00:00You guys all really just came together in a really cool way, dude.
00:05You saved that guy's life, man.
00:10I was so scared for him and for what it would mean to these people
00:15to experience basically going to a show where someone dies and doesn't come back.
00:24Is there a medic in the house at all?
00:30For a long time, a lot of people, they called me the stuttering comedian.
00:34And that's because for over 10 years, I had a really bad publicist.
00:44I moved out to L.A. when I was 18.
00:46And then in my first year of being out here, I landed an agent.
00:51I had a manager. I was being sent out on auditions.
00:54I was booking appointments.
00:55The week that I was actually on hold for a few projects,
00:59I was on a recreational softball league.
01:04And it was a game that basically a freak accident happened
01:09where kind of a grounder that went sideways had hit me in my throat
01:15and I had fallen and hit my head on the ground.
01:17And the impact of that head injury is what basically caused me to stutter.
01:25And I couldn't get hired anymore as an actor anywhere.
01:30Yeah, yes.
01:30Today, a guy asked me how to get to Chipotle.
01:36And as I'm giving him directions, he's doing this.
01:42Comics, you know, we're all coming from something.
01:50Some broken part of our lives is trying to be fulfilled
01:52through validation of total strangers.
01:55The night that the guy had a heart attack in Spokane,
02:00I think I was maybe 12 minutes, maybe 12 or 15 minutes into my set.
02:05But I was probably the last to react.
02:08And that's embarrassing to say because I, well, I just, I only,
02:14when I noticed it was when a lady from the opposite side of the stage
02:17stood up and made a beeline to where he was.
02:20Oh, hey, everything okay?
02:25Oh, no.
02:27Oh, no.
02:29And by the time she was over there,
02:30there were two or three people that were helping him to the ground.
02:33And someone announced that they were going to start doing CPR.
02:37CPR started.
02:39I can do your job.
02:41We're lucky that we had medical professionals in the, in-house to be able to help.
02:46And so then other people were jumping in to monitor vitals.
02:49People cleared a path and started to move the furniture to the side.
02:53Someone had said that they were going to dial 911.
02:56Then someone moved their car out, out, out front from the comedy club.
03:00So the paramedics had a space.
03:02I mean, and they were working on him for five minutes.
03:08He had no pulse for over five minutes.
03:11I just remember feeling like those five minutes could have been hours.
03:16I mean, it could have been hours.
03:18That's how long it felt.
03:20And we were just all just with him.
03:23We're all working together, guys.
03:24You're doing great.
03:25It was like witnessing a miracle because all of these people silently, but deliberately, were just working to achieve this one goal.
03:36And that was to just bring back this guy.
03:37He's waking up.
03:39They revived him and it was unlike anything I've ever seen.
03:49It was people not making it about ego or identity or how you aligned or what group you associated with or where you came from or what was happening before this or after.
04:05It was just totally present.
04:10I'm dabbing my eyes.
04:11I'm like a widow at a funeral right now.
04:13I was like literally.
04:14When I first saw the video, I didn't even recognize myself because I'm usually somebody who's so in charge and in control of whatever is happening.
04:27And this was just I was just so scared.
04:33That was crazy.
04:34I have literally the hardest job in the world now.
04:38And that's mostly what this is about.
04:41I definitely finished the show and it just was different now.
04:49You know, it wasn't like it was like, oh, anyway, as I was saying, it wasn't like that.
04:55It allowed the show to mean so much more, at least to me, and I think maybe as a byproduct to other people as well.
05:04He left his walker at the club and, I mean, well, he didn't have a choice, obviously.
05:14Like he left in a stretch, right?
05:15So it wasn't like he was like, you know, it wasn't like I was like, forget that walker.
05:20I want to be airlifted everywhere.
05:22I prefer to be like lifted by nine men like pallbearers who just carry me everywhere like Sultan-esque.
05:29The club owner told me that the family was going to come by tomorrow to get it and so they could go bring it to him in the hospital.
05:36And I was like, absolutely not.
05:37You can cancel that.
05:38I'm going to go and I would like to bring it to him.
05:42I got to bring it to him in the hospital the next day.
05:45So we ended up hanging out in the hospital for a few hours.
05:50Just like just talking, you know, just talking, making jokes, going back and forth.
05:55There was a shorter guy who was working on you as well.
05:59And I didn't condone the standing.
06:01I didn't think that was.
06:03You know, he's donated over 50 years.
06:06And I say donate, but he's donated over 50 years of his life to speech therapy because I use that word because it is a, I mean, that's service.
06:15I mean, that's like you're given your life to try to make other people's quality of life better.
06:22With my history of stuttering and how much I'd worked with my speech therapist, I have this whole other appreciation for him, you know, more than just on a human level, but just on an occupational level, right?
06:34Well, I feel special being able to talk because I was pretty close not to being here.
06:38And at the home that he was at, all the nurses, they would come in and talk to them about, talk to him about their problems.
06:48So basically he was giving away just like free therapy because that's just the person he, that's just the person he is.
06:57He's just that, he's just that, he's just that, that type of a, of a person.
07:01And I resonate with that and it's just a good reminder to, to, to, to, uh, it's a, it's just a good reminder to, to, to continue to give, you know, and it was really special.
07:14It was just truly like, it was like just feeling like this is what comedy is supposed to be.
07:19It's supposed to be fun and easy and just another, another way to try to connect.
07:25I took the long road, but now it won't be long.
Be the first to comment