Rosie Tran on Relationships, Comedy, and Building Rosie Tran Presents | RR381

Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode

of Relationships Rule. My guest today has spent over 20 years

making people laugh, and along the way, she's learned something

most business owners take a lot longer to learn to figure out:

relationships are the real currency. Rosie Tran is a

stand-up comedian, writer, and producer who turned decades of

connections in the entertainment world into her own show. Rosie

Tran presents a platform built to lift up talented women, and I

actually saw some men on there too. So I'm going to say both,

and you can speak to that, Rosie, who never got their shot,

she also runs a production company with her husband, which

means she's figured out how to build a business and a marriage

at the same time. I'm excited to get into how she did that for

sure. So, welcome to the show, Rosie.

Thank you so much for having me, Janice.

My pleasure. You've been a stand-up comedian

for over 20 years, and let's start there with how how has

that shaped the way you build relationships with people?

So I think I learned early on that relationships are

really important in stand up comedy, and I'll tell you a

little story that actually is important. They say that you

know so a lot of times when you start comedy, a lot of comedians

will try to gravitate who they think is the funniest, right?

And obviously, that's important to be around people that are

really funny. But here's the thing: a lot of people don't

understand that I learned and started to see happening is not

everyone that gets into stand-up comedy is going to end up being

a professional comedian, but they're interested in comedy. So

what that means is a lot of people that I met in comedy

early on who ended up maybe not being that funny ended up being

comedy agents, comedy managers, comedy producers, and involved

in stand-up comedy in some type of adjacent way. So I think it,

you know, I didn't know that at the time. I was so young, but I

was pretty much nice to everyone, and just because I'm

like you know a friendly person, I grew up in the South, and

people are very friendly here. And I noticed that a lot of

cliques formed, and that's something that can really hurt

you in the in the end. You know, maybe someone that you don't

think is that funny, or you don't think their humor is that

great? They end up becoming a comedy executive at Fox, or a

comedy executive at another network, or something like that.

And comedy isn't for them, but they've always been a comedy

fan, and that's why they kind of were involved in stand-up

comedy, or maybe they become a comedy writer. So relationships

are actually really, really important. And you know, it's a

little bit of a hierarchy when you start. People, like I said,

want to gravitate towards who they think is really funny

because they think, "Oh, well, this person's going to make it,

and I want to be around this hilarious person. And well, this

person's not funny, so I'm kind of going to, you know, get away

from them. And you just never know where someone's going to

end up. And there's so many people that I met that I, you

know, thought they were cool. You know, maybe they weren't my

taste in comedy, but they end up becoming comedy adjacent. So I

think it's very important.

Well, that's that is actually a really good point

because when I think about it, yeah, there's a lot of funny

people out there, and they want to be around. They know they're

not the person to be out there as a stand-up comedian, but they

want to be around comedy, so there are other ways to do that.

I love that. Actually, it's quite funny, and it's quite

funny in itself. It's quite, it's quite astute of you to say

that. So, did you know you were funny?

No, I was really shy growing up, and I was not

interested in comedy at all. I loved watching funny movies.

Yeah.

I loved watching comedy shows, but I didn't know

what stand-up comedy was, and I didn't even, you know, know that

you could do it from as a career. My parents are

immigrants. I'm first generation, and they were

pushing me really towards a more traditional path. So the answer

is no.

Do you think you're funny now?

I think I know how to be a stand-up comedian, and I

know that's a weird answer, but I don't know. I think it's a

little. I'm funny to me. I'm funny to people who enjoy my

audience, right? I mean, my audience that enjoys my type of

humor, but I really do think you know, comedy is like music, and

I think it is a bit pretentious to say, "Well, I'm you know

super funny. I know I can write funny jokes, and I know I'm

entertaining. But if you know, a lot of people say comedy is

comedy, and I always say comedy is not comedy. No, I

don't agree. I agree with you. Yeah,

comedy is like music. You know, if you're, if

I'm, if you're the best punk rock band in the entire world,

it doesn't matter if you are. If somebody isn't a punk rock fan,

they're not going to enjoy you. If someone's a jazz fan, if

someone's you know a classical fan, they're just not going to

enjoy you. They might watch you and say, "Hey, I respect what

this person's doing, but I'm not really into you know punk rock

music. And so a lot of times people just think comedy is this

blanket thing, and you're funny or you're not funny, and I

think. That is a very kind of naive point of view about

comedy, and so someone might watch my style of stand up and

think I'm hilarious, and someone else might watch it and say,

"Well, she's not really for me. So I think I'm a good comedian.

I think I can write a joke, and if I'm funny, it's up to the

audience if they like me or not, and it's in their style of you

know humor.

So, do you write for other people as well?

I haven't on a professional level, but I have

on an kind of unprofessional level. Like what I mean by that

is, you know, I spend so much time at the comedy club, and a

lot of times I'll watch someone and I'll think of a tag for

them, or I'll think of a a way that they can say the joke

differently, and I'm happy to give it to them for free and

say, "Hey, can you? You know, are you offended if I give you a

tip? And they'll say, "No, no, no.

That's so much like me, like giving stuff away.

But you know what? That's that's good karma. It comes back to you

in other ways for sure.

It is, and a lot of comedians and some very famous

comedians. I don't know if what they would give me credit or

not, but I've given them tips and they've used it and it's

worked. So

yeah, and a lot

of times,

go ahead.

Oh, a lot of times too, I'll write something like

it's not fit for me, right? Like not every joke is right right

for you, and I think people are can artists can be a little bit

greedy in a way, and they want to be the funniest one, and they

want to be the most talented one. But you know, sometimes

I'll think of a joke, and I'm like, "Well, that would be

really funny. But if I say it, it's kind of offensive. It needs

to be said by you know this type of person, or it needs to be

said by a guy. Not you know, I'm saying it as a woman. That's

kind of weird. And so I will. It just isn't right for me. And I

think that's something that I learned actually when I was

working on my show. I know we're going to talk about that a

little bit, but I learned a lot about casting for my show

because some people just weren't right for my show. And I used to

get upset as an artist when I wasn't right for a project. I

would say, "Well, you know, I did a really good job, and I was

really funny, or I was really, I did, I don't know why they

didn't pick me. And I would get so upset. And it was something

that I really, really learned casting this project was just

that not everyone is a fit for everything, and that's okay. And

that doesn't mean you're not talented or you don't have

value,

right? And and of course, rejection is part of the

businesses, and it's never for the reason you think it is.

Anyway, it's just somebody's mood at the moment, or like you

said, it's not that. Anyway, I do want to talk about your show,

but I wanted to ask a couple more questions first that just

came to me actually about being a stand-up comedian. So, because

when I think about it, I'm drawn more to drama than I am to

comedy. But I also, you know, have my favorites when it comes

to comedians. So, who would you say was an influence, a biggest

influence on you and your comedy? Because I think you come

from your own perspective, and I totally understand that. But you

must have had some some mentors along the way, or people that

you looked up to.

Yeah. So my story is very unique. It's interesting

that you mentioned that. So most people that start stand-up

comedy do have a mentor. They they do have an influence.

They're very inspired by, and you can tell that very early on.

So if someone is Chris Rock is their idol, and they're within

five years of less of doing comedy, you can really tell

their comedy is very inspired by Chris Rock. The cadence would be

very similar to Chris Rock. The joke writing material is very

similar to Chris Rock, and any other comedian. If you know

Steve Martin is your idol or whoever, you know Bill Cosby.

But I didn't have an idol because I didn't know what stand

up comedy was when I started stand up comedy, and so I got

really, really lucky to be so blatantly naive that I had no

idol at first, and so I was able to write things that were just

funny to me. And my influences were my colleagues, the other

comics in the room, the other you know performers. What was

funny to me naturally, and I think it was a huge blessing

because mostly it takes about you know 10 years to get a

comedic voice in standup, and I think my comedic voice came in

the first few years because I really had no influences. That

being said, after I got into comedy, I really was inspired by

people like Joan Rivers, Caroline Ray. He's my

favorite comedian in the whole world.

Yeah, exactly, and I I love Joan Rivers. I was

inspired by her, by her passion, by her writing style, and things

like that. But I was really really blessed, and I can pretty

honestly say that I'm probably the only stand-up comedian in

the entire world that had that experience because every

comedian I've ever talked to always had an influence. You

know, they have stories of watching Leno or watching Johnny

Carson and and you know, or watching you know Eddie Murphy

and really being inspired by that. And because I was so

completely naive and clueless, I had no influence. And I think

that it was a blessing.

But as I'm thinking of it, I I did see a

bit that you did. I can't remember if it was on your show

or I saw you. I I don't know. I googled you or something, and I

saw something. That you did, you had a yellow dress on. Was that

no? That was the person you were interviewing. Sorry, that was

the Asian woman you were interviewing. That's right, and

she reminded me a little bit of, you know, that self-deprecation

that Joan Rivers also can do. So that's right. I'm mixing that

up, and I apologize. Sorry, just a second. Sorry,

no worries. Why on

earth? Oops, sorry.

It's technical. Yeah, just

me. It's just life. Okay, the phone ring.

Okay, so I remember I have a Joan River story. Actually, it

ages me way before your time, probably. But my parents lived

in Beverly Hills for several years, and I used to go down and

visit. And there was a little club in one of the streets, like

I forget the one near. It was parallel to Rodeo Drive. It was

in that area, and there was a club there, a small lounge kind

of club, comedy club, and Joan Rivers used to come there and

try out her material there.

Oh wow!

So we got to go one night and watch her show,

and she'd come on stage and she had this huge boombox. She sat

on a stool on stage to record the show because she wanted to

know which jokes worked and which jokes didn't work, and

that was such a fun memory because she was so funny.

She was really funny. I got to see her perform

before she passed away and meet her, and I that was one of the

highlights of my career.

Oh, that's fantastic! Yeah, because she was

definitely one of a kind, and and I'm Jewish, and so I loved

all that Jewish humor anyway. So yeah, it was very funny. So you

are now doing. I assume you're still doing some stand-up

comedy.

Yes. Yes.

Okay. But you're also you also created Rosie Tran

Presents, and I want to know a little bit about it and how it

came to be.

Yes. So it's a little bit of a winding story.

So Rosie Trend presents came about. So the show was produced

and recorded and released last year, and it's available on

Amazon Prime and Tubi with ads. But I came up with the idea many

years ago. I would say maybe over 10 years ago. And what

happened was I was touring with two female comedians who were

lovely and and hilarious and funny and beautiful, and I did a

show in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with them, and pretty

much every single night, people would come up to us and say, "Oh

man, you guys are so funny. We need more funny women. It's

great, and it was men and women. So I want to make that clear

because a lot of times say, "Oh, it must have been a bunch of

women. No, it was men and women, and and audience members of all

ages saying, "Wow, we really need more funny women. You guys

are just great. And I said, "Well, we exist. We're all over

the place. And they said, "Well, we haven't seen anything like

this. So I reached out to a major comedy club chain that I

have worked with for many years, and I emailed the manager and I

said, you know, I came up with this funny idea about you know

funny beautiful women, and I think it would be a great idea,

and we could you know tour across the country, and we could

market it to women and mothers, and and do a girls' night out

and bachelorette parties, and I could try to, you know, reach

out to get sponsors, and I had all these ideas. And he sent me

an email back, and he said, "Rosie, I love you. You're very

funny. Nobody's going to want to see this.

Sorry, happened again. I'm just turning it off.

I apologize. Nobody's going to want to see this?

He said, "Nobody's going to want to see this.

Nobody wants to see funny, beautiful women. And I was

gutted. First of all, I knew that not to be true, and two, it

was just a very misogynistic comment and was very upsetting.

So I reached out to a friend of mine, and I was complaining to

her about it, and she was doing a tour across the country called

the Naughty and Nice Tour. It was her and another female

comedian, and and her material was a little bit cleaner, and

the other female comedian's material was a little bit bluer,

dirtier, and so they were naughty and nice. And she said

that they couldn't get their tour booked anywhere, and so

they would have to book off nights. Meaning, a normal comedy

club, the shows are you know Thursday through Sunday night,

and usually most comedy clubs are closed like Monday and

Tuesday.

Right.

So the comedy clubs absolutely refuse to book them,

and so they would book themselves on a Tuesday night

through when the club was closed, and say, well, since you

don't want to do our show, can we have an off night? And she

said that they were sold out across the country, and that

every single club, people would come up to them and say, this is

what we want: funny, beautiful women. And they still, even

after their sold out to work, nobody wanted to help them, and

nobody wanted to book them. So that was the origin original

idea for my episodes. Rosie Tren presents Wicked Women of Comedy,

but at that time I didn't create the show yet. It was just an

idea, and I had been pushing it. I had talked to my friends, and

they were interested in doing something like that. And the

comedy club world was slamming the door shut on our faces in a

very cruel cruel way, even though the feedback was telling

us that's what was wanted, they were telling us nobody wants to

see funny women, nobody wants to see funny attractive women. It's

just not a thing, no. But the audiences were telling us yes,

yes, yes, yes, yes. So at that time, I tried to do another

show. I said, "Well, why don't I create a show? So again, this

was like 10 years ago. So I wanted to create a show. So I

said, "Well, maybe I'll focus on a niche. You know, I'm not

having any luck. So there's a series that a DVD series that

had been produced called "The Kims of Comedy, and it was male

Asian comedians, and I said, "Well, there's no female version

of this. So I tried to get together with three of my

friends who were female Asian comedians, and we tried to do

it, and it just failed. Not because of anything, you know,

we were just unorganized, and we didn't really know what we were

doing. So that was my second attempt.

Okay.

So at that point, I had kind of given up on it, and

I took the idea. I had written it in a notebook and my idea,

and I started to kind of write out the ideas for Rosie Tran

presents of the different episodes I would have, and I

just kind of shut it away and put it away and thought, well,

this is the pipe dream. Like you know, no one really wants to

help me, so I I kind of gave up on it. So fast forward to two

and a half years ago, two things happened. The first thing was I

was helping my friend with his one-man show, and I was helping

him write it. I was helping him work on it, and he, you know,

was kind of like dragging his feet and not really doing much

with it. And he also, you know, we didn't get into a fight or

anything, but he kind of was acting weird, and he kind of

fired me from helping him and hired another friend to help,

and I was really hurt because I had spent all this effort

helping him, and I went to see my friend, who is a psychic and

reads tarot and things like that, and she said, and I was

kind of complaining to her about what was going on, and she said,

"Rosie, everything you're doing-the reason you're not

succeeding is because everything you're doing to help the spread,

you're supposed to do for yourself. You need to put that

energy into yourself. And I was like, "Oh, so that was the

second seed. So then, after COVID, a lot of people were

moving from Los Angeles to Austin. Austin comedy scene was

kind of booming. Everyone was moving there, and in you know a

lot of comedians were moving there in droves. The real estate

was cheaper, the cost of living was cheaper, and there was this

big comedy boom in Austin. Joe Rogan had moved to Austin and

started a comedy club, and everyone's like, "You need to

move to Austin. So I was like, "Okay. So I was thinking about

it, and I took a trip, a one-week trip to Austin, and,

um, you know, it was fine. You know, I looked around and I did

shows in Austin, and I had good shows in Austin. I had some bad

shows in Austin, and I flew back. And my friend, who had

been encouraging me to move to Austin. We were talking on the

phone. He goes, "Well, what did you think? You know, do do you

want to move to Austin? And I said, "I don't know. You know,

if I'm going to move, I would move to New Orleans to be with

my family. There's really no reason for me to move there. I

know the comedy scene is good there, but I I don't know. And

he goes, "Well, and he wasn't being cruel or mean. He goes,

"Well, what are you doing in Los Angeles anyway? And that was the

third seed. Yeah. So I said, okay. So I thought about what he

said, and I was like, what am I doing in Los Angeles? You know,

what I was in Los Angeles for was television and film. So

that, along with my original idea for Rosie Trend Presents 10

years ago, and my my friend telling me I need to do

something for myself sparked sparked something, and then the

final nail in the coffin was right after COVID. I had shot my

comedy special, The Hanoi Honey, which I was hired by NBC

Peacock. The the shows on Peacock it was a half hour

special, and it was fine. You know, it was it was an okay

special.

That's a pretty big deal, though.

It it was, and I it's tough for me to get into it

because I don't. I really want to.

I know, I know, but

yeah.

But just having done that, though, is in itself

a big deal.

It was. It was a big deal, but but I felt like I I

felt like I could do it better. I felt like it wasn't done to my

standards.

Okay,

and I felt like I was

network thing, and they take yeah

the network. I didn't really make that much

money from it, and the network kind of took all the credit. And

and I and in addition, I didn't feel like it was a great

special, and so I started to research. Shooting my own

special, you know all these things that happened during

COVID. There were comedians that were releasing their specials on

YouTube and having a lot of success and and really blowing

up from YouTube, even though YouTube had been around since

2006. But it was people were online more because of COVID,

and so I wasn't you know super happy with my special. And I

said, well, maybe I'll shoot another special. So I started

doing research on what it would cost for me to shoot a special,

and my friend had shot his own special, and you know, and I

thought, and it was this confluence of this entire story

that I've told you. It all came together, and that's when I

thought, well, if I shoot one special, it's just an episode,

but if I shoot Rosie Tran presents, I'm still the star. I

get to uplift my friends who I think are so funny, and I get

to, you know, have something that is like my show, but also

bringing my friends along with me. And so I decided, and the

cost was kind of the same. It was a little bit more to shoot

more episodes, but it was like pretty similar, and so that's

how the show was born. And then I just took off.

No, I think that's great. You've got the

first season is is done, right?

Yes, the first season is done. It's available

on Amazon Prime or two, right?

Yeah, and then are you doing a second season?

I'm doing a second season of it as well, so I'd

love people that are yeah. I encourage people to watch

it. So, so here's the thing that I kept asking

myself. I've watched a couple of episodes, and I think that

again, coming back to relationships, you know, these

are people that you are that are your friends or your

contemporaries in in the business, and you are

spotlighting them on your show, so you're the interviewer. So do

you? I mean, you're not getting to spotlight your comedy in the

same way. You're spotlighting other people. So how does that

feel?

It feels great. I'm the star of the show. It's Rosie

Tran presents, and yeah, exactly all of my best friends along for

the ride. And you know, we signed with an agent, and we're

and we're looking to tour. So this is something that.

So it's gonna yes.

So this is something that's gonna be great, and I can

host the tour. And I never wanted to be a star in that way.

I always wanted to be a star, but I didn't want to be a star

in that way. What I mean is that a lot of headlining comedians

tour, and it's their show, but not but not in a Rosie Trend

presents way. It's their show is in they have to you know they

have an opener and then they have to do an hour of stand up

comedy.

Yeah, and I

and I love stand up comedy, Janice, but doing an

hour of stand up comedy every night sounds like a living

torture that I can't. It's like doing

a play on Broadway and saying the same

lines over and over every every night. And I've

done I've done that as a feature comedian, and I've

even done that as a host. And it's actually physically,

mentally exhausting.

I can imagine it would be, yeah.

And that's why a lot of comedians, you know, end up

you know with drug problems and other problems, because the

dopamine that you need to, you know, create to kind of like run

this, this headlining act,

yeah, is

over and over and over again every single night

from Thursday to Sunday night at clubs across the country is

physically exhausting. So why not bring my friends along for

the ride? You get an awesome show. It's still an hour and a

half, two hour show with hilarious comedians. I get to be

the host and be the fun, you know, party person all night,

and and I get to do a little bit of stand-up and also have a

great time. So I think it's a win-win, and I don't think it

takes away anything for me at all. It's my show, Rosie Trans.

I think that's great. So, so you you've chosen

the people that you're in relationship with, that your

friends and and the people that you know will will will

appreciate it at the same time, right? And will help promote it.

So I think you produce it with your husband. Is that correct?

I do. Yeah. Yeah. The executive producer,

co-executive producer of the series, and he helped me with

everything, and and it's our from our production company,

which is 5050 Ownership.

So, do you produce? Are you planning to

produce to be a producer of other things as well?

We have yes. We've produced the feature length film

that we're currently shopping around.

Oh, fun! That's exciting. That's yeah okay. So

you're really you're you're multifaceted. Actually, you're

multi-talented, and it's not just about writing jokes or

performing jokes. It's you're a producer as well, which is

really amazing because that's another whole skill set.

Um, it is. I think I feel like it's all I feel like

it's all the same, but maybe yeah.

So with what you're doing now, what if you

had to learn about communication that you never needed before?

Before you and your back up one second, you're doing this with

your husband, you're you're married, you live together,

you're shooting this. Together, what have you had to learn about

communication with him, and that you never needed before you

started working together?

So I think my husband and I are like the

perfect team because we already communicate really, really well.

But the lesson I learned in this type of situation was just to be

very discerning with who you choose to be in relationship

with it, and what I mean is that this isn't my first time doing

something like this. In 2026, I was in a relationship with a

boyfriend, and we tried to we produced a television pilot

together, and we tried to produce other projects together,

and we co-produced a music video and we co-produced a another

television pilot with a comedian who's a pretty big star right

now, and it was horrible. I the the relationship he was terribly

abusive and the working dynamic was terribly abusive. I felt

like I did all the work, and he took all the credit. It was an

extremely toxic dynamic, and it was a toxic dynamic as a working

relationship, and it was a toxic dynamic as a personal

relationship. He was an abuser. He was a just you know a toxic

human being, and I think that I became a little bit traumatized

from that. And when my husband and I started wanting to work

together, I didn't want to work with him. Not because he's a bad

person, but because I'd been so traumatized by such a toxic

dynamic. Where I mean, there there are projects that I worked

on that. I believe to this day I don't want to bring it up or

hash up the past with these people because it's it's not you

know necessary. But there are projects that I worked on that I

co-produced with my ex that I did 98% of the heavy lifting,

and I believe that the people who paid for the project and

worked on the project do not know that I worked so heavily on

their project because my partner at the time was such a

narcissist and really took all the credit and made it and

minimized my role.

Well, hopefully you got some good jokes out of

it in the end.

I do have some good jokes out of it. I do have some

jokes about him because but you

have to laugh, right? In the end, you have to

laugh about to get through some of this stuff, but that's

pretty. Yeah, you

do. Yeah, no, I do have some some jokes about him

and and how terrible he was. But I so I think discernment in

general is very very important, and making sure that you know I

took my time before my husband and I decided to work together.

We worked on other projects that were what I call low stakes

before we jumped into a big endeavor.

Yeah, and how much of what you do do you do

from instinct? Do you have like an intuition, a high intuition?

I do, but I also think it's important to be very

honest, and I think that a lot of times people in relationships

are scared to be honest. I think they're scared. You know, what

I'm learning as I get older. I'm 42 years old, which I've been

around the planet a little bit-not too much, but not too

little. And what I've learned is that there are so many people,

Janice, that are so scared of being vulnerable. They're so

scared of it, and I don't. I think vulnerability is a

superpower because when you're vulnerable, you're letting all

your cards on the table. And a lot of people say, "Well, if I

let all my cards on the table, then I can be hurt. Yeah, but if

you let all your cards on the table, you know where you stand,

and so I am always extremely honest with my husband,

extremely honest with everyone I work with, and I think that

honesty is the best policy because if you're hiding

something or you have some type of ulterior motive, even if it's

not sinister, you're kind of messing up the data. Like

everyone needs the data; they need the data to know who you

are as a person, so they can choose you or not choose you.

And

as true as that is, I do agree with you. I think

about so you you're in the age bracket of one of my daughters,

and she actually doesn't like to bear anything on link on social

media. She's not one to be on social media and tell them what

she's doing and do you know all of that stuff. And so many

people put their life out there on social media. In your age, in

your generation, I should say my generation. We don't even know

how to use it. A lot of us, but those who do, we don't want

that. We want our privacy. It's weird, but

I'm not. I think those are different things.

Okay,

yeah. So I think being vulnerable and sharing

everything online; those are two different things because a lot

of people are very performative online, and they're not being

vulnerable. They're being performative, and that's

different.

Well, that's true. There is some of that, and

and you have to be able to discern in that. Way too right

with the yeah no

I'm not talking about transparency online I'm

talking about transparency in relationship so working on a

project and being extremely transparent in your

communication that's completely different if yes no one is

entitled to your life online absolutely not

okay you mentioned a word earlier

superpower and I saw the part of the episode that you did with

the young man who was on the who has Asperger's, and you asked

him what his superpower was, and and that's what made me think of

it. But he and and his idol or his mentor was Nor Macdonald,

who is a great dry wit comedian, right? And I thought it was

beautiful the way you actually interviewed him and got him to.

He was very comfortable, actually. But does he ever like

being having Asperger's? I think there's sort of a a veil of not

showing emotion, correct? And and he actually started to do

that. I could see when he was talking to you.

Yeah, Keith is amazing. He actually was Nor

Macdonald's longtime opener.

Okay, yeah.

And he he opened for him, you know, on tour, and he

is a wonderful, hilarious comedian and has a big heart.

He's a great guy and someone that I've been friends with for

a long time.

Yeah, that was nice. And the other one that I

remember seeing was I mentioned the yellow with the the lady

with the yellow dress who is an Asian comedian and talked about

being Asian American or you know she was making fun of herself

and whatever, she was hysterical. I thought she was

quite funny.

Oh, good. Tell me. I'll tell her that you said

that. She's Michelle. She's a a great Japanese American

comedian. I met her on the circuit, and she and I went on

tour together in in San Francisco, and we just had a

blast. So she's just a really great person. She's a mom, yeah,

and she kind of started doing comedy like as a midlife crisis,

and she just loves

it. I think that's great. I actually had a

neighbor when I was my kids were growing up, and we lived in our

house, and one of the the moms on the street used to go and do

open mics and stuff, and then became a you know did some

comedy stand up here in Vancouver, and she was great. We

went to see her one night, and she was really funny. And it's

like a whole different world from what we knew her as, you

know, as as our neighbor. So, her stage persona,

yeah, it's great. Exactly, stage persona for sure. What would you

say was your looking back at your career in comedy? What has

surprised you most about how relationships open doors that

talent alone can't?

I would say that what surprised me the most is

relationships alone do open doors that talent doesn't, and I

would say relationships are more important than talent. There was

so many comedians. I would say that the comedians that I

thought, if I was a betting woman, I would have lost the

comedians that I thought that were going to make it the

funniest raw talent. They never made it in comedy. Never. It was

horrible, and the people that I was that made it, I was always

surprised by. But in hindsight, I could see why they made it,

and a lot of times it was relationships, not talent at

all. And that's something that a lot of I would say I would say

it was relationships, and I would say it was grit and and

longevity. I think those two things are much more important

than talent.

So that so you can learn how to write a good

joke, or you can learn how to present a good joke that you

didn't have at the beginning. Is that what you mean by the lack

of talent at the beginning? What

I what I mean is that people that um so this is

gonna. This might make people very sad to hear, but what I

mean is that raw talent means nothing.

No, and what I and

what I mean is that anyone can be moderately funny

if they, you know, if they try, but that's not what the

entertainment industry is about. You know, I remember people. I

would people used to yell at me. A lot of people used to yell at

me when I was a younger comedian because I was so naive, and they

would say, "Rosie, it's show business, show business,

business, business. And I would say, "What does that mean? What

does that mean? I didn't understand it. And I remember

people all the time. They would say, "You're so naive. Show

business, business. And I didn't understand what that meant. And

what that means is, the talent is secondary. The talent means

nothing, almost nothing. I mean, talent is a dime a dozen. You

can throw a quarter outside in Los Angeles and hit a talented

comedian on the head, you know. But it's the relationships, it's

the networking, it's the the grit, the longevity. You know,

willing to stay in the game. You know, you talked about

rejection. I don't consider rejection. I just consider it.

It's not your path. But you know, it's so for so many

people, it is rejection, and so you have to deal with rejection

after rejection after rejection, and and keep going. And you

can't be weak willed, I guess.

You know, a tough a tough exterior. I guess

you either have to be tough or you have to have a

flexible way of viewing things. Yeah, you can't be too attached.

Did you see that movie? Is this thing on?

I haven't.

Oh, with Will Arnett.

I haven't. I'll have to check it out.

Yeah, I think it's on Netflix now or Prime or

something like that. Might be Apple TV. I don't remember, but

it was in the circuit. It was out last year, and it's you know

it's a it's not a huge movie. It's a small movie, and it's got

some drama to it because their marriage isn't working. But he

wants to be a stand-up comedian, and so you kind of see what he

had to go through to become a stand-up comedian, and he does a

pretty good job. Brad Bradley Cooper directed it and has a

small part in it. Hated him in that movie, absolutely hated him

in that movie. But I think you were supposed to hate his

character. But he just it just yeah. But Will Arnett was pretty

good in it, and I'd be interested to hear what you have

to say when if you see it. I'd love

to check it out.

Yeah, and then I've heard, I'm a I'm a podcast

listener, and one of the hottest podcasts out there is is

Smartless with Will Arnett and Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. Do

you ever listen to that? Have you ever listened to

it? I haven't, but I know of it.

Okay, but they have a lot of big comedians come

on there, and oh my God, what's one of the? What's that guy?

Jim, Jim,

Jim Gaffkin.

Yes, he's hysterical. That guy,

hysterical. Jim's

great.

Yeah, and is he more of a writer than

no? He's a he's a mentoring comic. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah. But he. But when I think of

comedians, and I think of, I want to know if you have this. I

think of what Joan Rivers reminded me when she did. Is

every joke was in a file? You know, she had files with all her

jokes, jokes about different things, and all on cards. Do you

do that? I

don't, but I should. I think Joan was the queen, and

I think

well, that was before commute computers too.

But, but I like the idea of them being on cards because you could

pull what you wanted, right?

I think that most comedians are a bit more chaotic

than that, and Joan was the queen in that way. Most of the

comedians I know just have you know messy notebooks of jokes,

and it's kind of like in our heads and things like that. But

yeah, we should we should be more organized. Well,

do you have a a cadence or a rhythm about a

joke. When you write a joke, does it come in a certain way to

you? Like, is it usually the same rhythm? Does that make

sense?

I I don't know if other comedians do. For me, it

just comes into my mind as a mostly fully formed joke at the

point, and then I work it out at a show.

Okay, so which emphasis gets the most laugh, or

yeah, exactly. Okay, okay, well that's cool. Okay, so sometimes

I skip questions because I get to ask you whatever I want to

ask you. Yes. So this one I could have asked earlier, but

it's a question of what does it mean to you to create a platform

for women comedians who had the talent but never had the

opportunity. So yeah.

So the show is about creating a platform for women

and minorities or alternative comics, And it's amazing. It's

something that I've always wanted to do, and it's really

awesome because you know there's a lot of talk about DEI,

diversity, equity, inclusion, and there's a lot of negative

talk about saying, "Oh, this person just got hired because

they're a woman, or "This person just got hired because they're a

minority, and I wanted to be like the real DEI. Like, hey,

this person got hired because they're a woman, but they're

really, really funny women that nobody woman that nobody gave a

chance to. And I think I don't like the idea that someone gets

hired just because they're a woman or a minority. I want them

to be talented, and they're and I think that's an insult to say

that someone got hired just for that reason, and so I wanted to

feature people that deserve to be hired because they were

funny, but also happened to be a woman or a minority or have

Asperger's or whatever.

Yeah, yeah. Has anything happened for anybody

that's been on your show that was a result of them being on

your show yet? Not yet at the time.

Yeah, I know. We just got released. I think a lot

of people are really excited about the the show, and I think

a lot of my comedians were really happy to be a part of it,

and and I think that they were proud to be showcased on it, and

I'm really proud to see how proud they are.

I think I think that's that's I think that makes

you the very special person. I really do. That's

really sweet. I do, yeah, because

you know you're producing it, but but you're

showcasing all these other amazing people. So when you're

not working and you're not writing jokes and you're not

producing, who do you watch? What do what do you watch on

streaming channels, or do you go to the movies, or like, do you?

I

do. So I am such a cliche, marketing cliche. I love

watching romantic comedies, which I'm the demographic for

romantic comedies.

Yeah,

I don't watch a lot of standup, and the reason I say

that is because I watch so much standup, and what that means is

when I'm out performing, it's not just me, right? I'm usually

if I'm in LA, it's a showcase club. You know, even you know a

huge celebrity in LA doesn't get their own show in LA. In LA, you

have to do showcase format, which means 10 minutes or less.

And so if I go out to a show, I I'm usually there the whole

night, and I'm usually watching hours and hours of stand up. And

so it's very difficult for me. I love standup, but it's very

difficult for me to watch standup because I watch so much

standup.

I get it. So just curious about that. Even you

said even the big names when they're in LA or New York, let's

say, they only get 10 minutes at a showcase. They might be the

the primary or the the final performer. Yes, final or or the

one in the middle. I don't know how how it works, but

both. I mean, it depends on the club. Sometimes

they'll be the final performer. Sometimes they're a star and

they want to go third or they want to go second and so run

out. So they

might be doing that to try out some new

material.

Yes, exactly.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay, that's that makes sense.

So so yeah. So what do you watch? Romantic comedies, and I

watch

romantic comedies, and I watch a lot of drama and

serious stuff.

Okay, because

I just watch so much standup. Like I just watched an

insane amount of standup, and and that's why when I hear

comedy fans, or I'll say casual comedy fans saying certain

things about comedy-it-it couldn't be more from the truth.

Like I'll hear a lot of casual comedy fans say, "Oh well, you

know, I don't really, you know, see that much of of this type of

comic, or I don't really see that much type of comedy. I

promise you, every single type of comic that you can think of

exists and is there and is funny. Every single size, shape,

gender, ethnicity of funny exists. If you haven't heard of

it, even if you're a die-hard comedy fan or a casual comedy

fan, it doesn't mean exists. It just means the mainstream, for

whatever reason, doesn't want to. Like when I was thinking of

funny women for my show, I had a list of like 100 women. There

was so many. Wow. When I was thinking of you know funny Asian

comics, you would think, oh, there's maybe there's not that

many Asian comics. I had a list of like 30 funny Asian comics.

Wow, who should I cast? So, whatever.

So it's a huge community, really.

There's so many funny people. It's insane. So

tell me, do you ever do New York, or is New York

completely different to L.A. What's like, like you said?

Yeah, yeah.

I performed in New York. I performed in Chicago. I

performed, you know, all over. And there's even more. There's

even more funny, you know. Yeah. So, so when people, so when the

average comedy fan, or or like I said, even the diehard comedy

fans that watch so much comedy and they go, well, you know,

I've never seen a you know funny X Y Z before. I've never seen a

funny you know Ethiopian woman. I'm like, there's probably like

20. You just haven't heard of them. So that's

another. There's another business side thing for

you too.

It's a business side, but also it's just it just

shocks me. It shocks me when people say, "Well, I don't find

women are funny, or "I don't find this type of person funny.

I'm like, well, I have seen so many funny ones of whatever you

don't think is funny that you just haven't seen enough. But

you could create a directory.

I could, but it's it's also just for some reason,

you know, just like the story I told you where the audiences

were begging, begging for funny women, and the and the club

owners were saying no, it doesn't. We don't want it.

There's gatekeepers out there, and for whatever reason, they

want to be the purveyors.

Yeah. Well, and it was the same with music back

in the day in the Apollo Theater, right? You couldn't get

there unless you, you know, were the right ethnicity or the right

knew the right people, and they had a hierarchy of who could

perform there as well. And I'm sure Grand Ole Opry was probably

like that too, right? So it's not what you know; it's who you

know. Sometimes, right? It

is, and I think the internet is the best equalizer

because it's changing, it's changing things so much for

little creators. And small creators, yes, the internet

out to the to the public much easier in a much

exactly

yeah. But there's still, but even with the

internet, even with you know YouTube and Instagram and all

these things, there's still an insane amount of undiscovered

talent that is crazy. I, I mean, when I go to the club, I see

people that are so insanely funny that I'm like, wow, this

is crazy! Like, this is crazy how talented these people are,

and it just blows my mind.

So it's funny, you know, when you said at the

beginning, like some of these people who weren't necessarily

going to be actual stand-up comedians got into the the

business a different way. My sister, when she was, she got

her MFA at UCLA, and she wanted to be an actor. And she was in

LA, and she was going to auditions, and she was getting

rejected and getting rejected. She did a little bit here, a

little bit there, and it was too much for her. She couldn't stand

the rejection, so she ended up being an agent. Yeah, for kids

actually, for kids many years ago, and she did it with a

pretty big agency, and she was the kids agent. So yeah, she

wanted to be around the entertainment business. She

wanted to be in it, and that was her way of being in it. And then

later on, she and her business partner had a company for many

many years called Celebrity, the celebrity source, and they

sourced celebrities for special events, and so for years and

years, that was very cool. So if someone's doing a Disney's doing

a premiere of of the latest of latest Disney movie, they wanted

celebrities that had kids to be there, and so they would do all

the invites and stuff like that. So, excuse me. So, yeah, she was

always around it, always,

always, and that's why relationships are so

important because you just never know. You never know who is

sitting at that open mic with you, that bad open mic at a

coffee shop. You just never know who they're going to become. I

mean, there are door guys, door guys at the improv, and you know

the comedy store that ended up being, you know, the the biggest

one of the door guys at the improv ended up being one of the

biggest agents, comedy agents in Hollywood.

Wow! So

you just never know, and it's always important to,

you know, be nice to everyone if someone's a jerk. You know, you

don't have to be nice to them, but it's always you just never

know.

Yeah, so true. So, okay, last question for

someone sitting on an idea that they haven't started yet. What

would you tell them about the relationships they already have

and aren't using?

Oh, wow, that's a really good question. I would

say that they need to look at that first before they, you

know, go out into the market, and what I mean by that is, you

just never know. You literally never know. I do talk about

transparency, but like I said, that and honesty. I talk about

honesty, but like I said, that doesn't mean you're transparent

with your entire life online. Some people might not want to

announce on social media everything that they're doing in

their life, and you never know what someone's doing. So there

might be someone that you know that actually, I will tell you a

very, very good story. So I was hanging out with my friend, and

he had-I don't know if it was a relative or a cousin, or a like

foreign exchange student visiting from another country,

and this guy wanted to be a composer, a composer for film

and TV. And this story is going to paint this poor guy really

terrible, but I mean, it just shows you how important

relationships are. He was going on and on and on about how he

can't meet anyone to help him, and he wants to be a composer,

and he wants to be in TV and film. And me and my husband are

are in TV and film. We've been in TV and film for 25 plus

years, but he was such a raving narcissist, and he didn't even

ask us one thing about ourselves that he didn't know the people

sitting right in front of him could have helped him with his

career. Now I'm not an executive, you know, at like

Warner Brothers, but I could have put him in touch with some

people that could have helped him with film composing.

Right.

But he was such a raving narcissist that all he

did was complain about how he can't meet anyone.

Yeah. And

here we are, sitting two feet away from him. We could

have easily introduced him to people that could help, but he

just was so self-centered and just

he didn't know how to build relationships

because he's got his own thing going on. He had his

own, you know, globe around himself, and he he didn't

ask us. He didn't ask us what we did for a living.

Yeah,

he didn't ask us anything about us. He just was

talking about he's trying to break into the industry. He just

can't meet anyone, and you know someone listening to this might

say, "Well, why didn't you guys say? Well, we work in the

ministry because I couldn't get a word in. He was just talking

about himself the whole time.

I mean, I've been to more than many many network

events where I've been standing talking to somebody, and you

know, you try to move through the room. You don't want to

stand and talk to people. Forever, but when you are, you

want to be focused on that person, and this person can be

talking like your person was. They're talking, talking,

talking, but they never ask you one question. And at the end of

it, when you say you got to go, they say, "You know what? This

is a great conversation. So glad to have met you. They know

nothing about you, right? So yeah, you tear their card up

pretty quick, I tell you. But yeah, very interesting. People

are very funny.

It was funny because me and my husband. I was like,

actually, I was like, do you know anyone? You know, because

my husband worked at DreamWorks for many years, and and he

worked in other, you know, pretty big Hollywood companies,

and and this guy just never even asked this like one question

about ourselves, and I actually tried to stop him several times

to say, "Hey, we can help you. Yeah, and he just was talking so

much. Well, you know

what? His loss, his loss, totally. That's a

great story. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So to answer

your question, ask the people around you in front

of people, literally in front of you,

because it's not who you know; it's who they

know, and you have to be able to, you know, to to to find

those people. And when you do, it's so worth it because the

trust factor is so much better when you get a warm introduction

right away from somebody. Exactly. Yeah,

relationships are so important. But again, like you

said, with your question, you're you're the network you have,

right? And people might say, "Well, I don't know anyone. I

live in X, Y, Z. You never know the person that works at your

corner deli. Maybe they lived in Hollywood and were trying to be

an actress for 20 years. I mean, you really don't know. That's

right, you don't. It's true. There's

so many people that have lived in L.A. and moved out

of L.A. or maybe they were an actress at one time or an agent

at one time. I used to walk my dog around the block, and my

neighbor, who I was like an older gentleman and retired, was

a casting agent for years and years and years. And I never

knew I would talk to him every day. He didn't know I was an

actress, and I didn't know he was a casting agent.

Yeah, there you go. Another good story. Well,

it's amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show, Rosie.

There was a lot of a lot of key pieces in that. That when the

audience is listening, they should be writing them down

because it doesn't matter what business you're in. It's really

about relationships. It's really about helping other people. It's

be. It's also what you said, like at the very beginning when

we talked about your show, it's you help others, and I think

it's good karma. I think it, you know, and I wish you well with

the show as it progresses. I encourage people. I just watched

some. Just put, just call into your into your remote device,

Rosie Tran, and you'll find it, and it's either on Tubi or it's

on Amazon Prime, and I'll put that in the in the show notes as

well. So thanks for listening. Thanks for being here. I think

that we could probably sum it up by saying it all comes back to

the relationships we choose to invest in. So, thanks for

listening, and I'll see you next time on Relationships Rule.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.