Comedian Ms. Pat

0:00This message comes from Schwab with the new Schwab Teen Investor account. Teen's can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits. It's an account co-owned by you and your teen so you can monitor and engage with the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at Schwab.com. Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR. It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. My next guest this week is the Stand Up Comic Miss Pat. Pat had an extraordinarily difficult path to success. She was a victim of child sexual abuse. She was a mother at 14. She was incarcerated. To go from those kinds of circumstances to where she is today, a national headliner with TV and movie credits. I mean, I cannot imagine doing it. Could you?

1:07But to talk to Miss Pat, just in terms of her life story, it sells her comedy short. She's a genuinely brilliant stand-up, direct and clever and raw. She'll talk about getting bored when her granddaughter talks, chase it with a story about surviving a gunshot, and then finish with a brutal quip about menopause. I'm going to play you a little bit, but this is NPR, and I will have to say that Miss Pat's stand-up is very, very direct and raw. She also has her own show. When we talked in 2024, the Miss Pat show had just kicked off its fourth season on BET. These days, you can catch all five seasons of the Emmy nominated program on Paramount Plus. On the Miss Pat show, she plays a fictionalized version of herself. Her character is a stand-up comic like Pat. She's also a mother of four, like Pat. Her family has moved from their hometown, Atlanta, to a conservative small town in Indiana. In this clip, Pat is heading back to Indiana after a long tour and she makes some small talk of the person setting next to her.

2:37Were you out here for work as well? Yeah. I'm a comedian. You? I'm a geologist. What? A geologist? I study rocks. Wait a minute. Thank you. Why people job studying your rocks? Miss Pat, welcome to Bullseye. I'm so happy to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. As I was watching a few episodes of the Miss Pat show, I found myself wondering, are there lines that have been handed to you on Tuesday or whenever you do the read through for that week, where you say to yourself, this is too much. No. I co-curated the show with Johnny Cooper. And sometimes he gets a little wild and I'm like, Johnny, I don't think we should do that. So, you know, you know, he wanted me to do something and I was like, that's not me. Give it to give it to Tammy Roman. She's going to deliver it way better. Sometimes he do get a little crazy. But it's we open field over there. It really is. I mean, like it is the rawest multi-cam sitcom I've

3:40ever seen in its tone. Like, that you just go at everything hard. Yes. We don't we pull the scale off the store. You know, like network TV, they're just, if they're going to talk about race, it's going to be a little bit because they don't want to, you know, they don't want anybody to think or cry or get upset. What else? We're going to make you go deep. We're going to make you put those demons at your closet. We're going to make you deal with things that you've been trying not to deal with. So, you know, every season is something crazy with the Miss Past Show. Okay. This is the this show, the show that ended up on the ARON BET Plus was your sort of third time through developing the show. So, what was it that you got to by the end? Well, first of all, congratulations on keeping the ball rolling that all time. Yes. But what was it that you got to at the end that you weren't able to get to the first two times? Hollywood. I'm not Hollywood. So, you know, a lot of people just want to do stuff because they want to be on TV or they want the money.

4:45And I went through two writers before Jordan. And the first one we out of that go. The second one, we didn't come up with nothing that Fox light. So, when when when nothing was developed, I was able to get a third chance what you don't in Hollywood. So, the thing with me is I didn't want to be put out there any kind of way. I wanted to be funny because I'm a stand up comedian. So, I'm funny on stage. So, I don't want you to give me no corny show. Now, the person in the grown people language came from the co-creator. He was like, he said, the problem we all have him when I was 22 year old kid out of college, he come to tell Fox and he said, the problem that y'all have in this, y'all want to allow her to be herself. If y'all let this girl be herself, this will be a hit. I love the idea that this dude was 22 years old. He has was a playwright. He's a playwright. He was still in college when when he met me. Yeah. And he came to tell them when they were doing wrong. We we both did because we had never developed anything. He had a play that just went to like

5:48the public in New York. And so, in Lee Daniel found him and he was telling them all of this stuff and I said, look, look Jordan, I'm going to be honest with you. This is Hollywood. They all lie. Nobody's going to tell you the truth. I said, I'm the only person going to tell you the truth. I said, they're not going to give you this job every day. I'm interviewing for writers. I say, let's go off and write something together. Don't put your name on it, which was very tricky because so many people can get they stuff stolen. I said, don't put your name on it. I'm going to give it to Lee if they don't like it. Then they say, I tried. Why did you decide to do that with him and not with somebody else? Because he listened to me. The other writers were listening. They wanted to create their own version of me when I'm sitting here in your face. I'm not dead. I'm not made believe. You had the originality in your face. He didn't mind taking pieces of my life. This dude stood me so much that he knew how Miss Pat was going to say things. And in the midst of all, he taught me a lot about writing. And I taught him a lot about comedy because sometimes people come to me and I be like,

6:51that joke already been done. That's a little hacky. I said, think I saw it the box when you're writing comedy. Think about creating something somebody never heard. And I remember when we was writing the pile. He said, what you think about this? That's the way he said, quiet. I said, what the hell is quiet? Five before you quit at our hallets. And I said, see, that's comedy. And that was one of the things that stuck out in the first season of the Miss Pat show. And then the great part about him, he likes to go deep. He wants to let you know it's okay to cry. And so many people can relate to this because it's like they family. They don't just know black family. They don't know white family. It's everybody got a Miss Pat, a Noah Miss Pat. The characters on the show are not too far from your actual real life. You have a sweet husband in real life. You have a sweet husband on the show. They kind of look alike. At least per the picture that I, I only saw a little picture of your real life husband and a big pretend husband on the screen, but they kind of look alike. And

7:56but like these characters are pretty close to your life. So what were the guidance that you had to make in the writing process? What were the things that felt true or false? Well, we were men joined and created the pilot. He knew my family because we spent a lot of time on the phone like we still do to this day. We talked a lot. And so I broke down each person in my family. And one thing I told him, I said, you can't just make me funny because that's not real to who I am. I said, my whole family is funny. You know, we rag on each other. We talk about each other. We have fun. And nothing hurts anybody feelings. So I said, everybody got to be funny or somewhat. Everybody need an identity. I said, don't just put me here as a star and make me the star of this show. And everybody's depending on me to deliver every joke. I said, no, because that wouldn't be real to who I am. I said, so therefore we got to spread it around. And so I just just drive every character to him.

8:56And he created it. What's the story that you brought to the writer's room that ended up on the screen? Everything you see. Thank you. From that first episode. Cat, what's an example? Let's let's have an example. Moving to playing for Indiana, the pilot. That was all my stand up. The first season was all my stand up. I couldn't use it no more because we had wrote it all until sitcom. Then every episode was my stand up. So, you know, honestly, I tell people I tell them over 97%. I say 98% of the show is based off my real life. You were about 30 when you started doing stand up. What got you on stage? I'm a convicted felon confinal job trip to the welfare office. Casework told me I was funny. And I tried it out. And I was like, Hey, this is easy right here. I believe all of it except for the last part. What is easy? Yeah. Well, I got up and and I told stories about my brother been a fat cat burglar and people laugh. And I was like, this stand up.

9:59I was like, Oh, it's just telling your business. And then people was telling me that I was a story teller. So they I started to dive into Richard Priya and Bill Cosby and then burning me and I just listened to them on how they deliver the story. And I was like, I want to be a combination. So you said you got on stage and said, this is so easy. I read in some profile or other. You're a daughter who I think was a teenager and was in the audience when you got on stage. Describe it otherwise. Not as easy for you. That's her. To me, I was killing. That is strictly her opinion. Okay. What I was saying was funny. I didn't get booed. So it wasn't. You know, I've had rough sense, but not going to have them in boo. Thank you. And but as you know, what I think I feel like comedy is just you got to keep doing it. Everything is like riding a bike. You're never going to learn how to paddle. If you don't fall down and get back up. And then there's

11:01slow patches in my career. And then that's what my career just started to take off and it just froze. So what I'm blessed with is I had a lot of stories. I have a lot of stories. You know, I don't have to make up nothing. And I think that's what makes comedy really hard. And I got confidence really early. Like I have a very recipe voice and as a kid, I said, look, why sound like a man in my name is Patricia, but you just never know what the world is saying you are for. I have a very controlling voice. When I speak, you're going to listen. And I never thought it would be for public speaking like comedy. And when I can go into a rough room and I can start to talk and everybody like, who the hell is that? So now I'm thankful for this recipe voice. I think in tough situations, being able to, and I know this from my own childhood or adolescence, like being able to modulate the amount of space you take up in the room is really important.

12:08Even if it's not literally room, even if it's just on the street, which is to say like, I think I learned as a 13 year old, 14 year old, how to either walk down the street such that nobody would touch me or walk down the street such that nobody would notice me like either one, like flip that switch depending on the situation. Just for safety sake. And I think that's kind of the, that's the skill that you're talking about in part, which is like you step on stage, you have to own that room. Yes. Yes. I mean, you said walking in the street like how you always tell people I say, people know who to mess with. You know, and that's why I said, you don't, you don't ever walk with your head down. You look a person in the eye and your eye speaks your eyes say more than your mouth could ever say. And they'd be like, no, I ain't going to try to kidnap her. She a little too big. And she already told me she would fight back. So I'm going to the next person who got the weak guys. So,

13:09you know, and that's how I feel when you get on stage, you just, it's the confidence. I walk on stage. I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this now over 20 years. When I didn't know I was doing, I act like I knew what I was doing. And I was hoping that I had the material to back it up. Thank God I'm good at the top of my head. So if I lost you, I could start a conversation to bring the audience back in. And that other than times that I had to go back and get them, you know, and I lose them and go back and get them. But over the years, I mean, that's what open Mike is for and just constantly hitting the stage. And that's what I did. We've got so much more with Miss Pat still to come. Stay with us. It's Bullseye for maximum fun.org and NPR. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. Ever invested something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype for marketers? That's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO. Instead, invest in results your CFO will love.

14:12LinkedIn ads generates the highest row ads of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash NPR pod, terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Rinse. A well-designed life doesn't run on default settings. You chose the walkable neighborhood. Your coffee order became oddly specific. You spent three weeks choosing your mattress. But your laundry routine? That one somehow escaped the redesign. Should that really be the one update you skipped? Consider this the patch. Rinse picks up your laundry and dry cleaning, cleans it expertly, and delivers it back. Sign up today at rinse.com. Rinse, it's time to be great. This message comes from Granger. This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Granger. Because when a drive belt gets damaged,

15:12Granger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-Grainjer. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. I'm here with the Stand Up Comic Miss Pat. You, the house that you grew up in, your mom's house was like a, was sort of like a speakeasy, right? Like a... That's my granddaddy house. A bootleg house. Your granddaddy house? Yes. What does that mean? A bootleg house. He's so moonshine. And I'll kind of stuff when I'm prostitution, gambling. Oh, you name it. We saw it. Did other people in your life know about what was going down in your house where? I don't know. I really don't because we was taught as kids what goes on here stays here. So you didn't go to school and talk about, hey, my granddaddy is saying moonshine. Hey, his prostitution in the

16:16back in the back of the house. You didn't tell your parents business. One of the stories in your book is the most touching is a teacher who cared for you. And when I say cared for you, like, like helped you get cleaned up and stuff, like physically cleaned up. Yeah. It's true. I started fourth grade English, I have a new elementary. I would come to school, smelly and dirty clothes because my mom didn't get up and get us ready. We didn't get this beer's that. Yeah, you get them. We got just that for you. You know you got to be the school. You walked to school. Kole, yeah, dirty. And what she would do is she would take me in the bathroom and you know allow me to wash myself up, brush my teeth and comb my hair. So I wouldn't get picked on and it stuck with me and she gave me something my mama couldn't have never gave me because nobody ever gave it to my mom. And she said you can do and be anything that's where you want to be. All you got to do is drink and boy did I drink. How did you experience that act of your, you know,

17:21your teacher before school taking you in the bathroom helping clean up? I look for what it's going to school even though I know it was on the weekend. I knew if I was late, woke up late, she was always gonna have something for me to eat in her bag. And then she always had to change her clothes so I wouldn't get picked on. All I had to do was bring the clothes back to school so she could wash them. But that's what she did. And I'm 52 and I never forget it. How old were you when you had your first kid? I was 14. Did you have an idea of where you were going to go from there, a plan for your life? Did you have? Was anybody in your life helping you? No. I had the baby. The kids father didn't even come to the house. He was married. So he didn't come to the hospital to the day I was supposed to be discharged. And he came down with his new girlfriend to pick me up. And I go home and I got a new baby on 14. And I, you know, I started

18:23thinking how am I doing it? And you know, the strangest thing is I never felt like a kid. Always felt I'm not gonna send a dope, but my mind was always in a survival mode. It is like now when I see kids do certain things that thing in my head to click off, you know, people like why you work so hard? And I was telling the co-creator I was shooting the second season of Miss Pat Settles it. And they was like, you never take a break. And I said, I don't know why I don't never take a break. I said, but one of the biggest fears in my life and I'm 52 is being hungry. And I just told him I said, that hunger pain is worse than a labor pain. I can't destroy it. I just know I've had it so many times and I never wanted again. And that's something that drives me because I don't want to feel it. And I don't want my family to feel it. I mean, that's what trauma is, you know? Yeah, it is. And my husband, my husband grew up with his mom and dad in middle class. His

19:26daddy worked for the city. You're not you're making fun of your husband for your rolling your eyes at him. I do all the time. And they grew up middle class in Atlanta. So a lot of this trauma that I have, it was hard for him to understand. And because my mind is always in survival mode, even now with the income breaking, I mean, it still scares me. I have to pay off everything. Because I think when the all of this is going to go away and if all of this go away, at least my house is paid for or at least my bills is paid on my car. I don't want you to take nothing from me. I want to play this record that came up in an interview I read with you. It's one of my favorite songs. So always glad to get a chance to hear it. I was hoping you could tell me what it meant to you. You need to get up and get some. Because you went out to you.

20:29Y'all telling me that I need to get out in the boat. Huh? Why ain't nobody black running but crack curves. So why I got you registered. I'm taking a better stuff to do with my time. Never smelled a roma of the plumber, but I write the deep. I'll cast him. Good. He's a dude. When our kids first came out, how did he grew out of Atlanta? And I made my husband together. And so I immediately wanted to play the victim. Oh, I was handed a bad life because that's what I saw my mom do. My mom used to walk around and I say, the cracker's holding me back. I know it was a cracker. I didn't know what a cracker was. So I asked her when they said, my mother would did the key for a little brother to do to you. And she would mean because they don't only think I've seen the advertised crackers on TV. And so I realized when I got older, she was talking about white people. So each one teach one. So I started the same thing. Well, I'm a convicted felon. I'm never going to be nothing. And I want it. People to feel sorry for me. And because I started to feel sorry for myself, here I am trying to get my life back together.

21:34I'm only good enough to, you know, work at Walmart, which is $4 at the time back in the 90s. And I know I wasn't going anywhere in life. So I did what most people do when life kicked them in the button. They don't want to work. They said, finally, I started to feel sorry for myself. And not unreasonably, Pat, like when you have a felony, it's really hard to get it was really I couldn't, you know, it is rigged against you. Yeah. And everywhere I went, people said, no. And I remember I never really thought about suicide one time. And when I became a medical sister and I just knew I had my life on the right track. Nobody will harm me because I was convicted felon. And I was like, you just running into the wall and I was, that's the only time I could say I really depressed. And so my husband was going to his construction job one day. And he said, what would you listen to this cassette? Play was a cassette. And I said, for what? He said, listen to this. Just listen to him. What you think? And it was outcast. Get up and get out and get

22:36something. Don't let the days of your life go by. And that woke something up in me. What did you do when you decided to get up? Get out and get something? What was that? I got my GD. I wanted to work at Walmart Target. I started a vending thing at the dome which put money in my pocket. And I just stopped feeling sorry for myself. I stopped being a people pleaser. That's what I stopped doing. You know, that song made me realize my biggest problem was I didn't love myself. And when you don't love yourself, you can't love nobody else. Because if you take care of yourself, then you could take care of this. But when you put others before you, you're breaking yourself. So I started to love myself. I was always told, but now this makeup, I got better skin now. But I was acting really bad. So all of these demons and

23:38all this stuff. I did an episode about it this year on the Miss Pat Show. All of this ugly stuff on my face. So ugly. My sister was brown skinned. What we in the hood, we call paper bag brown. That's like gorgeous. And my sister's on crack. Now she was so pretty with wavy kind of hair. I remember going to a pool with her. Everybody looking at her. I had this big cut on my navel. We both had nice friends, young girls, but she was my, she was my mother favorite. And I would get called ugly. And I had acne really bad. And I really wasn't fat, but I was get called fat. And I was never told I was pretty. You were talking about buying mom. Yes. Everybody. But my sister was beautiful. She and I used to say, I wish I looked like her. And she was my mother favorite. I felt the ugly she called me the napper head. She called me. You ain't good enough. And I'm 52. And I still fight those demons. And it drives me. It's like I'm out here fighting against somebody that

24:42don't even exist on my mom. I'm dead and gone. I'm dead for over 30 years. But I still hear her voice sometimes. Let me ask you this. You're talking about getting your GED and kind of getting your life on track with support from your husband in your early mid 20s. You kind of got your life on track. You had a real job when you started doing stand up. What was it like to tell your husband this person who was like the one person who had really been in your corner when you really needed somebody to be in your corner and support you through going from felon and mid teen mom into relatively stable, responsible adult. Oh, so here's what I'm thinking hubs. I'm going to focus on stand up comedy now. At the time we was both working in general mode is

25:44and so I went on with work before and those those companies was hard to get on to but I had a friend at unemployment office that got me on then he got on and my knees got on and so I left him with the four of them. He was like, oh, he had it all planned. And I said, we make it over $2,000 each week. We make it all of this money and died out. And I said, I had started planning around with open mic and I said, that ain't for me. And he was like, what you mean that ain't for you. And I said, this is for me. I know what's for me. I had started open mic. And he was like, you don't make no money over there. I said, I'm telling you is something here. And he was so mad because I would take his credit cards and fly places to do open mic. When you say take his credit cards, do request that you borrow his credit card or do me take his credit card. Sometimes I was still his credit card and we were arguing. We had so many bad financial problems. And you know, we can pay

26:45a card off like we do today. And he was like, you're not a comedian. And he always tell me he didn't say that. He said, don't I want to hear that chicken, that chicken house crap you saying. And I said, I'm going to remind you said that you told me that I'm going to be I'm going to play the Fox theater and you going to be sitting next to my baby daddy. I would never play the Fox theater, but I've done well in Atlanta. And he didn't understand it. My husband couldn't understand. You know, why not just go by life like society say you get a job, you stay on your job 30 years and your mind your business. I wanted more. And I said with my husband, my son was, I had my son and he was one year old and my husband went through the tent program. My husband got hired. I told him, I said, you're going to retire before you do 30 years. I'm going to get you out of here. When General Motors moved us from Atlanta to Indiana, I had to work harder. I said, I do not want to die in this place. I want to be back home where I love Atlanta. I don't want to live here. I spent 15

27:47years there and I worked my tail off to get out of here. And I told my husband when I got this show, I said, I'm going to retire you. And I went to him when I got a sick of season. I said, we cool. You can retire. And he won't retire. And so who's having some problems in our marriage? And I gave him a counseling number that saved my friend marriage. And I said, call this man because you had it for the voice. And he called him. And the problem my husband was, my husband's soul rooted in old school way of taking care of your family like his daddy. And with the money I was making, he was no longer here at the household. So he felt like I didn't need him anymore. And so we go to counseling. He tells the counselor he said, well, she don't need me anymore. I said, do you think I spent 20 something? I'm going 30 years with 30 something years with you. For you just take care of me. You just going to walk away after everything you helped me build. And about two months later, he came

28:48to me and said, I'm going to retire. And he had to be scared because he left his pension. He retired early. He don't get nothing now. And I said, I promise you, I got you because with so many years, you had me. And he's probably the first person in my life that believed in me. And he stuck there with so many people thought he should have left. We'll finish up with Miss Pat after the break when we return before she was a comic she worked at McDonald's where she once served a side salad, a water and a cheeseburger to a former US president, which one was it? Keep it locked and find out. My guest is James Garfield. It's Bullseye from MaximumFund.org and NPR. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype for marketers? That's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough

29:49conversation with the CFO. Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn ads generate the highest row ads of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash NPR pod, terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's Flex Path Learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at Capella.edu. Welcome back to Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. My guest is stand-up comic Miss Pat. She co-created and stars in the sitcom The Miss Pat Show. You can catch all five seasons of it these days on Paramount Plus. Miss Pat and I talked in 2024. Let's get back into our conversation. Let's hear a little bit of comedy from my guest Miss Pat. As she said, her act is full of stories.

30:57Some of them are dark and unbelievable. Some of them are just unbelievable. Like this one about a former president. Oh, God. I got my first job working at McDonald's. And I'm doing most people doing my neighborhood when they get their first job working at McDonald's. I'm still in $100 a day out of the restaurant. I had just told $100 a in-walk. This white dude with a plug and his in-skept is shit out of me. I'm thinking like, holy shit, they don't call me stealing them going back to jail. Two seconds later, he said, it's clear send to me. In-walk form a president, Jimmy Carter. Now, I remember his face for my social studies book, but I couldn't remember his name for the He gets to my restaurant. I do the most ghetto crap ever. I look at Jimmy Carter and I say,

32:00that is such a true story. And when it was crazy, the born and grew up. So that's brother of former Jimmy Carter and we got his autograph. I had never kept it, but I called my husband. I was like, I met that invert Jimmy Carter. And he was like, please don't tell me you said that's it. Yeah. And I told my son, your stuff is free business. I still remember the order. A side-sounding award and a cheeseburger. You started playing clubs. What kind of clubs did you play? I started on a lander. So I started on the urban market on the urban side, real heavy. And then I moved to Indianapolis and there was no black or white. It was just clubs. And so I had to dive into what most people consider mainstream, which was really hard in the beginning for me. I didn't really have to change my act. It was the club owner that gave me hell there. He thought I was really ghetto. He thought his white audience would never understand the struggle I've

33:03been through in life. And he just tried to beat me down. And when there's, I mean, like one of the things like I grew up in San Francisco. And even like in San Francisco, where there were a few clubs for comics that I knew, such a huge part of their life was managing their relationship with whatever one club was the one that was willing to give them some time, like regularly, so that they could work, because they need to work on their material, even if they were going to go on the road and make their money on the road. And like in a place where there's one club or two clubs, like the fewer clubs there are, the more dependent you are on whatever weirdo it is in that place that decided to run a stand-up comedy club. You know, he tried so many, we did an episode about him but we he tried so many times to run me away. And I used to tell my co-host of my podcast called The Pet Now. I would tell him I said, I would have been beating him up 10 years ago. I said,

34:07but he got something that I need with just a stage. And I said, what I'm not going to do is let him run this opportunity for me. You know, he would do stuff like tell me to come up there to go up and wouldn't let me go up and just all kind of mean things. But I always kept my cool thank you. You know, and I would go out to the car and cry because you know, when I left Atlanta, I kind of had a name and I was, you know, could get up anywhere. And then I got to Indianapolis or Indiana and this dude treated me like trash. But what thing I know about life, you can't hold somebody back when God got something for them. Going into that situation, did you know you could put your act over to crowds of white college kids already? Let me tell you something. I never changed my act for nobody. I'm mean. My struggle where I come from is me. I'm never going to try to change who I am for white, black, Indian. No, I mean. And I'm going to always stay mean. You either coming to my world or you stand

35:08outside the door. I don't know how to be nothing else. All I did was be funny and told my story. Either you get it or you don't. And my my crowd today is very diverse. And people ask me, how you get white people? I say, no such thing is how you get white people. How do I tell a good story that make everybody interested? Because I live the interesting life. I'll say this like I'm looking, I was looking at your credits earlier today and thinking about your audience. And there's a radio show syndicated morning show in the Midwest called the Bob and Tom show. This is show that books a lot of comics, really funny comics. Yes. And my friend Jimmy Pardo, one of the funniest guys I know Jimmy Pardo's are a regular on Bob and Tom. And he works the whole Midwest, I think, on the back of a him being very funny, but also being known from Bob and Tom. And like I've only listened to it once or twice. But speaking as of just an absolute paragon of whiteness here on

36:10National Public Radio, like those are some white dudes. They're white. Yes. They are. Those are some very white dudes. Yes. And I'm like, I'm thinking about like, I know these people are listening to Jimmy Pardo from, you know, from the South suburbs of Chicago and they get it, right? I'm like, these people have to be blown away by this path. They were. They were. I went, Bob and Tom is one of the shows everybody said, it's ready to get on. And that club on a block me so many times from getting on it. I let you know when you're ready. And I don't quite remember how I got on it, but I ended up getting on it. And I was, I was kind of scared because I didn't know if they were understanding my background. And my friend Dion takes me and he said, you bumming. And I said, what's your men on bombing? He said, tell me you got shot at your teddy. And I said, huh? That's why I told him. And the radio just blew up. People could not believe it. And I said, oh, I can be free here. And doing that show made me realize that everybody kind of

37:16go through the same thing. And from that day on, I just, I let it all hang out. And when my friend told me to just tell who I am, I became more interested. And that's what I did. Has your audience changed since you had a successful show on BET Plus? Black people did not know who I was before BET Plus. I've been roguing. I've been my parent. I've been some of the biggest whiteest podcasts out of black people did not know who I was. I got that BET Plus show. And black people, oh my God, you knew I'm like, no black people. I've been here for about 17, 18 years. Y'all just would never buy a ticket. But, you know, and I'm thankful for that because I was like, how the heck am I'm going to get my people? I got all of these people. I mean, I would go to the show and the midwes and people said, never to Trump had on. Which is fine with me. I don't care how you vote as long as we all respect for towards each other because I want you to treat me the same way when I, when I decide on how I'm on whatever I believe in. And when that show dropped on BET Plus,

38:23black people came running. So it kind of makes me smile when I walk out there and see all the diversity. I can almost tell you where each audience member found me at. If you're big and you're in the waste, that's Joe Rogan, kind of nerdy and middle age, all the white person, that's Mark Merritt fat and like Bill Burke, Christian, black BET Plus, all the breakfast club. Oh, oh, he'll billy Bob and Tom. Well, Pat, I'm so grateful for your time and thanks for coming in and talk to me. And your show is so funny. I was really glad I got to watch it. Thank you. And please continue to watch it. We got nominated for an Emmy twice. And this is the first nomination for BET, a BET Plus, every in the history. I heard that. That is wild. Congratulations on that. Thank you. Miss Pat from 2024, Catcher on the Miss Pat Show on Paramount Plus,

39:26a very fun show. Look out for season six later this year. That's the end of another episode of Bullseye Bullseye reported at maximum fun world headquarters in the historic jewelry district of downtown Los Angeles, as well as at my home in the hills of Berkeley, California. Yesterday I saw a bobcat. Don't see those in Lincoln Heights. Our show is produced by speaking into microphones. Our senior producer Kevin Ferguson, our producers, Hesu San Proso, Richard Robi, our video producer, Daniel Speer. We get booking help on Bullseye from Merit Davis. Our interstitial music comes from our friend Dan Wally, also known as DJW. You can find his music at djwsound.bandcamp.com. Our theme music was written and recorded by the GO team. It's called Huddl Formation. Thanks to the GO team. Thanks to their label Memphis industries. You can follow Bullseye on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube where you'll find video from just

40:26about all our interviews, including the ones you heard this week. And I guess that's about it. Just remember all great radio hosts have a signature sign off. Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFund.org and is distributed by NPR. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at MintMobile.com slash switch. Taxes in fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from Midi Health. Most women never get real answers about their hormone health. Midi is changing that. Built by women for women, Midi connects you with clinicians who specialize in hormone health with virtual care covered by most major insurance plans. Getting started is easy. Sign up with Midi and book your first visit with a clinician right away. Understand your hormones. Visit joinmiddi.com to book your first visit. That's joinmiddi.com.