Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 544 - How Did This MMA Fighter Turn Into A Stand-up Comedian? - Tina Pham

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544 - How Did This MMA Fighter Turn Into A Stand-up Comedian? - Tina Pham · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

0:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember much, and more and more of those just, yeah, they're fishish, I recognize, without knowing their name.
0:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They smile like they know me, so I smile back.
0:31
[SPEAKER_00]: years to have a story.
0:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I love someone.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I work hard and know I come from somewhere far away.
0:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad someone asked me who I wish.
0:56
[SPEAKER_00]: When I see a new
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They saved my work and kept my story when I no longer could.
1:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if I don't remember where I come from, they will.
1:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if I look at them and don't know the names,
1:35
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still not mine.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast.
1:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, I have Tina Femmon.
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Tina is a former fighter, turned comedian recently.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've followed some of your work throughout the last few months.
2:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And you reached out.
2:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And here we are, welcome to the podcast.
2:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for having me, Canada.
2:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, I'm Super stoked to be here.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I am too.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, there's a crazy dynamic.
2:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to start with this question first because there's this crazy dynamic with and I've noticed this for like the last 10, 15 years in my life.
2:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Something is in the water when we think about.
2:30
[SPEAKER_01]: fighters turning into comedians.
2:33
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot.
2:33
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of it in the world of MMA and comedy.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to ask you, um, you ever contemplated on why that is so.
2:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, all the time, especially lately, because I've been doing comedy for 10 months.
2:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm pretty new about it, and I'm always, especially when I was a fighter too, I would always ask myself, is this the thing that I want to do?
3:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's pretty crazy.
3:02
[SPEAKER_02]: There's like a lot simpler things that I could choose to do instead of that.
3:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So I always had that question, and I think it's a really important question to always ask yourself, because I mean, there are, again, a lot easier things.
3:14
[SPEAKER_02]: There's like, you know,
3:17
[SPEAKER_02]: more predictable ways to get to something and so within comedy I've been asking myself that question all the time like why am I here?
3:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Why am I here?
3:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And I and I think that's why is because I always ask so many questions.
3:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Like even when I was a fighter my coach would ask me like you
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: You know he would tell me my coach would tell me you got to be a little crazy to be a fighter and in the beginning of my fighting journey like I always took that to consideration and he also said something he always said like you know who you are as a fighter will accentuate
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: as a person you know me like so if you're like a guy who likes to go to the club with a like a big chain and tank top and you're a bit showbody you're likely going to be like that as a fighter right so and that's fine that's your style and for me like I was like what kind of person I want to be what kind of fighter do I want to be I want to be like an honest one I want to be a tactical one right so like I tried my best in my life to always be that way throughout my days stuff like that and um and so
4:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Those two questions mixed together created like this person who constantly asked questions.
4:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, why am I doing this?
4:26
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the reason?
4:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Why am I crazy?
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Why am I good at this?
4:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And as I kept peeling back the layers, I started getting to my dad.
4:34
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom, like, how I was raised.
4:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Why do I have this drive?
4:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Where is it coming from?
4:40
[SPEAKER_02]: What's powering the energy and engine, right?
4:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And it always came from the things I happened between my mom, my dad.
4:47
[SPEAKER_02]: The things I was scared of, you know, about my dad, hoping that I don't have that part of him inside of me, trying to like figure out a way to be healthy with it and not taking it out on other people the way he did.
5:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when fighting wasn't around anymore, I still had that energy.
5:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And I sat with it for a long enough.
5:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me let me stop you real quick.
5:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I I'm beginning to say this some all year.
5:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I I've been saying that there's a path to all these creative people or people who are activists or It starts with our childhood.
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be a trauma.
5:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be something that's really fun.
5:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it is, there's something that that happens that sparks obsession.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Good question, you go to your work and that deep trauma, that deep joy, that deep sadness, that deep emotional seed creates the obsession that powers you hopefully for lifetime.
5:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it could show up.
5:50
[SPEAKER_01]: in my shorts, that didn't translate into comedy, but it's still the same throughline of whatever you are experiencing, trying to answer through the act of that creative process.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I'm here, and it's just going to be like a throughline that's going to keep moving for the rest of our lives.
6:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think that, you know, it's a creative process, but it's also for me, like,
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I just like to have a place where I can process like what's going on constantly, whether it be creative or not.
6:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to be honest and I guess when you're honest, maybe that's what the creative part is, right?
6:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
6:34
[SPEAKER_02]: But for me, it's like, I needed a space where like, I got to figure out why, and I think also grew up in a place where like,
6:46
[SPEAKER_02]: in my life there was a lot of dishonesty that I craved directly back and honesty and that's what I got through fighting was like directly about you knew you knew when you were wrong you knew what you needed to fix there was an answer where like I didn't get a lot of answers growing up and that that made me feel the structure made me feel really good
7:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's funny because there's a correlation between a lot of people who grew up in like chaotic environments that they end up going to places like fighting, that gives them order and structure to give them like a little bit of a, you know, just, you know, just things to know where to go.
7:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, and then when fighting, and so I sat with it after fighting, I'm like, is this a Tina thing from my a deep rooted thing?
7:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Or is it like a competitive athletic thing?
7:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a mixture of both, but I realized the energy was never going to go away.
7:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And I needed to find another place to put it.
7:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I go into acting.
7:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a part of acting that really, like,
7:45
[SPEAKER_02]: was cathartic that I could feel at peace with those things, but then a lot of acting wasn't that, you know what I mean?
7:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I needed characters that were similar to me, but a lot of acting was like not a bad grade writing or for TV, like for, you know, it's all like sometimes very glamorous, but I liked something that was gritty and that wasn't always around or available, plus acting was a little bit slow for me at the time.
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So then I'm like, you know what, I'm going to pivot and try out comedy because I've always enjoyed watching comedy.
8:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember when I was fighting,
8:15
[SPEAKER_02]: the days where I felt the shidias where I got beat up, the first thing I do is turn up turn on Santa Comedy.
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm like, oh, I might as well just try out comedy, it'll help my acting, and then as I go out into it, I'm like, oh, wow, this is completely different from acting, but the feeling when I go on stage was very much similar to fighting.
8:35
[SPEAKER_02]: First of all, you got to be honest, right?
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: But there was like the pressure, there was timing, there's delivery, you know, punch lines and stuff like that, and like honest, direct feedback, you know, like I got
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: to know where to live, something worked or not, real time.
8:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where I'm like, okay, there's something here that reminds me of fighting.
8:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So I started doing comedy to be able to continue this processing that I enjoyed doing.
9:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is telling our truth so important?
9:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is telling the truth so important?
9:10
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good one.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is telling your truth to the world such an important thing to you?
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, cares.
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm like, I'm, I live the same way that you do.
9:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't know why I have this incest need to constantly letting people know the truth of my life.
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wonder where that comes from for you.
9:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Crazy need to let the world know that this is our truth, that we need to express our truth.
9:47
[SPEAKER_02]: For me, for me, the reason why I feel like I need to express my truth is because I have this fear of being a coward.
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what it is.
10:07
[SPEAKER_02]: because I felt like a lot of people in my life would always avoid or run and they don't confront.
10:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And all I needed was someone to just be there and say the truth.
10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead of trying to make this, this, this, like just accept the fact that I can handle it and instead of avoiding, because eventually it's gonna hit me in the face.
10:26
[SPEAKER_02]: You might as well just say it, right?
10:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's why I need to constantly confront that for myself.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: if it's helping other people, that's amazing, you know, and it has, like a lot of people at the Holy Shit, like I, I never thought about it that way.
10:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I've never heard, you know, I'd go through the same thing.
10:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like, so for me, it's for me, but then I'm so happy that it's helping other people as well because I'm able to say it.
10:57
[SPEAKER_01]: What about, like,
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: The experiences that your mother and your siblings perhaps went through with your, maybe your dad and you felt like they weren't able to speak up.
11:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth that they were going through was silent was silence by the inability to confront.
11:19
[SPEAKER_01]: the authority figure in your house and I don't know.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just like guessing.
11:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to hear it.
11:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm I think it for a first.
11:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It was I mean, it's always stems to the fact that I selfishly just want to be honest.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember distinctly one moment with my sister.
11:33
[SPEAKER_02]: where when my dad left and then my sister and I are now the character caretakers of my mom, so we actually, my sister and I wouldn't get along for a very long time, but then now that dad's out of the picture, we have this commonality of love for our mother and we communicate with our mother, we got a lot closer.
11:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember one day,
11:55
[SPEAKER_02]: when my dad left and now we have to adjust with like taking care of her mom.
11:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I call my sister I'm like, hey, I got listen, I love mom so much, but I can see why dad had a hard time taking care of her.
12:09
[SPEAKER_02]: As much as I don't like, we both agreed how much we did not like our attack.
12:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And my sister was like, oh my god, you know, I would take that to my, I would never say that.
12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And she's like, I would take, I would go to my grave before I say the thing that you did, but I agree.
12:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we had a moment where we bonded so much and we just let it out, we just let it out.
12:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're like, you know, like, and I didn't know she was feeling that way too.
12:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Had I not said that.
12:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying it to like,
12:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, not, like, you know, say that I don't look my mom, but I'm just, I'm recognizing, like, oh, shit.
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I think maybe a part of maturity is being honest and part of maturity is being like, you know, life is not black and white, and that I can love somebody and be like, also, like, I can see the gray area and still, you know.
12:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think sometimes that helps more.
13:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Then having a duty to do something, without recognizing something else at the same time.
13:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
13:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
13:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I fuck with this conversation because we, I think in the Vietnamese culture, many times growing up, we're not giving the tools, the language, the openness, the availability to really say, hey, mom,
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you'd be part of the reason why that is fucking like, not into this.
13:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And then that shit gets repressed by our culture, the lack of the technology to really push that out.
13:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you can let that steam out, and mom and dad both know how you feel, like, yo, this is the truth.
13:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We feel a certain way, like the kids feel it, well, we can't say, but it's repressed all these years.
13:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So now I gotta go fight, and now I gotta do comedy, cause, you know, it's,
13:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It's encoding, right?
13:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's encoding in real time and that we can't really communicate this stuff.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is happening to millions of people who come from Vietnamese descent or cultures don't have the diaspora or in country because, you know, once you get to the Western side, like Canada, America,
14:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And in some parts of Vietnam now, you know, are very open to this sort of like this wave communicating.
14:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's why comedians and fighters are very similar and the process to get this out of you to hear it is, you know, it's fascinating to, to take care.
14:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and even for me, like, you know, stumbling on it and then having my friends and my family being like, yo, these things are wildly different, but also wildly coherent when you do it.
14:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So it makes sense when you do it.
14:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, and I kept digging down to figuring out why and I think for me.
14:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, for me, what I love about fighting and comedy is the through and I'm a personal trainer as well, like a strength and condition coach and all these things and as well as acting, all these things, it's performance and resistance.
15:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I love performance and resistance.
15:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So everything there, comedy acting, fighting, was always performance resistance.
15:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why when people look at me, they're like, why are you doing so many different things, but then it makes sense is because of that.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Love it.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a really cool thing.
15:33
[SPEAKER_01]: How did you initially get into fighting?
15:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Whoa, that's a big one.
15:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I got into fighting.
15:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I got in an accident, yeah, in 2016 that unfortunately someone passed away and I survived.
15:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was the first thing where I questioned my life.
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I questioned, because I questioned if I was doing everything right, so if it was for me, I was going into like incredibly deep depression.
16:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I felt survivor-skilled and I still feel it today.
16:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I started doing little things where I was like, what does Tina want to do?
16:18
[SPEAKER_02]: What's Tina want to do for her and not for anybody else?
16:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Because at this point, it was my rock bottom, like sink or swim, right?
16:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So then I started doing little things.
16:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And what did you do before the accident before that I was an actor and I was doing some modeling and I was also a little I was a cheerleader Yeah, so I had long hair
16:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was a completely golden child of my family.
16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Very, like the model of what they envisioned, their daughter who was born in Canada to be.
17:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And then that accident happened.
17:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I was like, you know, there's something that's not real about my life.
17:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew I was doing things that people want me to do.
17:14
[SPEAKER_02]: but it wasn't for me and started, so I started challenging those things, right?
17:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And you cut your hair at that right after that.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So one of the things I've always wanted to do was like, cut my hair.
17:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So I started cutting it shorter and shorter.
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I eventually I shaved my head.
17:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, yeah, I kind of shorter to shorter just to try out different styles.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I eventually shaved my head.
17:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And then like,
17:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I realized, like, holy shit, I love this luck.
17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought I was going to grow it back, but I ended up keeping it since 2016, since the accident.
17:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so this was before fighting.
17:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I shaved my head.
17:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when I shaved my head, my agent at the time was like, you're not going to book that many roles anymore.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't look like the girl next door, because they had a vision for me, you know what I mean?
18:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But then I eventually booked, I eventually got an agent that was one of the best in Canada.
18:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, because, and then I'm like, wow, I just have to like chase my truth and every time I do the right, the bigger thing kind of appears, you know what I mean?
18:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So that gave me encouragement to keep doing the honest thing, but also my accident was also another thing where like, I almost died, you know what I mean?
18:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Someone else died, which I felt like they saved me as well, um, and I felt like, and then eventually I started trying different things and I've tried out fighting.
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Because in high school, I did fighting for fun, but my mom got sick, and she wasn't able to drive me to class anymore, and my coach at that gym called me, and he was like, why am she coming to class anymore, and my mom's sick, no one's driving me, and he said, well, I want to train you for a fun tournament.
18:54
[SPEAKER_02]: you know what I mean?
18:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And he planted that seed in my head.
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So I never went back because I did modeling and all this stuff and you don't get punched in the face and you're modeling and whatnot.
19:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And eventually when I decided like I'm going to do this like for fun boxing tournament and then when I did it I realized I was taking it so seriously like I was trying it three different
19:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I, this was like, all of a sudden taking over my brain more than like acting was, because acting I was doing it, but I didn't realize like, I didn't love it.
19:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I just kind of, you know, meandered and tried to book things because I was pretty, then it was because I was actually enjoying or understanding the craft, right?
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So I knew.
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I had a friend tell me, like, you know,
19:50
[SPEAKER_02]: When it comes to your passion, he said to me he's like, you have to enjoy like 70% of those things that you don't like, right?
20:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, for example, like a lot of acting is like,
20:05
[SPEAKER_02]: auditions and classes at being broke, but the amount of time you get to have when you're on stage is very little, right?
20:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
20:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's like, you got to enjoy like 70% of the thing, and then that you don't like to know that it's for you.
20:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was fighting, right?
20:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's a lifetime of training for like 15 minutes.
20:27
[SPEAKER_02]: right so like you got to like that part and I realized I like the process of of fighting more than I like the process of acting at the time because I didn't even know the process of acting at the time so then I'm like that's a sign maybe I should try this out and because again my accident all this that that made me like want to live more I was like I'm going to pick up my bags and move to Montreal
20:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Montreal is one of the best gyms in the world for what I do.
20:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Doors tape here, trains at the gym that I was at, a bunch of other world champions.
20:56
[SPEAKER_01]: You said GSP's, he said GSP's trains at the UK.
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a trister.
21:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so second.
21:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, at the time it was like the first the best Jim in the world for what I did the MMA facility was a new Mexico Albuquerque, Turkey, New Mexico and then I couldn't go to the States.
21:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have visas So then the second best Jim was in Montreal called Tracer Jim
21:23
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a home to like UFC Hall of Famer, George St. Pierre, and it's the reason why a lot of other UFC fighters in World Chappins have went there to train because they wanted to be the best.
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So instead of beating around the bush and figuring out a fighting is for me, I went and I packed my bags and went over there by myself to know anybody.
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that is, yeah, that makes sense to pick up and go that, that hard.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But let me ask you something, how do you know, and this is a question I've always asked, ever since I was a kid, I asked this on the podcast all the time, how do we know if we're good?
22:06
[SPEAKER_01]: We just pick up and go, and how do you know you're good at fighting?
22:09
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you know you're good at comedy or you just do it?
22:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm good.
22:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I just know I survive.
22:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
22:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm good.
22:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I think like for me, I think I'm, that's why I love, I loved fighting because I had a coach, right?
22:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God, do I watch my tape and hate myself, right?
22:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Where I like, I trusted him enough with everything that I was like, do you think, was I, did I do well enough?
22:37
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like, yeah, I'm like, good, thank you.
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I drop it, I just move on, I don't have to think about anymore because I just put my trust on my coach to help me with that.
22:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so I never know I'm good.
22:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I just know that I keep coming back and I keep surviving.
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I keep getting stronger and I'm like, that's what, what, like, I want to figure out.
22:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, why, why am I, this strong, why am I this good?
22:57
[SPEAKER_02]: What, what provokes me.
22:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, different, different, different reasons.
23:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I remember I had this audition for, uh, an acting role.
23:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was a time where I was fighting and they wanted to do like an interview was a very unconventional like audition.
23:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like they wanted to just interview me as a fighter and then they asked me a question.
23:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember exactly what it was, but I answered saying like my dad's the darkness and my mom's the light in my life.
23:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And my mom has always been somehow I figure out a way where when things get dark on when I'm in the cage or whatever Find the light find the light find the light.
23:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
23:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So I found I think in my life these two extremities and I found a through way to like Kind of overcome that and and I think that I Like that then figure out if I'm good
23:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't know if that makes sense, but like, yeah, so, so, so the destination doesn't become important anymore.
23:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really about how do you get to through it and the journey of going through it is the resolution.
24:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not actually arriving at the destination that becomes the resolution for you.
24:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And every destination has been different for me.
24:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, when destination means a lot of thing for me, like every fight has been a different destination.
24:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Some fights were some fights were purely competitive.
24:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember one fight where like this, it was a, I was amateur.
24:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a seven-pound leeway when you're an amateur fighter.
24:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So, when you weigh in, as long as you're within seven pounds lighter or heavier, you can fight.
24:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And with amateur, unfortunately, they messed up on the weight, by the way.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I was supposed to fight at 120, but it was listed at 125.
24:51
[SPEAKER_02]: This girl came in way heavier than me, and plus seven pounds more.
24:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was already on the lighter side.
24:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I was a
24:59
[SPEAKER_02]: walking weight 115.
25:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had to fight up because I don't have a lot of girls in my size to fight, right?
25:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I already was a struggle to fight heavier girls.
25:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember that was like first of all my coaches like that was like the most fun fight to watch because it was like a scrap.
25:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But I remember shutting down and I couldn't remember anything.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And in that moment like I won the fight,
25:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
25:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's been fights where it was about purely competitive.
25:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted there's been fights where I had a dig deep and I realized like, oh, my mom drives me.
25:35
[SPEAKER_02]: There's been different fights.
25:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So different different destination, I learned something different about myself.
25:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you're seeing with comedy like every time I say one stage, I love to, and every time I tell it true, I'd hope to discover something else, to keep discovering something more, then just like one black and white, you know, answer because it's never been black and white in my life.
25:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that answer, and I have a question for you, but I'm going to give you a little bit of an example, and then I would love to hear what you think about this.
26:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But I often think about the technical side of fighting and how good somebody is, how tired somebody might be, how much sleep somebody got, how much they ate, how much rest they had between fights before competitions.
26:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I often think like,
26:35
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing about fighting for me personally is when I think about anybody of any size fighting me.
26:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think about any of that stuff.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about one thing.
26:46
[SPEAKER_01]: How much rage does that guy, like my brother, right?
26:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Like my brother is not as in shape as I am, he and I, you know.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would never fight my brother, because I think if that guy gets pissed at me, his younger brother, like he would fuck me up, right?
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think about that all the time, I'm like, I take that idea to the streets, and I'm like, if there's anybody out there who looks at me with more rage than my brother, I'm in trouble.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a pretty fake guy.
27:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
27:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in shape.
27:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can like if we were in a regular sparring thing gloves on and everything was like cool legit.
27:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just like working out.
27:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I got it in me to like hang.
27:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But not on the streets or on the ring in the ring when it's like game time.
27:32
[SPEAKER_01]: My question to you is.
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that real?
27:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if somebody has like this thing with their mom and dad, the dark, the light, and you go in, and you're less technically savvy than them, or whatever, can you beat somebody, or can they beat you based on like this emotional sort of like this tension that they have inside of you, and they're just gonna kill you based on like this sort of like this energy that, that's the question I have.
28:05
[SPEAKER_01]: fights, outcomes.
28:08
[SPEAKER_02]: It can.
28:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it definitely can from what I've learned and through like my coaches and fighting, yeah, it definitely can.
28:17
[SPEAKER_02]: It's become the less like ideal way to do things, because I mean, you could be used emotions and technical, right?
28:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But then also, my coaches
28:33
[SPEAKER_02]: right so there's guys were completely competitive but if you don't have that little that extra little drive you can't beat this guy but this guy if you don't have technique but you got that emotional drive you can't beat that guy right because there's you know what I mean so and and now guys are being much more
28:52
[SPEAKER_02]: mature or maybe the fighting world has evolved in such a way that they're like, we got to do both.
28:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So the guy who is emotional, you got to learn how to like, wield that, right, and control it.
29:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Let go of it when you know what's right, but don't let it control you because if you do that, your blindsided tunnel vision, you see one thing and then you don't see the other thing, right?
29:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the thing about having emotions.
29:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And that can apply in life too, like when my dad, like if only he can control those emotions,
29:22
[SPEAKER_02]: us all up, you know what I mean?
29:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So like, you know, so, so like, that's, yeah.
29:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you still see it till today, like there's still a chance you can get knocked out by that crazy emotional guy.
29:36
[SPEAKER_02]: But we all know like, you know, you're, you know, you're, you know,
29:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We can all see like if he messes up or if, you know, he's gonna lose, right?
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if he makes a lot of mistakes, you could take advantage of that, yeah.
29:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
29:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And if, and sometimes also if you put too much on that and you lose, you might lose everything.
29:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know what I mean?
30:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean?
30:02
[SPEAKER_02]: As in like, it's like, um, you just, how do I say it?
30:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Too much stakes, too much like I don't even know how to explain that, it's, it's, you could, you could shatter yourself, you don't even mean the internal pressures too much and you can break, you can break down.
30:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think like, because I think it's almost like,
30:31
[SPEAKER_02]: so much emotion so much ego if you don't take care of it right and you let it all in one place if you keep winning you get the freaking crazy high which is the best feeling in the world but one lose you're gonna like go completely under the water because you were not you were you're so tunnel vision that you didn't even see losing and the minute it hits you you're blindsided you know
30:55
[SPEAKER_02]: We're like, I think it's better to like, ride the line and be aware that you could lose and constantly do that because then you go and you hit a completely different part where you didn't expect.
31:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then now you have to rebuild from a place of loss.
31:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
31:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Then thinking like you're the best, you're, you're now you're going to fucking kill this person.
31:13
[SPEAKER_02]: When reality is, you're not going to fucking kill the person, right?
31:16
[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to live another day after this fight.
31:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.
31:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so it's a lot of emotions to put into something.
31:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a game at the end of the day.
31:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Reminds me of Ronda Rousey and that lost that just kind of knocked her out of her orbit forever.
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's not impossible to recover from something like that.
31:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is, it's very impossible to recover from that.
31:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so you got to do, for me, I was taught, oh my god, it was a lot of work to fight.
31:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
31:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of the best fighters in the world.
31:48
[SPEAKER_02]: They were like Daniel Corme, for example.
31:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He was already like an Olympic World Champion before he became a UFC fighter.
31:55
[SPEAKER_02]: He was already fighting since he was like 10 years old or whatever age.
31:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So he was conditioned for so long.
32:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I had already one skill that was so good and he put it into like UFC.
32:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So, so for me, like when I was training, it was like, if, and the thing with, like, fighting is it can be so political and unfair, I remember my coach saying to me like, Tina, you're not that great.
32:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, you're gonna be great, but at the time I was so new to fighting that he's like, it's not surprising.
32:28
[SPEAKER_02]: They might call you and be like, you should take the next fight in the UFC because you're
32:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So then it's like, you got to make sure that you're so good, that you can't be fed.
32:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had put so much trust in him to be, and then so that meant like copious amounts of out of your fights and boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, all this stuff, right?
32:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Because like, Floyd Mayweather, before like he's got hundreds of something amateur fights before he became like a pro and he became like undefeated, right?
33:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
33:02
[SPEAKER_02]: that's a lot of work and you can't skip steps is what it is, you know what I mean?
33:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a friend line who's a Judo Olympian from Iran and so he was a very well-known fighter in Iran.
33:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But unfortunately, what something happened politically and he had to leave his country with his daughter and mother, Ursur and girlfriend, and move to Canada as a refugee.
33:28
[SPEAKER_02]: He made the Olympic wrestling team as a refugee status, right?
33:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And even him, my coach was like, dude, don't go pro too soon.
33:40
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to call you because you're a judo limpian.
33:42
[SPEAKER_02]: You're also a ragyan.
33:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing more do they want to see a rag versus US.
33:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going to beat you to the pulp.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't want to lose like that.
33:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So you're going to do all the work and then when you're ready, go pro.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't do it too soon because it's exciting.
33:58
[SPEAKER_02]: It's exciting to go pro right away, right?
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: try to go.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You have like trying to stay smart.
34:07
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the strategy and and and you know what you know yeah so that's You know I want to switch over to comedy
34:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that is a, it sounds really counterintuitive, but it's not, it's a, it's a natural transition.
34:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a, my cousin, Andy the creation is my first cousin, and she's an MMA fighter.
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's funny as hell.
34:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I always tell her, get in the closet.
34:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I got you send me to her.
34:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know her, but I'll look her up.
34:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, she's a U.S. fighter and she's a fighter for a long time.
34:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But she is funny as hell, but she won't get into it.
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And I understand why, you know, it's scary.
34:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But what really made you go, you know, I can do this.
35:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I can pull it off.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what is your goal?
35:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what is your mark of like, okay, this is successful to me, I'm making money, and like, what does that all look like to you?
35:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, can you ask me the question again?
35:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, sure.
35:22
[SPEAKER_01]: What made you switch over to comedy?
35:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is your sort of the end goal of it?
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, is it making the money?
35:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it, you know, getting your own special?
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what's the whole plan and strategy of going into it?
35:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, what maybe get into it by flute by just trying the thing that I, I was curious about and then um, realizing that that was psychologically given me the same, uh, contentment that fighting did.
35:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been in comedy for 10 months and so I keep asking myself along the journey like why am I here all the time?
36:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, am I doing this for attention, validation?
36:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, is it coming from a healthy place?
36:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what is this pattern that I'm recognizing that I'm doing, right?
36:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm constantly asking myself that question.
36:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I still am asking myself that question.
36:24
[SPEAKER_02]: A part of it is just so much fun.
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so much fun, I think.
36:30
[SPEAKER_02]: because my life has always been a bit uncomfortable all the time, you know what I mean?
36:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
36:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So I like making people uncomfortable to kind of make them feel what I feel.
36:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the, yeah, so I love going to the stage and I'm like, let me say this thing.
36:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But like, and I know you're, everyone's, it's so uncomfortable, but they, they want to sit in it because they don't get to like talk about it often.
36:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
36:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And having someone just like boldly say it is like so funny.
37:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think at first, like I, a few, my first set was so, like, there was a lot of sex involved in this like story.
37:11
[SPEAKER_02]: as a way to explain being misunderstood, my desire for love, how people treat me, you know what I mean?
37:21
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so if you can listen really artistically, I'm using sex, but there's a lot more underneath that.
37:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love being able to kind of like say the thing that people,
37:35
[SPEAKER_02]: feel or recognize and being like a step ahead of the audience.
37:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So in a way, I'm still trying to apply fighting to comedy.
37:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I always want to be a step ahead of my opponent.
37:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be able to read the room so well that I know what my next move is, right?
37:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So nothing more
37:57
[SPEAKER_02]: is it satisfied for me to say the thing that people's thinking, people are thinking, and then they're laughing their ass off because they got caught.
38:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that's like so much fun for me, and then, you know, as I start meeting more comics,
38:15
[SPEAKER_02]: and people who have similar style as me, they started sitting me down and they started grilling me and asking me all these fucking questions.
38:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought that was just their thing because that's what comics do.
38:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We like to, you know, get to know the audience and ask a question, but I think that they were doing it in a way to figure out what's driving me to do comedy as much as, you know, you're doing that.
38:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And as the more I kept saying the things out loud,
38:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I realize like, oh shit, there is a reason for me to be on this stage, there is a reason for me to keep saying these things and I'm going to slowly dig deeper and deeper and deeper and make it funny and say it because I think like I just don't really like
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I'm heavily misunderstood.
39:06
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what it is.
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how I feel.
39:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Every day, people are like, you're so badass, but I'm like, you don't really know what it takes to be badass.
39:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, let me tell you, because I don't want you to put me on a pedestal to make you think that I'm like a superhero.
39:19
[SPEAKER_02]: No, let me just give you the layer underneath and show you
39:23
[SPEAKER_02]: what it is.
39:24
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
39:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, because I don't want to feel like somebody for people or like seeing this way, I want to be seeing that way.
39:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, but I feel like, yeah, I feel like you're living in a struggle.
39:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's my takeover.
39:43
[SPEAKER_01]: The struggle is you've been given
39:53
[SPEAKER_01]: position in your family, the golden child.
39:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And you are, you believe you are, but at the same time, there's this like raw misunderstood young child inside of you that has not been able to express all the vulnerabilities and all of the hurt and all of the things I'm just people just see this beautiful outside exterior and
40:17
[SPEAKER_01]: That turmoil drives the art.
40:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest, this is why I actually ask you to come on the podcast because I was like, it's not really about the MMA, it's not really about the comedy.
40:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a feeling that you're going to be an artist that keeps moving through the identity question.
40:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why you're here for me, that, and I clocked this like months ago when I was following you.
40:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever the seed of this, you know, trauma or whatever you want to call it is going to really follow you and I'm interested in who this artist is because I mean, you're an MMA art.
40:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Marks, makes martial artists, a comedian is an artist and you might become a fine artist, which painting or whatever, you might become a writer, you might become something.
41:13
[SPEAKER_01]: and keep changing in different media forms, but I have a feeling that it's just going to keep transforming.
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just want to watch.
41:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Tina Fam transform, so my criteria used to be they got to be doing their shit for long time and then they have to make sure I have to prove I have to have the proof that they're going to be doing it for a long time.
41:34
[SPEAKER_01]: But now I'm starting to change because I'm starting to see that okay somebody like a Tina Fam is not really about the MMA not really about the comedy.
41:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the deep rooted expression trying to figure out what that obsession where it comes from.
41:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to, I want to track it, I want to clock it every year, I want to be like, yo, Tina, where are you at?
41:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You're still in comedy, you're writing, you're painting with the fucker you doing up.
41:58
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you up to?
41:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Because like, the question is directly related to my identity question.
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I live the same way.
42:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel the same way about the world.
42:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's always like, I feel like an ADD person.
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's why I like, I interview so many people because I need to get that itch out.
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, I got to hear it from you this year, next year I'll hear another thing about you.
42:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why that's I think what it is that you're feeling is all of these sort of like these extreme feelings about like You're not really okay with being this pretty.
42:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you clip your hair.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're surviving You survive like all these terrible things and you're just like, well, how am I surviving?
42:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Why have I survived the accident?
42:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Why have I survived the family?
42:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Why did I have it so good?
42:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But all this bad shit's happening to people were close to me.
42:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the feeling the struggle that I get from you.
42:48
[SPEAKER_01]: All this polarity.
42:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fascinating.
42:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, it's a lot of tension.
42:53
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, yeah, that's for sure.
42:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of, that's why I love comedy.
42:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I get to put it on other people.
42:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to just hold it myself.
43:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but there's a lot of things to be grateful for and a lot of draws that comes from the fact that I'm the only one born in Canada and like my mom's love and what she taught me is what beautiful is is what I hold on to it wasn't about my hair She's old with like a big scar through her head from like a brain tumor yet all my friends would go up to her and be like, your mom is so cool.
43:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I love your mom.
43:23
[SPEAKER_02]: She should have her own website.
43:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and I'm like, that's what I want.
43:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that's the type of beauty and love I want.
43:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, from this woman, she's 70 years old.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I want to be that way.
43:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
43:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So like, it was never, and when she looked at me, I'm grateful.
43:36
[SPEAKER_02]: It was never about my long hair.
43:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
43:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I could have done anything, and she would love me no matter what.
43:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm really grateful for that.
43:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, we just want to be seen.
43:48
[SPEAKER_01]: We're human beings and we are souls want to be seen.
43:51
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we want.
43:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
43:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
43:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
43:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
43:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
43:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, me, your question to, like, what the end goal end is of this?
44:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I would love to, yeah, write specials, be so good at this craft, a part of it is to be able to see, a part of it is to be able to have a bunch of people in the audience that I feel is my friend.
44:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's one of the things that drew me to comedy was like, oh, you know, all the funny
44:24
[SPEAKER_02]: if you can have the courage to see everybody as your best friend and say the same thing because you usually say like weird stuff there, right?
44:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It's funny for everybody.
44:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the challenge is to see everyone as my friend.
44:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And then also like the more I grow is just the people just like cheering my thoughts.
44:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's awesome.
44:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But a part of growing is also like I hope my dad one day sees me on a billboard.
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean like that's your daughter.
44:50
[SPEAKER_02]: She made it.
44:53
[SPEAKER_02]: and the most nuanced way possible, she's not going to make you look like a villain, but she's going to fucking say that you were at some points of your life, you know, and be able to do that.
45:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really cool to see, like I looked at my social media algorithm, like insight, and it was like 51% men and 49% women is like equal, almost 50-50.
45:20
[SPEAKER_02]: and that's awesome.
45:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be able to be like that comedian that understands men because I was able to fight with men and they taught me how to be a fighter.
45:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
45:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the men who were the ones who could have hurt me actually chose to protect me.
45:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's a lot of people who are talking about how much they hate men this and that and like that don't think that's actually going to like help things.
45:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's better if we sat in the discomfort of the truth and figured out.
45:46
[SPEAKER_02]: what's going on?
45:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
45:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And also I'm a woman too and being able to see the rights and wrong of both and still be able to meet is exactly where I kind of want to be in comedy.
46:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then one day makes me a lot of money, one day I'll grow my audience even bigger.
46:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's that's awesome.
46:07
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the biggest challenge as you're writing bits, as you're putting together an hour, as you're trying to build these modular sort of components to string along.
46:21
[SPEAKER_02]: The challenges are I have a lot of raw material which is great and I have these natural instincts of being funny, awesome.
46:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the craft in terms of just learning how to structure things, the opening and closing those in time will come to learn.
46:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a little slow at those things and I think for me because I have
46:46
[SPEAKER_02]: performance experience from fighting and acting.
46:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I already learned how to like learn lines and rehearse and timing and all this stuff when I came into comedy the first show that I did everyone was like holy shit you look like you've been doing this for years.
47:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have, I came in hot and strong, right?
47:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's a lot of expectations of me being really good.
47:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm fine with that.
47:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's also, like, you're so new, you have an earned or place, you know what I mean?
47:15
[SPEAKER_02]: There's like, you know, there's a hierarchy in comedy.
47:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And in Vancouver, whatever, we're like, I can't get the spots I want to because you haven't been around for long enough.
47:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Fair, gatekeeping, all this stuff.
47:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a lot of that.
47:30
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of traditional people who think that you have to go a certain way when I'm like, why don't you just put me in a cage?
47:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
47:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I have those experiences.
47:39
[SPEAKER_02]: It came to me very quickly because comedy fighting very similar things just made me words.
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Fighting was me learning how to protect the truth.
47:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Comedy is me learning how to reveal it.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's a hard part, but I've been learning how to work with it, which is awesome.
47:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I worked on it in a very unconventional way and building my comedy, my online audience as much as I can.
48:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was just gonna say that.
48:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'm going to pull those people off to create my own room, so I have to compete with anybody.
48:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
48:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Steve, Steve, how did that?
48:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know Steven?
48:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Steven?
48:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
48:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a few people did that.
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
48:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Steven, how did it in a fucking spectacular way?
48:21
[SPEAKER_01]: He, uh, he was this E.R.
48:23
[SPEAKER_01]: nurse, emergency room nurse for many years.
48:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And he would pull comedy bits from his experience.
48:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you look him up.
48:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He pulled his comedy from those years in the in the room and he was still at ER nurse when he was like doing these bits years ago and he got so much traction and he built it up and he built it up and he was taking acting classes and then so he got to a point where I think it was a psych
48:52
[SPEAKER_01]: hundreds of thousands of people, maybe perhaps millions of people, and then he literally started performing at smaller shows.
49:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one day he was like, fuck it, I'm going on tour and he just booked all these shows across the United States and they sold out.
49:13
[SPEAKER_01]: because all he needed to do, because once you have like a million people, right?
49:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Subscribers.
49:19
[SPEAKER_01]: All you need to do is just make sure that you are comfortable on stage, which I think you're fine.
49:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But once you have that audience, all you gotta do is like, let everybody know.
49:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I have my special.
49:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Just come.
49:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I have an hour's worth, an hour and a half worth.
49:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Just come to these locations and you sell out.
49:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Steve, Steve, he did that.
49:40
[SPEAKER_01]: He just sold out.
49:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's doing spectacular and I think that eventually when you are able to sell out that's Fuck you money, right, and then cuz it's all you and then you have the audience Yeah, you're audience, you've already so it's you don't need to do the traditional like fucking hierarchy I got to wait.
49:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to be a dormant at the fucking comedy store You don't have to do that anymore.
50:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You just need to like right and work your ass off online build that online thing and like Steve
50:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Linda Dong is like one of those.
50:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think she's into stand-up yet, but she's getting big book-booking big commercials and I mean these are two of the Vietnamese ones that I know that are blank, massive, mainstream people now.
50:23
[SPEAKER_01]: She would Kevin Hart and you know it's like, but they did their time.
50:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean each one of them to be honest with you.
50:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Did 11 to 12 years before they really saw so you're gonna do 11 to 12 years on the on the on the street or you're gonna do 11 to 12 years online either way you're gonna have to do like a decade.
50:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think there's any way around it Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and like I was a slow so Vester Stallone
50:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We wrote the movie where he was having trouble.
50:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he was having trouble getting to the acting industry back then to the stuff like this.
51:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to start, yeah.
51:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is modern day.
51:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to do myself.
51:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
51:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's modern, it's modern.
51:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
51:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I'm not getting the roles that I'm getting, if there's gatekeeping or comedy stuff, like, well, you know,
51:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Post online get your own audience so that way you don't have to rely on these people giving you a job and that's where I saw the power of like, oh, I'm I'm just doing a rocky for myself right now exactly exactly.
51:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of power to it, you know, no.
51:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, as long as you are not going to be like, there's a few of my friends and people that I know who are like, they did skits, right?
51:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And there you go.
51:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the one skit hit, and it got viral, they got all these following, but they're like, wait, hold on.
51:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not a skit person.
51:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a stand-up person, you know?
51:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they had imposter syndrome and they're, and it's like, you got to stay true to yourself online.
51:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
51:56
[SPEAKER_02]: You got to do the thing that you're like, when you're comfortable with.
52:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And then for me, like I just found a way where I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to share my perspective.
52:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I am a product.
52:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm here to sell my thought.
52:07
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what comedians do.
52:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So I started posting my thoughts.
52:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where like I feel okay with people knowing what I think and eventually I can bring that into my stand-up sets where I like listen guys.
52:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You only heard me say that for one minute.
52:22
[SPEAKER_02]: That was so hard to cram.
52:24
[SPEAKER_02]: That much nuance and one minute.
52:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you see me in person,
52:28
[SPEAKER_02]: here's a whole hour of it.
52:30
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
52:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so I think that's a really cool strategic state, um, you know, play that I'm doing and hopefully just keep going off that way.
52:38
[SPEAKER_02]: It's great.
52:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a lot of Vietnamese, uh, comics in the United States now.
52:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, really?
52:45
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
52:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:46
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot.
52:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot.
52:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, Fred Lee and Andy and Andy van Fred Lee.
52:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, they host this show called Embarrassed by Night.
52:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a play on Paris by night.
52:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you heard of it?
52:58
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but that's so funny.
53:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
53:26
[SPEAKER_02]: How, yeah, exactly.
53:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's right.
53:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and bear us by night, Fred lay and Andy van hit those three things up.
53:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You can find it and you know, like I told you, Tina, I think that you are a force to be reckoned with with your expression and I think whether it's MMA comedy painting writing whatever I am here for it.
53:47
[SPEAKER_01]: and I want to encourage you to explore the hell out of any media that you feel like you're, you know, and I think you'll have fans like me and we're going to see what we're this all lands.
53:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it'll land somewhere.
54:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You're a hardworking person and sharp and I look forward to to all of it.
54:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And thank you for hitting me up and it was such a joy to have you on the podcast today.
54:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much, fun.
54:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Tia.
54:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Kenneth.
54:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
54:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
54:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Trinne.
54:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese Podcast.