Making America Laugh Again With Yakov Smirnoff

They say that there's plenty of fish in the sea. Yeah, but they're also sharks and they're piranhas. They don't want you to be a work of art, individual work of art. They want you to be a print. And I believe that we're heading very fast to a very dangerous place. I feel like my contribution can be very important to the people who are trying to understand this challenging situation that we got ourselves into. I finished my dissertation. I realized that that formula applies not only to a couple, it applies to a country, to me, a conversation with the credible people that understand the socialism from underbelly of it, and go. I think it could be helpful for people to recognize that. So my goal is to reach the millennials, the young people who are capable to actually make some radical changes that hopefully will improve their lives.

Well, Yaakov, first of all, I want to thank you for being here, sir.

My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. I've been impressed so far with your capability of book a guest without talking to them and so efficiently that I'm like, I want to finish our conversation, then I want to talk to you. How do you do that? It's brilliant.

It's magic. Yeah. No, I'm excited. I know I sent you that video ahead of time, and I'm like, I heard you want to do a podcast, so. So I'll give you the big download. And in the meantime, let's give our audience here, our listeners, a capability amplifier upgrade from Yakov Smirnoff. And the best way to begin this is you're going through. I've really completed a huge reinvention of your own, which is you earned your doctorate degree in psychology and Global leadership from Pepperdine May 18th. So why'd you go back and do this? And also, how hard was it to go back and pick something like this?

Well, I'm passionate about this and fascinated with all different ways to create happiness. So was it hard? There were moments when you're at midnight and you have a deadline and. And you have to submit the paper, and you're thinking, why did I do this to myself? You know? Yes, those were the moments. But when I look at my dissertation, it's like 190 pages of very much hard work and perseverance and desire to find information that maybe is hidden and people are not aware of or they have not put it together in a certain way. And I was able to do that, and it made me feel great when I got my diploma. It's just another moment of accomplishment and Credibility that I wanted to have to be able to resurface with the new understanding of the world and share it with my audience.

All right, which is fascinating because you've spent your years as a comedian building a platform, and there's a multitude of ways to expand it. Why happiness and what's your outcome? What's this all about? What's the big vision?

Yeah, my dissertation is called Law of laughter, and.

The short version is lol. Law of laughter.

I like it. That's funny.

Yeah. So this was my way of looking for a formula or a law that most people are not aware of. And as a comedian, I'm giving this set of skills that allows me to listen for happiness. And every time the audience engages in laughter, I know that they're happy. And they might have difficulties in their lives, they might have some challenges, and. And so who doesn't? But at that moment of truth when something triggers them to laugh, they're. They're kind of involuntarily become happy for a moment. Right. But then they get to drink minimum bill, and they're not laughing.

But at first they do laugh. And so that was given to me as a gift from God, and I was able to use it greatly, and it gave me a wonderful life.

And then I had the recognition that.

In my personal relationship with my ex wife, laughter was there in the beginning, but then it was slowly disappearing and I wasn't paying attention to it, which I normally do with my audience. If they don't laugh, next day there's going to be a different approach to this joke or this routine, etc. And with my wife, it was too late by the time I kind of discovered it. But then I started looking and realized that, wait a minute. Most people experience laughter during their courting stage and honeymoon stage. And then somehow they stopped producing laughter. And little by little.

It goes to the point that the only people who are laughing are divorce attorneys and you don't know where you lost it. So that became my focus for the last, probably 20 years, that.

I wanted to figure out that formula. And I was able to approve that and defend it in my dissertation.

And it's very basic, actually. It's having complementary opposites. So if you picture the audience and the performer or a listener and the speaker, we always create that when both people are talking. That's Democratic debate for the president. You know, everybody's trying to talk at the same time. Nobody's listening. That's not. That's not healthy. So you need a performer in the audience. You need the complementary opposites. And then you need to have to understand what the needs of the other person are, consciously understand it, because in the beginning of the relationship, it just happens spontaneously because Mother Nature got it all figured out and she wants to procreate us, to procreate. So it gives us all this serotonin and dopamine and oxytocin, all of those hormones to get us happy, and we laugh and we have a great time. And then a year later, and this is now scientifically proven, a year later, all of those hormones check out and we don't have that anymore. So we kind of have an amnesia, kind of going, what did we do? And. And then we start separating, finding other sources of creating happiness. And unfortunately, most of the time it's very difficult to bring it back.

So from your perspective, then.

When I think through the lens of all the broad applications here, what you're saying is you can use what you've been studying to reactivate a marriage or any relationship. But does that mean I can use it on a practical basis and say, hey, look, teach me about how to be a comedian and what to say in what order to make people laugh and activate these hormones as well? I mean, how deep does this thing go?

The humor is another element from that formula. So you have complementary opposites, needs being met and a shared sense of humor. So most people, on the first date, I asked that over four and a half million people a question. How many of you would go on the second date if you didn't have laughter on the first date? And no one applauds. I asked them to. And four and a half million people, no one. And so that tells you that subconsciously we are picking our partner because we have joined. Shared sense of humor. It might not be, you know, you might like Three Stooges and your partner does too, and that works for them. You might ask somebody to pull your finger, and if she says, yeah, pull mine too, then you have a match. So I think it's a map, but it's like. It's like they say that there's plenty of fish in the sea when you start dating. Well, but, yeah, but they're also sharks and they're piranhas and they're, you know, and you don't want to end up with crabs. So ultimately, you're looking for some ways to identify. It's like catch and release program, who is the person that you want to spend your life with. And laughter is the first moment when you kind of identify that. And then later on you learn how to meet each other's needs and what those needs are. And Mother Nature helps you, but then a year later, it stops helping you. And that's where I think the humor doesn't go away. You could be 95 years old, you'll still be making jokes and laughing and all of that. That doesn't go away. You might be losing your memory. I have a friend of mine who is a great comedy director. He directed most of Mary Tyler Moore shows. He directed many, many shows. He directed Night Courts when I was doing them. And he has a tremendous sense of humor. But right now his memory is almost gone, but the humor is not. The humor is still there. He still cracks up jokes and they're as funny. And you go, how does the guy who doesn't really remember anything still make it funny? So I believe that humor is there to stay. And you don't need to worry about this unless you want to become a professional comedian. But most of the time, we find a group of people that surround us, our friends, our best friends. They're the ones who love same stuff. Otherwise, they're not your best friends.

So I wouldn't worry about the humor. But I do think that by the numbers, you can learn those two other techniques. One is becoming complementary opposite. So like you and I, right now, you're complimenting me by listening. And then you speak and I listen. So that's important to have. And then the second thing is to understand what the needs of your partner or. And it's the same in business, nothing changes. And then you throw in that humor that is like a secret weapon. It's a trigger. And then you have laughter.

Got it. So I'm curious.

When you combine the two. So here you've got a career in comedy and you're back on the road right now with your tour. Right now. And I know one of the things that you know, you got your Make America Laugh Again tour, which is really funny. It's a good, good spin. I'm curious how you're going to use comedy in your platform. I assume your objective is to teach your system, at least in the most entertaining way possible. So how do you plan on doing this? What's your routine right now? To create content that's fun and funny and still meaningful.

Well, funny. You should ask that.

I did a PBS special called Happily Ever Laughter.

Yep. I saw elements of that when I was researching and getting prepared, and it did very well.

It became like a special of the year for pbs. And so it was. I was very proud of that. However, When I finished my dissertation, I realized that that formula applies not only to a couple, it applies to a country. And what's happening right now, we don't have complementary opposites in America. So both people are adverse in adversity and they're not complementary. So it used to be a conversation and now one side of the aisle fights the other side of the aisle. So my focus have shifted after the graduation to apply this formula to the nation and.

Help people recognize that if we're heading towards socialism, we're not going to be complementary opposites, we're all going to be the same. That's what the society is guiding us to with political correctness. And so we're not supposed to be the beauty about America and Western world that we are sovereign individuals that make up this country. And the other side of this coin is the collective. And that's what I grew up with in the Soviet Union when you're dealing with collective mentality. And that's very distractive and very dysfunctional in my opinion. But it sounds very romantic. So the way I can see it, you know, it's like.

In the United States and when I came here, that's what I experienced. You become like a work of art. You're individual, no one is like you. You're contributing to this society as something that you know can really bring joy and happiness. And in the same time you're making a living and a good living, hopefully, if you're creative and you have something to offer that the people need and want and then you achieve that. But when you become a socialism is more. They don't want you to be a work of art, individual work of art. They want you to be a print, a print of something that they came up with. And that's what I was for 26 years. I don't want to be a print anymore. I want to be a worth of art because I can contribute more. I feel much more valuable that way to the society. But unfortunately.

The socialism has been tried in 20th century so many times with Soviet Union, China, Venezuela, Vietnam, the list goes on and on. And the amount of people that lost their lives because of socialists are trying to prove that their system works. That's what worries me about the United States, that because socialism sounds so romantic, because who doesn't want equality? Who doesn't want that? Everybody will be. There's no poor people who doesn't want that. Everybody wants that, but they're selling it without explaining to you what are you going to lose when you go that direction? And I Don't know if they even know what you're going to lose. They don't have a clue because they didn't grow up there. I remember talking to President Reagan about this, and he was asking me he was going to go to Russia to meet with Gorbachev. And so he asked me, he said, how would you deal with Gorbachev? And I look around, I go, am I the most qualified person to answer that question? And he said, you are, because you lived there for 26 years. And so I was able to, at that time in the 80s, give some insights to the president and the people who were writing his speeches to give them some insight into that darkness of the Soviet regime.

So that became my passion, that I believe that before you can create laughter on the cellular level, on a micro level, there needs to be some attention to macro level. And I believe that we're heading very fast to a very dangerous place.

Couldn't agree with you more there.

I think this is. This is fascinating because this is not what a lot of people would consider a typical Hollywood conversation.

And.

Right.

And I'll tell you just to go a little bit deeper here. I'm one of the reasons I wanted you on the show. And I. A friend of mine, his name is Joel Zadak, he's an agent in Hollywood, and I just interviewed Adam Conover, the Adam ruins everything guy. And I've always been a lover of comedy. I believe that right now it is probably the best vehicle to communicate and educate, you know, the medium, support it, because we live in this beautiful place right now where you or anyone with some talent can click, turn on your phone, broadcast to the entire connected human race, share a message. It could potentially go viral. And it really is a great equalizer despite all the challenges that are going on. And so one of my reasons for going down this path, I mean, I'm enrolling in stand up improv and I'm taking vocal lessons, even though I've been a business guy for a long time.

Good for you.

Yeah. And it's just because I want to be a more effective communicator and make people laugh at the same time. I think it's the fastest way to get to their soul and connect.

I think you're right.

Right. And so I want to ask you about. You taught a class in psychology at Missouri State University on laughter and happiness, and he called it the Business of Laughter.

Yes.

Now, did you. How deep did you get? And, like, what was the. Can you tell me a story about how that class impacted someone or an Outcome that resulted?

Yes. Well, the interesting thing is when I graduated University of Pennsylvania with my master's degree in psychology, I was doing an interview in Branson or in Springfield, Missouri, and the host of the news show broadcast, he said to me, in the end, he said, well, thank you, professor.

Kind of like that. And so I applied for a job to get, you know, to do lectures in Missouri State University because it was close by. And. And so the moment they. They agreed, they sent the memo out to everybody. And my class filled up. There was 100 people. It was filled up like two days later.

But I think they thought, the students thought that I'll be teaching them how to tell jokes. And maybe it was somewhat misleading because the business of laughter sounds like, you know, which I did somewhat just to humor them. But I. But I was teaching them really a communication technique. And it rooted in this complementary opposites, because you have people, you have thoughts and feelings. And the technique is very simple. When you apply the word I think, that means you're in your head. And when you apply the word I feel followed by actual feeling. Let's say I feel scared, I feel happy, I feel joyful. Then you're in your feelings. So head and heart, in a way. And if you are talking to, whether it's your partner in life, whether it's your business partners, et cetera, if you apply the technique, it does magic. So let me give you an example.

One of the students had a roommate who was very messy. And he was saying, it's never going to work with him. And I said, well, give it a try. That's your assignment for the week. Use the word. I think we should come up with some kind of a solution where you and me have a schedule about cleaning the place. And then the crucial moment was to teach them to say, how do you feel about that? Once they were on that wavelength, you were going from your head to their heart. And he said, one of the cases, the guy said, next day my place was clean. And we were fighting over this for two years. But when he said, I feel excited about this, he did it. And so identifying your thoughts and feelings was mostly what I was teaching. I had a friend who had some challenges with. He bought tickets on American airline to go to Europe. And then something happened and they didn't go and they wanted to get a refund. And I said, use that technique. Say, I feel embarrassed or I feel, you know, nervous about asking you this, but what do you think you can do to help me? I would like to get a response and I feel excited if this could happen. It just gave them, it opened the channel like a two way street versus one channel where you butt heads.

Well, I would imagine you've studied this. Are you familiar with David Hawkins, the book Letting Go in his work?

Yes.

I think he is the most succinct author on really communicating that, at least in my experience in present day. And I found his work to be amazingly profound. So I love that, what you shared and it's an amazing tool. So I'm going to move on to another question which has to do with your career because you popped up in the 80s and you had perfect timing coming over during the end of the Cold War and Reagan years and you had the right message at the right time, a lot of hilarity. You gained traction. And here you are in 2019 after doing, you know, I don't even know all the things you had been doing other than we're going to go down the art path because you're an amazingly accomplished artist as well. But here you are reinventing yourself, getting a degree, writing, comedy, performing. And I, I happen to be a massive fan of Joe Rogan right now. I think he's one of the smartest businessmen in comedy today for a variety of reasons. He's got an incredibly huge platform, he's done the business, his podcast is on fire, he's got a, you know, five and a half million YouTube followers, et cetera, et cetera. And he said, you're a funny guy. So clearly you've bumped into him along the path. And I, what I want to ask you is the reinvention process getting going again? Like how much time have you been, Was there a period of inactivity from a comedic perspective or have you been doing it all this time nonstop?

Yes. A lot of people don't know this, that I actually, when the Soviet Union collapsed, David Letterman had a top 10 list of things that will now change. I made number one on the list. Yaakov Smirna will be out of work. And I thought it was funny. Six months later. It was so true, it was scary. My contracts in Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Tahoe, none of them were renewed. So all of a sudden I live in Pacific Palisades in two and a half million dollar home. My kids are two and a half and six months old and we have no way to pay the mortgage. And it was American dream turning nightmare in like six months. And so I started looking for a place where they did not know that the Soviet Union collapsed. So I.

Ended up in Branson Missouri.

I'll tell you what, I knew it had banjos in it for sure.

Yes. And they don't know it either. They don't care. And this was a blessing in disguise. You know, I own 2,000 seat theater there where I entertain over four and a half million people.

It became my laboratory of laughter where I could experiment and test things. And.

So there was not ever a moment of not being active. It's a constant search for where can I be helpful? And you are correct that in the 80s it just happened to be.

I can't tell you that I was consciously designing this at that time. I just wanted to be funny. I wanted to get a car.

I didn't really understand my role.

And when the White House.

Requested my presence and I still didn't understand.

I was honored to do that. And helping President Reagan with writing the speech that he was presenting.

In Kremlin, first time he met with Gorbachev, all of those things were happening. But I didn't realize how, how important it was. I didn't. And now, after all these years, I feel like my contribution can be very important to the people who are trying to understand this challenging situation that we got ourselves into.

And so I'm hoping that the voice of reason. That's why I want to do a podcast. That's why I want to kind of explore with people.

What is it that socialism really does and how can they understand it so they can choose to go that route or not.

Well, I'll tell you what, first of all, I'll help you with that for sure. And the other things. Yeah, yeah, it'd be my, my honor. And I, I happen to be of the opinion that so deep inside, from a values perspective, I resonate the most with a libertarian perspective.

The but, however is, you know, I believe in social consciousness and all these things, but ultimately I believe that entrepreneurship is the fastest way to peace. In other words, a fundamentalist Muslim will do business with an Orthodox Jew if he's getting a good deal and being treated nicely.

Right.

You know, it's like no one cares in the world of commerce.

And when money is exchanged, creativity so much can happen. And again, I happen to believe that as we exit the world of the known and we dematerialize and we digitize and our traditional institutions are going extinct.

The things that matter are creativity, co creativity, innovation, leadership and.

Community. In other words, it has to do in the world where artificial intelligence and deepfakes can spoof a person and create artificial actors. You won't know what's real. And what isn't real in a short period of time. And for you to be out there in the flesh, pressing the flesh, educating and entertaining simultaneously. Never has there been a better time for a podcast and to do what you do. And I was going to ask you about Branson, Missouri, because one thing. Well, first of all, before I move on, I just want to see if you have any commentary thoughts on if we go down that rabbit hole for a moment about your values and what matters most to you, and if you're going to leave a singular dent in the universe, what would it be at this point? Or do you feel like you've done it? Or what's next?

Oh, boy.

I think that.

I.

Sense.

I sense things.

And I can't even explain how. But like an example.

When 911 happened and, you know, I watched that attack.

From. I was in Branson at my theater, and I watched it and I was so.

Distraught. Distraught. Is that the right word? So, yeah, yeah, for sure. I wanted to help somehow. So I started to paint. And I was. As I was painting and I had painted like the whole. All night, and they were announcing how many people were discovered dead and how many. And I was, you know, making sure I was keeping track of my strokes, the brush strokes. And I made this painting into like 3,000 brushstrokes in honor of each person that was. That perished. And then I had this vision by the morning that it needs to be a mural at the ground zero. And I don't know where it came from. I don't know why, but it took me a year to put it. And you can look it up online. Paul Harvey did the story on that. And eventually. But it was something I needed to send this message to the, to America, saying that human spirit is not measured by the size of an act, but by the size of a heart. And where it came from, I have no idea. And the painting ended up. I spent $100,000 of my money to put that up there. It was a very difficult project to accomplish, but I was driven. I believe that it was supposed to be there. So same thing happened after my graduation. And recognizing that I need to be in this front line to share. And I do shows like at the Comedy Store, for example, here on Sunset Boulevard. And that's all millennials. And I come out on stage telling them that 62% of millennials are in favor of socialism. Well, let me draw you a picture. So 15. I only have 15 minutes set. I mean, this is the place where, you know, I'll be there with Sebastian and Joe Rogan and Everybody gets like 15 minutes set. And so, and so for 15 minutes, I'm giving them my insight to socialism and they're laughing their butts off because they can relate. Like you're saying for humor, it's non threatening. I'm not lecturing. I'm just saying this is what happened to me. I lived in a communal apartment with nine families. My mom, my dad and I shared the bedroom till I was 26 years old. That's socialism for you. And my dad would say, so what do you, you know, they would send me to look out the window, I mean, since I was a little kid. And I said that my dad would say, so what do you see in the window? I said, our neighbors being romantic. And he said, how can you tell? I said, because their son is looking at me. So those are the jokes that they, and they can totally relate to that when I tell them that yes, they have medical care, but you get what you paid for and it's free there. And you know, you get, they don't do preliminary testing, they just go for autopsy. And it's cheap, it's very, it doesn't cost anything. You want, you want some radiation therapy, they'll send you to Chernobyl and that's all, you know, so that's kind of, and you give them that perspective and they're going, it's funny. Is it true? Well, maybe they'll look it up.

It's good. Yeah, you start the conversation and I, you know, my gut is that really is.

The, A huge part of what could be your next platform with the podcast is, you know, going down that pathway. And.

And it's also a great way to test out jokes and material without having to travel too. You know, it's, it's, it's a great idea. I, I'm, I resonate with it. And I think there's, you know, there's the vocal minority and then there's a silent majority. So for example, my, my son, who he just turned 17, he was up in the Pacific Northwest visiting a bunch of colleges who at this moment I'll will remain unnamed. But inside there, you know, they've got little places, they've got little Christ centers and tattletale centers for the snowflakes. You know, it's so.

Politically correct that they have, the kids are walking around with name tags that have their preferred pronoun of them, they or that or ism or whatever the hell the collection of, of assault on intellectualism and reason has, has been cast upon Us. But I can't help but think with the slim vocal minority and then the rest of us who are just shaking our heads, waiting for it to please pass. On one hand, I understand the fact that we've lived in a coarse, harsh world for a long time where there haven't been places for the minority to have a voice, especially those that matter and are willing to be extraordinary. But the assault I see is when the talentless try to create a category for themselves where they get away with not working, not providing value.

Essentially, they've become all that they despise, which is they're just another form of a bully that are taking advantage of a temporary.

Lapse in reason. Maybe not a temporary one, but it's just another long string of them. So, again, I'm. I'm really fascinating, fascinated with this, and again, I think I project it all over you. But I'm. I'm curious, you know, in the context of your podcast, if you were gonna imagine what it could be like, who would be some of the guests that you'd love to have on there? What would be some of the conversations you'd love to have just to get this thing rolling? Do you want to speculate and imagine this a bit? Yes.

Ultimately.

My goal is to explain through the eyes of a immigrant that is in love with this country.

I would like the guests that are on. Let's say you probably know George Jordan Peterson.

He's one that I want to get on our podcast. I think he's a genius and by far the most reasoned.

What's the word for him? The bottom line is he just knows how to argue reason and without being a jerk, know how to weave his way and pin the ruthlessly stupid into a corner and expose their true purpose and their intent.

Correct? Correct. Oh, we lost something. Are we on?

Yeah, we sure are.

Oh, something. Except. Hang on. Oh, it's my daughter calling.

Okay, go ahead and take a pause if you need to.

No, I'll just text her that I can't talk right now. And sign.

Yeah, all right.

Okay. So.

Jordan would be ideal. I think that to answer your question, I so much admire Joe Rogan that I would just copy and paste his list of guests. And I love his approach because he is talking from a smart but a simple person's point of view. And I think that that's what's missing in a lot of broadcasts. And they're shooting over your head or they're dumbing it down to the point that you go, come on. So having an intelligent conversation that's probably why having a doctorate degree gave me. I feel like in that movie wizard of Oz, remember when he gives him the scarecrow, he gives him a diploma, and all of a sudden he starts talking like he knows some legarithms or whatever. And so.

When I got my doctorate degree, I said, dang, this is like advanced education. I probably know something. And so I decided. And then I see Jordan Peterson, who is very intelligent, very articulate, capable to express what we have a tough time understanding. He was helping me.

By listening to him, I was understanding me why I left Soviet Union and came to America 42 years later. He is telling me in a simple way, saying, because the collectivism is the way that creates violence, creates chaos, because nobody's thinking for themselves. And then you have sovereignty of the individual in the Western world in which you can create and contribute and give to the world what the world needs. If that was your role.

Great.

Now let's go down this little rabbit hole a little bit because Jordan did a great job of describing what he loved about Joe Rogan. But what else do you like about his show that you'd emulate that you see is working really well? I'm just curious from a format perspective. So if you had Jordan Peterson on there, you'd have a dialogue and a conversation. What else would you be doing that you've observed that interests you, fascinates you or excites you?

All of that. Because when you listening to Joe Rogan, it's like you're sitting in that seat. He is capable to ask the questions that every person would want to know. If he talks about to Elon Musk, he'll ask him.

How do you come up with an idea of digging tunnels under Los Angeles? And then the conversation continues, you know, or. But what made you decide to create an electric vehicle? I want to know. And that's what he is capable of asking. And that's what I believe. Mine will be a little bit different, more about.

Even though I've been in this country a long time, I still feel as an outsider in somewhat. Explain to me, teach me, if you are my guest. Help me understand.

The, let's say electoral vote voting system versus popular vote. Help me with that and then you will be able to share with me your knowledge or your understanding of that, and that will help people to understand it as well.

I don't know if you heard about this, but there's this huge movement happening right now. It's called nvp.

National.

Public. No, National Popular Vote. Npv. It's A coalition that is formed, and it's already in, like, I think, 19 states. They made an agreement.

Legislatively that all the votes are going to go to the popular winner. So if they get to 270 votes, that coalition, they can surpass the Constitution and make popular vote to be the most important. And this already, we're living California, you and me. I didn't know about this until like a week ago, and it's already passed.

It sounds horrible.

Yeah, man.

I don't know, but it takes sometimes to take a foreigner who doesn't. I didn't understand about. I mean, what did we know about voting in the Soviet Union? I mean, we had secret ballots, but they were secret from us. We had no idea who is going to be our next leader. And we had to. 100% of people had to go vote, every one of us, and we had no say in what. What's going to happen.

It's. It's flat out terrifying. You know, I, I'm.

I would probably come across as being a little bit radical, in my opinion, on, on voting, but I'm. I'm of the opinion that at some point, due to ignorance or bad behavior, you should lose your right to vote. You know, and if you're a drain on society by choice, that's a good idea.

Yeah.

And, you know, and, and that, that comes from the perspective of that and the shenanigans that have been taking place where, whether it's Jerry rigging or whatever, I mean, it's just, what the hell are these people thinking?

Yeah.

You know, and what they're thinking is, I understand now, growing up, I did not understand what power really meant. And at the end of the day, it's all a trade to steal free money. I mean, that's really what the game of politics is about. And it is pretty appalling because the lion's share, I believe the majority of most Americans, and people for that matter, are good people who want to be treated fairly and want to work and be rewarded and have a happy little family and worship who they want to worship and buy what they want to be buy and behave, as long as it's responsible. And unfortunately, in a socialist environment or a bureaucratic environment, you're a drone and expected. You know, it really is interesting how insidious these little behaviors, how they amount to. So if I'm hearing you properly, these are some of the conversations and issues that you want to focus on and deal with in your podcast and have a interesting and even funny dialogue as well.

Yes. And what I'M seeing is explaining it. Let's say if you were hearing it, if I had a conversation with somebody who lives in China right now or somebody who's an expert and recognizes that how Chinese government, Communist government controls their people, that's fascinating stuff. Americans are not aware of that. They don't recognize what happened in Cuba, in my opinion. And they see Cuba as a great place where Castro was a very popular person. But I've gone to Cuba four times and I can't. I mean, they're brainwashed like we were in the Soviet Union. So when you go, we went there with Pepperdine University as part of the Global Leadership Program and we spent a week there or a week and a half actually in Cuba. And every college professor that we were talking to are saying, this is the best place on the planet. And we're saying, but look at your buildings. They're destroyed. Look at, you're getting rations of food. How is that great? And they say, well, but we don't have McDonald's, which is great. That's, you know. And you go, okay, well that's. And you can't have that discussion. So to me, a conversation with the credible people that understand the socialism from underbelly of it and go, I think it could be helpful for people to recognize that. Or having a conversation with somebody about.

Norway or Sweden and unveiling for them what is going on there. That they're paying at least 50% tax for all these social programs. They think it's socialism, but it's really just like we have Social Security, they have social medicine, socialized medicine and. But somebody's paying for it there. You know, they're also very homogeneous society with 5 million people versus all this society that we have, that all the nation, all the people of different races, different religions, all of that creates certain amount of complication in this. But it's so easy to sell this to say, but look, Canada has this. Canada's got 30 million people and they're paying a high tax. Do we want to pay that high tax? No, we don't. We just want the benefits. And so having those kind of conversations with legitimate people who are capable to explain this to in a simple way that every person can understand it, then let them make their own decision. That's what I would like to do. I'll give you another example. Chernobyl. I don't know if you seen that series on.

I watched just the first part of it, but go for it. It's fascinating. I just didn't finish it up. But it looked great.

Well, it was. I went to Chernobyl three years ago just to kind of experience this overall feeling. And if you walk through that town, it's ghost town, and you're looking at banners that were there from the Soviet Union. I mean, they're all rotted and, you know, and falling apart. But that's, in my opinion, that's just like a monument to that system that collapsed pretty much right after Chernobyl. But as like radiation. You can't see it, but it will kill you. The same thing as socialism. You can't see it. You only see like. Well, it's a nice looking idea, but it will kill you.

It's. Yeah, I. It's like a lot of. A lot of celebrities. They're fun and they're shiny until you get too close and then all of you disintegrate. They're like nukes.

That'll be a private conversation. We'll tell funny stories sometime. So. Well, here's where I'd like to go. First of all, I'm really fascinated with what you're doing in terms of your act, how, why you got your degree. Count me in. I love the concept of the podcast. It's a. It's perfect timing for what you want to do, how you want to do it, and you're the right guy to pull it off. And I'm totally willing to support you in terms of, you know, helping you build what I've created here. Because you'd have the ability to broadcast like Joe, create content, do the video, do the audio. And I haven't even shown you some of the really fascinating things that this system is capable of.

But let me ask you a question.

Go for it. Yeah.

He does every interview in studio.

What? Because I believe that when you want to create something great, you need to model something that's already great. And I was fascinated with your ability to book the guest, communicate, and then create what we have. Now. How would you compare it to in studio? If I was sitting there with you in studio, how would that be different?

Well, first of all, I have total control. Like, in this particular studio, I've got air conditioning, total noise control, really high quality microphones, and video cameras. So what this system is capable of doing from beginning to end. So as you said, and this is for our audience as well, you just clicked on a link that I gave you, you booked yourself, and my system automatically followed up and gave you all the information. My assistant got notified and I told her who you were, so you got. Not that I don't provide everyone with the VIP treatment, but a double check in and then from there, you know, we're meeting now and we're recording high quality, but it's remote now. If you were to come here, you would just walk in, sit down. And the way my system's set up, I press a button on my phone. Every single device in this room shut turns on. I have a recording device that is also capable of broadcasting. So much like. It's actually very similar to what Joe Rogan has. I could be broadcasting us live to Facebook Live, YouTube, Instagram, Periscope, every platform. And I have a switch pedal, so I've got these switches that I control with my feet. I don't even need an engineer. So I press a button and it records all of the cameras, plus a computer. And of course, behind me, this is branded, so I can change the logo and graphic. I could make it your website, for example. I might as well do that. And then from there.

It'S a green screen or what? It's not a green screen, it's an actual television monitor.

I see.

But what's happening live is I'm actually able to broadcast this, record it, and then it's being backed up as well. So I'm a big stickler just because I have a background in production. I've worked with a lot of engineers and stuff breaks. And I like total control and I hate being dependent on anyone. You know, deep, deep inside, I'm all about control. So there you are. I've got your logo behind me and now it's branded for Yakov.

Right, there you go.

But that shows up anywhere on. But in terms of flexibility, then I drag. I've got this all set up with servers and everything's backed up to Dropbox. So I drag one file and it not only makes an MP3 audio file, it sends the video and pre compresses it for YouTube or whatever it's already switched. And then it also does voice translation, so it creates a transcript. So within 30 minutes after we're done here, I could literally just be 100% live and we can record this live. So the vision I have for you would be imagine, you know, having people be able to show up and you're in la, you're in Malibu, which is a great location. They show up, they sit down. Now, for you, I'd recommend you to have an engineer there, much like Joe does, but they can switch live, broadcast it, and then you'll do a little bit of post production, assuming it sponsors so that you could.

Have an Audio podcast as well. So the video would be for social media and YouTube. And because it's live, that allows for people, you could actually do live Q and A or do chat if you wanted to do so.

But in the meantime, this has been my vision for years, and I did do a television program. I've done a feature, I've done a couple documentaries, and it's hell, you know, it's so much work and so many people, and again, the broadcasting is free. Now, the other thing that you could do if we get a little more nerdy here, and why the hell not, is you can have a Roku channel, you can have an Apple TV channel, a Chrome, a Google Chromecast channel, and also be delivered straight to Amazon Prime. And then, you know, theoretically, your best of could be turned into a Netflix series.

I love it.

So that is.

I love your vision.

Yeah, it's a blast. You know, you can change the world with entertainment. And again, if we kind of bring this all back, One of the reasons I was so fascinated with you is your extraordinary longevity and the fact that the skill set that you've evolved and developed over time as a comedian, in my opinion, is the most valuable skill set in the new world we live in right now. And if you'd added one little twist to this, which is, do you still have your theater, by any chance, in Branson?

Yes. Yes, I do.

So imagine so. I've got a.

There's. I'll tell you about him in a moment, but imagine being able to have your theater and broadcast a show live from there. And it would also be, you know, broadcast to YouTube and Facebook Live and all the channels and be your podcast. So.

You know, just imagine that. So I'm curious what your. What your response is. And then I'll tell you one more interesting story that will put a cherry on top of this.

Okay.

Yeah.

Tell me what you're thinking.

Oh.

I like the Possibility of Life.

Podcast. However, I don't have that clarity yet, because if people are coming to see a comedy show, it's a different format.

Yes. And I wouldn't mix the two. Just so you know, I wouldn't necessarily make it a I do it as the Yakov show. And whatever your theme would be, the comedy performance is a very different experience than the show. But keep going. And I'll give you a model in a moment of someone who's doing this.

So let's say Joe Rogan does his Netflix special, right? So he goes to the Comedy Store and he explores all the politically incorrect stuff that he can get away with and then hides it in the story. Not hides it. I mean, makes it funny. And then you're laughing at certain things that you probably would not, you probably would not be politically correct to laugh. Like for example, one of the routines he's got that's probably going to be in the next Netflix special. He talks about his ancestry dot com. He said if I, you know, unfortunately I only 1.8% or 0.8% African, if I had higher percentage, I would bring my.

Certificate and I would throw n bombs all over the place.

And he can get away with something like that. Or he'll talk about.

Different things he seeks out. He'll talk about feminism, but he'll talk about how the octopus female is three times larger than a male octopus and she can eat him if. If he doesn't satisfy her. So, so he uses that metaphor, but he's really talking about men and women.

And Tom Segura does a great job of that kind of thing. When he does accents and speech, speech disabilities and that kind of thing, he can, he's figured out a way to, to.

Not be blamed for talking about something. So for example, yeah, it's beautiful.

But, but the proportion wise, if you look at the, let's say successful speaker who uses humor, you probably have about 90% of knowledge and 10% of humor. And that's a good mixture. If you want comedy show with some message, it's the other way around. It's 90% of humor and 10% of message. So if I was aiming for which I'm going to aim for a comedy special for like Netflix and I'll probably do it in my theater during my run October and November, I'll be writing things that if I can come up with an hour of material on socialism that young people can laugh at, then I've done my job. But that will be a different medium that when I want to do a lecture, I don't want to be whole. I don't want them to expect stand up comedy because I want him to be expecting a Dr. Yaakov who is educated and willing to share this with some humor. Those are two different formats.

Yeah, that makes total sense. I'll tell you a little story here which is.

Pretty relevant. You know Tony Hinchcliffe?

No.

He's been on Joe Rogan a couple times and the guy originally produced Joe's podcast and Tony do some stuff. So Tony does a show called Kill Tony. It's on YouTube. They've done hundreds of episodes. And he performs his comedy show at The Comedy Store in la. But he also takes it on the road with him. And he's got like a goofy band.

I heard of him.

Yeah. And he, he performs. Yeah, he's. And he's had tons of big people on there. He's had Russell Peters, Joe Rogan, Tiffany Haddish. And now he, like I said, he's taking it on the road. Brian Red Redban is the guy who Joe used to produce a show with, who's also been on Joe's show. Anyway, his format is it's about a two hour program. He broadcasts it live. It's recorded and turned into a podcast. And it's sponsored. And it's rough. I mean, it's not like it ain't all hits, but what he gets to do is bring in an audience, perform some stuff. And he usually has people do an open mic. They perform a minute and then he gives them feedback. And of course he humiliates them and makes fun of them. And then the band might mock them by making up music in a particular style. So every episode, the band, they'll either be like, maybe one, one episode is gonna be, they're doing Rasta music. Another time they're doing big band and they're dressed up, they're funny as hell. But not all of it's good. But what it allows you to do is, you know, just imagine you got your, your fully cut, formed one hour program, which evolves into your Netflix special.

Yeah.

But along the way you get to test it out. And if you've got a sidekick, you know, then you don't have to be on all the time and you can explore some content, get some audience participation, figure out what works and have a podcast in the meantime. And it's my opinion that the closer you are to a live performance and able to do improv with a couple of sidekicks now, your evolutionary rate just increases dramatically. And it's. It. It. That is what I believe is, is the future. And, and they're doing an interesting job. So they go, then it's Death Squad tv. They've got a couple shows, but Tony's is the one that really is out there. But it's worth checking out. And I know, I know Tony, I could, or I. Yeah, I could actually introduce you to him.

Okay.

The last little nugget here that I want to throw out again, we're so off. But, but this is, this is what I want to do with you is I really wanted to understand how you're thinking and where you want to go a season. Sorry. Have you seen his latest special?

Yes, I have.

I think he did a fast. I'm. First of all, I'm curious what your perspective is on what he did and how he did it, because he broke a lot of traditional comedic rules. What do you think of it, his last special?

I, I, I like, I liked it because it was very.

Unorthodox of. Spike Lee is the one who directed it and so.

Spike Jones.

Right, Sorry, Yeah, you're right. Spike is, Yeah, I, Okay. Spike Jones directed. It was unusual from a perspective of that. It's not a straight on camera, it's very relaxed.

So from that perspective, I think it worked. But it's also him in his element and I watched him prepare for that special for now, probably about a year at the Comedy Store. So I, I watched elements of that before and I thought he did a great job and it was very different from other specials. So if that's what they were trying to accomplish. They did.

Yeah, I, I was interested. So for our audience here, if you haven't seen the season, sorry. He got, he had a little situation where he got, the MeToo movement got him, and it had to do with some dating and who knows what really happened. But it got, and it looked like it could have cost him his career. And he disappeared for a little while and came back. And the sort of, the way he set this up, it was quiet, apologetic.

Yeah.

And it was not funny for a little while.

Yes. And.

And, and I've seen that happen a couple times. Even Dave Chappelle in his last three series. It was, you know, it's his comeback after he disappeared and everyone's wondering what the hell happened to you? And, you know, his third episode is very metaphoric. And, and personally, I think, I think he's probably.

Dave Chappelle anyway. I think he's the finest, funniest, best comedian out there right now, who has more control over the stage and the audience than anyone ever seen. I can't even figure out all the stuff he's doing. He's very advanced psychology. I'd be super curious what your take on him is too. I mean, have you spent time deconstructing what he's doing?

Not as much, but it reminds me of Robin Williams.

Because the speed of their mind is so incredible. We're like, I feel like I'm on dial up compared to high speed Internet. So when you watch that, all you can be is just in awe of that skill that very, very few people have.

Yeah, he's really extraordinary. And again, that slightly apologetic at first, anyway, the comeback, which, again, in this era where there's so much sensitivity, casting a very wide net to establish a frame box, everyone in it, and then lead them down the tunnel. And going back to what you talked about with Jordan Peterson, he does the most amazing job of that. If he could combine the genius of a Chappelle. Longevity of what Joe Rogan is doing, where he is not a slave to anyone, he absolutely owns what he's doing and arguably is one of the most influential broadcasters out there right now, who he answers to no one.

Yeah.

And by my accounting, I think he's. That podcast must be producing around $20 million a year, just based on the math that I've kind of overheard a couple numbers here and there, and I did added 2 and 2, plus the rest of his career. My gut is he's gotta be producing another 5 to 10 with the other stuff he's got going on. He's got a good thing going.

Yeah, yeah. With.

With very few moving parts.

How. How often does he do his podcast? Like three times a week or two.

To three times a week. And I had overheard at one point that each episode's producing a couple hundred thousand dollars in revenue, so. And again, I haven't verified that, but that's just. So, again, when I do the math, plus, you know, again, he answers to no one. I mean, you think about anyone on TV right now, they don't get a million and a half views per episode. And plus, you know, he's got five and a half million YouTube subscribers. Couple. Couple million downloads per podcast episode. And that's right away, cumulative total. You know, if you bring on an Alex Jones or Elon Musk, you got 12 and a half million to 15 million, 25 million views. It's. It's extraordinary.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's real people. It's not a bunch of bots, so.

Right.

All right, so let me ask you one more, which is you've got your property in Branson and you're building a residential community.

Well.

I am. I am. I'm laughing because what. What I decided to do because I have a pretty big piece of land right.

As you enter Branson. So I feel.

That my role. I need to be here more in Hollywood, in Malibu, just because I am there. I feel it's an older demo and they're great in terms of laughter. They can tell me exactly where it's funny when it's not funny, but when it comes to help making them or helping them improve their lives, it's a little bit Harder because they're already, you know, they're already cooked, kind of.

So my goal is to reach the millennials, to reach the young people who are capable to actually make some radical changes that hopefully will improve their lives. So what I decided to do, a friend of mine, an architect.

Mike Rosen, who came up with the idea because there was a hospital was built next to me, he said, why don't you build a retirement community, still have a theater there, but make it something that will have independent living and assisted living, et cetera, et cetera. And he drew some drawings. And the powers that be in Branson fell in love with this. So they gave us the entitlement to this project, and now it's a matter of finding the investors to do it. So that's why I was laughing, because so far.

When you're asking people for $120 million, it takes a while for them to open their wallets. So at this point, it's a hope. But I look forward to it because I think it will be called Yaakov Towers, and it will be Pursuit of Happiness will be the kind of a motto for that place. So I'm hoping that will give people some incentive to come there and retire there and enjoy the Ozarks as much as I have.

Well, here's one thing I'll just plant, which is it turns out that our audience, a lot of the people who are part of the Strategic Coach community, for example, there's people in real estate, there's very wealthy listeners to this podcast. So maybe one of the asks we'll make is people who are interested in continuing this conversation. They can certainly reach out to us. I can forward their information to you.

That would be great.

And also, you know, to visit yakov.com and I assume can reach out to you there.

Yes.

But if you have some big wishes, which is how can we best support you? If you could, if you got to be God for a day or you got to write out the big ask, there's opportunities for Yakov Towers. There's also this new podcast that's in motion right now that won't be long. That'll be up. How else can we best support you and make your dreams come true?

If you are Netflix executive.

Let'S have a meeting about socialism and how I can create some funny stories and ideas that will be interested to millennials to watch.

Very good, very good. Just so happens I might know a guy. So we'll continue this conversation as we finish up here. But. Well, what I can tell you is this has been an absolute blast for me. I know we were all over the place, but that's. But I don't care about rules. I care about going deep and talking about interesting stuff and that stuff that changes the planet. And you're a guy.

I love how you think you dove in some places that I had. No, I haven't gone before. So that's a good. That's a good sign.

Awesome. All right, well, here we are. This is another episode of Capability Amplifier. So the best thing again, you can do, reach out to Yakov through his website. He's on tour right now. All of his tour dates are also. I know I'm gonna make a point of bringing my son to one of your programs. And my wife. Been a while since I've been in Missouri, so that'll. I'll get down there as well. And the next step is yours. I know we'll do. You and I will have a couple conversations about your new podcast.

Yes.

And who knows what can be manifested or created. But this has been an absolute joy and pleasure.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.

You got it.