![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GregProopsQandAInterviewPodcast-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
You might not instantly recognize Greg Proops by name, but
\nif you\u2019ve engaged with American comedy or pop culture in the last few decades,
\nodds are high that he\u2019s made you laugh. <\/p>\n
The prolific comedian hosts a podcast called \u201cThe Smartest Man in the World<\/a>\u201d with his wife Jennifer Canaga, improvises on television on the CW\u2019s \u201cWhose Line Is It Anyway?<\/a>,\u201d tours the country with the improv show \u201cWhose Live Anyway?<\/a>\u201d and just released his eighth comedy album, \u201cThe Resistance<\/a>,\u201d in late 2018. Oh, and he spent a decade as the North American voice of Bob the Builder, among other acting credits.<\/p>\n But when he\u2019s (somehow) not busy working, Proops is also a Cannabis Now: What Greg Proops:<\/strong> I feel that women\u2019s rights and women\u2019s issues are the most But it\u2019s really time for white people to shut the f*ck up. Right, no, what if I Well, I\u2019m using my whiteness to help other people. I\u2019ve been gifted with white privilege.<\/p>\n A lot of people, right after Trump<\/a> got elected, were saying: \u201cAt least this will be really great for comedy!\u201d As someone who\u2019s working in comedy in this moment, what do you make of that statement?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think it\u2019s pure misogyny to say some- thing like that. I I don\u2019t think you need a Nazi regime to compel artists to produce art and comedians to make jokes. I would sacrifice all of this to have had an honest, woman president instead of this shamble of self- interested, incoherent, Nazi, Russian-controlled bullsh*t.<\/p>\n You mention, both on your new album and on Twitter, that you\u2019re a Kamala Harris<\/a> fan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, absolutely, I haven\u2019t been this excited about a For one, I\u2019m from the Bay Area and she\u2019s a Bay Area person. She was born in Oakland<\/a>, she\u2019s a San Franciscan, she was the DA of San Francisco, she was the attorney general of California. So, I relate. I relate to where she\u2019s coming from. Two, I think she\u2019s smart and as informed as any candidate I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. You\u2019ve seen her question Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh and you\u2019ve seen her style up there. \u2026 And she\u2019s smart. The reason why people get huffy, with her and [Nancy] Pelosi, is they\u2019re in possession of the facts. They\u2019re organized and, this is maybe a shallow point, but they\u2019re good-looking. And that really rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Good-looking women that are smart tend to really f*ck people off.<\/p>\n People are jealous of them, people are angry at them, they When Steve Bannon was Bannon! With the dandruff hanging off him! It\u2019s disgusting! Switching gears, how Well, I\u2019ve been a habitu\u00e9 of the Mary Jane for a good deal I love marijuana, I love being high. I love the left-brain part of it, how it stimulates your mind to be creative<\/a> and how it enhances every experience\u2026 watching movies, whatnot. But I also believe that people who identify solely with marijuana and that\u2019s their sole reason for existence need to expand their mind a little bit.<\/p>\n Do you incorporate I have gotten high before going onstage a couple of times, With me, the difference is I think marijuana doesn\u2019t always I meet a lot of people and they like to get high, but then Since you\u2019re staying Absolutely. I think other states are gonna fall in line There\u2019s no reason for it not to be national policy, like in Canada<\/a>. The danger is, of course, the misogynistic corporate white guys who wanna take over the marijuana business. People of color and women need to be included in the big pie of marijuana profits, and I don\u2019t see that happening as of yet. My biggest worry is that it\u2019ll be just MedMen<\/a> and then hot chicks working as budtenders, which I find is a very icky, icky, icky trend. <\/p>\n Do you have a parting Um, I think there\u2019s hope for anyone \u2014 the world is changing, And, of course, I urge you to wake and bake<\/a>.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, what political issues (besides cannabis legalization) are you most passionate about?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 36 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Talking Pot & Politics with Greg Proops<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
You might not instantly recognize Greg Proops by name, but if you\u2019ve engaged with American comedy or pop culture in the last few decades, odds are high that he\u2019s made you laugh. The prolific comedian hosts a podcast called \u201cThe Smartest Man in the World\u201d with his wife Jennifer Canaga,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":34269,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6814,50,5422,3792,5902,95,9602,85,9548,4211,2183,1543,9603,86,9604],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34270,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34268\/revisions\/34270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nself- proclaimed \u201chabitu\u00e9 of Mary Jane,\u201d as well as an activist who\u2019s a fierce
\nadvocate for women\u2019s rights. We caught Proops in a rare sliver of downtime, in Arkansas
\nbetween two improv performances, and discussed presidential hopefuls,
\nprotesting and pot. Unsurprisingly for a man who has built a rich career on
\ntalking, Proops had no shortage of things to say.<\/p>\n
\ndrives you to be so vocal and to engage with politics and topics that comedians
\nof your demographic, older white men, traditionally stray away from at all
\ncosts?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nWell, I think that I\u2019ve been privileged enough to be an old white guy and have
\na pretty decent life, so I feel like it\u2019s my responsibility to advocate for
\npeople who maybe don\u2019t have as much of a say in the matter. Also, my wife is an
\ninspiration to me, she\u2019s very smart and canny politically in every way. And my
\nfather was a terrible misogynist, and I\u2019ve reacted to that my whole life.<\/p>\n
\nimportant thing in the world and they\u2019re never, ever given enough attention.
\nEvery issue in America \u2014 economics, gun control, even marijuana \u2014 boils down to
\nwomen and how women are being treated, and I just don\u2019t think the world sees it
\nthat way. It\u2019s my quixotic quest to carry out being the person who points that
\nout all the time. Women and women of color need a voice. And women and women of
\ncolor are saving us, quite frankly. That\u2019s what motivates me. And because I\u2019m a
\nwhite guy, people listen to me!<\/p>\n
\nAnd I know you\u2019re going to say I\u2019m a white person, and I\u2019m aware of that.<\/p>\n
\ndid say that? What if that was my comeback: Greg, you know you\u2019re white, right?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GregProopsQandAInterviewPodcast.jpg\")
\nsaw a sign at the Women\u2019s March that said, \u201cIf Hillary was president, instead
\nof protesting, we\u2019d all be having brunch\u2026\u201d and that\u2019s how I kind of feel
\nabout it.<\/p>\n
\ncandidate\u2026 I loved only one candidate in my lifetime, and that was Hillary
\nClinton. I didn\u2019t give a sh*t about John Kerry or Albert Gore, I voted for them
\nbecause I had to. I loved Hillary Clinton with a deep and abiding love and I
\nfeel the same way about Kamala.<\/p>\n
\nput things on them that don\u2019t make any sense. And it\u2019s because nobody expects
\nyou to have a great hairdo, great shoes, be good-looking and be in possession
\nof the facts. Look at what men look like! Look at what Wilbur Ross, the
\ncommerce secretary, looks like! Look what Orange 45 looks like! What Pence\u2019s
\nbody shape is like, what Mitch McConnell looks like!<\/p>\n
\nstill around, he always had like five shirts on\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMen show up and they look like sh*t, and no one ever says, \u201cReally, you\u2019re an
\nunf*ckable mess.\u201d But with women, women get judged on that. As shallow as it
\nis, that\u2019s how the world works.<\/p>\n
\ndo you balance cannabis use with your workflow?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nof my life, since about 16. I think Louis Armstrong said it best. He said
\nmarijuana is an \u201cassistant.\u201d I think that you have to focus on what you\u2019re
\ndoing. As well as being high all the time, you have to have some goals in your
\nlife.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GregProopsTourSpeakerActivism.jpg\")
\ncannabis into your comedy routines?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nand I still do occasionally, but I don\u2019t think you\u2019re as funny when you\u2019re
\nhigh. It changes your timing, and it\u2019s important as a comic to be ahead of the
\ncrowd and have expert timing. <\/p>\n
\nslow me down. Some people get high and they become dazed and confused and
\ndiffuse, whereas I become more loquacious and energized. \u2026I find the people
\nthat smoke marijuana, if they\u2019ve accomplished something, they\u2019re fairly
\nimpressive \u2014 your Carl Sagan and your Lily Tomlin. But my caution is always:
\nDon\u2019t let marijuana be the defining feature of your life.<\/p>\n
\nthey don\u2019t know anything about politics or art or sports or anything, they\u2019re
\njust stoners. And that\u2019s why stoners get a bad reputation. I had another comic
\nsay to me once: \u201cYou smoke a lot of weed, but you don\u2019t act like that.\u201d Well,
\nhow am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do? Grow dreadlocks and kick a
\nHacky Sack around? We\u2019re not all playing digeridoo on the corner, you know.<\/p>\n
\nabreast of a lot of other things happening in politics are you keeping an eye
\non marijuana policy? <\/strong><\/p>\n
\nbehind the West Coast. I think you\u2019re hopefully gonna find New York, New Mexico
\nand Arizona come around.<\/p>\n
\nmessage?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nthe world is getting better. The fact that all these women are running for
\npresident and all these women are in Congress means the forces of evil can\u2019t
\nalways win. We [the people who support women] will win a few.<\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Talking Pot & Politics with Greg Proops<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"