We’ve loved Alex Hooper ever since we watched him roast Simon Cowell on “America’s Got Talent”, so imagine our delight when we discovered that he was a card-carrying Pug Person! And just a darling human, to boot; We walked away from this interview with big smiles on our faces and hearts full of pug love. Enjoy!
PP: Alex, how did you become a Pug Person?
Alex: My wife really wanted a dog. I’d never had a great relationship with animals, so I was like, I really don't want one. And she combatted that by saying, well, you're not the one who's home alone every night and I didn't really have much of a defense for that.
PP: She had you there.
Alex: Then she said if we got a dog, what would you want it to be? I said, if I have to have a dog, I want something that's going to make me laugh every time I look at it.
PP: That’s like a set-up for the perfect pug joke.
Alex: Yeah. And the second we got Carlton, I was like, oh my gosh, I love this thing so much. His head was bigger than his body. His eyes were bigger than his head. And then a year and a half later, my wife had the opportunity to foster another pug and she says, look, if it doesn't go, well, it's a foster, we can give it back and somebody else will adopt it. And the second Kimchi showed up, I was like, we are never giving this thing away, are you kidding me?! Never! She's with us forever.
PP: This is what happens! Even non-believers become Pug People.
Alex: I've only met one pug in my entire life who didn't like me, and it was probably the most offensive thing that's ever happened to me and I’m someone who’s been roasted countless times on national television. Those mean nothing to me, those are jokes. This pug in Atlanta would only bark at me and run away. Devastating. My entire being collapsed in on itself.
PP: Totally get it. We would have died of sadness and shame.
Alex: It was incredible how instantly pugs affected my life and my art as a comedian. My first album is called “Hugs. Drugs. Pugs.”, because those are the three things that have expanded my mind and infected my heart.
Alex: I'm a different person now, for the better. When I say I didn't have a good relationship with animals my entire life, I was terrified of them, and they sensed that, which makes them immediately aggressive and uncomfortable. This is not a joke. I have been pooped on by more birds than any person should in their entire life. I've been attacked by dogs. I was at the Smithsonian Zoo one time and a zebra charged at me and started slamming its head against the fence. The seas of people literally parted so it was just me and this zebra and it was staring at me like it wanted me dead.
PP: That's legit terrifying.
Alex: You go through enough of those, and you're like, okay, I'm not meant to be an animal person. But it was so quick after getting Carlton that I was able to change my demeanor, bend down when I see a dog and they knew instantly, this is not an enemy, this is a friend. I knew that something had changed in me and I completely attribute that to Carlton. And then Kimchi was just a whole other level of beauty and Zen and calm that I had never experienced in my life. I was just like, every time I'm around her, I couldn't be stressed.
PP: When did Carlton’s tongue start sticking out?
Alex: It's always been super long. He used to be able to tuck it all away in his mouth, but over the years, as he's had more teeth removed, at this point, he's down to, I think, about probably seven or eight teeth, he can't do it anymore. Every once in a while, it goes all the way back in, but that's more of an anomaly.
Alex: Like his status quo is to be out as far as possible. I don't know how he sleeps like that, because literally it’s out for hours and just the dryness alone, right?
PP: You just want to push it in to get a little moisture.
Alex: And he uses it too much. At our vacation in June this year, he was kissing my family so much that he developed a scab on his tongue. After we got home, it healed because he wasn’t kissing everybody nonstop.
PP: We have to tell you that Pug Sister Shari’s kids were so excited when they heard we were interviewing you because they remember you from "America’s Got Talent".
Alex: Thank you so much! Yeah, AGT was quite the ride. 2018, that was AGT and a big year for me because I also made the pug yoga calendar with our now deceased pug Kimchi. She is off entertaining in another realm somewhere, teaching yoga classes, just trying to expand her Zen energy to the rest of the universe.
PP: Namaste to Kimchi. The calendar was a big hit.
Alex: Yeah, but it started totally as a joke, I told a photographer friend of mine the idea and he's like, we need to do this immediately. And suddenly it became a real project, and I'm so glad because we have these beautiful photos. I was like, if nothing else happens with this, I’ll have these incredible photos with one of my pugs and myself all over Los Angeles in hilarious yoga positions. And it just so happened that it got picked up by the "Ellen" show and she showed it on air. We sold out of those calendars immediately.
PP: Does Carlton sleep with you?
Alex: I mean, he's kicked out of the bedroom when we’re making love, but other than that, he always sleeps with us. Kimchi was fine when my wife and I would be having our time, but Carlton can't stand that he's not involved. So, we have to trick him. We throw a treat into another room and then we rush into the bedroom.
PP: Alex, are you a Pug Paraphernalia Person? Somehow we feel like you are.
Alex: We have so much pug stuff. So much, it got to the point where we had to tell people please stop giving us pug stuff. But there's a picture of me at a comedy show, and I'm wearing a shirt that has a pug's face, and a backpack that has the same image, and I'm holding Carlton while I’m doing stand-up. It's one of my favorite pictures ever. It ended up in the LA Times.
PP: If Carlton was a Hollywood celebrity. Who would he be?
Alex: Steve Buscemi. Because you know what? He's handsome in his own way, but he's a character, and he can do comedy, but he can play drama if you need him to.
PP: Do you have a favorite memory or story about Carlton?
Alex: When Carlton first came into my life, I hated leaving him. So I figured out this system where what I’d say to him when I had to leave was “comedy”. “Comedy” means Dad's leaving to work. One night I was doing a show and I wanted to use Carlton, bring him on stage in a pug-xedo, you know, a pug tuxedo. My wife sat with him in the audience and I'll never forget, I looked over and he was just watching me on stage and looking at everybody. And I realized he was thinking, “Is this ‘comedy’? Is this why dad leaves every night? So all these people can cheer and he can be in this raucous environment where everyone loves him?” And I was like, yes, that's why I have to leave every night, Carlton. This is comedy.
PP: There’s something so beautiful about that. A moment of true connection. Last question, Alex: do you have a True Pug Confession?
Alex: I get up so close to Carlton's mouth so I can take in his breath. And his breath is not great, trust me. Kimchi had this magical breath, we always said it smelled like the sea, like, as if she had been on the ocean all day, and then emerged from it with her wonderful pugness and the essence of the ocean within her.
PP: But Carlton’s breath is more fish than ocean, right?
Alex: Exactly. But I still get in there, breathe him in, and I think that's probably why I've developed a lot of premature wrinkles and started to turn into a pug myself. I look like someone who was about to teleport and then a pug walked into the teleporter halfway through the process. I'm the pug version of the movie “The Fly”, essentially, where the longer I go, the more Carlton and I just start to merge into a singular creature.
PP: Alex, we cannot express to you how much fun this has been.
Alex: Honestly, do you know what you did for my family when you named me Celebrity Pug Person of the day? My wife and her sisters flipped out, one of them was like, “I already follow that account! This is crazy!” So fun. We love you both, and it is absolutely an honor to be on this planet with you.
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