Comedy, Family & the Road with Zarna Garg

Join us for a lively episode of Nighttime Benders as we celebrate America's 250th Birthday! This week, Fredo, Creach, Janelle Musson, and Julia Reed Nichols share hilarious historical facts and discuss AI's impact on the job market. We'll also share outrageous festival stories and camping mishaps. 

Additionally, we’re thrilled to welcome powerhouse comedian Zarna Garg. She shares her journey of balancing motherhood, comedy, and entrepreneurship.  She discusses inclusive comedy, how being an immigrant influences her work, and highlights the essential role of family while on the road. Learn more about this fantastic comedian—and then catch her show at The Tower Theater on July 5th!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

So you convinced you a rock was an egg. Was it painted like an egg? Was it white? It was it was egg-shaped. Okay.

unknown 0:10

Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Thinking it was an alligator or something here at the Oregon Coast.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

You know what? I like the fact that you're just like open to the possibilities. But welcome to the podcast, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome to this week's episode of Nighttime Benders Powered by the Source. This is the place where you get to catch up with Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. I have some great people with me here this week that we will just get right to.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Would you like to start introducing yourself? Oh, sure. My name's Janelle Musin. I go by Janelle Bean the last 20 plus years here. I'm a children's entertainer, musician, comedian, actress. Just love to entertain the community and I won't stop. That's great. So having fun. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yeah, thanks for joining us. All right. And back again for another episode, Familiar Face. Please introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

Uh yes, my name is Fredo, founder of Black and White Topia. You can learn more about that at blackandwhitopia.com. And uh yeah, glad to be back here with the Source gang.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yeah. Hanging in the Source building. People think this is a pretty cool building.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Yeah, you know what? Anything with brick walls is always like I'm a sucker for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Right. Like it makes you feel urban and vintage.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

Exactly. I love to feel urban.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Urban.

SPEAKER_06 1:32

I'm David Creech. I'm true Bendite, born and raised here. Uh now I just do a bunch of gig work, do the Uber, some pantyman stuff, rover, all of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

Tell jokes occasionally.

SPEAKER_06 1:44

Tell jokes, I try.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

I try. We are nighttime vendors, just kind of talking about anything that really comes to our mind. This week is America's 250th birthday.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

I feel like I've been celebrating it all year long.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Really?

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Yeah, I mean, everything has been 250. They even had a UFC 250, and UFC events are in the 300th now.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

So they went backwards? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

So they could call it UFC 250. I mean, it was on the White House lawn, so that was.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Oh, that's what that was. Yeah, that seemed like quite the spectacle. I know they had like another like National Lawn 250 celebration thing.

SPEAKER_06 2:24

Another like expo.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Yeah, I think Vanilla Ice was supposed to perform at it or something, and it like got rained out.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Yeah, no, there's a bunch of people that are supposed to perform, but a lot of them pulled out at the last minute. They weren't told that what it was. Yeah, they weren't told what the event was gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

They were just like Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, you you you're like, oh, you want to pay me money to perform? Sure. And you show up and you're like, oh shit.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

You didn't say it was gonna be a Trump rally.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Like, anything's gonna pass. Thank you though. But we have lots of 250 celebrations going on in town. I'm helping with one in Redmond to help celebrate America's birthday. But it got me thinking about like funny historical facts. For instance, did you guys know that the pilgrims were a doomsday cult?

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Really? Really?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Yes. They did not escape England for religious freedom. They escaped England to find a pure land untainted by all those sinners.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Wait, but which pilgrims? Like the ones from Virginia or the ones from like Massachusetts?

SPEAKER_03 3:28

The pilgrims. Because there's the pilgrims and then there's the other people.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

The colonists.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

The colonists. We're not talking about the colonists. Those are the the the we're talking about the pilgrims, the the rock. Pilgrim, like what Plymouth Rock.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

Yeah. So how does that how does that play into like Thanksgiving? Did they were they like, oh, these are good people, or we're like, oh, we're just finding their weakness.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

My guess is they probably weren't too big of a fan of any people not like them.

SPEAKER_06 3:54

Yeah, I was gonna say the ones that was depicted as so nice. We shared our food together and they're like scheming.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

You gotta remember, dude, uh the pilgrims are the ones that brought the slaves here.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Did they were they did they have enough money? Did they? I guess I don't know the history.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Yeah, did they have enough money? Grace soon. Yeah, did they have the money? You think they paid for those slaves?

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Don't you? Do they have their health care? Did they did they did they get their employment taxes? Like what? Like running a business is a lot that's a lot of employees.

SPEAKER_06 4:25

They weren't it's only like three-fifths of an employee. Not even then. Not even then. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

The fact that it was like, no, that's America!

SPEAKER_06 4:37

We love our compromise.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

We love our compromises in the century. Any other funny historical facts?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

I don't remember what I ate for dinner three days ago. Thinking back to history.

SPEAKER_06 4:50

I like I like the the Benjamin Franklin one. He wanted the the national bird to be a turkey. Uh they were hardy on his experiments. I'm pretty sure he shocked him and they limped him. I don't know. It was kind of interesting. I'm really glad he didn't. I mean our eagle's way cooler.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Eagles are, you know, and they're so majestic, and they used to feel so rare.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Yeah, we should be eating eagles sometimes, do we?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And that's kind of how America is too, right? We change from what red, white, and blue. That's what the head does according to its mood.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Wow, that's like it was like a bird fact and a political joke all mixed in one. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

We won't get into what what the thing that hangs down from the nose does. But it's not. Yeah. They have that little gobble thing that hangs down, that big right? Yeah, what does it do? When it gets cold, it shrinks up.

SPEAKER_07 5:53

That's gross.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Oh, the dickhead. How is that? It's a grower, not a shower. And the heads are soft as puppies' bellies, which is really interesting because you'd think it'd be like more like an alligator wrinkly type texture, but it's soft like a puppy's belly. Did you do a school report on turkeys? I was gonna say, what else would go about turkey?

SPEAKER_06 6:14

Like they really like their chin stroke like this.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

You go like this and they go and they fall asleep. Oh no, birds. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

I was like, there seems to be some deep birding.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

And I always thought turkeys should be the American bird because they changed from red, white, and blue. I could see why that makes sense. So you weren't lying about them changing colors. I knew if my turkey was upset because he'd be like really blue.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

I've only seen brown ones. He's not American.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Or really red. If he was happy, he'd turn blue.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You know. Yeah, so that's probably why he thought it was an American bird.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Well, okay, now I'm thinking that Benjamin Franklin was right and fuck the eagle.

SPEAKER_07 6:59

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Excuse me, I just burnt to have you smelled it.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Does it smell like turkey or eggs?

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Like a taco supreme.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Don't worry, the people listening to the podcast cannot smell your bird. Luckily, no smell of vision yet. No smell of vision yet. Um, that has not been invented, but a lot of things have been invented that have made many jobs obsolete.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Queen of the Segway.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

No, Queen of the Segway over here. So the source did an article about AI and how AI is playing into all different parts of like government and art, and it was really a deep dive into it. But I realized that a lot of old jobs I've had are completely obsolete now that there's AI. Anyone else?

SPEAKER_04 7:42

No, I used to be an armored truck driver. I mean, I used to work at KB Toys and they went out of business, so I guess that jobs.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

That doesn't nobody goes to a toy store anymore.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Kids are just buying their toys online.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Yeah. No. I've I've had several obsolete jobs. My very first job in network TV was I pulled press clippings of the TV shows. I essentially was a Google Alert. Yeah, exactly. And that's where they got it from. I know. Another job that I had that's completely obsolete and now done by robots is I would do like offices phone greetings, like, thank you for calling the office of Dr. Smith for one press, whatever, you know, that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Administrative assistant?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

No, I was never that skilled. I was only the message to get to the administrative assistant. They're eliminated too.

SPEAKER_06 8:42

They're not needed either. AI can do all of that.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

All of it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 8:45

Well, they always pitch it as like, oh, this will help you free up your time. It won't lose jobs, but like inevitably, then they're like, but money, so lose jobs. They're even like they try to do. I did blue, I like blue-collar work landscaping. They're even trying. They have like auto autonomous mowers. I've seen them. Somebody still has to like run it from a joystick, but the mower does all the work. It's like soon. It would be great. It would be great if they're like, oh, now that you have this free time, go enjoy life, create art, but they're like, hmm, you can't afford stuff now.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

It looks like you should have got a job that couldn't have been replaced, idiot. It looks like a room for your lawn.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah. I I imagine you have to like map it out. I imagine there's science behind it or technology or engineering. But uh all those words. All those worries.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Same with the with the door dashing and those types of things. Now they have the robots to do that, but I've seen videos where they get stuck and they need humans to help them. Oh, those little boxes that roll around in cities.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Is that is that like are they really cities in like Austin and stuff?

SPEAKER_06 9:48

I've seen them in cities.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Have you guys seen even the Waymo's?

unknown 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Do you know what a Waymo is?

SPEAKER_06 9:53

The car with no driver.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

It's like this like little pill of a car, has no driver, and you get into it, and they'll let other strangers into this Waymo with you, and they'll be like, don't worry, you'll be fine. We'll lock you in here together with no supervising human being and get you where you need to go. That's the Waymo.

SPEAKER_06 10:12

We are get into this car, not with a stranger, with a robot. It's so crazy to hear you.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Forget what you were told as a kid. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

It's crazy to hear y'all like like just kind of harp on and and make these things about AI. Meanwhile, like a part of my job is literally building agents all day just to like do my work for me.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

What do you what do you do?

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Digital marketing.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Oh, that's clever though, because agents are so helpful with digital marketing.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

It's like I yeah, I literally just build them to do my job. Most of my job is making things to do my job.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Oh, that's pretty great. So there's the idea that someday you won't have to do your job?

SPEAKER_04 10:50

No, because they still need me to say what needs to be built.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Right. Like I still have to come up with the workflows. It's just instead of me doing them, I just get them automatic automated.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Yeah. At my husband's company, they told them that they're releasing this feature that's gonna learn all of their jobs. Like that it's like an AI feature that's gonna like learn all their jobs to help. And we're all like, yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's gonna be real helpful.

SPEAKER_06 11:18

I was straight up at Meta, they like had an assignment where like every week they have to use X amount of hours on on AI and like you do projects with them, and they're like, Layoffs are coming.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Who knew? Who knew? You're literally training out yourself.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Except for the people who plan this. Who knew? Who knew? You know what else I would think that somebody wished they knew? How to get out of a shitty situation.

SPEAKER_07 11:43

Segway.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Segway. Don't you segue? Queen of the Segway.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

We've all been in those situations.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

Yes. So you saw a story this week that was a very, very uh You we'll just like explain it.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

It's a shitty story. It's a shitty story. We all done camping in our lives, you know, and uh you've had to use the restroom and go to one of those buildings that has like the toilet on each side with the heavy doors and all the flies inside and uh the vent and top. Well, a guy went in there and dropped his glasses, he said, uh, into the toilet and he climbed in to try to reach them and actually fell in to the sewage basin tank that was underneath the building. And it took two hours to try and get them out. And I don't know if that includes the travel time for the paramedics or whoever is starting their job as a firefighter, getting voted to go out and do that job. But I'm sure it took an hour for them to draw straws to decide who was gonna help them, but he did get out and they had to sanitize him and clean him.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

Took a fire hose to him. He definitely had some type of infection.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Oh, you hope he did have a cut. Did he go in head first, or do he was like, I'm gonna, you know, open and climb in?

SPEAKER_04 13:02

Some of that shit didn't get in his mouth. You are lying to yourself. Yeah. There's seven holes, and something got in the middle of the same.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

You've counted. You've taken lucky seven. My odds are one and seven.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

I'm getting a can't imagine what would be. I would let my wedding ring fall and just be like, whatever. Like call the company.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Call the insurance. There's a number. Poor guy. Get a fishing pole.

SPEAKER_06 13:32

Do you think he like thought he could do it because he couldn't see? He was missing his glasses, so he just thought it was a little closer.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I've been in that situation before in the morning, but never near a toilet.

SPEAKER_06 13:41

How was the hole that far?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Maybe he was a little drunk, you guys.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

I mean, it is a campsite.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

That's all I was saying. It is a campsite. What's what do you do? You you my husband won't even set up the campsite till he has a big thing.

SPEAKER_06 13:54

You are at a campsite, you get your fishing pole.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

That's your fishing pole.

SPEAKER_06 13:58

I would rather fish through shit than jump in.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

True.

SPEAKER_06 14:02

Probably not gonna work either way, but at least I'm not jumping in shit.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Right. Well, that, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:08

I would have that too. Oh, he can never touch it.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

My sister would always say that you always end up falling in shit and coming out smelling like a rose. I think that'd be one indication or one situation where I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, I think well, it just it's like the fear, like the fear you have when you go to these awful toilets and campgrounds. You're like, what if I fall in? So you You've never had that fear, huh?

SPEAKER_07 14:30

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

You do landscaping, so you're very much familiar with those outhouses near construction sites and new building areas and whatnot, and see what they eat on their lunch breaks.

SPEAKER_06 14:42

Uh, you don't you don't look because in the summer it's just a s sauna that stinks. Yeah, you'd rather do your business as fast as you can and then get the hell out and back to work because you're like this is better.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

It is a sauna because they never put them in the shade.

SPEAKER_06 14:57

There's like little tiny ventilation at the top, but mostly it's just the sun roasting through plastic.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Oh my god. Well, this is gonna be really awful then, because people are thinking about that awful heat box, but then we're gonna talk about another awful story that happened in a toilet, which is Yeah, I was gonna say most of the camping that I do is festival camping. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

When I go festival camping, there's a bunch of porter potties, and I never use them because I bring my own personal toilet. It's made of leather, I put bags in it, it's got the little sand that solidifies everything you got.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Got lights and DJ music.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

That's clever.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Just go lights. And you keep that in your tent.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

Yeah, keep it in my tent.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

And then do you just ask your partner to leave the tent so you can.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

No, the the toilet is inside of its own tent.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Oh, you have a toilet tent. Yeah. So you it's oh, yeah, it's like a double tent. So you don't just put it in the fucking prison setup.

SPEAKER_06 15:52

Like you sit in that corner and you sleep two feet over.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I so want this for my car that's in there all the time. Yeah. So like if there's traffic on Reed Market or something, I can just open the door, pop up to the show.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Just replace your driver's seat.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_06 16:06

It's a comfy toilet.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

No, it's a it's a comfy toilet, and it's so we can avoid the porta potties at these festivals. That's great. Yeah. But yeah, this past weekend on Sunday, man, at Electric Forests, there was actually a baby found in a porta potty. A newborn baby, to be clear. They in the news they classify the baby as a neonate, but I think they were trying to avoid saying the baby was birthed in this port.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

And yeah, they're still deciding to rule it as a uh a homicide or not. You know, but uh it's a really interesting situation because you know, my girlfriend and I, we do go to music festivals and we hadn't been to Electric Forest, but we were planning to, and then the story comes out and it completely just changed my perspective of that place. And yeah, no, I was just curious, like, hearing a story like that. I don't know if any of you are music festival goers at all, but like, would you even consider going to this festival now?

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Well, Michigan's a little wildly, you know. That's that I that's where I grew up, so it's a little crazy that people get a little crazy in Michigan. So uh they Oh, that's so sad. It's such a great festival.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Why I think it's one rotten apple ruin the whole batch type of thing. Like I that could happen at any festival, really. It's the person that made the bad choices in that situation. I I would hate for as as someone who puts on events, I would hate for something that wasn't my responsibility to tarnish my event that it I'm putting on, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

It's for the record, people who have gone, it's a very magical festival. It's like DJs, in the woods, lights. They put a lot of work into the creative and spectacle that I really admire and I quite frankly never get to do, so I'm jealous. Yeah. Um, but that's so sad. Do you guys remember that TV show? I didn't know I was pregnant.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

No, I never saw a show.

SPEAKER_03 17:59

Nobody went down that rabbit hole. It was a TV show. I was like TLC, and I think it ran for like 10 seasons. They found like 10 seasons of women who went on there and was like, I didn't know I was pregnant. And like the stories are all kind of the same, but it always ends up, oh, I had a bad cramp, and then I was on the toilet, and then there was a baby. So, like if maybe if you didn't know you were pregnant and you're at a festival and you're on a little bit of drugs, a lot of bit of drugs. What if you're just like, oh I didn't have a baby? That was a weird trip, and you just move on with your day.

SPEAKER_04 18:33

Came out of the port of probably like, you know, I just took the weirdest shit out of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

So I'm thinking maybe she had those new mushrooms or the mushrooms where they see little people, and she maybe just thought that the little um gnomes people was it was one of those.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

One of the gnomes.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Because she was on those mushrooms where you see gnomes.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Right. So you were saying that there is a specific mushroom where people are having the same hallucinization visualization. What should we call it? Hallucinization, visualization.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

Hallucination. Realisation. Maybe the gnomes are real.

SPEAKER_06 19:05

The only way to see them.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

That's what I was saying. Yeah, that's what I that's what my thought was.

SPEAKER_06 19:09

Where is a Bigfoot mushroom? Yeah, maybe they're all the real.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Where is the that's the red mushroom?

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Can I see Bigfoot?

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Maybe that's what Bigfoot is.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

I've taken a lot of mushrooms, and let me tell you, the only visual thing that's gonna you're gonna experience is when your eyes are closed. Like, I have to tell people that sometimes. I'm like, if you see something when your eyes are open, maybe it'll be like a pattern or something like that, but you're not gonna see Bigfoot run across your face.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

No, these magic. These magic magic mushrooms are seeing gnomes.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Report back next. Report back next to the hope.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I'll look it up and send it to you. And then then we can come back in a couple months, and you come back from a festival and you can report to us on if you saw gnomes. Yeah, just drive it home. I'm a big fan of like I hope they clean for you if you do it at home. Have them all with little brooms cleaning the dust bunnies.

SPEAKER_06 20:01

Maybe they'll make you nice. Are you gonna enslave the gnomes? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

But yeah, maybe we can't know the difference. And I'm doing it for America 250.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

America's 250. But you guys were really proud of America. So I don't do sports things, but America had a big sports thing, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:21

No, no, no, it's still happening.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Oh, it's still happening.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

America's having a big sports thing. It's actually we're not even eliminated from it yet. We're still in it. Yeah, it's from it's like covering all of North America.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

And so it's in Canada, it's also in Mexico, but there's a lot of stops in the US as well. And this is the World Cup.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

And what is it? The World Cup.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

The World Cup, it's soccer.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Yeah. There are other people as ignorant as me, just so you guys know. I'm not the only one. So World Cup soccer, and how has it been going?

SPEAKER_01 20:49

People from Europe, Australia, all over have come to America to experience a major yeah, and they're experiencing foods that they didn't and portion sizes they've never experienced. There's they're excited to see that yellow school buses actually exist.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Buckeys. They are in love with Buckeys.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

They're taking ranch home because they've fallen in love with ranch dressing.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

The Scots, they were in Boston and they drank up all the beer at the Vars. All they had left was Bud Light.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

And after the game, they were going around to the parks and whatnot and cleaning up after themselves.

SPEAKER_06 21:30

And Japan.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Well, I wish it was common practice at our festivals, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

There's also um people in America who are showing hospitality by paying for people's groceries that are visiting from other countries or their coffee. Um, they're they're inviting them to go horseback. Writing and experiencing true America. You know, and and it's just been even uh in Mexico, um, the celebrations down there, um, you know, they're just they're embracing each other's culture, they're seeing America through their own eyes rather than what media is showing them, which media I guess is projecting us as just selfish, dirty, fat people and don't care about the world. But the they're seeing this hospitality, this kindness, this open arms and beauty of our country and landscape and activities and food that we do, and they're falling in love with America and they don't want to go back. Um, they're wanting to visit again. And it's it's really just kind of in my own personal life made me realize, you know, when I had chicken strips the other day from a fast food restaurant and I dipped it in ranch, I was like, yeah, this does taste pretty good. I never really thought about it, but it just kind of makes you think about, you know, like, yeah, those mountains I see when I drive into town for work, they're beautiful, you know, and and uh so yeah, it's been a really beautiful thing to watch. I love soccer. So to see soccer be the main core for the people of all over the world coming together, polit politics aside, we are all human, we all love each other, and we all want to just party, and that's just really cool to see.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

Yeah, party. Drink Boston Dry. Well, it's not it's one of the great things about sports, right? Is it allows people to come together for no political or business reason other than to have this game and celebrations, yeah. And celebrations, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:47

It's a good excuse to travel, which is just kind of like they're getting an experience you get the same as if you leave here. Like everyone who sees that you're American, they're first pleasantly surprised if you're nice. Because of what you what you said on the media, like that we aren't portrayed as the best. But I will say, when I traveled, I always got two questions. It's do you like Donald Trump? Do you like guns? Like, that's their perception. And I was always like, Re- this how we're jumping into the conversation.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

Do you want to know how old I am? When I lived in Europe, what they asked me is I did I like George Bush? It's the same story. It's just but it's the same story. Yeah, it's the same story. Wait, politics aside. It's two, George W.

SPEAKER_07 24:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Yeah, the second one, not the first one. You're like, wow, you look really good. Yeah. But speaking of things that look good, Eyo, robots with skin. Where did you see this? What did you see? This is so disturbing. Robots with skin?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

University in in Tokyo have grown lab human skin to put on robots to have them look more realistic. And it to me, it looked like one of those denser gummy candies, like the f sharks or something that you can like bite in and pull and stretch it, like it would wrinkle and bend. And I was must have been hungry when I saw the article, but just was you know, all this advancement and attention towards robots to make them look human rather than putting attention towards humans and making them better just seems so backwards. But it was really gross and scary to see the the fleshy lights on robots. Yeah, because the wrinkles are coming in.

SPEAKER_06 25:29

It doesn't age, it just stays there.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

We don't know that it doesn't age too. Does it get sits? Does it get acne? You know, like does it have little skin mites on it?

SPEAKER_03 25:39

At first, I was like, why would you even want this? But then Creechi brought up a very good point. Why would people want skin-like robots?

SPEAKER_06 25:46

They want to fuck the robots.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

They wanna fuck them up.

SPEAKER_06 25:49

They want to program them to do whatever we tell them with no sass back, with no after talk, with no need to buy an Uber back.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

And they'll make you a sandwich afterwards.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

They'll make you a sandwich and then they're like, reset, go again. Once they program these robots to have to do IBF, it is over.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Over for what? Relationships? You think men would not put up with real women? If I was a man, I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

100%.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Are charming personalities when it keep you guys from house?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I've grown a female, so I you're like, they're not that great.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Well, it's a little scary, I think, the idea that robots are taking over. Yeah, I guess like I try not to think about it. That's well, it's how I I put my head in the sand. It's like what I do with everything. I don't pay attention. I'm like, so you're an ostrich.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

An ostrich, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:52

Have you seen iRobot? Yeah, I love that movie. That's the whole the whole point, is they're they're doing that until they're reprogrammed and kill everybody. Exactly. No, it was just one that had a bad bug. Just one. That's what all the movies start with. Like all of them. Like, no, no, no, it's gonna be different this time. We're gonna do it well.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yeah, it was like And then we do it for money. The grand computer just had a bug in it.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Yeah, well, that's what it always is.

SPEAKER_06 27:15

Because it's like, oh, beep boop, beep boop, what's the problem? Oh, humans.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

There was that Disney Channel movie, Smart House. You guys remember Smart House? Peg Bundy was in it. No, but I'm discovering what you like to watch. Okay, well, you know what? This was very big in 2001 on the Disney Channel. Exactly 10 years later. So you guys are starting to get an idea of my TV taste. It's what's on late night.

SPEAKER_07 27:40

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

No. I did like the Disney Channel though, but it was the same idea. It was like the smart house that like turned evil and got jealous. I like this idea that robots are gonna get jealous of us.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

What was that like we're getting jealous of the robots first?

SPEAKER_03 27:54

Well, clearly I'm jealous of the robot. Clearly.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

Which Eric is they have they have this like simulation game where it just makes a ton of biomes, kind of like Minecraft, but like good graphics. Millions and millions, like robots are creating them, but then they put AI into them. We can't prove that's any different from us. We can't prove that a robot didn't create this reality and give us the rules, and that's why people are like, oh, we're in the matrix. We've created the matrix. We created a simulation, put AI into it.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Red pill, blue pill, red pill, blue pill.

SPEAKER_06 28:26

It's like the same thing, it's just this weird cycle. We're now in the manosphere. I'm taking the blue pill.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

I'm taking the blue pill. I'm just gonna be the Cheshire cat.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

Madhatter. They seem to be having the most tea. I'll have some tea. It'll be great.

SPEAKER_06 28:40

And whatever's in it.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Yeah, little mercury.

SPEAKER_06 28:43

The magic mushroom. Mushroom food.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Now with the gnomes. It'll be great.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

And I'll see a turkey that's heads changing colors.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Precisely. Precisely. I had a great conversation with Zarna Gar, who's gonna have a show at the Tower Theater on July 5th. Yeah, it's her first time coming to Bend, and she's definitely a very unique voice for the area. And I look forward to you guys listening to that talk with her now. Thank you for joining me, Zarna. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Yeah, it looks like you're on the move right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yes, as we are every weekend. We are in Austin, Texas this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

Well, that's nice. That's actually where my family's from. Very familiar with Austin.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

We would love to have them at a show if they would like to come. We have four shows, two tonight, two tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Wow. Austin's a great scene. You guys, yes, fantastic scene. But I want to talk about your show and Ben. So thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate you making time. I know you're a very busy lady these days. We trying. Yeah, well, I I'm trying not to fangirl on you. I must admit it. I'm a huge, huge fan of No way! Thank you. Insightful and funny and warm, and I absolutely love it. And I'm so excited that you're gonna be bringing it to our town. Have you ever performed in Bend before?

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Uh no. Never been to Oregon. It's my first time.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Oh my gosh. You're gonna be blown away by its beauty.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

It's such a gorgeous place. We're so excited. We're really beyond. My whole team is coming. All three kids are coming. So anybody who meets us will meet my son. That's my son. Hello. My handsome son. That's okay. See, the mom life doesn't end. We've never been to Oregon, but because it is 4th of July weekend, and my little one just got done with school, all three kids will be at every show at the merch table, saying hello to everybody, saying goodbye to everybody. So that is the plan.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Oh my gosh, that is such a special experience for your fans because it it's almost like not only do they get to hear about them on stage, then they get to meet them in person. Yeah. That's so special.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

And especially because we have a lot of podcast fans that come and join us at the comedy shows, but they love it when they get to meet the kids. They talk about their favorite episodes and the things they relate to and the things they don't really understand why we do things the way we whatever, whatever it is that they have a bit.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Yeah, exactly. And when you're traveling as a family, do you make time for fun on the road?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

We do. We do. In fact, in Austin, we just have a big barbecue brunch. We made sure that we checked, you know, the some of the local places. We try to find the women-owned businesses. We want to see what other women are doing, entrepreneurs are doing. So we just went to a really great barbecue place that's owned by a woman. And every city we try to do something. So we're kind of trying to figure out what it is we want to do in Oregon, but but we will do something local.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Yes. Well, I don't know if you're into floating, but we have a great river float if you like a nice lazy time on the water.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

I don't even know what floating is.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

It's you get in an inner tube and you just float down the river. It's a good way to waste a couple hours and see some mountains. Wow. I didn't even know that was a thing. Maybe we should try it. Yeah, right. The things you learn as you travel around. I want to touch on something you said. You said other women entrepreneurs, which means as a female comedian, you view yourself as an entrepreneur. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Yes, correct. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

How do you think the two relate so closely?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Stand-up comedy is an art. Writing jokes is an art, telling jokes is an art. But to sell tickets to bit bring bring people into a venue to make sure that the experience is worth their money and their time, that's a business. And for me, both parts are equally important. I'm a mom, I know how expensive it is for every mom to go out, for every person to go out today. It's not cheap. You got the car, you've got the Uber, you've got the gas, you you may have to pay for a babysitter. So I'm very mindful that the show is an experience that really delivers value. And I'm always thinking about it. It's much beyond the joke telling and just, do you have a good set? That's the minimum. We should all have a good set. Otherwise, what are we doing? But but like in my case, for example, I know from talking to enough of my fans that they love meeting my kids. They love talking to them about their kids, or they love bringing their kids. I'm one of the few comics in America that invites teens. Yeah to come with your families, you know, your teen kids, your grandparents, multi-generational. So all those are decisions that are made from a business point of view to serve an audience beyond just these are the jokes I want to tell you.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. And for people who might not be familiar with your comedy, what themes does your work center around? What do you talk about when you're up there on stage?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

It's all family, everyday life stuff. Husband, wife, mother-in-law, lots of mother-in-law. She's given me a lot of trauma, which has become comedy gold. It turns out I'm not the only person in America who's going through this. A lot of teen stuff, kids stuff. I have two grown kids who are dating now, so it's a lot of dating life. You know. And somehow they pick the one person I don't like. We're gonna get into it. Somehow, they're gonna pick a person that they know mom is gonna have a topic of an issue with. So it's we we talk about everyday life. We talk about the immigrant experience. You know, I am an immigrant in America, even though I've been here a long time. But, you know, that never leaves you. That feeling that you were once somewhere else never leaves you, but then you fully belong here. So we talk about that push and pull a little bit and the and the ironies of life. Yeah. In America and back home. A lot of people have told me that when they come to our show my show, they feel like they took a quick trip to India.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Oh, yes, yes. That's honestly how I feel. My family has some people from India in it through marriage, and I feel like I feel very warm and very comfortable with your comedy. And I love that you're bringing it to Bend, which is a community that doesn't necessarily have a lot of immigrants, right? Yes. How is that when you get to expose this community to something they might not have experienced before?

SPEAKER_00 35:27

You know, people have been so warm and welcoming everywhere. We've been so blessed and lucky. Uh our audience is extremely mixed. People are always surprised. They think I'm the Indian mom comic, so the audience should be all Indian moms. But it's not. It's moms of all colours and c you know cultures. It's men more and more so. I I would say five, six years ago it was less men. It was a lot of women. But more and more I've seen groups and groups of men doing a men's night out because I also roast them. Yeah. You know, I do it's a gentle roast, like nothing major, but but they love it. They're all looking for reasons to laugh at their own lives, at the lives of the women in their lives. So it's been amazing to go to venues where there's not a lot of Indian people, but then they hear my jokes and they're like, Oh yeah, that makes sense. That's why my doctor did this or my teacher did that, or whatever. Everybody's got some Indian person in their life.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Yeah, exactly. Well, I think it also reminds us how some things are just human experiences. Completely. You know? Which I think is I think it's great. And one of the things I think is really interesting is how you balance being a mom and being a road comic. It doesn't seem like an easy tight rope to walk. What are your thoughts about kind of that doing both at the same time? How do you make that possible?

SPEAKER_00 36:52

So I make my kids go with me everywhere where I can. It's multiple reasons. One, I like for example, next weekend is 4th of July weekend. I would like to be with my kids, but I have to work. The business that I do, we get the most we serve the most audiences during holiday weekends because people are looking for places to go with their families. And I'm one of the rare comics where three generations come together often.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

The kids, teens, tweens, the grandparents, and then the parent generation. So I'm very mindful that I have to work the most during the holiday season. But I also don't want to be away from my own kids. So I bring them with me wherever I can. And where I can, because they're in school or they're in college or whatever, we have a system in place where one kid will step in and support the other two. So two of my kids are adults. My son is 20, my daughter is 23. So if it's a complicated situation where I'm far away, my daughter might fly and be with the little one, or my husband might step in and be like, not always. And not enough. Not enough. But every once in a while, he'll step in and be like, all right, let's do it this way. Listen, I like to say we have a traditional immigrant ethos, but we have all the modern American life chaos. Yeah. All our kids are in different sports and they're wanting, you know, that means they've got to show up for this championship and this what is the what do they call it? Tournament and all of those things. So we patch it together like every American family does. Yeah. And uh and we make light of it. We make jokes about it.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Yeah, I love it. I love it. And if people want to watch some of your work online, where would you point them in the direction to catch one of your at Zarna Garg on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook?

SPEAKER_00 38:43

I mean, I'm on every platform. Instagram is my most personal platform because I post updates constantly on how things are going on the road. Uh, like soon we'll post about the barbecue we just had. So they can find me oh and also YouTube. Sorry, I didn't mean to not to forget that. At Zanagar everywhere, you can find me. And and of course, once I'm at the show, you'll meet all the kids and you can also say hi to me. There are ways to make that happen.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Well, thank you for being so accessible to your audience. Um, I myself, I I'm a festival director and I have a festival that weekend because it's America's 250th birthday. Oh, yes. But I'm gonna I'm really trying to squeeze my way out to make it to your show.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

So I hope you can make it make it for the beginning and the end end, wherever you can. I would love to say hi to you.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Oh, yes, yes. Thank you so much for sharing your talent and for being so generous with your time today. Safe travels to you and the rest of your family. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to that interview with Zarna. I know I'm very excited to check out her show at the Tower Theater on July 5th. If you'd like to get tickets, please go to their website. But we do have some other great shows coming up along with July 8th at Silver Moon is $5 Comedy Night. $5 Comedy Night and with apocalyptic productions. I think that's what it's technically under. You can get tickets at BenTicket.com for that one. And then July 25th, you're at the Capitol.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

Yeah, doing the art critique. It'll be a couple of stand-up comedians, and then we'll be doing some improv art critiques of some live auctioned art that you can pick up at the Capitol on the show night.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Do you know where they get the art?

SPEAKER_04 40:31

I'm not sure, but it's very well curated. I do know that.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

It's very well curated art.

SPEAKER_04 40:36

This is another uh Melrose production from local Gina Christopher.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Oh, that's fun. Very fun. Well, it sounds like a unique experience. If people want to get tickets to that, they can probably check it out at the Capitol.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

Yeah, check it out at the Capitol or uh go to bendicket.com.

SPEAKER_03 40:52

Fantastic. And mics. If people want to hop on mics, we have lots of great mics in town. Where would you guys recommend people go to? Craft Kitchen and Brewery on Wednesdays. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

They've got the best southern food you ever tasted in your life. Those cheesy grits. Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

And beer. The burn spells.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

Beer's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

The burn-ins, collard greens, chicken. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. And what else we got? We got Mondays at Silver Moon, which is the beer town open mic.

SPEAKER_04 41:21

Yeah, Beertown, they do a good job. I actually hosted that open mic last night. So yeah, come on Mondays. I'll be a rotating host there.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Yeah, it's a very popular open mic. So either plan to stay long or look rude leaving early.

SPEAKER_05 41:33

Those are four dollar beers.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

So it's to stay with four dollar beers. It's easy to see.

SPEAKER_05 41:39

And get through some of our city jokes.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Say most of the comics are entertaining. Of course, at an open mic, you're always gonna get some people working through new material. Is that a nice way to say it? That's what open mics are about. Working through material.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Working through material. Exactly. They want to know what hits and what doesn't. And sometimes you get a little bit of both, but it's fun.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Yeah, exactly. Um, and then I think the word the open mic still has a couple of weeks left on that one.

SPEAKER_06 42:04

So it's it's like they gave her every Thursday that wasn't filled through summer. And then in October it will start going every week.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 42:11

But I know it it said July 2nd is one of them, so it should be this Thursday.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

It's a really great room.

SPEAKER_06 42:16

It's a really cool room, very fun to perform. Tables lined straight up and easy to watch, easy to really get the whole vibe going.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

Yeah, it's a really great room that has a stage as well that was hand built by the producer Michelle.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Michelle built that?

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

Wow. That's how much she cares.

SPEAKER_06 42:34

Right.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Wow, you guys should really go support that mic.

SPEAKER_06 42:39

She cares so much.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

I I love that mic. It's such a great mic. And I will say, if you're into social shares on your videos, that pretty video background always shares really good on my page.

SPEAKER_07 42:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

Yeah. So, you know, social shares. Just if you're into pretty backgrounds, do they share better. That's just I didn't invent that. That's the internet's fault.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Speaking of share, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

That's right. You did it for me. Thank you. I hate hearing my own voice do that every week. Thank you so much. And where can people find you glorious people online, starting with you, Janelle?

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Hello, I'm I'm uh Janelle Messon on Facebook. You'll see me standing there in the white pants that I only got to wear that one time because I got them dirty. So I like to have that as my profile picture.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

For the one time you're able to get it. One time I could wear white. Did you make it to the end of the night?

SPEAKER_01 43:34

No. I you didn't see the back side. So you sit down, man, and it's it's outside and it's done. It's dusty here in central Oregon. Who invented white pants? Yeah, right. So yeah, Janelle Messon on Facebook and Instagram. You can reach out to book me at bookjanellebeangmail.com.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Oh my god, that's the cutest email. And where can people find you?

SPEAKER_04 43:56

You can find Fredo at Fredo Funny AF on Instagram. That's Fredo FunnyAF. And uh be sure to check out Black and White Topia as well. Got a lot of things coming up. I'm excited about this project. We're gonna have stand-up comedy shows, we're gonna be hosting game shows, and we're gonna be hosting a few special comedians that are gonna be coming into town. So I'm really excited about this venture. And check more about it at uh blackandwitopia.com.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

Yeah, I think that'll be surprisingly popular. I I really do. I think you'll be like, wow, I didn't expect that. Yeah, it's gonna be great. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:31

Uh you can find me on Instagram at Creech Comedy, uh, or you can come see me at the July 8th mic at Silverman.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Yay! Um, and I'm Julia Reed Nichols. I'm back here every single week. You can find me online at julielovesia.tv. Otherwise, we will be back next week for another nighttime vendors with more of Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. And until next time, bye y'all.