Name: Michael Kosta: From Lucky Loser to Daily Show Star | You Made It Weird
Uploaded: 2025-05-07T14:00:16.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael Kosta: From Lucky Loser to Daily Show Star | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael Kosta: From Lucky Loser to Daily Show Star | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-07. Transcript available.

Michael Kosta: From Lucky Loser to Daily Show Star | You Made It Weird

You made it weird, yes you did, you made it weird, yeah. You made it weird,
with Pete Holmes.
Yes you did, you made it weird, yeah. What's happening weirdos? This is the
incredible Michael
Costa, who is a Emmy award-winning course senior correspondent for The Daily
Show and the author
of the new book Lucky Loser, which is about his life in comedy and tennis. Tennis.
It's a thing. It's a
wonderful book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually got the audio book. He
reads it masterfully and he
wrote it beautifully. So check out Lucky Loser. It's really, really wonderful
and so is this
conversation. I'm going to say you'll hear it because we're not editing it out.
We only had an
hour and then he was running a little bit late and then for some reason we get
into it. I was like
anxious about this thing I had afterwards so I kind of like called him out for
being late and it's a
little bit, well it's a little bit weird. But then like 10 minutes later we're
the best of friends and
we're talking about it and like we say in parenting it's not that you don't
make mistakes and are grumpy
it's all in the repair. So we talked about it. We love each other. We are
wonderful but you'll hear a
little bit of persnickety Pete at the beginning of this episode and I'm happy
to say that we did the
repair very well. So we're leaving it all in even though I think in the episode
we talk about taking
it out. So check out Lucky Loser. Check out Michael Kosta on all his social
platforms and please go to
PeteHolmes.com. As I'm going to keep mentioning this is no longer the PG-13
tour. This is now called
the Pete Here Now tour because I did one show in Austin that was going to be
the beginning of the
PG-13 tour. I got off stage and I was like I am not I'm not PG-13. This hour is
not PG-13. It is
normal dirty as I like to say. It's not filthy but it's normal dirty. So we're
just calling it the Pete
Here Now tour. And the upcoming shows are all on my website. Toronto is coming
up. Los Angeles on May 24th.
Then we have Nashville, Irvine, San Jose, Houston, Royal Oak, Michigan,
Washington, D.C., Boston, Spokane,
Washington, St. Louis, Cleveland, Homestead, Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, New
Jersey. And it hasn't been
announced yet so it's not available yet but right around that New Jersey date I'm
pretty sure we're
going to be in New York which I'm very excited. So when that is official all of
those will be on
PeteHolmes.com. This episode is brought to us by our friends at Magic Mind.
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So glad you're here. I love this conversation. I'm a huge Michael Costa fan and
I hope you enjoy him as
much as I did. Get into it. How's it going, man? This is it. You did it. You
did it. Welcome.
Welcome. Um, thanks. And sorry. Sorry about the, it's okay. I almost sent you a
snark. A few minutes,
20 minutes, my man. Is it? That's, that's not a few minutes. I'm going to call
bullshit on it. No,
yeah. A few minutes. Yeah. What is it? It's, it's 12:20. Yes. It's late. I'm
sorry.
We are cutting that out. You are my guest and I'm glad you're here. We'll start
with that.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No, it's all good, but
thank you. But yes,
I'm happy to be here. Well, it's also because we only have until 1:10. So this
will now be the
shortest episode of you. We can, I can go longer, but I'm not sure if you can.
I can't because they
told you 1:10. Okay. We're pretty, here's two things, your team. Yeah. I'm
going to say this up top.
Talent seems to never know how, and your team is fine. We got a very firm 1:10.
We push back on that.
Okay. Nope. 1:10. Okay. All right. All right. And we also just said, don't call
him Mike.
Oh, wow. That I'm actually happy with. They're pretty into that.
I can go longer if you want to go longer. I love that. I appreciate it. Okay.
Yes. Okay.
Unfortunately. Yes. Copy that. Copy that. I mean, I can't. Yes. Okay. Got it. I
hate it. I'm sorry. No,
no, no, no, no. No, no. All good. But you know, when you, yeah, tell me, when
you go to comedy clubs,
how sometimes they hate you immediately because they've been dealing with your
team, but you don't
even know, you don't even know what's going on. Of course. So nobody's mad at
you whatsoever.
Right. Right. I do. I, I was telling Katie after this, the reason I can't go
longer is because
I have, I'm reading for like the, a producer's. Nice. Read. Yes. Nice. And I
just told this to Katie,
but I'm putting it to you. If I'm, if I have something hanging over my head,
I'll just be a little persnickety the whole day, like a little tight. And I
swear to God,
I'm 46, you're 45. Correct. I just, I'm telling you, I just figured this out
that like,
I had another audition. I swear, we're going to get to you.
I had another audition. No, no. I had another audition and, um, I did it at
seven o'clock PM
over zoom. Okay. I had a show at eight o'clock, my show. Right. The first of a
weekend, big show.
Yeah. And I said, yes. So that sounds terrible to me. That was one of, I'm like,
you ever just feel
like a stranger to yourself? Like that's the ABCs of a performer. You're about
to do a show. Yes. And
it was like a new hour. And I was nervous about it. I'm like, sure, I can be in
my dumb hotel room,
setting up lights and putting on my stupid favorite shirt. Of course it went
like shit. And I just
figured this out. So I want you to know two apologies. One, you're so welcome.
And I'm so happy
to meet you and sit down with you. Thank you for taking the time. And two, it's
not a big deal at all
that you relate. I'm a little tight because I have this thing. Fair enough.
That's all my cards.
I got a text yesterday. I had a show at the Hollywood Improv and it was like
pretty, uh,
can you meet before? Can you meet before? Can you meet before? And finally I've
gotten good at
creating boundaries, but it's still hard for me to enforce. Yes. Enforcement is
hard. Anyone can take
the reservation. Right. I had to then say, I don't want to see anybody before
the show because I don't,
I want to be in my space, but it's taken me 22 years in comedy to realize that.
I think
it's called performance anxiety. Of course it is. Yes. You're in fight flight.
Yeah.
And as much as I like to think that I'm Fonzie, I'm Potsy. Yeah. I think I'm
cool. I'm like,
I've seen other performers have a show and hold court. I'm like you. I am not
like that whatsoever.
It's because you feel that way. And because I feel that way is also why we're
good at it. Of course.
So there's that. Well, that's the great, I say this probably every fifth
episode. Seinfeld said to
Shanling, they're at a party. Shanling says, when will I be comfortable at a
party? And Seinfeld says,
the day you are, you'll stop being funny. Right. And I wasn't, so I wouldn't
trade it for the world,
but it is hard for us. Can I share with you a very funny Gary Shanling moment I
had? Yes,
you may. I was at Hermosa Beach comedy. I tell this to everybody who will
listen to me,
and I know you'll appreciate it. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. So I loved
him,
loved his shows and just grew up watching him. And I finally got to meet at
Hermosa Beach comedy
magic club. And he's sitting next to me. We're having dinner with all the big
group there. And Mike Lacey comes in,
who owns the Hermosa Beach and says, Gary, can I speak to you privately? And as
Gary stands up to
walk with Mike, he takes a steak knife and he hides it in his hand and walks
out of the room
as if he's going to go stab Mike Lacey, like, and no one else saw. And I just
think it is such,
he did a bit for one person and I've tell it to everybody for 15 years, but
what a great bit.
And I've been wanting to copy it. I've been wanting to copy it, but I've never
had the opportunity.
But if someone says, can I speak to you privately? And then you take a knife to
that meeting is,
is great. And Katie is dying over there at that story. She's loving it. She's
loving it. It's a
great story. I'm going to tell you this. There's a lot of people in different
makes and models of
cars that are dying at that story. Yeah. The sliding it. Did he slide it up his
sleeve?
Yeah. He did like the, what you do if you're, if you're a silent assassin. And
so often we meet
people's comedy that we love and they don't deliver on attitude or personality.
As they are in life. As they are in life. And that's an example where he
elevated.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I liked it even more.
I'm trying to remember Ricky Jay. Yeah. Ricky Jay. Is that his name? He's a
magician.
Ricky Jay is in the Paul Thomas Anderson movies. I think it's Ricky Jay. I'm 99.9.
Ricky Jay. We got it. Ricky Jay. They were doing this documentary about him and
there's this magic trick. You're going to see why I brought this up. There's
this magic trick that
imagine if I'm, you know, I'm a magician, but we have lunch. Right. And we're
eating lunch. And
Ricky Jay did this trick. He's meeting with an interviewer. And in the middle
of the lunch,
he lifts up his menu and there's a block of ice, like the size of a microwave
on the table. And he
gets up and leaves. And she said she, she wept. Right. Because what? Yeah. I
kind of trimmed the
story. The story was the interviewer knew that that trick was Ricky's favorite
trick. He sort of,
so he seeded the idea that let's say it was Houdini, who knows who it was, but
there was a classic
magician that his signature trick was, you'd be having lunch and out of nowhere.
That is amazing.
He'd produce a huge block of ice. And she said, she goes, and it was in the sun,
but it wasn't yet
melting. How was he keeping it cold? How was he keeping it cold, Michael? I don't
know. But also,
and comedians do not do this. Although my example of Gary Shaling is the
opposite of what I just said.
To do the, the thing, to do the trick and then walk away. I knew what you were
going to do.
You know, we have to, I have to wallow in it. Yeah. Well, I did a thing that's
special and now I'm
going to take it in. It is selfless. It is selfless to do such an act. Restraint.
Yeah. I would stick around and go, how is it not melting? A hundred percent. I'd
go, where was it?
How did I have that ice? Where? I think they had already had the salad course
too. So it was like,
that's, that's great. But then you look under the table, there's just a freezer,
just something right. Or just like, just a big igloo cooler. Yeah. Or that was
a great trick,
but we heard this freezer humming behind us. Ruined. Let me,