Transcription
[Music] That's what we're doing now; we're dancing on. We're doing TikTok. [Music] [Applause] Should I do some crunches? I can't even do one. One, two, three! Who's ready for a little stand-up? Okay, here’s my microphone. I had a friend once, a Korean friend; his name was Zach Lee. You know what? You know how often he was right? 100% of the time! Exactly!
Hey, you think you're a funny guy? You're a nut! You're a nut! You're crazy! Go stand against the wall. Now you're a walnut! Hey, you think you're so funny? You think you're a class clown? You're a jokester! Go stand outside! Yeah, go stand outside! You're [Music] outstanding!
I hide; I hide behind the truth. That's what I do. And how do—what are some things that you do to hide behind the truth? Well, some of the things I like to do is, um, well, let’s say this is the truth, okay? Let’s say yellow is the truth. So right now we have this; we’re going down, and then we go this way. No, let’s switch sides. Let’s go this way—side to side, side to side.
So let’s say this is our emotional truth right here. What’s our truth? Is it pizza, man? Is it Monco? What’s our truth? Is it crust? Is it crust, man? I didn’t even have my cup of tea today, my Gabor Mate! I’m going to keep saying that joke until you guys laugh!
Okay, guys, can you animate the smoke? I mean, the steam coming out of here? Thank you! Delicious! So here is our truth right here, and what do we do to hide our truth? The easy one is we lie. There are lies right there! I can put on a happy face like that, right?
What’s another thing we could do to hide the truth? Humor, man! Got any paints? You laugh at anything for a laugh, right? Hiding behind humor—always joking, sarcasm. Oh, that’s so ironic and sarcastic, right? Never being serious, never being sincere, authentic, or truthful.
What’s another thing we could do to hide the truth? We could hide behind our hair, right? We could hide our face so you can’t see our true emotion, right? You hide behind your bangs, your hair, so no one could ever see your eyes. Well, you know what? I’ll be authentic with you. My hair was actually not—the drapes don’t match the carpet!
Okay, so here’s my scraping tool. I usually use this to scrape zits off my back and PFF off my face, but today this is our truth scraper! Scrape, scrap, scrape to peel back the layers of everything I did to hide the truth. So let’s scrape away and see what’s left behind.
It’s interesting, right? There are a lot of masks we wear every day, and we keep them in our little toolkit to show the world that we’re doing two things: that we’re good and that we’re okay. “Okay” is not an emotion, and “good” is not an emotion.
So what do we got? Sometimes we show people that we’re happy. Oh, that’s so cool! You see that? Not planned! I didn’t plan that! And some of us could actually pretend to be someone else for their entire life. Are you an impostor? Do you feel fake? Do you feel like a phony? Are you a phony?
How cool was that? That was the coolest thing that’s ever happened in here! So yeah, you could pretend to be happy. Sometimes people are angry all the time, but they’re just sad. They’re not actually angry; they’re sad. Sometimes people can’t see the truth because they’re Cyclops, right? Sometimes people feel so crazy that they seem insane; they seem like a psychopath. And then there’s mischievous—a little trickster up to no good.
Anyways, here, you want a fake emotion? You want a fake emotion? You want a fake [Music] emotion? Sometimes you’re so good at wearing multiple masks at the same time that you should have been a DJ! You should have been a DJ! Oh, sorry, I forgot—you are a DJ!
What is a five? A five is a high five! A five is asking for help! Help me! A five is volunteering for help! I’ll help! What’s a three? Well, three is interesting because it’s Shaka and also Fu at the same time, right? So it’s a trident. And then, of course, one, five, three, one. And what’s one? One is this—thumbs up! Pointing at you! When I’m pointing at you, there are three fingers pointing back at me!
531—five things I’m grateful for right now. Number one: I’m grateful that there’s black mold in this building. The reason why I’m grateful for that is because I don’t have to come to work every day. It means I get to be what I truly am—lazy!
I’m grateful that I have enough money to eat ramen in the daytime with my bros at IY Ramen, and that the chef knows me enough to send over free dessert! How cool is that? Number three: I’m grateful for my health today. Everyone in my family is sick except for me. I owe that to chia seeds, Gabor Mate, your mate, kale salads, and God, who’s large and in charge!
Number four: I’m grateful for my YouTube subscribership, which is at 140,000 right now! Woohoo! You guys like me! That’s 140,000 people on the planet that clicked that button to watch this right now! And the last thing that I’m grateful for is that I’m alive today and that I’m here—physically here in this building, creating art with myself. I mean, I was about to say with you, but I’m basically making art by myself right now.
Three things that I’m actually going to work on today: One, and I just did it, and I’m proud of myself—taking care of my art materials! Even though I have enough money to buy multiple art materials and people sponsor me and send me a lot of free art materials, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take care of it. So I’m going to—I already started that, so I’m going to do that.
Number two: I’m going to work on staying in the discomfort. Instead of just ripping the pages, I’m going to stay in it. And then, yeah, number three: I’ll be present today. I won’t go to laughs and humor and walnut outstanding Zach Lee. I already did that! I already did that! Past tense! In the past, present, right now!
People already know that one of my favorite movies of all time—not just in the last couple of years—is Pitch Perfect. And I’m not a fan of pretty much anybody in that movie. I couldn’t name Anna something, but I love that movie, Pitch Perfect! What would people think if they knew the truth, which is that I watch that movie? It’s my safety blanket that I watch once every three months!
And this is my best guess at the latest one. Acapella singing at its core is everything stripped down to its bare core. There’s no hi-hat, no bass drum, no snare, violins, bass, tuba. [Music] There’s nothing! When they sing the Kelly Clarkson song, I listen to the Pitch Perfect version of “Since You’ve Been Gone” every time I go on before stage, whether it’s MCHI or Veggie Hammer, and that gets me pumped! [Music]
With the materials I’ve chosen—oil, which can be unforgiving when it’s wet—is it possible to use a crayon to bring some of this back? Are we so far gone, right? Sometimes we feel like we’ve damaged ourselves to the point of no return, right? Have I hurt myself to the point of no return where I’m unforgivable? Or is that too late now? Is it still possible? That’s what we’re about to find out right now!
The truth is, I am happy today! This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life! I have a great life! I’m grateful for the things I have. I do my gratitude list every morning. I do my positive affirmations. I get on my knees, and I pray to a dog, and I do all that stuff. And here I am! God told me this is what I should be doing today, so this is what I’m doing today!
So we got a little loss in the sauce, right? So let’s just pick it back up. There’s an ear right there, and then we’re just using a little black to cut away some of this mess. And does that feel good? Oh yeah! A background would make a lot more work for me today, and I don’t want to do it! I don’t feel like it!
There’s where I want to noodle and add little details and go crazy with the background. And look, I was about to add a neck right there and shoulders, right? But guess what? Floating head! I just cut him off at the neck right there!
So I’m not just trying to paint a pretty picture for you today; I’m trying to show you the truth. I showed you my masks, and now I’m showing you the truth, which could also change second to second, minute by minute, right? Day by day. But at this moment right now, this is the truest expression of who I am right now.
I’ve shown you—I’ve shown you—I’ve shown you all my masks. I’ve shown you—I’ve shown you—I’ve shown you all my masks. I’ve spun my faces like a DJ on my lap. I’ve shown you—I’ve shown you all my masks. Now this is the truest version of me. This is—this is—this is me!