Joey Diaz | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #685

This Past Weekend #685 - Joey Diaz talks about building a quieter home without losing the stage time, friendship and local characters that keep him going. Theo brings a fishing hotline story, and Coco has discovered GTA. 1. Camping has one non-negotiable condition for Joey: a shower. He says he can enjoy the outdoor cooking and the trip, but he is not interested in giving up the ability to wash properly. The story about a campsite with showers is a very different answer from the desert-festival invitation. 2. The Los Angeles departure was not simply a sudden pandemic decision. Joey says his family had already planned to look for a house and move after the school year. In his account, the disruption hurried along something they already wanted. He describes wanting a different family life in New Jersey; this is his recollection of the timing, not our independent reconstruction of the move. 3. A good museum now beats another club on the travel list. Joey says he wants to see the places behind a citys history. The Philadelphia conversation shows how quickly he can move from a ballgame story to the past around him. The appeal is curiosity about where he is, rather than just finding somewhere else to go out. 4. Seeing somebody from nearby make it changed the scale of what felt possible. Joey recalls watching North Carolina player Mike O Koren, from Jersey City, on television. The message he took was not that he had to become a basketball star; it was that there was a world beyond the neighborhood and he could try to do something in it. The inspiration is his memory, without treating the on-air game statistics as a newly checked sports record. 5. James J. Braddock was a neighborhood man before Joey understood what the name meant. Joey recalls shoveling snow for him and only later grasping how famous the boxer had been. Theo lights up at the connection to Cinderella Man. It is a childhood recollection about fame looking ordinary up close, not independently documented proof of the jobs or exact ages. 6. Theos early jobs included a paid fishing-information phone line. He says callers wanted to know where the fish were that day, and his job was keeping them on the line while the expert finished with somebody else. It is a wonderfully specific version of learning to talk to people for a living. We are recounting his memory, not advertising a service or verifying its forecasts. 7. Austins attraction is practical stage time. Joey describes arriving Tuesday, doing three spots each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then flying home Friday. That makes nine spots across three nights in the routine he describes. Returning home for several weeks made him feel he was maintaining rather than improving, so having a base in Austin started making sense. This is his account of those trips, not a newly audited show calendar. 8. GTA arrives late in Cocos life, and he is enjoying catching up. Joey says he streams twice a week and learned the game from scratch with friends helping. The chaos they watch is inside Grand Theft Auto, rather than footage of new real-world crimes. The contrast is between the man who says he never played games as a kid and the man now happily making time for them. 9. Joey gives himself a window rather than announcing an ending. At the time of recording, he describes an eighteen-month push until sixty-five, then a chance to reassess the shows and ticket sales. His emphasis is enjoying the work and making the audience have a good night. That is a personal goal, not a confirmed retirement date or a claim that a five-year plan is impossible. 10. The strongest exchange is about what different generations can give each other. Joey says younger comics bring energy, while he can offer the perspective of years in the business. Theo connects that feeling to being around a football crowd. Joey also makes a direct point of telling Theo that he cares and is cheering for him. The support is the discovery here, rather than turning their personal recovery discussion into guaranteed medical outcomes. Conversation timestamps 00:00 - Joey Diaz introduction 04:20 - Are we already recording? 05:05 - Camping needs a shower 06:35 - Asbury Park concerts and North Jersey 09:18 - The move was already planned 11:31 - Morning fish deliveries 13:19 - City work and a peaceful home 20:34 - Museums and local history 35:03 - Remembering his mother and returning home 1:00:01 - Creating a warm home 1:10:36 - What they would miss about comedy 1:13:16 - The local player who opened a door 1:17:39 - Shoveling snow for Braddock 1:25:17 - The paid fishing phone line 1:28:14 - Why Austin stage time matters 1:30:04 - Learning GTA and streaming 1:34:55 - The monthly-show idea 1:38:13 - Making time for other people 1:42:44 - The eighteen-month comedy goal 1:45:19 - Young comics and shared energy 1:47:03 - Friendship and recovery conversation 1:58:26 - Closing dates and thanks Which surprise did you enjoy most: the fishing hotline, Braddock as the neighbor, or Coco getting into GTA?