Joel Kim Booster

And everyone in all the comics I knew in Chicago told me not to do it, that I was too green, that I hadn't done, you know...

Comedians You Should Know, which is like the biggest show in Chicago at the time.

And I hadn't done the show yet.

And they were like, you know, you haven't done XYZ show.

You haven't hit these Chicago milestones yet.

You're not ready to go to New York.

You'll get swallowed up.

And the thing that happened is I moved with a bunch of quote unquote like upperclassmen in the Chicago comedy scene.

Like these were like the kings and queens of Chicago comedy scene.

I happened to move at the same time as them.

And the thing that they don't tell you about moving from Chicago to New York is no one gives a fuck what you did in Chicago once you're in New York.

The credits do not transfer.

So me and all these people who had been doing stand-up for almost a decade at this point, we all started at zero.

We all were going last at the open mics.

They, at this point, were used to rolling into the open mic, going up immediately, and then chilling and hanging out.

These are the people that I moved with.

We moved at the same time.

We were not roommates or anything like that.

So your roommates are strangers, your seven roommates?

Yeah, strangers, yeah.