#6: Radu Isac - Releasing His Own Special, Why The Pandemic Was The Best and Science Is The Worst

In this podcast, Reece Kidd interviews Romanian comedian Radu Isac. Radu talks about his comedic beginnings and his experience with stand-up comedy in Romania, the United States and in the UK.

Radu discusses leaving his day job to pursue comedy full time. Having to prove himself to a UK audience that he was a professional. 

Radu shares his experiences in the UK. Getting round, getting gigs and getting noticed.  He discusses his writing  process.

Radu explains why Science needs more criticism and why the Pandemic was the best.

Radu and Reece discuss chess and chess streaming.

Radu talks about he despises social media and how he could 4x his income if he could be bothered to do an hour extra admin a day. 

Radu talks about his new special, how he grew his audience and released it himself. 

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Transcript

0:01

Getting risky, interferes, fear street people. Well, I'm here with Rudy. Isaac. Good morning. Professional comedian has just released a special Keep Coughing. Yeah, yeah. Very, very funny. I just. I watched it today, which was very essential because I would have been shaky of me to not watch the special you've just released. Thank you. Appreciate it. And also, hats off to you for running a podcast and watching a special and doing the legwork. And honestly, so I brought. You started comedy 2006. 2006. Yeah. Bucharest in Bucharest. What was the first gig like? So first gig, good gig was like an open mic. I think it was actually the first open mic that ever happened in the country. And yeah, good. That like 5 minutes. I remember being sort of I remember really, really rehearsing it beforehand and then running through it. Like, like just 2 minutes on stage. Like 5 minutes. Oh, that's nice. But properly, properly running through the wards. And I think people appreciated the confidence. That's all right. Do you remember any of the jokes that came from that? It was just something to do. It's something to do with the farting or pooping your pants or taking a cab. I don't remember. That was the closing joke, but that really worked. And then the other one is, I don't know if if you have this if you had this as a teenager here, but in my in my country, a lot of the we have like a lot of pool halls, like people would go would go play pool. And the dudes would always teach the women how to play. And it was just a bit of a bit of a doggystyle next to the pool table. And I talked about that. So you just had the bass first experience. This this was a sign. I was I was really I really thought it was like an audition. And I'm going to. Okay, you on Friday. Come on, you got 10 minutes now. I never thought you're going to go. Okay, come, come next Monday, do another five. You wanted to do standup before? It was just an opportunity. Yeah. No, I always want to do. I want I want to do some sort of a comedy. I always liked comedy ever since I was like a kid and stuff. What were you watching when you were a kid? So besides that, we started with the Romanian stuff, which I'm not going to mention, but we have. Yeah. Well, I do remember there being like, uh, one, like our BBC. There was like a, like a variety show and they'd do like a sketch or like two sketches and then like somebody would sing. And I remember just getting annoyed. Everybody, somebody would sing. Get off the stage. I want the funny people back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just come on, let's watch another sketch. And then did you just fully commit to open mikes from there? I did, but it it went kind of fast because we weren't that many, like standup, just. Yeah. Yeah. So they whenever they opened up like a Thursday night, so the, the open mic was on a monday and they decided to do standup on a Thursday. And yeah, I was the first, I was like among the, the six people. Or a premier Romanian comedian from the get go. They were like they were like something like six, six ish dudes that started before me and that's still do it now. Six, seven. And what's something like that? We all just immediately professional comedians. Eg I was also like 20 so you any sort of I so I was like two years before I had to make my own living. So was sort of professional, but also I never really had any expenses that make sense. Yeah, you were just you were a true artist. You didn't have that need to make money, didn't have expenses. But I was basically I was living on when my parents died, but I was basically like a college kid that through that our parents. His parents kind of. Yeah. Like a college kid with parents. What, we studying? Economics. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah, I never finished that. So it was one of my my proudest moments I feel. Yeah, yeah. Bye bye, Alex. I barely 2,000th shy of finishing. That's a statement. Yeah. It wasn't like I couldn't. It was just. I know this is just bullshit. I'm not going to. I don't want to give you guys any more credit or with any. Future success, I have you to want to put down to the degree. So did you stick with doing open mikes in Romania until when? So basically. So basically the I think the open mikes mate before I was, I think less than a year and then I started also doing like weekend nights. And I remember I, I'm fairly certain that like within, like after a year I don't I had a month when I earned exactly what my mom did. Wow. And then that's when I felt like, okay, I'm a professional comedian forever. And then I've had their shit, then months and so on and so on. But definitely like October 2017, I, me and my mom, we were like on the exact paycheck. But that's very impressive. No. To go to for proper like not just I'm a program like you're actually getting paid a living wage too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was also like it was also a time when you could fuck up more on stage. Now, I. I don't know if I was. If I started now with the mindset they had then I don't know of the scene with the crushed me or not. But it's. Like because you know, the scene is very if if you make mistakes, they kind of they kind of flush you out quite, quite quickly. And but when I started, there wasn't that many comedians. So I made mistakes. But okay, well, don't do that anymore. See you Thursday. Oh, yeah, that's true. I know. Whereas now the new people, myself included, post the mistakes. And then they're like, What is this guy did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess it depends on how big are the mistakes and suffer. Also like in my like 22,007, 2006, 2007, there was like, uh, raunchier jokes were more popular, like Anthem just, and Nick was, was the coolest person. If you remember, Santa Silverman, just. Just make some rape jokes, please. There's the whole special about rape jokes. Edginess. Edginess. Yeah, that's a that was that was popular. But also most audience men but they didn't know what was popular in stand up comedy in America. I was just kind of making jokes. Unsuspecting Romanian people. But you also went to the U.S. the new with the that. That's when I started doing stand up in English basically. So the way it worked in Romania it was the the season was exactly like the school year. So we don't we didn't really do anything during the summer. So during the summer it was just it was too hot. And nobody nobody went in clubs to to see comedy. So basically the career just stopped and the me yet the capacity and the me like first couple of years I went back back to my parents house and then next couple of years I just did drugs in Bucharest. And then I felt like I was like 26 and I felt like I needed to do something. And I and I went to to the U.S. and did open mikes for like a summer. How did you go how did you go to the U.S.? A I applied to like there's like a working travel. I don't know if you have it in Ireland, but yeah. Something like some J one or something. Visa I guess. I don't know. Yeah, it's exactly that on. Yeah, it's for like a couple of months and then you get to, you go, you get to get to a crappy job at their place. So did you what did you work out? Was, uh, parking attendant. Which is pretty good. Yeah, pretty. Good one to keep the mind free for standup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was it was still. It was still a minimum wage job, and people treated you like a minimum wage person, but, uh, but yeah, you got, you got to, to drive their shitty, shitty fancy cars and stuff. And yeah, it was, I was also like a big car dude. Taking photos in the car has been like, America is going so well, everyone's like, Well. Yeah, just take the name tag off, put sunglasses on, take a picture. What were the what were the open mikes like in America? So they're like they only do like 3 minutes open, like most of them are like 3 minutes. They have like a shit on pay to play. So basically you pay like $5 and you get to get like three or 5 minutes on stage and then they're like a cappella, the more popular ones, you, the other, the, the crazy amount of comedians like six the comedians showed up, uh, show up and, um, and they do like, uh, the, they just do like a raffle then like 15 or 20, I think, go and get on stage. Some 40 of them, like some of them stay for the whole show. And then the audience and then some of them just go to like another raffle. Popular open mic. Yeah. Uh, so it's weirdly yeah, very, very, very religious and hardworking I found than like people actually hung out at the Comedy Store. The Comedy Store and, and the and the US is a place where people were all the comedians go to hang out and they have like they have two big rooms. I think now they have four rooms. When I, when I was there, they had like three rooms but like two big rooms and then was more like a 50 seater. Dave Chappelle the the did the special in one of the small rooms, which is just like there's just a room for, for open makers to fuck around and work. During the day and just gig every night. Kind of. Yeah, I would have in the beginning I would have like I would work like six days a week, but then there's like every room in kid when he does, when he does this, they and they go and they work for like three months and they go then travel for a month and one then I worked for like two months and then I just stayed in L.A. and, and did, did gigs for like another, another two months. Who was on the comedy scene at that time. That was worth. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to say uh, uh, to did it. I remember seeing Norm MacDonald and Bill Burr at the store. I saw, uh, like the roast battle had just started. Exactly. Then I remember, I remember I'm fairly certain I was. I was there the night it started or maybe the following Tuesday. I don't really remember exactly where and then. So that was 2013 and 2014 when I went back. So 2013 just uh, in the, in the room where comedians fuck around then it was just like 12 people sitting down, not paying attention to the stage and then they can and the like. Two comedians had some sort of a beef and they decided to do like a roast battle of coke. Did you ever do ever as well? I've done it in like 2014, 2014. When I went back, there was like a line around the comedy store of people waiting to get to get in to see it. It just kind of within a year, it just became the most popular thing. Was very entertaining to watch. I just like watching the clips. I'm like, Oh, that's why I it's very funny too before so but as far as like all success, did you have any sort of horrible gigs at the start? Oh yeah, absolutely. Even in the UK, even in. Oh yeah, absolutely. And American, I thought maybe, but I don't really remember. We were just so I remember like in America, one of us pops in once and once in a while and like a taco place, like literally appraisal sells tacos. They would, uh, they would, uh, they would put the microphone in the middle of it. Is somebody eating a taco or somebody ordering a taco that that was the audience. And then like a list of the comedians waiting to go. On 3 minutes, everybody. Doing 30 minutes, somebody running it like a emcee, give coming in and out. For. Way. I remember that being sometimes sad, but sometimes also when you do that well in those rooms, you kind of feel like, oh my God. Uh, and then like in the UK, I had the proper, the proper shitty ones. Uh, when did you come back from the U.S.? Did you go back to Romania? Yeah, I went back, so I just did summer 2013, 2014. I was supposed to go back 2015, but they canceled my visa. So I came here in like August 2015. As a second choice. Honestly, like the it canceled my views on like unlike Monday on like in June 2015 and then I just smoked weed in my apartment for like a month and a half and I remember just smoking weed and kind of and I tried to, I tried like all sorts of stuff to kind of get the visa to kind of get married or of I had like somebody who was going to get married with me in America. To do that. Sorry. Before we move on. So I just met that on the communist circus. Oh, nice. So she like I tried to it was a solution of her coming to Romania and we getting married here in Romania. I looked at the forms. They filled out a bunch of forms and then like it still everything seemed like way too complicated. And something like six weeks later, it just kind of hit me. Wait a second. I know another country that speaks English like I never had never even crossed my mind that England existed. But but that being said, I'm happy I'm here. And I honestly think this circus is somehow I think it was some the circuit is somehow healthier here. You do get to make a living quicker and then and then if you don't make a living in comedy, it's kind of a sad life. Like if you if you have to work during the day and then go to the open like at night, it's kind of it kind of kills you quite quickly, I would assume. You see a lot of people break on stage and just general sadness about the past. Very funny dead. So yeah, you still talk to you would have been worth. It once in a while. Yeah, once in a while. But not at the but less and less and. Less or less. Once in a while. That's the price of love as not to take those risks. So fair play. So I often think that the yes in my head is like the comedy paradise. Is that okay for Oprah? Michaels Is that not true? I don't think so. I think is generally I must admit, I feel lucky for having started in Romania because because there wasn't that many people there. I did get to kind of just grow more naturally, not really have a whole scene for me of we do this, we don't do that. It was just more of okay, yeah, more freedom. And then you kind of decided what you like and I like. I do think it makes you more original somehow to not live in those places, sometimes living in something that can make you very, very hack as well to to be in, in a very, very new scene. But I think also staying in a very, very compacted scene, it just kind of makes you just a little block. And so when you came to the UK, I was your second choice. But now you're very happy. What was that? What did you get to arrive as a professional comedian or did you have to? Oh, no, no. I started I had like I had like jobs for a while. I did like old open mikes, all the competitions. Nobody really believed me that there was like a professional comedian. That's quite funny. And I did the I did it. So you think you're funny. But you're like. Eight years in. I know somebody else. I'm not going to do the name. I know somebody else. The laughter. After, like, 40 years of comedy, they would know they made it to the semifinal. Me They told me that. I told them I've been going back to Romania and they said, Well, we don't know, just come and do it. And I did it. And they told me, No, you can kind of tell it to be new comedy for a while. We can't let you through. That's quite nice. Instead of the opposite of they were like, Oh no, you're fine. They're just going. So you started back in the open mikes. Was that tough to go back? Kind of. I kind of. But also, uh. I know I don't. It's something I missed going to open mics. I like sitting there and, uh, uh, and watching the other comics. I don't read that. So I assume sitting through an open mic and reading, they're quite similar as in it's very boring. And once in a while something very, very interesting happens. What are you what are you looking for? What's interesting in an open mike. Like in any sort of any sort of something I haven't seen before. But also the boring part is just people talking about their lives. But it's still because of the sheer number of people you get to. You get to understand more about the world than you than you would by just talking to your friends. So you just learn. That's quite true. You learn about the different. But well, I learned a lot about Romania from your set. So yeah. Yeah, I learned a lot about the UK itself from when I first moved here. I needed to know what people thought about them. And then I remember the first time, I think the first club top secret was the first big club that let me in and and after. And I was doing a good job during the day. And when I did the top secret for the first time and I had to go to work the next day, I just I woke up and now I'm not there's no way I just like the the me the power of having spoken to the audience got back to me. What were you doing at the time? I worked in a certain, uh, um, I've worked in the actual, uh, in the actual warehouse that sent out all the Brexit ballots. Oh, nice. I never did talk about it because it just seems like it's a pre-written joke, but literally a warehouse full of immigrants, uh, digging their own grave. There is a weird immigrant mindset of We need to work hard. And it was the everybody there was kind of it was just project based. So I honestly, I did like two speeches of everybody was putting envelopes and putting the ballots in the envelopes like way too fast and we're paid per hour and there's so many envelopes and ballots that we need to fill. So like the faster you go, the less hours of pay you're going to get. And people news for Brexit as well, didn't they. Even if I don't think they really care about the political part of it, but just just the idea that they could have slowed down and had the job for, for an extra two weeks. Yeah. And none of them slowed down. And I remember also that they won because in the end the, the big warehouse still kind of laid off. Everybody would like an hour's noticed. They kind of like, okay, well, I guess we're going to finish from half an hour. Go home. Nobody has a job anymore. Like, what the fuck did you go so fast? Why couldn't you delay the. Veterans out just like, Oh, they got us. Okay, so after top secret, then? Well, how did you did you just quit the job and were like, okay, I'm just going to get pro gigs. I know I kind of the last gig was the last, uh, job was when the project finished and I had started to get some gigs. I remember the last day I was at work. I asked to leave early because I had like a month gig. Um, so that was like my first day of freedom. So it was somewhere in Taunton, which is like a 40 plus hour drive, like a three or four hour drive. And that got it was like 450 quid. And uh, and I got there and we kind of did the math and the like, two many comedians and then I, and then, uh, figured out what happened is I had forgotten to, to confirm my spot. No. So I was the one that was there. Extra. Did they know? Yeah. They basically I didn't get paid for it. Oh no. And I still had to pay for for the gas money. That was my first day as a professional comedian here and -20 quid. So I and yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember being horribly miserable. On the way back. Just miserable. So what are the early days of being a pro comedian in the UK like? Is it hard? Is it easy enough to get gigs or what do you have to do now? It's kind of it it it was kind of tough. And for a while what I did, I also did the like quiz quiz nights. Nice. So basically host of Quiz Night, do you get to steal a bit of the pot? Because just people people put pounds in. So that was the tip. It's a tip. Exactly. It's Ethiopia. And um, so yeah, the quiz nights also for the first year and a half, I didn't really buy any train tickets. If I would have bought train tickets, I would have had to get a job. We always drive in here in the UK now. I've never drove in the UK, no. I need to get the gigs as I kind of did a lot of car shares and then a lot of trains. Because people are always like, Oh, you need to get a car that helps or something. It kind of it's easier to get like open spots if you drive other people, but I felt like I sort of surpassed that. That's that I didn't really I didn't really need that much time in the beginning. Can you remember any really weird gigs from the UK? Oh yeah, absolutely no one. It's still the first first month of me being here and it's just being lost all the time. It was just. Yeah, I was just so tired of the being lost in the beginning. Just a bank station, just walking around. Is that what you mean? No, I just even I remember getting dropped off of, like, Waterloo, and I lived in Mitcham, which isn't really that far, but. But I didn't know how to wear I didn't know how the busses worked. I didn't know how to look for the bus schedule. I didn't know when they were going to come. It was just just felt like just felt forever. And I never knew of the busses are going to take like 40 minutes, an hour and 40 minutes, 20 minutes. Everything seemed fast. And like now a cycle everywhere in London seems very, very manageable. But at the beginning when I just didn't know it, everything seemed crazy foreign. So it was all just weird at the start. Yeah, everything was just an unpleasant. But I knew I had. I'm not from Bucharest. Remember when I moved to Bucharest? I didn't like it for like the first two or three years. And then after that I started liking it. So I knew it was going to be the same with London as well. You want a few competitions and. I only want one, but I made like eight or nine finals. Oh, nice. And I think those helped me a lot to get like the good like the open spots and clubs and then eventually they were enough people pushed me up to enough club, saw me and pushed me up to like twenties and uh, and now I still don't, I don't play a lot of the clubs. I just open spots for some place, some clubs. It took me forever to start getting paid twenties, but now they're too far away for me to, to apply to any of the gigs. Mm. Uh, so it's a plant. The plan seems to be to do the specials. I'm going to, I'm happy that I started putting stuff online because it's also like a thing of I feel like you get you get stuck with old material, but you also don't really want to forget it. So you try and do it once in a while and then whenever you you've haven't done it for like a year, you kind of feel like, okay, let's go back to it a bit. So I, so I wouldn't have wasted the time I spent writing it. But now I feel like, yeah, just write it, put it online and go to the next one. When did you start posting online? Have a January this year. Oh, January this year. So what? What was the thought? Why did you put it off? I knew. I knew I'm going to from this, but I knew the special was coming and it just kind of made. So I had like 50,000 followers, so I needed to get a bit of. But I mean, did you post I mean, did you post any clips before? But no, not really. No. And there was no pressure to do that in the early days or anything. No, there's there was kind of a I have like a clip from one comedy club that put it online for one. They're on their YouTube channel. But no, I never really cared enough. And I still hate this from the bottom of my. Heart up now. I like the fact that we need to all give free content away to Google and and meet up. We exist on the planet. It's just annoying and icky and they don't pay and I'm still not monetized on YouTube. I need to get that. But do you need to give them like 4000 watch hours for free before before they start doing the math? They're not good at math to to know how much or how much money they owe you. They want like a shitload of free content. They really hate it from the bottom of my heart. I've never thought of it. But you're completely right. Yeah, it's brutal. It's. And you have like. No, you like they can shadow ban you at any point. Any point. The algorithm doesn't like you. Those like could do to have like a, like a chess podcast that the algorithm didn't understand something and then they just blocked his channel. So he had just and he was like that. He was like extremely popular. So like thousands and thousands of people wrote them. But he would just like, could do that. Like 3000 followers. Came. Over. Yeah, it's exactly game over. Nobody reads that email. Nobody cares. You just, you just. And they know you and they know your Social Security number and they know where you live and your messages. Yeah. Then they're never going to allow you to open up another account again. They basically don't want trouble. So anything that smells like trouble to them. Well, let's let's just let's just dispose of this person on the Internet. So you reluctantly posted just for the. Yeah. Just. Yeah, absolutely. They kind of have to after a while. But yeah, I totally see is the fact that the they they changed their policies once in a while so they kind of just might go well now, not this person anymore. We've added like a little button here. Now, every, every YouTuber has to use the little button. If you're not, don't use the little button. That's it for your channel. Is it really? It's like working for them. But also you don't even get the memo you have you have to Google the memo to find out how to you have to Google what they've discussed in the meeting. How do we all rebel? Really, what's the solution or the. No, I guess go to like as many other websites and like I put mine on mind when my website and I think, I think it kind of works like honestly people do come to my shows, I have like a list of, of shows on my website and I keep plugging it everywhere. I see people see the list and they come to shows. The website is very nice, said a few things like you're lazy and stuff like that, but it's like it's all fresh set up. Oh, I didn't do it myself. I paid somebody to do it. And then I asked a friend that works in software to Yeah. To have a look and talk to do they paid. But that's, that's smart that's not that's the is it just the just I don't want to get so well certainly did a good job. Oh yeah yeah yeah I know it's kind of I still need to survive. I'm still basically I feel like I'm lazy in the sense of I feel like I would have I would be way happier if I had like an hour of, of work a day. And then I feel like if I add an hour of work a day, I could, I could, uh, yeah, I could, I could write in, like, maybe like four times as much as I am earning now. And I would need to earn, like twice as much to start being happy. When you say working or did you mean a normal job? Would you mean stand up? Oh, no, stand up. Like do admin or do. Yeah, admin or stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. One hour. But sometimes. It. Seems reasonable. Well, well, it seems reasonable. I know, but it's so nice not to work. I was, like, taking those other spoils. But I should. But that was a very funny thing throughout it. That was very good. Yeah. It's like, just. Just. I don't know if you ever have those days when you wake up and you, you don't have anything to do. And you go, did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just magic. You just. You just exist. And I felt like before. Before the world. Like before society became so big. That's. That's what that was all the days you just woke up, and it just did nothing. But then, like a neighbor installed electricity and now I have to have electricity. Now I can't live without it because the neighbor has it. I was the making of the special because was very professional. There's so so initially I found it in London, but I don't know why the know what I didn't like about it but I don't like how it came out. And then me and Victor, we were just doing shows around Europe and we had like two shows back to back in Vienna. He had, he had like a very professional camera and he had filmed like a different show beforehand. And I felt like and he kind of convinced me to do it. And we just basically while we were on the road, he knew other, two other people in, uh, uh, in Vienna that came in, filmed that and yeah, basically we filmed it at the show. Nice. Well, you had the crowd. You had the multiple camera angles. I had the ten. And how did you write the whole special? Was it just. Part of the jokes? Part of the jokes? It's just jokes. I did like maybe like 7 minutes of jokes or like 8 minutes of jokes or stuff I did before the pandemic. And then like another 15, 20 minutes I wrote because of the pandemic. And no. And basically the rest of them were jokes that I wrote because of the pandemic. Yeah, well, feel free to cut this up. But you had a really funny part talking about how good the pandemic was. Like, it's a big theme throughout. So what did you do with the pandemic? We happy with our comedy. Oh yeah. Honestly, so. Happy. Like so, so happy because I didn't I never it's not that much work, but there's still like it's still the weird pressure that that I'm now used to it. And I do remember after the pandemic, when the clubs opened up again, it still took me. I still had some sleepless nights after after gigs. I had that in the beginning of my career in 2006. And I have that right right after the pandemic. During the pandemic is just it's just like a no, you know, just like you have a freeway next to your house and somebody knocked down the freeway. That's how I felt for like a year and a half. What was the sleeplessness? Was it just the stress of having to perform again? I think so, yeah. I think that we are stressed up. Maybe I don't acknowledge it or something, but I think my body does acknowledge that somehow. But during the pandemic, none of that. I was just kind of waking up, I was cooking, it was working out a bit. I learn French. I speak French. I'm too. I'm pretty. Though. I got to stupid. That's okay. Uh. Yeah. Not. Not necessarily fluent, but. Yeah, I can. I can hold you can ask for shit. So Duolingo, we're watching Netflix. What was your approach? It's another bit of Duolingo. And then and then. Yeah, did a lot of YouTube and stuff. Yeah. So the pandemic, they took a lot of baths, cooked a lot. I got fat and then I got then I started working out. I got skinny again. Fatter and fatter, better being skinny. I don't like being fat. I don't. I'm getting fatter. So I need I need a wakeup call. Yes, you do. To fix it. I basically just eat salads and and started running. I quite like running. That the past time when you do that. During the day. Yeah. During the day. Like in the in the morning like in the morning I say like 11 or something and then at the four or five I would start smoking, we'd. Just have mellow like the. Just my lord. Yeah. So it was just felt a stream the but. I was going to ask you because you did a chess stream. Yeah, yeah. I'm a big chess fans. Are you really okay? I actually really sobbed when I seen this that I didn't bring the board with me. I think we can play on Chess.com if you want. At the end we can play. Oh, absolutely. I think I can play blindfold. Oh, how good. How good are you? Much better than me. I used to be very good at 12, but only chess. I'm like 16, 1700 on chess.com like 12 to 1400 depending on the type, so not very much. Yeah, I'm a bit tired, but not that much. I'm basically I live 10 minutes or 5 minutes, whatever. Yeah, I can play three as well if you want, because you know, the chess draymond's obviously blowing up. Yeah, but comedians have really made use of this at all. And I don't really understand why. I think if you and the comedians have, I seen a few of their streams. So it's very funny. But Sammi something. You're from India? Yeah, yeah. But I haven't seen like UK or American comedians do that. So I was like, that could be fun. I think so. But also I, I stopped it. I thought it was going to continue it when when the pandemic finished, but it was just too much stuff to do. And I still play a lot of chess, but just, uh, it does, it is a bit draining. The stream is a proper job, I think. It's not really just sitting there, play like you have to be. Really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also all the all the pipetting and the promoting get and the before and after and stuff. That doesn't keep you entertained in the pandemic, or did you want to do something funny? Well. It kind of was it was also like during the pandemic, I really didn't know if comedy would ever come back. I don't know if you remember that period of what are we ever going to go back to normal? It feels like we're never going to go back to normal. So that was like my idea of Let's try for a different career like it. But yeah, no comedy suits me too, like a pandemic. That's, that's how I learned all myself. I don't want to do anything else. We trying to do stand up in the streams or anything. We try to only just chill. You know what? I was trying to I was trying to kind of I like the I like adding out my my thoughts. So I feel yeah, I felt like that was good. Like, yeah, sometimes I would get like 20 people watching the stream and get a nice conversation going. That's really good for Twitch. Yeah. Mostly I think my average was like four. What about the writing? Like, you did the first set and you wrote it all out. Do you still write everything? Oh, no, no. I read like little ideas and I wrote that every year. And once in a while I would write out like a different setlist and then I then then I stay with the setlist for a bit. But the, the special like every line is a punchline. So I thought you were, was, I don't know how it works, but I thought you would just write some. I wrote it all down somewhere. No, no, I just kept doing it anyway. Like if you do like one punch line every for like 30 times, eventually another punch line grows next to it or like. And then if you do those like another 30 times, another punch line grows next to it. So how do you how do you do everything? Do you go to new material nights and then do you go to like the club spots for page? How do you sort of doodle? Yeah, I try to do as much as I can. I don't know, I got the bicycle again, but it's before. Or before the I go to just like no. Yeah well the bicycle is kind of a pain in the ass to even like do to open mics because it's something you have to take a bus or you have to take two busses and yeah, it's kind of a fit and it also costs way more. Yeah. So it's better with the bike as well. Yeah. With a bike you just get fitter and you also like faster. Sometimes it can just set them up. Was like, well, this is on the way home so I'm just going to stop into the doorstep. Let's go. Uh, see, I try to do as many of those I did. I did some, I did the Edinburgh as well. The hour, which is a lot like what the show turned out to be. And then I did a bunch, a bunch of European a week here and a week there of, of 40 minutes or less. But when was your first Edinburgh show first? Uh, I did like a work in progress in 20, I want to say 2018, but it might have been 2017. So you already had a sort of following and you had sort of people already wanting to watch it before you went up? Oh, no, no, no. Did you do the horrific fire and. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I did the I Got Lucky. My first work in progress show I got a love of the I think those live from the fringe on on radio four and that that filled up my room for like a couple of days. So all I. I always thought that Edinburgh with the empty room and then finished it with a full room this year was the last year I was actually proud of myself. Like the last four or five days were very, very full. And that's just from word of mouth, from everyone enjoying the show ever. The word of mouth. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's very good. That's a good. And sadly, obviously you do want to stifle and then everyone's like, don't go. So what used to be. Yeah. The, the venue calls you to do a short run please. And what about the European tours then as that just get more stage time and get more international. Yeah. And also I'd like, I like performing in Europe in English because it's like in England when I perform in English, I'm usually the odd one out. I'm usually the only foreigner. But in, um, in Europe or people who come to like English speaking shows that all expat, the foreigner, people like even the locals that like percent or something. So there's just basically a mix of very international people. And I felt like one of the international people and I feel like I can talk about anything I want here. I feel like I need to my way up to talking about to having opinions about their problems. Do you always have to mention Romania in the start of your censorship here? Yeah, sometimes like the more central London I get them, the less I have to do it. But I feel like there are still places in the UK where what I, I need to do the whole set about me being from Romania, I can talk about riding a bike, I can't talk about having a girlfriend. It's just so. They know that you know that you're not from the UK yet. But did you ever disco? No, I'm not going to do it and just get up there and not mention I. Try to, but no, maybe it's a bit in my head, but that's also like comedy theory. But it is. I do have a thick accent and I think people people wonder, so you just you just put it to rest. But like, yeah, like in central London, I have something that I get away with, just one line. I'm from Romania. I'm one of the whole set in this accent and people love her. Yeah. And that's but the and I get away with that. Well but also I've, I've tried to shorten it and shorten it and I failed so, so many times. But now I feel like I've I have also grown a fear of of, of not doing the whole minute and a half of, of being from Romania, which even though yeah. It's, um, it's kind of bugging me. Well, all my, I'm think I've had some clips do very well on Instagram, but all of them are about me being from Romania and it's kind of bugging me. But why is that bugging you? Because I don't know. I don't I don't think it's the I don't think it's the yeah. The most interesting comedy you can write out from a different place. And this is a this is a perspective. Yeah. It's kind of you've well the success is nice I suppose, but you wanted to hear about your. Yeah. All the. Angles. Well you have some really unique stuff in the special almost out of this but like yeah I'll just Romania. Romania women at all. Yeah. That's what I'd like to I'm very I can say but I'm very proud of the silence. But, and yeah. That's what I was thinking. Very strong. Yeah. It was so funny. Well yeah that one I don't, I don't think I could, I could do it in Edinburgh or in Europe. I can't do it in a club Tony here. Like it literally doesn't work for me. Why do you think that is? No, I think it's too even even in Europe. I think it takes a while for people to trust me before I can start changing on science. Um, but you do it so well and then, you know, I don't know what wicked wicked will added I but it's just the and even when you're in that science like that's such a good the everyone's the audience was in stitches because you cut to the audience at that point I'm like, wow that's yeah they're like, I think they clap as well. But did a lot of work on that. But like a Thanos, it took so long, so. Hard at that start. First time I did it, I, I did it before like in 2017 or something. I did the first opening jokes and I the whole idea that science is a bit of a religion because you still have to believe it if you're not the scientist, you still have to believe it. Yeah. Uh, so I did that and, uh, like, a long time ago because I thought it was funny, and I thought, I thought too many people do do religious jokes and not enough people shit on science. Fair points. I haven't heard anyone ever show it inside, so. Yeah, I think. I think more people should do it. I will take the time and then you just kept try and how does it work. And then when they came out with the vaccine, it just felt like, okay, this is the time to to actually shut down science. And you just get up and just try different thoughts about it and see what works and just keep them in your head. Yeah. Yeah. And I think about them a lot than I can. Yeah. It's, it preoccupies me for a while, like to the point that I can like something to have like a, like a proper 20 and a weekend club. And it's just hard for me to not think about science, to kind of go back, okay, do The, uh, the other bits about your relationship. And other programed in do you have to still do gigs every night or can you be more. Like I'm a bit I tried to. I think it's also healthy to to get like one or two nights a week off. Yeah, I think so. So yeah, I'm trying not to, not to do it like five times. I'm trying not to have like three sets a night. Yeah. But also I really like it when I get into those periods when like going to go if, if I go into it and have a show every night, I do feel stronger at the end. So you're going to know with the success of Instagram, you're going to have someone follow you for all your gigs and all the clips. You just going to release them all with the special? Oh, no, I'm just going to keep putting some online. And then from now on, I'm kind of just winging it. Yeah, let's see. What happens. Well, that's far, but I mean, it's so good because. Oh, yeah, you can take a lot hopefully from the special and just chop, chop, chop, chop. That's a lot of clips. Yeah, that's the that's the plan. But also like the minute wise clips think that that is the kind of ending and I need to do them in like 3 minutes. But yeah, I'll keep writing and then I have like I have four jokes and then I have like three jokes now that I'm very excited about. So I'm looking for, for them to be finished and putting them online. And then. Will you go to adult again or will. It be this year? I'm not going and I'm very, very happy, but I'm not I'm thinking August off. I'm just going to enjoy August. What are you going to do? Well, there's like a film festival in Romania, and with my with my parents, my my sister lives in France. Go there. I think I might go. There's like a little vacation spot I've been to in France before. I might go out and spend. That's not so much better than oh yeah. So much work for her and so much money. And the way I think with Edinburgh, like I worked on my show, but it didn't really help that much because it's so much, there's so much admin around it and you're so you're still kind of tired from all the admin. I don't I don't find that does a creative place. What's the admin. You mean flowering in and yeah. Flying in and doing other spots. And then you have to do well of the other spots to get to people at your show. And then and then you kind of meet a lot of comedians. Then you kind of feel, okay, let's, let's, let's have a drink with that dude, have a drink with that dude. And then you're seven pages deep with like four comedians live in the northwest of England, kind of. But also like, I don't think I was drinking that much, but, but still, uh, but yeah. So it's extremely tired. The most tired I can, I can ever be. But it's not it's not the I'm not going to be creative and and have my brain as I'm going to think up new ideas. My brain is going to just, it's just counting down the days until it finishes. Going through the motions. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I feel like basically comedians, they expect too much of comedians at the at the festival, too little of themselves and too much of the comedians. Thank you for coming down and doing the podcast with me. Well, thanks. Thanks for having me. Honestly. And it's very honestly, you look like a nice young man. And I think the fact that you do a lot of startups is going to help you in comedy. A lot like, you know, the world way better than I did before I became a comedian. And then I just always talked about the world, but you actually experience it more. The world of failure in startups. Yes. Yeah. The world is very familiar, you. Know, the existing and stuff. So we're looking forward to seeing all your progress and stuff. Thank you. What's the what are the socials. So it's rather ISOC already. You see, uh, my website is Radu. Isaac. Uh, and then the number two dot com, I think my Instagram is Radu. You suck too. And then my Twitter is just Radu. Isaac and everyone can buy the special on your website. Yeah, but by the time the podcast is going to come out, it's also going to be free on YouTube. I'm so sorry about that, but I've got to check out the special. But also. Yeah, check it out. Buy it. Like if you if you if you're like me, if you don't like science, if you feel like doing nothing, if you think life should be easier, that's the only thing I'm militant about. I'm just. I'm just trying to be. I'm just trying to be a, uh, a social activist. What what is the let's let's make life easier. Thank you very much, Rick. I wrote it. Yes, it.