How Nimesh Patel Built Wealth Through Comedy: SNL to Stand-Up Success Story
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- When did you feel like you started making money consistently from comedy? - November 2020. Lilly Singh gave me a writing job when I desperately needed a writing job. That was enough money for me to hire an editor. TikTok was this new thing at the time. A comedian, Sahib Singh, was like, "You should put your standup on there." I was like, "Oh, sure." I put it on there. Overnight, like,

100 000 views 800 000 200 000 views i was like what the i kind of was like okay let's see what happens if i say i have a show in this city will i be able to sell tickets sure enough like if i put i'm coming to houston people in the comments are you're coming to houston when you come to san antonio we're coming to dallas when you come whatever i was like oh like people care people care

Before we get started, I wanted to ask a small favor of all of my besties. We're planning for the future of Net Worth and Chill, and we want to hear from you to figure out how we can make our show better. Visit voxmedia.com slash survey to give us your feedback. Thanks. What's up, rich friends? Welcome back to another episode of Net Worth and Chill with me, your host, Vivian Tu, aka your rich BFF and your favorite Wall Street girly. Now, I'm going to be talking about

Now, I may fancy myself a comedian because I think I'm so funny, but I don't know if I would necessarily make the cut in the standup circuit. One joke doesn't hit and I'm staring into a pitch black audience of people with no laughter. I am in tears, I guarantee you, crying on stage.

Fortunately, today's guest puts my comedic chops to absolute shame. He's a stand-up comic who has toured more than 80 cities, a former writer on Saturday Night Live, one of the funniest people on social media, and he's going on tour to prep for his upcoming Netflix special. Everyone, please welcome Nimesh Patel. Thank you very much for having me.

I'm so excited for you to be here today. But before we get into the nitty gritty finance talk of comedy land, I want to know what is the funniest heckle you have ever gotten while performing?

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There's been a lot of funny heckles. I'll give you two. Okay. One like that destroyed me and another one that I won the conversation. Okay. Okay. The first one, the one that destroyed me, it was Helium Comedy Club in Portland.

And I'm always surprised by who comes to see me because like 70-year-old people come to see me. Really? A 70-year-old woman was – TikTok has got everybody addicted to it. Okay. And a 70-year-old woman, I forget what I said to her. I was like, how old are you? She said she was 70. I was like, what?

whoa, just being rude. She's like, I'll still kick your ass. The whole crowd just fucking lost their mind. I was like, God damn it, Nancy. And then we went back and forth like 11 minutes and I put it up on my, I'm not ashamed of losing a battle. I put it up on my Instagram, on TikTok, YouTube. And at the end of the show, like we hugged and all that kind of shit. She was super funny. Debbie cooked your ass. Yeah, she whooped my ass real strong. And then my favorite retort, I didn't capture it on Instagram,

On the internet I think but I was at knitting factory back when Hannibal Buress like used to run it Yeah, it's like five or six years ago. No probably longer than that I just finished reading of mice and men and the whole show this asshole was like heckling everybody and no one said anything or they told him to shut up, but no one said anything for real and I got on stage and I was like, hey man, what's your name? He said Lenny. I was like, have you ever read of mice and men?

This doesn't end well for you if you don't know of my cement. Lenny gets shot. Yeah, he gets shot. Yeah, and the whole crowd fucking died, and he never talked again. I was like, damn.

I got him. Books are important. That was I remember that heckle very vividly because it was just it just put myself in the back. Good job, man. That feels like the nerdiest possible way to win like a roast battle between your audience. I love that. Yeah, no, it felt pretty good. Like whoever for whatever reason, like everyone got it was it was in Williamsburg in New

like peak reading. This is like dork season. Yeah, it was perfect. I love it was great. I felt I felt pretty cool. I love that. That's awesome. Speaking of nerdy, dorky things before you actually got started as a comedian, we got to talk about a little fun fact that you and I share. We are both finance bro sellouts. Yes. And I say that with love, obviously, as someone who literally calls herself a Wall Street girly. You came to New York in

to study finance at NYU and then eventually ended up working in private equity. Yes. So I went to school. I was at NYU pre-med my freshman year. I got like a 4.0 in pre-med freshman year. So I was like, well, I'm at Stern too. Like, let me transfer to Stern. Everyone's doing finance. Why not try it out? I had no idea what I was doing. Yeah.

Is that just because your parents wanted you to do that? Well, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon. And then I got a C plus in organic chemistry. I was like, fuck those kids. But up until junior year, but sophomore year, I transferred to Stern, the undergrad business program, because it was the best program there was. And I was like, I got a four. I'm sure I'll transfer in pretty easily.

And then and then I subsequently found out, like, I don't know what any of this is. This doesn't interest me at all. I was just in it because I was there. Yeah. And so when I graduated in 08, like all my friends that recruited to 08. Yeah. Tough year. That's why I do comedy. Tough year to, like, become anything. Yeah. And if you weren't a super strong student, which I wasn't, I was like a 3, 4, 3, 5 student when all my peers like 3, 7, 3, 8, 3, 9s.

They all went to like Goldman and Greenhill and Barclays and all the other big banks. And I was like, the fuck am I doing? And so I didn't recruit. I interned after graduating. Okay. At like the Economic Development Corporation in New York City. And there I was just like assisting people and interning. But then I had an interview with like their development team. These are like all ex-McKinsey people. Yeah. And I remember like how many napkins does Burger King sell in a year?

Oh, yeah. That's like part of the interview. Like a consulting question. Yeah. And I'm like sweating bullets. I'm like, I can use some napkins now. Like I had no fucking idea. And then I didn't become like an associate there or anything like that. Luckily, one of my friends manages a hedge fund and hired me as an intern. Allowed me to like really pad my resume basically. Yeah. Got an internship. Then I finally got my first research job at a hedge fund. Uh-huh. And that's coincided with when I started comedy basically. Yeah.

And by that time, I already made the decision that I wanted to do comedy. So like I could have been on this analyst path to be like a hedge fund analyst and like make buku money. But I was like, no, I'm going to chase this dream. Can we talk about the dream chasing piece? It's so stupid. It's so stupid. Wait, but yeah, you're saying it's stupid. But like talk to me like you had this in your hand, right? Like you had a guaranteed path to making a lot of money. Yeah.

Were you not scared to be like, yeah, actually, I don't want money. I want to be a comic. The problem was, and the great thing was, was that all of my peers, and this is mind you, this is like, okay, year and a half in. All of my peers were seeing like tremendous success, at least in terms of comedy, not monetarily. Not monetarily, certainly not. But like comedy wise, like, oh, they were doing like Fallon or they were doing a TV show here. They were doing like these big shows. I'm like.

I'm shoulder to shoulder with these guys. I am just as funny. I think I could do it. And I'm putting my nose to the grindstone here. I can work. I can do it. And like, so now the day job was just that. It was just like, I got to pay rent. Yeah. I moved out my parents' house. I can eat halal food like every day off a truck. Like, I don't care. I'm just, I wanted to stand up. And I will never forget when I was at like a holiday party with this hedge fund. And it's like a small fund, like 20 people. Yeah.

And I remember at like six o'clock I had to catch the train. It was in Irvington, New York. So it was like an hour outside of New York. And I had to catch the train to go to make it to my show that I had started. Mm-hmm.

And I remember leaving that holiday party, like just after eating the meal real quick. Yeah. And I will never forget the look, the, the PM had, the head guy had on his face. He's of disgust. Yeah. You're leaving this. I'm like, yeah, sorry. I gotta go tell these dick jokes. And that was it. And I, I don't,

I credit my peers for being like super successful and making me feel like, oh, I should do something with this, you know? That's so interesting because you were at Stern. So you obviously had a lot of peers who went into finance. How did you build a network in comedy? Well,

All my friends who were in Stern were also very successful in finance. So when their lives became the finance jobs, I wasn't seeing them all the time. You know, they were they were work. I remember one of my hedge fund friend, he was a banker at the time.

We linked up one night to like get drinks. He fell asleep in the cab. Like he was like a first year analyst. This poor guy. Yeah, he was like talking in his sleep. I was like, bro, you're not going to make it. Like you need to go home. Yeah, you need to go home. I don't do anything, you know. In comedy, it was just like comedy is,

for better or for worse, is kind of a meritocracy. And I don't know how you gravitate towards the people you gravitate towards, but it is like a level playing field in the sense that everyone comes to the open mic. Sure, some of them might be wearing rags. I was wearing a suit because I was interning sometimes.

But like we're all we're also trying to tell the funniest thing. And you gravitate towards you gravitates towards. And I was just fortunate that a lot of my peers ended up becoming and to this day are like some of the most successful people in comedy for sure. Yeah. How long did you work in finance before you left? And how much were you making when you left? I was in. So my first finance job.

2010 at the hedge fund. Shout out to Ron and those guys. Shout out Ron. I have a funny story about working there. I was probably making like 55, 65K. 55K plus like 5K bonus because I was a research assistant. Oh, okay. I wasn't an analyst. You weren't a big hot shot yet. No, no, no. I was there for like nine months, eight months before they were like, you don't want to do this. You leave every day at five and you're like hungover when you come in. Like, get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Because everyone there was like,

MIT, Wharton, like super smart, stern, like ready to go. I was like, this is nonsense. Why am I doing this? And I was building models like the head PM put me on like building models. It's certainly not an easy job. Yeah. So I was on the way to becoming an analyst if I could prove myself. Um, that was like nine months. I was making like 55, 65 K. Um, and then the next job I took was at this boutique investment bank. Um,

where I told them I was doing stand-up and I was like why did you tell them that because I didn't want what happened at the hedge fund to happen again got you okay I told them look I'm here for the nine to five I will work my dick off from when I would come in to when I leave and I'll take some work home with me if like the analysts need it but otherwise like don't bother me I'm not I don't want to be an analyst I have no desire I'm so I'm 25 at that point and I'm supporting like

22 year olds were just like fresh out of college like still doing blow. Yeah And I'm like, yeah, give me your receipts. I'll put them on this piece of paper to get to the Accounting office or whatever and they asked by making like 65 70 Enough again to pay for my apartment. Yeah and Give me Chipotle and halal truck food like that's all I ate. Yeah, and I didn't care I was having time my life and enough to like get me drunk and stuff like that. Um

The important stuff. Yeah, yeah. And then that, I got laid off there a year and a half in. The firm took a turn for the worse. It's since rebounded tremendously. But I remember being annoyed because they thought that the head guy bought this giant painting that was like a $100,000 painting. And he put it up in the office the same year that you were letting me go. I'm like, bro. You should have just not bought the painting. That's my salary. That's more than my salary right there, dude. What are you doing? It all worked out fine because...

At the 20-year anniversary party they invited me to perform. No way! Full circle. Yeah, I got to do a 10-minute, 15-minute set just like roasting everybody. Did you charge them for that? Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, great. I got paid a hefty rate plus a little bonus. Nice. Just to mirror, what's it called, my structure when I was there originally. And I was there for like a year and change and then I got laid off there and then I got

an executive assistant job at a family office so that's like the kind of private equity kind of structure that it was we were running money for uh two billionaires yeah who want to invest in africa and i was like listen i do comedy um i'm very good at you know this assistant stuff and if you need me to do anything else i'm happy to do it a year in it was like very clear i was like

Underemployed in the sense. I wasn't doing anything assisting a one CEO wasn't that intense. Yeah, I was like, let me do some Investing analysis and stuff. Yeah, okay. So I just called it my boy KKR. No, he's at TPG and I was like a

"Let me get your investment criteria questions." And he was like, "All right." So he just sent me a 20-page thing. - Good friend. - Yeah, and I was like, "Oh, this is what you guys do? "This is how you analyze a company?" He was like, "Yeah." I was like, "Sick." - You're like, "How hard could it be?" - Yeah, and then I presented it to my CEO. I was like, "Listen, I think this is the framework we should adopt, minus some changes." - Dead. - And she's like, "Oh, this is great." I'm like, "Yeah, I got it from a friend." He's like, "Awesome, that's how this business works anyway."

And so I was analyzing companies just based on this, these 20 criteria or whatever it was, um, got promoted to associate. Uh, I was like flying Africa, kicking, kicking tires. So now you're not just the executive assistant. You're actually an investment professional. Yeah. I'm investment professional. Mind you, I was like faking it till I made it kind of thing. You know, I had no idea what the fuck I was talking about. Like if you asked me to build a DCF, I could back then, but now, but, uh,

Then I was like, well, I felt so cool. Yeah, like being in business class like on KLM to Nairobi and everyone around me is like 50 years old in sweats Yeah, I'm gonna go look at what companies do and that ended that ended the same January that I got a writing job with Chris Rock Chris Rock saw me doing stand-up at the same show as

Five years later at the same show that I was had just started when I was at that hedge fund. So like in that in that time from the hedge fund to my family office job, we had built the show to be a show big enough where people like Chris Rock would come to see talent. And he was there to watch someone else. I went up as my show.

I knocked out of the park, obviously, just given the result that he hired me to write for the Oscars. Yeah. So, yeah, I think I was in, I would say finance for like six, seven years, one foot in, one foot out. Yeah. And then that was it. And that last job, sorry, that last job I was probably, I think I cleared like, that was my first six-figure job. I think I made like $100,000 when I left.

And, you know, you come from an Indian American family. I do. Like you've mentioned that growing up, your parents really wanted education, stability. That doesn't quite jive with being a comic. No. Like when you decided to ultimately leave and pursue comedy, like what was the calculus there? Well, I didn't have a job. So they're like, what are you doing? And I was at home for like a year and change after graduating.

And I was depressed. I was listless. I was like, you know, you grow up thinking told you're smart. You're successful. You're going to be successful. Do well in the SATs. You go to the good school. Like all your peers are doing great. You're like, I ain't shit. What the fuck is going on with me? And so I needed some kind of creative outlet. I just felt like I needed it. I didn't think I'm going to do stand up comedy. It was just like, it's just something that called me. And then once I caught the bug.

There was no... There was no stopping you. Yeah, it was just like, I'm doing this. What was your first paycheck from comedy? What did that look like? 20 bucks. $20? I still have that $20. For what? It was doing a show, just like a spot at, what's it called? How long was the... Word Bookstore, 15 minutes.

Yeah. Horrible. $20 for 15 minutes. $80 an hour if you do that. But you weren't making $80 an hour. You were doing $20 spots. But I still have that $20. Did you like tape it to your wall? It's folded underneath the Ganesha in my childhood bedroom. Oh, man. I still have that $20. Lucky $20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, I'll never forget it. It was at Bobby Tisdale's show at the Word Bookstore in Greenpoint. And my friend, Shanali, helped me get that spot. And that was like,

20 bucks. But like, cause up until that point you're paying to do open mics. Yeah. You know, you're paying five bucks, 10 bucks to just get on stage and maybe buy a drink at some of these places that like kind of rob you. But they have to, they have to run a business. Um, you're like, all right, I'll just put on my, this Amex that my parents pay. And they're like, they're like, you are running up three, 400 bucks a month just on open mics and bus tickets. I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry. They're like, we don't have this kind of money. What are you doing? I'm like, what was that conversation with them? Like,

They were just like very like, what is this? Because comedy even now is a new thing, especially Indian parents. And even to any parent, like the process of it is a new thing. Like they don't understand what it means. Like to be a doctor or engineer or finance guy, like it's a very clear path. Yeah. And that's like kind of the three paths you're allowed to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

For comedy, even I don't know the path. I still don't know the path. It's a very randomized route to get to where you're at. And so for me, all I saw was I got to do open mics, hopefully get discovered on stage, do bigger shows. Bigger shows lead to something else. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just flying blind here. I just had some kind of calling, I guess. And I was like, I'm going to do this. And my parents, once I got a job and they weren't paying for me to live in their house,

There wasn't shit they could say. I'm just going to do this. And then every phone call was like, so when are you going to get your MBA? I'm like, I'm not going to get my MBA. It's never going to happen. But I would think my parents, I remember very clearly that my mom, especially, my dad is an entrepreneur, right? And not a huge one or anything like that. By no means a resounding success monetarily, but like he's made his own way.

So like my dad kind of got it right away. It's like, this is this, like it's an entrepreneurial endeavor. You just got to work at it and just keep working, working, working hard. And hopefully something will happen. My mom was always like, what, what is happening? What are you doing? Get your degree. But when I got fired from the hedge fund job, I remember talking to her and she was just like, it's going to be okay. Just collect unemployment, get another job. You'll be fine. I'm like,

who is this lady who abducted my mom what the is this why are you talking to me like this aren't you supposed to be yelling at me and telling me this whole dream is stupid like no she was just like no just like get another job it's gonna be fine yeah you'll land on your feet kind of thing i was like ah okay cool that's nice yeah it was very it was very comforting did you grow up with a lot of money or like no i i grew up thinking i was rich um

Where did you grow up? Parsippany, New Jersey. Okay. I grew up thinking I was rich and acting like I was rich, but we were not rich in hindsight. Like, so until I was eight, we lived in one bedroom. Then we got rented like a two or three bedroom. And then my parents bought a house that was like for New Jersey, a McMansion, but not like, not a real housewife shit. Just like,

cul-de-sac kind of like development, but dealing with other people out of the same house. But for us, it felt like, oh shit, this is the, we made it.

my parents, they bought like a mid-tier Lexus, like a GS, GS 300. That is an Asian parents, like East Asian, South Asian, that Lexus SUV is like, the family has made it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've made it. Yeah, yeah. We had that, we had the sedan, it was basically an Avalon, but it was a Lexus. A Lexus. So we're like, oh yeah, I'm fucking rich. But then I went to Columbia University summer camp and

that's when I met actual rich people. My, my suitemates were the son of like a dry cleaning business, the son of a founding partner of an international office of McKinsey. And then the grandson of the president of Nicaragua. And I'm in there like,

Y'all want some of this Johnny Walker I stole from my dad's liquor store? I was like, oh, I remember calling my dad like, bro, you are, we're poor. Work harder. And he's like, I'm getting robbed. I got to go. Like, it was like that. It was...

It was such a shock for me. Yeah. I guess you could say we grew up, like, middle class, like, in hindsight, but I felt... Rich? Rich, but... I love that, though. It was all, like, it was all an illusion, you know? Like, I was like, I'm going to the mall every week. I'm getting Lacoste polos. Like, my mom's like, what is this? Yeah. Stop running up our tab. Yeah. But until...

Until it all came crashing down like when my dad made some bad business moves and like lost the store basically We felt like top of the world, you know, everything's great But in hindsight we were not like we should my dad should have been like super prudent investing constantly That was never a conversation with us. Yeah, talk to me about that I think it was because my dad likes he started working the liquor store since he was 17. Yeah, he came straight from India No college education

So that was never in his head. Yeah. And he's also the youngest of six in a very, I was not poor, but not like, I would say poor by American standards family. Yeah. If you're talking about India, I'm not sure what they were like in India, but he was a runt of the litter when he was in India and,

He couldn't go to college because they used the money to pay for his older brother's wedding. Gotcha. It was that kind of family. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so when he came here, he had this mentality of like – and I remember this very clearly. Like you never know what tomorrow is going to bring. Like you don't know. So just enjoy your life today.

Whoa, I'm kind of surprised by that because he if his college education money went to your his older brother's wedding I would assume that would make him like very frugal, but it's actually the opposite I mean, I'm sure like being shot at had some kind of like trauma in his brain and I don't know what his like those early years were like for him like not owning the business, but just working at a business and

Because he would always save so they could buy a business but like once he had kids and she's like my kids are not gonna ever want for anything Yeah, like everyone's getting my favorite memories when we were younger. I have mad cousins. They all came to my place when we were like 10 years old and

We all went to Old Navy. Yeah. And we just balled out. Everyone got Old Navy. We felt like we were kings, you know. We were walking out with every denim pant, every, all the cargoes. We were fly as fuck. Granted, it was Old Navy. But I remember, and my mom paid for all of it. I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. We got all this shit. Yeah. But in hindsight, it was just my dad's kind of like the opposite mentality.

Immigrant mentality like every immigrants like we got safe safe safe. My dad was like we might die Yeah, so just enjoy your life defense mechanism. Yeah, you just enjoy your life right now and I think that had a lot to do with how we grew up like like of course the kids want the Red converse is to match his red polo. He's gonna get red converse is the match, but it was like that kind of thing in hindsight I wish I learned more about

investing and putting money away and all that kind of stuff because all my friends all my cousins whose parents taught them that are like Doing I've been doing it at a very early age. Yeah, I have not been so talking about that You said you wish you had kind of been making smarter money moves. So you go to go work for Chris Rock Yeah, and you start making some real money. Well, no, no No, not at all. Oh, okay. Well, I mean and and

Chris is a very generous guy, but it wasn't Chris who was paying us. Got you. It was the Oscars that was paying us. And that was my first writing job. And an Oscars writing, a variety, that's classified as a variety guild writing job. It's a variety show. Oscars are technically a variety show.

That first that check is like a one time check. I think it's like ten, twelve thousand dollars or something. OK, which for a month is a great amount of money. Right. It's only the month. And then you got to find something else. And then you got to do something else. In fact, you're a freelance employee. And after that job ended, I was like, all right, I got a little bit of savings, but it's not going to last that long. I can collect unemployment, but that's only like.

15 yeah to $2,000 a month or something like that a couple hundred bucks a week. Yeah, which is okay But after you eat, it's like nothing. Yeah, what am I gonna do? And I was like I was reek I was considering joining the finance world again But there was no way I could go back to being an investment professional and still doing stand. Yeah, because at that level You either become an EA again. Yeah, or

Which I interviewed for, but just didn't land anything. Or you become an investment professional or like a junior level associate or something. But then you can't do stand up. Right. And there's no way I was going to tell people to do that. So what'd you do? I looked for copywriting jobs. I got an odd job here, an odd job there writing wise. Hasan Minhaj hired me to write on the Congressional Correspondents Dinner. That was his like pre-White House Correspondents Dinner writing showcase. That was like, I think like two grand.

And at that point, like I'm living like my dad. I'm just like, I'm there's in back of my head. I'm like, this is crazy. I don't know what money is going to happen, but I'm, this is the dream. This is what I thought was going to happen. I'm going to do standup. I'll make a few bucks to do standup. And I had a very understanding girlfriend. Now my wife was just like, he was also working. So the pressure of like constantly paying for rent wasn't as present, but it was still there. Was she your sugar mama at the time?

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With a Pure Leaf iced tea in hand, you'll be left feeling refreshed and revitalized with a new motivation to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a Pure Leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break. Time for a Pure Leaf. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. She was, you know, like groceries, all the stuff that we were doing. Yeah. She's literally an angel investor in you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for sure. Super seed early, whatever it is. Yeah.

Was I saying? Yeah. So like those few months, I was like, this is the dream. I'm going to do this. Yeah. It'll be okay. And for like a few months, it wasn't. But then that was June. That was 2016. Yeah. 2016. Summer 2016 goes by. I'm like, all right, now I really have to figure something out because I don't have a job and money's running out. And then. You hit a break. Awkwafina, Nora from Queens, Nora Lum, her, that same show that I had started.

The broken comedy is the name of the show that started with my friend Michael Che and Mike Denny that show this woman used to come to named Tina and She ended up being a producer on Awkwafina's go 90 talk show go 90 was like a Verizon Effort to be in the digital media space She was one of the first people that have her own talk show on that platform They hired me to be one of the writers for that show and that was like a

that was the sign I needed from God to be like, all right, just do comedy. It's going to work out. Yeah. And, uh, that was it. And that, that was only, that was like 3000 bucks for that, for that one month writing gig. But I was like, that's enough. That pays my portion of the rent and I can eat a little bit, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, uh, we're not saving any money. We're not doing anything like that, but fuck it. Like it's going to work out. Uh,

And that was it. It was just like a kind of leap of faith there for sure. When did you feel like you started making money consistently from comedy? I had an SNL job was the first and only job that I had that was paid me consistently doing comedy. And that was eight months from September 2017 to...

May 2018. Yeah. Everything before and everything after has just been like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah. You know, like I've had some writing gigs, but they were always like short term kind of thing. Whereas SNL felt like it was going to be there for a while. Yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for a year or a season, but.

That was like, okay, now I'm good. I'm doing great. Like residuals are strong. When you started working there, like you finally have money coming in consistently. How are you budgeting it? Were you spending, splurging, like saving? I was, I wish I could recall. I wish I could say I was saving a lot, but I don't think I was. I saved a bunch, but.

At the end of the season, at the end of the season, I also, I spent a lot because we were, hey, I thought I was going to not stop. Yeah. Again, like, I was like, I fucking made it. I'm at SNL. Like, this is the, what a, I'm the first Indian ever here. You are. That was amazing. It just felt like I'm top of the world. And they have these great after parties. And, like, I met my friends, my cousins, whatever. I'm paying for all the dinners. Yeah.

that adds up fast do you feel like because of your indian american background you felt a need to like ball out the way your dad did yeah no for sure i'm like and i'm not trying to brag but it was all very foolish yeah you know you're like i regret this yes hugely uh because those 500 dinners add up yeah you do them three times a month there's like there's half a check gone yeah um

uh but money i was saving i was saving money but i wasn't putting it away in the market i think i i think i had a couple grand in the market at the time i was putting a lot away in cash because i didn't know what to put my money in i was like rather than fuck that up let me i think yields were like zero at that time but it was like two percent or something but uh

At the April of 2018, my wife, her sister, and our brother-in-law, let's go on safari. And I'm like, all right. That sounds expensive. All right. It was like $20,000. And I was like, that's a lot of money to just put away. And I also was saving for a ring. Mm.

And so you're like, do you want to get engaged? Yes or no? Yeah. Like this is the ridiculous thing. But so far it's like once in a lifetime trip. I mean, it's not I'm going to go again for sure. But it was awesome. But and this time we'll ball out. Yeah. So it's going to be a few years. But until we go back. But even 20 grand felt like a lot of money. That is an insane amount of money. But it was like.

an insane trip. I was just thinking about it just now. Like, it was freaking Jurassic Park. Yeah. Like, we saw all the animals line up at a lake and John Williams was playing. Like, this is insane. This would have... And, like, it's so quiet. But all that to say, like, all that money is gone. Yeah, you spent all of it. It was spent. And I don't regret... I joke when I say I regret some of it. But those, like...

My family got to meet Kenan Thompson. My friends and I were like, that's Kevin Hart and that's Gal Gadot. Granted, she's Gal Gadot, so she's a little iffy now. But at the time, she was cool. That's Charles Barkley. All my friends got to live that life for a little bit. Yeah.

And that was a lot of fun. And I felt very good. I felt like, hell yeah, we're fucking balling out, living the dream right here. After SNL, did you feel like there were a bunch of brands and opportunities just coming banging down your door? No, it was... Whoa, really? It was... The doors were closed. Because when you're at the show, at least for when I was there, if you're first year in, like...

Don't be taking Jamison offers. Don't be taking offers to do whatever with whoever. People are going to come at you, but you're focused on the show. And again, I'm not privy to this, but I imagine something like,

The show controls who's going to do what. Yeah. And who's going to be allowed to do something. Yeah. Because you are the show still. Yeah. And so, like, I think I got one or two offers. I know Jameson or I think Doers or something wanted me to do something or asked me to do something. And the show was like, no, we don't think that's a good idea. Okay, cool. But it wasn't a lot of money. It was like maybe three or four thousand dollars at the time. But not enough to give up your check. Yeah. No, not at all. Yeah.

And then after the show, it was like, all right, well, he's not at the show anymore. Why is he important? You know what I mean? It's irrelevant who this guy is. And this was, I don't know when influencer marketing took off, but I know I was not an influencer. My Instagram was like maybe like 5,000. I don't know what it was at the time, but nothing important. Nothing like eyeballs are on me constantly kind of thing. So even if they wanted to, even if my profile was,

10x what it was at the time like I don't think they would have drawn any eyeballs for sure Talk to me about the influencer piece of it. You have a large social following you post a ton of your clips I watch them on repeat or like just I loop them and I go through them all like they're so funny But why did you start putting stuff on social media? Was it a ploy to like build up an influencer profile or like you just wanted to get your name out there? It was the latter for sure. Like I Don't like the whole

I would love to participate in influencer marketing, but I don't, I I'm very selective with, I would never do something that I didn't use. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think some people just chill for anything, but like I, if I don't trust the product, I don't use the product. I don't feel comfortable selling it. And I don't use a lot of stuff that is, uh, uh,

Small enough to have me they won't like big names. You know what I mean? Like they're not gonna have me do Porsche That's my favorite brand. Like I love the car company. I don't have a Porsche or anything like that But they're gonna have I think do a leap was doing a part. It's not an image Patel but the to answer your question the my November 2020

I got Lily Singh gave me a writing job and shout out to Lily Singh who really helped me out I love that the Desi community is taking care of you yeah yeah no it was very helpful she gave me a writing job when I desperately needed a writing job and she didn't she doesn't know this she didn't know this at the time she was like saving me from a lot of shit but she gave me a writing job

And Guild writing jobs, entry level, they probably pay like what investment banking analysts make at the starting level. But it's not constant. It's like three-month, four-month increments. So prorated, it's what they make. But on a weekly basis, it's what they make. But yearly, obviously, bankers make a lot more. But that was enough money for me to hire an editor.

who could put and TikTok was this new thing at the time. Yeah, yeah. And my wife had told me to get on TikTok back in like June of 2020. And I was like, okay. And I never really did it. I put like one or two clips up. Then my friend of mine, this comedian, Sahib Singh, was like, you should put it, get on TikTok. He was like blowing up because he was doing like sketches on there. Yeah. He was like, you should put your stand up on there. I was like, oh, sure. And I did. And I hired an editor to like cut up all this material that I had. And he put it, I put it on there. And it was like,

overnight like 100 000 views 800 000 200 000 views i was like what the fuck and then that was like three months until like i had a show lined up where i kind of was like okay can i let's see what happens if i um say i have a show in this city will i be able to sell tickets

Sure enough, like if I put I'm coming to Houston, people in the comments are you're coming to Houston. When you come to San Antonio, we're coming to Dallas. When you come to whatever. I was like, oh, shit. Like people care. People care. And on top of that, the most important insight was if I write the city on in the text on the video, then it probably reads that the shows the people in that area. Like there's like some geolocation thing going on. Fuck, I got to line up shows in all these different cities.

And luckily that thesis proved out where it was like, this is if I put Dallas, I'm gonna sell Dallas tickets. If I put New York, I'm gonna sell New York tickets. And that was really it. My I was free because I didn't have to constantly worry about money. Because you were making touring money. No, because I was making the writing money. Oh, I could take a shot at clipping stuff out on this platform that was relatively new.

and invest in myself so to speak like the editor costs money right a good editor costs a lot of money that I think cost me to clip all this stuff out like $3,000 at the time which huge ROI obviously um

But that helped me start touring. And I was like, this is insane. And then I was making, you know, three, four grand a show kind of thing. Yeah. The minimums that a lot of these venues require or that will give to a new comic. Yeah. They'll give you a guarantee as opposed to a door deal because they're like, we don't know you. We don't know if you're gonna be able to sell. Like, this is our break even. Here's 2,000 bucks. Here's 3,000 bucks. And you'll net like 500 bucks. You got to pay for your own flight. Yeah. Hotel and all that kind of shit. Food and all that. But.

That was the beginning of what felt like, oh, shit. The big break. I'm going to be a stand-up comedian touring. I'm going to be a touring stand-up comedian who makes money touring. And that was it. That was really like, it's just been multiples of that. But that was what started it.

Wow. Shout out to Lilly Singh. Thank you very much. And Sahib and my wife for all that. And my editor. Let's talk a little bit about your income sources. Sure. You were making money from writing. Yeah. You were making money, a small amount I assume, just from the platforms probably paying you for making content. You were making money when you were actually going on tour and doing comedy at a club. Were you making money any other ways?

No, I think you got it. I think that's all of them. Uh, stand up, you know, outside of New York and in New York, I mean, in New York is one source. YouTube and YouTube was my prime, was a big source of, uh, my passive income. Yeah. Uh, well, relatively passive. I still have to put stuff up and edit all that kind of stuff. And then, uh, writing, writing fell by the wayside. Are you still writing now? No, no, no. Okay. Um, I want to be, so if you're, uh, hiring, yeah. Um,

But yeah, that was it. I think those are three sources. And then OnlyFans. Yeah, of course. Show me your feet. Show me your feet for the thumbnail so we can make this go viral. A couple questions for you. What do you feel like throughout your entire comedy journey? Because now you're in a position that is very enviable. You have been on an 80-city tour. You're going on tour again. You have this social following. You're preparing for this Netflix comedy stand-up special. Like,

What was the biggest mistake financially you think you made through your... In comedy? In comedy. Well, I think overall biggest financial mistake was probably just like not investing early and often. You regret that. Yeah, no, for sure. And like...

Not even thinking about it. You know, like, it didn't even cross my brain. Like, all my friends... Which is crazy, because you worked in investing. That's what I'm saying. But I think it was because it was just, like, I was on such hair-thin margins at the time. You know, rent and food and drinking consumed all of my money. Alcohol... The drinking was a big part. Alcohol was a big part. But within comedy, the most expensive financial mistake I made was...

And I don't have an ROI calculation on this. I spent the first special I made myself, Thank You China, that I put up on YouTube. And I called it Thank You China because TikTok changed my life. And it was like a nod to them. Thank you guys for creating this addiction.

I spent like two hundred something thousand dollars of my own money. Yeah, so like any so like there's a huge range of standard specials, right? Like you can you can make one for like five grand you can make the the jokes for quarantine Which is what I put up on youtube When quarantine when quarantine we were in quarantine cost me like maybe like 500 600 bucks one camera. Um, shout out to iffy uh, uh One camera good audio. That was it. Um

But that was $600, and it looks like a $600 special. Yeah. Now technology has advanced so much, even in a few years, you could probably shoot a very good special that looks great, sounds fantastic for YouTube for like a couple grand. Yeah. Which the ROI is hopefully you'll be able to sell tickets on that. And if you get like two or three minimums, you've made your money back. Yep. But to be on Netflix, to meet their quality standards –

to shoot something that meets their quality standards just costs money just based on the cameras that you need and the sound that you need and the lighting all that bare minimum is like 50 000 bucks you know and i was like fuck i'm going for the moonshot i'm like i made all this money this year uh i've saved all this money this year i think like this comedy that i'm doing right now is really strong and i think if we shoot it and make it look amazing netflix will buy it

And they did not. And I could have done the whole thing for like five grand. You know what I mean? Yeah. And you spent 200. I spent 200 something more than that probably. And I say that's my biggest mistake because the cost that it could have been.

The return probably would have been the same because what I ended up just doing is like clipping that out and putting up on Instagram and socials and stuff. I'm sure that drove a lot of tickets and drove a lot of new fans. It could be done, but very tedious to figure out like how many views translated, how many tickets going forward. So I'm hoping that the ROI was there on the $200,000 just from shows and stuff. But man, that hurt a lot. Yeah.

Because I also had a friend give me money, like loan me money to make this special. To make it happen. Yeah. And he was like, you sure? I'm like, yeah, let's – like whatever. I'll pay you interest. I don't care. And very generous guy, obviously. Relieved part of the loan because once he got like paid back in full, I was like, thank you very much. But that was – what a – man, I think about that all the time. Like if I only –

Didn't spend $200,000 on this thing that like it's very still very flawed thing I look at I'm like that cost $200,000 what the fuck was I doing because the next one I made was like 80 And it was better and it was better look better like I felt better about it And it was just and because it wasn't so expensive. Yeah, I was like, okay, this is this is good high-quality piece of work for a

uh not as much as the previous one that i don't even like as much yeah was you know yeah okay so i think about that that would have been you're like mad now i am i am because the opportunity cost is like i could i could put that in spy or in video like whatever i could have invested it yeah but instead i invested in myself right and i hope that it invested it in alcohol no there was a lot of drinking that night too after the show but yeah yeah yeah

Okay, that's great advice. Like make sure the investments you're making have an ROI that's actually going to justify the cost. Yeah, I thought that it was. I was so sure Netflix was going to buy this thing. It's like there's no way. It looks better. The comedy is better. I'm hot right now. Like there's no way they're not going to buy it. They're like –

My dog, sorry. I was like, fuck. What advice would you give to young comedians who want to break into this industry and knowing what you know now? Don't quit your day job. Really? Because you quit your day job. I didn't quit my day job. I was laid off. Oh, okay. I was laid off from my day job. And it was also, I was given another job by the GOAT. You know, Chris Rock gave me a job.

So that's a little different. But anybody who asked me, I think I just had this conversation a few days ago. There's no freedom, like financial freedom to pursue something that you don't know is going to have a return financially. Yeah. Like I shout out to Lilly Singh a lot because that any writing job that I had freed me up creatively.

Freedom, any, any job, any day job that I had and all the hedge funds and they're granted some of them ended the way I didn't wouldn't I'd like, but hedge fund investment bank, family office. Like I was the most creative then because I did not have to think about where I was going to eat, how I was going to eat and where my money was going to come. Like I was going to pay rent.

I was going to hang out with my friends. I did not have to worry about that at all. My brain was just like, what are the jokes? What's funny? And I always say that to people who are like, man, I'm going to quit my job and do comedy. I'm like, why the fuck would you do that? Make it work that you can do comedy and also have a job. Yeah. Like,

I love that advice. I sound like my mom. No, but that's smart. That's what it is. Like you are able to be the best version of yourself when your basic needs are met. Yes. And that's simple. Yeah. Thank you for articulating it that way. No, I love that. Don't be an idiot. Yeah. No, I think that's really great advice. Yeah.

Thank you so much for taking the time. Oh, that was smooth. Thank you very much for having me. To chat with me. Talk to me a little bit about where people can expect you next, where we can find you on tour, how we can get tickets. For sure. Thank you very much for asking. The tour is just a work in progress tour right now in that I'm going to be on stage with like a bunch of unformed shit.

But it will be funny. I've started in New York and it is funny. I'm finding nemesh.com. I'm going to Madison. I'm going to London. Miami's next. Miami's first. Miami's first. 305. And then Madison. Where else am I going? London, Cleveland.

Daniel, everywhere. I'm going everywhere. Yeah. But findingnemesh.com. Findingnemesh.com. We'll put it in the show notes. Please. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you very much for having me. Hey, I have a little favor to ask all the besties. The Net Worth and Chill team is planning for the future of the show, and we want our listeners to be a part of the conversation.

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