People of Northwest Arkansas
The People of Northwest Arkansas is an award winning podcast celebrating the power of storytelling by providing a platform for individuals living in Northwest Arkansas to share their unique and inspiring life experiences. We believe that every person has a story worth telling, and through our podcast, we aim to amplify these voices through thoughtful interviews and engaging storytelling.
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Behind the Punchlines with Raj Suresh
Prepare to be entertained as we sit down with the witty Raj Suresh. From his early days in Jersey to the release of his latest comedy special, Break the Leg, Raj's journey is as captivating as his punchlines. We trace his unexpected path into comedy, painting a vivid picture of a night after a tennis game that pivoted him from a corporate job at Smuckers to the stage.
Laugh alongside us as we delve into Raj's comedic evolution, from his humble beginnings in Arkansas to performing in the big leagues of New York. We tear into the challenges and triumphs of comedy life in the city that never sleeps, demonstrating how this sharpened his craft. A highlight of our chat is his viral joke about baldness and marriage.
As we wind down, we step into the vibrant Northwest Arkansas art scene, celebrating the diversity of talent that's shaping its evolution. We push the need for greater investment in the local talent pool and look to the future of comedy. We also examine the game-changing potential of platforms like TikTok. Will the brevity of content there revolutionize the industry or fragment it further? Join us and find out. Spoiler alert - this episode is a hilarious rollercoaster ride through the dynamic world of comedy and entertainment. Don't miss it!
@people_of_nwa
@rajdoescomedy
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Welcome to the People of Northwest Arkansas podcast. I am Danielle and we're really pumped about our show today. I'm also.
Speaker 2:Danielle, and we are super excited about our guest today, raj Suresh, who just released a special on Amazon Prime, as well as YouTube and Apple TV, called Break the Leg. We're super excited to have him here in the studio.
Speaker 1:Welcome, Raj. We're so excited to have you.
Speaker 3:Thanks next pair. This is great. I didn't know I'd be inside of a studio, inside of a mansion owned by a DJ. That's new, but yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you. So we are a podcast about Northwest Arkansas, so we want to know how you came to live in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 3:Shoot like this is going back to maybe 2013. I was living in Jersey and then I got offered a job here At Walmart. Yeah, well, this was at Smuckers way back then.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:But I came and did the interview and on the way out like everyone seemed really nice. And then on the way out the guy that would become my boss was like you should go check out Crystal Bridges before your flight. And I was like, well, like you know what about you know security lines at the airport? And he's like there's no such thing. Like back in the day, xna was tiny, it was like it was one guy and he was the security and the flight attendant and the pilot.
Speaker 3:You bought the ticket from him, he took your baggage, so, yeah, moved here 2013. And then I ended up moving away to Cleveland for like two years. This was right around, I don't know, maybe around 2018 or so. Okay. And then went to New York City the first week of the pandemic. So it's been a whirlwind. Came back here, bought a house, moved away again back to New York, bought a bar with two of my buddies out here. So it's been a lot of back and forth for sure.
Speaker 1:Wow, I can't imagine moving back to New York in the start of a pandemic Like that's some timing right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, march 1st the lease opened for me, and by March 14th, which is whatever.
Speaker 3:two, three days before St Patrick's the city was completely dead and I thought it'd be like a two, three week thing, right. So I flew off to St Thomas, the US Virgin Islands, because I was like I'll go mini vacation you know I can work remote and that had turned into like I don't know years, years and whatever along the pandemic. So I left St Thomas, came back because they started to like shut flights down out of there and I was like, oh man, like if I can't get the US mainland, this is not going to be fun. But yeah, I crashed out in Atlanta and then Arkansas for a while.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. What do you love about Arkansas? What do you like about it?
Speaker 3:I don't know, it's just, it's a, it's a fun spot of watch to grow a bunch. My people are doing very well out here. You know, my people being the Indians. We've bought up large tracts of land. There's now a full service cricket pitch. There's, you know, like six Indian restaurants owned by one guy.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's the same person.
Speaker 3:Same dude by most of them. I think there's he's got like one or two competitors, but okay the same dude is like, I think, time and again beating them back to the fence. You know so yeah yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3:It's a fun little area and you know there was comedy here before I got here and then I spent a considerable amount of time just doing comedy, like all the time. So I started probably 2014 as a complete accident. I got a hammered and went out with one of my buddies after a tennis game and we were drinking and I ended up at an open mic and that was close to 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:Was that here?
Speaker 3:That was yeah, this, yeah. This was in North North Arkansas.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you guys went out. We're having a good time. You had some liquid courage. Yeah. And then you. How did you get convinced to go on an open mic?
Speaker 3:Um, I can't. I still don't remember if he signed me up as a joke or if I signed myself up, but we were just there. We bumped into some girl that was like I'm going to my boyfriend's open mic, so like we tagged along and next thing I know I've been up there for 13 minutes.
Speaker 1:So were you just like improv, just whatever was in your head, Just.
Speaker 3:I think I have like one joke Do you remember it? The first joke. Yeah, I want to hear the first joke was like I don't know if I didn't volunteer to do this, but I'm doing it anyway. So I know how Ali felt during the draft. And then the other 12 and a half minutes were pure trash, like just no.
Speaker 3:And it was normally at an open mic. You get five to seven minutes. I didn't know this at the time, right? So I see what's in comedy terms. It's called the light, right? Someone flashes you from the back of the room to get off stage. Okay. And that usually means you have a minute or two left. I thought people were taking pictures of me because I was doing so good.
Speaker 1:So did you see like a lot of flash.
Speaker 3:No, I just saw the same guy taking pictures of me. I was like he must really like what I'm doing and I get off stage. And he's like, yeah, dude, that means you need to get off stage. So, you ran double the set length as everyone else. But you know mistakes were made and that's part of the growth trajectory.
Speaker 1:So were you like, did you get like a high from it? Like I have to keep doing this, I want to do this again.
Speaker 3:I just I felt like immediately I kind of knew I was comfortable up there. Yeah. And I didn't know if I could write or tell jokes or any of that stuff. But you know, I just I knew I liked it. Yeah, and I didn't like have a ton of hobbies, like occasional tennis game, but my other hobby was like just drinking. So yeah, this is a productive way to.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's one of my hobbies, especially wine, especially wine, but I like cocktails too, beer.
Speaker 2:There's good local beer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have a new bar.
Speaker 3:Yes, we do have a bar. It's me, my buddy Alex and my other friend, alan. So the three of us actually bumped into each other at Benva Brewing and I guess I talked to Alan about opening a bar and he talked to Alex and now we have a bar. It's right next to heroes coffee downtown. It's called the Botanical, and so I'm from India originally, alan is from the UK and Alex is from Micronesia. Wow. So the bar kind of reflects that there's a lot of international beer, there's a lot of international, there's a lot of international everything I love that.
Speaker 2:That's exciting, that is really great that is why I love Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:Because, when I moved here from Dallas I was used to a very just diverse landscape and lots of different restaurants and places to shop grocery stores, bars and so I've noticed just noticed in the past six years how much I. That's really exciting to me because I love to try something different and new.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So there'll be cocktails like different.
Speaker 3:So we're waiting on the liquor permit. So for now, the way we've subbed around that is to use sake because it kind of tastes, the same, but it's a higher alcohol percentage and it's technically rice wine. Yeah. And a lot of people don't know this, but the state of Arkansas produces crazy amounts of rice.
Speaker 2:I heard that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's one of the largest producers of rice in the country. Yeah. So we're tapping into that. I think there's a sake company out of Hot Springs that we, I think, are trying to onboard what we get now we get from our distributor. Yeah. But we'd really like to make that a staple so that people kind of know, like this is a crop that grows here and we're utilizing it to its best degree. I mean, it's fresh rice and naturally you're going to end up getting fresher rice wine out of that.
Speaker 1:That's really awesome. I cannot wait, I'm really excited. So it's the grand opening.
Speaker 3:It's technically today, Okay, but we soft opened last weekend. We saw probably I think I looked at the report today probably over a thousand covers served over the weekend. We have a really large non-alcoholic menu too, so like basically any cocktail or cocktail that you see on the menu can be made non-alcoholic. But we also have a ton of other stuff to check out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, cause I feel like there's a trend of the mock tail movement, people just wanting to be healthier. I'm not one of them. I appreciate a spirit or a rice wine. Wine is my number one drink, so, yeah, we've got some good wine.
Speaker 3:We're expanding the wine list, but, yeah, there's a lot going on at the bar. We'll show everything from sports and beyond. All right, there's a shawarma truck out back, oh, very nice, yeah, and the pretty large patio that we might need to throw parties on or stand up or whatever else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Are you so? Will you have an open mic?
Speaker 3:I don't know about an open mic, but I know we'll do shows, cause Danielle and I are going to show up.
Speaker 1:We're going to drink some rice wine and make fools of ourselves.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, nice, mom jokes, mom jokes. So Danielle tried to write up some jokes. Oh no, I told them to write them and she's not going to tell them because her mom told her not to share them.
Speaker 1:I would sound like a joke if I told those jokes, but now I'm putting her on this spot. No, no.
Speaker 2:I can't do it. Do one of them, just one. Do it, oh God.
Speaker 1:No, okay, circle back Because we can circle back. Circle back to me, so talk a little bit more about your journey.
Speaker 2:So your first experience was at an open mic night and then you thought through this hey, I'm comfortable up in front of an audience, and so what kind of led you into comedy and writing and performing at the Grove and performing in New York and in other cities, and now a special? So tell us a little bit about that journey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for me it's actually it's kind of been. I think I had a good, a really good community in Bentonville. For the most part that would you know.
Speaker 3:Like the first shows I ever put together myself were at the Big Chill, if you remember, like before the shutdown they're around a while and to go from that to sort of then like eventually, like selling out the meteor, and then I kind of felt like I pretty much tapped out how much I could learn in this area. It's still always fun to come back and perform and it holds a special place in my heart, which is, I mean, I literally have a house in a bar here. But I felt like I like Cleveland was the next. I got offered another job there and that city was pivotal to my growth as a comic and as a person, is a great comedy scene. The bench is not weak at all. There's, I mean, any show you're on, people are going to kill. That's almost guaranteed. Like it's going to be a hard lineup to get on because there's so many options that producers can go to for who they want to put on the lineup.
Speaker 3:Great scene, a ton of great comics. It's actually where I shot my special, and then, yeah, and now New York. So New York is even, I think, harder because there's other elements. It's not necessarily that their comics are hard to defeat, which they are If you think about it from a competitive standpoint, which I don't think is healthy, but people do. It's also there's, there's so much comedy happening and there's so many shows and there's and everyone is trying to cultivate and get an audience. So, like you know, your ability to draw is important to a certain degree. And if you can't draw in a big city like New York because people have 20,000 options like if they don't get a ticket to your show tonight they can go two doors down and go to a bar or go to a world class restaurant or whatever else it is it just sharpens you as a comic because you just want to kill all the time and when I don't like it hurts inside.
Speaker 3:Oh, I bet yeah, because you're looking at other people and you're like shit, I should have done what that. Good, yeah, what they're doing, you know. So, yeah, it's definitely like a steel sharp and steel situation.
Speaker 2:What is your draw, how are you unique and how are you drawing in an audience?
Speaker 3:Brown guy funny.
Speaker 2:Brown guy funny, definitely yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's good. I saw a bit that you did where you said you told a lot of Indian jokes and at the end a guy said I didn't really relate.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you were in Oklahoma, yeah, and so it actually happened.
Speaker 3:I know I said Oklahoma City in the joke, but it actually happened at Cherokee Casino in Calcord right, which is just over a straight line.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the guy came up and he was like I didn't get the Indian stuff. I was like okay. And then he looked at me and he's like oh wait. And he's like you're a dot, not a feather. And he pointed himself and I go to update your references on the computer not a casino Indian. And so that bit in the last week has gone somewhat viral. It's got two and a half million views.
Speaker 1:That's what I saw. I was looking at some of your most viral on TikTok and Instagram. Right, that was pretty funny.
Speaker 3:That's up there. Yeah, and it's weird because I set some goals at the start of the year. I said that with my girlfriend, we pinned it all out and one of them was to get the 10K Instagram followers by the end of the year. And we were looking at it a month ago, before the special came out, and I was like man, like we're more than halfway through the year, I've got four months left. I'm only at 3,300 or something. Special comes out, clip comes out, and now in the last week now I'm sitting at like 9,500 something.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was just going to say that you're definitely hitting that goal. Yeah, I hope so Absolutely.
Speaker 3:But now the pressure's on to create another one of those, because I don't always think it's. I don't know the resonance of that joke. I think comes from the fact that people have their own version of it, right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And you know the whole dot not feather thing has been around forever and so it's relatable and a lot of my other material. I don't know if it's super relatable because, like you know, there's a lot of 9-11 jokes in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of dark.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of comedy in there that is just a little politically edgier, I guess, and then there is definitely low brow, easy humor as well, Absolutely, Absolutely Low brow, easy humor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're watching something on your Instagram where you did a collaboration with gosh. I need my notes for this one. I can't pronounce her name. How do you pronounce?
Speaker 3:her name. Was it the matchmaker? The matchmaker, zarna Garg. Yeah, so I opened for Zarna and she's she's been fantastic, super supportive always. So we're sitting around. This was in Chicago and there's a very popular Netflix show called Indian Matchmaking.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've seen it. Yeah, so I love the matchmaking. I want to talk about this. I do too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, zarna and I were talking and I was like I have a joke where I'm like, the moment, you go bald, no father will give you his daughter's hand to marriage, and so that's the base of that joke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Cause you take your hat off and she's like no, no, no, no, immediately no.
Speaker 3:And then Vic Pandia, who's the other guy on the show that night with us, very handsome fellow right, full head of hair and all of that. She's immediately like yes.
Speaker 1:Immediately, she like runs his her hands, like through his hair, like let me make sure this is real. The check mark All right.
Speaker 3:Make sure it was real, yeah, so they're both very sweet people. Zarna, especially, has been super supportive of my, my comedy. She has her own special on Amazon Prime and, like it's, it's got a ton of views. So if you ever get the chance, go watch her.
Speaker 1:And where? Where can our listeners catch your special?
Speaker 3:So it's called break the leg, not break a leg. It's on Apple TV, amazon Prime video, youtube. It'll be on a handful of TV channels, like to be, and all that. I haven't looked down the list, but on demand you can get it on those three platforms and then if you're I guess if you're a TV person, I think streams for free, but obviously you have to wait until it's on and I don't know when it's on, and I think some of the tracks will air on on serious as well, hopefully, so the actual audio version of the album is also out.
Speaker 2:Oh cool, I love the name of your special break the leg and just maybe tell our listeners a little bit about how yeah, you got that. Yes, I love it. I love it with just that. I have a little bit of a theater background. And so I've often said you know, break legs, break legs not break your leg, not break the leg. Break the leg yeah.
Speaker 3:It's not a. A break a leg is not a common phrase in India. So I told my mom she would always wish me good luck and I told her about it. That's bad luck, yeah. So she goes all right, break your leg, and that's not the no. And then the next time she's like all right, I'll do it Correct. And then she said, break the leg. And then my dad's like wait, tell him, break both of his legs. It's funny, you know, some of those bits like I put them out and like people will tell me before shows, especially friends of mine. They'll be like break all of your legs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a friend who says break legs, break legs, break legs. Yeah, not break a leg, break legs.
Speaker 1:And I'm like okay, let's break all of our legs. Yeah, my God, it's like really taking it.
Speaker 2:Fantastic To the next level. So a little bit because we love to know more about people and what their lives are all about, and so you did this bit that was about matchmaking. Yeah. And so you didn't need a matchmaker, did you? So we were hoping to be matchmakers, but we found out you have a girlfriend.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, tell us about how you met her Were you introduced to her?
Speaker 3:We met through a mutual friend at a bar in Cleveland.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And you know, it wasn't anything at that point because I was just out with a buddy and then we connected with someone who's a mutual co-worker of ours and Sarah just happened to be at the bar. And then, like months later, we, I guess, ended up becoming Instagram friends and starting to chat and then really COVID did me a favor because you know, I think in the normal world of dating, when you can see people and see what they look like, that instantly disqualifies me a lot of the time.
Speaker 2:But when it's a word, not a swipe rights right.
Speaker 3:When it's a words game. I think that's where. I practice right, so I think that was helpful. Yeah, we've been dating like two and a half ish years, three years at this point.
Speaker 1:Oh well, that's a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm a little bit older too, you know. So, my, my um, I think what I'm trying to do, life wise, aligns very well with, just with what she's also trying to do. Yeah. We'll see where that heads in the next year or two years.
Speaker 2:That's exciting, that's really exciting. Does she help you with any of your content? Are you writing?
Speaker 3:I mean I asked her to date or yesterday. I was like, hey, if we had to get matching tattoos, she's not a tattoo person. And I was like, all right, we have to get matching tattoos, would you do it? She was like no, no. And I was like, okay, if we had to get it or I get deported, would you do it? And she's like I would find you a really good lawyer, honey.
Speaker 1:So that's she's like I'm not playing this game with you. Yeah, she's not getting it.
Speaker 3:She's very funny. I'm not in the stand-up sense because I don't think she likes the limelight, she doesn't like a big scene, she doesn't like to do social media very much. But yeah, sarah helps me think through a lot of the show business, end of things and of life. But when it comes to joke writing she generally allows me to just do that once in a while. She would give me like, hey, maybe try this, try that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But you know I'm around comics all the time, so if anyone's going to give you a tag on joke it's going to be guys that practice. That can see another way out. Yeah, there's like a lot of the humor in the set and I think I've got jokes on the special come from actual things that have happened, like you know, like we yeah, I always wondered that about lines, if they're making some of it up or like if all the things actually happened to them. There's a lot of embellishment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. Embellishment.
Speaker 3:I mean Hasan Minhaj, right now is like quote unquote under fire because not the bits, not 100 percent real, which is such a silly thing. Yeah Right, like okay. Dave Chappelle is one of the greatest comedians they ever do it and you listen to some of his jokes and it's clearly fictional Right. Oh, he's hilarious. You're not there. It's like getting mad at an actor because they're not actually like a civil war general. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say we're storytellers, we embellish.
Speaker 1:Yo, yeah, we were just talking about on the radio show this morning with Brock, about what does it, dr Doolittle, where he's Reggie? Do you remember that movie, reza Comedian?
Speaker 3:Dave Chappelle's A Stand Up Is that? I thought that was Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 1:Eddie Murphy was there, but Dave Chappelle's the Stand Up oh okay, it's been years since I've seen it. It's an older movie, no, but Dave Chappelle, the Chappelle Show, was like one of the best. This is one of the funniest shows.
Speaker 3:I still watch it. Yeah, I still watch it from every every now and then I'll hop on there. I'll watch the Rick James kit.
Speaker 1:I'll watch the big B1. Your couch, the couch scene.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll watch the Blind White Supremacist which is. They're just great.
Speaker 1:Yup, so many. Yeah, his show was good. You're some of your comedic inspirations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to know.
Speaker 3:I mean, when I first started watching comedy I was in high school in India, and so Russell Peters' videos were going viral and all illegally downloaded, so we would watch those. And then Chris Rock, dave Chappelle, bill Burr I think those- are the top four.
Speaker 1:Oh, Bill Burr.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and obviously I think Karlin ends up on that list. There's, I think there's a healthy dose of anti-authoritarianism within comedy, which I think is necessary, and the landscape changed considerably over the last five to 10 years. It became like no punching down. Then it kind of swung back the other way and now it's kind of getting back to center. So yeah, it was. It's had some weird, very weird ups and downs where I think people were scared to get canceled for a while or whatever that means.
Speaker 3:And then we were like well, cosby went to jail and is like now doing a full-scale tour that people are going to. Yeah, so anything possible, so this cancellation reel like we don't know what this beast is anymore.
Speaker 2:It was a marketing ploy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not sure what it is, Probably not but yeah, absolutely I'm glad that I was really sad when cancel culture affected comedy, because I think that's Absolutely Right. That's anybody's on the table in comedy. It's just, it's like a. For me, comic relief is like therapy. Like I love to just laugh. Absolutely. So when people censor themselves, they're not being truly authentic to who they are. I love when you just put your heart on your sleeve and just I still try to keep it pretty.
Speaker 3:I don't think of myself as like an incredibly dirty comedian, but that's not because I'm trying to be clean or anything like that. It's just kind of where the ball lands. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That said, some of these guys need to be canceled, not for stuff that they not for something they say, but because they're a danger to the community.
Speaker 3:Right, we don't need you signing autographs or, you know, interacting with the public.
Speaker 1:Right, uh. So If you're like, yeah, absolutely Assaulting people, Right Assaulting, yeah, that's not good. You should be canceled for that, like we're a legitimate reason, not just the off-color joke, sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we have to talk about a bit that you did about how weird American wedding can be, because it really hit home for me when you were talking about you guys have really been watching my clips. I have no, so I watched one about. You're talking about how they get married in a church and then there's not much time in between. You know, the grooms got his teeth on the garter. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I have to say I was laughing with her because over the summer, if my cousin in law is listening, sorry but I'm about to out you for your wedding. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We went and like everyone was praying and you know, it was very um, like a touching moment. And then, literally just moments later, we had on like 90s hip hop. Yeah, people were dirty, dancing, grinding, and then he's got his head up her dress, taking the garter off and one of the other married in. Like you know, my cousin in law looked at me and he's like wow, that there wasn't much time in between. You know that. And then this and I was like yeah, I was a little shocked, but that's just how it goes.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think my, my dad has always said to give people a reason to celebrate, like that's what? Yeah, he always. But at the same time it's straying into this area of extreme vanity, like when the bride and groom do like an entrance dance. I hate that. Yeah, I just I. It's like was the $50,000 wedding not enough attention for you? Now we have to watch you do stupid choreograph routine and I'm Indian and so I'm like I, like I know my family is going to be like oh, you have to do that. No, yeah.
Speaker 3:I just want to invite 50 comedians. Everyone gets five minutes. We'll just see who kills. But I don't. I hate that.
Speaker 1:But you're the groom you have to kill, right?
Speaker 3:I don't know. The garter toss situation, though, is a weird one.
Speaker 1:It is weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's weird. And then in this culture I guess the the bride's family pays for the wedding right. And then, what is the groom's family pay for the reception or something? The?
Speaker 1:rehearsal the rehearsal dinner, which is, how cheap is that? It's like one 20th of, I mean. I guess it depends, but I kind of like that Because most of it One 100th.
Speaker 3:I think, if you ask most guys, we don't have a Pinterest board of our wedding day. We don't have a vision board for what it should look like.
Speaker 3:Right and if the day is all about the bride, then I'm of the opinion that, yeah, you all should bear the cost then, because it's all about I. Also don't like dudes crying at weddings. When she first comes to the door like, oh, I've never seen her be so I would be crying over the loan for the dress. You know it's like a five thousand dollar dressing room one time.
Speaker 1:And some of. There's a new trend where they destroy the dress too.
Speaker 3:Why. I don't know, I did not destroy a new trend destroying the dress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they go like jump in the ocean or Throw food like I don't know.
Speaker 3:I've just a whole photo shoot and then they get a second dress and we wonder why the rest of the world is not a huge fan of America.
Speaker 1:I know we wonder yeah, five thousand dollar dress.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's destroy this it's only the salary for a person in India for the entire year.
Speaker 2:I think I spent less money on my wedding gown than my niece spent on her prom dress, Anyway. So weddings are an interesting.
Speaker 1:Did you know? I used to plan weddings, and I used to plan Indian weddings too.
Speaker 3:I did sangheats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 3:I just what's the I don't like? Some of the American wedding traditions are Downright creepy right Like yes, a hundred for a dance deal.
Speaker 1:We're like oh, I didn't do that.
Speaker 3:And then the thing where people clink glasses and they're like yeah, give her a kiss like that. That for me is a little much. I don't like that's just so weird and it's like how do you go from? And that I think those parts are weird. I think the cringiest thing is when the maid of honor or the best man decide to give like a hilarious speech or hook up either that well, the speech is bad.
Speaker 3:If they wrap, that's even worse. But I just think like so I've worked in corporate environments before, right and as a stand-up comedian. That's hard, because there is no worse form of humor than office jokes. Oh yeah, the reason the show the office is successful is because everyone knows how cringy some of that stuff is so bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean a long, long time ago. I used to work with a guy who every Monday morning we would have a staff meeting. He would always come in and he'd go. I got good news and bad news guys. Same same joke every week for 52 weeks or whatever for the whole year on Monday morning Good news and bad news. The bad news is business is down. The good news is at least it's consistent, and then all the bulls in the room would clap and laugh and it's like please shoot me in the face If this is the level that you think and why are you sure it's right?
Speaker 3:that would come to comedy shows and judge you Zero sense of humor. We'll show up and be like, well, I could do that. It's like, yeah, cool.
Speaker 1:Good try.
Speaker 3:I've seen you in the office by the water cooler cracking three guys up because they need a promotion from you. It's not the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's not the same. All right worse, heckler You've ever had.
Speaker 3:Oh, this was way back when Bentonville Brewing Company was on Fifth Street. Oh, I was like a really there's like a big dude, bald, tiny goatee, you know, sitting in the front row talking the whole time and Forget what he said now. But I was like, hey, do you want to? You want to calm down? And he's like do you want to go back to where you came from? And I go shut up coalstone, steve Austin, because he, because he just he looked, he just looked like he wasn't ready. He was like you are fine. I was like I think you're fighting diabetes right now. Why don't you sit down? It's like this. We've had fights break out.
Speaker 1:I can't believe people actually say that, like people still say that, not, I think it's changed a little, towns become a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a little bit more sensitive.
Speaker 1:I love that you fought back all the.
Speaker 3:LA folks have showed up, and so now yeah, yeah, they did all the LA people. I'm very tired of pretending that we have we have a growing film scene. Let's put it that way. Oh absolutely, and I'm very tired of us giving tax credits to the very people that spent the last 30, 40 years on film making fun of places like this, that are now showing up and filming here because they're on the tail end of their careers and no one in LA will hire them. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry to say it, but that's the truth. Right, We've got to stop celebrating Sealist stars that are showing up here because there's free money available and acting like they're adding something to the community. It makes us look like we don't have taste and I think it makes it kind of sets us backward. Yeah there are great independent filmmakers. There's great people doing art from this area. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, I agree.
Speaker 3:You have festivals in town with these massive productions that want us to go and attend, but they won't book local artists. Yeah and then there's an outcry and then it's like and I've seen the disparity right. I know what bands from Brooklyn get paid to play to absolutely nobody in this area at some of the high profile venues I'm not gonna name them and I know what. I've been offered to do the same amount of time.
Speaker 3:Yeah and it's a diff. The difference is not even in. I think I got offered 150 bucks right and I knew what they were making.
Speaker 3:Yeah plus the honorarium to fly them out. I'm like I can draw here, I can put asses and seats, and these guys aren't doing that. Plus, the music is fine. It's not world changing, it's just you have, I think, you. There was a lot of gatekeeping that was going on at the time and the only reason this community gets listened to is because We've created enough of a ruckus about it. So now, this year, I think, format has nine local artists Chris's Serana Torres, modeling those guys are great. Dj Aphrosia is opening the festival as the first act on the first date which.
Speaker 3:I think is fantastic.
Speaker 3:Those are all positive moves, but if you're trying to cultivate, I think it's. There's a difference between cultivating an art scene and cultivating an arts audience, and we are, in my opinion, using our cans and money arkexol venues, arkexol backdrop, arkexol everything To put up acts from LA and New York and and wherever else, when you have good talent right here. Of course, you wouldn't know that if you spent your whole time in an office Booking stuff through an agency, instead of actually going out into your community, into bars, into clubs and watching the people that are actually performing day in, day out.
Speaker 3:For this place specifically, yeah so I know that seems like a lot of heat, but I really don't care, like these guys know where they're messing up. Um and it's. You can't ignore your community until you absolutely have to get some kind of response together, Because it's turning into a pr crisis like that's you know we care about the people of Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2:That's literally every voice matters, every voice matters, and I think, for the two of us, just in the worlds that we exist in and, having been Transplants for years now here in Northwest Arkansas, I think that there's something. There's something unique here. There's something beautiful happening in this area where you're seeing a lot of talent, whether it's in film or in music or in comedy, people who are opening up businesses who maybe didn't have a chance to do that somewhere else, but they're bringing their gifts here and they're and they are pouring themselves into this community, rather than just Coming making a film and then leaving like I yes, I'm good with you.
Speaker 2:Yes just being in the film kind of world here, that that you do see a lot of that, you know. And you see a lot of music coming in and then leaving. You see Just a lot of different things that are coming in and leaving, but you're seeing a growth of people coming and saying and and planning, planning routes here and planting seeds here and and I think it's really great in the fact that you do comedy here elsewhere you have a bar like you're pouring into the community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that You're investing in an area.
Speaker 2:Like what we're what we're doing. Tell us a little bit about the comedy scene here and what people can expect and maybe some of the venues that they should go check out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for me there's a lot of good young comedians that are now coming up there's. You know, I'm from a different class, as it were, right, so like I'm 10 years in, but there's some guys that are One to five years in that are really doing some good stuff, and I don't know the exact time that each one of them has been doing it, but all the way down to, like, fort smith and up. So if you get a chance, like Andy Davis, uh, sam Price, edric George, like there's there's names Kyle Kordzmeier was in New York and just come back, so there's really good names performing and a lot of the time, like I would have a monthly show that runs at Bentonville Brewing Company. It's, uh, you know, in the back of the brewery, if you've ever been.
Speaker 1:I have been in there. I saw a magician with my daughter.
Speaker 2:Yeah so it's very speakeasy.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was awesome, it's great.
Speaker 3:And I've run shows in Bentonville for probably five or six years. I I still do shows the back of bike rack or the meteor, and so that's kind of home base for me. I think the area is brimming with talent and part of, I guess part of why I love the community is they've been so supportive of what I've tried to do for a long period of time. Right so, and I you know. Jumping back briefly to the conversation outside of comedy, so like Christian Serrano Torres and Tim Warden had this band called Rosenbridge, so we did a show together where it was a comedy and music. At Crystal Bridges we had like a 20 foot stage with a sort of like a catwalk out. We had a confetti cannon in there in the Great Hall. Oh fun, yeah, we got. I think I'm. I know confetti cannons are banned. I don't know if I'm banned from performing there every day. I mean, they said they were finding confetti behind the frames of the art for weeks afterwards. Like it was very small. We tried to keep it a reasonable size but you know it was very snow globe, like they would blast this confetti in the air every time. Rosenbridge would finish a song. Then I'd do like a couple of jokes and they would play music in the back Right and then they'd do another song at the end of each act. So we wrote like a three act show basically, and so I'm bringing all that up to say that there's a lot of creative experimentation that can happen here, that you're like in New York, you're under the gun to show them what you've built.
Speaker 3:Every five minutes set matters. When I went to Asheville, north Carolina, we did the Diana Wharton Theater as part of the Lafayette Asheville Off Comedy Festival and it's a full theater. It's a couple hundred people and, for whatever reason, like I feel comfortable in those environments because the clock doesn't feel as restrictive. It's like six to seven minutes. If you go over a little bit, people aren't super upset as long as you're killing and I think that is the real test here is you're going to get to watch people in the process of creation. I don't know why it is that people turn out anytime someone famous is on stage but they won't go watch someone solid who's just dialing it in week after week in a good way. I'm not saying that like usually dialing it in sounds like you're falling in, but no, I mean just like getting the fine tuning done and I think we our mindset has to change from watching someone just because they're famous to watching someone because they're good. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Christian played at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Right, which is crazy yeah. But if I put him up and let's say, I get Lindsay Sturlin, who's a fantastic violinist in her own right, and all of that, or just somebody famous. I think the same community will go and watch that over the local guy that writes music from his heart, from this area, and that's just. That's just where why artists leave. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if we're going to create something that generates any kind of monetary interest, it only seems natural to me that that should go to the people that love and support this community day in, day out. Versus, yeah, your cool background music when I'm having a pizza and a beer, but when I get to spend money and support the artist, I'm going to go pay a guy that's never coming back here after he gets the cash today, yeah, or unless he gets cash the next time. So, yeah, I think as a community, we have to change that if you truly want to be a patron of the arts for lack of a better word yeah it takes critical understanding, but we live in the era of people wanting to be entertained easily.
Speaker 3:30 second clips I mean comedy is literally moving in that direction. I've had a set for years. That joke that you're watching like that's going viral this week has been part of my set since maybe like 2017, 2018.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. How, yeah, because the power of tick. They say like, okay, my sister's 23. She doesn't even watch TV anymore and none of her friends. They just watch TikTok. Because they said it's so much better than watching TV because it's a quick laugh and then a that app just curates.
Speaker 3:But that's like saying crystal meth is better than weed it's an incredible high, I know. I'm sure, and you're just looking for the next hit.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:You know, that's a substance.
Speaker 1:However, I do like that. It's. Maybe I don't know if you share this opinion or you can share your experience with it, but I kind of feel like it's taking entertainment out of the hands of the giants and into agreed that the person you know you can create a splintering of comedy, though that is happening in that, in that dialogue.
Speaker 3:Right yeah. Like now if you let's say you like me, you like a clip and you come and watch the live show, do you want to watch 30 of those clips basically back to back, or are you more prone to going? I'm going to watch one clip from here, one clip from there.
Speaker 1:I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3:Six different acts, each doing a different style of comedy. You're able to curate a mixed bag. So you people no longer, I don't think, or very rarely, are they willing to step into the artist's creation fully, like when was the last time you saw full hour special comedy specials are now 30 minutes 30 minutes I've gone.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, they're about 30.
Speaker 3:Tensions. Fans are down, people are literally picking and choosing these. Like you know it's. It's kind of like going into a beer store where you can pick six kinds of beer instead of one six pack right and enjoying it all the way through variety.
Speaker 2:It's the nature of the beast, I guess.
Speaker 3:The model will keep changing. I think it will swing back. I think Tiktok is a recent phenomenon, that's it's here to stay, but not in the way that people think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, I think so too we went to the extreme point of short form content with Vine, six seconds, and then it, and even with Twitter, 140 characters. It was about brevity and speed and now it's you know whatever 280 characters, 60 second clips. It's expanding back out. It gives me hope and you don't. It's good in the sense that sometimes people do get discovered by larger audiences because it's just 30 seconds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a viral.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The downside to, though, of like all of this is you lose the ability to. I think comedy almost starts to become more. There's a big debate raging now about like is crowd work good or bad? There's a lot of comics don't want to put their material out because once you see the joke you know like you come to my show.
Speaker 3:you know some of these jokes already, but yeah so you always have to stay one hour ahead in terms of writing what's out there. So you put crowd workout because it's on the fly. You're not going to tell the joke twice because it's two people and that's a specific person. That's not at every show. Yeah. Right. So that's why there's a lot of crowd work clips out now. I personally think it's good.
Speaker 1:How do you feel about dad jokes?
Speaker 3:I love like my favorite jokes are not the ones I tell on stage. Yeah, just the dumb, the dumb stuff that.
Speaker 1:I love Dumb jokes yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell them to Sarah and she'll always like and the more she hates them. I almost like a more like antagonizing people with how terrible my jokes are, and that's really what I I've always loved about comedy is kind of like poking the bear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you have a favorite dad joke?
Speaker 3:Not off the top of my head. Well, I do, but I don't know how, I don't know if it's politically correct.
Speaker 1:Oh, we can edit it out. We can edit it. If not, let's hear it.
Speaker 3:I guess I could spin it right. Okay, so the three guys are flying around the world on a flight for world peace and as they fly over their respective countries, the toss out an object that symbolizes their nation. So they fly. It's an Englishman, an Italian and an Indian. I'm going to make it my own race, just because that's that's the easy whatever. So that other cultures aren't offended. So they fly over the UK.
Speaker 3:You know, the guy tosses out a pint of beer and then the pilot comes up over the PA and he's like oh, the beer hit someone on the head, They've died, we're going to land. And so they land, the offload the Englishman. They continue on the flight. Italian tosses out a pizza. Same thing, Pizza's killed somebody. They offload the Italian guy. They fly over India. Indian guy tosses a grenade out the window. The pilot doesn't. Radio Flight continues, Everything's good. He lands the flight and the Indian guy's like that's so weird. You know, one guy tossed out a beer that kills on a pizza, killed on the grenade, didn't kill anybody. And he goes home and he sees his dad sitting on the stoop and something's not right because the house behind the stoop is gone. And he looks at his dad and he's like what happened and his dad goes.
Speaker 3:I don't know, but I farted on the house blue, so it's just like oh, this is the dumbest jokes that you heard on the on the schoolyard as a kid.
Speaker 1:Yes. Oh my God.
Speaker 3:That I always love those yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I love those. Yeah, my son, emma, husband, both potty jokes round the clock.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely yeah. How can our listeners find you on social? You want to give your handles?
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, it's just Raj does comedy on everything, okay, and if they want the special, it's called break the leg. It's also available pretty much everywhere. You can listen to it if you'd like to, but I honestly think it's you might as well just watch it. It's a little more expensive to do that way, but it's better. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the special is we did it one show, one take, like there's no, we didn't film it multiple times, so it's literally just that audience, which is the dumbest way to film a special, but it worked out okay so.
Speaker 1:I'm happy with it. Yeah, awesome. Well, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. This has been great. And yeah, please come by the bar.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, Danielle. What are?
Speaker 2:you drinking today?
Speaker 1:I've got an oat milk latte from airship Awesome.
Speaker 2:I went a little bit white girl basic with my vanilla latte. Oh, you are, girl Ice vanilla latte. But it is also from airship Cheers, cheers. We love airship and one of our favorite locations, even though parking can be a challenge. It is sometimes it is on a street. So airship at the pump house. You can also go to airship down, not downtown Bentonville, but sort of near the art district in Bentonville, near the momentary, as well as airship at Kohler, which is really fun. Go check them out. We love coffee.
Speaker 1:As you know, they're not an official sponsor today but we love them so much that we have to give them a shout out because we work there all the time and love their coffee. Thanks so much for listening to today's show. If you enjoyed the podcast, please follow so that you never miss an episode. You can also follow along on our Instagram at peopleofnwa. You can also find our email and website there. Until next time, keep exploring, keep learning and keep sharing your stories. Thank you for being part of the People of Northwest Arkansas community.
Speaker 5:People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Danielle's produced by me. Rock Short of Civil Republic Productions. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.