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Welcome to the School of Greatness.
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I am your host, Lewis Howes, and today we have a very special guest joining us.
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He s known for his larger-than-life personality and his ability to make people laugh all around the world.
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From sold-out arenas to viral YouTube videos, he s a comedy powerhouse with a heart of gold.
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Please welcome the one and only Gabriel Iglesias.
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I just shared a lot with you, and you don t realize how much I ve shared.
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Being vulnerable is hard to do, and it s scary.
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The first comedian to sell out Dodger Stadium.
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One of the world s most successful and popular stand-up comedians, Gabriel Iglesias, who is known as Fluffy.
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I got to a place where you want to talk about not feeling good.
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I talked about retiring, especially right after Dodger Stadium, because that put me in a different place mentally.
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Because it s not every day you can say that you saw your peak.
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We allow certain behavior to continue because we re trying to keep certain people in our lives.
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And unfortunately, some people should not be in our lives.
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I took on the pain and the frustration and the issues because I didn t want to be the bad person who said, let me hit the stop button.
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All that stuff I just shared with you about struggles and the relationships and stuff like that, I haven t talked about that on stage yet.
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Who is Fluffy versus who is Gabriel in your mind?
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Gabriel does have bad days.
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Really?
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Puppy can t have bad days.
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He s not supposed to.
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And... Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness.
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Very excited about our guest.
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We have the inspiring Gabriel Iglesias in the house.
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Good to see you, sir.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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Hola, señor.
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Hola.
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Mucho gusto.
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¿Cómo estás?
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Mexicans hate it when white people try to speak Spanish to them.
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Out the gate, just so you know.
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Yeah.
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Especially when they re not fluent.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So good to connect with you, and congrats on everything, man.
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It s been inspiring to see the journey.
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And the thing that I really appreciate about you is how vulnerable and honest you are with your message, with your work, and with the interactions you have.
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Obviously, you re extremely funny, and you ve amassed this massive audience of 25 million people globally that are consistently consuming and watching you.
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I love how real and authentic you are with your comedy.
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And so I just wanted to acknowledge you for the journey you ve been on, the impact you ve made, and the joy you bring to so many people in the world.
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Thank you.
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And I m curious, as someone at your level who is always on the road with a lot of success over the last 15 plus, 18 plus years now,
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How do you manage fame, success, while also being happy and finding inner peace?
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I think you ve got to go through all the same issues that normal people go through.
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You ve got to go through the moments of heartache.
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I cry.
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I have my good days, my bad days.
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I have my days where I just want to scream into a pillow.
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I want to throw something.
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But you find a way to get through it.
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I m very fortunate that I get to air out a lot of my issues on stage because I do.
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I will take things that bother me and I will go on stage and I will vent about them.
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And I find that by doing that, people can relate.
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People can relate to when you re frustrated.
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People can relate to when you re not having the best of days and you share a moment.
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You know, whether it s like me dealing with issues as a parent or me dealing with issues as,
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Oh man, something happened today where I hit my knee or I m dealing with a friend that s just bugging the hell out of me because they have a certain way of thinking and I m trying to explain something or just dealing with, trying to get through the day.
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Everybody has problems and when you can relate to people s problems, for some reason, it helps me.
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I went to therapy for two years after my last breakup trying to figure out what I did wrong.
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And I realized, you know what, it wasn t all me.
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Cause in the beginning I thought it was and going, you know, doing that actually helped out a lot.
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It taught me how to listen.
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It taught me how to ask myself questions and have a better understanding.
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And I think that for many years, I thought I knew it all and clearly I didn t.
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And that s one thing I appreciate about the fact that as I m getting older, I m realizing,
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all right now we re finally getting into a good group we re finally understanding and things are starting to make sense inner peace first of all you got to know what not having peace is to really understand peace so uh unfortunately i have had some some rough moments where i m like
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I am miserable.
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I am freaking miserable.
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And not because of my work.
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I love what I do.
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It is the greatest feeling in the world.
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But there are things in life, not just your career, there s, you know, regular everyday life, the people that you engage with.
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And yeah, there have been serious moments where I m like, I am so unhappy right now.
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So once those things are taken care of or they re gone,
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when you talk about having peace and feeling good, knowing what true misery is helps you really understand what peace is.
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And I don t think you can have one without the other.
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And so you gotta know, you gotta be able to bleed to know what it s like to feel good.
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And I think that starting off this year, 2024, I feel so good.
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And I haven t said that in so long.
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I feel really, really good.
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And I feel happy.
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And I feel like I m in a good direction.
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I m in a good place in life right now.
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Congrats, man.
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What do you think has been the darkest or most miserable moments you ve had?
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Um, you know, I think that feeling confused is, is something that definitely is, is, is painful.
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Not knowing, uh, living in a, in a gray area of confusion, not being able to have clarity and understanding, um, especially in relationships, not knowing where you stand.
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And a lot of times, I think we re the ones responsible for that, because we allow certain behavior to continue, because we re trying to keep certain people in our lives.
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And unfortunately, some people should not be in our lives.
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And that is a hard pill to swallow as well, because as much as, whether it s friends, family, or business acquaintances, some people do not belong in your life.
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And the sooner you can get them out,
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the better you re going to be.
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And unfortunately there was times when I didn t just have days or months or a year.
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I ve, I ve allowed, uh, situations to go on for a very long time because I didn t want to be the bad guy to pull the plug.
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Really?
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And so I, I took on the pain and the frustration and the issues because I didn t want to be the bad person who, who said, let me hit the stop button.
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because I didn t want to be that person.
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But at the same time, I wasn t doing myself any favors by not stopping or correcting certain things that were happening.
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I can relate to that because I m a slow learner sometimes, and I have to go through a lot of pain in order to learn lessons.
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And I had many long-term relationships
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intimate relationships that I should have been out of much years before I got out of them and dealt with a lot of pain by trying to people please, by trying to change myself to keep someone happy that was just never gonna be happy with me.
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And so I can relate to that feeling.
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When did you feel like you learned that lesson or what shifted inside of you that allowed you to say, okay, I can no longer be this way anymore with this person or these people in my life?
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I m still learning and it s one of those things where maybe this period of time was good and helpful and it allowed
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growth and joy and happiness but then maybe you know letting it go this long just kind of like like it it s now it s going down and now it s going in the opposite direction so I m still learning and I m still adjusting and the people that I ve started with are not the people that are you know always the ones the ones you start with are not always the ones you end with and fortunately there have been many people that are still
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in my life that I ve been on this quest with for so many years.
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For example, my team, the team of people that I have, I still have the same manager and agent that I ve had for, God, oh, like 20 years now.
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And it s awesome, and the fact that we ve all grown together.
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has been on the same promoter as well.
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So I ve been very in a business of show business, you re always jumping around.
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It s always go, go this way, this way, whatever works.
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And it s very cutthroat.
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So the fact that I ve been able to maintain and have this same group of people, it s huge because the trust is there.
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And going back to that whole thing of having the wrong person in place, I had people
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in place that were making me question, are these the best people for me?
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And I feel like loyalty is one of the strongest, biggest things that people take for granted because they re thinking about the money, they re thinking about this or that, but loyalty is so huge.
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Being able to trust someone is so huge and I think that a lot of people just kind of go, eh, you know, whatever.
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And like, oh, and that s why for me to let people go
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Is really, really hard because I m like, am I going to make a mistake?
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Am I going to regret this?
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You know, what s going to happen?
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And so sometimes I will overthink, but being able to trust somebody and being able to have the right people in your corner is, is really huge.
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And it is a big key to happiness and joy and peace.
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Wow.
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That s powerful, man.
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I love that you talked about therapy, and I know you ve talked about this in different interviews.
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I speak about it a lot on this show, just my journey of healing and therapy and lessons I ve learned and mistakes I ve made.
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And I feel like it s been so beneficial to creating more clarity and peace inside of me by having a place to talk about challenges, pains, frustrations, upsets, things like that.
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What would you say are the three most powerful things you ve learned through the therapy that you ve done?
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Again, being able to question myself.
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I know I m not always right, and I will never claim to always be right.
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And that s one thing that I had to learn by going that, you know what?
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Just because you re popular, just because people like you, doesn t mean you re always right.
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And I was writing that for a minute, and I had to come with the reality that, you know what, dude?
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No, you re not.
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You re not always right.
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And, you know, that s a that s a tough one to swallow right there, especially when you re selling out arenas and people are laughing at everything you say.
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It s hard to.
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Yeah, it s hard to admit that.
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Yeah, because when you re doing all these great things like, are you kidding?
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You re in magazines.
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You re in the top Forbes, you know, maker of the year type of thing.
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You re you re you re selling out stadiums.
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You re doing all kinds of crazy.
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You know, you got a frickin car collection that, you know, that Jay Leno s like, wow,
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like you re doing all these amazing things so to be able to to feel like really i m wrong you know that s it s hard it took me a minute to really to get that but um yeah i admit it all the time now man yeah that was stupid i shouldn t have done that so uh yeah i i definitely feel like that that was huge being able to learn that because i feel like i did need to learn
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And nobody would tell me.
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Really?
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That s another thing.
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Once you re at a certain place where the wheels are moving really well and money is good at keeping people, hey, let s keep this going here.
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Don t nobody tell them anything.
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Don t ruffle feathers.
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Don t upset them because if we mess this up, so who s going to tell me I m wrong?
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And that s a tough one.
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I had to figure that one out.
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Nobody said you re wrong because they re not, none of this, we re not going to mess any of this up.
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Right.
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We don t want to stop the money machine coming in right now.
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And everything that s happening.
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So yeah, but, uh, I can be wrong in business.
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I can be wrong in relationships and I ve been wrong in both.
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Yeah.
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I ve made decisions where I m like,
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Oh, okay, maybe that didn t work out right.
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Right, right.
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So when you re going on a, you know, if it s not a special, but you re just going out to a local comedy club to work out some material, are you going on stage thinking about, okay, I had this thing that happened last week that I want to vent, that I want to talk about.
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Have you already pre-planned the interpretation of it or is it more, I m just going to wing it out there and see what comes up for me in the flow?
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I have the idea of what I want to talk about, but I don t know the verbiage yet.
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I don t know the, you know, I m just going to go and, and every single bit starts off with me just literally freestyling it.
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Let s see how it goes.
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And then go back and you listen and you re like, okay, that doesn t sound right.
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Maybe we, you know, I should.
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And so the first time is just, here s what we got.
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And then you go back and then you start shaving off this or adding that and moving stuff around.
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But everything just starts off with the first.
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Let s just throw it at the wall, see what happens.
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Okay.
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What if people don t laugh?
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then I make fun of the fact that they didn t laugh.
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I m in a very good place now because of so many years of doing standup, the trust is there.
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The trust is there from the crowd.
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So if I say something that s not the funniest or it just, it doesn t get the, I feel pretty confident.
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So if something doesn t get a laugh, I m gonna find something to make, I m gonna find something to make fun of.
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You know, or, you know, hey, you guys, they all can t be funny.
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Or if I m at a club and I just popped in and people are like, oh my God, you know, like, you know, if I get a reaction when I walk in the room and I do a bit that doesn t fly,
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And I just look around and I go, yeah, see, that s what happens when you don t pay for the show.
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This is what you get for free, people.
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Right.
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You ve had so much years of experience with this, you know how to spin something.
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And I m not uncomfortable.
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If they don t laugh, they don t laugh.
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Really?
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You know, if they re quiet.
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I always say this, if the audience is dead quiet and you can hear a pin drop,
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That s a good thing, because that means they re listening.
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Wow.
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A lot of people are afraid of silence, and I m not.
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I m more afraid of heckling and distractions in the room.
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So whether there s a ceiling fan on, or the air conditioner s making a weird sound, or you hear glasses and clinking of, you know, you re trying to talk and you hear little noises in the room.
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That ll be $4.50.
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Hey, you got a credit card?
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you know sometimes I ll have servers that right in the front row like a big old plate with eight burgers on it you know here you go and I m like you couldn t do this half hour ago with the opening acts with anybody you had to put like eight burgers and bring them right here in the front
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The kitchen s backed up.
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I m like, oh my god.
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All right.
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And that s funny to people.
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To see me in that situation, I m like, you want me to perform and you got all this food right here in the front?
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All right.
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You wonder why bears attack at the circus.
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Sure.
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That s funny, man.
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Do you ever feel insecure on stage?
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I m always insecure.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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I m always insecure, like, ah, man, how s it gonna go?
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Like, oh, did they like that?
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You know, was it okay?
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Was it funny enough?
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Are they gonna come back?
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Are they gonna tell their friends?
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You know, that s always in my head.
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I feel confident going up on stage every time, but the insecurities are always there.
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That s part of it.
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I think that if the insecurities go away, it s gonna keep me from working hard to make people laugh.
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They always say, once you think you re the shit, that s when you become shit.
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Wow.
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So I embrace the insecurities.
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I embrace the fact that you re working without a net.
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When you go up on stage, you are the writer, the producer, the director.
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You are everything.
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And so it all falls on you.
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Wow, man.
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This is crazy.
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So you have confidence, but you also have a sense of insecurity or uncertainty.
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I know that stand-up is the thing that I do better, that s the best thing I can do.
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That s what I m good at.
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I m not a good hiker.
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I don t know how to code.
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There s a lot of things I don t know how to do.
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But I feel very confident when I m going on stage, I know that I m doing something that I love to do, and I know how to do it well.
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But that doesn t mean that I can t have a bad moment, or I can t have something that s not gonna go the way it should.
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Remember earlier, just because he s doing all this, I can have a bad time on stage.
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I can be wrong.
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An idea just might not fly.
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How do you separate your intimate, personal breakdowns in life that you might be having or from the past if maybe a relationship isn t working the way you want to that day or that week or you re going through some challenges with a friend or someone in your personal life?
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Disassociate that by going on stage and bringing this joy and passion and creativity while not letting that affect you emotionally.
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While also you might be talking about some of those things as well.
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from your personal life, how do you manage that to still bring it?
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I incorporate it.
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I have to put it in the set somehow.
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I have to decompress a little bit by putting it in there.
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And so whether it s me venting about it for a couple seconds, just maybe a little blip, or maybe it s something on social media.
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And that s a dangerous one, too, because that s out there forever.
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It s a hard one because if I m not feeling good it s really hard to share that.
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I have a very small circle so it s hard to share.
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As much as you want to trust that people are going to keep things to themselves, sometimes they don t.
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And then it s like, ah, then the problem becomes worse.
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And so sometimes I do find myself talking to strangers about certain things.
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And a lot of people say, really, with strangers?
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Yeah, yeah, I m good at talking to strangers.
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No problem.
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Because they don t know all the inner workings.
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They just see me as this.
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Which is why sometimes, man, having a drink, you know, like, yeah, you know, and you just, oh, yeah, yeah, whatever, you know.
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I can t do that all the time, and it s hard for me to go places, but every now and then, just, you know, shooting the shit with somebody.
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This is cool, because you don t know everything about my inner workings, and I just shared a lot with you, and you don t realize how much I ve shared.
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But I feel good doing it, I was like, yeah.
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Like that whole talk about the whole inner peace thing, I m like, wow, look at me saying stuff out loud.
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Conversations like that are very helpful.
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And again, being able to talk to people that are not gonna flip it on you and use it against you.
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Being vulnerable s hard to do, and it s scary.
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When you show weakness, man, people can just take that.
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And you know, mess up your day.
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And so sometimes you wanna just keep it to yourself.
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But if you keep it to yourself, then you get to a point where you might explode.
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And that s not gonna be good either.
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I ask this question to a lot of people, and I m curious your answer on this.
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It s a self-assessment.
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On a scale of one to 10, I call it the self-love scale.
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The inner peace and self-love scale.
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Where would you say that you re currently at this season of life?
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From one being you have zero self-love and zero inner peace, to 10 being a lot of self-love and all peace inside of you, where would you say you re currently on that scale, one to 10?
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One to 10, I m probably a 6.5, maybe close to a 7.
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I feel good, but I know that there are so many things that I could do to improve my quality of life, so many things that I could be doing to make myself happier, so many things I could be doing to just give myself a better place, if that makes sense.
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I know that if I was to wake up every morning and go just go take a walk, that would improve my health.
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I know that if I didn t drink, that could help, you know, certain things with like, you know, uh, make organs feel better, or maybe the skin will be, you know, I know that if I made certain choices, it would improve.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so it s, you know, as far as self-love, like I feel pretty good right now.
2
SPEAKER_00
Um, but you know, the, the week is young.
2
SPEAKER_01
When do you feel like you ve been on the lowest on that scale, if you can reflect back?
2
SPEAKER_00
Lowest on that scale is when I was trying to make people happy that weren t gonna be happy and definitely weren t gonna be making me happy.
2
SPEAKER_00
Really?
2
SPEAKER_00
Killing yourself trying to please others is one of those things that I m guilty of doing so many times.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I ve given
2
SPEAKER_00
so many of the wrong people, my time, energy, and love, when I should have been giving that to myself.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I m guilty of giving till it hurts and giving till I hurt myself.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I definitely would like to, because I m not going to get that time and all that back.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so the goal is to try to turn all of that and start doing more for me.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow, that s beautiful man.
2
SPEAKER_01
I can relate to that so much because growing up I just... Don t cry bro, I felt it man, I felt it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean shoot, I cry a lot out here man.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I relate to that just because
2
SPEAKER_01
Growing up, I felt very alone.
2
SPEAKER_01
I felt very alone.
2
SPEAKER_01
I felt very abandoned and abused.
2
SPEAKER_01
Now, that doesn t mean that s the total truth, but there were certain moments and memories that caused me to feel not enough, often.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was sexually abused when I was five by a man that I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve talked about this openly many times here.
2
SPEAKER_01
My brother was in prison when I was eight years old for four and a half years.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I wasn t allowed to have friends in the neighborhood because my older brother was bad and wrong and therefore parents would have let their kids hang out with me.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was in special needs classes.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was really hard for me to read and write and just remember what I was learning in school.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I was in those special classes with like three or four kids getting made fun of, getting picked on.
2
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, I just never felt enough.
2
SPEAKER_01
I never felt like I was good enough.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so that, I guess, those memories, those experiences, those wounds, caused me to people please a lot in my 20s and early 30s.
2
SPEAKER_01
Until it felt like it was gonna kill me.
2
SPEAKER_01
Until I had heart palpitations, pain in my chest.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was making a lot of money to prove people wrong and succeeding externally, but feeling very insignificant, lonely, and sad internally.
2
SPEAKER_01
And it wasn t until I started to really break down
2
SPEAKER_01
get some support, go to therapy, start to transform, heal, that s when I started to have more clarity and more peace.
2
SPEAKER_01
Do you feel like you know where a lot of that people pleasing came from for you?
2
SPEAKER_00
First of all, I m sorry for what you went through and I relate a lot to what you just said Especially the you know, the people pleasing and just trying to you know, you you figure if you re if you re making people happy then then hopefully you ll feel happy and maybe they ll make you happy and That s a that s a tough one.
2
SPEAKER_00
It really is I
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know where that came from because I do feel like even though I didn t grow up with both parents, I had my mom who was an incredible person.
2
SPEAKER_00
I miss her very much.
2
SPEAKER_00
She gave me everything I needed in life to be okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
I didn t have all the toys, but my Christmases were not horrible.
2
SPEAKER_00
Even though we lived in a rough area, she still protected me and kept me from becoming the environment.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I don t know where that comes from.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I basically grew up an only child because my sisters and my brother were all much older.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, there s like 14 years between my sister and I. I want to say 13, roughly, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
So by the time I showed up, everybody was already gone.
2
SPEAKER_00
they re all out of the house.
2
SPEAKER_00
So it s like it was just my mom and I. So, you know, I don t know where this comes from.
2
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
But it sounds like you ve realized this was something you were doing.
2
SPEAKER_01
You ve stopped doing it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And now you re starting to give back to you.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this is very recent, because I mean, I m still guilty of it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I still, unfortunately, I still allow certain people to have behaviors that are not
2
SPEAKER_00
Not good for them and definitely not good for me.
2
SPEAKER_00
Really?
2
SPEAKER_00
Why do you think you allow that still?
2
SPEAKER_00
Because I love them.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because I don t want to hurt their feelings.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t want to...
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t wanna feel bad for making them feel bad, even though I know that this is not benefiting either one.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t like the idea of knowing that what I m about to do is gonna cause ripples of unhappiness, even though it s...
2
SPEAKER_00
sometimes necessary to correct what s going on and and that s why it s like uh you know it s almost like all right maybe and you always want to hope that they see it they get it they understand that they ll change on their own and man some people just
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, man, and yeah, so because of how close they are and how long They ve you know, they ve been part of Everything it s it s really hard.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s really hard.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so that s why I haven t I haven t you know Because this year started off so good.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you know, I m like man.
2
SPEAKER_00
I should have done that last year this way I wouldn t have carried over but no Now you have the opportunity I m curious You know on this show.
2
SPEAKER_01
I really love to
2
SPEAKER_01
talk about living our best lives and what s possible for us.
2
SPEAKER_01
The things that we can have control over, the things that we can learn and can develop, and sharing that with anyone watching or listening around the world.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m curious, you said five, six, six and a half, maybe seven at this point on the self-love, inner peace scale.
2
SPEAKER_01
What do you think it would take from you to get to eight, nine, or maybe 10 sometimes?
2
SPEAKER_01
I m not saying you have to be perfect all the time, but what would it take from you to be a little bit higher consistently on that scale?
2
SPEAKER_00
little bit higher consistently definitely on the physical side uh you know I think that you know again limiting and the the drinking limiting the you know because I I bet I will binge eat if I m not feeling good and I ll just you know now I m not like my 600 pound life or anything but I might have more than one burger you know and so I think that if I changed some of my habits I think that would that would definitely
3
SPEAKER_01
Help, but I use these habits as crutches to whenever I m dealing, you know Sometimes it s easier to just drink and fall asleep than freakin having a you know, get into a situation.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s very uncomfortable And and I m guilty of doing that So I think that if I were to I know and I know that if I did certain things I would be in a better place Yeah I m very comfortable and that s that s a problem, too
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t like feeling uncomfortable.
3
SPEAKER_01
And by changing certain, you know, ways that you do things, it s like, and developing new habits is really hard.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I know that, but I do know that it would be beneficial.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know that every day I walk by a gym that I have at home.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have a home gym.
3
SPEAKER_01
Nice one.
3
SPEAKER_01
A really nice one.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh,
3
SPEAKER_01
Nice one.
3
SPEAKER_01
Expensive one.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
How often do you use it?
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t.
3
SPEAKER_01
I haven t used it in a long time.
3
SPEAKER_01
And that s something that I m like, every time I walk by, I m like.
3
SPEAKER_01
Ah, God, it s still there.
3
SPEAKER_01
I should freaking go live something.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I do feel guilty for not doing it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then what I wind up doing, I wind up eating.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, I m doing the complete opposite.
3
SPEAKER_01
What am I?
3
SPEAKER_01
And now I m laying there, I m full, I feel good, but then I feel guilty and I m like, ugh.
3
SPEAKER_01
So as far as the self love, it feels like love at the moment, but I m hurting myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I know that there s a lot of things that I could be doing.
3
SPEAKER_01
Also,
3
SPEAKER_01
limiting the amount of time that I give to people that don t make me feel good, I think is a tough one.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, back to that.
3
SPEAKER_01
That would improve the self-love.
3
SPEAKER_00
Sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m curious about identity.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, I used to use a lot of words growing up about myself to myself and to others.
3
SPEAKER_00
I would say, I m an idiot, I m stupid, I ll never learn these things, I m not smart.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was in the bottom of my class, bottom of four in my class.
3
SPEAKER_00
They used to grade us or rank us in our classes where I was in school.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I could always see that I was in the bottom four consistently all through middle school and high school.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I was just like, I m never going to be good enough.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m never going to learn like you guys.
3
SPEAKER_00
I would say these words and built an identity about me to self that would limit me and to others that would limit me.
3
SPEAKER_00
How much does the identity you ve built for yourself empower you or hold you back, would you say?
3
SPEAKER_01
I know that, you know, when people see me on the streets, I m fluffy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Hey, fluffy!
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s very rare that I ll get, you know, Gabriel.
3
SPEAKER_01
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
They ll say fluffy, and then they ll be like, who is it?
3
SPEAKER_01
It s Gabriel Iglesias, you know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_01
It s all tied together, but it s so much easier to call somebody by the nickname.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s an easy nickname.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s not like it s a different person, it s just, it s a nickname that s, you know, it s me.
3
SPEAKER_01
But,
3
SPEAKER_01
I am seen a certain way because of the shows and the consistency that oh, you know He s the guy that talks about his son.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s the guy that talks about his friend.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s the guy that so I m limited in the sense that if I was to all of a sudden start talking about politics or become you know start venting and being very Vulgar being you know that you know, I mean there are times
3
SPEAKER_01
when I do wanna vent and I can t on stage because it s not something that goes with what I ve created and it s not gonna be well received by everyone.
3
SPEAKER_01
I might hit a few, there might be some people that will relate to what I m saying but I m gonna ruffle a lot of feathers in the process and so I have to remind myself this is not the place to do that.
3
SPEAKER_01
So because of what I built there I can t,
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, I can t be 100 right here.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is not gonna go well.
3
SPEAKER_01
But what about the identity with Fluffy?
3
SPEAKER_01
The identity with Fluffy?
3
SPEAKER_01
No.
3
SPEAKER_01
Always happy.
3
SPEAKER_01
And that s not always the case.
3
SPEAKER_01
Always happy, always in a good mood.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m not always in a good mood.
3
SPEAKER_01
And every time I go out in public, I m afraid that people are gonna
3
SPEAKER_01
Like I don t wanna meet somebody, run into somebody if I m not having the best of days.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I try not to put myself in environments where I m gonna run into people.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m not one who s gonna be like, no, I don t wanna take a picture.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m not gonna snap on somebody.
3
SPEAKER_01
And photos, it s part of the deal.
3
SPEAKER_01
If I can do it and there s time for it, absolutely, no problem.
3
SPEAKER_01
But there are times when I m dealing with issues, problems, and I m just like, oh, I just want to go to the drive-thru, get something to eat, and just go back home.
3
SPEAKER_01
But, you know, because of the fact that I m seeing a certain way, it s like, you ve got to always be smiling, you ve got to always be happy, you ve got to always be that, and that is hard.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because sometimes you just want to be a normal person.
3
SPEAKER_01
I understand that, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, you re just like, yeah,
3
SPEAKER_01
How s he doing?
3
SPEAKER_00
Don t talk to him right now.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m a big believer that our habits and our identity will shape our lives and our goals and the way we feel about ourselves will naturally take care of themselves based on the consistency of our habits and on the identity that we give ourselves.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I guess I just wanted to ask about
3
SPEAKER_00
the identity of fluffy, you mentioned this, how people call you fluffy.
3
SPEAKER_00
Do you think that supports your success, but holds you back in other ways?
3
SPEAKER_00
Or do you feel like that is an empowering thing for you with your identity and where you wanna be?
3
SPEAKER_01
There are so many more pros than there are cons.
3
SPEAKER_01
The cons are very small.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re very small.
3
SPEAKER_01
No man, let me tell you, when people, when you get recognized,
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, I have other friends that are, you know, other comics, and I know a lot of people that are famous, and I don t know, man.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t want to say that mine is better, but for some reason, when I get recognized, it s, I m not seen like, oh, it s Taylor Swift kind of a thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, the recognition I get from people, the look is almost like,
3
SPEAKER_01
hey man, this guy s like, it s like seeing a family member you haven t seen in a long time.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I feel that from people when I get recognized.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s not, it s very different.
3
SPEAKER_01
I see how other people get recognized and I m like, wow, okay, with me it s a lot different.
3
SPEAKER_01
I get people right away that are like, the glow and the energy is very, it s like, it feels like family.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like a moment, like a real sweet,
3
SPEAKER_01
sweet thing and um i love that it s it s it tells me that what i m doing is making a difference what i m doing because i get a lot of people also that will open up you know hey man i was going through this and i was watching and hey man uh just so you know you i ve heard you ve helped me get through so many times and it s that s an incredible feeling and that s a game changer so when i hear something like that
3
SPEAKER_01
It changes, whatever mood I m in, it corrects it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, you know what, stop thinking like that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Whatever you re dealing with is nothing.
3
SPEAKER_01
This dude is like, you just put things into perspective.
3
SPEAKER_01
So, being fluffy is very much a...
3
SPEAKER_01
It s a good thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
A lot of pros to it, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
A lot of pros.
3
SPEAKER_01
Do I wish I could vent about certain things?
3
SPEAKER_01
Of course I do.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I think that it s part of the deal.
3
SPEAKER_01
You have to sacrifice.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is part of the sacrifice to be where I m at.
3
SPEAKER_00
You mentioned some people will just say, hey, Fluffy on the streets or whatever.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they ll be like, oh, it s Gabriel Iglesias.
3
SPEAKER_00
Who is Fluffy versus who is Gabriel in your mind?
3
SPEAKER_01
They re pretty much like this.
3
SPEAKER_01
But Gabriel does have bad days.
3
SPEAKER_00
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
Bobby can t have bad days.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s not supposed to.
3
SPEAKER_01
And if I do, I try to find a way to push it into the show.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, for example, in my show right now, without giving too much away because I have a new special coming out, one of the things I m talking about is I m talking about things that happened to me that weren t great, weren t fun, weren t awesome.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m starting to incorporate more
3
SPEAKER_01
of you know after so many years and now i m almost i m coming up on 50 pretty soon wow you know there s more things that have happened for example i m talking about the fact that i almost died in a plane crash that made the news wow i m talking about the fact that um they broke into my house you know someone broke into my house and went through my things and just
3
SPEAKER_01
you know, a bad situation.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m talking about that I reunited with my father who I haven t seen in 15 years and how awkward that was.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so there s now moments where I m like, okay, you know, so it s not all like, hey, rainbows and unicorns type of thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s like, okay, you know.
3
SPEAKER_01
So the challenge now is making those situations funny.
3
SPEAKER_01
Near death, how can you make that funny?
3
SPEAKER_01
That s, you know, that s the challenge.
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I am talking more about things that aren t as fun and pleasant.
3
SPEAKER_00
It seems like there s so many people, you mentioned this earlier, about how people think that it s overnight, the success that you ve had, or they might say that, but you ve been doing this for 25 plus years now.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it seems like the younger generation wants this type of success very fast.
3
SPEAKER_00
They want to be able to sell out arenas.
3
SPEAKER_00
They want to be able to have 25 million followers on social media like you overnight.
4
SPEAKER_00
people to walk around the streets and call out their name.
4
SPEAKER_00
What is the dark side to all of this?
4
SPEAKER_00
What s the dark side of being famous and successful, of having these arenas sold out to all these different things that are happening in a good way?
4
SPEAKER_00
What s the challenge for people wanting that?
4
SPEAKER_00
Maybe for the wrong reasons.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think that now, anytime, new comedians definitely don t have patience.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think that one thing that s missing is struggle.
4
SPEAKER_01
Nobody wants to struggle.
4
SPEAKER_01
Nobody wants to take the time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Everybody does want everything right now.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I appreciate the fact that when I first started doing this, there was no social media.
4
SPEAKER_01
The internet was brand new.
4
SPEAKER_01
You didn t even know what to do with it back then.
4
SPEAKER_01
I feel very fortunate that I know that life without it and I know the life with it and I know all the years it took to get to this point.
4
SPEAKER_01
I say, hey, what advice do you have?
4
SPEAKER_01
I said, I wish I could give you advice that would benefit you in these times.
4
SPEAKER_01
I go, but my advice is old advice for, you know, a kid that started in 1997, not someone who s starting right now.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I don t want to sound like, you know,
4
SPEAKER_01
Back in my day this is how you gotta do it and these kids don t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t want to be that guy so I just say have as much fun as you can.
4
SPEAKER_01
I go do you want to do comedy as a hobby?
4
SPEAKER_01
Do you want to do it as a business?
4
SPEAKER_01
What is the reason you want to do this?
4
SPEAKER_01
Is it because you want to be popular?
4
SPEAKER_01
You want people to like you?
4
SPEAKER_01
What is it you want?
4
SPEAKER_01
And I go, if you want to make it a business, then treat it like a business.
4
SPEAKER_01
Respect it like a business.
4
SPEAKER_01
Understand that there s
4
SPEAKER_01
things that need to happen in order for this to work.
4
SPEAKER_01
If you wanna just do it as a hobby, hey, then go to the comedy store on a Sunday night, get in the potluck, sign up, whatever, just go and have fun and do your thing and just enjoy it.
4
SPEAKER_01
It is what it is, and then you re back to work on Monday.
4
SPEAKER_01
And if you wanna be popular, then that s a different thing.
4
SPEAKER_01
You wanna go jump on TikTok?
4
SPEAKER_01
I am pretty savvy with social media, but I also know that there s certain things I don t know
4
SPEAKER_01
And there s people out there now that can sell out clubs and theaters and do shows because of what they did on social media.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it did take much less than my journey, but when they do their show, you can see in the performance that, ah, this is not somebody who s been doing it for a long time.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you might be able to sell that ticket one time, but can you sell it again?
4
SPEAKER_00
Consistency is key.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s different, man.
4
SPEAKER_01
Again, I appreciate the fact that I know the struggle.
4
SPEAKER_01
So because I know the struggle, I respect what I do more.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it wasn t handed to me.
4
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t like, oh, he just jumped in.
4
SPEAKER_01
This took a long time.
4
SPEAKER_01
You weren t an industry plant?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, no.
4
SPEAKER_01
I know, right?
4
SPEAKER_01
I m glad I m on Cat Williams  good side.
4
SPEAKER_01
We re friends.
4
SPEAKER_01
We re cool.
4
SPEAKER_00
We re cool.
4
SPEAKER_00
If you could go back, I guess, 25, 30 years ago before you started to take off, before this journey really began for you,
4
SPEAKER_00
What three pieces of advice would you give that younger version of you, right before you re about to take off, on the business of comedy, on your personal life, on everything?
4
SPEAKER_00
What three things would you say to your younger self?
4
SPEAKER_01
It s funny because I ve had this thought a million times, and as much as I would love to tell the younger version of me, hey, don t eat all of it, all right?
4
SPEAKER_01
Hey, you know what?
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, don t, don t trust everyone.
4
SPEAKER_01
Um, you know, and, and, and don t date her.
4
SPEAKER_01
Uh, I can t because everything that has happened, uh, from day one, it all has to happen in order for me to be here right now.
4
SPEAKER_01
Any little change would send me in a completely different direction.
4
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, that s me watching back to the future way too many times.
4
SPEAKER_01
Um, now.
4
SPEAKER_01
Things that I do wish I would have done, not advice as far as career, but things I wish I would have done more of.
4
SPEAKER_01
Back then, I wish I would have spent more time with my mom.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish I would have asked her for more life advice and just had more conversations about things.
4
SPEAKER_01
But back then, when I was a kid, I thought I knew everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so as an adult, I m like, man, I didn t know shit.
4
SPEAKER_01
And again, because I miss her so much, I just wish I would have spent more time with her.
4
SPEAKER_01
My siblings got to have my mom way
4
SPEAKER_01
longer than me and uh so it was one of those that s that s definitely one thing um i had a lot of fun i had a lot of fun uh early on in my career and i um
4
SPEAKER_01
I learned the business, you know, trial and error, you know, whether it s with management or with, you know, uh, you know, doing this show versus doing that show.
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Um, you know, how you got booked, well, things you decided to do things I decided not to do.
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Um, so I, I mean, yeah, there s, there s a lot of, a lot, a lot, I want to, I want to say that I, I, I, I,
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could have made better decisions, but again, things worked out pretty good.
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I do wish I could get some of that time back from those people, but I do think also I appreciate and I respect the amount of pain I was put through because I am enjoying the peace I have right now.
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I feel really good right now, like my head is so clear and it just, it feels good.
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You made a reference of Back to the Future, and I m going to try to connect the dots here for what I was thinking.
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The space-time continuum!
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I ve had a number of different, I guess, inner painful challenges in my life, especially in my 20s and 30s from previous relationships I was in that were not in the right alignment.
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Nothing wrong with them.
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I choose poorly and I stayed in those things too long, right?
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And I remember just feeling a lot of pain and sadness when I was in those relationships and the aftermath of the breakup and the pain and sadness there, all that different stuff.
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And I remember I was going through a breakup one time about, I don t know, five years ago, and I was feeling one of those painful moments, and I had a guest on who I was telling him about what I was going through.
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And he told me a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul.
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And he said, think about all the past experiences you ve had where you ve had pain.
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And maybe you wouldn t wish that anyone would go through them and you didn t wish you had to go through them, but you also know you wouldn t take those things back because of what you learned through them.
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You just mentioned this, right?
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The lesson that they gave you, peace, you have clarity now.
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It s like feeling that misery.
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Now you can have peace because you know what that felt like.
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And so I started to travel in time in the future since that moment about five years ago when I ve gone through challenging moments to think, how is this happening in my benefit for my future self?
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How is this painful moment, this season of life going to benefit me in the future?
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And that s really helped me navigate these kind of painful moments easier, knowing that everything in the past that I ve been through, although it was hard and I didn t like it,
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I m using it for my benefit now today.
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And it makes these other moments of beauty that much more beautiful.
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So it sounds like you ve been doing that also.
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Oh, yeah.
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Which is really cool to see.
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If you could go into the future and see yourself 30, 40 years in the future.
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What advice would you give yourself now, if you are in that future, 30, 40 years ahead, and you re reflecting back on everything you ve created now, and you can speak to your current self, what would you say?
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Stop drinking.
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Start eating better, start working out, and start enjoying the fruits of your labor.
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Stop saving all that money for who?
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Start enjoying life, start taking some breaks, start taking some trips, start having some fun.
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What s it gonna take for you to do those things?
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Like what s it actually gonna take for you to do that though and not just...
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know another year go by yeah well yeah i should start doing more of these things that my future self is telling me what what do you think it s going to take what s it going to take i i don t know what it s going to take but i m saying it out loud and that s not something i ve done before really you know i ve not said this out loud back to back to back so you know consider if it does happen then consider this the first step the saying
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it out loud.
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That s great.
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Because I ve acknowledged publicly this is the issue.
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That s great man.
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I want to see you follow through on all of what your future self tells you to do.
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I think that would be inspiring to watch.
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I got a few final questions for you.
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This has been really really inspiring Gabriel.
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I appreciate it.
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How can people best support and serve you?
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You give so much to the world, you give so much to your team, to your friends, to your community.
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How can people best support and serve you?
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If they like what I do and I bring joy to their lives.
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Tell somebody, let people know, hey, I m only doing this because people still come to the shows.
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If people stop coming, then I stop doing this.
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So as long as people come out to the shows, that s gonna keep me going.
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I got to a place where, you wanna talk about not feeling good, not feeling positive about what I was doing.
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I talked about retiring.
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I talked about retiring because I wasn t sure that this was giving me what I needed.
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I wasn t feeling good.
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And it wasn t the stage that was hurting me.
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It was how I was feeling in just my everyday life.
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And I felt like a lot of it was coming from that.
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And it wasn t.
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It was just me not dealing with certain issues in my life.
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And I m like, you know,
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What am I doing this for?
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I m still on the road.
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It s been so many years.
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And I was reminded by my publicist yesterday.
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He goes, you know what?
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You kind of brought up the retirement thing a couple of times.
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I go, yeah, you re right.
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I did.
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I did.
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I did.
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I said that.
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Because at this point, I m like, what am I supposed to do?
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But I think that I m clearly missing the fact that I do have more of an impact than I thought I did.
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on people s lives and it helps more than it hurts and I should continue to do this as long as I can.
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And so the best way people could support me, just keep coming out.
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But your prices are too expensive.
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Everybody else got more expensive tickets.
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Look online.
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Look online.
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So you mentioned you wanted to retire multiple times.
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Was that a season of life?
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Yeah, well, especially right after Dodger Stadium, because that put me in a different place mentally.
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Because it s not every day you can say that you saw your peak.
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And it s hard to argue that one, because it s like, OK, this is the biggest show that s ever happened on the West Coast that I know of.
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I don t know of any other show that s been that big for comedy.
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How many people were there?
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Almost 50,000.
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Holy cow.
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Yeah.
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So how do you set a new goal?
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Interesting.
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You know what I mean?
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It s like, OK, what am I supposed to do now?
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You re on the other side of that.
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You know, you freaking jump, jump the shark, man.
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You re, you re, you know, so like in a perfect world, like if it was a movie, I looked at it like a movie, like the best way would be to, to finish that night.
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And thank you.
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Here s the end of the career.
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Wow.
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You know, and it was literally, I want to say.
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like three weeks after my 25th anniversary of being a comic.
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So I like numbers like that.
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Oh, after 25 years, like this is how biggest show ever done, but I still love it.
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But at the same time, again, you know,
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dealing, having certain situations in life and then trying to do this.
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That night, everything just fell into place.
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It felt so good.
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Best night of my life.
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Hands down.
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Best night of my life.
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But then the next day it s like, all right, now we re back to reality.
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Really?
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Did you kind of have like a hangover, emotional hangover?
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I had an emotional and a physical one because I drank on stage that night.
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So I killed a bottle in front of, and what I thought was really cool was that everybody, well I didn t see anybody leave, but it felt like even after my show was over, I stayed on stage and I just started telling random stories.
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I brought my friends out on stage and we re drinking and they re playing music.
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We had them playing Vicente Fernandez over and over and we re taking shots and just drinking.
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Oh god, I want to say that it was almost $200,000 for the fine for going over.
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Yeah, when you rent out a stadium, you got to be out.
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Yeah, you got it.
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There s a cutoff time.
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We went way past that.
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And so yeah, I got fined.
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Best fine I ve ever paid.
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Yeah, well, you re willing to pay it.
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Again, it s not every day you can say that this was hands down, no question, best night of my life.
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But then, all right, now what?
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If you were to take a year off, let s say, not completely off, but maybe you pulled back on touring, maybe you weren t doing a special, maybe, and I don t think anyone on your team wants me to even say this, but if you were just to pull back,
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What would you do with your time to take care of you?
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That s an easy one.
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COVID.
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COVID kept me home for a year.
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And in that time that I was home for a year,
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Started eating better.
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I didn t drink as much really I probably didn t drink at all and I started working out So I probably lost 70 pounds that year.
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Come on.
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Yeah.
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Well because I was able to be consistent I wasn t on the road.
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So I was home.
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I was able to get into a routine, you know, my friend personal trainer We were hanging out all the time.
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So we just like we would hang out and work out walking working out Yeah, so it was just you know that whole year I dropped out
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I dropped 70 pounds.
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Wow.
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Wow.
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And then as soon as we went back to work, I gained back about 40 of that.
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So fortunately, I still kept a little bit of that, you know, progress off.
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But yeah, I m not where I was in 2020.
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2020, when everybody was kind of, yeah, getting sick, I actually got better.
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Interesting.
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So if I was to take a year off, and that s another reason too, if I keep grinding it out there, all I m doing on the road is making bad decisions.
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I m drinking, I m eating, I m not sleeping the way I should, it s taxing.
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You know, it s go, go, go, travel, travel, travel.
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You re just, it s, you re all over the place and I m not doing myself any good.
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And so that s another reason where I was like, oh, this isn t, you know, I should probably go away from this.
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And so that was one of the things about the retirement and then everything else that was happening.
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Yeah.
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I mean.
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I mean, I m not saying you retire because you bring so much joy to the world, but you could do stuff at home.
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You could work at home.
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You could do TV shows.
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You could do other things with a routine in your bed, in your space, with the right support around you, and still work, maybe just a little less.
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Oh, I know I could.
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And it s so much easier to make excuses.
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And the problem I have is I m really, really good at making excuses.
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Oh, I have to go do this tour, or they need me, or... Oh, I wish I could, but, you know... Yeah.
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And the problem is that I believe my own excuses.
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You know?
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And that s a tough one, man.
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I know that half the time I m full of... Like, come on, man.
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Really?
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You know?
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I mean, I know we just met each other, and I know we re having, you know, this type of conversation here, but how could I support you in stopping the excuses for yourself?
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Oh, well, again, having the conversation.
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I don t have these conversations.
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People in my circle aren t gonna pull me aside and go, you know, you really should stop eating so much and drinking so much and, you know, it wouldn t kill you to lift a freaking weight.
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You know, you wanna go for a walk?
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It is an uncomfortable conversation because I m I m being very vulnerable about the fact that this is a problem I have that I haven t addressed and I don t I can make a million I can make a million excuses, but in reality, it s it s just it s just me Yeah, you know, yeah, so the best way to support me is the fact that we re having a conversation Yeah, and I m not trying to you know, get you upset at me if we just met each other My thing is from an outside perspective I see
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I see the talent that you have, I see the success you have, I see the career you ve made that what people would dream of having, right?
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Other comics are like, look at you as this, the career is like a dream career, right?
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But I think about your 80-year-old self and what he wants for you.
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That s what I think about, is what does your 80-year-old you want for you at 80, at 50, at 60, at 70, you know?
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He wants you happy, he wants you healthy, and he wants you feeling good.
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That s what I think from an outside perspective.
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So I have this conversation with you because I want to see you continue to bring joy to so many people in the world for a long time.
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And I want to see you bring joy to yourself for a long time.
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So that s why I have the uncomfortable conversation with you, risking you getting frustrated at me.
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But I want to see how I can support.
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So I m going to follow up with you afterwards, man, and see how I can support you.
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Eliminate these excuses, because it s not easy.
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I have excuses for myself with different things as well that I need coaching.
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I need accountability.
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I need to, you know.
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Oh, yeah.
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Those are tough words.
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I hadn t learned a lot of those words in therapy.
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Accountability.
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Oh, man.
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Yeah, that s a big one right there.
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Oh, man.
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And no one wants to be responsible.
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I m accountable.
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That s a tough one, right?
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It s not especially when you ve created so much for yours.
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You work so hard You weren t your bushing your butt for so long And you want to enjoy some of it too.
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So I get it.
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I get it man I ll stop with the uncomfortable conversations.
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I wanted to ask you a question.
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This is what I ask everyone at the end of our conversations This is called the three truths the three truths three truths.
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So it s a hypothetical scenario
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But I do want you to think about you going to the very end of your life.
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And you get to live as long as you want.
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Live as long as you want, but eventually it s the last day for you.
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And you get to create, accomplish, experience all the things you want for the rest of your life from this moment until then.
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Friends, love, success, whatever it might be, you create it.
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But for whatever reason, on this final day, you have to take all of your work with you.
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This interview is gone.
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All your specials, everything you create from here moving forward, we don t have access to it in this world anymore.
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And you ve got to take it with you somewhere.
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But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true.
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And this is all we would have to remember you by.
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These three truths, or your top three lessons.
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What would you say would be those three truths for you?
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The three things to leave behind.
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But you said, you just said right now that... Three truths.
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Three truths.
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Three truths as far as just... Your life lessons.
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This is all you d want people to have access to, are these three things, because everything would be taken with you.
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All your content, jokes, this interview, anything you created.
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But if I get to leave three things behind, couldn t I leave behind my content?
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If you wanted to.
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I mean, three lessons that you could share, that s it.
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Are you less hypothetical scenario?
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Definitely.
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Uh, the one about struggle, you know, uh, cause I don t think that you can t appreciate things until you know what it s like to have to work for them, to earn them, to, to have to, to get some sweat on your brow, to get some dirt under your fingernails.
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Um, so.
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Respecting and understanding struggle.
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I don t think that there s enough of that.
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You know?
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That s definitely one.
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Because to appreciate something, you have to know what it s like to not have it and what it takes to get to that.
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You know?
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And that s why, you know, when people have certain things handed to them, it s like, oh, man, you re not.
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It s cool.
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What do you mean it s cool?
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It s like, oh, my God.
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So.
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That s number one.
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OK.
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One.
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Two.
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I guess patience.
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You know, nothing comes quick in life that s worth anything.
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This is a tough one because I want to just say, I want people to remember the content because I feel like, you know, so three truths, patience and
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I don t know, that s a good one.
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What have people said in the past?
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Just so I have an idea of the... I mean, mine have shifted over time, but currently they would be to live in gratitude.
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Okay.
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Because I feel like when we live in gratitude, it s hard to be angry, resentful, frustrated, resent, you know.
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pissed off is all these other different challenging things that we might have.
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And when we live in gratitude, we can appreciate the things we do have as opposed to the things we re lacking.
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The second one for me would be to honor your health, because that s spiritual, physical, emotional health.
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Because when we don t honor it, it s going to cause more pain on us, and it s going to create more sadness and suffering.
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We could be completely physically fit, but mentally,
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in a horrible place with ourselves and still be suffering, but look fit, but emotionally, mentally, or spiritually lacking.
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So we ve got to focus on all those aspects of health.
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The third truth for me would be to live in service, something I think you do really well.
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You get up on stage and you serve people with your talents and your gifts.
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And when we learn what our talents and gifts are by developing them, by trying things, by trying to master them and then using them in the service of helping others in whatever way that is, I feel like that s a great life.
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So living in gratitude, really protecting and honoring our health and living in service would be my three truths.
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That s pretty awesome.
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I don t know, I feel like a d*** for saying, you know, leave behind my DVD collection.
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He ll go watch my collection.
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No, but I think your first two, your first two about, you know, kind of honoring the struggle, not having everything handed to you.
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Living with patience, all great things come in times of patience.
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What would you say would be the third one that speaks to you?
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And I wish I could do this myself.
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Don t overthink, it s not worth it.
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You know, but I m guilty of it myself.
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So it s a kind of a hypocritical one.
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We all say the last thing we usually need the most, you know, and hopefully we can learn that on our journey.
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So I think you ll be able to get there.
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Gabriel, I m really grateful for you.
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Again, I want to acknowledge you for the consistency you ve done in your life to serve people with your talent and your gifts, to bring joy, humor.
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You bring families together.
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You bring people together.
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You allow people to
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Relax, reflect, release, you know, have fun and be themselves.
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You are able to share your life story so people can relate and know that they re not alone.
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So I really want to acknowledge you for the talent, the gifts that you ve had.
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Thank you for the last 25 plus years and I m sure for many more years to come.
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And I have two final questions really quickly, because I have a hard out, and I think your team is probably telling me I ve got to wrap this up.
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What is the thing that you are most proud of that most people don t know about you?
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Maybe that s not really out there publicly, or things that they don t see.
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What s the thing you re most proud of that most people don t know about?
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I have given two little dogs an incredible life.
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And I ve gone to the ends of the earth to try to make these two little dogs the happiest dogs.
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I really love my dogs.
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I ve done, I ve worked really hard to make it so that I can take them, have them around me at all times because they bring me so much joy.
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And so I, I m a big, you know, I love, I love dogs.
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Um, and, um, I feel good for all the time.
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I don t ever regret any time that I ve spent with them or just, you know, whatever it is to, to try to make them happy.
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And.
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I love doing things for them.
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That s beautiful.
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And my pets, you know, my babies.
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That s cool, man.
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Yeah.
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And so I enjoy, yeah, I enjoy the fact that I do that and people find out, oh, you got your, and I m, I m one of those at the airport.
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Hey, look, this is my dog.
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Show me your dog.
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You know, loving, loving animals, loving, you know, it s one of those things where it s, it s,
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you know, dogs don t care what s in the bank.
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They don t care what you drive.
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They don t care what you do.
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You know, they just care that you love them, that you, you know, you re around them.
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And that s, that s so pure.
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It s just like, man, look, you just, you know, so I love that.
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I love that.
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That s beautiful.
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Final question for you, Gabrielle, what s your definition of greatness?
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Ooh.
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I guess it all depends on what we re describing.
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Is it the greatest table, the greatest coffee mug, the greatest singer, dancer, songwriter?
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The definition of greatness is when it far surpasses the expectation.
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Something that just is like, are you kidding me?
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You know, so we re like the greatest coffee mug, like, oh, so you touch it, it plays music, lights come out of it, it pours itself, you know what I mean?
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Like, this is the greatest coffee, you know?
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Everything could be like, because I just expect this to hold whatever liquid is in it and the handle to work.
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But if there s, you know, whatever it is, is more, way more than what you hoped for, that I think is what greatness is.
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So whether it s,
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You just hope that this person was decent.
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And then you found out not only are they a decent person, man, but this person just goes above and beyond to try to make others happy.
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They give their time.
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They donate.
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They help.
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You know what I mean?
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It s like there s expectations, and then there s things that supersede that.
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And that s, I think, what greatness is.
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You re real.
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Thanks for coming on, man.
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Appreciate you.
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Thank you.
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I hope you enjoyed today s episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the
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description for a full rundown of today s episode with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts, share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts as well.
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Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.
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I really love hearing feedback from you.
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And it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.
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And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.