Bund to Brooklyn

Episode 14: Paying it forward through acting and comedy with Derek Mio

Episode Summary

On Episode 14 we're joined by Actor and Comedian Derek Mio as he shares how the Japanese-American community helped him break into the industry, how his craft helped him better understand his heritage, and why its so important to keep paying that generosity forward.

Episode Notes

Derek joins the pod and shares how he got started in acting and comedy. (3:40)

How the Japanese-American community helped him break into the industry (13:47)

How Derek incorporates differences in generational immigrants in his comedy (19:07)

Derek's experience leading the second season of the Terror and how it ties to his family's history of interment (24:29)

How acting in the Terror helped him find out more about his own roots (31:16)

NOTES

Follow Derek Mio @DerekMio

Watch The Terror Season 2

Bund to Brooklyn's Guest Food Map

1990's Teachers Workshop

Follow us on IG: @bundtobrooklyn

Follow us on Twitter: @bundtobrooklyn

Questions? Requests? E-mail us @ b2b@1990institute.org

Learn more about the 1990 Institute

Episode Transcription

Note: This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.

[00:00:00] Eye listeners. Welcome back to bun to Brooklyn. We are currently in season two. This is episode 14, and I have our wonderful guest and correspondent with us. Kayla, Kayla, if you don't remember, she was one of the voices in a previous episode, talking about the Shanghai lockdown. Kayla, how is Shanghai currently?

[00:00:43] Great news. So we were able to go out starting yesterday, June 1st, and then it was, it felt definitely very surreal. You saw people and then you saw cars there also like shops opening, although you can't really die in right now, but you can do takeout. People were getting haircuts finally after two months on the street and a lot of people out biking, shopping, and really just having our lives back.

[00:01:08] So definitely very happy that everything's back to normal. That's awesome. My parents were celebrating because my dad is quarantined separately from my mom. He's currently quarantined in his office and he's like, I can come back for the dragon boat festival , which is like, right. Yeah. It's the dragon boat festival.

[00:01:28] And like, usually like families get together and like eat. And so the first thing he said is like, I can come back and then get soup dumplings. that was like the first thing he wanted. Definitely. I also went kind of a little bit crazy yesterday, ordering food and yeah. Walking out it, it definitely felt amazing.

[00:01:49] That's great. That's such good news to hear. Hopefully you guys don't have to get locked down again. oh, wow. Like knock go O right now yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. News. Cool. Well, today we are actually going to talk to a very special guest named Derek Mio. He's the fourth generation Japanese actor, and he is recently portrayed a character in this mini series called the terror about for season two.

[00:02:17] It's about the Japanese internment camps. Super interesting show, but he also talks a lot about his heritage and how the terror has connected him back to his Japanese heritage. But before that quick shout out to a couple things that are happening at 1990. So since 2014, 1990 has conducted their teachers workshop program, which is a series of.

[00:02:40] Interactive professional development sessions with renowned experts, resources and lesson guides for immediate use in the classroom. Uh, as well as interactive discussions with lectures and fellow teachers, registration is open for free it's online there's professional development and curriculum development sessions, which feature guests from UC Berkeley, USC, and a lot more, you can find out a bit more information about it.

[00:03:06] By visiting the 1990 website in the show notes for some more information. All right, cool. Before we head onto our conversation with Derek, please be sure to follow us on all our social channels. It's bun to Brooklyn, or feel free to email us@b2bnineteenninetyinstitute.org. Again, also subscribe to. At bun to Brooklyn on any of the podcast platforms that you listen to such as Spotify or apple podcasts.

[00:03:33] All right, cool. With the show.

[00:03:40] Hi, Derek. Welcome to bun to Brooklyn. We always like to have our guests introduce themselves. So do you mind giving yourself a quick intro? Sure. Thank you, Lucia. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here with you guys. Uh, my name is Derek Mio. I am a. Fourth generation Japanese American actor and standup comedian.

[00:04:02] Prior to us chatting. I had the pleasure of watching a few of your YouTube videos where you did some really fun impressions. One of my favorites, I think that you were just doing it even before our conversation was Keanna Reeves, but like tell us a bit about like, how you got into acting and wanting to be in a career where you're, you know, in front of the camera and like telling stories.

[00:04:29] Well, that's a, a perfect question for me to, to talk about that because it's actually doing impressions was kind of the earliest display of my desire to perform. And that comes from my mother who. Does impressions to this day, whenever she's telling a story that involves, uh, a family member or someone from church, or even like a celebrity, she, she acts out the voices.

[00:05:05] She does the voices of the person, and she's been doing that my whole life since I was a little kid. And I'm sure I got a kick out of it, but it was also this kind of. That that was normal to me. So I would, I would do them. I remember watching Saturday night live the Dana Cark years. If you guys know who he is and, and Dana carve was this and still is this amazing impressionist?

[00:05:33] He would do George Bush senior, you know, he'd, he'd do not gonna do it. Gotta go get sad dime. He's bad. He's bad. Not gonna do it. Not it's not prudent. And. There, there is actually a cassette tape of me at 10 years old, where I'm using my dad's tape recorder. And I'm pretty much ripping Dana car's George Bush S like word for word sketch.

[00:06:01] And family they're laughing, you know, I'll do it in the car. And my brother is like interviewing me and I'm, I'm, I'm acting out him and Ross Perro, the, the other presidential candidate. And, and, you know, as a kid, when you get those reactions, people laughing, making adults laugh, it's it's intoxicating, right?

[00:06:21] So you just want to keep doing it. And, and I would like all the way. Through high school and even my friends, uh, you know, I played basketball. I didn't grow up doing theater. I was, I was pretty shy kid. I still am, but you know, acting and standup is kind of an outlet for me, right. To express myself and me and my friends would do impressions of our, our coaches.

[00:06:47] We had this one coach, you would, he had, Hey, what up? He would just scream. Come on. Breathe out, get your elbows out. And so we would just, he had a very distinct voice. So we would even at school, even to this day, when we see each other, we're like, yeah, come on, pitch your elbows up. It it's just, it's just something that we did.

[00:07:06] And in high school, I was. I was on the basketball team. Didn't do theater. I always thought I was gonna go to UCLA and I don't know. And, and just be like undeclared major. And then, because at UCLA, you can't apply to the film school until your junior year. So I was like, okay, maybe I'll do that junior. But at USC you could apply a freshman year, but I was a public school kid and I'm sure my parents never thought I was gonna go to USC private school.

[00:07:34] It's very expensive. But it was actually on the way back from touring the UCLA campus that we stopped off at USC. And I saw the film school and they gave us this private tour and they, they showed off all their buildings. It was, you got suckered in. Yeah, you got suckered into the friend. Yeah, really good.

[00:07:54] You know, they had a movie theater, they had a movie theater on campus where they taught classes. You would, you would watch movies on an actual movie screen and, and then write papers on these movies. And I was like, oh my gosh, you can, you can major in this stuff. I didn't know that this was possible. And then it was actually a family friend.

[00:08:16] Who heard about that, that had graduated from USC film school. And when, when he heard about that, he started kind of rushing me as if it was a fraternity, like you should apply to USC film school he's to this day. He's, he's a, he's a mentor of mine and he he's, he's very passionate about curating, you know, uh, filmmakers and, and film buffs.

[00:08:39] And so he wrote me a letter of recommendation. Wow. I'm, I'm sure that had a big part in me getting in to USC film school, which is, it's a very limited amount of students who get in every year. So it was this really hard decision between going to, and I actually got accepted to both on the same day. It was just such, it was a really like, that must have been super overwhelming.

[00:09:04] Like we, we did an episode on Lowell high school. And it, it was just the intenseness or like intensity of like how competitive it is to get into any of these UC schools or USC. So that must have been like super overwhelming for you. It really was, it really was, it was like, cuz you, you know, you get the big envelope.

[00:09:25] Right. And the big envelope is like, oh wow, that's the acceptance letter. And that was from UCLA. So that was very exciting. But then I, I got a small envelope from U USC film school and everyone was like, oh, I guess, you know, you didn't get in. But I, I, I actually, I remember this, I took it into the bathroom and I had this, like I had this Charlie in the chocolate factory moment.

[00:09:46] To myself where I like slowly opened it. And then I saw in the paper, congratulations. And I was like, oh my gosh, I got into USC film school. And then, so it became this big decision of like, where am I gonna go this expensive private school, but it's like the road less traveled. Like you, like, you, you gotta take advantage of that opportunity.

[00:10:09] And that's what I did. Did you do comedy while you were at USC as well? Or you've always just been focused on like production work. Film. Yeah, no, no, I was, I was not, no, I only started doing comedy maybe like five years ago. And there was a point where I, I started going to a lot of shows mm-hmm with friends and then a, a friend of a friend was performing.

[00:10:35] And so we went to the comedy store to watch her. And so now. I I know someone who was doing it. So it, it, it felt more accessible. And then one day I just went to an open mic. And by the time I went up there, because when you're a newcomer, they kind of put you up later on. And there was only like few people there still, but I, I was, did my impressions and, and then I made Anthony who was hosting.

[00:11:06] I, he was laughing. He was giggling. So I was like, okay, you know, if you can get those laughs those chuckles, right. Like the that's like, okay, I can do. When I saw you recently, you were hosting a fundraiser for the Zaki Buddha con, the Japanese American community center in LA. I felt like that was your, like, you're a natural.

[00:11:26] I was like, oh wow. Like Derek was introduced to me as like a serious actor, but like the comedian side of him is like, it just seems like it just comes off really naturally. So that was cool. And I also, I liked how you gave Tashi. Like he was like his first standup gig as well. So you're. Paying it forward.

[00:11:43] So I thought that was really cool as well. Yeah. That's I, I appreciate that, Sean. Well, I having been acting now for, uh, almost 20 years now, it's like, I I've had the advantage right. Of. Getting over that stage fright or being more comfortable performing in front of casting directors or even crew, like when you're on set and a lot of standup comedians might not have that experience.

[00:12:13] So just getting up in front of people is a big challenge to overcome. So having come from acting first, I think I had that advantage, but I was actually hosting. And producing my own show in Koreatown before I booked the terror, which is a, a drama series that I did a couple years ago. And. So when I started auditioning for that, I kind of stopped doing the comedy and stopped posting the comedy clips and content.

[00:12:52] Right. Because I wanted, whoever was looking at me and, and to, to. For them to know that I could do drama, cuz this is a very dramatic series, but there's, there's a lot of pain and, and darkness and comedy, you know, you hear about that, that different comedians struggle with. So it's like the comedy is the outlet for that.

[00:13:17] So you can't have one without the other. Right. So that's why I enjoy doing both. They just to, just to balance balance each other out and there's, we all have both the dark and the light within us. Yeah, I actually, I really love how you draw your life experiences, even your experience in high school, like playing basketball, like, so how do you think your heritage plays a role in your comedy and acting well?

[00:13:47] Yeah. That's, that's the interesting thing about how I, so, so to go back to how I kind of broke into the business, it was after I got. That internship, that internship was at a commercial agency. It was at an agency that represented commercial actors. And while I was there, the owner started sending me out be as talent because they didn't have a lot of agent clientele at the time.

[00:14:16] There weren't a lot of, as many Asians that were, I guess, acting as, as there are now. And so that got me started. To get the, the headshots done and get the resume printed up. And, and it was actually, my aunt sent me a clipping from the Rafu SHPO, which is a big Japanese, Japanese American newspaper. And there was a open call for a film by a filmmaker named Chris Toshima.

[00:14:43] And he had won an academy award a few years before that for a short film. And so this was his follow up project and it was gonna take place in a Japanese. Concentration camp. And I was gonna be playing a, a baseball pitcher and because they used to play baseball there in the camps. And, and so my aunt sent me the clipping.

[00:15:05] She, she heard that I was, you know, Acting and trying acting out. And so she said here, why don't you apply for this? And I did. And I booked it. That was the first acting gig that I did. I think I might have done like a print job or like a non-union commercial, but this was the first kind of serious acting role that I had booked.

[00:15:25] I loved telling that story because it's it, it was the community. That gave me my break because that film went to the LA Asian Pacific film festival. And that's where I met my manager who got me, my agent, and then I was off to the races. And so I really, and, and, and to even go back further, how I even got into USC film school is interesting as well because that family friend.

[00:15:50] He is a family friend because his father served in the military intelligence service, the MIS with my grandfather from Hawaii. So it's these, these two mentors of mine that are connected to me through me being Japanese American and this project that focused on being a baseball pitcher in the, the Japanese internment camp.

[00:16:16] And so. I do feel a responsibility and a kind of obligation to kind of honor that even if it is with a couple jokes on stage, Eric, do you ever feel like you're, have you ever experienced like typecasting or going into a casting call and then recognizing that they wanted you to like play a character that you weren't super comfortable with?

[00:16:41] And the reason why I'm asking you this question is because for Asian Pacific American heritage, We actually had Cal Penn come speak at the place where I work. And Cal Penn tells this story, which apparently it's in his book as well, that he interviewed for a role and they wanted him to play this like Indian guy.

[00:17:02] and they wanted him to play it, obviously with an Indian accent. And like, he sort of went in thinking like he like created this like whole backstory to this guy and like made it kind of funny, but he didn't want to like do it with like a full on Indian accent. And like, they were like, if you don't do it within Indian accent, we're not gonna give you this.

[00:17:19] This part. And like, he was obviously struggling. He had to like pay rent and all that stuff. And so like, he had to sort of like play into that, even though he was like super uncomfortable with it. Like, I don't know if you've kind of experienced that with like any of the casting calls that you've gone to.

[00:17:37] I, I don't think I've had that experience where they've been as blatant as, oh, do do it with an accent. I, I, I did do a role where I just, I did the accent on my own, you know, I, I, I did a episode of the good wife where I was playing a, a Taiwanese student. I did try to. Do it to the best of my ability and talk with a friend and have them record it and try to sound as, uh, authentically as I, as I could.

[00:18:04] But there, there was another show that I did where I, I didn't, and I kind of just threw on it like a really kind of like, I guess you could say like, uh, general an a, a generally Asian accent and not feeling the, the best about. Doing it that way. But so I, I, you know, it is important to try to do your research and be as, um, authentic as you can.

[00:18:31] I mean, now it's, they it's, it's almost like if you're not of that dissent, then there there's enough actors that they can choose from to, to. Where they can cast that authentically, but yeah, that was a big lesson in, in, in trying to not be lazy about it. Yeah. And when you talk about like authenticity, like it's interesting because you're a fourth generation Japanese, like you'll say right.

[00:18:58] And I'm sure it feels very different from somebody who's like recently immigrated from Japan or might be like first generation Japanese immigrant. How do you sort of like, I don't know, feel about people who are maybe like first gens or. Have just like recently immigrated. And I know that like, you have some sort of like social commentary in your jokes, but like, it it'd be very interesting to like, hear about that because I know for Chinese Americans it's the same, right?

[00:19:27] Like third generation Chinese Americans feel very differently from like first generation Chinese Americans. Sure. Sure. Yeah. My, my, uh, my wife is from Japan and so I'll do some, some jokes on stage, but also I'll run it by her and, and sometimes I'll just check in with her, you know, is this, is this okay?

[00:19:48] She's like, no. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny. But it's, cuz it's also poking fun at my ignorance, but it's also kind of highlighting the. The, the differences that we have. But yeah, like when, when we did the, the bud comedy show that I, I love bringing cuz there, there were a lot of Japanese from Japan that were there as well as like fourth generation Japanese Americans there as well.

[00:20:13] And just kind of bringing us all in the, the same space and just kind of having a laugh at, at our own shortcomings or whatever. But you never know, you never know. There's people, people will definitely point things out if things are not as, uh, comfortable, but I've always just wanted to, to make people laugh and give them some, some relief from, from all the serious stuff that's going on.

[00:20:44] So I'll always try to make it adjustments where I can. I'm actually really interested in that part of your experience, cuz I think, I mean I'm kind of Chinese and I know my parents, usually my parents, Chinese, obviously they're usually very uptake in a way that sometimes when comedy touch on race or any serious issue, they.

[00:21:06] I feel like they're the population, they're the group that are more likely to be offended. Have you ever, I guess, like how do you, if that situation happened, have you experienced any of that and how do you respond to any more of those? Yeah. You know, to, to be honest, you know, I'm pretty sensitive to, you know, and so if I.

[00:21:30] See a certain comment or something online. I, it gets me, it gets me really down and it does, it makes me not enjoy. I mean, there's been, and, and I might be in that period right now where it's like, I'm not, I'm not fully. Enjoying doing the comedy. If it's, if it's coming to a point where people are not, it's not making them feel good.

[00:21:59] And I'm not just talking about my, my own personal material, it's just the, kind of the culture right now. But when I do do a show or even like an open mic and then people. Just, you know, will come up and say, like I had a really bad day and I just, I really needed that. So like, thanks for that. That's where it's like, oh man, that's comedy can be so positively.

[00:22:27] Absolutely powerful, but, but yeah, there it's, it's, it's a really sensitive time. And so that's where it's like, okay. I, and, and also try to use it to, to. Bring communities together. That's what I try to do at the BDO comedy show is curate a lineup. That's very diverse. And, and even when I do certain shows in the past, I I've done shows with, you know, African Americans and Latinos and.

[00:23:02] And I'll try to incorporate some Spanish, you know, if I'm doing a show with Latinos and like, talk about how my last name is Mio, it's it, it means mine in Spanish. So ladies, if you say my name, then I'm yours. You know, Derek Mio, Derek is mine, you know, and, or, um, you have that in Alma joke as well. The Chinese one that I thought was good.

[00:23:25] Yeah. Yeah. Like Neha ma me how right. Me translates to you. Good. And then Neha ma you good. Ma is like don't, don't black people say that. Just trying to find different ways to, to connect until also be in front of people. Right. Physically. And not just, not just through social media, but. So that you can really hear and see what the intention is behind the joke.

[00:23:57] It's, it's, it's all just trying to create a good time. And so we can all poke fun at myself, poke fun at you, but also poke fun at me and my people. It's like, I'm just point out the, the things that are different, but also the things that are, that we all share in common. That's what I love about comedy.

[00:24:17] It's like in person and working all, all different religion and cultures can be in the same room and just share a laugh, you know, it's, I think that could be very powerful. So Derek, I wanted to talk to you about the terror and the role that you play in it. So for those of you, like for people who haven't heard about the terror, like what is like the.

[00:24:41] Premise of the particular season that you were in. Yeah, so I was in the second season of the tear and it is what you would call an anthology series where each season is, has its own independent storyline. And so. So they'll take a, a historical event, but add a supernatural element to it. But so for our season, they announced that it was gonna focus on the Japanese American incarceration during world war II.

[00:25:17] And there's gonna be some sort of, um, spirit that's haunting, some characters. A friend of mine kind of sent me the press release about what the second season was gonna be about. So I told my representatives about it and trying to look out for this. And, and so when we did the audition, I just told them, thank you so much for, for making this project.

[00:25:43] Cuz my family was actually in the camps and they're like, oh really? It's like, yeah. I'm like, One side of my family was in man Zar, which is one of the, the bigger camps. And then my, my other grandfather was in the, the MIS the military intelligence service. So I'm very connected to the material. Oh. And also the, the show starts.

[00:26:08] In a community called terminal island, which was an actual Japanese immigrant community. It's located near the, uh, the long beach Harbor, but it's since been, you know, raised and commercialized over. But my great grandfather settled there and. It was a very thriving immigrant community. And my, my grandfather was born there, him and his siblings, they, they were there and they had their own cafe and they were, they were starting to make some good money and they opened up a second cafe and the world war II happened.

[00:26:43] And then they got everything taken away and then they got sent, sent over to Manza. So this is a very, uh, special project also because this is the first time that the camps are being. Displayed on AMC, a very mainstream television network and Ridley Scott is executive producer. So they had some, some, some big names attached to this.

[00:27:11] And, and so I just yeah. Wanted to do it justice, even though it's a horror show, it's not like a strict drama. I, I feel. It was still an opportunity to, to tell this story to a lot of people who had no idea and still don't know that this happened in America. It's, it's so fascinating to me. I feel that, you know, so much about your, like your grandpa's history.

[00:27:38] So before you came into the show, did you already have that idea or does the show help you to further understand your own background, your own history? Yeah. Well, it's often said that that generation, they didn't talk about it. My grandfather never talked about it. It was a very traumatizing experience.

[00:27:59] I'm sure. And they, they probably didn't care to revisit that very painful part of their lives, but, and, and it might have been that, that first film that I did, where I played a baseball picture in the camp where. Either my parents or other family members were say, Hey, didn't wasn't grandpa in. Oh yeah.

[00:28:22] They were in Manson garden. You know, maybe that could have been how it came up. And, and how I heard about it, but also our family loves to fish. And so one of our annual trips we always try to make is up to mammoth, uh, mammoth lakes up in the Sierra, Nevada mountains. And, and on the way to mammoth, you pass right by Manza arm.

[00:28:50] So we always stop off there and kind of just. As a, as a pilgrimage, just kind of revisit the space and they're always adding on to the, uh, the visitor center. So I've, I've been aware of it, you know, I've been, been aware of it and I I've done maybe one or two other projects that took place in the interment camp.

[00:29:15] So whenever I. Someone approaches me to do something about that. I always try to try to do it. Just create more content for people to be able to learn about it. Has this sort of experience with you acting on the terror and being physically in that location and like filming in that location man scenario, like, has that brought you closer to your grandparents at all, or to your family?

[00:29:38] And like, does it help prompt them to like talk a bit about, about it a bit more? Well, my, my, my grandfather passed already, but yeah, definitely. It really did. I mean, after that, I, I mean, it was during the, the filming that I, I met my wife, I had to speak a lot of Japanese and she's from Japan. So she, she was there through that whole process.

[00:30:02] She would visit me. We actually filmed in Vancouver actually I'd filmed a different project at the actual mansard, but for the terror, we filmed up in Vancouver, but. But before going up there. Yeah, I used it as an opportunity to, uh, reach out to my grandfather's sister. Who's still alive and visit her and just kind of ask her, you know, if they're about her experiences, I, I had actually.

[00:30:29] Met with her a couple years prior to that, cuz I was working on a, like a personal project, like a documentary on some family members. So I'd already kind of reconnected with her, but anytime like a project gives me an excuse to, to reach out to a friend or a family member. I always always do that and say like, okay, this is, this is a great.

[00:30:52] Excuse for, for us to reconnect. So we actually got together with a, a few other family members and we visited there's a, there's a little terminal island exhibit at one of the museums near terminal island. And so we all went there. Had. Had brunch and then went to this museum and we saw these photos that we'd never seen before of like our, our family and our cafe.

[00:31:16] And I mean, after filming the terror, yeah, it was, it was a, uh, really yeah. Emotional experience. I, I went to Japan with my, with my wife and we, we rented a car and we visited Waka Yama, which is like four hours outside of where we were staying and visited this remote. Seaside town where my, my relatives immigrated from.

[00:31:41] And we, I, I asked some family members, okay, where, where is our, do we have relatives over there? And like, I think we had, there's like a bakery over there. And so we like. Just went there, looked it up on Google and we found the bakery and we went inside and then, you know, my wife she's talking. Right. So she's able to communicate with them and then she's saying, oh yeah, they, they know, they know she's like the meal meal song, da, da, da, like, do you know?

[00:32:09] Like, yeah. Yeah. Like George George meal, my grandfather George MES, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh yeah. His cousin is here. Let me go get him. And then she's like, yeah, his cousin's here. Like, what are you kidding me? And then, so he comes out and he looks like exa not exactly, but it's like, it's like, my grandpa is like, There in front of me again.

[00:32:35] And, and he, he, he had already passed, but it was like he had the similar, like head shape and like the laugh was similar and it was just like, it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I, I told this story to a, a friend director, Yoko URA, and, and she was. She's like, oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it, it like fucked you up. Huh? I mean, I, I guess so.

[00:33:02] Okay. I kinda did, you know, well, I, I, I see it as coming full circle, right? Like, I, it seems like, you know, the community kind of really helps get you into acting and into USC, into like production work. And now the community has sort of. Brought you back to your roots and understanding your heritage and your family along with the unspoken history of a lot of like Japanese Americans.

[00:33:30] Right? So I think it's a wonderful story of being able to reconnect with your roots and being able to like truly understand and like kind of live a part of. Japanese American history. Right? So Derek, thank you so much for being on the show. We always like to end our episodes with a fun thing where we ask our guests what their favorite restaurant is in, uh, the particular neighborhood that they live in.

[00:33:59] And so therefore we can pin it on a map and if we ever come visit, we can always come visit your favorite restaurant. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm down in, uh, orange county. In, uh, Huntington beach and one of our favorite spots that me and my friends always love to go to is a place called Fuji burger. And we've been going there since high school and they got avocado teki everything.

[00:34:28] So they got avocado teki bacon cheeseburgers. They've got, uh, what I love to get is the AVO Terry chicken tacos, and they have AVO teriyaki beef sandwiches. And everything avocado teriyaki it's it's uh, it's really good. It's really good. Yeah. I sense some pattern to check it out. Sounds tasty. Awesome. Yeah.

[00:34:52] Perfect. Thank you. Well, thank you so much, Derek, for being on the show. Thank you guys. Is there anything you wanna advertise or plug? Yeah, the terror I'd love for people to check it out. There's a lot of people that still have not, uh, seen it, including close friends or. Former close friends now um, no, but I know we're in different countries and there's different streaming services, but if you can find it, it's the, the second season of AMCs, the terror and our season's called the terror infa mean it's just, it's really well made.

[00:35:26] It, it, it pays, uh, homage to. The, the Japanese American incarceration. We had a Alex woo, an Asian Amer Chinese American showrunner, different people involved in the project who had family members that were actually, uh, In the interment camps in Canada as well. Cuz we filmed it in Vancouver and we actually filmed in horse stalls where crew members, families were kept in.

[00:35:56] So yeah, the whole thing was just very, a really emotional, just really special. Special experience and it's just all also really beautifully shot. So there's a lot of different layers going on and I'm, I'm talking way too long about it, but please, if you, if you haven't seen it, please check it out. Awesome.

[00:36:16] Thank you so much, Derek. Really appreciate having you on the show. Thank you guys.