What makes someone pick up a mic and turn their life - their background, their family, their pain - into comedy?

In this episode of PalTalk, four standup comedians from very different worlds sit down for an honest, funny, and surprisingly deep conversation about why they chose comedy and what it's cost them along the way.

Samir Abdul (Sudanese American), Sepehr Vakil (Iranian American professor turned comedian), Damon Howard (Native American comedian), and the question every comedian eventually faces: am I leaning too hard on where I come from?

We talk laughter as resistance, the marginalized stories nobody puts on stage, the humbling art of bombing, and the parents who somehow became their biggest fans.