Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSYcj27uhU&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=10
Evan: Welcome back to another episode of the Choose 954 podcast, episode 89, with local comedians and community builders within the comedy scene—some very funny guys, my friends Vlat and Big Pedro. If you didn't know about Choose 954, we started a social movement to cultivate culture and community in Broward County, where I'm very proud to be born and raised. Our goal is to keep people informed about all the great things that are going on and to make this a better place to live—not just a better place to vacation, because we live here. The point of the podcast is to connect you, the listener, with important people in the community doing interesting things, and these guys actually have a few interesting things coming up.
Evan: So without much further ado, Vlat, why don't you start us off? How did you initially get into comedy yourself?
Vlat: Uh, yeah, thanks for having us on—pleasure to be here. So, it's kind of been one of those passion things for me from day one when I learned that a good way to make friends is to make them laugh, right? I got into standup super early in terms of being a consumer of it. I just remember when we got Comedy Central in our cable lineup, I saw all these cool shows like Make Me Laugh and these 30-minute specials, and I just fell in love with it as an art form. Then I procrastinated for 32 years, and the Improv actually opened, I think, nine minutes from my house. I would see the billboards—“coming soon, coming soon”—and I realized I had no more excuses. I finally got up there, and you know, the rest is short history.
Evan: Amen. How about yourself, Big Pedro?
Big Pedro: It's been a—I was blocking my blessing, as people say, for a long time. I'm the same on and off stage—my brain is wired for jokes, so I probably should have gotten into it much earlier than I did. But I got married, had a kid, the wife went back to school—all kinds of stuff before I decided to dip the toe back in. Getting into comedy has always been a passion. I mean, even as a small child, it was something that we would actually do as a family. You know, you watch Jeopardy! and then Comic View right after on most evenings. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you ate dinner as a family, so you were kind of still in the same room together. Then that progressed into the Def Jam days—I’m a child of the ‘90s—and then progressed into The Kings of Comedy and people like Patrice O'Neal and all that. So it's been a passion for quite a long time.
Big Pedro: It was the constant nudging, if you will, of a couple of family members and some co-workers that got me to sign up for comedy classes. I think it's because they think that you're going in to try to make someone funny. You can't really make somebody funny, but you can give them some tools because comedy is an art form. There are some things to joke writing, things to setup, that you can improve on with certain people. So I took the class, and the graduation, if you will, was to do five to seven minutes. I had a very strong set—you can find it on YouTube on the Mr. Big Pedro channel; it's still up there from a few years ago. And that was it—the bug bit me, and it's been full bore ever since. Everybody starts at zero, even if you were born with maybe a little bit more comedic genius in your genes.
Evan: No knocking the comedy classes—shout out to This Is Improv for helping teach people. And there are actually some comedy and improv classes coming up at the Hollywood Art and Culture Center during Lauderdale Art Week, which we’ll tell you a little bit more about in a bit. But this answer might be different for you than it is for me and even consumers of this podcast and members of the community. Pedro, why don't you tell us, from your perspective, why is comedy important?
Big Pedro: How much time you got? I’m just joking with you. Also, I'm not knocking comedy classes either—just to piggyback off of that. Not only did I take one, but I also do teach one. So if you are interested in learning the art of standup comedy, it's a little different than improv and a little different than even sketch or TV writing. Again, Mr. Big Pedro across all socials. Comedy is really important. We are the last bastion of truth, if you will. The larger and larger you get, I guess in America these days, the more how truthful you can be gets squeezed down a bit. But in the comedy club at its core, we’re a bastion of truth. Also, it's a time to really just relax and let all the worries of the outside world go away and just focus on what's happening in front of you and laugh because there's a lot of stress.
Big Pedro: I don't watch TV drama, my wife laughs at me all the time—I watch no television drama, I don't watch the news, I don't watch any movies that are supposed to be depressing, no Marley & Me where the dog dies, or any of that. No, we've got enough tragedy in regular life. Entertainment, I think, should be of an uplifting variety and an escape from the things that bring us down. So comedy is very, very important to have those moments of levity that we all need, and they’re still few and far between sometimes.
Evan: Amen. How about you, Vlat?
Vlat: So, first of all, I had no idea that Marley died at the end of Marley & Me. The movie’s only like 30 years old, so thanks for bringing that up. Listen, I think cutting tension and making people feel comfortable, and to Pedro's point, taking them away from whatever it is that they're dealing with—I think you can't substitute that with anything. I think it's really a gift that you're giving to audiences, to be able to allow them to forget about the crappy day they had at work or what else is going on in their life. If you can just help them be present in the moment and just laugh, that's priceless. Being clever and smart and intelligent in comedy is irreplaceable with anything else. So, giving people the opportunity to disconnect from what's bothering them, even if it's just for an hour or two at a show, I think that's the purpose of comedy, and I do think that we're really fortunate to be able to share those things with the community here.
Evan: Amen, it does. In that context of community, especially as we’re talking about two local comedians and community builders within the comedy scene, it does contribute to the “play” component of “live, work, play”—of that balance in life. I find it personally as a form of self-care for me, as an outlet to escape and forget about all the crazy things that are going on in life for that one or two hours that I go to a show. Last year, I started prioritizing going to at least a show per month just so I do have that balance, that little bit of added self-care in this bucket that I wanted to check off. Fortunately, as you mentioned, you know, the Improv brought in some phenomenal comedians like Shane Gillis, Ilana Glazer, Sam Morril, and some real headliners. And obviously, the arena has been able to see Joe Rogan and even Kevin Hart previously. So it really does bring people together, it does provide a creative outlet, and also, something that maybe not a lot of people are thinking about, especially on the local level with some of the work that you guys are doing, it supports the creative economy. If we're able to help generate not only a couple of dollars for the comedians, hopefully, but also generate a couple of dollars for the venues that are hosting the comedians, be it at the bar, food and beverage, whatever the case may be.
Evan: So, I think what you guys are doing is providing an invaluable service. Why don't you tell those that are not familiar with what you guys do more from the community-building level, more from the supporting local comedy level, about Custom Laughs? Vlat, you can start off with that.
Vlat: Absolutely. So this actually started from a personal experience. I turned 40 last year and decided to do a roast, and Big Pedro was kind enough to grace us with his presence and say really mean things to me in front of my closest friends and family. From that, we had a great time and thought, “Why don't we do this for companies, individuals?” So we put this company together, and basically, we do traditional standup shows, we also do roasts, and we'll do ghostwriting for other people's roasts. We’ll perform anywhere—baby showers, funerals, weddings, bar mitzvahs, dentist offices—just to keep things lively. It's really been a lot of fun, a labor of love, because we get to do what we enjoy doing. It's something different for companies rather than the Friday pizza party and the boss making a long speech that no one is listening to. Our tagline actually is, “Your boss isn’t funny—we are.” We bring entertainment for nonprofit events, corporate events, and anything and everything you can think of. We also obviously have a great network down here of standup shows and comedians. We love to cross-promote and collaborate with other comics and groups, really just to bring joy to people and give them something different.
Big Pedro: Yeah, priorities change when you start getting a little older as well, like Vlat just mentioned that he crossed over the big 4-0 last year. I don't know too many dudes in their 40s—I'm part of the group as well, north of 40—that want to go to a nightclub or anything for their birthday. Going out to dinner is not special anymore—we go out to dinner because it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Back in the 1900s, if you will, going out to dinner was more of an event. Things were set up, so a birthday dinner was a big deal—not so much anymore. So if you want an experience, whether it's at your office, or you’re turning 40 or 50, or you're trying to lure some employees back into the office from working from home, yeah, we'll come in, entertain your staff for you. We’ll do it at lunchtime with a little lunchtime comedy if you'd like. We can meet you at a venue of your choice after work. Even if your boss has a really nice backyard, we've got PA systems that can travel with us, so we will literally set up anywhere on the planet. Our goal is just to make whoever is in front of us laugh as hard as we can possibly get them to laugh.
Evan: And you guys actually do a pretty good job of that. I really do want to support as best as we can, be it this podcast, integrating into Lauderdale Art Week because it is an art form. It's not a dying art form, but it's not an art form that unfortunately, a lot of people think might be a viable path. We’ve had conversations offline, and I'm not going to pose the question on you now, but how are our local comedians supposed to get to this next level—touring, arena specials? One of the things that you guys are doing, maybe subconsciously, is actually supporting that mission, that goal, that dream, that possibility, by staying active. Activity creates activity, and the more that you put out there into the scene, into the community, into the blogosphere, into the interwebs, that does increase the chances of somebody discovering you, somebody telling a friend to tell a friend. Maybe they say, “Oh, we're looking for another comedian to tour.” If you do want to tour, if you do want to go that path, it should be a viable option absent just some fortunate luck or a fortunate opportunity where a touring comedian happens to pop into a show, discovers you, and then says, “Hey, do you want this opportunity?”
Evan: We’re certainly glad to support you guys. You have some great events coming up during Lauderdale Art Week—our sixth annual installment taking place between January 20th and the 28th, a self-guided discovery tour of the arts throughout Broward County. Pedro, why don't you tell us what you guys have going on at Art and Oakland Park, and Vlat, you can tell us about Kelly Brothers?
Big Pedro: We’ll kind of do a mix of the two of those. So yeah, we've got two events. The one at Kelly Brothers is more of a Big Pedro event than Custom Laughs, but of course, Vlat will be there as one of the judges. So it's on the 23rd at Kelly Brothers in Fort Lauderdale. We’re doing a roast, and you'll see some of the up-and-coming stars of comedy here in South Florida rip each other to shreds for your enjoyment. It really is a good time, even when you're getting made fun of. There’s some joy to it—Vlat’s done it quite a few times, he keeps coming back. He’s going to be judging this time around, which is a little less stressful than actually being up there and getting roasted, but yeah, it’s a fantastic time. It’s more of a writing exercise than anything—that's where the art comes in. You can't just go up there and be gratuitously mean—you still have to be funny and clever and things of that sort. So there is an art to roast joke writing, and that will be on full display at Kelly Brothers on the 23rd.
Big Pedro: On the 27th at Art in Oakland Park, that is a Custom Laughs event. It'll be myself, Vlat, and the third head of the monster here of Custom Laughs, Mike Dabba. We also have Art Ro will be hosting for us, and special guest Jenny B will be there as well. So we've got a nice lineup for you, some different styles, everyone equally funny, right here in the heart of Broward County. So you don't have to drive all the way down to Coconut Grove or all the way up to Boca—it's right there in Oakland Park.
Vlat: I don't know if everybody's equally as funny, but we’re all pretty funny. Thankfully, there's going to be at least one show, potentially even a second show, at Art in Oakland Park. You can find out these details on social media and the interwebs. You guys also host another event that I recently attended that I thought was pretty cool—do you want to let them know a little bit about the writer's room?
Big Pedro: Yeah, so the writer's room came out from a need for comics to practice. What happens is you consider open mics to be practice, right? In the very, very beginning, an open mic is not an open mic to a comic—it's a show. That’s where you tell people, “I'm doing comedy.” Then you get to a point where you've got some material, but you need to expand on that material if you want to make this a viable option financially moving forward. You have to expand on your stuff. But then you go to an open mic, and you have the full idea in your head: “Tonight is only going to be new material, I'm only doing new material.” And then the guy in front of you does a little too well, and you're like, “Screw that, I'm bringing out stuff that I know works.”
Big Pedro: So the writer's room was a force to force comics to practice. It’s not a workout room—it's brand new material. Don't come in here with stuff that you've done 50 times before. Come in, you may fall flat on your face, you may find a piece of hilarity, and every single person that's come to that writer's room over the past three and a half, four months now, has gotten bits that they have used at other shows. That’s an integral part of their bit and their set and the whole nine. It’s normally comics being evil to each other, but it’s a nurturing kind of community in there—everyone does help because the point of it is you go up with new material, and then the crowd, it’s a crowdsourcing thing at that point, then helps to rewrite that material, punch it up, if we're using comedy jargon. You come in with something that needs a little polishing, and you leave with it a little more polished. Have a couple of beers in between and laugh at some funny folks as well—it really is a good night. And if you're a civilian, you can get a little peek behind the curtain of the comedic process. We've had a couple of people that came in as civilians and have become comics because the bug bit them—it’s a really good time. So the beer’s cold, and I'm there every week. Vlat’s there when he’s there, but I’m there every other Tuesday—that’s every other Tuesday.
Evan: That’s on the 16th of January and the 30th of January, and they will be on the two-week rotation from there—13th and 27th of February and so on and so forth.
Big Pedro: Yeah.
Evan: I liked it, I appreciated it. It was a good time—it was interesting to peek behind the curtain. I thought it was really interesting—the critique, while funny, was in a supportive way, helping people think about the process, think about other ways to go about their material. I really enjoyed it and certainly encourage people to go out and attend because once again, everybody started at zero. If this is something that you want to pursue to get to whatever level—just to make your boss laugh, make your friends and family laugh, or potentially make a couple of dollars at it—it’s good to have outlets for support. So we give you guys kudos and credit for facilitating and hosting that.
Evan: Something I always like to try to ask, and this one's a little bit more interesting than with other creatives I speak to—Vlat, who are some of your comedic inspirations that have kind of inspired you along the way?
Vlat: The first memory I have of seeing any comedy was on that show on Comedy Central called Make Me Laugh, and I just, for some reason, I remember Marc Maron. The whole premise of the show was that civilians would come on and sit in a chair, and comics would do one-on-one standup for them, which is incredibly awkward. But the premise of the show was to make the contestants laugh, and I guess if they sat through without laughing, they won a prize or something. But you know, guys like Jon Stewart, Richard Jeni, and a lot that have developed throughout the years that I’ve been following, like guys like John Mulaney, Nate Bargatze, Gary Gulman—tons and tons of really interesting talent out there. And Big Pedro did mention Patrice O'Neal, who was absolutely incredible from a writing standpoint. But I have such a varied view of comedy that I can like Patrice O'Neal, and I can love Ron White, and I can love Nate Bargatze. There are so many different styles of comedy, and I think that's what's beautiful about it. As everybody that listens to this podcast and buys tickets and comes to the show on the 27th, we have completely different styles of comedy, and somehow it just all kind of flows and works. So there's definitely something for everybody. Come and check that show out.
Vlat: We're also doing a show on the 22nd at 14 North in Dania. That's right next to the Improv—Big Pedro is hosting, I will be performing. We have a great lineup for that as well, so lots of really fun stuff happening in that regard. But yeah, just come out and see it. That’s the only way—I can describe a tree as much as you’d like, but when you see it and you touch it, you'll know. Also, I am looking forward to this self-guided discovery tour that you have going on, which is how I refer to my teen years as well—a different avenue, but still. So yeah, see, not all the jokes are gonna be funny, but I appreciate that.
Evan: Pedro, any comedic inspirations that you’d like to give credit to and mention?
Big Pedro: Oh yeah. Well, so, yeah, I’ve been watching comedy as far back as I can remember. My parents say that my first sentence was, “Here’s Johnny,” which is aging me a bit with the Johnny Carson Tonight Show being way, way, way back. But yeah, so Johnny Carson was a comedic influence, just the kind of smooth style, especially his interviewing style. I loved Sinbad—just never a foul word, never a four-letter word, but funny as you could possibly get. Then on the complete opposite, Bernie Mac—as dirty as you could possibly get. I love Jon Stewart, I love—if we're going a little more modern here—Tom Segura, Deon Cole, and these are all, like Vlat was saying, completely varying styles. I’m more of a storyteller, and I enjoy the storytellers a little bit more than your one-liner comics, but I can still appreciate a Jeffrey Ross or a Jimmy Carr. Jimmy Carr is one joke, next, one joke, next, and it's absolutely hysterical.
Big Pedro: The thing about comedy is if you want to be a brain surgeon, there’s a path for you. You know exactly what you have to do—you got to pre-med, then you go to medical school, then you go to residency, you go to fellowship, all of that. With comedy, you have to find your way. So that's what we're doing right now. You mentioned earlier that you could have a big comic just kind of grab you and take you—that’s one option. The internet gives us a whole new avenue, and then of course, the live performances that you would hope, each time you come, there are new people at every show, which is great. If it’s the same set of faces, you know, still great, but we want to see some new folks coming out, and we are seeing that. So the scene is growing a bit more, and we’re appreciative of anyone that actually leaves the house. It’s so much easier just to sit down on the couch and stay home, but you put your shoes on, you left the house, and you came out—you experienced life a little bit. My father always used to say, “Sleep when you're dead, because when you're dead, you can't do anything else.” So come on out, enjoy the comedy, see what style you like. Vlat and I are very, very different, Mike’s very, very different, Mike Dabba’s very, very different from the two of us. Jenny has to be different—she’s a lady. So come out and see us on the 27th. It's going to be a really good time. Come out on the 22nd—it's a completely different vibe. You can come to both shows because there's nothing going to be repeated. The roast is completely different than the standup show is going to be at 14 North. Shout out to Ellie Rodriguez, another local comic who's been doing some big things herself—she's been on tour a couple of times as well with some of those comics you were talking about that come to the Improv, like Pinky Patel and things of that sort. But yeah, the scene down here in South Florida, and you know, we’ve been talking specifically about Broward, but grouping in Dade and Palm Beach as well—we’ve got some really talented folks down here that just need some eyes on them and need some exposure, but the talent is certainly there, 100%.
Evan: Amen. And there are a lot of people that are doing things, that have been doing things. I mean, I would love to give love to Fazil for keeping up the work he has done for years. My buddy Yosvany Terry at Yo Space Miami used to host an amazing event for a long time—Jazz and Jokes—where it was a jazz set, live jazz set, and then comedians telling jokes, and they would alternate. Brittany Brave—there’s a lot of people that are doing things. I did want to give a quick mention of maybe some of the other, since we are talking about community, since you did mention it’s good to get out there and support, and thankfully there are options all throughout the county.
Evan: On January 20th, which is a Saturday, in downtown Hollywood at the Art and Culture Center, before the Hollywood Art Walk—which we lead a free tour of every third Saturday night of the month at 7 and 9 p.m., which will be that night as well—there is a drop-in workshop, a one-time trial class, at the Hollywood Art and Culture Center on the circle. So you can kind of do it as like a tester to see if it’s something that you like, which is cool to do that in an art space. This Is Improv has drop-in improv classes at Bamford Park in Davie multiple nights a week, and then they also do kind of a showcase of some of their students Wednesday nights at Ye Olde Falcon Pub in Davie as well. Also in Hollywood, and this is once again creating platforms for various creatives within the community, during My Hollywood Pride, there’s a Queer Comedy event as part of their pride festival, which is kind of cool. So that’s on Saturday, January 27th, at 7:30 p.m. in Cinema Paradiso, which is pretty cool—an independent cinema with stadium-style seating, ticketed to 80 people. So there really is a lot going on. And then of course, there are some absolute killers coming to the Improv—Russell Peters is actually going to be there right at the beginning of the week. The Improv, God bless them, has done a pretty good job of bringing some really well-known nationwide touring comics to our community.
Evan: So I’m glad that they're also affording the opportunity locally to you guys next door, and I know that they also have open mic nights and other community-based events for people to get on one of our county’s biggest stages—although it’s a small stage, but one of the biggest platforms for somebody to showcase their work. If they want to follow you guys and find out more, where can they find you on social media and the interwebs?
Big Pedro: Well, you can—there are a couple of spots for me. Well, one of them is for both of us. Custom Laughs—that’s customlaughs.com, Custom Laughs on Instagram, Custom Laughs on Facebook. So all the socials across the board—Custom Laughs, you can find out what's going on with that. My professional page is Mr. Big Pedro, so I'm Mr. Big Pedro across everything—M-R-B-I-G-P-E-D-R-O, no punctuation—that's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, everywhere. You can find me, and we post everything that's coming up, any show that we have going on. We also host shows down in—not to drag in another county—but down in Dade County at Skatebird Miami down in El Portal. We run shows there as well—had a great one last night with another internet sensation, Emmanuel Cacho, called “Manu,” who was with us last night. So the outreach program has been happening, where some of those larger names are trickling down to us a little bit. Sooner or later, we will be those larger names that are coming into your comedy clubs around the country. So the future is very bright—we’re very excited.
Evan: Big Pedro did have a mention on Kill Tony recently—kind of a big deal.
Big Pedro: Yeah, they said my name six times—I mean, not that I was counting or anything.
Evan: Not that we were counting. Vlat, where can they find you on social media and the interwebs?
Vlat: I’ve really been doing a lot of advertising on MySpace lately just to take advantage of the dip in the market.
Big Pedro: I still haven't gotten his top 10 on MySpace, I’m still waiting.
Vlat: Instagram, it’s pronounced “Vlat,” which you both constantly and perpetually mispronounce. But yeah, it’s pronounced “Vlat,” and then I think that's all I do. I mean, I'm on Facebook just for the birthdays, and that's it. But yeah, follow Custom Laughs—all our stuff is up there, and we'll see you at the next show.
Evan: Wait, was I lied to? What if we didn’t end, and I just said, “We'll see you at the next show,” and then it was over?
Big Pedro: Well, I wanted to put you as my top friend on MySpace, but I can’t get rid of Tom.
Vlat: That was my poor attempt at humor, thank you for entertaining me.
Evan: I'm learning so much on this episode. V with an O.
Vlat: Yes, V with an O.
Evan: I hope you just had as much fun as I did.
Vlat: Yeah.
Evan: Hey, I wanted to mention—shout out to an absolute legend, RIP, one of my favorite comedians of all time and part of my comedic inspirations, George Carlin. A staple in my childhood, watching those specials growing up. And also, neither of you guys mentioned Dave Chappelle.
Vlat: We didn’t want to go for the low-hanging fruit.
Big Pedro: Yeah, we didn’t say Pryor either. We didn’t say Eddie Murphy, because those are the three you just kind of, you know, they’re all on the list. Carlin's right there.
Vlat: I’ll mention Dave Attell, who's absolutely, I think, one of the best and least appreciated of all time. No Netflix specials, nothing else, but if you have the opportunity to see him live, that's priceless.
Evan: Killer. Him and Jeff Ross, you know I love roasting, so I appreciate Jeff Ross as well. And the two of them together with Bumping Mics, Jeff Ross and Dave Attell—Jeff Ross has been down here. Jeff Ross actually roasted one of my comedy attendee friends’ fathers when he was down here a couple of years ago, and that was a huge highlight.
Evan: One thing I did want to find an opportunity to mention is that maybe if you weren’t, and it’s unfortunate if you just, for whatever reason—and it’s quite all right if you don’t attend local comedy events, and you don't go to these local shows—that’s quite all right. Hopefully, we inspired you to change that moving forward. But obviously, I’m a little bit into the arts, and when I travel, I like to go to see the local comedy scene. One thing that I noticed, and I figure you guys will appreciate, is in my recent shows that I've gone to in other places, it really has helped me learn about the local culture and the local community in ways that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.
Evan: One brief joke that came up when I was at a show in St. Pete, coincidentally during Pride—which St. Pete happens to be one of the largest LGBTQ-friendly communities in the world—it was literally during the night of Pride, and one of the comedians made a joke like, “Oh, Pride's going on? I couldn't tell the difference,” because they’re so inclusive. And that kind of put it in context. I was recently in LA, and I was not really thinking about moving to LA, but they were like trying to sell me and some of the people I was on a trip with on a tour with. They were highlighting all the cool things about California, and I'm like, “Consider this.” And then I went to The Comedy Store, which is, you know, considered one of the meccas for improv in the country, in the world. And it was a local—it was a night where I guess everybody had two minutes, so they had like 30 comedians doing two minutes. And I really learned very quickly that these people love living in LA, but they hate living in LA. And I learned all about the traffic, the parking, the smog, the crime, the high price of stuff. Those are things that you can learn from this art of storytelling—comedy—when you either travel or hopefully locally in your community at events like Custom Laughs.
Evan: So hopefully this will have inspired you to get out, connect with your community. It's always fun to get a group of friends to go to one of these shows, especially when you find somebody that maybe has toured, has had a Netflix special, has a little bit of a social media following. You see them coming to town—I encourage you to get your group of friends together or to go to one of these events at Kelly Brothers or Art in Oakland Park or one of the other local venues. Because it is a great bonding exercise. And one of the other things that kind of dawned on me from an energetic exchange perspective—I’m not going to get all woo-woo—but there's one component of watching a special, kind of as you mentioned, on screen at home, but it is a completely different experience to be there and have that energetic exchange where the comic is feeding off the crowd's energy. And if the crowd’s not engaged, then, you know, sometimes they bomb—it is what it is. So, certainly something that dawned on me that I really want to, as an arts advocate, I really want to encourage people to consider supporting these different mediums of art, and comedy is one of them. Storytelling is another one—I met Vlat through raw storytelling, which Pedro agreed he would help me nudge Enid to bring back in the future.
Big Pedro: We will do that for sure. We’ll get her to come around; we will. A couple more acts in club, she’s almost there.
Evan: So yeah, if you found any of this interesting, certainly encourage you to look up Lauderdale Art Week—LAW. The campaign is, “We need you to support the arts—it’s the LAW.” Hashtag LAW24. You can find most of the events on our social media—we’re still continuing to update and post them and populate them. I'm an open book at Evans Snow 13 at CHW 954, all that good stuff. We've got other great events coming up during Art Week—have the grand opening reception for our newest Zero Empty Spaces location in The Galleria Corporate Center across from the mall on Thursday, January 25th, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., ribbon cutting at 6:00 p.m., so you can tour local artist studios. There are performing arts events, there’s an annual spoken word showcase at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts by Quick the Poet, one of the most noteworthy spoken word poets in Broward County history, taking place during the week, which is a pretty cool platform, a pretty cool event, and an opportunity that I've attended in the past that we look forward to. There’s Ignite Broward, there’s a jazz festival in Pompano with David Sanborn playing, who’s a Grammy Award winner. So there really is—uh, in closing, you know, we’re never going to be Miami. I think we've all kind of come to the conclusion of that. I think a lot of people that live in Broward don't even want to be Miami, and I don't want to be Miami either. But you know, we're certainly doing the best with what we've got to provide these opportunities for people to have that “play” component of “live, work, and play.” Arts serve an invaluable component to that equation, and hopefully, some of what we mentioned on this podcast will give you a little bit more reason to get out of the house, to connect and engage with your community.
Evan: But the one question that we do always like to end with, and I'll let either of you go first on how you'd like to answer—since we're not Miami, why do you guys choose the 954?
Vlat: Go ahead, Big Pedro.
Big Pedro: Well, the real answer is that up until a year and a half ago, we had an 80-pound bull, and no one in Miami would rent to us. But I do feel like Miami is creeping up to Broward a little bit. I think a lot of people are seeing the value up here, both monetarily and from a social standpoint. I just love it—less traffic, more bang for your buck, good people, still extremely diverse, and a lot of fun. And we’re just centrally located to both Palm Beach and Miami-Dade County. So I don't want to let the secret out, but you know, Broward’s pretty awesome. So I'm a big fan.
Evan: Amen. Good proximity to the highway as well.
Big Pedro: Broward's pretty great, to be honest with you. Miami just has the name, but the beaches here in Broward are just as nice as the ones down in Dade. There's a little less traffic—I couldn't live in Dade right now because all of my last name is Pedro, I don't really speak Spanish that great, and if you get lost in the wrong neighborhood down there, you’re in trouble. So we are a good middle ground. If you need to get down into Miami, we’re in the middle; you need to get up to Boca, we’re in the middle. I wish they would have brought the Marlins here to Broward County instead of all the way down to Miami—I would have watched a lot more baseball. But no, Broward’s pretty good, man. I've never lived in Dade—now, Vlat, sorry, Vlad, did live in Dade and left. We came down from New York, the farthest south I ever was was Hollywood. So I've always been a Broward boy—I'm 954 till I die, if you will. The opposite of Pitbull. It's great up here—you've got everything. You've got good schools, you've got good, you know, even secondary education if you want. You can find any kind of food that you want. The entertainment up here is great, and the airport is way better than the airport in Miami. There's no comparison between the two—I start sweating whenever a family member is like, “Yo, I'm flying in,” and I’m like, “Great, Fort Lauderdale or Miami?” “No, Miami.” Broward's great, but we are full, so if you're listening and you're in Oklahoma, you're in Tennessee, you're in California, Texas, wherever you are, we’re full. So go ahead and feel free to move to Tampa, Jacksonville, some of the more northern cities in the state. Down here in the south, traffic’s awful.
Evan: Amen. Also, just to round out that point, one of the most culturally diverse and one of the most culinary diverse places—you can get almost any cuisine in the world in Broward County, and actually, specifically in the Lauderhood area. I think there's more cultural diversity in food offerings in a city versus almost any other city in the country, interestingly enough. Obviously, a lot of Caribbean flair, and while the Marlins stadium did not choose the 954, Pedro, being a Trini, the World Cricket Championship is coming to Broward and the soccer team this year as well—they play in Fort Lauderdale. And you’re talking about Lauderhill and food—go ahead and visit my good friends over at Singh’s Roti Shop if you want some Trinidadian food, absolutely delicious. Just tell them to put the pepper sauce on the side if you're afraid of a little spice—you can drizzle it on as you will. But yeah, Singh’s Roti Shop—they’re on 441, a little south of Commercial. The food’s delicious over there, you won't regret it.
Evan: Thank you guys for tuning in—we look forward to seeing you at Kelly Brothers, at Art in Oakland Park, and one last event we’ll mention at Art in Oakland Park as well that Pedro just joined us for that we enjoy doing. If you're looking for some help with whatever your goal, idea, or dream is, we’re glad to have a goal-setting accountability mini-mastermind group every other Tuesday night called Action Club—AXEN. Come with whatever you have—it doesn't have to be a startup, doesn’t even have to be fleshed out. We’ll help you flesh out those dreams, goals, ideas, startups, whatever it may be. Help you SMART your goals. It’s a beautiful community, a beautiful thing to tap into—you can come at any point. It's an ongoing thing—we do it biweekly, every other Tuesday night. So the next one will be the 23rd before the roast, but we’ll be leaving from the roast to go to Kelly Brothers, which is five minutes down the street. So people are always saying, “How do I tap into the community?” We have that. We have the Choose 954 Artist Potluck coming up during Art Week on January 21st at our Gulfstream Park Zero Empty Spaces location at 5:30 p.m.
Evan: And one last thing—we’re so glad to host our monthly breakfast lecture series, mini TED Talk, called Creative Zen, inside The Cotilla Gallery at the Alvin Sherman Library on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, bringing local people to share their thought-provoking, inspiring stories. Maybe we'll get one of these funny guys to share one day as well. So all that stuff—find it on Choose 954 social media, Eventbrite, the interwebs. Appreciate you guys tuning in, appreciate you guys making the time to join us, and we’ll see you at the next show.
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