Comedy – Growth and Kidney Disease With AJ Coulter

Howard Brown: 00:00:00

yeah hello. It's Howard brown. It's the shining

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

brightly show. Your Maestro at the mic is back. And we are

Howard Brown: 00:00:11

going to laugh along the way today. I've got an incredible

Howard Brown: 00:00:14

guest, you know I normally do, but this one is really cool. So

Howard Brown: 00:00:18

jazz Rome. AJ Coulter is here. He's in the house. AJ, how are

Howard Brown: 00:00:23

you today?

AJ Coulter: 00:00:24

I am doing amazing. Is a great day. I like to use

AJ Coulter: 00:00:29

the mic. My struggle with the microphone, right?

Howard Brown: 00:00:33

That's right. You don't you? Well, I am at least

Howard Brown: 00:00:35

on my show, but I just love it. So listen, you're on the road

Howard Brown: 00:00:41

you're performing. I'm excited to follow you. Big shout out

Howard Brown: 00:00:45

Denise Meredith Miss Denise, thank you. You introduced us

Howard Brown: 00:00:48

quality introduction. And I'm just we caught up what you are

Howard Brown: 00:00:52

driving, putting some miles on, on the car and on yourself. So

Howard Brown: 00:00:56

let me give you a quick intro duction here. So jazz Rome, Ajay

Howard Brown: 00:00:59

Coulter, he showcased his talents and more than 26

Howard Brown: 00:01:02

conferences and events to date and more to come. He's a

Howard Brown: 00:01:06

comedian that appeals to all ages and audience by

Howard Brown: 00:01:08

incorporating his personal experience with clever wordplay,

Howard Brown: 00:01:11

engaging storytelling. He shares his journey about living with

Howard Brown: 00:01:15

kidney disease, we're going to dig into that he adds to this

Howard Brown: 00:01:18

depth and emotional resonance with to his performances on I

Howard Brown: 00:01:22

mean, this is truly you're using your life experience and you're

Howard Brown: 00:01:25

applying comedy to it. It's incredible. His shows invoke a

Howard Brown: 00:01:28

range of emotions. They leave you whether you're gonna laugh

Howard Brown: 00:01:31

or cry at any given moment. I love it. It's emotional show.

Howard Brown: 00:01:36

It's great. It's just amazing. So now, I told just the basics

Howard Brown: 00:01:40

about you share something Ajay, maybe we don't know about you,

Howard Brown: 00:01:44

you know, tell us something different.

AJ Coulter: 00:01:47

Man, you know, it's actually crazy, because I

AJ Coulter: 00:01:50

actually just got a kidney, which we do know about that

AJ Coulter: 00:01:53

about a year ago. But before I got a kidney, I was just like,

AJ Coulter: 00:01:57

in this weird phase, where I was actually looking girls on

AJ Coulter: 00:02:02

Tinder. Because, you know, we're always trying to find that

AJ Coulter: 00:02:05

perfect match. Right. And I'm swiping, and the conversations

AJ Coulter: 00:02:10

just ended up turning into like, Hey, girl, like, what's your

AJ Coulter: 00:02:14

blood type? Yeah. And you know, as I'm like, getting into my 30s

AJ Coulter: 00:02:21

You know, your mind changes your body's you're into different

AJ Coulter: 00:02:25

things. And I'm just, you know, like, what really just turns me

AJ Coulter: 00:02:31

on organ donors. Yeah, so that's like the weird basis. So yeah,

AJ Coulter: 00:02:44

if your lady out there, and your registered marker donor you

AJ Coulter: 00:02:48

like, get at me, I'm still thinking,

Howard Brown: 00:02:51

Oh, my God, you turn you turn that into a bit,

Howard Brown: 00:02:53

man, this is great. Yeah. So you're swiping right. And if

Howard Brown: 00:02:57

they're an organ donor, they, they, you might even get a

Howard Brown: 00:03:00

message from you. I love it. So this is great. That's great. I

Howard Brown: 00:03:05

thank you for doing that. Well, listen, let's dig into it a

Howard Brown: 00:03:08

little bit, give me some of your background, because you're a man

Howard Brown: 00:03:11

with three kidneys, one of them that works and is keeping you

Howard Brown: 00:03:14

going. And the other two did not. So give me a quick

Howard Brown: 00:03:17

background on that, that leads us up to the comedy.

AJ Coulter: 00:03:20

Um, the background on that is, when I was about 27,

AJ Coulter: 00:03:26

I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure. I will, I was

AJ Coulter: 00:03:31

stage four. And then about a year later, I transitioned into

AJ Coulter: 00:03:35

dialysis. And I spent five and a half years actually on dialysis.

AJ Coulter: 00:03:42

And it was probably, you know, just so much going on in that

AJ Coulter: 00:03:46

life. Like, in that period of time, struggling trying to

AJ Coulter: 00:03:50

balance this disease because people don't really understand

AJ Coulter: 00:03:53

like, the amount of time it really takes from you and I just

AJ Coulter: 00:04:01

value so much the time that I have now having this kitten

AJ Coulter: 00:04:04

because I have so much freedom, when before I was sitting in a

AJ Coulter: 00:04:08

chair for three days a week, for four and a half hours a day. And

AJ Coulter: 00:04:13

not to mention, I had to wash my fluids, which I did not do a

AJ Coulter: 00:04:16

lot. And I'm thankful to even be alive. Because I was always, you

AJ Coulter: 00:04:21

know, four or five kilos over and just was swelled up looking

AJ Coulter: 00:04:27

like the Michelin man or released the black version. But

AJ Coulter: 00:04:32

you know, it's, it's just crazy that, you know, when I started

AJ Coulter: 00:04:38

my comedy career, and I'm telling people about this that,

AJ Coulter: 00:04:41

you know, so many people just don't understand what kidney

AJ Coulter: 00:04:44

disease is. It's just, you know, so confusing, so new, but it's

AJ Coulter: 00:04:48

affecting so many people you know, they say one in seven, one

AJ Coulter: 00:04:51

and nine Americans might have kidney disease and don't know

AJ Coulter: 00:04:54

about it. And even, you know, the first foundation we just

AJ Coulter: 00:05:00

crazy enough that Denise actually connected me with was

AJ Coulter: 00:05:03

one and nine. And right there, it just gave me the drive and

AJ Coulter: 00:05:10

passion to like, hey, you know, I have this unique skill to make

AJ Coulter: 00:05:14

people laugh. Why not use that to, you know, put more emphasis

AJ Coulter: 00:05:19

on kidney disease.

Howard Brown: 00:05:21

Now I resonate with this so much, AJ, because

Howard Brown: 00:05:24

as a two times stage four cancer survivor, we're sitting in that

Howard Brown: 00:05:28

chair, a long time getting chemotherapy, getting fluids,

Howard Brown: 00:05:33

getting other types of treatments, and things like

Howard Brown: 00:05:35

that. And we're going to get PET scans and CAT scans, and we're

Howard Brown: 00:05:38

dealing with side effects. And you're a relatively young man. I

Howard Brown: 00:05:40

mean, you're, you're 27 years old, you're active. I know if

Howard Brown: 00:05:43

you're Flett IK or not. But I mean, that's, that takes about,

Howard Brown: 00:05:47

you know, your whole life, you have to think about things. I

Howard Brown: 00:05:50

mean, I stopped me in my tracks, right? As far as two different

Howard Brown: 00:05:54

cancer diagnosis. But when you say, I mean, when you just said,

Howard Brown: 00:05:57

you're sitting in the chair for three, four hours, three days a

Howard Brown: 00:05:59

week to get dialysis. I mean, that's one a discipline and to

Howard Brown: 00:06:04

the side effects where you blow up like the Michelin Man, it

Howard Brown: 00:06:08

people don't realise it until it happens to you, or your care

Howard Brown: 00:06:11

partners, or the people that understand it, but everyone has

Howard Brown: 00:06:15

been affected by someone with something. All right. So kidney

Howard Brown: 00:06:18

disease, cancer, it could be something. And so it is hard as

Howard Brown: 00:06:22

a young person, right? That is having to actually deal with

Howard Brown: 00:06:26

this type of a health issue and a stage four diagnosis with

Howard Brown: 00:06:30

kidney failure. And so you either you got to deal with the

Howard Brown: 00:06:34

deck of cards that you're dealt with. And I love the fact that

Howard Brown: 00:06:37

you've come out with to be able to talk about it. And so people

Howard Brown: 00:06:41

can laugh or cry, but they're getting some knowledge. And

Howard Brown: 00:06:44

they're getting understanding about that right now. Whether

Howard Brown: 00:06:47

you're a comedian before this,

AJ Coulter: 00:06:49

or no, no, it was actually crazy. Because you

AJ Coulter: 00:06:52

mentioned that you didn't know if I was athletic, a lot not

AJ Coulter: 00:06:55

actually played football in college. Football was always a

AJ Coulter: 00:06:59

dream. Every kid has that dream of going CNF. And it was I was

AJ Coulter: 00:07:04

very passionate. You know, everybody I was talking about

AJ Coulter: 00:07:06

the freshman 15 I gained the freshman agent. I was about to

AJ Coulter: 00:07:11

40 with a 595 pound bench like I was massive. And it's crazy. Now

AJ Coulter: 00:07:17

over the past six years, I mean, five and a half years, six,

AJ Coulter: 00:07:21

whatever rounded up, math. You know, it just kind of like

AJ Coulter: 00:07:27

slowly destroyed my body to you know, I'm kind of at this new

AJ Coulter: 00:07:31

blank canvas. When I came out of my surgery, I was 155. And

AJ Coulter: 00:07:35

today, I'm about 165. And I was wanting to keep Bob in college.

AJ Coulter: 00:07:39

So I kind of just, you know, reversed in years and lost all

AJ Coulter: 00:07:43

his weight. And now I'm like 18 Again, so it looks so good.

Howard Brown: 00:07:48

For those for those who are listening, I said

Howard Brown: 00:07:51

Aj is looking damn good. He's sharp. So I had the very

Howard Brown: 00:07:55

opposite. I lost all this weight. I ended up losing like

Howard Brown: 00:07:59

65 pounds, I usually go about 190 I played division three

Howard Brown: 00:08:02

hoops. And I actually played hoops twice this past weekend, I

Howard Brown: 00:08:05

finally got the clearance after my chemo port got removed. And

Howard Brown: 00:08:08

I'm about 165 510 165 But I couldn't bench I couldn't

Howard Brown: 00:08:13

adventure you were bench and you were pushing up some serious,

Howard Brown: 00:08:16

serious weight there.

AJ Coulter: 00:08:17

But we're like the same size right now. We are I

AJ Coulter: 00:08:20

think I'm like about 510 to do that's so tight. It is like the

AJ Coulter: 00:08:24

casual like man five and they're the same height. exactly,

AJ Coulter: 00:08:29

perfectly balanced.

Howard Brown: 00:08:31

But the fact is, is my clothes all big on me, all

Howard Brown: 00:08:34

my clothes, their clothes, wearing those clothes, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:08:37

from when you were a big guy, you were not wearing those

Howard Brown: 00:08:39

clothes anymore. So I want to ask you so so again, now, you

Howard Brown: 00:08:45

actually take us through just and then we'll get into much

Howard Brown: 00:08:47

more of the the some of the details here. But you had a

Howard Brown: 00:08:52

donor right you you had a transplant donor that donated

Howard Brown: 00:08:56

this working kidney, correct? Take us

AJ Coulter: 00:08:59

Yes, it was actually from a deceased donor, there's

AJ Coulter: 00:09:03

always two options you want to get it you can get a deceased

AJ Coulter: 00:09:07

donor, which is from somebody that usually had died from like

AJ Coulter: 00:09:10

a fatal tragedy, or you can get one from a living donor, which

AJ Coulter: 00:09:15

is usually very much recommended and given live in donations

AJ Coulter: 00:09:19

because the kidneys are healthier. They're more likely

AJ Coulter: 00:09:23

to match with recipient and they just last so much longer.

AJ Coulter: 00:09:31

Actually had got a deceased kidney from a younger kid. He's

AJ Coulter: 00:09:35

in his 20s they don't disclose a lot of that information. But

AJ Coulter: 00:09:39

that's about all I know right now, but regardless, you know, I

AJ Coulter: 00:09:43

you know, this kidney is so much valuable. Just so much worse to

AJ Coulter: 00:09:50

me, you know, and it's been a true blessing.

Howard Brown: 00:09:54

I absolutely you're alive. You're a miracle

Howard Brown: 00:09:57

man. I'm the same I might my sister's bow bone marrow, okay,

Howard Brown: 00:10:01

which could have killed me if my body rejected it saved my life.

Howard Brown: 00:10:04

So we are both very blessed, very grateful and very lucky.

Howard Brown: 00:10:08

Because you know that that that's medical technology. It's

Howard Brown: 00:10:12

a medical miracle. So I see it. I feel your inspiration there.

Howard Brown: 00:10:16

So

Howard Brown: 00:10:18

as a young man, what was the hardest moments in your life and

Howard Brown: 00:10:21

dealing with this disease now?

AJ Coulter: 00:10:24

I'm just, it's really in the past. And I think

AJ Coulter: 00:10:29

like, it will take years and years of just really like self

AJ Coulter: 00:10:34

growth, self healing, meditation, changing mindset,

AJ Coulter: 00:10:39

but probably one of the hardest times was, you know, I was on

AJ Coulter: 00:10:42

dialysis. And I was also sick dealing with this. At the time,

AJ Coulter: 00:10:48

I mean, there was support, but I mean, and you should know, like,

AJ Coulter: 00:10:51

who can really support you when you're going through something

AJ Coulter: 00:10:54

so tragic. I mean, there's people around, but at the end of

AJ Coulter: 00:10:57

the day, you're always going to feel so lonely and have that,

AJ Coulter: 00:10:59

you know, that gap in that separation from other people,

AJ Coulter: 00:11:02

because sometimes they just truly don't understand what

AJ Coulter: 00:11:05

you're going through both physically and mentally. Right.

AJ Coulter: 00:11:08

And so at that time, I actually lost my twin brother. Back in

AJ Coulter: 00:11:14

2018, he was murdered. And it was probably like one of the

AJ Coulter: 00:11:19

hardest times in my life because I'm on dialysis. I'm sick. And

AJ Coulter: 00:11:22

then I find out that my brother is killed. And it was just such

AJ Coulter: 00:11:28

a huge loss. Because they took my spare kidney

Howard Brown: 00:11:36

to it, you know what I just said, Yes, that's

Howard Brown: 00:11:41

right. That was that was your if you were alive, you want to give

Howard Brown: 00:11:44

you a kidney? Oh, my God.

AJ Coulter: 00:11:47

Yeah, it's like, wow, both like I joke about it,

AJ Coulter: 00:11:50

you know, but like, in a sense, is like realism. I'm like, dude,

AJ Coulter: 00:11:54

like, at least put it on ice. And so this is like, how I deal

AJ Coulter: 00:11:58

with it, you know? Yeah, it's dark. But that's where humour

AJ Coulter: 00:12:03

comes from is from like tragedy and pain and some of the best

AJ Coulter: 00:12:07

comedy, Is that realistic pain that comes with it. And so,

AJ Coulter: 00:12:15

humour definitely got me through that time. But just like

AJ Coulter: 00:12:18

understanding the end, you know, a lot of people probably won't

AJ Coulter: 00:12:22

agree with me here. But there is a lot of light and death.

AJ Coulter: 00:12:26

There's a lot of growth. From there. There's a lot of

AJ Coulter: 00:12:28

positivity to intuit, if you look at it in the right

AJ Coulter: 00:12:32

perspective, because even though I would much rather have my

AJ Coulter: 00:12:35

brother around, it gave me so much enlightenment and so much

AJ Coulter: 00:12:39

growth, and I just hope we can live up to the world with that

AJ Coulter: 00:12:44

part of my story, too.

Howard Brown: 00:12:46

That's great. It drives me push me forward. I

Howard Brown: 00:12:48

will tell you that so what we say in the Jewish religion, is

Howard Brown: 00:12:52

that all you have at the end of the day, you don't even have 144

Howard Brown: 00:12:55

characters on your tombstone. It's it's good brother good

Howard Brown: 00:12:59

husband, wife, father, son and your dates, right. But memory so

Howard Brown: 00:13:04

brother's name?

Howard Brown: 00:13:04

what's your

AJ Coulter: 00:13:05

Jasmine Coulter,

Howard Brown: 00:13:07

Jasmine Coulter. So Jasmine Coulter it's

Howard Brown: 00:13:10

basically what we say in the Jewish religion is may his

Howard Brown: 00:13:12

memory his name and memory the only for a blessing for all of

Howard Brown: 00:13:16

those who knew and loved him. And this is beautiful your

Howard Brown: 00:13:19

memorialising him by bringing him up on my podcast and

Howard Brown: 00:13:22

remembering him with humour with a little darkness but it doesn't

Howard Brown: 00:13:26

matter. It's also that you are respecting that because he was a

Howard Brown: 00:13:30

person that in your life, and you know that I'm a twin. I have

Howard Brown: 00:13:33

a twin sister five minutes older and I would be dead without her

Howard Brown: 00:13:36

because she donated her bone marrow to me. And so she gave me

Howard Brown: 00:13:40

life. And I showed you are in the greenroom. You know, my, my

Howard Brown: 00:13:44

bone marrow bag. So we got a lot of criss crossing paths like

Howard Brown: 00:13:48

that. Isn't it crazy? Yeah, exactly. So

AJ Coulter: 00:13:51

what you know, like in a way that almost say this is

AJ Coulter: 00:13:57

not like in the way that I'm referring it, but in a way like

AJ Coulter: 00:14:00

I need to make up a gap in in my life. But like cannot have your

AJ Coulter: 00:14:04

twin.

Howard Brown: 00:14:07

CJ CJ Brown Jr. is she's she's five foot she's

Howard Brown: 00:14:10

taller, a little bit bitty, but I share my twin with you. She's

Howard Brown: 00:14:13

great. Love her out. It's fine. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, she

Howard Brown: 00:14:17

would give you the kidney if you need it. That's what she does.

Howard Brown: 00:14:19

That's how she rolls. So there she is, but we'll make that

Howard Brown: 00:14:22

intro. She's the best. She's positive. She's not she's Oh,

Howard Brown: 00:14:27

positive blood ties to positive because I'm all positive. She

Howard Brown: 00:14:31

she had twins. She has an older daughter and she has girl boy

Howard Brown: 00:14:34

twins. The girl is five minutes older than the boy and she's

Howard Brown: 00:14:37

five minutes older than me. Yeah. Who was older who was

Howard Brown: 00:14:40

older?

AJ Coulter: 00:14:42

Three minutes,

Howard Brown: 00:14:43

three minutes. Oh my God. Now we talking about

Howard Brown: 00:14:45

twins and stuff like that. So I kind of got you know, you keep

Howard Brown: 00:14:49

pushing forward, and you're educating people and you're

Howard Brown: 00:14:52

doing it through your comedy. And it's really amazing that

Howard Brown: 00:14:56

you're able to do that because you're really an educator.

Howard Brown: 00:14:58

You're actually preaching And then teaching at the same time,

Howard Brown: 00:15:01

and I love the use of comedy there that so you, you learn a

Howard Brown: 00:15:07

lot when you get these diagnosis, what are some of the

Howard Brown: 00:15:09

lessons? What are you grateful for? What are the things that

Howard Brown: 00:15:12

that are motivating you?

AJ Coulter: 00:15:18

Really, it's just the people, the number of people

AJ Coulter: 00:15:20

that approached me, and truly appreciate, like what I'm trying

AJ Coulter: 00:15:24

to do here. I'm always humbled by different people's stories,

AJ Coulter: 00:15:27

people are always writing me. So that draws me a lot to and then

AJ Coulter: 00:15:31

honestly, even just doing these podcasts, because it's easy, and

AJ Coulter: 00:15:37

you know, to have been, you know, a best selling author, and

AJ Coulter: 00:15:40

you know, all these great accolades that come with it,

AJ Coulter: 00:15:43

it's just like, it's easy to get, you know, sidetracked or,

AJ Coulter: 00:15:48

like, why we really do this, and then, like, hear those stories,

AJ Coulter: 00:15:52

and people ask you again, and kind of, like, reflect on that

AJ Coulter: 00:15:55

pain. It is very humbling. And like, for me, it always, like

AJ Coulter: 00:16:00

reminds me of like, oh, this is why I'm doing this, because it's

AJ Coulter: 00:16:02

easy to get distracted with things are going on the world

AJ Coulter: 00:16:05

and you're getting excited about, you know, talking to new

AJ Coulter: 00:16:09

people doing new events, you know, making great connections,

AJ Coulter: 00:16:13

and then it has to come back to like, I'm doing this because

AJ Coulter: 00:16:17

I've had so much pain, that I want other people to avoid that.

Howard Brown: 00:16:23

Absolutely. So how do you, you know, it's an art

Howard Brown: 00:16:27

form, you know, comedy, and it's not easy. I don't think I could

Howard Brown: 00:16:31

do it. And I'm a pretty damn good speaker. But but but comedy

Howard Brown: 00:16:34

is a different different flavour. So who are some you

Howard Brown: 00:16:38

have some role models in the comedy world that you like, or

Howard Brown: 00:16:41

follow that have influence on you.

AJ Coulter: 00:16:46

Like, there's always the greats, I love Dave

AJ Coulter: 00:16:48

Chappelle. Obviously, like, for me, he's the go, other people

AJ Coulter: 00:16:52

will have different opinions. I love love Jim Gaffigan, because

AJ Coulter: 00:16:56

he's just like a true inspiration for clean comics,

AJ Coulter: 00:16:59

especially me doing clean comedy, because it's so it's so

AJ Coulter: 00:17:03

challenging. You know, trying to write something that's edgy. But

AJ Coulter: 00:17:09

like, also keep it clean. So a lot of into into Windows, you

AJ Coulter: 00:17:13

know, but there definitely is a, you know, kind of a gap when you

AJ Coulter: 00:17:21

walk into a club, and people are either expecting like blue

AJ Coulter: 00:17:24

comedy, you know, just everything is not going and

AJ Coulter: 00:17:28

you're coming on or you know, pretty much almost telling kid

AJ Coulter: 00:17:31

jokes, and they're like, you're looking at who this guy is. And

AJ Coulter: 00:17:34

so it's always that art form to make it like, oh, this can be

AJ Coulter: 00:17:37

edgy. And PG 13 and but it's not like a kid cartoon, you will be

AJ Coulter: 00:17:42

entertained. And so that's something that I'm slowly

AJ Coulter: 00:17:46

learning, but also watching the games but like I like a lot of,

AJ Coulter: 00:17:51

you know, personal comedian, mentors. One of my great

AJ Coulter: 00:17:54

friends. He's He's a comedian, his name's Joe Hearns. Always

AJ Coulter: 00:17:58

pushing me forward. Sandra riser Weiser. Amago I'm always messing

AJ Coulter: 00:18:03

up her name. So that you know I love you. She's actually an

AJ Coulter: 00:18:07

inspiration herself. She's about 84 years old and doing comedy

AJ Coulter: 00:18:14

for so long. We're not gonna get on that day. And you know, she's

AJ Coulter: 00:18:18

out there torn and hurt age, you know, very well known comedian

AJ Coulter: 00:18:22

and always coming back to me and giving me words of wisdom. And

AJ Coulter: 00:18:28

even, you know, comedians that I've met, like, Alonzo Bowden,

AJ Coulter: 00:18:36

we did a podcast together and you know, just given me great

AJ Coulter: 00:18:39

wisdoms, personally to keep pushing forward. Because his he

AJ Coulter: 00:18:44

had to give his kidney to his brother. And so just different

AJ Coulter: 00:18:48

iterations, you know?

Howard Brown: 00:18:49

Yeah, no, no, I appreciate you sharing who your

Howard Brown: 00:18:51

mentors are, and how you're developing your own style. And,

Howard Brown: 00:18:54

and actually, I could see that being a challenge because you

Howard Brown: 00:18:58

hear a lot of the racy stuff and you know, the non PG stuff gets

Howard Brown: 00:19:02

all the buildings and the airtime and all that sort of

Howard Brown: 00:19:04

stuff. But that's okay. Listen, you got lots of different

Howard Brown: 00:19:08

audiences that would appreciate that as well and you stick to

Howard Brown: 00:19:11

your values. So I appreciate that. So what would you say to

Howard Brown: 00:19:15

people that are struggling out there? We're coming out of the

Howard Brown: 00:19:17

pandemic. People I always say one of my speeches they look in

Howard Brown: 00:19:21

the mirror they don't like what they see. And also two things is

Howard Brown: 00:19:26

that tell me what you tell people struggling out there and

Howard Brown: 00:19:28

any advice for those people that get diagnosed the one in nine

Howard Brown: 00:19:32

with with kidney disease?

AJ Coulter: 00:19:36

I would just it sounds it sounds insane. But you

AJ Coulter: 00:19:41

know, always just embrace embrace tragedy, embrace the

AJ Coulter: 00:19:45

hard times look at as growth because it's just another

AJ Coulter: 00:19:48

opportunity to expand yourself expand your mind. Always

AJ Coulter: 00:19:52

changing your thought processes. You can never know. I mean, I

AJ Coulter: 00:19:57

never thought I went to school for engine nearing, I was

AJ Coulter: 00:20:01

definitely that kid in college, like, look at his stupid kids.

AJ Coulter: 00:20:05

These aren't majors, anything, you know, money, you know,

AJ Coulter: 00:20:08

definitely was that guy like, you know, pretty much like, you

AJ Coulter: 00:20:13

know, getting on to the drama majors and like, Look all these

AJ Coulter: 00:20:16

people, and then you know, just terribly turn when and it turns

AJ Coulter: 00:20:20

out that I'm an artist and you know, my analytical mind when it

AJ Coulter: 00:20:23

comes to mechanical engineering, like it's just, it kind of like

AJ Coulter: 00:20:27

coincides with that. And I've always been a good problem

AJ Coulter: 00:20:30

solver. And so you never know what you go through, or know

AJ Coulter: 00:20:36

what you are, you're working through and up. But always just

AJ Coulter: 00:20:39

keep a conscious open mind. Because you can find true, true

AJ Coulter: 00:20:45

Light and Darkness and it will just, you know, shine light the

AJ Coulter: 00:20:50

way.

Howard Brown: 00:20:51

Well, you mean, you're looking at me and I got

Howard Brown: 00:20:53

the shining brightly going on, as well. But what we were saying

Howard Brown: 00:20:57

the same thing, because you can learn from darkness. Okay, you

Howard Brown: 00:21:02

can experience it in but you can learn for but you stay there in

Howard Brown: 00:21:05

that darkness too long, bad things can happen. So there's

Howard Brown: 00:21:08

lots of stuff that can happen from addiction to other stuff

Howard Brown: 00:21:12

and abuse and an isolation and it's not good to isolate. And so

Howard Brown: 00:21:19

I love that you stay in darkness, you can learn a little

Howard Brown: 00:21:22

bit from it, don't stay there too long. Use that light. And,

Howard Brown: 00:21:26

and what I tell you, what I tell me you can use it in your bits,

Howard Brown: 00:21:29

when I tell people is to actually take some of your light

Howard Brown: 00:21:33

and shine it on someone else and take the spotlight off yourself.

Howard Brown: 00:21:36

Because everyone is self evaluating. But if you go

Howard Brown: 00:21:39

something, and this is in chapter one of my book,

Howard Brown: 00:21:41

kindness, you can choose to be kind, you can choose to be good

Howard Brown: 00:21:44

and you can choose to heal yourself and others every single

Howard Brown: 00:21:47

day. It's a choice is a matter if you make that choice and you

Howard Brown: 00:21:50

follow that up with action. And my daughter always used to say

Howard Brown: 00:21:54

positivity alone is nothing without positivity with action.

Howard Brown: 00:21:57

And so that's where the light comes in. But if you are hurting

Howard Brown: 00:22:01

right now, okay, and if you get a diagnosis like cancer like

Howard Brown: 00:22:06

kidney disease, go be selfish. Go get that help that you need.

Howard Brown: 00:22:10

there's help out there. Right. Amen brother, right. there's

Howard Brown: 00:22:14

help out there brother. All right, so we're gonna we're

Howard Brown: 00:22:16

gonna go to the part of the show here. That's called the shining

Howard Brown: 00:22:19

brightly spotlight. All right, you can't make fun of my glasses

Howard Brown: 00:22:22

but I can't send you a pair. All right, these are my shades.

Howard Brown: 00:22:25

These are for those that are listening. These metallic white

Howard Brown: 00:22:28

shades these are my shining brightly sunglasses, because the

Howard Brown: 00:22:31

spotlight is on you, AJ Coulter I want you to tell everyone how

Howard Brown: 00:22:34

they can get a hold of you how can they can see your materials

Howard Brown: 00:22:37

how they can book you and what is next for you. And then close

Howard Brown: 00:22:40

out the show and hand it back to me with some inspiration.

AJ Coulter: 00:22:46

You can find me on my webs website disease

AJ Coulter: 00:22:49

jokes.org I'm really more active on my Instagram. It's AJ

AJ Coulter: 00:22:54

underscore Coulter co ULTE Are the number two I'm also on

AJ Coulter: 00:23:00

LinkedIn, and Tik Tok And Facebook. All of it AJ Coulter

AJ Coulter: 00:23:05

pretty simple, pretty easy guy to look up. I can pretty much

AJ Coulter: 00:23:11

hop from anybody. And man if I

Howard Brown: 00:23:16

were you performing next where some of

Howard Brown: 00:23:18

your next gigs Oh, yeah, this fall this fall. Where are you

Howard Brown: 00:23:21

hitting?

AJ Coulter: 00:23:22

Man, I have a lot going on. I've been on tour

AJ Coulter: 00:23:24

right now. I'm actually currently Oklahoma City I've

AJ Coulter: 00:23:26

been going back and forth from Dallas. From next huge event

AJ Coulter: 00:23:30

will be in Phoenix for the Donor Network. I'll be performing

AJ Coulter: 00:23:34

between four or 500 nurses and doctors and then I'll be heading

AJ Coulter: 00:23:38

out to New York, performing at a PGA which they raise money

AJ Coulter: 00:23:43

through barbecue for kidney disease. And then after that,

AJ Coulter: 00:23:50

which is all with next week. Pretty much the 16th through the

AJ Coulter: 00:23:54

18th I will be doing that and I'll be flying out to DC to team

AJ Coulter: 00:23:59

up with Neff cure to do inequality conference to you

AJ Coulter: 00:24:03

know get better perspective on kidney disease in the black

AJ Coulter: 00:24:06

community.

Howard Brown: 00:24:07

But they gotta they gotta find you because this

Howard Brown: 00:24:10

is important. And also you just hit on a really big topic is

Howard Brown: 00:24:14

disparities. Because I will tell you this, that the African

Howard Brown: 00:24:17

American community, the Latino community, the Indian

Howard Brown: 00:24:20

reservation community, the indigenous, they are the least

Howard Brown: 00:24:24

screened, at least for cancers. And so I sit there and shout, go

Howard Brown: 00:24:29

get your mammogram, go get your prostate checked, go get your

Howard Brown: 00:24:32

colon colonoscopy or do a whole at home stool test, go get your

Howard Brown: 00:24:35

cardio, go to the dentist. People don't put that off during

Howard Brown: 00:24:39

the pandemic or they just trust in the system. But you cannot be

Howard Brown: 00:24:43

your optimal self. If I would have been screened at age 40 AJ,

Howard Brown: 00:24:46

I might not have had colon cancer, I would have had stage

Howard Brown: 00:24:48

one early stage which is much more curable. So I will tell

Howard Brown: 00:24:51

people, the stuff that you and I went through if you go get

Howard Brown: 00:24:54

screened earlier, we can save you a lot of pain from

Howard Brown: 00:24:57

treatments and surgery and for me radiations and and and all

Howard Brown: 00:25:00

that stuff and inside effects. So go go go make sure your

Howard Brown: 00:25:03

health and make sure your function isn't optimal you I'll

Howard Brown: 00:25:05

just add to that. But I will put all of that those links inside

Howard Brown: 00:25:09

the show notes as well as on the socials and people be able to

Howard Brown: 00:25:12

find you. I guarantee you that so hit me up with some

Howard Brown: 00:25:14

inspiration as we close it out

AJ Coulter: 00:25:20

he's feeling sick, go to the doctor.

Howard Brown: 00:25:27

I can't believe that I stopped the comedian.

Howard Brown: 00:25:29

That's

AJ Coulter: 00:25:31

No, I feel like, you know, it sounds crazy. But, you

AJ Coulter: 00:25:37

know, we're so stubborn. I was so stubborn, you know, years

AJ Coulter: 00:25:40

ago, and we just had to talk about it. And I really wanted to

AJ Coulter: 00:25:43

get off of that. I had signs of kidney disease, I ignored them.

AJ Coulter: 00:25:48

There's always that fear because of money, that we won't go to

AJ Coulter: 00:25:52

the hospital. But honestly, you know, get checked out focus on

AJ Coulter: 00:25:57

your health, because it is truly the most valuable thing you

AJ Coulter: 00:26:00

have. Don't put that before anything. And that is something

AJ Coulter: 00:26:05

that I wish I would have done before all this Not that I'm

AJ Coulter: 00:26:08

saying like I'm pretty grateful to have kidney disease now for

AJ Coulter: 00:26:11

what I'm doing. But I don't recommend going through what I

AJ Coulter: 00:26:14

went through.

Howard Brown: 00:26:16

And that's no joke, right? Yeah, that's no

Howard Brown: 00:26:19

joke. Exactly. Well, thank you for that. So this is you know,

Howard Brown: 00:26:23

you can get a hold of me the shining brightly show at shining

Howard Brown: 00:26:27

brightly.com. And it has information about my speaking

Howard Brown: 00:26:31

and I love to go speak. I want to go speak alongside you. But I

Howard Brown: 00:26:35

won't do that. I'll do the motivation, inspiration

Howard Brown: 00:26:38

education, you'll do the comedy. How's that when we meet up on

Howard Brown: 00:26:42

stage? That would be a cool thing to do. Oh, yeah, we got to

Howard Brown: 00:26:47

work toward that. You got to work today. Yeah, don't get any

Howard Brown: 00:26:51

of them. Don't go get any of them.

AJ Coulter: 00:26:53

No, say no, we just get those shirts.

Howard Brown: 00:26:56

Yeah, exactly. So on the website, you can check

Howard Brown: 00:26:59

out my speaking you can check out the book. I've got

Howard Brown: 00:27:02

discussion guides on survivorship, mentorship, and

Howard Brown: 00:27:05

interfaith getting to know other people that aren't like you.

Howard Brown: 00:27:08

Those are my passions, as well as my podcast, which is cranking

Howard Brown: 00:27:12

you'll get this episode coming out very shortly, next couple of

Howard Brown: 00:27:14

weeks, and also my advocacy. My advocacy is entrepreneurship,

Howard Brown: 00:27:19

interfaith and in the cancer community. I advocate like crazy

Howard Brown: 00:27:24

because I don't want anyone that to do this alone and not to

Howard Brown: 00:27:27

isolate as well. So come find me at shining brightly.com And if

Howard Brown: 00:27:31

we choose Ajay if we all choose to shine brightly, just a little

Howard Brown: 00:27:35

bit each day for ourselves, for others and for our communities,

Howard Brown: 00:27:39

this world would be a better place and it really is a better

Howard Brown: 00:27:42

place with you and your comedy and your lessons and your

Howard Brown: 00:27:44

education. And I want to tell you it's a privilege to meet you

Howard Brown: 00:27:47

and know you and we got more living and teaching to do

AJ Coulter: 00:27:52

we got a bright future together. We are shining

AJ Coulter: 00:27:57

brightly.

Howard Brown: 00:27:57

We'll get you some shades. Well thank you for being

Howard Brown: 00:28:00

amazing. And we'll we will be following you I appreciate you

Howard Brown: 00:28:04

and much respect and stay healthy please keep keep keep on

Howard Brown: 00:28:08

being healthy Amen brother. And you to me