This is The Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast.

Unlike a lot of guests we've had on this show over the years,

Moshe Kasher didn't grow up dreaming about being a comedian.

Before turning to comedy, he was a teenage alcoholic, a sign language interpreter, and a relatively successful rave promoter in the Bay Area.

Those distinct sides of himself are just three of the six areas he explores in his excellent new book, Subculture Vulture, a memoir in six scenes, available now wherever you get your books.

The other three scenes, by the way, are his devotion to the Burning Man Festival, his very

complicated relationship with his Hasidic Jewish roots, and of course, stand-up comedy.

That last one led to him marrying his wife, Natasha Legerro, who has been on this

podcast multiple times and made headlines recently for going topless at the Hollywood improv

in a nod to the often shirtless comedian who went up before her, Bert Kreisher.

I had to start by asking Moshe for his reaction to his wife's unexpected viral moment. But before we get

into our conversation, let's listen to a clip of Moshe on Conan talking about what it was like to grow up

as the hearing son of two deaf parents. Raised in a deaf household, my parents were super into hip-hop.

There are sort of weird consequences to having deaf parents.

Both my parents are truly deaf.

Like, growing up, my mother would need to call me on the telephone,

but she couldn't use a regular phone.

So what she would have to do is type a message on a computer.

That message would go to an operator.

The operator would then call me, and that's whose voice I would hear on a computer, that message would go to an operator, the operator would then call me,

and that's whose voice I would hear on the telephone, which made for some awkward conversations.

Like, ring, hello.

...