bTB, wood Fire Pizza and Grill and the mall at Grease Ridge. Here
comes the weekend. It's Friday, No Friday's a bad Friday. On Fridays
and Tuesdays, you can go into bTB. You can get a large wood
fired pizza with one topping for ten bucks. Try to be in that anywhere
you can't. You know what else? The weekend brings football baby over fifty
TVs. Whether you're a college fan, a fan of the NFL, or
a fan of both, btb's got you covered. You can go in there.
You can go in there and get the draft of the month. It's
roarbox, Vanilla Porter delicious. There's even a martini of the month, the
Pumpkin Pie Martini. And get a shareable spinach artichoked potato skins. Now that's
creative, that's bTB. They even have lemon asparagus couscous salad. Trying to
watch your weight before you get into thanksgaring. You don't want to look bad
when you go to Thanksgiving dinner. I'm just saying that may actually be something
you want to want to try. Fill you right up and something that sounds
so good to me. This month, the PB j. Berger half pound
burger hallopeno, rape jam, peanut butter cream, cheese, lettuce, tomato,
onion served with fries. Uh, it's only a bTB woodfire pizza and
grill in the mall at Grease Riche when your old career gives you lemons throwing
some ice mix in some vodka colored A podcast from the Mac of All Trade
Studio in Fairport and driven by Victor Chrysler Dots Gee Ram, It's Billified the
Bill Moran Podcast. Well, hello and welcome. Thanks for getting your pot
on. Thanks for telling a friend. That's how we spread the word about
the pirate ship. A mir our shot is here. He's a Are you
an rit student? I dropped out? You dropped out? Okay, good,
We're gonna get to all this stuff. But I was trying to connect
to YouTube and I'm an old man and I couldn't get it. I couldn't
get this stream to go. I was connecting our software. I went for
computer science. I learned I'm a bad brown. Okay, I'm a bad
round. A mirror is a comedian and I saw him for the first time
this year in the Funniest Person in Rochester contest, and I was blown away,
and I went up to you and I said how old are you?
And you told me you were twenty one, and I went, no,
way, how long have you been doing comedy? Because your stage presence and
your set and everything was so well honed. Thank you, it was really
well crafted. I was like, damn, yeah, I mean when you
drop out, you have a lot of time on your hands. I just
stand in front of the mirror until nine to eleven jokes. But I started
when I was nineteen, okay, till end of nineteen all right, yeah,
but you were still in school and you were going and doing that stuff
as well, and all this, Yeah, Freddy's going to join us.
So Freddy's going to sit in, but most of this stuff was going to
be about you because he doesn't have to talk. I didn't know Freddy was
coming in. Come on in, sit down, have a seat, have
a seat, sit down, but don't look at me, Freddy. So,
uh, what was the plan? Then? Growing up? You grew
up in Penfield. I grew up in Penfield. I was born in Albany,
but we moved to Penfield and ikay one what was in Albany? I
don't remember. Family, probably, yeah, Okay, my parents parents American
citizens, were born overseas both both. Yeah, so they so they got
mutually exclusive Bill, It's true. It is a very good point. That
is fair. But I mean born overseas and then got their American citizen Yeah.
So yeah, my mom and dad and my two oldest siblings were born
in Pakistan. In Pakistan, and then they moved to Brooklyn, I think
sometime in the nineties, and my other sister was born then Albany and I
was born, and then they settled here. Okay, se had four siblings,
you were the youngest. Yeah, what did your parents do? My
father? My mom has been stay at home for pretty much her whole life.
She went to college for home economics in Pakistan. I don't know that
was I don't know that was a thing. Yeah, they had home economics
in like eighth grade here, did you take it? Yeah, but not
in fifteenth grade home economics. Yeah. So my mom she's been stay at
home her whole life. But my dad was a geologist in Pakistan. It
was a geology, a geologist really. He went to school for geology,
studying earthquake rocks, the crust of the earth. I think he said he
used to he ran a mine. Okay, all right, I don't know
what they were mining for. I don't know what they have, but he'll
probably know that I think about it. Yeah. Yeah, So then he
moved here, but he left geology when he came to America and even going
to become like a gemologist. What did he do here? When he came
here? He started just working really like like fast food and retail store jobs,
just to get food on the table for us and make sure we could
do things. And then once he moved to Albany, he got a state
job. So he works in like state insurance now. But for a long
time in my really life, he was just doing retail like that. How
hard was it for them to assimilate? So I'm assuming your parents came over
in the nineties, Yeah right, yeah, so you know what was it
hard for them? I mean I think it was especially for real after nine
to eleven. Well that I won't get to that second. But they come
over in the nineties. We're not in a post nine to eleven world at
that point. Yeah, But I mean I have to think, like,
you know, I'm born here, but I can go back a generation or
two, and it was from Ireland. We know what In Ireland they speak
primarily English. Yeah, they'll tell you it's galicy, but only the assholes
speak really well you know what I'm saying. So this has to be a
language barrier, a cultural barrier. I don't it was. Yeah, I
don't know too well how it was for them because I wasn't like I wasn't
born in the nineties. But I don't say anything like I meant. It
was definitely tough for them. Yeah, especially from a language perspective because they
did learn English before moving here. But there's still like the accent and slang
and just you know of language that you have to understand. Do you speak
I speak Urdu yeeah, So that's the primary language over there. Yeah,
they said about about how about this? How about this? I am so
dumb? Okay, and my sister is a doctorate in linguistics. Yeah,
I am so dumb. I didn't even know or do was a language.
I didn't do you hear it? I never heard of it, all right,
but yeah, if you speak now I do. I feel like I've
gotten worse at it. They make fun of me my family, They're like,
you have an American accent? And I'm like, okay, if I
made fun of you for having a shitty English accent, that'd be messed up,
all right, So Urdu yeah, okay, I remember like growing up
because their accent was still really strong, and I kind of it was weird.
I kind of learned Urdu and English simultaneously because my siblings were speaking English
and my parents only spoken ur Do okay, And they would, like I
remember, they would pronounce Wednesday like like Venice Day for some reason, well
because the Woks. Yeah, so they pronounced it Venice day, and I
thought that was just like the eighth day of the week. So in like
kindergarten, I had a full blown argument with my teacher of like, your
calendar is wrong. That's really that's really good. So then you you so
most of your life, of your memories are here. You live Penfield.
Yeah, okay, so east Side. Now you're twenty one. So you're
born after nine eleven. I was born after nine yeah. Yeah, yeah,
because I have a son your age, yeah, he was after nine
eleven. Yeah, okay, so I've only ever lived a post post nine.
So here you come into the world, and as you say, I'm
just using your word. You were a bad brown and rit not being a
good commuter computer scientist. Talk to me about what that's like growing up.
Was there a lot of jokes bullying? My parents would like prep us for
it. They would prep you for that, say. They would say,
like, you know, we're not saying everybody's like this, but just because
we've experienced that, people might give you ship for being brown in school.
It might not be obvious. It might not be like, yeah, how
do you say shit? Nerd do just out of curiosity. I don't want
my mom to listen to Okay, no, I actually have no idea Kory.
But yeah, so they just they might not be in your face about
it, but they will say things. And then they were just saying that
a prepos for school. I think it was more from an aspect where they
understood that kids don't understand the gravity of nine to eleven, so other kids
might make jokes to me about it. Yeah, sure, I understanding.
That's a good point. I mean, if you're born after an event,
it's ancient history, you have no memory of it other than what a textbook
or someone told you. Yeah. So an elementary school, I never really
experienced anything, but in middle school was when they were like lots of name
calling and like terrorist references. We had a for real bomb threat problem at
our middle school and I got called down from one of them to the main
office on top. But so I get there and soon so there's ah.
I remember I was sitting in class and I was a fucking troublemaker, like
you know you were. I get sent to the office a lot anyways,
but I got a call for the main office instead of our department office,
which was like a first for me. And I remember going to the main
office and as soon as I got in there, it's the nicest they've ever
treated me. They were like, we know how this looks. So they're
like, we just found a note in the bathroom after you used it,
so we're just covering our bases. But the whole time they're like, we
know how this looks, we know how the sure nobody wants to be,
you know, eccuseing the the the Middle Eastern guy of yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah yeah. It was what they like made me like, right
to compare the handwriting of the notes and then and then you and then you
get in your head about that because I'm like, well, what if my
handwriting looks like that handwriting, so let me change my handwriting. But then
if I changed my handwriting, it might look like that. So I was
just psyching myself out the whole time. How nervous were you I was.
I don't know why I was so nervous because I didn't do it. No,
I understand if but you're suspected. Yeah, I think it was just
because I had a history of getting in trouble. Did you feel like you
were suspected because you have a different skin tone or did you feel like you
were suspected because maybe you were the last person in the bathroom that they saw
on a camera or whatever. To this day, I don't know, but
I don't like to assume skin tone because I do like them. Well,
I hope it really wasn't. Yeah, but I yeah, you know,
I don't know. I can only imagine. You know, all our lives,
right, you get these crystillion memories that were just crystal clear, and
that's got to be one for you. Like, I think in a moment,
you could almost go back to being there. I remember walking back and
I saw my buddy going to the main office and he told me he's like,
dude, I just I got called down and I'm so scared, and
I'm like, do they think you planted a bomb? And then just walked
away? So you were leaving the office, he's going in. I'm like,
do they think you did it? Inclusion is a big deal now in
all these schools and stuff. Did you feel included as a kid or did
you? I mean, I have no idea. It was weird because I
mean Penfield was a very white school, but we did have a fair amount
of black students as well, and like from the urban suburban program as well,
but there weren't a lot of like brown students. So I think it
was in the sense of, like, even in diversity situations where there might
be diverse groups, I never saw like people that looked like me specifically.
Yeah, but yeah, going in too high school people were nice. So
how about when in Pakistan you're not celebrating Christmas? No? No, So
Smith was when I got paid time and a half at work, Christmas was
a good time. Pray, Okay, all right? But I mean so
as your family Muslim, yeah, okay, so because I have my brother
in law is from Somalia. Cool and his dad was a diplomat and then
the country fell and then he wound up being a cab driver. But Mustafa
is a lawyer, and uh, I don't it's not practicing because of my
sister really adopted Christmas and I mean loves it. Yes, it's great.
But I remember going to their engagement party and the Muslim men would go over
and pray in the corner and everything. And I remember the like the look
of my mom's because he didn't know. And it's just different. But was
that hard to as a kid, you know what I'm saying, Like in
our world. You're in the Western world. It's Christian based, but I
mean, come on, you know what's really going on, and yet everybody's
excited about Christmas. You get time off for Christmas. Not not in your
world. The movies were good, Okay, Yeah, we didn't celebrate or
anything. I'd always forget it's Christmas and then I'd call people and be like
want to hang out. You'd be like, dude, it's Christmas. But
yeah, we never celebrated or anything like that. It was just another day
for us, okay thing. But the Muslim holidays yeah eat yeah. Two
a year. One is after Ramadan, right fast for thirty days which is
it's a thirty day fast. Yeah, not thirty days straight, but like
morning to night for thirty days in a row, morning and night. Yeah.
So basically from dawn to dusk you cannot eat food, water, anything,
and then the nighttime you can eat. But then it's weird because you'd
think you'd gorge every night, but your stomach when you get hungry, your
stomach literally shrinks. Yeah, so you'll be hungry all day and two bites
of a pizza, right, just be full. It sucks. You talked
to most people in the Western world. They bitch about intermittent fasting. Yeah,
did you imagine going cowards? Yeah? Say, absolutely cowards. So
you felt included in high school being different. Did you play sports? No,
yeah, I sucked at sports. I was a musician before I was
a comedian. You're a musician, Yeah, what did you play? I
played piano? Okay, I sucked at everything until middle school, and then
I found keyboards in middle school and I fell in love with music, and
then all the way up until college, I was basically up until I started
doing comedy, I was doing music. You were doing music. Were you
in bands and stuff? Yeah? I was in bands around Rochester, but
I mainly got into production, so just like mixing and mastering music for people,
okay, and then yeah, playing live piano with like any band I
could find. It was just fun. Yeah. Did you do anything at
jazz Fest? Did you go down? I mean, I think that would
be me. We did comedy at jazz fat comedy. We did comedy at
jazz Fest this past year. But yeah, I'd go to jazz Fest all
the time, but I hated jazz Yes, but I mean Jashfest. Dad,
like JazzFest is cool, but I just hated It's become like the New
Orleans Jazz everything's in there. Yeah yeah, well yeah, you get all
the white girls thinking they know jazz because they heard superstition one time. I
see you under that's true, That's very true. Uh when did you realize
then that you were funny my whole life? Your whole life. I've been
a comedian my whole life, Bill, Well, you made people, no,
but I mean I think you recognized it, right. Yeah. It
also came from, like I think when I really started actively, like mentally
coming up with bits is I'd always get terrorists and bomb jokes thrown at me
in middle school, like all the time. And then after you get like
ten thrown at you the first time you heard that, what'd you think?
That's a lazy joke? When someone throw it, you thought it was a
lazy joe. That because that's where my mindset would be. People said that
to me because me and my brother would make brown jokes together all the time.
My brother's the funniest guy I know, So when people at school would
make brown jokes to me, I'm like, that's just a lazy joke.
Like it's been done. It's hack, right. I didn't know what hack
meant at the time, but now so I remember I started trying to come
up with better bomb jokes than they could. So as soon as the situation
arised where I knew they would say something, I would say something better.
All right, let's take a moment here, and when we come back,
I want to hear one of your better bomb jokes. But first, Cobblestone
on Maine. Have you been there. It's at one on nine West Main
Street in the village of Webster. Here comes the weekend. If you're looking
for somewhere new to explore, get out, find some fun, it is
definitely Cobblestone on Main. They have an upscale bar with all kinds of craft
cocktails and a fall cocktail menu, and of course great shareables. I'm a
big fan of their nachos, huge fan of the Ruben nachos. Not creative,
you gotta love you gotta tip your hat to the career activity at Cobblestone
on Maine. And maybe you want a little escape. You've had a week,
kids, you've got relatives next week. You just want some time with
you and your significant other that could be kind of intimate. Well, that's
the perfect place. Intimate dining in the back. Now, it's a cobblestone
church that's been really coolly renovated. If there's music in the front, but
you're sitting in the back, you don't really even hear it. It's nice.
It just adds to the ambiance. I love that place. You're gonna
love it as well. Cobblestone on Maine one on nine West Main Street in
the village of Webster and online at Cobblestone on Main dot com, Manscape dot
com. Get twenty percent off your purchase with code Bill twenty at manscape dot
com. Circu Law in Pittsford. You know we are heading into a very
festive time of year. Sometimes you go to these parties and you have a
couple of cocktails. It's very social, and you didn't uber and you stop
drinking and you think you're okay. Well, the bottom line is you end
up with the DWY. What do you do? How do you defend your
rights in this situation? Call Circu and Circuit at five eight five three eight
five twenty five ten. I'll tell you if you've been accused of a crime
he didn't knowingly commit. Circu and Circu They've litigated criminal cases of every scenario,
simple misdemeanors to the most serious felony offenses. And here's the most important
thing that you need to know about Circu and Circu. They'll do everything in
their power to ensure that you are not deprived the justice you deserve. Circuit
Law is located in Pittsford. They serve the entire Rochester area as well as
Western New York and beyond, and you can reach them anytime at five eight
five three eight five twenty five ten, or through their secure contact page.
You can email them at circulaw dot com. Holiday season at Jimmy Z's gift
cards available at any increment perfect stocking stuffer plateson Shakes dot com. Toronto Dento
with my friend doctor Eduardo Toronto. If you have not been to a dentist,
please go see doctor Toronto. You don't need to be embarrassed, but
you do need to take care of your oral healthcare. They're gonna make you
feel very comfortable, the use state of the art technology services that are safe
and effective for everyone, and they're going to explain everything they're doing to you.
They're going to educate you on all your options and you ultimately choose the
treatment that's right for you. But again, your oral healthcare is so important.
Please go see my friend doctor Edward Toronto, Toronto Dental four four two,
nineteen hundred and online at Toronto Dental dot com. We've vilified a voicemail
anytime. I'm a Victor Chrysler Dodge Jeep ramline at five eighty five two O
six eighty eight sixty six and be sure to like and subscribe to Bilified wherever
you get your podcast. Amir R. Shaan is here, comedian talking about
he was born after nine to eleven post nine eleven. It is a great
joke about nine to eleven, but uh, I want to know the jokes.
When kids would make bomb jokes toward you in middle school, you said
that was very hack, and you would you would upstage them. So give
me an example of one of the jokes that you would do to upstate these
hacks that you went to school with. Oh Man, even just like whenever
an alarm would go off in school, I go, my bad. Just
simple stuff like that. But just because that way, people would stop making
the jokes to me and it felt more like we were laughing about it together.
It's interesting how humor it can be used to diffuse the bombs, so
to speak, right, I mean really, because it's tough, and I
think a lot of people use humor as a as a great escape. But
it's also it's such a great tool when you know how to use it and
you do it well and a lot of it. If you're self deprecating with
it, I think that makes you almost more acceptable from people. It sucks,
It sucks, but I don't know. There's just something about getting a
laugh that's intoxicating. Well that that that's that's a big deal. I would
think, uh, go ahead, hang on a second, go ahead,
Wait, you're not on it? Feel like to get a laugh. What
does it feel like the kid you get laughed Freddy? Freddy gets laughs,
Freddy gets pitty laughs. Yeah, it's jazz hands. What did your so
you wanted? I want. I'm kind of curious as too, So music
was sort of the passion. Yeah, then when did it transition to shit?
I could do this on stage? Do you remember the first time you
hit a stage was in an open mic? The first time I hit a
stage was in eighth grade. Eighth grade did do comedy? Oh, you're
talking about comedy? I met piano? No? No, oh, yeah,
for comed for comedy. The first time was in high school when I
was seventeen, I think, and I went to the Boulder opened mic because
my best friend at the time was leaving for Japan you joined the military,
so we wanted to do like one like crazy thing together. So then we
tried stand up and we both bombed hard, but I like fell in love
with it. But then COVID hit right after. Okay, So then through
COVID, I kind of forgot about stand up because I only in one open
mic, and I just you know, went down the college path and kept
doing college. And then after everybody in your family, all your older siblings,
A college dude, I'm a stand up. My brother is like an
engineer at Warner Brothers. My sister's a doctor. My other sister works with
like amazing businesses, And I tell Penis jokes a cafe. One of the
reasons, like I was excited that you were coming in is I really think
like out of everybody I've seen, and no offense to anybody in the room,
uh, but that I think that you have the biggest upside I've ever
seen in a young person, Like I think you have. You're the guy
that people will go, yeah, I knew him, I knew him,
or I I shared a stage with you know at some point because you're both
in the Funniest Person in Rochester contest and this person's now trying to use you
to get a little leverage. But I have to think with all that,
there had to be a lot of pressure to kind of conform in to family
standards. By that by meaning like get an education, get a great job.
Your brother's this, your sister's that, your parents came over and we're
really why, yeah, to give you a more opportunity. And I get
that they're like, we can't here you know, give you a better life
and more opportunity. And I'm like, yeah, you succeeded three times the
other kids. Let me do my own three out of four. Yeah,
it's not bad. That's a passing grade. Well not, it's not a
brown passing grade. That's a passing grade, right, And I would assume
you were very well in school. I was. Yeah. I mean,
like I said, I would get in a lot of trouble, but grades
wise, I did do well. I was the kid where like I'd never
handed my work or anything like that, but I would just pay attention and
do well enough on the tests where you know, got buy on bees.
Okay, yeah, it just never did homework. It was Did your parents
ever say anything? Compare you to your siblings? Do you do you have
kids in school or you had kids in school? I do. I have
a thirteen year old and I have a son who's a senior at college here
and one who's older than me. Do you guys use like infinite campus or
like the online grating pol Yes, I have ruined my life. Oh sure,
absolutely ruined my god. I used my parents were teachers and you would
get the midterm report, yeah, and I would beat it to the mailbox
and hide it. Yeah, because I knew even though they were teaching,
like, hey, you know, the mid term should be coming out.
I guess anything going. I couldn't do that, dude. I'd go no
because everything was right there. I go home and they were already yelling at
me about a grade and I'm like, I don't even know what test you're
talking about, Like I took that test today and they already knew I got
like a forty or something. Wow, So I would assume, uh,
comedy in the beginning, when you when did you decide this is the path
I want to go? After I got my first like actual show spot and
I was like, okay, they're considering booking me now, I was like,
I think I can really do this and run with this. Do you
remember the first time you got paid tell jokes? Yeah? I remember.
I was going to comedy at the Carl since open mic for weeks and weeks,
and then Vinnie Paulino finally was like, you want to host? And
I was like, oh my god, twenty five dollars. Yeah, but
it doesn't matter, right, you're getting paid. It was like to tell
jokes. I got paid ten minutes for one or ten dollars for one minute
one time, and it was like one of the greatest things ever. Who
paid you ten dollars for one minute. I'm gonna say the name and it'll
make sense for anybody listening. Mike Scletta, Oh I don't. Yeah,
I know that name. Why do I know the name Rochester. He's a
Rochester legend. He's a Rochester legend. Yeah, he's like the Rochester of
William Montgomery. Yeah, wait, I think I do know what it is.
Yeah, funny guy, I like, I got it, but yeah,
Scoletto is like, that's Janitor and Webster. Yes, it's like,
I'll give you ten bucks for one minute. And as soon as I went
up, some lady started heckling me, and I went, man, shut
the fuck up, and that just did my jokes and left. I bombed.
As soon as I told her to shut up, I bombed. I
shouldn't have done that. Yeah, it's funny how some times that works.
I thought it would work. Sometimes it works. Sometimes No, this is
going to kill the room. Yeah it was. It's one of those What
is your parents' reaction than when you they don't love it? Did you tell
them how long before you told them that you don't stand up. It might
have been a year, a year, or a year and a half.
So you go a year? Yeah, when did you drop out of RIT?
I dropped out of RIT halfway through my second year, so I all
right. I did my first semester for computer science and I hated it,
so they put me on probation. So then my second semester, I switched
to music production and I liked it far better. But then I started getting
work doing audio in the city and it was like clashing with my classes.
So I just stopped going to class and started taking the gigs, and so
then they suspended me for a month. School did, yeah, school did?
So, I just I hadn't told my parents, and then and where
are you living? Still? With them? I was just I would say
I feel bad about it. I'd say I'm going to class and I'd go
do gigs and get like work experience and stuff. And then I had after
one semester, I had to write them in an essay saying why they should
let me back in. And then I wrote the essay and they said not
good enough. So then I wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait time time I'll go back. What did the essays say? The
essay said, I'm really sorry, please let me back in. I promise
I'll do my work, and they said not good enough, and they're like
not good what did they want to plan? Like? They wanted to play
actually, and also they just they my Accounseert told me they wanted to proof
you weren't doing like nothing with your life. So then I included all my
work experience. Oh, I've been working with these bands and these news stations
and then they let me back in. You were working with news stations,
Yeah, I was. I was working on a mini little song series with
Dan gross Over at Channel eight Songs from Studio B, so I kind of
helped start. I helped him start that series, not taking credit completely,
I just assisted that. So yeah, I included all that in the new
essay. They let me back in, and then I just never signed up
for classes. So at some point you got to come clean to mom and
dad. Yeah, how did that go? I waited till I got my
first actual spose were you're more nervous doing that or going into the main office
when there was a box there? Penfield? Which more nerve wracking with parents
because the bomb I was like, I did nothing wrong with the parents.
I was like, I did a couple of things wrong here, but no,
Yeah, I came clean to them and they were what was the reaction
though, They were pissed. Yeah, But I mean when you say pissed,
there's there's disappointed, yeah, parent, and then there's like, I
wish you would just have told me, because there's a part of me that
I'm wondering with your parents. You know, they left a situation yet for
a better life, and I'm sure that their family is not happy with that
or some members of the family. Even with this, you kind of got
to go, all right, it's your life, your path. Yeah,
and I'm glad. I hope they still don't love it. But I'm still
on the grind of like explaining to them that, like college is a path
that can, like not necessarily, but it will it can ensure a good
life. Like, Okay, you get a degree, kind of a degree
to like fall back on. But I was like, what I'm doing is
far far riskier, but if it works out, then I'm going to be
in a great position. And I'm not trying to like get famous doing stand
up or anything. I genuinely don't care about that. For me, I
think there's two mindsets. It's I want to be famous, so I'm going
to do stand up, or it's I want to live to do stand up,
and to live to do stand up, I have to be famous because
that's for some people, that's the only way you can get paid doing standp
You need to have an audience and a following if you want to get it.
So I feel like I'm more on the second one, where I just
care about being funny and being good, but I know that I have to
have an audience to make a living doing this. Let's take a moment here,
and I want to know. I want you to think about this,
the idea of disappointing your parents. How did that make you feel. We'll
get into that right after this Iron Smoke Distillery in Fairport, New York,
home of Rattlesnake Rosies, Pumpkin Pie whiskey. You know it's just over an
Iron Smoked Distillery dot com and I had this thought because they have the pumpkin
Pie whiskey, but they also have Rattlesnake Roses, apple pie whiskey and Rattlesnake
Roses chocolate peanut butter pie and rattlesneak roses, maple bacon whiskey. Just the
thought Thanksgiving, why bake? And by that point in the evening when you're
gonna have dessert anyway, you've had enough of your elders, why not drink
you're gonna want to. And they've got the pumpkin pie, the apple pie,
and the chocolate pie in a bottle, the chocolate peanut butter pie.
It's all in a bottle. Well's right there. You can order it at
Ironsmoked Distillery dot com or go over to the cannery and pick it up.
This is what you need to get through your Thanksgiving. I mean, I
know you love your family, but after a few come on and then the
next day, if you're still his family, you can start your day with
rattlesnake rosies, maple bacon whiskey. But of course you can order everything they
have right through Ironsmokedistillery dot com or pick it up at the distillery right here
in Fairport, New York. Iron Smoke Distillery in Fairport, New York.
Baby Mack of all trades, the name says it all five A five two
oh two ninety two eighteen and Mac of Alltrades dot Net, Victor Chrysler,
Dodge, Jeep ram on Route ninety six and Victor and Online at victorcdjr dot
com has some Black Friday sales. How about a new twenty twenty three Jeep
Grand Cherokee l Laredo four by four. You can lease it three eighty nine
a month for thirty six months first payment, DMV taxes and fees do with
signing twenty five hundred cash or trade ten thousand miles per year. Must be
returning leasec dealer for details. Exclusions apply. Offer expires November thirtieth. Take
advantage of all these great deals and you can see a lot of them at
victorcdjr dot com. Or how about this new twenty twenty four Jeep Wrangler four
door Willie four x E part of the Black Friday sales event. LEAs it
for three fifte nine a month for thirty six months, first payment, DMV
taxes, fees do it signing twenty five hundred cash or trade ten thousand miles
per you'r see dealer for details. Exclusions supply. Offer expires November thirtieth,
twenty twenty three. Victor Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. You need some wheels that
are gonna be safe and reliable for a Western New York winner, and you
will find them there. Take a look at Victor cdjr dot com. We've
vilified a voicemail anytime. I'm a Victor Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram line at five
eight five two o six eighty eight sixty six. Hey, Billify, miss
and Brian, I'd love to see Doug come out for my Turkey raffle at
my American Legion. Sounds like a cool dude. And also, mister Moran,
I still have a coffee mug from your day's back in and break room.
Hey, we'd love to hear from you from me a shouting thank you,
and be sure to like and subscribe to Bilified wherever you get your podcast.
You know, when I think about it, I was kind of a
Rochester radio slut. I got around from station to station. I don't understand
comedian Amir Our shot is here. Amir was just telling us that he is
a young guy twenty one, dropped out of rit but didn't tell his parents
for a year. So Amir knowing for that year that you were going to
disappoint your parents. Yeah, how did that panic attacks? Seriously? Yeah,
like your constant pant ataxt Now, how about have you met your grandparents?
Did you ever? You've gone back to podcast? So, my my,
what is that something's listening to us? I don't know my grandparents are
hacking this show right now that I don't talk about that. Yeah. My
grandparents on my mom's side also moved here when my parents they did. Yeah,
they moved here. So yeah, So that's a great extended family because
a lot of times, like you never know my whole mom's side of the
family, like all her sisters and her parents, we all were neighbors in
the same neighborhood for like years. We all lived in Penfield and then they
all moved to Henrietta and they all lived next to each other in Henrietta,
and we stayed in Penfield because my parents just didn't want to switch schools.
Yeah, because they like it when their kids are accused of bomb threats.
So who would be the biggest supporter of your talent in my family? Probably
my brother, your brother, because my brother is a huge stand up fan.
Yeah, he's the engineer at Warner Brothers. Yeah. When you say
engineer at Warner Brothers, recording engineer, software and software. Okay, but
yeah, my brother is by far the funniest person I know, even like
comics. I know, no, because he I always try to get him
to go on stage because I think he'd kill if he really worked on it.
Where does he live. He lives in See. Yeah, okay,
but he doesn't like going on stage, and that's not it's not as bad.
Yeah, he does jiu jitsu and he just beats the shit out of
people. Okay all day. There you go, dude. He would come
home and, like, you know, he's ten years older than me,
so he would come home and just throw me around when we were kids and
we'd wrestle, and then he started doing jiu jitsu and every time he came
home he would beat me in like a fancier way, like make me beg
in a weirder position. So who is the biggest influence in your comedy mind?
Your comedy world is comedy life in terms of any comedian. Yeah,
I mean somebody that you've always went. Man, that that's I gotta tell
you, you're pretty original. I didn't I didn't see anything in your delivery
that I go, Well, that's a little bit. I didn't. I
didn't notice anything, but Daniel Tosh probably, oh, Daniel Tosh. Okay,
Yeah, the first time I watched a full special and watch stand up
his first special when I was in middle school okay, was in like sixth
grade, gotcha, And I didn't understand half the jokes. But the jokes
I did get I thought were hilarious. And then as I get older,
I'd go back and watch that special and then understand the jokes more and more.
Yeah. I used to just do his bits at school. I would
just quote that special at school. It's try and get laughs. Yeah,
and it worked. Yeah, Yeah, and you saw the power of It's
a powerful thing, you know. You said it's addictive, and i've uh,
does this come up a few times this week? But when you get
that laugh to walk into a room and get three hundred plus strangers, yeah,
to laugh at you. First of all, you gotta be a little
crazy to think that a you can do that. And then I always say,
this is the most the purest form of entertainment. It's just you.
So you got to one have confidence, maybe a bit of an ego,
to say I can make these fuckers laugh. I think at one percent is
an ego thing because if you're getting three, laughing is a reaction to being
likable. So yeah, three hundred people are laughing at you or laughing with
you, I should say three hundred people like you. Yeah, so right,
I don't care. A comedian says they're all narcissists. We are all
narcissists, especially this guy, Freddy. Is'll be like, if if they
don't laugh, I'm gonna kill myself. Like Freddy, what's the the I
audiill here? So so far, Freddy, get right up on the mic.
Put him. I go to the audience and I'm like, no one
laughed tonight. I need to get past the prelimbs. So what's the process
for you coming up with material? I had to get in the habit.
It took a while to get in this habit. But anytime I think something
amusing, I just write it down on my phone all day, and then
me and Freddy get together and we write jokes a lot. So together.
Yeah, so I feel I need like another person to write with because when
I'm writing by myself, I'll write something and I'll be like, well this
is funny. I don't know if this is funny. But like when I'm
talking with Freddy, I'll say a bit to him and then he doesn't laugh
because it's not funny. But then I'll just keep talking until he laughs,
and then once he laughs, I'm like, okay, that's the part that
I need to remember, right, Okay, So yeah, just coming up
with anything funny during the day and then just talking it out with someone and
Freddy. Do you guys write on a regular basis? Oh? Typically,
yeah, probably like once a week or so. Yeah, just go pitch
ideas because a mirror like me, we both have a lot of new premises
and ideas that we can go through very fast, so we could just bounce
them back and forth. So yeah, that's uh, that works pretty well.
I mean, if you've got a writing partner that always makes it all.
So Freddy is like one of the only people that keeps it real with
me. Like I'll tell him a bit and he'll be like, dude,
that's trash. A lot of them are yeah, like all well, but
I mean a lot of them are gonna be you know, It's it's hard
to come up with that. There's some people you write with and anything you
say they're like, oh, that's gonna kill It's like you will never do
where do you work it out? Mike's like open mics, any open mic?
Do you like the open mics? I love the open mics. You
do a lot of people. Open MIC's gonna be tough because it's people bring
in their friends, and so sometimes I like because the thing with open mics
is most open mics is just bomb city, even for like us just going
up there and eat an absolute crap. But once you learn to hate yourself
enough, open mics are so fun because if you're bombing in an open mic
and the audience hates you, you're just like, yeah, I get it,
and then you're just having a good time. We'll go from a Rochester
open mic to a Buffalo open mic in the same Yeah. We did that
for a couple of time. Throughout the whole competition. We would do a
Rochester mic. If there were two Rochester mics, we'd hit both Rochester mics.
A couple of nights it was three Rochester mics, and then we would
drive the Buffalo do a Buffalo mic, and then we'd get back at like
one, yeah, and then I would have work at like six in the
morning, so I was getting like four hours of sleep. What do you
what do you do? I was working at the Rochester Central School Districts.
I'm taking it anymore. No, this is my last week. I was
supposed to be there today, but okay, I just didn't. This is
your last last week? Are you moving to New York? You are going
to move to New York? Have you on stage down there? I have?
And how's that gone? It's so much better down there? Why is
that? It's just I'm gonna move this one camera. Yeah, go for
it. There's always crowds down there that want to be there. There's a
lot of open mics here at Rochester. But we'll find a venue and then
we'll be like, oh, there's always a lot of people at this venue,
like Boulder, And then you go to Boulder and it's like nobody there
wanted comedy in the first place. Like people at Boulder came there to study
and do their work. And now you got Freddy being like, well Palestine
and like a flash mob. They're just minding their business and then we're just
telling them jokes. That's uh, that's kind of funny. But New York,
it's like everybody is just always wanting to see comedy. Where have you
played. I've done a lot of spots in Brooklyn, so I've done stand
up New York, the tiny cupboard spots like that. There's also comedy in
New York has gotten very careful, where they're very careful about what they say
on stage and you can see it. But I think it's starting to go
in the opposite direction where I went the first time I did a show down
there, all the comics before me were doing very what seemed like careful jokes
and Okay, let's use the right words and stuff like that. But then
once you go up there and start pushing the boundary, you learn that that's
what the audience wants. I think audiences are getting sick of people they are
towing the line, and once you really jump the line with a good joke,
that's what audiences are like thirsting for. Right. Yes, yes,
I went up and just opened with straight nine to eleven terrast stuff, and
it was almost like they were like, thank God, that's crazy. You
say that. It's like, oh, nine to eleven, Thanks God.
So how would you describe the comedy community today? Is it supportive of each
other? It used to be you know, being around some of the guys,
not a regular in it, but just seeing stuff was it was competitive.
It was it was caddy in a way. You know where what does
that mean? Wow? I mean like they were they play jazz, Yeah
they did, They would bebop and no, these guys were. They were
more like behind each other's back, trying to you know, steal time,
steal jokes, say shitty thing, it's not that good. Yeah, you
know, someone killed as It was weird. When we started, there was
like a whole surge of new comics in Rochester that started at the same time.
Yeah, so I think we all just kind of became friends with each
other immediately because we were all new and didn't know what we were doing.
And I think the scene now is pretty supportive. You're gonna have weasels in
any scene, Yeah you are. You are like Freddy. I don't even
know how I got here for it because I always think, like, look,
you sure nobody wants to lose out to somebody. Yeah. But at
the same time, we have a group called the Basement and Basement and you
know, we put on shows and stuff, but we're not really like we
didn't start the group just to be like a product comedy production thing. We
really just started the group so we could have a group of comedians that all
are kind of on the same wavelength with what we want. We can hit
each other up and be like, what do you think of these jokes?
It's more like just a comedy collective. Yeah. But to Bill's point though,
that group also kind of started because certain people weren't getting opportunities to be
booked on shows because they weren't I guess in that crowd. In that crowd,
there is there is something about that. Now, sometimes if you're really
funny, you just penetrate through that, but sometimes you can't even get heard.
Yeah, yeah, and so that's not cool. So that's pretty sharp
review guys. Yeah, we started that, and then we started an open
mic, and then through the open mic, we got traction, so we
could start doing like shows and booking people that we thought were really funny but
just like we're never getting stage time. Yeah and yeah. So now now
we got a Wednesday night open mic with the Interloop blog over at Rock Cinema.
So shout out to Shanel and shout out Shane Allen. Wednesday's eight thirty
and last Friday of the Month is a showcase at the Comics from each month.
Now, you're gonna be down in New York City though, Yeah,
you're you got a place down there. Yeah. Me. I'm living with
my buddy Ryan Garcia, who I'm doing the show with on November eighteenth.
November eighteenth in the in the Rickles Room at Comedy at the Carlo Freddy's on
the bill. Freddy's on the bill. We got new jokes, new jokes,
local comics, Arico, Sean Day, Alex Mallory, all Killers.
All did really well in the competition. Oh Justin Brown can't announce that yet,
dude, all right, Justin Brown's gonna be doing some time there too.
Yeah, it's gonna be November eighteenth, eight o'clock Rickles Room. You
can get tickets Carlsoncomedy dot com. Tickets are moving a lot faster than we
thought, so go get them before they're gone. Good. Who would you
like to meet either one of you guys in the comedy world and sit down
and sort of picked their brain? Is there anybody? I mean, there's
always the legends, like sure, sitting down with Louis or yeah, yeah,
just seeing how they think things through. I want to sit down with
like William Montgomery from Austin, Texas. He's a regular on kill Tony.
That dude is so wild. I like wild comics because it's something I could
never do. Like when I'm on stage, I'm very I like just talking
like this because when I say something crazy, the foil of it makes it
sound ridiculous. But people that just go on stage are just running around just
screaming jokes like That's is so funny to me. I love that because I
could never do that. So just seeing something I can't do, I'm like,
I really like this. What's what's the endgame for you? In terms
of, you know, comedy, And when I say endgame, it could
be I don't know. Do you want to write something? Do you want
to I want, like, do you just want to do standards? I
want, like a famous rapper to write a distrack about me. That's what
I want. I want them to watch my special and be like fuck you
yeah and write a distrack. But do you want a special? You want
a comedy special? Though? No, I think for real. Ultimately what
I want is I've my dream has always just been being a regular at like
one of the top comedy clubs in the country, So whether it's the seller
of the store, like just being a regular at one of those, Like
that's the dream for me. Would you go to LA move to La?
Not? When I'm new That just seems like a headache, yeh, LA
seems like really hard to break do anything when no one knows you New York.
I think it's easier to just show up to hope and mics and start
to make a name for yourself, right, yeah, it probably it's probably
true. I don't know. So what are you going to do down there?
Just comedy? Uh? Yeah, I got like some jobs I'm interviewing
for down there, just like small pop shops stuff like that. But if
I can make enough to live and just do comedy every night, that'll be
it. That's fine, that'll be the greatest thing in the world. And
I sometimes they pay you like for spots and you can run around the city
and make Yeah it's pocket change. It is pocket change. But I mean,
you know, I don't add up right if you did a couple of
those. I mean, I remember, guys, remember Norton telling me that
he would run around the city to different open mics, like on a Tuesday,
not open mics different places on Tuesday. It would be like fifteen dollars
for five minutes or whatever. It's still a lot of them are still paid
to go up like two dollars for three minutes or something like that. But
you just got to figure out which ones are worth it. Sometimes you'll pay
for a mic and there's like two people there. God damn it, what
am I doing? And that's that's when you really have to quitting comedy.
Have you ever considered quitting comedy? Every day? Every day really doing real
for real? Dude, I wake up and I'm just like, who does
this for a living? Well? Yeah, the absurdity of it is like
a professional joker, that's a funny thing, right, you just start driving,
Like, but Freddy had Freddy has skills. I do have a skill,
actually a professional skill. Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.
He has a professional skill. So you could even you're you're an interpreter.
I'm a sign language interpreter, and it gives me like the freedom to just
like relax with comedy as opposed to like having to do this to get money,
like right now, where you're taking bad gigs and you're doing shady stuff.
So it's it's a nice balance to have. What's the shady stuff talking
about? Like just putting on shows? Yeah, yeah, I feel like
you've done shady stuff definitely. Yeah, comedy obviously, what have you done
that shady and comedy? Did one of your shows our show? Yeah,
the show we did together that was shady, the one that we did we
promoted on the Bill Moran podcast. Yes, you were in. That's why
Freddy came in. You not both shows we produced? What two shows together?
Yeah, the Birthday one and then the one and the Alley shady that
just it's in the alley. We're showing an alleyway. Yeah, just set
up a microphone and some how they go. And so we set up an
event, right, and we sold zero to take good stay of Okay,
So we just barked for like eight hours straight and got good amount of tickets
sold and sold at least like twenty five thirty tickets. Yeah, it was
a nice, nice crowd, and they came and they loved it. I
don't know if they loved it, they love it, they loved lives they
loved for sure. Yeah, a buffalo comic, very funny legend. So
well, I dude, I think you're going to be the one to break
out. I don't care if I am. I do like I think so
Freddy. I know that sounds shitty for me to say with you and I
didn't know you. And this is the thing. It's Freddy's very funny,
but there was something that was him was like, uh, that's the thing
with like the basement though, is like for our group of friends, Freddie's
not really in the basement anymore, but including Freddy, if one of us
breaks through, then we consider that all of us breaking. Yes, I'm
sure he probably doesn't want to hear this, but you you can tell like
a mirror has a natural joke riding ability, and he has his own presence
and identity on stage, where like me, it's a me time to learn
how to write a joke. I just learned how to write a joke like
two months ago. But he already had the skill where he has been able
to fine tune it so fast and come up with different premises and learn how
to make it even better, which just puts you out way ahead of the
game, which is already Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if
like, have you thought about even SNL anything like that. I want,
honestly, I want to like start a sketch show with Freddy because we write
three sketches together. Three years you'll be writing for But I don't like Okay,
but I'm not. I'm just giving people a reference point. I want
to do a sketch show because I think sketch shows are just such a pure
form of cod I do too. Yeah, okay, pitture as a sketch
right now, what you got you quit comedy? That would be the funniest
thing of all the time. Freddy. Freddy says it took him a while
to learn this stuff. But Freddy's been the king of bets. Ask anyone
in the scene. He's been the king of bits since day one. Off
stage, bro, he will just straight lie to people about dumb ship for
no reason, just make them believe things. And he's so good at it.
It took me months to learn that if he says something to me,
I can't take it seriously. This is the thing. Dead panic, I
dead pan, I practice, so it's so it's hard to do. It's
hard to do. He's got such a friendly face, got a nice smile,
handsome guyad smile right there, he will, he will lie through his
teeth and never stop, like a handsome, nice smile. And then I
know, yeah, I'm seeing I know exactly what you're saying. I'm not.
Look, this is the thing, is that one time I convinced these
people in Syracuse that I was sober right, and I was just chirping on
my was at that show. I've told him I've never smoked weed a day
in my life. And it was a weird convention. They're also is none
of the audience members showed up. Not a single audience member showed up,
so we were only doing jokes to the weed vendors that didn't want to hear
jokes. So you've you've paid your dues, both you guys in comedy.
I mean you've you've eaten some shit along the way gigs, right, Yeah,
me and Freddy have been on the road together. Give me the first
the first time you bombed somewhere? The first time? What were Yeah,
do you remember what the field? I don't. I don't need to hear
the event. Yeah, feeling what went on in your inside you inside your
head? I was I was just like mad, okay, where I was
like because It wasn't a fuck this I'm giving up type. It was never
like I'm a giving up type thing. And it always just turns into like
getting angry at myself of like, okay, did why didn't you prepare for
this better? Yeah? And like I remember, I had a really hard
bomb one night and I was feeling so bad on myself and I was just
sitting at the bar and I was nineteen or nineteen or twenty still, so
I had like a water in front of me, and I'm like, I
have to sulk with water in front of me this bar. All right,
Well, good luck guys Saturday night, Rickles Room. It's a mirror our
shod and Ryan Garcia along. But that that's that's all I said on the
headline. Yeah, and then you got surprise guests. All right, that's
all that. Freddy. Freddy's very good as well, and a good luck
in New York City. Appreciate you. Thanks for having me on. I
think this will be great. I think you will. I think you'd be
the breakout guy. People will be like, man, I knew it so
well. All right, Bill shout out, Bill Maren shout out to a
mir our shod Freddy and we'll see you on Monday. COLTL didn't know what
to do.