What happens when comedy collides with therapy? You get an uproarious, soul-searching conversation with our special guest, Dr. Holly, a comedian, author, actor, and licensed therapist. As we enter her world, we challenge the status quo of comedy, shedding light on the controversial term "chasing ambulances" and discussing the importance of creativity when writing about current events. Buckle up, folks, because this episode is a rollercoaster of laughter and revelations.
Comedy isn't all sunshine and roses; it comes with its fair share of thorns. Dr. Holly fills us in on the rocky road of challenges that comedians have to navigate. From audiences quick to take offense, to the struggle of staying relevant and true to oneself, we dig deep into the comedy industry. But fear not! Our guest also highlights the power of a small circle of supportive people, an essential element in the survival kit of every comedian.
Ready for some insider tips on making it big in comedy? Dr. Holly shares the secret sauce: putting in the reps. From her grandmother's open grills inspiring her to her journey of getting her own grill from a licensed orthodontist in Atlanta, Dr. Holly leaves no stone unturned. We examine the contrasts between comedy scenes in New York and Philadelphia, and how geography can influence a comic's success. They say laughter is the best medicine, and by the end of this episode, we promise you'll be thoroughly 'medicated' and inspired.
What happens when comedy collides with therapy? You get an uproarious, soul-searching conversation with our special guest, Dr. Holly, a comedian, author, actor, and licensed therapist. As we enter her world, we challenge the status quo of comedy, shedding light on the controversial term "chasing ambulances" and discussing the importance of creativity when writing about current events. Buckle up, folks, because this episode is a rollercoaster of laughter and revelations.
Comedy isn't all sunshine and roses; it comes with its fair share of thorns. Dr. Holly fills us in on the rocky road of challenges that comedians have to navigate. From audiences quick to take offense, to the struggle of staying relevant and true to oneself, we dig deep into the comedy industry. But fear not! Our guest also highlights the power of a small circle of supportive people, an essential element in the survival kit of every comedian.
Ready for some insider tips on making it big in comedy? Dr. Holly shares the secret sauce: putting in the reps. From her grandmother's open grills inspiring her to her journey of getting her own grill from a licensed orthodontist in Atlanta, Dr. Holly leaves no stone unturned. We examine the contrasts between comedy scenes in New York and Philadelphia, and how geography can influence a comic's success. They say laughter is the best medicine, and by the end of this episode, we promise you'll be thoroughly 'medicated' and inspired.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of no ID podcast. It is me, your host, rome Davis. I have here comedian author, actor, creative licensed therapist the one from Philly, I'm guessing right?
Speaker 2:I live in Philly, but yeah, I'm based out of. Philly.
Speaker 1:Based out of Philly. I'm sorry, the great Dr Holly.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Rome. Thanks for having me. Where are you? You're on the East Coast, right.
Speaker 1:I'm in Virginia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought so. I thought so. I was going to say DC, but I was like I know it was somewhere down in that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm good, I'm good, good busy, good busy, good busy. But I'm good. How are you? I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm, I'm good, okay, Busy, but good, we good, okay. So, for one, the intro that I gave for the people that's watching and listening out there she really is a licensed therapist, slash comedian and I'm trying to fit which actually coincides with each other If you really think about it, because it's a lot of us that need therapy. They do stand up. Some of us go on stage just to get our therapy session in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:How did you know what came first there? He or a comedy.
Speaker 2:Um, that's a good question, cause I think they've always been interwoven. Uh, as of late, I uh have been a therapist for the last six or so years, um, and it wasn't even a pandemic. It's just that I'm I don't have a real hobby like most normal people and yeah, I'm saying normal, most normal people like go to the gym, they crochet, they knit, uh, you know, they play instrument, like they have actual hobbies, and I don't do none of that shit. Oh my God, I hate the gym, I can't play, I can't play an instrument, I don't sing, um, and simple comedy has me come uh a hobby for me. I do get paid from the hobby, so that's even um greater. But, yeah, you know, as a kid, people tell you like, oh my gosh, you're such a great listener. People always come to you and tell you they bullshit. So that's always been my story.
Speaker 2:And then, um, I've been a creative writer, I would probably say since the fourth grade. We're like short stories, composed music, always been into arts. But, um, and I talk about this a lot, and my grandmother from the South, she was like no, you are going to go to HBCU and you're going to study journalism and you're going to become Oprah, the news anchor version, and I was just like, okay, you can't sell big mama, no. So, um, I did that and after graduating I was like I am not doing journalism. Um, at that time things had shifted from print to like the internet and it was everybody was scrambling and I remember a lot of magazines closing down and everybody was trying to figure out how we can put stuff online. I was just like I'm not doing all that, so I didn't. But, uh, a lot of what I learned uh has definitely come into play this many years later.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so how long have you been doing comedy?
Speaker 2:Believe it or not. Uh, what is this? A August um a year and four months.
Speaker 1:So you started like prior lock in the end of the lockdown somewhat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, Pretty much. Um, I started out taking comedy classes at um helium nightclub here. Um, shout out to Chip Chantry, he's my favorite, uh, first teacher, rather my favorite first teacher of comedy. And um, I've been going every since, you know, doing it from Canada all the way down to Tampa. Uh, and it has been. It has been a journey, it's been really nice and, even though it's not therapy back to your point it has been very therapeutic for me. You know what I mean, Um, cause I'm the type of comic that talks a lot about just shit that I go through.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think other comics do it too, but sometimes you have comics that um do a lot of commentary on, like current events, and I'm I'm not that type of comic per se.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't do the trending. If you do trending, you probably got like a good week of material, because if you try, like I did, the uh, the Alabama thing- Okay, right. Two weeks of that material. Can't do it, no more. No, you're right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So having a journalism background, um, I really don't chase ambulances. That's the term for people who are like, you know, for your listeners, you don't know. It's like people who are hopping on the first thing, that's like hot in the news, and then they just go from there. So that's not my take. Um, and I was just sharing last night with a whole bunch of comedians like you're right, you can only do it for so many days or some weeks, and then it just gets like oh right, cause I have. I have one joke about the pandemic and it's like I think you have to shelf it because we're not actively in a pandemic. So it's like the kind of talk about it. If you do, which you can, you just have to be creative on how you could read work a joke that's no longer, you know, current in the news. That's big facts because the trending is not going to last that long?
Speaker 1:No, not at all.
Speaker 2:So how do you stay relevant as a comedian, like, what do you do? You write about your life.
Speaker 1:Yes, you write about a theory or something that's happened. Sometimes I'll quote unquote break the fourth wall. Um, where I have a joke I actually posted on my Instagram. I was like you know what's it? People ask us all the time what's the difference between working the black and the white room? And I was like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. And I was like, yo, black rooms don't laugh at all. They pay attention to everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we talk about this once a week in my comedy circles, and last night was one of those nights. And, um, because I went to a comedy showcase Shout out to Che and his comedy showcase class and he basically had a cohort of students, you know, doing comedy, uh, graduating from the class and they were amazing. And you know, one comic was like, hey, what open mic should I go to? What do you recommend? And I stayed in.
Speaker 2:I'm like, listen, I could recommend open mic, but based on who you are as a comic, that's what you should go off of, because one room may totally fit who you are as a comic. In another room, it may, it just may not. And he was like, really. I was like, yeah, and I was like, to be honest, you have all white rooms, you have all black rooms and then you have the mixed rooms. So, depending on what type of comedy you do, you got to figure out where you fall in that I think even with all black rooms, they're still not monolithic either, like I've been in all black rooms and some of them are so lowbrow.
Speaker 2:My jokes just go here. I don't take it personal, I just know that that's not my audience, right? And then there are some spaces like I've done clubs, um in DC, right, and so I can talk to those folks because again they're, you know, um not lowbrow, I'll just put it nicely like that. And so again you got to. You got to figure out again who you are as a comic, your style, and then that find their room, or just being their room, because sometimes comics will take it personal when people don't laugh. I personally don't, because no, two rooms are like I don't take it personal, I think I'm funny and there's just that. So you laugh, you laugh, you don't, you don't, but I never take it personal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I suppose to, like my mentor, shout out to James Cooper.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:He told me that sometimes, when rooms are quiet, it's because they have to think about the joke that they saying. And like, like he was saying about your, your, your comedy circle, about what rooms you want to go to. I had to learn about universal jokes. So, yes, woo, because this is a room that I had Did. I was like, yeah, my car declined and did it. I said something about money and finances and they did not understand me because I was like I didn't read wrong that way, because in that neighborhood no house is underneath $750,000. Everybody is making a quarter of a middle of more doing something. So I was like, ah, you got to work about different things, but like that's just a that's a lesson, but it's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they could be quiet processing a joke or just drunk as shit. Right, yeah, because you got those rooms and then you got the rooms where you know the hecklers. I've only been heckled once since I've been doing this and I don't have a problem with hecklers, I think, because I do improv and improv requires you to think really quickly on your feet. So when I got heckled down in Tampa shout out to Tampa improv I was like hitting it, like soon as they said something, I was like boom, and then once I shut him down, I hit. I got hit like two more times and I just kept going.
Speaker 2:And I enjoy having developed that skill for improv, because I've seen comics who have gotten heckled and that just ended their set or their night and I'm like, yeah, yeah, improv has allowed me to develop those like cat reflexes. So if you say a word, I'm quick on it. You know you heckled me and I don't engage too much. I don't do a lot of crowd work. I don't know if you do, I think that's. You know treading water, so you got to be careful with that too, you do.
Speaker 2:Woo.
Speaker 1:You do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But for a crowd work. It was a secret to my crowd work.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I will ask Before I started doing it. I'll tell him before I even get on the mic. I will ask like I've done. I had a, I did a open mic Friday and I know the owner said, bro, you know I wrote some new stuff About you, know you, and did it is. And he was. I said, is there anything off limits? He'll give me like one thing, as long as let me just rock out. So that's, that's, that's the secret. Like, yeah, even if you write about your family or somebody's, like look, I'm a comedian, you know, apologize, I may buy you a drink after the show, but look, let me just, you know you know, say something about you, say something to you. If they cool with it, they cool with it. If they not, I leave Malone. But like, yeah, if you joke on the owner of a bar or establishment or club, you need to ask Permission first.
Speaker 2:Get on the stage ask Okay, okay, I can dig that, I can dig that. On the flip side of that, I think there are some people who Are easily offended or just find something to be offended about. Hmm, because I just I don't, you know, I don't know how old you are, but just growing up, comedy was just a safe space when nothing was, you know, off limits and people joke about eating everything and it was tasteful. It was never. It was never tacky.
Speaker 2:I, you know, a lot of people Was up in arms about Dave Chappelle and the LGBTQIA community. A lot of people were just up in arms about so much stuff just in the last 10 years, right, and unfortunately, I it's sad that you have a, a form of art that is supposed to embody freedom of expression, and Every time it just seems like somebody's getting canceled or somebody's offended or, and it's like these are jokes. You know, I don't the jokes that I make fun of, or if they're not about me, but other people like I don't know you personally, somehow another. The joke is the part of my life, my everyday being right, and so I'm joking about that shit. But people will find a way to get fitted about your life and your experience. They were like wow. So yeah, I do believe in if you are going to talk about some biting room, definitely, except for mission. But on the flip side of that you have people that are, just like you know, up in arms to just about the simplest shit.
Speaker 1:I'm like yo, these are jokes too right, but we'll sit home and watch a murder mystery on Netflix like it ain't nobody business, all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do some other outlandish shit. I won't go there, but just do some other. It's like people are like fake offended. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like you. You pick and choose what to be offended about. But I guess that's life too. Like some shit is offensive to some folks and some shit is not. Like you'll go out and go murder somebody or rape somebody, but then you can't handle a joke About a woman's cycle. Okay no.
Speaker 1:no cycle means to me I Got another month of no child support.
Speaker 2:That's that'd be.
Speaker 1:I know that's right.
Speaker 2:I know that's right. Oh, I know that's right because I have two children and I'm like, oh, they're so close to just that age, we're almost free. So yeah I, I woke up, a psycho. But, it's just weird, like people are just into all types of different shit, but you know some jokes, or when people say shit, like Corey Hulcombe does a lot of abortion jokes and people you know be like offending about that, but it's like what you? You'll go and listen to Suki talk about eating a man's ass. Like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:It's like yeah, that's my point. That's my point exactly. And a lot of people are mad about Chris Rock with the title and how he came out and somebody said what will Smith? And it was late. This is the net. Like, how you gonna tell people when the process shit, how you gonna tell people that is too late? You, you should have did this. You like people are just corny and weird nowadays and I think I just picked some one of the worst time to be a comedian. But I'm up for the challenge, you know. I mean, like it is what it is, because people are just gonna always not all, but Most people are gonna gonna find some shit to just be offended about. Wow, having their own skeletons and some weird shit going on, and you're like, you're offended about that. Really, okay.
Speaker 1:Sad bar somebody's fine ass mama.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shout out, it's a local black boutique here in a Philly. I have been trying to get through her boutique literally for like over a year and I'm so mad I can't remember her name. But I went in and she's always changing, like our clothes, and I found this t-shirt and I was like, oh, this is applicable, so yeah, to the people out there in the crowd to is like me.
Speaker 1:I'm a sliding dr Holly's DM's. I want you to look at the aesthetic behind her. I also want you to look at that left hand on her. You better come correct before you slide in those DM's. Um, now you say you went to helium comedy school.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, I did helium comedy school and then, after I did that, I did a Philadelphia comedy college. Shout out to keep from the block. And to Ray. To. Ray is a famous Philly comedian. Yeah, he's on Netflix right now with Samores, all of the Queens men. So shout out to to Ray, he is my comedy mentor.
Speaker 2:After I did that, I went up to New York and did comedy seller. They have classes there too. I believe in investing in my craft and within myself. So my two classes there at the same time doing improv classes, improv classes here in Philly, sketch writing in New York. I'm actively doing right now and trying to transition into Um more of that, and if I'm not in a class, I'm producing shows.
Speaker 2:So me and my creative partner, shout out to Kudo, we. We throw comedy shows here and we also produced what we call the laugh hour variety show. So it consists of sketches that we both wrote or other black women wrote. We act them out. We also do Improv with the audience and we also do stand-up in our variety show. So it's a, it's a riot, it's the time to be at. We um have done it and continue to do it in Brooklyn and Manhattan. So if you're in New York, look for us. So I'm pretty busy in the arena. I love doing stand-up. However, it's not the end goal, but it is the end roll, yeah. So I just keep doing it. You know, to stay creative, stay active, but writing, producing is definitely my jam.
Speaker 1:Stand-up is my jam Jam. Okay, hi cats, I'm gonna reason. I have this podcast cuz I bombed at a show so bad, so bad. They turn the lights off for me and cut the mic off cuz I bomb. And I went to comedy school too, but I don't have a have one minute. So my comedy school teacher, we ain't gonna talk about that.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Talk to me about the bombing part, though. What made you? What make you describe it as bomb or say that you bombed?
Speaker 1:So, for I was going to this mic, it's at a bar and it's a church crowd at a bar, so that's what we were talking about earlier Whoa.
Speaker 1:Earlier right. And for three weeks this lady said you know, you had a bar, there's no stage, you sit in, you're in a corner and you literally sit inside the customers. She's just sitting there. For first week she's joking on me. I didn't even get a joke out. She said you'll never make it in common. Third week, says some, I said you know what, fuck it. Fourth week, says some I litter up.
Speaker 1:I was already bombing cuz my jokes just wasn't hitting and I was just irritated. I took offense to it and I was like yo, your legs is built like two rolled up sleeping bags or something. I see it. I was like, oh, and they literally cut the mic off. And they cut, they put the music on and cut the lights off. They're like yo, you got the, so I end up leaving. I never went back to that mic after that, but the mic is gone now. So the. That same Thursday, because I take an improv class in Norfolk, I came and talked to one of the teachers there, marlon. I was like, yo, this, what happened? He said good, they shouldn't turn the lights off. Funny, she was asking for it. Now your jokes. We do need to work on your jokes a little bit more, but you did a good job at like Lighting her up.
Speaker 2:So that was my thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nah. But Virginia, I know how it is in Philly, but that outrage thing is real. Like you, most of the stuff here I Say it I don't care cuz I ain't you know is you got gatekeepers, politics, you have drama, and then, as far as like going to the crowds, some of these rooms they want to be clean comics or Christian comics, and Somebody has told me this numerous time you can't bring church into hell and that's what comedy is. It's hell. You know, you don't, you can't do that stuff. And that was a clean room that I roasted her at. That was a Christian room at a bar at that.
Speaker 2:So they oh Sunday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is hell in there and Virginia's like you, like you have a comedy circle. We don't have that here. It's like I'm a one-man Person, literally all you don't connect with other comics when you connect with other comics, you can.
Speaker 1:But there's other comedians and I hate to say it, black comedians that would tear you down and make up shit behind your back, like man. He was stealing my jokes. Or my famous thing I heard when I was watching 85 South show Bruce Bruce, not Bruce Bruce, it was money bag mafia. Look, yeah, money bag mafia. He was on 85 South show and Carlos Miller literally said if you are funny, they will not fuck with you. You know then, like I went to Connecticut for last comic standing at the Mohegan son, I posted up a 45 second clip of me back there. Dms blow up. Oh, how did you get there? Where did you win it? Oh, you know, I got out there by myself. I opened up for DL Hughley back in December. This man did crowd work. I told him I was a comedian. He asked me to come on to the next show. That's how I got up there. How did you get out there with the? I'm like yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't see DL shout out the Dara.
Speaker 1:Shout out to DL fucking Hughley.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's amazing, he's amazing, he's amazing. He gave me some of the best advice. It was, it was simple, but it was some of the best advice.
Speaker 1:It was just as a comedian be yourself.
Speaker 2:How'd you know? He told you that too.
Speaker 1:That, but I also saw your Instagram. I did my research.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, yeah, I was just like, oh, my god, and I was just like, coming from like a six-hour flight, I'm like, damn, you would have thought it would have been heavier than that, but it was just like no, that was it. And to this day I still chew and marinate on that because a lot of times Comedians or I'll just say people that I see online Do what other comedians do with the reels, right, or just with their comedy, and they don't separate themselves as their own voice or comic and you kind of get lost in the sauce like that and it's like, well, who are you as a comic? And by him saying that, it's just like I'm gonna be true to who I am. I know my audience, I'm, my comedy is smart. Because I'm smart, it is sassy and it's politically incorrect, right, um? And I just stick to being me and I'm not again chasing ambulances or doing what everybody's doing on Instagram. And so when I hear his words often it's like I feel good about that. I. It makes me feel Authentic to who I am as a comic.
Speaker 2:There are gonna be a lot of rooms that don't get my jokes and I just I can't help that. That's just, it is what it is. But I want to circle back to your point about bombing, because I don't. I have this philosophy or at least I think I do that there's no such thing as bombing. I think, like, like you said, it was a church crowd in the bar, so let's just start with that in the first place. Like that was, that was like a setup, okay, and so I don't think you could even say something where that crowd in the bar Would it actually like fuck with you. You know what I mean. Like in the way that it was like oh yeah, I find these jokes funny, room Right. So I don't know if you necessarily bomb. I think there is a certain is a bad crowd, and then if they don't laugh, it's just like okay, I did my few minutes on a mic or I did my job tonight, I got paid, I'm going home and then like, because I think sometimes comics will get in their head, but it's like, how do I know that you actually bar? And if I'm placing that off of laughs, this shit, a lot of people won't be famous if it's all about just a laugh, because a lot of times the laughs are not there. Like you said, they they're either marinating on a joke or sometimes you know they're they're drunk. Now, philly is, I won't say political, but it is definitely a Place where there's a lot of gatekeeping going on.
Speaker 2:And if you not like a struggling comic, you wasn't homeless, you were sleeping in your car, you didn't rope in the hood, you didn't have like all these Outliers or these struggle stories which I'm going to talk about my podcast. Then it's like, oh, you're not authentic or you can't run a certain circles, and I'm like I'm cool with it because that's not my story. I'm not from the hood, you know, I have been homeless, but, again, I don't have that same story day when we, as comedians, this is what we do and and this is who we are, and it's like I'm not in that click. And so you have the black comedians who are in that type of circle and so they kind of hang out and they have those jokes around that. And then you have the white comedians who are like, okay, you're not a safe enough black, so we don't invite you into certain circles. Yes, you have to be a safe black Infiliate and I'm okay with that. So it's very segregated, but not necessarily about race, is segregated by your struggle and and the, the type of jokes that you tell and what type of drugs that you do, believe it or not. So my circle is one that I built.
Speaker 2:So if you have one or two people, that could still be a circle, might be a semi circle, but it's still a circle, and so for me, my circle is very small is people who, um, I can, I can relate to, because they have the mindset of there's no competition.
Speaker 2:They have the mindset of I'm doing jokes, you're doing jokes, let's get this money. They have the mindset of oh, I'm a creative, creative, let's just do this thing. And I don't know why stand-up comedy as a solo sport is so competitive. No, two comedians are like, so why do you feel like we're competing? I think the competition comes in when people do the opposite of what Dio Hugli said, which is not being yourself. If you're coming in and trying to be like other comedians, or their style or the way they deliver in a persona, it is gonna be competition because everybody's doing that. But I personally don't feel like I feel like I got competition because my shit is so different and unique and I know I have a set audience in the following, so it's just like I stick to that and you know that's kind of what my circle is. It ain't huge, but I appreciate the people that are in that circle and we support each other just around that alone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah you do.
Speaker 1:It's like I had. I had some I still talk to these, some of these guys, but like I had a circle and the work that I was putting on, like man, it was a See people for people that's listening. The community journey is you would drive two, three hours in Virginia, right. So I had. It was a mic up in Richmond, about an hour and a half away, those little pieces by, and I knew the host. I was like hey bro, like can I get on? He's like yeah, man, cuz we would like vibe in through, like just DMs. Like I got in the magazine.
Speaker 1:I was like yo come breach up to this lady. He got in the marriage. He said Maggie, 10 minutes, all right, you know. And you like y'all want to come up to Richmond. Oh, nah, man, that's too far. I don't want to drive Two hours for five minutes of Tim line. Bro, he gonna get you 10 cuz ain't nobody that shows up to this. Might you know you just getting the reps in? Oh, no, man, we don't. I don't want to do that man, oh man, and and and. Then I Hate saying it's where you niggas getting the emotions and feelings about seeing other comedians and they want to do shit based off Emotions and I'm like bro, it's a marathon, it's not a race like, but you can't be mad at the reps that you didn't put in.
Speaker 2:Though it's thanks Period, you can't be mad. And whatever those reps are again, that's whatever those reps are. It could be driving two hours, it could be taking an improv place, it could be going to the mics, it could be writing, it could be working on your shit. Whatever those reps are. You can't be mad when a other comedian do put in the reps and then it pays off like you open up for DL, like it's weird cuz comics do be feeling like oh, I've been in that game for five years. I've been in the game for seven years. I've been I don't give a fuck how long you've been in the game until your ass in the phone Netflix and we doing the same ice, we doing this, we just you, we on the same level.
Speaker 2:So in my mind, years don't really equate too much in the comic game. This is again. This is just my personal opinion. If me, you are been doing the same open mics, and you've been doing this shit for 517 years. You know the math ain't math in. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And so for me, two hours South is the Baltimore DC area and then two hours north is New York. I got both of them in my backyard and I'm taking advantage of both of them. I made connections and it's like if you really want to do this, you have to put in the rest whatever that looks like for you. You have to put it in. You have to know where you're trying to go, what you're trying to do. But I applied it really to anything in life, like anything I want to do, I go hard on it anyway. I go like him as fuck. So that's just me. But when it comes to comedy, I get the same thing here, like, oh my god, you're going to New York. Yeah, it's up the street, it's two hours. Like, get on the train or the bus, but you can go. No, seriously, you can go there.
Speaker 2:And for me, because of who I am, how I was spoken. I am our raw. I am in a type of comedy that I do. It just doesn't fit in the Philadelphia box. There are certain mics that I fuck with because of people who host in the rooms.
Speaker 2:But as far as like Actually like doing shit, doing shit, new York is just my, my space. It shows me a different type of love. It gives me a different type of energy. It doesn't feel very crap in a barrel, you know what I mean. Like New York is a big ocean with a lot of sharks, right, but ain't nobody like sharking you that's not an actual word, y'all but ain't nobody shark Like. Ain't nobody like like killing you, because it's such a vast ocean you can literally eat. Right, philly is such a small fucking pond with piranhas, and so everybody feel like, oh, my god, I have to like be in this crabbing and burrow, like stab you in the back, or not even this sort of stab you in the back, but just do some more like grimy shit to make it like they want to one up you or think that they're taking away your Opportunities.
Speaker 2:And I don't got time for that. I don't got time for that. So, yeah, I started here. This is my base, but I also know when to channel my energies. But again, I'm glad you just brought up the two hour job. Like I don't give a fuck. I'm in New York at least once or twice a week. I'm there, I'm invested, I'm there and again, I'm not doing it necessarily like, oh, I'm trying to blow up. It's just the fact that I know what I need to do for me to get to my angle. And so if that takes me going there once a week, twice a week, connecting with folks taking classes, being in certain spaces, right, I'm gonna do that shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you have to. Yes, rich isn't in my back pocket. I got North Carolina, I was in Connecticut. My goal is Get the is to get the Canada up there, because I've got, like, the credentials.
Speaker 2:Go to Toronto mm-hmm. Go to Toronto for sure. The comedy scene there is nice.
Speaker 1:And, like you, I've been in New York before and it's like it's nothing but writers, comedians, snl people, that's all it is. This is a mic everywhere. I'm like Virginia doesn't have that. We're focused on one fucking club and they are like that's the only goddamn club we have here, and then they get hurt when they don't get in. That that's that per se club and I'm like yo, this is more than one club. Like have them knock at your door, stop Going over there and doing on it, and then you got these some comedians.
Speaker 1:They'll dick right the hell out of there's one comedian, because this comedians put them on and and then that Community is put in the morning he got something going on with a local and I mean a local Television station and he puts the same fucking seven comedians on the spotlight. He like, all right, well, but I'll just make my own, my own route. I know that. I know the game, you know, I know what to do. I'm old school, right old school. I do the MC hammershit.
Speaker 1:I will put a sample on my social media, but I'll put the full thing on the flash drive, as old as it is and and I've got a response, we can get you in and some don't read it. Some of them send it back. I'll send them bitches right back the next week. But, like, comedy is just one of those things. It's a solo fucking game, but it's yeah. But they act like it's just so competitive and it's like, oh, I want to go here and I want to block this person. Oh, I'm gonna open up my own room and and I'm a bump people off because I'm putting in for my homeboys I'm gonna open up my own room as a host and I'm gonna do 15 minutes between each comedian and take the energy out, and then I'm a brand coming on to the stage, that's Holly, and I'm gonna get her three minutes, but I'm gonna get her to light at one and tell her time.
Speaker 2:Yes, you got you got those. They are the host of mics in there. Like Mike Hawkers, you're there to help bring up other comedians. You might could do you, or just supposed to maybe do three to five in between. There's some times you shouldn't be doing in between, but yet you are right, they will take 15. I've seen some even take 30.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've seen people go to Mike's sign up, can't get on. I've seen it happen to me. The list will be long as your you know your arm, and it's just like, oh Well, I know this person, or they'll bump you and just put all their friends on who didn't even sign up, and it's just like, okay, and I learned there early on and so for me it was frustrated. But then I'm like, okay, I just won't do the room no more now. I just now I know how to channel my energy. So those rooms have that by where they not really fucking with you and they rather fuck with their friends and put on the same black or white comedians, the same joke, the same guys that talk about dick jokes and coming, or the the the white Taylor Swift female Comedians. I call them, right, the dry ones.
Speaker 2:Um and it's just like if that's what you want to put up in your room. Who?
Speaker 2:am I I ain't gonna be upset about it. I just don't come back to your room, you know. I mean I just find now other spaces where I can actually get up on them. I get the time, and so that's what I mean by like Knowing where to put your reps in right. So yeah, so you, it sounds like you're in the part of Virginia where you can either go to North Carolina or to Richmond, so you're like in the middle.
Speaker 1:I'm in the middle and I've been doing. I've been doing this, this for, I say, four years I'm. I used to track two because it was two years in that lockdown I was just like wasn't no mics, so that's when the craft started crafting a lot more.
Speaker 1:Yeah a little bit. And you know, even when I was doing this podcast Originally was gonna be started to interview Comedians in the 757 or in the 804 in Virginia and or creative general oh yeah, I do it. I got left on read they were opening the shit up and then close it back, like it, like they ain't see it. I was like, alright, we'll bet. So now, since the podcast, I don't know if you really seen some of the guests. I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen some of your YouTube one, the one I saw. It was like an Asian guy, like you guys were doing some type of collaborative work. That's the. That's the video I saw on in the, not Instagram, I'm sorry YouTube.
Speaker 1:I had a couple of dominatrix. Yeah, I had a couple of dominatrixes and foot fetish models and porn stars.
Speaker 2:And never close your boat.
Speaker 1:I'm not. Oh, I don't have a foot fetish, I'm not into King. Put my pussy on the platter and I go from there. Oh, but yeah, they circle, they'll. Someone will have a circle back, but I'm like no hard feelings but like I'm booked, I have other comedians that's willing to get a real, like you. There's been a couple. I need to make it go out and fill in myself, actually because helium, I heard it was nice, but they was only trying to do the open mic for me at the time, which I might just take the gambling or not I might. I will take the game and just do the open mic itself and just put my face out there. So they go. Ok, little buddy serious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why not? I think if you, whatever opportunities, connections that you have that are open to you, definitely take them, because you know it's not like it's a possibility of them rolling around twice like fucking, take them. You know what I mean. Dc has. Dc has great rooms. I had lived in DC for 11 years before moving to Philly, wasn't doing comedy there, but I go down there sometimes and I do there. So I should be back in DC in October.
Speaker 2:Baltimore is pretty decent, but it can be a hit or miss. Delaware has. Delaware has a good mic Delaware. That mic is called Bar 13 in Wilmington. That has definitely, hands down, been the best mic that I've been to since I've been doing comedy. And what makes it the best is you can go in there and nothing Can be offensive. They have every type of person in the room so when you make a joke, literally nobody's offended at anything and you can just go in there and be raw.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's the culture of the of the mic or just the host, but you literally can go in there and just rip and it just felt so good because I've been in mics and it's like oh no, afterwards like you can't say that or you know people look at you and they go silent and go like, ooh, because you said you know some shit, that it's kind of like clenched your pearls, but really it's not. I just hate what's becoming. This huge censorship on art and comedy is just, once again, it's not something that it should be fucking censored, right, but there's that. Well, yeah, if you ever around this way, yeah, come through. It's plenty of plenty of spots that I could definitely recommend and then maybe you file some spots on your own. But, yeah, philly is definitely like some of the experiences that you described.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I ain't afraid to say. I ain't just saying we'll say that person on people's names or whatever. What?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fine, Because I know no, seriously, because, like you, there are people who you know I've invited to to come on a podcast and again left on reader, don't show up and it's fine, then they'll come back. Like you said, be like oh well, hey, let's do the podcast. And, like you said, like I got a list of people who actually are willing to do it. So you know I'm trying to come on. Or you can ask people like, oh, come in, you know, do five, 10 minutes at my comedy show. And it'd be like, oh, no, no, and then when they see that you're doing other shit, they didn't want to circle back around. So it's like for some people they want to have social proof and it's like I am the social proof.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm mad.
Speaker 2:And don't get it to like you. I ain't mad at nobody, but I moved on and just progressed into fucking with people who actually want to fuck with me. You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Million dollar question what a gold grills that.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, you are the second person In the last 40, 24 hours is asking me about the grills. Oh, I have them and I got some new ones, so I'm ready to floss them. But they come out. You know special occasions, but they're here, they're around, We'll meet you up. Spot the girls.
Speaker 1:Okay, Okay so prior to us talking. I got to out watching your social media. Now I have some stuff that was hanging over my head with auditions and Pitches. It's been a crazy. It's been a crazy but good couple of months. So one time I had thought you got hacked because you had posted up a picture. You blanked out the chat. He's like, yeah, get this money or something. I said she can hack and I'm about to DM you. I think you got hacked. But then again, if I DM you, you was probably had, but you wasn't.
Speaker 1:I think it was like a check or something you posted, Then I had saw you with these grills. I'm like oh she, interesting as fuck, I said she a license. Therapist Can be the answer. Guy grills. I said oh okay, bad. I kept saying I was kept seeing your stories with the grills. I don't know if you saw me watching a pee. I was like yeah, but I was like yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and see if she gonna worm and these. It was a special occasion, this is a special occasion. Objection.
Speaker 2:You are right, this is a special occasion. So, by that being said, you have to just submit a request. I would have warmed somebody actually bottom last night. I would have, I would have warm. I'll be thinking people really be like checking it like that.
Speaker 2:Like shout out to my grandma, she's seven, she from Alabama. My granny had open faces growing up, so when I would see her as a kid I was always fascinated like damn, my granny got open faces, she dope as shit, but not knowing that that's a culture in the south, right, that's a whole culture. And so my granny didn't do it to be like cute or fancy. She did that shit because she a Southern girl. So I was like damn, so always been into. And I was like you know, when I get older I'm gonna give me a grill. So it's kind of like paying homage to my Southern fam and also paying homage to my grandma. She's alive, she's not dead. But it's just to say that, like you know, black folk, we the monolithic people, we have culture within culture.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I love my fucking goals. I've gotten goals from Houston Shout out to Johnny Dang. I've gotten them from Dallas, from Miami, and then the most recent y'all if you in Atlanta hit up males grills. She actually is a real dentist, she's licensed, she's black, she's female from Philly but she is a ortho down in Atlanta and she made my most recent grill. She gave me six up top and five at the bottom. So up top it just says doctor, d O C T O R, and then I got open faces on the side, you know beyond the DNR, and then at the bottom is the Holly. I got open face at the Y and H and very affordable, at least it was for me and I just love grills. I got some more ideas coming out but y'all just got to wait to see them. But yeah, I rocks the grill. I ain't ratchet and ain't hood and you ain't got to be either one of them to rock a grill. I'm just again for the culture.
Speaker 1:When have what? What about the? Holly says I've seen you perform On your page, literally. I've probably most recently started, sorry, you doing t-shirts, maybe some jeans or some short. I've seen you in the dress and some heels. What the hell she can. Okay, all right, you got to come correct. We're, and also people that listen. She said she went out to Houston, texas, and got some made Johnny Dane. So once again, fellas, because I know some of my friends is going to slide in the DMs. Stay away, no, stay away, come correct. If she can afford to look at her, look at the. I did not wake up like this. Follow your dreams. Yeah, she ain't bullshitting with y'all. What? Before we end off on this one, I do appreciate your patience. What is some advice that you would give a younger comedian that's starting off, or your younger self when you were starting off in the comedy game?
Speaker 2:Um, I guess, do it sooner. I would have definitely did it sooner, but timing is everything. So, you know, don't regret it. And if I had to give any advice to someone who wants to do it or who's just starting off, I think you'll go back to what Dio Hugli told me. Like, be yourself, don't try to do what everybody else is doing on social media. You're going to get lost in the sauce. We need to know what makes you unique, what makes you your snowflake, and you and you got it, whatever that is, but you got to step into it and bring it out.
Speaker 1:And if the people want to gain contact with you and see your gold grills and your six inch levels I can do that.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I'll be. Um, in October I'll be in DC, heading out to LA and planning on Toronto, one of my favorite spots of their shutdown and I didn't know about it and it was a good spot to do comedy that shows they shut down. So working on where I can hit up next in Toronto. I got a few spots though, but yeah, so, la, toronto and DC in October. Facts, facts.
Speaker 1:Uh yeah, toronto. I've been trying to get in there just for laughs, the new faces for like the longest and I respect what they did. They give you a rejection letter so perfectly put together compared to these other festivals that do not let you know if you got in and not into the week before the festival.
Speaker 1:So uh if you guys want to follow myself, see my comedy, it is comedian room on Instagram, twitter and threats. Uh, no ID is the podcast. No ID media TV is the platform where you get comedy as well as the podcast. No ID media TV is on YouTube, instagram and threads and Facebook. Hit the link in the bio. Like, share, comment, subscribe. Check out Dr Holly. She's really a licensed therapist. If you're not going to get a laugh, get a session session in she is mad dope on the ground.
Speaker 1:She's like one of my threads. I ain't really been on threads, but um check her out. Support, Support comedy, Support black women in comedy black people comedy, because it's very rare for, especially in Virginia, for black women comedians in this area. I don't know what the hell going on with support and uh, yes, you know we'll be, we'll be talking again. She probably come back as a guest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we out here, yeah we out here, we doing that thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate you, rome.
Speaker 2:I had a bad time. I appreciate you, rome, I had a blast. Um yeah, if you're in the area, how like your girl.
Speaker 1:Uh, I sure, oh yeah, and I'm 34. Cause I ain't you say you ain't on my age 34. All right, I don't look like you, but my hair line says something different.
Speaker 2:I didn't wear a hat Cause?
Speaker 1:let me just be to the real me, stop hiding this shit.
Speaker 2:It's all good. It's all good yeah.
Speaker 1:I stopped recording.
Speaker 2:I stopped recording.