#104 Rajiv Satyal Brings Hilarity To The Table

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Tim, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 104 of alive from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back. Well, worldwide size episode. This one's got everything. Rajiv Satyal is here you likely are one of the 50 million people who have seen his YouTube video I am Indian. Rajiv is a host of his own show. What do you bring to the table? and he is the first comedian to perform comedy on all seven continents and I believe as of this airing remains the only comedian to do so tons of great stories coming up and just a few minutes

As your ears are enjoying this episode. I hope you also enjoyed last week's episode with Mike Binder comedian writer director of such movies as Indian Summer blank man reign over me The Upside of Anger and of course the Comedy Store documentary. Definitely Treat yourself to that episode. If you're starting here. We're heading towards our bicentennial. What a crazy ride. It's been the first 100 episodes seem to go by in a blink 100 episode with Ronnie Cox and Mike Binder a guest appearance by Jackie the joke man martling on our crossing the streams bonus episode and now Rajiv Satyal out it's like Christmas has come early. So exciting. I haven't mentioned it in a while head over to Jeffisfunny.com. join my mailing list combining a coffee you can listen to all the episodes right there. And there's links to all the different podcast places Tell your friends!

Also, if you're in the Detroit area, if you're one of my Michigan peeps, I'm up for our Detroit's best podcasts of 2022. I'll put a link in the show notes but head over to our Detroit comm and vote for live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin comedy show in the podcast category, I would greatly appreciate that.

And now it's time for the social media tip. All right, this is the part of this show where I'd like to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you tip I picked up on the street little 411 like to share so we can all raise our social media game together. I've been in the social media biz for quite some time. And I think we all become better when we share information. Today's tip is a tip and also a little trickery because today's tip is a reference to the conversation I'm about to have with Rajiv, I won't tell you where in the conversation that takes place. But the gist of it is, here's a tip and then we talk about why it's so important during the interview. When you create any posts, whether it be just an image or a video, but specifically video in this case, it's worth it to take the extra time to make sure it's really done. Well. The better the quality, the better. People are going to respond to your content. I'll leave it there for right now. There's a lot of good extra information in the conversation I have with Rajiv coming up Who with 50 million views on his I am Indian video knows a thing or two about creating amazing visual content. And that's the social media tip.

I do want to thank everyone in advance for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors you're supporting us here live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show and that's how we keep the lights on today's interview sponsor is Milton Bradley Are you tired of playing checkers horizontally? Do you wish that you could play them vertically well dream no more because now you can horizontal checkers is a thing of the past now vertical is all the rage Connect for just connect four of your checkers in a row to win. Where? Oh diagonally, pretty sneaky sis, yeah, sure. Go play wordle, okay. Connect for the vertical checkers game you've been dreaming about from Milton Bradley.

Now I think it's time to share the conversation I had with Rajiv Satya with you. Let's see what he brings to the table. Enjoy.

I'm excited to introduce my next guest because if Kevin Nealon is to be believed and why shouldn't he be my next guest will soon be as much a household name as your toaster or blender I kid but seriously my next guest is the only comedian to performed on all seven continents. Can't wait to hear about that. He's super hilarious. I'm excited to welcome to this show Rajiv Satyal, how are ya? Welcome to the show.

Rajiv Satyal 5:04

I'm doing so well because you pronounce my name right? So I'm feeling good Jeff off to a good start.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:08

There's so many times I have to edit out where I'll be talking to a guest and I'll randomly be talking about someone that they worked with. And I'll say the last name wrong because I've just horrible last names, but also sometimes you don't say last names out loud. It's always in your head, you know? Yeah, you must had trouble in school. Like when teachers substitute teachers would say your name. I've had a weird experience with that with my last name. It's kind of an odd name, but I can imagine we share that in common

Rajiv Satyal 5:33

Yeah, cuz at least you have Jeff to ground you right? They at least get off to a good start with Jeff, how bad could it be? Really? Even if it's Jeffrey I think they probably had it down fairly well, and you even have the easy spelling adjust. You don't have the GE o FF, the Jeff Wah. I don't know how people deal with that, or how they even got to that.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:52

That's true. I totally ignored my Jeff privilege there. Yeah, yo,

Rajiv Satyal 5:55

yo, first name? Yes. Yep. First name for unstability. predictability. Is that the right word? Privilege? Yeah, it was tough. I was the only kid in class whose name was never called during roll call. So it would go alphabetically. David Sanders heater Casey Sargent, here. Yeah, that's me. It was I didn't even have a name. It was like a positive frown. So that's how it kind of went from being from elementary school on but to your point, I think that was an insightful way. You asked the question, Jeff, which is it was mostly substitute teachers that I had to start all over. So I built this report, but the homeroom teacher, whatever they were, and then we were trucking along and every now and then I'm like, Oh, that's right. I'm different.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:29

When my last name visible. There's not a lot of like words. It started with DW to begin with, and only three

Rajiv Satyal 6:35

and the English language. It was in the West Wing.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:39

And the Oh, in my last name is really kind of pronounced more of an ah, it's like Dwight Dwoskin, not Dwoskin or something like that. If you're just try and read it. But growing up in my neighborhood, one of the people that advertised 1000 times a day was a veterinarian, Dr. Dworkis, Dr. Dworkin. And so everybody would just put an R in my name. So when the substitute teacher would be there they go Jeff Dorkin. And then it got to the point where the rest of the class would go Dwoskin.

Rajiv Satyal 7:09

That's good. It's like a call and response. You had a setup punch going for you and you have the class to your heavy lifting for you. It's like going to a concert where the audience just sings your songs.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:18

Yeah, but it's last names, or it can be weird to my brother says his different than mine. So like, his friends called him Dwoskin. Because he said, Dwoskin I'd say Dwoskin. Like, we just we hit it differently. So like no one even taught us. And I found that I even say it wrong on my podcast when I get excited. And I'm like, Hey, it's Joe. Yeah, I like different. I don't even say it right. Somebody repeated. Hey, now I know how to say your last name. And I'm like, that's not right. They're like, well, that's how you say it like I do.

Rajiv Satyal 7:44

Oh, that's funny. He get it played back to you. I wrote an article all about Kamala Harris. And how do we pronounce her name and it got published in The Washington Post. I was very privileged to have that happen. And you know, there is a debate about you know, who gets to decide, is it you get to decide how to pronounce your own name? Is it society? Is it your parents and people had their different take on it? It was it was a pretty interesting journey to figure out. But for the most part, people were like, it's pretty much up to you, whatever you say, if you say my name is spelled je FF and I'm going to pronounce it, Marvin, well, then we're going to pronounce it Marvin,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:13

I watched your Kamala Harris video, at least I watched like the first 20 minutes because it's like, why plus, you have so much content on YouTube for me to have committed to anything like one thing and then listened to watch it all. It's like, I've talked to movie stars that don't have enough movies that filled the amount of time of your content on YouTube. I mean, that's a compliment. I know, you've had over 50 million views just on one of your videos like so you've been total viral there. But that was it was a great thing because Kamala like everyone was spell it everyone was saying her name wrong. It was right. But that was a good insight video,

Rajiv Satyal 8:48

thank you. I think they appreciate the honesty to your like, I watched 20 minutes of it. It's like maybe watch 15. But even still, you watched a lot of it. That's good.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:55

I had to watch it. You know, it had to like at some point, like, if that was the only video you had done, I would have committed to the whole thing. I appreciate that you watched any of it. That's great. You had so many videos, and I want to take in a little bit of each. You know, I mean, there's you had to take in a little bit of, you know, Raj against the machine, a little bit of what you bring to the table, you know, just your random videos, you know, you're the jester TEDx, you know, so I had to bring Oh, so much that I wanted to just kind of get a feel for who you attract. And all you did. So that's why I was like, well, that's a lot. You've done a lot. So but what I found was interesting is like it was such a strong corporate background. And I know you have one thread of corporate that you do now with the standpoint agency, when you were a Procter and Gamble, like what was it that made you kind of just break away and say, I'm just gonna do full time comedy because I was the funny guy where I worked. I never had that the colonias to kind of fully go ahead and do that. So I admire that you did that. What gave you kind of the confidence to like step away from a corporate job that I'm sure was paying a lot more than you eventually had to ramp up to make two kind of follow that dream. Yeah,

Rajiv Satyal 10:02

it was really turning 30 That did it for me. I had spent most of my life in Ohio. I love Ohio. But I was like, there's more to life than this. It's a big world. And to spend 30 years in one state is a long time. I was doing stand up comedy on the side. For four years, I had been working at p&g for six. The first two, I didn't do it. Even though I had started even before I went to Procter and Gamble, I started a little bit in college, I think it was getting to the point where I was featuring so as a lot of your listeners probably know, there's an emcee, then there's a feature and then there's the headline or the headline, or is the main person at the end. When you're living in one area, you can pretty much get to featuring but they're probably not going to headline do you need to go off and go do something else? It's hard to stay in one town and headline because you would have to build such an audience that can be done, but then it's almost like, okay, they want to see you leave to come home. Right. So I was doing well featuring. I felt like I'm a funny guy. Let me give this a shot. But I think it was a decision made more out of fear than love and the fear of going on 30 I don't want to be 40 years old looking at the TV going. I should have tried that.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:10

No regrets. No regrets.

Plus, you're in Ohio. So what why not? Yeah, Michigan, Michigan, people like to make fun. Oh,

Rajiv Satyal 11:19

yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's the whole thing right there. I performed all over Michigan. I actually liked Michigan a lot.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:26

And just to be fair, my dad's from Ohio. So I'm half Ohio. You're half Ohio, and I'm half Ohio. Yeah,

Rajiv Satyal 11:31

that's right. Where's your mom from?

Jeff Dwoskin 11:33

She's from Michigan. So okay, so

Rajiv Satyal 11:34

your Michigan Ohio couple there. So there you have it. That was the deal. That's what really set it for me. I just thought it's time to try something else. And I moved to LA to be the brand manager of Fiji water that lasted for 12 weeks, and I jumped ship and I went into this full time and a lot of my friends thought before I did they're like you're moving to LA to be a comedian. I'm like, No, I might do it on the side. And they're like, Bs, man, come on, you're gonna do it. And I really did not think that that's what I was going to do. I thought I'd give it a shot while I was out here in LA but I didn't have the plan to I'm not that diabolical to take a corporate job, do it briefly and leave. That's just not I'm sure a lot of people would do it that way. But I wouldn't burn somebody like that.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:10

That is rough to do to somebody. You've got more integrity than that. I like to believe that they must have wanted to keep you because I read that they named you the funniest employee in 2005.

Rajiv Satyal 12:22

That's right. They that was their their bone that were throwing me No, you know what man people was asking me like, Did you hate your job be and I go no, I did not hate my job at all. I liked my job a lot. I really enjoyed the people enjoyed the work. But I think ultimately what it was for me, I thought any smart person in my shoes could do this job, you don't get much of a chance in those jobs to really put your own spin on it because there's a job to be done. And they have to get tied on the shelf. And yeah, you can tell a couple jokes in the meeting, but is the final product got to be that much different because of us specifically, and it can be I felt like my talents are better used elsewhere. Fewer people can do this, then do that.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:01

Gotcha. I read that in terms of comedy, your brother played a role and kind of pushing you into either getting on stage or entering a specific contest.

Rajiv Satyal 13:10

Yeah, it was the funniest person in Cincinnati contests of southwest corner of Ohio State. And he had just said you write a lot of funny stuff. You're a funny guy. Just give it a shot and rock case that the old my brother is a pretty prominent queer author. He lives in New York and Brooklyn with his husband and he's really doing well with writing books and publishing and everything else. And so I always even though he's younger, looked up to him in terms of his creativity, because he was the kid in school who was you know, lead in the plays and musicals can sing dance the whole thing. So I think coming from him, it meant a lot more than just being drunk at a bar and your friend going hey, you should get up on stage sometime. It was much more well thought out than that. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 13:51

it's cool and it's like when it's your brother it's like he kind of probably gives you a different level of confidence to or to know you got family behind you I can relate to that feeling so that's cool. So you won you eventually maybe did I don't think get one I think I read you didn't win that one but later you want funniest person in Cincinnati?

Rajiv Satyal 14:09

Yeah, so I entered it and I made the semi finals and then the next year I won so I wondered as an amateur in a semi what they call a semi pro. They don't really call you a professional because you're still entering contests but the first one was the amateur and then the second was a semi pro you reminded me of that actually kind of forgot but yeah, I watched it twice

Jeff Dwoskin 14:28

so what is Cincinnati do for you get a parade they're like

Rajiv Satyal 14:32

a key to the city you know your own street named after you change Main Street to your name permanently forever parking spot at Target. No, you you get you get some coverage in the paper. I mean, that was kind of cool. I got quite a bit of press while I was in Cincinnati, much to the chagrin I think of some other comics because I think I was different in that not just being Indian, but also the corporate side that you picked up on Jeff it's like it is pretty different to have someone who works a full time day job do Stand Up Comedy that's still pretty rare. A lot of comedians don't come from a white collar background.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:04

Yeah, I've always found that like coming from a corporate background comedy was kind of loose. I brought that same mentality to my to my work ethic, being there early, making sure I always did the specific amount of time I was supposed to do all those kinds of things. I never felt that the managers appreciated it specifically because I think they were just so used to the other 99% of evil. Yeah, it would or wouldn't show up, do whatever, ignore the light, yada, yada, yada. Yeah. Always a little frustrating when those generals would marry but Oh, so this is an interesting thing. So three comedians came out of Procter and Gamble back to Procter and Gamble for a second 444 Okay, okay, you're the third the third one. There's

Rajiv Satyal 15:46

the fourth. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:47

what's in? Is it the Fiji water something in the Fiji water?

Rajiv Satyal 15:51

Something's in the Fiji water out there in LA, you know, and at p&g, I really do not have an explanation for it. But it's very interesting because Greg Warren worked in sales, Josh Sneed and drew Tarvin worked in it. And I worked in marketing, purchasing, and then marketing. It's not like we all came out of the same corner of the company, or we were four guys that all hung out together. And we're funny or anything like that. Like, I know the guys that we all know each other. I mean, certainly by now, we all know each other. There are some good comedians that have come out of Cincinnati. There's been a good tradition of that, but out of Procter and Gamble specifically, that is really fascinating. I don't know what drives that exactly. What I joked about was that p&g It was kind of like, when Seinfeld is pitching the show within Seinfeld, NBC, you know, you you drive you read you sleep, you know, whatever it's like, it's, it's a show about nothing. I mean, p&g makes like laundry detergent, you do laundry detergent, you Swiffer your place, you spray some debris, it's a company about nothing. And I would do that, that joke at p&g, which I hope wouldn't be that contest, I think but it was true. It was like I think a PNG You're so funny when you're so focused on the day to day kind of perfunctory mundanities of the world that maybe it does get you into this mode of being connected to the every person. I don't know. I don't know what the reason is, I'm struggling for what how for comedians would all come out of png within 10 years, and none before none after I don't think

Jeff Dwoskin 17:08

they must have changed the water recipe or something. I know. I know. I know of Josh Sneed, I've seen him around. I know of Greg Warren, too. I think actually, I think Greg Warren and I did a charity event. He wouldn't know who I was because it was just one of those things we go into. It was like a big theater. You kind of go in and scatter after but but yeah, I think Greg Warren and I worked at a show where Tim Allen in Detroit was there and he had just kind of come back to do stand up for Yes, charity that we were doing.

Rajiv Satyal 17:35

I opened for Tim Allen a lot at the Laugh Factory probably I don't know if it's 20 times it was at least 10 or 15. It was a lot and he liked me. And he was he was nice to me. He was he keeps to himself. He came into the set left, but he was always very courteous and apparently he liked me. So that was good.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:50

No, that's good. I remember meeting him I met him and he's from Detroit. So he I bumped into mindset Mark Ridley's comedy castle and Mark Ridley. I went up to him like, Oh, you got to introduce me. So it was really funny. He walks up to his says, Hello, he extends his hand to my wife. And I goes, Hi, I'm Tim Allen, which is exactly what you should do. But it was just it was just funny, though. Because in you know, in our heads, we're like, yes, yes. He was. He did keep to himself. When we did the charity event. I remember he was in a in a different room. Yeah.

Rajiv Satyal 18:18

Which is pretty common. I was the same thing with a lot of comedians with him. I've worked but he was always really, really nice and funny guy, man. He was he's still doing it. Yeah, he

Jeff Dwoskin 18:26

was a really good guy.

Rajiv Satyal 18:27

I remember because I was introducing him almost every week and Hollywood. It was I would look stuff up about him to change the intro. And I think that's what he liked. And I discovered it was something like in 1994, he had the number one book number one show and number one movie on the same week.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:42

Wow. It was cool. He did. He took over an open mic here. It was a few years ago. It's pre pandemic, but where nobody knew who it was, but you know, they had said everyone buy the tickets. It was like five bucks. And he did a whole 45 minutes that he was testing material. It was cool. It was cool. It was it was good to work with him. I remember walking away going oh crap, he's Buzz Lightyear. I totally didn't even I forgot I was talking to frickin Buzz Lightyear to TV occurred to me while I was talking to him. I was I was all caught up in talking to him about Galaxy Quest or something like that. And

Rajiv Satyal 19:09

yeah, well, he probably was more interested in Galaxy Quest, because so many people think of him as Buzz Lightyear but yeah, man what a story career is out. I mean, it's insane. And what an origin story so JL thing and it's crazy.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:21

I remember saying to him when I was talking to him, I'm like, This is so great. I get to tell you, you're my you're gonna be my opening. Come to stage thing right now. And he goes Jeff, I worked with Suzanne Somers. I don't even think I worked with I bumped into her and I used her name for two years. He said, That's funny. It was funny. So that's cool. All right. So PNG made you who you are today and the toys that made us the toys that made us that's a great one to how much do you spend on the standpoint agency?

Rajiv Satyal 19:49

We should spend more time on it because it is actually a pretty darn good idea. My co founder and I Andy Gibson, he still works at Procter and Gamble is still at the peach and company has been pretty good about letting us do it on the side, you know, and we have their blessing and all that, which is awesome. We had some great comedians. I mean, basically, it's so people know what it is. It's an agency where we hire stand up comedians to help businesses generate insights. And so a lot of the marketers out there will know exactly what Insight means in this context. But it's really just the nugget of the idea. And that nugget is what you use to build an entire advertising campaign, a global campaign, we had done that with Bonnie McFarlane, a very funny comedian from New York City. And there was a part where, you know, there are three portions to this program. I haven't described this in a while. But the first part is the comedians go on stage, and they do 20 minutes about your brand. So it could be about hair coloring, it could be about deodorant, it could be about razors, it could be about motor oil, it doesn't matter. But comedians are really great at this, just, you know, like we're saying something out of nothing. And, you know, she did her 20 minutes on hair coloring for herbal essences. And then there was a part where we get to ask her questions like a q&a, like, how did you pull the rabbit out of the hat. And then finally, there's a brainstorming session that happens. And I remember the Insight happened during the q&a, because that was very funny. But I was getting a little bit nervous, like, Ooh, I don't know if we have anything yet that we can use. We always come up with something. This was really gold gold, Jerry, because somebody asked her about coloring her hair. And she goes, I don't know. I just feel like it should be a joy, not a job. And when she said joy, not a job, you just saw all the pens to paper go nuts. And that was their core insight that women felt about coloring their hair. It was it should be a joy, not a job. It feels like a job. But this is something that should actually make me quite happy that I get to do this and change my look. And it should not be such a chore and herbal essences went on to use that as the basis of their $50 million global restage. It was very successful. So we've had Orny Adams, Josh Snead, Sebastian Maniscalco, Roy Wood, Jr. We've had some really good comedians do it. It's lain dormant for a while, but it's something that if anybody wants to hire us, we are able to do it.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:54

Oren is fine. I worked with him a couple times. He's a hoot. I love that idea. Your tagline is great. Finding the HA in the way finding the HA and the AHA.

Rajiv Satyal 22:05

It's hard to kind of say it's almost one of those. That means you got to have the right voice. I feel like in the in the video I do for it. My voice is not suited for it. But it's pulling the AHA from the Haha,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:15

yes, you said it much better than I say that since I came up with it. I

Rajiv Satyal 22:18

hope I hope that's okay.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:20

I was trying to remember it. I was trying to write it down. I had it backwards. Yes, your versions wait. It's brilliant though. Because I always comedians see things from such a different point of view, like this weird 360 point of view. It's such an interesting profession to have to get on stage and connect with strangers. And I think it's that ability and that you have to succeed that kind of Prime's you for that type of of insights and stuff like that. It's it was a brilliant observation for you to pull that all together and create Thank you see, thank you. And then you get to work with all your comedian friends, too. So that's like a whole side benefit to it. Right?

Rajiv Satyal 22:56

There is something to be said for that it is kind of an interesting thing. Because people like Sebastian and Arnie are looking to you, you know, I'm hosting up there. And I know the language of the corporate people, right? I mean, I spent a lot of time there. So it's a different world. Like you were just saying, Jeff about how we have this corporate mindset coming into an open mic or a comedy club or whatever, if they do speak differently. They do need a translator, I mean, but both ways. So the corporate folks would talk and the comedians would not totally get what they're saying. And vice versa. So I'd have to be like, This is what they meant by this is what they meant by that. So when he dropped the MF bomb, this is what No, it wasn't even that it was just more of like putting it in a language that they would understand because they can't really as corporate people write something that comedians could digest and go, What do you mean by an insight? Okay, well, I have to explain that that is kind of like an a punch line. You've got a premise, right? I mean, it's like, okay, yep, got it. Got it. You're basically trying to find the premise for the ad. And you know, you need someone who's a marketer and a comedian to do that. I don't think too many people speak both of those languages.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:51

No, I don't I don't think so either. But you did a great job with that exact topic with your TEDx speech. Just

Rajiv Satyal 23:58

making the connections. Nice. Yes, that's right. But it

Jeff Dwoskin 24:01

is interesting. Like just the whole idea that inside benefit reason to believe joke set up punch tag. It's interesting, just the parallels, but it's the concepts the same, right? Yeah, it's that's why you're inside Soviet. So brilliant. You're watching commercial, you got to get someone to convert right there while they're watching it. You're on stage, you got to get them to laugh, right. So you have to get them to convert through the version of story you're telling. So the parallel is brilliant.

Rajiv Satyal 24:26

Thank you, my friend. Thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:28

That was a good day, I watched the whole TEDx calm lie, didn't watch the whole thing I met but I did watch your whole TEDx.

Rajiv Satyal 24:33

I appreciate it's kind of a long TEDx, especially by today's standards. A lot of them are more like six to eight minutes. Now. That was an 18 minute and I that was the limit. You were not allowed to go more than 18. And I did some stand up in the beginning, which I probably would not do. Now. I think there are a couple things I did. I was trying to do two things in that speech. I was trying to make two points and with a TED talk or TEDx talk, it's better to just pick one and I regret not making it a little bit more inspirational. Like here's how you could use this. I think it was a little bit more personal, which is probably why that didn't travel as Well, I think if you can do it in the Second Person of like, here's what you can take out of this. It's more inspirational. So if I had to do it again with somebody, I might, that's how that's what I would change.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:09

I find that a lot of the TEDx Detroit say bring in comedians and sometimes it's a mash of of stand up and or message but yeah, it is it was I was surprised to see it so long, because you're right. Most of them are, like eight to 10 minutes, so they're much shorter, but it was good. It was really good. And I thought it was great that you kind of ease into it starts with the stand up. So it's it's a fun watch. It's a great watch. I loved it.

Rajiv Satyal 25:31

Thank you. Appreciate it. You're welcome. idea worth spreading

Jeff Dwoskin 25:35

it is so we do share one TV credit laughs on Fox TV. There's

Rajiv Satyal 25:40

I saw that. Yes, that's right. Yeah. So that Steve Hofstetter, right,

Jeff Dwoskin 25:44

yes, I filmed mine. And when I tell you destroyed, it was the best. Three minutes ever. Right? I mean, it was just I think I just went on right after a bunch of good people. I just nailed it. You know how that goes. Right? Best like a month later, or mid to comedy castle. And the guy turns to me, who usually messes with me, you know, comedians, right? We mess with each other before show or some says Jeff, they lost that. No, he lost the tape. And I'm like, You're just Yeah, I was just laughing with me. Right on. He was like, No, this is as I'm walking on stage, which is the timing of which he definitely didn't tell me now. I say, oh, man, I got to record it. But you know how it is like it went? Well, it went the second time. But you know, like when you can you compare it

Rajiv Satyal 26:28

now. And that's, that's, that's my biggest fear. When we film the talk show. What do you bring to the table, which I film here in the studio in Burbank, whenever we record, I always tried to tell them to play it back so I could see it before we go because video and audio, right. And the thing is, if you don't have video, you don't have a show. But if you don't have audio, you don't have an interview, you have nothing. You have nothing like at least you can still put this thing out as a podcast, right? But if you have video no audio, you've got bubkis You've got a bunch of motion pictures. Do

Jeff Dwoskin 26:57

you have nothing but you got a silent movie?

Rajiv Satyal 26:59

You got a silent movie? What are you gonna just dump it in? How are you going to remember what they said? So you need a bad lip reading guys or something like that to do that. But that's always my biggest fear is losing anything I wrote losing anything that was taped. That's my nightmare. I'm sorry that happened to you that blows.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:14

That's okay. Because it led us to talk about what you bring to the table, which makes it all worth it for you. It makes it all worth it. So let me ask a question. Did you create the 12 episodes then do the Kickstarter or did the Kickstarter help?

Rajiv Satyal 27:27

Great question. I actually have to think about that. Now. I did the 12 episodes first. And then I ran the Kickstarter. Now. We just filmed season two, that was another 12 episodes. Actually, we've done 13 So we have a jumpstart on season three, we're doing 12 episodes per per season. It's a series of video and audio where I interview it the focus is on immigration. It's not political. It's just more to showcase and highlight people who are either first second or third generation The reason I stopped at third is third generation means your grandparents came here and that means you still had some influence because of your great grandparents came here I don't know how your full on American at that point. I think fourth generation you're you're an American like Bruin through which of course you are, once you come here and get your citizenship, but it's different, right where you had no outside influence. At that point. If you have like our son, he's only a few months old. He is interacting with all four grandparents he has that you know, from the Motherland touch but if we were his grandparents or his kids, what would you say we grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and Michael Jackson and Prince it we didn't we didn't listen to Indian influence stuff. We don't have the pop culture knowledge that my parents have and the essence that they have. So that's why the show I think whether you're polish or Russian or Irish or Indian or Korean, I want to talk to you if you have that kind of experience. We're starting with South Asians just because that's what I am and I have access to a number of fairly prominent ones. But then we're gonna move into the East Asian and Jewish and European African everybody we want to we want to document everybody's immigration experiences.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:53

When you get to white shoes, just let me know the key

Rajiv Satyal 28:57

clutch. A lot of my friends are white jeans. And that's nothing. I'm not about to say something antisymmetric which is what most people say when they say that sons

Jeff Dwoskin 29:04

No, I am. I am I was I was a pitch. I'll have my people call your people. The premise of the show is that you ask your guests to bring a game that you play during the interview. What do you bring to the table? It was That was great. I didn't guess that from the name. But when you watch it, that was that was an interesting fight. Yes, I watched a couple episodes. And it seemed from the thumbnails that maybe there was a propensity for a lot of people to choose Connect for there

Rajiv Satyal 29:31

was there was a lot of Connect for now in the studio for season two and going forward to infinity and beyond. We will be using ping pong. I've got a ping pong table in here. And that's the set now and that's also a literal table. The great thing about ping pong, two things. One is everybody can play. So there's even if you're in a wheelchair, which one of our upcoming guests is you can still hit a ball because we're not playing competitively. You can still hit back and forth. That's one great thing so you don't have to be completely able Bobby to do it yet. It's a little But physical but the other great thing from an editing standpoint is it's so much easier to edit because we would play Connect for we would skip and people like Oh, what happened to the moves and they would get lost in the game. Ping pong has no continuity to it or has constant continuity, however you want to say. So that's part of why we do pin pump, right,

Jeff Dwoskin 30:16

you cut away and you're like, you sunk my battleship. Right? You

Rajiv Satyal 30:20

just start Yeah, after they left. It's like watching

Jeff Dwoskin 30:22

when at midnight used to be on and they would edit. Yeah, so you go from no points to 300 points or something. Yeah, but

Rajiv Satyal 30:28

Points, points. Points.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:30

You're very good interviewer. The two I watched a bunch of was Hassan assignment Hodge, who also happens to be your old roommate. Well, I did watch him do the the press conference.

Rajiv Satyal 30:40

The what's it called? House Correspondents Dinner.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:42

The White House Correspondents Dinner killed. It was That was great. That was great. That's cool. There's you use your roommate though. So that's fine. Yeah, a couple of years. And then I watched Korea, the one with Korea, the adults and adult star I watched it because I was impressed. Like how you didn't make it uncomfortable. It was a great conversation. It would do you didn't make her feel weird about it. I mean, I was like there was, you know what I mean? Yeah. Such an interesting profession then. So

Rajiv Satyal 31:08

funny. You say that because it's my mom's favorite interview that I've done. That always surprises people surprises me. But she goes what you said she goes, You asked her everything that people want to know. But somehow you kind of walk this tightrope of keeping it clean, you have a very clean brand. And I was just discussing this with a potential sponsor today, actually about a Just FYI, we had somebody in season one, we kept it clean, we bleeped out the swear words, whatever. And we didn't get horribly dirty or anything like that. We kept a PG 13. But I think that was the challenge. I mean, there's some stuff on the cutting room floor where we talked about some stuff that was super racy, and you know, we're like, okay, we can't put this in the show. I would just appreciate it how open she was pun intended. I'm kidding. Shout how she was great, though. And I had a blast to be you're a comedian with a with a porn star. I mean, what could be better than, than that kind of a guest.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:57

You seem to be having a really good time. But she also did too. I mean, she was she seemed to she was a great guest. Everything we talked about everyone who's listening, you can go to funny indian.com And then there's a video section, you can hop over to the YouTube, all the videos that we're talking about are there and all their glory. Yes. Thank you. I am Indian 50 million views. What was the inspiration behind that? I mean, just because you made a series of them. I'm American.

Rajiv Satyal 32:24

I am Ohioan. And yes, I made I made a few of they were not connected. I'm Americans play a little bit more connected, because I felt like it was something the country needed at the time before I accepted the fact that we're headed for a collapse no matter what we do. So when I was feeling a little bit more inspired, I was like, Alright, I think this is something we can we can put together. It came from from the heart from the soul. My friend actually Andy, the guy with me, my partner on Sandpoint agency, he said, I said, What did you think of I'm American. And this is right before I released it, I sent him a rough cut of it or Final Cut before I put it out, because it's really good. But it's not going to do nearly as well as I'm Indian. I go. Why is that because chest thumping as part of being American. Like every beer commercial, every truck commercial is, you know, just very patriotic. And there's flags and there's ribbons. And there's July 4, there's so many things about which were patriotic. And that's part and parcel of being an American just being super outspoken about it. It's like being a New Yorker just talking about how great it is all the time or being from Texas, they do the same thing where he goes, What was amazing about your video, and it is a white dude from Ohio. Because what was amazing about I am Indian is that that does not exist in your culture. Like you don't have people standing on a stage into a mic asserting that they're Indian, because that's why people rallied around that so much. And he goes I felt I felt like your community really needed that like it was a real Americans don't need that we kind of already know even if we're delusional about it. And I credit to my cinematographer and my director who helped me really push to get the writing just perfect. I mean, it is the writing is perfect. I mean, I wrote it, but I did. That was not the final that was not the first cut. It was my director just pushing me and pushing me and going you got more you can go deeper, you can say you can say this better, and you got more in you. And it's just it was like a trainer like you do 20 reps and you can't do it 21st But a great trainer will get that 21st rep out of you. And he'll he did he got that last rep out of me when I felt like my muscles were failing. And I think that's what made this just so tight. And I think to have a video travel like that. It just has to be perfectly written, perfectly delivered, perfectly edited. And, you know, so I'm only one part of that I got to perform it and I got to write it too. But like I said, I help with just so much encouragement, but I was glad the highest compliment I could get tying it in with the immigration stuff is when people would write to me and say, you know, I came to this country. I have a couple of kids and they never wanted to talk about being Indian. They saw your video and then they were proud to be Indian. And I was like dude that's brings tears to my eyes like that's, that's identity. That's your whole like how you your whole life is just your self perception. You can affect that for a person, even one person. That's great. So to get multiple messages like that, as an artist you just feel like I think people have very, very, I mean, much more successful careers than I've had. But they get to the end of it and they go, what did I really leave the world with? What did I really say? Or do that really elevated people? And I don't have nearly the level of success of some of my peers, but I'll always have that always have this feeling of like, I helped with my community self perception. And I think that's, that's, that's the thing. I thought

Jeff Dwoskin 35:24

it was amazing. It was it was really touching. And I enjoyed the American one too. I haven't watched the Ohio one yet,

Rajiv Satyal 35:31

as a Michigan Michigander What are you gonna do?

Jeff Dwoskin 35:33

I don't know if I'm allowed to I have to say, though, I think you kind of alluded to this is do your production value on all the videos you do incredible, like insanely incredible. Like, it makes it really easy to watch everything you do. It just it matters. You know, I don't think people you know, like in the world that we live in right now, where everyone just takes five seconds to do a tick tock or you know, a reel or something like that. It's nice to just watch something that not only is well written and well performed, but visually is is striking and kind of pulls you into the whole feeling as well.

Rajiv Satyal 36:08

I appreciate that a lot because that's where a lot of the expense comes in. It's no stone unturned and the people within my work and the guy who shot him in the video I'm still working with them. Brandon Salgado is incredible. And he just he will find that last rep he will bring the right camera and the right sound and get it exactly right. It was like watching the Defiant Ones with Dr. Dre and Jimmy IV and and those guys and talking about Bruce Springsteen took like two weeks to find the right drum beat it is finding a team that maybe it's not committed to absolute perfection, but certainly excellence. I appreciate that because yeah, that's that's what's taken a lot of my resources, my time my money and my energy has gone into making stuff look good. And I really think that's where Hassan bin Hodge has really excelled. If you look at his stuff, anything that he puts out, we used to talk about this in the apartment, and he would just say, I don't know why people can't just make it look dope. He would keep saying that. Just make it look dope. You can and even on Tik Tok on Instagram. Some of these I was talking to an actress who may move here and I was just saying this to her yesterday I said, you know, we do ourselves a disservice when we say we're going to put up little videos on Tiktok Well, if you've got to put up little videos on tick tock, he probably won't put a lot of effort into it. But take the word little out of your vocabulary. The people that put up the best content, even if it looks like they just like a good stand up comic, but it looks effortless. They probably put eight hours into that video man like It was no joke, getting it up there. And so remove the word little from your vocabulary, because that's really that's your craft.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:32

Oh, there's definitely some people that do it and they get paid handsomely. I worked for a big corporation and ran social media on tick tock and then I mean, some of these people make 10s of 1000s of dollars for those 15 seconds. Yeah, video. Yes. Yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy. What also is crazy is Hillary Clinton spending $100,000 to send you to India.

Rajiv Satyal 37:54

Great segue. Very boring show of you. That was beautiful.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:58

Make Chai not war. I I understand everything behind it. I thought the humorous part about it was Rand Paul, kind of railing against it's and and you and her because they could have sent you with $100,000 a handout to people that needed the money and they still would have complained. Because it was Miller Clinton doing it when she was with part of the State Department. Yeah. How was that to be part of that hoopla. And that's not the actual, we can talk about the actual tour, which I thought was I'm sure it was amazing as well. But just the all political backlash being kind of caught up in in that, especially nowadays where it's all Oh, yeah, so crazy.

Rajiv Satyal 38:35

It's everything's politicized now. And I think food is where you eat, what you do, where you drive, where you vacation, everything is politicized. And that's a tough place to be. But it was cool ending up in the Congressional Record. I mean, just to have something you created being like in the Congressional Record, I should go try to see if it's physically somewhere. I've never really even thought about trying to do that. But I mean, Rand Paul's a moron. I mean, I think you and I can both agree screw Kentucky. But actually, I wouldn't say that I've had some really good experiences in Kentucky. I can't really say that. I think he was looking to score political points, of course, and but I don't know, just being used as a prop. I mean, I think it was kind of cool, right? Because it's just kind of a, you're a comedian, you should want that. Like, it's just fun. It's just more material for you. Like I can talk about that on stage. And my press person in Cincinnati was like, my gosh, you should totally try to like clap back at him. And I don't know, I guess. So. I think that the joke was kind of done where I did the tour. He tried to, you know, sort of burn it. And then I do a compact about it. I don't know that there was much more place to take it because he's not a funny guy. It's not like you can really you could take that joke too far, where it just becomes sad. And I'm like, I think just like three hits on this and we're good. I don't think he understands that. That's soft diplomacy. That's ping pong diplomacy, like getting to change the hearts and minds, people sending real people jazz musician, stand up comics around the world to be like, This is what America gives the world and it's not just war and bombs. It's actual, there's good culture that we've created. do and don't forget that so I think when you could share a laugh, I mean, that's why comedians do right as you share a laughing share some love and some light. That's kind of a great thing is when people are laughing, they can hate you.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:06

Is it intentional? Or were they when you say ping pong diplomacy, I immediately think of Forrest Gump. And I know exactly what you're talking about

Rajiv Satyal 40:12

is so good. It's just such a great I was talking about a guy at a conference I performed at a couple of days ago. And we were talking about experiences that we had because I talked about traveling all the continents, and then he was telling me that he was actually he had a couple of moments. One of them was he, I think was talking to the session. guitarists. That was in the session with John Lennon and Yoko Ono the day, December 8 1980, that he was shot. And he was talking to him that day or something like that. And there was another moment like that where he was a part of history was somewhere where something like that like just peripherally, but you were on the edge, and that a lot of Forrest Gump was not to ride. He was just in the room. And I felt it was pretty wild. But yeah, ping pong. Great sport. Great movie. Best Picture. 94.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:01

Yes. Amazing. And you mentioned continents. So let's talk about that. You were the now are you the only comedian ever, or the first or

Rajiv Satyal 41:10

only but I say first, because that will eventually change someday?

Jeff Dwoskin 41:13

Well, that's why I say I did it. You know, sometimes you read something. And I could have changed since I just saw you're still the first and only comedian to perform on all seven continents. Alright, so So tell me the thought process behind this. Like, when did you realize it was like you're obviously you started in Cincinnati? So you're like, Oh, well, I got North America down. Right. I got 14.28% of the continents already covered? Well, and I'm like, you know, maybe like you're living with Hassan, what do you think about this man? Do you think I should knock off?

Rajiv Satyal 41:44

Do the other six? While I'm at it? I mean, how hard can it be?

Jeff Dwoskin 41:47

I mean, we already got one down. I mean, what's what's more, I mean, there's only seven. There's

Rajiv Satyal 41:51

only seven. It's a finite number. It's a very low finite number. I was at the Ice House in Pasadena, the comedy club and I was talking to a guy who on his own just said, you know, he was sort of recapping his career. And he was proud of what he had done. And you know, it didn't come off as bragging. He would just he would just talk about the things that he had done. I would sort of just sharing road stories or war stories from the road. And he said something like I performed on all six continents that have people. And that gave me the idea. I was like, Ha, that's an interesting, one up type of possibility. Not him specifically. But just I wouldn't have to have the qualifier I wouldn't have to say the six continents that have people because Delta Airlines even has that they traveled to six continents with people and I was like, what a way to actually I have a Metallica, I know this is audio. But I have a Metallica guitar pick because I just told the story at another conference. And the guy doing tech is like, I got something for you tomorrow. And he didn't tell me what it was. And he handed me this Metallica Guitar Pick significance of that. Is there the first band and only band maybe to perform on all seven continents?

Jeff Dwoskin 42:56

Okay, so you're there. And you're like, wait a minute, this guy doesn't know. There's people on Antarctica. So you swore. There. So you so it's hard start backing away?

Rajiv Satyal 43:07

Yeah, I'm like, if I can get the next flight out of here. And now this kind of thing. Let's that's why I didn't build it up. It was like, I talked to my PR people. And I was like, should I like do a campaign before I go and all this? And they're like, Yeah, you totally show them so cool. We could track you like go Yeah, but I wonder how many comedians have done six continents because somebody just do it just to do it and beat me to it because after all of this work of flying around the world to lose it by like a week, somebody just goes and does it but then you're like, okay, hold on. First of all, how many people care? Like is that really a thing that anybody's gonna care about? But then you go I don't know mate. How many comedians have done five continents a lot. I think there are a lot of comedians who have done even when I performed in Australia you mentioned that already Adams has pictures is there on the wall in the in the in the comedy club that the Comedy Store there? You know, and a lot of people have done South Africa that's not that hard to do. And then of course they you know, they've probably done Asia Europe and North America getting to five is not really that hard. They're probably ever they're probably 100 comedians who have done that I would not

Jeff Dwoskin 44:05

have five five ZZ I'm just more away

Rajiv Satyal 44:08

you're far away from getting to five Yeah, that's you're there you're on the on the door. You're knocking on heavy guns like I am on your heels. You're creeping on up you're creeping on up but then to get to six because even Russell Peters for whom I've opened a lot actually opened them at open for him at the end and Arbor Michigan theater years. Oh, nice. And then a little Michigan connection there. You know, he has not done South America and I asked him why he hadn't This is years before I even had this idea because well English is not widely spoken in South America. It's hard to find English content, especially comedy and I did find someone you know that's great thing about stand up comics is a very small network and so I was like, let me just paint the Latino comics I know and most of them are Mexican, but I knew Francisco Ramos is Venezuelan and some other folks I was like, can you put me in touch with anybody in Brazil or Argentina and they did they put me in touch with Eliana who runs the show and And when Osiris and I was able to knock that one out on the way down Antarctica and after I did the when Osiris show since I was going to Antarctica the next day, I'm like, Okay, now I can tell people what I'm doing. I don't think Gabriel Iglesias is going to catch a flight down. So the other thing is the the people who would have done six I don't know what that list is. It'd be a very interesting list to assemble a are they going to give a crap and be the people have the resources to pull it off on short notice probably couldn't do it. He's probably booked. He's probably booked for a nearest guy did this in December 2019. He's a busy guy. He's on TVs and movies. He's not going to just fly down there to do it on a whim probably. I don't know. I've never found I've never tried to really find the answer to that question. Like how many comedians have done six. But nobody's done something.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:40

I'm curious if the ones that have done six is Antarctica, the only one they haven't done?

Rajiv Satyal 45:45

One would assume that because I I like to say I'm the only comedian ever to perform in Antarctica. But that's a hard climb to make. I think it was on my website. But I mentioned to my webcams, I could probably have to take that down because I'm probably the only comedian first comedian there. There was actually another comedian on the ship what I went down, it's funnily enough in Indian comedian, and I beat her to doing my jokes first on the continent that was kind of a thing in and of itself. She was funny though she was she was great. I felt though that the idea of saying you're the only person to stand up on Antarctica, it's hard to say because there's a bar there. There's scientists. I'm sure somebody got drunk and told jokes on the stage one night like that stand up comedy, though. I don't think you can. You can say you're the first person ever to do stand up comedy on Antarctica. I mean, maybe but that's a hard thing to prove.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:29

Important question. Do you have seven continents swag?

Rajiv Satyal 46:32

I feel like I do know. I

Jeff Dwoskin 46:34

would hope you do. I would hope you do.

Rajiv Satyal 46:36

Everything except Antarctica. I don't have I first I thought you meant swagger. Like do I feel like a global comedian?

Jeff Dwoskin 46:43

Oh, no. That's why I obviously have swagger, you know, but swag sets.

Rajiv Satyal 46:47

I have I have something from every continent except Antarctica. Interestingly enough, somebody asked me this just the other day I follow the rules. I did not actually take anything from the continent. There's they are very adamant about it. They're like, don't take a rock. Don't take anything from here. It is something we're trying to preserve. And I thought, Okay, I'm an environmentalist. I'll roll with that. I mean, I'll put that over my personal ego of wanting to put something in my little curio cabinet from Antarctica, that's fine. I'll maybe if there's a company that sells that, or I could buy it or something in there. So it's I don't think it's posing a trick. And if he got it, I respected the rules. I did not grab anything from

Jeff Dwoskin 47:20

them. Cool. Can I add your shows you have like, around the world with? Oh, I

Rajiv Satyal 47:24

should I should have like a it should be like a front and back t shirt side?

Jeff Dwoskin 47:28

Oh, yeah. On the arm. There we go. Alright, one 10%.

Rajiv Satyal 47:34

Maybe it could well, it could be a hoodie. We could we could design it right now Jeff, it's like you could have maybe, I don't know what your arms and legs that's for. And then you're back in front. That's six, and then a hood, kind of thing. Like, let's create like a full body. And then to put all the continents on it.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:49

I like it. It's not it doesn't sound as good on paper is I'm sure would

Rajiv Satyal 47:52

be a terrible idea.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:54

I don't know. It's kind of like a weird octopus. Yeah. One final thing I do want to talk about, which I thought was so cool, which was when you're opening for Kevin Nealon. And you propose to your girlfriend on stage. So my question is, does she have any idea that was common?

Rajiv Satyal 48:10

I've asked her that afterwards. And she goes, I kind of started to clue in. But I didn't really know for sure until you did it. She goes, it started to become a little more obvious because my mom had her walker to the bathroom just to get her closer to the stage. So I told my mom because my that we had they had VIP, they were in the way, way back. And I said for this joke to land there, she's gonna need to be a lot closer to the stage. And so I told my mom, at this point, whatever this signal was, ask her to walk you to the bathroom. Because it's quite a walk. It's about 100 feet or 75 feet. It's a good one minute at least, which doesn't sound like a lot. But when you're telling a joke a minute, it's a very long time. As you mentioned when you did three minutes for laughs right? It's it's a long time. So I got her all the way up to the side of the stage. And that's when I dropped it on her.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:03

Yeah, one minute on stage when you're trying to do a minute and aware of it long can be an eternity long. That's what they

Rajiv Satyal 49:09

say. But when you get up at the Comedy Store, and they give you three minutes at the open mic, your first take is what can you learn in three minutes? A lot. You could tell somebody funny in 30 seconds.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:17

Oh, absolutely. So okay, so it was it was really it was so cool that she even got up. I don't know that I got I got my wife on stage. And I'm assuming that box was from Tiffany's. It looked like a blue towel box. I

Rajiv Satyal 49:29

want to upsell for that one, man.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:31

So the impressive thing though, is that she said yes. without even opening the box. She said when sight unseen. That's how that's how you know she loved you there. Oh,

Rajiv Satyal 49:38

that's a good point. I don't think anybody's made that point before. That's a really good one. Jeff. I'll have to say that to work tonight for like, you know what? I could have been a crackerjack ring or something.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:47

That's right. And then in my head, I was like, I would have been so amazing. If when you were walking by Kevin Nealon. You're like, wow, that bitch.

Rajiv Satyal 49:54

Well, it's funny you say that because over lunch I had call I had told him I was going to do it and he called He goes, Are you short and he goes, Hey, man, he goes, Are you sure she's gonna say yes, I go well, even if she says no that be that'd be great comedy, right? Because as a comedian, that's funny because but I'm your friend who's like, honestly, I'm worried for you. Like, what if, like, are you guaranteed the the I Love You return as I say in Seinfeld, I Oh, yeah, I'm yeah, she's gonna say yes. You know, she had told me slipped something really subtle to me before we went to Cincinnati for that trip in 2014. She said something very subtle and cryptic like my parents would love if you proposed on this trip. So I was like, I decoded that as the you know, translator

Jeff Dwoskin 50:31

who kept it that vague, that vague and you were able to decode it. comedy that I

Rajiv Satyal 50:35

am the captain power decoder ring, I use that my powers of intuition and induction to mean that maybe I should propose to her. I knew it was coming in a good way. And then I said, Do you want me to come on after you? Because after you do your set, or should I do it as part of my cuz How are you gonna follow that? It's Nealon. Right? Because I'll follow it. Oh, it was hilarious. It was like, Who are you talking to? It's Kevin deal. And you'll figure it out?

Jeff Dwoskin 50:58

Well, the funny thing is what one he was brilliant to get engaged on stage because one, the whole thing was in recorded, so that was great. But then to his follow up his tag to your joke, which was, it brings up a different girl every night. Perfect, brilliant and, and beautiful that you gave him the time to think about it too, because he knew it was common. So he was he was

Rajiv Satyal 51:23

such a good sport about it. And because I could I could see, you know, a headline or maybe being like, no, like, that's gonna be a little gimmicky. And I'm gonna you know, it's gonna change the mood of the audience or whatever. I nobody would say no, but I did have to, I wanted to seek his permission. I didn't want to blindside him like that. And it's his show ultimately, like it people are coming to see him. I mean, it's my home turf. And there were a lot of people in the audience for me, but I mean, it's still he's the headliner, you got to give them the respect. You gotta call them that respect that it's his show. Now he was great man. He we've remained friends. And it was great to be able to say that I proposed opening for Kevin Nealon. And then Russell Peters open for me at our wedding. That was a cool arc to be able to say,

Jeff Dwoskin 51:57

that's really cool. You're a good name dropper, too. I appreciate it. So did Russell Peters did Russell Peters. He did a set at your wedding. He did.

Rajiv Satyal 52:05

He was hilarious. He did a good I'd say 10 to 12 minutes. Very funny, of course. And then I went up, like after I think it was right after him maybe. And then I told I made that joke. Of course. I was like that my whole ploy was just so that you would have to open for me someday. But yeah, it was cool that he came in as a friend. And he stayed. He came early, stayed late, took hundreds of pictures with people, it was really good sport about it. He didn't just drop in for 15 minutes. Like he hung out. It was fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 52:31

That's really cool. That's really cool. Yeah, that's awesome. You have a blessed life. This is a great story. Everything loved the whole journey. And it's just the beginning too. So but lots of great stuff. I'm confident if there's ever an eighth continent, you will conquer it.

Rajiv Satyal 52:46

Somebody said I should go to Mars or the Moon. They're like, You should be the first committee in the performance space. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the final frontier. That would be great. It's possible. You never know people are going now. It's a thing. So no, man, I do think about that. And just like sitting in the studio and hanging stuff up on the wall. And just I think a lot of performers have to do that. Because there is that insecurity that drives you. And every now and then you hang something up on the wall. And you look at that and whether it's a gold album, or it's a you know, a headshot or it's something signed or whatever it is, and you go, Oh, yeah, I did that. And that just it's a reminder to you, it's, I mean, part of it is probably ego, but it's just to be able to look back and go, you should be appreciative of what you've done, man like you he left Procter and Gamble that was 15 years ago, you know, there's no guarantee that it's gonna work out. There's no guarantee at all. But to land on your feet and marry a beautiful woman and how the sun and live in Burbank and sun is shining. And come on. You got you got to be happy with that. Well, thank

Jeff Dwoskin 53:39

you so much for hanging out with me. I can't thank you enough.

Rajiv Satyal 53:42

I really had a blast. Jeff, I loved your questions. I love the fact that you asked questions that literally events that you had done your research and I always appreciate that. It was it was a pleasure hanging out with you as well. So you got to let me know when you get to LA and I'll do the same when I get to Detroit City. Eight Mile D 12. I was on HBO. I was rewatching that the other day.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:03

I definitely look forward to that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right. How amazing was Rajiv Satyal, head on over to a funnyindian.com checkout all his great content such a fun conversation so cool seven continents Can you imagine that so amazing. So amazing. And I do believe Season Two of what do you bring to the table? is getting ready to gear up so you have plenty of time to watch season one and then season two will be coming at shall

Well with the interview over that can only mean one thing that's right. It's divert trending hashtag for the family of hashtag round up games. Follow us on Twitter at hashtag round up download the free always free doesn't cost a penny app from the Android or Apple App Stores get notified every time a game starts play along and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you. This week's hashtag comes from the legendary game of Friday Fondue #TimeTravelSongs. While Rajiv didn't time travel. He did travel, so I thought I'd mix it up and found this awesome hashtag #TimeTravelSongs, the ultimate mashup of songs and time travel. I know right? I'm going to read tweets and all those tweets will be retweeted at JeffDwoskinshow. Go find them. show him some love. Like them, retweet them, reply to them, let them know yo bom. Alright, here are some #TimeTravelSongs tweets: blinded by the speed of light. I apologize in advance for my singing. I will just call to say I love you highway to HG Wells. Hi, Wade HG Wells. Stuck in the Middle Ages with you. 1999 BC we're gonna party like it's 1999 BC. Booth operator that is of course an homage to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure phone booth. Anyway, these are awesome. #TimeTravelSongs. I love them. And here some are. The waiting is the hardest part. And I cannot carry a tune. Apologize. pabo was a roll in Flintstone Where we're going we don't need Old Town roads. Someone's saved my past life tonight. Pretty make fly for a white guy. Looper trooper. I was at an OB I think going on there for a second. Let it be see, there will be an answer. Let it be see. I walked the timeline, photograph. Anything by the Doctor Who and our final hashtag time travel songs tweet radio killed the vaudeville star. That was #TimeTravelSongs. A fun game. Go tweet your own. I'll look for it. Tag me at JeffDwoskinshow. I'll show you some love.

Well with the hashtag reading over and the interview over. I can only mean one thing. The episode is over. Oh my goodness. Episode 104 has come to an end. What do they say about when you're having a good time? The time just flies? Thanks again to my awesome guests. Rajiv Satyal. And of course, thanks to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

Announcer 57:52

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. Catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai