When you were a kid and went out for a walk, you might have attracted mosquitos or flies. Not Dan Ram. Dan attracted Lions.

Dan Ram is an accidental event master of ceremonies, has given TEDx talks 5 times and can even show you how to get yourself doing the same thing as a coach. He has met celebrities of all sorts, including being on-stage with Barak Obama, who actually remembered his name even if Dan mispronounced his. 

We hear about Dan’s childhood run-in with a giant kitty, which is only one of four near death experiences he has had. We get to hear how he accidentally found success through a massive failure, which has led to hundreds of speaking engagements, TEDx talks, and has even been an advisor to the Irish Prime Minister.

When not touring the globe MCing events or giving talks, Dan helps others live their lives to their fullest through coaching, and you can find out more about that at iamdanram.com.

This week’s sketch: “Should I Shake, or Should I Go?”

For more episodes, information, and apply to be on the show, visit: http://sketchcomedypodcastshow.com

Sketch Comedy Podcast Show is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© Copyright 2021 Stuart Rice

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

APPLE | YOUTUBE | PODCHASER

Dan Ram ignites the stage as an Event MC & Speaker at over 100 events a year. Hosting changemakers like President Barack Obama, billionaire founders like Sir Richard Branson, record breaking athletes like F1 champion Nico Rosberg, Grammy-winning artists and celebrities, he works on 4 continents from college campuses to parliaments to in-house corporate innovation days to the biggest tech conferences in the world. His passion is to inspire people with his motto 'Start Now Start Simple' in building a future we all want to live in.

[00:00:00] spk_0: this week event EMC ted X speaker and Lion attack survivor Dan Ram and I came up with three sketches. Yeah, it would be kind of lame if you got bit by a mosquito and you turned into mosquito man and like what does that look like? How do you annoy if you're a mosquito man and you stop a criminal from doing something? What is it you're doing this one's real softball real easy. What would you do if you were the advisor to the other person who shares really tiny hands? Obama goes in for the fist bump and you think he's hitting him? Which one did we pick? You'll find out on this episode of a sketch comedy podcast show. Welcome to sketch comedy podcast show. The one of a kind show where I Stewart rice invite interesting people to have intriguing conversations and then improvise a comedy sketch based on what was talked about, visit sketch comedy podcast show dot com to subscribe, get links by merchandise and even apply to be on the show, enjoy the show. We enjoyed making it. Thank you so much for listening when you were a kid and went out for a walk. You might have attracted mosquitoes or flies, not dan ram dan attracted lions. Dan Ram is an accidental event master of ceremonies, has given ted X talks five times and can even show you how to get yourself doing the same thing as a coach. He has met celebrities of all sorts, including being on stage with Barack Obama who actually remembered his name. Even if Dan mispronounced his, we hear about Dan's childhood running with a giant kitty, which is only one of four near death experiences he has had. We get to hear how he accidentally found success through a massive failure, which has led to hundreds of speaking engagements, Ted X talks and he has even been an advisor to the irish prime minister when not touring the globe. Emceeing events or giving talks dan, helps others live their lives to their fullest through coaching. And you can find out more about that at I am dan ram dot com this week's sketch. Should I shake or should I go follows the conversation and now my conversation with dan ram event EMC ted X speaker and lion attack survivor, dan.

[00:02:40] spk_1: Yes. What

[00:02:41] spk_0: makes you interesting?

[00:02:43] spk_1: Ooh, well here's something that most people will not give you an answer. I've survived a lion attack and I think that makes me interesting.

[00:02:54] spk_0: That's a good start. Tell us about a lion attack. What what

[00:02:59] spk_1: Yeah, exactly. What, what is the accurate response to that? I was 16 years old. I was on a school field trip in Zimbabwe where we were living. My dad was posted there because he's the diplomats, uh the ambassador for India at that point. And so it was an annual school trip every year was somewhere different sometimes just on horseback and as it was sailboats, sometimes it was some kind of wildlife reserve. And this one particular time we were exploring different man made islands on a man made lake and so each islands has animals, we don't know what animals are on them. And so off you go for a little walk and explore and starts off with a nice little zebras and giraffes and wildebeests didn't

[00:03:49] spk_0: start so easy. Don't they start so easy.

[00:03:53] spk_1: Exactly. And before you know it we're just going for casual walk. Me and seven other girls plus an english teacher. The rest of the team were cleaning the boats and doing other duties and projects and yeah, and then the lioness came out.

[00:04:13] spk_0: Okay, So as a lioness and she's like, you're the one dude, I'm gonna go after you.

[00:04:19] spk_1: No. What happened was you hear it before you see it And I think implanted in every biological organism is a fight or flight a survival instinct because it's

[00:04:36] spk_0: the, it's the root of our brains is the exact thing. You

[00:04:40] spk_1: don't need to practice or rehearse a lion attack. You just instinctively know this is a bad situation. And that was one of those ones because I have not previously been around lions close enough to know now is the time to start running. And so it just happened. So we were walking chatting as teenagers do, but quietly because we realized, you know, we're in a wild space, anything can happen to be fair. The guide who was leading us did tell us who I can smell lions, but who can smell lions. So we didn't take it too seriously. Right? And so we started walking in very thick bush. This isn't like the Serengeti. It's not like kenya and the, and the images you might have of africa from that. It's really, really thick bush. And so we're walking through navigating and what you hear all of a sudden is like twigs and branches breaking, being destroyed very quickly as a animals rushing at you. And then you hear something that is like a cat except maybe 1000 times lower decibel. And um, it almost makes the ground shake. And so you're just hearing this sound coming at you and immediately I feel like

[00:06:04] spk_0: I have that sound coming out of me if I heard that.

[00:06:08] spk_1: Yeah,

[00:06:10] spk_0: go ahead. So you got this sound and then all of a sudden fill us in, give us the rest of it.

[00:06:18] spk_1: So they uh everybody's body has the same reaction and goes, I have to get out of here really quickly. And so that's what everyone did except my body, my body malfunctioned and when could not compute overload. And so my body just stayed stationary and all the other bodies started running and um the guide yells out, stop. And it's in one of those situations again, not a lot of computing and there's not a lot of processing of information. And so if he had said single song, we would have all started singing. Um If he had said fly, we have learned to fly in that moment. He said stop. We didn't we didn't overthink it. Everyone just stopped. I had already stopped. Thank goodness I had done the right thing by not moving in the first place. And that is when everyone has stopped that the sound rushing at us also stopped. And for the first time you could see through the bushes, brown figure and then it starts approaching us really slowly and then you see the head, you see the teeth, you see it being really upset that you're in its space. The eyes walk in to every single person. And that's when the stare down begins and it's essentially, you know, the game chickens like who's gonna move first, you know, because whoever turns around and runs they or dinner and so each person is just really still. I don't think we even remember to breathe during that time. I think we just we're just standing there as as close to statues as possible and the line of sizes each up one by one down the line including myself and was waiting for one of us turn around when we didn't. So it felt like a couple of days, but it probably was a few minutes that we had the stare down and then she laid to the ground and that's one of two things. Either She was not interested in pursuing us or she was drinking us hard to tell. Uh and so we chose not to take a chance. It keeps just stand her ground. And so there she was on the ground laying and again for a lioness to jump that I don't know, 12 ft that was between us. Um effortless. Uh And so we just watched and watched and watched and watched and and then very slowly we started backing up. Of course anytime someone would gasp or audibly breathe, we would stop and freeze because you see her ears twitch and you know, or if a twig snapped underneath our feet. And so that's what happened. And so eventually slowly we we came out of the bush area into the clearing and that's when the male lion came running out and he

[00:09:17] spk_0: just

[00:09:18] spk_1: he just came running out. Big main big muscles, big pause, kind of did this um Mark attack roars. It's not like one of those things online King where it's like, hello, I'm the king, it's more like get out of here kind of roar and then and it ran away. So that was the lion attack, thankfully not close enough to have claw marks on my chest. I'd just be walking around shirtless all day long to show it

[00:09:48] spk_0: off. Yeah, I mean that's if you get bit by a shark, you purposely tailored clothing so you can show the shark attack if you've got slashes across you because you get attacked by a lion or lioness doesn't really matter. You definitely cater. It's like, you know like when Iron Man has his thing in the front, like you always shows it off, you do that with the lion attacks that way, everybody knows what kind of a badass you are. So a lot of people would, would do, like if I if that happened to me curl up in a corner, cry for a little bit, what did you do with it? You tell us about what you do.

[00:10:28] spk_1: So how

[00:10:29] spk_0: Do you how do you actively show that that lion attack from your when you were 16?

[00:10:34] spk_1: Well, here's the thing, right? I think everything in life, the good and the bad, the positive situations, the negative situations, forum us make us who we are, molded, shape us. And so I have used that same line attack to teach business tips at the universities who have an adjunct lecturer. I've used it to motivate people to seize the day and live because you don't know what lines coming at you in life, because we were just having casual teenage chats until that none of us were preparing to die or to see our life flash before eyes that day and that can happen like someday this all ends for every one of us, Maybe not with the lion, but with someone. So whether it's motivational talks, whether it is confidence and charisma because a lot clicks in when you're in those moments of I'm about to die and I was only one of four near death experiences, not including two death. Um well let's call it to life threatening situations last year. So I like six situations where I've kind of been like on the cusp of it, a lot of clicks in as far as priorities and values and so I help people with figuring out what is the purpose, what is the mission as a coach. So what I do nowadays is I'm a speaker at an event host and I am a coach And the story does come up maybe like 5-6 times a year. I do about 100 speaking engagements. So I do have an arsenal of other stories as well, but I do like the lines because it is something a little bit different. Right, what have you been attacked?

[00:12:07] spk_0: Definitely. I've mosquitoes during the summer. It's mosquitoes, not quite the same level of threat. Way more irritating.

[00:12:17] spk_1: Wait, wait, wait. So one of my um life threatening situations last year was with the mosquito because I got bitten by a mosquito call that gave me Deng And it's the second time I've got dengue in my life. So the first time was okay was Indonesia. You know, your body is fine. The second time, 10 years later. Um actually can cause more complications. I was in the hospital and I lost tons of weight, could not eat anything, had terrible fevers and joint pain. It is terrible. So don't be little, you know, could take you out.

[00:12:53] spk_0: I could take you out. No, probably not because I live in Portland Oregon. Um ours are probably not as life threatening when you know, they're, they're really just annoying. They could annoy me to death. That's not going to get daniel.

[00:13:09] spk_1: That sound right? That's like one of the most terrible sounds because yeah, but you can't always see it. And so you're just punching in the air, hoping grab and everyone thinks they can, you just catch it out of thin air or mid air while it's flying, it's not possible. So then you start like clapping all over the place and

[00:13:28] spk_0: right

[00:13:29] spk_1: essentially you're plotting this thing because it's winning. That's a

[00:13:34] spk_0: good point. Like you're walking around clapping and the mosquitoes like, well I guess I should just keep doing this. It just

[00:13:40] spk_1: seems like it this guy. Yes, exactly.

[00:13:43] spk_0: So you are a coach? Oh sorry, go ahead.

[00:13:47] spk_1: We have an electric bats that we use. So it's a little bit unfair advantage. But I'm a tennis player and abandonment player. And so that really helps as I well, well electrify the the they die. I'm just trying to see that

[00:14:03] spk_0: you have an electric bad mitten racket that you, so you're kind of like, that's what's nice. You got some distance, you got some reach if you do it right?

[00:14:13] spk_1: Exactly. And larger surface area than the palm of my hand. And so there's a higher chance of killing these things and sometimes you catch them and then you open your palm and then bam it flies off again. Not with your um this just made into barbecue

[00:14:28] spk_0: satisfying zap I'm sure

[00:14:31] spk_1: varies like I've been bitten and especially when you get bitten at the bottom of your feet and if you've had that or like somewhere locals hard where it's like you're tickling yourself but you're actually trying to scratch the itch and it's you it's terrible. Mosquitoes are terrible. Sometimes I wonder created mosquitoes. There's a bunch of stuff I understand, you know the symbiosis and the connection between the species and how it keeps the world going to get with mosquitoes. What are they doing?

[00:15:03] spk_0: They don't do anything good

[00:15:05] spk_1: as far as I know, they don't I don't know anything that depends on mosquitoes to survive. And where mosquitoes enhance like flour production or like I don't know what they do.

[00:15:15] spk_0: No, no, no, it's not like if you get bit by a mosquito, it's possible you can turn into like a vampire bat will do that, right? I don't know, spiders, you could be radioactive, you could have spider man powers, No one's mosquito. Dude, no one's, you know, but no one cares anyway. Um

[00:15:36] spk_1: So

[00:15:37] spk_0: now you you do ted talks, you do a lot of speaking engagements. How did you get into that

[00:15:46] spk_1: by accident? But I also think um maybe like your own story Stewart, because I know you've been doing this now for five seasons, right? You've you've been doing the yes, successfully

[00:15:57] spk_0: for for a while.

[00:16:00] spk_1: Yeah. Well, I think, I think when you choose to figure out what does the world need, what can I offer to solve that? Need, am I good at it? And can I get paid to do it when these four things are true Van it locks in? I think life alignment happens. And so these are my four guiding principles during any season of my life, including right now, during a pandemic at the time that we're shooting this um interview, this conversation we're having, because life throws curveballs and so you've got to keep revisiting it. And so a couple of years ago, I had just finished successfully setting up a few businesses, I know more was needed at an executive level to be involved in my startups. We now had CeoS and Cios and the teams are grown and I had successfully fundraise and the way you can fundraise, one of the ways is to show up at these tech events and go, Hey, investors is what we're building. Are you interested in giving like 60 seconds, 120 seconds to give a short pitch? The stage manager for one of those stages approached me the following year and said, Dan, your business did not raise money at the event. Your ideas are okay, but your communication skills and your stage presence is excellent. And given that, you know, the stage, would you be willing to EMC the stage? And I asked her what I'm seeing and then she gave me the only training I've ever received in what has now become the best chapter of my life. And she said, well you introduce startups and you engage the audience. And so that is what I have continued to do for the last three wars. I've done 300 events on four continents, everything from Blockchain to start ups, to real estate, to autonomous vehicles, like a whole variety of topics. And it's always the same thing. I get to introduce some of the coolest people in the world, From presidents of Switzerland and the us and Poland uh, to the ceos of some of the biggest companies in the world, billionaire founders and investors, to artists, Grammy, winning artist, to athletes, uh, Formula one champions and others and again to engage audiences to elevate the knowledge, the aspiration, the focus, the tools and resources of everyday people that are trying to make a difference in their lives and getting to that bridge. And that's what I do every day. And honestly it is, I constantly pinch myself that this is my life because I cannot think of a cooler, cooler thing that I could be doing right now. It is so satisfying and so fulfilling. And even now when I look at so my team, my social media team still keep posting images and I look at those images and go like how could that be me? Like this is insane. Like I am standing next to the newest fully electric Porsche car, who is dan ram to do that. Like that doesn't make any sense. That's me shaking hands with Obama about an interview, like how is that happening right now? This is super confusing. So I'm very grateful for my life. It's still, yeah, well that I am still like, whoa, this is crazy, it's not like I've done this 100 times and now this guy is like, you know, this is this new normal, this is not normal. I don't think my life is normal at all and for that I'm very grateful.

[00:19:34] spk_0: Yeah, that sounds amazing. That's, that's incredible. And that came off of what's interesting about that, that came off of a failure. If you think about it right? Yeah. And you took that failure and you turned around and made it into what what I would define as a very successful business doing something very, very cool, right?

[00:19:57] spk_1: Failure is essential. It is so cute. And I have, I like people who have a linear view on life. I'm actually little bit envious, a little bit jealous of them, you know, it's like, oh, this is my goal and hear my steps and here is I'm gonna do it. That does work for some people. I'm not putting that down at all, it's just not my story. And I have realized that failure, that experimentation, the trial and error, notice error in trial and error are all part of the left, right pivot, jump, fall back and move again position. And I think that's what's allowed for the diversity of my life because the same guy, dan Graham, was an adviser to the irish Prime Minister at the national level, creating policies that affect millions of people and billions in GDP. I am an adjunct lecturer teaching entrepreneurship to university, so it's just so exciting to be contributing to like the next generation of business people have been a startup founder, I've been a radio presenter, I worked for the U. N. I worked for World Vision, I worked for KPMG. Um I am a consultant, I'm a coach like that diversity of life that traveling the world could not have happened if I was really pigeonholing my life and my purpose into this is my one goal. And that's the only thing I want to look at. I've looked to the left, I look to the right, I've taken a wrong step to the left, I have taken a good step to the right and that's all part of it. So failure has been key in teaching me things, but also navigating me because I would not be on this path. It was a bunch for failures along the way. So I completely agree with you. This started off as as part of a failure and I think a lot of my greatest moments, the origin was at a point of real struggle and real failure.

[00:21:48] spk_0: So you experience that struggle. I mean um I mean you that turned around pretty quick for you right? Like it was hey your company didn't make it but uh here come talk to up on the stage and and see how that feels and then all of a sudden it happens for you. Um What are some other

[00:22:09] spk_1: way

[00:22:11] spk_0: for? Yeah, yeah, that's where I'm going with it. You're for it. Tell me tell me about that.

[00:22:16] spk_1: I don't know. Okay. Yes and no because Stuart if someone came to you and said um you know, they watch this one interview, right with dan rather and they go, you're so good at asking questions. Why don't you come and do a tv show? Someone's gonna look at that and go like, well that was quick, you just talk to dan Graham and bam, you got it. But you've done five seasons of this and before the Five, you had other iterations and other versions like this is not the first time you have, you know, put a mic to your mouth. I'm sure there's been many other things on stage and off stage and practice maybe all the way back in school. Because my journey as a speaker began where everybody's journey in life against where a teacher says, can you read this paragraph out aloud? And the problem was, I wasn't good at that, right? Because I am indian. So if you're listening to this podcast and you cannot visualize me. I'm not american, although might come across as american. I'm indian. I've got brown skin, I grew up on uh

[00:23:19] spk_0: grew

[00:23:21] spk_1: Up on three or 4 continents and so my accent adapted to every country. So when I was living in France, I had a French accent. When I was living in Morocco had a north african accent. When I lived in India, my accent became more India when I moved to Zimbabwe had a southern accent. So like the accent kept changing so it wasn't cool, like whatever words came out of my mouth, we're not fun to listen to and my friends mocked me or as they say in Ireland they slagged me. Uh they made fun of me. And so that was again a point of failure. And so what did I do? I would come back home, I would pre read everything that a teacher could possibly asked me to read the next day. And that pre reading simply meant that every day I was that much more prepared than the other students and therefore, my great started going up again from my point of failure. And but then also meant that because I was practicing because I was not good at it, I became significantly better than those who took it for granted. They could just read the words as they appeared. Whereas I was already trying to figure out what is the sentence, not, what is the specific wording? Can I pronounce it correctly? But what's the sentence? What's the message behind this paragraph? Can I communicate that effectively or second church? If you've ever been to church churches, love getting sunday school kids to be part of plays or theater or to read a bible verse. And again, all the other kids would, you know, have written out on a piece of paper and read it out. But because I was so afraid of mumbling or stuttering, I would memorize the entire verse and I would speak it, I would perform it and I would not know that word at that at that age, but I would essentially perform that reading. I would not just read. And so my journey began their from a same starting point as everyone else. But because I wasn't good at it, I put more effort at it because I put more effort at, I got better. I accelerated faster than others when it came to reading and performance. So then it became school plays and then became performing on stage as a musician. And so when you think about 25 years of performance in the form of school plays and on the piano and singing in church and gospel choirs and family events and youth groups and leading games, that's what happened now. The financial business opportunity came in three years ago, but it took all of that work and that's why I keep telling people never belittle an opportunity, never underestimate a person or a connection or a door that opens, because you really have no idea where it's going to take you. Some of my greatest moments have been in many ways on the surface, accidental, but I would not have stepped into that opportunity if I hadn't done the work before that.

[00:26:12] spk_0: Yeah, no, I completely agree. So, I wrote a uh you know, I'm not it's not an ab for me, but I wrote a book and people ask me like, how long to take you, and it's like, well, the actual writing and editing took about six months, but it took me 25 readers to rewrite this book,

[00:26:27] spk_1: because

[00:26:28] spk_0: yeah, and to your point, it does not come as easy as other people see it. And there's a lot of, I think that story is amazing because again, it comes from a place of you were failed, maybe you didn't allow yourself to fail, but it could have come from a failure from your friends making fun of you, you made sure you were prepped, It took extra work. The other work that quite honestly, I would have been sitting in class going, I'll just read the book and I'll just read whatever, which is pretty much what I did. So yeah, that's why you excelled ahead of everybody. That's that's a fantastic story, man,

[00:27:07] spk_1: I love to do that for everything in life, right? So this is a really dumb example but will prove a point. I was in sound check with a german group and they were stressing about how they would shake, had to President Obama when he was about to come on stage because you're only given a few seconds and his team are very particular about what you can and cannot do. They had seen online that he sometimes does a fist bump with people. Um they might have not been culturally woke enough to understand when he um initiates a fist bump and when he doesn't, but they were really hopeful that they would do a fist bone, but they didn't know he was going to do a fist bump, but what he was going to do, so when I walked up as part of the sound checks, they were doing everything from air high fives to handshakes, to fist bums uh to a variety of different things. And the reality is that moment became so insignificant and lost in the whole like our that he spent on stage. But they over fixated on it because it's the first time they thought about it. I on the other hand because my dad was a diplomat. Remember even the age of six or seven key teaching me how to shake hands with people because as a kid I was not excused. So when another ambassador of another country come to your house you have to make eye contact, you have to smile and you have to shake hands and you gotta fight pressure when a dignitary comes to an official meeting. It doesn't matter if you're seven, if you're 10, if you're 12 you have to represent your nation. And so I was taught at a young age all of those things. The beautiful part is when Obama came on stage, it wasn't the first time I was thinking about what I was going to do and I by then had started perfecting not just how do I react, but how do I initiate or how do I create the atmosphere for things? So what was talked about with the event is a rather clumsy interaction with the founders of the event. But for some reason of all the people on stage, um Obama sticks out his hand to shake my hand and then pats me on the back and because he's might depend on my club, he's like, thanks so much dan is the only name he remembers on stage and like how did this foreigner who comes to Germany get this camaraderie with this person that the rest of us don't. But that's because honestly it was years and decades of shaking hands of people and more than that knowing you know what is your body language saying? Because you can initiate and everyone's been in that situation where they have like gone for the handshakes that has gone for the fist bump, but now you're like clawing their fist ball but it's like what what are we doing? This is so embarrassing and but a lot of that is like in the eye contact before you even get close enough. Part of that is in the body language. You know, are you coming in for that bro hug or you coming in for that? Like a lot of that is in your body language. So I had moved from like shaking hands and fist bums too, body language and reading their body and reading my body and what is my body communicating. But even in the little little things, I've paid a lot of attention, which means that I don't have those clumsy exchanges on stage, which by the way, I find homer areas and you as a performance where you probably look at these things on Youtube as well. But I will often look at like performance failures or like stage, but just to anticipate what could happen, what I should be thinking about. But I pay attention to all of those things when I'm on stage, I can tell you where every monitor where every light is because I don't want to do those things right,

[00:30:54] spk_0: Right. And

[00:30:56] spk_1: so they trip on them. And so yeah, I would say in the little and the big things never underestimate an opportunity to train to practice, to rehearse. The smallest things I contact pronunciation, handshakes, body language all the way to the biggest things like the actual words that you say or the audience that's in front of you or the content you want to share. Practice rehearse everything that looks chill and organic and spontaneous is actually decades of practice. Um that's what comes out in the moment.

[00:31:33] spk_0: Who do you look at and admire in their ability to do that.

[00:31:39] spk_1: That is a really good question because I have struggled to find a direct role model in the world of m seeing as many people would imagine, Many people would have thought I'm seeing or hosting an event as a voluntary or an occasional job. I have managed to not just make it a full time job, but to build a business around it. Like I have 12 staff that worked for me, we do so much more than just emceeing. And so there is no school for emceeing, there is no training center from seeing and I don't know any direct role models of people that have been able to, I guess make a a business out of emceeing, although many people have been in that position of m seeing many people will chair a meeting or will host a wedding of their friends or something, so they're in that position, but never in a professional setting of it. So, what I do is I actually look at three different sources, um and I wonder if this may surprise you or not, but one of them are magicians, because I think magicians are incredible storytellers, they are incredible storytellers, after all, it's a trick, it's an illusion, the part that catches you is the story. So they are one sort that I go to stand up comedians, so much admiration for stand up comedians, because you can often, especially in your early days, enter into a hostile crowd and you've got seconds. I mean, those audiences are expecting to laugh. That is a high standard to to reach, especially if they don't know you now, if you reach the heights of say, kevin Hart or any of these big guys, they'll get the laugh just by showing up on stage, they just have to move. Yes.

[00:33:24] spk_0: Patton Oswalt does a great bit on exactly that. Yes.

[00:33:29] spk_1: But for early stage stand up comedians and that's why I watch those kind of sound companies like how do you turn a crowd around and it's all around empathy around connection. So I love watching standard comedians and the third unusual source, our preachers, I listen to preachers because they have to come to the same crowd week after week And keep their attention. So it's almost the opposite of a standard comedian. But I think there's something about the consistency, that longevity of a passionate over 15, 20 years can come to the same crowd and deliver something new and to be such expert storytellers to draw out value out of the same passages. I mean no one's changing the bible up every year and so they have to draw new lessons from well known passages. So those are the three unusual sources I go to, the obvious source I go to is a late night show tv host and so Trevor Noah, I think is the smartest when it comes to unscripted content. I think he's intellectually the most profound and he's also very articulate on the spot. I think Hassan Minaj is the most relevant right now, 21st century. His perspectives, attitudes, he's very current in the way he communicates. I think people like jimmy Fallon and James corden are very good with their sketches. So how do you take actors, actresses and people are very comfortable in the studio and make them feel comfortable in front of a live audience because it is a different art. And I don't think people realize how out of a comfort zone actors and actresses and celebrities can be in a studio setting you know sorry in a T. V. Studio setting it can be a very scary experience. And these guys are able to make them feel comfortable enough to have a good laugh or do interesting sketch with them. And I like some of the creativity behind their games and their sketches. So these are some of the people involved in my world that I watch on a daily basis to just see how do they ask the question? How do they build that connection? What do the Greenback Age so that when they come on stage they have that sense of warmth between these people. Yeah. How about you, Do you? Yeah

[00:35:51] spk_0: obviously obviously it's it's very similar. Um I find uh I'll go back further um Dick Cavett. Like I really if you go back and watch Dick Cavett, it's that's who I aspire to be. Like, that guy always felt like he had report with whomever he was talking to. And uh and he was very good on his own. Like he was very quick, quick witted. He's I I find he was really really good. Um But anybody who can really have a genuinely, it makes it look like it's a conversation. But a lot of times like, you know when you see a tv talk show host, they may not know the person they're talking to very well, but they've been prepped. Much to your point, they have been very well prepped so that when they do talk to that person, it's very natural. Uh it does have to have that, like, inviting into the conversation and uh inviting the audience as well. So like if if they have something they want to say, for instance, there someone posted up a comment. Dave o put up mittens. And I don't know if what that has. Does that does that mean anything to you mittens

[00:37:05] spk_1: mittens?

[00:37:06] spk_0: Yeah. No. Okay. Maybe I was like, so it had like, I've got dirt on him. Ask him about the mittens. Okay, I'll ask Alright,

[00:37:17] spk_1: how about mittens?

[00:37:20] spk_0: Okay, well that's that's good because that I'm sure that you could have lied right there and you could have said, yeah, mittens, let me tell you about that and just launched right into a story,

[00:37:30] spk_1: wow. So I tell you, okay, go

[00:37:32] spk_0: for it. Yeah. Tell me about mittens because I have a feeling like wait, let me let me pose it like this though, you know, dan you say a lot of things, but yep, I have one statement that I feel you need to explain and that is this mittens.

[00:37:51] spk_1: Oh man, I was really hoping you wouldn't bring this up, but given this a transparent, vulnerable space, I'm gonna let you in on something. Mhm mittens. So I am a man, I am five ft 10. Um I have a lot of things that I'm really great at and unfortunately I have one or two faults, one of those faults I actually share with one of the most powerful people in the world right now and I am so deeply embarrassed to confess this to you right now, but I have really tiny hands and so it is true, the stories are true, but I don't shop for mittens in the mail section. I actually go to the Children's section and I get a size four. Um, which also is the same size. That's the most powerful man in the world right now. Uh, where So this person has some good gods on me because they probably have seen me walking into Zara not in some men's session but into women's section. Because as a, as an indian, I'm often in these cold, freezing cold country like Finland Poland and I need to wear mittens. You know, after I use my hands performing, I used my hands when I'm playing the piano. I used my hands when I'm making gestures and I need them to be warm. So I wear you

[00:39:18] spk_0: play a smaller piano when you have tiny hands.

[00:39:22] spk_1: I do that too. Yes. Very small, very small piano. I actually pay the one that's on my phone. I do not play live sized pianos. I just pull out my phone and play that one. Yes,

[00:39:35] spk_0: that's awesome. Thank you. All right, Well it is time to do a sketch. Are you ready for this? I've got a couple of ideas. Did you by any chance? Did you come with an agenda? Did you have a sketch agenda that you wanted to do?

[00:39:49] spk_1: No, but I feel like I just did a sketch. So for anyone who is living and thought that that a real story. That is not a real story. I have normal sized hands and I do not even own mittens. Never had

[00:40:01] spk_0: to. So just to be 100 clear Dan does not have small hands. He really wanted to make sure everybody understood his hands are normal sized one quick ad for one of my new endeavors, I now record audio books professionally. I would love to give you a free copy and urge you to head to audible to grab it. Just go to bit dot LI S cps snapshots to sign up and get this title for free, as well as have access to hundreds of thousands of other titles to listen to. I'm proud of this audio book, I did accents and I didn't suck. If you would like to get a copy of the book completely free, please email the show at sketch comedy podcast show dot com and request a redeemable code for the book, then you can tell me if I actually did suck at making those accents and now this week's sketch, should I shake or should I go with dan Ram in three two and that controls our panel discussion for this evening show, Another perfect event. Little do they know that what makes me the greatest emcee of all time is my secret ability to read minds that I got from that lion when I was young. I would like to thank all of our speakers. Sure I could have used these powers to help the planet but I help the planet in the best way possible by am seeing amazing events like this one Beyonce dr Anthony, Fauci presidential hopeful Kanye West dr Phil and the specialist boy that Obama is pretty amazing. Oh man, I can't remember how to say his first name now these Germans have been butchering it all week. I better read his mind to find out.

[00:42:07] spk_1: Excellent Secret Service told me to only be here for 10 seconds so lift the hands and receive the applause lifting and right and always a powerful hand scan. Stage left, moved to middle scan stage right. I am not a robot. But I've done this so many times. Who are these people? And what is for lunch? I am starving. But keep smiling. Keep smiling Unless Michelle will be upset. Keep smiling. Keep smiling. Here we

[00:42:33] spk_0: go. He didn't say it. That's okay. I'll get it. I'm sure I can remember. Uh and a special thank you to Barack Obama. I mean Barack Obama. Oh no, that was awful. But he doesn't seem to have fazed at all. What a class act. Okay now he's coming over to thank me. He was a handshake guy, wasn't he? It's so hard to tell these days.

[00:43:03] spk_1: I am so tall. I'm sure it was being interviewed by someone but I can't seem to see him. Oh here he is, down there to see the man now. What was his name? What? Oh, that's right. It was damn. Damn. Damn correct. I hope I got it right. I'm still being my uh don't say anything inappropriate. Let's just going for that formal handshake.

[00:43:23] spk_0: Okay he is definitely going in for the handshake. I don't have to worry about it. We are going to handshake. Uh

[00:43:31] spk_1: Well this damn guy seems pretty cool. Almost like a brother to me and uh you know what I do? It's what I'm infamous. Let's get one of those infamous shots of Obama being relatable. Obama being friendly. Obama being one with the people. Let's get that fist bump out. Here we go fist

[00:43:48] spk_0: out. Damn. Oh no he switched up on me. What do I do?

[00:43:55] spk_1: What's he doing? Oh no he's coming for that grab. Does this guy not get a fist phone? Is he going to put his hand over my no this is gonna be a disaster. Maybe I should go in for the punch. There'll be a lot more friendly.

[00:44:09] spk_0: How long should I hold his presidential fist in my hand?

[00:44:14] spk_1: I got to bring this guy close to me. This is always so awkward, but let's go in for the man hug right now. On stage,

[00:44:22] spk_0: I'm now experiencing the presidential hug. His arms are so strong, which is so surprising. How strong and comforting this hold is. I could live here forever,

[00:44:36] spk_1: cannot get the start of my head. He just seems like one of these cute little teddy bears that you would tickle but 8000 people. But I am curious where can I tickle this guy?

[00:44:49] spk_0: Well, I hope he's not thinking what I hear. He's thinking I should not have had that fifth glass of water, but the cucumber in the water makes it so fresh and delicious.

[00:45:00] spk_1: Is he?

[00:45:02] spk_0: And that is today, right? This is not gonna be happy with me at all. Thank you so much for listening to sketch comedy podcast show. Lovingly produced in Portland Oregon. If you enjoyed the show today, I would love it. If you help me out in one of two ways, the first one's free, just share the show on social media or write a review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. That would be so helpful and so wonderful. And it costs you nothing. The other way you can support the show is financially and I'm just going to give you a little behind the scenes. Uh there is no money in podcasting. I do this and it costs me money to do it. It's a passion project. But if you'd like to help offset those costs, which I would really appreciate, please head over to Patreon dot com and to reward you for as little as a dollar a month, you'll get all of the bonus material and let me tell you in this episode, there was a ton of things that did not make it into the episode that we're still incredibly interesting. And now, for the fun part, sketch comedy podcast show is licensed under Creative Commons attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives for international license. If you would like to use this work in any way, please contact the show and request permission. Look, life is made up of stories, find interesting people have an intriguing conversation and improvise an adventure all of your own.