Yeah, I would agree with you there.

I'm not a TV friendly person on average. (laughs)

You've got racism, homophobia,

sexual assault, imperialism,

critiquing your founding fathers,

attacking the Disney corporation (laughs)

And then he tags these three genocides.

They didn't bring that up.

(upbeat music)

[JP] A lot of work

goes into a short late night stand-up set.

Join me, JP Buck as I spotlight the comedians

who came up with some of my favorite point sets.

This is, "The Set Up".

Please welcome the very funny Solomon Georgio.

(upbeat music)

Usually I have a story of like

the first time I saw this comedian,

and I don't really have that for you because for me,

it was the first time I heard the reaction to this comedian.

Let's tell the story from the beginning JP,

you were in the bathroom while I was on stage.

Back up a step, let's back it up a step.

So, the meltdown County, meltdown comics was a comedy,

it was a was a comic book store

that Kumail Nanjiani and Jonah Ray

used to host a show every Wednesday

in the back storage room,

and it became the best comedy night in Los Angeles.

And it ran like that for number of years.

Yes.

Whatever I had seen, I was like,

I was going to take a break,

and so I stepped out to use the restroom,

and as it wasn't even 10 seconds after I closed the door

behind me that the audience lost it.

And I just thought I've got to get back out there

and see what the heck is going on.

And I come out and it's you destroying onstage.

I got off the stage and I think I went to the bathroom,

came back and Emily Gordon,

who also one of the producers of the show at the time,

she was like, Hey Solomon, by the way,

the booker from Conan was here,

I'm like, uh-huh..

and he asked me for your email.

And she asked me if that was okay,

I was like, oh yeah,

am I going to be the first I'm going to be that comic

that's like, sorry, who try to talk to you?

The booker for what show? (JP laughs)

Because I was like, eight, nine years in and it wasn't easy,

and like I was like barely making any money,

and like that, that's the thing is like,

as a comic, there's a lot of ability

to being as a black gay comic at that time,

specifically, like I wasn't being featured for anybody.

I was getting college shows and they were very sporadic,

but I was like, I'm like nine years, almost 10 years in.

You just kind of get in your own head about whether or not

you should be doing this.

And especially if you're working as a server

with a college degree, and you're like,

what am I doing with my life?

And this was just a quintessential moment

that made me understand that I am doing the right thing.

I'm good at what I'm doing,

and I don't have to be a server forever. (chuckles)

(audience cheering)

Thank you.

Hey everybody.

(clapping continues)

I'll give you a moment to adjust.

That was me going, "Holy, this is going-

this is happening right now."

(JP laughs)

Like that walk from the green room to the curtain,

I feel should be at least 20 minutes long of like people

in my life coming to me and letting me know

it's going to be okay,

but it's all a 10 seconds (laughs)

It is.

(JP laughs)

Me running out was like,

feels like I look prepared,

but it was more along the lines of like,

I'll give you a moment, which is like,

Oh, give me a second. I think I'm going to die (chuckles)

My name is Solomon Georgio. That is my real name.

It's a very beautiful name for a very beautiful man.

(audience laughs)

My last name Gorgio is Italian, I am Ethiopian.

(audience laughs)

Some people wonder

how does an African get a European last name?

Well, (audience laughing)

it's a lot like a fairytale,

except in this fairytale,

there happens to be an Italian army occupation,

a brutal civil war,

a few decades of famine and no happy endings.

(audience laughing)

But my first name-

Can you hear that right there?

Yes. It's my favorite part of it (laughing)

It is Andy's laugh.

Did you hear that when you were on stage

actually performing?

I turned to him, I think,

cause specifically,

I heard a groan in the audience,

that was the boost of confidence I got

for the rest of the set was Andy's

approving laughter where I was like, all right,

I guess yeah.

Cause it is-

Yeah, that joke, it is definitely a hit or miss sometimes.

It hit more than a miss,

but when people were just like..

right off the top,

you're already getting into (indistinct).

(chuckles)

(upbeat music)

I recently watched the Disney animated feature Pocahontas,

because I'm a grown man and no one can stop me

from doing whatever I want.

(audience laughing)

However, I feel that movie should come

with a written apology.

Firstly, the native Americans as a people

have some of the worst genocide in human history.

Some may say, "Hey Solomon, what about the Holocaust?"

And I wouldn't take that away from anyone,

the Holocaust was a terrible, terrible tragedy.

However, I have seen 10 or more Jewish people

in the same room.

(audience laughing)

I haven't seen tentative Americans in my life.

(audience laughing and clapping)

You're threading a needle there.

Yes.

When you're basically trying to qualify the difference

and quantify there between both multiple holocausts here.

I think for me there was sort of like

a need of comprehension of the weight

of what happened in this country.

Sometimes I feel like whenever

we talk about native Americans or in general,

whatever happens in this country,

we always find a way, some say it's worse than other places,

and I'm like, no, it's not worse than other places.

It is just as bad here.

And I don't, I never expected to do it with comedy,

but it's also, yeah,

it's always very weird to me whenever anyone

talks about what goes on in this country historically

as if it's always just like a less,

less than aspect, and I kind of-

I do like talking about American history

in that way of like,

we should be deeply ashamed of this. (laughs)

I definitely want the joke to exist,

but I also want a better joke

to have nice little layer of like,

you should not be happy this ever happened.

There's a national reckoning of history

and what, you know,

how white people have been benefited

from the persecution of a lot of others

and I think that's, you were in.

This has been going on for a long time,

but just to see you in a short five minutes said

being able to sort of hold up a mirror and say like,

and the jokes have a way of being a little bit silly

at times and you tag your joke,

there's a tag in here,

but it comes after the applause break.

So you didn't even need it,

but yet it's still so great that you had that built in.

Yeah, I can't help it.

Sometimes I'm too strict on the writing.

(audience clapping)

I used to live right her.

I know what I'm saying,

sometimes there's always just a lot for people,

so I kind of have to be like, well,

here's a nice little down (indistinct),

be it's- I kind of had to lift the weight a little bit.

I can't just have people walking out morose

every time I do a bit.

Secondly, Pocahontas was a real person

in this nation's history.

She looked nothing like the Disney character

because she was hella busy being 12.

(audience laughing)

She was sold to John Smith and his men,

suffered years of sexual assault,

witnessed the death of most of her tribe

and then shipped off to England

to die young death due to the smallpox.

Now someone at the Disney corporation

caught wind of this tale.

(audience laughing)

A complete 180,

like you're going down such a dark road

and yet so quickly turn and run around.

Probably like the most benefit I've ever had

doing comedy ever was doing it.

There was like an understanding of where people can be,

go away and not be okay with you doing a bit,

and where you have to be a certain amount of silly

and a certain amount of serious,

and it's-

This joke has benefited me the remainder of my career sense,

cause it's the best conversation I ever had

of my salad coffee.

And they thought, "Hey,

how do we make this family friendly?"

(audience laughing)

"I got it,

get rid of that part where white people look bad

cause that is just gross."

(audience laughing)

"Then we'll throw in some singing,

some dancing and a raccoon, huh."

(audience laughing and clapping)

I apologize the only impersonation I can do

is a blacker voice.

(audience laughing)

Another moment where you're just being a little silly.

Yes. But also that moment is because of you.

I've never really listened to myself,

I never listen to recorded versions of myself,

and because of the recordings that I sent to you,

I would have to listen to this impersonation

of this fake self like, (JB laughs)

each person and I'm like, why is,

why do you sound blacker at this moment?

And I'm like, oh, that's cause the only voice

that I ever, ever attempted to impersonate,

and it's like, oh yeah,

that's that's all I got. I don't really have-

(JP laughing)

And then I realized, oh yeah,

my speaking voice is the whiter voice,

I forgot that. (both laughing)

Let's not forget the fact that I forgot my own joke

halfway through.

My cue cards are right in front of me,

with my actual joke to tell me what I'm going to say.

And for some weird reason,

there's a point in time during my set,

where I realized the exact, exactly what I was doing,

which is like,

oh, you're performing in front of these people

and it's gonna be on national TV,

and then my joke literally just evaporated.

It didn't matter what was in front of me,

then there was like-