Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / Making It In Stand-Up Comedy with Butch Bradley | 344

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Making It In Stand-Up Comedy with Butch Bradley | 344 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, Julie.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, and we did it.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_06: We did it.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_06: I got my white whale.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_06: I am like Captain Ahab.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_06: And I got him.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe we tricked him.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You did trick him.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We tricked him in the right.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just New Jersey enough to look around and wait.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: You've been in the movie Goodfellas.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, right?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now you don't leave, right?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_06: Was that Goodfellas?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was Bronx.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Bronx Taylor.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_06: I was thinking more along the lines of when Joe Pesci walks in and think he's about to get made and doesn't get made.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_06: Spoiler alert.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_06: Horrible.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Horrible.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: This will go a little bit better than Joe Pesci, I can assure you.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up with that whole energy in Atlantic City.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So and but it's yeah, I'll let you run this show.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's do it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_06: Butch Bradley, Vegas local comedian legend, and also the college roommate of one of my mentors growing up.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, Jim Hall.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_06: Shout out to Jim Hall.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my fraternity brother.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:01
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_06: Taking it back.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_06: Well, Butch, thank you for so much for being here on the show.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for having me.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: So excited.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um, yeah.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_06: So you, like I said, you're fraternity brother with Jim.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_06: Jim would be so upset with me if we didn't talk about him just for at least 30 seconds.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_06: Can you give me a good gym story that I grew up?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_06: So Jim was like my mentor in the restaurant business.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_06: He was my manager, my GM.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_06: I was the AGM at the time.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_06: He showed me a lot about business, how to run a restaurant, et cetera.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_06: Great guy.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_06: Learned a lot.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_06: But I've only seen that side of him.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_06: I see, I see the personal side a little bit now too, but I haven't seen the college gym days.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_06: Do you mind just giving me a little snippet of what college gym was like?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, he's like my brother.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, we've been friends forever, but uh we met in college.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: He I look, I already know you're squirming right now, Jim.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are like, time has slowed down.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, what is he going to say?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's all the kids out of the room.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Heather, go in the other room.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Go in the other room.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's just I got this.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: What is what is he gonna do?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I got this.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: What is he gonna say?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we just, you know, we grew up in a time where it was just so fun, going to college together, but we were roommates, we were animals.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the good ones is we are so broke, you know, we had two light bulbs in our apartment, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we were all working in the nightclub.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I had a job in the nightclub business.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the first entrance for Jim into that world of restaurant, bar, nightclub, he was in the coat room.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he's the only guy I've ever met in my life where all the bartenders are walking with like$80 to$100, and all my all you hear is Jim.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how you doing?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, this is me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what's going on how are you?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But and and my my boss was like, that guy you hired is incredible, he's got a great personality.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's gonna make a dollar working a coat room, you know.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and yeah, I thought, you know, he just wants to break into bartend.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's in the biz, he's gonna be in this business of some in some way.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the night, you know, Jim's like, let's go out for drinks.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I got this.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I go, what do you mean you got this?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or you know, I mean, I knew we were broke college kids, and he's like, No, I got this.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I made like, you know, I don't know, 600 bucks.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I go, where'd you make$600?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, you know, buty, buty, the coat room.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than you think it is.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what are you doing?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know he doesn't sell anything, but I thought it was blown out of proportion.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of a weekend, yeah, where 30 people brought coats, Jim's like, yo, I got like 900.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Where are we going?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what he just talked to everybody.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_06: He's so good.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_06: He was he's so good at at the art of conversation.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_06: And I respect the hell out of it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's fun, man.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But we that light bulb went missing one night.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he came in the room and he's like, Where's my light bulb?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, we don't have it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he tries to take my light bulb, and we're like kids, boys without parental supervision.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we get into our, we're scrapping in our and basically in our underwear in the hallway over the sec over the stairwell.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we both this is so ridiculous, but I have to tell you the details.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: We literally studied karate in the real Cobra Kai gym.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, on top of this semi-sounding fictitious story, we're both trained for years in kickboxing.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, so we're killing each other.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Both of us go over the balcony to the bottom, both of us are terrified, we're both okay.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're college kids.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We I run from him up to my room.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm calling my other roommate because he snapped and I'm trying to get away from him.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then we wrestle again.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: We go through the balcony this time to the second floor.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But those events were common, and then we stopped, we all had beers, we're best friends again, and the apartments destroyed.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I keep when I think of that story, I'm always like, what freedom I had as a young man because I don't remember ever stressing that we just destroyed an apartment.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was like, all right, we're good.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go get light bulbs, we're fine.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, we we always had a lot of fun.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: We bartended together.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's great.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he almost got us killed in North Philly one time.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds about right.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's way faster than me, so I was like, they're going to catch me.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why did we go to a nightclub called Black Banana at 3:30 in the morning on the edge of North Philly?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my God.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's real.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was fun.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't heard the black banana story, but I'm gonna ask him next time I see it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: All mobsters like three in the morning.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But when you were in the nightclub business in that part of the world at 1.30 in the morning, you were going to these spots.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you would just go throw your name, you'd park your car in the middle of the street, throw the homeless dude 10 bucks, and he'd stand by your car all night, and then you'd go up, do shots with murderers that sort of see you enough not to kill you.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you were like, that was great.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But you know.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And now you get stories.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he tried to bargain over buying something from the guy on the corner, and the guy grabbed the money and went, and he followed.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, don't follow, don't follow, don't follow.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And my pale face was just like vibrating and signaling everyone for a hundred miles, you know.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: White man on the loose in North Philly.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, chase him down.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but it was great, and uh, yeah, man.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: We just it was fun.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: That was better.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's your story, Jim.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I left you alone.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, that was that was good.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: That was yeah, I'm sure he'll be okay with that one.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, could you kick my ass right now?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I still train, but I'm still it's so different.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be hit anymore.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like if someone really hit me, I'd be like, all right, what do you want?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want, dude?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like another podcast.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like a nine-year-old just punched me in the waist.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, oh, dude, what you just knocked me out for a week.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The car?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Take it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: You just gave my nine-year-old a car.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be hit again.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your kid's violent.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: God bless America.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta throw them in.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: In case you people forget America's an amazing country.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's people out there watching for us all the time.
• 7:03
  unknown: Oh my god.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I like the flag parades because they're so obnoxious, I almost don't like it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is might be too much.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Might be as much as I love America, we might want to back off.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Take the Bruce Springsteen's song off the top.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe one guy with a flag.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're scaring everybody.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: McDonald's is bad for you.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's America.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: America.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: America, right?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: God bless it.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: God bless us.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: You talked a little bit about growing up in Atlantic City.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_06: Would you say that was like the heyday of Atlantic City compared to what it is now?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, especially.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just a shame because like Atlantic City's gone through so many cyclical moments where if you Google like the late 1800s, Atlantic City of the ocean, it's completely covered.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a black square because everyone in that period of time wore bathing suits up to the neck.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And people would be out all the way up to their neck, men and women, you know, swimming.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was like this mind-blowing, beautiful place.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then it dove, and then it went up, and then it the boardwalk empire period was real where they declared Atlantic City as a neutral zone.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So mobsters could come here, gamble, drink, there's prostitution, and no one would be able to hurt each other, and they could do whatever they wanted to do.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it had that period right after uh prohibition, which some of my family swam booze in, by the way.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well, that's real.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: For real.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: They were so the story is that my great-grandfather was a Swedish pastry chef, okay, but they had boats, but there was no one buying Swedish pastry chef.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like my family's like Irish, American, Indian, and Swedish and like English or something.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But they would swim booze in to make the money because I guess cakes weren't selling, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, they would swim it to the beach, and then Nucky Johnson or those type of people, and like Al Capone was involved in that period.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it it was that was like an interesting period of time, and uh, I got to hear my grandfather talk about how there was no crime.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, there was crime, there's real crime, sure.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: The criminals just were more frightened of the other criminals, but uh, and it went up and down.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, you're right.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: That 90s period was so fun.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was like it's ridiculous.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't even thought that I'd be saying that unless I see where we are right now in society where it's so crazy.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, um, you know, on a daily basis with the phone, which is like, you know, you just touch it, you have anxiety, right?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: We were just talking about like, oh, I need a Xanax.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, glass of wine, glass of wine.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's Xanax.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Glass of wine.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, I feel good.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I did a podcast, the world's coming to an end.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a meteorite so close.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: New York is gone, you know.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I said it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, but it was a fun time, man.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: All we did was drink in Atlantic City and Margate was like last call was quarter to four.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beach town.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then we drink there and go to Atlantic City, and the guys pulling you over were fraternity brothers who graduated three years earlier, and they're like, Are you drunk?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not that drunk.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, All right, park your car and walk.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just different.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's so ridiculous because it was only the 90s, but it sounds like the stories I heard when I was younger, back in 1958.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Back in my day, let me tell you.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it was cool, man.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was just much more chill, and college was fun, and summers were fun, and I think we'll have all that again.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yo, I was just in Nashville.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Nashville's got a bubble of 1988.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't think they know the rest of the world's moved on to another it's perfect.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: You enter Nashville and you're like, everyone's friendly and nice.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is weird.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nashville's fantastic.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_06: I I um other than I mean, honestly, I feel like Nashville domestically is probably my favorite place to go to.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_06: It's so much fun, especially Broadway.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_06: Um there's so much great live music there, there's so many great places to just have fun and be social.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_06: Um outside of Broadway has a beautiful, like the the area around it is beautiful.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_06: It just feels like there's so much going on in Nashville that I will never not go to Nashville if given the opportunity.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know when I realized, because I was just there and and and we were filming some stuff, and then uh it was like midnight, and I it was beautiful.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I went outside and I I was walking and talking to my girl on the phone.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I went, I haven't felt safe doing this since 1998, you know, right?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I couldn't, I'm like, this is ridiculous that it's been so long since I've just gone for a night walk.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I feel safe in Vegas though, truthfully, you know.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, but walking in Nashville was beautiful, it's beautiful.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So and Broadway, and uh I'm working, I'm with a working on a project called Nash Viva right now, which was created by a gentleman named Byron Kennedy.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was like a 12-year music exec exec, and um now he's been a comic for about nine years and uh successful at both.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, did the ground old Opry as a comedian, and then he wanted to bring these worlds together.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this project is singer, songwriters in the round with Byron and myself, and myself improvisationally working the audiences.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Our our basically our audition night was at the listening room, iconic listening room, sold out, two shows.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: All celebrities.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: The wonderful part for me was I don't know any of them, so I was very free and having fun.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, of course, I recognize some big country singers, but there's it was just like agents and everybody, and um, we're working with BMG, and we our podcast will be was filmed at uh BMG.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've got like 20 episodes to launch Nash Viva because it's a live performance that follows and uh tour the country, and um it's just cool.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have an idea of when it's coming up?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: We will begin these podcasts, will begin airing in late July, and then um it'll be continuous from there on, and and we'll be performing both in Nashville and in Vegas and throughout the country.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm with uh Trent Tomlson, Adam Craig, and Jordan Walker between the three of them.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: They probably got 25 number one hits, you know, in for country music singers.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So those are a lot of our guests.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had Uncle Cracker from Kid Rock.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we're going back to film John Daly, July 31st, uh Big Gopher, and a ton of other country music stars.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how mad they'll be at me for telling any of this, but uh we'll see.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: God bless America.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's America, it's free.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can see what I want.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nashville, baby.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just bragged about Nashville.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, so it's a cool project.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun, man.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_06: Do you like being a guest more than you like being a host if it comes to the podcast, or do you like the other way around?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a real hands-on guest.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: They have me deliberately.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the show starts out with me.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Byron goes out, describes how his worlds came together.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: He does comedy.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I come out, I'm working the audience and you know, doing uh material based on you know, whatever I create for that day, because I'll write a set for Nashville, blend in our environments, and then me sort of fish out of water.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh when I they bring on the first guest, like I'll introduce Trent, you know, and I'll talk to him.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you get started?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it's different because the country music singer, writer usually dialogues, and it's you know, it's a set with this situation, it's more it's kind of like like more of a storytelling underline to it, right?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: To the show, it really does have that, and and they're being kind of pulled out of their safe world because it's me, yeah, and I'm gonna push edge, you know, as much as I can with real heart stuff and family.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm pulling in the audience members that I dialogued with, and I'm sort of mixing the improv, and then Trent brings out like a brilliant song and sings it, and it can be heartwarming or it could be funny or it could be whatever.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like Adam Craig killing it, uh, he's never really been asked in that scenario something.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, All right, the first time you thought you were gonna write a song and sing it, what inspired you?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he's like, This guy right here, and the guy was in the audience, this famous singer-songwriter.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm supposed to know his name, but I can't remember.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, he's there.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll dub it in, yeah, post.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and and it was incredible.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and and you know, and then you know, we bring out the other, and then all of us are on, and it's a bunch of really hand-picked uh casting was great because we're all we all get along, and everybody, you know, two people have families, it's you know, they're they're on the same vibe as me.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're we we have we love the country.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love the laugh, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, they it just they it made them that statement for some reason now it makes it sound like you're crazy, you know.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're just like it's a great place.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't have to say it before, but you know, everyone's got a pro vibe, you know, and it's really cool, and uh it's it's it's a little bit more friendlier, so it it's great for TV or whatever.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they're talking to so uh they're involved with another bunch of big projects that this is already gonna bounce off of.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a lot of fun.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nice viva.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, love that.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, check that out.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, obviously you're you're a pro at that, you you can handle that, and you're obviously well-established here, but you've been in the entertainment business, you've been at least surrounded, it's been a part of your life all the way back to Atlantic City because your mom worked in the casino, you were in the you know, you were there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_06: Um is it true that you kind of got a little close to Rodney Dangerfield and Don Rickles, or no?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Don Rickles I've met a couple times, but we didn't get we didn't get close, but extremely when I was a child, Resorts International opened up in Atlantic City in 1978.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: The only other casinos were in Las Vegas.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this little beach town gets a casino.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: My mom is one of the first employees hired, she didn't even want the job.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: My Aunt Joan dragged her there.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And like a local situation, there was a line around the block for these jobs, but Aunt Joan took her right to the front and walked her in because they knew Julie, who knew this, you know.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom's in there with the cousins, and my mom was happy because she had a waitressing job at Lou's restaurant.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and she was fine making$240 a week for her boys as a single mom.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, but she got the job, and you know, no one else did get hired.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, she worked in the cage where they counted money, and um, she would they they would fill the cage with money, she'd count herself down, I mean, up to her neck, two people.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: She said one trash can would go out the back door with a suit, and the other would go into the casino.
• 17:44
  unknown: What?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: But in that environment, everybody was so close-knit.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when celebrities came to town, it was the only showroom, all of a sudden Sinatra's there full time.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sammy Davis, Dean Martin, Diana Voss, you know, I was watching Rodney, Shecky, Don Rickles as a child as a little kid, like eight years old, sitting in the booth, and like, and it got me watching Rodney.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Rodney, I remember there was a moment where he was on stage and the room was frozen, and I've played this memory in my mind a million times, and just seeing all of these adults moving and reacting to him as he was angry, and I was like, this is amazing.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I want, I like this, I want to do this.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what it is because I wasn't really laughing, I was more caught up in the energy of all of it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: But leaving the casino on one of those nights ahead of us was Don Rickles, surrounded by Atlantic City police, and he's just harassing everyone.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, Mom, why is this guy surrounded by police?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, he's a stand-up comic, and he says some edgy things, but he's very funny.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I heard him literally say some edgy things to as he was getting his luggage, like, what are you stealing?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I heard him live go, are you gonna steal that or put it in the car?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with six cops.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with six cops.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Put it down.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like every bad stereotype, hilarious joke from his period of time that was deliberately trying to break down barriers and um delivered.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: But later in life, I ended up at the uh a past regular at the Laug Factory, and my good buddy Marty Balafski, who played Crutchy and Newsies for anyone who loved that.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So Crutchy was opening for Rodney, and Rodney was always at the Laugh Factory, like 76 years old, 77 murdering on a Saturday night.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone you can think of, because Hollywood was up till 2012.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now is a whole different it's there's no one, it's good, but it's not even close.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was all celebrities.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was Chris Rock, it was Seinfeld, it was Sandler, it was Mark Marin, it was like Chris Tucker murdering.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are lineups that you would face on a daily, and there'd be like six of us soaked in sweat, and then you just you go do your set and you'd feel like you're you didn't pass out and you did it and you got laughs and you're in it and you're learning.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Rodney would come in, and no matter who was on the stage, the beh the back of the stage, the back of the room where the the entrance is to the laugh factory, he'd come in and laughter would go like cheers for him as he walked to the stage would bury the comedian on stage.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the only time I've ever seen that.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he'd walk up with his shorts and be like, huh, how are you doing?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, what's going on?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: He wore like khaki shorts like an older dude, yeah, didn't give an F, was cool as hell.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um what did he do differently?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: He did new jokes every single night like a murderer, and like a murderer in comedy, murder is good and kill, crush, all the stuff, yeah.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's good, you know, like yeah.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, it's really nuts that you're controlling an entire room of energy and rising and lowering it and trying to get it to where you need it when you leave.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's an example.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: The best moment I've ever seen, probably in comedy.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's up there and he's doing comedy and goes, All right, these next jokes, they're new, you know.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll see how they go.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't like them, you tell me they sucked.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: So he takes his glasses out of his pocket and he puts them on.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: He takes this envelope out, he opens up this note, it's folded like 10 times, and he he shakes it and he grabs the mic stand, he's telling a joke, he's telling a joke, laugh, laugh, laugh.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: It gets to like the number six, and some guy goes, That one sucked.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Rodney starts to fold the letter, the notes, he puts them away.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's really slow.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: He takes his glasses off, he puts it away, he grabs the mic, and he leans out and goes, F you.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then he he returns the mic.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: He returns the mic, takes his glasses out, puts them on really slow, and goes, We'll continue.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, This dude is almost 80 years old.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can follow what where do we go?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, like what?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I became friends with him.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was a vetting process.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: His wife, uh Joan, who was a lot younger than him, but was really his wife and in love with him, and literally would not talk to you until you were passed through the vetting process that this comic and this comic, and if you were funny, and then they would say hello.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then Rodney started to talk to me.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: He would say crazy things to me, though.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: He'd say, I remember one time he stopped me in the green, like in the hallway of the laugh factory, surrounded by everybody, and he doesn't even hear them.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to touch him and talk to him.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Hey, Butchie, how's the road?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, it's going well.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I see all these heads around him, and like he doesn't hear them.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like in a corner, like, and I go, the road's good, man.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I don't care how you're doing.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: How's the road?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Does the uh owner hook you up with a waitress here and there?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and like, how's the money?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: You killing it?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I go, they don't hook you up with waitresses, Rodney, anymore.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the money's okay.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Good comedy, and he like walks in.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was a good, that was a good impression.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's good.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said some other I remember one time he told me the same scenario, he's walking in.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Butchie, you know what sucks about being 80?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I go, what?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm famous and I can't have sex.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he walks by me.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I cleaned it up.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm cleaning up Rodney did not have a filter.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Rodney was was a blue, you know, collar guy who grew up in, I think the Bronx, but I became friends with him and for years, thanks to Marty and Bob Marley, another comedian, and and it was really cool.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I got to, when I was producing for Comedy Central, I got to put him on an episode of uh one of the anniversary shows with Adam Carolla.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: We went up to his suite and everything, and uh it was really cool.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like he had a giant shoe, he had Shaq's shoe on his coffee table, and it and he was always naked.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: He had a bathrobe.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Rodney was always naked.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Always naked.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: He'd steam, smoke a joint, and be naked.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: So anyone who ever tells you they knew him, if they don't tell you they saw him, his balls, they're lying.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're lying.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a real lie.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: You you'd have to have seen, I feel like it's part of his past.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: He'd just give you one of those, and you'd be like, Yeah.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I guess I'm in.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in, I saw his.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I remember that shoe was on there, and he goes, Oh, we gotta move.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: John, what the well, who is this guy who gave me this big thing?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is this?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a shoe, it was a gift.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: You had a guy next door, he was in this Westwood High apartment where you take your elevator to your floor, yeah, and the guy next door is Shaq, right?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So their balcony adjacent.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, he goes, Butchy, this guy takes his shoe off.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: He hands it to me, he goes, I'm a huge fan.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, ah, and you gave me your shoe.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, What's his name, babe?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's Shaquille O'Neal, honey.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this guy, Shaq, next door, gave me his shoe.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I found out later, he's a big ball player, you know.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's just funny.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he was a cool dude, man.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_06: That's that's too bad that um, you know, he's he's not around today, obviously.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_06: But even still, like my dad and I, we we still randomly tell each other Roddy Dangerfield jokes.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_06: I feel like those types of that type of humor will just forever live on.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and he was one of a kind for sure.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_06: Him and Don for sure.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: He he went to have a surgery, which uh your podcast will be one of the only to ever hear this story.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So he went to have a surgery for circulation for to it for blood and oxygen to the brain at the end because he was having a hard time to stay on the speed of stand-up.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it went well, but he didn't come out of it.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: He stayed in the you know, the the sleeps, and they said he's got to be woken up.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he's at Westwood Hospital, and Joan calls me in Atlantic City, and uh, and and I was doing a week at the comedy side.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's so bizarre.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just a new headliner, and and she's like, You have to you have to come back, uh, you know, Rodney, this and that.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I what I was cool with them, I was with them all the time, but they thought highly more highly of me than I've realized, right?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to put it in proper.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think like Rodney and I were boys.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I thought respectfully, I get to have conversations with this legend.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in his home a couple times, I'm very lucky.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So she calls and goes, You gotta come back.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm headlining Atlantic City.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, I don't have any power.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, put the manager on, put the owner on.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't even know how you do that.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I don't know what the you're she's scaring me.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I send it up front, and then um they send her back.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, You're all set, you're gonna be paid for the week.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to fly back.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the owner, Bob Keppard, comes in and goes, Oh, you're friends with the danger fields?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I go, I guess so.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, All right, you're leaving Ammar.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, This is crazy.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I got a paid gig.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I went home.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the crazy story she brought us in to perform to his body.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I performed horrible stand-up comedy at that level to Rodney's body there to try and wake him up to shock him.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes, she goes, you know, we gotta try whatever we can.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta get him out.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, I had Bob Sagitt here.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, I had Dice here.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: He loves Dice, but his act, I'm afraid he's gonna wake up during Dice because he he doesn't like Dice's act.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: He might wake up, and the doctor said if it angers him, it could wake him.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, let's get Dice down here.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I guess we all put NJ Lano, we all performed to his body at different periods of times.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, but it was and then he shortly after he passed away, and I ended up an usher at his funeral.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some of the crazy Hollywood moments, and I had to say no to people coming into his private side of his funeral.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I sat at the door saying no to people that would alter my career, you know.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Bud Friedman, I was like, Mr.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Friedman, I'm sorry, but could you sit on the other side?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: The danger fields only have X amount of seats.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: How did they take it?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were cool.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: They they were Hollywood's so weird that that moment I thought I'm not gonna be at the improv anymore.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Bud passed me at the improv because I had done a Martin Short show and he was always so kind to me.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: That only upped my credential the next time I was at the improv.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Butch, you want to go up?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my God, I being at the door of Rodney's funeral has enhanced my career.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hollywood's insane.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Larry David mowed me down.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who are you, little comedy boy?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, get out of my way.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even need to talk to you.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Larry David.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like all these comics, Seinfeld, um, Chris Rock, everybody sat in front of us, Jim Carrey and everybody, and I'll close here.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: As it's ending, Bob Sagitt was hosting, and when he walked off, Jay Leno went up and went, it's so good to see that that Bob Saget's working again.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: So and then it was on.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: So these guys, remember, I'm like a I felt like a little boy with my buddy Marty.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's it's uh it's uh Michael Bolton, Ferreth Fawcett.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's really crazy.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's all the whole room, this little room and his family.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes on and on and on.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Rodney left a video where he said, I just want one of these if you liked me.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as it's ending, Jim Carrey stands up and starts clapping, goes, You did it, Rodney! You did it, you did it, Rodney.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's clapping, and then like Tim Allen stood up, then you know, Roseanne Barr, and then like everyone you can imagine.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: They gave, we all stood, and he had like, I'm not kidding.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was like between tears goosebumps and like spiritual.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was going to travel to the universe.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: 11 minutes standing ovation was mind-blowing.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was cool.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I would never forget that.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'd never crazy.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's the best, it's it was unbelievable.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: So like I have goosebumps just you telling it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have one.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's an important story that people know also that all those monsters that were in front row, you know, that that came back to love him and tell stories.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Jim Carrey said, I was eating it every single night, and Rodney refused not to book me.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, every night I would be up there in front of the theater and I'd eat it, and I'd hear Rodney go like laughing because he's eating it.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, it was cool.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for sharing that.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_06: That's a crazy fucking story.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's cool stories.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_06: You're a really good storyteller.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_06: I better be.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, you have to.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_06: You have to be.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_06: I'm awful.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_06: That's sorry.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_06: Julie's good at storytelling.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not good at all.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_06: What's for someone who isn't, and you were giving me you were to give me advice on being a better storyteller.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_06: What's something that you would suggest I work on or focus on?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, well, so yeah, I learn only by learning this.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to go really slow.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have to like listen to the color of your voice.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the color of your voice is one color, but you adjust the color of your voice because it's a story and because you want to apply your idea, your original emotion into the original moment as you're telling the story, so it becomes as close to now as possible.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the color of your story, you know, add color to it if it's exciting, and then go slow.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Going slow is great for any job in the world.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: You have an interview, you're pumped, you're going into a shift as a cop, you're military, anything you are.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Telling yourself to go slow is is not you're just tapping the brakes.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have to hold back before you approach the scenario because that's really what helps in stand up because you get the zero to 500 miles an hour as you're approaching the curtain, and that can that forever is an a night-to-night experience.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Am I good?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Am I why am I doing this?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta go through these curtains.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're like, you're like, I should have taken a day job.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I just I I feel sick.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I feel, you know, so going slow, walking slow to big moments, but the storytelling, that's a priority.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well said.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: You have to slow down.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_04: On the topic of like walk walking slow or getting there silly, being patient with yourself to these big moments, and also going back to us laughing about technology earlier, I'm sure you've noticed that social media has kind of changed the way comedians are coming to a rise with the younger generations.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: How do you feel about that being a door in for people into comedy?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've done a lot of mental work on this because at first, you know, my only snobbery is hey, you're a decent, I like you're okay.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're just you just have to be an okay person.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to know that you're funny on top of the okay.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you get a quick run, cool.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Grab your finances and dig in.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're kind of screwed.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the one to two, three years with the TikTok run, and uh, and you know, uh, I was with Dane Cook when Dane Cook took off.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and you guys, I don't even know if you know that he was like the first guy to launch launch.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was literally there while it all happened from MySpace to Facebook with all of the celebrities, with you know, um, you know, uh with uh Kardashian next door with Paris Hilton, they were all coming in every night, all oh three, oh four, oh five, oh six, watching Dean go, woo.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I watched him go and then like you know, you're in this new environment.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he's a 20-year comic who's ready for the ride.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: These guys were originally a lot of these TikTokers are uh lady.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me skip to this lady comedy.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can't get around her.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have to earn.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, you have to earn any step you skip is so horrible for you because you have to backpedal.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they used to give them a week.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: They'd give them a week, like the improv would book Five Nights with Johnny Johnny, who fell down the steps and farted.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Biggest thing in in Hollywood right now.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this guy falls down steps and then he farts.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's a legend.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Give him a week at the improvs.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Door deal, take all the money, Johnny.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: We want to see you fart.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think I saw a video.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Julie's facial, she's like, you don't have to say that again.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Julie is so disgusted.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's like I've seen a million videos like that.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the so what happened is ten minutes in, if 10 minutes, because time is a whole different realm in stand-up, they die.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were dying so fast that first year, three months, four months.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're being told they're being fired.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're being fired and then they're squeezed.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now they give them one nights because both parties make money.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: You fill it up with people who are into whatever it is you did, and then um, you know, the club gets their money because, you know, traditional stand-up, maybe it's not drawing because someone's on the stage they don't know, right?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it's gonna handle itself.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not learning how to do stand-up, if you're not going to stand up every night, if you're a brand new guitarist, if you sang that one song on the internet and you have to do an hour with a real group of musicians with soundboard and a production guy in a theater for 3,500 people, and you don't know that you need to pause because the sound's got to travel differently.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much death coming.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and death is a word we use in comedy.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, it it'll I always felt bad.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was happy for Matt Wright because I knew he just had he's first of all, he's a cool dude.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I that I that matters to me.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, he's a he's a decent dude and he's doing great.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, get the rocket and get as much money as you can.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: But there is also another, these guys aren't doing crowd work.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do crowd work.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was known as an improvisational storyteller, which basically we've just witnessed.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to go into the crowd to dialogue.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was just a part of being from the East Coast and saying hello and all.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: These the newer comics thought this is how I become famous, but not realizing the crowd work is atrocious.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: You put it online, and if you put it online, it's there forever.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have made the biggest mistake in your career because no one ever told you.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're a pandemic baby.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: You all of the rules, these basic rules of be clean, talk about yourself, do five minutes.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says do seven, get off at six and six minutes and 40 seconds.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Casinos want 35.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want 37.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: A closing gig is 45.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want you in the crowd.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to die, you're gonna eat it.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: You need a huge amount of skill to recover from a hole you put yourself in.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you need a couple hours of material, especially in the climate of comedy with politics, a confused America, a confused world.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are we at war?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are we not at war?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a safe world?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is it all of the above?
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Marijuana, alcohol, drugs, this, that, the other thing.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is it harder now to be to be in comedy than it's ever been?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not for me because I haven't left stage.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it it is hard for me.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: I that's why I work so hard, because I have to be up to date because I'm in a very, you know, my audience is my show uh at the 10 p.m.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: at LA Comedy Club is and I work the cellar, I work Brad Garrett's, I cover for Brad, I'm blessed for that.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Kimmel's, uh, you know, and then uh, you know, I work the Laugh Factory.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: These places I worked from since the beginning of my career, because the cellar factory or showcase clubs, you audition in New York or Hollywood and you become a regular.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: If not, you don't go through the front door and you aren't on those lists, which is lost for the pandemic babies as well, because they think they're just gonna walk in and go, Julie, can I sit and talk for five minutes?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, I don't even know who you are.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: What do you what are you doing?
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you get in, right?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, these these situations, but at LA Comedy Club, most diverse, very comedy store-like, low ceiling.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh, it's it's really diverse.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's like 35% black audience, Mexican audience, white audience, economies are all different.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's rich, there's poor.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of cool people come to see me because they know it's going to be an improvisational evening.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I grew up in that environment, you know, in New Jersey, just dialoguing with everybody, and it's normal for me.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: I like to think I'm not just some older white dude on stage.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that seems to be working, you know, because the this, you know, this confuses people.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you you really have to go to stage every night.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just go to stage in LA.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just go to stage here as a new guy in any city.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta go to Chicago, you gotta do Latino night, you gotta do this night, you gotta do chocolate sundae, you gotta do all of these weird nights.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta choose Sunday, yeah.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Chocolate Sunday, Asian invasion.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, everyone else is worried about being offended, but the comics like, I'm calling it what it is.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's an Asian invasion.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Only Asian comics and Butch, you can get in.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Latino night, George Lopez, Butch, you can get in.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Chocolate Sunday, Pookie's there, Spencer's there in Hollywood, Ruben Paul, Tony Rock, butch, you can get in.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta do them all.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta do them all, and every stage is different.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you still grind today, but not necessarily crazy.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_06: Is it the same level, the same type of grinding as when you were coming up and going from club to club to club to club like that?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm like, I, you know, I'm in a really blessed position.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: What has happened in Las Vegas is the pandemic kind of crushed Los Angeles and New York.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: New York recovered in the sense of the seller.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because they have multiple venues, they are the comedy seller.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: The last OG in comedy on this planet is Estee, the primary casting booking person on the in the in the entire country.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: It used to be a lot of those characters, like Lucian Holdy Comic Strip, Mitzi Shure at the comedy store, Bud Friedman at the improv, Jamie Massad at the Laugh Factor.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: These people watched you.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: They knew talent, they've seen thousands and thousands and thousands, and they go, I like your story, Julie.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your husband's in the military, you like this, you're from Texas, you like to fish, you catfish with your arm.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little weird, but you know, you know, I like the mix of like truth and laugh.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's a lot of truth there.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_04: I do like to fish.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, but they want that and they saw that.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, you know, those showcasing periods of time, I'm a part of that group.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was past.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: So my grind is different.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just able to get up and work all these clubs.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the only guy that headlines all these clubs.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Usually you only get one and they tell you to hit the road.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I came in for years of working with everybody and uh respect the health.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm lucky.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: It Hollywood in uh Vegas and uh in New York fell to Vegas, so not a good place to start comedy.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our our new open mic scene has gotten strong, but it's taken them a little longer because this is a headliner environment.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um, yeah, I'm I'm pretty blessed, but I do grind because you you you just have to be on stage every night.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: You just do.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I it Nash Viva has proven that it worked.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's an amazing thing, and I didn't know I needed those skill sets that were new to me until they showed up.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: So well said.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_06: Did you have a relationship with Ralphie May?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did, yeah.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_06: We had oh I'm sorry, no, go on.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_06: We had Lana Turner on, um, and she's touring the country right now, talking about the the Come What May doc that she's put together on him.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, have you had a chance to see it yet?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, she I know Lana from years ago, and um it's a really touching documentary, and um, you know, I have a lot of respect for her.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I did Iraq with with uh Lana and uh Ralphie.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that was the first time I really got to know her.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was me, Bob Marley, and Ralphie, and then Ralphie uh yanked Lana on, and um, she was a younger comic.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when she just got here to Vegas to promote this, I was at the Laugh Factory and she popped by and they and did a little guest set on my shows to sort of promote it.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, you know, look, I love Ralphie.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ralphie and I were there, you know, before um Lana came out to so we had a really personal relationship and um we we had tons of laughs.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: My first time my name was on the marquee at the laugh factory.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ralphie's driving me around.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are high and buzzed.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: I go, I thought we were driving two blocks.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, play, just relax.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Play, I got something to show you.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I go, dude, it's 2 a.m.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: and we're in Hollywood.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go to jail.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he stops right before sunset facing the laugh factory.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: I go, dude, do you want to go to jail?
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: We just got to get home.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: We live that way.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he he turns on Al Green.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so tired, right?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: And gets out of the car and goes, play out.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Look at look at the laugh factory sign.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's dancing in the street.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess the gods of comedy were watching us because there's nobody to be seen.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: No cars, no nothing.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's my name.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: I get out of the car and we're dancing in front of the car, listening to Al Green, and we're spinning and laughing.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, and it was a beautiful summer night, and I was just, and we're driving, and I was just like, holy God, my name is up on the laugh factory.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's who I got to share it with.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we're boys.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just don't think Ralphie May's life was all of those percentages of moments.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I haven't had a drink in seven years.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I quit alcohol.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I understand, like, you know, substance is an issue, and we're in a substance soaked environment with a lot of pressure and stress.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: I personally just don't think that the documentary is like the story.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's the story.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: I would if I I think if anyone passes away someday and they put together all of our fail moments that weren't our prettiest, our struggles, our human moments.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sure as hell might wash over my USO tours, uh, which are up around 14.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it might wash over me helping a little old lady across the street.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I understand why her story's out there.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: I have love and respect for her, but you know, for me, it's just Ralphie was a great comedian and a big soul, and I think that's expressed in some way, but I, you know, I think that the the documentary, you know, I thought about this for so long because I wanted to post, but I didn't want to post.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what would you have posted?
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would have posted Ralphie May was an incredible dude dealing with his own issues, maybe weight issues, maybe emotion, you know, maybe life and comedy and trying to make it, but genuinely offering out so much happiness and energy to everyone, on top of hiding his secret exhaustions and his demons in life, and maybe trying to balance kids and a wife, and maybe they wanted different things.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the personal story is, but uh, you know, I know that he made some mistakes, but that was that's between them.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, Rafi was a great dude, he loved his kids, and I'm sure, you know, whatever went between them, that's none of my business.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I know he loved her, I know that there was love there.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was there when they were together.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I just think that his story was uh, you know, watch a great set and he loved his kids.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he just didn't do the best the best job in other people's eyes.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: But dude, we're human, man.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a rough deal.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_06: You know, one of the things on the documentary, Jay Moore said it, and I'm gonna paraphrase it.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_06: He says something along the lines of you know, comedians, we still we go up there on stage and we give you an hour of the best of us, and then we disappear for the next 23 hours.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_06: Do you feel like not necessarily just with Ralphie, but just in general, being in the industry and you know do you feel that's spot on true with a lot of uh comedians these days?
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_06: Is you know there's a lot more behind the scenes that you don't see?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, everyone's got you know their their lives, their living.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: So and you know, you know, Jay's an interesting perspective because I know he's openly uh spoken about all of the issues he had.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I thought that, you know, on his podcast with Lana, I thought he overshared on on Ralphie because Ralphie thought Jay was his boy.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I've done a lot of things with a lot of people that are close with me.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe just drinking, maybe, you know, I've been arrested before.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: I talk about it now, it's great for me.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh wasn't real proud of it the first five years, it sat in my conscience.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, people knew about you know that I had a booze in my mouth.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tequila and me and a state trooper, that wasn't a great scenario, scenario.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, but my boys aren't gonna be like, Why did he tell you at the time he was tased and cuffed and throw, you know.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I I don't know what these shares do.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, likes and influences and and monetization are are you know the what it looks like to me.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think it was done in class.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we do have 23 hours, but the 23 hours can be used in sort of for me, it's a breakdown of my own positives and negatives in my real life emotions to sort of bring it to connect, to share, because I have more time to sort of you know look at myself than others, and I look at society so hardcore as a stand-up, so I get to share and bring that to the table.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, it is 23 hours to stage.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_06: Did you say you're 14, you're up to 14 USO tours?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I've had I had six Afghanistan, uh, two Iraq, a bunch of others I don't really count on secret places that exist that we don't know about.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then I did eight in Israel, I did Guantanamo five times, but I love doing those.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned those, and those experiences are solely the blessing of the troops that I come serve and the men and women at home that are supporting them.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they were just incredible.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: They like made me a better American because you know, if you I my first time landing in Iraq, I was like this.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted a picture of me like, yo, that everybody was walking by me off of the the you know the plane in a different mode.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy was like, You should drop your arms.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: You look like a spook, you look like your CIA, and um, you're gonna get shot.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Really?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Already?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't we own this airport in Baghdad?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you just start getting educated quickly, you know, you know, convoys and backgrounds and walking to the MWR to make phone calls, which I'm sure Julie's husband had to do a hundred times, and you're walking in the pitch black and you can't see, and then you have a phone, then you don't have a phone, and then there's there's they really know what 23 hours are.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that whole kill time and then missing and hurting for their family and loved ones while focused on what the you know the primary the goal is of it to do their jobs in an insane environment.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so yeah, uh those are all personal, human, you know, I was a comedian telling jokes in a war zone, so I had a lot of reality that my American dream of performing for the troops inspired by Bob Hope required war.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how crazy you can become as an American.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm there and I'm like, oh, did I say, did I manifest a war?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so yeah, there's a lot of levels, but yeah, I did a lot of USO and all those those things were just um eye-openers and uh and and you know, understanding more humans and men and who's translating the word of God always ends up being some crazy guy.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_04: With all the places you have performed around the world on Andrew's still laughing.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a dude.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a dude.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's always Andrew.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's always Andrew.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's always Andrew.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but like between the USO tours and then like your your time in Shanghai that everybody is well read on.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, have you noticed like comedy translating across cultures, or do you have to kind of tweak based off of where you are?
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually part of it was learned in Shanghai.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: So all around the world, you know, I opened Crack House, which was the first comedy club in Malaysia, under um um my buddy Rizal and um Harith Iskander.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's like the Jimmy Fallon of Malaysia, and you know, primary Muslim audience there, and you know, Shanghai Chinese audience.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's culture, there's cultural elements.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I make sure I try and figure out what those are.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you're in Israel and maybe there's different levels of uh, you know, um levels of you know seriousness in religion.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: You might be a modern Jewish person, you might be loose, maybe I'm not supposed to touch your wife or hug.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: All these little if there's an a if there's a Chinese couple in front of me, the guy's pro, you know, and they're all filled in.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: I need to watch my language because I don't want his uh white his date to be insulted as I'm dialoguing about some elements because he brought her to see me, and you know, it there's respect levels on those things.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but we are all the same on the entire planet.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: What I came to was we all have mom, dad, brother, sister, uncle, brother.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: We love them.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want enough food and money to support and survive them, we want to help them, we want to get more rest and have some more sanity.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: We want more peace, we want more happiness.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: So everything else was uh camouflage or a distraction.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if I establish that in the forefront of my mind when going to do comedy, we're all the same.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a language barrier, but most countries speak English better than most of us.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: So China, the Chinese youth loved me because I was symbolic symbolic of freedom.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I never spoke poorly of China because China was great, it was fun, it was more free than America in a lot of ways.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then just don't talk about the government.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's none of my business, you know?
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not for me.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I just shared all of me with them.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh also that was there's some stores in Chiang, huh?
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: That I'll take to my death.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was definitely that was the beginning of gonna quit alcohol.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was China.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: I called it it the American Whisperer.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we want it now, yeah, but I just had to go buy a shirt for a show.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Travel, 100,000 people in the subway.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm gonna die.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna die.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then gradually I was just like, you're jacked, you just they break you, you settle, and you're like, nih, ni hau.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd order food with the same one.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, hello, hello, which is dumplings, and and then you'd you get to like their gap, you get there.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a line.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's in paperwork, yeah, everything.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like ding, ding, ding, ding, boom, you're out.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, receipts, receipts, receipts.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I had a lot of good people look out for me, they'll walk me through it.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: But getting a t-shirt in Shanghai one time was like an 18-minute piece for a set.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: People were dying because I had expats.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I just talked about it, how hard it was, and then it was the wrong size.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this isn't a large, this is a this is a baby small.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like everyone's size difference in the world.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like overweight at the time.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, anyway, yeah, the world is, we're all the same.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: We want the same thing.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our governments are the problem, and then religion's a problem, you know.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that we want to pray and there's something, is there something there or not?
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the translators, it's government, and then it's all pollute, it pollutes us because you think you're learning about you know our troops right now, anywhere in the world.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not accurate.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_06: That's it's spot on.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, but uh yeah, it's it's all been an education.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_06: You have um Julie has in the notes here.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_06: Ask him about the fabuloso bit.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_06: Do you is is is there something about this that I should know I should know about?
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, yeah.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's funny is, you know, so my girl's from Mexico, you know, she's like a Texacan, but she was born in Mexico.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I am gonna interrupt because I know you mentioned her earlier, but when I was researching, I was like, okay, so Mexican girlfriend.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Russian girlfriend?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_04: No, you no, she maybe she Because that was the bit that you had done with her about like having a Russian girl.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: Kisena was a is a female comic who's a friend of mine who uh, you know, put me in the trunk of her car.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Kisenya, you put like five other comics in the trunk of your car, and now the bit's kind of annoying, and I just look like some idiot in the trunk of your car.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting millions of hits, and I I got like 1600, like, look at the moron, and why yeah, you should do that and get rid of that guy.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm only kidding, because no, my girl's Carla.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and um, and she is uh her dad was Texas and her mom was Mexic from Mexico, but she was born in Mexico and she sang and uh worked all through in her other life.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: She was married and has a lovely daughter, Melody, who's 30, and uh, you know, uh, but she sang uh rock music all through Latin America for like 22 years.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: She got second on Latin Idol, she crushed it, had that life, and then when she got here, sometime after she was living here, we met and she introduced me to Fabuloso.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, we got to get fabuloso.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what is fabuloso?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like their version of Clorox or like Lysol for the floor.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: It smells so it's so good, and it's funny because she's over she's over it, but I like purple.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I always joke about um because she really can they cure anything, she cooks all the time, works all the time.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is true.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Mexican people are the hardest working people on the planet.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: She'll work like an eight-hour job, and then she's doing the floor with her foot and cooking, and then you know, you know, doing this or that.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um God bless you, Carla.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she God bless Mexican people.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: God bless Mexican people.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know what flavor it was.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had a taco?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: Of course I had a taco on from Jersey, and then she gave it to me.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what is this beautiful God from God?
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: Can you handle spice?
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can now, yeah, because she's Texacan, Mexican.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's such a blend, man.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's such cool because Texas has mind-blowing flu food with these influences and Tex Mex is one of the best cuisines.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable, man.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's just unbelievable.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, she they they she uses all those spices in in Mexico to cure things.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of her cures are really hot, so you don't really want them, but they work.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then I always joke where she's like, okay, come here.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: If that's too hot, come here, come here.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hold your face over the fabuloso.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's open you up.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Breathe it in.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me when you see Jesus.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: Vic's vapor rub.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're cured, my blanco Diablo.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: Is that what she really calls you?
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, she whenever they're whenever her and her daughter are saying anything that I think might be suspicious, they accelerate the Spanish to Mexico speed, Mexico City speed, because I can understand a lot.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then when she goes, I'm like, okay, so that's about me.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I was right, they have an issue with me.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm just gonna say sorry.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, Luciendo, right.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_06: Well, listen, I I'm I want to pick your brain a little bit more because not only do I get the info, a little deep dive in about storytelling, but obviously a little bit to your right.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_06: There you go.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_06: There it is.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_06: I knew you'd get there.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, um, your improv skills are unmatched, I feel like.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_06: When it comes to improv, what's number one piece of advice?
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_06: It's the most simple trick in the world.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_06: Let's hear it.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: Refuse medication.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_06: What are you talking about?
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: When they tell you to take it, you don't.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: What are they telling you to take, but something to stop the voices?
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let them.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have ADHD.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're gifted.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the other world.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're channeling all the time.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just ignore you know, all it is is really when we were children, everybody was the same acceleration.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: You um naturally work through stream of conscience.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you tell stories, but you're not even worried.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: Children just go, you know, they take their their dolls, their soldiers, their cars, hey, what's oh, we're going this way.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: The story just goes and goes and goes and goes because the child keeps improving and there's no fear base.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's no one telling them to, you know, stop the story and put this in there and do that, and here's a rule, and here's a rule.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you re-you you you just work off of your stream of conscience by just saying yes, forward, yes, forward on your ideas, and your gut kicks in and goes, you know, uh, I'm feeling this, and I go with the gut and I improv through the stories with people I bring in, and then I add my own, you know, creative elements to a character, and some are real and some are over life lessons, and then I just develop them out.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just a child skill that we all have.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I do it, yeah.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've never stopped doing it.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was a C plus student and a five-year almost graduate of Stockton State College.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_00: I still owe the money.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, Flavor Grad Jim graduated.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jim, I'm I I need 600 bucks so I get the degree.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was just oh man, I just always improved and always, you know, my family was all storytellers in Jersey and and and um I would just always improv stories.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_06: How much of your set is written or scripted, and how much of your set is improv?
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like always 60% plus improv, you know.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have all the bullet points of ideas from the news and the series stuff, but um I try to run, I do a thing called somewhat building a village where I get to know people from my own natural skill set.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're at home comics, first you need five to ten minutes.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just start with five to ten minutes of comedy with a strong opener and a strong closer.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have sets in order to showcase, to audition, or for a club owner or booker to trust you.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: So get that 20 kill set first.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is all easy stuff.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um, you know, I do I use my material to dialogue or some bullet points that I want to talk about.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, maybe World Cup's up, you know, and I'm like, you're a World Cup fan?
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, easy sport.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you say that?
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your goal is bigger than my garage, and then you're always falling.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you fall?
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you hurt so much?
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a mixture of theater?
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't the Oscars be like and nominated for greatest fake fall coming out of Colombia?
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Zeus with a four-minute penalty wins as he switched the gear of the ball in the game, you know.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you so you just dive in.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: You just dive in, you really do.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: You just dive in.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: But um it's 6040.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, my show to be a non-celeb celeb, I had I had to I have to be better than everyone.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: I have to kill every night.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not like you I we use the word pop.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm in the big fish tank, but I'm down in the like bottom quarter swimming around.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally I'm up, hey, here I am.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then I go back down, all my buddies are sort of lurking right above, you know, Bert Kreischer, you know, uh Sebastian and all these guys are up there floating a little, and you get up, and that you know, it's just popping.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's just more notoriety and more finance, but you're in the same fish tank.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get envious?
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, you know, I never get envious.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_00: I just become a jerk if I think you're like not a good person.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you're getting and you pop and you're like half funny and like a total, like we all can't stand you.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, God, why?
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_03: Why?
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that hurts.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I have to work that out occasionally.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or someone comes in like they're a killer, yeah, and he's like, I got 600,000 followers, and I'm like, I don't know you.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're in my green room.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure to meet you.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people say I'm as good as uh you know the greatest comic, so-and-so, so-and-so.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, You probably shouldn't say that.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's like, why?
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, because they proved it already.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you just have followers and they're not here, and 300,000 of them are 14 years old, and just be cool, that's exciting.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, you know, uh it's you know, it's a work.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: I like where I'm at.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: You always you, you know, you wanted things and then it changes.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: I get to go to stage.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the only guy that ever had a dual residency in Vegas as a comedian.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the only guy that gets to work all the clubs.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very, very lucky.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_00: I get to scoot around the city, uh, you know, and I have a lot of great projects.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always called in for projects.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's just a matter of minutes having the to when you hit the pop, yeah, and everyone's like, who's this new guy that's you know, you know, butch?
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be perfect because you're ready.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather I'd rather pop now because it's sort of easy.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_06: Uh a lot of my uh I'm a big fan of David Tell too.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_06: And David, he was he he was great.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, he he publicly, you know, kind of turned his life around.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_06: He was having to drink it and all that.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_06: Um and I I I appreciate him before and I appreciate him after.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_06: But I feel like his his set has changed and and type of humor has changed, maybe a little bit before and after.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_06: And you're very public about not drinking for a very long time.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_06: Has your set, has your comedy changed over the past X amount of years?
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think um you just get better?
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're better more clear.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe I had ever, I never really drank before stage.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Shanghai, I played with it because I thought like I'm gonna do what these other guys did and experiment with some like glasses of wine, but I didn't really realize like where I was in my health levels with the pressure of the show, and I thought I would drink, and I'm so funny and loose, and uh, but I but I was dealing with the loss of my brother like the couple years before.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't and and then you don't know what you're really doing because I'd been on the road so much.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: I actually understood that period of my life more when I caught my breath here in Vegas, and I was like, all of a sudden I decided not to drink, with some people saying you shouldn't drink, but um, you just realize how fast you are, and and um if someone in the audience comes out and they've had two drinks, but they look at you and they're disappointed, they know you're drinking or drunk or slow or off or slurring or on a drug or whatever they think.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh obvious than that.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the literally six months after I quit drinking, you know, I was, you know, um, I was riffing, you know, lines for the movie Reagan with the directors, Sean McNamara.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm being prepped for, you know, uh, you know, uh uh got a uh who was I in the movie with?
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: I forget.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: Dennis Quaid.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_05: Dennis Quaid, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: Dennis Quaid, the most amazing guy ever.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had to improv with him for 90 minutes.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: No one told me.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that would have been a err.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: I could sure as hell use a glass of wine for this moment.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_06: But um how was he at improv?
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_06: Was he improving too with you?
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_06: He was, yeah.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's it was easy.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: He literally they told us we're gonna scrap all the lines.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a 1950 set.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had Penelope and Miller from Carlito.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: His way, Mino Savaro was in the movie, all these celebs, and then 150 Xs.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: It looked like the 1950s.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um, he came in, he said hello to me from back of the room in front of all the extras.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: Butch, butch, butch.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: You would think they'd give us two weeks to rehearse.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Oh, this guy's cool.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, if he's cool, I can do this.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can do this.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, you're a standout.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because you you you you know, you're giving yourself, you're reminding yourself.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_00: You should remind yourself because in the moment you can get caught up in you know, not remembering what you can do.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he leaned over and he gave me a little fist pump and he was like, Do we got this?
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: I go, I'll throw you softballs the whole time.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just spoke comedy language, I'm gonna throw you softballs the whole line of the whole time, and whatever you hit up, I'll tag, we'll follow it, we'll follow it through and we'll continue.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, perfect.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went into it.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, You're selling Pap's blue ribbon, go.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then I was like, Paps blue ribbon, Mr.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: Reggie, you know, all that stuff.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: But they chopped it all down to 12 seconds.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_00: So all of these moments were like, Man, my friends are gonna see me.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I got to the opening of the movie, the director was like, You're one of the only guys that got in.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: We did a lot of editing.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_00: I made sure you were in it.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry it wasn't more time.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_00: My 12 seconds were great, it's fine.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the experience, yeah, that's great.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_06: Would you by the way, how long were you in hair and makeup for?
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right for the pink.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: You should hear me.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just like, help.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so good.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um you feel special, you know.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_06: Hair and makeup, yeah.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_06: When I was when I was younger, I looked like Justin Timberlake when he was uh when he had his first uh solo album.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I was in uh I was living in LA at the time, and a friend of mine, my best friend, looked like almost identical to Brad Pitt.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_06: So he got a lot of look-alike jobs.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_06: Background of background, instead of paying Brad Pitt, they'd pay him to be in the background.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_06: And so I looked somewhat like Justin Timberlake, where I got hooked into some of those movies that he was in.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_06: And there was one movie where it was called Valentine's Day, and had a bunch of big names in there.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_06: It's one of those, like every every celebrity's in it, uh, but everybody gets you know five minutes of screen time.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm in the background of of this, you know, LA office building, supposed to be Justin Timberlake.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_06: This is so cool.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, even though I'm very out of focused, you can just barely see me.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_06: You blink, you'll miss me.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_06: But the fact that I was like in hair and makeup and I got on set, I was on set, it was the coolest thing ever.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was such a cool thing.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's something like unlike you you'll ever experience.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm and so did you do a ton of these?
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just one.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are you a LA?
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_00: You grew up there?
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_06: I I had I grew up in Boston, so I I knew Dan Cook.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I started comedy Boston, right?
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's wild.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, when you're telling the Dan Cook story, like I in 03-04, I remember even before he got that big Comedy Central uh He was murdering.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was killing, he was killing.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_00: He took all his clothes off in New York just to deliberately freak them all out and tucked his his uh you know goodness and he he did the uh silence of the lambs bit.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't really tell jokes though, he just told funny stories, right?
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they came from an improvisational group called Alan the Monkeys.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it was Dane Cook, uh Al Del Benny, and uh Bobby uh and Bobby, oh my god, Bobby Kelly.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, sorry.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_00: So many incredible names were going through today.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Bobby's still at the seller murdering.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_00: Al's in Australia murdering family, and you know, and like in murdering comedy and has a wonderful family.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so family safe.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just let that in there.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, you know, but uh we were he was you know, he was doing that Alan the Monkeys thing, and they went up in Boston at an iconic period of time, and they're they're like eight, nine ahead of me, years ahead of me.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but they won the Boston Comedy Festival, and it blew every traditional stand-up labeled like, what is this nonsense?
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And they'd improv as a three a three-man group, and they were doing well, and you know, it was incredible.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, Dane went solo and Bobby went solo, and Al went solo, but Al and got together with me and a couple of others, and we created the Boston improv group called the ID.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we were in Harvard Square, and Dane would come improv with us, Patrice O'Neill would, uh Bill Burr, Justin McKinney, and we would improv and there and got a ton of heat off of that.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the original group.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you reminded me that Alan the Monkeys trickled on to the id, and the id also had a lineage to um the Dennis Leary group out of uh Emerson.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we had all of this lineage to all these famous improvisational groups, and uh, you know, we we we were doing amazing too.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we all went solo.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_06: Coming up with with so many talented people, like regardless of what industry it is, like we just had uh a local chef on and him telling stories about other chefs that are now also just as well known, if if not even more, um, and coming up with them is is such a cool story.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_06: So even just talking about this and like being with Patrice O'Neill and stuff like that, and just hearing you kept coming up with them and sharing these stories with them and having these moments before they hit a big is so cool.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not and like Patrice, like I didn't so they came up together the way we see it.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're like a comic who got to meet them and they're coming because they were like you know, in feature host moving, Danes moving, like they're already underway.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: But my first time on stage at Nix Comedy Stop, it was sold out, and Billy Martin was in torn jeans and a torn shirt.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_00: You already know him.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_00: He is to this day the executive producer head writer of the Bill Maher show.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he's hosting and he was wow, wow, he was good.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was faint and passing out and thought I was gonna drop dead.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was I kept going to the bathroom.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had a spiritual experience.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody touched me on the shoulder and told me I'd be fine.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some woman that was not there.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna run over that.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I went to a two-top where Bill Burr and Patrice were sitting, young versions, and it felt like they were above me.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, any advice?
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm really scared.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Bill Burr looks so young, he's grinning.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Patrice went, he started to laugh and turned his head to the sky and went, You're gonna eat it.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he went, and Bill Burr was like, I was like, they're the most evil pair ever.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but I had a good I I went deaf walking to the stage.
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I looked it up, it's real, I saw the audience, but I couldn't hear anymore, and it was packed.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember passing him.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Guess who was in that audience?
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Hall.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_00: He came to support my first set in comedy, and I just remembered.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_06: That's awesome.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I did really well my first time.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, and when I came off, Billy Martin's words were so good to me that they carried me through my next year of failing and not understanding.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You're doing incredible.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you can figure this out, you're gonna be a runaway train.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I was doing improv.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else was doing notes, yeah.
• 1:13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I saw and caught saw them in the corner, the other new guys, I was like, You guys, you guys write notes?
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And like, of course we do.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they all laughed and they go, We were trying to figure out what how you were doing what you were doing.
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So when I combined those, the the the id and my childhood and storytelling with stand up, that's when I started to get running.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's like yeah, and I got the feature, the feature spots the charity spot because you get to run around like 20 minutes as a joke, and you're funny enough, and then the headliners got to clean up your mess.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_00: So those were good, those were good times.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those were the good old days.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Back in '64.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Carlin and I had a bung.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_00: We made it out of uh old oak.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_00: The old oak tree.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the same one from the song.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're great, man.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're fucking hungry.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are probably, this is probably where I get checked into the mental ward.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_04: This is the mental.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the mentality.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you've got seven different psychological disorders.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's no one med for it, but we're gonna let you run Rome and here and be free, and we'll just study you.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, as you said though, if we give you the medicine, you'll lose the improv.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_04: So the voices.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_04: Are you working tonight?
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: 10 p.m.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_00: at the LA Comedy Club.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm there Thursday through Monday.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Add me on social media, Butch Bradley Comedy on Instagram.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Please add me.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've rebooted.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_00: For the love of add me, yes.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, and then Nash Viva thing's great.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a big year.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working, I have two other little projects I can't talk about yet, but I also I'm on this season of storage wars, which was like the most fun.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was just fun.
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_00: They love the improv, and my buddy Kenny's the star, and Kenny was the doorman at the laugh factory in Hollywood.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
• 1:15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he's like, Butch, will you come out?
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, do storage wars?
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right now.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_00: No questions asked.
• 1:15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, really?
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Storage wars?
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was so fun, man.
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Were you bidding or were you the auction?
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm with him.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're partners.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: We bid, yeah.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's so fun, man.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, that's amazing.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then they watch me tear up a safe for an hour while they all were like bored.
• 1:15:51
  SPEAKER_00: I go, You're just non-believers.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're non-believers.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta check this episode out.
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_04: Did you get it open?
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It did.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: There was nothing in it.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_04: Waste of time.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Evidently, I'm like so green that nobody searches like that anymore, you know, because they know.
• 1:16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're such a noob.
• 1:16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, coin collection in here.
• 1:16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but kids' dreams lost my profit.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_06: Well, Butch, this was awesome, man.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much for coming in, man.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_06: Appreciate your stories.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_06: And my God, this is fun.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we definitely have to come check you out.
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you were an actor.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: We got to come back and redo you.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's so crazy.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get your union card?
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get it.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_06: It was a one and done thing.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_00: We got to get you back in.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'll back.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get the same role in something I'm doing where you're like.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_04: Justin Timberlake looked alike in the case.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_00: The not Justin Timberlake flashback repeat.
• 1:16:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you get you get union for it.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's it.
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make you go, it's not him.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get your union card.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_06: Don't I have to speak a line?
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_06: Is that what it is?
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_06: Do I have to stay a line?
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Used to.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_00: You have to speak, yeah.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And payment depends on words and how long.
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that?
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just got a residual check from Regan.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, oh, that was a good amount of words.
• 1:17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, 12 seconds.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Regan.
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_05: Well, this is great.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much, Butch, for pleasure.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my God.
• 1:17:15
  SPEAKER_06: Brandon, you're off mic over there, but how are you doing?
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_06: I saw you cracking up a whole thing.
• 1:17:19
  SPEAKER_06: He said the double thumbs up.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_06: This is great.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've exhausted you.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you very much for having me.
• 1:17:24
  SPEAKER_06: That was so much fun.
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_06: We'll catch new episodes each week on Aybighead.com.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_06: Check out Butch Bradley comedy on all the socials.
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_06: And uh we'll see you then.
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_06: That was fun.