 Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My book Beyond the Lines is about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is a super famous stand-up comedian, was the main actor in his TV show Sullivan and Son and directed the very popular film documentary Always Amazing. He is the one and only Steve Byrne and today we are going beyond comedy. Hey Steve, welcome to the show. What's up? How are you doing? Rusty, nice to see you. You're actually talking to us from your helicopter pad right now. It looks like you're standing out there and not too windy which is nice. Yeah. Good to see you buddy. Well, you know, I miss you. I'm looking forward to your next trip to Hawaii. I mean, you are super hilarious. I mean, are you doing any voice impressions nowadays? You know, the only impression I do is one of the current commander chief and I read Beyond the Lines. It's the greatest book. I love it. Some say it goes beyond the lines, the Bible and then my book. So that's really the only impression I do. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Thank you. It's been crazy. I think that with everything going on, you got a pandemic, food shortages, race riding, a recession, unemployment. It looks like the governors of all these states need to know that stand-up comedy now more than ever is actually an essential business. So it couldn't be a better time for comedy right now. It is so necessary. And Steve, your parents, your dad is Irish and your mom is Korean. Are they, do they have a big sense of humor as well? Oh my God, yeah. That's the folks there. And yeah, they're just so sweet. They're very caring. They've always been supportive because I think no matter what I was doing, whether I was waiting tables or I was a host at Caroline's Comedy Club, they knew that I always worked hard. And the minute I told them, I think I want to try to pursue stand-up comedy, you know, in New York City to get started, you have to go to these open mics and they're called bringer shows. And essentially what you have to do is you have to bring two paying customers to be in the audience and then you get five minutes. So they were my two paying customers for the first two or three months that I was doing stand-up in New York City. And they would sit through two to two and a half hours of garbage, garbage open mic material to watch another five minutes of garbage material from their son. And then eventually I kind of started working and they were always so supportive. So it was great to see them from the beginning of my journey up until, you know, just recently I directed a feature film and they were on the set. And it was just really, really, really redemptive and satisfying to see that these people that were so supportive of me ever since I was a kid, obviously, but even through my comedy career there when I was directing a film about stand-up comedy. So it was kind of cool to see it all come full circle. Well, Steve, you know, a few years ago, Daniel Day-Kim and I had the opportunity to see you perform your stand-up in Hawaii and you were super hilarious. Let's just say this about Daniel. Daniel Day-Kim is the most unattractive, let's just get that out of the way. He's the most unattractive Asian male I've ever met. The guy is a perfect specimen. He's got a square jaw. He's ripped. He makes me want to sue my parents. Go back to my picture of my parents. These are the people I'm going to sue because look what you could have done. I mean, Daniel is unbelievable. And the nice thing about him, this is, I think, just before our fourth shot of the evening in 20 minutes of whiskey, but what a class act, a gentleman, and also someone who's at the forefront of the Asian American movement in entertainment. So I have incredible amounts of respect for him and what he's done. And how nice of a, like a complete gentleman he is too. Oh, Daniel's the greatest and he's the nicest. And that night after we saw your performance, the three of us went to sing Karaoke and you are the only one I know in the world that can sing every single song in the book, whether it's man or woman, whether the voice is high or low, how do you do that, Steve? Well, it's called half a bottle of Jameson whiskey is what it's called. And by the way, Daniel Day Cam, as you know, is literally the nicest human being I've met in show business and probably, you know, a handful of people I've met over the years that are actually that nice. And I know, I know for a fact in his basement, he dresses up like a Nazi uniform. I know he dresses. There's got to be something wrong with this guy. There's something he's too perfect. He's too nice. Well, you know, I've been to his house many times and no, he doesn't have anything like that. He's just he's just a super nice guy. Super nice guy, but it was it was weird. The last time I hung out with him, he knows all the legal loopholes about bigamy, which I thought was very odd. I don't know if his wife, I don't know, just a good dude. Lucky thing I stretched out my cheeks before, you know, we came on air, Steve. And that's right. That's right. Yeah, it's going to get a lot worse here. We start talking about my careers when it gets depressing. So, Steve, I saw that you you you went skydiving with the US Army Golden Knights. I mean, were you frightened at all? Yeah, you can see the stream of urine. These are my body right there. I've done I've done probably 10 USO tours with with with the USO. My father served. Everybody on my father's side served. My brother served in the military. He signed up after 9-11. And after having done the very first USO tour, I believe in 2004, I went with Colin Quinn because my brother was stationed at Camp Vicre North in Iraq. And once I saw, you know, what a forward operating basis, once I saw the conditions in which these soldiers are living under and also understanding that they're sacrificing birthdays, holidays, Christmases, first walks, first kisses with their children and their family. You know, you you tend to forget how you could take for granted a service member. And yeah, it might be an annoying five minutes when you go to a ball game and you got to stand up and salute, you know, the soldiers are put down. You're not chosen Coca-Cola, but I'm telling you, once you go over and you see the conditions, especially in wartime, I was absolutely blown away and just I've had a great partnership with the USO in terms of trying to do everything I can to show support and bring smiles and get their minds off of the heaviness of sometimes the situations that they're in. I've been to the Middle East countless times and there are some of the best shows I've ever done as well. And so when I was offered the opportunity to jump out of a plane, it was absolutely nerve wracking, very scary. But, you know, you're you're tethered to these men and women that are professionals and they know exactly what they're doing. And you couldn't have felt safer. It was it was great. It's so good of you to to really perform for them. And Steve, my, you know, my new my books, I have my new book beyond the game that I need to send to you. And, you know, it's about achieving and sustaining success, which is something you know all about. And and it's also about finding your passion. And I want to know when and how did you find your passion for stand up comedy? Well, Rusty, I think that's a I think it's a great question because I think everybody when you're a kid in high school and doodling or you're in college and you're bored and the professor's talking or you're sitting in a cubicle and you're daydreaming, right? I think you go to a place where you think, oh, God, I just wish I could do that. And I never had that. What I had was I think sometimes people know what their fate is and pursue it. And sometimes the fate sits in the back of your head and you don't pursue it, but it's always a dream. And it becomes a what if. I think every now and then for certain people like me, your fate finds you. And the reason I say that is because I graduated at Kent State University in Ohio. My father had gotten transferred to New York City and I asked my parents if I could just crash with them on the couch and experience New York City. And they said, of course, after college. So I'm 22. I pack everything up in my car. I moved to New York City. The first day I say I'm not coming home till I get a job and I walked all along Broadway, 86th Street. I started all the way down to 50th and Broadway. And I applied to every restaurant, store, shop I could find on Broadway. And the last place I entered was Caroline's Comedy Club. And the manager happened to be at the host stand. I said, I'm looking for a job. I will do anything. He said, great, fill this out. Come back tomorrow. And I started working at a comedy club. And I saw all these young comics doing what they do best especially in the New York scene. And I just thought, I think I can do that. And the minute I did it, I did an open mic at Stand Up New York, September 30th, 1997. I remember the date. And doing Stand Up for the first time was like the first time I had sexual intercourse. It was quick. I cried afterwards and I couldn't wait to do it again. And I was hooked. And so that's how it started for me. I think I found my fate and I just knew I'm gonna do this the rest of my life. If I never make a dime doing it, I don't care. I know I'm made to do this. And fate found me. Well, I mean, it's amazing. I mean, you make it look so effortless when you're on stage. And Steve, I wanna ask you, what's the funniest thing? What's one of the funniest things that you've seen during one of your Stand Up performances? I mean, countless things I've seen that have made me genuinely laugh. And a lot of times it's kind of like when you're, you know, I was just in Washington, DC and I was with Pete Davidson was doing the show after me. And so I was doing the show and then Colin Joe's two zone week in update on SNL was in town doing a college and Colin and I are really great friends that I'd met Pete a handful of times. The three of us, well, Colin and I decided, let's just storm Pete Davidson's show and grab two cordless mics. And we went up and we had an absolute blast and I laughed so hard during that show from the interactions and the improv and how quick everybody was that selfishly as a comedian made me laugh. But as a comic, if I was to sit down and see something, I did, I do a thing called Sausage Party at the end of my show is where I create a boy band. And this happened recently, this is, I laughed so hard, this guy came out and he kind of stretched in front of the girl because each guy at the end of your routine is supposed to dance or give the girl a lap dance. And he stretched in front of the girl and then he put his hand up and he went to kick and what he was trying to do was kick his head over the girl's head, spin around and do a dance move. Instead he kicked her right in the side of the head and she went down to the ground and I fell to the ground immediately and I was crying, I was in the fetal position, I was laughing so hard. And then the girl stood up and went like this, I'm okay, I sat back down on the chair and the whole place went crazy. And then the last guy that danced for went overboard and it was just one of those shows where it just kind of, like the last built upon the last upon the last. It was so funny, the audience standing ovation after that was it was crazy because they were just so caught up in the excitement. And again, I think it's the impulsiveness of understanding that you couldn't plan that. Nobody could have planned it and everybody just took it and went for it, it was great. Steve, your show, Sullivan and Son aired for three seasons and I absolutely loved it. And what were you most proud of about your TV show? Well, I was most proud of that we were the second, I was the second Asian-American lead ever to have a sitcom on television. I was really proud of that and I was really proud of the fact that this is why you moved to Hollywood, right? You moved to Hollywood in the hopes that you can create something, facilitate it and actually make it happen. So I was very, very proud of that. What I wasn't happy with was the lack of acknowledgement in the mainstream media. And even I think in the Asian-American community that they never embraced the show as the second Asian-American television show since Margaret Cho to be on the air more than a handful of episodes. That to me was heartbreaking. And what I found out as the years went on is that there are, as you know Rusty, there are members in the Asian-American community, I think probably a majority that don't feel that I am an Asian-American. I may be of Asian heritage with my mother, but because I am a hoppa like yourself, there's a lot of people within that community that didn't feel necessary to be supportive of the show or write about the show or get anything in the media about the show. So everything we did was solely on our own. We didn't get much support from the network because we were a summer show, 10 episodes. And we were the highest originally rated show on TBS even at the time that we were canceled. So had the president stayed, the old president stayed, we would have been renewed and been on the air for many more seasons. But with regime changes, those things happened. But I was very proud of what we accomplished. But again, it was bittersweet in the fact that you have a lot of these mainstream media personalities that will write and be at the forefront of the Asian-American community and feel like we need to support Crazy Rich Asians. We need to support Fresh Off the Boat, but we never got that support. And that to me was really, really heartbreaking. Yeah, I can see that. And I know you're very proud when you directed the film documentary, Always Amazing. And I watched it and you are right. I mean, The Amazing Jonathan, I mean, I recommend everybody to see this. What compelled you to do to direct this documentary? Well, first off, thank you for watching it in your kind words. Now I feel guilty for not having read your book. So thanks for that. But I will read it when I get it. But what compelled me was is that it's a great story. Without a great story, why even bother doing it, right? So if you're interested, if you're watching this, go to YouTube, type in Always Amazing. You can watch it and here's the pitch. Jonathan was the second guy I ever opened for while I was on the road. And ever since then, I always got along with him. And anytime I came out to Los Angeles, he opened the doors for me and let me stay with him. I came out to Vegas, I'd see his show. He'd get me a hotel room. Just a really great supportive guy to me as a young comic. And essentially he's given this terminal diagnosis. You have a year to live, cardiomyopathy, a degradation of his heart. And he resigns to passing away. And he outlives the doctor's expectations by two to three years and decides, I'm tired of waiting to die. I wanna do what I was destined to do and born to do. And that's perform. So he makes a comeback tour, three shows, and he goes back. So that was the impetus for me to do the story. But the heart and soul of the story is that when Jonathan was touring, he met a girl in Australia and go back year after year. And he was an international act, but he met this kid, Joel Osborn, who was 12 years old at the time. And every year, Jonathan came back to Australia, this little kid's backstage hoping to get an autograph. And he just pals around and Jonathan takes him under his wing, gives him responsibilities. And at 18 years old, hires Joel Osborn to leave the continent of Australia, come out and be his road manager. Now you have an 18 year old kid, fresh out of high school, who was the road manager for a drug addict in Las Vegas. And he's responsible for him. So Joel saw Jonathan through a suicide attempt, the perils of Vegas, drug addiction, got his life on track. And he says, okay, you're good now. Joel goes to Australia, takes everything he learned from Jonathan and becomes a comedian on his own. And when Jonathan decides to come back to the stage for one last round of shows, Joel Osborn comes back to open for him. And so I saw the whole film play out in full circle. And I thought, I know the story beats, I know how to do this. And it was just a matter of me calling them up and saying, hey, can I make a documentary about you? And he said, absolutely. And the most gratifying part of it all was the first time I screened it for him, the final version in his screening room. He looked at me and he said, I love it. And he got up and walked out. And I knew he was composing himself because he's literally watching his legacy play out in front of him. And to me, whether I made $1 or $0 on this film, that to me was worth more than anything. So it was very, very gratifying and satisfying to get to do that film. I'm glad you did it and I loved it. And are you working on any more films? I'm working on, I'm actually working on my first book. It's called Beyond the Lines of Lines. So I know there's a book out there. It's in competition with this, but no, I'm actually... So when Sullivan and Sung got canceled, I had a lot of time on my hands and I was offered a role on a television show and I just didn't want to do it. And I probably should have, but I didn't because I just wanted to get quiet and think about what I really wanted to do next. And so I did the Jonathan doc kind of as a hobby, just with sweat equity wondering, can I make a movie? So I did that and while I was doing it, I was writing a film about my early years in standup and it was called The Opening Act. And it was about a kid's very first time ever going on the road to a professional A-list comedy club like the improv comedy club chain. So I wrote this thing as an exercise just to see if I could write a feature film. And I did it, I turned it into my good friend, Vince Vaughn. I said, would you mind taking a look at this and tell me if I'm crazy or what I could learn to make it better? And he called me about two months later and he said, I think we can make this. And I was looking for advice or just notes. I didn't think we're gonna actually make the thing but lo and behold, we made it. And while we were making it, before we made it, when we got the financing, he said, look, do you want to be in it? And I said, well, I'm too old to be the MC in feature and I'm too young to be the headliner. So I'm just happy it's being made. He said, well, why don't you direct it at your story? And I said, okay, not thinking once again, how much responsibility directing a film ensues. So I was in over my head, but I had great partners and producers with Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley. And I think we've got the most authentic, best film that's ever been done about standup comedy and what it takes to be a comedian and what it takes especially when you're starting off to pursue a goal or a dream and his happens to be standup comedy. Oh, I'm super excited for it to come out and totally looking forward to seeing it. And I wanna ask you, Steve, one of your longtime friends is Kevin Hart. What makes him so good at doing what he does? Well, I would say this, Kevin and I started together in New York City. Now, since he's become huge, I haven't seen him in years. So let me just practice this by, we're not like blood brothers pricking thumbs in front of a fireplace and taking vows with each other. But I will say that Kevin and I started together in New York City. I spent my first seven years in New York and I know that Kevin was still there as well. Around my seventh year is when he started booking like little things and movies here and there. Here's what I do know about Kevin. I'm not shocked at all by his success because that guy grinded so hard. And I consider myself someone who worked really hard. I worked really hard at getting on stage and being a comic. Kevin worked really hard at being a great comic, but also networking to give himself the opportunities to be in television and film. Whereas I was a little more focused on on the art form of stand-up comedy. He was, he wanted to be a star. Look what he's done. It's unbelievable what he's accomplished. And it's like when you see somebody like that, you think, oh my God, this guy's got it. That guy, even now, I guarantee he's working twice as hard because even once you get your foot in the door, you know how hard it is to be Tom Cruise, how hard it is to be Will Smith to stay relevant for decades. That is a whole different level of work ethic that I think people take for granted. People think, oh, he's just getting another film. No, he's got to get the right film. He's got to get consistently the right projects to stay relevant. Cause one, two, three bad bombs in a row and they're going to write you off. And next thing you know, you're doing video on demand films and you lose your cache. So I think that there's anybody who's at the top that sustained that amount of relevance, they're working and earning every second of it. What are your thoughts and insights about your other friend, Ken Jeong? Ken Jeong, what can I say about Ken Jeong? I love Ken. Ken is somebody that was, you know, he takes, you know, I know he's goofy. I know he's very animated in his, you know, he goes from zero to 60 in characterizations but I know that he takes the art form of acting and performance extremely seriously. He's a very dedicated performer and he's somebody that's going to go over the lines even to this day, he'll hire a coach to go over lines with him. And you think with his education and experience and resume that you don't need a coach. You know what you're doing now. He has a, you know, again, another, he's shooting for excellence. I think everything he does. So somebody, again, I'm not surprised by how successful he's been because of his work ethic. Well, I like that insight because, you know, all of you guys have that superior culture of excellence that I talk about. And that's why you guys are so successful. And I also want to get your thoughts about your, I just want to share one thought about Ken Jeong because sometimes we say Ken Jeong, somebody at home might not know who Ken Jeong is. So I just want to let you know, Ken Jeong is the gentleman that jumped out of the trunk of the car in the hangover. And a lot of people feel that's when he made his leap to stardom. I always felt like that was the moment we realized that he took Asians back another four and a half inches. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. I like that insight. I think everybody's going to know Ken Jeong now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Steve, what about your other friend, Bobby Lee? I mean, you guys, when you get together, you guys are so hilarious together. Bobby, I'll tell you something about Bobby. I find Bobby inspiring. Here is somebody that is absolutely out of his mind. He's completely lost the plot. He is so unique and wild and unapologetic for who he is, which I really like, I revered for that, but he's also got a great heart. And when I, just before I moved to Los Angeles, I saw the Tonight Show and he had done a set. I was like, oh my God, this Asian comedian is killing it and hilarious and so funny. And I reached out to my manager, I said, can you put me in touch with this guy? I just want to call him and say, wow, I was blown away. And he did and he took the phone call and we talked for a few minutes. I said, I'm actually moving to LA. I'd love to get lunch with you or something. And he took me up on it. And instantly, as soon as I moved to LA, he vouched for me at the comedy store. He put me on mad TV once or twice. He did the same thing with Ken Jeong. He was very, very instrumental in Ken Jeong's resume at the very beginning of Ken's life because Ken was in like at least 20 mad TV sketches that Bobby Lee put him in. So Bobby is not competitive. He's very, very inclusive. He's somebody that's gonna keep climbing up the mountain but continue to look behind him and help pull people up instead of just looking to get to the plateau by himself. That's so great to hear. I was fortunate to meet him in Hawaii a couple of years ago too. And I know that you guys are all really proud of your fellow comedian, Allie Wong, as well with her movie, Always Be My Maybe. And then our buddy, Daniel Day Kim was in it as well. Yeah, Allie is somebody, once again, that I think that you're seeing a slight kind of wave in terms of Asian American comedians that are starting to break some barriers, but they're only breaking barriers because they're working extra hard for it. It's not like Netflix said, we're looking to make a star of an Asian American comedian. Allie's somebody that's working hard all day. She's a mom as well. She's very dedicated to her family, but she's going to the comedy store three or four nights a week on a Monday to do 15 minutes at 9.15. It's like, if anybody doesn't have to do it, it's her. But once again, that's the standard of excellence that it takes. So you're seeing a recurring theme here where the people that are successful are successful for a reason because they're doing what it takes to stay relevant, to stay well educated, to stay on top of their game and not get complacent in their job. And there's a reason you're going to hear about her for years to come, the same with Kim Jong and the same with Bobby Lee, as long as Bobby Lee keeps his clothes on in good shape. Yeah. Hey, you're keeping your clothes on nowadays, right? Oh yeah, yeah, I'm 45. I don't have the metabolism of an eight-year-old anymore. So things are starting to fall apart, as they say, Rusty. For sure. Steve, I want to thank you for taking time to be on my show today. I mean, and sharing the insights about, you know, that culture of excellence and having those high standards. I mean, it's really great insights from you. Yeah, look, I think anybody that understands what it takes, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you work in a donut shop or whether you're trying to, you know, write and direct a feature film, you know, it always comes down to nobody's going to do it for you unless you are going to do it. So, you know, I think every opportunity that I've had throughout the course of my career has been because I've earned it. And I think you might agree with this, Rusty. The whiskey or the beverage you get at the after party tastes a lot better when you have a little dirt underneath the fingernails. Yeah. So I really look forward to the satisfaction of seeing things happen and crossing the finish line and, you know, checking off another goal on the vision board. Oh, I love it. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Rusty, I appreciate it, buddy. Hey, see you soon. Absolutely, pal. Thanks again, man. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Steve and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.