Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Stand Up Comedian Nick Allen

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Stand Up Comedian Nick Allen · Caught on the Mike...

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: He's an unapologetic member of the Gift Army, and someday he will be regional manager.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: He can be heard daily on the syndicated Todd Tyler Radio Empire.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: He's a standout comedian from the Midwest consistently winning audiences over with this singular brand of righteous confusion.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen from a town near and dear to my heart, Omaha, Nebraska, I have stand-up comic Nick Allen with me.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: You may have seen him on Last Comic Standing, heard him on the Todd and Tyler Radio Empire, bought his live release, Alive22, or maybe you saw his roast online featuring past podcast guests Cameron Logson and Austin Anderson.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Nick, how the hell are you, man?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: What's up, Mike?
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, man.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: So Alive22, definitely a nod to Kiss.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about your Kiss fandom.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: I've been obsessed with them ever since I found out they existed.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: I was as soon as I saw the tape, man, I was in middle school and the house we were living at, like, had these big storage units like in the laundry room.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: You, you're a kid, you're just fucking around with no time digging through mom's old shit in this tape case.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: Like she had a live two on cassette, and I pulled it out.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, all the painted faces are there, and I just, you know, you see fucking God of Thunder and shit on the back.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: You're like, what the fuck are these guys doing?
2:26
SPEAKER_02: So I listened to it, and then it was good timing because that was just before they went on their reunion tour.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
2:32
SPEAKER_02: Just before they put the makeup back on.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: So my friends, you know, I passed this time, like had my friends listen to it.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: We all became obsessed with them, and then you know they were rolling through town and got to see it was October 23rd, 1996.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: We saw them on the reunion tour.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: And now they're going back through for what they say is the final tour, but you know how they are.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: It's probably not.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: But we're gonna go the same dudes I went to see them with initially.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're gonna go see them in Nashville 27 years to the day.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: It'll be October 23rd again.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, dude, just stuck in my mind.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I think it's really one of the reasons I do what I do now.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Because you see dudes doing that for a living, you know.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: Up until that point, everybody works for a fucking bank or sells insurance, and these guys are just like spitting blood out and shit.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: You're like, this is a thing?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes, yeah.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: So I remember when I was a kid, I think I was in fifth grade, I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: My daily obsession would be to get home from school, watch Dial MTV.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: That's how old I am.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: This is before Total Request Live.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: Watch Dial MTV, and I remember they had released Smashes, Thrashes, and Hits.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: And so this was what 1989, 88, and I like I said I was a fifth grader, and uh Let's Put the X and Sex was on, you know, one of the post-makeup era songs.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: So um I went to a grocery store with my parents, and they used to have these little displays, these little standees where cassettes were merchandise and such.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: I stole as a fifth grader a copy of Destroyer and Love Gun, and I played the shit out of those cassettes as a kid.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's gotta have an effect on you.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: It was a band worth stealing for, you know?
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: And you need your I'm sure if you asked your parents, they'd be like, nah.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
4:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's and there's nothing like them, man.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: And I don't like a lot of people make fun of you for liking kids, or there's people who just like fuck that band, and like, I could see that.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: They're like, what do they just all makeup and costumes?
4:37
SPEAKER_02: You're like, well, yeah, it's of course, it's part of it.
4:39
unknown: Right.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: It's weird because sometimes I try to like I'm usually not drawn to like cheesy over-the-top shit, but for some reason I'm just fucking obsessed with that band.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: No, I get that.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: I get that.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: I know this is just audio, but if you can see the garage over here, you can see that I've got all the KISS posters all over the wall.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: It's dope, man.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I mean, Jay-Z said it best, I'm not a businessman, I'm a businessman.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what KISS has been, you know?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And and they have been feeding the masses, and they will cease being cheesy when they cease making money.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: And I don't see that happening anytime soon.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: And you're absolutely right.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Their holograms will probably go on tour long after Gene and Paul are dead.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: Oh, and I'll go check it out.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: I'll be there, man.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, the hologram, there was something about him.
5:27
SPEAKER_02: I can see why.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk a little bit more about you.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into your origin story and how you made this pathway into stand-up comedy.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've from Omaha.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: I really like I live right now, I live one zip code away from where I grew up, really.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: I grew up in zip code 68136, and I live in zip code 68137 now, you know, making big moves.
5:52
SPEAKER_02: But um, I'd always been like drawn to comedy and shit.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: Like my dad and I, you would watch Saturday Night Live growing up, and I was obsessed.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: I went as like Letterman when I was in middle school for Halloween, just had this little we'd gone to the Iowa State Fair, they've got a fan that has his face on it and shit.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: And then some friends of nine of mine and I, just around like 2002, we did a public access show on this like Yo Cox, you can just go in and they've got studios.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: So we did a public access show that was like trying to be a combination of like letterman and Saturday Night Live.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: So I would do the monologue and shit, and it still didn't occur to me like that I could do stand-up.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: I tell a friend of mine, um, or at least try it, a friend of mine was just like, Have you ever thought about it?
6:30
SPEAKER_02: I was like, no, because I'm a fucking idiot.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: Dude, I was doing a monologue trying to be letterman and like not realizing that I could try stand-up too.
6:37
SPEAKER_02: But he my uh my friend Ben Zinn, you might know him, I used to play a local band so I'm yeah, Ben Zinn.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: He was like, Have you ever thought about being a comedian?
6:44
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, No, but like then I was, and then I heard there were two albums.
6:48
SPEAKER_02: Mark Marin had his first two albums that were called uh Not Sold Out and Tickets Still Available, and I heard those, and I was like, Man, if you could if I could do anything that was like close to what he's doing, I should at least give it a shot.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Right.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: It's funny.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: I I oh my gosh, that's a name I hadn't heard in years was Ben Zinn.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Like I used to jam with Ben Zinn back in the day when I was singing in 3QE and he was doing the dropless thing.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, that's amazing.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, I love Ben.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: We were talking about Austin Anderson.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: I actually met Austin for the first time at a dropless show.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, back in back in high school.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Dropless used to cover anti-gravity love song by Incubus, and anytime they would cover that, I would pop up on stage and sing it for him.
7:31
SPEAKER_02: Dude, I probably watched you do that and had no idea.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: We have probably crossed paths more than we realize, actually, now that we're getting to talking about it.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: So going from there to here, kind of let's talk a little bit about what that path looked like for you.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: Well, it was different.
7:47
SPEAKER_02: It's like I know we did that, then I had kids young.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: My wife and I were both 21 when our when our oldest was born.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: So like I didn't start doing stand-up until I had two kids.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: And at that time, I this you're talking about the dial MTV.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: It makes me sound old because they're like, right when I started doing stand-up, there was like one open mic in Lincoln, Nebraska.
8:06
SPEAKER_02: Right.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: That was you, if you weren't doing stand-up at Duffies, you weren't doing stand-ups.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: Everybody, it was the only place to go.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And then they just kept kept doing it, was able to work.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: There was a club um downtown Omaha that's not around anywhere.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: I was able to start there.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: There was literally like a sewer pipe over the stage and shit.
8:22
SPEAKER_02: It was a perfect place just to like suck until I was the I was lucky enough to start working at the funny bone here.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, started going up on the radio like sporadically for a while, and then it was like every few months and every month, and it was every week, and then they're like, You want to come up here every day?
8:37
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: I think keep moving forward.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: It feels like it moves forward very slowly, and I'm not sure what the next like moving forward step is, but you know, just what else am I gonna do?
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right, you know, right, but that's kind of I think that's the nature of all things with us being from the Midwest and us being from like the Omaha Lincoln area.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Arts are a really weird thing around here because our main source of attraction are bars and fucking restaurants.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Like for the longest period of time, Omaha, Nebraska, and not a lot of people know this, was one of the largest test markets in the United States for bars and restaurants, and that's because Con Agra was located there.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: So that kind of limited what sources of entertainment were like.
9:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and I I Omaha stopped being a test market for at least fast food.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: Remember when they tested the double down in Omaha?
9:27
SPEAKER_02: They used to take KFC's double down.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: This was the first place.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: But I I think they stopped using Omaha as a test market for shit like that because Omaha would be on board with everything.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: They're like, oh, you got this, we're game.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no like discerning taste for that.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it is.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, as far as like doing live performance from here, it's tough.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: And honestly, like, it's harder for me to get people to show up to shows in Omaha if it's someplace other than the funny bone, than it is any of these small towns.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: I have a lot better luck in Lincoln than Omaha, too.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's because there's more going on or people just figure you're gonna be around or what, but it can be harder to get people to show up in your hometown than anywhere else.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I agree with that.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes think that Omaha takes its homegrown talent for granted because I had the same experience with the band world, you know.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: I would go, I would claw and fight and like beg and plead people to come to shows at home, but I could go and play in Wichita, Kansas to a full venue at a really nice guarantee and be like, I'm making more money leaving town than I am in my own hometown.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Eventually I figured out the marketing to where I made Omaha work for me too, before I stopped.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about that after the podcast.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's uh it is kind of weird, and especially nowadays, we're kind of living in this post-COVID world and a content creation-driven society.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: So, how has that impacted you as a stand-up comic?
10:57
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: I know I need to create more content, but I don't know how to do that.
11:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm kind of in a weird place.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not I'm I love doing stand-up, but I hate self-promotion.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: I a lot of the way, like once I'm in the room doing the like in the in front of a crowd telling jokes, I I love that, but everything else is like I've got to be dragged along.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know, I don't like seeing my own face on shit.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: So even like putting up a video being like, hey, I've got these couple shows coming up.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, it makes me like cringe putting that out there, but I I realize that's part of it too.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know, I gotta get in better shape.
11:28
SPEAKER_02: Like, I've tried to film stuff before, and then like my shirt's too tight, and I've just got tits and shit.
11:33
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I can't put that out.
11:34
SPEAKER_02: People are like, oh, it looks okay.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, no, like that's like a B cup.
11:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm not that's not cool, but I don't know.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: I've got to figure I I think a lot of it's just getting over that, realizing that it's part of the job.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: Like any job has shit that you don't want to do, right?
11:46
SPEAKER_02: You just gotta plow through it.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot to be said with one format translating well to another, and sometimes one format doesn't translate well to another.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: So there are probably some comedians that are killing it on stage, but would be horrible TikTok content creators, and vice versa.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: You know?
12:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we talk talk about our our mutual friend Cameron, he's killing it as far as the viral shit goes right now.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, to the point where The Rock is commenting on his stuff.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: It's insane.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he's been on the Today Show and something.
12:20
SPEAKER_02: Cameron's like Cameron has like stand-up chops to back it up, though.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people don't, a lot of at least some that come through the clubs and stuff, like there'll be a YouTube creator or TikTok personality or whatever that comes through and like won't have the chops.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: I just wonder how many times people will come out to see them.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: Then you've got comics that just crush, that don't I don't need like there's uh comic John Morgan.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: He plays, he's an Omaha favorite.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: He's got a bunch of places all over the country that love him, and he's been doing stand-up there for decades, but I don't think he has a TikTok page, but that dude, people will go back to see him the next time he's in town because he's a force on stage.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: Right.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to translate, how any of it fucking works.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: I I don't know, man.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And to try avoid being flavor of the month, because I mean I I've seen it, you know, even promoting a podcast.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: It's like I will watch other people's content and I will see their stuff get click after click after click, and then all of a sudden they're gone.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, where the fuck did they go?
13:19
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a here today, gone tomorrow kind of thing.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I wonder how how closely related that is to like a one-hit wonder.
13:26
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know if a one-hit wonder is a thing anymore because like there's not even like big radio hits, but people used to give shit to one-hit wonders, and they're like, Well, where's your hit?
13:37
SPEAKER_02: You only had one song that everybody knows the words to?
13:40
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, I did like most people don't get that.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: But now, now everybody will go to Hera's Stir Cove and pay top dollar to see that one-hit wonder and pretend like they're into all of their deep cuts and shit.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: So everything comes around.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: So, how would you describe your brand of comedy and who are some of your influences?
14:02
SPEAKER_02: Cameron Logs did actually kind of put it in perspective once because sometimes it's harder to look at what you do.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: He said, uh, he described what I do as like righteous confusion.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: But it's like, how is this the thing?
14:14
SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
14:15
SPEAKER_02: Like that album, I had a lot of stuff about my kids that's on that Alive 22, and I kind of I don't know, I I emerged from COVID with like a lot of dark jokes and shit.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: So um not really dark, but kind of, you know, jokes about morbid shit or funerals, and I don't I don't know.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm working on a new stuff, and I'm not sure exactly what that's gonna be.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: I just want to be um funny.
14:36
SPEAKER_02: But I love I have a Norm McDonald, yes, huge influence, Letterman.
14:41
SPEAKER_02: You have a Norm McDonald story, don't you?
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Well, you would that when I was on last I was on last comic standing, I don't even know, it was a long time ago.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, he was one of the judges.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: And I went out the show, you got like three minutes, and I could tell 30 seconds in that it wasn't going well, and I'm like, shit.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: The other judges were um Roseanne and one of the Wayne's brothers.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, this is gonna be brutal.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: But Norm was like my hero.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: Right.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: And he'd been kind of shitting on people were they had like this fake green room they built, and people had been coming back into the green room and being like, oh, Norm's brutal, he's really getting after people, and like as I'm kind of eating it, I'm like, oh no, is this it?
15:21
SPEAKER_02: If Norm tells me to stop, I'll stop.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: I respect the dude.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: I'll fuck, I'll quit.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm stunned, whatever, I'll be a realtor or some shit.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, they went after the set, they go through the judges and ask what they thought, and the other two ended uh the Wayans were like, Yeah, the punchlines didn't match whatever.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh shit, here comes Norm, and Norm was just like said the nicest shit.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I knew who you were right when you came out on stage, and uh, I love you.
15:47
SPEAKER_02: He ended up just being like saying, You gotta you're authentic and I love you, man.
15:51
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh shit, I'm like, alright, I know I'm not moving on, but fucking send me home.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: Like that fueled me for like a decade.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: Fuck yes, fuck yes.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: So how did you end up building your relationship with Todd and Tyler and making appearances on Todd and Tyler's Radio Empire?
16:06
SPEAKER_02: It started through the funny bone um years ago, it wasn't that long after I'd been doing stand-up that um where I was on you know a local showcase show at the club that they um wanted somebody to go up there and help promote it.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: So I went up there and we got along, and then it was, I don't know, probably three, six months after that I was up again.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, like there's a monthly thing, and then they're like, hey, keep coming up, and now now I see those motherfuckers every morning at 6 a.m.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: We have fun.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: I love them, man.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: It's I uh um yeah, I'm lucky because I used to do I used to kind of have shit jobs on purpose to try to like focus on this other shit, and I just never, there's never a day, there's a catwalk we take into the studio, and I'm never I consciously think about it sometimes because I've walked into work so many times and dreaded it.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: And there's never a morning where I'm like, oh fuck.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: Like we gotta talk about farts for four hours again.
17:02
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I love it too, because we never know what it's gonna be.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's some themes of conversation that'll go through or change, but you really like we know we're all gonna be there.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna you know try to make it funny, and who knows what that's gonna look like, but we're gonna have fun doing it.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: You talked a little bit about how emerging from the COVID years, your act got a little bit dark.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: Some of your jokes and the stuff that you were writing uh in the era was a little bit dark.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: How do you feel like society at large changed and impacted what you did beforehand and how you do it now?
17:37
SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know, it's a loaded question.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: It is society at large before, yeah.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: I think before, like what I was I'm kind of looking at everything, it's like I wanted to put whatever I was working on on the album and then move on from it.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: And that a lot of the album was just it was personal.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: So I always figured that if you're doing stand-up, you don't want to be talking about the same stuff as everybody else, or you know, be regurgitating the same um topics or whatever.
18:05
SPEAKER_02: But I figured if it was about my life, then I know I'm not stealing from anybody else, and also like people could relate to it.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: And this and then the new stuff, it just ended up, I don't know, like talking about planning my own funeral and fucking how you know you're really old.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: It's not it's not about COVID, but there are some just like themes about you know mortality and stuff.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: I think as far as COVID or society-affecting materialists was I think it's gonna take a long time for people to really understand how COVID affected everything because everybody was so ready just to move on and get back to nobody really sat back and was like, what the fuck was that?
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, isn't that poignant?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Because I I wholeheartedly agree with that.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Like I do a one-minute video every day just because I have to feed the content engine to keep people the checking out the fucking podcast.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: But right, right, right.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: But 2023 for me, if it's had any sort of theme, it's been about mortality, and I don't know why that is, and that's a really good poignant thought about you know, maybe nobody really dealt with things in the heat of shit happening, right?
19:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think it's still like a subconscious thing that even if you're not if you even if it's not top of mind, like everybody went through that shit, and everybody was separated, and you know, who's really around, who can we be around, who's there's you know, morgue trucks and shit.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't like talking about the pandemic, but it is just but like that's part of it, nobody does, and it was never you were so ready just to get back out to what life was.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: And like you said, you had kids when you were younger, so they're older now, so that's almost like that's almost like an exclamation point on top of everything.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: I know I I've got teenagers right now, and it's like it's like fuck man, like weren't they just like junior high kids or toddlers or shit like that?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So how old are they?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Like uh I've got I've got twin stepdaughters that are 16, my daughter is 16, and then I have a son that's 14.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: So I've got three girls that are the same exact age.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: DM 14-year-old dude is just like totally, totally, totally.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: It's like, what'd you say?
20:13
SPEAKER_01: So why'd you say that?
20:14
SPEAKER_01: What's this mean?
20:16
SPEAKER_01: No shit.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: And it's you run into the gamut.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's one of those things, you know, like that's that's why mortality is so top of mind.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: You're like looking at all of this all at the same time.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: I think in terms of comedy, society was in a really second-guess everything place.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Now I have a rule on my podcast, I don't talk about religion, I don't talk about politics, I don't want to piss anybody off.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm out then but but you know, it's weird that society is in such a sensitive place that there's absolutely no fucking middle ground.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: So you have to ask sometimes is it okay to still be funny?
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Is it okay for people to like decipher the difference between a joke and when something is said out of malicious intent?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: I feel like comedy is at a really sensitive spot at large.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: I think um we like you know, and not to bring up politics, we know Nixon used to say there was a silent majority, and they thought those were all like the racists or whatever.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:20
SPEAKER_02: I think that there's like everybody says there's no middle ground, but I think you hear most from the noisiest people, and then everybody else is just like, what the fuck is going on?
21:30
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: And it's like I think that there's so much ground in there where everybody is just like I don't I know a lot of like most people I know don't like you know tweet incendiary shit or like blow up somebody's Facebook page, but that's the kind of stuff that gets attention, and especially if you're scrolling through your phone and that's all you're seeing, or you might just be like, oh, this is the thing.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: Yes and it's really not and dude, and like I don't do um I don't do like political stand up.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: I'll talk about some anything ends up being political.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: If you talk about a pro-life billboard or whatever, there's there's politics around that, but I'm not like, oh, fucking, you know, vote for this county auditor.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay, none of that shit.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: So when I started, I would do political jokes.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Like I've been doing a lot of it was like George Bush jokes and fucking John McCain and that shit.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: But if you get political jokes at work, they don't work for long.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: And there's also now there's I don't know how many fucking late night shows are there.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: There's a d like you're really gonna find the angle that 15 writing rooms didn't find and it's gonna work for three days.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: Like, fuck it.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And then you also have to waver where you're at, too, because Omaha is a blue town in a red state, which is just crazy anyway.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: So it's like you never know who who's in the audience and who that's gonna resound with or whatnot.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: I'll I um like my dad's gay, and I talk about that a lot in small towns all over the place.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: And I'm you know, I'm not talking about gay rights as a political issue.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm just like, yo, this is they're gay people, like you might be gay, your cousin might be gay, like fu I and they laugh at it, and I sometimes it's um uh more of a release to the places where it's not talked about or looked at, like you just show up and joke about whatever.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: So let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about some of the stuff that you have coming up this summer, because I was just on your Instagram page and you've got a lot of stuff coming up in Iowa, in Kansas, other places in Nebraska.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about booking and how your routing is going so far.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's uh what to use a cliche, I would call it grasping at straws.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: Um I've got that's what I spend my afternoons doing is reaching out to places I haven't been or places I've been before and want to go back.
23:51
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, but I've got a bunch of stuff I'm excited about coming up.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh Gary Curtis and I, he'd be a great guest to have on here, too.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: Um he we started doing this show called, we're calling it Blazing Mics, which is kind of rip off of the bumping mics with David Tell and Jeff Frost.
24:05
SPEAKER_02: But um we're doing this show where it's both of us on stage together, and then we're bringing a couple comics up.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be um, I don't know if this will be out by that or not, but uh Saturday, June 17th, we'll be at the Funny Bone in Omaha doing that.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: And then we're doing one in Lincoln, and we're gonna go to um Kansas to do it soon.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, um, we've had a lot of fun doing that.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, headed back to Wichita in June.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: Barley corns, I like that a lot.
24:30
SPEAKER_02: Doing barley corns, and then we're doing a little pop-up show.
24:32
SPEAKER_02: Together runs barley corns, runs a couple other bars.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do a pop-up show there, then help El Doredo and yeah, again, back to Lincoln.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: I love Lincoln's fun.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Gothamet.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: I'll by the time this comes out, I'll probably already been at Gotham at Haymarket.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: Dude, I'm dropping this this Wednesday.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: So so like two days from now?
24:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so pumping up.
24:50
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, perfect.
24:51
SPEAKER_02: All right, so I'll be at Gotham at Haymarket, Lincoln, Friday, June 9th, Meg's Burgers and Brews, Tabor, Iowa, Saturday, June 10th, and the week, the following week, uh Thursday, the 15 Carol Brewing Company and Carol did that big show at the Funny Bone June 17th and headed to Kansas after that.
25:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's just trying to fill the weeks, working as much as he can.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: But that's I mean, that's that's a blessing in and of itself, is to be able to do that and have all these opportunities.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I know what the grind is like, like sitting there and emailing and following up on emails, like checking your phone or checking your messages six times a day for that one response.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Dude.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've got to get better.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: I mentally I have to get better about it because there'd be there's sometimes uh shows usually go well, but especially if there's like a rough show or two over a weekend, and then Monday you gotta be like, all right, let's that will take rejection on the email and messages too.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: Like, I already got that from people in person over the weekend.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: Now let's fucking do it again on Monday.
25:53
SPEAKER_02: But that's awesome.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: It's all part of it.
25:55
SPEAKER_02: I tried to find help with it.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: That's fucking tough.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: I yeah, that's another thing, man.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like sometimes your best success is just handling the shit by yourself.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because nobody else gives a fuck.
26:08
unknown: Right.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, man.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh shit.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: I I tell you, back in the back in the band days, I'd have like nine or ten people offer to be my manager, and I'm like, you're not gonna do as good of a job as I can do by myself.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: So see ya.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see ya.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: So, what are your goals for like the next year?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to do comedy-wise in the next year?
26:31
SPEAKER_02: The next year, um, or two, let's see, what is it?
26:35
SPEAKER_02: I recorded that album like almost a year ago.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: So in the next uh by like a year from now, I want to be getting ready to record another album.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
26:42
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, I'm trying to flesh out the new shit.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: And if it's there, great.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: If not, like at least we're gonna have like most of that done.
26:48
SPEAKER_02: I want to keep doing like these uh these Blaze of Mike shows with Gary.
26:51
SPEAKER_02: I want to be able we want to set up a rotation, have those like start out in the area.
26:55
SPEAKER_02: We'll do deal with funny boat in Omaha, hit up Wichita, Lincoln, Des Moines start there, and then kind of branch out from that and record those.
27:04
SPEAKER_02: That's a good way to get content.
27:05
SPEAKER_02: And um I start doing that shit.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
27:09
SPEAKER_02: I've got a long list of shit I need to do.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you just gotta rip off the band-aid and fucking do it, right?
27:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know, dude.
27:17
SPEAKER_02: I it always makes me feel old when I go to like film a selfie video.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to fucking do that.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
27:24
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, and I'm like, how many chins do I have?
27:26
SPEAKER_02: And I f like I just gotta get over all that shit.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Just gotta build yourself a creative studio with a backdrop and a light, and you're fine.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Just from like that's all it takes?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Chest up.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: I can lose and then find 30 pounds in my sleep.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: So I can nice.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: I feel the same way, man.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: There's some days you wake up and it's like, what the fuck?
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: So, what have you learned about being in a community such as Omaha, Nebraska, being surrounded and being friends with so many other great comics such as yourself?
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, how have you found that that has propelled your vision for what you do?
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's just it's helped me like just being around like funny people that are my friends.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: Zach Peterson would be a great guest for you to have on here.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if you're familiar with Zach.
28:15
SPEAKER_02: Zach's funny as fuck.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: Zach, he started doing state up here.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: He moved to Chicago for a while, then LA came back.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: He has um he has one album he has out already that's on um Apple Music.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: I think it's called uh Midwestern Jokes of the Americas or something.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: He just recorded his second album, just like seeing what Zach does, or yo, Austin's one of the fucking funniest people I know.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: Gary's one of the funniest people I know.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: I feel bad now because I I used I was more connected to like the comedy scene.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: I feel at large, I feel like a while ago, because I was able I was able to go to the open mics and stuff.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: Now like the fucking alarm goes off earlier, and I've got shows on the weekend and stuff.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: I I still see people coming around.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm inspired by dude.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: There's this kid out of Lincoln named Ethan Abramson, funny as fuck.
29:00
SPEAKER_02: Like goes to the club to watch this.
29:02
SPEAKER_02: He's like doing everything you should do, just fucking hungry old head, he'll drive three hours to do an eight-minute set somewhere.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, that's fucking insane.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine doing that now.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: But like, I I did that shit.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: Like back I and I I love I love that.
29:17
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I think that I should probably be do be doing more to try to like push it all forward here, but I don't know, it's it we in in any the internet's kind of changed all that.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: Like there's opportunities everywhere, but Omaha was always in Lincoln, it's I don't know.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: Um it's big enough there are opportunities, and it's small enough that they're right there.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I was gonna ask you that is do you feel that there's the right amount of venues right now between Omaha and Lincoln, or do you feel like there could be more?
29:48
SPEAKER_02: Um I Lincoln would be ripe for Oh Comedy Club.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: There's this place called Laughing Skull Lounge out of Atlanta that I think it seats 30, 40 people, something, and but they have people like Dana Gould.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: Are you familiar with Dana Gould at all?
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Dana Gould's funny.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I Dana Gould plays there, and like they'll get people like I something like if Lincoln had like a cool anchored club, that would help a ton.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know, other than that, man, Omaha venues, nobody shows up to see me there unless it's the funny person of fucking.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: So what you're saying is is right now, if somebody got really aggressive, got a venue set up in Lincoln, and was a good promoter, it would be ripe for the picking.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, dude, somewhere in the Haymarket, there's so many cool spots.
30:38
SPEAKER_02: Like um, I don't know how local you like to get others, but like the Starlight Lounge in Lincoln.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: But you walk down there, and that place is like a time cap.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's gotta be somewhere around the Haymarket where you walk down some stairs and there's just a cool spot where you could set up a bar that's like the ice isn't gonna be making a bunch of noise when somebody's up on stage and shit.
30:56
SPEAKER_02: Do you get like fucking, I don't know, 40-50 people in there like, you know, if you have there, you'd get a big enough name where people would pay enough per ticket to show up and see somebody.
31:06
SPEAKER_02: I think something like that in Lincoln could really work.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: And I've talked to people in Lincoln about that before.
31:11
SPEAKER_02: They're like, Well, how do you guarantee it's gonna work?
31:14
SPEAKER_02: Like, well, you don't.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no fucking gear, you nobody opens up a comedy club and they're like, This is a sure fire.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: You almost have to you almost have to be an independent promoter, uh like set up in an already existing bar and build an audience for it, and then move it to a venue.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, something like that would work anything.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a craft in Lincoln really, like, Lincoln shows up.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:40
SPEAKER_02: Omaha does on occasion too.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: There's just I don't know.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I kind of live in Lincoln.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: So I live in like far southwest Omaha.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: So like it takes me 10 more minutes to get to downtown Lincoln than it does to downtown Omaha.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Dude, like I said, I moved to Lincoln in 2015, and sometimes it takes me a lot longer to get from South Lincoln to North Lincoln than it does to get from Lincoln to fucking Omaha.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Granted, it's that crazy.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Rich granted, I I look down at my speedometer and I'm going 95 when I hit Nebraska Crossing, but you know.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just keeping up with the fluid traffic.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, where can everybody find you online right now?
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I've got a website.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: It's nixallens.com.
32:25
SPEAKER_02: Nix with an S, A-L-L-E-N-S.
32:28
SPEAKER_02: Then I'm on social media at NixAllenens.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: There's a bunch of Nick Allen's out there, so I had to add an S to everything.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: Then Todd and Tyler, I'm up to every day.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: They've got a their podcast is everywhere.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing, man.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: So my last big question that I ask every guest, and um, I like the answers.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: You would be surprised at some of the answers I get from like MMA fighters or like metal singers and such.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: But what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh shit.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: Um I say don't be a dick.
33:05
SPEAKER_02: Right?
33:07
SPEAKER_02: That's as simple as again.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: It's not real deep, but there's a lot of dicks either at the at a fucking store or when you're driving or whatever, posting shit on social media.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know, if you're if your goal is to I don't know, piss somebody off.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: I think some people that's not even their goal.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: They'll just go into it and not even fucking realize that.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: I I could probably do a better job of that too.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: I think we all can to a certain extent.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: What would you say to that question?
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, honestly, I it it's very similar.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Mine is very complex.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: I make videos about it almost every single day, and sometimes I need to remind myself of it, and that's just uh to have a little bit more of an open mind, a little bit more patience, and realize that you're an individual, but so is everybody else.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: So everybody's gonna have a different personality, a different viewpoint, and you gotta respect our differences and celebrate our differences as much as you celebrate the things that we have in common.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, don't be a fucking tissue.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: I need some patience, man.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: I don't have any patience.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh man's giving me shit about that though, because there's some people I don't know.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: I have a hard time like not nitpicking everything.
34:18
SPEAKER_02: It's I give him a comic.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's part of it or what, but um, like we say respect everybody.
34:24
SPEAKER_02: I can't respect everybody.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: Can you respect everybody?
34:27
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, that's just it.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: That's exactly how do you how to know how you pick and how you choose, and you're like, oh, are you are you you're just you're dead, like I'm done with you.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, is there some redeeming something there somewhere?
34:39
SPEAKER_02: But I I don't know.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: I I've had the weirdest exercise the last two months.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: It's like I have never watched a single fucking episode of Ted Lasso in my entire life, and then about a month ago I decided alright, I'm gonna see what all this fucking hype is about, and it is like so wholesomely good, and the dude hardly ever cusses, everybody else around him does, and I'm like, God, I need to try and be a little bit more like that.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:12
SPEAKER_02: So I watched Head Last, and then I'm a guy that's like, what's with all the fucking pop culture references?
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Can't you just stop?
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Nick Allen, thank you very much for being on the podcast today, dude.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: I am glad to know you, and I uh I think we need to stay in touch beyond this, my friend.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Did you should uh come to Lincoln on Friday?
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Dude, you know what?
35:34
SPEAKER_00: I might just do that.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: I might just do that.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: I think I have the night free Friday, so hell yeah, do it, man.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Got the mid Haymarket.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: I'll put you on the list, dude.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Right on, right on! Nick Allen, the world's a better place to queue it, my friend.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks, man.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: This was fun.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Once again, I'd like to thank my friend Nick Allen for doing the podcast today.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: That was a lot of fun.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: I am going to try and make that show this Friday.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: Check him out, like he said, www.nickalens.com.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: He put S's in there so he doesn't get confused with other Nick Allen's.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Very clever, if you ask me.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you give me a follow on all forms of social media.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Check me out on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you cruise social media, visit me www.cotonthemic.com.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: I will be looking for sponsors sometime soon.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you own a business and would like to have your business advertised on Caught on the Mic, shoot me a message.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: Would love to talk to you about it.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.