Pete Dominick: A Career Built on Comedy, Connection, and Curiosity

Transcript

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What does it take to break through as a comedian and then pivot into a provocative voice in media and politics?

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We'll explore the answer to that question, and beyond, during this episode of the Career Journey podcast no Wrong Choices.

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Thank you so much for joining us.

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I'm Larry Samuel, soon to be joined by my collaborators Larry Shea and Tushar Saxena, but before we kick off, I have a request.

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If you enjoy what you're about to hear, please be sure to like and follow our show on your favorite podcast platform and to connect with us on social media.

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Your support enables us to keep bringing these great journey stories to life.

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Now let's get started.

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This episode features the podcaster, comedian speaker and news commentator, pete Dominick, who, among many other things, is the host and creator of the podcast Stand Up.

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Larry Shea is a former colleague of Pete's at SiriusXM.

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You are certainly the right person to set up this conversation this time around, so please lead us in.

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Yeah, that's exactly right.

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I got to know Pete over at Sirius XM.

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He had a great show over there.

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I used to listen to it.

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It was great, it was funny, it was interesting, it was smart, and that's kind of what I always thought about Pete too.

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You know I always used to enjoy bumping into him.

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We'd always have great conversations.

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I knew he was very talented and very good at what he does, but honestly, I don't know his whole story.

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So I'm excited to explore his journey and kind of hear it for the first time, like the rest of us, right.

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So I'm really excited to share Pete Dominick with everybody, because this is a guy you probably have seen on your TV, you know, on Bill Maher or on, you know, cnn or one of these other places.

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You know he's.

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He's a funny talking head and a really cool dude and a smart guy.

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So here we go uh, I'm kind of like you, shay, is that?

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Uh, you know we are both former, uh we I am a former serious employee, unlike yourself.

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You're still there, um but I ran into pete uh basically near the tail end of when I was at serious.

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But I remember pete being a worker, that's what I really remember.

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He was a hard worker and he was there like in the in the real heyday, uh, the first few years of the of the comedy channels, and he was setting things up and getting and, you know, putting shows together.

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But when you get, one thing you could always tell about Pete was that he was a hard worker.

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He understood how, what it took to put a good show together and he really kind of was able to couple that into what he's doing today.

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And you know he's he's always been one of these couple that into what he's doing today and you know he's he's always been one of these guys that I've kind of admired from afar, because I've never really can know, I've really never really had a chance to get to know him all that well.

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But I'll tell you what now we got a chance to know him a little bit better.

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Absolutely.

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And you know, I love your comment about learning how to put shows together, because he's put together a very good one called Stand Up.

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So with that, that, here is Pete Dominick, Pete, thank you so much for joining us

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gentlemen, a real honor to be here.

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I really, I really mean that I'm very much been looking forward to this and I'm excited to talk to all of you and larry and I go back and, uh, always had a thing, just like a.

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You're one of the good ones, yeah okay, great hallway conversations is what we're that's basically how we put it too.

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Yeah, he's one of the good ones, yeah sure there's a general.

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You know there's a when you work in and when you're in a workplace and you don't necessarily work directly with someone the way larry and I didn't know, you know we didn't work directly with each other but we we, you, you have a feeling for people and you build a certain kind of trust and that's important.

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You need that at work and you know, I think, think Larry and I always had kind of a.

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You know we're on the same level, on the same plane, and had a Definitely.

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Yeah.

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I don't know how to explain it.

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I think Larry knows, and that's all that's matter.

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It's symbiotic relationship, no doubt yeah.

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And we certainly feel similarly, which is why 20 years later, we're all doing a podcast together, so you have very good instincts, love it.

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So, leading in, we always like to ask our guests to introduce themselves.

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I can run through an opening and I can put together a list of things to describe you, but nobody can describe you better than you.

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So, pete, try to just give us a feel for who you are and what you do.

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Well, I grew up in upstate New york.

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In the 80s 90s.

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When I was 14 years old, my dad said to me son, just whatever you do for work, whatever you do, just just find something that you enjoy, because you know I uh, I make good money on my own boss, but this this is selling insurance is not something I love.

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I want you and your brother to do something that you really like.

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And I was like, like, all right, well, the only thing I really like doing and the only thing I feel like I'm any good at is making people laugh, because I was a class clown, never missed a day of school because it was an audience and I was good.

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Even the teachers liked me.

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And I said, well, can I do comedy for like a living?

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He's like, yeah sure.

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He's like, yeah, sure.

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And then he immediately supported that dream.

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He brought me to the Civic Center to see George Carlin.

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Wow, he brought me to a local comedy to meet a comedian who one day I later became friends with.

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And from that point on I was 14 years old.

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I decided I wanted to be a stand-up comedian and I went to college for two years, left college, moved to New York City, started pursuing my career in stand-up.

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It, it's it.

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It's hard, it was slow like it is for pretty much everybody but john mulaney and son of a bitch rich georgetown and was amazing right away.

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I hate people like that and can't knock him, but I made it.

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I made it.

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I made it as this comedian in the hardest place to make it in New York City.

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I was working at every comedy club.

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I was passed at every comedy club.

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Everybody knew me.

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I knew everybody and I got hired at Sirius on the comedy channels as a result of kind of my network and my ability to host a show.

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I was, I was an emcee and that's what I got known for.

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I should say I wasn't some prolific writer, you know, a Jim Gaffigan or a Todd Berry or any number of these amazing, hilarious comedians, ted Alexandro, but I I was a good MC.

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It was good in the moment I got work as I got hired as a audience warmup comedian for by Jon Stewart at the daily show and then I got the job at the coldbert Report when that show started and then I got now I'm still doing that gig at Last Week Tonight with Jon Oliver on HBO and between that and Sirius I was making great money, loving what I was doing and it just blew up from there.

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Because that's when I found out and after about two years, on the comedy channels at SiriusXM I heard they were launching an independent political channel and I was like that's where I want to be.

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I want to host a show on that, like some free thinking, independent, nonpartisan.

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Just let's talk to smart people and have smart conversations, right, and you know they're looking for the left's.

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Joe Rogan now it's me.

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It was me then, it's me been.

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It's been me then since he was a guest on my show.

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I've been a guest on his show, but the bottom line is, you know, joe show is having thoughtful conversations with smart people.

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It's now entered into the absurd, in my opinion, a lot of conspiracy theories, but it wasn't always that way and so I did that.

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But my idea was that and serious, I basically auditioned, I pitched a show and they hired me from one hour every day hosting a live show getting paid $75 a day.

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I remember those days.

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I have memories of those days myself, cause I was.

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It was a daily gig on live radio, uh, on satellite radio, and I got to interview every comedian.

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I already knew most guys, at least if they were New Yorkers I knew, knew them all but I didn't know a lot of the guys that were touring, or a lot of the LA guys or or even the British international comics.

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I got to meet everybody.

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I get to interview every single comedian, not because of me, because of the platform, right, like I was the host, like the local radio host gets to meet everybody.

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So I was in the building and I'm a really persistent, determined guy.

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I went up and I pitched the show and I went from $75 a day to $60,000 a year, full salary benefits, 60,000 was an insult.

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I knew what guys doing three hours of radio got right.

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It was 300, not 60.

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But for me, a comedian who now had one child I mean health care was dealing in a matter of 401k when do sign, and that just turned into CNN and it turned into, you know, I was there for 12 years and it was.

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I fulfilled all my dreams by the age of 42.

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Everything I ever wanted to do.

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I did it all in comedy and in political media, and that's, that's my intro, that's awesome and, of course, our paths crossed at Sirius.

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That's when we would have our amazing hallway conversations and admiration from afar, so to speak.

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So let's start digging into exactly how you built this.

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We're going to start from the beginning.

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You already said you grew up in Syracuse and you were the class clown.

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I mean, I always ask comedians that right Like were you always confident in the class clown and I read that you also, like read the morning announcements on the loudspeaker and things of that nature.

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Right MC talent shows.

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We used to make up in the morning announcements.

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We would make up things that were happening after school.

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Today, after school at 3.30, there's a basket weaving club.

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That's when I learned the power of the microphone.

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But yeah, I was involved in everything in high school and everything and I played varsity lacrosse and soccer.

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I'd go from lacrosse practice where I didn't play.

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I didn't get off the bench and work that out in therapy years later.

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I would go from the cross practice to play rehearsal and morning announcements.

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And yeah, my first comedy I ever did was at the talent show.

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I was like, well, I want to be in the talent show because I want to be in front of an audience and I didn't have like a stand up routine but I did my impression of Dana Carvey's impressions of George W Bush, ross Perot and Bill Clinton and I killed and that was that.

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Because you know, it was a small high school, small town, 500 kids in total, high school, but every one of them was in the theater laughing at me and that was all it took.

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Still could not get laid, but that's it.

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I was so little.

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I was so little.

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The girl loved me.

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I was good friends with girls, I was the safe one, um, but they dated all my friends and that's because the reason I was a comedian and the reason I didn't end up, I think, getting you know girls.

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It wasn't, I was tiny.

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I was a littlest guy in high school.

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Even when my I was a senior, I was one of the smallest kids and that was why I used and found humor.

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It's the reason my dad did too.

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My dad is hilarious and I realized that when I was very young I was like five or six years old.

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I realized that I could.

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When kids made fun of me for being small, I could come back with a quick-witted comment If it was good enough they wouldn't make fun of me again.

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Sometimes they'd punch me, so I got hit a few times, but more likely the big kid became my friend and I became that cartoon puppy you know, like the little puppy next to the giant pup.

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They wanted a mouthpiece, probably Right, yep.

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So you said your father took you to see Carlin when you were young, so who were some of your comedy heroes or influences?

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Well, certainly Carlin.

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Carlin was like what you know.

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I went to Catholic church growing up but my dad clearly never believed that my mom wasn't Catholic, but kind of did it because they were Italian and for my grandmother, kind of thing.

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But I found George Carlin like audio tapes, like in my dad's dresser near the Playboys.

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I found George Carlin like audio tapes, like in my dad's dresser near the Playboys, and I listened to them like they were like I was looking at Playboys, Like it was forbidden, you know, and what he was saying about religion was like yeah, of course, of course.

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Like thank you for voicing what I always thought growing up in this church.

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And that was the beginning of it.

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But you know, I I loved so many other kinds of comedians in different styles and Dana Carvey and Robin Williams were huge influences on me, because Robin could make something out of nothing any moment.

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And Dana, I loved his impressions and that was something I was was pretty good at.

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I was good at doing his impressions.

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Yeah, I was the best impressionist in my high school.

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I wasn't the funniest kid.

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A lot of my friends were funnier than I was, that's for sure, but that's who I chose to hang out with the funniest kids.

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You know you gravitate towards people with humor and or similar humor or new humor.

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That's when I went to college I hung out with all black guys because black humor was something I was completely unfamiliar with and it was amazing, amazing what happened there with them, that culturally it was just like you either live or die and I wanted to live and they taught me so much.

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So I think, more than anything else, like that experience in high school with my friends my brother is hilarious and people that you've never heard of.

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That really impressed upon me different kinds of humor like I learned all of them by the time I was, you know, in my early 20s.

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I could see anybody's humor coming, all the styles, and I could sell it too, which made me marketable as a comedian.

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Put me in front of any audience black people, old people, young people, college kids, put me anywhere anytime, did you?

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collect comedy albums like you would rock and roll album, because I mean, when I was growing up obviously I have a whole bunch of music albums, but I also had like a good collection, like I had Eddie Murphy, raw, I had Robin Williams, I had so, to be fair, there's nothing nerdy about me, like there's nothing Like I never collected like music albums or comedy albums or sports things.

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Like I am not, I was never that guy.

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I can't quote things, like I didn't study them for hours or listen for hours.

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I just uh, it was a butterfly and I just whatever was new, whatever people would put in front of me I was a little lazy and trying to to find new things.

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I just kind of was like, whatever my brother served me up, I kind of ate up.

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I didn't mean to interrupt you, but that, like I said, yes, a lot of most people are connoisseurs of any genre of art.

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Yeah, they do that.

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That's what I'm asking.

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They own all the album and and they study them and they think about them and I just I don't know.

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I think I couldn't stay focused long enough or something, or didn't have an appreciation enough for it.

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Music is my cultural blind spot, like I can talk about all the arts and almost any other issue, but I'll never engage with someone about music.

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I'll listen to them, but I have nothing to offer you, Nothing.

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It can make you dumber.

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When did you start to play out?

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You're doing your high schools, you're doing your talent shows, et cetera, et cetera.

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But eventually you took that leap and came up with the courage and the balls to go for it.

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Tell us about that first experience.

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I think the courage and the balls was to move to New York City and to go.

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I'm going to just walk into a comedy club and become a comedian, because I did the talent shows in high school and then I did talent shows in college, like two or three, and I did like an open mic in college as well.

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So maybe I was on maybe six times on stage doing kind of stand-up, uh.

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And then I moved to new york city to go to acting school.

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Ostensibly I never really wanted to be an actor, but I was like I should get in it, I should continue my education, um, and that was stupid.

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I don't think people should study acting or not they shouldn't pay money for it, and so I went, I walked into a comedy club, I walked into stand-up New York on July 5th 1995.

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And how did that?

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Wow, yeah, like what, what was?

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that?

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What did you prepare?

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Nerves, anxiety, anything, oh yeah.

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Yeah.

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But I'm going to do it again and again and again.

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I wanted it more than I know anybody wants anything.

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You know you hear these biopics usually of athletes because those are easy to kind of narrate, because you just see this kid out running every day out shooting every day baskets or whatever it is.

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But but I I didn't drink, I didn't really chase girls.

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I mean I did, I just wasn't really I didn't do well.

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So I just was like friends with people.

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I loved everybody.

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It just wasn't a primary pursuit of mine, as it was most of my young male friends.

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Don't get me wrong.

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But I mean I didn't have a drink till I was 22.

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My brother was in rehab and I was like 14.

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So that like was really impressed upon me.

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But I didn't drink because I thought anything and any distraction women and drinking and drugs would take away from my laser focus on being successful as a comedian.

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And it was my understanding that the only way to be successful as a comedian, at least for me, was to work really hard.

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I always work really hard to be good at anything and practice and do it again and again.

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And when you start out in in comedy, still, but especially then the only way to get on stage was to bring your friends to see you and then they put you on stage.

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They made money and it's a really insidious practice, nothing you can really do about it.

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But it means you have to keep getting new people to come see you, and I mean you literally.

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Your friends stop returning your messages because they don't want to see you Like I saw you.

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It's expensive.

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I supported you.

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I came to your show.

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I came twice.

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You did the same exact material.

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Not only am I not coming again, I'm not taking your calls anymore, because I'm afraid of your show and I don't want to.

00:16:55.316 --> 00:16:55.777
I don't want to.

00:16:55.777 --> 00:16:58.660
I like you, but I don't want to do that anymore.

00:16:58.660 --> 00:16:59.663
No offense, why don't you come to my show?

00:16:59.663 --> 00:17:00.865
Well, because you don't have a show.

00:17:00.865 --> 00:17:03.730
Yeah, but uh, the I.

00:17:04.151 --> 00:17:22.644
I outsmarted that process by getting a job at the front desk of a gym, a high-end gym in the Upper West side of New York, equinox it's first started and what I did was I made new friends every day and I made people laugh at the front desk and when I got comfortable with them after the third or fourth time, talking to them, I'd say come see a show.

00:17:22.644 --> 00:17:23.788
So I would.

00:17:23.788 --> 00:17:32.685
I basically had this whole like farm team of audience members that liked me so much and they were wealthy because they lived in that neighborhood aid for the per I.

00:17:32.685 --> 00:17:39.560
So I just kept bringing, generating money and audience for that one comedy club and I did it as well at other comedy clubs that did all those bringer shows.

00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:55.874
But then you know, at a certain point you get good and I got so good that they just put me on, especially in that MC role, like nobody could open a show and get the audience comfortable and happy and then bring it back if need be or just know to bring the next person up.

00:17:55.874 --> 00:18:04.795
And that became what I was known for in the in the late 90s and early aughts in 2001, september 2001, just before 9-11.

00:18:04.795 --> 00:18:10.509
And early aughts in 2001, september 2001, just before 9-11.

00:18:10.548 --> 00:18:23.768
I got this great gig where, because of giuliani at the time, the mayor's new law to crack down on porn and strip clubs, you had to take your strip club in this case and make like 60 of it had to be any other business and only 40 of it of the physical space could be the strip club.

00:18:23.768 --> 00:18:28.183
So they literally strip clubs were perfect for to do comedy on the stage.

00:18:28.183 --> 00:18:31.590
The seating, the thrust stage is great for comedy.

00:18:31.590 --> 00:18:36.308
Yeah, and it's a little high, but still it was fine.

00:18:36.308 --> 00:18:46.444
So they literally guys built a curtain down the middle of the strip club and made it a comedy club, hired me to be the house mc, paid me because they had money, because the strip club had tons of money.

00:18:46.444 --> 00:18:48.534
More, they paid me like 200 bucks a show.

00:18:48.534 --> 00:18:52.605
Reels paid 75 or 100 and I got I got that gig.

00:18:52.665 --> 00:18:55.392
I was the gonna be the house mc for this new comedy club.

00:18:55.392 --> 00:18:58.686
200 bucks the show, three, four shows a week, maybe more.

00:18:58.686 --> 00:19:00.211
Wow, because they could, they just had to.

00:19:00.211 --> 00:19:08.753
And then terrorists attacked 9-11, uh, new y City and comedy broke down for a while.

00:19:08.753 --> 00:19:14.011
But we bounced back and I did get that job eventually and then it was just for me.

00:19:14.011 --> 00:19:15.402
It just kept getting better.

00:19:15.402 --> 00:19:17.086
I got a college agent.

00:19:17.086 --> 00:19:19.251
I made really good money touring the country.

00:19:19.251 --> 00:19:28.898
I performed at almost every state in the country and over 400 colleges and universities at almost every state in the country and over 400 colleges and universities and never assaulted one student.

00:19:29.118 --> 00:19:29.400
Right yeah.

00:19:30.681 --> 00:19:32.487
And you just talked about that laser focus.

00:19:32.487 --> 00:19:33.650
You know you could really tell.

00:19:33.650 --> 00:19:44.529
Before we get into your incredible successes, though, I have to ask I mean, what is it like to stand on that stage and know that you're bombing, like just no trap door, no way out?

00:19:44.529 --> 00:19:46.025
What does that feel like?

00:19:46.025 --> 00:19:46.740
What do you do?

00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:48.346
How do you experience that?

00:19:48.346 --> 00:19:56.321
Because every great, great comedian who's going to listen to this podcast and want to follow in your, in your shoes, they're going to bomb and they have to live with it, right?

00:19:57.385 --> 00:20:00.779
there's bombing and there's bombing in front of a black audience, so let's just separate.

00:20:00.779 --> 00:20:10.989
And I bombed in front of a black audience at Buffalo state university in front of my then girlfriend who I was in love with.

00:20:10.989 --> 00:20:18.723
We just started dating as one of the like the third show she ever saw me do is all these like young black kids from New York city and I had nothing.

00:20:18.723 --> 00:20:23.740
Nothing for them, even though I spent a lot of time around black guy Like I had like the first three minutes.

00:20:23.740 --> 00:20:27.665
But once one of them heckled me, it threw me and I just ate it.

00:20:27.665 --> 00:20:34.749
So bad that I punched a hole in the wall backstage, like and it was just so embarrassing because it was in front of that.

00:20:34.749 --> 00:20:36.265
So that was the worst bomb in my life.

00:20:36.305 --> 00:20:37.086
I remember another bomb.

00:20:37.086 --> 00:20:48.246
I don't remember it, I bought that out but I do remember like I was waiting for the C train and I was like let me just jump in front of this train and get out.

00:20:48.246 --> 00:20:57.269
I mean I felt like I was like it's just, it's the easiest way, um, but mostly I didn't bomb because because I was so quick on my feet that I was able to get out of any situation, go into the audience.

00:20:57.269 --> 00:21:00.222
Go into the moment, be real about the moment.

00:21:00.222 --> 00:21:01.886
So I was just, I would always survive.

00:21:01.886 --> 00:21:03.711
I'd always find a way to survive.

00:21:03.711 --> 00:21:06.707
But I don't want to act as if I didn't bomb and I mentioned the two worst.

00:21:06.707 --> 00:21:08.451
But generally speaking, I didn't.

00:21:08.451 --> 00:21:15.339
Because and I don't because I know what to do in the moment, I can abandon all preparation.

00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:19.403
I'm always got 90 minutes or not 90, but an hour, half an hour prepared.

00:21:19.682 --> 00:21:19.823
Yeah.

00:21:20.284 --> 00:21:21.605
And at this point I've been doing it so long.

00:21:21.605 --> 00:21:29.009
I've got a joke for every single situation, but I really do prefer the real moments and the crowd work.

00:21:29.009 --> 00:21:30.871
That was always my bread and butter and I love it.

00:21:31.491 --> 00:21:36.976
Do you remember the first time you killed and really felt like you were breaking through and taking the next step?

00:21:37.016 --> 00:21:47.026
First time I ever walked on stage, that high school I was going to say outside of high school and yeah, I mean I don't know the first time.

00:21:47.026 --> 00:21:48.351
Uh, it became a thing for me.

00:21:48.351 --> 00:21:51.969
I did really, really well for a long time in small rooms filled with people.

00:21:51.969 --> 00:21:52.991
Forget about it.

00:21:52.991 --> 00:21:53.882
They were on fire.

00:21:53.882 --> 00:21:54.983
I set them on fire.

00:21:54.983 --> 00:22:05.193
I was and anybody knows me then and I know all the people who did it to lisa lampadelli and jessica curson and uh strats small and like there was so many crowd pleasers I was a crowd pleaser man.

00:22:05.193 --> 00:22:06.402
I would light them up.

00:22:06.402 --> 00:22:16.711
I just wanted people to have a good time and so that was like when you say, do I remember the first time, I would say yeah, 1999 to 2010.

00:22:16.711 --> 00:22:18.013
I killed.

00:22:18.835 --> 00:22:20.357
Wow there you go.

00:22:20.357 --> 00:22:24.607
Would you do you prefer working a small, more intimate room, or do you like a larger venue?

00:22:24.989 --> 00:22:26.151
No, I prefer a small room.

00:22:26.151 --> 00:22:35.692
For sure, Even comedians who sell out arenas generally still love to be in the small rooms because of the intimacy of it all and the way that comics Chappelle keeps talking about that a lot, how he enjoys working in small rooms.

00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:38.606
Chappelle was always at the clubs when I was coming up.

00:22:38.606 --> 00:22:44.847
Every comic knows him because he would come in all the time, because he loved being in the small rooms, because he would just come in all the time, because he loved being in small rooms.

00:22:44.847 --> 00:22:50.647
The biggest audience I ever performed in front of was 6,000 people at Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

00:22:50.647 --> 00:22:51.529
Opening for Artie.

00:22:51.529 --> 00:23:02.410
Lang Opened for him for years and it's my greatest story too, I think, in comedy, probably my greatest onstage triumph at least.

00:23:02.410 --> 00:23:12.433
Because when you opened for Artie, I was warned and I had opened for him I don't know 10 times before then, but the audience was Howard Stern audiences.

00:23:12.433 --> 00:23:13.803
They were, they were monsters.

00:23:13.803 --> 00:23:17.352
Sure, they were the worst of us, at least in terms of like.

00:23:17.352 --> 00:23:20.166
They wanted to make fun of you Like they were there.

00:23:20.166 --> 00:23:26.962
So I was told like you can, no one can open for Artie successfully, cause if you, when you, because when you walk out, they start booing you.

00:23:26.962 --> 00:23:27.644
That's the bit.

00:23:27.644 --> 00:23:28.765
That's the bit.

00:23:28.765 --> 00:23:34.749
Imagine walking to the microphone you're already getting booed.

00:23:34.949 --> 00:23:38.332
The first time I ever opened for him, that's exactly what happened.

00:23:38.332 --> 00:23:46.821
But I attacked people in the crowd like viscerally, worse than than they could, and just one after another, and then I eventually won him over.

00:23:46.821 --> 00:24:02.981
But I was there, uh, in la, 6 000 people and arty was always generous with everybody you know he gave a lot and he let this band open for him and they would have been great if they played one song, but they played like five songs and they were pretty hard like core and it just wasn't.

00:24:02.981 --> 00:24:04.887
It wore the audience down.

00:24:04.887 --> 00:24:11.981
It was too long, it was too hard for 30 minutes and the audience was like booing them to get off and they wait.

00:24:11.981 --> 00:24:17.644
They stayed way too long and now it's and now you hear the you know the announcer 7 000 people in an arena.

00:24:17.644 --> 00:24:20.751
Ladies and gentlemen, your host this evening, pete dominic.

00:24:23.285 --> 00:24:28.540
That was my worst already so mad about all that, that band, that they just took it out of me.

00:24:28.540 --> 00:24:29.442
Who is this guy?

00:24:29.442 --> 00:24:31.326
Nobody knew, of course, oh my god.

00:24:31.326 --> 00:24:42.673
And even ryan felipe booed me and he was backstage hanging out with us he seems like a really nice guy too I'm joking, he was, I just.

00:24:42.894 --> 00:24:45.002
But that night there were so many celebrities backstage, it was hilarious.

00:24:45.002 --> 00:24:47.627
And so they're booing at, booing me.

00:24:47.627 --> 00:24:49.830
And I had no plan.

00:24:49.830 --> 00:24:57.667
But my career is such that my brain thinks very quick, I just, I get out of a situation like it's about to that little boy, get out of this, find your way out.

00:24:57.667 --> 00:25:02.303
And then something pops in and what I said, I go, I'll make a deal with everybody booing me.

00:25:02.303 --> 00:25:05.790
You give me me one joke, one moment.

00:25:05.790 --> 00:25:13.622
If it works, I stay, if it doesn't, I'll leave and bring on Artie Lang, even though there's like four other openers still waiting.

00:25:13.622 --> 00:25:18.593
And the joke was and I knew the audience, you know, and I go.

00:25:18.593 --> 00:25:20.503
Let me just tell you it's crazy.

00:25:20.544 --> 00:25:27.243
Here right now we're in LA, backstage is the Artie Lang show in backstage crazy here right now we're in LA backstage, it's the Ari Lang show in backstage.

00:25:27.243 --> 00:25:29.127
It's all celebrities, tons of celebrities, packed in this little room.

00:25:29.127 --> 00:25:31.252
I'm saying to the audience and I go.

00:25:31.252 --> 00:25:37.384
And I was so packed, I like bumped into this guy really hard and I turned around and guess who it was.

00:25:37.384 --> 00:25:40.701
Now I have the audience listening because they want to know who this celebrity is.

00:25:40.701 --> 00:25:41.122
I go.

00:25:41.142 --> 00:25:47.261
It was Ron Jeremyeremy, famous porn star, and they're laughing, starting to laugh and I go.

00:25:47.261 --> 00:25:48.885
I didn't know what to say to him.

00:25:48.885 --> 00:25:51.471
It's ron jeremy, so I just blew him.

00:25:51.471 --> 00:25:59.933
Not a joke, I would do like in my act, like I met ron jeremy, didn't know what to do, blew him.

00:25:59.933 --> 00:26:06.814
But it was like I knew the howard stern audience would love that lowbrow, you know homoerotic joke kind of thing.

00:26:06.814 --> 00:26:20.821
And I got him and already and I and I won him over and I did another you know five minutes and introduce and I turned around an audience of miserable people and made them happy and already went on Howard and he goes.

00:26:20.821 --> 00:26:22.428
I just got to tell you a story.

00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:23.961
Shout out to.

00:26:23.961 --> 00:26:33.428
Pete Dominick did the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in comedy, Took an audience of 7,000 people booing him and he turned around in one joke.

00:26:33.428 --> 00:26:39.805
It was like nothing I've ever seen and thank you, because those people were pissed and by the time I got out there everybody was happy.

00:26:41.970 --> 00:26:43.653
That's fantastic Love it.

00:26:44.760 --> 00:26:45.623
Let's back up a touch.

00:26:45.623 --> 00:26:47.028
How'd you get the agent?

00:26:47.028 --> 00:26:48.862
How did you get the agent to do the college?

00:26:48.981 --> 00:26:54.722
it's a good story because I I asked another comedian if he would make the recommendation and he did.

00:26:54.722 --> 00:26:57.630
And you know, comedians don't do that.

00:26:57.630 --> 00:26:58.893
You don't do that.

00:26:58.893 --> 00:26:59.901
They're very competitive.

00:26:59.901 --> 00:27:02.446
Uh, they don't go quite that far.

00:27:02.446 --> 00:27:03.269
I shouldn't say they don't do it.

00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:10.943
There's a lot of guys that do, but I just his name is Steve Byrne and he's still a friend and he's always a good guy.

00:27:10.943 --> 00:27:36.019
He did not compete with you or he was very confident in his abilities and his who he was, I think, and so he recommended, uh the agent and she signed me and you know, I literally was in his recommendation, put me in direct competition with him to go after the same pie, and he never thought twice of it and years later he's such a good guy.

00:27:36.121 --> 00:27:47.604
Years later, uh, the night my daughter was born so that would be january 21st 2005 it was a blizzard and we're and I, uh my daughter's born at 7, 30, but you know, I wasn't making great money.

00:27:47.604 --> 00:27:54.182
I, I, uh, so I, I, yet, and I wasn't even that serious yet, and so I was doing sets that night.

00:27:54.182 --> 00:27:57.883
The night my daughter was born, I had to go out and get the 75, 50, 50 bucks, whatever it was.

00:27:57.883 --> 00:28:05.540
So I go out and I do a set and I see Steve Byrne and he knows my then girlfriend and he says how's Val doing?

00:28:05.540 --> 00:28:07.622
I go, we had I just became a dad.

00:28:07.622 --> 00:28:08.444
He goes what?

00:28:08.444 --> 00:28:11.076
Tonight, you know, my daughter was born.

00:28:11.076 --> 00:28:11.678
He's like what.

00:28:12.398 --> 00:28:19.066
So we walk out of the comedy club and he walks into a deli and he says wait for me out here, wait for me one second.

00:28:19.066 --> 00:28:22.250
I just got to run and get some gum and he came out with a bouquet of flowers.

00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:25.637
He said you're going back to the hospital, bring these to Val.

00:28:25.637 --> 00:28:30.147
He's just the kind of guy, that role model, and I've always tried to be that guy.

00:28:30.147 --> 00:28:37.344
I take those types of behaviors, I steal them, I eat them right up and replicate them and I think that's what we're supposed to do and I've tried to do that.

00:28:37.344 --> 00:28:41.250
I never had the opportunity to, you know, buy flowers for somebody who just had a baby, I suppose.

00:28:41.250 --> 00:28:50.058
But you know, in terms of not competing that serious, I prided myself on bringing people in and platforming them and I gave, I started a lot of people D that and I think that's.

00:28:50.058 --> 00:29:01.603
You know, we should all be doing that for each other all the time as humans.

00:29:02.484 --> 00:29:03.026
Absolutely.

00:29:03.026 --> 00:29:08.511
I actually just saw you with Laura Coates last night, I believe, which was a really great hit.

00:29:08.711 --> 00:29:11.480
I'm going to be back on there tonight with her, yeah.

00:29:11.500 --> 00:29:12.161
Oh, will you really?

00:29:12.161 --> 00:29:14.386
Yeah, it was great, thanks.

00:29:14.386 --> 00:29:21.068
So talk to us a little bit about John Oliver and getting into that world with Oliver and Colbert.

00:29:21.068 --> 00:29:23.681
How did you break into that and tell us about that experience?

00:29:23.994 --> 00:29:28.729
Well, the audience warm up job is really hard.

00:29:28.729 --> 00:29:38.598
It's a hard thing to do and it's coveted because it's amazing money and you can stay in New York City and not go on the road and every comedian doesn't.

00:29:38.598 --> 00:29:53.798
It gets to a point where they, if they could just work the comedy clubs in new york they would and just go out at you know once a month or something, but but, uh, it's, you really can't pay your rent, much less make enough money, and but if you get one of those warm-up jobs right, they pay a lot.

00:29:53.798 --> 00:29:56.644
Uh, and I knew I was good at it.

00:29:56.644 --> 00:30:04.386
And somebody who worked on a TV show was like there's this new show doing a pilot and you should, I'm going to.

00:30:04.386 --> 00:30:06.623
I was already a pretty successful comic that you should go.

00:30:06.623 --> 00:30:09.423
I didn't need any experience is what I'm trying to say.

00:30:09.564 --> 00:30:25.159
And they, the show was called craft corner death match and they bought 25 episodes and so I did 25 episodes where the audience was paid audience or like homeless people, and I had to go up and try to make them and then I had to keep going up.

00:30:25.159 --> 00:30:31.163
It was torture, it was the worst team gig I ever had, but it made me really strong.

00:30:31.163 --> 00:30:39.371
And then I audition along with a bunch of other comedians guys whose names I won't say, but you know because everybody wanted that warmup gig but I was better at that.

00:30:39.371 --> 00:30:56.044
They were better at a lot of things than I was, but I was better at that than them and Jon Stewart hired me and then Stephen Colbert spun off and he took me with him and they they and Jon brought back in the guy who used to do it and those were some of the best years of my life.

00:30:56.084 --> 00:31:11.537
Some nights I warmed up the audience at the daily show and then ran over to the Colbert report because they taped just after and I double dipped and got to you know payouts and, importantly, those were the best audiences in the world Like to see the.

00:31:11.537 --> 00:31:16.298
If you get the audience at the daily show, the Colbert report or now now John Oliver is the best audience.

00:31:16.298 --> 00:31:27.940
In addition to those shows, they're the smartest, edgiest, most diverse, young, often, audience, and so to have that gig at that show was amazing.

00:31:27.940 --> 00:31:35.244
You didn't let it go, and the only reason I eventually left Colbert is because I got hired at CNN to be on an on-air correspondent.

00:31:35.244 --> 00:31:40.718
At that point I was working at series xm, colbert, which is comedy central and cnn.

00:31:40.718 --> 00:31:43.904
So I was literally, uh, employed by three separate networks.

00:31:43.904 --> 00:31:44.165
Triple.

00:31:44.165 --> 00:31:54.412
That was as good as it gets in terms of money, but my daughters were little and I realized what was good and I actually ended up trying to pare things down, believe it or not what year was that?

00:31:54.432 --> 00:31:55.076
what year are we talking about?

00:31:55.096 --> 00:32:04.719
2010 I got hired at cnn and I was an on-air correspondent there and then that was the kind of beginning of my like on-air cable commentator thing did you do?

00:32:04.898 --> 00:32:08.451
man in the street there too, wasn't that part of it called pete on the street?

00:32:08.494 --> 00:32:14.217
pete on the street yeah, and I went out and I had a question of the day and I went out in the streets of new york and several other.

00:32:14.217 --> 00:32:15.659
They sent me on a of remotes.

00:32:15.659 --> 00:32:30.201
It was on a field at Fenway Park and I covered the oil spill down in New Orleans and a bunch of other assignments and it was great and I got myself in there and eventually I actually hosted a show on CNN for eight weeks, my own show.

00:32:30.201 --> 00:32:37.104
I hosted a cable news show for eight weeks called what the Week with Pete Dominick, and so yeah, I mean I really did it all.

00:32:37.104 --> 00:32:37.986
I did all of it.

00:32:37.986 --> 00:32:40.721
You name it, I did it and it was all great.

00:32:40.721 --> 00:32:42.501
And now I'm doing the independent media thing.

00:32:42.501 --> 00:32:48.704
It's a whole nother world in so many ways, but everything's changed so much over our careers too, we all know.

00:32:49.835 --> 00:33:08.432
I want to take it back just a little bit and ask, obviously, when you hit, when you were doing your road stuff, when you're doing clubs, when you're doing colleges, there's a bit of time in there from probably when you were doing all that to when you got the warm-up gig with Stewart's show, with the Daily Show, with the Call, with the Rapport, with, then, obviously, john Oliver.

00:33:08.432 --> 00:33:16.767
How much time are we talking about in terms of there, and how much did it help to hone your chops, to get a job like that?

00:33:16.967 --> 00:33:18.128
Oh yeah, that's a good question.

00:33:18.128 --> 00:33:18.910
I mean years.

00:33:18.910 --> 00:33:24.162
There were years before I got Colbert, I think that was like 2008.

00:33:24.162 --> 00:33:32.348
So before that, I mean, I was on the road, for I was doing just stand up for a solid eight years and I was doing colleges.

00:33:32.348 --> 00:33:44.625
So that's one performance, one type of performance in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, you know with 20 kids in a cafe, the snack shop or, if you're lucky, they really do a good job promoting and people love the comedians.

00:33:44.625 --> 00:33:46.101
They bring us 300 kids in the auditorium.

00:33:46.855 --> 00:33:49.721
But I did that all over the country and I also performed.

00:33:49.721 --> 00:33:56.059
I got to, you know, open for a lot of guys, but then I made it to be a headliner at a lot of good clubs.

00:33:56.059 --> 00:34:04.900

Pete Dominick: A Career Built on Comedy, Connection, and Curiosity

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