Gadiel hosted a Friday show at the Comic Strip and the lineup got switched three times before he went up — so when he brought up the first comedian, he blanked and called him “Kato.” His name was Nico. The comedian turned it into a joke on stage and killed with it. So when Gadiel came back up, he ran it back on purpose: “give it up for Kato.” The room erupted. The comedian did not think it was funny. He paced, walked in and out of the room, and gave Gadiel one of those handshakes that isn’t really a handshake — “I was fine the first time, but the second time, that’s where I had a problem.” That sets up the thesis of the episode: a lot of comedians are walking around with egos that can’t take a scratch. Gadiel’s last name is Del Orbe. He has had it butchered for forty years — a Boston producer once introduced him on stage as “Radial.” He’s never thrown a fit about it, and he explains exactly why. Because of boot camp. During chants, the drill instructor asked the platoon why they needed to stomp harder. Gadiel — proud of himself — answered, “because there’s chicks downstairs.” There was, in fact, a female platoon downstairs. The petty officers made a phone call, and he got taken down there, where every instructor was a woman. What followed was roughly an hour of exercises in front of about a hundred people: push-ups, mountain climbers, and “the submarine” — flat on the floor, arms and feet off the ground, swimming in place while yelling “Please, Mr. Shark, don’t eat me. I will never say chicks again.” Every time an instructor tapped her stick on the ground, the exercise changed. For the remaining two months of boot camp, everyone called him “Chicks” — and he had to answer to it. Someone snuck a photo of him that followed him to A-school: “isn’t that the chicks guy?” He has never called a woman a chick since. That, he says, is what the military does — it takes your ego apart on purpose. He also gets serious about the Dominican Parade. He skipped it this year (“I’m 39, I’ll be 40, I don’t got that energy”) and spent the day cleaning, but he’s not letting the violence in Dyckman stand as the story. Someone was stabbed, someone was shot, kids were standing on cars. His message to Dominican Gen Z: that is not us. Dominicans are the people who feed you if you say you’re hungry, who play dominoes and bachata and know how to have a good time. When there’s poverty and no guidance or education for the youth, this is what happens — take care of the people and the rest takes care of itself. Plus: Cris Sosa killed the AGT callbacks episode (they threw a watch party at Broadway Comedy Club), and Rashad Bashir — 16 years in the game, wasn’t even booked — got thrown up to close and did 15 minutes of pure fire. Gadiel’s bringing him on the show. Timestamps: 00:00 — Calling a comedian the wrong name at the Comic Strip… twice 06:07 — Comedian egos & 40 years of “Del Orbe” getting butchered 08:48 — Rashad Bashir closed the show and wasn’t even on the lineup 09:13 — The Dyckman violence — a message to Dominican Gen Z 14:22 — “There’s chicks downstairs” — the boot camp story 🎤 Gadiel is in Boston this Saturday. 💬 Who should he bring on next? Send it in — he reads the comments.

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