Latest / Only Bombs! Comedy Podcast / Tony Scar on Musical Comedy, Finding His Voice & Feeling Alive | Only Bombs! 42

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Tony Scar on Musical Comedy, Finding His Voice & Feeling Alive | Only Bombs! 42 · Only Bombs! Comedy Podcast

• 0:03
  Today, my guest, he's a comedian from Iowa City,
• 0:07
  Iowa. He's a very talented guy, mixing standup,
• 0:10
  crowd work, music, original music, which is fucking
• 0:13
  badass. And you know, you write some great comedy,
• 0:16
  man. I'm so happy to have Tony Scarr today. Tony,
• 0:19
  welcome to Only Bombs, dude. What's up, man?
• 0:20
  Thank you for having me. Hell yeah, bro. I was
• 0:22
  watching the clips of this show, and I was like,
• 0:24
  man, I fucking, I wanna be on it. Dude, I'm glad,
• 0:28
  man. Thank you. Yeah. Well, I feel like not a
• 0:29
  lot of people show the behind the scenes, because
• 0:31
  behind every joke and every set is a comedian
• 0:35
  with some kind of story to tell, and they're
• 0:37
  trying to get it out with laughter. You know?
• 0:40
  So having something like this, and you were talking
• 0:42
  about whatever show it was you referenced before,
• 0:45
  where it's like they showed the other side of
• 0:47
  actors, like the behind the scenes of acting.
• 0:49
  I think it's even more important for comedy,
• 0:51
  because with comedy, it's like all comics are
• 0:54
  so deeply disturbed people. You know what I mean?
• 0:57
  Dude, yeah. No. Yeah. That's really what it was.
• 0:59
  The show I was referring to was Inside the Actors
• 1:01
  Studio, and I think like the older kind of generation,
• 1:04
  I guess, would probably remember that one. But
• 1:07
  yeah, man, essentially like it just came from
• 1:10
  just performing comedy, like just being standard
• 1:13
  comedian myself. And then whenever I went out,
• 1:16
  it was like people would just say just like some
• 1:18
  crazy things. And I was like, there's got to
• 1:20
  be something more to it. And then when you just
• 1:23
  sit down and you just have these conversations,
• 1:25
  you know how, like, when you're hanging out with
• 1:26
  comedians and stuff, like, they'll really just
• 1:28
  open up. And sometimes their stories are just
• 1:32
  like, wow, dude. Yeah. And what a lot of people
• 1:35
  don't understand is comedy is so expansive. Right.
• 1:38
  Like, being on stage is probably 10 % of comedy.
• 1:45
  You're right. Yeah. Writing is another 10 % of
• 1:49
  comedy. Mm -hmm, then you got to sell tickets
• 1:51
  then you got to build a website then you got
• 1:53
  to do all these other like it's so Expansive
• 1:56
  and it's so funny because when you start off
• 1:57
  you have no idea like you're just like I like
• 1:59
  telling you I'm gonna write a good dick joke.
• 2:01
  That's an arch -fear quote It's like you guys
• 2:03
  don't know what the fuck you're doing. Just write
• 2:04
  a good dick joke Why are you guys arguing bickering
• 2:06
  with each other? He had a stand -up master class
• 2:09
  that he put out on YouTube that I watched when
• 2:11
  I first started got to Austin people like you
• 2:12
  got to watch this to get better I was like word
• 2:14
  and Ralphie may have one, too Stand -up master
• 2:18
  class and so I watched those through and one
• 2:19
  of the things that stuck with me was all right
• 2:21
  It was like quit arguing with each other don't
• 2:23
  have beef with other comics You're all just trying
• 2:24
  to write a good dick joke. You don't even know
• 2:26
  what comedy is yet Well said yeah legit though
• 2:29
  legit like that that makes sense like in its
• 2:33
  simplicity It's like, that's basically, that's
• 2:36
  exactly what it is, man. It's just like, you
• 2:37
  guys are all trying to, you know, you're all
• 2:39
  in the same craft, you know? Yeah. It's like,
• 2:42
  it's really, it's really epic, like, just when
• 2:44
  you kind of do see everybody's process. And I
• 2:47
  think that's another interesting thing is because
• 2:49
  everybody, like, so writing, it's like, you know,
• 2:52
  it's not really like, writing comedy isn't like
• 2:54
  theater. Right. Like, you know, theater, like,
• 2:56
  you know, you get a script, you follow the script.
• 2:59
  But this is like the script that you're making.
• 3:02
  That you are changing and it's fluid. Yeah, you
• 3:05
  know and it changes like with crowds It changes
• 3:07
  with like, you know cities and things like that.
• 3:09
  It's like it's wild, dude It's really in a really
• 3:12
  incredible. It's terrifying art form I mean not
• 3:15
  for us because we do it but like other people
• 3:17
  looking on like I forgot the other day I was
• 3:20
  like I got off stage and someone came with me
• 3:21
  and they're like, I don't know how you do it
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  It was a Shakespeare's like what do you mean?
• 3:26
  how I do. It's 25 people in Shakespeare. It wasn't
• 3:28
  like a huge show. It wasn't a headlining show.
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  I was just doing 10, 15. And they were like,
• 3:33
  I don't know how you do it. I was like, even
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  that's terrifying to people. Like just being
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  up in public speaking in front of 20 people,
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  having 15 minutes of something to say to people.
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  And what I do is scarier, I think, to a lot of
• 3:45
  people because I interact with the crowd. A lot
• 3:47
  of people like to put a barrier between them
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  and the crowd and think like, okay, I'm going
• 3:52
  to do my set and everybody's going to listen
• 3:53
  and laugh. And that just feels so, there's something
• 3:57
  like almost inauthentic, I mean, definitely inauthentic
• 4:00
  about that. Like, oh, you know that this comic
• 4:04
  has thought of these jokes for months and done
• 4:06
  them for months and perfected them for months
• 4:08
  and you're gonna listen to them like, oh, this
• 4:10
  is, you know what happened to me yesterday? Mm
• 4:13
  -hmm, right. You know, I just feel like there's
• 4:15
  something, there's gotta be something more to
• 4:17
  it. Yeah, I think the audience, even if they
• 4:20
  don't know, like that you're sort of like, you
• 4:23
  know, pulling out the whole, like, you know,
• 4:25
  oh, yeah, the other day I saw, you know, like,
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  I think that they can still feel it, that it's,
• 4:30
  nah, that didn't really happen. Right. You know
• 4:32
  what I mean? Or like, it wasn't the other day.
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  I think it feels something. You know, and I love
• 4:37
  that you just said, like, just being authentic
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  and how important being authentic is. Yeah. You
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  know, that was a part of my journey, too, is
• 4:45
  to stop writing these street jokes. and start,
• 4:48
  like, really pulling for myself. Well, you can
• 4:50
  take, like, two routes. I tell a lot of comics
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  this. When I get asked for advice, there's a
• 4:53
  lot of things I give for advice, but the main
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  one is, you've got two routes to take with comedy.
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  One, understand that this is the very first step.
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  Writing a joke and being great on stage, being
• 5:02
  undeniably funny every time is step one. Adam
• 5:06
  Ray said to me, just keep in mind, when you start
• 5:10
  headlining, that's like, you're at the starting
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  line. Like, this is when it all starts, is when
• 5:14
  you start figuring out stuff. When you start
• 5:16
  headlining, you are starting to run the race.
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  It's like, holy fuck. But it takes so long to
• 5:22
  get there, you know what I mean? For so many
• 5:23
  people. And I'm lucky enough that it didn't take
• 5:25
  as long for me, but it's crazy. There's two ways,
• 5:29
  anyways, the advice is, there's two ways to become
• 5:32
  yourself on stage. When you... yourself in the
• 5:35
  most authentic funny version of yourself, or
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  two, you see who you want to be on stage and
• 5:40
  you become that person. Almost like a caricature
• 5:44
  of yourself. And either way, you end up as a
• 5:47
  caricature of yourself. Either you do that naturally
• 5:50
  by just being yourself or unnaturally by trying
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  to become a person and then falling back into
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  yourself as you get more comfortable. And I did
• 5:58
  the second one. I went up, first time I went
• 6:00
  up, I went up as not as dice, but... Doing dice
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  I had a leather jacket on I didn't have fingerless
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  gloves because I couldn't find any but man was
• 6:08
  I shopping So I was just I went up and I did
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  comedy for the first time and about a fucking
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  gay bar in Iowa City, Iowa It's the only comedy
• 6:18
  place in Iowa City Iowa is the basement of a
• 6:20
  gay bar And so right above the stage on the floor
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  above us is the it's the same layout upstairs
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  So it's like the drag queens stage and I was
• 6:28
  trying to do my jokes and the drag queens were
• 6:31
  literally stomping on the floor stepping on my
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  punchlines. They'd be stomped. You could hear
• 6:35
  a chaperone blaring through the ceiling. No way.
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  Thin, thin floor. Wow. Thin floor. Very gay floor.
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  Very gay floor. And so they'd be just stomped
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  on the fucking thing. And then you could hear
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  the music coming down from the stairwell, and
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  it was just such a headache. And so these drag
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  queens would always fucking stomp and stomp and
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  stomp and stomp. I was like, there's no way I
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  can do standup over this. This is the only place
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  to do it in the city I'm in. What if I use the
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  stomp? I was like, that could be like a metronome
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  and I could bring my guitar and I could do guitar
• 7:10
  comedy. And so I asked the guys and I was like,
• 7:13
  has anybody here ever done guitar comedy? And
• 7:15
  they're like, yeah, one guy, but he sucked. I
• 7:17
  was like, okay, that's fucking, I'm in. You know
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  what I mean? Nobody's done it. Nobody's done
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  it. Cool. And I grew up watching Bo Burnham.
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  I fucking love Bo Burnham. Incredible and so
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  I was just like I want to do that and I went
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  up and my first song was Like how did I not know
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  my girlfriend was two midgets in a trench coat
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  It was the opening line and then it was like,
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  you know And I had some good lines in there I
• 7:46
  missed that song like one of the lines was like
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  I should have known it makes sense She told me
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  her pronouns were they them. You know what I
• 7:54
  mean? This is like, there were so many good lines.
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  From the get when I started leaning in, because
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  I had a real problem, and I still do, of being
• 8:02
  myself on stage. Look, I don't really care to
• 8:07
  talk about myself on stage, to be honest. I don't
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  give a fuck. Why am I more important than anybody
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  else in the room that I get to talk about myself?
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  That's why I do songs that are so absurd that
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  they almost mock a comedy. Like, my closer is
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  like, I remember the first time I caught my parents
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  fucking, you know what I mean? It's that joke.
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  And I go into a story that's so obviously not
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  true. And everyone in the room knows it's not
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  true. And they can, like, it's almost like a
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  collective agreeance that, okay, this isn't true,
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  but it is funny and we're laughing anyways, just
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  because it's absurd. And so I bring people into
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  this, like, realm of absurdity, which is where
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  my comedy lives. And I think that that's... very
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  unique way to do it. Yeah, it's almost like slapstick
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  with words. It is. Yeah, I love it. I love it
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  because it you you do such an incredible job
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  of like painting a picture of like just this
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  this awesome like absurdity, but it's just done.
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  Well, like it really is done. Well, like legit
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  like and I know I was just telling you I'm like
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  I really like I'm not really a fan of like guitar
• 9:08
  comedy, you know, but uh, but when I heard it
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  just like it's just a way that you did it, you
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  know, like and you know, I know we talked about
• 9:15
  your, you know, kill Tony uh experiences and
• 9:18
  everything like in in what you were saying there
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  but it was uh but not seriously man like the
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  just that absurdity is what makes it so freaking
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  awesome is that you're not gonna get just the
• 9:28
  cut and dry just like bullshit ass stuff like
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  you know and that's awesome man it's like you're
• 9:33
  setting yourself apart which is cool but i did
• 9:36
  want to ask you like martins or tailors which
• 9:38
  one do you prefer so i play on a tailor Hell
• 9:43
  yes. Which one do I prefer? Whichever one wants
• 9:45
  to sponsor me and get me a free fucking guitar.
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  I started playing on an ovation and I think I'll
• 9:52
  be an ovation guy till I die because man does
• 9:55
  that rounded back sound pretty. It does. But
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  fucking, it's against the body. When you play
• 10:02
  standing, it doesn't feel the same. And I stand
• 10:05
  when I'm on stage and I use this tool. Yeah,
• 10:08
  so that's that's an issue for me is the rounded
• 10:10
  body, but my favorite guitar maker ovations till
• 10:14
  a day I die 1982 some burst ovation vintage ovation.
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  It was my first guitar really Yeah, my first
• 10:25
  I had like a shitty one that I started on, but
• 10:27
  it was like a Walmart guitar, you know what I
• 10:29
  mean? Sure, like a first act. Yeah, something
• 10:31
  like that. Yeah, it's like the strings are all,
• 10:33
  it comes pre -bowed, you know? Yeah, that's great.
• 10:37
  That's nice. Oh, they don't even tune cool. Yeah,
• 10:40
  what the fuck? Yeah, they're like bungee cords.
• 10:43
  It's like dude. Hey, I think you put violin strings
• 10:45
  on this thing. I don't know Yeah, it's like hello
• 10:49
  Yeah, please better as a drum than it does as
• 10:51
  a guitar. Just tap on the bass. Yeah, dude. It
• 10:53
  breaks if you squeeze it, you know Yeah, dude,
• 10:57
  I uh, no, man, I was just wondering cuz I seen
• 10:59
  you play on both I seen you play the Martin and
• 11:01
  the Taylor and I was like I uh when I like Depending
• 11:04
  upon which direction I want to go in, if I want
• 11:06
  more of a folk kind of sound, it might go Martin,
• 11:08
  but I really love the brightness of a tailor.
• 11:11
  The Martin was theirs. I played on the Martin
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  the first time I was on Killtony, right? Because
• 11:16
  I went on, I did my minute, and I knew I was
• 11:22
  going to do musical comedy, but you can't open
• 11:24
  with that. You have to let them trust you enough
• 11:26
  to bring out the musical comedy, because it's
• 11:28
  very different. You can't walk out on Killtony
• 11:30
  with the fucking puppet. What the fuck are you
• 11:31
  doing? Shove that puppet back up your ass, do
• 11:34
  comedy first, and then come back with your fucking
• 11:37
  puppet butt. You know what I mean? It's like
• 11:39
  you got to have your variety come after, because
• 11:41
  it's not stand up and it's a stand up show. And
• 11:43
  so I came on, I did stand up, a minute of stand
• 11:45
  up, fucking killed it. It was great. I was so
• 11:47
  excited. You could see the light in my eyes as
• 11:50
  I hit the first punch, because it was real quiet.
• 11:53
  And I was following who to this day is one of
• 11:55
  my, and I know him well now, but one of my favorite
• 11:57
  fucking comedians I saw him on. I think he's
• 11:59
  one of the funniest people on earth. There is
• 12:01
  nobody that can get a crowd rolling and stay
• 12:04
  laughing. Like, because comedy, the interesting
• 12:07
  thing about a sonomat is because there's so many
• 12:09
  interesting, fuck, intricacies in comedy and
• 12:13
  the way that it works. In my comedy especially,
• 12:16
  I make a lot of use of negative space. So, like,
• 12:19
  there's tension that builds up when you're creating
• 12:22
  a premise and a punch line and pulling people
• 12:24
  into something. And you're building up and winding
• 12:26
  up that tension. And then when you hit a punch
• 12:28
  line, you relieve that tension. And that's how
• 12:31
  I know comedy to work. That's how I know how
• 12:34
  to get laughter. You build up tension, then you
• 12:36
  relieve it, and the relief of that tension causes
• 12:38
  laughter. And to relieve that tension, you have
• 12:41
  to build it up... And you have to do that with
• 12:43
  not hitting punchlines. And Assan hits punchlines
• 12:46
  every 10 seconds, and the laughs never stop.
• 12:49
  I have no idea how he does it. It's great writing,
• 12:52
  and he's just a great performer. That's how he
• 12:54
  does it. But there's, like, a certain something
• 12:56
  sparked there that he does to the audience, where,
• 12:59
  like, it's like a wave, a sea of laughter throughout
• 13:02
  the audience. People will be cracking up at different
• 13:04
  times. It's, like, not even on the punchline.
• 13:07
  Like, they'll laugh at different parts of the
• 13:09
  setup. It's like, uh... It's like, they laugh
• 13:13
  like you're popping popcorn in the microwave.
• 13:16
  It's like, you don't know what kernel's gonna
• 13:17
  pop, and you don't know when. You just put it
• 13:19
  in the fucking microwave when a song gets on
• 13:20
  stage, and everybody's popping, you know? That's
• 13:22
  such a great analogy. Yeah, his, one of my favorite
• 13:24
  jokes that he did, like, I don't know if he still
• 13:26
  does it, but I remember from a while ago, was
• 13:27
  the New York Jets one. Like, I don't know if
• 13:30
  you heard that one. Like, you might have to ask
• 13:32
  him about it, because it was like, it was so,
• 13:34
  it's so damn funny, and it's so, like, clever.
• 13:37
  Like, it's just the way that he put it all together.
• 13:39
  I was like... Damn, dude, that was fucking hilarious.
• 13:42
  And for me, it was kind of a slow burn because
• 13:43
  I didn't get it at first. And then when he hit
• 13:45
  me, I was like, I fucking love that joke. Yeah,
• 13:48
  it's such a great. He's so hilarious. He's fucking
• 13:50
  amazing. I love a son of mine. And he's so smart,
• 13:54
  bro. Yeah, some of the things you'll see with
• 13:56
  some of these comics is like everybody has a
• 13:58
  different kind of like intelligence Like a lot
• 14:00
  of comedians connect with emotional intelligence
• 14:03
  Jimmy Carr is I think the greatest fucking comic
• 14:06
  of all time. He's so fucking good. He's so fucking
• 14:08
  good But he's like intelligent intelligent like
• 14:11
  smart like book smart intelligence You know what?
• 14:13
  I mean, right a sauna mod is just quick and like
• 14:18
  fast and smart He's fucking, he's the best. Not
• 14:21
  to glaze a song on the fucking bottle, but he's
• 14:24
  fucking awesome, dude. No, he really is. I love
• 14:26
  his political commentaries. Like when he does
• 14:28
  those little political commentaries on like Instagram
• 14:30
  or something like that, like I always think that
• 14:33
  I'm like, dude, this is hilarious. And a very
• 14:36
  smart take on this as well. Like he's just, yeah,
• 14:39
  no, he's just a great, great comedian. Like,
• 14:41
  you know, I love that dude. You know, like I
• 14:43
  love seeing him, seeing him live, seeing him
• 14:45
  at a... Mothership quite a bit, you know, just
• 14:48
  open up for a Joe Rogan and friends, you know,
• 14:50
  I need you to catch him like literally I think
• 14:51
  he's been on several episodes of Joe Rogan. Yeah.
• 14:54
  Yeah. Yeah. No, he's all he's the goat So how'd
• 14:57
  you get into comedy like to begin with? It seems
• 14:59
  like you did music first, right? Yeah, I did
• 15:01
  music when I was a teenager the music in your
• 15:03
  teenager I got into comedy So I watched comedy
• 15:07
  as a kid. I watched Andrew Schultz clips with
• 15:10
  my dad all the time his crowd were clips Love
• 15:13
  that shit, man. And then I watched a lot of all
• 15:15
  Anthony Jeselnik specials, and I loved Jeselnik.
• 15:17
  And then I went to a live Jeselnik show, and
• 15:20
  there was really something special about it.
• 15:21
  You saw him live? Live in Des Moines. It was
• 15:24
  phenomenal. That's amazing. And what I didn't
• 15:27
  understand until I started comedy, like, way
• 15:29
  later is, like, he is a perfect example of mastering
• 15:33
  the fundamentals of comedy. You have a setup,
• 15:37
  a misdirect, and a punch, and then tags. And
• 15:40
  that's... not all his comedy is, obviously it's
• 15:43
  more complex than that, but it's just really
• 15:46
  refined basics to his comedy. Nothing's like,
• 15:49
  everything's coming out of left field, but at
• 15:51
  the same time, you can kinda see everything coming.
• 15:53
  You know it's gonna be a dead baby joke, you
• 15:55
  just don't know when the baby's gonna die. I
• 15:57
  was just thinking of the casket joke that he
• 15:59
  had. Yeah, they're all fucking gold, dude. Yeah,
• 16:02
  and like, what I love about Jessalynick is that,
• 16:05
  like, it's just like what you just said pretty
• 16:07
  much. Like, you know what's coming. But he had
• 16:10
  like dude. It's like he's a psychic like he knows
• 16:12
  what you know, and then he still flips it somehow
• 16:14
  Yeah, like you're you're not he's like the punchline
• 16:17
  You're not gonna get it like or like you're not
• 16:19
  gonna be able to pinpoint what it's gonna be
• 16:21
  Yeah, you know, but it's gonna be fucking great
• 16:23
  I mean, he's a great example of like what I think
• 16:26
  a lot of comics should learn from him and a lot
• 16:28
  of comics, too I don't know if you've been to
• 16:29
  open mics recently, but everybody's doing just
• 16:31
  like oh really Yeah, I'm gonna see it tonight.
• 16:35
  Probably. Part of it's because it's like, you
• 16:37
  know, it's the basic, like, set up this direct
• 16:40
  punch, and that's an easy way to start doing
• 16:42
  comedy, but knowing your audience is so much
• 16:44
  of it, too. Like, knowing what the audience is
• 16:47
  thinking. You allude to certain things. They
• 16:49
  think certain things. You play off what they're
• 16:52
  thinking when you don't say it. Like Mitch Hedberg.
• 16:55
  Mitch Hedberg in every one of his jokes has a
• 16:57
  word missing. Have you noticed this? No. So he
• 17:00
  lets you make connect the dots in your head,
• 17:03
  and that's why Hedberg's funny. You can never,
• 17:08
  you can never break an escalator. Right. It can
• 17:12
  just become stairs. That's a Hedberg joke. Classic
• 17:16
  joke. There is one word missing there. But. Oh.
• 17:20
  He never says the but. And it is the... key to
• 17:23
  his comedy. Now I see, yeah. Because when you
• 17:27
  say the butt, that is a complete sentence, but
• 17:29
  it's never a complete sentence. You can never
• 17:31
  break an escalator. It can just become stairs.
• 17:36
  Right. And that's hilarious, but the reason it's
• 17:38
  hilarious is because you connect the dots in
• 17:39
  your head. He doesn't put the butt there. No,
• 17:43
  that's right. I never noticed that, actually.
• 17:46
  Now I'm going to have to go back and just watch
• 17:47
  the specials. Every joke. Yeah. Every joke. It's
• 17:50
  his formula. Every comic has a formula. My formula
• 17:53
  is come up with the premise and make it so absurd
• 17:56
  that nobody knows what the fuck is going on and
• 17:58
  that it's funny. But it's good though. Yeah.
• 18:00
  It's good. Dude, it's like kind of like watching
• 18:02
  or like listening to like Aeroplane, like the
• 18:05
  movie Aeroplane. It's just like you got like
• 18:07
  this great music going on that's really just
• 18:10
  like setting the mood and setting the tone. And
• 18:12
  you're a good singer too. I appreciate it. And
• 18:14
  like you have this great music. And then all
• 18:17
  of a sudden just this fucking funny shit on top
• 18:19
  of it. It's like, that's what I loved about your
• 18:22
  stuff, man. It's just, that's really good, dude.
• 18:24
  So I've kind of written my own goofy songs every
• 18:29
  now and again. I would just sit there, I had
• 18:30
  this one song, like, why do cats have knives
• 18:32
  in their paws? And I'm just like, just a goofy
• 18:35
  song. But you decided to take it onto stage.
• 18:41
  Was there a catalyst for that? I didn't, I started...
• 18:44
  So this is fucking, this is crazy, actually.
• 18:47
  When I was like 14 to 16 or 17, I had this app
• 18:53
  called Yubo. Do you know what Yubo is? No. Yubo's
• 18:57
  fucking crazy, dog. Yubo is Tinder for teenagers.
• 19:01
  What? Yeah. It's bad. Yubo is Tinder for teenagers.
• 19:05
  You swipe left and swipe right to make friends.
• 19:08
  No shit. And so I was... like, 14 to 16, 17 on
• 19:12
  there, um, on their, like, Yubo livestream, swiping
• 19:16
  on different chicks that were all over the United
• 19:18
  States and whatever, and I was just on video
• 19:20
  chats with them, and I was trying to swoon them
• 19:21
  with the guitar. And so I just, I'd be playing
• 19:24
  my guitar and singing, and at the time, I couldn't
• 19:26
  sing very well. And then I'd just try to make
• 19:28
  them laugh. And so I started by making women
• 19:31
  laugh on live streams while I'm like video chatting
• 19:34
  with them. Oh wow. Over like FaceTime, whatever
• 19:36
  the fuck, off Ubo. In hindsight, that app is
• 19:40
  fucking terrifying. Yeah, because the second
• 19:43
  you said that I was like, are we on this right
• 19:46
  now? Yeah, like we need I was like we need to
• 19:48
  fucking like get the government on this shit
• 19:50
  Like seriously shut this thing down. I was I
• 19:52
  was I was talking about it the other day with
• 19:54
  my buddy and he was like There's does it have
• 19:56
  age verification? So I looked and they do now
• 19:58
  but I know for a fact they did not when I was
• 20:00
  on it There is no fucking way dude there every
• 20:03
  once in a while There'd be like an old person
• 20:05
  that joint would join and we would just yell
• 20:07
  at them until they'd leave Absolutely. Yeah.
• 20:09
  Yeah, but it's like like pedophile haven oh god
• 20:13
  yeah it's the worst it's the worst it kind of
• 20:16
  reminds me like a truth or dare and fucking like
• 20:18
  you know drinker or strip or whatever on these
• 20:21
  live streams we're teenagers we're just fucking
• 20:23
  around it's like think like omegle but it's like
• 20:26
  multiple people like chat roulette but it's more
• 20:28
  than one person on these live streams terrifying
• 20:31
  dude and then it also has like a tinder aspect
• 20:33
  to it that's weird but anyways that's how i was
• 20:36
  playing guitar and singing and making silly little
• 20:40
  songs about people that were on these live streams
• 20:43
  to make these women laugh. And that's how I started
• 20:47
  making the funny songs. And then I made like
• 20:49
  serious songs for a long time. And I was noticing
• 20:52
  that everything I wrote was fucking sad, bro.
• 20:56
  Great songs, phenomenal songs. sad songs. It's
• 21:01
  like, I would love to put those out into the
• 21:03
  world, but if I put them out, someone's gonna
• 21:04
  hear it and be like, damn, I should kill myself.
• 21:06
  And I don't wanna do that, you know what I mean?
• 21:08
  It's like, I wanna make people feel better about
• 21:11
  themselves, and you can do that in a way where
• 21:13
  you create something sad and someone relates
• 21:15
  to it, but then they don't feel better, they
• 21:16
  just relate to it, you know? Oh yeah, yeah, that's
• 21:20
  an interesting perspective. And so, yeah, I don't
• 21:23
  know, that's how I started. I started with that.
• 21:25
  I didn't really do a whole lot of goofy songs
• 21:26
  on my own, though. I just kind of took it up
• 21:30
  on stage. I was like, fuck, nobody's doing this
• 21:32
  guitar thing. We'll see how it goes. Do you sit
• 21:35
  at home and practice these sort of goofy songs,
• 21:37
  or is it just something that you're just like,
• 21:39
  I'm going to wing this shit because I know what
• 21:40
  I'm going to say? The songs are like, I can't
• 21:46
  take a half finished song to a micro show. It
• 21:49
  has to be complete. It has to be complete and
• 21:51
  memorized, or it will bomb 100 % of the time.
• 21:54
  Gotcha. And so that creates a tougher process
• 21:56
  for me than a lot of comics, because you can
• 21:58
  bring a premise on stage with one punch, try
• 21:59
  the premise and the punch, and then, you know,
• 22:02
  maybe you have tags that you add later. I can't
• 22:04
  do that. I have to bring the song to an open,
• 22:07
  have a chord progression, memorize all the lyrics,
• 22:09
  bring the song to a close so it doesn't feel
• 22:10
  open -ended, or it'll bomb. Yeah. And so I have
• 22:14
  to have it, like, every lyric, like, down, packed
• 22:18
  before I bring it onto a stage. Uh, but like
• 22:20
  my writing process, my writing processes is a
• 22:24
  little different. I have some, a couple different
• 22:26
  writing processes that are pretty fucking wild.
• 22:28
  Yeah, well, what are they let's go through. Well,
• 22:31
  yeah, so I've got I've got one So I'm reading
• 22:34
  a Rick Rubin book right now and I say reading
• 22:36
  book. I mean listening to an audiobook That's
• 22:40
  the same thing Me too, I've been telling people
• 22:42
  I'm reading all the time. I'll just listen to
• 22:45
  fucking audio books How are you reading with
• 22:47
  headphones on don't worry about it, dude, leave
• 22:49
  me alone. This is a book podcast at most But
• 22:54
  I'm reading a Rick Rubin book, listening to a
• 22:57
  Rick Rubin book called The Creative Act. And
• 23:00
  he has something that finally makes sense to
• 23:02
  me. He said, the only way to come up with a great
• 23:06
  idea to be creative is to, like he has this theory
• 23:10
  that you are not the one creating the art. The
• 23:13
  universe is creating it and you are the mouthpiece
• 23:15
  for the universe. And so it is flowing through
• 23:18
  you and the universe is letting you let that
• 23:21
  art out into the world. And so that explains
• 23:24
  why a lot of people feel like their ideas are
• 23:26
  taken if they don't act on them. But it's the
• 23:28
  universe's time for that idea to be out into
• 23:30
  the world. And so if you don't do it, someone
• 23:32
  else will. Whoa. Very interesting. Yeah, very
• 23:35
  interesting. I think that's happened to a lot
• 23:37
  of creative people. Yeah. Where all of a sudden
• 23:39
  you see something, I know it's happened to me,
• 23:41
  like, I listened to some guitar riffs and I was
• 23:42
  just like, dude, I fucking wrote one just like
• 23:45
  that. Yeah. And it's not because, you know, it's
• 23:48
  not because they're copying you, but it's because
• 23:49
  the universe decided it was time that that idea
• 23:51
  got out and you didn't do it so someone else
• 23:53
  did. All hail Rick Rubin. Yeah, all hail Rick
• 23:56
  Rubin. And he has this theory that because everything
• 24:02
  flows into your head and out, the only way to
• 24:04
  get creative ideas is to not look for them. To
• 24:07
  create an open space in your brain to let the
• 24:09
  universe bring you those ideas when it sees fit
• 24:12
  and then spit the ideas out. And when it gives
• 24:14
  you an idea, you must act on it or it won't give
• 24:16
  you more. And so that's why a lot of artists
• 24:18
  are fucking crazy is because the only thing they
• 24:21
  care about is... empty head space to let the
• 24:24
  ether flow into their head and like spit out
• 24:26
  ideas. Every great joke I've ever gotten, I cannot
• 24:29
  tell you where it's come from. Straight out of
• 24:32
  the ether. Like, and I can sit down and write
• 24:34
  a fucking great joke. Like yesterday I was writing
• 24:37
  a joke about the diary of Anne Frank. Oh, I think
• 24:41
  I saw like a little clip of you talking about
• 24:43
  that and how it was required reading. It's required
• 24:45
  reading in Iowa for seventh graders. First of
• 24:48
  all, reading in Iowa? You know? We don't read.
• 24:54
  If you can read in seventh grade in Iowa, they
• 24:56
  give you a trophy and put you on the news. You're
• 24:59
  a national treasure. And then you're still there
• 25:02
  looking at the teleprompter like, I am proud
• 25:05
  to be the best reader in Iowa. You know? Where's
• 25:17
  Iowa? Right, seriously. What? Are we is Iowa?
• 25:21
  Are we is Iowa? That's a great sentence. Are
• 25:25
  we is Iowa? Yeah. But just like that's something
• 25:29
  I wrote on the couch last night. And it's like,
• 25:31
  so I try to give myself an idea. When I'm writing
• 25:34
  stand up is very different than when I'm writing
• 25:35
  musical comedy. I give myself an idea and then
• 25:39
  I see how many places I can take it. So like
• 25:41
  I think yesterday I posted two different clips
• 25:43
  and I wrote it out like stand -up and then I
• 25:44
  told it like I was just saying something. Because
• 25:47
  you can do that. You can write a stand -up bit
• 25:48
  but it'll often perform better on social media
• 25:50
  if you're just talking to the camera instead
• 25:52
  of recording yourself doing stand -up because
• 25:55
  people don't appreciate our art form as much
• 25:57
  as they should. Exactly. But like the other one
• 26:02
  is like the Diary of Anne Frank. OK, so if we're
• 26:04
  on that topic, what is the Diary of Anne Frank
• 26:06
  about? I googled it. I've never read it, but
• 26:08
  I googled it. And it's the whole thing is about
• 26:11
  a pussy. No way. She's 13 years old, dude. She's
• 26:15
  13 years old, stuck in an attic. She's exploring
• 26:17
  a woman's body. You know and I wouldn't call
• 26:20
  that a woman, but you know a politician would
• 26:22
  so You know she's explored stuff And and so the
• 26:30
  boast of the most of it is about her like being
• 26:32
  so excited because she got her period and like
• 26:34
  learning different like she's like takes notes
• 26:35
  on like how to Masturbate she might as well have
• 26:37
  drawn a fucking diagram of her poon tank, dude
• 26:39
  Wow, she's the first person on you bow Bro, Ian
• 26:47
  Frank would have loved that app, dude. Can you
• 26:50
  imagine you're stuck in an attic with nothing
• 26:52
  to do, Nazis pounding on the door, there's nothing
• 26:55
  better to do than jerk off on a livestream for
• 26:57
  a 14 -year -old boy, are you kidding me? Aw,
• 27:00
  dude. Yeah, man. You know what, this is so fun,
• 27:03
  I'm gonna write a book about it. Well, and then
• 27:06
  her closing note in the book was like, I hope...
• 27:09
  people never find out that there's this other
• 27:11
  side of me. That there's this different and better
• 27:13
  side of me. That's an exact quote. I hope people
• 27:15
  never find out that there's this other side of
• 27:17
  me, this different, or sorry, this better and
• 27:20
  finer side of me, which is basically her saying
• 27:22
  in a very poetic and beautiful way, I hope nobody
• 27:24
  finds out I wrote about my pussy this much. I
• 27:28
  hope nobody publishes my diary. And then her,
• 27:32
  like, one of her family members is the one that
• 27:34
  published it. Like, Otto Frank is the one who
• 27:36
  published it. And now it's required reading for
• 27:39
  all seven. So now all seven graders are reading
• 27:41
  about Anne Frank. I wonder how many, like, 14
• 27:43
  -year -old boys are, like, reading, like, actually
• 27:45
  do their homework. And they're like, God, am
• 27:47
  I gonna fucking crush on Anne Frank? I kind of
• 27:50
  like Anne Frank. I like Anne Frank. That's crazy.
• 27:52
  Little Jewish girl. I bet he didn't even read
• 27:55
  it. I bet he was like, oh man, this seems like
• 27:56
  a lot of words and pages. And then they're like,
• 27:58
  dude, did you see that last line though? Oh fuck,
• 28:01
  sorry, Anne. Moppy. Crazy, dude. It's fucking
• 28:06
  wild. But that's just like understanding that,
• 28:10
  you know, you see one thing and there's so many
• 28:12
  other things that go into it. Like, you know,
• 28:15
  you can pick anything. Matter of fact, let's
• 28:17
  do something. Throw something out there and let's
• 28:18
  write a joke. You wanna do that? Okay, yeah sure
• 28:21
  sure yeah, let's see llamas because I've got
• 28:23
  a ton of llamas around me llamas Okay, first
• 28:26
  thing that comes to mind llamas spit a lot. They
• 28:29
  do God God a llama must give great fucking head
• 28:33
  I'm just saying if you're spitting all the time
• 28:37
  anyways, we might as well use the fucking spit
• 28:40
  it spits a lot Well, I guess that answers that
• 28:41
  question I don't want the llama. Llama's not
• 28:46
  gonna swallow. Llama, llama, white pajamas. Yeah,
• 28:53
  man, I love doing shit like that, but it also
• 28:56
  kind of validates the way that I also write too.
• 29:01
  And I hear this a lot too from other comedians,
• 29:04
  the whole sitting down and writing deal, like
• 29:08
  Jerry Seinfelding it. I can't do that, man. I
• 29:11
  have to let it just kind of like... come into
• 29:13
  my head. Who do you want to be? Do you want to
• 29:16
  be Jerry Seinfeld? No, me neither. You're talking
• 29:20
  about cotton balls. And I'm not saying he's not
• 29:21
  great, but I am saying he's not the kind of comic
• 29:24
  I want to become. Exactly. So I can sit down
• 29:26
  and I can write a joke. I can't sit down and
• 29:29
  write a premise. Oh. So that's the difference.
• 29:33
  You know, you can't sit down and come up with
• 29:35
  a crazy angle on something most of the time.
• 29:39
  And when you get, you know, when you recognize
• 29:42
  Like the pattern that you do in a joke writing
• 29:44
  process then you can like I can sit down and
• 29:47
  I can write a joke about anything I can write
• 29:49
  a song about anything you give me 30 minutes
• 29:51
  I'll come back to you with a new song and it'll
• 29:52
  be hilarious, right but It won't be as Authentic
• 29:58
  as I want it to be because I spent all this time
• 30:01
  pumping it I won't love it as much because I
• 30:03
  didn't get this aha moment like oh shit I should
• 30:06
  write about this. Yeah, like I'm writing one
• 30:08
  right now about, I wrote a couple days ago a
• 30:12
  love song. It was like a, I wanted to make a
• 30:15
  sad song that was funny. And I was like, what
• 30:18
  can, you know, what, when, there's a stand -up
• 30:22
  teacher who talks about this a lot. It's like,
• 30:24
  what, when, how is his like method. Lawndale
• 30:28
  Jr. I think is his name. What, when, how are
• 30:32
  his like methods of like when you can surprise
• 30:33
  your audience. You only need to have one of the
• 30:35
  three. So like if you're making a joke, you can
• 30:37
  make the what funny. or like misdirect, or like
• 30:40
  the where have a different opinion than most
• 30:42
  people, or like the how have something else that
• 30:44
  you didn't see coming. You know, so it's like
• 30:46
  you got to misdirect on something. And with all
• 30:49
  of my songs, it's the what. It's the first premise
• 30:53
  of like how, you know, what is the song about?
• 30:57
  Well, the song I wrote just now is like a sad
• 31:00
  song about how I lost the love of my life, but
• 31:03
  I'm talking about a bidet. And that's fucking
• 31:07
  it's great. I love it. It's fucking awesome man,
• 31:10
  but it's just like it's Learning there's there's
• 31:14
  no way to do this. Yeah, I mean there are a million
• 31:17
  ways to do this So there's no like one way to
• 31:19
  do this and so many people like to tell other
• 31:21
  people like this is how you do this This is how
• 31:22
  you do this, right? I'll never say that this
• 31:24
  is how I do this You know, this is I and I expect
• 31:28
  everybody to do it differently and we should
• 31:29
  cuz that's like comedies and it's a Renaissance
• 31:32
  era I was talking to Jimmy Carr about this in
• 31:34
  the green room of the mothership. Oh my God.
• 31:37
  Most intelligent fucking man I've ever met. Let
• 31:39
  me tell you, he has this segment in his show
• 31:41
  where people will ask questions and he'll be
• 31:43
  on the screen behind him and he'll respond to
• 31:45
  it with something so agreeable and smart that
• 31:47
  everybody will applaud and then he'll turn it
• 31:49
  on his head and it'll be fucking hilarious and
• 31:51
  then everyone will laugh. And I was like, that's
• 31:53
  a great act. And then we're in the green room
• 31:55
  when we're talking and I'm like, it's not an
• 31:57
  act. That's just who he is. Like, he'll say something
• 31:59
  so smart that I just, I'm like, I'll be in a
• 32:02
  conversation. I'll just kind of want to be like
• 32:04
  a fucking, all right, I'll clap. We're in a conversation.
• 32:07
  I shouldn't be clapping. And I'm not actually
• 32:09
  clapping, but it's so agreeable and like, it's
• 32:12
  like, he's so fucking smart. And then he'll like
• 32:14
  turn it back on me and call me gay somehow. You
• 32:16
  know what I mean? Just like, just flip it around
• 32:18
  on me. It's like, fuck dude, that's so good.
• 32:21
  I respect it so much. But he said, and I'll never
• 32:25
  forget this. He was like, he was like, understand
• 32:27
  that right now comedy is in its Renaissance era.
• 32:32
  And so if you can't do anything else, Do something
• 32:36
  different. Because someone will see what you
• 32:39
  do and do something a little different than that.
• 32:42
  Goddamn. And someone will see what they do and
• 32:44
  do something a little different than that. And
• 32:46
  then you help the art form. Wow. Fucking... And
• 32:50
  he said it in a British accent, so it sounded
• 32:52
  stupid as fuck. No, I'm kidding. He's just the
• 32:55
  most intelligent guy. He's awesome. He's awesome.
• 32:57
  The only guy to not make a British accent sound
• 32:59
  horrible, I think, personally. I don't like...
• 33:02
  I'm not big on British people. Don't know any
• 33:07
  British people Jimmy Jimmy's been great. Oh,
• 33:10
  dude I like I love Monty Python like Monty Python's
• 33:12
  one of my favorite like little troops there.
• 33:14
  Um, but no I was recently watching I think it
• 33:16
  was a Trevor Noah's podcast and he had um, he
• 33:18
  had Jimmy Carr on there and Jimmy Carr Like,
• 33:21
  you know, this motherfucker is not just like
• 33:24
  super fucking smart like by just how smartly
• 33:28
  he dresses. But like, but you know, he's so intelligent
• 33:31
  because he can take something that could be just
• 33:35
  like not very interesting and just put it in
• 33:37
  such a simple way that you learn it. You know,
• 33:42
  like he has the ability to just tell you about
• 33:44
  something and you learn what he's talking about.
• 33:46
  Like I learned about like why Gregorian chants
• 33:48
  are a thing just because of that's what he was
• 33:49
  talking about. And I was like, my god and basically
• 33:53
  his point was that we wouldn't have Mozart without
• 33:55
  Gregorian chants and I was like Dude, what the
• 33:59
  fuck like if I was in school and I was in history
• 34:02
  I would have never learned that whole thing,
• 34:04
  but he explained it in one minute Yeah, you know,
• 34:06
  it's just that's just incredible. I think the
• 34:08
  most intelligent people in the world are comics
• 34:10
  I think there's just some comics that are so
• 34:12
  smart. You have to know so much to do what comics
• 34:15
  do. It is insane. I think it was him that actually
• 34:19
  said that we're like philosophers. You see the
• 34:23
  world in a different way and then you show people
• 34:25
  a different perspective. And that's what I love
• 34:28
  about comedy is just hearing like... You know,
• 34:32
  yeah, that is kind of stupid how that happens
• 34:34
  when you didn't think about it Or they take like
• 34:36
  the shitty things in life and they're able just
• 34:38
  to somehow make light of it modern -day philosophers
• 34:41
  are you should fear Shit on a cup on stage if
• 34:45
  that's not a modern -day philosopher He's like
• 34:49
  he's like the thinking man and like if there's
• 34:51
  a cup I don't know. Yes. We are the modern -day
• 34:57
  philosophers. I also think that That's something
• 35:00
  that a lot of comics take themselves too seriously.
• 35:03
  It's like we're all a part of something. And
• 35:05
  it got to my head for a minute. I was doing these
• 35:08
  fucking arenas. I was like, I'm on top of the
• 35:10
  world. And I come back home to my studio apartment
• 35:12
  and I'm like, okay, I'm not on top of the world.
• 35:16
  Not on top of the world. Dude, I was behind stage
• 35:19
  at Madison Square Garden, ready to go up, ready
• 35:22
  to rip. I'm so ready. I'm ready to fucking flow.
• 35:25
  I was like... Was I was I was trying to channel
• 35:30
  like Joey Diaz Because what he does before he
• 35:33
  gets up on stage Is he he'll get fucking angry
• 35:37
  pissed off man fuck this fuck that and then I'll
• 35:41
  get up and he'll just he'll just Level out and
• 35:43
  be hilarious because he's Joey Diaz. He's fucking
• 35:45
  dude. I Joey D had G as don't get me wrong Don't
• 35:49
  take this the wrong way because he is a fucking
• 35:51
  phenom. He's great But I saw a set at sunset
• 35:54
  strip. He killed probably harder than anyone
• 35:56
  I've ever seen kill Wow, but he had maybe four
• 36:03
  punch lines. Oh really in the entire set You
• 36:07
  don't even need a punchline when you have that
• 36:10
  much control over the room when you established
• 36:13
  your character So well that anything you say
• 36:16
  is funny. That's another level of comedy So he
• 36:21
  doesn't even like and it's not like he wasn't
• 36:23
  funny. He was hilarious The whole room was rolling
• 36:25
  applause breaks, you know people holding their
• 36:27
  stomachs laughing but no like Line that was intentionally
• 36:32
  a punchline every couple seconds. You know what
• 36:34
  I mean? Yeah, he was just his character was so
• 36:37
  established and so funny that uh, And the thing
• 36:40
  with Joey Diaz is it's just him Like yeah, that's
• 36:45
  how he is. That's it. I've met I met Joey. He's
• 36:47
  a great guy. He's super cool He's also exactly
• 36:50
  who you think he is. Yeah, he's that guy. He's
• 36:53
  fucking he's super nice. He's wild boy He seems
• 36:58
  like he would be yeah, I was I was watching analyze
• 37:01
  I think analyze this and there's Like a fake
• 37:06
  movie that they're watching It's a fake mobster
• 37:08
  movie and then like, you know, they have a few
• 37:10
  mobsters on there and then fucking Joey Diaz
• 37:13
  walks on screen And I think, I guess he gets
• 37:15
  like killed or some shit like that, but it was
• 37:17
  fucking hilarious. And there was no like actual
• 37:20
  joke. It was just, he was a part of this fake
• 37:22
  movie in this movie. And it was just, it was
• 37:25
  fucking hilarious. And that just goes to stand
• 37:27
  for like, there's so many ways to get a laugh.
• 37:29
  Right. That even being somebody can get a laugh.
• 37:33
  Being Joey Diaz gets a laugh. He can go up, he
• 37:36
  can stand on that stage. He can not say a goddamn
• 37:38
  word. He can not move an inch and not say a fucking
• 37:40
  word. And that room will be roaring. because
• 37:43
  they're looking at Joey Diaz. Yeah. You know,
• 37:48
  and it does become a problem at a certain point.
• 37:50
  Like, I remember I was, I saw a Mothership showcase.
• 37:54
  It was one of the Holtzman showcases. When I
• 37:56
  first got to Austin, one of the first, like,
• 37:58
  big comics I ran into was on the street. I was
• 37:59
  still a mic 'er. I was still just doing open
• 38:02
  mic week after week after week. And I walked
• 38:04
  by and I saw Brian Holtzman crossing the street
• 38:06
  in front of Mothership. And I stopped and I was
• 38:07
  like, hey man, sorry to bother you. I'm a huge
• 38:10
  fan. I just wanted to say hi and, you know, you've
• 38:13
  done a whole lot for me. And Brian Holtz is more
• 38:15
  special to me than any other comic ever. And
• 38:17
  we can get into that in a second. Sure. But he's
• 38:20
  the fucking best. And so I was like, hey, man,
• 38:23
  just wanted to let you know, you know, your fucking
• 38:26
  comedy means a whole lot for me. It's done a
• 38:27
  whole lot for me. I really appreciate what you
• 38:29
  do. You're hilarious. And he was like, hey, let
• 38:32
  me get your name. Let me put you down on the
• 38:35
  list. You want to see my show tomorrow? You want
• 38:36
  to see my show tomorrow? I was like, yeah, I'd
• 38:38
  love to. And he put us on our personal guest
• 38:40
  list. We were the only ones on the fucking guest
• 38:42
  list. Wow, dude. We woke up. It was me and two
• 38:45
  of my buddies. And he put us on the guest list.
• 38:47
  We sat fucking front row. And every time he hit
• 38:50
  a punch line, he'd look over, and he'd just give
• 38:53
  a little smile, like, see what I'm doing here,
• 38:55
  kid? It was awesome. Wow. Like, just like, really
• 38:58
  inspired me to be like, OK, you can be this good.
• 39:03
  Like, it was him showing me, you can be this
• 39:05
  good. Like, you can get here, put in the fucking
• 39:07
  work, and you can get here. And we didn't talk
• 39:09
  a whole lot about it, but it was fucking awesome.
• 39:12
  Wow. So now that is something you did mention
• 39:16
  him to me. And that was a pretty incredible story,
• 39:21
  basically, how he came into your life. And I
• 39:23
  was just wondering if you wanted to get into
• 39:25
  that a little bit. Yeah, yeah. So when I was,
• 39:28
  my dad had just died when I was like 18. And
• 39:33
  it was the worst scenario ever. My mom, uh, my
• 39:37
  mom and my dad went out to the Badlands in South
• 39:40
  Dakota to celebrate my mom getting her paramedics.
• 39:43
  And my mom is an EMT, and you know a lot of EMTs,
• 39:46
  and a lot of them, there's a couple different,
• 39:47
  like, stereotypes of EMTs. One of them is the
• 39:49
  worrier, the constant panic, like, always stressed
• 39:53
  out. That's my mom. Always worried, always stressed
• 39:56
  out. So she was worried, she was stressed out,
• 39:58
  always had a med pack, like a big... fucking
• 40:01
  neon med pack in the back of her car. Yeah, so
• 40:05
  funny. This one time, my dad was like, just this
• 40:08
  trip, just leave it. Just leave it. And so she
• 40:13
  left it. And they got out to the middle of the
• 40:15
  badlands far, far away from any hospitals or
• 40:18
  any medical, anything. My dad's the healthiest
• 40:20
  he's ever been in his life. And then he just
• 40:23
  fucking drops dead. Oh, wow. out of nowhere.
• 40:27
  She's got to do CPR on medevac. It was a whole
• 40:29
  thing. And so anyways, tough time, right? Dad
• 40:34
  died. Mom's, it's a couple months later and my
• 40:38
  mom's in a new relationship and my brother's
• 40:43
  married and it was a lot, there was a lot going
• 40:46
  on. And I don't knock any, nobody did anything
• 40:48
  wrong, you know what I mean? But it was a lot,
• 40:51
  it was tough. And so I was ready to take, I was
• 40:55
  ready to head out. I was ready to kill myself.
• 40:57
  Mm -hmm. Likefully. Oh, buddy, if I can go. No,
• 41:03
  one -way ticket, bro. One -way ticket. And so
• 41:06
  it was the day that I was going to play in. In
• 41:09
  Iowa City, a lot of people have, like, killed
• 41:10
  themselves by jumping. They tie themselves to,
• 41:12
  like, a cement block, like a cinder block. Oh,
• 41:17
  yeah? And then they throw it over the bridge
• 41:19
  by the dam, and then they jump in with the block
• 41:21
  and they drown. And that's how they, you know,
• 41:24
  a couple people have done it. And so I was gonna
• 41:25
  do that. And I had, when I stole, I actually,
• 41:28
  I drove by a construction site that was by the
• 41:30
  bridge. I stole the cinder block already. So
• 41:33
  I was like, gonna do this. And I like, I went
• 41:36
  to the rope store, but I didn't get any rope.
• 41:38
  I went to Ace Hardware. Shout out to Ace Hardware,
• 41:41
  almost helped me kill myself. I was about to
• 41:44
  just ask you to be like, rope store? When I got
• 41:49
  to when I got to ace I was talking to the guy
• 41:51
  that was there and I was talking about the rope
• 41:55
  and I didn't want to be talked to this Why would
• 41:58
  I want to be talked to I'm just buying something
• 42:00
  at the hardware store, but I just walked straight
• 42:02
  to the rope section And it wasn't like I came
• 42:05
  up and I was like, hey, where's the stuff I can
• 42:06
  kill myself with? Like, it's not like that. I
• 42:08
  just walked back to the rope section. I was looking
• 42:10
  at the rope and they have them on the spools.
• 42:12
  So I was going to measure out some rope. And
• 42:13
  I just, I was just staring at it. I was like,
• 42:15
  damn, do I really want to do this? And I didn't
• 42:16
  do it. I didn't get any rope yet because the
• 42:18
  fucking employee walked over and he was like,
• 42:19
  hey man, what can I help you with? And I was
• 42:22
  like, ah, I'm just looking for some rope. He
• 42:24
  was like, cool, what you need it for? Oh, God
• 42:28
  damn it. I was like, uh, I don't know, man. I'm
• 42:32
  just, uh, I'm just looking for some rope. He's
• 42:34
  like, you really need the rope? I was like, I
• 42:38
  don't know, man. I'm just browsing. I'm good,
• 42:42
  thank you. And just try to like go away from
• 42:44
  me a little bit and then I ended up to have that
• 42:46
  conversation was so awkward And he knew and I
• 42:49
  knew and it was weird. So I was just like I'm
• 42:51
  gone. I'm leaving. I can't it was embarrassing
• 42:54
  It was like it was weird. Did he try to get like
• 42:56
  close with you and just be like, no, it's not
• 42:58
  worth it No, no, he was just like he's making
• 43:01
  $14 an hour, dude. Yeah, I want you to say it
• 43:04
  He's like actually we got a ceiling fan in the
• 43:05
  back if you're in a rush The humor is how we
• 43:13
  make light of these things, but yeah, he was
• 43:15
  like if you want I could just cop that for you.
• 43:18
  No First three feet is free You're gonna need
• 43:22
  about four and a half five pretty tall I tried
• 43:25
  a chain last year Yeah, this rope will hold you're
• 43:30
  gonna need some stronger stuff yeah, this is
• 43:32
  called the Kern mantle But anyways, I drove back
• 43:37
  home. I picked up a cinder block on the way there.
• 43:39
  Didn't get the rope. Drove back home. I was gonna
• 43:41
  get the rope that day. Or just like find something
• 43:46
  that time. I don't know. I was gonna kill myself
• 43:47
  jumping off the dam. Like you were planning it.
• 43:50
  Yeah, I was planning it. And so I woke up that
• 43:54
  morning. By the way, I'm living in a dorm room
• 43:56
  the size of probably two of these rooms that
• 43:59
  we're in now with two other guys. Oh, Jesus.
• 44:02
  Three people crowded. College stormed the worst,
• 44:06
  bro, the worst. Jesus. And so, yeah, it's bad.
• 44:11
  And I was in a bad place, and I had the block
• 44:14
  ready. I was gonna get the rope, and my brother
• 44:16
  sends me a link to this Kill Tony podcast. I
• 44:20
  was like, I've never heard of this before. Wow.
• 44:22
  So I clicked on it, and I listened to some of
• 44:24
  it, and I was like, this is fucking stupid. What
• 44:26
  is the best night of your lives? What is the
• 44:28
  fucking best night? The fuck am I watching right
• 44:31
  now? And then I kept listening. I told my brother,
• 44:34
  I was like, I don't wanna listen to this fucking
• 44:35
  shit. He's like, give it a shot. Give it a chance.
• 44:37
  Just listen. I was like, they're being mean.
• 44:39
  He was like, yeah, but you gotta understand that
• 44:41
  everybody knows that they're signing up for they're
• 44:43
  being mean. And so I listened to the whole episode
• 44:45
  and I was laughing my ass off, dude. Brian Holtzman
• 44:48
  had this recurring bit about women referees.
• 44:51
  Get these fucking bitches off our field. Why
• 44:54
  the fuck are you refereeing my fucking football
• 44:56
  game? Get the fuck off the field. And he's Holtzman.
• 44:59
  It's hysterical. It's the funniest yelling. has
• 45:01
  ever been, you know? And I just lost at laughing.
• 45:06
  And I was like, man, if I could laugh like this
• 45:07
  again, it's worth staying around a little bit
• 45:09
  longer. And so, you know, new episode comes out
• 45:13
  every Monday. Every Monday I tune in. Actually,
• 45:16
  I wouldn't watch it Monday, because I wanted
• 45:18
  to watch it in the morning on my way to class.
• 45:20
  So on Tuesday, I watch it. I walked to class,
• 45:23
  and then while the classes were going on, I had
• 45:25
  a headphone and I was listening to Kill Tony.
• 45:26
  I was studying, I just didn't know it yet. And
• 45:29
  so I watched Kill Tony. That was my exposure
• 45:33
  to that side of comedy, and I had listened to
• 45:36
  so many comics bomb. I was like, I can fucking
• 45:39
  do this. I can fucking do this. I gotta be able
• 45:43
  to do this. If I'm gonna do anything, it's gonna
• 45:46
  be this, you know? It's the only thing I really
• 45:48
  wanna stick around for. Right. And so I'm gonna
• 45:50
  do this. And so I stuck around for it. I started
• 45:53
  doing it. I went to the open mics. I came there.
• 45:56
  I had spoke to my buddy, Todus, who was the first
• 45:58
  comedian I ever met. And I looked up and I'm
• 45:59
  like, oh my God, this guy's like 26 years old.
• 46:02
  I'm only like... And at this time, I've been
• 46:05
  listening for a while, right? So I went to my
• 46:07
  first open mic when I was 20, almost 21. So I've
• 46:09
  been listening for a couple years. I'm like,
• 46:11
  fucking, I'm ready to try it. And I'm like, hey,
• 46:14
  man, how long is it? How much time can I sign
• 46:16
  up? He's like, yep, five minute spots, signups
• 46:20
  at the bar. Cool. I was like, hey, man, I've
• 46:22
  got a seven minute story. Does that work? And
• 46:25
  he said, no, dumbass, no. It doesn't work. And
• 46:29
  it wouldn't have worked at all. It would have
• 46:31
  been like a fucking AA meeting. Yeah, hi, I'm
• 46:34
  Tony. Here's a story about how my mom got fake
• 46:36
  tits and I had to take her to the fucking doctor's
• 46:38
  office. Wow. And that's what it would have been,
• 46:41
  a seven minute story. But then I got some tits
• 46:42
  put together. I remember my first joke. My first
• 46:44
  joke was a fucking banger, bro. Yeah. I fucking,
• 46:50
  I... I hate the French, man. What? I hate the
• 46:54
  French. You hate the French? If I was an arsonist,
• 46:57
  I'd light Paris on fire. Because I hate the French.
• 47:02
  If I was a mechanic, I'd like Paris on fire,
• 47:07
  because I hate the French. And if I had to be
• 47:11
  stuck on an island with three things, I'd be
• 47:14
  stuck on an island with the Eiffel Tower, a lighter,
• 47:17
  and a bunch of French people. And of course,
• 47:22
  to my standard of joke now, that's not great.
• 47:24
  But for the first joke, it was awesome. It was
• 47:27
  a good time. And that joke got me. And I know.
• 47:33
  No, but that first joke got me my first pop and
• 47:36
  and I just I felt I felt Alive like I haven't
• 47:41
  felt in a really long time at that point You
• 47:44
  get a pop when you're on stage and there's there's
• 47:47
  just a light that opens up inside of you That's
• 47:49
  just like I I want to do that the only time I'm
• 47:52
  alive is when I'm here Yeah, I'm here on stage
• 47:55
  when I'm making people laugh and when I feel
• 47:57
  like if I'm not gonna live for me I'm gonna live
• 47:59
  to help others And so there's a bunch of ways
• 48:02
  to do that. You can do that by being an EMT.
• 48:05
  I tried that route, too. I wasn't as great at
• 48:07
  it, you know? And, you know, you can do that
• 48:10
  route by helping people laugh. And, man, it just
• 48:14
  awakens something in me that I've never really
• 48:17
  put my full effort into anything before that.
• 48:22
  When I got that first fucking pop, man, I was
• 48:25
  just like, this is what I want to do. Like, I'm
• 48:27
  gonna be here every... Monday every Sunday and
• 48:30
  every Thursday those little Mike days. Oh, yeah
• 48:32
  every Monday every Sunday every Thursday, then
• 48:34
  they let me know Hey, there's a Cedar Rapids
• 48:38
  Mike, which is 30 minutes away. It's on Wednesdays
• 48:41
  You want to come up on Wednesdays? Well, you
• 48:43
  can drive up with us So now I have friends and
• 48:45
  I've never had friends before this fucking point
• 48:47
  like not good friends So I've now got friends
• 48:49
  and we're all doing comedy and we've all got
• 48:51
  different styles and I'm figuring shit out And
• 48:53
  it was fucking awesome. I was doing four different
• 48:56
  sets a week. I was so, so into comedy. I was
• 49:01
  writing 20 minutes of material a week. And was
• 49:05
  it great? No. I was an open -micer. I was just
• 49:08
  starting. I was not great yet. But it was different
• 49:11
  jokes. I was trying them out. I was seeing what
• 49:13
  worked. I was redoing it. Every week I'd write
• 49:15
  20. And then the next week, my first set would
• 49:18
  be refining it to like five. Because I didn't
• 49:22
  know how to cut the fluff yet. I was a newer
• 49:24
  comic. So my 20 is like a realistic five to eight
• 49:28
  minutes when you cut the fluff all out of all
• 49:30
  the setups and you condense it down. Yeah. And
• 49:34
  these people were telling me, you're fucking
• 49:36
  special. You gotta go do something. You gotta
• 49:38
  go somewhere with this. And I was like, OK, I
• 49:42
  should go somewhere. And I was like, I'm going
• 49:43
  to go to Chicago. And I don't remember who suggested
• 49:46
  me Austin. Someone was like, you gotta go to
• 49:48
  Austin. I was like, what's in Austin? Besides
• 49:51
  the kill tony signups and they were like nothing
• 49:53
  Just to kill tony signups, but if you're gonna
• 49:58
  do it you're gonna fucking do it damn straight
• 50:00
  i'm gonna fucking do it And so I went and I signed
• 50:03
  up. I moved down here. They were like, my mom
• 50:05
  was like, how about you just go down there and
• 50:08
  maybe tour a little bit and just see what the
• 50:11
  city's like before you move down there. And I
• 50:12
  said, fuck that. I'm fucking, I packed everything
• 50:15
  into my key and I moved. The IRS took all my
• 50:18
  goddamn money because I tried to make a jewelry
• 50:20
  brand and I never sold anything, but I forgot
• 50:22
  to tell the IRS that I never actually made the
• 50:24
  business. I just kind of filed for it. So since
• 50:26
  it's a jewelry business, they assumed I made
• 50:28
  over $100 ,000 a year, and they took all the
• 50:31
  money out of my bank accounts. So I've got no
• 50:33
  money. I sell all my shit into cash, move to
• 50:37
  Austin, pay my rent in cash, and I'm sleeping.
• 50:43
  I don't have a couch for the first couple of
• 50:45
  weeks. I'm sleeping on the floor. I've got a
• 50:47
  couple of pillows, and I made like a pillow bed.
• 50:50
  and I was eating ramen. Traditional Austin comics
• 50:54
  struggle. I was like, you're just doing a thing.
• 50:56
  I didn't get a bed till like two months after
• 50:58
  my golden ticket, dude. Really? Two months. And
• 51:02
  the only reason I got a bed is because my girlfriend
• 51:04
  made me, because we were living together and
• 51:06
  she's like, we're getting a fucking bed. I was
• 51:08
  like, I'm not paying for a bed. She's like, fine,
• 51:09
  I'll pay for a bed. I was like, okay, sweet,
• 51:11
  cool. Why a bed? We have this perfectly good
• 51:14
  sheet. Well, I had a couch and it was a pullout
• 51:17
  couch at that point. Cause I, you know, I'm moving
• 51:20
  over the world. That's what's up. But it was
• 51:23
  the most uncomfortable. I mean, horrible sleep.
• 51:25
  And I had no AC for the first three weeks I was
• 51:27
  in my apartment. No AC at all in the Texas heat.
• 51:30
  Cause I moved down here in July. Why didn't you
• 51:33
  have AC? I assumed this is partly because I'm
• 51:37
  a dumbass. The first week, I didn't even report
• 51:40
  it to maintenance because I just assumed that
• 51:42
  down here in Texas, your guys' AC doesn't work
• 51:45
  that well, so it's supposed to be at 82, and
• 51:47
  that's as cold as it gets. That's right. You're
• 51:49
  from the north. Yeah. I lived up in Maine for
• 51:52
  a while, and they literally didn't have ACs.
• 51:55
  We had to go buy a window unit. Did you ever,
• 52:01
  like, tell Holtzman this? Like... No? No. Well,
• 52:05
  I mean, the thing is, when you're in these green
• 52:07
  rooms, it's like, you're just another... Like,
• 52:10
  I don't want to fan out. I'm just another comic
• 52:12
  just like him. You're trying to be just cool,
• 52:14
  you know? Cool comic collector, bro. I belong
• 52:17
  there. And that's the number one thing that keeps
• 52:20
  comics back from opportunities, I think. Yeah.
• 52:22
  When you have an opportunity, don't be excited.
• 52:26
  Be prepared. Yes. Show up for your opportunity.
• 52:29
  When you're in the green room, when you're talking
• 52:31
  to comics, understand that whoever you're in
• 52:33
  a green room with, you are on their level. You're
• 52:36
  not below their level. You're not above their
• 52:38
  level. Don't be an asshole thinking you're above
• 52:40
  their level, even if you're the headliner and
• 52:41
  they're the opener, right? Don't be below their
• 52:44
  level, even if you're the opener and they're
• 52:45
  the headliner. Like, obviously, you heed to the
• 52:47
  headliner a little bit, but, like, when you're
• 52:50
  in a situation like that, when you're in Mitzi's
• 52:53
  talking to all these, like, fucking Zac Efron's
• 52:55
  there, or like, what's her name? The hot government
• 53:00
  chick with the white strand in her hair. I don't
• 53:03
  know. I don't know. Rogue. Rogue? Rogue. From
• 53:08
  X -Men. She looks kind of like Rogue from X -Men.
• 53:11
  But, um, like, you know, in Mitzi's there are
• 53:12
  all sorts of people that drop in. And, like,
• 53:15
  I've talked to some crazy fucking people that
• 53:16
  I never thought I'd get to talk to. And what's
• 53:19
  important to understand is they're all just fucking
• 53:21
  people. They're all just fucking people. Like,
• 53:24
  I really don't like when people talk to me like
• 53:26
  I'm not just a fucking person. Dude, I am the
• 53:29
  same guy I was a year ago when I was busting
• 53:32
  my ass at open mics, but now I don't have to
• 53:35
  bust my ass at open mics anymore. And I'm grateful
• 53:38
  for that. But it's like, some people treat me
• 53:40
  like, oh my God, Tony Scar. Shut the fuck up,
• 53:43
  dude. Interesting. We both fucking, and like,
• 53:46
  it doesn't upset, like fans, that doesn't upset
• 53:48
  me at all. I love, I love people that come up
• 53:50
  to me and let me know that it's impacted them.
• 53:52
  I just, I never want anyone to think that I'm
• 53:54
  better than them. You know what I mean? Or like,
• 53:57
  think of me as higher than them or like, oh my
• 53:58
  God, I get, like someone said when I was at one
• 54:00
  of my shows, like I'd never thought I'd get to
• 54:03
  talk to you. Thank you for talking to me. It's
• 54:06
  like, thank you for talking to me. Dude, you're
• 54:09
  a fucking person. Thank you for coming up and
• 54:10
  talking to me. Like this is, that's awesome.
• 54:12
  Thank you for taking the time to do that. And
• 54:15
  it's just like, so many people see these celebrities
• 54:16
  as like up on a pedestal. Up on a pedestal, for
• 54:19
  what? Right. Because they make money doing, more
• 54:23
  money doing something easier than the 95 that
• 54:26
  you do. You work harder, probably. Yeah. You
• 54:29
  know? Yeah. Than the celebrities you look up
• 54:32
  to, because they have people working for them.
• 54:34
  It's like, I don't get it. And so people are
• 54:36
  so obsessed with that. And now the fucking influencer
• 54:38
  craze is a whole thing. Like, to be a good comic
• 54:41
  now and sell tickets, influencers are selling
• 54:44
  tickets better than actual comedians. Yeah, that's
• 54:46
  what I'm saying. That's a heavy controversy right
• 54:48
  now. Well, the big problem with that is that
• 54:52
  them people think they're comedians. They don't
• 54:53
  know how to make the distinguishment. When you
• 54:55
  see someone as a headliner at a comedy club...
• 54:57
  You're like, oh, they're the headliner at the
• 54:59
  comedy club, they're a comedian. But if it's
• 55:01
  an influencer who can sell tickets and they come
• 55:03
  to their first stand -up comedy show because
• 55:04
  the influencer brought them in, and then they
• 55:06
  bomb their ass off for an hour and a half, you
• 55:08
  know, they don't do an hour and a half, they
• 55:09
  do 30. But if they do 30, which isn't a headlining
• 55:12
  set, but apparently it is, well, they do 30,
• 55:15
  a 30 -minute headlining set. and then they bomb
• 55:18
  their ass off, the people are like, wow, I must
• 55:20
  just not like stand -up comedy. It's like, no,
• 55:23
  you just didn't see a real fucking comic. You
• 55:25
  don't see someone who, like, breathes, eats,
• 55:27
  and sleeps thinking about their next bit. Right,
• 55:31
  like it's comics are fucking like the real comics
• 55:34
  that are gonna be successful They have nothing
• 55:37
  else going on because they physically can't like
• 55:39
  you can't do anything else You can't think about
• 55:42
  anything else my girlfriend fucking bit like
• 55:44
  spend some time with me, please It's like we
• 55:47
  can spend time together, but I'm gonna be writing.
• 55:50
  You know what I mean? It's like look and and
• 55:51
  she understands that she That's another thing.
• 55:55
  We're managing relationships as a comic is tough
• 55:59
  It is tough. Cause it's like, you know, I'm always
• 56:03
  thinking of, can this be a bit? And so we'll
• 56:06
  be having a serious conversation and she'll be
• 56:08
  like yelling at me and I'll be like, Hey, don't
• 56:10
  get me wrong. It's not like she just fucking
• 56:11
  yells at me. She's perfect. Perfect fucking angel.
• 56:14
  Sorry, babe. But she's great. But like sometimes
• 56:18
  we'll be arguing and I'll be like, Hey, Like
• 56:20
  I want to continue talking about this. Can you
• 56:23
  just give me two minutes to like write this down?
• 56:26
  And she'll be like, are you fucking kidding me
• 56:27
  right now? You know, it's just it's just writing
• 56:30
  down the idea down the thought I know I know
• 56:32
  what you're talking about because sometimes like
• 56:34
  I've written jokes and then my girlfriend is
• 56:36
  excited to see like what what I had you know,
• 56:38
  what's going on and then And then I come home
• 56:41
  and then like she'll watch it and just be like,
• 56:43
  I don't think I like that and I was like fuck
• 56:46
  My bad, babe. I love you Why do you make me a
• 56:51
  stripper in this joke? It's like, no, no, it's
• 56:53
  an analogy, all right, babe? It's just saying.
• 56:54
  I'm like, you know, everybody does it. I didn't
• 56:57
  name drop you as fine. Yeah, all my friends do
• 56:59
  it, you know? But, dude, like, another thing
• 57:02
  I think is, like, nuts is that you went from,
• 57:05
  like, that deep, deep turmoil, essentially, and
• 57:09
  then what saved you was KilToni, and then your
• 57:12
  status on KilToni, like, that's gonna be like...
• 57:15
  fucking trippy as hell. It was. The first time
• 57:19
  in Mitzi's was very, it was a very interesting
• 57:22
  experience. I was like, I have bad social anxiety
• 57:26
  too. I don't like being, which is weird because
• 57:27
  I'm on a stage, but when I'm on a stage, I'm
• 57:29
  a caricature of myself, you know? So I'm not
• 57:31
  worried about the anxiety or anything like that.
• 57:33
  I'm not me. I am a version of me. And so I'm
• 57:36
  not anxious about anything. But when I'm off
• 57:38
  stage, bad social anxiety. And so especially
• 57:41
  in those settings where like Mitzi's... There's
• 57:44
  like smoke in the air. It's like this haze and
• 57:46
  it's packed. There's so many people in there
• 57:48
  And I was like fuck JJ Alexander. Did you know
• 57:52
  JJ? Oh, he was my saving grace He was like just
• 57:54
  a bud just so you know, like you fucking belong
• 57:57
  here Like just just understand that I know this
• 57:59
  is new is scary. I've been here I was here just
• 58:01
  a couple months ago. Just understand that you
• 58:03
  belong here. You're fucking great. You're gonna
• 58:06
  kill it You absolutely killed the night. He was
• 58:08
  on the episode that I got my golden ticket. He
• 58:10
  opened it up Really? Yeah. Oh, that's right.
• 58:14
  He was like, you're gonna do great. You belong
• 58:17
  here. Just understand that this is your family
• 58:19
  now and we're all here to help. And fucking talk
• 58:22
  to me anytime. And he had one of my favorite
• 58:24
  jokes ever. He has a joke about how if a terrorist
• 58:29
  really wanted to blow up a place, they'd just
• 58:31
  go to the fucking DMV. Just have you wait for
• 58:34
  a long time. And I'm not doing the joke justice,
• 58:36
  but God, it's such a good bit. And so at the
• 58:38
  time I really looked up to him. And now I know
• 58:40
  who he is, so I don't look up to him at all.
• 58:42
  No, we're great buds. Jade is the fucking best.
• 58:45
  But he really is. He's so fun. He's fucking nice.
• 58:48
  The nicest guy. God, it'll piss me off sometimes.
• 58:51
  We'll be talking in the car, and I'll be ripping
• 58:54
  on, like, me, him, and Mason will hang out, and
• 58:56
  I'll rip on Mason for something, Mason Bird.
• 58:58
  I'll rip on Mason for something. And Jade will
• 59:00
  be like, hey, don't talk to your friends like
• 59:02
  that. Be nice. Like, I'm fucking around, dude.
• 59:04
  Can we not be boys? Can we have a little fun?
• 59:06
  I'm just taking the piss. I'm just taking the
• 59:08
  piss. But yeah, he said something that really
• 59:13
  resonated with me. He's like, you belong here.
• 59:15
  Don't convince yourself that you don't. And that
• 59:18
  fucking... Because when you're in your head in
• 59:20
  a situation like this, like... I don't know if
• 59:22
  I should be here. I don't know if I'm being awkward."
• 59:24
  You put all these questions in your head and
• 59:26
  then you answer them for yourself. Because everybody's
• 59:29
  so focused about themselves in a social situation
• 59:33
  that they're always worried if they're in the
• 59:36
  right place. They're always anxious about a certain
• 59:38
  thing. But really, everybody's doing that. Everybody's
• 59:40
  thinking about themselves. Everybody's self -centered.
• 59:44
  Nobody's noticing you as much as you are. So
• 59:47
  if you just get rid of those worries and do you,
• 59:50
  you're playing offense instead of defense. I
• 59:52
  think J .J.'s telling you that is actually pretty
• 59:57
  profound. I really do because that single thing
• 1:00:02
  will immediately make you just be like, dude,
• 1:00:05
  I don't know how you just read my fucking mind.
• 1:00:07
  But I appreciate that. Yeah. Because you telling
• 1:00:11
  me the story, I was like, God, that's fucking
• 1:00:14
  awesome that he could identify that. You know,
• 1:00:16
  that's really cool. I was nervous. Well, and
• 1:00:18
  he was just where I was at, you know, so he knew.
• 1:00:22
  But he's such an insightful guy, such an intelligent
• 1:00:24
  person and such a fucking nice dude. If there's
• 1:00:26
  anyone I wish has like a long and fruitful career
• 1:00:29
  in standup, it's JJ Alexander. He is just off
• 1:00:33
  stage. He's the nicest fucking guy I've ever
• 1:00:35
  met. Just so nice. And then on stage, he's a
• 1:00:37
  fucking absolute murderer killer. I don't want
• 1:00:40
  to follow him ever. Dude, his Clark Kent thing
• 1:00:42
  about the glasses and taking off the glasses
• 1:00:44
  is a fucking great joke. It's hilarious. I was
• 1:00:46
  like, that was so funny, dude. It's like the
• 1:00:49
  jokes. What's cool about JJ is he'll get on and
• 1:00:53
  he'll riff, which I respect riffs more than written
• 1:00:55
  jokes because I think it shows truly how funny
• 1:00:57
  you are in the moment. That's why I do a lot
• 1:00:59
  of crowd work. I don't do crowd work like a lot
• 1:01:01
  of comics do crowd work where it's like... What
• 1:01:03
  do you do for work? And then you have an answer
• 1:01:05
  for, you know, you have a response for electrician
• 1:01:07
  and plumber and this and that, you know what
• 1:01:09
  I mean? You have those responses built up in
• 1:01:11
  your head. I don't do that. I just jump into
• 1:01:13
  the fucking ether. I asked some wild questions.
• 1:01:16
  I get some crazy responses and we have a conversation,
• 1:01:19
  man. I like to ask people like who they. Who
• 1:01:23
  do they hate? Who do you hate? That's a good
• 1:01:25
  question. And then we'll go into a piss and match
• 1:01:29
  just shitting on Jonathan or whatever his fucking
• 1:01:32
  name is. Who do you hate? My boss Jonathan's
• 1:01:34
  a fucking... Man, fuck Jonathan. And then I'll
• 1:01:37
  write a whole song about how fuck Jonathan. Dude,
• 1:01:40
  that's awesome. Well, that's the majority of
• 1:01:42
  my act is musical crowd work. So all on the spot.
• 1:01:46
  And that's what I want my entire act to be at
• 1:01:48
  some point, where I'm having a conversation with
• 1:01:52
  people in the crowd, but their conversation is
• 1:01:56
  inputs and my output is music. That's awesome.
• 1:02:00
  That's the vision. I love that. I have a couple
• 1:02:02
  different visions. That's one of them. What's
• 1:02:05
  another one? So one of them with that, kind of
• 1:02:09
  on that same note, is I want to have seven specials
• 1:02:12
  that come out the same week. They're all filmed
• 1:02:17
  on one week. They come out on a different whatever
• 1:02:19
  the fuck Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
• 1:02:22
  Saturday Sunday all specials all crowd work all
• 1:02:25
  improvised Nice all the same spot. Yeah, all
• 1:02:30
  the same city. Like I just I want I want the
• 1:02:33
  same room seven different nights a week. The
• 1:02:35
  names of the specials will be the days of the
• 1:02:37
  week. Yeah. And I just want to show the reality
• 1:02:40
  of what a week of shows is like. Because you
• 1:02:42
  see a lot of things. You see how audiences are
• 1:02:44
  lighter on some days. You see how the comic gets
• 1:02:46
  fatigued after a couple of days. Yeah. And it'd
• 1:02:48
  be impressive if I could pull it off of, like,
• 1:02:50
  that's seven hours of comedy in one week. Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  Seven different hours of comedy in one week is
• 1:02:55
  insane. Dude, yeah. No, that really is, man.
• 1:02:58
  Like, for real. Seven specials. Seven specials.
• 1:03:01
  That's wild. I will have... 50 some comedy specials
• 1:03:04
  by the time I die that's what you call it seven
• 1:03:06
  specials Yeah, I don't know like me, you know,
• 1:03:08
  I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I'm
• 1:03:09
  just saying it's fun No, no, I hear it and then
• 1:03:12
  my other vision big -time vision I had this one
• 1:03:15
  when I first started comedy when I first did
• 1:03:17
  the the music stuff and was listening to Bo Burnham
• 1:03:20
  and I was so inspired I was like man, I want
• 1:03:22
  to cuz some of Bo Burnham's best work. I think
• 1:03:24
  is inside. Have you heard inside? um it was on
• 1:03:27
  netflix it was during the pandemic it was like
• 1:03:30
  oh yeah was that the salt and vinegar one i don't
• 1:03:33
  remember oh salt and vinegar oh it's uh like
• 1:03:37
  he was basically like doing like word association
• 1:03:41
  and he was like mac you know people like aroni
• 1:03:44
  and he's like salt and vin yeah right you know
• 1:03:48
  i'm like well this this one it wasn't that one
• 1:03:50
  because this one inside the entire comedy special
• 1:03:53
  was filmed from inside of his studio room The
• 1:03:57
  entire thing was during the pandemic. Nobody
• 1:03:59
  could go outside and do anything. And so these
• 1:04:01
  comics are depressed as fuck. You can't go do
• 1:04:03
  your art form. I know if I'm not on stage for
• 1:04:05
  a week, I lose my fucking mind. I get depressed.
• 1:04:10
  I get just anxious and upset. It's not good.
• 1:04:15
  It's not a good deal if I'm not on stage for
• 1:04:16
  a while. And so the pandemic must have been really
• 1:04:19
  hard for comics. I wasn't doing it back then,
• 1:04:21
  but it must have been so fucking hard for comics.
• 1:04:23
  And he created this inside, which was a, it was
• 1:04:27
  filmed completely indoors. It was more of like
• 1:04:30
  an emotional, like commentary through musical
• 1:04:33
  comedy of the pandemic. And it was fucking beautiful.
• 1:04:38
  I remember watching that laying down in bed,
• 1:04:41
  just crying my eyes out and then laughing right
• 1:04:45
  after the tears. And that laugh right after the
• 1:04:49
  tears is so much more powerful than any other
• 1:04:52
  laugh. And so another one of my dreams is to
• 1:04:56
  have a two hour comedy special where I make the
• 1:05:01
  audience both cry and laugh. Come from the very
• 1:05:06
  bottom, the deepest pit of your emotion and bring
• 1:05:10
  you up to the top where you're laughing and you're
• 1:05:13
  having a great time. I feel like that's so important.
• 1:05:15
  Because if you're going to a comedy show and
• 1:05:17
  you're like in an Okay mood the laughs are gonna
• 1:05:21
  make you feel better But if you're in a shit
• 1:05:22
  mood all you're gonna do with laughing is get
• 1:05:24
  to an okay mood, right? But if a comic dips all
• 1:05:28
  the way down there with you to your lowest lows
• 1:05:30
  and they're there with you the entire time And
• 1:05:33
  you feel immersed in that experience and everybody
• 1:05:35
  in the room is fucking sad real sad and then
• 1:05:38
  they can successfully pull you out to hysterical
• 1:05:41
  laughter in the funniest hour you've ever heard.
• 1:05:44
  You would feel so much better about that show
• 1:05:46
  than any other comedy show ever. Yeah, that would
• 1:05:48
  be pretty epic. It'd be fucking awesome, dude.
• 1:05:51
  Man, that's awesome, dude. I would love to see,
• 1:05:52
  like... I love that you're on this podcast because
• 1:05:55
  I can't wait to see this happen because I can
• 1:05:58
  kind of like I could tell your drive I could
• 1:05:59
  tell your passion man, but um, but yeah, we got
• 1:06:02
  a we got to wrap it up. Unfortunately, we're
• 1:06:03
  all good, dude I appreciate you having me. Yeah,
• 1:06:05
  dude. Do you want to um, do you want to put anything
• 1:06:07
  out? This is your camera right here if you do
• 1:06:09
  yeah scar comedy comm for tickets I'm on tour
• 1:06:12
  come see me. It's a go fucking time Yeah, let's
• 1:06:16
  make the show about you. Let's have a big go
• 1:06:18
  fucking night Dude, I really think that you're
• 1:06:21
  gonna go far, man. Like, I can't wait to see,
• 1:06:23
  like, how far you're gonna go. Like, this is
• 1:06:25
  gonna be fucking dope just to watch you, like,
• 1:06:26
  do it because you have, like, you have a real
• 1:06:28
  passion about it. And I love, like, sitting across
• 1:06:31
  from comedians, like, and just who have that
• 1:06:33
  passion and that drive, you know, because you
• 1:06:35
  just watch them... You know, you just watch them
• 1:06:37
  rise and it's a beautiful thing. So dude, thank
• 1:06:40
  you so much for coming on. Thank you for having
• 1:06:42
  me. I appreciate you so much. So this is a good
• 1:06:44
  one, guys. December 11th. Remember to get your
• 1:06:47
  tickets for that show. And thank you for tuning
• 1:06:49
  in. Thank you, Tony, again. And that's it. That's
• 1:06:52
  a wrap for having me. Thank you for watching.