Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Comedian- Terrance Gawith of "Food & Laughter"

Transcript

Comedian- Terrance Gawith of "Food & Laughter" · 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.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: One of my most favorite things about doing this podcast is no matter what a person's walk of life, whether they're a comedian, a fighter, a musician, what have you, everybody has a philosophical point of view that is unique today.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: In the midst of these conversations, respect is earned and relationships are formed, and this is no exception to the rule.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode of the podcast, I welcome back Stand Up Comic Terrence Gawit.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: He and another friend of the show, Levette Vegas, have a show on YouTube called Food and Laughter, and I really enjoyed getting philosophical with my friend Terrence.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of time on TikTok and Instagram, and it doesn't matter what I'm looking up, usually it's guests for the podcast.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: My Instagram feed wants to show me every single OnlyFans model simulating Felatio in my suggested accounts.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: How about you?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, not too much.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just just big just big big booty shaking.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's it, you know.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Just other pervert stuff.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd just throw you off by talking about what my algorithm feeds me.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, man, I'm like, I don't look up porn.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't look up OnlyFans models.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't look up that stuff.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's my age.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think they see that I'm a male and I'm a part of a certain demographic, so they feed me what they think guys my age are looking for, and probably guys that aren't as confident and satisfied with their life, right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Such as myself.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So coming back once again is my friend Terrence G, Terrence Gawath.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show again, man.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is a pleasure getting to sit down and talk with you one-on-one.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, likewise, thank you.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, it's an honor.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's cool, man.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're a cool dude.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: This will be several rounds of being able to chop it up like this, and uh I like it.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's a more authentic format, right?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because the conversation will just kind of go wherever.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's fun.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was just a guest on somebody else's podcast the other day, and that's exactly what I was talking about was the authenticity of this art form is unlike anything else.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done music, I've dabbled in radio and all these other things, and nothing beats this, man.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing at all.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's well, I think when you look at our social media, right?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like you look at how like the attention spans ebbed and flowed from like way back in the Vine days with six seconds, Instagram picking up to 15 seconds, TikTok comes around, and then it's back to short form videos, now it's back up to the long form.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's constantly done that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: People are still consistently hungry for the long form conversation because it's not the snippets, because the snippets lie all the time, and I think people are on to that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, whereas you you could say something here, somebody could snip it, blast it wherever, and it could be taken out of context, and everybody's like, Mike and T are just terrible people, and it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: We've got we've got an hour's worth to prove that that's not accurate.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you have your own show with our friend Lavetti.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You guys do food and laughter.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Have you guys ever talked about the idea of maybe taking that to a podcast form and maybe extracting the audio and putting it on the podcast platforms?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've definitely talked about it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but right now it's it's been kind of that that early grind of making sure we get enough traction, making sure that you know people want to be on the show, people want to watch the show and and kind of get that before we want to expand elsewhere.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because I care about the quality of the product now, right?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't want to expand a mediocre product as far as it can go and then just fizzle out because it's mediocre.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather, you know, bake the full recipe as much as possible, right?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like and and in some instances, right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like that that doesn't need to contrast, like, no, you're not always gonna have everything, so you do need to dive in, but I don't think that's one of those situations, right?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, brother, I mean, I think we talked about this when I was a guest on your show.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think I I think it was you that brought that question to me.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why I haven't brought caught on the mic to video form yet, because it's the same thing.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure the recipe is perfect, I want to make sure the the video quality is something that I can stand behind.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that, you know, overall the end result is bulletproof.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're gonna have some stinkers.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not every single episode that you're gonna do is gonna be a winner, but you know, if you're constantly grinding, your winners will outnumber the losers 10 days out of seven every week.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: As weird as it is, man, like kettlebells kind of changed my life a couple years ago.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is is like the pandemic hit, I was resistant to them, and so I finally get into them and I've realized they've worked a lot of wonders for me, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it really transformed how I looked at life because I looked at workouts differently, I looked at everything way more differently pre-kettlebells, and post then I've realized how you've got to ebb and flow with everything.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: You take the good days with the bad, you take those highs and the lows because they create the highs and you build that.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: But everything is a muscle and you've got to work it out.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like my crowd work, it's a muscle.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm weak at it.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I've got to work that muscle out, right?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: My joke writing, it's on point.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: My off the cuff, it's on point.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: But if I don't work it out, those muscles get weak.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's that same thing, man.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's kind of take a step backwards and let's talk about your pathway to comedy.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you take a few moments and kind of talk your origin story?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: What brought you to Omaha, Nebraska, and the comedy scene in Omaha?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Omaha, I I really enjoyed it from afar.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was dating my now wife um at the time, long distance.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was in DC.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: She was out this way.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was stationed out there, she was stationed here.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it really was a surprising, hidden gem to me, I felt like.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like there were so many different pockets of neighborhoods and everything, um, different food cultures, different cultures and stuff that's kind of you know spread across, kind of meshed together in some areas.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's still segregated, but we're lying if we say pretty much all big cities aren't still relatively segregated, but that's crazy, but it is what it is for now.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: But um that we fell in love with that, and then she got out of the military and joined me out in DC.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was still in uh doing comedy because I had started comedy before I'd gotten out of the military, and uh then we had a baby, and uh traffic uh just really rang out in my face.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like it it was in the back of my ear, the commuting, that whole time being away.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: But when I had a kid, it was like, yo, time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Time means something, like it never meant something to me until I had a kid.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't care about if I died tomorrow, it's like, hey, I've got a great life insurance policy, love.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're good to go, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, but with kids, I'm like, no, like I gotta be there for them to guide them as long as I possibly can, like, you know, and so uh that drove the decision to come out this way.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: As far as comedy, man, like just life, life in general.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I always loved it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've fell in love with comedy movies.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that me and my dad would watch often.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was something that I've always had as my I always kind of say it in a corny way, but it's true.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's always my sword and shield, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's that defensive and offensive mechanism.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's how I can arm and disarm everything, and and it's just the way I see life.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's how I unpackage things.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, it was just a natural gravitation towards finding my way on stage, I think.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Who were some of your earliest influences in the comedy realm?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, uh obviously George Carlin was really big at that time still because his eight the last bits of his HBO specials were coming out, and so I had seen those, but the the biggest, the biggest bang in my face by far, bar none, was Def Jam comedy.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Mark Cooper.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: You had, I mean, just absolute heavyweights.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: You had hamburger, you had Chris Thomas, like you had dudes that just would hit this arena full of people and not just make them laugh, like they would fall out laughing.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like people would literally like throw themselves forward and backwards, howling with laughter because what they said and how they said it, the face they would make, whatever, just set them off, man.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So impressionable, man.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so how did those influences kind of adapt to what you do now?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I think in a weird way, it's kept my foot in what comics call the urban scene, but that's really just kind of the the polite white term for you know the black rooms, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like where it's predominantly black crowds, people, you know, people in the crowd are predominantly black.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: The comics are predominantly black, it's what they consider black material, you know.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna hear not as an all-the-time thing, but as a relative rule of thumb, more cuss words, you know, more explicit material and such.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's the general gist of it.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's kept my foot in there because that's where I came up growing up in DC comedy scene.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was in black rooms, that's where I chopped up my funny.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the one thing I love about black rooms, and and I want to continue to do them and enjoy black audiences because funny is funny in general, number one.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: But number two, like black folks, they let you know when you're funny and they let you know when you're not in a different way from white people, man.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's indescribable.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could you could probably see it like watching it from uh an audience perspective and kind of have an idea, but you never know until you're on stage and they're just looking at you, or they heckle you because black folks heckling you is is just next level.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you think acknowledging the cultural differences, do you think when you go and work predominantly white rooms that's made you sharper?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, man, I think it's created more of a riff for me because I'm unafraid to say a lot of the things that a lot of people won't say, and I make a lot of people uncomfortable with it, I think, from my perspective.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't want to come across too arrogant and be like they just my I'm so funny, they don't get it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you know, it's just from my perspective.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think I I speak a lot of truths that a lot of people get, you know, real wiggly in their seats when it's said out loud, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because I I've had that to where people are just like and and then they'll come up afterward, like that was their reaction the entire time, or just like right, but then they'll come up afterwards and be like, You were funny, man, you did great.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, Well, why the hell didn't you laugh?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: But so I I I think in in the early stages of kind of morphing, I definitely think it was uh more of a hindrance, but I think as of the last like month, I think I've been figuring it out.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, mind you, I've been doing this 10 years, but the last month I think I've finally figured something out.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's one of those things, though.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, whenever you get something dialed in and you can kind of figure out your rhythm, and that goes to every avenue of life, not just comedy, not just music, not just podcasting.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you figure out a rhythm and you can figure out a way to ride that with rhythm to your next destination, that's a magical thing, and it is very apparent when it's happening.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like that's happening to you in this moment right now.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I I hope something's clicking because I think I've I've really relegated myself to the fact that like I'm not gonna be what I thought I was when I started comedy when I first wanted to start comedy.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that's okay because uh somebody uh locally, Mark Sibbet, he's a great comic.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you catch his shows at Barnado, he throws on great shows, he's a great dude, very funny guy.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he said this in a post responding to one of mine where I was kind of conversing about um not being where you want to be in comedy, essentially.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he basically said that his granddad said something about how even at the end of the day, you're a local comic, that's still pretty cool.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I forget that because I forget sometimes in my aspiration for forward that I was a little boy that is my son's age, you know what I'm saying, that just wanted to do this because he wanted to do this, not because money needed to be a thing, and it's like, man, damn, like and so I I've I've come to that comfort spot of realizing that I'm not gonna be at that level, but if I can get to a level where I'm doing something, getting better at it in the process and enjoying it, man.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a piece you can't buy.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I I tell you, you know, just kind of to draw a parallel, I remember the first time I walked away from music was like 2006.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: My ex-wife was pregnant with my daughter, and I was like, okay, I got a kid on the way, it's time for me to focus on the day job, honing, sharpening my career.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done with music.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, nine, ten months later, all I've done was sit on the couch, get fat, watch Scrubs reruns, and I'm like, shit, man, like doing the music thing is what helped keep me sharp.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And my ex-wife at the time, she kind of resumed her life, everything went back to normal for her.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up jumping back into music.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, man, if I can balance being a dad and doing music, like, and just do it for myself, then things will be right.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what ended up happening is I ended up stumbling into the most successful project I've ever been a part of.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of foolhardy because I was at a point in life where it's like, well, I can't really do anything with this at this point in life, because I've I've already, you know, put my flag in the ground where I want to be as far as a father, as far as a husband.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: But because I've surrendered to doing this art form for myself, I ended up landing in the best, most well-polished project I've ever been a part of.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like you're kind of in that similar vein of existence right now.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm also the the waiting for the other shoe to drop kind of dude.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to speak it out loud, sort of thing.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like I'll say um I feel as though even with the setbacks that I've faced over the last couple of weeks, they don't feel as insurmountable as they used to.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't feel as out of touch as I once used to feel as out of touch.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't feel like uh I don't feel like I'm not a comic because you know I'm not in local clubs constantly being featured and stuff like that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I understand there's different journeys and everything now, and it's like I need to do this for me, and if I can just continue to do that for me, whatever comes that way is gonna come that way from a positive thing rather than being driven by you know the the the actual success piece with money and such right now.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna ask you to spill any tea, that's not what we do here.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but the Omaha comedy scene is getting incredibly, I don't want to say crowded, but incredibly plentiful.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh do you find that it's uh that it's getting a little bit more competitive to occupy the rooms that there are in the area?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe not.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I think um I think every scene is the same.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: They ebb and flow, and the herd will call itself at some point.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because this, if you genuinely love this shit, it's a fucking grind.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and if you're genuinely trying to be booked, it's a fucking grind.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're not, you're not a like I know that a lot of people that would say different, but you're not a comic if you're just doing the same shows at the same venues on a rotational basis.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: You are a local performer that does well in the art.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that as somebody that did that thing.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I would have been bitter had somebody said this around me because somebody did say it around me, and I was bitter about it, but they were right.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was just doing local shows, then I was hot shit because I was getting booked left, right, and up, down, a, b, down, c, start, select, all of that, right?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right, but it didn't matter because it was friends, like and friends of friends.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's not doing comedy, like, and so when you you realize that you've got to stick to it, people just I've realized in doing it in 10 years, man, with it becoming the passion project, people will walk away, even if it's three, four, five years, people will walk away if they don't have a real heart in this shit.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, do you have any mental tricks that you use to help overcome those obstacles when times are a little bit more challenging?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I wish I had good ones.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you what I try.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I try to walk down, I don't normally try to walk down memory lane.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's a good place to be, but in those moments, I think memory lane is a good place to be because it reminds me of where I've been.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, that's that's my first thing is recognizing.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I've got to recognize that I'm spiraling, which I have a hard time doing that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm getting better at it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, cause when I start being like, well, fuck, man, I didn't do well, so I'm not a comic.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, of course I'm a fraud.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I've got a day job still after, you know, da da da.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like all of that stuff goes through your head after a bad night, right?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a good night, uh, complete opposite.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, I'll be leaving this day job at no time.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I meant to do.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I got this stuff, right?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right, and so it's just so funny.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: But the where I start is is recognizing that I'm spiraling, and if I can get there, it's so much easier.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because then I can just be like, hey, it's irrelevant, all right?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just spiraling.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: If I can't, then I try to take that trip down memory lane and be like, hey, look, yeah, you did perform on this stage with such and such.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You did go to here and do well, you did do X, Y, and Z minutes at this stage, that stage, and this stage, and did well.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you network with these people because they found you funny.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and so it's it's those things that that you look back to to, I think, kind of touch, just kind of like touch the wall a little bit and be like, oh yeah, I'm I'm here.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do you listen to many audiobooks at all?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I I can't do it, man.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm a I'm I'm I'm a page flipper.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna suggest something to you.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm in a weird page flipper right now myself.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna suggest something to you if you haven't read it or you haven't had a chance to listen to it, and I've been recommending the shit out of it lately, but Atomic Habits.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard of this book?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I am on my second pass of it, and it's because I needed to address two things.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to get my fitness routine back in order, and I had some things with my day job that I needed to get back in order, and as a result, it kind of has a domino effect through every area of your life, so it then ends up impacting the podcast and everything.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a great line.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think if a person wants to dive into this book, at a bare minimum, get in the first four chapters, because there's a philosophy that is expelled here where he says, When you focus on the processes and refining the processes, the goals will take care of themselves.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that sounds like such a simple statement.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like such a simple statement, but the thing is, is when you take that simple sentence, when you focus on refining the processes, the goals will take care of themselves.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: It makes everything that you do in your life that much easier because we all get so much anxiety because we're not hitting our goals tomorrow that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We probably aren't meant to hit for another year.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You said that was from atomic habits?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that shit sounded philosophical to me.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I I carry around literally, yeah, I'd have to show it to you.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's beat to shit and then it's only a couple years old.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I carry around Marcus Aurelius' meditations with me pretty much everywhere I go and refer to it.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And like he'd be saying some shit like that.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, damn, that's philosophical.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: But that's so true, man.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you say damn the end goal for now, or just damn the end goal, and I can just get so good at being good at this thing, the goal absolutely takes care of itself.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy because I I've already listened to the book once and it didn't sink in with me quite as hard the first time, but now I'm on my second pass, and like so part of my daily workout routine, I do the I don't run as much as I used to.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I do the 30, 12, 3, which is 30 minutes on a 12 incline at three miles an hour, and that'll work your ass out whether you realize it or not.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So during that 30 minutes, I've committed myself, I have to listen to a half an hour of this book while I'm on this treadmill.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Whether I want to listen to it or not, I have to listen to it, and it's so much shit sinks in, bro.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is life-changing.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: The past three weeks, I have been so dialed in.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so whenever I hear the challenges of you know local stand-up comedy going after creative goals and such, I can't help but say, dude, check this out.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just trust me.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll definitely give it a check out, man.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta finish this book I'm on now called Blind Sight.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's getting pretty damn interesting, but I'll definitely check it out.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how do you feed yourself creatively and how does it lend to your comedy?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny you ask me that because I feel like philosophically I've been asking myself the same question.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, because I know I know I'm I'm I'm a storyteller, right?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I am funny around friends and people that I know, like I tell stories, I've got the the pacing, the timing, I've got the the scene setting, the suspense, all of it.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's all in the tone.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's pap, pep, pep, pep, pap.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like I'm just now starting to warm that up somehow on stage.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've been I've been odd, and it's kind of that thing that you talked about where you're finding that groove, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's where I feel like I'm I'm finding that groove and and I'm getting ready to grip on something, but I don't know what it is, but I know that it's there and I'm gonna grip the hell out of it.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: But, anyways, so I've been asking myself that same question, right?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what makes me funny?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: What makes me charismatic?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: All these things that you need to be as a stand-up and all that.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: I try reading, I think reading is absolutely important.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I read all over the place, man.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I read news, I read books, I read fiction books, nonfiction books, um, all kinds of stuff, man.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um I really like to work with my hands.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, if I can build something over the weekend, I feel like a man, I want to light something on fire, cook a beast, and you know, like burn something down, like hell yeah.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's kind of all over the place, and I feel like I've been trying to hone in on that one thing, but maybe it's not that one thing, maybe it's just that living life thing that I've been kind of avoiding to chase comedy, so maybe.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: With so many of your influences being urban comics and that style of comedy being so situational, situational observation.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are there things that occur in your day-to-day life that you find sneak their way into your act that you know maybe you've questioned from time to time, should I drop this joke or not?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, there's been a few, man.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's especially when it comes to anything that's like the wife stuff and I, it's like I've gotta, I've gotta make sure it's fucking funny, you know?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like um like the kind of funny where like she has no choice but to laugh.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, literally, as soon as I drop the line, she's like like she has the reaction because she and and you'll see it in her face sometimes where it's like and it's like oh shit, like it was it was good, it was good, good, but it it struck a nerve, right?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: But and so you have that sort of thing, um, but I think that's comedy in general, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's all that delivery piece and whatnot.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's yeah, it's fun.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you and Levette have been doing a lot of shows together, going out of town.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what has that looked like the past couple of months?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, um it it was going, man, it was going great.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: We were feeling great um riding that high, being like, look, man, we're we're doing this, we're doing work in these these towns, and these people are enjoying us.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: We're taking pictures, we're signing titties and slapping babies like it's it's crazy.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like no, um, we're doing well, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're feeling good.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then fucking Des Moines happened, man.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I I genuinely I will publicly apologize to the people of Peace Tree Brewing that night in February.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it was, I don't know if if I did something to upset you or what, but boy, my entire 15 minutes, Mike, 15 minutes, I maybe got a minute of laughter.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe is it the same material you've run everywhere else?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I think literally had things not been going so well, and I not feel like things are kind of starting to click, I think that would have destroyed me.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'd have been like 10 years in and I just ate shit like that.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm definitely done.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, yo, I looked at myself and said, Motherfucker, don't quit your day job.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're talking in at 0500, my boy.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're gonna do it like that.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Shit, shit, shit happens, dude.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that's the thing, man.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens to everybody in every single avenue.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about an area where you've had some wins, you've had some really good engagement on TikTok with some of the videos that you've created.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of for somebody that hasn't followed you on social media and isn't seeing what you're posting.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you describe it for the audience?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I am all over the place.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm I'm I guess you could say manic.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want to be too much of one thing because then you get labeled like, and this is gonna be the cop-out answer, but like everybody's chasing that shit.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's chasing that viral shit.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: I want to have my signature on this, and I want to do this, and I want forget all that.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's supposed to be fun, and so like that's what I'm trying to get back to because I was doing that.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I gotta post at this time and doing this, and it's like, for what?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm I'm I'm raking in, yeah, a few more thousand views for it, but it really ain't it definitely was not satisfying because none of it was organic, none of it felt fun, it all felt forced, it all felt fake, and and I hated it.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I hated it, and so I've I've gotten back to for a while now just kind of having fun and really just enjoying what it is that I post.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I don't I I take the weekends off, man.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you're not supposed to do that as an influencer thing, but it's like I force myself to, and I I force myself to take the weekend off.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is toxic, it's toxic for me because I see all the time just people's highlights all the time, and I'm like, I know it's not like that, like I know it's not like that, but I don't need to see that stuff, especially at times when I feel like I'm not doing as great as I want to be doing in life.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so I take the time off and I just kind of recharge with that stuff and and keep it moving.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I get that, I get that.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know I was in a rhythm for a long time, and so I still slip in and out of that rhythm where on a Sunday afternoon I will try and record five one to three minute videos and then disperse them out Monday through Friday, but I do the same exact thing.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: I take Saturday and Sunday off because that time is for everybody else.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that too is such a grind.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You really start looking into the analytics of TikTok, it feels like it's slipping and getting less organic anyway.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're not licensing certain music on TikTok anymore.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, big name creators from just even a as little as a year ago aren't getting as many views or any interactions.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: TikTok in their own documentation said that they suppress the content of people that they don't deem attractive.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I shit you not.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Their own documentation says that.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that hasn't always been the case because that was the app of the pandemic.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so funny because I feel like I talk out of both sides of my mouth, I'll I'll have a band or somebody on the podcast, and I'll be like, Are you on TikTok?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, No.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, You better get on TikTok because that's where all the traffic is at.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, you you kind of see what's happening for TikTok, and it's like, well, now I look like a dick.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: But but that's that's the thing that people don't realize.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're so caught up in this fucking FOMO, I feel like everybody's so afraid to miss out on.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like you see it with that goddamn Stanley Cup, right?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, kids getting made fun of with that.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's all FOMO.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's all this shit operates off of to me, is FOMO.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is pressure the parents to cave to the kids because the kids are getting bombarded constantly with whatever.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like I don't I don't have that in me to to give that much of a shit about fake stuff that doesn't matter to me in the long run.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: I refuse to put it in that stuff.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, yeah, totally, totally.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: So not to contradict myself and um take away from my philosophical comment about goals, but if you were to kind of look forward to a year from now, where do you see comedy taking you in the next year?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Man, honestly, I think comedy is gonna take me to being a better comedian.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's the low-hanging fruit, but that's the best answer, right?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what it's gonna make me is is the more I do it, the more I refine the jokes, the more I refine my humor and I find my style.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's that's what I think it's gonna give to me.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna give me the confidence, I think, to speak more authentically as me.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of relying on fictional scenarios I've made up in my head to land as jokes, like I can be that comic that's like this was my life and my story, and here it is.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've always had kind of inklings of that within my act, but it hasn't really been as thorough and and significant as it's been recently.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I see that growing in the next year.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: When I was on your show, Food and Laughter, which can be found on YouTube, ladies and gentlemen.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you search out Food and Laugh, uh, based out of Omaha, Nebraska.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when I was on Food and Laughter, you and I kind of shared a moment where we had a kinship about how we view our legacy.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was talking about this podcast and how I say, you know, this is something that my kids will be able to listen to later on down the road, no matter how many, how famous a person I talk to, what have you.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is something my kids can listen to and learn a little bit more about me, and maybe their kids can listen to.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: How do you view things in terms of your legacy moving forward?
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh it's a lot of that, right?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like we take for granted the fact that we are the first generation to literally have the opportunity to document our lives so that our children can see that and so that they can reflect on that and genuinely say, you know what?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't, I'm not alone in this thought.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not alone in this feeling.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because if there's one thing uh you you know, if you follow history at all, like I'm interested in history, I always have been.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you realize human behavior is literally just a repeated pattern of 10, 15 different behaviors over thousands of years.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's the same shit we've just grown in population numbers.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's all of that.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're documenting that for our kids, and they get to see all of this stuff.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so people take that stuff for granted.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to be able to take that in mind and incorporate that in comedy, incorporate that into like the DJing aspect that I'm kind of you know, dabbling in, and then just everything in general to be like, hey, look, these are the arts, and and while science and math and everything matters, that stuff you can figure out.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: OJT art is something that is just indescribably beautiful and it's so unique.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: That lives on.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, I absolutely love that, and that brings me to my million-dollar question that I ask everybody is what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I've been hearing it more recently, and it's something I've always tried to do since hearing it early on in the military.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Assume noble intent.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Assume noble intent.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you gotta assume people aren't out to get you.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people have bad days.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about it all the time.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: You see it on TV all the time.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we need to be a little more graceful, we need to be a little more giving, and but then it's like we get cut off outside of fucking high V and we're like, you piece of shit, how could you do that?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right you just did it, and it's like, no, it wasn't that, man.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Assume no blink did they see you, or they thought they had the room, any myriad of things.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they stopped.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: It just is what it is.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let let go of the BS.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, so let everybody know where they can find you online, my friend.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, uh, I'm pretty much at fake Terence G everywhere, super easy to find.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my biggest viral video at almost 20 million views.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to see it, I promise you.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: But if you do see it, it's pretty funny.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: But you can find me there or wherever, I'll be out and about.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, I love it.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, man, from the moment that we first had a conversation many months back, in even on to now, I really appreciate the the development of this relationship.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I am proud to call you a friend.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to when we can run into each other in the real world again in the future.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: When's your next gig?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I've got uh hosting an Interrail Food Hall every Thursday.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's in X Arbin Village here in Omaha.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: Every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the host.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: I make jokes, play some music bingo, it's free.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can win free prizes, and I'll be telling jokes all around the area.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be at Backline, I'll be at Emmett's, I'll be doing those as open mics so you can come see me bomb.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my next one, I be is it Iowa City somewhere, somewhere in Iowa.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: They better not boom me.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it at fake Terence G on all social media platforms.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Brother, thank you for doing the show.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, the world's a much better place with you in it.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, likewise with you, but another fantastic conversation with my friend Terence G.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you follow him on social media at fakeTerence G.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Search him out for your entertainment whenever he is performing stand-up in your area.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, it is 110% worth it.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: While you are being generous with the social media follows, make sure you're following Cot on the Mic on all social media platforms.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Visit a www.cotonthemic.com.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And while you are on your favorite podcasting platform, make sure you give me the highest rating possible.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I am in a massive growth pattern with the show right now.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Big things coming soon.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned, more to come.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.