Myq Kaplan
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Jeremy: Welcome to Converstations with Catalysts. I am your host, Jeremy West. 
Today I have with me my first guest who is not technically a coach by trade. Instead, I have a philosopher who happens to get paid for telling jokes. So I guess he's actually you would say you're a comedian, wouldn't you, Myq Kaplan? Thank you for having me. And yeah, I think technically, by, by some official measure, I I work as a comedian.
That is how I spend a lot of my time. But I do like to tell people what to do. You like to tell people what to do, do you, Myq? Fantastic. So Myq Kaplan, can you please tell my audience, who is Myq Kaplan and how did you end up in the world of comedy? Sure. I'm a human being started life in New Jersey and My parents were music teachers.
I was made to play [00:01:00] the violin from a very young age and I didn't love it. But in high school, I started teaching myself guitar, which was made a lot easier by all of the knowledge I had of music theory and you know, playing a stringed instrument for years and years. So I loved playing the guitar. I started writing songs.
A lot of them were funny, either on purpose or otherwise. And then I was looking for places when I turned around 21 to perform my music and I found a comedy club. I was in the Boston area going to school. So I found a place called the comedy studio and I asked them if I could come play my funny songs there.
And they said they could give me five minutes. Send. So I played a couple of real short songs and talked a little bit in between and then little by little over the past 20 plus years, I started Expanding the amount of talking and decreasing the amount of playing the guitar that I did in most of my comedy [00:02:00] sets.
But that's a, I think that's as short an answer as you'll get for me as to how, as to anything, but as to how I got into comedy, for sure. Fantastic. Oh, now I just, I'll give a little bit of a I thought the three reasons that I have invited you on, despite the fact that my podcast is called Jeremy chats with coaches and you're not exactly a coach.
So number one is that I kind of. Feel like in some I was definitely inspired to do this podcast by your podcast broccoli and ice cream I don't know how similar the format actually Feels in general, but i've definitely stolen the last two questions from you. I always ask the same last two questions that you ask but yeah, you generally have on Comedians, sometimes other types of artists and so I said why don't I have on?
Myq, because you've inspired this podcast, but the second reason would be that you, in, within your comedy, I have [00:03:00] noticed, whether you've noticed it or not, I'm sure you have, that you have a lot of sort of spiritual themes, or, and To me things that to me feel like self development type themes definitely within your podcast as well.
And then the 3rd reason was just a good excuse to talk for an hour to my favorite comedian. Thank you. Very kind of you to say very generous. For all that I'm happy for they're like, you're a, I've always enjoyed interacting with you online. I'm glad for you to be doing this project that seems constructive and and helpful for the world and the people in it so yeah I'm happy to be here and yeah I guess, I mean, to speak to, What you have noticed in my comedy.
I appreciate it. Certainly on my podcast, my goal is to, you know, talk to people about the creative work they do and the joy they find in life. And so that I feel like that does often lead to you know, [00:04:00] valuable, meaningful conversations, often insights. And, you know, I learn a lot about people and other ways of being.
And and so in the, you know, the past 20. Plus years that I've been doing comedy. I have certainly grown and changed. And I would say certainly over the last decade or so for various reasons I have in my own, you know, sort of personal life, which then has informed my comedy. You know, discovered things like.
Like meditation, and certain Buddhist authors, and other spiritual texts, and other you know, not specifically spiritual, but sort of life enhancing like the, you know, perhaps books and authors from the self help group. I met my girlfriend in the past decade and she has offered a great amount of spiritual sustenance to my existence and also like pointed me to many of the teachers and authors and Texts [00:05:00] that I have now it seems like I've, I can't imagine a time that I didn't, you know, that I hadn't heard of pay my show drawn or Byron Katie or Brené Brown or various other folks, but yeah, I'm I'm happy to, you know, be constantly learning and and then sharing whatever I can with the world in, you know, in comedic form and, or in, Podcasting form.
Fantastic. A question somebody asked me many years ago when I was just, we were just standing at work waiting for customers, and she said if you could bring more of any one thing into the world, what would it be? And that stuck out to me as a way. It took me a minute. It took me a few minutes.
So I'll give you a minute while I'm talking to think of what it would be for me, but it struck me as a way to encapsulate really quickly a bit of your purpose in life. Myq Kaplan, if you could bring more of any one thing into the world, what would it be? Peanut butter. What if that was it?
[00:06:00] Yes. I'm Thank you. Was that correct? Did I get it? No, I would say yeah, that means that you're you're really Worldly because wasn't that created by a black man? Yeah, i'm an ally and What I my sincere answer is, I mean, I, I wish it'd be more than one thing, but you know, kindness is I guess one of the first things that springs to mind, I think at first I thought maybe joy, but I would say, you know, the more kindness there is, I think that will secretly also increase the levels of joy within the people being kind and within the recipients of the kindness.
Yeah, I would say. I would say kindness. Fantastic. And then obviously, as we've just talked a little bit, you have a quite an interest in self development and self help and all that kind of stuff. So if you were to, if you were to say what would be sort of the core philosophy behind your approach to life and work [00:07:00] and what's your core philosophy in life, Michael?
Oh, thanks for asking. Guess I would say, I mean, a practice that I that really helps me out is gratitude, like whether in the form of, you know, gratitude journaling, which is something that I, you know, I do sort of a morning pages style, you know, writing, or I do it in typing form on a Website called 750 words.
com. I know a lot of people there are some people who subscribe to like, it's good to do it long hand, but for myself I'll do that sometimes, but I often will just spend, you know, part of, Oh, wake up. And the first things that I do, like beyond, you know, brushing my teeth and such are usually before that I'll meditate.
And there's all kinds of different meditations that I'll listen to different guides and different styles and and different kinds of meditation, but that, and some of them are gratitude based or, you know, meta or [00:08:00] mindfulness. And then usually right after that I'll get up and brush my teeth and such, and then do this writing, which often begins as a meditation.
Gratitude, you know, if I like, sometimes if I have an idea of what sometimes I will just stream of consciousness, right? And see what comes out. Sometimes I'll start with I'll write my girlfriend an email or my mom or another friend. Sometimes you know, I say most often I will just start naming people and things and experiences and ideas that I am grateful for, and just sort of, you know, pinballing all around.
Like if I think of, you know, one person and I'm like, Oh, and that person like introduced me to this band. Like, Oh, and then all of these other bands and other artists and other, you know, and it's like a really nice, You know, in, in contrast to sometimes in the past and sometimes still if I slip and like look at, I don't know, the news or [00:09:00] social media or my email earlier like one of the books that my, my girlfriend brought into my life is by a man named Alan Cohen.
And it's like every day is a page a day, inspirational, motivational, spiritual, like lesson. Or an allegory, and one of them is about the formative minutes of the day as compared to the formative years of the life and the idea that, you know, in your first couple of years alive, those are very important for, like, the rest of your life, speaking nutritionally and physically, mentally and so the, If each day is like that as well, the formative minutes of the day, Alan Cohen says are valuable to, you know, for some people start with prayer or meditation or exercise or just quiet or, you know, whatever it might be.
So I, I have definitely found when I do that and when I spend it in a place of gratitude, that it's [00:10:00] like, it's a very meaningful and helpful way for me to start the day. And like, I think it my experience with like, at least the study of, or the analysis of gratitude in this way, I listened years ago to a, I think it was a Ted it was on NPR, it was like a radio show, but it was like maybe a combination of 10 talks or something.
I think it was called like the Ted power hour, unless that's not a real thing. And then it wasn't that, but I remember specifically, it was the first time that I'd heard of, or heard the voice of Thich Nhat Hanh and you know, Buddhist monk who just died recently, I think in his early nineties and was, you know, nominated for the Nobel peace prize by Martin Luther King Jr.
And just like, you know, a prolific. beautiful writer. And, but in this particular talk, I remember hearing him say this specific thing that the happiest people are the most grateful people, [00:11:00] or that the most grateful people are the happiest people. And it's not because people who they're grateful for the things that make them happy.
It's that the gratitude specifically makes them happy that, you know, when we focus on. What we have, you know, what we're grateful for, what we're happy is in our life. That's time that we're not spending thinking about what we don't have, what we lack, what we wish we had, what we're afraid of.
Just like every, you know, every experience that I've had every year that I've been alive, every moment with my girlfriend or my family or my friends or getting to do comedy or music and, you know, listening to it, playing it, just being, you know, being here. And being present, like there's always, you know, every once in a while, I'll like look at, you know, like some of my peers or people who like, maybe I started out with in comedy who there are various people who are accomplishing things that I would love to accomplish.
And also I wouldn't, I would not trade my life for [00:12:00] theirs because for everything that I might wish I had in my life, there's, You know, so many beautiful, meaningful, powerful things that are in my life that I'm like good. I these are, I want what I have. There's so many things that I have that I didn't have that I wanted before.
But now it's, you know, it's like a trick that we play on ourselves sometimes. You know, where we're like, I want to get to that horizon. And then when we get there, Oh, another horizon, you know, the old horizon traps, but it can, you know, sometimes it'd be nice to like turn around or look down, look back and be like, wow, look at all those horizons.
I've already traversed super grateful for, you know, infinite horizons thus far, and the one that continues to. Like being, you know, right beneath my feet are within me right now, but yeah so I would say core practice gratitude, which I think is also, I mean, connected to the kindness that I mentioned before.
[00:13:00] So maybe that as well. It's a tie. I can't pick between my 2 children gratitude and kindness, or perhaps flip sides of a similar coin or a multi sided die. Perhaps yeah. A hundred percent. I think the more grateful you are, the more kind you're probably going to be as well.
And that's my first thing in the, what's meant to be my first thing in the morning always is actually a gratitude meditation. And I've mentioned to you before, but I'll mention it to the listeners that that you're in my head whenever I'm doing something else before meditation because there's one episode of where you were asking a list sorry, you were asking a guest if they meditated and they said, yeah, no, I always mean to, but I go, oh, I'll meditate after I do this.
So I'll meditate after I do that. And you responded, no meditate before that. And so that's your voice pops into my head every time I'm doing something else saying no meditate before that. So that's, that was actually the first time I thought maybe that, Your what you do is a little [00:14:00] bit of a coach to me that makes sense.
So, okay. Aside from those things that you've just shared with me with the gratitude and the meditation, could you maybe share another story about some area in your life where and you can talk about Psychedelics as well, if you'd like to, which you haven't mentioned yet, but I know it's been a big part of that in your life.
Could you share something where something that you've done within self development or some practice has made a significant difference in your life, or you've seen it make a significant difference in someone else's life? Yeah, I will. I will. I'll probably get to psychedelics. They're certainly, they've gotten to me, but that's what taught you to be kind, right?
According to my Keith Malley. It was a big, yeah. Oh, that's. I appreciate it. So here's a couple things. One there's a book that my girlfriend read and then she loved it and recommended it to me [00:15:00] and I loved it and we think everyone could benefit from this book called You're Not Listening by a woman named Kate Murphy.
And I'm sorry, what was that? Oh, Kate Murphy. You're not listening. We're talking. I'm like, look, I'm taking, I'm being very sincere here. And great job. Now, as your coach, I'll say, don't make that joke again right now. But joke noted, I'll stipulate to the fact that you were very funny and it was very good.
So the book is about how we could all be better listeners, that there's all these sort of ideas about, you know, how to be an active listener, how to appear like you're listening or things that they recommend, like mirroring back to people, what they say, and that there's a lot of myths that, like, that it's actually, you know, maybe simpler, but not As easy in our, you know, go society in our, you know, say where people are rewarded for like [00:16:00] speaking more than listening, you know?
And, but that there's such a, like, you know, in my own experience, I'll speak for myself. I'll speak for myself while you listen, you're doing a great job listening. I, I haven't always been I mean, I'm still working on being a better listener. Like, you know, on my podcast, my goal is always to invite, you know, the guests to share as much of themselves as possible.
And my favorite episodes sometimes are ones where I hardly say anything. And you know, I get to as a comedian, like talk for my job and share as much as I want in the confines of that. And, but. It's just really, you know, like, perhaps these are cliches or ancient wisdom or whatever, the idea that, like, you're, if you're talking, you're not learning, you know, like, maybe you can say a thing and surprise yourself, but definitely.
Other people [00:17:00] know things that you don't more than, you know, things that you don't like specifically, like, you know, I mean, I'm a straight cisgender, white American male, you know, I'm many categories of, Privileged that, you know, my society and my, like, my whole life has been like, oh, yeah me centered, you know, and, you know, we all hopefully understand.
We are all in some ways, quote, me centered. You're all centered around me. And I, it's just really. It's I mean, it's weird to say that it's fascinating to be like, Oh, other people, other experiences. Like, you know, I was just, I mean, my, my family was very supportive of me and loved me. And I was an only child and an only grandchild and like, I was, you know, as.
Children are, I think, hopefully intended to be like the center [00:18:00] of attention for a while, while, you know, you're formulating into a human and developing like a sense of who you are, but like, you know, eventually you know, we were all, we learned that we're all a part of this larger tapestry. And so that one aspect of the answer to your question, I'd say, is that I have been.
Working on like not necessarily saying everything that I think immediately in every situation, you know, obviously if I'm in, you know, talking with somebody or in a group of people or where it's, you know, where it's not me performing I do my best to try and, you know, if it seems like there are people who are quieter, like, you know, my girlfriend in particular, she isn't you know, Quiet, but she doesn't want to, like, steamroll people in a conversation, you know, like she is a wonderful listener and a wonderful conversationalist, especially when, [00:19:00] you know, there are people who are good listeners engaging her, where if you have two good listeners, then They both do a great job listening to each other.
And if you have two people who are not, then you have people who are gonna, you know, maybe both be advocating for themselves talking and that'll be okay too. But it's just been. I'm focusing on that in my own experience. And you know, like if you're a person out there who feels, you know, this is not necessarily a gendered thing though, in, you know, in our society, it does seem like, you know, men are socialized to blah, blah, blah, and women have been socialized the other way, even though like weirdly the stereotype from, if you listen to many male comedians, they're like, man.
Women, my girlfriend, they won't stop talking. It's like, interesting. You won't stop talking about how your girlfriend won't stop talking. That is a fascinating turnaround. But so I [00:20:00] am, I'm thinking about that. The other piece of what I'll share right here is I love advice columns. I love. Advice podcasts.
I read and listen to tons. There's a, you know, Dan Savage's podcast is one of my favorites. I listened to dear prudence and read that column. And there's one called captain awkward. There's the ethicist there's social cues in the New York times, which is one of my favorites. There's a podcast called dear therapists, which is really just so cathartic and heartwarming and like, you know, these two.
Real therapists, like do basically a session with a person who has written or called in with an issue. And it's just, man I love the genre or like the field of advice giving. And that's, you know, in part what I would, part of what I was alluding to. And I'm like, I do like, I have an impulse, you know, going back, I don't know, however long whenever, if anyone says something to [00:21:00] me.
Like that could be a challenge or a problem or something they're working on or ruminating on. And my first instinct historically has been to be like you know, you should do, here's what I would do. You know, I feel like a lot of us have ideas of what we think another person would, could, or should do.
And they aren't always asking us for those things. And so it's been really valuable. Like my girlfriend has been a large help and just. And all these other ways of seeing, like, sometimes, so here's a, I forget where this came from, but I mean, this, I think this will be appropriate for your show in specific that sometimes when people are coming to you, you know, and sharing something that they're going through, sometimes they're looking for a coach, someone to help them figure out, you know, What to do.
Sometimes they're looking for a cheerleader, just someone to kind of, you know, be there and big up them as opposed to offer like different ideas of what to do. And sometimes people are looking [00:22:00] for just silence, like so cheerleader, coach or silence. Or another way, I don't know if this is the exact same paradigm I've heard it put.
Sometimes you want to be heard. Or hugged and which I think might correspond to roughly coach cheerleader and silence. And so I love advice columns, maybe because, you know, optimally, I like when people who want advice are asking for it and then receiving it. So another, you know, Thing that I've been working on is trying to ascertain, you know, either directly by communicating about it or as indirectly if need be, like when I'm talking to a friend or a loved one or, you know, someone like, are they looking to are they coming to me for advice?
Are they coming to me just to, to share? You What does the person want, and what can I offer, be it just, whether it's my ear or my mouth, because I've been, you know, throughout a [00:23:00] lot of my life, leading with my mouth, and often, you know, there's two ears, so they're They've got even more power in the power of silence there, but yeah, so I'd say those are a couple things.
And I'm happy to get into the psychedelic piece of it, but I'll leave it there for right now. So I would say first up I listened to your podcast and I've noticed that you are a very good listener. Have you noticed a huge difference between when you are the interviewer and then every, is it every hundredth episode where you have someone else interview you?
Yeah, thereabouts. I think we've done that. Yes. Yeah. And there's a huge difference. You. Like me, like myself, you do like to talk and have a, you know, you have, do you still have your podcast called the faucet? I do it for I began it during the, you know, the lockdown phase of the pandemic. And so I did it a lot more regularly then and now it doesn't come out with a specific regular [00:24:00] schedule, but it does offer An outlet for me to just, you know, spout off a stream of consciousness out of the faucet that is me.
So I think you might be similar to me. I just was traveling with my family of origin in Europe last year and my dad likes silence and I I think he may have pointed this out that I process things and I do my thinking sort of out loud. That's how I figure out. Is by actually talking things through. So there's a little bit of a clash in our communication styles there.
But yeah, definitely. I don't know if it's something that you've learned over the years. But when I hear you interviewing people, you don't talk a lot. You let them talk a lot. You definitely have learned that if that's something that you've learned. That you weren't doing before somebody, though, one of our listeners KV had a little suggestion that you mentioned a few times there, Rini, and here, let's listen to KV.
[00:25:00] While Kaplan is talking about listing, I thought I'd say. Leave a voice message. I've really enjoyed the talk for the last 15 minutes. It's a show that I'm not ashamed to play out loud for strangers to hear. That's always nice on stereo. So I'm looking forward to Jeremy West. Next podcast where he's going to be interviewing your girlfriend, Mr.
Kaplan, my Q Kaplan. She sounds like somebody he needs to interview.
Yeah, you're welcome. That's really fun. That's delightful. Thank you, KV. In fact my girlfriend who I share a home and life with is with me. Currently if do you want waves and they're okay. So that's she's been on the podcast now. But she's been listening and said she'll consider it, but
I don't know if I should be flattered or just acknowledge that perhaps the joke is that I could either confirm or deny that he is a [00:26:00] good listener. Is that what it was? I was wondering that, but also, I thought maybe, my thought was that KV was saying that Myq has learned so much from you that maybe I should be interviewing you.
That was also yeah. That was my sincere takeaway. As well that yeah, I mean, why keep listening to me when you can go direct to the source? I learned all these things from another person. You listen to me. You must've been listening. If you learned those things from Rini. It certainly did.
I mean, It's so interesting, like, my own, you know, seeing these different aspects or different, you know, points in my life and my own development, where, like, I know that I was different at a time. And, you know, obviously, like, there was something about me. Me as something about each other that attracted us to each other and it wasn't that I was this, you know [00:27:00] Just a malleable, you know ball of mush that she's like this could be a shape of a listening good boyfriend You know, but there was early on I think I forget exactly.
We, you know, we started, we met and started being together in 2016 and so sometime like I'd say within a year, the first year or two that I was away. For shows in California and Rini was still working at a, you know, a job that she had to stand on her feet all day. And it wasn't, you know, it was, I don't know if you know about capitalism, but it's and she I remember I like in the morning, I like messaged her.
I don't know if I left, I don't know if it was a text or a voicemail, but I think maybe a text that was just like, I hope you're having a great day. And I was like, I think that's pretty good. That's a nice thing to say. But as it turned out, she, and yeah, she confirms it is a nice thing to say. And also, like she [00:28:00] wasn't having the best day.
And It led to us having a conversation eventually where she let me know for her and for a lot of people, but definitely for her, she said that having, being asked questions was a way that made her feel more cared for because saying like, hope you're having a great day. Like if she's like, but I'm not like there, there was no yeah.
She didn't want to disappoint me. There was no, no invitation for her. Actual experience. I was not expressing curiosity. I was just like, you know, checking the box, being like, I want to make sure you're okay, I'm okay, we're okay. And just say, you're okay. And we'll be okay. But at this end, I remember part of the conversation involved like me, not even really intellectually understanding what the difference was between like, how was your day?
And tell me [00:29:00] about your day, like, you know, not with that tone necessarily, but just that a question is inviting a question is like open ended and, you know, spacious. And, but at the time I was just like I don't totally get it, but I'll do it. I'll and you know, the next time. Like maybe the next day or whatever.
I was like, how are you doing? How is your day? And like, it's so fascinating how it can, like, I wasn't doing it as a joke, but I was at first kind of just, you know, going through the motion of it. I'm like, I will like, cause I love her and I want. I want to make her feel good. And if she says it'll, if it means, if it's no difference to you, if it's no difference to me, Myq, if it's no difference to me, whether I say, however I say a thing about your day, then absolutely I'll do the one.
That you want a hundred percent. Like, do you know, Jeremy, the the platinum rule? Yes. I thought I came up with it, but then I've heard other [00:30:00] people talk and talk about yeah, cause I was like, Jesus is not noticing that some people don't want to be treated the same way that you want to be treated.
Yeah, tell us the platinum rule, Myq. Yeah, my, my understanding of it is instead of do unto others, as you would have them do unto you, is do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Do, you know, don't think about, don't treat others The way you want to be treated, treat others the way they want to be treated.
And in order to do that, sometimes it's important to be curious and investigate and be inquisitive. And like, certainly if it's somebody in your life where you can be like, Hey how would it, how would you like to be treated? How can I care for you? And so in this particular instance questions were a very easy way for us to do it.
And and so now I, you know, I do my best to remember that and implement it. And I think it's gotten to a [00:31:00] point where every once in a while, like there's, you know, there might be some people out there who don't want, you know, especially if it's like, maybe sometimes I'll meet a new person and I'll just like, ask them a lot of questions because I'm curious and I want to get to know them.
And at some point they'll be like, this feels like an interrogation. I'm like, Oh, do you want me to talk? I, that's, I can let the beast out. Can't eat. That used to happen to me all the time when I was an Uber driver but I'm pretty sure that what they wanted when they said this feels like an interrogation was silence.
Yeah. I mean, certainly in an Uber, it's nice to have that selection where, you know, I don't know if they have that everywhere, but to be like, what do you want? You know, sometimes people do like, Oh, is that in the app? Yeah. It wasn't back when I drove. And it was annoying as the driver. I was like, Do they want me to get a conversation going, or do they just want to be silent when they weren't?
Yeah yeah, Reani's the best. That's in conclusion. In conclusion so I was gonna say, cause I dabble [00:32:00] in comedy, I mean, I I'm an an improviser. Sure. In three different Yeah, but I have done stand up and when I just said I was, I'm completely serious that I thought that I came up with the platinum rule.
I don't think I called it that, but I'm sure that I must've heard it somewhere. And then thought it was my own idea. So that whole thing where it's the cardinal rule or whatever of standup comedy that you never take anything from anyone else. I'm like, but I don't know if my thoughts are original or if I got it from somewhere else.
I always think it was my own idea. I mean, these things happen. And I mean, for all of us. There is almost always no way to know that we, you know, like, first of all, like we didn't invent the language, you know, we came into this world, we didn't create the society. I'm talking about like us individually, you and me and any individual [00:33:00] person.
And like, we're all. Working with the same, you know, cultural ingredients and, you know, linguistic ingredients and, you know, and there is parallel thinking like it's quite possible that you did come up with it on your own, as did others, like people invented calculus in two different places around the same time.
And also the Darwin's theory, someone else was about to publish, he'd stuck it in a drawer and. Yeah I mean, like, it certainly happens with jokes pretty frequently, every once in a while, you know, I write a lot of jokes. They get out there in the world. Sometimes somebody will be like, Hey, that reminds me of blank's joke from could be 30 years earlier.
It could be five years later. And as long as, you know, the goal for us is to, you know, not actively purposefully, Do something that, you know, that takes from somebody else's work, intending to do that, as opposed to [00:34:00] intending to be as innovative and original and creative and unique as we possibly can yeah, then, like, it happened, it happens to the best of us.
That was cool. So you're the best, you know, how do you, now you, I've heard you talk about this before and you've mentioned it in this conversation that your parents were really good at at letting you know how good you were and making you feel really good. And I've heard you mentioned that when you started comedy, you had, you had an unearned level of confidence and things like that. So first question, do you ever experience self doubt? That's a good question. I mean, I would say probably yes. And I pro probably, I think it's like A really delicate balance, the spectrum where, yes, I do say that I started comedy with like a level of delusional self confidence that eventually [00:35:00] was tempered by, you know, sort of increasing awareness and greater accuracy of, you know, what I was, how I was actually, you know, connecting and being perceived.
And so I would say, you know, Sometimes I think about this thing from the Talmud, where a rabbi said, you know, have one piece of paper in your pocket that says, or he said that he did this, that he has a piece of paper that says, this world was created for you. And the other pocket that says you are nothing but ash and dust.
And you know, sort of put more simply, like, If you're feeling down, if you're like, oh man, I'm nothing, remember that you're also everything. You're the center of your own experience. You're, you know, the main character of your story in this life. And if you're, if your head's a little too big, if you're like, yeah, I'm the greatest, be like, remember, you're also nothing.
You're ash and dust in the grandest scheme of the thing. You're the tiniest speck in the tiniest, yeah. You know, like corner of the space [00:36:00] time continuum you know, billions of years surround you. Yeah you're gonna live a hundred years, maybe. And you know, it's sort of this seesaw or pendulum that, you know, perhaps this is like akin to what the Buddhists call the middle path, where it's like, you don't want to be, you know, it's not everything permanent.
And it's also not nothing complete, you know, I mean, they call it emptiness, but they just refer to that as like, you know, the emptiness that everything has everything is empty of a permanent sort of intrinsic ultimate being an ultimate self. And I feel like maybe I feel, you know, every once in a while, perhaps I'll swing to the other side of the spectrum, but I do think that my, you know, familial and cultural conditioning has, you know, a lot for better and occasionally for otherwise really bolstered the this world was created for you side of the spectrum for me, which I'm very grateful [00:37:00] for, but I've had to cultivate, you know, not doubt, but also, you know, like a more.
Sometimes like realistic view of of what's going on. So yeah, I mean, short answer let me take away all that short answer. Yes. I occasionally, I mean, let's say this, I just gave you an answer and I was like, I'm like, no, no self doubt. And I'm like, wait a second, hold on. Maybe sometimes self doubt.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right here. A little bit of a little bit of self doubt as to whether I experience self doubt. Does that make sense? It does so maybe i'll go. What about this? Do you what especially in? creating, your New routines and all of that when you're writing your comedy. Do you?
Experience lack of motivation ever and if so how do you push through that and And how do you push through that? Sure. I mean, I [00:38:00] wonder if this won't be helpful, but the answer is almost never. Oh, yeah. No, that's good. Thankfully. I mean, here's the thing. Do you think there's a reason for that?
Does is that do, are you really disciplined or you just really feel motivated all the time to be doing that? There's a quote by the writer w Somerset Maum, that's I'll paraphrase. He says, you know. I only sit down to write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o'clock on the dot.
And so I think that I am disciplined. And I think that, like, when I started doing comedy and I wasn't, you know, as successful, as accomplished, as funny, as good, as anything Like, it was my just doing it, that, you know, getting the reps in that made me you know, get better, like, you know, swimming against the current and becoming stronger.
What is your, do you sit down [00:39:00] and write no matter whether Feel like you're inspired or do you do more of the pulling out the, I know you have a recorder, like an audio recorder, pulling that out all the time. And is that more your process of just throughout the day, whenever anything strikes you as funny?
That is, it is the latter. Like I do have, so I have this recorder that I carry around and then sometimes if it's not handy, I will like it. Text myself ideas as well and eventually put them in the recorder and eventually like actually just earlier today My recorder was basically full like there are different Folders and each one of them can hold up to like 200 ideas and most of the folders were full So I'm like I gotta empty this so I can put more stuff in it.
And so I empty the folders By listening back to those 200 ideas at a time, usually, or, you know, over the course of doing it for a few days and writing [00:40:00] them down into a physical notebook. Then when the notebooks are full, then I type them into the computer. And then that process just keeps. Continuing. In the meantime, I'm also performing and recording the sets.
And if I riff something new in a set, then that goes into the recorder and that goes into the notebook and that goes into the computer. And so the process interest, I mean, yeah, as it, so when you go from putting it, sorry, when you go from putting it in, I just don't know if I'll remember this question.
When you go from putting it. In from the recorder into the notebook, does it get refined and then does it get refined even more when it goes into the computer? Or is it mostly just going word for word? The same thing? That is a good question. I would say. Probably the answer now is that there's absolutely a refinement process that takes place earlier in my career.
I think like before I would even, when I put career in quotes, I would say, I [00:41:00] probably would do more like word for word transference of it, but I would eventually come to, like, part of what I love about the process now Is that I when I'm saying it to begin with, and then like, you know, some weeks or months later when I'm writing it with a pen or a pencil, and then some months later when I'm typing it at every stage, my, I'm engaging with it, you know, in a, from a different time and via a different like mechanism.
And I almost, you know, not on every, not for every idea, not for every joke, but for many, as I'm transferring it, I'm like, Oh, I could also say this or add this or extract this, or if I don't understand what I was talking about, be like, just edit it or excise it in some way. Though, even if I do think that the idea is not.
Perfect. I'll usually err on the side of continuing to include it. And then having, you know, part of [00:42:00] the document be like jokes that you know, get to these eventually if you want to. But as opposed to the ones that I'm like, you know, more moved by and more excited to really develop and dig into I think your audio recorder.
Your audio recorder being full reminds me of I don't know if you've ever heard the Mitch Hedberg joke where he says that sometimes he comes up with a joke while he's in bed at the hotel. And if the pencil's on the other side of the room, then he has to convince himself that it ain't funny. Yeah.
I mean, the way that's a hilarious joke and very resonant and the way that it manifests for me is like for the past few days with my. The levels being full or close to full in. In my robot, in my recorder ordinarily, I would spend a lot of time listening back to sets, and then, you know, extracting new ideas from those sets, and then putting them into the recorder, [00:43:00] but since the recorder is mostly full, I like, didn't, I slowed down the cue of like, listening back for the past few days, until now, that, I can't.
Now that there's a whole, you know, 200 idea slot, you know, 200 idea folder open. Now I can listen back and be like, Oh, we got, you know, dozens more ideas coming down the pike. But I mean, perhaps, I don't know if this could be helpful to others, like part of the process for me is like not really censoring myself.
Not really like where if I, there's a book I read. By a man named Verlin Clinkenborg. And the book is called several short sentences about writing, I believe. And one of the things that he says in it is that it's sort of maybe the goal or the job or the, you know, the task or the mission of the writer to notice [00:44:00] things.
And then to notice that you noticed them. You know, classic comedy style. Hey, ever noticed, you know, like, Whether it be an internal thing or an external thing, whether it's something about politics or, you know, just dating or pop culture or, you know, your inner life, mental health, whatever, you know, whatever you're noticing, like part of the job is to notice and then it's to notice that you're noticing.
And so I. Who has left the room now so we can speak honestly about her. And I can tell you that I really love her and everything I said is true. And. Like, we have a kind of, you know, joke that I will say everything that I think, and she will think about everything that she says. Yes. There are things that, you know, historically she might have, like, great ideas that she doesn't, like, it used to be, sometimes she would say something, and if I didn't, I Register it or acknowledge it [00:45:00] out loud.
She might assume that I, you know, maybe didn't think it was the best thing for whatever reason. Like if she, she grew to really, you know, learn that wasn't the case. And that sometimes if she had a really strong feeling about a thought that she had, she's like, I think this is funny. I think this is creative.
I think this is unique. Like if I didn't. You know, outwardly acknowledge it, you know, maybe I was distracted. Maybe I was looking at an email, maybe whatever it was whatever it was that was keeping me from fully engaging with the idea, she's like, more recently has been like, Hello, I would like to, like, did you hear this thing?
I said, I think it's a great idea. And I'd be like, it is a great idea. I'm glad that you you know, shook me out of my complacency. And so I think that. She has, you know, learned to have, you know, greater confidence in her [00:46:00] own you know, abilities and thoughts and ideas, and I, you know, have am learning to listen more, you know, and And I know that not every idea that I have is going to turn into like, you know, I literally thousands and thousands of words and pages exist of the ideas that I've had.
And part of it now is that I get to like kind of go mining them kind of like panning them for the gold that can exist and be like, sometimes I will go back, you know, years or months and be like what have I not done? What ideas have not been like, you know, watered and like just seeds that are going, like laying, like ready and waiting.
And so that's the thing, like, In 2006, I'd been doing comedy about four years, and I had written a bunch of jokes that I thought were the best jokes I had ever written about the movie Snakes on a Plane. And I was like, I don't know that I'm ever going to write better jokes than these. And [00:47:00] I went through like a period that felt like a slump.
I was like, man, I don't know. And I like, you know, I still kept coming up with ideas, but nothing felt right. Not like it was hitting as much, nothing. I was like, ah, maybe this is it. And then, you know, some six months later, I had another joke that felt good and did well. And I just realized it took a long time sometimes for a joke to develop, for an idea to, you know, really come into fruition that I had to, you know, work and wait and be patient and effortful.
And. And so I think that's something that, you know, maybe other people could take if it's, if it resonates that, like, like you don't have to sit down and write every day. You can, if that's what you want to do. And you can just like truly, like, if you have an idea that you think it might be worthwhile, write it down or record it or, you know, and then eventually like later, you know, a lot, I think part of The meticulous process for me is in the reviewing the massive amounts [00:48:00] of like idea collection or expulsion from my brain that I have engaged with.
And I'm just like, here's a lot of stuff. Like, I remember my friend Shane Moss, very funny comedian when we both started, I remember for me to come up with like a new five minutes of jokes, I'd have to do like one at a time. I'd have to come up with, you know, like one short line and another short line and another until eventually I built it up into five minutes.
And Shane would sometimes just start with a story that was like 20 minutes. And he's like, for him to get five minutes, he had to whittle down a 20 minute story into the five minutes. That was like the worthwhile stuff that he wanted to really Get out. And so You know, depending who are you know, are you somebody who needs to listen more or somebody who needs to, you know, more confidently express what's going on inside you that you really care about more.
Are you somebody who, you know, has [00:49:00] a lot of stuff and just needs to, you know, whittle it down, or are you somebody who like needs to start small and build it up from there? Like, you know, there's no one size fits all no, just one way, but wherever you are. You can start there, which is you know, sort of a riff on a book that Rini introduced me to from Pema Chodron called Start Where You Are, like, you can always start and where you are is the perfect place to start moving forward and grow in whatever way you want, be it creatively or, you know, therapeutically, spiritually, emotionally physically, if you want to get taller, yeah, you can do that too.
That's very interesting because as I've already mentioned, I'm like you in that I say everything that I think very much the kind of person that some people think talks too much. And yet when it comes to like, for example, I did a thesis for honors at university and I, it was had to be nine to 10, 000 words.
I'd [00:50:00] said everything that needed to be said in 3, 000 words. I found that at university in general, that everyone else was having trouble getting down to the word count. And I was getting, having trouble getting up to the word count. And you're saying something similar with how you started with comedy.
And yet both of us in everyday life talk a lot. So that's interesting anyway. Yeah, but we're actually coming. Yeah, go ahead. Just another concept. Rini introduced into like this vocabulary into our experience that when I, now, when I'm starting to like create a new hour of comedy, let's say for a new hour for a new special, a new album We call it the she coined the term, the blooming phase where I'm just like, you know, growing and growing and planting seeds and watering them.
And it's, you know, just more and more. And then eventually when it's time to like shape it into the final form that will be, you know, recorded and presented or toured [00:51:00] first it's always, you know, always constantly happening, but she calls that, and we call that now the pruning phase and and kind of both are happening.
At all times, you know, like in the beginning it was like, you know, lots of ideas build up because you know I wasn't I didn't have trouble like coming up with a certain word count I had trouble coming up with a certain like quality joke count, you know, so like yeah I'm sure you could write 10 000 words.
Yeah, but are they the good quality words that you want? But yeah, I mean in order To write, you know, a good joke, you have to write probably a hundred bad ones, or a thousand, or, and to write a great, you know, piece of writing, a thesis, a book, what have you, you have to write, you know, loads more than, like, almost everybody at some point needs to hopefully do some whittling down as opposed to just adding up.
But yeah, at different stages we might need different motivations and different framings and different, [00:52:00] Aspects. I'll just quickly ask is Shane Moss. I don't know. I know of Shane Moss mostly from all different from well, mostly probably from your podcast. But anyway, I don't know him personally for sure Is would he be someone who people would think talks a fair amount or would he be more of a quiet listener type?
I think he is a talker. Okay, so that doesn't fit my theory that I was thinking. Maybe those of us who yeah, anyway, but we've actually run out of time. I'm hoping that when I ask you to come on again, that you answer me. Yes, because I have a lot more to talk to you about, but let's just finish with the last 2 questions that I've copied from you.
Firstly, is there anything that we. Talked about that you didn't get to say as much as you wanted to because we went off on a bit of a tangent. You know, I mean, I appreciate it's an honor to hear and receive that question that I'm usually on the other side of I'll say, I mean, I'm, I will be very excited to [00:53:00] come on and talk more because as you may have gleaned from my saying it directly, I do love a good, Me talking time and yeah, I think, I mean, I think I'll say the one thing that we didn't, you know, obviously didn't touch too much because but we kept teasing it and next time, everyone next time is one hour of psychedelics.
And is there anything that I didn't even know to bring up that would be a glaring omission in a survey of the life and work of Michael Adam Kaplan. It seems like you did a great amount of research. I very much appreciate it. The short answer, I've been doing research on you for about 19 years.
Oh no, maybe 16, 17 years for this episode. That I think it shows. I honestly it's my favorite answer. Jen, you know, I like it either way on my show. If somebody is like, actually, I do have something. I'm like, wonderful. I'm happy to receive it. [00:54:00] And. And if somebody is like, no, I think we, you were really thorough.
That makes me feel good in that way. So I will say a hundred percent. You were very thorough. I feel, you know, seen and heard and cared for and respected and honored and flattered, and it's really. I appreciate the kind words of support and I'm happy to be any part of, you know, the journey that you had in creating this podcast and and how you're living your life.
I always appreciate hearing from you online and and it's been a pleasure to talk to you. So I'll say you know, that, that's my short, that's my short answer. No, plus all those other words that I said, I think you did a great job and I appreciate you. Thanks, Myq. And I also will say there's one, there's only one time I've been in the same plate, the same city as you when you were doing there's only one time I've been in the same city as you, and I went to a small bar show of yours, and I'll always remember that, guess what, you're sort of, one [00:55:00] of your main philosophies in life is be kind, and you were very kind and gave me your drink ticket for that night.
For those listeners who love hearing all these things that you have to say and would even You Love to hear some of it with a lot more jokes put in as well.
Where can they find you? How do they find you? Thank you for asking. So Myq Kaplan is my name spelled M y q k a p l a n And if you search for that wherever you'll find my albums on all the streaming platforms You'll find a special on Amazon and on Dry Bar, you'll find my social media is just at Myq Kaplan.
Spelled like that everywhere. My newsletter comes out once every week or two. For free and more. If you subscribe@Myqkaplan.substack.com, my podcast, broccoli and Ice Cream and the Faucet. You can find on your podcast app of choice and yeah, MyqKaplan. com will have a lot of that too. So [00:56:00] pretty much put Myq Kaplan into a search on the internet where you want to find stuff and you should find the stuff.
Awesome, and you can always find all of my links at jeremywest. net, including a link to every episode of this podcast, and just under that, a link to all books mentioned on this podcast, including all the books mentioned by Myq today. 
So thank you very much, Myq. Thanks for coming on. And thanks for being kind, and thank you for being you, Michael Adam Kaplan, and for inspiring other people to be more of themselves as well, whether you mean to or not. I'm happy for that to be whether I mean it or not, but thank you my friend, it's been a great pleasure. Thanks, we'll see you next time on Psychedelics, the Psychedelic Hour. Sounds good.