Combat Vet Comedian & Against The Odds: Interview with Comedian & Actor Thom Tran

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Well, yeah, man, I mean, I got shot my fourth day in Iraq. The next 12 months were an absolute shit show and then my roommate got killed two weeks before we redeployed. conus. So it was like the deployment that started from hell and then ended exactly that way.

Welcome to the show, folks. Today we're very fortunate to have a guest on the show who continues to serve his military community through his strength of comedy and meaningful motivation. He was part of the rise of comedy and is currently the Director of media and artists Relations at the laugh factory in Los Angeles. Our guest today is Mr. Tom Tran, who is not only an army combat veteran, but he's also a professional broadcast journalist, a professional comedian, actor and a musician. Tom was a noncommissioned officer, United States Army served a total of eight years with a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. We received a Purple Heart. Tom, I want to thank you for joining us today.

That is a that is an impressive intro. And I was like, Who was he talking about? Like, oh, yeah, that's me. Free. I

said that shit was cool. How are you? Great, man. Great. It's great to have you on the show. I was trying to link up with you. So I'm glad that you have an extremely busy schedule. So really appreciate this opportunity.

Yeah, sorry, man. This week has been like the last two weeks has been intense. Right. So you met my boy Jordan over Guitar Center? Yeah, I

think that was him. I was over there. When I was first when I first started out with the podcasting thing. You know, I didn't know what I was doing. And I was over there asking all kinds of questions. And man, he was the nicest guy that helped me out with it and gave me so much information. And he mentioned and he mentioned, you know, What's this for? And I told him, and he's like, Oh, I have a really, really good friend named Tom. And I'm like, Oh, so I started looking at on YouTube and Instagram. And I'm like, Well, I gotta reach out to this guy.

Jordans. my homie he used to be the the manager over at Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks. And day he left I got a kick for him at Ralph's. And as I told people to write, don't leave me. Okay, yeah, yeah, he's dog Jordans. Fantastic. I probably put his kids through school with all the crap that I bought from guitars. I guys a wealth of knowledge.

That is good cat.

wanted to start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself, your family and where you're from. Originally,

I grew up a small black child in Washington DC. It's funny because I'm a black. I grew up in a grew up in Buffalo, New York. My family came to the United States in 1979, after my father escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, which makes me Vietnamese settled in Buffalo grew up the only Asian kid that I knew outside of my family, played guitar and rock bands, got in trouble because I was in rock bands, got thrown out of high school, went to a different High School, because I was a bit of, you know, punk. But as you know, mid 90s, whatever, decided to not be a punk anymore. join the army in 97. Right after I got right after I turned 18 almost joined right before I turned 18. I actually went to see the recruiter when I was 17. But my mom freaked out. Because my dad was a POW nom. She's like, why are you doing this? I was like, cuz I gotta. Yeah, so my recruiter is like, Hey, man, in three weeks, you can't do anything you turn 18 he's just signed the paperwork doesn't matter. So yeah, I listed right after I turned 18 and February of 97 pissed off my mom to know and dad was cool with it, I guess. I mean, Dad was you know, is a combat vet, pow nom. So he didn't want me joining the military. But he wasn't going to stop me. Yeah. My dad found out somewhere in my mid teens. He's like, I'm not gonna stop him from doing shit. He's just gonna do it. He never pushed me in any direction to do anything. Like he did say go do this. Go do that. But he was always supportive. He's like you wanna play guitar? I'll

buy a guitar I

want to you know, Chase this girl. I will buy flowers you know help you buy fires diggity river house for Yeah, for birthday, whatever. You wanna join the army? Yeah, I'll take you to maps which he did my recruiter took me to maps but yeah, so I joined the army 18 signal went in the army camo cuz I watched Good Morning Vietnam. And I was like, I want to do that. I want to be Adrian Chrono or I want to be Robin Williams. And my sneaky as recruiter. I feel like those are words that everybody puts together. He was like, it's like we don't have that job available. Like the the MLS was. It was locked out there. There are 90 slots available. So I didn't know shit about the army, GI Joe and Transformers growing up. So he was like we have a radio job in a special operations unit. And I didn't know what that meant. I was like, cool. So in my head, I'm jumping out of planes like playing AC DC. For the 11 Bravo's, like on the way down, and it was not that it definitely was not that I was not an ASN guy as a, you know, signal weaning wire dog. Small unit tactical signal operations NCO. Yeah deploy to Iraq and oh three got shot. day four stayed all 12 months.

Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. So would you mind taking us back to your deployment? And what happened the day that that you received your combat injury? Sure.

Yeah. So we drove across the border from Kuwait into Iraq, I think 29 March, oh, three. So about a week after the war, it started rest of my unit already been chopped out to other other units. Some guys went with the Brits, some guys went with at second. Some guys went with Marines. So we got chopped out and teams, and my team got chopped out to fifth group up in on us, Korea. So we get up to Tulare base. And they were still bagging and tagging up. Like as we were rolling up, so we were literally setting up camp as they're clearing up. This airbase and taweelah airbase was right outside of our NASA area, which if anybody remembers, was a city where Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner of war in the first days of the war. So we get in. And we have to drive up until on us, Korea to take over the eo. And they had rescued Jessica Lynch on April 1, oh, three. So this is like two days after we are we arrive at to Lille, the soft unit that got her out. They were leaving the AO, they got to show us around. You know, we're brand new into the area, and we got to take over some of the CIA operations. So they're literally driving us around. We're in a convoy, and we start driving down along the river. And I mean, I had this on video, so I remember it pretty clearly because I watch it. My interpreter goes, this is a really bad place. This is the headquarters of the bath. And I'm like, Well, fuck, and then immediately on the video, you hear gunfire, I'm like, God. In my head. I'm like, God dammit. This is like day one. first mission outside the wire. And we roll into a gunfight and yeah, so roll into a gunfight is a kill box. It's infantry do not do one on one. This is, you know, you drive into a gunfight. What do you do you fucking drive out of that gunfight get out any way you can. But it was like the river to our left buildings like five feet to our right, and a burning pile of tires to our front. And we're in a convoy with like gun trucks, some otas some foreign internal defense guys, and we stop again, classic infantry do not do one on one convoy stops as the the OD a commander is trying to assess the situation. And while we're stopped, I got popped back ahead. Cuz I was driving the Humvee. It was it was like my Colonel major interpreter. So I'm an e6. I'm like the lowest ranking person in the trucking. So I'm driving the otas try to figure out what's going on. We're stopped. I mean, it is like everything in my my head God. And then I got popped back in the head. And no, I was not wearing my helmet, because we were out with yo da. You know, they do things different. And I grew up in SOCOM, and I was just like, you know, you my battalion commander that day, it was like, hey, going out to play with the EOD guys. So you know,

well, and you know, this was in 2003. So I deployed in 2004, at the end of 2004. And what a lot of folks may not realize in 2003, you didn't have the level three tar deck armor. You had sandbags on the floor and you had what was called ghetto metal on the sides of your vehicle because

I we had interceptor armor like that bullshit. interceptor armor. Like was kind of useless. Yeah, I

did that for about a month. We're just doing convoys outside the wire and we had you know, sandbags in the ghetto metal just steel that the soldiers would put on the side of the vehicles for protection and fortunately, we were able to get to level three armor at the end of 2004. But yeah, that man I could not imagine going through a firefight with nothing. Basically

a couple of the Humvees had fabric doors on them for like wow wow yeah. Yeah, yeah. So cow we do things right.

Kind of like your back here in garrison and training with your with your mesh, fabric covered doors and everything. Yeah, that's insane.

Yeah, we don't go to war with the army we

want we go to war with I am very familiar with that. Very familiar with that, quote, very familiar with that quote, because that happened when I was I was actually in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld had said that and that's soldier that stood up man I, I often wonder what ever happened to him because

so do I think about him all the time

saved countless lives by bringing that up because there was a huge push at the end of 2004. Yeah, it became mandatory that you cannot leave outside the wire unless you had level three armor. And I couldn't imagine being in your situation where, you know, we I had driven through several firefights, but I had level three armor. I could imagine what it must have been like for you going through that. This happened during the day.

middle of the day, we had white Toyota pickup trucks loaded with foreign internal defense guys a couple of otaa gun trucks, a couple of just like regular Humvees and some pretty some some otas because I saw some black SUVs in our convoy. I'm like, Who are those guys? And nobody ever told me? Yeah, I was like, all right, whatever man, MIB whatever, they're looking fucking aliens, I don't care just came out of my way. That's cool, Fine, whatever.

Absolutely amazing that you were able to make it through that I haven't been through it myself. I can't imagine what it must have been like for you. So I did see an interview where you talked about the bullet entry, not actually bothering you until your college graduation party, which I believe was like months after returning from your deployment. And I find that so strange, because I also experienced, you know, similar feelings. When I came back from my deployment, I have a piece of an IED. It was a it's a it's a rubber strip, that wood has nails through it. And it actually stuck into my tire. And it exploded a mortar round on the side of my Humvee. And the way the mortar was facing, it just so happened that the ground took the majority of the hit, I took all those things, and I had just thrown them into a bin and closed it and did not for years did not want to think about it or talk about it, you know, those types of dangerous situations. And I felt like I couldn't move on with myself. And I just wanted to, you know, fit in with everyone else. So can you share a little bit about how you felt? And what happened? When those memories and thoughts hit you during that graduation party?

Well, yeah, man. I mean, I got shot. My fourth day in Iraq, the next 12 months were an absolute shit show. And then my roommate got killed two weeks before we redeployed conus. So it was like, the deployment that started from hell, and then ended exactly that way. And then I got home, I asked to go home on the ad bond, because I had an opportunity that never came to pass. But I had an opportunity to go work at Maxim magazine, but I had to finish college to do it. Because like, most of us in the military, it took me a long time to get my college degree, like eight years, pretty much my entire contract while I was in the army, I was, you know, taking a semester here, take a semester there, try to get my degree. You know, by the time I graduated, the kids I was graduating with were like, in the eighth grade, when I you know, join the army. So, anyway, long story short, I had the opportunity to go work for Maxim, but I had to, I had to graduate. And I had like, 24 credit hours to graduate. I still had like, another semester and a half. But I was like, Hey, I told like, Man, look, let me get out of here. I'll go home early, I'll get the ad bond ready, I will register for school. And then I will crank out this, whatever. 20 plus credit hours I got to do to graduate. So I got home. We got back to the States. We were supposed to be at Bragg to our process. And we wound up at Fort Hood. Like I was on this bad bond with me, my major, a couple other nccos and somehow we wound up in Fort Hood. I mean, I wasn't the flight NCO. So I don't fucking know. I was just like, on the bus. I was like, just fucking get me home. So we get back and we're still like major like the fuck are we doing? And Colleen goes, Yeah, somebody fucked something up. I'm like, yeah, no shit. Were in Texas. We're supposed to be in Buchan, North Carolina. We're stuck and clean for a couple days. We fucked off obviously. And then we get back to brag. I alpro I helped the ad bond party get ready for the rest of the battalion and come back that I have process and fucking on acid get back to Buffalo, New York. I finished my degree. So I got back on a Thursday. And on Monday, I was starting, like 27 credit hours. So think about that. I got home Thursday. And like maybe 96 hours later. Like I had just come home from a war. a literal war. Yeah, I was back in the states for like a week or something. But I was you know, fucking bouncing around Fort Hood and then Fort Bragg trying to get my shit together. But then by the time I got home, in four days, I was in college. I had no time to process what I went from a war to 20 something credit hours of college and then it was like that for That whole semester from right, January until May, I was home, I was going to school, I was working my radio job. I was trying to reintegrate with my family and my fiance at the time. And I still had friends downrange, you know, there are rotations overlap. So I had buddies who were still downrange for another six, eight months, you know, and I got shot my roommate, like I said, My roommate got killed, December 19 2003, like three weeks before we came home. So all that shit set and festered with me while I'm in school, taking nearly twice the amount of credit hours that a normal person takes, while I'm also going to go into work working on my career, working on my relationship. You know, I had a niece that was born right before I deployed that I am, you know, trying to integrate my myself into her her tiny little life that I graduated graduation day. I was actually just looking at the photos the other day, for some reason I was going through my laptop, had a party at my my then fiance his house. And now it's fine. We're open picture opening presidents shit like that. And then I went out in the back and had a smoke and that was the first time in 18 months that my op tempo was not fucking Go, go, go go go. Because from the moment I got my orders, that's 12 months boots on the ground. And then another four or five, six months of college non stop. So my op tempo was maxed out for nearly two years. And I went outside at that graduation party was the first time I took a break. And I had a smoke and it just all came out. Like all the bullshit that was inside all the stuff that I had to keep buried while I was downrange, all the stuff that I had to keep to myself, so my soldiers didn't see me freaking out all the stuff that I had to keep inside so I didn't lose it on my family or my fiance or whatever, all that shit just came out like that moment with a cigarette and just fucking lost it. And that's when everything went downhill there cuz I was medically not clear to be an online unit anymore. I was working with recruiters, they like there was an incident and that's what all I will say about it. But my command was like, You can't be here. You go at SW with the recruiters. And in the meantime, I was like on the last year my contract. So now not organically with my unit. I am ad SW with recruiters. I'm in college. I am trying to process this, you know, last year that I had, and they never set a retention NCO to me they're just like, Alright, medical. Yeah. So now I'm not a soldier anymore. Medically, I can't you know, I can fucking night vision problems, memory loss, fucking migraines, all that shit, all the stuff that comes with getting shot in the head. And now I'm not in school anymore. And now I finished college. And I was such a wreck that that opportunity that I had to go work for that that magazine, I just blew that off. I was like, I can't do this. It's like my, my relationship was ending. Fucking I had, I was at the point I had nothing to give. I was like, Well, I'm not a soldier anymore. Not a student anymore. Not, you know, in this relationship anymore. barely knew my family couldn't talk to them up, you know, like, we all have that problem. But even more so because like my family moved back to my hometown. But you know, they'd been gone. I'd been gone and I deployed so yeah, man, everything I just lost it all that they just all came out. That's when everything you know, it's when I put on the weight when I saw when I started drinking, but as well the drinking. What fucking way overboard. But yeah, there was a few years of that. Bit of a heart attack situation when I was 26 as I went to the VA and doctor was like, Hey, man, was the last time you smiled. That had to be like, 2004 2005 when this happened, like when was the last time you smile and I was like, I don't know, fucking 2002 before the war started. You know? My blood pressure was out of control. I was like 190 something pounds 200 pounds. I think I maxed out at like 210 like put that in perspective. I'm five, seven and 147 pounds right now like 12% body fat, so same height tack on 60 or 70 pounds. So, super not healthy. You've seen the photos, I was in a real bad place. started drinking again, in plain bands like doing a doing all the shit that I did before I joined the army, you know, when I was 15 to 18 years old, drinking smoking, playing in rock bands just doing all that shit that, that 15 to 18 year old kids do. I was doing it again, but I was alright. 20 whatever. Yeah. 526

Yeah, I think a lot of veterans can identify with exactly what you're saying, you come back, and you really don't feel like you have anyone else to talk to. You've lost all your colleagues, everyone that had your six, everyone that you depended on and trusted, you know, or taken away from you. And you cross the finish line, you got your college degree. And you had that, that moment, that moment of silence, and that moment to reflect on everything, and it just kind of hit you at once a lot of veterans go through that. And I was just, you know, I've personally had some issues with with reintegrating and, and identifying with my own friends and family, you know, after my deployment, and my separation from the military. And for years, I often felt like I was misunderstood. So what are your thoughts of the concept with modern society viewing veterans reintegration as a societal problem due to homelessness, PTSD, you know, just being broken, or simply out of touch from society.

I'll put it to you like this. We talked about being nerds, I'm a big star trek nerd. There's an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation where the enterprise is asked to go to this planet. So the enterprise D, Picard's enterprise, is asked to go to this planet where they, they have to help capture a fugitive from a penal colony. And it turns out that this quote unquote penal colony, is where this planet sent all of their combat soldiers all their all the people that fought their wars. It wasn't really a penal colony so much as like, Hey, you fought our wars, we're gonna give you this piece of land. And on another planet that you can go live on. The idea of the episode was, this planet didn't want to deal with the soldiers that they created. So yeah, you fought your war, here's your plot of land, go away. And don't don't be a part of regular society anymore. And then the enterprise had to decide what to do, because like, Oh, no, this guy is not a fugitive. He was a war hero. And this entire planet doesn't know how to or want to deal with the people that they created to fight their wars. So it's not a new problem. You know, this was a problem. This has been a problem for as long as wars have been fought. And it's not a US or them thing. It's people are selfish, period. Period, people are selfish. It's not that they don't know how to deal with veterans, they don't know how to deal with anybody outside of their bubble. That's life. That's, that's why there's racism. That's why there is sexism. That's why there is homophobia, people who don't know how to deal with somebody or something that's different from them. They're just gonna push it aside. They're gonna get with veterans, they're gonna say, yeah, we want to help as much as possible. But look at the reality of it. Like 22 veterans a day kill themselves, there are now 30,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles. So it's, it's not a society thing, where it's like us versus them. It's not civilians versus the military, or veterans or whatever it is, society, not being able to look at ourselves in the mirror. Now, when it comes to difficult, uncomfortable situations, whether it's veteran homelessness, or the oppression of others, or racism, or police brutality, or whatever it is, we don't want to look at it that in the mirror, because it's fucking uncomfortable. And that's the problem. There's no for me the difference. There's no difference between, oh, I'm a veteran and that other group of people, because I'm a veteran, I'm an Asian American. I'm an immigrant, like you could break that shit down. to its most atomic level. The problem is, there are 8 billion people on the planet and outside of your group of like, 10 people that you know, really well. You don't really want to know all these other fucking people. And then the internet makes you go, Oh, I know all these people. You know, I have 5000 friends on Facebook. I don't have 5000 friends. I got three. And then I got 4900 other motherfuckers that just met that like that's what it is. The world is So big. And that's become so small. And we as these, these primates don't have the brain capacity to really deal with it, but we think we do we think we're so super smart because you and I are talking to each other over a camera from a dozen miles away. You know, we think we're super smart. We're not we're still pretty dumb as, as beings, which is why I can't wait for the Pentagon release of alien information to come out in June. And that's gonna blow everybody's fucking minds when they go, Oh, shit, we're just dummy. Yeah. Also, I believe in aliens. Nah, man, it's, it's amazing, because we don't even know what's at the bottom of the ocean. And right yet, I don't even know what's in my closet. Right, right.

And you know, people think that, like you just mentioned, people think we're so far apart from each other. But we're really not. I think a lot of forces would like us to think that. But in reality, we're not too far apart from each other. And you know, in our way of thinking and how we treat each other. And at the same token, you're right, like, we think that we're smarter than we really are. We really haven't explored all that much. And we really don't know as much as we think we know even about ourselves and what's going on, like, appear in our own heads. So I understand what you're saying with that. And I was just just curious to know that was, at what point did you decide to pursue a career in comedy and entertainment?

When I had a heart attack? And the doctors like, Oh, hey, man, you got to do something. Or you're gonna die before you're 30 because I was fat, overweight, an alcoholic, and I had nothing to live for. And comedy became my therapy, comedy became the thing that was like, hey, yeah. You know, like, I tell people all the time you hear when you hear a good joke, it's just a good joke. You know, you don't think about it, right? You know, you've got Oh, why is that funny? I mean, some people do, but they're assholes. But like, yeah, mad comedy is just like it. When I write a good joke. I gotta lie. I've, I will fucking do that joke on stage and listen to it over and over and over and over again to hear the laughter that I created with that joke, or just like I make myself laugh with, you know, if I write a good joke, and that's what it's about. Yeah, I enjoy doing it for other people. But man, I write a joke. That makes me laugh. Yeah, that's, that's less time I spend thinking about every other bullshit thing that runs through my head. You know, it's less time I think about all the problems, I came home. With all the problems, I still live with all the problems. I'm still dealing with all the shit that I see on the news or on Twitter or whatever. Like, when I write a joke, yeah, it makes me forget for the what length of the joke. And if I'm on stage doing a show, hey, then those people get to forget for a half hour or 45 minutes or an hour, which is why I created the GIS of comedy. So that I you know, it occurred to me that if it's this is working for me, if this is helping me get over some of my combat trauma. Well, then, hey, I can do this for other Joe's, you know, travel around the world. That was my goal to travel around the world and do stand up for for other troops. So they could forget for a half hour or 90 minutes that Oh shit, we're in a combat zone. We've done it in 23 countries. 40 something states. We've literally been to the North Pole, Tooley Air Force Base in the North Pole all the way down to Curacao in South America arac a bunch of times Afghanistan a bunch of times a bunch of undisclosed locations all over Europe. Asia, haven't been Australia yet. That's the goal. for no other reason that I like Australia. But yeah, man, that's why I did comedy. It started off as like healing for me. And therapy for me. And I was an NCO man, the you know, accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my soldiers will always be uppermost in my mind. That's the NCO that's in the NCO creed. So I'm still in it. Yeah, I'm still trying to take care of Joe's I just do it with a microphone, instead of you know, fucking yelling at him to jump out of a plane. Yeah, so that's why I did comedy. It was my It was my therapy. It was better than going to see the doctors at the VA are taking pills or taking whatever medications they were giving me it was sure to the fuck a lot better than booze. Yeah, you've seen the pictures. It was not pretty when I got Yeah. When I just let go. It was like I The reason I started getting back in shape because I looked at a photo of myself in Mexico without a shirt on. I was like that is onset. Like that is not acceptable. The person I became was not acceptable. And I couldn't expect other other Joe's and other vets to take me seriously as an advocate, if I'm like, the fat piece of shit that's walking around just hammered all the time. So while I'm in the gym an hour and a half a day, two hours a day, sometimes there's still a standard that I have to live by if I'm going to be any kind of example. Yeah. Or Yes, I could be a bad example. But I'm not trying to be, you know, if I'm trying to be an advocate for other Joe's, right? Yeah, I gotta, you gotta represent, I gotta represent, to represent Exactly, yeah, I do that with my comedy. And, you know, part of it is to help, you know, after as the God of comedy has grown to, to what it has become, you know, part of the mission is to build the bridge between the gap between, you know, this imaginary gap, because it's imaginary, this imaginary gap between the military and civilians, we all laugh at the same shit. We have a little bit of a different language, we speak in acronyms. We, you know, we'd like to think that we're different or better, we're the same, we're the same assholes, we just have different jobs. And most of us have the same jobs. You know, I was a radio guy in the army. I'm a radio guy, just tactically a little different. You know, healing is the number one priority with comedy. And two is, you know, making sure everybody knows Hey, man, you were the fucking same. We all laugh at the same shit.

Yeah, two things with that is you have a tremendous amount of self awareness, which, you know, I think military veterans need to be need to think about that a lot. And you're being self aware of where you're at in your own life. And, you know, are you happy with yourself what you see in the mirror, and you have a very, very good understanding of being self aware. And then secondly, the comedy Part A lot of people don't understand the whole dark, dark military humor sometimes that

that's bullshit. That's a it's a that that I have a dark sense of humor thing. That is, listen, we people I have, I have aspiring veteran comedians coming to me constantly are like, people don't get our dark sense of humor. That is bullshit. comedy is comedy, it's the extent to which you're willing to take an idea. Yeah, we are used to seeing violence, and, and how we process it is different. But the idea that there's a dark sense of humor, being the excuse to be an asshole. Like there are comics who weren't in the military who have a dark sense of humor, but they use it as an excuse to be mean, to be bullies and to be asked, that's not comedy, that's just like, that's using comedy as an excuse to be a piece of shit. That's how I feel about it. Like, you can be funny. I literally show a video of me getting shot in the head in a rack. And it was my closing joke for three years, you don't get darker than a video of you coming centimetres away from having your head blown off. That's about as dark as it gets. But it's not dark humor. Because that's not what the joke is about. saying we have a dark sense of humor is an excuse to go I'm really not good at comedy. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna say this thing that most people don't understand and don't get. And then when they don't laugh, go, Well, you don't get my dark sense of humor, then you don't get then that's not comedy. That's us saying some dumb shit that you and your friends understand. Because you and your friends were in that situation. And I've told this to other I've told this to guys who who wanted to call me come out of military 12%. Seven to 12% of the US population are veterans. Okay? Point 04 percent are on active duty or in the reserve that's less than a half percent. As a stand up comedian. If I walked into a comedy club with a joke that made between point oh four and 12% of that audience laugh, that I'm not a comedian, that I'm just a dude with an inside joke. So as a professional comedian, the job is to go, here's this idea. How do I make it as funny as possible to as many people as possible because it's the business of comedy. Yes, you can be funny. It doesn't mean you're comedian. And if you're only funny to your friends, then you're only funny to your friends. And then saying, well, this group of people doesn't get my dark sense of humor. That's a bullshit excuse to say you think you're funny with your friends. I can take a joke about being in Iraq or Afghanistan, and make a room of 150 people in Hollywood where I am probably the only veteran in the room. I can make them laugh at that. That's comedy. And it could be a joke about me getting shot or me shitting myself. In the middle of a gunfight, which happened, knowing what funny is, is the difference between, quote unquote dark humor that we have in the military and comedy, just regular comment, the idea of like this gallows humor? Yes. On the battlefield, and when we come home, and as soldiers and service members, we do need to be able to process the horror and the atrocities of war. Yes, absolutely. And we use humor to do it. A get that try. Above all people get that, as a professional comedian, and as a professional soldier, but then to tell civilians, Oh, you don't get my dark sense of humor, and you're not properly conveying the message that you're getting through? I do. I've done sets of 45 minutes of straight military humor to civilian audience. And again, if I went walked into a comedy club, and I did a joke, consistently, that only made less than a half a percent to 12% of that audience laughed, I would never work in that comedy club again. Right? Because then that's not that's just some funny shit that happened to you and your friends.

Right? Yeah. And that's actually really good advice. Because for folks that are looking to get into comedy. It sounds like you've heard other veteran comedians that have used that excuse to say, well, they just don't get my my my dark sense of humor. And

I hear that from regular civil. I hear that from civilian Commedia. You know, it's, but yeah, I hear a lot from Yeah. aspiring veteran comics of like, Yes, we have a dark sense of humor. Yeah, we do. But you want to be a comedian, right? You want to make a living doing this? Yeah. Like,

I guess what I was trying to say is like the actual processing of something that traumatic that happens. A lot of times, military folks tend to find some type of humor. Try to laugh it laugh at away or laugh it off, I guess. And

yeah, I mean, oh, we have to write the video of me getting shot driving to the hospital. I am laughing, right. bleeding from my head. Like, yeah, on the day in the moment. Yeah. You have to find a way to process it right? Or else you're gonna lose it. Like, well, how is it gonna look, if I rolled back to my my talk is freaking out. Right? And I got a bunch of E twos and threes gone. Oh, shit. Sorry, I'm trans losing his shit, as opposed to Hey, guys, what's going on? Right? Heard of funny dick joke on my way back. Like, that's what we do. That's how we get through it. And no, civilians aren't gonna get that. Yeah. But the job of a good comedian, military or civilian or otherwise, is to get the people in the room to understand that point of view.

I mean, it's an art right? Yeah. I mean, it's a process and it's an art, you can't just go out there and, and throw whatever your, your own little circle of friends would understand. But you have to make it relatable to like you said a good portion of the room. Yeah, to understand, like what you're saying, and, you know, take them back to that moment, and find some humor in it.

If I do a joke, and consistently 5% of the room doesn't get it? Well, then that 5% of the room is shit out of luck, because obviously the other 95% of the room understands how good the joke is. But yeah, I mean, but that's, you know, the, the opposite of the other thing I said, you know, you can't expect Yeah, a story about, you know, flogging, a burn pit in Iraq, that makes your seven friends laugh because they were there and they know what you're talking about. The right. You could it's possible. I've seen it done. I've seen that she had done but nobody's gonna get it. No, like, I've seen comics take like one of my friends were very good friends. James P. Conley, Marine, former captain, the Marine Corps tours on the jazz Academy with me. Such a brilliant, brilliant writer. And I've seen him tell jokes and stories about being in the Marines shit that I don't know about because I wasn't in the Marines, right. But I've seen him make an audience how? Hmm. That's, that's good guy. You know, being able to make the unrelatable completely relatable to the people you're talking.

That's some very good information, Tom. And I'm glad you shared that piece. Because it is an art and it is a process and it's not you just getting up there talking about your inside joke, but you have to like, actually work it and create that magic so that everyone can understand what the hell you're talking about. So I'm glad that you got into that. Because for folks out there that are listening, thinking about getting into comedy, and if you're a veteran, I mean, that is a great nugget of advice to be successful. You know, you got to work it. It's not just going to can't just spew out whatever you and your friends talked about, but understand that Who are you talking to? Who is your audience? Basically, it's simple, but it's something often overlooked. It sounds like

also like understanding what is funny In whatever you're talking about, like, yeah, you could tell a story about okay. Yeah, I used to tell the story about Okay, so long and short of it was I got food poisoning dysentery, eating on local economy in Iraq. We get assaulted in the middle of the night. I'm in the middle of gunfight just shitting my pants every time every time I pull the trigger, the recoil makes me shit my pants, okay, it's a lot more in depth and a lot more funny than that. But what it is like when I tell that story to a civilian audience, shit, when I tell that story to military audiences, what's the percentage of people who shit themselves during a gunfight? pretty low? But that's not what's fun, like, the situation around it? Isn't what's funny, like you have to find the actual funny in the story. You know what I mean? Like, what is it? That's actually funny? Is it because you farted in Afghanistan? Or is it a fart? You know? Did the fart happen if the fart happened at a Walmart in Rancho Cucamonga? Is it going to be as funny as it was when it was in Afghanistan? If it's not, that's not the funny of the story, that find the funny of the story. That's that's the thing. Like, yeah, you can put all the pieces together and, and make it as detailed as you want. because that'll add to the funny but like, what gets to the point of the funny, like, if you can do the best thing for me is if I can tell a funny joke in 30 seconds, and stretch it out to a five minute chunk of material because I'm adding a little flavor here adding the details here that you know at the end of the day, it's that 30 seconds that's actually funny and I think with Kami you have to be a good storyteller to know what the what the funny is and then the build it around.

Yeah, that we do a very good job with that. I've watched several your your videos on YouTube, and stuffing your jokes are extremely hilarious. And that's what I found, you know, very entertaining about the way you do comedy and, and now that you are where you are in your career, looking back. How is your transition from being in the military to being a professional multitalented entertainer?

I hear know a lot Hollywood I mean, you do y'all always do. A couple weeks ago, I was like supposed to be on two different TV shows. I only got one of them, which Yeah, boohoo on me, I got one TV shows too. But being able to take your failures in and being able to build upon them. I didn't make a five my first selection. And I was heartbroken. Because I thought I worked really hard. And I did but you know, there's some shit that was out of my control. And you know, I was thinking about that I sat down with my last one who was a friend of mine. To this day, she's a friend of mine. He think about how much work you put into being a soldier being a paratrooper being an NCO being whatever. And I channeled that into my work now. You know, I'm up at 5am every morning, sometimes I don't get home till Should I get home till 1am yesterday, and that's, that's me being able to like look back at my life in my career as a soldier in your career, you've had it way worse this like, you got to go tell dick jokes in Hollywood. You know, it's not like that one Gunfight in fucking bathroom. Like it's, I have the stuff in the back of my head to go back and go, alright, look, things have been way worse. Yeah, suck it up, drink some coffee, rub some dirt on it, and you'll be fine. And if I can go to sleep later. I mean, being a paratrooper I tell I explained. Being a comedian. I say this all the time in interviews, but like, being a comedian is a lot like being a paratrooper. Like when I step on stage with a new joke, and I don't know if that jokes gonna work. Like if it's the first time I'm going on stage with it. It's just like jumping out of an airplane. I've done it before. I've done it a lot. I trust that I can do it because I do it. You know, but what if this one time, the rigger didn't pack by shoot right? You know, that's, that's me. God. What if this one time this joke doesn't work. And I gotta trust in myself as a comedian. Just like I trust myself as being a soldier and a paratrooper. Even if the shoot doesn't work, you fucking grab that reserve, you pull the pen, you start slapping away and you like shift gears to the skills that you are, you already know, you have to get yourself out of that situation. So it's very much a lot of my career, I attribute back to being in the military and a lot of the skills that I learned in being in the military, you know, like, I get on stage with a joke that I think is fantastic, and it'll eat shit and then like, Oh, I can start slapping that reserve and like, are you gonna pull another joke out of out of my, you know, out of my holster, something I know works for sure. A lot.

A lot of adaptability, which is something we do a lot in the military.

Yeah. Yeah. adapt and overcome. Every time I get on stage. Every audience is different. Every night is different. I am different every night. How long did I sleep last night? How much did I How much did I have to eat tonight? Do I feel sick? Did I? Do I have food poisoning? Did I drink enough water? My fighting with my girlfriend, like, every situation is different. So let's look at we say in the army plans are great until the bullets start flying, then none of that shit matters. Get on stage. And it is different every night with a different audience and a different vibe. I've had shows that were different. Show the show, like 8pm killer 10pm I questioned my life and my career choice. Same night, same club, different audience different vibe. Different. You know, I had one extra, you know, shot in my espresso before I got on stage and that certain where it's like you adapted overcome. That's, that's the number one thing I got from my career, being in the military and how it's helped me here in Hollywood.

Yeah, you're very resilient. And I want to also ask to being an Asian American in a combat, you know, military veteran, working in Hollywood. What is your experience been like this far? And have you met any specific stereotypes? Or do you feel like you've been well received and understood?

Um, I was just talking to somebody about this the other day, and it wasn't so much. I mean, for me, it wasn't so much about being Asian, it was more about being a soldier and being in the military is like I I got to the point where I stopped working in Hollywood, because I was being pigeon holed and I was being typecast. And not as the Asian guy, but like, as the soldier I became, when I first moved out here in 2008. I was one of the few oaf Oh, if combat veterans working in Hollywood, there are a shit ton of vets there are a shit ton of vets now, when I got out here, it was mostly like Cold War era Vietnam guys are writers directors knew wait a couple of actors like one of my good friends, Mark Valley, West Point guy, he was a Cold War back. But there were very few oaf if bets with combat experience. Like I moved out here in Oh, eight with a Purple Heart, then it doesn't have you know, nearly a decade and so calm and like, I became like, the go to like, Oh, we fly f consultant for a lot of things. But then, and I did it for a really long time, because I got to work with my friends, like other other vets who are working in the industry. You know, good friend of mine was a first group guy and other ones a seal team five guy. And it was fun. At the beginning, because I was working with my friends. We were having fun and yeah, fucking make me the soldier here Make me a soldier. That was fine. I was hanging out with my friends making a lot of money. But then I started actually doing Hollywood stuff and like, Oh, I don't like this. Because now I'm only going out as the soldier. I'm only you know, I think I played a doctor one time, I was like, Oh, I get to play a doctor. And it turns out, it was a fucking corpsman. I was like, God dammit, I'm still. And if you look at my IMDB page, yeah, I got like 20 credits on there. There are two that I'm not a soldier. And it got boring for me. Because then I wasn't acting, then I was just being me in a different uniform. You know, the thing with veterans here in Hollywood is that we carry ourselves a different way. And you can definitely tell on camera on set who you know, who actually fucking knows how to shoot, move and communicate and who the actors are. And that's one of the reasons I got so much work because it's cheaper to pay a soldier to play an actor than it is to pay an actor to play a soldier. But then I got bored with it. Because like, I'm now a soldier in everything. I actually had to cut my reel the other day had to put a new reel together. I was like Jesus Christ, almost everything I'm doing. I'm holding a weapon. So there's no diversity in my roles. There was no you know, there was no way to feature how I was as an actor. I just stopped. I was like, I'm bored of this. I do stuff occasionally. Like I just did a I just did a CBS sitcom last week. Because it was a big, kind of a big deal. I still play a Marine, but not a marine in uniform. It was a marine veteran. So yeah, I just I got bored of it. I have not personally experienced any of the like, I've never been pigeon holed as the Asian guy in anything. But I got real tired of like just being like always being cast as a soldier because then I'm not acting but I'm just being me. So I you know, I took time off and I did stand up. I focused on stand up I should say now I've been I've been on tour almost non stop for like 10 years. And occasionally I'll do you know, I'll do a co star here or there. If it's fun, and it's a lot of money and it's, you know, close to my house, like I live in Studio City or I live in your studio city. So like, if I don't have to drive over the hill or down the four or five. Yeah, I'll go to the audition. That's fine. Where is it? CBS? Yeah, that's fine. I'll do it. But yeah, I mean, some, some veteran actors are okay with that. And I get that you got to start somewhere. I mean, those four dozen years, I get real bored real quick. I mean, I'm a comic man. Like, I get tired of my own jokes. Yeah. So to do the same thing over and over again, as you know, I mean, there was one, I did a fucking TV show or web series, where my character's name was Thomas Chen. Like, they literally just takes two names. Like I was Sergeant First Class Tom's channel, like, Oh, so you promoted me and change to letters of my name, and maybe Chinese. Okay, well, that's not fun. It's, then it's just, it's not a challenge, then it's me just fucking running battle drills over and over again, in front of a camera. Right. So that's what it became. And I was like, This is not fun. It's not challenging. And, you know, there's a way around it, you can, you know, make your own shit in Hollywood. I mean, people make podcasts all the time, and, you know, doing great with it. I like stand up the, the the thing about acting is, no matter how good of a job you did, or you think you did, you're not going to know, until that is cut, edited. And that, you know, you got the director, you got the editor, you got the studio, get the network, you got everybody putting their little fingers in what you did. And you don't know how it's going to come out until it comes out. Dude, I did a movie two years ago, that came out last year. And not only was like my scene cut out of the movie, they changed my character. And I don't show up in the movie at all. Like, I'm in the credits. Like you, I'm credited in the movie, the credits roll, and my name is there, but I'm not in the movie at all. And for me, when it comes to like, that part of creativity, like there's so much taking out of my hands, so much of the creative control is taken out of my hands, right? stand up comedy, I could write a joke in the car on the way to the club, get on stage and do it that night. It's either good, or it's not. It's either got some promise, or it doesn't it it you know, and I find out immediately, if the audience laughs It's a good joke, and the audience doesn't, it's not a good joke. And then they kind of chuckle maybe there's something there. And then it's on me, as a creator, to be able to make it something good or make it great. But when it comes to acting, unless you're writing, directing, producing, editing, starring, and doing all that shit yourself so much that tape gets taken out of your hands well, and some people did that. Some people like that. I don't. Like I like the having fun part of it. I like the money part of it. I'm not gonna lie, I get residual checks for shit that I forgot that I did two years ago. And that's cool. But yeah, creatively, like, I don't want to just play a version of me from a life that I led 20 years ago. Yeah, for the first two or three years now. Like I'm a character and Call of Duty Black Ops. Cool. That's cool. It's awesome. It's a fun thing to my nephews, like talk about. But other than that, I'm playing myself when I was 18 years old, you know, and I'm 40. Now, like, there's a whole other life that I live in again, all that control gets taken out of your hands, unless you're doing something like a podcast or, you know, a short film that you do yourself. But comedy. To me, I read the joke, and I go on stage, I tell it, and it works. Yeah. And that's a Yeah, how it's fine. It's fine. If if then I got friends who are veterans who are actors, you know, and they dig it. They really dig it. Acting is their thing. Cool. That's awesome for them. It's fine. For me. It's fun once in a while. Like, I'll miss it if I don't do it for a year or two. But then I could just go write a skit. You know, I wrote a sketch and I just filmed it in my backyard just like me and my bassist walked from my studio to my pull up bar just like wrote a funny sketch. Okay, the itches scratched, you know, and even with that, wrote it shot it put it on the internet. Yeah, I didn't make any money for it. But you know, made some people laugh and that's my job. I'm a comedian. I made some people laugh. So,

yeah, and that's where you're chewing. 10 years and that's where your heart is, is to make people laugh. And I certainly can respect that and just wanted to ask since you know, talking about comedy entertainment, what else have you been doing as far as being involved to further support the military community?

JOHN, What don't I do? I work extensively with Bob Hope USL here in Los Angeles. I also work with the Association of the US Army. I host a lot of their events. I am what's called a COI, center of influence for the use of rec battalion here in Los Angeles. COI is typically like a civilian member of the community who may or may not have been in the military, but actively supports use Rex mission to get people to enlist. So they're like, you know, there's a big poster of me a call in Call of Duty at battalion headquarters where the recruiters can, you know, take their their enlistees and be like this guy, Staff Sergeant United States Army, you know, and I'll work with a charity called guitars for bets, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a charity that gets equipment for musical equipment for that suwannee use music as therapy. I'm a musician. I mean, you've seen I like fucking 40 guitars, I've lost track of how many guitars I have. Yeah, but I help. I help that charity. We had no, we had a gear drive at the laugh factory where I work. So you know, people were dropping out like Eric Clapton's basis dropped off, like fuckin amplifiers and basses and shit. He's like, Here, give these to bats. I'm like, Alright, cool. Um, and the Special Operations charity network, which is a, you know, it's near and dear to my heart. It's a charity that raises college scholarships for the children of US Special Operations personnel that were killed in combat. And like I said, My roommate was killed 19, December 2003. And he left his family without a father and a husband. So in the course of the rise of comedy, working with them since 2012, I believe we've raised like, $50,000 to send college kids to, you know, the kids of South operators to college. So, yeah, man. Um, my I'm still doing it, like I said, and CEOs. Yeah. Okay, still just still trying to lead the way.

Still leading the way for try it and never leaves you still serving your military community. And you're still out there, representing?

Uh, yeah, I got booked, I got a co star role on a CBS sitcom. I don't know if I can say the name of it yet. But put it this way. It's a CBS sitcom about the military. You can figure out what show it is. Hopefully, hopefully, they get picked up for another season. My character may or may not be coming back. I was told. Yeah. So that and I'm doing that because it's, it's fun. Like, I like being on that set. There are a bunch of vets working on that show. The consultant, a couple of the writers, one of the production people a bunch of grips and gaffers and behind the scenes, people, all that's so they hired a lot of vets for that show. So that that made me happy to work on that show with you know, a production that is, you know, it's about a veteran, and they're taught and some of the episodes or, you know, talk about real veterans issues, which like, when I got cast on the show, I was like, Fuck, yeah. So yeah. If that comes back, and I come back on that show, awesome. I'll be super happy to go work with that cast and crew again, because they were fun. And it's, you know, it's not just some dumb thing. That means nothing. It's you know, it's a show that really actively tells veteran stories. I know, I've watched episodes, and I'm like, Yeah, I've said this shit. Like some of the stuff Old Main characters said, like, I literally said these words. So yeah, there's that. I'm producing a food show on my own, that I'm pitching to a couple networks. I have a bunch of bands. Going to Star Trek theme motley crew cover band called the bridge crew because I'm a nerd. And I love 80s metal. Tom Tran band,

is there anything that you don't do? You're you're a musician. You're into food. You're in entertainment and acting and comedy. It's like seem to be in everything.

I don't know, man. I just I just do whatever I got to do to keep going. You know? Like,

I dig it though, man. You're very multitalented, that's for sure.

I'm just, I'm just trying to keep going. You know, there's a Gotta have a reasons, though. You know, the worst thing a soldier can be is mission lists. Yeah. You know, I know a guy named too long. I don't know if you've heard of him. Master Sergeant 20 plus years and Special Forces. He's actually a character in the new Call of Duty game. And he now runs a company called Ronin tactical in a Ronin was a masterless warrior, Japanese masterless more, he's these Vietnamese. But he's been described as if I were supermario with the magic mushroom. That's him. And I am. I am him. If If I got hit by gobo that's a weird way to describe that. But yeah, I've been. I've been without a master and a mission for so long. You know, that's what comedy has become, like, it's my mission, so it's fine. My jobs were gonna do to keep going. So it's different every day, and I get bored. Like I said, I get bored, bored with my own jokes before music I get bored with, you know, shit in general. I gotta switch out my workout every month.

Yeah, no, I understand what you're saying with that, because that's the one of the main reasons why I started this podcast was, you know, I got tired of, I always felt like, the only time people really spoke about veterans was when they were talking about the drunk down at the VFW, or the guy at the American Legion that was just getting hammered all the time or on drugs. It's just like, I have so many friends out there that are so successful, and they're so resilient. Not only that, but I also want to help people who are currently in the service or veterans out there that are looking for ways to level themselves up, whether it be through education, whether it be through listening to stories of other veterans, like yourself, who, you know, find that self awareness and are able to, to make it past the, the darkness to, to overcome a lot of the things that veterans deal with. And at the end of the day, there's no excuses. It's just like what you talked about earlier with the dark humor thing. I mean, you can find that excuse and you can just call it a day or you can actually understand that you're an artist and that it's your job to make that relatable to to a good number of folks that are in the room. And that's a very insightful perspective and I appreciate you sharing that with me. But if if Tom if folks are interested in wishing to connect with you what what social media platforms, can they follow your content? Oh, I'm

on all of them. Go to Tom train. COMM th o MTR and calm name is spelled with H. Every go to Tom trans spelled the regular way. I own that too. But that's not how you spell my name. I'm on you know, Facebook, Instagram. Twitter only fans. I'm not making that joke. Like I'm starting only fans. Just to say that I have it. Yeah, I'm, if you just type in my name, Tom Tran, th om tr, N. Verify across the platform. So I'm usually the first one that pops up.

Yeah, and I'll put all I'll put as many as I can in the show notes of this as well. So if you're looking to follow Tom, you'll be able to look in the show notes and click on some of those different ones out there. But I really, really appreciate you taking the time out today, Tom, and it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. It's been very refreshing. I related to a lot of the things you spoke about, including Iraq, you know, and I really, I really enjoyed this interview with you. And I just want to ask, Is there anything else that you'd like to tell our listeners out there?

Don't be a dick. That's real simple. Like, I know, we joke about it. Wil Wheaton who played Of course Wesley crusher on Star Trek, the next generation very simple rule. It's called the Wil Wheaton rule. Don't be a dick. Like it's not that hard. Just like be a good person be good people. Like there's all this talk you know, there's we're very obviously very divided country and have been for 200 plus years maybe more so in the last few but just be good people it's not been it's not just about being good Americans but being good people. Be a be good people. And I don't mean Yeah, I mean, help old ladies across the street open doors for you know, people like don't kick puppies shit like, but just don't be a dick. That's it. That's like, Tom simple rule of like, if you can help it, sometimes you can't help it. But in general said wake up, be good people. And here's a piece of advice I will give you. I want to leave people. I want people to know I was talking I was talking to some comedian friends of mine last night at the Laugh Factory. Also Laugh Factory calm. I'm there all the time. Just remember, and this is especially for vets. What the guy next to you or girl next to you is doing has really no impact on your life. I train people in my gym every morning, no matter how many pushups the dude next to me is doing and ain't gonna make me any stronger. No matter how fast that girl is running. It's not gonna make me any faster. So being pissed about what somebody else has or doesn't have, as it relates to you Just remember, it doesn't relate to you like, opportunities will happen. And just because somebody else gets that opportunity doesn't mean you were supposed to. You know what I mean? Like, I can do 100 pushups, or the dude next to me is doing 1000 push ups. It don't make me any stronger, or any weaker like you ultimately control your life and your destiny. And what you do with that is up to you. You can help influence other people, but good NGOs. It's our job to lead soldiers and make them better soldiers to make them good NCO. But I can't do push ups from my Joe's. I can't pass a PT test for anybody other than me. Just like, I can't get on stage and be funny for that guy. I can't be a better actor for that person. So do your thing. You do you right? Except unless doing you is being a dick. Don't be a dick.

There it is. I appreciate you being on the show today, man. And for the advice that you gave to anyone that's aspiring to be a comedian and sharing your background and where you've been. And thank you for giving me the time today, Tom. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, man. rock'n'roll.

Alright, everyone out there. Thank you for listening today. This is the morning formation. I'm KP with Tom. And we're out