Christian Polanco discusses The Cooligans' new gig! | TSS Extra

Taylor Rockwell (0:20)

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and I'm excited to be here wearing a Total Soccer Show shirt while also wearing the classic edition of a Total Soccer Show shirt, is Mr. Christian Polanco of the Cooligans. Christian, thank you for wearing the shirt that you wear every time I see you, of course.

Christian Polanco (0:36)

Exactly.

This is my uniform whenever I speak to... We go out to brunch, I'm like, he's going to wear the TSS shirt. Obviously, it doesn't wash it. So I might need a new one, but thank you so much for having me, brother.

Taylor Rockwell (0:51)

Yeah, man. It's good to see you. It's good to talk to you. It's good to see you in that lovely blue shirt. It is a requirement that I have that all of my friends wear Total Soccer Show apparel at all times. So thank you for at least abiding by the rules.

Christian Polanco (1:02)

You've toned it down because your friends had to get the Taylor Rockwell face tattoo. That was a requirement for a little bit, but I'm glad you came to your senses.

Taylor Rockwell (1:12)

I still can't believe you chose to get that tattoo to where you did. But we'll leave that mystery for another day.

Christian Polanco (1:17)

Exactly. You know, at the next TSS live show, just ask me.

Taylor Rockwell (1:23)

It's an every four-year engagement for Christian, that he shows up to a live event to introduce us to do some stand-up. How was that for you in LA doing the introduction? Because you're very busy, you got a lot going on in the soccer world. I don't know how much stand-up you are doing anymore, but you did some solid work, my friend.

Christian Polanco (1:40)

Yeah, thank you. No, I love it. Anytime I get... Yeah, it's getting harder to do stand-up because I've been so busy doing soccer-related things, so anytime I get the chance to do it and then to be at a TSS live show is always fun. I had a great time and then recently I've been seeing a few comments on some of our YouTube videos or on Instagram and people saying like, oh, I saw Christian for the first time at the TSS live show or I went to a live show with my wife and she had never seen him before and she thought he was really funny and then that's it. That makes it all worth it, okay? Even though, yeah, even if I'm busy or whatever, stuff like that is great.

We don't get to do enough soccer related stand up and people don't get to see it enough. So I'm honored to do it.

Taylor Rockwell (2:30)

That is interesting because I do forget, even in my introduction, I didn't say really who you were, what you do. I just assume people know, but we've known you for that long, right? We knew you prior to the World Cup Comedy Tour, but then we did the Comedy Tour together.

You and Alexis and Mike Magid, who did the organizing, and then myself and our late co-host, Darryl Grove, who I know you loved and were quite close to. But we've known each other for a good long while at this point. We've seen the ups and downs, and it feels like you all are very much on the up, my friend. We'll talk a little bit about your new deal. But first, I want to ask you about your summer. Obviously, you did the live show. I'm going to assume that was not the highlight of your summer though.

Christian Polanco (3:08)

No. I mean, it was still a...

It was a highlight in that we did the podcast. We did 30 some-odd episodes of the show live, but we were also doing a World Cup watch party tour with Bank of America and Visa. So what would happen is we would go live pretty much after matches. So we would be on stage, good night, everybody. Here's Death Cab for Cutie, and we were with bands. So effectively, we watched the game, and then the band would play afterwards, or a performer. Hey, Death Cab for Cutie, and then we will run backstage to do the live show for our audience and our supporters and stuff like that.

So it was not a logistical nightmare, but it was the logistical challenge of making sure our flights arrived before we had to do the live show and our flights left after we had to do the live show. So, and then combined with being in 11 different cities in the US for this tour, it was called the Breakaway Tour. It was unbelievable. Again, met Death Cab for Cutie, Shaboosie, Ludacris, Jack Harlow, and it's just like, I had a wild interaction with Jack Harlow. I didn't realize how tall Jack Harlow was, and Jack Harlow is also part owner of Louisville City and Racing Louisville, he's from Louisville. So, but I'm standing next to him, and Alexis and I were both like, dude, you're tall, like he's like 6'2, 6'3, he's a pretty tall guy. I was like, rappers aren't that tall normally, right? And Alexis is like, damn, I didn't realize how tall you were, and I go, damn, Jack, were you a center back? And he goes, precisely, that's exactly what I was. I'm like, man, what a cool choice of words for a center back.