Hey guys, what's going on? We're here in the Young Hollywood studio with Joey Bragg. What's up, Joey?

Nothing much, what's up with you?

Not too much. And are you cats on your shirt?

Yeah, I wore this especially for you guys.

Thank you. I wore this butterfly dress especially for you. We're cats and butterflies. 'Cause you know how much I love butterflies.

Yes, and you know how much I love cats.

Yeah. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Congratulations, Liv and Maddie. This is so exciting. Yeah, you guys just got a little makeover, huh?

Yeah, just a little like, yeah, a little pep talk I guess. A little reboot. Yeah, a little like when I thought when I first Whoa, I'm too big. It's you. That's you. Ooh, didn't approve those. But I like when I first found out that that's what we were doing, I was like, wow, we're like moving to California and we're getting a new cousin and I was like, jump the shark a little bit. Yeah. But then you like read it and or watch it as you will do for the first time. I'm just gonna read the script. But um, it's I don't I think it's good. I mean, I think it's it's the same characters in a different setting, which I think is kind of a breath of fresh air.

Sweet. And you've been acting since you were Well, no, I read that you did standup when you were 13 years old.

Yeah, my first show, I was 13, was at a coffee house in San Jose called Phil's Coffee. I was following a guy doing a slam poem about his dead dog. Oh my gosh. It was the saddest thing. He's like, "Fido, why did you have to go?" It was so sad. It was the saddest thing and then everybody was like, And then it's like, "Child standup comedian, Joey Bragg for his first time up ever." Oh my gosh. And my opening joke was about how much I want to live in New York, but how scary it would be. Every time you hear those from Law and Order because you know somewhere somebody's probably brutally murdered. So bad. It might have been Fido. Yeah, it could have been Fido. Like stories are connected. Plot twist. Yeah. But then it's just kind of and then I just was doing that and it just I was doing more prestigious clubs and opening for some people and then I started doing acting.

And then you joined the coolest club, the Disney Club.

Oh, yeah.

Do you remember your audition for Liv and Maddie?

Uh, yeah, my audition for Liv and Maddie was an odd one because like I met the two creators, John Beck and Ron Hart. And Ron Hart, the first thing I said to him when I walked in the room. He's like a bigger guy, glasses like me, dark hair and I go, "You look like me in the future if I made a bunch of bad decisions."

No, you did not say that to him.

And I booked the job. It was amazing. And so that was the only part I remember. Don't remember my read.

But I'm sure he remembers that.

Yeah, he does. He tells that story all the time. And I always hear people say that. People are always like, oh yeah, the first thing you said to me was this mean thing. And I'm like, I wouldn't hang out with me anymore. I sound mean in these stories.

No. No, you're so nice. Do not discredit yourself like that.

Oh, but I am but I'm quick to like I'm quick to judge or quick to make a little quick witty. We just got quick wit. You know, you can't help it. You speak your mind. You're a very honest person.

Thank you. How closely related to Joey on the show are you?

Pretty close.

Pretty close?

Yeah. Yeah. My character's name was originally Sticky. Mhm. I was Julian Ficman, I was Sticky Ficman. And when the show got picked up, we they changed the character name to Joey and the character was just a little bit more like me and then as it progressed, I mean, the cat shirts got picked up pretty quick into my actual character and then I mean in this season I do I'm doing standup.

Amazing.

And like Joey Rooney does standup that I got to write for the show and it's really cool.

I love that. What were you like in high school?

Oh, the coolest kid in town. People used to carry me from class to class if my calves were tired from all the stairs. No, I was just a kid that couldn't shut up. I guess I still am now. I got I would make jokes in class and get in trouble. But I was I did good. I was My parents are teachers, so I always like homework was pushed. Yeah. I always did good.

You had to. You had to do good, right? Did you always know that you wanted to be in the business or in show business?

I I not really. I kind of always like I knew that I wanted to do something different. Like I knew that I didn't want to like work in an office. I went through weird phases as a kid where I would like find this guy came to my school and did like a yo-yo show where he was like went to Paris and I went to the Eiffel Tower and like made a Eiffel Tower and I was like, holy crap. This guy's job is to go to these schools, do a bunch of dope ass yo-yo tricks and then leave and get paid. And I was like, that's what I want to do. So he was like selling yo-yos. I bought a yo-yo. I got average at a yo-yo and then it's like, that's not it. And then and then we were in PE and we were like, had stacking cups, you know those, like where you stack the cups up really fast and then unstack them. And I was like, I'm gonna be the best cup stacker in the world and that's what I'm gonna do. And then just I had a bunch of things like that. Like I want I did drums for a while and then I like nothing really stuck. And then I started doing standup and it was like, oh. Yeah. This is it. Like this is what I want to do.

That's so cool. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm sure you could still always go back to yo-yoing.

Oh, yeah. No, it's always there. outside hustle.

Let's talk about Liv and Maddie. Maybe I do. I feel like there's gonna be some full circle things that you're gonna do standup, maybe some yo-yo.

Yeah. So basically, this is not a character. This is the real Joey Bragg that we're watching. Yeah, I may or may not have a cat in the kid's bedroom. So, oh my gosh. Just putting that out there.

Well, I have a fan I have a fan question for you.

Okay.

And it has to do with cats. This is Probably my mom asking me if I can feed her cats when she's out of town.

Oh, I don't have any fans. This is close. This is close.

This is from a super fan Maddie. She wants to know who your favorite cat is, Patty or Whoopi?

Oh, this is that's not fair, Maddie. Come on. You can't pick favorites, right? You have two cats and like you have two kids, you can't pick. They always say you can't pick favorites. But Audrey said Patty's her favorite. And so I was like, that broke my heart 'cause like then the other one can hear you. She's right there. Right. Sitting down in the sunbeam. So, I'm like, I guess Whoopi's my favorite. Like I'll give Whoopi the love that Patty gets extra. So like to balance it out so they both get equal love and like I guess that's maybe made my bond with Whoopi more. Okay. But I love them both equally as my daughters.

Okay. That's beautiful. That's very nice. I'm sure they love you equally.

Yeah, so buzz off, Maddie.

And then our last question is from somebody very special. Audrey wants to know that if you were to do an impression of Bill Cosby as a baby,

Oh, come on. What would it sound like? This is not fair, Maddie. Okay, so, uh, god. This was um, a thing that I did when I was a kid. Okay. It was an impression of Bill Cosby. That wasn't an impression of Bill Cosby because I can't do an impression of Bill Cosby. But what I discovered is that me trying to do an impression of Bill Cosby sounds like Bill Cosby as a baby. Okay. When I was Bill Cosby and I was a baby. It was put into a baby's body. And I have bad news. And that was like this this bit I did when I was like a little kid. Not like when I was a standup performer. It just kind of evolved and then he has some bad news surrounding him. And so Baby Bill Cosby is no longer appropriate. Here's my publisher shaking her head in her head. I um, I was in an audition once. It was a Nickelodeon sketch audition. And I'm doing it and I I did like three minutes of just written like monologue, couple characters I developed and they were like, awesome. Do you have anything else? And I was on a high, right? Like I was like, this audition's going great. Yeah, I got something else. It's Bill Cosby as a baby. Have a seat for this one. And then I did like what I just did and then they were like, thank you. Get out. That just proves that I don't have any actual real fans, by the way.

No, you do. You have two super fans. And a third super fan. I'm really a super fan too. Thank you. You did put my face way too big on a TV. No, I didn't do it, okay? Don't blame me. Thank you so much for joining us, though.

Thank you for having me.

So great.

Sorry, I rudely drank coffee. I could have waited 30 seconds. This whole thing would have been over. Can you edit that out?