Check the full episode out: The Dave Chang Show — Hasan Minhaj on Comedy As a Conduit
Okay so I’m going to keep going with the memory palace gimmick that I’ve been doing in the solo podcast episodes. I’m going to start with text descriptions then I’ll draw them and see how that goes.
In the living room there’s a dinner party with Michael Jordan (in a Wizards jersey), Allen Iverson (in a Grizzlies jersey), and Shaq in a jersey but it keeps switching between the Suns, Cavs, and Celtics like the jersey is Shang Tsung — Dave Chang continues with great sports analogies. Hasan Minhaj says he misses just focusing on the craft sometimes since now he has to think about production and staff and has people on his show looking to him for direction. He asks if Dave Chang misses that and I thought Dave had a great response.
I often times feel like I’m doing the worst part of the job. And I have to be comfortable with that. Because I’m a dad at the age of 41 and I think that’s a good thing right now because I’m mature enough to understand the pros and cons and the trials and tribulations.
But for the most part, as a manager, as a growing business, I have to accept that I’ve already had my fun doing what I wanted to do. And now it’s time—much like maybe an athlete… you don’t want to be the clown that’s like, “I can keep on playing!” I have wisdom now and it’s accumulated to the point where I can distribute it out and make other people successful.
Continuing with the memory palace…
…glance over to the kitchen and there are a bunch of cooks sitting around the island chatting drinks — Dave Chang talks about how bad a manager he was early on. And that it took a while to realize and accept that the people that work for him probably weren’t saying good things about him. I like how he describes his goal as a manager now:
Dave Chang: You want to be the kind of manager or boss—when people have drinks and they’re talking about it and they’re always unloading their troubles—that they don’t talk poorly about you.
I mean, that’s a pretty good thing to strive for. I’ll try to remember that if I ever end up becoming a manager.
Ok moving through the memory palace…
…you take a glance through the blinds into the swimming pool and it’s filled with chickens —
Hasan tells a story about wanting to go to UCLA and deciding if he should go to UCLA (which he loved) or UC Davis (where his family lived).
This guy I ran into in the quad got in my head. I got scared. I grew up in a small town. I was on this big campus. I got shook. And I fucked myself over.
I remember the narrative I told a lot of people was like, “Oh my parents were really strict and they made me stay at home.”
It’s fucking bullshit. I fucking chickened out. It’s one of the biggest regrets that I had in my life. It’s not about what school I went to. It’s the fact that I psyched myself out. I didn’t lose on my own terms.
So that became a critical juncture. I’m like I’m never gonna be scared ever again.
Anyway, that’s the end of the palace. (And if you want another story, here are some cards I drew a few months ago when Hasan Minhaj was on J.J. Redick’s podcast.)