Episode 344 - Dan Ahdoot

Breaking Bread with Tom Papa

Comedian Dan Ahdoot joins Tom Papa to discuss his new comedy special, 'Yes, I Am Falafel Phil,' the challenges of evolving material, and his deep

Key takeaways

• Comedians face unique challenges in balancing old material with new content, as audiences expect both familiarity and evolution.
• Gen Z's move away from alcohol toward microdosing may lead to a future resurgence of traditional drinking habits due to the limitations of constant low-dose substances.

Main topics

• Comedy special creation and evolution
• Gen Z drinking culture and microdosing trends

Notable quotes

"It's like, I know exactly what I have to do. I have to eat less. I have to drink less. I don't want to."

"Longevity and fun don't go well together."

Conclusion

The episode closes with a heartfelt exchange about shared experiences, the enduring value of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) The musicians, I feel, have it so much easier where it's like, just play the old stuff. I know. Just give it to me. The amount of times, it's the opposite for comics. It's Speaker 2 (0:12) like, Speaker 1 (0:12) hey, you did the same thing that I saw at that set last week. It's like, it was last week, man. I'm still working this out. Speaker 2 (0:18) And I, yeah, it's a puzzle that we will never really. know the answer to. You know, if you were to go back out and after your special comes out and you did 80 % of the stuff was still in the special, would the audience hate you and never come back? Or would they be like, yeah, Speaker 1 (0:33) he's working it out and moving forward. You know, Speaker 2 (0:35) you have no idea. It's breaking bread. Thanks for coming in. You're one of the only people that was here in the before Speaker 1 (0:42) times. I was here in the before times. I know. I'm going to light a candle for you. I mean, this is, this is absolutely. This is Patreon money, what's going on here. Explain to the crew what this was, because they weren't here. Oh, it was like... It was just like a table and we were sitting across from each other and I think there was, I mean, it wasn't this fancy. No, we came in, it was facing this way. Yeah. It Speaker 2 (1:07) was just a corporate table. It is this table, actually. Oh, Speaker 1 (1:09) really? Speaker 2 (1:10) Yeah, which we dressed up. Yeah. I feel like I'm at Carbone. Yeah, that's exactly it. It was great. Yeah. And yeah, it was the very early days of being in this building at all. Yeah. And you came in because you were doing Cobra Kai. Speaker 1 (1:26) No, I think I was promoting my book. It was your book. Yeah, it was my book, Undercooked. You can still get it on Amazon. Why don't Speaker 2 (1:33) we have a copy of it in our stack then? Speaker 1 (1:35) Yeah, Speaker 2 (1:35) I'm not sure. Oh, there Speaker 1 (1:36) it is. It's right behind you. It is. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Speaker 2 (1:39) there we go. Speaker 1 (1:40) That's awesome. Nice. Yeah. Speaker 2 (1:42) Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:42) Yeah, so I was here doing that. And you were so, you might have been the only person who brought me on their show who actually like read my book. Well, you can tell right away when people are bullshitting their way through the interview. Right. Okay. So what was, I had my friend who was like pretty famous journalist. I had her like do the Q and A at my book party. And second question, I was like, oh, she hasn't read the book. She knows nothing about the book. Oh no. Yeah, exactly. That's a bummer. She's like, what's the most exciting thing about writing a book? I'm like, oh, come on. Speaker 2 (2:17) That's the worst. Speaker 2 (2:21) No, because it's, you know, I think part of it is also that I write, so you understand, you know, and you also, when you have people on, you want to see what they're writing. Yeah, yeah. And that's a much harder lift. This assignment for today was much easier. 45 minutes. You just sent me a special. I got a sneak preview to the special. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:42) And what's it called? I'm... Yes, I am Falafel Phil. Yes, Speaker 2 (2:46) I Speaker 1 (2:46) am Falafel Phil. Yeah. I don't think I got up to that joke, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. It's the last line of the special. Oh, it is? Yeah. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Because Speaker 2 (2:55) I got through most of it and just didn't running around. And it's hilarious. Oh, thank you. It's so funny. And we'll get into it all. But I love the mix of food stuff. Because you and I really connected on... eating and the right ways to eat and all that kind of stuff and you were so nice to show up and I'm holding this up because I assume that Speaker 1 (3:19) future guests are going to see this. Some Speaker 2 (3:22) people Speaker 1 (3:22) bring wine. Oh. You don't bring 2018 Brunello when you come on the show? This is so sweet. Oh, that's weird. Speaker 2 (3:30) Yeah, this is really... Speaker 1 (3:31) No, well, listen, I know that you'll appreciate it, and there's very few comics who appreciate the finer thing. But that's how we bonded for sure. I think our love of food is... You can tell, it's like game-recognized game. Right. When someone else has that same obsession and insanity around it. Like, you had a bit in one of your specials where you're like... I know what I have to do to lose weight. I have to eat less. I have to drink less. I don't want to. Speaker 2 (3:57) I was Speaker 1 (3:58) like, yeah, that's how I feel. It's like, I know exactly what I have to do. Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:02) But I don't ever want to stop. I know. It really is. There's like this line in my mind. There is the, there's like what you should be doing, you know, and then there's all these influences in your life. And like. my parents or my grandparents and like, you know, this Italian family and all this stuff. And then it ends over here with Jim Harrison, who was this great writer. He's a legendary writer that not a lot of people know, an American writer. And he wrote tons of books. He wrote Legends of the Fall. He did all this amazing stuff. But he also wrote tons about food for Esquire predominantly. Speaker 2 (4:41) carved books out of those called A Really Big Lunch. And there's another one, a collection of essays of the way this guy would eat and drink. But it was all like great French wine. great Italian wine. Mario Batali would come to his cabin in the woods and cook for him. Yeah. Like he really just... First he'd probably get a little grabby. Yeah. Yeah. I think Harrison was safe. One eye and kind of grizzled. I think Speaker 1 (5:08) I saw him. He was a guest on Bourdain's show. I think Bourdain goes to his house once. Yes, that's right. He had like a mason jar full of like a deer stock. Yeah. Or something like that. Speaker 2 (5:20) Wild. Yeah. Wild. he's like a spirit animal for me for eating and drinking all the finer things. But the way I found out about him was his obituary at like 72. Oh, wow. And it wasn't a healthy 10 years before that. Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:34) So Speaker 2 (5:34) it's like, as much as I want to live like that, I also can't live like that. Speaker 1 (5:40) You know what I mean? You got to dial it back. I don't want to walk around with the gout. I understand. And, you know, the hot word these days is longevity. Longevity. Longevity and fun don't go well together. Speaker 2 (5:53) What do you think of this whole new drinking thing? Drinking has really Speaker 1 (5:57) fallen off a cliff, especially with young people. I mean, young people. What's funny about young people is they don't want to drink anymore. They just want to microdose. They just want to microdose everything just a little bit. These two guys are probably on just a little bit of mushrooms right now just to take the edge off. So they're just constantly low-dose drugging themselves. Yeah. Whereas you and I are like, I'm sober most of the day. Right. And then at night, I'm going to have some drinks. That's right. I'm not high all the time. I backload. It's not front-loading. It's back-loading. Whereas there's just like a constant IV drip of drugs. Speaker 2 (6:35) Yeah. And you know what's going to happen? I was trying to write about this the other day. It didn't lead anywhere, but it's a good point for now. Speaker 2 (6:43) You can do all that stuff, but drugs runs out. Drugs, weed, whatever like mellow kind of fun you have, it starts to lose its luster. And then what's waiting for you at the end of it? More stress in your life and booze. Yeah. Booze is going to be the thing that they're all going to have. They're going to be like, you know what? Speaker 1 (7:06) Weed makes Speaker 2 (7:07) me feel weird now. Yeah. Speaker 1 (7:08) It does. Speaker 2 (7:09) And you're going to be like. But a gin and tonic Speaker 1 (7:12) kind of does the trick. Yeah. We've been waiting for you. We've been waiting for you, Gen Z. I really think it's going to bounce back because of that. You think so? Yeah. Life is not going to let up. I feel like, look, I think that they. Speaker 1 (7:28) I think culturally they're different than us, though. I do think that they don't, like Gen Z's. Speaker 2 (7:36) I Speaker 1 (7:36) guess it's more thoughtful, but it's like they'll also do cocaine. It's like something about alcohol really rubs them the wrong way. I don't know why, what happened. Yeah. But yeah, like wine. It's a good question. Wineries are pulling their grapes out of the ground. I know. I was just Speaker 2 (7:55) in Sonoma. Speaker 1 (7:55) Yeah. And there were. Some vineyards where they Speaker 2 (7:59) were literally vines pulled out and stacked. Yeah. Because it's cheaper to do that than bottle a bunch of stuff that Speaker 1 (8:07) they don't think they're going to be able to sell this year. It's crazy. Crazy. No deals, by the way. Speaker 2 (8:13) I was like, I'm here. I know. I'm here for the fire sale. Speaker 1 (8:18) I'm still waiting for the prices to go down. Nothing. Not a break. But yeah, I think it's weird. It's almost like a self-inflicted prohibition is going on. Yeah. You know, look, Speaker 2 (8:29) a lot of it is social media. You know, they point out the things and it could be true. But there was a couple doctors that were like, no, drinking is going to be the new smoking. We're going to look at it. How did we ever do that? Speaker 1 (8:42) Yeah. No. Well, here's what the problem is with all those things. Because I see these studies where they're always like. Any amount of alcohol is bad Speaker 2 (8:50) for you. Speaker 1 (8:50) Anything is bad for you. Right. Well, fine. Okay. If we're just looking scientifically, biologically on my body. But the amount of fun that I have when I'm drinking and the camaraderie with friends that I have when I'm drinking and the enjoyment that I have from drinking far outweighs, I think, anything that it's going to do to my liver. I mean, I'm not drinking insane amounts. Right. Speaker 2 (9:09) But Speaker 1 (9:09) it's like the joy that I get opening a nice bottle of wine with a friend. Amen. I mean, ain't. Ain't no zone two cardio gonna do that for me. No, right, exactly. No, and just completely relax Speaker 2 (9:22) and let all that stress go. Yeah. You're running around with an Oura ring and an Apple watch and freaking out about your sugar levels. Speaker 1 (9:30) You're gonna have a heart attack at 50. Absolutely. I mean, if you, that's the thing. I do think people are over, there's too much data. Yeah. Like we're over, over datifying ourselves. Like people have the fucking glucose monitor on their tricep. Why? What are you like? You work in marketing. You're not Speaker 2 (9:46) like a triathlete. Speaker 1 (9:47) Why Speaker 2 (9:48) are you doing this? Yeah. What are you trying to achieve? What are you Speaker 1 (9:51) doing? And their sleep score. They're so obsessed with their sleep score. Yeah. Oh, one glass of wine and keep my sleep score. Shut up with your dumb sleep score. I know. Live your life. What test are you trying to pass? Speaker 2 (10:03) Live your life. Have a Speaker 1 (10:05) shitty night of sleep and have a great bottle of wine. Speaker 2 (10:06) What was the joke you had? Oh, it was about, and it was funny because I tracked it. As the comedy police, you started going into a joke about having, QR codes in a restaurant where you got to order now with your phone. Yeah. You got to, you got to scan and do the whole thing. And the thing, which I hate, I completely, I have a whole debate with my daughter about one of our favorite places that went that way after COVID. And your bit is talking, you start railing against it. And the comedy police was like, yeah, this is a little bit. And then you said, it means we're old. I was so relieved that you comedically were like, I Speaker 1 (10:52) know this is an old man bitching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's still, I'm still right. Right, right, right. I think it's like, I say like QR codes are the worst thing to come out of, because it forces you to have your phone out at the dinner table. And I, for one thing, the phone has no place at the dinner table. Who's with me? And they're like, woo. And I say, yeah, old people. It's really so true. It is so true. I mean, but I'm an etiquette nerd, man. I know, me too. Like I'm an etiquette nerd. And it's like, it. I wish I weren't. Yeah. Because people are such trash now and it's so hard to find. I know. You know? This is why I crave Speaker 2 (11:27) and watch Turner Classic movies all the time. Okay. Because their etiquette and their manners are found in scripts. It's found in the way that they say hello and goodbye and goodnight. and hang with it. I mean, I know it's film. I know not the whole world was living that way. But there were enough where the reflection in the art was the culture. And there's all different levels, but there was manners. There was real etiquette and the way when a woman walks up to the table, what you do when you say goodbye, like all of those things, excusing yourself. I love it. It's just, it's so, if you follow the rules, your life is so much more calm. Don't have to, I know it's corny, but just follow the rules that people have figured out for thousands of years and you'll go through stress. The number of times you'll get in the car and go, oh, I shouldn't have said that, will be so fewer. Speaker 1 (12:30) than making it up as you go. I agree with you. And also, I feel like you will stand out from the rest of the trash that is in the world. You will go on dates and these women will be like, who is this man? I know. And it's just like little things to do because chivalry is dead. No one is polite anymore. Yeah. So you just do like a little tiny gesture. Speaker 2 (12:50) It's amazing. Like, oh, Speaker 1 (12:51) let me stand up when she comes to the table or, you know. Speaker 1 (12:56) Open the door. Paying the bill. A lot of these guys aren't paying the bill. I know. I mean, it's like these little things will just separate you from the rest. I mean, you and I should start like, we should be like the non-toxic Andrew Tates, teaching the men how to live their lives. I know. You know what? Let's not launch it now because I'm dressed like a five-year-old boy. I'm starting to think we should have done Speaker 2 (13:21) these in suits. Speaker 1 (13:22) Well, what's funny is I'm usually dressed nicer. You're usually dressed nicer. Yeah. The weather in LA, I don't quite know what to do with it. It's Armageddon right now. It's killing me right now. It's 102. Speaker 2 (13:32) Yeah. It really is. And it's not letting up at night, which is very unusual out here. Yeah. By the way. It's Speaker 1 (13:37) hard Speaker 2 (13:37) to be Speaker 1 (13:37) styly here. Is that why you moved? It's very hard to be. That's the main reason I moved back to New York. I need layers, baby. I need. Yeah. I will say it's striking to come back to LA. One of the things you really notice is how poorly dressed everyone is. I know. Like guys at restaurants and their flip flops. Oh, the Speaker 2 (13:54) worst. Oh my Speaker 1 (13:54) God. Speaker 2 (13:55) But you know, it's getting to a point where you can't, you almost can't fault them. I know. Because it's so hot. That's Speaker 1 (14:01) the problem. Speaker 2 (14:01) What are you going to wear a Speaker 1 (14:02) three piece suit out here and just melt? Speaker 2 (14:04) Yeah. It's a, I know I have all these great hats. Yeah. That I wear in New York in the fall. Out here you don't. Out here is I want to get a big straw hat. I literally was driving home yesterday, and there was gardeners, and they had those big straw hats. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 (14:18) And I'm like, this is starting Speaker 2 (14:20) to make sense. I think it's time. Speaker 1 (14:22) By Speaker 2 (14:22) the way, I love how you faulted me for doing an old guy bit, and then you're like, you Speaker 1 (14:26) know what I like? Turner Classic movies. Speaker 2 (14:28) Oh, completely. I like to Speaker 1 (14:29) sit back and watch some Cary Grant. Speaker 2 (14:31) No, completely. Speaker 1 (14:32) No, but no, Speaker 2 (14:34) I'll defend that to the death. So much better. But comedically, to be able to call yourself out on like, you know, because it's a rant that I would have like with my daughter. Like we literally fight about that. And to hear the self-awareness of it. And that's what a lot of this special is, by the way. You're really, really funny. And I haven't seen you do stand-up Speaker 1 (14:57) in a while. I know. Yeah. Yeah, and forever. I mean, it was, you know, and I don't know if I've told you this, but you were the first. I was working at Comedy Central. 25 years ago, let's call it. Like it was my first job out of college. And we would always get free tickets to go see the specials and stuff. And I went to the taping of your Comedy Central Presents. Speaker 2 (15:17) Oh, wow. Isn't Speaker 1 (15:18) that Speaker 2 (15:18) wild? That is wild. Speaker 1 (15:19) That might have been your first special. Speaker 2 (15:21) Yeah, for sure. Speaker 1 (15:22) Yeah. I think I had done a late night spot or two. But that was my first, yeah, half hour. I remember walking out. I was outside and you had walked out of the back door and you were like looking for your family or something. And I looked at you and I was like, man. One day I'm going to get Speaker 2 (15:36) that guy wine. Speaker 1 (15:39) He's going to Speaker 2 (15:39) bake Speaker 1 (15:39) me Speaker 2 (15:40) bread. He's going to bake. One day that man will cook for me. So what do you do when you come back? Now, you were here. Yeah. You have New York roots. You've always been a Speaker 1 (15:50) Long Island kid. Yeah. But last we spoke, you were out here doing your thing. Yeah, I was here for 15 years. What Speaker 2 (15:56) happened? Speaker 1 (16:00) Honestly. Was it a good choice? I think it was a great choice. I am. I'm kind of over LA as an East Coaster. Yeah. And also like all my family's on the East Coast. And I feel like after COVID, we don't really have to be in LA anymore for work. Yeah. You know, everything that I do is writing or stand up, which can be done anywhere. Pitching shows can be done. Is everything all done on Zoom now? Yeah. So I was like, I don't know. Why am I here anymore? And also like, this is going to sound crazy, but one of the things that bothers me about LA is the perfect weather. because every day feels a little bit like Groundhog's Day. Speaker 2 (16:35) Yeah, you don't get that. There was a, oh, and I was in Sonoma. And again, it's not LA, it's Northern California, which is, this is why it's better. You do feel more of the change. And like every morning we woke up, it was cold and foggy until like 10. And it was so good for our souls. It was my daughters and my wife, and we all just felt so much better. Everyone else was like skittering around like, aww. But if you come from LA, it's like, ah. Speaker 1 (17:08) It's like a balm for your soul. It really is. Like a nice rainy two days. Yeah. I know. By the way, that's also good for the grapes. You want to have that chill at night. Right. And then the warmth during the day. Yeah. That's why Sonoma's so good. So good. Did you have a lot Speaker 2 (17:22) of Speaker 1 (17:22) good wine there? Speaker 2 (17:23) No. Speaker 1 (17:24) No? Not really. Speaker 2 (17:25) Sorry, Speaker 1 (17:26) I'm just trying to make conversation. Speaker 2 (17:27) No, no. It was, yeah, because I want to go back and like, I've never really done that properly, like a full wine trip. This was my Speaker 1 (17:35) wife's birthday, so we were doing lots of other Speaker 2 (17:36) activities and spa and, you know, she was with the kids. And I really snuck in a couple tastings in a couple places, and they weren't even that great. But the, like the view is just, they... Speaker 1 (17:50) those places, they just have it all dialed in. The Speaker 2 (17:53) mesquite, and when the sun's coming, and what to serve with it. That's all they do. It's so good. Speaker 1 (18:01) They're just going to make this experience beautiful. And the wine I got Speaker 2 (18:04) was like, okay. Speaker 1 (18:06) Yeah. Yeah. But I'd like to go like. Just smoke and mirrors and like, yeah, it's fine. Totally. Yeah. I bought six bottles knowing it wasn't great. Well, at least you know you have a good palate that you can't be swayed by that stuff. Yeah, that's true. There's a lot of swaying in the wine world, I think. Oh, man. Speaker 2 (18:22) Yeah. We went to, Sonoma is, Pinot and Chardonnay is like the big things over there. And my girls are like a little more into. a little more into white, but not Chardonnay. And that's a big Chardonnay area. And they were like, you know, this one's made with steel and this one's in the oak. And they weren't buying it. They're like, Speaker 1 (18:47) it's still