 I am Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful ThinkTek Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book, which is also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. My special guest today is Augie T. She is one of the funniest comedians in the state of Hawaii and has achieved great success through these years selling out the Hawaii Theater and also the Blaisdell Arena, and today we are going beyond comedy. Hey, Augie. Hi there, Rusty. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. Augie, I want to know about your background, I mean your youth when you're growing up. When I was in Cali Valley, Catford Housing, I lived there all my life, went to Kaivai Elementary School, went to Doe Intermediate, and graduated from Farrington High School. I went to Damien down the street. So in neighbors, yeah. A lot of my classmates who got football scholarships went to Damien or St. Louis. So how was it at Farrington? I think I grew the most as a person. Honestly, a lot of things happened while I was in high school. One, I became a teen parent, but I also was ranked at one time, seven in the nation when it comes to boxing. So I grew as a person because I, like other kids, I had to grow up extremely fast, taking care of my family, and at the same time trying to compete on certain level. So a lot of learning, but then I also talk, you know, now when I go out to schools, I also talk about how important teachers are in your life. So there are a lot of teachers out there that don't get recognized. So I want to take the time out to say thank you to several of them because it wasn't for them. You and I wouldn't be sitting here honestly. Totally. So I want to say thank you to Ms. Murakami, my 8th grade guidance teacher. There's Mr. Kao, my drama teacher. There's my boxing coach, Donald Sark. There was also an English teacher who pushed me to the point where I had this anger about her for a long time, but we settled our difference in my 30s, believe it or not, because she just knew that if I get pushed, I might be able to achieve the things that everybody else saw except Augie. Now boxing, I had no idea that you were like one of the top boxers in the United States. How did that start? My brother Arnold was in the gym one day boxing. I went up there to go heckle him, of course, had to make trouble since I'm the oldest and he was like, Alex, you go in the bag. I started punching the bag and my coach Donald Sark was like, hey, you look pretty good at punching the bag. Why don't you start training and go, I'll only train if I go fight this week. If I can fight this week, I was that bozo-headed that if I can fight this week, let's do it. I got my physical, fought that week, and after that I was hooked. I loved the aspect of boxing and fighting and the discipline. At first it was all for the wrong reason, then I realized when he sat me on the side and he says, you have the kind of talent you'll take to go to the next level and I was like, oh, okay, yeah. How was it in growing up in CAM4 housing? It was tough. I mean, when you hear stuff like show me your friends and I'll show you your future, honestly, it's like that. Who you surround yourself with can make a whole bunch of difference, you know what I mean? I'm so thankful that I had some pretty cool friends that never do the things that, I mean, I had some of them and it's good to have them on the side. But I had great mentors, yeah? I had great mentors that kept me focused and kept me straight on that narrow road. Yeah, they say, you know, because we all have roads in our life and I had a lot of people that really took care of me and made sure that I stayed on that path. Yeah. Now, Augie, so one of the people that impacted your life as a teacher, Murakami, Ms. Murakami, what did she do? Well, I was flunking English. Okay. I always had problems in school because I'm ADHD and I'm a little dyslexic. So I always had a problem like focusing, staying, you know, paying attention to anything. I was a kid in the back that talked, you know, the teacher would go, Mr. Toba, you have diarrhea coming out of your mouth. I was like, die. Right? So could never ever focus and I was flunking English and she was my guidance teacher and she said, look, two things would happen. You're going to get licking from your dad or you're going to enter this speech contest. And I went, speech contest, only put a nerd. She said, no, I'm going to help you. And this is for me, like, you know, I love my mom and my dad and they did everything they could. But like it's the first time where I actually felt like somebody like really cared generally for me. You know, she really wanted to help me out and after school, yes, by spending time with me after school gave me a confidence. Yeah. Like I wanted to do well for me, for my parents, but even for Ms. Murakami. And you know, when I did the speech contest, I kind of knew exactly what I wanted to become. I knew I wanted to be a comic in the fourth grade, but that speech contest really showed me the vision, right, to like that I could actually do this in front of people and do it well. Wow. That's it. Because somebody spent time with me and when I talk to teachers and when I talk to students, I talk about like, how, you know, teachers spend more time with you. So they know, they know your habits, they know your weakness, they know your strengths and you got to listen to them sometime. You know, they might find that gem in you. And I think she saw something that I never see, my parents never see and I'm so thankful for her and like I said, all those teachers that helped pave the way for me, yeah. So you mentioned about, you know, being a teen parent in high school. What was your first job in terms of? Man, I remember coming home and I just won the Golden Gloves and at that time, the ABF in Hawaii and like everything was like was laid out for me. My parents was fired up. I won an outstanding fighter for both tournaments. First time that's ever done by a 16-year-old, right, and you know, free college, you know, and finding out that my girlfriend is pregnant. I mean, I still can see the faces of my teachers like the disappointment. And I remember coming home, telling my dad and my mom what happened and my dad was like, well, man, I guess she got to work, you know, you got to take care of your family. That's your responsibility. You got to go take care of your family. So my first job was at Jack in a Box, but how can you afford taking care of your family working for $3.15 at that time, you know, and was tough? And luckily, you know, I paid attention in school when it came to like, you know, applying for jobs and understanding qualifications. So I saw, you know, opening for food service worker at the hospital, Capulani Medical, went in for an interview. I insisted on an interview and we made a deal and I was there for 16 years. Yeah. I worked at Capulani Medical for 16 years. And you know, dad really helped me take care of my family, you know, because I was making money. And my dad, my dad worked at the city and county, but I was making about the same amount of money as my dad, you know, working at the hospital. So, you know, I'm a firm believer that if you want something, you got to go get it. It's not going to come knocking on your door. You definitely went to go get it. Oh my gosh, you know, I'm very thankful for that, believe me. Now your family, you have, tell me about your kids, your sons and your daughter. Okay. I have five all together. Yeah. We have a blended family. Okay. Love them all. Very unique personalities and very resilient day. You know, you talk about, you know, bullying in school. Easy for my kids to get bullied when their dad is an entertainer in Hawaii. Yeah. Because I think, you know, my kids haven't made. The reality is that I work hard like everybody else to make sure that, you know, they get the things that they need. And at the same time, I also tell them that you cannot depend on me. You got to go above and beyond because people are going to expect that from you because they think you haven't made. So you got to work extra hard, you know, and I'm proud of them, all of them because they have to go through a lot, you know, with me being their dad. For sure. For sure. They all get tough kids and they all work really hard. So I'm proud of them all. I'm proud of them. And then I noticed that your daughter, Mahia, she's starting a brave campaign. Can you tell me what that is? Well, at 11 years old, she was bullied in school and we were able to identify that. You know, when parents dive into your children's life, I think, you know, I think we stopped doing that because mom and dad work in two jobs and sometimes, you know, gets overwhelming. But we got to fight some time in a day to find out what's happening in your children's life. And we realized that my daughter was having difficulty, right? And we found out what was happening. Got that all resolved with her, you know, and she was able to take the challenges in her life. She wrote a book when she was 11 years old. That's amazing. And she got it published when she was around 13 years old and then she started reading to schools because she is into pageants. So that was her platform. You know, she wrote a book called It's OK to Be Different. Great. And she started to read to, like, elementary school kids and pretty soon we started getting calls. Hey, can you come and talk about your experience with middle school kids? And that's where she looked at me and she goes, I need your help. So, you know, we developed a program for elementary school kids, middle school kids and high school kids because she had a vision to talk about what she went through to help other kids in Hawaii. Yeah. So, you know, I always tell people, she's the one that's going to buy me my house. I like hearing about that, Augie. And you got, you started in radio a long time ago and you're still involved in radio. You know, it's the one media where, like, you know, I can express, you know, how I feel about things and, you know, every day we hear bad news and I hate it. You know, it's so polarizing, right? People on the left, people on the right, and they forget about people in the middle, you know, and I just like entertain people. I don't want you to think about what's happening, you know, nationally, locally. Just laugh. I mean, when you're driving in traffic, you know, the last thing you like hear is bad news, right? So I try to be as funny as I can and lighten up the morning instead of being so, you know, so polarizing with, like, bad news, you know, so I try to make it light. OK. Now, how did you get your start into comedy and why did you like comedy so much? Well, you know, like I said, I saw Andy Bumatai in the fourth grade. My dad just sent me away to Maui because he wanted me to be influenced by my older cousins because he knew that, you know, if I stayed home, I would probably hang out with the wrong kind of guys, do the wrong kind of things. So he would send me to Maui and my auntie took me to an Yvonne Elements concert. OK. You know, Yvonne Elements. She said, if I can't help you, I don't want nobody. And I was like, why am I here? My Filipino auntie was rocking. I was like, why am I here? Put on the guy that was opening for Yvonne Elements and Andy Bumatai was the opening act. And I saw this guy make 3,000 people laugh. And I went, that's what I wanted to become. That's what I want to be. I want to be a stand-up comic. And like I said, you know, through eight grade guidance. And then after my boxing career, I had six professional fights, but I always knew I wanted to be a stand-up comic. So I went to the Honolulu Comedy Club, I signed up, and then the rest is this. It was so funny. I was like kids, when you're really passionate about something that you love, believe me. The universe hears it. They hear it. You know what I mean? And I'm not lying. Within the first month, two months, I met every single guy that I grew up listening to and watching. How crazy is that? You know, I was walking in the elevator at Kapilani Medical, and I saw Andy Bumatai. I went, Andy, it's Andy Bumatai. And we talked for about at least three hours. Wow. So my job is watching it. Yeah, I wasn't working for almost three hours because I was with my idol. And we talked. And two weeks later, I met Booga Booga because they were opening at the Honolulu Comedy Club, and I was a big rapper, I played a fan, and I saw James Grant Benton and Kyle Hale, and holy smokes, right? And then Andy, I was Andy's opening act. Andy took me to Kauai, I met Malcolm Bang. You know, and then Frank DeLima, like, soon after. So like, everything kind of all fell in place when you put your heart and your soul, and you really, you know, go after something that you really, truly love doing, yeah? Wow, that's awesome to hear. Augie, we're going to take a quick break, and then when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond comedy. Sounds good. You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Augie T. We'll be back in 60 seconds. Aloha, my name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii Ana all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Hi, my name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii with Think Tech Hawaii. We come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, mabuhai, and aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is Augie T., who is one of the funniest comedians in the state of Hawaii, and today we are going beyond comedy. Augie, I noticed on your performances that you don't use any profanity. How did that happen? Well, you know, one, I think people like bringing their families to shows, you know what I mean? And, you know, comic skill and stereotype of being nasty, you know, I do comedy like to the edge and then that's it. Yeah. Stop at the edge. And I tell you why I started doing clean comedy. One, early on in my career I did this thing, I did a weekly thing at this club in Kali called Boomers. It was run by this Faraday graduate. And you remember at one time they were trying to make one area by Nimitz, a place where instead of doing it in Keimoku, bars over there, so I had a night club and they paid me 50 bucks for me to go up and I would perform in front of six people. But weekly, once in a while, Pat Morita would come by. Oh. Yeah, Karate Kid, Pat Morita would come by. So he was sitting back there one night watching me do comedy and then several weeks later he came back and he said, hey, you know what, you funny, but try to be, Alexi, you really be yourself expressive. That means using every language you could possibly use, you know, even swearing. You only get six people. Just go for it, right? So I said, oh yeah, okay. So I was doing, I mean, for the six people there, if you're watching, you probably saw the best show ever because I was able to express and really, you know, do material that, you know, I would normally just do between, you know, you know, not in front of the camera or on stage and I had a great time that night and I could actually feel the freeing effect of just being oggy for that moment, right? But what happened was the room is such a small room and a light was so powerful I couldn't see who was in the audience. Okay, I only could hear laughter. The six people at Pat Morita in the back and then my dad and my uncle walked in and my dad, even despite being who he was, he never like see any of his kids using that kind of language in public. Oh, my dad came on stage to tell me what you're doing, I'll be talking that way, I'm arranging for talk that way and he's swearing what he's talking to me now, right? I'm 32 years old, I'm going, you're telling me I'm 32 year old, man, listen how you're talking, I don't care. You don't talk like, my dad was scolding me in front of six people and I could hear Pat Morita in the back just laughing. So when I say you probably saw the best comedy show that night, yeah, you saw me get scolding from my dad, I was 32 years old and my dad is scolding me on stage and I swear to God, if he had on stick, he probably hit me too with the stick. So there's a side of me that's still traumatized that my dad at any moment could pop up and even being dead, even his spirit, maybe when I'm talking, just punch me on the face or something. But yeah, I've worked clean ever since that. And then Andy, when I worked at Andy, I think one night I came in and I used the S-word as I do, don't ever use that. You're not going to make money doing comedy that way in Hawaii because people are still family oriented and you can get more gigs doing it that way. And it's true, I was able to do a lot of great gigs because I don't use profanity. And Augie, and then you ended up selling out the Hawaii Theater and then you sold out the Blazell Arena. How did that feel going from six people to selling out the arena? Mind you, I wanted to do comedy just for fun. When I realized maybe 10 years into the business, I was like, wow, this is actually a business. So I came up with a business plan. I came up with like how am I going to take comedy to the next level in Hawaii? I wanted a great business card. So the business card was the first DVD live from the Hawaii Theater. And what I did was I went and I talked to sponsors. I talked to people like McDonald's, First Hawaiian Bank. And I said, look, this is what I do. And they helped me fund my dream, basically. And then right after I did that, man, the comedy career just kind of took off that business card, the first DVD live from the Hawaii Theater. I did so much for me in my business card to everywhere for people on the mainland before social media. People were buying my DVDs and I was packing places. So I took the business serious maybe 15, 16 years ago. People don't know the 10 years before that. Oh, you come do comedy. How much I get in pain? You want me to make a plate? You want me to make a plate? You know what I mean? It was like that kind of gigs. Yeah, OK, I'm going to make a plate. Thank you. You just did 20 minutes, 30 minutes of comedy. And they're going to pay you with a plate. And I remember opening for amazing acts like Capena. Early on in my career, yeah, I only got $50 bucks for opening. But then they put me in front of 20, sometimes 20,000 people. People who never knew who Augie was. And I was able to do the kind of comedy that I like to do, yeah? And man, it's just been an amazing ride. And you talked about your comedy idols, you know, the Melka Bangs, the Andy Bometais, the Frank Dalimas. How does it feel to be performing with them on these tours? Yeah, no, it's surreal. I mean, like I said, not even two months into my comedy career. I started meeting these guys, right? These guys were in my life giving me some amazing advice. I mean, Booga Booga taught me the acting portion of my stand-up comedy. I'm just talking about like putting characters, right? Andy showed me the professionalism side, right? Frank showed me the performance side. Mel showed me that you got to be real. Doesn't matter if you're performing in front of three or 20,000 people. You got to be able to do your act talking to just that one person. Relating to that one person and everything else all kind of falls in place. Be yourself. So, you know, when I started working with these guys, you know, of course, you know, I wouldn't tell them that. But like every time I would hang out with them, I get chicken skin because these are the guys that I looked up to, yeah? Yeah, totally. So it's awesome, man. I love hearing how it all comes together and your trajectory is still, I mean, it's huge. Yeah, you know, we just did a show a couple of weeks ago and these guys are still doing it even at that age, you know? And, you know... That's impressive. Well, people want to come. People want to escape, you know what I mean? Like people want to sit there and be entertained. And that's why I'm always appreciative when people come to the shows because we're getting information and we're getting entertainment off of phones. It's not personal that way. You know, you're laughing at somebody in a phone. It's not like coming to a live show. Someone's saying something and there's a response. How... I mean, that's... You know, people... We got to communicate. We got to talk story. Can I be texting? Looking at someone on phone? You have to communicate. But Augie, reading books is okay, right? Really all. Because you know my book, Beyond the Lost. I love the segue. Of course, Rusty. I love my book. I can relate to several characters that we're talking a little bit about it. But man, one kid that you kicked off the team, it almost felt like when I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant. Like that was it. Done. There's a lesson to learn in everything bad or good. And when I saw the lesson on how he felt like he was a man and you cut it in line. Yeah, because it's all about character and discipline. Right. And helping everyone achieve their full potential. Right, and the book was so simple to read. And me being dyslexic, it takes a while. Yeah, but I got everything. Because when I'm reading something, I want to be able to absorb everything that I got. So it's a simple book to read, very relatable. And yeah, you might not be being tennis. But the life stories behind, you know, it does. Yeah. Yeah, you can relate to a lot of it. If you deal with people, it will relate to you. Of course, 100%. Read the book. See, Rusty, read the book. Hey, Augie, we like going beyond the lines. Of course you have to. Yeah. You have to go beyond the lines. It's the only way to live. I always tell, especially living on an island, right? I always tell kids, like, what's stopping you from getting to where it's fear. You know what I mean? When you get people, believe it or not, there's so much people that want to help you out to erase the fear. It's just about you taking that step beyond the lines. What you do that? Amazing things can happen, whether you win or lose. Amazing character development. I know I can never always win. But what am I learning when I'm losing? Sometimes that's the most important thing to learn. Totally. Now, Augie, what is a common misperception that people have of comedians? Man, like, beyond 24-7. People know, like, I am not on 24-7. I can be on. But I never have a dark childhood like every comic. You read about comedians, and they all get this really dark hidden. I enjoyed life. You know what I mean? I love the fact that my parents were dysfunctional. I loved that the people around me were very dysfunctional. But at the same time, I know that when I decided to become Augie the comedian, I knew that I was public property. And I knew that I had to be friendly, be nice. And it does, you know, sometimes it's hard. When I'm pushing a wagon in Foodland, and somebody go, oh, you cannot grouch yet? Or you think I'm, like, 24-7? I'm trying to get my groceries and get out as quick as I can. But they just think, you can be funny everywhere. And that's not true. That's not true, you know what I mean? Well, you're very real. And you're an open book. I love that. And everybody loves that about you. But I want to know, Augie, what do you hope to aspire to achieve in your future? You know, I'm 50 years old after doing this comedy thing for 27 years in the entertainment business, 27 years. I'm stepping back. March 2nd will be my final show. I call it my final big show. Augie's Last Stand at the Blazda Arena. And I think it's starting at $10. So I'll bet $10 at the arena. Can I go wrong? Can I go wrong? And bring your whole family, because it's going to be a night of comedy. But I just felt like the excitement is not there anymore. And I want to try to do something not that my kids are in college and out of the home. I can do the things that I wanted to do at 29, maybe one of the benefits of having a family early in my life. Now I can go out and explore and do things that interest Augie like I want to travel. I want to try to do comedy on the mainland. I want to possibly run for office in 2020 and get kids involved in the whole being American and having a right to vote, participating, and making a difference. You know what I mean? If somebody like me can do something like that, I want to inspire other kids who think they cannot. They can. It's like what she says, going beyond the lines. If you can do that, you can not only change the way people see you as a person, but you can change maybe a community, maybe even a state. So that's something that I aspire to possibly do. Because I can tell you in two years, I have goals. I have goals. That's one of them. But anything could happen. Anything could happen. And that's one of them. Traveling and maybe possibly running for office. No, I love hearing that, Augie. And I like, I mean, you are inspiring so many people. And you are continuing to inspire so many people. And when I hear about people selling out the Blaisdell like comedians, hey, it's Kevin Hart. It's Joe Coy. And it's Augie T. Thank you for being on the show today, Augie. Thank you for having me. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit my website, RustyKamori.com. And my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all Costco stores in Hawaii. Buy a book. I hope that this show inspires you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.