Well catch up with the group and filipinoamerican history month, with a Live Performance in our studio today. Well, the lack of opportunities for asianamericans and Pacific Islanders in the world of standup comedy is nothing to laugh at. I happen to believe standup comics are important to the way society looks at events and ourselves. Maybe were starting to see some progress, and an upcoming comedy show in San Francisco on november 2 is an important showcase, and just as important, an event to have a good time and laugh about stuff. With me right now are the two cofounders of desi comedy festival. Samson koletkar was born in mumbai and raised jewish, comedy roots if ive ever heard one. And heres more, he earned a masters in computer software, fulfilling his parents dream, then came to San Francisco, is now chasing his own dream. He is also the founder of comedy oakland. Also here with us, and with just as good a story, is abhay nadkarni, a comedianwriterproducer from southcentral los angeles by way of south india, who calls comedy a catharsis for culture shock. He has appeared on cbs, numerous festivals and showcases, and is the cocreator of the setup. Welcome to the show. As i told you before, im a big fan of standup comedy, and so its great to see you guys kind of making these kind of inroads. Abhay nadkarni thank you very much. Yeah, we try. Robert yeah, so give us a little idea, first of all, about this showcase thats coming up on november 2. Abhay yeah, so, the show thats happening in the Mission District, its this place called amados, and the shows called the setup, and its on november 2. Itll feature scott capurro, and karinda dobbins, samson, myself, and my buddy richard. He and i run the setup, and its a new show that were starting, and were trying to keep all our lineups as diverse as possible cause thats a reflection of being in the bay. And you know, i think its good for comedians and audiences to know that, you know . Robert i think so. I mean, you know, one way that you would be kind of concerned about people viewing this kind of showcase is that it would be kind of too many similar points of view, too many similar themes. You try to make it as broad a perspective as possible, right . Samson koletkar all the time, and thats what we also do with our weekly shows that you mentioned. We actually had a writeup in one of the newspapers saying we have the diversity of a United Nations subcommittee. So, it just represents bay area very well, it brings out fresh voices out, and it also for me personally, just seeing the diversity of comics on stage, is also a learning experience cause i get to learn things from other cultures that i would probably miss out otherwise. Robert yeah, i love the idea of the catharsis for culture shock. Abhay oh yeah, for sure, especially when youre in downtown la, dodging bullets en route to class and stuff like that. And yeah, its interesting too because ive beeni moved from india, and then i moved here, and ive been here for 12 years. And people always ask me like, why dont you have an american accent . And i tell them, you know, if i did have an american accent, id sound like one of those weather guys, you know. Itd be like, traffic on the 101 really bad. robert and of course, its that fresh point of view, huh . I mean, and its kind of like, in a way, the idea of you touching people who can relate to that kind of cultural upbringing, and also the people who cant, but know that its there because were in such a diverse area, right . Samson absolutely, and if you look at the whole demographic of america, the immigrant influx is so high. And we keep hearing comedy about immigrants from americans. Thats like a marketing professor teaching history, which just doesnt fit. And so, when you have comedians from these diverse cultures and countries now here, first generation comics talking about it, its almost an outsiders perspective looking in, into america. And we see things slightly differently, all the quirks that we find, they stand well. Robert its great to hear that. There are so many comedians, how do you pick whos going to be in these showcases . Samson you know, funny enough, unlike the disney execs, we had no hard time finding funny brown comedians for the desi comedy fest. Robert thats good. Samson but we have a screening process, we have a submission that opens up, and then we get comedians to submit. There are some comedians we would like to have on the festival, so we reach out to them. And then through that process of elimination, we narrow it down. This year, we had 45 comics on the festival, and then we just try to keep growing every year. Robert what do you want to make sure people understand in terms of, like, coming to the show, what do you think theyll really get out of it besides entertainment and laughs . Abhay oh, just itll be a good cultural experience. I think theyll get to learn a little bit about, you know, us i guess, and then our experiences of living in america, i think thats pretty interesting. And then, you know, in general, peopleits an underground space as well where we have these shows, so the setup happens, you know, three nights a week, at this place called the beer basement, its in the tenderloin. And then this is a new show that we started in the Mission District. So, its interesting to see the different kinds of crowds that come there, and you know, experience standup in just a very, like, underground space. Its very raw and visceral, you know, so. Samson and then when we grow that into the desi fest, which happens annually, the dynamics change quite a bit cause we get into these big theaters and big auditoriums. And you get indians and pakistanis sitting together and laughing at jokes. You know, thats like as good as putting clinton supporters and Trump Supporters into a single room, having them laugh at eachtogether. Robert were going to get an audience and have you guys come back. Thank you very much for being here. Abhay thank you so much, thank you so much. Robert well, its called the setup mission, hosted by desi comedy festival. Remember, its spelled desi, coming thursday, november 2 at 8 p. M. At the brand new performance venue amados at 998 valencia street in the Mission District in San Francisco. For more details, you can go to nbcbayarea. Com. And coming up, the Japan Society of Northern California, the crucial role it plays in connecting the bay area to japan, and how it is celebrating its achievements. Thats next. Robert the Japan Society of Northern California has built social connections with japan in business, culture, and academia, reinforcing the japanese contributions to the bay areas history and its future. Joining us are the cochairs for the groups gala event, nobuko saito cleary, the president of crosscultural communications and a board member, and now a producer for an upcoming documentary. And also here is larry greenwood, the president of the Japan Society of Northern California, and hes also an advisor for Bower Group Asia and the center for strategic and international studies. Welcome to the show. Nobuko saito cleary thank you so much for inviting us. Robert well, give us an idea, first of all, for people who dont know, Japan Society. I talked a little bit about what it does. What is it as a group . Nobuko well, Japan Society was founded in 1905, as a matter of fact, the second oldest organization in america next to boston. And we celebrate a lot of events, but the parent mainly, that is japan, is introducing Japanese Culture and the relationship between United States and america. So, we have a lot of honor to celebrate in the past, so we honor the prime minister, or ambassador, and leader of the technology, and then a lot of arts, industry, and many people. Robert a Broad Spectrum of influence. Nobuko exactly. Robert yeah, what would you want people to understand in terms of what the group is doing now . Larry greenwood we do programs, about two to three months, that talk about a broad range of activities and connections between japan and the bay area that nobuko mentioned, in business, technology, culture, food, arts. So, we have a lot of fun, as well as and occasionally serious. So its a lot ofits a great organization. It brings together people who are really interested in japan, as well as people who areboth personally as well as professionally, people who have business ties with japan. One of our priorities is tois to make connections between the bay area, and particularly Silicon Valley, and japan. Robert right, right, everybody understands the business relationship, but the cultural connections and the things like that are something that really need to be emphasized as well. Nobuko exactly, especially nowadays, too many people are too much politics, and they have a different view. But the Japan Society is very neutral. We always honor the person who is the leader of the technology, whichever side they belong to, and thats our objective, and that is our theme. Robert yeah, within all the turmoil around President Trump, one of the things he did emphasize was the important relationship that the United States has with japan. Larry and its been a strong relationship for a long time. And its sometimes easy to take those kinds of relationships for granted because they areit is so strong and so unquestioning. So, were a Grassroots Organization that for over 100 years have been working at nurturing that relationship. Like any good marriage, still takes work. Robert so, tell us about the gala celebration. Nobuko yes, we are going to celebrate this coming november 18. Our honoree is David Pearson from opus one, ceo. And then also, from japan, yuzo kayama. Hes a very wellknown singer and also an actor. He was in kurosawas sanjuro and yojimbo, and and then not only that, he is so good for composing music, which i very much like music, so we are very excited to welcoming them, especially for that very, very sad, devastating fire from napa. I really would like to express that Japan Society is not only celebrating for the event annually, but this year, we set up that special scholarship or special fund to help the victim. So, Japan Society is not only for helping the Japan Society itself, for the program, but we are always close to the community, to help those people who unfortunately lost everything. Robert thats great, you guys operate on a lot of different levels. Nobuko correct. Robert thank you very much for being here. Good luck with your gala celebration. Larry thank you very much. And please, people, come to the gala, its open to everybody. Robert its open to everybody, okay. Well, the Japan Society of Northern California is having its 31st annual award of honor gala, saturday, november 18 at the hotel nikko in San Francisco. For the full schedule and ticket information, you can go to nbcbayarea. Com. And a unique bay area service that helps families with childcare and getting children where they need to go safely. We look at that company, zum, next. There are countless situations families in Silicon Valley deal with, and sometimes a company can find a way to help with very specific, crucial needs. And one problem most parents are very familiar with is trying to juggle schedules and getting kids to where they need to go. The company zum aims to help do that. With me is ritu narayan, the cofounder and ceo of zum, a company that says it empowers families with flexible care and rides, a need she saw during a fastpaced Silicon Valley career while raising two active kids. Welcome to the show. Ritu narayan thank you. Robert well, nothing like a personal situation that you have to solve to figure out that other people need that Problem Solved too, huh . Ritu thats right, so, three and a half years back, i was at stanford, fulltime program, and my kids transitioned to preschool, school fulltime. And i found it really hard because till then, i had a dedicated person to take care of them. And after that, finding a trustworthy and reliable person to take them to school, various activities is such a hard problem to solve. And i grew up in india in a family of four kids, and when i was talking to my brother, he said, oh my god, our mom was a maths teacher, and our dad traveled a lot, and mom left the job to do exactly this. It seems like nothing much has changed. So, we got together, and we applied our experience in Technology Operations to build this company for everybody, for all the families that face this challenge every single day. Robert my goodness. I mean, i thought it was what a great idea, but i just thought logistically what a challenge. So, how does zum do it in essence . Ritu yeah, so its actually a full marketplace. It startsthe trust and safety is the core of the product, and it all starts with the people who are providing the service. So, all of our drivers are actually childcare providers, they come from some kind of childcare background. They are fingerprinted, background test, and fully vetted. Parents download the app, and they give the requiredthey set up the profile for their families. And they can set up onetime service, or an Ongoing Service like daily pickups or daily dropoffs to or from school. And we behind the scene do all the logistics and optimization. We have the technology to do it, to make sure right people get assigned to the right ride. And we provide a very personalized experience, actually. We make sure that every family has a small pool of drivers, they have some kind of consistency. They know people, theres a relationship, so theres a lot that goes on behind the scenes in terms of doing this. Robert it figures it would take a Silicon Valley mastermind, as well as a mom, to kind of figure out how to do that. Again, how do people get involved with that . How do they get your service . Ritu so people, they download the app from the website, and they set up their family profile in the app. Once its all set up, they can actually schedule a ride, either just a ride or ride with childcare around it. This ride can be onetime, like, i just need to go to a playdate, or it can be an ongoing ride like, please, i want to use zum every day to drop my kid to the school. And whatever their preference, once they set up the thing, we get their requirements behind the scene, and our Software Takes care of making sure that we assign the right rider to them. Robert and people might see it on the graphic, but what i kind of want to point out that zum is zum. Ritu thats right. Robert and even though its pronounced like zoom, and probably acts a little bit as a good description for it, how did you end up with that name, zum . Ritu yeah, so we were looking for a name that can be a brand name in transition, and be appealing to both younger kids because we start at the age of 5 and we go up to the age of 17, so we wanted it to be appealing to both younger kids, and the youth, and zum is like a sound of a car. And interestingly, in german, when i was traveling to switzerland, i realized that zum also means to, like point a to b. Robert ah, very good, i would think there would be a huge demand for this. Are you able to keep up with this demand . Ritu so, interestingly youre right, the demand is very high. We just had a back to school season, and we grew five times in that season. But our team is amazing. We continuously bring on board more and more drivers, and scale up our technology. We have amazing backers from the vc fund. And we want to make it available to all the families who need it, thats our goal. Robert and people who want to be involved in helping and working with you can also contact you through the app . Ritu absolutely, so, they can go to our website, ridezum. Com, and it tells you how to apply to be a provider on our platform. Robert ridezum. Com . Ritu yes, ridezum. Com. Robert very good. Wow, what a great idea. Ritu thank you. Robert congratulations. Ritu thank you. Robert keep us posted on how its going, okay . Ritu absolutely, thank you. Robert well, coming up, its filipinoamerican history month. And to help us celebrate it and appreciate it is the Parangal Dance Company. They will perform live here on our set next, so dont miss it. And with us once again is the Parangal Dance Company. With me is karina fantillo and jet tagle. Thank you both for being here. Give us an idea in terms of what the group is doing these days. Karina fantillo parangal means tribute, and the Parangal Dance Company is celebrating its tenth year next year. Our mission is to preserve and promote philippine heritage through ethnicpreserving our ethnic attire, music, and dance. And we try to be a bridge so that filipinoamericans can have connection with their roots, and also to be able to spread to a diverse audience awareness and appreciation of our culture. Robert very good. Jet, give us a quick introduction of the people here. Jet tagle well be performing two dances. Pandanggo sa ilaw, the first dance, will be performed by rachel, gilbert, and joseph, and myself. And its from mindoro. And then the second dance is panderetas, which will be performed by ren, karina, and paul, and june, which is from iloilo. Robert thank you very much. All right, the Parangal Dance Company, enjoy. Male one, two, three. One, two, three. [applauding] [applauding] robert thank you very much. And thats why they a