Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Tim Hawkins Reflects on Decades of Comedy, YouTube Fame and His New Special Fist Bump

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Tim Hawkins Reflects on Decades of Comedy, YouTube Fame and His New Special Fist Bump · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey Tim, thanks for joining me. You're so welcome. Yeah,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I got you fooled man. I don't know why you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: want to talk to me, but let's just roll it,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: no questions. I knew this would be a hard interview, Tim.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Tim Hawkins, one of my favorite comedians, has a new special.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It's called Fist Bump, available to stream March seventeen. Tim
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: hawkins dot Net is the website. Tim. I have laughed
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and laughed at your comedy through the years, and I've
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: enjoyed the new special as well. Let's start off with
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: this question, how has your comedy changed since you've reached
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the middle ages of life. It's I'm not as manic
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: on stage. I don't sweat as much, you know, I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: look at old clips. I'm just running around all the time.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: My kids used to make fun of me. They go, Dad,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you just do animal noises and people laugh at you,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and they're not wrong. But it's, you know, it's been
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it's a little more. I think the show's as good
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: as it's ever been. It's it's more like you're just
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: hanging out in my living room kind of a deal.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I just I wanted to create that kind of a
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  Speaker 1: feel I'm not trying to prove myself as much. It's
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: just like my mentality is, I think it's good. I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: hope you like it. But it introduces so many new
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: jokes though. I mean, I'm say, yeah, there are jokes
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you're making now that you would have made fifteen years
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: ago because oh, absolutely well. And you can't talk about
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: your kids anymore like they're little, because no one that
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that's they're not. They're having their own kids. So I
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: have four grandkids now. So yeah, it's a lot of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the and then it's comin. It's it's still fun writing.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It's still fun. That's what I enjoy doing. So I'm
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: just always making notes just like the old days. It's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: it's different now. I think more notes that I make
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: are have a better chance of going being in the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: act because when you first start out, you have no
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: idea what you're doing. You think, oh, this is hilarious,
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  Speaker 1: and only you're writing all this stuff, but it's none
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  Speaker 1: of it is any good. So you have a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more wisdomed out now though in terms of I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: don't want to work on no, I'm not not. I
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: that's let's be honest. I mean, how many things have
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I said, even to my own children, that are wise.
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  Speaker 1: I I don't. I stopped trying a long time ago.
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  Speaker 1: I think just being here and being in proximity as
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: a father, that's the goal. Just be there a good
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: point physically as much as possible. That's good with them
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: right there. By. The way music is so much part
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of is such a big part of your comedy? How
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: did that start? So so many comedians stay down stage
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and tell jokes that that's their bad, but you bring
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a guitar. How did that start? Was? Has that been
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: part of your access? Start? It did? I kind of
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: learned guitar the same time I started doing comedy and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: learned at the same rate. And you know, I grew
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  Speaker 1: up loving musical comedy, weird A Yankovic and Ray Stevens
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and those guys, And it's just I just love. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: just love the music inspires me more than anything. And
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  Speaker 1: and when you're doing multiple age audiences, it really helps.
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  Speaker 1: It adds energy to the show, and yeah, just add
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  Speaker 1: some variety. It's a great to deliver a comedic message
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: to music. In the way music is written, it's almost
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: set up in a set up, punchline format. So when
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I do when I do songs. It's really just an idea,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: A comedy idea is set to music. And well, I
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: was gonna ask you that. I mean, are some of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: these songs that you see are they bits that kind
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of began just as a joke on stage and you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: thought maybe this might a great that's a great question.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: It goes back and forth where a song idea may
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: turn into just a spoken piece. But yeah, you're right,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: more often than not, it's a it's it's a speaking
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  Speaker 1: idea that lends itself for music, you know. I I
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: it's all about payoff. It's all about it. If I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: ever did a parody, I would and the second verse
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't as good as the first one, I would just
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: do one version and be done with the song and
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: just jump out. I don't, you know, feel like you
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  Speaker 1: have to do the whole thing. So it's all about
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: being tight, you know. Trim of the bat? Yeah, yeah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: The songs you sing in any special is the Bucky song?
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  Speaker 1: Mm hmm, that's what I call it. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if there's an official name for it. Were you immediately
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  Speaker 1: inspired to write a song about BUCkies when you entered
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  Speaker 1: in that store? For the post song, yeah, very Chick
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: fil a vibe. It's a very unique place. It's I mean,
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  Speaker 1: one of the lines in the in the song is
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  Speaker 1: it's a gas station, car wash, barbecue, cracker barrel, Walmart
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  Speaker 1: and all in one. So yeah, and it's something that
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  Speaker 1: I love. And then I've introduced to my crew who
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: didn't know about it. Now they're Bucky fans. It's just
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  Speaker 1: that middle class, blue collar oasis, rednecky kind of kind
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  Speaker 1: of a place that I just went this week. And
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  Speaker 1: this past week my son I were traveling. We stopped
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  Speaker 1: at a BUCkies and yeah, it's it's it's really I
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  Speaker 1: write out a passion something that I'm things that I'm
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  Speaker 1: passionate about, whether it be good or bad. That's usally,
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  Speaker 1: where a good comedy comes from is something you're confused
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  Speaker 1: by or angry at, or something like that usually lends
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  Speaker 1: itself to doing, to becoming a comedy thing. Every time
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  Speaker 1: I walk out of a BUCkies, I think, oh, my goodness,
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  Speaker 1: I can I could have gone to an Applebee's or
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a cracker bail for that price. Why why did that?
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  Speaker 1: Why did that stop here?
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  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, my goodness, it's as crazy, yeah, as a
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  Speaker 1: Christian comedian, How do you know how far to take
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: your comedy with without being irreverent? A lot of jokes
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  Speaker 1: that you A lot of your jokes about denominations, about church,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: they all seem to be appropriate. How do you how
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: do you know where that line is? Yeah, I don't.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not an idiot, you know, and I'm not a
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  Speaker 1: theological whiz, so I don't. I don't. I never really
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: touch on theological issues, but I do. The man made
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: like the hand sanitizer in all over the church. It's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: that just struck me as funny, like are we Yeah,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: we love you as you are, but let me let
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: me sanitize first before I touch you, you beast. Yeah,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And and now I'm noticing this little things like every
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: time I go to church, there's always a new way
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to get there's a new way to tithe you know.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It's to text this or email this, or take a
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  Speaker 1: picture of this square space. It's like, I think there's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: something there, but yeah, it's always just so, it's always
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: just the process. Stuff with church. I thought was always
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  Speaker 1: fair game and people can relate to. You're a clean comedian,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I get all my cut and done by news.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I get it all out and then out of that
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  Speaker 1: am Well, I mean is that just natural to you?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, did you grow up with clean comedy, liking
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: clean comedians? Well? I did. I mean that's where what
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  Speaker 1: I grew up watching Johnny Carson. Then shows like that
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: where everybody has to work clean. You know, if you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: saw their club act, it would be a different story.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Like you know, Red Fox used to be on Sanford Son.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: You know, we watch him every day, but you know,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: but his his club act was dirtier than anybody. So,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, but what I saw was that was the
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  Speaker 1: style that I saw, and I was familiar with with
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the club comedy and where it was going. But I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: think it's just who I am, And it's a it's
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  Speaker 1: a really cool challenge to be funny in that context.
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  Speaker 1: Can you be as funny talking about certain topics and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: things without using certain phraseology and stuff? I love it. Yeah,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: are your friends always wondering if they're gonna turn, if
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: you're gonna turn some of the conversations they're kind of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like to you, and yeah, all you're probably gonna be
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: your act, probably be your act, Like now, you will
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: never know what's in my act? I there, Yeah, I
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: people's people's ideas of how I come up with material.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: It's it's very I just lived my life. You know,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Like we may be talking right now and you'll say
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: something a concept. I'm like, okay, that there's something there,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the idea, the premise might work. Not a joke particularly,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: but just an idea or or something that's going on
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  Speaker 1: culturally or something that that that you know, that's something
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  Speaker 1: people can relate to and would probably work. How did
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: comedy turn into a career for you? It was it
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: was all uh YouTube really. I mean my brother became
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: my manager back in the early two thousands. That really
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: opened it up for just to free me up to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: do what I do. But then I came along when
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the Internet was just ramping up, and I learned quickly
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: that that just to put as much content as possible
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: without worrying about getting paid or whatever. Just put it
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: out there. It's the The Internet is pure promotion. It's
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: just about creating, creating content and let the algorithm do
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  Speaker 1: its work. And it's worked well. In school at high school,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: were you the funny funny guy in class? I was
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the Yeah, I was the It's all about timing, knowing
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: when to turn it on and turn it off. I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: think most comedians have that idea of timing, Okay, this
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  Speaker 1: is my time to to step in and get you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: deliver something. But really a lot of a lot of voices,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know, I would do voice impersonations and stupid songs
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and just just being just being kids, the things that
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: we laugh at. Yeah, that was always something that was
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I felt good and felt like I could do it
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  Speaker 1: better than other people. You see, I think most most
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: people are funny. I think they just don't write it
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: down and they don't pursue it. I've got I've got
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: many friends that are funnier than I am, I think.
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  Speaker 1: But but being funny in front of strangers, that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of the the goal and the challenge. Let's circle back
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to your special fistball. Well, what do you want people
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to know about it? Oh, it's just mayhem, just more
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of the same, just more. You're not going to get
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: anything out of it. Uh in a spiritual probably you know,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: philosophical way. It's it's uh, yeah, it's just just me
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: doing a thing. I mean, you just I still love
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: creating comedy and I still love making music and and performing.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: It's it's you know, the travel got to be really tough.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I do about half the shows that I used to do,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and I got four grandkids now, so it's nice to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: be home more. And and it's a good speed. It's
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a good speech for me, so uh but yeah, it's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: just it's just I think it's a it's a good special.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: We shot it in Franklin Theater and Franklin, Tennessee and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: just a lot of fun. And yeah, I I think
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: it's as good as any that you've ever done. So
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I'll give it thank you two times up from my end.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Tim Hoggins dot net is the website Tim thinks, got it?
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Got it? You're welcome. That's dock you.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to the team at Life Audio for their partnership with
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: their network.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: See you next time.