Comedian Omid Singh talks about the spotlight and Roast Battles
Today, we have the great pleasure of sitting down with one of LA’s top multicultural stand-up comedians: the very funny and wonderfully entertaining: Omid Singh! Join us as we trace his center-stage journey beginning with elementary school talent shows, all the way to following Jerry Seinfeld’s set in Las Vegas.
We talk about how being born to an Iranian mother and Indian father while moving between San Diego and Dubai has allowed him to connect with any audience on any stage. We play some games, exchange philosophical ideas, and learn more about how Omid’s travels and life experiences have shaped the comedian that he is today, and what he aspires to accomplish.
He’s a Roast Battle extraordinaire, a Beastie Boy Rap lover, an improv enthusiast, and an all-around genuinely nice person. Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy today’s entertaining episode.
In this Episode
[01:12] Jason meets Omid and asks about how to pronounce his name, his podcast, and making it as big as Joe Rogan did in the podcasting realm.
[02:25] Jason and Omid play “10 Things in Common” to get to know each other a bit more. They realize there’s something they’d never be able to do together based on what they don’t have in common.
[05:29] Jason is interested in knowing how Omid got started performing stand-up for a living. Omid recounts the story of how his sister’s improv shows in high school inspired him to follow a similar comedic path.
[07:01] Jason asks Omid where he grew up. Omid explains his family’s journey back to Southern California after moving away to Dubai, and then Texas, when he was just 4 years old.
[08:43] Jason’s interest is piqued regarding Omid’s stint in New York straight out of college, since Jason’s son is planning to make a similar decision. Omid tells us how the move impacted his life in a very positive way.
[09:58] Jason wants to know if Omid was the class clown in grade school, and Omid gives us a great story about his first time on stage in the 5th grade.
[11:58] Jason and Omid talk about how David Letterman and Jay Leno, respectively, influenced their interests and career paths in interviewing and talking to interesting people. They also discuss how different the late-night arena is nowadays.
[15:05] Jason mentions Kim Kardashian‘s latest appearance on Saturday Night Live, and something interesting she said about how large her audience reach spans on her platforms. Omid and Jason discuss SNL‘s impact in the comedy sphere.
[17:52] Jason asks Omid when he started doing improvisational comedy. Omid tells us about how an improv TV show encouraged his decision to take improv classes in high school.
[18:54] Jason asks Omid how he made the shift from improv to stand-up comedy. Omid recounts his first stand-up performance his senior year of high school, how he booked his first shows, and tells us his thoughts on what makes a great comedy show.
[23:05] Jason wants to know if Omid has ever bombed during one his sets. Omid shares about that time a woman made a strange request while he was performing.
[24:05] Omid gives us some reasons why a comedian or performer might not “have it” on a particular night, and how that’s okay.
[24:48] Jason is curious if Omid still goes to see stand-up shows, and how he prepares and writes jokes for a show.
[27:33] Jason has Omid list his top 5 stand-up comedians. Jason mentions some notable omissions from his list.
[28:31] Jason brings up a story he’s heard about Omid meeting Jerry Seinfeld before a set at a comedy club in Las Vegas. Omid reminisces on their interaction in the green room before the show and their conversation afterwards.
[32:57] Jason is reminded of a recent John Mulaney performance he saw at a conference, and how he was impressed by how his set was tailored for the event. He proceeds to ask Omid if he customizes his sets too.
[34:10] Jason asks for Omid’s opinion about what separates the great comedians from the good comedians. Omid gives us a heartfelt answer.
[35:11] Jason’s intrigued that roast battling is included in Omid’s resume. Omid explains that it’s like rap battling but with insults, not rhymes, all in good-spirited fun. Jason intends to attend a roast battle featuring Omid soon.
[37:48] Jason discovers how the Beastie Boys wrote their hits by playing Omid’s favorite improv game: “Beastie Boy Rap.”
[41:06] Jason peeks at Omid’s Instagram and finds a post picturing Mama Singh and other close friends in Las Vegas, and would like to know more about Omid’s mother’s unique field.
[44:03] Jason recommends a book to Omid that he thinks will be beneficial. Omid teaches us some things his mother taught him about dealing with adversity.
[46:04] Jason shares the story of his father and grandfather’s recent passing. Jason compliments Omid’s upbringing and the good values his parents taught him, and we learn more about Omid’s family history.
[47:51] Jason asks Omid what the current chapter of his life would be called if it were a book.
[48:38] Jason would like to know if Omid sees himself doing comedy 10 years from 2021.
[49:44] Jason and Omid play a game of “Would You Rather?” to tie up the show.
[50:53] Omid and Jason quickly digress into a conversation about Titanic and then finish the game of “Would You Rather?”
[55:05] Jason and Omid close the fun show, and Omid gives us more ways we can follow his journey.
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Transcript
Jason Hennessey: “O-meed,” is that how you say it?
Omid Singh: That’s exactly how you say it.
I’m sure in school it was Ahmed?
Ahmed is like someone doesn’t know what they’re saying and then “Oh-mid” is just someone saying the worst-sounding word. Who would ever name their kid, “Oh-mid”? No, it just doesn’t make any sense, but “O-meed.” It just sounds so much better when it’s pronounced correctly.
And I appreciate Jenna for hyphenating it for me. Thank you. So, yes. Thank you, man. I appreciate you coming down here. I think we’re gonna laugh a little bit today.
Absolutely. Yeah, anytime.
So, I hear that you are a fellow podcaster yourself
I am, yeah. Bit of a dabbler in the game. I’ve started a few podcasts that haven’t gone anywhere, and then I’ve started a few other podcasts that went somewhere and then didn’t go anywhere after that. Podcasting: It’s a battle.
So you didn’t sell your show for $100 million like our good friend, Rogan
Not like Rogan, yeah. But I made a podcast that I would love to have Rogan as a guest someday, you as a guest someday. I’m more about bringing people together and playing games. That’s my role, I figured out, in this world.
What a great transition. We’re going to play our first game. I think we got a couple of games that we’re going to play today if you’re up for it.
Who’s not? I mean, it’s Friday morning. I don’t know when you’re listening to this podcast, but right now it’s Friday morning.
Okay. So since we’ve never met before, this is our first time meeting and we are in-person, we’re not on
Zoom squares right now, some people listening might not know that, but this is a game called “10 Things in Common.”
Great.
Have you ever played this game?
Never played this game.
So what we’re going to do is Producer, Jenna, over there is going to put 3 minutes on the clock and we’ll take turns asking questions. And the goal is to find 10 things that we both have in common.
Easy.
Simple. Right.
Simple.
We should be able to knock out of the park.
Easy.
All right. So you go first.
We both like women.
Ah, simple.
One.
Like that. Yeah. Have you been to Las Vegas?
I’ve worked in Las Vegas; I’ve been to Las Vegas.
Okay.
We’ve both been on a cruise ship.
I have. Except you probably performed, I was just there as a guest.
Still counts.
We both live in California, right? You’re from here.
That’s four.
Okay.
We both like sushi.
I don’t like sushi.
So close.
Do you have children?
No children. So, sushi and children. That would be our cop names if we were a cop buddy duo, you’re “Sushi,” I’m “Children.”
That’s right.
That’s hilarious. Okay. We need six more to go. We both like beer.
I like beer.
Boom.
Do you like fast cars?
Yes.
Awesome.
Play poker?
I do, not professionally, but I play. We will count that.
That counts. Okay. These are all easy, dude stuff. Let’s see if we get harder than right.
Exactly. Favorite football team.
The Jets.
The Jets. I’m more of a Giants guy. Sorry about that, but yeah.
Yeah. Both have one parent that’s still alive.
That’s right.
Oh, nailed it.
Wow. That is right. Yes.
How much time do we have left?
Have you ever been in improv?
Yes.
Of course. I knew that.
You’ve been in improv.
I have.
Okay. That’s an easy one. And then the last one, we both drank before we were 21.
Ah. Damn, that’s a winner.
There we go.
That’s a winner. Wow. See?
10.
Just like that.
The only things we don’t have in common is sushi and children.
Yes. So, we won’t take our kids to go eat sushi.
There we go.
Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for playing along. Imagine just kind of meeting somebody random and be like, “Hey, let’s play this game to get to know each other.” It’d be a little weird.
It’s a good festival game.
Right.
It’s good thing, you meet somebody at like a music festival and you don’t know them at all. Quickly, you just are waiting in line for a drink, “Hey, you wanna play this game real quick?”
I like it.
It’s a good one.
I’m going to try it.
I would do it.
All right, so I got to ask you, you chose the career or the career chose you, I don’t know, one or the other, well, tell everybody, what do you do for a living?
I’m an astronaut. It’s very difficult. Man, the testing itself is just… Have you ever put on an astronaut suit? Uncomfortable, dude.
I appreciate you wearing one here today.
You’re welcome. I mean, I thought I was coming to the podcast, I want to represent my dreams. I think stand-up is what you’re referring to. And I chose stand-up because improv chose me in high school. My sister was an improviser when she was a junior and I was an eighth-grader. So, I would go to high school on a Thursday night at like 7, and go to her high school, and watch her and her friends perform. And I would watch 300 students laughing at these four improvisers on stage, and then I’d go home and I’d see Whose Line Is It Anyway?. So I equated: if you start in high school doing improv, you’ll end up on Whose Line Is It Anyway? So I was like, That’s what I want to do.” So I started doing improv in high school. Then I did the ComedySportz program, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, it’s like a competitive high school improv troupe across a bunch of Southern California high schools. Did that, did the college team for a year, then I moved to New York where I studied at Upright Citizens Brigade, UCB classes.
We’ve had a student on the show before.
Yeah. I did that, did all four of the classes, applied for their advanced study and they didn’t let me in, which was very unfortunate. And then I just chose stand-up and then ran with it until today.
So you grew up in California?
I grew up in two places mostly. Dubai was like first through fourth grade, then we stopped in Katy, Texas for a year, and then we moved to Irvine.
But the heck was going on in Katy, Texas.
Katy, Texas, was like our buffer, I believe. We knew another family that lived outside of Houston. And my dad was like, “Let’s go back to the States,” but we weren’t ready to move back to California. My parents lived in Chicago before California too. So they didn’t want to go there. They didn’t want to move to California. I think it was just like a transitional year for us really. Maybe we were thinking we were going to stay longer than a year. That might have also been going through my parents’ minds. They bought a house. They tried to do it.
They were all in.
They were all in. Yeah. And then they were like, “No, we’re all out.” Like, “Let’s get out of here.” We just packed up the Honda Passport and drove from Katy to Irvine and then that was it. I had to get out of California after high school not because I had to, but I just wanted to. And I went on Craigslist and I saw this long-term student hostel in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and I told my parents, I was like, “I just want to go here.” And they were like, “Oh, fine.” And they let me.
How old were you?
I was 18.
Is that right?
I was 18. I was pretending I was a transfer student from UCLA. I was pretending that was what I was doing. I was spending a year abroad or something like that in New York.
Yeah. That’s what you told the people that you met there. Right.
In the hostel. Yeah. So I could get into this hostel, the student hostel. And so, I did that and then I ended up working at the hostel. Stayed in New York for a little bit longer. Ended being there for 4 years and then left.
So, it’s interesting that you say that because I’ve got a son and that’s what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to go to college right away. And I asked him what he wants to do and he wants to move to New York right out of high school. He graduates this year and he just wants to go there and just kind of try to live in New York. So, any regrets of doing that?
No, no regrets.
No.
No, no regrets at all. You got to try. I think you’re so young and you have so much spirit at that age that being held back is just impossible. You kind of just want to move forward. I have a little nephew, he’s almost two, and I see it in him every day. You can’t stop him. You can’t stop this kid from doing whatever he wants to do. If you’re like, “No, don’t throw that,” and he’s holding it, he’s going to throw it. He wants to throw it. I think you just got to let people do what it is they want to do and hope for the best, encourage, and see how far they can go. Some people can explode. Some people can do really, really well with a little bit of space and some dreams.
Yeah. So flashback, right. You’re in fifth grade, right, and so, I guess you would’ve been living where?
Katy.
You were in Katy in fifth grade.
Fifth grade, first time I got up on stage.
Got it.
Which is funny that you said that.
And so, in class, you crack a joke, and the teacher’s like, “Oh, we got a comedian in the class, don’t we?” So was that you, were you the class clown?
No, I was not the class clown. I’ll tell you what happened. So it’s fifth grade, we’re in Katy, Texas. I just moved to this place. I went from being one of a lot of brown kids in a school in Dubai to being the brown kid in Katy. And so, I just wanted to make friends and we had a talent show coming up and I was like, “Sweet, I’m going to do a dance for this talent show.” So I choreographed a dance to Blink-182‘s, “All the Small Things.”
A dance to Blink-182.
“All the Small Things.” It was a banger at the time. And it had this line like, “She left me roses by the stairs,” and so I had my friend, Bobby, fling me a bouquet of roses at that line, and then, “Surprises, let me know she cares,” I threw the bouquet into the audience. And the girl who had just moved from Russia caught it. It was made, it was like a perfect moment. And this was the audition to get into the talent show.
Oh, just to get in.
Just to get in. So everybody did their dances. Everybody sang their songs, we’re all in this auditorium doing the auditions. And then our music teacher was like, “Okay, now go to your cubbies. If you have a red tag, you’re in the talent show.” I go to my cubby, no red tag. And I killed my dance. My dance was so good. I was like, “What the hell, teacher?” And I went up to her, I was like, “How did you not put me in the talent show?” She goes, “No, Omid, I want you to host the talent show.” So, I got to host it. That was the first time on stage.
It was like, everyone was sitting down and I walked out and I cracked a joke. My sister was in the crowd too. Like, the kids from the middle school came to the elementary school to watch the talent show in the afternoon. And I cracked a joke and I saw a bunch of people laughing. And then after that day, I became “The Kid Who Talks.” So, everybody would be like, “There’s the kid who talks.” Like if anybody had an announcement to make, they’d be like, “That’s the kid who talks.” So, they would just give me pieces of paper to say out loud to kids. And that’s basically how it started, that music teacher in Katy.
So cool. And I read something about you that…
It’s not true. I swear. I’m 5’10”.
We have something in common, right? So when I was a kid, I would go to bed and I’d watch The David Letterman Show, right? And I thought, “Man, what a cool job this guy has,” right? I’m like, “I would love to have his job when I get older,” right? So that was kind of always a dream of mine, kind of now I’m kind of doing, I’m interviewing interesting people, I just don’t have the notoriety that he has. But tell me a little bit more. So was that the reason why you want…
That’s still the dream, yeah.
Is that right?
Well, for me, Letterman was hilarious, but Leno was The Tonight Show for me. So Letterman was the edgy, funny, like, “Whoa, this guy is weird and cool,” but I didn’t appreciate that because Leno was just so loud. And Leno was just that guy who walks up, and he’s got Kevin Eubanks playing the guitar. And it’s like, that was the show. So I was like, “I want to host this fun party that happens every weeknight, I want to host The Tonight Show.” I still want to host The Tonight Show to be completely honest. I think it would be so fun. I would love to walk out, do a monologue, go sit down, talk to two guests for six minutes, seven minutes. It would be awesome. And then have a musical guest. Yes.
It doesn’t get better than that.
No. I think it’s a lot of work and I think people probably hate you after a while. And you probably hate yourself after a while. And it’s tough, like every day producing that show. But I think I’m built for it. I think I’m okay with it. The years of stand-up has just put me in the mood to want to always be working. Sometimes, when I’m not doing a show, I’m just pissed, I’m tired, I’m like, “What’s going on?” Like, “Why am I not working? Why am I just hanging out at home?”
Yeah. No, I agree. And I think there is a level of stress because they have big shoes to fill, right? They had big shoes to fill.
I mean, it’s all the marketing and stuff like that, right? It depends on how much money they’re bringing in for like, say The Tonight Show for GE and stuff like that, to be able to keep it going. And I think that’s the hardest part, it’s making everybody happy across the board.
So I wonder if it was harder. Like if you think back, you got the David Letterman and the Jay Leno, you got the Johnny Carson
era before that, now you got the Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon , the modern one. I always wonder, is it harder to gain market share when there was only so many networks, right? Or was it harder now to gain market share because now you have social media? So, which one was easier to gain more market share, what do you think?
Well, if you’re Carson, it’s easy. If you’re anybody else…
Because it was only so many channels. Right.
Yeah. If you’re Johnny Carson, it’s super easy. But if you’re any of his competitors, I bet it was pretty hard, back in the day to take any of his viewers. But here today, I think you’re right, everything’s just split. Everything’s like 1%. You can just basically watch whatever you want all the time. I think Carson, he didn’t have a… I mean, again, he was just built for that time. He was made for that show. So, he did it for so long and I think it’s probably a little harder today.
Yeah. Did you see Kim Kardashian on Saturday Night Live?
She crushed. Yeah.
She did a good job. Right. One of the lines that stood out with me that was pretty impactful was when she says, “I want to thank Lauren and the whole crew here at Saturday Night Live for having me on the show. Normally, I don’t talk to audiences that broadcast to only 10 million people. I’m used to broadcasting to 300 million people on my platform,” right? It’s so true.
She’s so true. Yeah. It was completely true. That’s why for her, it was such a walk in the park. Yeah, she just crushed it. She just knows how to handle it. Like, they basically did the same joke over and over again of guys getting to kiss Kim Kardashian every sketch.
You know they wrote their own sketches.
You know they did.
Was that a dream of yours? Did you have a vision yourself on SNL?
That’s what the whole move to New York was about. I mean, it was an, I wouldn’t say ignorant dream, but it was too big of a dream when I first moved out at 18. Like, getting rejected from advanced study at UCB really crushed that side of the game for me, because I found it incredibly unfair. Like I was doing so well in improv, I was doing well on my high school team, I was doing well in classes. I was always trying to uplift my teammates and stuff like that, and make sure that the shine was spread. And I was really confused why when they were doing like a diversity initiative as well, I wasn’t accepted into their higher-up courses.
So that kind of put a bad taste in my mouth and made me want to do a lot more stand-up, and try to make it that direction into Saturday Night Live, the stand-up direction, which does happen. There are stand-up comics that do break into SNL. Like there’s one right now, Punkie Johnson, she was a stand-up comedian and a bartender at The Comedy Store two years ago, and now she’s a cast member. It does happen. Aristotle, who just joined this season was a stand-up comedian and a director.
I remember too in those days I was like, that would be a cool job too. Because when you’re a kid, you’re just trying to figure out what do you enjoy? Well, I like watching Saturday Night Live, I like David Letterman, I want to be a professional baseball… Everything that you kind of think that you want to do. And then I started to watch some of the… Because they have on YouTube, you can watch some of their auditions, right. And when you watch like a Jimmy Fallon audition, right, you see just truly how talented Jimmy Fallon is, right, with impersonations and music and just his charisma, right? It’s like, whoa, you don’t realize how good you have to be to get onto Saturday Night Live.
You have to be one of like the 16 best improvisers and character actors. You got to be top-notch.
Yeah. And a lot of those guys and gals get their training from places like Second City, Groundlings. You had mentioned the one in New York, right? So, when did you start becoming a student of improv? I know, fifth grade, you said.
Eighth grade.
Eighth grade. Okay.
Eighth grade was the first time I saw it. Yeah, I used to love watching the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and then the Drew Carey Whose Line Is It Anyway?. And then yeah, we took classes every week. We had an instructor come from LA down to our high school and she would teach us improv. We had improv classes in high school. Theatre program had probably some sort of improv training as well. I just liked it.
Improv was very freeing, and very easy for me at the time, too. Like now, I can’t do improv to save my life sometimes. It’s so hard to do improv on a stage with other people because the timing is completely different from stand-up. Stand-up timing is, like joke, joke, joke. Improv timing is like, continue, continue, continue, make it bigger, make it bigger, make it bigger. It’s just a completely different muscle.
So do you remember the first time that you said, “Hey, I’m going to try this stand-up stuff?”
Yeah.
What prompted you to make that transition?
Well, it was in high school. It was my senior year. Everybody was about to go off to college and I realized that our improv team was breaking up. Everybody was going to different states, different schools, and I could see that we weren’t going to see each other after this. Everybody was going on their own path. So then we said, “Let’s do a stand-up night.” And so, we put on a stand-up night at our high school in the same theater where we do improv, and that’s when most of us did stand-up for the first time. I stole a lot of jokes from Eddie Izzard who is a British comedian who cross-dresses. And I was like, “No one’s going to ever know that I stole these jokes.” And then I stole some other bits from… I think it might have been a Robin Williams bit.
And so, I just went up on stage and it was my first time to do stand-up. I’m doing all these jokes about hopscotch that I didn’t write. I was the last comedian, too, of the night. I put myself as the headliner, but we all did the same like six minutes. But then I realized I’ve never done stand-up before; I don’t know how to get off stage when doing stand-up. I was like, “How do I close? I don’t just walk off stage, that’s not right.”
You need that one joke to finish.
I needed that joke. And then at the time, it was a little after 2001, so terrorist stuff was still big. And our school had just had a scare because this kid put a cigarette bomb in a trash can and the whole school got shut down. And he wasn’t brown, he was an Asian guy. So somehow in the mix of everything, I just sort of said like, “And the last guy who did something scary at our school was an Asian guy,” and then the whole place started screaming. And then I said, “Goodnight, thank you.” So that was the original joke, but I didn’t know, I was going to say it. I had no idea. I just kind of connected the dots. And then I just heard everybody clapping. I was like, “I’m out of here.”
And you were hooked.
I was hooked. And then I went to The Ice House here in Pasadena.
Is that right?
Yeah. I took a seminar at the Irvine Improv first and I met this guy who was just sitting next to me who gave me more advice than anybody that I saw at the seminar. He was like, “You got to go to this website called chucklemonkey.com.” And I was like, “ChuckleMonkey?” He’s like, “Yeah, it’s ChuckleMonkey.” So I go to ChuckleMonkey and it had the list of all the open mics and bringer shows in Los Angeles at the time. So it was a big deal. This little list, this little website that I wouldn’t have known about. Daniel Tosh was even a speaker that night. We got to go see him live that night after we saw him in the seminar. It was great. Great day. And then started going to The Ice House, doing bringer competitions before I moved to New York. And then when I went to New York…
What’s a bringer competition?
A bringer competition, it’s a planned night where nonprofessional comedians are competing for spots basically. The way it works it’s like: who brought the most people? If you brought the most people, you’re going probably win if you’re good. And then you’re going to get another spot to come back and invite your friends again. It’s basically a way for comedy clubs…
It’s comedian influencer marketing at the time, it sounds like.
Yeah. I was bringing like 50 people to shows. I was bringing like 40 people to shows, like a lot. The most I ever brought was like, 100 people to a show once, like friends, put them on a guest list. But that’s neither here nor there. And yeah, it’s just a way to get up on stage. So that’s how I started.
Now, you got to imagine that you got to be intimidated, scared, right, because you’re sitting there watching people that you might even think are way funnier than you, right?
I think because I came from improv, I never had that fear.
You didn’t.
No, because that fear didn’t matter to me as an improviser. As an improviser, you want everyone to be good, because then you have a great show.
That’s true.
In my stand-up philosophy, I believe that a better show is what’s most important. When a comedian is struggling and then they’re like, “How am I going to get out of this hole, and they decide to just continue talking instead of just letting it go to the next person, it bothers me. I think it’s better just to get off the stage and let the next person come on because we’re just trying to have an overall good show. So if somebody was crushing in front of me, that’s good, that’s like fuel. It’s like, “Okay, good, this guy’s crushing, now go up and crush harder.”
He’s just warming up the audience for you.
Basically.
Yeah. Now, have you ever bombed on stage?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I bombed so hard once, the first time I met Tiffany Haddish. Do you know her?
Yeah.
So it wasn’t the first time I met her, we did a school in New Jersey together. And then she said, “Come do my show at Pechanga,” a casino here in LA. She said, “Come do my room in Pechanga.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure.” And I did so well in the New Jersey show, I thought, I’m definitely going to crush this Pechanga show. And it was a room that hated me. And at one point in the set, I was like, “What can I do to make you guys happy?” And this lady just screams, “Take off your shirt!” And I was like, “What?” She was like, “Take off your shirt.” She got serious the second time. And I was like, “Oh fine.” So then I take off my shirt and then the crowd finally gives me like, “Okay, you get it.” Like, you’re at least understanding how shit you are right now and you’re trying your best. Like, I just didn’t have it. There are certain nights that, yeah, you just don’t have it.
The audience or just…
It could be anything. It could be a fly in the room that’s bugging everybody. It could be anything at all, but I don’t bank on crushing every single night. Being too drunk is a big one.
Is that a thing? Do a lot of comedians, when they’re on stage, they’re just kind of just drinking?
No. It’s hard sometimes working in Vegas and the day your friends are in town and they’re not working at night…
Like a celebration before you go on stage.
Before you go up on stage. So, you’re kind of drunk from day-drinking and going to Topgolf. And then maybe you just don’t have it that night. It just kind of happens where you have to time everything out so perfectly to do well. Sometimes you just don’t have it. Sometimes it’s totally understandable to not have it and just take an “L.”
So it’s interesting now because you’ve been doing… How long have you been doing stand-up?
14 years.
14 years. And do you still go and just, kind of, watch comedians?
Oh, all the time. Yeah. Not as much anymore because of the pandemic, but I love watching comedy. I mean, I don’t go if I’m not performing, I should say that. I’m not like going to the club just to hang out. But if I’m performing, I will stay and watch everybody.
Because you probably see it from a different lens than somebody like me, right?
We just love it. It’s like a language. It’s just a thing. Like my friend, Marielle, came to a show recently and I performed, and she was still in the audience, and I texted her like, “Are you in the room?” And I could see her, but she didn’t react on her phone. And then I left, I went home and then she’s like, “Hey, are you still here?” And I was like, “No, I went home, I’ll see you later.”
And then the next day we went out to brunch and I was like, “Oh yeah, I texted you because I was trying to get your attention.” She’s like, “Why were you trying to get my attention while I’m watching the show?” And then I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re right, you’re not doing this the same way I’m doing this. Like you came to see the show, I forgot.” She’s like, “Yeah, why would I want to come talk to you while I’m watching the show?” I had to be like, “You’re so right, you’re so right.” Like, I didn’t even think about it. You just see it in a different lens.
That’s what I’m saying. Like I’m in the audience watching, laughing, but you’re critiquing like, “Oh, I would’ve done that joke, I would’ve done it a little bit different,” right? So many different things. How do you even prepare?
You write.
So it’s a lot of writing.
It’s a lot of writing. It’s a lot of work up top. There’s a lot of work that goes in even before you hit the stage. There’s hours. I usually think that one hour of work is one hour of stage time.
Okay.
So if you’re doing 10 minutes, you got to work on something for 10 hours to be able to get a decent 10 minutes. If you think you’re just going to write down like, “Potato chips,” and then you’re going to go up on stage and be like, “Guys aren’t potato chips crazy, huh? That bag’s not full.” People are just going to be like, “Okay, I’m with you, you have a point, but where’s the joke.” A lot of times it’s just a lot of points and no jokes. So you got to write like, “Oh, potato chips, huh, there’s no bag.” I don’t know. It’s a bad example. But you just got to work on it and then you write down the title of each joke on a piece of paper and you’re like, “Potato chip,” and then, “Batman,” and then, “IRS,” or “school.”
So you keep a notepad with you at all times or your phone or what?
My phone and a notepad. Yeah, I started with a notepad. First notepad I ever got was from my sister. And so, I’ve just been adding Moleskines every year, just like filling them out. And then my phone is good. Yeah, the phone has been more convenient obviously, but the notebook goes in the bag when I travel. So the notebook is with me, but the phone is just a little bit more convenient.
Who would you say would be your top five stand-ups of all time?
Chappelle, which I know is controversial.
That’s your number one?
No, top five.
Okay. So just top five. No order. Okay. I got it.
Yeah. Chappelle, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Mitch Hedberg, George Carlin. Yeah. You have to. Richard Pryor doesn’t make the list, unfortunately.
Eddie Murphy, either.
Eddie Murphy doesn’t make the list because if you watch one of his stand-up specials now it’s tough.
Now it’s pretty different, but you can’t get away with it.
You can’t get away with it. Like Robin Williams, you can watch his old stand-up specials and it’s not offensive.
That’s true.
Eddie Murphy’s is just like, whoa, you are… Again, I don’t hold it against him, it was a different time. And the people are laughing. If the people were cringing and were like “Ugh,” it’s a different story, but people are with them and they’re hooting, hollering, and having a good time. But yeah, it’s tough.
Yeah. I like pretty much everybody on the list, so that’s a good top five for sure. I’m surprised, I know that you got to share the stage with somebody that had a pretty popular TV show.
Yeah.
You want me to tell you that story.
I would love that story.
So, I’m working at Brad Garrett‘s Comedy Club in Las Vegas. It was it’s my home club, basically, in Vegas. This is a place that I’ve worked the most. And this is the first week that I’m featured. I’ve usually been a host. So, I would be the first comic on stage. But September 10th through the 17th of 2019, I got to do my first feature week. It’s the second night, it’s Tuesday night, and I walk into the green room and there’s a giant fruit platter in the green room. And I’m like, “We don’t get a fruit platter.” I don’t know what this fruit platter is about, but we’re not fruit platter material. So, then I asked the manager, Ed, I was like, “Ed, what’s going on?” And he goes, “We have a special guest coming in tonight.” I was like, “Who?”
The fruit platter gave it away, that’s hilarious.
Oh yeah. The fruit platter was like, that’s not normal. There’s white linen on the table. I was like, “No, no, no, no.” There’s candy for us. We’re a candy comedian crew. And they were like, “Jerry Seinfeld‘s coming.” I was like, “Get out of here.” And he’s like, “No, he’s coming tonight.” And I was like, “Really?” And he was like, “Yeah, he’s going to be here.” And I was like, “Wow, incredible.” Then 15 minutes later, Seinfeld walks in with George Shapiro, his long, longtime manager, which was even a bigger deal to see George Shapiro. George Shapiro, he’s got to be close to 90, walks in, grabs a piece of watermelon, I was like, “Boom, that’s who the fruit platter’s for.” It’s not even for Seinfeld, It’s for George Shapiro. And then all of a sudden, he’s in the room.
The green room is decorated really well with a lot of stand-up history. There’s a picture of the whole cast of Seinfeld where they’re all wearing black turtlenecks and their faces are black and white. It’s a pretty common image if you look up “Seinfeld.” Like, you’ll see this, it’ll come up. And then he just looks and he goes, “Huh, I remember when we took that.” And I was like, “Of course, you remember when you took that, that’s you in the photo.” So, he’s not really talking to a lot of people, he’s just kind of hanging around. All of a sudden, everybody walks out of the room, and it’s just him and I, and he just turns around and he looks at me and he is like, “Where did everybody go?” And I was like, “I’m still here.” And then he starts laughing. Then he starts talking to me and the normal questions, like where did you grow up, all that stuff. And we just chatted for a few minutes.
The host is on stage and the host finishes. Seinfeld goes on and I’m freaking out at this point. I’m just so excited. I got to talk to him for a few minutes. It was just the two of us in this green room. And he does about 15, 20 minutes, and he walks off stage. And the host goes back out, he looks at me, he goes, “What’s your name?” And I’m like, “Omid Singh.” He goes, “Omid Singh?” I was like, “Yeah.” Seinfeld goes, “Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for you.” And I was like, “Cool, thanks.” He just shakes my hand. I knew not to take a photo with him because he doesn’t do photos.
Okay.
So just shook his hand and then I go up on stage and the audience gives me like a… And I just go, “Nobody wants to be me right now.” And then they start clapping really loud. They’re just happy about that joke that I said I’m following Seinfeld. And then I got to do 15 minutes and I crushed. I did all my best material. I just did everything that I knew was going to be at that caliber of what I had to do even though he was kind of doing new stuff and kind of working out material. I just knew I couldn’t waste any of these people’s time. They just watched Seinfeld. They’re really giving me a lot of grace. So, I just did my best 15 minutes. Carrot Top was in the audience. He comes backstage afterwards, he’s like, “Great set, man.” I was like, “You’re Carrot Top.”
You were at like a high in your career.
It was a high. Yeah. Brad texted me, and he said like, “You got to follow the king tonight and you did really well. Like, we were watching.”
My mind automatically goes like, “What am I going to say when I get on stage?” I would’ve been like, “I just want to thank the new guy, Jerry, for opening up for me,” but I guess you had a little bit more respect.
Yeah. No, you got to be self-deprecating. Yeah, nobody wants to be me right now, I thought it was such a good line, they loved it. And I was like, “Yes, good, now, just do the bits.” I even flubbed like two lines and two bits. And that’s when I’d be like, “Jerry Seinfeld, everybody.” Like, come on, I’m having a great night because this guy’s here even though I flubbed a couple of lines.
So, recently I got to see John Mulaney, they flew him out to perform at a legal conference I’d be speaking at, and so, they flew him out and he gets on stage, and boy, was he so prepared, man? It’s almost like he wrote material just for this conference. It was so good. And we’ve had other comedians in years past that were famous comedians, but they were just, kind of, just delivering their Netflix specials and stuff like that. But I thought it was really interesting that he took the time to kind of write a special set for this. Maybe he was just getting paid a lot of money.
Hey man, money talks.
Yeah.
If you’re getting paid a lot of money to do a private event, you might as well be prepared.
Do you customize your material sometimes?
Absolutely.
Do you?
Yeah. Whatever it may be. If you have enough time, if someone’s like the day before, be like, “You want to do this dentist convention?” I’d be like, “Oh, I guess, but it’s going to be a lot of jokes about me being brown.” You give me a couple of months, a heads up about this dentist convention, I could probably do pretty well. You got to tailor it to them. I don’t think about it being my show, I think about it being entertaining people. You got to do what makes the room happy.
Because there’s a lot of comedians, but what separates the 1%, like what really separates, is it more of their marketing ability?
I mean, the first word that came to mind was “love.”
Okay.
I think love has a lot to do with it, because that top 1%, they’re being carried by their theaters and their stadiums and their auditoriums and those that are watching them. That’s a lot of love in that room. Your Kevin Hart and your Chappelle, and I don’t know, whoever’s huge, selling out arenas, it’s, a lot of people are sharing energy. I mean, marketing, of course, is great, but I think you can market anything. But if you were trying to have the lasting career, which is what I’d say most comedians are going for, nobody wants to blow up and then stop touring. People want to sustain it for life. That’s how you make true wealth I would say, is always making money doing what you love doing. And I think love, that’s the answer. I know that’s cheesy, but I think that’s the true…
It’s a good answer.
It’s the true answer to me.
Yeah. So what’s up with roast battling, I see this on your resume?
Oh yeah, Roast Battle.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’m a big roast battle, which again, it also has a lot to do with preparing. So you find a partner and then you schedule out a battle a few weeks in advance and then you get up at The Comedy Store.
I’m thinking like Eminem, like 8 Mile right now.
There’s a lot of Eminem, 8 Mile references that go by. There’s a lot of like, “You spilled food on your spaghetti or on your sweater already” or whatever. There’s a lot of making fun of each other. I just did it like two Tuesdays ago at The Comedy Store.
Did you.
Yeah. With this guy named Los Digits.
Okay.
And he’s like the up-and-coming guy who is challenging. And I’ve been doing it for 5 years now. I started like the 2nd week it was around. And back then we were doing it for spots at The Comedy Store. So it’d be like you battle, and then you come back a week later and you get to do a stand-up set.
How do you know who wins?
The audience decides.
The audience.
There’s an audience or there’s judges. If it’s a main event, then there’s a panel of professional comedians that judge you. But if you’re an undercard, then it’s up to the audience to vote who wins.
So is there like a bracket kind of a thing?
There’s a leaderboard.
Is there really?
Yeah. I’m up there.
Interesting. I’d love to come see you rap battle.
Not rap battle.
Not rap battle, roast battle. I’d like to see rap battle too.
No beats, please. It’s fun. I do it every three months now, that’s my normal.
They’re really fun to watch, man. Like, when you see like the Justin Bieber getting roasted on stage, oh, they’re great.
Yeah. It’s a good energy. I mean, it’s the last place where you can say some nasty things on stage because you’re not shocking anybody. You’re telling people up-front, this is going to be… Like the host, Brian Moses says, “This is racist, this is sexist, this is misogynistic but it’s jokes because at the end of the battle we hug.” Like, he makes it a point to be like, we’re saying these things because we love each other and because we’re having a good time.
We’re not actually trying to hurt each other’s feelings. There are certain guys that will go up there and try to hurt somebody’s feelings, and the audience just isn’t into it. Like, if you just go up there and you call your mom fat and they’re like, “No, you can’t just do that.”
You got to actually say something funny and mean to the person. It’s like high school or middle school or elementary school bullying. It’s just like, this fun thing that there’s a community for it here in LA. There’s like 40 of us that love doing it. And we do it as much as we can.
Well, I’m going to give you my cell phone and next time you’re going to do that, let me know, I’d love to come see it.
Sure.
For sure.
You don’t need to give me your phone, just give me your number. How am I going to call you if you give me your cell phone?
All right. So, a little birdie told me that you have a favorite improv game called “The Beastie Boy Rap.”
Oh. Would you look at that? Who would tell you such a thing?
There’s only four of us in the room, right? So, I had never heard of “The Beastie Boy Rap.”
“Beastie Boy Rap.” So this would be an opener improv game when we would do these high schools. Do you want me to explain it?
Yes, please.
So it would be like, we get a one-syllable name from somebody in the room. Then I say a sentence and I’m going to leave out the last word, but the last word rhymes with that one-syllable name. So I’m going to give you a clue and then you have to say that one-syllable name, and then you say a sentence, and then I guess it.
Okay.
You’ll get it.
Got it. So can we get a one-syllable name from somebody in the room?
Jenna.
Jenna Kirshon: Mark.
Omid: Mark.
No, I’m saying Jenna, give me the… Good.
Jenna: Mark.
Omid: Mark.
Mark.
Okay. Ready?
Okay.
He’s in Iron Man, his name is Tony…
I don’t know the Iron Man.Stark.Stark.
Stark.
Oh, see, I’ve already lost the big game.
It’s okay. Let’s try another one.
Oh, this is how Beastie Boys comes up with their lyrics. Ah, okay. Let’s do…
If it falls off a tree it’s wooden, it’s called…
If it falls off a tree and it’s wooden, it’s called…
Bark.
The bark. I’m a little slow here.
Jenna: How about Jay?
Omid: Jay. When you sleep in your bed, you’re usually going to…
Lay. Got it.
Now you give me a clue with the word…
The word Jay, okay. I did so well at the comedy club, I’m going to get…
Paid.
Yes.
Okay. Stretch. It used to be an old football stadium in New York, I think it’s called…
Shea.
Yeah.
I took my kids to the park and we would…
Lay.
Play.
Play. Oh yeah. If you mix water with, I think dirt, you can make ceramics out of it, let’s call it…
Clay. Got it. I’ve got six big horses and they eat…
Hay.
That was awesome. I love it.
Jenna: Let’s do one more name, you want to do Matt.
Matt.
Omid: Sure. Matt.
Okay.
You start this time. I’ll guess.
My first girlfriend wasn’t skinny; she was…
Fat. If you go to jail for snitching on your friends, you’re a…
Rat.
Yeah.
Yep. I appreciate your wardrobe, you wore a…
Hat.
Yeah.
I’m not really a dog person, I’m more of a…
Cat. I go to Vegas and I play…
Craps.
Yeah. That’s a stretch. Right. That’s a stretch.
Stretch.
Yeah. I was just in Vegas.
That’s fun.
That’s a fun game.
Man, “Beastie Boy Rap.”
I’m going to play that with my friends.
Go ahead.
It’s like our drinking game now.
Oh yeah.
So let’s talk a little bit about… First of all, your mother, I’ve seen a…
Whoa. Jason. First of all, your mother, okay, I might have to go.
No. I’ve seen an Instagram post and I think it was in Vegas, and you had your mom there and a whole crew, what was going on?
Yeah, so that was recently, I was back in Vegas and Brad Garrett was there, and my mom takes tango lessons. So, she’s big into tango right now. That’s like her new hobby for the last few years. And there’s a really famous tango instructor in Las Vegas. So now when I work, she comes and gets a room thanks to the club, and goes and takes these tango lessons. So she was there and yeah, I had a host of friends in town and it was amazing. Yeah.
So you were performing there. Where do you perform usually?
At Brad’s.
At Brad’s Comedy Club.
Where is that at?
It’s at the MGM. At the Grand.
Ah, I’ll be there in two weeks.
Hell, yeah.
Will you be there?
No, I’ll be there end of November through the first week of December.
Okay. And so, when you go, where do you stay? Just at the hotel the whole time.
They keep us at The Signature, which is really nice.
So nice. So your mom, I see also, in addition to tango, she does energy healing.
Yeah, she’s a Reiki Master.
So what does that even mean?
Reiki is the type of healing where you don’t actually touch the body of the person you’re healing. It’s like you’ve an energy field above people. So, it’s just a lot of like energy transformation.
So you grew up all about energy then, I imagine.
Basically, yeah. I mean, we all grew up all about energy, to be honest.
But most people are unaware of it.
They don’t talk about it. Yeah. We talked about it a lot. There’s a lot of fields and auras, and my mom had a machine or still has a machine where you can put your hand on it and then it checks your electromagnetic energy field. It can tell you what color it is, how aligned you are. It’s pretty impressive. It’s pretty cool.
I’m a big energy guy. Growing up or anything, I wasn’t aware of it, I guess.
Till you came to California.
Yeah, I guess so, right? Yeah. So, I was with a friend of mine and he’s on the phone with his son, and it’s just like his 17-year-old-son, and the son was upset because his water polo coach was yelling at him, right? And so, then he got upset and he was kind of passing the negative energy to Brian on the phone, right? So then Brian gets off the phone, he goes, “I can’t believe this, man, my kid and this.” I’m like, “Dude, let’s just break this negative energy chain here,” right? Because it’s so real, right? It’s so contagious, right? And so, I’m like, “This is what you need to do, you need to go back to your son and you need to teach your son how to break that negative energy chain right there because you can see it’s passing over to you. It’s going to ruin your day. Now, it’s going to ruin my day,” right? So, it’s so powerful when you can kind of be aware of that.
I would just beat up the coach.
Just beat up the coach.
He started it. “Coach…”
You ever heard of the book Miracle Mornings, by Hal Elrod.
I can’t say that I have.
It’s a good book. He almost died. Drunk driver crashed into his car, head-on. They said he wasn’t going to live. Then they said he wasn’t going to walk, right? And so, he took this method of, kind of, using his mornings, and there’s like six principles that he follows. But one of the things that he said was really impactful is that whenever you’re upset about something, you’ve got five minutes just to kind of be pissed off, throw things at the wall, yell, scream, curse, right? But after the five minutes, guess what? You can’t change what happened, right?
Five minutes is a small window.
It is a small window.
Five minutes.
Yeah. But that’s all you should really dedicate to things that kind of go wrong in your life.
Five minutes.
Yep.
You have to get over it in five minutes.
Try it.
Oh, man.
Try it for a week.
I could see 30.
You can’t even break things in five minutes, right?
Yeah. Five minutes, I’m stewing. I’m thinking about that shitty thing that just happened. 30 minutes, I can get over something, okay.
What are some of the, I guess, skills that your mom has taught you about, kind of, living life like that? Yeah, I’m interested.
I mean, it’s everything. Not letting anything rattle you. That’s a big one. Just kind of rolling with it because most of our problems, we’re lucky enough that it’s small problems in the scheme of things, whether it’s not getting an email back or something like that, it’s not the end of the world. There’s people that have a lot more issues and it could be us too, but at the moment it’s more like, just you can deal with it, just be smart. A lot about being calm, being understanding, caring about others. There’s a lot of that.
Yeah.
There’s a lot of that.
So, it sounds like you were raised right. You were raised mostly with your mom.
Both, yeah, parents.
Mom and dad.
Mom and dad. Yeah.
But your dad passed.
Yeah. He passed away four years ago.
Sorry. Yeah. My dad passed away a couple of months ago, like recently.
Oh, damn.
Well, my dad and I never really…
How long did it take you to get over it, five minutes? Is five minutes’ terrible time?
Ooh, let’s see. Touché.
See.
Right.
You can’t just be like, oh…
That’s true. I guess, grieving, I guess. Could that be called differently, I guess? That might be categorized a little differently.
Are you already grieving or have you put it aside and you’re waiting for the right time to grieve?
I’ve accepted it, I guess.
You’ve accepted it.
Yeah. I think I’ve accepted it. My grandfather died just then like a month later. And he was more of a father figure. It was just a rough year. Yeah, it was a rough year. He was 94. He lived a great life. So that was more of a celebration of his life instead of a death. So, what did your dad do for a living? What did your mom do for a living?
My mom was a Reiki Master.
So that was what she got paid to do. That was her job.
Yeah.
Okay.
And my dad just did a lot of import, exporting from all around the world from a young age. He started by selling bus parts in Iran a long, long time ago.
Interesting. And you came up from a multicultural family?
Yeah, my dad was married before he met my mom. And then my mom had to escape Iran and went to India. Then they fell in love, they got married in Germany. Then they moved to Chicago, had my sister. Then my mom went to go visit San Diego, called my dad, and was like, “I’m never coming back to Chicago.” Like, “You got to come to San Diego.” And he moved and then I was born. Then we went on this crazy life road trip for-
No brothers and sisters.
One older sister.
Oh, you have one older sister.
Yeah.
Sounds like a movie I’d watch.
Oh yeah. I think it’d be a good one.
So if your life was a book, what would this chapter be right now? What would it be called?
“The Beginning.”
“The Beginning.”
Yeah.
Just getting started.
Yeah.
Everything up until this point led me to the beginning, this is where it all starts.
Yeah. Always. Every day is pretty much just a continuation.
And don’t look back. Right.
I mean, look back, but you have to look forward, otherwise, you’re going to hit a pole.
Yeah. You’re driving with your head turned backwards the whole time, you’re going to crash.
Yeah. I mean, I love looking back though. I love looking back at what my family’s done. I love looking back at what I’ve done. But I know there are so many things left. There’s just so many things left. I don’t think I’ll ever cross everything off the list, but there’s just a lot of things in front of me that I want to do.
So fast forward, how old are you?
Right now?
Yeah.
Am I supposed to tell, this is a podcast?
Okay.
What if people try to age me or something?
Well, maybe we won’t do that. Okay. So, let’s just say fast forward, 10 years, where do you see yourself, still doing comedy?
Yeah. Comedy for sure.
Forever.
Forever.
You’ll be 80 years old, still getting up on the stage.
Still going to the clubs. Still trying to get up and do sets. No question about it. That’s the thing. I’m waiting for the day that I no longer have to fight for spots, where spots are given to me. That’s like still a struggle. It’s like just making it to that level is incredible and then do stand-up forever. Yeah. I mean, you can tell that it’s going to happen because there’s the old guys that are doing it still to this day. Like they still love doing it. If Seinfeld’s still doing stand-up at his age, and he made all that money and is so successful, what’s going to keep me from doing it? Like, of course, I’m going to want…
He doesn’t need to do it, right?
He doesn’t need to do it. He loves doing it. And I feel like I fall under that category. I just love that feeling of people sitting in a room, and that microphone, and just going to town.
Okay. Well, that is good. We’re going to end the show with one last game.
Great.
And this is a fun one, it’s called “Would You Rather,” right, where I give you two choices and you’ve got to answer and there might be a follow-up question to each.
Let’s do it.
All right, so would you rather be forced to listen to the same 10 songs on repeat for the rest of your life or watch the same five movies on repeat for the rest of your life?
Ugh, that’s awful.
It is awful.
That’s really bad. And I don’t get to hear any other songs.
That’s it for the rest of your life.
I got to watch those same five movies.
Five movies.
Yeah, because music, you can’t… Yeah.
Yeah.
I’ll watch the same five movies. Yeah.
So what’s the one movie?
Titanic.
Titanic‘s in there. You got to put Titanic in there.
Okay. I wouldn’t have seen you as a Titanic kind of a guy.
Okay, that’s a good one.
We got to put like a kid’s film in there or something like that.
Toy Story or something like that.
Yeah. Those are the three that come to mind.
Okay.
I guess those are the three.
Titanic.
Titanic‘s a great film. When you think about it, Titanic‘s got it.
The first time I’ve seen Titanic, it was me and a buddy of mine, and it’s opening night. We’re in high school and the movie comes out, and there’s like all these couples and stuff. And me and my buddy walked in, I’m like, “What the heck’s going on in here?” I look over, he’s crying at the end of the movie. I’m like, “What is happening right now?”
I just saw the funniest thing on TikTok about how Rose is actually the worst character in cinema history because she gets invited on this ship because this guy’s been looking for this diamond his whole life, he’s got investors, and he invites them on to the ship with her and the granddaughter, and then she tells this two-day long story about how she smashed this guy while she was engaged to another guy on this ship, and we’re all feeling bad for her. And then she takes the diamond and just chucks in the water, and then she dies. And instead of going to heaven and meeting up with her husband that she had that granddaughter with and all those kids with, she gets to go to heaven with the guy she fucked one weekend on a cruise. That’s the ending of her life. Like, what? It’s just so funny. It was just so, so funny.
Celine Dion made that song even more famous than it was, for sure.
Oh yeah.
Maybe that was one of your songs, the Celine Dion song. Let’s see here. Would you rather have a time machine or a teleporter?
I might as well go teleporter. I think, like, I want to go to Easter Island, but I really don’t want to do the 27 hours or 20 hours it takes to get there.
I think I’d choose teleporting as well. Yeah.
Yeah. But time machine sounds fun because you get to go back.
I guess you could go anywhere, forwards, backwards, right? I guess so, right?
What if you go too far forward and just like there’s an explosion where you go?
You can’t get back.
You’re done.
Right. Yeah, you’re right. Got to think of these questions. Would you rather hop around on one foot for the rest of your life or always have to squat when you walk?
Squat, like a workout squat?
Yeah.
Squat. Oh yeah, I want buns of steel. Squat. And it doesn’t hurt me or does it hurt after a while?
I guess after a while you’re used to it. Right.
So, I take like 50 steps a day because I have to squat every time. Man, though, my legs would be in shape.
Yeah. Go try it for a week.
I’m going to try it from here to the car. That’s going to be so uncomfortable. I’m going to call you guys and be like, “Can you drive me somewhere?”
Speaking of the Beastie Boys, would you rather speak in rhymes for the rest of your life or speak in riddles?
I don’t think anybody could handle me if I spoke in riddles, so I’m going to go with rhymes. I think people would be really upset.
Yeah.
Somebody at Starbucks is like, what’s your name, you’d be like, “Is it my name you need, or the size of my drink?” It’s not even a riddle.
Okay. So, you only could purchase used underwear for the rest of your life or used toothbrushes.
Well, I can wash underwear. I can wash a toothbrush too.
I’m going underwear, man.
Yeah, I’m going underwear.
Yeah. Hopefully, they’re black underwear.
So you can really see the cum that’s on the underwear. Can I say cum?
Talking about the stuff in the back.
Oh, you’re talking about poop. Wow, we are thinking about two different holes.
All right, last question. I think I know the answer to this based on how you answered the first question, but would you be rather trapped in a romantic comedy with your enemies or trapped in a horror movie with your friends?
I’m going to go horror movie with my friends. That seems more realistic.
Okay. I thought you were going to go the whole Titanic, the ship.
Why would I want my enemies around my love story?
Push them off the boat, right? You get on the boat first.
If I’m Jack though, it’s not looking good for the ending of this story. If I’m in my Titanic love story, gets a little chilly by the end of my story. I’d rather be in the horror movie and hopefully, one of our friends makes it out, right? I’m guessing most of us perish.
Exactly, one. Awesome, man. This was so much fun, man.
Thanks for having me.
So awesome. I love hearing your story, how you became a comic. Heck, I might even try stand-up myself here.
Do it. Just practice, practice, practice before you go up on stage or just have a funny idea.
Awesome. Well, tell everybody how they can find out more information about you to come see you at a show.
You can find me on Instagram: @omidsingh, or on Spotify. I was thinking about that on the way over here. I was like, “How come a lot of comics are like, ‘Yeah, you can find me on Instagram,’ but nobody ever goes like, ‘Follow me on Spotify?'” Yeah. You can follow me anywhere. Omid Singh, I think that’s… I don’t know.
Easy.
Easy-peasy.
And you promote your shows on Instagram, where you’re going to be?
Yeah, website, omidsingh.com.
Awesome.
Instagram. Twitter barely, just not into it. Not my bag.
Me neither.
I like doing it from other people’s accounts. That’s way more fun.
Exactly.
Something about doing it from my own account, I’m like, nobody cares. Nobody cares right now.
I can’t wait to come see you, man.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Important Links
Omid Singh’s IMDb Page
Omid Singh’s Website & Podcast
Omid Singh’s TikTok
Omid Singh’s Instagram
Omid Singh’s Twitter
Live in Bakersfield album on Spotify
Buy Live in Bakersfield album on Amazon