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Published by Jesse Singh
What's up, beautiful people. I'm Jesse Singh — comedian, 12-year youth worker, and your host of Creating Consciousness. This is the show where me and my co-host Danté Williams push back on the easy answers the wellness industry sells us, dig into what mental health and creativity actually look like for working artists, and bring on comedians, musicians, and creators across the city to talk about the real journey — the bombing, the breakthroughs, the breakdowns, and what's saved us. New episodes weekly. Peace and love, y'all.
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Robert Orlando started travel hockey at five years old. By eighteen he was having panic attacks driving home from games and dealing with night terrors and sleep paralysis caused by the sport he loved.This week I sit down with my friend Robert Orlando, a Brampton-raised comedian, former junior hockey player, and one of the sharpest storytellers I've had the pleasure of building this show with. We spend the whole episode on the arc — how a five-year-old ends up recruited into travel hockey, what it costs to spend your entire childhood inside one identity, what it feels like when your family's mood every Sunday hinges on how you played that weekend, and what it takes to walk away from the thing you've been told your whole life you're supposed to be.TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Catching Up on the Old Podcast Days00:03:30 The Bakery Where My Dad Lost His Mind00:06:00 The India Trip That Turned Me Into a Rage-9-Year-Old00:09:30 Falling Off a Bike Into a Basement Beam00:13:00 The COVID Generation Will Recognize What's Broken00:15:30 Being Honest About My Relationship With Alcohol00:19:00 Why Bartending Feels Like Work and Stand-Up Feels Like the Outlet00:21:00 Trying Stand-Up In High School Because A Rapper Friend00:25:00 Travel Hockey at 5 Years Old and What It Costs00:29:00 Panic Attacks, Sleep Paralysis, and When You Know It's Time00:35:00 Learning How to Adapt When You Keep Getting Traded00:42:00 My First Stand-Up Set at the Ossington00:47:00 What the Comedy Scene Was Like Before COVID00:51:00 Content Creators Changed the Landscape After the Pandemic00:58:00 Levels To Me Game Segment#Creatingconsciousness #hockey #podcast
In 2017, Damien had open heart surgery, double valve replacement, and was back in the gym by week five. A year later he won his pro card. Welcome back to Creating Consciousness. This week I sit down with a friend, a mentor, a personal trainer, and one of the realest competitors in Canadian natural bodybuilding.From Trinidad to Brooklyn to Brampton, from building his first gym out of cinder blocks and a garden hose at fourteen to becoming head personal trainer at the Y in his first month, from being one of the first guys in Canada's men's physique category when it launched in 2012 to learning what it actually takes to keep competing when the industry shifted around him.TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Trinidad to Brooklyn to Toronto — The Whole Journey00:08:30 Why I Don't Want to Go Back to New York00:13:00 Moving to Milton Was Too Quiet for a Brooklyn Guy00:18:00 How I Built My First Gym With Cinder Blocks at 1400:24:00 The Day the Gym Community Taught Me Everything00:28:30 Why I Became Head Personal Trainer in a Month00:32:30 The Real Truth About Passion vs Chasing Money00:38:00 Being a Natural Athlete in a Steroid Era00:43:00 What Bodybuilding Nutrition Actually Looks Like00:49:00 How to Build a Healthy Relationship With Food00:55:00 Leading By Example When Teaching Your Kids00:58:30 The Heart Murmur I Lived With for 20 Years01:03:00 Open Heart Surgery and a Double Valve Replacement01:07:30 The Doctor's Visit That Changed Everything About Recovery01:09:30 Speaking Things Into Existence Through Faith01:13:00 Levels To Me Game Segment#creatingconsiousness #mindset #podcast
"What do you actually want from making it?" Welcome back to Creating Consciousness. This week I sit down with Joe, the owner and founder of The Corner Comedy Club, a mentor, a friend, and one of the realest minds I know in the Toronto comedy scene. We get into the full origin story of The Corner — how a Joe Rogan podcast monologue about being the hero of your own story struck Joe at the lowest point of his life and put him on the path from construction worker to comedy club owner, how he ran his own podcast for years just to secretly pick comedians' brains about how the industry actually works, and how Queen and John's old Speaker's Corner — the free-speech booth that ran on city TV before YouTube existed — gave the club its name and its DNA. TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 The Joe Rogan Podcast That Started It All00:05:00 How He Secretly Researched the Comedy Industry00:08:00 Why The Corner Comedy Club Is Named After a Soapbox in England00:13:00 A Safe Place for Dangerous Ideas — Opening Year of MeToo00:18:00 How the Hungriest Comedians Built the Club Organically00:22:00 Why He Tried Stand-Up for a Year Then Quit00:28:00 What He Looks For When Curating Comedy Lineups00:36:00 Why a Handshake Beats Every Credit on Your Resume00:40:00 Why You Don't Have to Leave Toronto to Make It00:50:00 The Question That Proves Making It Is Already Yours00:56:00 The Year He Decided to Have No Goals01:03:00 The War of Art and Why Resistance Will Try to Stop You01:08:00 How Hitting Bottom Made Him Finally Ask for Help01:11:00 Why Anger and Forgiveness Are the Real Roots of Addiction01:17:00 Levels To Me: Mafia Movies and Modern Day Kingpins#creatingconsiousness #makingit #podcast
Scarborough was getting talked about for everything except the people who actually live there so Janice Mendes built a platform to flip that whole narrative. Welcome back to Creating Consciousness. This week I sit down with the official unofficial Ambassador of Scarborough herself, founder and producer of Scarborough's Got Jokes, and a real one in every sense of the word. We get into what actually makes Scarborough different (it's the only place where the immigrants outnumbered the people calling them immigrants), why we're all out here angry about a five-dollar patty but never angry about fifty-dollar pasta, and why Kennedy Station was the heartbeat of half our childhoods. Janice tells the whole founding story of Scarborough's Got Jokes — how it started as a birthday stunt where she just wanted to bring four comedians to her side of the city instead of dragging twenty of her friends downtown, and how it grew into a 200,000-follower brand booking lineups with names like Hasan Minhaj, Nitish Sakuja, and Tamara Shevon. We talk about the difference between actors and comedians (actors are lone ships, comedians are a community), why comedy still doesn't get the respect it deserves as an art form, and how her years working as a youth worker — including with a young Tristan Thompson — taught her exactly how to handle a room full of comics who need attention. We close with a brand new round of "Levels To Me." If you're from Scarborough, from a hood that doesn't get its flowers, or anywhere built by people the news got wrong — pull up. Peace and love, y'all. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Why Scarborough Is the Place Immigrants Actually Land 00:04:30 Why $5 Patties Make People Angry But $50 Pasta Doesn't 00:08:30 Kennedy Station Was the Heartbeat of Our Childhood 00:13:30 Stigma vs Reality of Growing Up in Scarborough 00:18:30 The Unwritten Rules of Scarborough Hoods 00:22:00 Scarborough's Got Jokes Started as a Birthday Stunt 00:26:00 Actors Are Lone Ships But Comedians Are a Community 00:30:30 Why Comedy Still Doesn't Get Respect as an Art Form 00:36:30 Scarborough Spots and Building a 200K Follower Brand 00:40:30 What Youth Work With Young Offenders Taught Her 00:44:00 How That Skill Set Transfers Directly to Producing Comedy 00:48:30 Levels To Me: Pick One Scarborough Restaurant to Revive #scarborough #creatingconsiousness #podcast
My first ever guest opened for Russell Peters in front of 11,000 people — and she's the one who told me that "making it" in comedy is mostly a myth.Welcome back to Creating Consciousness. I'm beyond grateful to bring on my mentor, my friend, and one of the realest touring headliners in the game, Crystal Ferrier. We get into what it actually looks like to "make it" (spoiler: it's about $75 more than you were already getting, and sometimes just free food), what it was like being the only Indian female comic in Toronto when she started, and why being born "with two strikes" became the reason to grind harder instead of an excuse. Crystal breaks down the difference between using your real experience on stage and punching down, why she'll never whiten up her mom's accent to make an audience comfortable, and what years working as a behavioral therapist with kids on the spectrum taught her that she carried straight into comedy. We get into colorism inside our own communities, breaking generational cycles for her kids, and the grade-seven moment — "Fuck you, dandruff" — where she first discovered that humor could save her. We close it out with a brand new game segment I built called Levels To Me. If you're an artist chasing a finish line that keeps moving, or you've ever used a joke to survive something — pull up. Peace and love, y'all.TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Why "Making It" In Comedy Is Mostly a Myth00:02:30 Opening for Russell Peters in Front of 11,000 People00:05:30 Social Media vs Real Stage Experience in Comedy00:08:30 Being the Only Indian Female Comic in Toronto00:11:30 Punching Down vs Telling Your Real Story On Stage00:15:30 The Worst and Best Gigs of a Touring Headliner00:22:30 What Behavioral Therapy Taught Her About Comedy00:27:30 Colorism, Interracial Marriage and Breaking Cycles00:33:00 Fuck You Dandruff: The Day Humor Saved Her00:38:00 Should Anything Be Off Limits in Stand Up Comedy00:41:00 Humor as a Defense Mechanism and the Bucket Life00:45:00 Levels To Me: The First Ever Game SegmentSUPPORT RESOURCES!https://yssn.ca/crisis-services/310-cope/ - 310 COPEhttps://988.ca/frhttps://good2talk.ca/ontario/https://kidshelpphone.ca/#creatingconsiousness #culture #russellpeters
Somewhere along the way we stopped knowing our neighbors, and I'm not sure most of us even noticed. Welcome back to Creating Consciousness with me and my co-host Danté. This one digs into individualistic versus collectivistic cultures — the framework I learned in a cultural psychology class that finally gave me a name for the thing I've been feeling about North America for years. We get into the Greek lady who gave me tea and a piece of cake while I waited and was confused that I thought it was a kind gesture (because in her culture, that's just what you do at 2 PM), the Italian nonna across the street who was a little racist but loved us like family, the corner store owner in Jane and Finch who literally jumped the counter to defend a kid being shaken down for change, and the bus in Kingston, Jamaica where strangers passed a six-year-old up to the front so he wouldn't miss his stop. I share what it's like growing up as a child of immigrants caught between two cultural systems, why social media might be the final nail in the coffin of neighborhood community, and what that one Twitch streamer in Hamilton screaming "yo chat" at his phone while real humans tried to talk to him taught me about what we're becoming. If you've ever felt like the world got lonelier and you couldn't figure out why — pull up. Peace and love, y'all.Timestamps:00:00:00 Welcome and Producer Sound Effects00:01:07 Have We Become More Selfish As A People?00:02:38 The Greek Lady At Delish Kitchen Who Just Gave Us Tea00:05:20 Individualistic Vs Collectivistic Cultures Explained00:08:35 Collectivism In Our Own Canadian Neighbourhoods00:11:55 Jane And Finch And The Italian Nonna Who Loved Us00:14:00 The Double Double Owner Who Chased Bullies Off The Block00:18:35 Getting Beat By 10 Punjabi Grandmas At The Temple00:20:22 The Hamilton Twitch Streamer Who Wasn't In The Room00:23:56 The Jamaica Bus Story — A Community Watching One Kid00:29:14 What The New MAID Policy Actually Proposes00:32:20 The Preventative Care System That's Actually Missing00:40:30 A Note About Support Resources SUPPORT RESOURCES!https://yssn.ca/crisis-services/310-cope/ - 310 COPEhttps://988.ca/frhttps://good2talk.ca/ontario/https://kidshelpphone.ca/ #creatingconsiousness #culture
The minute you try to monetize your passion, you've already started killing it — and in episode three I get into why. Welcome back to Creating Consciousness with me and my co-host Danté. We get into why social media has rewired what people think stand-up comedy even is (it's not just crowd work clips, I promise), why there's no prerequisite to grab a mic — you can literally smoke crack and sign up for five minutes — and what eleven years in the trenches actually teaches you about the difference between intensity and consistency. I share the moment I hosted the same comedy contest that gave me my first break and watched the new comics light up the way I used to, and how it hit me that the goalposts I'd been chasing kept moving the whole time. We get into Lavelle Crawford as one of the most underrated stand-ups ever, why I want people to be in actual physical pain from laughing at my shows, and Buddha's "two arrows" framework — the suffering you can't control versus the suffering you pile on yourself on top of it. We close on Ikigai, the Eightfold Path, and why the problems we're trying to solve right now were already solved 2,000 years ago. If you're an artist trying to balance the craft with paying the rent, or just someone who keeps feeling like the finish line keeps moving — pull up. Peace and love, y'all.Timestamps:00:00:00 Cancel Culture Made The Comedians It Tried To Stop00:05:00 Instagram Comedy Is An Art Form Too But Not Stand Up00:08:00 There Is No Prerequisite To Doing Stand Up Comedy00:11:00 Why Comedians Share Punchlines And Steal Premises00:14:30 Be The Joke Don't Just Recite It On Stage00:17:00 Lavelle Crawford And The Underrated Greats Of Stand Up00:23:00 The Moving Goalpost Of Comedy And Forgetting Where You Are00:30:30 Consistency Beats Intensity For A 50 Year Career00:34:00 Why Your Passion Was Never Supposed To Pay Your Bills00:38:30 The Rush To Monetize Is Killing Your Creative Voice00:42:00 Buddha's Two Arrows And The Suffering You Add Yourself00:47:30 Ikigai And Why Your Problems Are 2000 Years Old#creatingconciousness #monitization #passion
Just trust your feelings" is some of the most dangerous advice floating around right now, and in this episode I get into why. Welcome back to Creating Consciousness — episode two with me and my brother and co-host Danté Williams. We dig into the difference between feelings and gut instincts (one is conditioned by your past, the other is your body trying to talk to you without a mouth), how I had to live through my first real heartbreak before I could see the codependent patterns I'd been carrying since childhood, and why so many of us — men especially — get stuck cycling between suppressing emotion and replaying the same justification tape in our head until we're exhausted.Timestamps:00:00:00 Why "Trust Your Feelings" Is Dangerous Advice00:04:50 First Heartbreak and Codependent Relationship Patterns00:07:00 Feelings vs Gut Instinct: How To Tell The Difference00:09:30 Your Body Knows Things Your Mind Cannot Explain00:13:30 Getting Addicted to Victimhood and Negative Emotions00:17:30 Marriage, Generational Trauma and Inherited Fears00:24:00 Rumination vs Processing: Why Men Get Stuck00:28:00 How Painting Your Anger Onto a Canvas Heals You00:32:30 Not Your Fault But Still Your Responsibility00:35:00 What The Bhagavad Gita Taught Me About Triggers00:37:00 Robbed at 6AM and What It Pushed Me Toward00:42:00 Stand Up Comedy vs The Social Media Algorithm#creatingconsiousness #gutinstinct #socialmedia
The "manifest your dream life" crowd is selling something dangerous, and after 12 years working in a youth shelter I can't stay quiet about it anymore. Welcome to episode one of Creating Consciousness — the podcast where I dig into the messy intersection of creativity, mental health, and the artist's journey, with my brother and co-host Danté Williams behind the scenes. In this first one we get into why fear of public speaking was never really the issue for comedians (it's the day-to-day that wrecks us), how spirituality got hijacked by hustle culture, what actually happened to me on day four of a silent meditation retreat in Thailand, and why I think the people who've been through the worst of it tend to be the funniest in the room. We talk about exposure therapy, the placebo effect in reverse, why bamboo spends five years underground before it shoots up, and how humor became one of the realest tools I've used in youth work. If you're trying to better yourself, learn about mental health beyond the Instagram quotes, or you're somewhere on the artist's path and need someone to say the quiet part out loud — pull up. New episodes every week. Peace and love, y'all.
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Apple Podcasts rankings via the Mato Topic Intelligence Platform.
Observed September 7, 2026. Cached outside the daily freshness window; the positions keep the date they were taken on.
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