Interview · moment 3 of 16
Luke's Lebanese Investment Gig and Gay Comedy Bookings
from Episode 150 - Your Thoughts Have No Value (with Luke Touma) · #150
3 min
Guest
Luke describes an upcoming gig for a Lebanese investment firm despite having no material about being Lebanese, leading into a discussion about doing gay-audience gigs without gay material and a dark joke that unsettled a friend.
- Tim explains he brings Luke on the road to experience things through fresh eyes, since Luke hasn't done much and Tim has become hardened and cynical.
- Buffalo is compared to Newark and Philadelphia—a declining post-industrial city where the Kodak factories that once drove the economy are long gone.
- Luke's parents each tried to leave Buffalo for two months but were sucked back; he's the only one in his family to actually stay gone.
- Tim jokes about how embarrassing it must be to tell Buffalo relatives that Luke left to become a comedian—it barely counts as leaving.
- Luke is Lebanese and getting booked for his first Lebanese gig, which Tim notes is smart career positioning.
- Luke's girlfriend is Black, checking another diversity box—Tim jokes he'll need to 'suck a couple dicks' to complete the set.
- A Lebanese woman named Natalie booked Luke to perform a half hour for wealthy Lebanese investors at their firm called LIFE, replacing Dave Miriam who had a conflict.
- Luke admits he has literally zero material about being Lebanese and knows nothing about Lebanon, so he'll have to improvise for an audience that won't care about Buffalo either.
- When booked for gay gigs, Luke doesn't have material about being gay, so the audiences get mad wanting to hear about themselves for half an hour.
- A gay coworker asked what gay comic Tim Dylan tells jokes about, and Luke answered with Tim's dark joke about jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
BuffaloLukeChris D'EliaPhiladelphiaDave MirageTim DylanNewark New Jersey