accommodating the sister, trying to be nice, the character was like a it's just like an idiot idiot in um not a bad guy, but it's just he's just sorry that he missed all this time from from being with his sister, and he is like uh trying to connect with her and trying to validate her emotions. And she's like, you know, sister, I've been watching a lot of stuff and listening to podcasts about about allergies, and everybody's got allergies now, but there's also these issues with and he goes like listen, what I'm trying to say is with all the the uncertainty and anxiety you're going through your life, and the sisters is like, oh my god, my brother is finally connecting with me. The guy was like, and this beautiful moment is like what you're just saying is with all the uncertainty and anxious anxious anxiety that you're going through your life it might be Juna What I didn't did. I I I listen what I did I tried to do my best, but you have to watch that scene. So what's it called again? Everything's going to be great.
SPEAKER_02:I love the title. Everything's going to be great. And Brian Cranston is awesome to start with.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the actress who is with him, the the other main actress, she's like amazing. Everything's gonna be great. Alison Janey.
SPEAKER_04:I'm not familiar with that.
SPEAKER_01:Very, very if you see her face, you know, oh this one. And it's it's a comedy slash drama with a with it's more drama than comedy, but it's beautiful, and it's about a family who r produces musicals in tiny theaters.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. Everything's gonna be great. Yeah. Which is which is really the which is really the mindset that you've got to have if you know producing musicals in tidy theaters is your jam.
SPEAKER_01:You really exactly you've got to be very positive. You've got to be eliminated by that everything's gonna be great. Very optimistic. But I I don't want to ruin that. Well, maybe uh one silly joke that makes me laugh every time I listen to it. Georgie Carroll told me this joke. It's a silly street joke. She said, You know that people in in Dubai and Qatar don't like the Flintstones, but the people from Abu Dhabi do?
SPEAKER_02:How clever. How yeah, see, this comedian, the comedians come up with that, you know. Oh, and that's the thing is that's the thing is you hear jokes and you go, where did that, you know? Like, I heard this one recently, and I'm like, it is so clever, it is such a clever play on words, right? So basically, I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll share with you, right? Okay, so it starts it starts out wrong, but it ends well, right? There's a little old man at a car park and he reverses his car out into a guy in a youth. Guy in the ute jumps out and he says, You bashed into my car, little old man. I want$2,000 or I'm gonna bash you. And the little old man goes, I don't have$2,000. I'll ring my son. My son's a dolphin trainer, he'll know what to do. And the guy in the U goes, I don't give a shit what he trains, mate. I want my two grand or I'll bash you. So little old man rings his son, guy in the youth rips the phone out of his hands and he goes, Your old man drove into my truck. I want$2,000. Son goes, okay, I'll be there in 20 minutes. Well, bring two grand or I'm gonna bash the pair of you. Twenty minutes later, the son rocks up, kicks the shit out of the guy in the youth, kicks the shit out of him, turns to his little old man dad and goes, Dad, how many times have I got to tell you this? I don't train dolphins, I train seals, navy seals.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So it's a cracker, right?
SPEAKER_02:It's an absolute cracker, and it's a great play of words like Georgie's gag, right? And I just think to myself, where did that come from? I would love to think that somewhere one of our colleagues, another comedian, somewhere, somewhere in the world, wrote that joke.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the Abu Dhabi Doo is oh my god, it's a beauty. It breaks my brain every time I listen to that. It's so silly, it's so smart at the same time. I love it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And she's I think George, I I should tell George, like she doesn't know, I haven't seen her in ages. I should tell her that how much she has made me laugh and will make me laugh forever, just me reminding, remembering that joke, yeah, just that silly, and just saying Abu Dhabi Doo makes me feel silly. By the way, you can you you can edit you can edit out all the bit about everything's gonna be great movie and the tuna, because it's hard to understand, and just leave it at Abu Dhabi Doo.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, mate.
unknown:All right.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, listen, Ivan, it's been an absolute crack in time having a chat with you, mate. I've I like when I said I I set aside a couple of hours and I thought, because I never know, you know, like how long it's gonna last for, but I'm so grateful that we've got to spend this time together, mate.
SPEAKER_01:I really like man. So it's so it's always so cool to and nice to talk to you. And I hope I can see you in person one day.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm actually I'm actually heading your way in December. I'm MCing the Comics Lounge for the first week of December, if you're gonna be around. Ivana Ristigetta, mate. Thank you so much. It's been an absolute treat, and uh best of luck with the film. I know it's gonna be amazing. And and as you trip around you know, the planet bringing joy to others, my friend, you go forward and be funny. Thank you, mate. Big hug. Cheers, mate.
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