Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "Destined to Entertain" with comedian Nathan Orton

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"Destined to Entertain" with comedian Nathan Orton · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: 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.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: In 2013, my next guest bought a ticket to watch the annual 20th person in St.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Louis competition at their local funny bowl.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: A week later, he worked up the cards to get on that same stage.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: A year later, he won that same competition.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Being from a family full of professional wrestlers, Nathan Orton has always been destined to be an entertainer, but has opted out of the physical abuse.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's all emotional.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: This story comes directly from his website, and I am happy to have Nathan on the podcast today.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Try not to be too easily offended.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Listener discretion is advised.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: The funniest guy in the room is not me.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's the one and only Nathan Orton.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: How you doing, my friend?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm flattered that I'm the funniest guy in this room I'm alone in.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's the point of the joke, brother.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: How things have been on the stand-up comedy scene in New York as the world is returning to air quotes normal.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's it is what it is.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I did a show last night in the basement of a restaurant, and that was pretty cool.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's all it's all hit or miss around here, you know?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you're originally from the Midwest, correct?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, St.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Louis.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: So so were you born and raised in St.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Louis then?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I was.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, fantastic.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you kind of started your comedy journey 2013-ish, I think I read.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit about your comedy origin story, if you will.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna hand it over to you and start talking about it, brother.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I uh was dating a stripper, which is is totally true.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she gave me chlamydia, and uh she really did.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's totally this is all I'm just putting it together here.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: She we I we would go to the funny bone together a lot, and we'd like watch the the first time we went, it was the uh best of the city.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was like the you know, the best of St.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Louis, which at the time I didn't realize was nothing, but at the time it was really cool.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, oh man.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it was the first time I ever went to a comedy club, and I ended up having surgery, and I got uh hip surgery, and I couldn't walk for for like four months.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I told myself that when I when I could walk again, I would uh get up there.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like writing jokes while I was unable to walk, and then I went up there and ended up winning that competition, like uh right where I started.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: So and the rest is history.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a I'm a struggling uh solar panel salesman in New York City.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was that contest was the best of St.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Louis, wasn't it?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Earth funniest person in St.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Louis?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they they had it at Westport Funnybone.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's where I won it when I first started, and then they had it have it at Helium Comedy Club, and I won that one too.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: When I won those, I was like, well, it's time to move to New York City.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because I, you know, that's about capped out there.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: My main reason to move up to New York City was just to be around the best and get better, you know?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's iron sharpens iron type of thing.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: So was this something that you always saw yourself destined to be?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what were your interests before this?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Before I got into comedy, I was I was really into masturbating.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was addicted to porn and I would masturbate to it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I was kind of like a shell of a human being, you know.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I took up chain smoking.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I worked at a restaurant and I would chain smoke a lot.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I think comedy was a good outlet to take that that destructive behavior and channel it into something um around a bunch of other delinquents.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I've since turned my life around.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't chain smoke.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I I rarely have suicidal thoughts now, so it's it's getting better.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Usually, whenever you kind of take the the short order cooks out of your life, the suicidal thoughts tend to go as well.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they were they were really pressuring me to do it.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure they were.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure they were.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then you get the waitresses in your ears, and they're the ones that are kind of causing emasculatory issues, so exactly.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Your hands are always full then, right?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, yeah.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't fuck me, so I had to jack off.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I would watch, I would watch waitress porn.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it would just, it would just be a lady like sir.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was there was no sex, it was just a lady like serving food and being rude.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it'd be like, oh fuck yeah.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know what's funny?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I had a I had a conversation with my buddies today, and we were talking about internet porn and how easily accessible it is now.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: And like when we were kids, it was like Raiders of the Lost Ark type shit.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I gotta find the magazine, I gotta find the porn.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And now it's so easily accessible.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, are we completely desensitized sexually anymore because everything is out there, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I worry about kids, man, because if you watch so much porn, you're it's it's like a whole thing.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Your brain changes and you don't develop and you can't like connect emotionally or like even like get aroused with a real woman.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've had that myself a little because I was watching porn like in my teens, but like now five-year-olds are like it's just ridiculous.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it's absolutely ridiculous.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was on your website earlier, and one of the I forgot I had a website.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: You do, you have a website, brother.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: I found it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's so bad.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I a friend pressured me into getting a website, and I was like, I'm not even like I'm not at that point yet, and but he like guilted me into it, and then now I just have a website I don't update.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: When you come to New York City, like it I was naive.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was like merit a meritocracy, and no, it's just all like I've come to completely to terms, and I'm at peace with I love doing this, I enjoy getting better.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I and I actually am cool with it, and now the pro it's like I'm really just finding my voice, and I'm doing improv, and which is like the enemy to comedy stand-up.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: You I'm doing that now, and it's made me a better and I'm acting, I'm doing acting school, and it's like all this stuff you do to cultivate and become a good performer, and then you write every day, and then you get really good, and 10 years later, then you start to make a name.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I shouldn't have a website, and these people who blow up on TikTok who are gonna tour for a year and then burn out because they don't know how to do stand-up.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's watered down right now.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm happy to be locked away, like as a hermit in New York City, just figuring it out, you know.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was like a soapboxy, long-winded answer to a question you didn't ask.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, I'm glad you brought that up because I found you through TikTok.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: My twerking videos?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, that's exactly what it was.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: But how has the algorithms of social media impacted something like stand-up comedy and you know, a creative outlet like writing?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's it's impacted everything else.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because I turn on the radio and I listen to music, and it's not even innovative artists anymore.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's shit that I hear in 10 second clips from TikTok.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it's well, like the whole, and this is there's gonna be a lot of stuff that sounds bitter in here, but I'm not.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm um right, I don't even plan on saying anything bitter.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm warning, it's a disclaimer to anyone that I'm not I don't want to be, but it'll sound like it because I'm just being truthful because you learn being in it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um so like social media is a way to put your stuff out there, but you can only get good clips if you get quality stage time, like at good clubs.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you can only do that, you can only get in at the good clubs if you have the social media presence.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like a catch 22.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need I suck at the social media, I'm lazy with it, and I'm like not the I like get shadow banned because the stuff I say is offensive.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of just like I've come, I've I've learned to be content with just uh enjoying getting on stage and not worrying about any of the uh bullshit anymore.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I would not be the guy to go to for advice on social media.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like I put my I did an hour at Caroline's and I put it on TikTok and it was going well until I got like shadow banned.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you can tell it's obvious, but it went against community guidelines.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So then and my my buddies who are good at social media were like, oh you're fucked now, dude.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, like I just it stopped getting views, so I just stopped posting.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: So uh my my advice for social media is give up on it and then just get better at the real fucking thing.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think causes that though?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, um what do you think causes the shadow banning and I think the the the people who made TikTok and social media, they don't want you to offend children, but they want to see those children twerking their little assholes on camera.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're pedophiles who don't like jokes.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're very humorless pedophiles or those who run social media.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was on another podcast a couple of weeks ago with another stand-up comic, another Midwest-based stand-up comic, and we were talking about um, you're familiar with First Ave up in Minneapolis, aren't you?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so First Avenue is this big club up in Minneapolis.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was the club in Purple Rain.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: It is the it was the home of Prince, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: They booked Chappelle uh a couple of months back.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Talk about it though.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: This is great.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: 125 signatures got Chappelle kicked out of first half?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: 125 idiots who don't have any goals of their own, nor a sense of humor.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't they should have just taken the 125 people who signed that and like, all right, guys, we're we're gonna take you all to your special party and then just gas them.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: We can learn a little from history, but instead of an entire religion or race, just make it humorless pieces of shit like that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: There should be another genocide, but it needs to be people who try to cancel comedians.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I was getting at, is like genocide.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is it dangerous to be funny or are we doomed to a humorless society now?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I thought I they all say the pendulum.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully the pendulum's swinging back in the direction uh where it's gonna knock all those people into a big fire.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I would say Chappelle got banned from one show, but in reality, he's fine.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone who like I I could sit here and go, oh, I'm a straight white guy, don't get booked, uh, it's not fair.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: But in 10 years, that won't be the case.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be very famous and rich, and um um a lot of I'll have a lot of cult followers, and a lot of women won't want to have sex with and I'll have to reject them.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually in a committed relationship with one person, so uh only they get my mediocre, skinny, slightly bent penis.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna make it because I'm very funny, maybe not now, because I'm it's ad living with we're strangers to each other.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is uh fucking fantastic.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I've been doing shows lately, man, and I go in there and I just whatever the crowd, black, white, latina, I've just been like doing so well at shows, but I don't know how to like promote or market.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I I and I'm suck at social media, so uh I can't complain about the whole comedy cancel thing because I'm not even out there yet to be canceled.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I think anyone who works hard enough is going to have a following and they're gonna make it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Even Shane Gillis got screwed over at SML, but now they made him blow up as a comic because he's a truly outstanding stand-up comedian, very talented.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: People like him, and he now he's fine.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you can get canceled, but you're you're gonna still make it because there's too many avenues of success.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't found one yet, but they're out there.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Chappelle's gonna be fine.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, and and the postscript to that is they ended up moving this Chappelle uh show that was supposed to take place at first Ave to a bigger venue and then sold out five nights in a row at that venue.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like first Ave, you just basically threw your money away or wiped your ass with it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's people that didn't even watch his special that was controversial in the first place.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, they just watch the bits and the clips.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people take things out of context and they're lazy, and then they form a very, very strong opinion that comes from their visceral reaction, but it's formed by the words of others who they look up to because they're they have a same political agenda.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's all gross, it's just sheep who don't think and uh they're hypocrites at the end of the day.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: There are offensive things that they like, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: That that would there, if if you told those 125 people abortion jokes or or jokes about conservative people dying horrible deaths or something, or all that would be a fair game.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they're fucking full of shit.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're hypocrites, they're stupid, and I don't like to say that because I'm dumb, but like I at least know I'm dumb, so I don't try to ruin people's careers with my stupid opinions.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: What I was gonna get at originally about 10 minutes ago was the line on your website that said, um, you were destined to be an Let's not get to it yet.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's just No, I'm sorry.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: I keep I ramble, I don't know how to do these.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm real bad at these.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can't even see my eyes.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: But go on, say what you're doing.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, this is perfect, man.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: This is exactly what we need to be talking about.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it said you were okay, you were destined to be an entertainer, but opted out of physical abuse because you come from a family of pro wrestlers.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, emotional abuse or something.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was great.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my daddy is a was a pro wrestler, and uh my brother is a pro wrestler, my grandpa rests in peace, my uncle rests in peace.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, my brother's fucking super famous, and we do we we text once a month, and uh we get we're cool.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go visit home in November and we're probably gonna play some video games and hang out.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: He's really cool.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're he just has a family.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: My sister has a family.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like the youngest.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I moved up here to chase my dreams, so I don't expect to be in anyone's life.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's not a weird thing, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's no chip on my shoulder.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I hear jokes about like I I used to do roast battles until I got bored with it, and now I just judge them.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But all I would hear is his brother's famous rape.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, I I just I've heard it all.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I can't be affected by it.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's I my biggest I don't know how to talk about it on stage because I'm not a wrestling fan and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: You do have some pretty good bits.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Those bits can be found on TikTok and be found on your Instagram page.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: See, listen to I'm pumping your social media for you, brother.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, dude, don't go, guys, don't look at it.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's stupid, and I had a dumb shirt on.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Go look at it just because of the shirt.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have a joke, like um, so I I wrote a joke that was uh, so my dad was a professional wrestler, and yes, he really hit me.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That changed into the best thing about having a dad as for wrestler is he didn't really hit me because I didn't I wanted to be truthful.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't beat me, so I didn't want to allude to that, or have to go, no, he didn't really and ruin the pace.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it turns out another comic, I forget his name, he was nice and reached out to me, but another comic had ripped that joke, didn't really hit me.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Brian Regan did it too.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: So and I didn't know this, and then so people are just like, Oh, you're a hack, you're a hack suck because they don't do anything with their lives.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then I did a joke about my last name, spelling it out to a custom service lady.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Owen, ours.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: I thought of all that stuff on my own, but like it similar stuff has been done.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was a family guy joke, basically.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, I just I've been like ripped on all the wrestling jokes I've done.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's the most fucking unique thing about me, and all of it has been called like hacky that's been done before.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like that was a sign to me, dude.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just do the jokes I want to do, which I like to bring up uncomfortable stuff, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: I like awkward pauses, I like to be, I like to just fuck around and have fun and write jokes and learn how to write jokes better and be weird.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a weird, I'm not a fucking wrestler.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm cool with you talking about it, by the way.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't worry about that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I just it's so weird because people expect to hear about no, they don't.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: They don't, no one knows who I am.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: But like people who figure it out, why don't you have those jokes?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, what do I say?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was I I I was trapped in my room playing video games while my dad was downstairs watching TV and my brother was getting jacked in the basement lifting weights.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, we were in three different levels of the house.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have any fucking anything to talk about with that, but I'll figure it out.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe some deep journaling or a therapist.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: The angle that I was gonna approach that from is because of that lineage, has it impacted the different writing avenues you've maybe considered?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because it sounds like you really enjoy the writing aspect of the comedy.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Have I ever thought about writing for the WWE you've asked you asking?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, not directly, but I mean indirectly, sure.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like maybe for WWE or other forms of entertainment for sure, because you Randy's been dipping his toes in the acting waters as well.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, so I mean, had have you thought about writing for TV, for comedy, for um I guess it would be cool to get like a writing job because it would be more doing something that provided an income that allowed me to stay here and do this, which right now is selling solar panels, so I am saving the world through the environment.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: But getting a writing job would be like that, would be cool, but it had to be something I'm passionate about, and it would have to, I guess any writing does improve your comedy writing, but I haven't really I've also heard that writing rooms are hell, right?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would have to be something I was fully in love with and committed to.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the writing that I do is like for my stand-up, and honestly, like what I'm investing my time in is the performance element of it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm doing improv, I'm on an improv team.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no one would ever assume that.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I'm in an act, I I'm in an acting school, um, William Esper.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just I'm trying to become a better performer, and I do the all the writing is just to work that muscle so it doesn't atrophy.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know if I'd want 70 hours a week of writing for some show, unless it paid sh shit fuck tons and the credit got me more stand-up gigs.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: It all has to feed into each other, and I haven't come across an opportunity where that seemed like a good fit for me.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And like I wouldn't want to write for the WWE because I wouldn't know what I was doing.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was I don't know the story, I don't follow it, I don't watch it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd maybe have some funny ideas, but then they just get turned down by Vince.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess not anymore.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Not anymore.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, they'd get turned down by the Undertaker.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't fucking know.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Triple H.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you moved to New York like right on the onset of the pandemic, didn't you?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Do you like how I haven't answered it?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Any questions?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I have so many words without I don't know how to answer them.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: But that's that's how you make an entertaining podcast, man.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: You just Oh yeah, you just ramble on you put you put six eyes on, absolutely.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: I moved here at the beginning of the uh pandemic, yeah, that's true.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've done your research.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe I did.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I did.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you uh you got some pretty creative with some of the comedy gigs you were doing when the rest of the world was shut down, didn't you?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: I uh worked really hard through the pandemic.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: I did shows like on sidewalks and in parks and on rooftops, and I busted my ass.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then when everything opened back up again, all the people who were already in at the clubs came back to the clubs, and all the people grinding and working really hard during the pandemic went back to open mics.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: That was a good lesson for me.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that lesson was.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Who gives a fuck?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because like you got three times better on stage.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And never quit like the best advice you hear in this is don't quit.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like Louis C.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Kate and don't quit.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like just stick with it and get better.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'm I'm grateful that the pandemic happened.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all those people who died, it was worth it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because I got to get used to being uncomfortable by doing shows on the sidewalk.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: There it is.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's the deadpan.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: There's that deadpan.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Pause.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Wait for the response.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well executed, sir.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well executed.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Are you uh what is it?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: The b beleagered frog.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: The uh I don't know where I don't know the word.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: You just dissected the frog, but you explained.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think you kind of did it yourself.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: You explained what your style of comedy is, and then you executed it high level on a pandemic joke.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: High level?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I say high level.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: There we are, brother.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: I just I I like to be, I feel like it's rude to have the glasses on because I can't look you can't look deeply into my soul as I've been doing to you.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I the blue lights, man.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: When do you go to bed, Mike Clark?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, usually pretty damn early, because I get up pretty damn early.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have this beat?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do this every day, but on a good day, if I don't have a show, I'll try to go to bed between 9 and 10 and get up at 4 30 to go to the gym.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: That is my exact same routine, sir.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dude.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Early gym's great.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: It gives you a reason to it how if you if I'm gonna go to the gym, I can get out of bed.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: I can't get out of bed and just get on my laptop and start selling solar panels.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have to go to the gym.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: It tightens your mind up, keeps you upbeat for the remainder of the day.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And your body.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: I do it for my body.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: I was doing it from my body, but the fucking pandemic ruined me a little bit.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: I put on 20 pounds during during the pandemic.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: How many pounds?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: 20.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been struggling trying to get it off, bro.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do do you fast?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: I used to do intermittent fasting.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm intermittently intermittent fasting.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I see what you I understand what that means.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I understand what that means.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to confuse me.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I um I'm gonna do it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just finished eating some avocados.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: I like to uh eat an avocado and then put this pit in the in my asshole.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: But uh no, I just ate a couple avocados and a protein shake.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna eat again until Saturday morning after the gym.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: So tomorrow, while I'm in a fasted state, I'm going to this place called the Spa 88.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a Turkish or Russian spa.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard of these?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you go to these places, man, and they're all like, hello, welcome to spa.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they're they're just they have no fucking personality.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and they probably torture people.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you just go in there, there's an infrared sauna, and you start off in there.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I do this.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I start off in the infrared sauna, I'll do some meditation, you know, wind down.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Then I go to the cold plunge, nice fucking freezing now.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people jump in there.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of a lot of Jews go here, they jump into the cold plunge and get right out.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they are their Jews, they have like the hair.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, but it's shaved and then long.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's right, the hair nice Hasidic juice.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hasidic juice, they do that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's like it's me and a bunch of Jews and Russians, and like, and then one black guy.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I just go into the infrared sauna and I I sit there for a while, and then I do the cold plunge, and people don't like to stand there, but I try to stand there for like five, six minutes, like whim off shit.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then I uh then you go into the real sauna and it's so hot.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I do that probably ten times and then I leave.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's probably the only reason I haven't killed myself.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Going there once a week keeps me going, dude, because it you sweat out all the bed, you feel great, you heal your body, everything's great about it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: They probably don't where are you at?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in Nebraska.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Nebras that's what I meant.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: They probably don't have that there.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we do.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: We have a place Do they?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: We have a place that's very similar.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my wife got me a gift certificate to one of these places.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: They do you bragging that you have a wife?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she's great though.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um I bet.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: We uh You're great.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: We I do the uh gosh, the the cryotherapy.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Then they have float tanks, cryotherapy, float tanks, and then sauna.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: So the sensory deprivation tank.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't done it yet.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to do it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm wondering if I should take a couple mushrooms before I get in and do it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows, man?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's good therapy, self-care.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's important.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, it's so important.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um instead of having kids, I'm just taking care of myself.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Word.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Why take care of an why have why take care of other people when you haven't taken care of yourself?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I just do this aw man.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um sensory deprivation, what is I mean, it's obvious, but what exactly is it?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, it's a tank, kind of like Stranger Things, that's filled full of water and Epsom salt set to your body temperature.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: So when you get into it, you are just naturally floating, but it's got a hatch over the top of it.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Float tank.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a float tank.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it's completely it's completely dark.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh oh.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you you are enclosed basically in a coffin-like box floating on water with nothing but your thoughts.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've done that.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: They just call it floating.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Float.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's people say it freaks them out and shit.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've it's not, it doesn't freak you out.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: You for anything, I've gotten bored or I have to piss.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's my fear, dude.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Having to piss?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Being lying there and just being like, well, I guess I'm just gonna piss myself in this tank and not tell anybody and leave.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was a hefty fee.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, is there let's talk about let's talk about this comedy thing.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're you're working in the you're working, let's say if you're in the corporate world, they say you have a 30, 60, 90-day plan to develop your career.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: In the comedy world, if you were to say where you're gonna be six months from now, one year from now, and two years from now, what are your goals?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: It would really be six months, a year, and a year and a half.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to break it up in six month increments, yes.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: What would I what do I want to do?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: In two years, I'm gonna do it backwards.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't, I have to think of these goals.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: In in two years, I would like to have I would like to have completed the acting school because it's a two-year program.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I would like to audition for a show that would uh get me on like some that I could get us a little like, oh, we liked you and you were very you're that one guy from this, you're funny, or you're menacing, or you're gay, whatever the fucking whatever the character is.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I want that credit to be good enough for me to get work within the city.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because New York City, man, you move I don't want to travel, I want to do shows here until I can headline and move around.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to do the the the losing money to go fucking feature at a little club.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: I want to headline and so you I want to get to that point by being working up in the city, which to do so you have to have a gig because you can't just do stand-up.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, uh a year from now, I'd like to be one year through the two-year acting program.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I would like to be getting more regular work at the clubs just from merit, finally being like, oh, you you you killed on stage, let's have you back regularly.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um instead of these dumb, unfunny, hot girls and that guy who's racially ambiguous.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and then uh in six months from now, I'd like to fucking be out of credit card debt.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: That probably would that would probably take like I'm gonna have to find like I'm gonna have to like come up come upon some money, but it just bugs me that I my credit score is just brutal, man.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, I'll tell you, that that credit card thing, that it's it's such a racket because you'll take you takes you five years to get out of credit card debt and then six months to get back into it.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's true, man.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, brother.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you very much for making the time for doing this.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: I I really appreciate that.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, I loved your material.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: I watched through it all.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, cool.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's nice of you, for real.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I really did spend the time and uh checked it all out, and I'm excited to see what's coming for you next.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'll pop up somewhere in a few years, and you'll be like, oh shit.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: And other people will be like, who's this guy?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Is that Randy Orton's brother?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: He's funny.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, thank you very much, Nathan.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you, man.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, let's keep going, once again, I'd like to thank my guest, Nathan Orton, for being on the show today.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can find him at Nathan Ortoncomedy.com.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: You can also find him on TikTok and Instagram, where there are plenty of clips of his stand-up comedy routine.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Check it out.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're feeling so generous with your social media exploration, make sure you check out Caught on the Mic on TikTok, on Instagram, on Twitter, and on Facebook as well.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Give me a follow, interact with my posts, let's jar those algorithms in a favorable direction.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: You can also visit me at www.cotonThemic.com.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: I always appreciate the five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and I'm always up for chatting with the listeners of my show.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: So shoot me a DM anytime you choose.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: This has been caught on the mic with Michael Clark.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Michael Clark.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, thank you.