Episode 12
Comically ExposedMarch 06, 202401:05:57

Episode 12

Our very first interview is with our friend (and sometimes critic), Ege Öztokat. Ege is a brilliant multi-lingual stand-up comedian, writer and expert improviser from Istanbul, Turkey. She candidly shares with us her experiences with Contamination OCD. We discuss Hollywood’s misrepresentation of OCD, bad therapy experiences and the necessity of medication and its less helpful effects. Also, we chat about comedy writing and performing and how English is her comedy language.

Ege has a one-woman show called “Antidepressed” with upcoming performances in Turkey. She will also bring her one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the entire month of August 2024.

//More about Ege://

Instagram: @egeoe & @aramagecmisipod

Podcast: Arama Geçmişi, https://open.spotify.com/show/5z8s2RaZXH5WyWIE5zqmqk

Book (in Turkish): “Yelpazem de Mi Sikiyönetime Giriyor?” on Amazon (or wherever you buy books)

//Connect with Gabbie and Heather://

Instagram: @comicallyexp.podcast

Interwebs: comicallyexposed.com

Thank you for listening (and reading the show notes)!

Transcript:

00:00:00
Hey, welcome to Comically Exposed.

00:00:11
This happens to be episode 12 that you are currently listening to.

00:00:17
And my name is Gabbie Blachman and my co-host is Heather Nye, who's fabulous.

00:00:25
We have a very, very special guest, a friend who lives on the other side of the world,

00:00:30
even though I tell her what.

00:00:33
And she's brilliant.

00:00:35
She's funny. She's awesome.

00:00:37
She has OCD and I'm going to let her introduce herself.

00:00:42
So introduce yourself, Ege.

00:00:43
Hi, I'm Ege Öztokatz.

00:00:46
Thank you for having me.

00:00:48
Yay.

00:00:51
Ege and I met over the pandemic.

00:00:54
No big deal.

00:00:56
That's also how Heather and I met.

00:00:58
And it was through UCB improv class, right?

00:01:03
Yes.

00:01:03
Yeah.

00:01:04
401, where we forged a deep lasting bond.

00:01:08
So Ege has listened to the podcast and had a little feedback, actually,

00:01:12
about some of the flavors of OCD maybe not being correctly represented here.

00:01:21
So you want to.

00:01:24
I love this long pause.

00:01:26
Yes.

00:01:28
So please inform.

00:01:30
I am respectful.

00:01:31
This is your platform.

00:01:34
But on the first episode, you were like, oh, contamination OCD is such bullshit.

00:01:41
Some Hollywood crap.

00:01:43
Who cares?

00:01:45
Do you even know someone with contamination OCD?

00:01:49
All these Hollywood types casting beautiful women.

00:01:52
I'm sure you said that.

00:01:54
Washing their hands, being all clean, like Monica on Friends.

00:01:59
That's stupid.

00:02:01
That's not OCD.

00:02:02
Real OCD is intrusive thoughts.

00:02:04
And I was like, but I get eczema from washing my hands too much.

00:02:09
I felt erasure.

00:02:12
I felt oppression.

00:02:16
And I'm glad that you are giving me a chance to redeem all contamination OCD

00:02:24
havers.

00:02:25
Well, I mean, we're giving you that chance.

00:02:26
It's not going to work, but we are giving you a chance.

00:02:31
Look, just because we're more mainstream doesn't take it away from us.

00:02:36
OK, we have the disorder.

00:02:39
So, yeah, yeah, it's all the same.

00:02:41
It really is all the same.

00:02:43
It's just what we do with it is very different.

00:02:46
Yeah, just because we're more shiny, clean, cute, beautiful.

00:02:54
Yeah, popular, popular and hot, more educated.

00:03:01
Everybody's jealous of us.

00:03:04
These are so textbook OCD contamination stuff.

00:03:11
I'm so glad you have me to represent the contamination.

00:03:16
Yeah, because all of those descriptors describe you.

00:03:20
Yes, they do.

00:03:21
They do.

00:03:22
They do, actually.

00:03:23
OK, so I have some actual questions.

00:03:26
Well, first of all, thank you for coming on and telling us that you have contamination

00:03:31
OCD.

00:03:32
Do you have any other flavors of OCD?

00:03:34
I have some compulsive behaviors, but not all of them are contamination related.

00:03:39
I don't know how to articulate necessarily because my diagnosis was more contamination

00:03:45
based because I got my diagnosis in the pandemic.

00:03:50
And since I started my medication and I've been doing better, I let go of some of my

00:03:57
talk therapy.

00:03:59
Also because my psychiatrist, no, also because my psychologist offended me very deeply.

00:04:05
Oh, yes.

00:04:08
She made a joke and I'm the last person who would be offended by a joke.

00:04:12
But like, are you joking?

00:04:14
She was like, oh, no, I wasn't joking.

00:04:16
And I was like, that's even worse.

00:04:18
And it's too personal.

00:04:20
I think it's going to be very funny once I am able to say it on a podcast.

00:04:24
I'll come back in 10 years.

00:04:26
Oh, dude.

00:04:28
OK, I started crying.

00:04:30
Just real quick for the listeners at home, Ege is a stand up comic.

00:04:34
OK, I have seen her stuff.

00:04:36
She talks about very personal stuff, so the fact that you don't want to talk about it

00:04:39
right now is like, holy shit, I wish I could slap this doctor for you.

00:04:44
It's going to be so funny when I'm able to say it.

00:04:49
That's how messed up it is.

00:04:51
Wow.

00:04:52
I'm sorry that happened to you.

00:04:55
So I'm not very sure.

00:04:57
I don't have the vocabulary to describe the flavors yet.

00:05:01
Well, you know, the truth is, is that the designations of what the different flavors

00:05:07
of OCD isn't really effective because OCD kind of latches on to things you care about

00:05:14
the most.

00:05:15
Yeah, I think sometimes because I fall on the same thing.

00:05:18
A mind bounces everywhere.

00:05:20
It's frustrating because you're like, is it enough OCD to call this OCD or, you know,

00:05:25
and it's really the pattern, you know, the pattern of having an intrusive thought and

00:05:30
then trying to cover it up with compulsions.

00:05:33
Cover up the emotions, I should say, the uncomfortable feelings, the, you know, whatever sensation

00:05:38
that you're feeling that it feels like you can't handle.

00:05:41
The next step is compulsions to kind of, it's hard because there has been these designations

00:05:47
of all the flavors, but then, you know, what gets ignored is what happens in your head

00:05:51
sometimes because I'm sure you have stuff that are compulsions in your head and those

00:05:58
don't get recognized as well.

00:06:00
Yeah.

00:06:01
Yeah.

00:06:02
Yeah.

00:06:03
I have so much.

00:06:04
Well, you've come to the right place because we are known for fixing OCD.

00:06:11
It takes about 20 minutes.

00:06:14
Of course, that's what you promised me.

00:06:17
I promised you that in $20 and you're not getting any of them.

00:06:23
Okay.

00:06:24
So I do have other questions.

00:06:26
So you were diagnosed during the pandemic.

00:06:29
That's intense.

00:06:31
When did you first notice or yeah, when did you first notice like OCD stuff?

00:06:38
Were you a kid?

00:06:39
Was it 20 minutes ago?

00:06:40
When I was a kid, when I heard the first episode of the podcast, no, when I was a kid, I wasn't

00:06:50
able to.

00:06:51
Okay.

00:06:52
My dad passed and after that I had been very scared of disease because he had cancer and

00:07:00
I basically watched him like slowly melt away full human.

00:07:06
And I was a kid.

00:07:07
I didn't know a lot scientifically.

00:07:11
So I was scared of everything that would turn me into that.

00:07:15
I remember I wasn't able to like breathe on my food.

00:07:20
Like if I have a plate of food in front of me, I would feel like maybe like some germs

00:07:26
from my nose are going into my food and I'm eating them.

00:07:30
So like weird.

00:07:31
And my mother called it being weird.

00:07:34
Oh no.

00:07:36
So I kept going.

00:07:40
I had different like ticks or behaviors, but then in the pandemic it got real because you

00:07:49
know, contamination, like everybody was washing their bags of chips.

00:07:54
So it gave me freedom to do the worst I wanted to do.

00:08:00
And then actually not doing the worst pandemic because I felt so safe and happy in quarantine.

00:08:06
I was like, this is what I want my entire life.

00:08:10
But then when I had to go back out, I couldn't.

00:08:15
So that's when I started seeing a psychiatrist.

00:08:18
Yeah, that's so intense and makes so much sense.

00:08:22
Like, yeah, yeah.

00:08:24
Especially being a kid, just being a kid in general, you have so little control in your

00:08:28
life and then to go through such an incredible tragedy of losing your parents.

00:08:35
I'm so sorry, dude.

00:08:37
It's okay.

00:08:38
It's main character vibes.

00:08:39
Dead father, OCD contamination type.

00:08:44
It's all good.

00:08:45
Yeah, great.

00:08:46
And it sounds like you're cured.

00:08:49
So Gabbie, you did say I am a stand up.

00:08:56
So I think that's obvious.

00:08:58
Yeah, that's right.

00:08:59
Because you're freaking hilarious and will not take any of it seriously.

00:09:06
So I started back up with my OCD support group over the pandemic.

00:09:11
And I would say it was probably 75% contamination folks who were just thriving during lockdown

00:09:23
and also experiencing their greatest nightmare come to pass.

00:09:28
Because I think across the board, OCD is like, hey, do you know if you just prep for everything

00:09:34
that could possibly happen in the future, like you're good and all of your loved ones

00:09:39
are going to be fine too.

00:09:41
And then quarantine hits and everybody's like, see, see, we're washing our mail, the bags

00:09:48
of chips and it makes total sense.

00:09:50
Yeah.

00:09:51
And then everybody just had just the hardest time coming out.

00:09:54
So how is it now, like leaving the house?

00:09:58
It's slightly better.

00:10:00
But when I'm outside, I'm still very like, if I touch something, I find suspicious.

00:10:08
I sanitize my hands immediately and stuff.

00:10:13
It's gotten way better since I started medication.

00:10:17
The first times I was going out after quarantine was over, it was very harder.

00:10:23
Now it's better, but I still like have this separation of my house from the outside in

00:10:30
my head.

00:10:31
So if my house is contaminated, I'm still very serious about that.

00:10:35
I did stop washing groceries and stuff way later than most people, but still some stuff

00:10:45
are just dirty.

00:10:46
If I touch my wallet, it was dirty.

00:10:50
I'm not going to touch my sheets after I touch my wallet.

00:10:54
I think that's fair, but it's gotten better since I started taking my medication.

00:11:00
I tried to go down on my dose, lower my dose.

00:11:04
It was really bad.

00:11:08
And then I called to make an appointment with my psychiatrist to maybe get back to my original

00:11:15
dose.

00:11:18
Her assistant told me she's on leave until an unknown time.

00:11:22
We don't know when she's going to be back.

00:11:24
So I just went up on my dose anyway, and I feel happier.

00:11:33
I'm sorry for giggling.

00:11:34
I just...

00:11:36
The amount of MacGyvering, the amount of self-advocacy we have to do in order to get the help that

00:11:46
we need is...

00:11:49
Why does it happen to people who are going through a mental health crisis?

00:11:53
Why is it that we're like, well, you seem like you should be in charge of your own health.

00:11:58
You seem like you should be just out here making decisions and trying to desperately

00:12:03
get anybody to listen to you.

00:12:06
That seems like a good call.

00:12:08
One of my best friends is a mental health professional.

00:12:14
And when I was diagnosed with OCD and got prescribed the medication, it finally made

00:12:18
sense in my head.

00:12:19
I was like, yeah, I kind of knew, but having a doctor validated felt really good.

00:12:25
And my mental health worker friend, because I'm so good at masking, she was like, oh,

00:12:32
this is bullshit.

00:12:33
These doctors give out medication for everything.

00:12:35
I was like, I don't question your anxiety just because I don't see it.

00:12:40
And she was really embarrassed.

00:12:42
I was like, oh my God, how did I do this?

00:12:44
How did I do this to you?

00:12:46
It's been happening to me all my life and I did the same to you.

00:12:50
I was like, yeah, you are an asshole.

00:12:57
Way to shove it in your friend's face, you know?

00:12:59
Yeah, exactly.

00:13:00
Exactly.

00:13:01
That's what friends are for.

00:13:03
Yeah, exactly.

00:13:04
Well, and then especially, I wonder right now, you're just putting a question in my

00:13:09
head.

00:13:10
Masking.

00:13:11
Do you think this is prevalent in more women with OCD or do you think it's across the board

00:13:16
or gender?

00:13:19
I think men get to be weird without being stigmatized because they're like, if I have

00:13:28
a very particular set of rules for guests coming into my home, then I'm weird.

00:13:33
But if I'm a man, I'm just eccentric.

00:13:37
Or like a genius or something.

00:13:39
So we're talking about Elon, right?

00:13:41
We're all talking about Elon.

00:13:42
Yeah, when I went over to his house, he made me do some crazy stuff.

00:13:48
Yeah, I know.

00:13:50
It's bizarre.

00:13:51
He's like, wear a towel, but don't use your hands to put it on.

00:13:54
It's weird.

00:13:55
No, but seriously, I think it's like, so women probably mask more.

00:14:02
Societies where whiteness is prized.

00:14:04
So if you're not white, then you probably have to mask more.

00:14:09
And I would say richness, right?

00:14:11
It's always eccentric is the label, the more cash you have.

00:14:16
And heterosexual, all the things.

00:14:19
Yeah.

00:14:20
And it's more accepted, right?

00:14:22
Yeah, totally.

00:14:23
Yeah.

00:14:24
So we fixed it again.

00:14:25
We fixed society.

00:14:26
Thank you.

00:14:27
No problem.

00:14:28
Oh, hey, do you want to say like where you are, where you live?

00:14:34
Not your address.

00:14:35
I'm not saying like...

00:14:36
Wait, I have to get a pen.

00:14:43
As long as they follow the house rules, they can come over.

00:14:47
No towels, no hands.

00:14:51
No, you just have to sanitize your hands before you touch anything inside my home.

00:14:56
But if I have a weird feeling about you, it doesn't matter.

00:14:59
I'm going to clean anyway.

00:15:02
People have dirty auras, you know, and that gets all over the place.

00:15:06
It's disgusting.

00:15:07
Some people don't...

00:15:10
Okay.

00:15:11
Some people trigger my OCD more than others.

00:15:15
And I don't know how it works.

00:15:17
Some people are just dirtier to me in my head for no reason.

00:15:21
I have no idea.

00:15:22
They are dear friends whom I love.

00:15:25
I just can't.

00:15:26
I don't know.

00:15:27
Okay.

00:15:28
I'm in Istanbul, Turkey.

00:15:29
Woohoo.

00:15:30
Woohoo.

00:15:31
Whoa.

00:15:32
Okay.

00:15:33
I just wanted the listener to, you know, geographically place you.

00:15:40
And now that they have, we're going to switch topics.

00:15:43
So you've talked a little...

00:15:47
So you know she can get jailed for something she says on this podcast.

00:15:51
Moving on.

00:15:52
Moving on.

00:15:53
That's right.

00:15:54
We're going to bleep out all the sensitive information for when we release it in Turkey.

00:16:00
What is contamination OCD?

00:16:04
Can you give the folks at home a little...

00:16:06
I mean, we've talked about it a little bit, but maybe not in general, but for you, are

00:16:12
there any other triggers that you want to talk about?

00:16:16
You don't feel forced into saying anything if you don't want to.

00:16:19
We can cut this whole episode.

00:16:21
Yeah.

00:16:22
We can just introduce you and then say your location and that's it.

00:16:29
I have this bit, what I do in my standup.

00:16:34
If a guest comes over, I have to keep mental track of every single surface they touch so

00:16:39
I can clean immediately after they leave.

00:16:41
But that's not enough because what if they sit on my couch and I don't know how they

00:16:44
came over?

00:16:45
Maybe they took a bus to come to my place and they sat on a bus seat right after someone

00:16:49
who sat on that exact same seat going home from the hospital and they had all sorts of

00:16:54
hospital germs on their bus.

00:16:55
My friend's sister comes over, sits on my couch, I take a nap, boom, I die from bus

00:17:00
seat disease.

00:17:01
Am I right, ladies?

00:17:06
So that's like keeping myself, keeping my home.

00:17:11
If I touch something I think is dirty, I wash my hands immediately.

00:17:15
I sanitize my hands a lot.

00:17:18
I did get very serious scars from washing so much in the pandemic and it's still not

00:17:24
the best in winter, but it's better now.

00:17:29
And I don't like sharing utensils or glasses.

00:17:34
It's not that weird.

00:17:35
But for me, it's more dire if someone, sometimes I'm embarrassed, someone wants to take a sip

00:17:44
of my water and I'm like, okay, sure.

00:17:47
And then it's garbage to me after that.

00:17:53
I think contamination is fascinating contamination of CD because the line between like what's

00:18:01
just like a healthy understanding of germ theory and staying clean and hygiene and all

00:18:07
of that.

00:18:08
And then when does it start to kind of drift into like, oh, my hands are cracked and bleeding

00:18:15
because I keep washing and sanitizing.

00:18:18
I once touched the door handle and tried not to wash my hands.

00:18:22
I lasted like more than a minute.

00:18:25
Oh, that's pretty good.

00:18:27
And less than two.

00:18:28
And then I was freaking out.

00:18:30
It was terrible, ruined my day.

00:18:31
And my psychologist was like, no, you do it here.

00:18:34
You don't do it on your own.

00:18:36
But then she offended me.

00:18:38
So I'm not exposing myself right now.

00:18:40
Yeah.

00:18:41
Yeah.

00:18:42
And especially if a minute, I mean, if a minute's too long, it should be more than like five

00:18:46
seconds.

00:18:47
That's my opinion.

00:18:48
But no, but when you were talking about your trip, I will do it now.

00:18:52
Great.

00:18:53
Because we're professionals.

00:18:54
So you can go ahead and do this.

00:18:55
And if you have a psychotic break, we can totally help you.

00:19:00
Well, I mean, and but it's interesting because your string of thoughts that you were just

00:19:06
saying about things transpire into becoming a serious contamination of like face, but

00:19:14
bust disease is exactly the way that I like my my intrusive thoughts also kind of come

00:19:24
in minor more like, I don't know if I can go through that, but not right now.

00:19:30
Ten years.

00:19:31
I know.

00:19:32
But when I had to do an exposure, it was fascinating to be able to handle something after a thought

00:19:38
process like that.

00:19:39
And so I don't know if that makes any sense.

00:19:41
It makes sense in my head.

00:19:43
Yeah.

00:19:44
And Gabbie, you were asking if there are others while Heather was thinking, I thought like

00:19:49
my stuff, anything that goes on with me regarding my health or my mother's health.

00:19:55
Oh, yeah.

00:19:56
I get very.

00:19:57
Oh, yeah.

00:19:58
Yeah.

00:19:59
Like I once found a white spot on my tongue and I was like, OK, this is it.

00:20:06
I'm dying.

00:20:09
That's fun.

00:20:10
But that that is way better since medication.

00:20:13
Dude, shout out to medication, honestly.

00:20:17
Yeah, seriously.

00:20:18
Yeah, I know.

00:20:20
Yeah, we're all big fans because on my little on my little interview card, because this

00:20:26
is a professional podcast, so I have an interview card.

00:20:31
I have therapy question mark and then what works question mark.

00:20:36
So so medication works.

00:20:38
I'm so freaking glad that you found that.

00:20:40
I'm so glad that you're on a dose that works.

00:20:43
I mean, finding a medication that works for you is a whole goddamn process.

00:20:50
Right.

00:20:51
And then finding the dose is a whole other process and it takes months.

00:20:58
And it's just like, again, I don't know.

00:21:03
Very frustrating, I think, is my to sum up frustration.

00:21:06
Thanks, Gabbie.

00:21:07
You're welcome.

00:21:08
I was I was really happy to have found something that worked for me on my first try.

00:21:19
But I do have severe side effects, but I don't have the mental strength to change just for

00:21:29
the side effects because like I'm sweating so much, so much all the time.

00:21:36
And I am sleeping so much like I shouldn't be able to sleep 17 hours a day like you would

00:21:45
stop sleeping at one point.

00:21:48
But it's better than what I was doing before.

00:21:51
I was awake and freaking out.

00:21:53
So now, but I don't think my medication is right for me right now.

00:22:00
But it's you know, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to try something new in the future.

00:22:08
I'm going to find the right medication when I'm better.

00:22:13
Right.

00:22:14
Yeah.

00:22:15
So it works.

00:22:18
Yeah.

00:22:19
It's good enough.

00:22:20
Yeah.

00:22:21
But seriously, if it's the bandaid that's like holding it all together, then, you know,

00:22:26
keep that bandaid.

00:22:28
Exactly.

00:22:29
So if you're not doing exposures, what kind are you doing?

00:22:34
Any other kinds of therapy?

00:22:36
No.

00:22:38
I used to go to talk therapy before my OCD diagnosis, and it was just like very standard.

00:22:47
She wouldn't say anything.

00:22:48
I would just talk and talk.

00:22:49
And we got we hit a wall at our like 10th month together.

00:22:55
And her solution was a Freudian stream of consciousness therapy.

00:23:05
And I was like, this is not the 50s.

00:23:07
Also, I'm an improviser.

00:23:10
I'm going to manipulate that shit.

00:23:11
I'm not going to be sincere in my stream of consciousness.

00:23:15
I'm going to yes and myself.

00:23:19
So it's going to turn into a weird rant and a study in character work.

00:23:26
So I didn't really trust it.

00:23:28
And you know, Freud sexist, whatever.

00:23:30
And I stopped.

00:23:32
And then after my OCD diagnosis, I went to I forgot about her.

00:23:40
OK, I went to the psychiatrist who did play based therapies like role playing.

00:23:47
And like you are in a group.

00:23:48
You're role playing in a group.

00:23:51
Yes.

00:23:52
Are you sure this wasn't an improv class?

00:23:57
You are there.

00:23:58
That's right.

00:23:59
That's right.

00:24:00
My friend was our therapist.

00:24:03
Shout out to Shannon.

00:24:08
OK, it's like drama therapy, something like that, using theater to expose.

00:24:15
Like, you know, you are more.

00:24:17
It felt right to me.

00:24:19
OK, now that I'm talking about it, it seems like bullshit.

00:24:22
She had five stars on the app of where I go to get my doctors.

00:24:29
And then I went to her and I talked about it.

00:24:31
And she said, oh, you seem like you have OCD and some other stuff.

00:24:36
She recommended a book.

00:24:39
And OK, first of all, even before that, the first red flag, she said, why don't you join

00:24:45
if you're so into comedy, why don't you join Gilder Gilder?

00:24:49
It's like so bad.

00:24:51
It's not funny at all.

00:24:52
I was like, no, I'm not going to join Gilder Gilder, the Turkish television program that's

00:24:58
been going on for like it's Turkish SNL, but terrible.

00:25:03
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

00:25:06
And I was like, it's it's not what I want to do necessarily.

00:25:10
And she was like, oh, I think you're holding yourself back because of fear.

00:25:13
I was like, no, I don't find them funny.

00:25:16
That's not what I want to do in my comedy.

00:25:19
And she was like, well, I think you're resisting.

00:25:22
What do you think is funny then?

00:25:23
And I was like, you won't know them.

00:25:26
Have you heard of club coming?

00:25:30
I didn't think so.

00:25:34
And anyway, she recommended the book.

00:25:37
And I was trying to be open minded despite her terrible taste.

00:25:41
And I went and got the book and basically it was written by an American, but it was a

00:25:50
tale of morality.

00:25:52
Basically if you have any disorders, if you have anxiety, it's just because you're not

00:25:57
moral enough.

00:25:58
Oh my God.

00:25:59
That's amazing.

00:26:00
What?

00:26:01
It's because any sort of disorder, any sort of mental health issue stems from you being

00:26:14
an impure person.

00:26:18
And like it's just your lack of.

00:26:24
Willpower.

00:26:25
Yes.

00:26:26
Like you're weak.

00:26:28
You don't have anxiety.

00:26:29
You're weak.

00:26:30
And if you do good deeds, you're going to be less weak.

00:26:33
And this dude was also, I'm going to send you, I'm going to find and send you the names

00:26:37
of the author.

00:26:39
And I looked him up.

00:26:41
He's also like a motivational speaker for corporations.

00:26:45
So this was like a protestant, like, oh, this is, and you do good deeds and you work really

00:26:52
hard and you make your boss money and then you will be healed.

00:26:57
So that didn't work.

00:27:00
That didn't work.

00:27:03
No.

00:27:04
And then I started, I went to my psychiatrist, she recommended a psychologist who specialize

00:27:13
in cognitive behavior therapy, CBT, and too much homework.

00:27:19
I was still going, but then she offended me very deeply.

00:27:24
And then I stopped and now I don't have the energy to like get in the process of finding

00:27:29
a therapist because then I know now before I find the one, I will get called impure and

00:27:36
morally corrupt.

00:27:38
Yeah.

00:27:39
Yeah.

00:27:40
Wow.

00:27:41
The, again, the struggle to find like a good therapist.

00:27:48
And then also was the person who wrote the book, like OCD, like what is it?

00:27:53
Scrupulosity.

00:27:54
Yeah.

00:27:55
Yeah.

00:27:56
Mm hmm.

00:27:57
A thousand percent.

00:27:58
I was like, your therapist is trying to give you scrupulosity.

00:28:01
Like, you know, that is.

00:28:04
I mean, if it's better than contamination, I'll take it.

00:28:09
Listen, it's not better.

00:28:11
It's just different.

00:28:12
Okay.

00:28:13
Yeah.

00:28:14
Okay.

00:28:15
Okay.

00:28:16
I know.

00:28:17
I already have the good kind.

00:28:18
I have the good kind that's represented in mainstream media.

00:28:21
I mean, if Monk has it and he's just a sex symbol, then the rest of us can only stress.

00:28:30
Monk is a sex symbol.

00:28:31
Listen, I don't know what posters you have up on your wall, but I kiss his photo every

00:28:36
night before I go to bed.

00:28:37
I kiss it 37 times.

00:28:38
It's not a big deal.

00:28:39
It's not OCD.

00:28:40
Yeah.

00:28:41
Now we know Gabbie's type.

00:28:42
It's Tony Shalhoub.

00:28:43
And honestly, would, would hit it.

00:28:44
Would hit it.

00:28:45
He can do it.

00:28:46
He can do it.

00:28:47
It's Tony Shalhoub, Lena Dunham and me.

00:28:55
What Lena Dunham?

00:28:58
Where did she come in?

00:29:00
Yeah.

00:29:01
She had OCD in girls.

00:29:03
Her character had OCD in girls.

00:29:04
I totally forgot.

00:29:05
I want recently, I read an article.

00:29:08
I don't know why people are still talking so much about the TV show girls.

00:29:12
I don't know why it's still so important to people, but I read an essay very recently,

00:29:17
like last week that was like, Lena Dunham really did a good thing by representing OCD

00:29:23
as ugly and not cute.

00:29:29
She didn't glamorize mental illness of women.

00:29:34
She was really ugly and she's a feminist for it.

00:29:38
Oh, geez.

00:29:40
I, there's so much to unpack with that.

00:29:44
I don't even know where to start.

00:29:50
I mean, Lena Dunham is not my favorite, you know, comedy necessarily, whatever, but the

00:29:58
amount of shit that she got by just being a person in her own body.

00:30:03
Yeah.

00:30:05
Yeah.

00:30:06
It's like, must be, must be nice.

00:30:09
Super fun.

00:30:10
It was really fun watching someone way skinnier than me go through that.

00:30:15
Are we talking about monk again?

00:30:16
I hope we're talking about monk.

00:30:19
It's all I want to talk about.

00:30:22
Okay.

00:30:23
I also just very quickly want to say scrupulosity is religious, usually in basis for those who

00:30:32
don't know about OCD.

00:30:34
And it is pretty much exactly what Ege was saying.

00:30:37
It's a morality thing where you feel like it's usually tied to religion.

00:30:43
And I'll say it.

00:30:45
Most of my friends with scrupulosity are Catholics or recovering Catholics.

00:30:51
And there is just like the amount of rules that come with Catholicism really just fits

00:30:57
in with OCD so well.

00:31:00
So if you know, you have an inkling and then you're brought up Catholic, you can really

00:31:03
bring it out.

00:31:04
Yeah.

00:31:05
And that's a painful one too.

00:31:07
Good.

00:31:08
Well, I'm glad I brought it down to a halt.

00:31:14
I can't bring it lower.

00:31:15
Okay.

00:31:16
Let's try it.

00:31:17
Because I was thinking, I was thinking, what if ISIS is that for Muslims?

00:31:25
Oh, yes.

00:31:27
All the rules, man.

00:31:30
But this is my theory.

00:31:32
I swear to God.

00:31:33
I don't know if we talked about it on the podcast.

00:31:34
I think most religion traditions and rituals, those are just OCD people throughout history

00:31:43
trying to shove our weird shit on other people.

00:31:47
Or we're like, do you know what?

00:31:50
God or gods really love this certain hat.

00:31:53
And so everybody's got to wear the hat and we've got to pray facing this way, that way,

00:31:59
all the ways, go get these certain plants and shake them in these directions.

00:32:05
Right.

00:32:06
Get this incense, do this thing, stand up, sit down.

00:32:09
I mean, yeah, Neil, don't eat pork because it's dirty.

00:32:14
Right.

00:32:15
Dude, how about don't mix meat and milk and then get separate plates for that situation.

00:32:22
Nay, get separate kitchens for that situation.

00:32:26
I mean, come on.

00:32:31
That sounds good.

00:32:32
Thank you.

00:32:33
Also, for our listeners don't know, I'm Jewish, so I can say that.

00:32:39
OK.

00:32:41
And I was as a secular Turkish person, I was talking about the pork regarding to Muslims.

00:32:48
So there.

00:32:51
And when I talked about ISIS, that wasn't me.

00:32:54
No, that was the fourth guest.

00:32:58
Yeah.

00:32:59
The unnamed guest.

00:33:00
The unnamed guest.

00:33:01
OK, well, I think we could also like go back and forth for a while.

00:33:05
I'm like, what kind of side effects did you get from your medication?

00:33:09
And talk about that for a while.

00:33:11
But I actually want to transition into comedy because you are a comedy great.

00:33:18
And I want to talk about so many, many things.

00:33:22
Number one, I just want to say improvising with a gay is such a treat and we only do

00:33:27
it over Zoom.

00:33:29
And yet it is still so goddamn funny and amazing.

00:33:33
You are so quick and so fucking funny.

00:33:36
And I miss us doing that.

00:33:37
So that's just a guilt trip that I'm putting on you.

00:33:41
And number two, can you talk about stand up?

00:33:45
When did you get into it?

00:33:47
How's it going?

00:33:48
What's up?

00:33:49
Gabbie, thank you so much.

00:33:50
I love doing improv with you and interrupting you always all the time.

00:33:54
Yes, please do.

00:33:57
I want to blame Zoom, but I just like interrupting people.

00:34:01
Sorry.

00:34:02
You should have interrupted me when you said that.

00:34:08
Not to note it.

00:34:09
OK, please.

00:34:10
OK, I stand up.

00:34:13
OK, I did improv.

00:34:15
I started improv because I really love UCB style comics.

00:34:19
I listen to a lot of comedy bang bang.

00:34:21
I was really interested in improv.

00:34:23
We don't have UCB and long form is like it means boring in Turkish improv and they don't

00:34:29
get it.

00:34:30
And anyway, I did short form improv with my group until the pandemic and in the pandemic.

00:34:36
Before the pandemic, I tried to go to Chicago to take some classes at Second City one summer

00:34:42
and I was denied a visa.

00:34:44
This was the Trump years and Turkey was on the shit list.

00:34:48
Yes, so I was denied a visa and then pandemic happened and I was able to take UCB classes

00:34:54
and something clicked like I was like, oh, these people understand where I'm going when

00:35:00
I start my sentence.

00:35:02
And sometimes with my Turkish group, even though we are from the same culture and we

00:35:07
speak the same language, sometimes they don't like see or understand where I'm going or

00:35:13
they I don't.

00:35:15
It was like I clicked way better in English.

00:35:18
So after improv classes wrapped, I didn't have any one like Gabbie here to do improv

00:35:25
with.

00:35:26
So I decided, you know what, I think I'm good at English.

00:35:29
I'm going to try an English open mic for stand up.

00:35:32
And before I went, I checked with Gabbie.

00:35:35
Is this funny or terrible?

00:35:38
Like my first two months I was sending Gabbie everything I was writing, seeing like, is

00:35:45
this nothing or is it like slightly funny?

00:35:48
If it's slightly funny, I'll go for it.

00:35:50
And turns out I it worked and I started doing stand up last year in August.

00:35:57
So a year and a half now.

00:36:02
And I do not in Turkish, but my I have like an hour and a half worth like long material

00:36:09
in English, but only like 20, 25 in Turkish because Turkish people are more like, what

00:36:15
is this?

00:36:17
OK, I just want to say when you first started sending me stuff and you were like, I think

00:36:25
I'm going to try stand up.

00:36:27
I was like, holy shit, this stuff is so funny.

00:36:30
If you don't get on that stage, I'm going to be personally angry.

00:36:34
I'm so glad that you do it.

00:36:36
And then you and I have talked about, too, about how English is your humor language,

00:36:40
right?

00:36:41
I think so.

00:36:42
Yes.

00:36:43
It's fascinating.

00:36:45
Yeah, it is fascinating.

00:36:47
So I know you've been doing stand up and you're quite successful.

00:36:51
I believe that you won like Comic of the Night like pretty early on.

00:36:57
Yeah, they give out awards for the best open mic and I.

00:37:01
OK, now I do like my solo show, but I still want the record.

00:37:07
I want to be the record holder.

00:37:09
So like I'm the MC one week and the next week I'm like, I want the award now because there's

00:37:16
a very funny Syrian kid who started and he has very funny jokes.

00:37:20
And I'm like, he's coming for my award.

00:37:22
I'm going to take it.

00:37:24
And I do my I did my first hour long show.

00:37:30
We had a split show with a great American comic in December last year.

00:37:37
So like five, six months after I started.

00:37:40
And then this year I started doing my solo show and hopefully I will try if there is

00:37:47
no weird visa issues or Turkey's shutdown or something or if Turkey doesn't exist or

00:37:53
something.

00:37:54
I don't know.

00:37:55
You never know.

00:37:56
Unless there's an issue, I want to take my solo show to Edinburgh.

00:37:58
And it's also very it's also about basically what we are talking about here is called anti-depressed

00:38:06
because I was only able to do stand up after I started the medication.

00:38:12
And also it's a lot about OCD behaviors like anxiety is just what's going on inside my

00:38:17
head.

00:38:18
And Gabbie, are you doing more stand up recently?

00:38:21
I know you did a couple.

00:38:24
OK, first of all, I want to say seamless transition, Ege, because I wanted to talk about your one

00:38:32
woman show and I'm I'm so excited for it to go to Edinburgh or like anywhere.

00:38:39
I just want to see it.

00:38:41
So that's exciting.

00:38:43
And stand up.

00:38:45
I would love to try it again.

00:38:47
But my tutoring hours make it so I can't go to any open mics during the week.

00:38:56
And then the only open mic that happens on the weekends in my area is at this theater

00:39:02
in Oakland, which I've talked about before.

00:39:05
My car got broken into.

00:39:07
And then the next time that I went, I was almost in a shooting incident.

00:39:10
So I haven't gone back.

00:39:13
But I would love to try a stand up again.

00:39:15
Just got to get on that.

00:39:18
And are you writing more sketches?

00:39:20
Also can I say as a listener of the podcast Fox Sketch Fest?

00:39:24
Hey, yes, Fox Sketch Fest.

00:39:29
I'm assuming that's what the listeners are doing is just chanting it over and over again.

00:39:33
Of course.

00:39:34
Yeah.

00:39:35
What a bunch of are you writing more sketches?

00:39:36
I want to watch Nutsisters so badly.

00:39:40
Hey.

00:39:41
Oh, yeah.

00:39:42
Yeah.

00:39:43
I don't know.

00:39:44
We should talk to Susan or I mean, you could also be in that sister if you want to.

00:39:48
Yes, you definitely could.

00:39:50
I know we have to come up with something.

00:39:53
Another goal, because otherwise we're just like, hey, how's it going?

00:39:58
I'm good.

00:39:59
How are you?

00:40:00
Free floating.

00:40:01
Yeah.

00:40:02
Well, I haven't been writing a ton of sketch, which is a bummer.

00:40:05
But I also feel like my life is not super interesting at the moment.

00:40:12
I'm just not feeling like I'm interacting with people enough to write sketch, I guess,

00:40:18
which is probably just a cop out.

00:40:19
Yeah, that's a cop out.

00:40:21
OK, all right.

00:40:23
But Heather shared a sketch a couple of weeks ago, the hot dog sketch.

00:40:29
Oh, the corn dog.

00:40:30
Oh, my God.

00:40:32
I nearly peed myself.

00:40:35
It is so goddamn funny.

00:40:37
This one here, the sketches.

00:40:39
Yeah.

00:40:40
See, she's deflecting.

00:40:41
She's not talking about herself right now.

00:40:43
She's telling me how awesome I am by not talking about anything.

00:40:48
Yeah.

00:40:49
Gabbie, you know what?

00:40:50
What?

00:40:51
It's funny.

00:40:52
Anyway.

00:40:53
We'll stare at Gabbie.

00:40:54
She's going to cry.

00:40:55
Gabbie, you're so funny.

00:40:58
Oh, I think my dog needs me.

00:41:05
Oh, was that my phone?

00:41:08
Yeah, exactly.

00:41:09
I got to go.

00:41:10
I got to go.

00:41:11
I know.

00:41:12
Yeah.

00:41:13
So I would like to be doing more comedy stuff.

00:41:17
How about that?

00:41:18
Yes.

00:41:19
And I appreciate you guys saying that stuff.

00:41:20
I do think that I'm funny.

00:41:22
Fuck San Francisco Sketch Fest.

00:41:25
It's going on right now.

00:41:26
I have friends in it, but fuck it.

00:41:29
All my favorite comics, but still fuck it.

00:41:32
Number two, fuck the late night podcast show that sucks.

00:41:37
Thank you.

00:41:39
I appreciate it.

00:41:41
It's not good anyway.

00:41:43
We all know it.

00:41:44
It's so bad.

00:41:45
But it's like being rejected by somebody that you're like, oh, this person is really smelly

00:41:56
and they're very mean to everyone.

00:41:59
And I don't like anything about them or their lifestyle or anything.

00:42:06
But then you ask them out anyway and they say, no, thank you.

00:42:11
And you're like, that hurt.

00:42:15
That happens to me so much because I pick someone ugly that I'm not attracted to just

00:42:20
because I think it will be easier and I will feel safer.

00:42:23
And then they're not chasing me like they should because they're an ugly gross person.

00:42:30
It's the worst blow to the ego.

00:42:33
It's like that time when my stalker dumped me and started stalking someone else.

00:42:36
I was like, what the fuck?

00:42:39
Okay.

00:42:40
I'm so sorry.

00:42:44
Number one, brilliant joke.

00:42:46
Fucking brilliant joke.

00:42:47
But number two, I'm sorry you had a stalker.

00:42:51
No big deal.

00:42:53
I was in high school.

00:42:56
Oh my God, dude.

00:42:57
He's the CEO of a dog walking company now.

00:43:00
Does he use the dog walking as a cover to fucking stalk people?

00:43:04
Of course.

00:43:05
He has access to people's homes now, not mine.

00:43:08
He doesn't care about me.

00:43:10
Listen, he's going to stalk you again.

00:43:13
I swear to God, you just know if you just buy that new hair product, he's totally going

00:43:18
to stalk you again.

00:43:19
I don't think so.

00:43:20
It's been 10 years.

00:43:21
He's not coming back.

00:43:22
Fucking.

00:43:23
Oh, I was going to before you had said the gender of the stalker, I was like, let me

00:43:32
guess.

00:43:33
Imagine having a female stalker.

00:43:39
She would be so helpful.

00:43:44
Not to say women can't be stalkers.

00:43:46
Girls, you can be anything.

00:43:49
Of course.

00:43:50
Lean in.

00:43:51
OK, also, you are.

00:43:57
Have you been writing sketch at all?

00:43:59
No.

00:44:00
Also, by the way, I do have a question for the two of you if I'm allowed.

00:44:06
No, no.

00:44:08
I've been going through kind of a writer's.

00:44:11
OK, sorry.

00:44:13
No, please, please, please.

00:44:16
Please ask.

00:44:18
I do.

00:44:19
I've been having difficulty writing new material.

00:44:23
Do you have any exercises for when you are experiencing writer's block?

00:44:27
Oh, I'm going to go to Heather on this.

00:44:31
Well, so sometimes when I have when I have writer's block or if I'm being self critical

00:44:38
because that's really what it is for me is I go to prompts online.

00:44:44
I'll go to a word generator or whatever and then just base something off of that.

00:44:49
The other exercise is just free writing.

00:44:52
I do free writing.

00:44:53
I mean, this these sound boring, but but really like I literally free write and then something

00:44:59
comes out of it that is either funny or on the verge of something, you know, that happened.

00:45:08
And yeah, and sometimes I'm just inspired by things that just happened.

00:45:11
It's usually thinking about like weird conversations like writing.

00:45:15
The corndog sketch was actually somebody on Twitter that I followed had written something

00:45:23
about an interaction they had with somebody in the parking lot with a corndog.

00:45:28
And from there, I just kind of went and I wrote something out of it.

00:45:32
And so that took it to the next level.

00:45:36
Sometimes when you're feeling uninspired, you could find inspiration from within or outside

00:45:43
of you.

00:45:44
That's the sound.

00:45:45
I think I need to.

00:45:46
I need to find someone on the outside, some stuff on the outside to draw from, because

00:45:54
I already talked about all of my mental issues.

00:45:58
I don't have any new ones.

00:46:01
And I tried morning pages.

00:46:03
It's just a list of my anxieties.

00:46:05
Not in a fun way.

00:46:07
It's just like, oh, shit, I have to leave the house today.

00:46:11
Oh, shit, I have to leave the house today again.

00:46:13
And just like you can see the effort in trying to fill the three pages.

00:46:19
And I tried to work with AI.

00:46:22
I went to chat GPT and I wanted him to write him.

00:46:27
Women can be.

00:46:34
I think chat GPT is male.

00:46:36
OK, but I tried.

00:46:39
I tried to get it to write jokes so I could be like, oh, this is not a joke.

00:46:44
Fuck you, I'm going to do better.

00:46:46
That was the logic behind me turning to AI.

00:46:49
It didn't inspire at all, but it was a really terrible.

00:46:52
Well, you know, you know what I did?

00:46:57
You know what I did once?

00:46:58
I'm just you're just I'm remembering something that actually helped me generate ideas.

00:47:04
At least this was for sketch.

00:47:05
I had random titles for sketches that I would draw from like a bag and then I would write

00:47:13
a sketch in 30 minutes.

00:47:14
And so it was I called it 30 30 30.

00:47:18
So I wrote 30 sketches in 30 days for 30 minutes at a time.

00:47:22
Oh, so good.

00:47:23
OK, I'll try.

00:47:24
And then what I did was I went to Instagram to all my comedy friends and said, give me

00:47:29
a title, like just give me a title, like whatever.

00:47:32
And then there was also I can give you the title.

00:47:35
I'll find out what the title generator was that I used.

00:47:38
But it was like for novels or whatever.

00:47:39
But it was it was really weird.

00:47:41
Like there are some really weird titles that I got from it.

00:47:44
And I was like, OK, this is what the sketch and it was literally I had no time to think.

00:47:51
I just had to write.

00:47:53
And I actually had a couple more than a couple sketches that came out of it that I was able

00:48:00
to develop.

00:48:01
So yeah, some really good ones, too.

00:48:04
That sounds great.

00:48:06
Thank you.

00:48:07
I'd like to give my advice to thanks.

00:48:09
Thanks.

00:48:10
Please don't walk away from this.

00:48:13
OK, so my advice is, you know, I have the notes app, not to brag, but I

00:48:19
do.

00:48:22
And you know, whenever something funny strikes me, I write it down.

00:48:26
So then when I get writer's block, I'll go to the notes app and I'll scroll through and

00:48:31
I'll be like, holy shit, there are some brilliant ideas in here.

00:48:35
And then I'll get overwhelmed and I won't write a thing.

00:48:38
So big recommend.

00:48:43
I tried.

00:48:44
I tried the notes app, but new stuff is boring and old stuff doesn't make sense.

00:48:50
I can't figure out what I meant.

00:48:52
Yes.

00:48:53
When I wrote down like tablecloth tablecloth disco, I don't know what that means.

00:48:58
I have no idea.

00:49:00
And my last note is about Israel and Hamas.

00:49:04
And I'm like, I'm not going to do that.

00:49:08
Say it on the podcast.

00:49:11
It's not about Israel and Hamas.

00:49:15
It's not.

00:49:16
It just uses the words.

00:49:18
Yeah, it just it's nothing.

00:49:20
OK, see, this is unusable.

00:49:22
I want to be with him when the earthquake hits Istanbul.

00:49:25
OK, we're expecting a big earthquake.

00:49:29
And I was at a France house with a bunch of comics and there was a small earthquake and

00:49:35
we were all freaking out because there was a big earthquake last February and we were

00:49:40
all freaking out.

00:49:41
I was like, I don't know you with these people.

00:49:43
I want to be with someone special.

00:49:45
Like I want to share my tents with someone I like, but I can't do that.

00:49:51
I think you can.

00:49:52
And I also think that you should say it at a stand up night where all of those comics

00:49:57
are present, name them by name and say would not be with you in an earthquake.

00:50:04
I told them in person.

00:50:06
As it was happening, as we were evacuating, I was like, I don't want to die with you.

00:50:15
You suck, you suck, you suck, you suck.

00:50:20
You know, I living in California, I guess, you know, we get earthquakes all the time

00:50:25
and a big one is supposed to come and, you know, like swallow the whole state or whatever.

00:50:29
That's science.

00:50:30
Do your own research.

00:50:31
But yeah, I definitely I don't know if a stand up comic is who I'd want to be in an emergency

00:50:36
situation with so much as like a doomsday prepper who's probably like full MAGA or whatever.

00:50:43
But you know, they've got like a bunker to die for.

00:50:48
So I just, you know, but Gabbie, I would be in the earthquake with you.

00:50:53
I would be in an earthquake with you.

00:50:55
It would be really fun.

00:50:56
We would die together.

00:50:58
Just laughing.

00:50:59
Yeah.

00:51:00
I would be like, what?

00:51:01
I'm going to die now.

00:51:02
OK.

00:51:03
Or even better, we both survive, but slowly run out of our medication.

00:51:14
It becomes survivor with medication.

00:51:16
That's exactly.

00:51:18
Oh, shit.

00:51:21
You have your own podcast, right?

00:51:23
Yes.

00:51:24
And let me tell you just real quick, my biggest criticism of the podcast.

00:51:29
I can't understand it because I don't speak the language.

00:51:35
Americans not learning Turkish.

00:51:39
Classic.

00:51:40
Well, the opportunity was there in school.

00:51:43
It was like French, Spanish, German, Turkish.

00:51:48
Yeah.

00:51:50
And living in California, I obviously went with French, which has done me no goddamn

00:51:56
favors.

00:51:57
I can't speak it.

00:51:58
I am currently tutoring somebody who takes their classes in French, so I'm trying to

00:52:03
teach them math.

00:52:04
But in French, it's fabulous.

00:52:07
It is so frustrating.

00:52:10
Anyway, back to your podcast.

00:52:13
I'm sure it's great.

00:52:16
Thank you.

00:52:18
But seriously, what are you going to do for the Americans?

00:52:23
Because I would just love it if all countries and people on this planet could understand

00:52:28
that America is number one and we're your biggest demographic.

00:52:35
So we just put our US stamp on everything.

00:52:39
You speak English here.

00:52:40
Yes, you speak English.

00:52:42
And also, can you do the podcast while holding a gun?

00:52:45
Because that would make it more American.

00:52:48
Yeah.

00:52:49
Are you not seeing the bikini I'm wearing?

00:52:52
The flag.

00:52:53
Yes, I did see that.

00:52:55
Okay.

00:52:56
Okay.

00:52:57
That's patriotic.

00:52:58
And with the American flag in the background.

00:52:59
And look at the bot.

00:53:00
That's good, too.

00:53:01
Look at the bot part.

00:53:03
It's the bad flag.

00:53:05
That's how American I am.

00:53:07
Yes.

00:53:08
It's either the thin blue line flag or the MAGA flag.

00:53:13
The Confederate.

00:53:14
I also want to say that your tramp stamp of Trump is gorgeous.

00:53:21
Stunning.

00:53:22
They put every hair in the right place.

00:53:27
And he's making that little puckery thing with his mouth where it looks like a sphincter.

00:53:32
Hot, dude.

00:53:34
Hot.

00:53:35
Guys must go crazy for that.

00:53:36
And it's so orange.

00:53:37
So orange.

00:53:38
I didn't even know they could tattoo in that color.

00:53:43
That's amazing.

00:53:44
Yeah, it is amazing.

00:53:46
I said it before.

00:53:47
I'll say it again.

00:53:48
I'll marry you in a second.

00:53:49
Come get American citizenship.

00:53:51
Get over here and let's start our comedic journey together.

00:53:56
I really want to move to the US.

00:53:57
I think in two years I have a plan to be an immigrant.

00:54:04
Yay.

00:54:05
Okay.

00:54:06
Are you still planning to move to the wrong coast, though?

00:54:09
You still planning on New York?

00:54:12
Which by the way, New Yorker comics in New York.

00:54:15
Are you kidding?

00:54:16
It is not a town known for its New York.

00:54:19
I know.

00:54:20
I know.

00:54:21
I heard it's really boring.

00:54:26
No alternative stages.

00:54:28
Just two guys.

00:54:31
Just that.

00:54:32
Yep.

00:54:33
Just two guys.

00:54:34
They have a microphone.

00:54:35
They're quote unquote podcasting.

00:54:36
Like in Turkey.

00:54:39
Great.

00:54:40
You mean West Coast is the best coast?

00:54:45
I do.

00:54:47
But I really mean, will you please move to LA with me?

00:54:50
I don't want to move to LA and I would really like a friend.

00:54:55
I will move to which states has a university that will allow me to do a PhD.

00:55:04
We have so...

00:55:05
Okay.

00:55:06
California, I think has some of the most colleges out of all the states.

00:55:12
UCLA.

00:55:13
Yeah.

00:55:14
Bam.

00:55:15
Tennessee, Berkeley, Pepperdine.

00:55:19
Too north.

00:55:21
Yeah.

00:55:22
Right, right, right.

00:55:26
Riverside.

00:55:27
State schools.

00:55:28
Long Beach.

00:55:29
I mean, listen, what are you trying to put on airs here?

00:55:32
It's got to be like Harvey Mudd or something like that.

00:55:37
There are lesser schools.

00:55:39
I really petered out on that one.

00:55:45
I don't know where it's from.

00:55:50
I didn't know if those were real schools or you were doing a bit.

00:55:58
I am like 85% sure those were real schools.

00:56:06
Pepperdine is a real thing.

00:56:08
Yeah.

00:56:09
And it's in LA-ish.

00:56:10
So there you go.

00:56:13
I think they do psychology, maybe law.

00:56:17
Why are we talking about this?

00:56:23
Pepperdine hasn't paid me in so many years.

00:56:28
And I have been nothing but the best ambassador on their behalf where I tell people they're

00:56:35
a school.

00:56:36
They have programs.

00:56:37
That's their branding.

00:56:41
We're a school.

00:56:45
Yeah, question mark.

00:56:48
Yeah, man.

00:56:51
Well, yeah.

00:56:53
I was about to go into the visa process, the immigrant experience.

00:56:59
I was like, oh, I am unqualified to be talking about this.

00:57:06
The podcast just takes a real turn, goes full political.

00:57:10
Or you're like, don't come to America.

00:57:13
We have enough immigrants.

00:57:15
No.

00:57:16
Yes, that's my standing because my grandparents came to this country and they should have

00:57:22
been the last immigrants allowed in this country.

00:57:29
Pull up the ladder after you get in.

00:57:31
That's my motto.

00:57:33
Okay.

00:57:35
So that's dead air.

00:57:39
Okay.

00:57:40
So, oh, I wanted to talk to you about the Edinburgh process.

00:57:45
So are you trying to go this year or are you thinking 25 this year?

00:57:51
This year?

00:57:52
Yes.

00:57:53
Yes.

00:57:54
I signed the contract with a venue.

00:57:56
I'm going to do a full run.

00:57:58
Holy shit.

00:57:59
Oh my God.

00:58:00
This is amazing.

00:58:01
How long is it?

00:58:02
Three weeks.

00:58:03
Holy shit, dude.

00:58:04
I am so impressed.

00:58:07
Do you need a PA?

00:58:09
Why don't you come to Edinburgh and do a run?

00:58:14
Their registrations are still open.

00:58:17
Really?

00:58:18
Yeah.

00:58:19
All right.

00:58:20
Now I have to come up with something though.

00:58:21
Okay.

00:58:22
Do you know the dates that you're going to be in Edinburgh?

00:58:24
Because we have like five people that listen to this podcast and you're one of them, but

00:58:29
I'm sure that we could get some tickets going.

00:58:32
So when are you going to be there?

00:58:34
In August, all August throughout the festival, I will do a full run every day except for

00:58:41
Sundays.

00:58:42
Yeah.

00:58:43
I'm going to do anti-depressed and watch a lot of shows if I get a visa.

00:58:48
I did sign my contract, but I still need to apply for the visa.

00:58:53
And before I do that, I want to try to register to the official fringe registry so I can get

00:59:01
an invitation from them as well, not just the venue stating that they are coming to

00:59:07
perform not to steal our jobs or whatever they do.

00:59:14
Yeah.

00:59:16
That's classic steal our job stuff.

00:59:18
Coming in here, putting on a one woman show when there are so many people that would love

00:59:24
that job.

00:59:25
When there are so many women that want a one woman show.

00:59:28
And who have your exact life experience and want to talk about it on stage.

00:59:35
What do I think?

00:59:36
The Scottish women don't have enough OCD.

00:59:39
I'm wrong.

00:59:40
That's right.

00:59:41
That's right.

00:59:42
Thank you for saying it.

00:59:43
That's a first step.

00:59:44
Stolen valor.

00:59:45
Okay.

00:59:46
So the show title is Anti-depressed.

00:59:51
You're going to be there for all of August.

00:59:55
You should go check it out listeners.

00:59:58
I really want to go.

01:00:00
This is so exciting, dude.

01:00:02
Is there anything that we can do to help you get a visa?

01:00:04
Do you want us to sign something?

01:00:06
We're Americans.

01:00:07
Did I not say that?

01:00:10
Yeah.

01:00:13
Do you want to sign doctor's note for me?

01:00:15
Yeah.

01:00:16
Like she's okay.

01:00:17
Signed an American.

01:00:20
That's it.

01:00:21
You know, done.

01:00:22
I've talked to her in Zoom for like over two years now.

01:00:27
She haven't talked about blowing anything up unless the scene called for it.

01:00:32
Yes.

01:00:33
Yes.

01:00:34
Yes.

01:00:35
Yeah.

01:00:36
Only in space work, mime work, does she blow things up.

01:00:40
And then I say, quote, she's one of the good ones.

01:00:44
And then I sign it an American.

01:00:49
You say like, okay, I know Turkey.

01:00:52
I know where Turkey is, but like she's quite white.

01:00:56
Yeah.

01:00:57
Nailed it, dude.

01:00:58
That's yes.

01:00:59
And do you know how many emails I sign off as she's quite white, comma, Gabbie.

01:01:18
You know, so far it's got me putting on a few lists, but I see that as a point of pride.

01:01:26
Okay.

01:01:27
Any last thoughts about OCD comedy?

01:01:31
You want to ask us like a million questions because you're obviously a super fan.

01:01:35
Thank you so much for having me.

01:01:37
Hey, that's a wrap up right there.

01:01:40
That is a wrap up.

01:01:42
Well, yeah, thank you for coming.

01:01:45
And sorry, I didn't mean to step on your lines, Heather.

01:01:49
No, no, no, no, no, you go.

01:01:51
Okay.

01:01:52
Okay, will you tell the people, you know, Instagram, social media, is there any place

01:01:59
that you want them to come see your brilliance?

01:02:02
Sure.

01:02:03
You can follow me on Instagram at a go E G E O E.

01:02:09
And I do English stand up shows in Istanbul if anyone visits Istanbul at any time.

01:02:17
If any of the four other listeners than myself of the podcast are Turkish speakers, they

01:02:26
can read my book and listen to my podcast.

01:02:32
And see you in Etterborough.

01:02:36
Follow Gabbie and Heather too because they're so funny.

01:02:41
Nice try.

01:02:42
Nice fucking try.

01:02:44
Okay, that's right.

01:02:46
We didn't even get into your book.

01:02:47
And also, truly, I am still upset that it is not in English.

01:02:52
I know that I get it.

01:02:55
I hear myself.

01:02:56
It's ridiculous that I only speak English, but I would love to read your book.

01:03:00
Okay.

01:03:01
I just want to thank you so much for being our absolute first guest on the podcast.

01:03:06
Thank you for being.

01:03:07
Yeah, Susan.

01:03:08
Yeah, Kelsey.

01:03:09
Name names, dude.

01:03:10
That's right.

01:03:11
Yeah, Taylor Swift's cousin we took two weeks of improv with.

01:03:20
Right.

01:03:21
That's right, dude.

01:03:22
Oh, she was awesome.

01:03:23
The cousin.

01:03:24
Haven't met Taylor Swift in person yet.

01:03:25
Yet.

01:03:26
Yet.

01:03:27
But you've been an amazing first guest and thank you for being so honest and open about

01:03:41
OCD and how that's been really fun for you.

01:03:47
Yeah, this has been great.

01:03:51
I appreciate it.

01:03:52
I think everybody now realizes that people with contamination are better people.

01:03:57
Yeah.

01:03:58
Yeah, in every way.

01:04:00
In every way.

01:04:01
Yeah.

01:04:02
I think we could.

01:04:03
And hot.

01:04:04
And hot.

01:04:05
And hot.

01:04:06
And hot.

01:04:07
And hot.

01:04:08
Yes.

01:04:09
And I'm listening to your sexy, sexy voice.

01:04:11
They know how high you are.

01:04:15
So I'm excited for us to put up the list of which OCDs are the best, which ones are

01:04:20
legitimate and which ones are just, you know, in people's head and they're just making

01:04:25
them up for attention.

01:04:27
So yeah, man.

01:04:32
Thank you.

01:04:33
Thank you.

01:04:34
Thank you.

01:04:35
Thank you.

01:04:36
Yeah.

01:04:37
Bye.

01:04:38
Bye, everyone.

01:04:39
Bye, everybody.

01:04:41
This is the end of the pod.

01:04:42
It is the end of the pod.

01:04:43
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

01:04:44
Bye.

01:04:45
Welcome to the end of the show.

01:04:51
This is Gabbie Blachman.

01:04:53
And this is Heather Nye.

01:04:54
Thank you for listening to Comically Exposed.

01:04:57
We are just a little show with two creators who edit and produce each episode.

01:05:02
We appreciate all your support.

01:05:05
If you like what you heard, please follow us on Instagram at comicallyexp.podcast.

01:05:11
That's comicallyexp.podcast.

01:05:17
Or subscribe to us on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

01:05:23
New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

01:05:26
Also special thanks to Track Club and Gxldxn Fxnch for providing the music.

01:05:31
Thanks for listening.

01:05:32
And hey, everybody, today is a great day to expose yourself.

01:05:36
Okay, until next time.

01:05:38
Ta-da for ta-da.

01:05:41
Bye.

01:05:42
Bye.

01:05:43
Bye.

01:05:44
Bye.

01:05:45
Bye.

01:05:46
Bye.

01:05:47
Bye.

01:05:48
Bye.

01:05:49
Bye.

01:05:50
Bye.