0:00

Ethnically Ambiguous is a production of

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I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

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from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

0:06

Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your

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favorite shows. Hey, Sharen, Hi,

0:11

Anna Busop, How

0:14

I'm good? Uh. We had a very fun

0:16

episode today with our guests Greg Edwards,

0:19

who was right here. We

0:22

have such a good conversation. We have a very

0:24

big drug tangent somewhere in the

0:26

middle there, but we talked about Greg's upbringing

0:29

in Virginia, has moved to SF and

0:31

his eventually moved to l A. Well, he's

0:33

been up to his art. It's a great combo.

0:35

And then no drug talk here. You gotta be

0:37

careful Streen. They're always listening in. Okay,

0:41

this is a clean I heart podcast.

0:44

Yeah, I think we nailed it. They'll never

0:46

know. Keep it in. Who

0:49

are we? Where

0:51

are they come from? Who do we

0:54

become? What is it

0:56

to be? What to be?

0:58

Is it? There are

1:00

more? My parents?

1:03

Where are my means? Why

1:06

are we born? We

1:09

are ethnically

1:12

ambiguous? Ireen.

1:19

That was me in a cave preading to have

1:21

an echo high. How's

1:23

it going? Oh, you know, it's

1:26

just another day. That's actually technically

1:29

the day before Thanksgiving when we're recording this,

1:31

You're right, what a weird holiday.

1:34

I mean it's always been a weird, capitalist,

1:38

whitewashed holiday, but now it's especially

1:40

strange. I suppose, Yeah,

1:43

what are you gonna do? You know? Yeah?

1:45

Nothing, I mean at all. That's

1:48

why I'm gonna do nothing at all. It's weird.

1:50

Like my parents are within driving distance.

1:52

I just didn't feel like

1:54

it was right to visit

1:56

them this time. But it's

1:59

just it's kind of weird too. I

2:03

don't know the end up. Having the end of a

2:05

year be so family oriented and

2:07

like holiday oriented is going to be annoying.

2:10

I think it's going to be super annoying. People

2:12

aren't taking it as seriously as I really like them

2:14

too. I live in Silver Lake and

2:17

it's like a very active social

2:20

life, and it's just like so disheartening

2:23

to go on a walk at night. I go on a lot

2:25

of walks, and I went on a walk last week. It

2:27

was like seven pm on Friday. Everyone

2:30

was out. Everyone was out on sunset

2:33

at bars, at like eating El fresco

2:35

or whatever. That maybe not bars, but there's like a bunch

2:37

of restaurants around me, and they were all just sucking

2:39

out and I was so annoyed.

2:42

I was so annoyed they were like in line. I was like

2:46

you should, like just you're gonna be in line again

2:48

for a COVID test, Like what are you doing? Like, I

2:50

don't know. I've been a little annoyed at people honestly,

2:52

like posting about being out even like no

2:55

shame, just people

2:58

aren't they closing down loss

3:01

about everything? There's a curfew.

3:04

There's a curfew that's going to be implemented at least,

3:06

right, um, good,

3:09

yeah, my father good. I

3:12

did see a funny tweet that was like making

3:15

fun of the curfew just because like oh, because the virus

3:18

only exists at nighttime, Like

3:20

that's so it's gonna be great with a curfew. But

3:23

I don't know. There's also all those like tweets

3:26

recently about I don't

3:28

know. I feel like, if you're on Twitter, you've seen this

3:30

tweet in some type of form about

3:32

Thanksgiving being a holiday

3:34

about spreading disease, and here we are doing it

3:36

again, blah blah blah, history

3:39

repeating itself. I didn't get

3:41

that. Sure, what if I know nothing? Our

3:44

guest today, they're always listening

3:46

to us banter or up top, and I

3:49

feel like it's implied that they have to be

3:51

silent, and it's always really

3:53

funny, especially over zoom watching it happen.

3:55

Regardless, I'm really excited

3:57

to talk to our guests today, Great

4:00

Edwards, everybody, Hi, Greg, Hey,

4:03

Hey, good to be here. I'm

4:05

always quiet, well, you know, sometimes I laugh

4:08

because some people, some people want you to be quiet.

4:10

Though on the on the podcast, I mean, I guess

4:12

we could. I guess we should start specifying

4:14

before we go. We never really specified

4:16

like we're gonna be talking up talk, don't

4:19

say anything like I

4:21

feel free to join in, don't say goddamn

4:23

thing. I think we can learn a lot about the person

4:26

if they choose to talk or not. Though right right,

4:31

I don't know. I don't know. It's good to be here, Good

4:33

to see you too. It wasn't

4:35

having you laugh at my bad jokes

4:37

just now, so that's why I brought

4:39

you in. I was like, they have to hear the laughter.

4:42

Someone else thinks I'm funny. I think

4:45

that. I think the jokes was good. I like anazon

4:47

impressionation of her dad made

4:50

me want to meet him. Um, yeah, yeah,

4:53

it's great. People talk much either well, I

4:55

mean my lady. I live with my lady, so we talk,

4:58

but if she wasn't here, I and be

5:00

talking at all until

5:02

I do one of these. I basically live

5:05

alone only because my roommate stays at her

5:07

boyfriend's all the time

5:09

and I am in the process of moving. But because

5:11

I'm all alone, there are days

5:13

where like, I haven't said a single word

5:16

out loud, and I talked to

5:18

myself a lot, but I don't think that counts.

5:21

There's a kind I mean, I break

5:23

the silence sometimes with my own voice to

5:25

myself, and it's a little bit jarring, just

5:27

being like ha ha ha, or like I don't

5:30

know that whatever. Talking

5:33

to yourself counts. Yeah, talking to yourself

5:35

discount. I do find myself sometimes being

5:37

like m and then

5:39

being like, what am I doing to yourself?

5:43

Who am I agreeing to out loud to

5:45

about? Yeah? I

5:47

don't know. I definitely I

5:49

catch myself saying things about loud and I'm like

5:52

looking at like a cute photo of a cat or

5:54

something on my phone, being like what a cute

5:56

and I'm by myself and my apartment like I'm

5:59

insane, um sorry, I don't want to say and say anymore.

6:01

I'm not. Well, are

6:04

you and your lady having like a solo

6:06

Thanksgiving together this year? Yeah?

6:08

We were planning on going to like a friend

6:11

of mine that we actually do Thanksgiving

6:13

with a lot with a bunch of our friends,

6:15

but you know, it was going to be really

6:18

small, probably like eight of us, and

6:20

then my lady was just like, you know, I

6:23

don't feel comfortable, and I'm like, well, you know it's

6:25

up to you, babe, all of her, and

6:28

uh, yeah, we're not gonna go. And

6:30

I don't think a lot of I think they're gonna have

6:32

to be doing it solo too, because everybody kind of

6:34

dropped out. So yeah, it's gonna

6:36

be us, which is cool. Yeah,

6:39

you guys been together kind of yeah. Yeah,

6:41

Yeah, we've been together twelve years.

6:44

Get married. Uh

6:46

during the you know, the quarantine start

6:48

starting, we had everything playing in San

6:50

Francisco and we had to cancel everything.

6:54

Romance, Yeah, it's beautiful,

6:56

it's beautiful. You're

6:58

technically what common law may married. Oh

7:00

we're big common law. I

7:04

love I love a man who will admit he's

7:06

common law married for sure.

7:09

Part of these days, I

7:13

mean, I was asking because I

7:15

was curious if like a couple of experiencing

7:17

Thanksgiving this year. I think a lot of couples fast

7:20

tracked the relationship this year in particular,

7:22

and I think they're going to be experiencing a lot of

7:24

like things that would happen like two

7:26

years in, you know, maybe one year in. But

7:29

you, I mean, you guys have been going out it for a while, so

7:31

it's just another holiday for you. Yeah. Yeah,

7:34

it's no big thing. I mean, it's it's gonna be us.

7:36

We've done I think we've done solo

7:38

Thanksgiving maybe once before.

7:40

I don't know why, but once

7:43

before. But yeah,

7:45

I think this would be the first stime we haven't seen anybody

7:48

else, though we used to at least stopped by somebody's

7:50

house. Yeah, I don't mind. We'll watching

7:52

Elf. I've never seen Elf. Yeah,

7:55

I've never seen it. I don't know why, but uh, yeah,

7:58

we planned on watching Elf tomorrow. I

8:00

go to my best friend's house every

8:03

Christmas Eve, and her family watches

8:06

Elf every Christmas Eve, like

8:08

a tradition. Yeah, And I don't know

8:10

if I've seen it all the way through where I've just I've seen

8:12

the whole movie, but I've just seen parts of it,

8:15

just like throughout my life because

8:17

of that. Um, because they always watch

8:19

it and it's like, you know, like I always go out like smoke weed

8:22

and then come back and I'm like, oh god,

8:26

um, And it's weird now

8:28

because I like, no Will Ferrell and like work for

8:30

him that I'm like, hmm, I'm

8:33

always very suspicious of I'm like, but

8:37

uh, I don't know. It's surreal. It's

8:39

surreal to even even say that I

8:41

know him because he's uh,

8:44

he's dead. Yeah,

8:49

that's actually I had to send a work email. They asked

8:51

us to like talk about all your talent.

8:53

It's like to write like, we Will's

8:56

a nice guy, chill

8:58

to work with. You're why

9:00

why am I even writing this? Like y'all know who

9:02

he is, but I have to be like

9:04

he's nice. And even

9:06

even you saying just Will, I'm

9:08

like, whose Will, Like it's Will Ferrell,

9:11

but like you're on a first name basis, which is great.

9:14

Yeah, he's very nice. He's He's the kindest person

9:16

I've ever met who would just casually be like, oh, I don't

9:18

want to bother you and you're like, yes,

9:21

are passing. I remember he texted me

9:23

be like he's in the studio like went

9:25

there so happened to be there, like just

9:28

dropted. I was working in approaching

9:30

company that was like across the street at the time, I think,

9:32

and I walked in and I met him and

9:35

it was Sophie's dog. Maybe he was also

9:37

your dog. He was just so nice to the dogs

9:39

and I was interacting with him. I like walked in on

9:41

him, like talking to Ace. It

9:44

was so my dog a lot.

9:46

He also thinks that my dog is like animatronic

9:48

because he's too cute. Dogs

9:53

Like, you know, I don't know what to tell you. If

9:55

there was an animatronic dog, it would be

9:57

your dog, though, he just pretty animatronic looking.

9:59

That's Will

10:02

is nice. I used to I used to work at a

10:04

restaurant and Will would come in with his family

10:07

a lot, and you can tell the dude is

10:09

really nice when he's nice to people at

10:11

restaurants exactly

10:14

being nice to wait staff is

10:16

a huge but it's a huge one, and also

10:18

being nice to animals. I think that's what I went off of.

10:20

I was like, what a nice dude. He introduced

10:23

himself and it was so I was like, I'm

10:25

meeting a little barrel in my head. But Oh,

10:28

there's ace aces on our screens.

10:31

Doesn't he look animatronic? He really does

10:34

it. I'm cute. He's

10:37

also very easy to maneuver. He

10:39

doesn't care what you do to him.

10:43

Oh he's actually not clean. This is dirty

10:45

for him. Yeah, he hasn't had a bath.

10:49

His fur looks very wife. He's

10:51

beyond I apologize. He's a very He's

10:55

a very cute little boy. Nice

10:57

coat. Okay, Greg,

11:00

we are off topic. I

11:06

actually met you for the first time on that

11:08

Marcella shoot, right, I feel like that's when

11:10

we first met. That was the first time we met.

11:12

Yeah. Yeah, I somehow

11:15

such a great job. Thank

11:17

you. That

11:22

means a lot to me. I was it was a joy

11:24

to direct you and Marcella and everyone

11:26

else. Uh. I don't want to say

11:28

too much, but because of Anna.

11:31

Actually Anna put me into like

11:33

Anna recommended me to Marcella who asked

11:35

me to direct this project of hers that Greg

11:37

was in. It was so fun. Hopefully

11:40

it'll be somewhere in some future.

11:44

I also got location baby.

11:47

That location up. Yeah, it's

11:50

like a Jewish center, right, Yeah, it was the

11:52

Jewish the Silver Lake Jewish Community Center.

11:55

I think I'm missing an Africa or a letter somewhere,

11:57

and there's not who's working there at

11:59

the top. Think Babs was working. Yeah,

12:03

it's all. It's all interesting, how the world

12:05

is so a meshed, is

12:07

so nice to me and just

12:10

I don't know, they're great, but anyways to

12:12

worry about you and it

12:15

was a delight. But let's

12:17

backtrack. Let's go to

12:19

where did you grow up? Where are you born? Where

12:21

are you Okay, I'm from Virginia.

12:24

I'm from this small city called

12:26

Uh what's kind of It's funny. It's like Oakland,

12:28

San Francisco. It's two cities,

12:31

Hampton and Newport News. They're

12:33

kind of really close together, so I kind

12:35

of claimed both cities. Uh. It's a

12:37

small town in Virginia. Uh.

12:40

It's off like the Eastern Seaboard

12:42

where everybody Basically our

12:45

big thing is ship building. Like if

12:47

all the all the naval ships come there

12:49

to a Newport News ship or ship building.

12:52

Uh and yeah, people just build ships

12:54

there and it's a big Uh. It's huge

12:56

military. The Norfolk

12:59

Naval Base, like a huge naval base

13:01

to everybody that's in the Navy ends up being

13:03

at Langley Air Force Base.

13:05

I'm just around a lot of military

13:08

ship building churches. That's

13:10

That's basically what I grew up. And

13:13

I lived there for like twenty years, and I

13:15

moved to San Francisco, Oakland when

13:17

I was twenty one, on

13:19

my twenty first birthday, right before

13:22

nine eleven. Yeah,

13:24

yeah, why did you choose s slash

13:26

Oakland? I was doing theater. I

13:29

was doing like a lot of community theater and

13:31

dinner theater in Virginia. And

13:33

I got the opportunity to audition for

13:36

this gig in Oakland. Uh,

13:38

first time on the plane. And

13:40

I flew to Oakland and audition

13:42

for the gig and they didn't tell me. And I

13:44

flew back and they tell me I got the gig,

13:46

and uh yeah, And I moved out to California and

13:50

I've been out here for since. You

13:52

never know what things will like change

13:55

and impact the course of your life forever. Totally.

13:58

It's such such a blast. And yeah, I always

14:00

wanted to get out of Virginia. I thought I'd end up in New

14:03

York, but get California

14:05

worked out. So is your family?

14:08

Everyone's in Virginia. Everybody's

14:11

in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida

14:14

or overseas like military

14:16

style, Okay, where

14:18

did your parents growing up? My

14:21

dad met my mother when he

14:23

was in the navy, and he ended up getting out of the navy,

14:25

and uh, it was a mailman. He's

14:27

just a retired mailman. He's been a mailman for

14:30

twenty some my years. Yeah,

14:34

people mail people,

14:37

mail people. He's a he's a

14:39

good dude. And my mom uh

14:41

as a nurse. He's our registered nurse

14:44

forever. So yeah, that's what they

14:46

did. And uh yeah, yeah, yeah,

14:48

it's great. It was cool. So

14:50

did you grow up with a lot of family members in

14:53

the navy and or military. Yes,

14:55

everybody on my mom's side

14:58

was pretty much in the middle terry

15:00

at some point, except for my oldest

15:03

funt Wanda, and she was

15:05

a nurse, but everybody did in military

15:07

time and her husband was in the navy. Yeah,

15:09

everybody did in military time and ended up

15:11

getting out. Did you ever feel pressured

15:14

to do that when you were like a teenager

15:16

preteen? No, no, no, I always tell

15:18

my dad, I think it's uh. I remember

15:20

telling my dad that I think it was stupid

15:23

to uh

15:25

to fight for a country that

15:27

doesn't really like us that much. I remember having

15:29

that conversation with my dad when I was

15:31

like fifteen. Yeah,

15:33

not wrong. He

15:37

did, like he didn't like that I was having Like he's not a big

15:40

military dude. He just got in it because

15:42

he's from North Carolina and you know, what else

15:44

is he gonna do? Um?

15:46

But yeah, yeah, he didn't like me having those

15:48

thoughts when I was fifteen, But

15:51

like he never pushed you. I mean like he didn't like

15:53

the fight back or anything. That's good to know,

15:55

like accepted that you were just like this is it

15:57

for me? He was like, oh no, my son too

16:00

woke. He's figured it out pretty

16:03

much. He didn't like me

16:06

thinking like that, but he wasn't, you know, trying

16:08

to like sway me to go into the

16:11

service. No, not at all. Know, they're always

16:13

very supportive about me doing what

16:15

I wanted to do, which was the arts. When

16:17

did you figure that out? Though? When did you figure out

16:19

that you wanted to go into the arts? Um?

16:22

I mean I knew I wanted to be a comedian very

16:24

young in my life. I just didn't know how I

16:27

was going to do it. But um,

16:29

one of my friends that I grew up with, I

16:31

saw him in a commercial, uh

16:34

in my hometown. It was like a local commercial

16:36

though, and like we went to school together. So

16:38

the next day I saw him. I was like, yo, how did you do that? How did

16:40

you do that? How did you do that? And

16:42

then he told me everything and

16:45

I was like all right, cool. I figured if I can

16:47

get into acting, that would

16:49

be like a line to get into doing stand

16:51

up. So I started doing like, uh,

16:54

church plays and started doing like theater

16:56

around my hometown, and then I

16:58

got into dinner and yeah,

17:01

was there like a Detroit's version low

17:04

key ad company in your city

17:06

doing like local ads? But

17:09

it was actually he was playing Uh.

17:12

There was like a kid's theater

17:15

company in Norfolk and they

17:17

would do like uh, local

17:19

commercials from the theater

17:21

company, and he was playing Beast from

17:24

Beauty and the Beast when he was

17:26

like maybe fifteen, And

17:28

um, yeah, I saw him in that. Mark Boonen's good

17:30

buddy of mine. I still talked to him

17:32

every once in a while, and you know, like on Faceboug,

17:34

and I'm like, yeo, Doug, it's you. You helped

17:36

me out so much. Man, I gave him a parent Jordan's

17:40

Yeah, Yeah, that's friendship. That

17:42

is friendship big as

17:45

Jordan's for a career. Yeah,

17:48

Well, can you explain a little bit

17:50

what the dinner theater is

17:53

and like how it differs, Like how why

17:55

what you liked about it? How it differs from like standard

17:57

theater. I suppose Oh okay,

18:00

we used to do. I worked at a place called

18:02

Williamsburg Mystery Dinner Playhouse.

18:05

Uh, and dinner theater is basically,

18:08

Uh, you have a bunch of people sitting in

18:10

a room like a ballroom or something,

18:13

and you know, you serve your suit, you serve

18:15

your salad, you serve your entree, you

18:17

serve a dessert, and between those you

18:20

do X you do like we did, uh. I

18:22

think I did three two years of plays there.

18:24

One of them was like a gangster

18:27

type play where we're all like old

18:29

timey gangsters were like hey, yeah

18:31

see you know stuff.

18:33

Yeah, and we you know, we interact with the guests

18:37

and at the end they they're supposed guests,

18:39

which one of us, uh killed

18:42

the person that we killed in the play. It's

18:44

really fun. It was. It was really great to like

18:47

I met a dude there from Chicago, and if

18:49

you guys know Chicago comics, they're

18:52

like really funny and like, uh,

18:54

all about stand up. And this guy

18:56

told me he was like, man, you should you should do stand

18:58

up comedy? And when it told me that, I

19:01

was like, oh man, I've been waiting, I'll be the one

19:03

to do stand up and he kind of told me a little. It

19:05

all just leads to stand up. But yeah, I

19:07

love doing dinner theater. It was It was really fun.

19:10

Uh it's the improv of it of interacting

19:12

with uh, the guests in

19:14

a way that you can't do it in theater. Yeah,

19:17

it was really great. Yeah that sounds

19:19

really interactive and like unique to

19:21

that art form to have

19:24

like a very like literally one on one, like

19:26

so close to your audience member

19:29

kind of thing.

19:30

I should. I

19:32

think they have one. They have like a

19:34

big one in l A where it's almost

19:36

like a Sonics bargaret type joy.

19:39

Honestly, after COVID, I feel

19:41

like, after everything

19:44

settles down, I feel like there might be

19:46

a re emergence of dinner theater only

19:48

because people are like, that's

19:51

like a very interactive way to experience

19:53

theater. We just need human contact. So

19:55

maybe I could see it happening. It

19:58

was fun, I really, I mean, I mean much

20:00

money and tips and it was great and

20:02

just meeting people and yeah, so

20:04

much did you did you start your stand

20:06

up. When you went to the West Coast, you

20:08

were you were only doing stand up in Virginia.

20:11

I didn't do any stand up in Virginia. Uh.

20:14

And then once I got to the West Coast

20:16

and I was doing theater out there, you

20:18

know, I saw the paper where it said

20:20

open mics, and uh that's where

20:23

I met all my friends that I

20:25

you know, interact Mosha, Brent

20:28

Fucking Garcia, Ali Wong,

20:31

Ryan Stout, Jasper read everybody,

20:34

you know, all my friends, Marcella

20:37

w km al Bell, uh you know,

20:40

yeah, and we just interacted and

20:42

I got better and uh yeah,

20:44

yeah, just learned how to be a comedian and

20:47

you know, just learn how to just

20:49

uh navigate this this whole

20:52

theater acting scene. Yeah

20:57

yeah, good times, good

20:59

time on the San Francisco scene. Um

21:03

or just like the Bay Area scene in general, as

21:05

it seemed like such a chill scene. Like I remember

21:08

seeing because I am I'm

21:10

from the Bay originally, but I went to college

21:12

at U C. Davis and with Sharene

21:14

and I remember like, um,

21:19

yes, Hassan Minage like hit

21:21

like literally hitting him up because I knew his

21:23

sister as well, like hitting him up. Me and his

21:25

sister on the Debate team together, which is yeah,

21:29

we go back. Um. I remember

21:31

like hitting him up on Facebook Messenger

21:33

and he was recording his first album and me

21:35

being like, hey, like can I come to your show?

21:38

And it was at the Purple Onion and

21:40

he was just like yeah, I'll put you on the list, come on

21:43

down, and they like I got to go to. It was just like such

21:45

a fun community and everyone was so nice

21:47

and like I

21:49

like, you know, Hassan is still like really

21:51

cool, you know, Like I remember before he got Daily

21:54

Show and moved to New York, like he would just

21:56

like come through and do all

21:58

my shows like a comedy palace. You up the

22:01

show I did at an attic of a Chinese restaurant,

22:03

but like everyone was so cool, Like it

22:06

felt like such a strong community and

22:08

to like you know, and everyone slowly trickled down to l

22:10

A as you do. But but

22:12

it didn't have a family. Like

22:15

if you're from SF, I feel like, or

22:17

you're from the like s F Bay Area

22:19

comedy scene. It really feels like

22:23

y'all established a

22:25

family there and like you like are like

22:27

ride or die like this, like you guys are

22:30

like there for each other it's a little bit different than l

22:32

A. I feel like l A is a little bit more

22:34

clicky, especially as

22:36

far as like West Coast or West Side

22:38

versus East side kind of stuff. Well,

22:41

San Franz so small, it's like we

22:44

ran into each other. I mean we were at they

22:46

were all. I mean there was a mic every night, multiple

22:49

mix every night, but every

22:51

Sunday all of us were going to be at the San Francisco

22:53

plants line, you know, so like it's

22:56

kind of hard. I mean we had people have beefs

22:58

within that, you know what I mean. Um, but

23:00

it was very Yeah, we

23:02

all know each other, we all grew up. I mean

23:04

this is like early twenties. Like

23:08

yeah, but because it was early,

23:13

you look great. But because it's so

23:16

small, did you find it

23:19

like I don't know it was it a

23:21

little bit competitive because it was small

23:23

or like I feel like they lay here

23:25

even though it's a lot bigger. People are still like

23:28

very competitive about spots and stuff like that.

23:31

I mean I think it was more it

23:33

was competitive, but more in the in the way

23:35

of like trying

23:37

to get better yourself. It wasn't very much

23:40

like I want to beat this person. I mean

23:42

when we the Punchline on

23:44

Sunday nights was the night that everybody

23:47

you know, was trying to get on

23:49

and get a spot. And we're all,

23:51

you know, at that point everybody was a killer. So everybody

23:54

was crushing and you just wanted to do together.

23:57

We grew together, so you just wanted to be do as

23:59

well. He just wanted to shine.

24:01

You wanted to make sure, you know, you had a killer

24:04

set and uh, and it was

24:06

very supportive. But if you did, like if

24:08

you did ship the bed, you know, people

24:10

talk ship to you and you know, you know, it was it

24:13

was very much like that. Everything

24:15

wasn't so sweet, but yeah, we did.

24:20

It was great. It was wonderful times. Molly,

24:25

I mean Molly kind of groomed us in a way. You

24:27

know, she didn't put us up too early, and

24:29

she talked to us a lot, and when we

24:31

got our sets at the punch Line, she was trying to put

24:33

us with a comedian that was that

24:35

would actually like us and maybe take us

24:38

on the road. She thought of compliment your comedy

24:40

in a way and also vibe with you.

24:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great. I think she's

24:44

like my first set, my first week

24:47

opening, she put me with Todd Berry and

24:49

uh and people got mad. He was like, what the fund

24:51

is Greg doing with Todd Berry?

24:54

And I'm like, yeah, come on man, I got like

24:56

really weird wed lighters that be Todd

24:59

Todd talk. We hung out. It was great.

25:01

It was just yeah, it was just really good times. Yeah,

25:04

let's take our first commercial break. We'll get

25:06

more into Greg's life as soon as we

25:08

get back. Don't go anywhere, Okay,

25:19

and we're back. So growing up, you're in

25:21

Virginia, who were

25:23

your influences? Like who did you see that

25:25

you were like, I mean outside of your homeboy

25:27

who got the local commercial, but like who else

25:29

did you see? Uh? That was like you were like,

25:32

oh that's what I want to be because you said

25:34

you want to be convenient very young. Yeah,

25:36

well I will go to my cousin's house and

25:38

my cousin had like all the comedy

25:40

stuff. Um. I remember watching

25:43

Gallagher Gallagher really I

25:45

don't know why, but Gallagher really had like a strong

25:47

impact on me. I really liked his style,

25:51

like that he was smashing ship. I really

25:53

that he was smashing ship.

25:55

Just the smash ship, but the stuff that he was saying

25:58

in between the smash was

26:00

the jokes and he had like a lot of sentimental

26:03

value in it too. But yeah,

26:05

Gallagher really had a strong effect on me. Eddie

26:08

Murphy, of course, I watched a lot of Delirious

26:11

and raw and said, I mean I studied

26:14

the best of Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live

26:17

and uh Martin. I would watch

26:20

all comedies, so a lot of like a

26:22

j Jamal, I don't think a lot of people know about

26:24

this, dude, but Paula Pouncetone

26:27

just so much comedy that will watch as a kid,

26:29

Oh Carlin, I used to watch so much of Carlin,

26:32

even the stuff I didn't get of Carlin. I

26:35

would just watch how he would just walk

26:37

around the stage. You were studying it, you

26:39

were just like, but I didn't realized I

26:41

was studying. Yeah, that's

26:43

interesting. I mean it sounds

26:45

like you were one of the few people in your family that were

26:48

that maybe are were interested in like more

26:51

creative route versus like more like

26:53

either medical field or like military

26:55

field. Did you so? And

26:57

you said your parents were supportive, but like you might

27:00

it was your first time on a plane going to like

27:02

that must have been a huge move for you

27:04

to go to a stuff to be like yeah, I'm going to

27:07

try this out. Like, what was that conversation like with

27:09

your folks? Well, I mean, you know, Okay,

27:11

so I played sports a lot

27:13

in high school and stuff, and I ended up

27:15

I got a scholarship to go to a school,

27:18

uh to play, but I end up

27:20

hurting myself Before I went to school, I told

27:23

my a c L so I couldn't go. Yeah.

27:25

I mean a lot of my life was basically

27:27

trying to get out of Virginia. It was

27:30

Virginia. I mean, Virginia is a great place to grow

27:32

up, but there's a lot of traps. It's a lot

27:34

of the military as a trap. You know, you get

27:36

caught up in that. That's a trap.

27:39

And you know that Virginia has

27:41

a very like the

27:43

shipyard. Working at the shipyard. Ship

27:45

building is a trap. Are

27:49

just staying around. I mean it's

27:51

nice, but it also can be very like dangerous

27:54

and people get caught in the caught

27:56

up selling drugs and uh. Having

27:58

an early family, so I just saw

28:01

that as a kid. I mean I have friends that

28:03

I had kids and life nine

28:05

grade and stuff. You know, so I just I knew

28:07

I didn't want to be like that. I knew

28:09

I wanted to get out of Virginia as soon

28:11

as possible. So when I hurt myself,

28:13

it really was like painful.

28:15

It was emotionally painful for me. Um.

28:18

But when I got that opportunity to go to California,

28:20

I think my parents just knew, like, this

28:23

is it and he's probably not going to come back.

28:25

You know, I go out and visit. But

28:28

yeah, I knew I was out and they were they were

28:30

they were supportive of me. Um. You know

28:32

my mom, you know, my mom is

28:34

like she had this whole here's your birth certificate,

28:37

and here's friends

28:39

of the family are here's a church that you

28:41

should go to, you know, stuff

28:44

like that. Yeah, this is just sweet and uh

28:47

yeah yeah, yeah, super supportive. My

28:49

dad was just happy for me

28:51

and yeah, you know, just do

28:53

good, keep your nose clean, you know, ship

28:56

like that. Yeah, thang

28:59

I need were the parents sorry?

29:03

Are you siblings? Yeah?

29:06

I gotta. I have an older sister and I

29:08

have an adopted little brother. Little

29:10

brothers here

29:12

in the middle where the middle one? What

29:16

made your parents lead to adoption? Were

29:18

you being annoying? And I

29:20

don't know, they like, we

29:22

can't have another Greg, can't jeans

29:25

aren't working out for us? What's up

29:27

with this new gene? What what's up with

29:29

these kids? Yeah, when we got

29:32

my little brother, I was like, what is good? Because

29:34

like my grandmother just moved in with

29:37

us in like a three bed room house, right,

29:40

my older sister had our room. I

29:42

had a room. Uh my grandmother

29:44

just when she moved in with

29:47

us, she took my room. So

29:49

I was sleeping out on the couch in high

29:51

school, probably like around ted Gray, I

29:53

started sleeping on the couch and my mom

29:55

was like, yeah, I think we're gonna get this boy. And

29:58

I think I flipped out on my bad as us, Like

30:00

what is this? We're going to share

30:02

these? Like, so

30:05

he ended up sleeping him and my sister

30:07

ended up sharing a room. I think

30:09

that also added to me, like needing

30:12

to get out of there. Yeah only

30:14

lit the fire. I like my own space

30:16

and yeah yeah yeah I

30:19

know that. Yeah. Well, with

30:21

your supportive family and all of that, as you start

30:23

doing stand up and getting better in the Bay

30:25

Area, were you like, did

30:27

your family have any opportunity to see you live

30:30

or like, were you sending videos to them when you can or

30:32

what was that like? Totally? I mean, my

30:34

dad came to visit. My mom never came to visit,

30:36

but my dad came to visit a couple of times. He

30:39

saw me do stand up. My dad

30:41

came out one time and they had like a

30:43

contest. It was somewhere out in like

30:45

the East Bay, and we went out there

30:47

and I won like the hundred bucks.

30:50

So my dad got to see that. And

30:52

they would see the little stuff that I was doing

30:55

online and stuff. Yeah, yeah,

30:58

nothing nothing really big. You know. You

31:01

know, I would get like a commercial, but I

31:03

would and I do the commercial, but they never,

31:06

like my spot would always get cut you

31:08

know, so like it was always hard to

31:10

Like I was in the I was in the Apple iPod

31:13

commercial, but you know I got the check. I

31:15

just didn't, you know, they cut me out, but you know,

31:17

and yeah, they were still supportive. Well

31:19

how would they see remember those commercials just like

31:21

black Shadows dancing. You're like, no,

31:25

that's great, I

31:30

should do that. I should do that now with me

31:33

be like you know those commercials that was me dancing.

31:35

I'm a yeah,

31:38

yeah, that's really funny.

31:41

I forgot about those commercials that are always

31:43

where everywhere. God, it

31:45

was so dangerous because they still had like corded

31:48

headphones. Still, oh yeah,

31:51

danger. I think the first

31:53

ones, the ones where they were singing, where

31:55

you have people like singing a song and

31:58

like a white background. All yeah,

32:04

cut, all of those in retrospect, all

32:06

of those are so insufferable. Like what,

32:09

like I mean, I don't

32:11

know, man, good for the people I got paid

32:13

though, probably made a bunch of probably

32:16

all like eighty now, okay,

32:20

you know people like that was like what forty years ago? Those

32:22

people eighty? I mean,

32:24

it kind of feels like forty years ago. Over being honest,

32:26

it feels like it

32:28

feels like I had

32:30

a zoom, I had a little bit. I didn't.

32:33

I didn't have any Apple products until I

32:35

was like twenty two. Yes,

32:39

I was. We just talked about this and

32:42

I'm just shoking. I'm sorry, that's not appropriate. I

32:44

don't think she's poor. I was okay,

32:47

I will say, I can't grow up with a lot

32:49

of money, but my parents did okay

32:51

for themselves. But um,

32:54

I was someone that because of that, I

32:56

held onto like I don't need an iPhone,

32:58

I don't need a Maco. So I

33:00

was very late to the game and I was very

33:03

like almost like a luddite, like I

33:05

was like twenty two. Everyone had an iPhone

33:07

something, I Phone four, I Phone whatever at the

33:09

time, and I was like, I don't

33:11

like having access to my email on my phone. I'm

33:13

going to have the slideout keyboard phone.

33:16

It's only for calling, Like, y'all

33:18

are the ones that are wrong? And then one and led

33:20

to another. My phone dropped in the toilet

33:23

when I was like going to class one time, and

33:26

I just ended up getting an iPhone and I was like, oh,

33:29

I think I get it now, and that

33:31

I converted to being an Apple easer, But

33:35

before that, I was I did love my

33:37

zoom zoons were the ship. Did

33:40

y'all stay on the campus at UC Davis. Yeah,

33:45

so I was actually

33:47

in the really jankie dorms off campus.

33:49

I thought that was kind of shade. I wasn't Castilian,

33:51

Yeah, I wasn't Castilian North. I was the

33:53

first North. It was

33:55

clearly a renovated shitty

33:58

motel. Bolished

34:00

them after we left. Oh then

34:02

they

34:05

left out of the year we left,

34:07

they demolished them. But also she was,

34:09

I try to believe you were in Castilian North

34:12

because I was in Castilian North and I didn't

34:14

even meet you until we

34:16

were out of there, which is so weird because

34:19

we didn't meet our freshman year. I don't remember

34:21

meeting, or we weren't in the sand like I was part of like

34:23

this still drug was

34:28

very very at the time. I had,

34:30

like I was posters in my dorm, like

34:32

the black light posters

34:35

of like magic versus

34:38

me. Like literally, I

34:40

think I brought my winning the poot teddy. I

34:43

didn't want to say that loud, whatever it has already

34:45

said, but very sheltered

34:47

and innocent and just like

34:50

kind of more of a nerd. But I guess

34:52

I still am all those things in some

34:54

way. But I just loved mushrooms now,

34:57

oh god, mushrooms. Yeah,

35:00

well, place we're hoping, all

35:02

right, man, you passed that test. You're cool with

35:04

us. Crack, I'm

35:07

sober now. But never

35:10

mind, you didn't a battle

35:13

mushrooms. I can't. I can't do it anymore.

35:15

I don't like mushrooms either, Honestly, I just don't

35:17

like eating. Poison is a big part of

35:19

it. I don't know why I

35:21

can't care for it. I can't stop.

35:25

I will literally pour a vial of acid

35:27

down my throat and talk to the wall. I

35:30

mean together it's a it's

35:32

a it's a trip. Yeah, I see

35:34

a lot of acid and now now

35:37

I don't have the energy. Yeah,

35:39

like I don't have the energy to go through the process

35:41

of like losing my mind, Like that is exhausting

35:44

to me. Like I just don't. I can't. I say,

35:47

I feel like we've said, we've said the story on the podcast.

35:50

But I just knew you were more

35:53

well versed in drugs than I was, so

35:55

I remember. That's why the fact that I was doing

35:58

my first ASSID trip with you was

36:00

so important to me. I was like, I need

36:03

you to guide me through this, and you were like, yes,

36:05

my child, and we just like had this experience

36:07

together. On fourth of July one year, Yeah,

36:10

I reckon. We were in Venice

36:13

in the house and we went to we went out

36:15

and we walked to the beach. We like lost my friends

36:17

who were freaking out, like they laughed, where

36:19

are you? And We're like and

36:22

then then later we met up with my friends.

36:24

Sharine's crying, She's bawling there like okay,

36:28

just tripped in. Like I was

36:30

like telling me, she's got to go through. This is cool,

36:33

it's cool to work. And I

36:37

was like, dude, that's part of the trip. Yeah,

36:41

I remember I was so like in

36:44

the build up before

36:47

it really hit me, like when you're kind of getting jittery

36:49

or whatever. I just really like I had this.

36:52

I wanted to see the sunset on Acid and

36:54

so the sun was setting, we were like power

36:56

walking to the beach. It was it

36:59

was absurd, and as soon as we got there, it

37:02

was beautiful. It was the most al member

37:04

forever, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.

37:06

And me an idiot pulls

37:08

out my cell phone and on my taking photos

37:11

and you're like, it's not away.

37:13

It's not say

37:16

I had all they photos

37:18

of like the horizon. It is like,

37:22

you're not, That's not what you're seeing in

37:24

your funked up head is not going to come through

37:26

on your phone camera. I had so many

37:28

shitty photos of the sunset. Um.

37:32

But that's a modest mouse reference

37:34

because I'm a nerd. But we've had

37:36

a good, good friendship times. I

37:38

will say I would like to spin

37:40

off of this podcast where we do drugs

37:43

with our guests at some at some level,

37:45

but maybe we can ask Greg exactly.

37:54

That's my dream. Oh, that's

37:56

like not showing up to do their show ever.

38:00

Not if I'm not doing until to O, it's

38:02

to be crying every episode. I

38:04

cry every time, crying

38:09

like a cry where like your your

38:11

face changes shape, like it's like puffy,

38:14

and like I don't know. You wake up

38:16

the next day you're just like I have no more liquid

38:18

in my body. Everything has been cried out.

38:20

I think you never cried on psychedelics.

38:23

I just never cried. I was like, oh,

38:26

I've never cried. No, I cry

38:28

all the time, but I've never cried on psychedelics

38:30

because I think I'm I like

38:33

love tripping so like I like being

38:35

in that state of mind where you're everything's

38:37

fucking weird so much to

38:39

a point where like I like, you know, I don't know if anyone

38:42

smokes weed, and that like when you smoke weed and

38:44

for that first fifteen minutes you're just too

38:47

high, and you're like, this is even though you've

38:49

done every time this happens, for that first

38:52

fifteen minutes, you're like, this is the time I die. I'm

38:54

too high that ship. That's

38:57

that That's my favorite moment of being

38:59

too Like literally my heart is pounding

39:01

and I'm like, yeah, I'm too high. Like that's

39:04

my favorite shit, because then

39:06

you know, ten minutes later you're like, remember what I

39:08

thought I was gonna die? That's

39:12

the stupid Just adopt your mentality

39:15

because that those those

39:17

minutes are the reason why I don't smoke that much weed.

39:19

Like it gets not nothing, I think I'm gonna die,

39:21

but it gets like anxious when

39:24

I'm a people that I'm like being dummy,

39:26

like or like being like annoying and like, oh,

39:28

everyone knows I'm not good at this. Well

39:31

it's like every goddamn time, So it's like every

39:34

time I'm like I'm a fool, but like it's like,

39:36

why did every time you just get

39:38

a little And it's, you know, more than anything,

39:40

it's because California weed is like fucking

39:42

absurd. You go anywhere

39:45

else you're not getting high like California

39:47

mead. Like I've had friends coming, Like I

39:49

had a friend who was in Hong Kong for a while, he's

39:52

from California, and he came back and were like smoked

39:54

weed and he was just like like

39:56

on the back seat of my car, like do I forgot? And it

39:58

was like,

40:01

just keep it ten minutes, dude, You're fine. He's

40:03

like, dude, no, I've been in Hong Kong for too long. We

40:05

don't have this ship, and I'm like, well,

40:07

welcome back. It's

40:10

too strong. We're spoiled here.

40:13

I get my friends gone when they come out

40:15

here. But

40:20

this is a thousand percent th hc

40:23

Are you ready? Okay? Bye,

40:25

see you next year. It's like

40:28

too too much. Man. I never

40:30

thought i'd be the person that's like this weeds too

40:32

strong. I

40:34

guess that's what old ages when you're like, I don't

40:36

know, man, this weed's too strong. I'm

40:39

thirty. I can't I can't

40:41

continue to keep eye contact with you if you're gonna

40:44

be smoking. Well anyway,

40:46

Yeah, I love a little drug tangent.

40:49

Yeah we gotta we got digress again.

40:52

Yeah, well okay,

40:55

Greg, Actually thanks more break.

40:58

I don't get into it into your

41:00

move to l A. I want to ask about that. We'll be right

41:02

back and

41:14

we're back. Sorry,

41:18

very professional here. I love it. I love it,

41:20

but yeah, you're in a stuff. You're

41:22

in the Bay Area, you're killing it, you're growing us

41:24

a comic. What leads you to eventually come

41:26

to l A? I meet my lady

41:29

probably, I think like a

41:31

twenty seven maybe

41:34

we meet I like her a lot. I

41:37

mean, San Francisco is getting so

41:40

expensive the place

41:42

that I've been standing there for a while. This

41:44

dude found a girlfriend and decided he

41:47

wanted us to get out, me

41:49

and my other comic buddy, and

41:51

I was like, dude, you're gonna break up with her in like six

41:54

seven months, man, and then you're gonna

41:56

be asking us back. And uh he

41:58

ended up breaking up with her. Buddy

42:01

end up finding somebody else. But anyway,

42:03

Yeah, so I moved out. I had to find another place,

42:05

and I found another place, but the act

42:07

was only going to be able to stay there for like a year,

42:10

and you know, I feel like I've done everything

42:12

in San Francisco, so I was just ready to go.

42:14

I was like, look, let's let's go to l A. And

42:17

my girl wanted to go to grad school. Uh

42:19

at u c l A. So we we took a

42:21

couple of trips to l A. H found

42:24

a perfect apartment and uh we

42:26

did the move. Are you

42:28

still in the same apartment? No? We

42:30

actually we actually just bought a

42:32

crib in uh South l A. Like,

42:35

uh, yeah, thank you. February.

42:37

Yeah, I've been shaving up just

42:40

in time as a

42:42

house warming year yeah, right

42:44

before the whole quarantine hit we moved

42:46

in and um, yeah it's just been

42:48

real speel real great. You

42:51

know. Yeah, yeah, I never thought

42:53

I would have like a spot in l A. I

42:56

mean, that's a huge deal. It's seriously,

42:59

don't don't ever under undersell

43:01

that like it's a it's a huge deal. And

43:04

you know, I'm a comic, so I feel weird

43:06

talking about it. I don't, like a lot of my friends

43:08

don't even know, because I don't want to feel like this bragging,

43:11

like you know, I don't just

43:13

even Yeah, I don't talk. I didn't post it on

43:16

the ground, I didn't post it on face. But but

43:20

it's like a little I don't know it probably it's

43:22

needs to being scared to a little bit. But yeah,

43:25

it's it's great. It's it's freaking awesome. I

43:27

love it. I love faming my mortgage. I

43:30

love cutting the grassy.

43:33

Yeah it's dumb. Yeah, it's

43:35

cutting grass, also farting or sing,

43:38

No, it's cutting cheese, cutting

43:42

like that. I don't know why you could

43:45

smell Maybe that could be the phrase

43:48

for farts that kind of smell good.

43:51

Well, I mean, I think farts need to be rebranded.

43:53

I think we're too tough on them.

43:55

M. I

43:57

don't never thought about it like that. No

44:00

boyfriends. My boyfriend's farts can go to fucking

44:02

hell. But it's

44:05

like a gas mask. It's

44:08

it's tough. Yeah, well that's cool. You gotta

44:10

South l A. Man, What made

44:12

you want to move to South l A? And if anyone

44:15

to outside of l A. L A

44:17

is big in a weird way. It's small, but it's big.

44:20

Well, we wanted to be close to the stadium,

44:22

right. We felt like that the stadium is

44:24

gonna bring a lot of like dough, and

44:27

we we figured out, like the

44:29

Olympics is going to be at the stadium soon.

44:32

So we just thought about like all the Airbnb money

44:34

that we can get, and we found a place with like an exterior

44:37

unit like uh,

44:39

you know, Rendal. We wanted some a

44:41

place where we can also rent like

44:44

our one bedroom in the back and uh

44:46

and South LA is cheaper, you know, and it's

44:48

still a little hoodie so it's

44:51

not completely gentrified yet, you

44:53

know what I mean, So we can get in at a cheaper price

44:55

before it gets ridiculous out here.

44:57

What you will, it's gonna have

45:00

in neighborhood

45:02

by neighborhood. It's really terrifying how how

45:04

quickly it happens. Yeah,

45:08

but it's a good investment choice to have a place that

45:10

has had a little extra unit because it's

45:12

especially I mean, now, I don't

45:14

know how lucrative everyone's

45:17

jobs are, but it's good to have at least some type

45:19

of assurance as far as some

45:21

money coming in. Well,

45:23

that's good also because l A is

45:26

like feel like people and

45:28

because you're a comic, you know, people who like live

45:30

other places will come to l Afe to work for

45:32

like small bursts of time, so

45:35

you can easily like being well, well,

45:37

well spot

45:40

for you. Yeah, we all have

45:42

the family they're like, yeoh man, I need to I

45:44

need a place, but

45:47

of the way, all right, I got you, I

45:49

got you, stay here boom,

45:51

you know, feed them a little bit and then be

45:54

on your way. Hell yeah,

45:57

yeah, I'd be careful of that family

46:00

going looking control

46:02

sometimes that's

46:04

a part of me. I've been looking in the valley a lot for houses

46:07

and like, um, I always worry.

46:09

I'm like, I don't want my dad to think you can just

46:11

come crash here for too long because

46:14

it's always because my dad would help me buy the place,

46:17

um, which is impossible to buy a place because

46:19

my dad hates everything. He's very

46:22

Persian, and I am to like it's this

46:24

is like a this is a mess, Like we'll never

46:26

find a place at this right, because you alway be like,

46:28

well what about that door, And you're like, you're right,

46:30

we can't buy it because door. But

46:33

I always wonder because it's always like, yeah, you're gonna need like

46:35

three bed rooms. I'm like, why three though, what

46:39

are you trying to what do you want? Yeah,

46:42

you have a house. You don't need to come here. Leave

46:45

me alone. Man. Yeah.

46:48

Well, okay, Greg, I have a question

46:51

on your Twitter. I didn't know this

46:53

about you until I saw you post about it. You're

46:55

an artist, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're

46:59

great. It's so good idea.

47:02

Yeah. Wait, can you talk about

47:04

your redlining projects? Yeah?

47:07

Yeah. Redlining is something

47:09

that happened in the U I guess the twenties

47:11

and thirties with the government where they

47:14

basically designated areas

47:16

in different communities in different states

47:18

by race ethnicity creed,

47:21

black people, Jewish people, latinos

47:23

Asians. They designated

47:25

them different colors, so like black folks

47:28

in a racial couples were marked

47:30

redlined areas, and then those and then those

47:32

redline areas you didn't get mortgage

47:35

loans. They weren't trying to, you know, give you money to

47:37

buy a home in those areas, which

47:39

led to like predatory lending. So if

47:41

you did want to buy a home there, you'd have to go through

47:44

people that would you know, will loan

47:46

you the money. But if you were laid on one payment, they take

47:48

a credible away from you. No hospitals,

47:51

no grocery stores, just no money

47:53

in those areas. So like when you see like bad

47:56

areas, like if you like South

47:58

l A Fastings, you see some of these areas down here,

48:00

and you're like how did they get so bad? And it's like a lot of

48:02

it was redlining. Um So

48:05

I did a project and I found like these redlining

48:07

maps years ago, a

48:09

couple of years ago, and I just saw these masks and I

48:11

was like, man, these mastering kind of dump and beautiful,

48:13

and I just would save him. I would like screenshot

48:16

him all the time. And then one day

48:18

I just figured out, like why do I play it like, uh,

48:21

somebody famous from that area overlaid

48:24

make it look cool and uh to bring

48:26

more like, uh, publicity

48:28

to redlining and people dug it. People

48:30

liked it. I did an art show, people

48:32

bought some art. People still buy art, and it's

48:34

cool. Yeah, it was a fun project, and

48:37

I just liked the conversations that came along

48:39

with the project as well. They're

48:42

amazing. It's a

48:44

great idea to to, like, I

48:46

don't know, draw attention to something that

48:48

I feel like, not a lot of people know about unless

48:51

they do the research into their neighborhood

48:54

or whatever, and especially if they're not if

48:56

they're not a black person, like

48:58

like they're just not informed about things that don't affect

49:00

them sometimes. But it's

49:02

a great way to I feel like so

49:05

much art and can inform us. And so

49:07

I really like that you did that.

49:09

No, it's just really you know, I've really dug just

49:12

the conversations a lot of people didn't know.

49:14

I didn't know until like I read Tanahassi

49:17

Coates. Uh, he did like an essay

49:19

on redlining in Chicago, and

49:21

I mean I've I've heard about red lining, but I never

49:23

really did research on it.

49:26

Yeah. Yeah, great conversation

49:28

starter our education

49:30

here. So it's just so so

49:33

white. It just shows it just like tells

49:35

us the good parts of white winds

49:38

and white victories and not really telling us

49:40

anything that I don't know the

49:43

underbelly of it all, which is really grotesque.

49:46

Uh So sometimes it's on us to

49:48

educate ourselves and then to do with

49:50

that what we will. But I really want

49:52

the Huey Newton one of Oakland in the Bay

49:54

Area.

49:59

What if that was all along my plan just to

50:01

get you on, to drink you into

50:03

giving It's like I got you

50:05

on Mike told me I get one on Mikes. Yeah,

50:10

I would love that. Thank You's. I

50:12

was wondering because I was looking a while back because I remember

50:14

Marcella originally told me about this, yeah,

50:17

and I was like trying to find antwhere to buy.

50:20

But I have a screenshot of it from

50:22

your site as

50:24

like a maybe note to self one day ask

50:27

Craig. But the memory

50:30

of a goldfish if you couldn't tell how

50:32

much my drug abuse and marijuana abuse.

50:34

So I'm glad I finally got you on the show

50:37

to finally remind

50:39

myself ask you about that. Marcella.

50:43

Yeah, yeah, she was shotting you.

50:47

Oh yeah.

50:50

She's just one of the best people I've ever

50:52

met. And the funniest people I've ever met,

50:55

and the first she was one

50:57

of our first guests actually too on this podcast.

51:01

Yeah, she has a great I mean not, it's not like

51:03

it's a fascinating story of

51:05

like how her mom had

51:08

to come to America, like straight up

51:11

in the back of a truck, escape

51:13

El Salvador with

51:16

a son yea wild

51:20

immigrants. Oh yeah, I love four Instagram

51:22

with her family saying

51:26

beautiful inside or you're gonna saying like

51:28

hello,

51:35

that was open, but

51:37

that that's some resilience. Yeah,

51:41

unbelievable. Like if you asked me to do

51:43

anything behind the back of a truck right now, I would

51:45

be like, I'm so inconvenience.

51:48

Like I think, like

51:50

what our families have gone through, like

51:53

even your parents, like living through this

51:56

country and like just even like thirty

51:59

years ago. Worst

52:02

Yeah, man, and I go down

52:04

to serve a country that doesn't serve from you

52:06

know, like that's all it's all

52:08

You're right, it's all trapped. Yeah

52:12

I can't. I mean my dad just growing up in North

52:14

Carolina, Yeah

52:16

I can't. Oh my god, my

52:19

dad he went to when he was in the

52:21

Navy, he went to Italy for a while. Yeah,

52:24

and Uh, he just said he fucking

52:27

moved Italy, and uh, it

52:29

was just great. He talked about this woman he met

52:31

out there. He would have these conversations

52:33

with me every once in a while. I'm be like, man, that could

52:35

have been Bobs. I mean he really done this lady.

52:38

But yeah, it's just yeah, yeah, I'm just glad he

52:40

got the experienced dolls. But God, in the

52:42

fifties in North Carolina,

52:45

oh no, thank you. Yeah, no,

52:51

I've seen southern charm. What if I had

52:53

My only sense of the South

52:55

was through terrible broad reality shows.

52:58

But no Southern charm. The Charleston

53:01

like elite white people. Oh

53:03

my god, I

53:06

mean it's still it's like I think there's

53:08

such a disconnect between

53:11

the well off people in the

53:13

South versus being not a lot of people, Like even like

53:15

the fact that plantation weddings are still a thing,

53:18

Like why is that? Like how

53:20

can you follow? No

53:22

one told you this was like none of the wedding

53:25

party, No, the planners are just like you might want to

53:27

reconsider this, Like no, it's like a thing just

53:29

happens. Like I can't wrap my head around

53:31

how you're like, I want this day to happen

53:33

here it's like, I don't know, there's

53:36

just a little bit of disconnect

53:38

I think with some people that like they

53:41

think it's like so far in the past when

53:43

we have people alive that have experienced

53:45

slavery, you know what I mean, Like it's it's

53:48

just yeah, it's pretty. I

53:50

mean, you know, I

53:54

haven't seen a plantation, but

53:59

I don't know. But I think people don't think.

54:01

I think people just think about the prettiness

54:04

of this farm in this big old house

54:06

with this yard.

54:07

Yeah, that's took

54:10

place there. They don't care about

54:12

that. You know what. The yards are long

54:15

because they have slaves working in them.

54:18

That's that's why you know the

54:20

land and people lived to

54:22

a press back there. Yeah,

54:25

that's not that's not a long that's a

54:27

press land. That's just like wait, you just

54:29

you put all the people you want to press on

54:31

the grass and you make them work for you. Uh

54:35

oh man. But they

54:38

don't hide it. You know. That's one thing I do appreciate

54:40

about like in the South, you know,

54:43

I mean growing growing up those places, like my

54:45

dad would be like, yo, man, you don't need to be there, like

54:47

after a thirty nine, really

54:50

don't need to be around those those sundowntowns.

54:52

Yeah, sun downtowns. But at least,

54:54

you know, at least like they'll let

54:56

you know and their investory is clear.

54:59

You know, before

55:04

America is terrified awful.

55:08

Yeah, it really is. I will say

55:12

there's definitely a bubble element to growing

55:14

up in California. Like we have

55:16

are like missions. Yeah,

55:18

like we have our mission missions and everything

55:21

that's a scam. I mean, yeah, there's

55:23

obviously a scam, but like we

55:25

have that as a historical thing. We

55:27

have a lot of like uh, I

55:29

don't know, like Spanish influence

55:32

that we see. But can

55:34

I just say missions were rebranded

55:36

as like cool California history

55:39

when you're young, but then when you look at the taco

55:41

about they have well not even that.

55:44

I mean like actual missions in this country

55:46

were completely remodeled to find hide

55:48

the fact that they would just like abuse and

55:51

like enslave Native Americans

55:53

and other sort of native groups within

55:56

this area. Yeah, the history

55:59

of actual mission is so fucking

56:01

dark. And will you visit

56:04

them in fourth grade, they're like, oh my god, Adobe

56:06

like cool righted the

56:09

fourth grade, but they're like they made us handmade tortillas

56:11

and it was like really quaint and I it was a

56:13

great field trip. I remember having a lot of fun. But

56:15

then you grow up and you're like, oh,

56:18

that's that's not right. We

56:20

love a rebrand here. We have a reband

56:22

in America. America rebrands itself.

56:25

Every brand slave

56:28

like literally plantations that slaves worked

56:30

at wedding venue, wedding.

56:32

Look at this taking more magical than that these

56:36

flowers were grown here. Yeah,

56:39

damn, I gotta love it. I felt like

56:41

California is more like classes

56:44

though it's like I mean, it's definitely racist

56:47

as hell too. San Francisco is probably

56:49

one of the most racist cities I ever lived

56:51

in. But it's a lot of classism,

56:54

you know, like if you're rich,

56:56

you're fine. I don't care what you look like.

56:58

If you can afford these pants, all right, you can afford

57:01

to go to this restaurant or this car was

57:04

out here. Yeah, there's definitely a classic

57:06

element. It's also just classes. I mean,

57:09

we talked about for even l A, I

57:11

mean s F in particular, like you

57:14

have to be rich to even live in the city proper,

57:16

you know what I mean, Like I I

57:18

wanted to live in s F after I graduated

57:20

because I had an internship at the film the s

57:23

F Film Society my last year in college,

57:25

and so I would commute like one day a

57:27

week every week from Davis to SF

57:30

and it was like the I loved

57:32

it so much. I was like I'm in the city, like this

57:35

is it? Like this is great. And then I graduated.

57:37

The internship didn't turn into a job. They wanted

57:40

me to be an intern still and I couldn't

57:42

afford it. I couldn't even try to

57:44

afford it. It was just I

57:47

don't know, Yeah, it's definitely

57:49

classes. I have friends, you know,

57:51

I have friends sleep with closets when I left,

57:53

like literal like that that was their

57:56

space. In this sound like

57:58

eight people in the three bed own house and

58:01

it's a criminal, terrible, it's terrible.

58:04

And then you meet the people that are balling

58:06

out there and it's just like you guys are

58:08

you guys are awful? You're awful

58:10

people. Yeah. The gap between

58:13

those people, between the group

58:15

of people that are just like trying to survive and

58:17

the people that are like thriving

58:19

on the on the on the backs of the people they are

58:21

trying to survive, it is so disheartening.

58:25

But I mean, who knew could cure

58:27

like the Curse of Capitalism one day,

58:30

but I knew it was going to be a problem. Where

58:32

I remember one of my like good friends

58:35

who's like this pretty blond white girl to just

58:37

kind of emphasize the picture of what I'm painting,

58:39

was like the girl, I just got the cutest

58:42

apartment in the Tenderloin, like you have to

58:44

come visit. And I was like, oh't

58:46

know, huh

58:49

oh fuck, oh

58:51

SF is done. They

58:53

fucked SF. And

58:56

that was years ago, so you know

58:58

that you can imagine like where it is. It's

59:00

like tech haven of like fleece

59:02

vest monsters. Yeah,

59:05

well even back then, that internship, the

59:07

holiday party that they did was at

59:10

the apartment of one of

59:12

the main guys, the owners of that organization.

59:15

It was literally the nicest place I've ever

59:18

been. It was like a pent house apartment. Like I

59:20

had never been to a place where the elevator opens

59:22

up and it's like that's your that's where you live. Like

59:25

it blew my mind, and I'm sure

59:27

it was obvious to everyone how

59:30

how out of place I felt, because I was just

59:32

like, wait, we're here, Like it was

59:34

just I was so I

59:37

was just so poor, like but

59:40

like I part of me wanted

59:42

to to be that person. I was

59:44

like, this would be a beautiful place to live

59:46

like these I was obsessed with those bay windows

59:48

and all the stuff. And then you realize, like it

59:52

is just all it's all a game. It's all a game, and

59:54

we're sometimes it's rigged to make us

59:56

lose. And unless you're you have generational

59:59

wealth or some type of like

1:00:02

loophole as far as like something, I

1:00:04

think it's a combination of privileged,

1:00:06

generational wealth and sometimes just look,

1:00:10

I don't know, it's all trapped. Trap.

1:00:13

Yeah. Greg

1:00:15

has been a delight to talk to you.

1:00:17

You are so great. Um,

1:00:20

where can people find you if they don't already know? You

1:00:23

can find me on Twitter at Greg the Grouch,

1:00:25

Instagram, Greg Comedy. My website

1:00:28

is Greg Comedy dot com.

1:00:30

My art website, since you brought it up, is Greg

1:00:32

Edwards art dot com. Yeah yeah,

1:00:35

yeah, check me out. Yeah, definitely

1:00:37

check him out. Yeah, your stuff

1:00:40

is brilliant, and I mean check him out, like damn,

1:00:42

check him out. It's like how he's checking

1:00:44

out Marcella's mother. Exactly

1:00:48

check him out. How he checked out Marcella's father.

1:00:52

It's my lady, that's funny. Okay,

1:00:56

this is technically ambiguous. Ethnically am

1:00:58

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1:01:00

big a m B I G on Instagram.

1:01:03

I'm sharene at Shiro Hero on Instagram

1:01:05

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1:01:08

Twitter. I'm just at Anna

1:01:10

hosting on Twitter. What's New

1:01:13

and until then, don't fall into a

1:01:15

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1:01:32

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