How ‘Your Mom’s House’ Comedy Couple Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky Won Podcast Gold

There is something about your mother’s house that makes you feel loved and accepted. The same goes for the “Your mother’s house” Podcast, but the acceptance is a little different. Hosted by husband-and-wife comedians Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky, “YMH” has the ability to make listeners feel welcomed into an unconventional family, where they laugh at The stupidest jokes imaginable are actually encouraged. But it didn’t happen overnight and it took a village.

In the mid-2000s, podcasting was brand new as Adam Carolla and “The Joe Rogan Experience” led the way. “I thought Joe was crazy when he started ‘JRE,’” Segura admits. “I thought it was a rich guy thing where he was talking in a room in his house and he had a chat room. A few months later, after seeing Christina do stand-up, he thought, ‘you two should do a podcast together.’

Brian Redbanco-owner of Sunset Strip ATX, comedian, podcaster and producer of “JRE” and hit shows like “Kill Tony” and “Secret Show,” literally has the Midas touch. But at the time, he was just having fun with technology. “When we launched ‘JRE’ in 2009, it was Rogan promoting his shows and giving him a way to speak. Then it exploded overnight. Something clicked and I was like, what’s happening with Joe is helping him so much, I want to do podcasts for all my friends. But it was all so new, so I absolutely had to convince,” Redban recalls.

In 2010, live streaming on YouTube didn’t even exist, so Segura and Pazsitzky weren’t entirely sold. “I was wondering, what is a podcast? At the time, it looked like building a space shuttle,” says Pazsitzky.

With the couple finally on board, they sat on a couch in Redban’s living room in Burbank and “Your Mom’s House” was born on the Deathsquad network, where they discussed comedy, their relationship, crazy Internet videos and normalized taboo subjects with humor, instantly solidifying that. everything happens on “YMH”.

“We would go to Burbank in the summer and sit on this disgusting leather couch,” Pazsitzky says with a laugh. “All he had was a wall-mounted air conditioner and we had to turn it off on duct tape, so we were sitting there sweating.”

Eventually, they decided it was time to try recording the podcast in their own home in Silver Lake. “We did about 40 episodes with Redban, and then I picked it up and had a huge technical error, making it unlistenable,” Segura admits.

“It’s a credit to my brilliant husband that there was no podcasting,” says Pazsitzky. “It was a technological medium that was basically made up as we went along. We lived in a crummy two-bedroom apartment, we were newlyweds, and we had no money. We got a mixer, two mics and a computer, and at that point we slept in one room and used the other room as an office. It bordered this other house where this lady cooked the stinkiest food and had aggressive sex.

“Oh yeah, she had just gotten divorced and was also very good at orgasms,” Segura adds.

Early in their podcasting venture, the couple began making money through online affiliate ads, which grew in number as their fan base began to grow, enough that they even considered pay the bills with “Your Mom’s House”.

“I was like, I think we can probably get to the point where this podcast pays our rent,” Segura said. “It was such an exciting thing because we would go in this room and talk for an hour, and it actually paid our rent. From there, it just grew and grew.”

After 14 years, seven studio changes, two children, a move from California to Texas, numerous gifts for Segura’s mother Charo, successful solo podcasts, world tours and much more, the scrappy podcast has surpassed all expectations. The couple credits their longevity to staying in touch, even with what they jokingly call “the poor.”

“I think our philosophy has always been to have direct connections, with our sponsors and with the public,” explains Pazsitzky. “Initially, we started putting out mommy videos, where people would submit the craziest messages. To this day, we still source most of the wacky stuff from the public. We’ve always had good relationships with humans and when I’m walking through an airport and someone says, “Hey Mom! and I say ‘Hey Jeans,’ it’s so cool because it’s like this insider vernacular with friends.

Learn more:Why Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer are rushing to run a 5K with their fans

In 2021, influenced by the convenience of traveling more easily to shows across the country and a slower family lifestyle at home, the couple packed up and moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. “Our lives are completely normal and we are grounded family members. At the end of the day, we come home, our kids fart on Tom’s head, and I make dinner. Our lives are much more manageable in Austin,” Pazsitzky says.

Determined to be able to maintain the same level of quality of the podcast in another city, the couple found a great studio and office in Austin and hired more staff to help them produce their show.

At its core, the show has always been a showcase of the pair’s ability to push all boundaries as they do in their stand-up, hilariously and unapologetically, at full throttle for fans no matter what their condition. .

“We had kids, we moved around a lot, and now we’re middle-aged people and the fans have been there the whole time,” Pazsitzky says. Segura adds: “We have those relationships with fans that you would have with your friends or family. The crazy thing is you forget that they know so much about you, so when someone comes up to you and asks, is Charo good? You forget that you relayed all this on the air and now this guy knows so much about me.

From body functioning issues to child shenanigans to terrible tattoo videos to people looking to fornicate with anything with a pulse, fans are their own laugh track.

In addition to the jokes the couple loves to make on their audience and each other, some of the best comedians, musicians and actors stop by. From Tim Dillon, Louis CK, Jimmy Carr and Whitney Cummings to Quentin Tarantino, Big Daddy Kane, Double Soul Shaman, ICP and most recently the Black Keys, the range of participants on “YMH” has long given viewers another reason to log in.

That’s probably because good people are attracted to good people, and this network is full of them – from guests to staff – on purpose. “We have a no-a— policy here,” Segura says. “No one who works here is an a- and that’s why it’s a pleasure to come to the studio and work.”

Learn more:Comic Christina P. Ranks the Best Shows from the Netflix Is a Joke Festival. Hint: there are a lot of #1s

Ryan P. Hall, President of YMH Studios, seamlessly integrated this policy into his recruiting process by screening talent to find the right fit. And fans have enjoyed it over the years, discovering game-changers behind the scenes like senior producer Josh Zollo, post-production producer Chad Wallin, technical director and hot sauce king Enny Kravitz, and former executive producer Nadav Itzkowitz, whose boisterous laugh penetrated the airwaves, even with his mic turned off, for seven years. “We still love Nadav,” says Pazsitzky. “We really love everyone who works here, all the hosts and all the staff. And of course, all the fans. It really is like a family.

YMH Studios never intended to be a network with an overload of employees or new shows, so when it came time to expand into new content, dedication was key.

In recent years, the YMH network has launched several shows, including “The Danny Brown Show” with rapper extraordinaire Danny Brown; “First Date” with comedian and actress Lauren Compton; “Not Today Pal” with “The Soprano Kids” Jamie-Lynn (Yay-mee) Sigler and Rob Iler; “You be Trippin’” with Ari Shaffir; and the new show, “Behind the Jeans” with Josh Potter.

“Tom and Christina and the whole production team are on this,” says Shaffir. “They really like comedy. Most guests come in, do their business and leave, but I stay there for hours, like, let’s have fun.

After years of discussing starting a podcast together, Bert Kreischer, co-host of “2 Bears 1 Cave” with Segura, says landing at YMH Studios was a no-brainer. “Tom is someone who executes and gets things done,” Kreischer says. “We had talked about doing ‘2 Bears’ a long time ago and he said to me, ‘I’ve got this all set up and let’s do it.’ Tom is someone who makes things happen. He takes ideas and makes them happen.

During a recent episode of “YMH,” Pazsitzky shared that she had a mammogram and they found an abnormality. “I have very early stage breast cancer,” she said reluctantly but confidently. “It’s totally treatable, the prognosis is very good, I will not die and this is not my last summer on Earth.”

Assuring fans that it’s highly treatable and the doctors will be aggressive, in true mommy fashion, she rebels against the diagnosis by roasting him. “I hate the term breast cancer. Call it tit cancer. And don’t send me “you got this mom” or “we’re going to kick cancer’s ass!” There’s nothing worse than when people send you catchphrases or platitudes. If you want to send me a message, which I appreciate, let’s make it creative. I want to laugh.

From “Your Mom’s House” to the empire that is YMH Studios, Segura and Pazsitzky’s journey reminds this comedy couple that even if you take them out of Los Angeles, the house they built with “Your Mom’s House” “is everywhere you are.

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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.