So...

Born in London, Ontario. Moved to Aurora, so I’ve been in southern Ontario more or less my whole life. During school, I was always the smart kid. By the time high school hit, I started... just not wanting to do anything and I don’t know exactly what was happening there, but part of my little rebellion was... doing really poorly in school. So there was a really formative moment when I had to show my parents my report cards, and I made the mistake of ordering them from best to worst, and the best was already WORSE than they were expecting. My mom said “69%? ooooh...”, like that’s not good! I remember just thinking, “Oh no, the lowest was 52!”. That moment hit me, and I realized I had to change something? I then made just a wild goal of getting into mathematics at Waterloo. It’s like, “well I used to be good at math, I’ll do that. Where’s the place to go? Waterloo? Cool.” So I made that goal, and I scraped by; I got in. I basically got exactly the percentage I needed to get in. So if you ever want a tutorial on doing the minimum... hit me up! Yeah, university was... crazy. It was so difficult that I kinda lost my mind a few times in there. But in the end... came out a math degree, and a really good foundation for just... critical thinking, and just an awesome education. So... worth it in the end, despite the struggle. I was actually planning on joining the Navy as an officer after university. That became the plan. They flew me and 42 other people out to Victoria to do aptitude tests and show us more about what it was about. I passed with flying colours, and then I was totally in the mindset of “let’s do this, it’s totally something new, this is a clean slate, university sucked”... Then I got an Achilles heel injury, and I was super fit otherwise, but I couldn’t go to basic training. I tried again, but I heal really slowly, and I just couldn’t do it.

You tripped on something or?

No no, I was just pushing a lawn mower... [laughs] just the worst, so... yeah. At that point, it was a bit of a crisis, and I didn’t really do anything for a bit. I basically played Starcraft for about 8 months. Starcraft 2. I got pretty good! Was in diamond when diamond was the highest league, but then it hit me that I needed to get a job. Either I get better... like I spend more than two hours a day on Starcraft, or I get a job, but not both. I don’t like doing something.. moderately? I like to do something to get better at it. So I basically went cold turkey on Starcraft, which was surprisingly difficult, and then I started applying like crazy. Basically offered to work for free, doing some kind of mathematical related work, because I had no experience otherwise. Basically, a CEO picked me up, was like, “Hey, I’ll pay you minimum wage, you can look for another job, just be transparent with me”. I lived with my parents, I saved every dollar for 6 months. And I got an interest in software development. I rekindled that interest within that time, because I’d done it throughout - a little bit in university and high school. In that period, I rekindled that interest and dove in, and that set me on my current path.

What are some problems that you run into now and then that you don't think other people might experience?

I don’t think people are used to the degree of... sort of abstract, logical thought that is required to do something like math or programming. Now that doesn’t mean I think that a lot of people can’t do it, but they just wouldn’t be used to it. That’s part of why coding bootcamps are such a brutal 12 weeks; people are like, “Whoa, I didn’t realize I had to think like this”, and it’s hard to change the way you think. So I think just... that day-to-day and thinking through problems is exhausting—it takes a lot of emotional energy.

Given the choice of anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would you invite to a dinner party? Why?

I think... I dunno if I’d survive, but I think it’d be pretty crazy to invite Genghis Khan and just really dig in; like what was this guy all about? It was such a flash in the pan of... you know, the largest empire the world has ever seen, and within 100 years... just disappeared basically. That would be really interesting.

Would you like to be famous one day? If so in what way, if not, why?

Yeah I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t wanna be too famous, but it’s.. the vanity in me wouldn’t mind my name being known. [smiles] One of the side projects I have is developing a board game. I’ve been doing that for a few years. It’s very close. But I... again the vanity in me just wants... I mean I want the board game published, but I want it to say “Designed by Daniel Moniz” on it. So it’s like, “Hey, who’s that guy?”, and then I can have interesting chats with people, help them out and that kind of thing. That’d be cool, yeah... but being stopped on the street, less cool.

What would constitute the perfect day?

Perfect day... I think the perfect day has to involve... some amount of... okay. Every good day necessarily constitutes something I don’t want to do. If I’m left to my own devices; which I semi-frequently am, I tend to just... crumble. It’s just... I work on my own, I’ll work hard on something and then I’ll work too hard. Then my brain is in this weird otherworld, not in this one, and then there’s also dishes piling around me. Now by and large, I’m a fairly tidy person; once I see something happen, I’ll deal with it... but in the moment I have a hard time pulling myself away. So that means that working on something like a coding problem is all-consuming. So I developed a philosophy over time where every day has to have a chore essentially. Or if I’m ever feeling that weird sense of... either its boredom, or I’m stuck on something, then I’ll go do the dishes or something like that. Just small things that tidy the area, and I don’t do them enough... but I at least do them... somewhat? That keeps a day moving. I think it’d be some combination of “Okay get up, there’s two things I have to do”, bam. Then I know I have 2 hours to work on something I love, and then I have to go somewhere. Then I come back and it’s “Okay where was I?” and then I get back into it. Then maybe it’s like, spend the evening with my girlfriend or something. So it’s like... it’s some combination of being productive and just having to do things that I want to do.

When was the last time to sang to yourself? Someone else?

I sing everyday, all the time. I probably sang yesterday to June, my girlfriend. I also sang in an improv rehearsal last night!

If you could change anything in how you were raised (or grew up), what would you change?

Yeah I would. I know the answer to this. My father, as an engineer was definitely responsible for the handiwork in the house, and he would try to get us to work for him. But the problem is he’s a perfectionist, and it’s hard to do anything right. So I think it was very quick for us to say, “I don’t want any part of this anymore”. So I missed this HUGE important education and just... how do you put together a cabinet? Or all these simple things that I’m going to have to pick up now that I’m in my 30’s.

If you could wake up and gain any ability/character trait, what would it be? Why?

I like to consider myself fairly well-rounded, but there’s a couple gaping holes. It’s a combination of things... it’s sort of directional sense, like a visual sense, and I tend to not look around. I mean I can do it, I can turn it on, but I don’t turn it on enough. So if it’s like, if I come in at an intersection from another direction—I might not know where I am and I’m really confused, like, “Wait, where am I again?”. It would be nice to take in my surroundings. Just be aware, there’s just so many things to be aware of and doing that puts you in the moment. I think that makes people happier. But instead I tend to look at... I look at all the people walking by. [points at people behind] We live in this world of people and it’s like, well... there’s other things to look at. Like, imagine I walked to work and then I was trying to describe it to someone how to get there. It would take me a bit. I mean, I could do the streets, but what did I see? And I don’t remember.

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?

What would I want to know... I’m winging it, man! I don’t know... I mean it might be nice getting a heads up about the technological singularity or something but... by and large, I’m alright. I’m just gonna keep winging it. I don’t need to know anything.

What do you value most in your friendships? Can you describe a best friend?

Sure, I make no secret that I work hard to surround myself with... amazing people. Just really high caliber people, I use a term - I just call them “quality people”. I also don’t make it a secret that I’m very quick to judge people on this front. It’s usually the first meeting or two. And honestly sometimes within a couple of minutes... when I see someone... I don’t know what it is, there’s obviously a whole bunch of unconscious biases, but things like: eye contact, [intense eye contact] assertiveness. Sometimes I meet people and something just clicks right away. That’s 100% the same with my girlfriend. We met dancing, and she had eye contact that was... un-breaking. I don’t think I identified that that’s what it was at the time, but I was thinking, “This person is so intense. I have to get to know this person.” So I think I look for a certain intensity in people, but also just pure honesty. So if I call you and want to hang out, and you don’t want to... I rather you just say, “Ahh, I’m not feeling it today”... “Cool! No problem, have a good day. Let me know if I can do anything”. Then there’s no... there’s no lying. So I’ve just surrounded myself with extremely honest people, which makes life drama free!

In terms of a best friend, I have a few and I mean... generally they’re people that can play games with me—that’s usually the common thread. We can sit down for a board game, a video game and be silly when needed, or be really analytical when needed. I think my best friends tend to be analytical and we can have a ball doing it.

What is your most treasured memory?

Probably what would... could be argued to be my first date with June? We had a... we met and we spent a whole day together, and it was a beautiful summer day in Toronto by the Lakeshore, we did a bunch of random things like... there was some mini Cirque du Soleil thing going on at the stage. We went to the distillery and we saw a magician. We went to her place and watched a movie, and it was such a full, perfect memory day... [smiles]

What is your most terrible memory?

I think... school was really hard for me, I don’t think I’m a very good student. It could perhaps be ironic that I’m a teacher, and that I demand excellence from my students. I think the problem is that I’m... I want to do my own thing, I always have. If there’s too much guidance, I start to crumble. I start to rebel. This affected me greatly in school. High school it started hitting me—got real depressed. Third year university I had a point where... there were some crazy things in my personal life, and in combination, the hardest courses I ever took were actually in third year, not fourth year. I was just crumbling, and I was asking myself, “What am I doing here?” and just falling apart.

If you knew that you would die in one year, would you change anything about the way that you are living now?

I would almost certainly change things—I would love to finish something. There’s a lot of answers here. There are places in the world that I’d like to see, but it also hit me... only recently that the world is unreasonably large, and it’s just impossible to see it all. Actually, I read something on the internet recently where someone works at a... what do you call it where people go to get taken care of, before they die (Hospice)? Anyway he asked these people what they most missed and a lot of it, people were not talking about travel. They were talking about things like the rain, watching their family sleep; really simple things that cost zero dollars. So I think I would... just try to get outside more, I don’t do it enough. Get outside more... I’d do some crazy things, do the polar bear dip, you know? Spend more time, call my parents more, things like that. I’m not a very personal person, I don’t need a lot of communication, but I would probably love that.

What roles do love and affection play in your life?

I just took a personality test about a week ago... yeah, you had me thinking once you mentioned we were going to do this thing. I started thinking about a bunch of things. I mean I already do this stuff, but it helped accelerate it. My empathy score was lower than I thought it was going to be. I don’t know if I lowballed myself on some of the questions, but I think my girlfriend’s a lot more... ultimately empathetic than I am. That being said, we can all show that in different ways. Take friendship: my best friends are people that... we don’t have to talk for 3 months and then, then we hang out and it’s great. So I think sometimes I have a kind of hands-off relationship with love, and I have to actively think of things like, “Yes, this weekend, it would be good to go on a date... lets go on a date”. Like that’s a very active thing to do because I know I’ll enjoy it, and she’ll enjoy it and it’ll bring us closer... but it’s maybe not my natural mode.

How close and warm are you and your family?

Reasonable. We’re not a warm family by and large. My parents are not the warmest people, and we’re not that close, but we’re close enough and we’re also physically reasonably close. We see each other at most holidays. We do Christmas together. I think I’ve become more close with my sister over time, because I was a bit of a monster as a kid. She was always helping me and it took me a long time to realize that. So I’ve come to appreciate her a lot more. She had a kid recently, and it would be nice to... get to know this person. We’re not super warm by and large, but we make sure we see each other. I’m often the mediator at these gatherings, so if... my brother and my dad tend to argue about nothingness, I have the be the one to step in and say things like, “You both agree!”, “Lets move on!”, or “How about...?” I’m the youngest.

What do you like most about yourself?

I’m pretty self aware, and I’ve had to be, just because my brain doesn’t... for example I was never very intelligent socially. I had to basically work on that. In order to just get through, I’ve had to find my weaknesses and systematically improve. That might sound sociopathic or something, [smiles] but it’s what I’ve needed to do, and I’m pretty happy that I’ve been able to do that. Basically I’ve invested all this time in learning how to learn things quick, and I have so many different hobbies, and by now, abilities that I can pull in and find ways to get better at other things quickly. The more we can create analogies, relatable situations—the easier it is to learn something. I have a million of those things now, and they just all build up.

Can you share an embarrassing story?

It was probably... realistically my first improv show. I was doing my first long-form improv show, where we were the people that are required to end our own scenes—they aren’t ended by some kind of person. If you’ve watched “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”, there are three minute things, then they end them and do something new. Long-form improv involves something like a 15 minute set where your teammates end your scenes, and you keep things moving yourself. This show was just over a year into my improv training, and it was the first class of this 10 month long-form program. We actually found out that class that we had to do a show right after! I was the first one out, and... it was just me and this person, just burning... for minutes. No one was confident enough to end our scene, and I was just there sitting on stage. We weren’t getting laughs... I didn’t understand why yet, because I didn’t... I didn’t see that... I mean clearly we didn’t know who our characters were to each other, we barely knew where we were. There’s all these missing pieces, which we need context for things to be funny, missing all the context. I burned for minutes, and I just got red. The audience, about 40 people in there, just dead silent for minutes. That was hard... but I realized afterwards that it really can’t get worse than that. You can get physical pain that could be worse, emotional pain that could be worse. But in terms of, lets say being in front of a bunch of people, which was actually my goal; to develop presentational and communication skills... I’ve hit the bottom. I’ve had all kinds of tricks now where... worst case, something isn’t going well, I can find a way out of it. With teaching I still say stupid things, but I’m more likely to navigate out of it safely: make a joke out of it, apologize in a funny way or whatever. So that was... that was rough. I’m glad it happened.

When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

Oh boy. I don’t know.. maybe when, a few years ago my grandfather died... Oh, no, there was one more recent. Tony Rosato, you ever hear of Tony Rosato? He was a comedian, he was actually on Saturday Night Live, he was in this long-form improv class. So we did a lot of improv together, I even had sessions at my place and he would come over. That hit me surprisingly hard, cause this was a guy that everyone liked, and we just lost something important in our community. He was an Italian-Canadian, he had a character where he was a crazy Italian chef basically, a little bit like John Belushi type, screaming. To myself? I don't know, it's been an awfully long time. I don’t know.

What, if anything is too serious to joke about?

I’m of the opinion that nothing is too serious to joke about, but everything has to happen in the right context. Just because I think there are probably hilarious abortion jokes out there... though I’m probably not the one to give them. Not necessarily because of me being a guy or something, but because... maybe BECAUSE of that, I’d have to be really good to pull off something, where the audience feels uncomfortable, but the right amount of uncomfortable. You have to keep people on the edge, and that’s really hard to do in comedy. By and large I avoid things like that, but I think in the end, you can’t put rules.

What are your thoughts on a comedian's intention when delivering a joke versus how the audience perceives it?

I have a LOT of thoughts on that! I think it’s difficult no matter what... this conversation would always be happening regardless of the year. At some point, someone who thinks they’ve done something right will say, “Hey, it wasn’t my intention to offend all these people”, but that’ll happen anyway. Now on the other hand, maybe that WAS their intention, and maybe that’s okay, right? There’s a place for offending people, and I think people get carried away. People have started to think that there is a line in the Canadian bill of rights that says, “You don’t have to be offended”. There is no such line. In fact, you can pay for a show, and have paid to be entertained, but it’s not up to you what entertainment means—it’s up to the entertainer. So if you leave offended... you don’t have to come back, you don’t have to see a comedy show ever again, you can rant on twitter, you can do whatever you want. But that person made a choice, and it’s up to you how you handle that. Sometimes they make their own choice, but yeah, we can’t set rules in this sense, fundamentally.

Just had a big discussion with some other improvisors. There’s a guy that teaches improv. He just had some people... they were trying to do things like Chinese accents in his class. So he says, “Noooo, we’re not doing this”, and this person actually called him out; said he was a coward, that people like him are the reason that political correctness is destroying comedy... and I disagree. I think that while it may be destroying comedy, there is a difference between taste and right or wrong. Sometimes things are just distasteful. If you’re learning a trade, you owe it to your instructor to trust them, that they are guiding you down the correct path. If my instructor says, “Yeah you might think that’s funny, but I need you to work on different things. It’s distasteful at this stage to use a Chinese accent when you’re a white dude or whatever.” Then it’s like, maybe trust your instructor on that. However down the road, there could be an opportunity to do that: it could be hilarious, it could be offensive, and it could be exactly what we need.

Do you the think quality of that accent would change how the joke is perceived? Eg. a stereotypical accent, against one that sounds more genuine?

I think probably, but I think more generally... the thing to be aware of is... the more... REAL you can make something, and the more perspective you have on that thing.... For example if you have Vietnamese parents, then you have a lot of perspective, the audience will see that and give you more leeway. So it’s pretty hard to have good comedy, with say, a bad asian accent. It’s pretty hard. I could imagine it being possible, but I wouldn’t want it to be pinned down to a specific.

That being said, one of my favorite moments in being at a show... we went to a second city main stage show, and after they often do a little bit of improv. But in this instance, they... rather than the performers doing improv, they actually had this free bit; it was Colin Mochrie from “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”. They had him with this hypnotist, and they did this show where this guy was supposedly hypnotizing people and then get them to do silly improv with Colin Mochrie, who could then make them... the hypnotist would chime in like, “Do this” and Colin Mochrie would play on it. I honestly think most hypnotism is nonsense, but the funniest moment for me was the moment when the audience, just totally... you felt the air being sucked out of the room. What happened was, this guy, the hypnotist, told this person to put on a Japanese accent, and the person goes something like “Ohhh ching chong, bing bong!” , which is... completely distasteful, and not even close. The audience, just like... the air was sucked out of the room, and me and the two improvising friends we were with, just sucking in all that air, sucking the power from the room. Just basking in how... awful and hilarious it is that all these people had to go through that. Cause they didn’t wanna do that, and they didn’t wanna feel offended... but they are. And there’s actually in a way, a certain magic in that too. I mean, it was totally out of line, but I also loved it.

Really, if you perform enough, you start sensing the crowd, sometimes the crowd... you feel it. People breathe in, and you can actually hear and sense it. If you do enough of that, you start to be okay with it.

If you were to die this evening, with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you regret not having told something? why haven't you told them?

Uhhhm.. I dunno, I feel like maybe I would... regret not... thanking my mom for some things? Maybe? I mentioned I was happy how I was raised, by and large. Feel like I’ve maybe said this before though, but that’s the go-to. It would’ve been good to let her know again. By and large, I tell people things. Well, maybe there’s a couple scenarios where I wish I told certain people that I disagreed with them. Sometimes people need to hear that. There’s a balance between having a spine and just being disruptive, needlessly.

Your house containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you can make a dash to save one item, what would it be, why?

One item... I like my bed, but I don’t think I can carry it. Maybe toss it off the balcony. [laughs] I always... was kind of raised with stuffed animals; we actually don’t have pets. We have a bunch of stuffed animals that are like, mostly Canadian... there’s like a moose, and a bison, cool stuffed animals. They all have personalities. I’d probably grab them.

Share a personal problem that you’re going through right now, and how you’re going about to solving that problem.

My girlfriend and I are trying to figure out... you know... her job is pretty stressful, and I’ve encouraged her to go to school, things like that. But realistically could we afford to, you know... go single income? Things like that. I’ve been trying to ramp up in terms of like, I would naturally feel that pressure to provide, and that if I could do that, then she could be happier with her career. Or go down the family route and we’re okay on a single income kind of thing. I feel like we’re at a stage where we’re trying to figure out what the next step is in terms of, you know... she’s at a career where you could only get so high, whereas in software, you can only get more senior. So we’re trying to figure that out, and there’s some big conversation down the road that needs to happen... but in the meantime I’ve been... I’ve mentioned to you that I’ve been also taking on part time teaching, things like that. That’s something I can do to at least allow a bit of stress relief. I can pay for us to go on vacation. She’s less stressed, therefore we’re less stressed for it... then this is worth my while to do. But anyways, we’re trying to decide what it is we’re actually aiming for here. Maybe a little vague, but we’re in that mode.

Any last general tips, things you’d like to share?

I’m just gonna say... get out in the cold! The cold’s not so bad. We’re all in these temperature controlled environments, 24/7. if you have a balcony, and it’s -5 C, just throw off your shirt and just go on the balcony for 10 minutes. Just see what that’s like. It’s been a total eye opener for me. Like, “hey actually, I can do that, I can go on a hike at 0 degrees and be totally okay,” and it’s like, I’m actually more capable than I thought I was.