Interview · moment 21 of 22
Little Caesars and the Fear of Never Leaving Home
from Heroism is a Solitary Thing · #85
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minGuest
Connor and Tim swap hometown stories — Connor's friends still hanging around a Little Caesars in Chino/Ontario, and Tim's own teenage drive to escape his comfortable Long Island suburb by sneaking off to open mics — framing it as the fear that drove them into comedy.
- 1:02:19Growing up three minutes from a Little Caesars, going there on Fridays to get pizza and play video games.
- 1:02:50Tim describes living near a Little Caesars as the Nile River Delta of failure for someone with ambitions.
- 1:03:19His childhood friends still go to that same Little Caesars and won't even try Pizza Hut or anywhere else.
- 1:03:41Tim asks if the fear of becoming that guy — stuck in the same place forever — was what drove him to pursue comedy and take risks.
- 1:04:04His parents live three blocks away from his grandmother, which made him determined never to move that close to family.
- 1:04:22As soon as he got his learner's permit at 16, he started sneaking out to do open mics whenever his parents left town.
- 1:04:36He saved gas money four dollars at a time from his allowance to drive to Fullerton for open mic nights.
- 1:04:54Strip malls and high school buddies hanging around together at 45, still comfortable in the same place — that's what he wanted to escape.
- 1:05:18Now he's made it out and gotten his break, but ironically can't even afford to buy a Little Caesars pizza anymore.
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