
Advertisement
David Choe: I’ve been a gambling addict for most of my adult life. The baccarat room in most casinos is filled with Chinese people, and if you are not high-stakes gambler, to walk into that room is intimidating. It’s very loud, and there’s a lot of superstition, and everything is in Chinese, even in in Vegas. But every once in a while, you’d hear an American word screamed out—either “monkey,” which means you want a face card; “snowman,” which means you need an eight; and “BBQ,” which is when you lose—you get a six and the dealer gets a seven, and you get BBQ’ed. I guess it sounds like something in Chinese. And I was like, this is the fucking craziest game, its literally like 50/50, like flipping a coin, and people are betting millions of thousands of dollars. When I was a young man I thought, I’ll never be like those people. Cut to ten years later, and I’m screaming, “Monkey, monkey, snowman, snowman!” louder than anyone at the table, risking my entire life savings, losing everything, winning everything.
Advertisement

First of all, I love Mexico. I want to do shows where I like to hang out, cause that’s where I’m gonna make the artwork. I think it’s really gay when you’re an artist—especially if you call yourself a street artist, which sounds gay already—and you just make everything at your house, in the safety of your home, with all your Google images and references. I like to go to different places and have the experience of living there infect my art.I can definitely see some Mexican references in the work you have here.
There’s all the huichol stuff I’ve seen at markets. I went to this market and—I guess you are not allowed to sell it—but this guy had peyote. I also did ayahuasca two years ago in Colombia with the Kogi tribe, and it was like, wow.
Advertisement
I go by this piñata shop every day, and it’s always like, the most retarded versions of R2-D2, Donald Duck… it’s amazing. All those piñatas are like Iron Man, Wonder Woman, they are all toys and kids’ stuff, and you hit them at kids’ parties. And then there’s a naked lady stripper piñata—it must look so disturbing to have people beating a naked woman with sticks.I just went to the store one day and I was like, “I want everything.” And then I went back and gave them a drawing of Munko, which is the simplest stupid whale with a buck tooth. And they said, “How big do you want it?” A VW bug went by, and I said, “That size?” And they said, “Whaaat? That’s gonna be mucho dinero!” And I said, “That’s OK.”Also, right when I got here, I met up with my friend and we went swimming with the whale sharks near Cancun, which was the most amazing, unbelievable experience. So I painted a giant whale shark—his mouth is ripping open with everything spilling out. Every single thing about the show is the imagery that I’ve taken in since I’ve been in Mexico: the places I’ve been, the fucking fish that I swim with. The paint here, the colors, all the materials that I used are from Mexico.
Advertisement

DVDASA is a podcast that I started in January. Every episode is getting more and more listeners, which is fucking crazy. We are having huge guests like Eli Roth, Lisa Ling, and John Cusack. It’s hosted by me, Asa Akira, and all our friends who hang out at the studio. It’s completely ruining my life. I’ve burned every bridge possible. I’ll tell the story of a girl I used to date, and I’ll change her name—I’d say something like “Stephanie,” you know? And people online would say, “This is the person he was talking about,” and then I’ll get a call from them. “Hey Dave, what the fuck is your problem? You are talking shit about me.” But it makes my life easier. It’s like going to the shrink. The reason why I haven’t gambled in two years is I’ve had three therapists, and I stopped seeing them about six months ago. And everyone is like, “Why did you stop?” I got my podcast, that’s why.

We just finished shooting season four! We didn’t have much time, so we said, “Fuck it, let's just go from San Francisco to New York.” And I think it might be our craziest season so far. It was definitely fucking crazy shit, but it always is. Any time you are on the road asking someone for a ride it’s gonna get weird.You made some art with Pedro Friedeberg for this show, right?
Yeah, I met Pedro last time I was here. Pedro Friedeberg is the last living Mexican surrealist. We have mutual friends and they were like, “Dave, you have to meet Pedro, he’ll love your shit, you’ll love his stuff,” so last time I came to Mexico I went to his house. He drinks like ten shots of mezcal every day, which does nothing to him, and I had one sip and I thought I was gonna die in his house—and his house is like… there’s not one inch of his house that doesn’t have art on it. He has all of his art and his friends’ art, and it’s just fucking surreal. He’s one of those cool old guys, he’s seen it all, been through it all, he’s been married a couple of times, all that shit.
Advertisement
