Comedian Josh Pray stops by for a chat!

Josh Pray – Interview

[00:00:00] Melissa: This is spoiler country and I’m Melissa searcher today. I’m very excited for my guest today on the show. I have the super funny comedian, Josh, pray with me today. How

Josh Pray: are you? I’m so good. Oh my gosh. The pressure is on when they say super funny. Oh

Melissa: no, no, you are super funny. Yeah, absolutely. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

How did you become a comedian? Like what made you want to become a comedian?

Josh Pray: Well, I was I was a security guard at a hotel and absolutely hated my job. And I just can’t hate stuff. I’m such a positive person and I like to be happy. So I I came home one day, literally, this is how it happened. I came home one day in 2014, November 28th.

And I said, I have to do something that I like to do. And I told myself, I’m going to have a comedy show in January. That’s exactly how it happened. I say I’m going to be a comedian. I’m going to make people laugh. And I’m going to have fun doing [00:01:00] it. And two months later I threw my first comedy show and I was absolutely terrible.

I was horrible. I bombed my first comedy show, but the turnout was great and I stuck with it.

Melissa: That’s awesome. Did you have you know, your material, where did you just kind of work on that for two months straight? Or did you have stuff that had been kind of like brewing in your head for a while before that.

Josh Pray: I did not. What happened was I put a bunch of jokes together and I thought, Hey, I think it’s funny. My friends think it’s funny. The world’s gonna think it’s funny. And I went up there trying to tell jokes, word for word, how I remember remembering them and nobody laughed. But I had, I had the the ingredients.

I just didn’t know how to bake the pie at the

Melissa: time. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. It’s just takes time and practice, right? What’s your favorite stand-up comedy, especially?

Josh Pray: It’s very weird. I’m 36 years old. So I’m like at that age where this generation thinks I’m old, but I’m still young in my mind. Martin Lawrence run tale that I just [00:02:00] seen in it’s crazy.

I just watched Eddie Murphy’s. Delirious for the very first time that might be the greatest standup ever. And I really liked Don Rickles.  He just passed away at like 93. I believe he’s probably the greatest comic ever. So I love his his roast and stand up specials.

Melissa: Nice. Yeah, no, delirious is great.

You just saw that recently. Yeah,

Josh Pray: I saw it like two weeks ago for the first time ever. Wow. Did you watch rock? I didn’t watch rod. The thing is I don’t watch stand up. Like I don’t want no stand up. I don’t follow comedians. I don’t watch up. I don’t steady comedians I’m so like unorthodox, like other comedians.

Melissa: I don’t have beef with other comedians. Well, the first, the first video I saw of yours was the, the Outlander one. And the one where you’re talking about, like, you hadn’t seen it yet. It was just the previous. And I was laughing so hard because I actually [00:03:00] watched the first season and I just like, could not.

Get into it. Yeah, no, I was like, I’m just the first season. I’m like, Oh, this isn’t, this is really intense. What do you love about that show? I mean, cause you seem to be really into it. I received it. And you were like,

Josh Pray: yeah. So what happened was my manager. She was like, Josh, you gotta watch bridge written on Netflix.

Right. And I’m like, I’m not going to watch no bridges thing. Cause I don’t watch TV. I’m super like awkward on watch TV shows. I had never seen game of Thrones walking dead. I don’t watch anything. Right. So she was like, you got to watch bridges. And so I watched bridges and. Adam only want to admit it, but bridges didn’t have me hook the way he was passionate and they were kissing without kissing and touching hands.

And they were getting pregnant while breathing on each other. So I told her, I was like, listen, I need something like Bridget. And she was like, well, you can watch Outlander. I’m like, okay, I’m going to watch it. She was like, Josh, but out limited is nothing like Bridget in my mind, I was like, it’s a peace period.

It’s a period of peak period piece. I’m sorry. And. I put on Outlander in the [00:04:00] first episode was kind of slow. I’m like, okay, this isn’t my speed got through the second one. That third episode, when I realized, wait, what? Like, this is, this is high school history and love and sex and violence and war all mixed in one, I got hooked and then like the, the lead character, Jamie, I’m just like, I’m a huge fan of Jamie because he is the King of men.

He is everything. He is Superman.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, no, I, it was just so violent I think. And, you know, I watch a lot of my stuff. I watch game of Thrones, but for some reason that first season, I was just like, like what happened to Jamie? And I was like, Oh my God. Like, I don’t know if I can keep watching this show.

It’s so intense.

Josh Pray: Yes. You talk about the apples. Oh my God. Oh yeah.

Melissa: I couldn’t even like I had to fast forward it, cause it just went on and on.

Josh Pray: I think that’s what, like. Hooked me not that scene, but it was, no, it was no. They were holding no punches. They were, this is what it was. This is how it was.

And we [00:05:00] are going to take the most masculine man on the face of the earth and, and make him defenseless in a sense. And I just felt like. That was one of the grading writing experiences I had ever seen. So I got addicted and then the Outlander fans, they won’t let me go. Now

Melissa: you’re part of the team.

Josh Pray: Yes.

Ma’am.

Melissa: Well, you know, you have so many funny videos. Like I love, I love when you do the five reasons. The game night. Yeah. Five things. Yeah. The game night was. So funny.

Josh Pray: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I about four years ago, about three, four years ago, I just wanted to be inclusive and I, and I did, I do comedy and I talk about a lot of stuff and Racial tensions here in America, at least from where I’m at, they’re so high.

And I was like, you know what? It’s always like, it’s these negative stereotypes about everybody’s race, black people, white [00:06:00] people, Spanish people, whatever. And I said, you know what? I want to like celebrate some of the positive goofiness of each culture and surprisingly. Oh, white folks love to laugh and they do not mind that mid name.

We have a lot of fun and sometimes we take it to the extreme. So a lot of my videos started centering around my adventures with my Caucasian friends. And that’s when I started getting invited to other places and other events and experiencing other cultures.

Melissa: Yeah, no, that’s great. And they’re just, they’re hilarious, but you know, there’s always truth to it and it’s great that you can like poke fun at yourself and at other people.

And you know, there, the game night one, I had me going, cause I’ve had game nights at my house and it’s the same thing. Like what you were saying, it’s not over till we got like the covers were passed down on the couch, three bottles of wine down, you know, it’s like, no one’s going home.

Josh Pray: I know y’all listen, y’all play.

When I say y’all just somebody, anybody that’s Caucasian. They play this game called last man standing. And it’s an [00:07:00] unofficial game. Nobody knows they’re playing, but the last person to fall asleep wins, bragging rights or something like, I don’t know how y’all do it.

Melissa: Right. No, we’re serious about our games.

And the other one that got my attention too, it’s kind of funny as that don’t want you to do about the cooking.  We’re when you go over to a white person’s house, you know, it’s, it’s a lot different when they’re cooking. And I’m actually I’m Sicilian. So I actually identified more with when you were talking about like, you know, your, your family or, and the black folks.

I was like, Oh no, no, no. I don’t cook like a white person. Cause I, you know, I’m Italian and it was so funny with the all spice would be like the Allstate.

Josh Pray: Yes. And see, and that’s another great thing. When people are watching these videos, I love to like, that’s why I read some comments and I love to see the comments where they say.

Wait, I’m 40 years old. And I just realized I might not be white. I might be black, or I might be Mexican. Like I love it because then through my videos, you can see how similar and how alike we are. [00:08:00] And like, I think in the cooking video, I said the one joke about white women don’t play with other people in their kitchen.

No. Getting in the movies, the movies, it looked like, Oh my God, it’s coming to kitchen. Taste this honey. No, when in real life, I’ve endured some wet rag whippings for my mama, and I’ve seen some spatula and spoon weapons get a be given out. And some of my white friends houses and I’m like, Oh my gosh, we are just the same.

Melissa: Oh yeah, absolutely. No, I cannot stand if anyone’s my kitchen and I’m cooking, I’m like, get out of my way. Like I’m in my zone, got my rhythm down. You know, I yell and scream at people to get out. The holidays are really fun.

Right. So another video I had to have to talk about because this literally made me like cry, laughing. Is Martha Stewart being a thirst trap?

Josh Pray: Listen. Okay. Listen, listen, listen, Martha Stewart is sneaky. [00:09:00] Fine. I don’t know where this came from. I never paid attention to Martha. I wanna, I wanna admit that.

I looked over Martha in, in somebody’s inbox me this picture. And it was like, Josh, you got to talk about Martha Stewart. Cause people know I got a thing for judge Judy. I like judge Judy judge, judge Judy is built. I don’t, I don’t care what nobody say. So I I looked at the picture of Martha Stewart. I’m like Martha Stewart is sitting in thirst traps.

Martha Stewart. Is I here looking 45 and 50. And I found out my store is almost 80. Oh, wow. And, and I didn’t know that, but if Martha Stewart is listening to Martha Stewart, we can go let him, we can go to the bingo hall, whatever you want to do. Okay. Martha, Josh, praise on your trail.

Melissa: She, you know, that picture was surprisingly, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

You know, you see her on TV, but when you posted that photo and did her video, I thought, well, she looks really good. I did not know. She was almost 80.

[00:10:00] Josh Pray: 79 years old, Martha Stewart got, looks like a 25.

Her name is decades old. Nobody names their daughter, Martha anymore.

Melissa: That’s true. That is like an old, old timey

Josh Pray: name. I think about being a mom in a hospital, your baby coming out and saying, we’re going to name her. Martha never, never happened about the steward is classic. Yeah,

Melissa: no sitting around forever and, and she’s like a super chill, you know, person she’s evolved so much in her career you know, from, from like how you pointed out doing time.

And then she had that show is Snoop dog. And it’s, it’s interesting to see how seas evolved, you know,

Josh Pray: I, I want to attribute some of that to doing some time in prison, being in the pen and getting her Tupac on the pen. You probably got a rap album. We don’t even know what’s

Melissa: coming next. Speaking of that rap albums, your song is so good.

I watched the video. Gosh, you really

Josh Pray: did.

Melissa: Your research

[00:11:00] Josh Pray: countries never did me wrong.

Melissa: Did you make that beat or do you have a friend had do it? No, I,

Josh Pray: I went on, I went on the web, a website called I think sound click or something and So I have a really big country music support base. I don’t like to say fan base. So support base and Josh, bro, you should do a country music song.

And my thing is I can’t sing. People think I can sing cause I can hum in the shower with nobody around. And I was home. I said, you know what, I’m going to do a country music song and I’m not gonna take it vantage of the support base by just putting out anything, calling the country music, I’m going to do something.

In my range. So I I sat at my house, I got the beat and I came up with the hook, which was super simple, but I I didn’t write any of it down. I booked the studio and Cape coral, Florida went with a guy named Steve woods studio and he was laughing. He was like, Josh, you gonna do a country song. I said, listen.

I said, I’m going to do a [00:12:00] country song and I’m going to do it me. I’m not going to put on a cowboy hat. I’m not going to put on tight jeans. I’m going to be myself. In this video and people are going to appreciate me for it. And it happened the only thing that, okay. So something that nobody knows that video, the original video was shot in a project and Amockley Florida.

And if people aren’t familiar with the projects, it’s like, it’s a, it’s a lower income area. And I wanted the greediness of it. So the original video had like a bunch of guys with long hair and gold teeth and a lot of necklaces on and cars with big rims and it was going to be even more urban. What, just to show.

How we all can get along and whatnot, but we recorded that video for like 12 hours and the camera man lost all the footage. I was so upset. So, so that was the second video you guys got to see. Wow.

Melissa: Well, that was a good one too. I mean, it was simple, you know, it was [00:13:00] just you and, and a friend and it was out a good friend of ours.

Was that someone you hired

Josh Pray: that guy that that’s That’s my best friend and the reason we were laughing so hard in the video, we having so much fun because all, if you go look at the video, all the necklaces, he has like 12 chains like that. He only had like eight for the video. What he actually owns a mobile oil change company in Naples, Florida.

He has like six vans and he’s a very professional guy, but we’ve all been young before. So I told him I was like, get your jewelry, just come be in my video company. Stupid, be unprofessional. We were actually in one of his work vans during my video shoot.

Melissa: Wow. That’s cool. Yeah. And it was fun to do stuff with friends too.

Cause then you can like kind of relax and not so nervous about it, you know?

Josh Pray: See I’m I’m uncomfortable right now because Melissa is my friend now.

Melissa: That’s right. So how do you get your ideas? Like do you I know you said you get a lot of suggestions from, from your fans. But yeah, like where do you, where do you decide like, okay, this is the video I’m going to post [00:14:00] today.

Josh Pray: It depends on, and unfortunately, because of the times we’re living on living in, I’m sorry. It depends on the social climate of the day because things change from hour to hour. I always have ideas like I’ll have like, like, okay. So one series I love to do is a series about women in the wa in the woman, anatomy things, women go through me being a man.

I feel like a lot of men are unaware of some of the seriousness of women and their conditions and whatnot, and women are to just be objectified. Right. So I wake up like yesterday, I wanted to do something about mammograms and Bras for women I wanted to do that is already, is already recorded. I want to put it out, but then other things happened.

So I couldn’t put those videos out because those videos would have seen insensitive to some of the things that were going on. But I look for inspiration, like everyday things. I never want to do content about things that we don’t go through. And, [00:15:00] and I try to I try to think, okay, What is somebody thinking right now in this situation?

One day I was in my kitchen and we didn’t have any bottled water and I wanted some water and my son was like that and just drink sink water. And I kinda looked at him like, you drink sink water. I drink no seat water. And it was funny because I’m like a part of the world probably feels just lightly, but we grew up drinking water in the waterhole, straight from my house.

Right. Yeah. And I tried to take those situations and just turn them into comedy and content,

Melissa: just like real life situations that people can relate to. Yeah. When you have over close to 2 million followers on Facebook right now, I have,

Josh Pray: I have 2.9 million followers. I got 1.9 million likes.

Melissa: Wow. Oh, that’s okay.

So it was the legs I was looking at. Okay. I’m on your page. How long did it take you to build that platform? I mean, have you got a lot right away or is this been like a slow build

Josh Pray: from 2014 to 2016? I had, it [00:16:00] took me two years to get. A hundred thousand followers. And then from 2016 to 2017, I gained like 600,000 followers and then 2017 to now I’ve slowly gained where I’m at now.

And I’m steady climbing. I’m starting to climb across all platforms. I have 260,000 subscribers on YouTube. I think I got like one 70, one 60 on Instagram, 25,000 on Twitter. I try to use all the platforms equally. I just can’t Facebook is, is where I have the most fun at, because I feel like it’s the most adult.

I feel like Facebook is the new TV. I feel like I’m an old guy when I go to Instagram and whatnot, but I try to use it Tik TOK. I just can not get ticked off. Oh my God. Yeah. I have like 70,000 followers on Tik TOK, but. I just cannot get tick top. I wish I could. I just can’t. But it was just, it was a slow build and you gotta have some patients and you [00:17:00] gotta have, you definitely gotta have some belief in it.

Melissa: There was like one particular video that kind of you posted and all of a sudden kind of skyrocket you up a little bit more.

Josh Pray: Of course, 2015 and January my mother. My mother and I do a lot of comedy concept with my mother because I don’t wear wigs. I don’t wear dresses. So when I want a woman in my video, I go to my mom.

But in 2015, we did a skit called riding in the car with mama. And up until I got to her, I had like, I don’t know, 15,000 followers or something. And when we, when I did the skate with her, it went from 15 to like 50,000, because that video went viral. It did like. 3 million videos and like two days. And at that time that was a lot of views.

And so that went viral and they got me there. And then I posted a video by Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Lopez actually retweeted it and put it on her Instagram and shared it on her Facebook and like 2015. And that did 4 million views of one day. And ever since the J-Lo video, [00:18:00] I arrived.

Melissa: Yeah, well, that was nice of her to do that because that’s such a boost when a celebrity retweets their stuff, you know,

Josh Pray: you know, you used to be excited.

Melissa: You’re like, that’s

Josh Pray: old news now. It used to be like, Oh my gosh. It’s like Jennifer Lopez. And now people like we in a super weird, but like people consider me a celebrity in some rights. So it’s not as excited no more. I miss being that excited.

Melissa: Yeah. Well, I mean, you are a celebrity, I think because you know, the following the, the online presence site that you have are you, do you have an agent, like, are you trying to get into film at all?

Josh Pray: I’m I’m, I’m skeptical about film because my My heart. So I’m a Christian man. I’m, I’m a Bible believer, the father, the son, and the Holy spirit. My mother’s a co-pastor of a church. And I always feel that God gives you what you truly desire. And when I came into comedy, I never truly desire, film, everything I’d ever [00:19:00] desire in this industry.

I have attained obtained it. I’m not. Dying to get into film. But if it happens, it’ll be cool. I don’t have an agent. I don’t have an agent. I have a manager. And she’s more like, My best friend, my lobbyist, my spokesperson, but she does all of the things that Josh prey doesn’t want to do. So all I have to do is create content and she handles the phone calls and emails and the booking fees and things like that.

But I don’t have a traditional agent. Nah.

Melissa: Okay. So you’re like the doors open, but you’re not like actively pursuing it. Yeah.

Josh Pray: Yeah. The door’s definitely open, but You just, you guys want to be, I would say I would give this advice to anybody. You don’t want to put all your faith and belief into one system.

You got to do the work regardless. And with the way the world is set up today with the internet and social media and whatnot, if you can’t at least get to the door, then you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. Now, an agent may have to walk you through the door, but I [00:20:00] want to be able to get to the building by myself.

Melissa: Yeah. Well, you know, if you keep growing the way you are with your following, you may even have people approaching you at some point, you know? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, you ever think maybe you could do since you seem to be doing it really well, is your own cooking show.

Josh Pray: Yeah, I I I can’t. So I can’t, so Melissa, I can not, can I call you Melissa?

Absolutely. Okay. So Melissa, I can not cook. I before I can kind of now, before I did the cooking live with Josh prey, I couldn’t boil a hot dog like at all and the show and I go live on face. I used to go live on Facebook twice a week, Wednesday and Sundays. I used to do family on Wednesday. I would encourage.

Support is the semi email. Like if you had a small business on Wednesday, I would not charge to put your business out there and tell people to go to your business. I would do this thing to encourage people with small businesses. Hey, send me some of your products and I’ll talk about it on my life. And then I was alive on Sundays and just tell [00:21:00] jokes for like 45 minutes.

And it bored me. The people liked it, but it wasn’t fulfilling for me. And I said, you know what? I want to do something that’s fulfilling for me. Influence and we learned them together. So I started doing the cooking line with Josh prey and I’ve actually learned how to cook now and measure stuff and temperatures and taste stuff.

And it’s awesome.

Melissa: Cool. Now what’s your like go-to meal that you cook for yourself or for your kids spaghetti?

Josh Pray: Spaghetti. Yeah. Listen to anybody. That’s Italian black people eat more spaghetti than Italians. So let’s, let’s just eliminate that myth and that stereotype, black people eat more. My mama made me eat more spaghetti growing up than any Italian has ever made.

I promise you

Melissa: on the other end, the stereotype. You know, growing up as an Italian people thought I just ate pasta, like all the time and I’m like, no, we get, we actually eat Mexican food and Asian food. And

Josh Pray: you see what I mean?

Melissa: Yeah. I mean, I probably make [00:22:00] pasta like once every couple of months and then I’m making tacos every other night.

Josh Pray: People think, yeah, black people, you gotta eat fried chicken. A like, nah, we eat fries with Gabby a lot.

Melissa: Yeah, it’s hilarious though. How people try to pigeonhole you and especially when you’re a kid growing up, I grew up in the nineties. I’m 41. And so, you know, back then there was no internet. There was no, it was just like what you saw on TV. So it was two things, always that they would ask me how much pasta do I eat and is my dad in the mafia.

Josh Pray: You see what I mean? See what I mean? But no seriously. Where did that now? I mean, you could, I mean, you can tell him, you ain’t gonna tell nobody of y’all secret. Right,

Melissa: right. No, no. He’s he’s in the restaurant business.

So do you watch any cooking shows? Like, did you, when you were trying to learn how to cook, did you watch any like the food network stuff?

Josh Pray: I don’t I didn’t watch anything. And the reason. The reason I don’t watch cooking shows or anything that I do [00:23:00] is because I never want to sound like anybody.

And I never want to seem like anybody. I don’t want nobody to see my comedy or my cooking show or my lives and say, he sounds just like this guy, or he’s coming up like this woman, I want to just be as authentic as possible. And when I did the cooking show naturally I think the lady name was Auntie fee or fame or something like that.

I think she may have passed away if she has blessed her soul. If she has an apologize, it was coming from, it comes from a fan. They was like, you should do a show with her. And I’m like, yeah, nah, nah, I don’t want to do a show with, with anybody because I, I, I kind of got my own thing going last week. I actually had a special guest.

She’s a real big radio personality in the area in, from. And she was absolutely terrific, but I realized after the show that I couldn’t fully be Josh prey on the cooking segment, because I had somebody else in the kitchen with me throwing you off. Yeah. So, so, so what I’m going to have to [00:24:00] do, I’m going to have to Figure out how to I’m to have to figure out how to co-exist with somebody, if I’m going to have people on the show with me.

Melissa: Yeah. I think you just have to find that rhythm, which, you know, it’s hard at first. And then once you it’s like actually doing a radio show with another host, you have to, you know, we have to find that rhythm. So we bounce off each other and it’s different when you do it on your own, you just think you’re doing your own thing.

Josh Pray: Yeah. So, and I have a, I kind of have a character I play while I’m doing the cooking show. What the fans. I keep saying fans, what yours, what the viewers absolutely loves. And I want to maintain that. I don’t want nobody to see me as different in the thing about going live with a woman it’s a different day and age.

And I was very careful about seeming overbearing or I forgot the other word, just like. It’s the less than other word, I’m going brain dead right now. But I didn’t want to seem like I was too possessive of [00:25:00] my segment and I actually got one message. And I was surprised, but I got, of course I got one message where somebody was like, you were mean to that young lady and you were so big.

And she was so small and I don’t like that. And in my head, I was like, I went out of my way to make sure she spoke. I stayed like two, three feet away from her at all times.

Melissa: Yeah. Some people are just really sensitive right now, you know, with, with everything that’s been going on, you know, and, you know, as far as like, well, how do you feel about that?

Like this whole cancel culture thing.

Josh Pray: I think that the thing about the council culture is so, so a situation happened with country music, artists, Morgan wildland, and it’s the elephant in the room, but, and he said, he said something. And my feelings on it was the word, the, what he said is, is going to hurt people because it’s a very sensitive word and the word has negative history behind it and whatnot.

I think Morgan widen is young and I don’t think he’s counseled for album. I don’t think he should be canceled forever. I think he needs to understand. What a word came from and meet [00:26:00] with real people, not just people in the higher upper echelons of society. He needs to meet with real people, the real people that he may affect.

And I think when it comes to canceling people, we can choose our actions and the things we say, but we can’t choose how people respond to us. And. From, and, and throughout history council conscious has always been a thing. The internet has given people a bigger voice is is what’s going on. I remember when I spoke about some of the issues that were going on last March in April, and I spoke about it and I was just speaking as a black man and how I felt right.

And. Majority of my fan base is Caucasian. And I appreciate, and thank God for my fan base, like regularly. Right. And I lost, I don’t know when I spoke out and just said like, as a black individual, as a black male sometimes I am concerned and I just put it like that, whatever I want to say, I lost like 10,000 followers in [00:27:00] like 20 minutes.

Wow. Jessica saying that. It hurt my feelings at first because I’m like, wow, like me just expressing how I feel as a human, you guys are upset, but then you gotta come back and you gotta realize if there’s a million people in 500,000 people hate you, 500,000 people still love you. And it’s where you place your joy yet.

So cancel culture. It’s re is real and it’s not real. Your people are only as a people are only as important as you allow people to be. Yeah. And, and Morgan knows his heart. He knows how he feels. He’s gonna, he’s gonna eventually make amends and bless him. God bless him, him and his family and his situation.

Do I like council culture? Nah, because I don’t feel like everybody with a voice can tell me. How important I am or on unimportant. I

Melissa: am. Yeah. When [00:28:00] it seems to be you know, also directed a lot at like toward comedians and I think it was Leslie Jones that came out and was like, you have to stop.

Trying to send sir comedians because, you know, it’s, it’s jokes. It’s, it’s not trying to be offensive. You know, like when Kevin Hart got a bunch of flack and what’s the, the one that ripped up a photo of Trump, you know, and she was canceled. So it’s interesting how people are trying to come after comedians as

Josh Pray: well.

I think, I think, but, okay. I will say this and some comedians may hate me for it, but it is what it is. I think some comedians hide behind the moniker of I’m a comedian, because somethings you just, you gotta be careful insane. Like so I have a strong faith, right? I don’t play about God. Like you will never find me.

Joking about God and Jesus and my comedy. Right. If I talk about God and Jesus, I’m praising him and you’re going to understand my message in the, in the, the humor. But some comedians say something very [00:29:00] anti-sematic, they may say something homophobic and, and not even everything can be said in a tasteful manner.

I have a joke about And wait, what is our audience BG.

Melissa: Oh, it’s no, it’s whatever you want to say. No censorship.

Josh Pray: Yeah. I don’t want to be too vulgar anyways, but I have a joke about I’m getting my taint lit. Right. And, and I tell this joke and throughout the joke, I always reiterate, I always reiterate, now I’m a man.

I you, you, you can’t put nothing in me. I’m a man. I don’t like that now. But if you a man, you might get that show thing, but don’t put nothing in me. And I tell that joke and I go out of my way to make sure not that I don’t want to offend anybody, but to let them know I’m not homeless. I’m not a homosexual.

If you are a homosexual, you can be a homosexual. It’s not me, but in this joke, I understand why. And things can be tastefully done and things could be [00:30:00] written correctly. I think people sometimes just hide behind, well, I’m a comedian and if it hurts your feelings, you can’t take a joke. That’s not fair.

It’s not fair to everybody. I remember Leslie Jones had a situation where she deleted her Twitter because. People were making fun of the way she looked when she put out the ghost. Right. I

Melissa: remember that. Yeah.

Josh Pray: You went off Twitter because she couldn’t take it because people were being very harsh. Yeah. And we, as we, as entertainers, we got to understand, we got to understand number one, we’re not essential.

And if you don’t know, if you don’t realize you, ain’t a cent, you look at who was out of business last year, when everything shut down our job in our careers, we’re a luxury. Doctors are essential. First responders are essential. Food workers are essential, but to be a comedian nobody’s gonna die.

If I don’t tell a joke on the internet, you may not be as happy, but you ain’t going to die. And we got to understand, we are a public service to the people. And [00:31:00] we gotta be careful. We want to make people feel good. I don’t want to make nobody just mad on purpose, but if some people may get offended, like if I tell a joke in a thousand people laugh in three, get offended, okay.

You three people didn’t get the joke. But if I tell a joke and 997 are offended and three people laugh, then I’ve screwed up. That joke was terrible.

Melissa: Yeah, well, it seems like most of your videos are, are positive, you know, and you’ve described yourself as being positive and inclusive. And I like that, that there is this like positivity and lightness.

You have great energy with great delivery when you’re doing your videos. And how do you, how do you keep your positivity? I mean, we’re in a pandemic. We, you know, we were talking about cancel culture and you know, a lot of division and stuff. How do you stay positive?

Josh Pray: So what, so what I try to do, and this is just a Josh prey thing.

I and it may be very difficult for some people. So let’s put that out there. I literally cut off anything negative [00:32:00] in my life. So if I have a friend and they’re always down and people go through days because me being a comedian and we can get into that in a few minutes, if you like, let me be in a comedian.

I have my moments where I’m not as Happy and whatnot, but I try to stay away from naysayers, doubters. I stay away from negative things on social media, like racial divide politics classism. I pray a lot. I I think happy thoughts a lot, and I know it sounds super cliche, like Peter pan thing, happy thoughts.

And you can fly. I really think happy thoughts a lot. I go where I’m celebrated. I, I run away from where I’m not celebrated. One of the, one of the bigger things I do, and some people don’t understand when I say this, I keep yes. People around me and people always say, well, you can’t have a bunch of yes, men or yes, women, because they’re not telling you the truth.

That’s not true. You want to keep people around that say, yes, that’s an idea. May not be a good idea, but that’s an idea. Go for it. Yes, you [00:33:00] can try that. Yes. I want you to be happy. Like you just got to find a positive positiveness in things and anything I try to come into, I try to make sure I’m positive about is in this day and age with the pandemic and quarantine and racial relations and things like that, it seems difficult, but it’s not as hard as people think it is.

Melissa: Yeah. And do you think the pandemic and everything has kind of helped your creativity or, or hindered it in any way?

Josh Pray: It’s definitely hindered it because a lot of my content is based on me traveling and me being in different environments. So excuse me. So I the furthest I’ve been, I live in Naples, Florida, so the furthest I’ve been in Florida has been Orlando, Florida, and that’s like three and a half hours away.

And Between Naples and floor and labels in Orlando, I have to find a gas station to go into that’s different from my community. I try to go to very small socially distance events where I [00:34:00] can pick up something. I try to stay away from the news and watch older movies so I can review and react to those.

I, I, I flourished because I was so many places, so I was able to talk about so many different things. Me, me being quarantined, not quarantine, me being in a partial lockdown is hinder flying and traveling and things like that. But it, it, it opened up when it’s time to open up, I assume.

Melissa: Yeah. Are you still on a lockdown in Florida or in

Josh Pray: your city?

Gosh, no. This is Florida.

This is Florida. We’ve been a hundred percent open for about eight months, seven months.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. I’m in California. So it’s, it’s there in Northern California and it’s been pretty strict, strict here. I mean, they try to open us up for a little bit. And then we’re, we’re currently back on lockdown right now.

Josh Pray: Z now Florida, like there are areas in Florida where you [00:35:00] don’t even have to wear a mask. Wow. Okay. So now we will, we wide are we wide open in Florida, but that doesn’t mean IO. And you were

Melissa: born in Florida. Are you from there?

Josh Pray: Yeah, born and raised and born and raised in Florida. Never want to leave it.

I hope and pray that I can handle all my business out of Naples. Florida is actually is a beautiful community. Very safe, beautiful beaches. Nice people. You know, I can reside here for the album until it goes on the water in a couple of years.

Melissa: Right? Another hurricane or something. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure.

I’ve never been to Florida. That’s it’s on, it’s on my list, but yeah. And I’ve never been, I’ve been to, I think the furthest I’ve been in New York and and Georgia that’s, but never. Any further than Georgia.

Josh Pray: So I wouldn’t do that to you.

Melissa: I know I need to go to Florida. There’s you know, they got beautiful beaches, lots of good restaurants, right?

Josh Pray: They got [00:36:00] ’em rich people, rich single people. And now Florida is sort of the way we a little cuckoo, but it’s the wave I promise.

Melissa: What’s what’s a typical day, like for you. As you know, Josh, the comedian,

Josh Pray: Josh, the comedian. Okay. Glad you specified. I you know, I wake up do my father’s stuff. No TVs are on in my house.

I’ll sit, I’ll look at what’s trending on the internet, whatnot, Al ignore all of it. Then I put my phone down. I probably played a video game for like 20 minutes. And I’m not even playing with you. I walk around my kitchen, pick my phone back up, look at what’s trending again. Then I’ll sit and listen to slow music.

I love R and B music. So I sit and listen to RNB music, set up my tripod. I record some stuff, delete everything I recorded for the last hour. Cause it’s not funny. Then I recorded again, take a shower, we’ll go to the gym. I keep a tripod at my house and I keep a tripod in my car. So if I’m out somewhere and I want to pull up in front of a store or a restaurant or a park, I’m often in the park [00:37:00] so I can record real fast.

All my day, seven days a week, I base it around comedy. I rarely take a day off. Oh, wow.

Melissa: Seven days a week. That’s crazy. You’re dedicated. I try to be. Yeah. I found something else out that I wanted. I wasn’t sure if this was the UI, unless I don’t think there’s another Josh prey out there, but did you write a book?

Josh Pray: No. You want to know? What’s cool about that. So this Caucasian gentlemen named Josh Bray super nice guy. Years ago, he messaged my manager. He messaged Tara and he was like, listen. He was like, I think I’m a great writer. I think I’m cool. I think I’m handsome, but there’s no way that 10,000 people care about me.

And what happened was I did a video and people start tagging him because we shared the same name. So he was so he he wrote, he messaged us and told us, like, he thinks I’m funny. He even put it on his page here. Like I think Josh prey, he’s a funny guy, really talented. So, if you [00:38:00] want to lab go to him, if you want to read some boring books, come to me.

And I want to respect that to him because I love to get an autograph books from him. That’d be dope.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, I was, I went on to Amazon and I looked at the book and I’ve been, I think it’s been on there for a while. It’s been published for a while and you know, sometimes on the internet you get wrong information.

So I just wanted to double check. I’m like, I don’t think this is you, but I want to make sure.

Josh Pray: Well, what you’re saying is I’m not talented enough to write up this.

Melissa: No, actually, I think you could write a book. I think it would be you know, either a memoir or, you know, like a funny antidote type

Josh Pray: of a book.

I want to write, I want to write, and I can put this out there because you can’t steal my idea, like nobody, but I want to write five things I’ve learned from hanging with white people. And, and I wanna do a rundown of some of my favorite videos and sketches and whatnot. And just to put that out there, You know, just another positive thing about, can we all just get [00:39:00] along there?

Melissa: Right. And what are your, what are some of your favorites like hanging out with your white friends and then you’ve made the videos. What are some of your favorite things that maybe like surprised you or just made you laugh?

Josh Pray: Let me see. So. I mean, I, I did a video called five things. I learned while bowling with my white friends.

That shocked me because I, I never knew how competitive men were when it came to bowling. I’ve been bowling with some of my homeboys I grew up with, but when I went with my white homeboys, it’s a totally different level. Like I’m talking about, you’ve known this man for 10 years and he’s never mentioned that he had a.

May authentic bowling ball with a bowling glove, with a bowling bag with bowling shoes. This has never come up in conversation and we get to the bowling alley and people know him by name, Hey Bob, how you doing? Like you come here every Tuesday and Wednesday for the last six years. And you’ve never told me clubbing with white friends.

That was a hilarious video. That was one of my favorite videos. And, and what surprised me was the audacity of [00:40:00] white women. Because when white women go out, they not play. They are friendly. They are flirtatious. They are dangerous. They are protective. They will coyote ugly. They will help you fight.

They will, they will introduce you to people. They will hate on you. If you try to holler at somebody like. White women are like the dope used to hang out with like the coolest women to hang out with. I did a video about camping. I always say in my, my jokes, even when I’m on stage, if the world ends zombies attack, get you a white friend because they somehow become John wick in a second.

You weren’t carrying your whole life. And all of a sudden she knows how to use a knife and start a fire and skin, a fish with fish bones. I don’t know.

Melissa: Oh, that’s right. You know, it’s funny Italians. We don’t, we don’t really camp. Like we’re not, we don’t do the whole outdoorsy thing.

Josh Pray: Yeah. Yeah, I forgot. Yeah.

You said you’re

Melissa: Cecilia, right? [00:41:00] Yeah. My dad was born there and you know, growing up, we, we never did the tent thing. Like my dad’s idea of camping was getting like a really nice cabin with a fireplace and a kitchen. Oh.

Josh Pray: So I’m going to ask you a question. So Celia’s are like. Black people, right?

Melissa: Yeah.

That’s our, that’s our heritage. Yeah. That’s our ancestry is that it’s Arab and Africa and we’re actually close. Well, so the Island that my family is from, it’s called  and when you’re on the beach, you can actually look across and see the coast of Tunisia.

Josh Pray: It’s close.

Melissa: Yeah. It’s very close.

Josh Pray: Yeah, that’s so cool.

So basically your hair is like mine and you got olive

Melissa: skin. No, I don’t actually. And you know, it’s funny that you brought that up. I just got into, it was the one on Tik TOK the other day, because I’m actually light-skinned light eyes and they were sort of questioning. Like the fact that I was really Sicilian or not.

So I kind of had to be like, you know, we don’t all [00:42:00] look alike. Like there’s different shades and different you know eye color and features and stuff like that. But but then there are certain traits that, you know, I do have like a larger nose and, you know, things like that. But but yeah, no, most of my cousins.

Yeah. Hmm.

Josh Pray: Melissa. So you basically like my cousin. Yeah,

Melissa: exactly. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah, but no, I do have I do have cousins that actually people think they’re black when they, when they meet them, they don’t, they don’t think they’re Italian. So, you know, there’s lots of differences. Yeah. Lots of different companies.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Josh Pray: I love it. Yeah,

Melissa: absolutely. Anyways, before I let you go, I want to ask you why, what are you working on next? Like what can you tease us about any ideas, any shows you’re going to review any anything

Josh Pray: you can tease so on prop. So when it comes to movies, I’m probably gonna start reviewing Some period pieces of things like that, because I want to stick with what I’m, where I’m going now.

I don’t want to do anything violent [00:43:00] right now. I’ll probably get into that later in the year around springtime when people are back outside I’m going to kick back. I’m going to get back on my chronic illness, disease videos. Those are very informative. Last year I learned about Chiari malformation.

I learned about pots. I learned about EDS. I learned about gastro Priuses. A lot of people are uninformed about a lot of the chronic illnesses. People think people complain for nothing when it’s not true, it’s just harder to sell. I mean, it’s harder. It’s harder to diagnose some people. I’m actually I was, it was a joke at first.

It was definitely a joke, but people kept saying, Josh, you should get a cameo on Outlander season six. And. Sam Hugans the executive producers from Outlander, the writer and creator of outlet, and they’ve all emailed me and talked to me. And now I’m really considering trying to get a spot on the show and some, some things that have kind of transpired behind the scenes.

And I was like, you know what, it’d be cool for the Outlander supporters to see. Me [00:44:00] on the show. I have huge fan base in Ireland. Ireland loves me and I love Ireland and Scotland is right next door to Ireland. So it’d be a pretty cool transition. That sounds exciting. Yeah. When the world opens up a little bit more, I plan on doing a small tour, call it the color blind tour and the reason I’m calling it, the color blind to it because everybody is welcomed is open to.

Urban areas country areas, suburban areas. Everybody’s welcome on this tour is colorblind. I want to see black, white Sicilians in the audience.

Melissa: It’s not going to be like nationwide or just in your

Josh Pray: areas. No nationwide. Right before, right before the coronavirus struck the earth. I was actually setting up a tour in Ireland, Hawaii.

Then I was going to do a South America tour. Then I was going to do the Midwest and I was going to finish it in the North when the coronavirus ended that. And lastly, I’ll probably get back into doing some of my country music videos cause I love discovering new [00:45:00] country music artists. The country music fan base is a very fun fan base, very inclusive.

Although people like for people wanna believe that it’s not, it’s a very inclusive genre. Very authentic. And the country music fan base has a very supportive fan base or support base. Sorry. Yeah,

Melissa: that’s awesome. It sounds like you got a lot of cool stuff to look forward to and for us to look forward to.

Yeah, so I just want to let people know and we’ll drop your links in the show notes as well, but you are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and they can just find you by searching Josh prey.

Josh Pray: You know, everybody can find me by searching Josh prey. I’m kinda let down when I was going to do this podcast, I was like, Oh my gosh.

I got somebody cool. That’s gonna interview me on his podcast. And I went on my Instagram and Melissa doesn’t follow me. So I’m hurt.

Melissa: I’m going to follow you. I’m going to follow you right now. Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t know for sure if you were on Instagram or not. And then I, I tried to find you on Twitter and I, I couldn’t, some somebody else came up, but I don’t only like 40 followers with your name.

And I was like, that’s not [00:46:00] him. There’s no way.

Josh Pray: Now I, and Oh, and please, I I’m verified on Instagram and Facebook and I have 27,000 followers on Twitter. So if you see somebody saying, they’re going to have a giveaway and this happens every single day, it’s weird people scam you when you pop in. But I don’t have $5,000 giveaways.

I don’t send out friend requests on Facebook and Instagram. And if I’m going to have a giveaway. It’s definitely going to be through me by me and I’ll probably go live about it. So don’t be, don’t get scammed please. Don’t

Melissa: yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of trolls and bots and fake, you know, people actually, I think I saw one of the ones you were talking about on your page, that somebody was, had kind of copied mimic to your profile photo and staff and was acting like they, were you talking about a giveaway, but somebody called them out.

I think on the comments and said, no, this is a scam.

Josh Pray: Yeah, and I don’t even try hard no more. They like, they’re just taking a picture and they’re leaving their names. So it, the name would be like [00:47:00] Farrukh last shy from Thailand. I’m getting this giveaway. Give me your credit card information. Like, come on, please.

Don’t do that people please know. And people actually told me. I’m going to Sue you Josh prey, because I gave him credit card information. Like, how are you going to Sue me? Cause you got your information to a scammer. Yeah.

Melissa: That’s, that’s another topic. Grown people, grown people that can make decisions.

That’s another topic for another day. Anyways, thank you for coming on today. This has been really fun. I’ve enjoyed it.

Josh Pray: I did too. This is way more fun. It was cool. You asked those questions. You are terrific. And I mean, flawless interviewer and I hope we can do this again. Thank you.

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely.

I would love to have you back on because your content is ever-changing and there’s so much to, I mean, we could talk for hours about everything that you’ve done. So I would definitely love to have you back on in the future and we can, you know, chat some more about the cool stuff

Josh Pray: you’re putting out.

Let’s do that. Let’s set a [00:48:00] date and we’ll make it happen. And we’ll, we’ll definitely talk more about some more stuff I’m doing and we’ll tell more jokes next

Melissa: time. Cool. Yeah, definitely. That sounds like fun.