Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / #31 | Erik Knowles

Transcript

#31 | Erik Knowles · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on, y'all?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Corporate Christie Originals.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Alright, so episode 31 features Eric Knowles.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Eric Knowles is part of the Article 15 comedy tour.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna be touring the VFWs starting in Texas.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Specifically starting in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's a special honor for us, you guys.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Eric is a comedian.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: He's a veteran himself from the Marine Corps.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: He was a helicopter mechanic.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's a stand-up comedian.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: So he talked, we talk about veteran issues, specifically suicide.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: We talk a little bit about himself, about his career, and what he's doing for the community and for the veterans in our community.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: All right, man.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you being on the show.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, that's awesome.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: So uh you won the world series.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: You won the World Series of uh Comedy International, right?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: You've been a comedian for 16 years.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we're like that, right, right.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I stopped counting, yeah.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you stopped counting.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: All right, right.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: So when you first got into it, uh what made you like actually I guess take interest into getting into it?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've always been uh like as a kid, I was always the funny kid, the class clown, cutting up in class.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when I realized that that you know maybe this might be my calling was uh when I was in the Marine Corps.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um you know, I got in a lot of trouble kind of for the same reasons in the Marine Corps.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was always cutting up and messing around.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one time my sergeant thought it would be funny to sign me up for the squadron talent show.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: He signed me up as a comedian without even telling me.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, you think you're funny and you like to make everybody laugh, so signed you up.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he's and you know, I couldn't back down, so I had to do it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up winning the I won the talent show just by roasting my whole chain of command.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh after that, people started encouraging me, like noes, you should do that, man.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like you should figure it out.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a few years later, uh, like a few couple years after I got out of the military that I started doing open mics and just never looked back.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, bro.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So so when you got out when you got out of the military, that's when you started.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't really before the military, and you were about what, 19 or 20?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Or you were in the military?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was like 20, I was probably 23 the first time I did it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I did kind of do stand-up while I was in the military, just uh like in the barracks for my friends.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really understand what I was doing, but looking back, it was like, yeah, I had a regular show, like every Friday night.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: People would come by my room and I had a little karaoke machine, microphone, and I would just crack jokes and uh you know it was like I was writing jokes and preparing all week, you know.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of like my own little show.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, so were you you were actually preparing to to perform in front of your friends?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I would just write down I write down things that are funny that happened throughout the week or things that I thought of.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it, but I was being a comedian, kind of.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So so I you didn't realize it at the time, but you realized it later on as you kind of decided to make it into a career.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: After I started learning the business and learning how to do stand-up and how to write material, it kind of hit me like, oh, I've kind of been doing this my whole life, really.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Even in grade school, I would like try to come up with funny stuff to do in front of the class, and yeah, kind of like a class kind of like class clown came natural.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool, man.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, yeah, definitely.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess so so your chops were created by practicing in front of others, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, so you still do that today, then, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: To try to develop material.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: All of my material comes from uh personal experience, uh like 99% of it for sure.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um my act, you know, I have about an hour act that I do.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I have more material than that, but most people only want to hear about an hour.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's kind of divided into thirds, where the first third of it is about parenting and raising kids and just the things that I'm going through.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people can relate to that.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just a lot of everybody has kids or or was a kid.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I talk about being a stepdad and how it's different than being a regular dad, and that's something a lot of people can relate to.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um the next half of my act or third of my act is uh kind of about politics.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're not supposed to talk about politics, so that's really what it's about.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's about how we're not supposed to talk about it anymore.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And just the difference of like we used to be a country that could take a joke and now like things are real tense, you know.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like I walk the line of talking politics, but without picking a side or making anybody mad.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh that's funny.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the third part of my act is I probably have about 20 minutes just on my about my time in the Marine Corps and all the shenanigans that I got into and just kind of my thoughts on it and everything.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what people really love.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, for sure, bro.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so so you mentioned uh I think I was yeah, I was watching your TikTok.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: You got a TikTok, and you were saying how you how you like to perform uh for the military uh personnel, I guess, instead of like actual.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so what's the difference there?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a difference or oh yeah?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I've gotten to entertain the troops quite a bit in my career.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of become like uh my niche, I guess.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've been asked to go entertain the troops overseas.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to say I've got four tours in the Middle East, and I did I did two tours as a Marine, and I've been back to do two comedy tours to the Middle East, so you know, all over Iraq and Afghanistan and all through the Middle East with Armed Forces Entertainment.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I formed a group called the Veterans of Comedy, and we're uh like a group that just we go and entertain the troops and we do fundraisers to raise awareness for veterans.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I just love those audiences because like I don't know, I guess I just connect with them and they connect with me.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like we uh they get it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh military folks kind of use humor as a defense mechanism to get us through uh like trauma and just all the the bull crap that we had to put up with and the strange, stupid things we had to do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were always laughing our way through it, kind of whistling through the graveyard.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's kind of become my sense of humor.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's why I love the military.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And plus, you know, I just uh I really have a special place in my heart for our veterans, you know, because I know the things that they've gone through and the sacrifices that they've made.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um I don't want to just perform for them.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I also like performing for civilians and people who haven't been in the military to be able to spread that awareness of uh what it's like to be a veteran and uh the things that we went through and some of the issues that veterans struggle with today.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: For sure, man.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: So so the main issue would be what suicide or suicide would you say?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's the biggest one, yeah.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Suicide awareness.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh the suicide rate among veterans is higher than uh any other group that I'm aware of.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: It the last the last figure that I heard was 22 a day, which is almost one every hour.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time we finish this podcast, we'll have lost another veteran to suicide, which is just an astonishing statistic.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I feel like uh a lot of that has to do with the fact that veterans don't feel like there's anybody that will understand.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's important to me that veterans stick together and that we help each other because civilian doctors and psychologists and uh people that you know they really have a good place in their heart, they want to help, but they'll they just don't have the experience, or maybe they do, but it's hard for us to trust them that they understand because what we went through and the things that we did are are not the same as you know what a firefighter might have gone through, or whatever, you know, not to diminish those things, but yeah, uh, and that's really why uh that's another reason why I started this uh comedy tour that I'm on, the Article 15 comedy tour.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're going to BFWs because those are open to the public.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: That'll attract the audience that I want, the military and the veterans, um, but also civilians can come.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we're encouraging the veterans that are coming to the show to bring in uh civilian people so that they can kind of have a peek into our lives and kind of a backstage view of uh of where we come from and what we're going through, and also they can learn about their local BFW and the its missions and the things that it that they're doing for their local communities.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's where the real healing is gonna happen.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna come down from the president.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, so definitely have a grassroots effort, yes, for sure.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's where it's gotta start, man.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean it's gotta it's gotta start from the bottom up, kind of deep, huh?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of deep for a comedian.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: No, man, no, dude, for real.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I think comedians have to be deep, bro.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, you you gotta have stuff to laugh at, you know what I mean?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are, yeah.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: You got, I mean, you gotta have stuff to laugh at, and dude, your stuff is funny too, bro.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like uh, golly, your stuff is funny.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh like the cream the cream corn joke.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I've been watching yeah, the cream corn joke about like uh what is it one, two, three, four, or whatever, uh Marine Corps, but you were saying cream corn, give us some more.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: We used to run around one, two, three, three, three, four.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of saying Marine Corps, I'd be saying cream corn.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Cream corn.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: So where uh where in Texas are you from, man?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I live near Beaumont, the Beaumont area, southeast Texas, almost Louisiana.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm still like almost an hour away from Beaumont.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the biggest nearest city.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I live out in the woods with my wife and my kids.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh on the week on the weekends I I yeah, man, that's how it is for real.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but on the weekends, you know, I get on a plane and I go all over the country to comedy clubs and military bases, casinos, wherever I can uh get books, and I'm just living this dream as a stand-up comedian, making it happen for my kids.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's awesome.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's your full-time gig.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's all I got right now.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yo, dude, congrats, man.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome, dude.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure, man.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: I love comedians.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you you so you mentioned your family.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: I know you have some jokes about being a dad, being a stepdad.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: What's the difference there?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, being a stepdad, like people don't understand how hard that is.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're we're serving our country just by raising kids that we didn't even make and not hitting them.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like it's a tough job, you know.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough raising kids who know that you're not supposed to hit them, you know.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we don't even have the threat, you know.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I still sometimes like I don't know, you know.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a real father too.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have biological kids, so I've seen the difference.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like my kids call me dad, they respect me, you know, they say yes, sir, and the stepkids say yes, sir, and all of that too, but like like they call me Eric.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just it's it's just like that little they call it a step down or a stepdad because it's like a step down, you know, in respect.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, Eric.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ugh, like I don't even like how he said my name, like Eric.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what the uh they put some stank on it, you know.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Or they'll be like, oh, your dad's talking to you, or like to make fun to make because we used to do that too.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like if you have a stepdad or an uncle or whatever.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like, oh, your dad's calling you, you know what I mean?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, it's not my dad, you know what I mean?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny, bro.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot of people in corpus can definitely relate.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: I can't.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I I mean, my dad had custody of my brother and I, and I had a stepmom instead of a stepdad, which is kind of unordinary because it's more stepdads, stepmoms, I would say.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't know, but definitely can relate to that, man.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome, dude.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's same with my kids because I and their mom is remarried, so they have a stepmom over at my house and a stepdad over there, and and my wife now, she has kids from a previous marriage, so they have a real mom and a stepdad.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a big Brady bunch, you know, and that's pretty common these days.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're always trying to figure out how to make it work, you know.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: So so they haven't gone to work yet.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: You ain't put them to work yet?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, not yet.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I got the two boys are uh 11, and they're at the age where, you know, I'm trying to get them to learn how to do work, and like I have this weed eater I'm trying to fix.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I want to teach them how to do it with me.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting on parts to come in.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my next project with them.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: But they'd rather be inside playing the Xbox and stuff, man.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough with all this technology, it's hard to compete against that as a dad.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: We let them have an hour of Wi-Fi a day if they finish their chores, you know.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, we're mean, dude.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Just an only an hour, bro.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's all they need, man.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Too much anyway.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Too much anyway.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool, man.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: So did you know what you were signing up for when before you came with stepdad?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm old school, man.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and it's it's tough, like being a kid of the 80s, you know, in the 90s growing up.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because like uh like kids, you know, I'm not really for like uh spanking kids, like whipping them and all of that, you know, but but I did come from the time period where that was the cool thing.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like growing up in Texas in the 1980s, when I was a kid, like I was on my best behavior all the time, not because my mom or my dad might spank me, but because anybody could.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was acceptable that anybody could do it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like if I'm at somebody else's house, like I got my butt whipped with a belt one time by my friend's dad at his house, and he called my dad right in front of me.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Wayne, I got your boy here.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just had to whip his butt.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and my dad's like, send him home, I'm gonna tear him up when he gets here.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like they didn't even ask questions, you know.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yo, wow, dude.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to create, I'm not trying to recreate that world for my kids because I understand that it's not the same and times have changed, and that's really not the answer, really.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying it's hard to figure out this new style of parenting, this softer, kinder style of parenting, where like kids are allowed to my kids don't talk back, but like they answer back, you know.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like you tell them to do something, and it's like, oh yeah, I am.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, hmm.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't like that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, don't say I am.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: How about yes, sir?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: How about just like, oh, I already know they already know everything.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's what kids today think.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: They think they know everything.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know, I know, oh yeah, yeah, I know.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't know nothing, dude.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: When they say I know, you know, they're really saying, Yeah, I I didn't know.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny, man.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the uh Michael Sanchez, he looks like another comedian out here.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: He says, Yeah, one hour of information, that's it.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Use your imagination for the rest.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's my homie.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's on the tour with me.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's on the article 15 comedy tour with me.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out, man.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hell yeah, Michael Sanchez, bro.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: What's up, Michael?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: So he's uh so you guys are veterans.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um you and uh the other two guys that are on Article 15 Comedy Tour.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, I was in the Marine Corps.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Michael, he was uh Army guy, and uh Orlando is uh Air Force, two Charms, they call him.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Two was it two charms?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's his uh like his stage name.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's also a rapper, so he's like a rapper and a comedian, super funny dude, very talented.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, there he is on the left on my flyer there.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, man.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've got an awesome uh lineup of comedians here.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: These dudes are killers, man.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like uh my boy Mike.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, go ahead, go ahead.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, and I seen like every so I was looking at the page article 15, which y'all have one on Facebook, and the the very first few flyers it had like three dates, and then now it's like six dates, and it keeps changing you keep adding more on, dude.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome, man.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now we're up to eight dates, and we got three more in the pipeline of people that want to want us to come.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: We've had requests from all over the country, but I got people in Colorado Springs and North Dakota and uh Little Rock.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, we want you to come out here, and I'm like, hey, maybe, but like let me see if this thing works in Texas first, you know.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, dude, for real, man.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: So how's the turnout been like?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how's it been for you guys?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we haven't had our first show yet.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our first show is uh in Corpus at in uh Cal Allen at uh October 7th at the VFW.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's VFW post 3837.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, something like that.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 3837, uh uh 12030 Leopard Street, Corpus Christi, Texas.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of it's it's more kind of in Annaville.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: You like the locals would kind of know it as Annaville, Cal Allen area.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: But but yeah, it's it's Annaville.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: They they know where that's at.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's on Leopard, uh, before you get to Cal Allen, near the uh I think it's kind of near the fire station or before there.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if you guys know believe it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if y'all want information on that, we just got our website live last night.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you can go to uh article 15comedy.com.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so do you do you understand the reason why we're calling it Article 15?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if everybody gets it.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was gonna ask you that.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: What is it?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: So all right, yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um in the military, when you get in trouble and you uh you get your rank taken away, they're they're charged, they charge you with Article 15.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that I became uh very familiar with when I was in.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I got charged with Article 15.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I lost because like I said, I was always cutting up.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was always into something, you know.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the Marines, they say that you're not a real Marine unless you got three Article 15s.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got five while I was in.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: You got five, bro.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I got five, yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't take my rank every time.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: They took my rank three times, but I got charged five times, and uh I was a smooth talker.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I got out of it a couple of times, but uh yeah, I lost rank three times, and I I got out honorably.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was real close at the end, but I made it out with an honorable discharge.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, so an article 15 is kind of an inside joke amongst us veterans.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's like once they see that, they're like, oh, this guy was a joker, you know.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, shoot, that's cool, man.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh article 15.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: So uh man, that's awesome, dude.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so veterans, so we're talking about veterans.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: So the way you came up upon this idea is you uh you well, so how did you come upon that idea of starting performing for VFWs?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like, well, you know, I was well, as a comedian, I'm always trying to fill my calendar, I'm always trying to get booked.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the way I was taught to do it was, you know, you gotta work the circuit of comedy clubs all over the country.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And comedy clubs book on the weekend, you know, they'll give you cut they'll bring you in for Friday, Saturday, or some of the longer ones are like Thursday through Sunday, even for a very long weekend.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's only 52 weekends in the year.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like hundreds and hundreds, maybe maybe thousands of comedians that are all competing for those spots, for those paid spots, to headline the comedy clubs on the weekend.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's very competitive.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not a huge household name.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, I'll admit that for sure.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm not at the top of a lot of lists.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they'd rather have somebody they've heard of or somebody that has, you know, is on Netflix right now, or something like that, which I understand.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe but it's been tough and it's been very competitive.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I've just been trying to think of a a way to kind of make my own lane.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just thinking to myself, like, man, wish I could go back out and entertain the troops again, or you know, maybe I can find somebody that wants to do a fundraiser for veterans and get in front of my people again.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And like I just had this idea.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, maybe I could.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: uh just put on a show at a at a VFW because that's where veterans are.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know I can give a portion.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of just wrote up a little email like, hey, would you like to have a comedy night?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: It would maybe it would bring in new people to your to your VFW.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know you guys can keep this percentage of the ticket prices, you know, and you'll make some money, I'll make money, you'll get new faces in, possibly some new members.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't I sent that out to a few uh VFWs around Texas.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I opened up Google Maps, you know, all right, where's these VFWs?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's some in Houston or some in and I got like three back pretty quick.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got one back the very next day and then over the next week I got two more and now all of a sudden I'm like I was like hey wow this has been kind of easy.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well nobody else is competing for those and there's a there's not a comedy club in every little town but there's a VFW in every little town just about so I'm just like jackpot like the light bulb went off and I'm like I'm like all right well you know maybe I can do some work this way and it's a great thing.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's bringing veterans together we're raising awareness for all of our stuff I'm uh I get to meet other veterans.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some sponsors now from veteran owned businesses that want to sponsor the tour.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we're sponsored by uh it's called Bulkhead Energy Drink it's uh and it's not just a regular energy drink uh it has uh newotropics in it which is like the one of the one of these cool new health things you hear about it on the Joe Rogan podcast uh that's about it uh it's actually a really good uh drink there's those we'll have those available at the shows um there's a couple more that I'm in negotiation with I wish I could talk about them because I'm super excited about it but uh that's something that we're interested in too is uh helping to promote veteran owned businesses you know so if there's a a veteran out there you have a business uh maybe you want to help us out and get involved we could help each other we'll uh spread awareness of your product uh and that's what we want to do is promote veteran owned businesses um nonprofits um anything that helps veterans that's what we're all about so that's what we're trying to do and you know I'm just using what I have in my arsenal which is comedy and I'm a firm believer that laughter is the best medicine because you know if you're going through like a depression um if you've been through some traumas and you know maybe you've lost some people there's all kinds of reasons that people get kind of down in the dumps you know especially these days you don't have to be a veteran to understand that but if you're going through something like that uh man I dare you I dare you come sit through our show and see if you don't laugh until your cheeks hurt and get those endorphins flowing through your body and you'll have no choice but to start feeling better.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's not and I'm not saying like I gotta have the magic pill it's not just Eric Knowles it's not just the Article 15 comedy team that can do that.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Laughter in itself is is really good for you and there's science behind that.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there's been plenty of times where I'm going through something in in my life and you know I I don't feel like being funny but I have to because it's my job.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know I got booked and I'm like man I don't even feel like it like I ain't even in the right place to do this.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I get on stage and it's like as soon as I hear that first laugh it's like man all right well that feels pretty good you know and then by the end of the act man I have a real smile on my face that I'm not faking you know and I come off stage feeling good and I'm just like man I have to I have to keep doing comedy you know to get there was times in my life where I'm like all right this is what I have to do to get through this to really help me just be okay.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah wow wow man uh there's another comedian in here Lito Cortez he says what's up fellas and actually found out about you through Lito Cortez uh so awesome what's up Lito awesome man hey thank thank you for this connection yes thanks man appreciate you Lito uh yeah so so you so when you say you gotta do it for yourself is that be is that because of because you're a veteran not because you're a veteran but because you deal with veteran issues not uh I don't know how to put to word it but uh like how how would you word like so is it because you were you are a veteran that man it's just uh honestly no no not I don't I'm not a combat veteran uh I served in a combat zone and I was very lucky to uh not you know have to do anything crazy and like I didn't lose any of my brothers and sisters over there I'm I'm very lucky in that but uh but the reason that I have to do comedy is because I'm just like everybody else and I have uh gone through some things just in my regular old personal civilian life you know uh everybody uh everybody's had hard financial times a lot of people have been through bad relationships uh divorce um just letting yourself down in different personal ways you know not reaching your goals all of these things and just the stress of living in a a bad economy um all of those things are are hard to deal with for for everybody you know some of us take it better than others but after a while I think everybody at some point reaches goes through a period where it's like man it's like it's all happening right now you know and and if you've ever been through bad times it seems like everything happens at once you know or right after another like uh one domino falls and it knocks down a whole bunch more and the next thing you know it's like man how am I going to get out of this you know how am I gonna get back to the old happy me you know and people use different ways to do that.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people jump into exercise physical fitness which is a great one it's important um a good way to get out of depression is to help others when which is a weird one but that's one that uh that that's something that I'm doing you know that I inadvertently figured out like oh I'm helping others you know because there's been a ton of times where I'm just doing a regular old comedy show in a bar you know making make maybe a hundred bucks and just grinding it out you know this was early in my career trying to work my way up and I remember during some of those times where it's just I'm kind of questioning like man what's even the point like I don't know if I'm ever gonna make it you know all of that stuff and then uh have people come up to the like one time this lady came up to me after the show she says I just want to let you know how much you're helping people and I'm like really like how like she uh she told me that today was the the one year anniversary of her husband and she had been aggravated she did so oh yeah I know what today is and you're not gonna stay here being depressed and you're coming out I got comedy show can get what happened now you were cutting out you said she was she was agar agriphobic or what what is that what you said yeah yeah so like she hadn't left the house in over a year since her husband had died she hadn't gone outside she didn't couldn't face the world you know but her sister came over and drug her out of the house made her get dressed she said uh no you're going outside today we got uh I got comedy tickets you know and she said it was the last thing I wanted to do I didn't want to be out here you know but she said man once I started listening to you and I started laughing like she said she got this feeling that that's what her husband would have wanted for her you know that she realized she realized at my comedy show during my dick and fart jokes that her that that's what her husband would have wanted that that her husband didn't want her to stay in and be depressed and mourn him forever you know that she would always love him but that he would want her to move on with her life.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like wow you know that hit me like a ton of bricks like okay so this does help people you know and ever since then yeah so that's when like it's changed in my brain from like all right I'm trying to get paid I'm trying to get laughs to like all right I'm trying to give something to people some of this medicine this nature's best medicine this laughter man this and I really started considering myself to be like a medicine man you know which sounds a little e sounds a little egotistical but that's kind of what it is yeah you know I'm making people feel better yeah that's what keeps me going yeah man society needs it society needs laughter I mean imagine imagine society without laughter bro or without jokes like it would be boring oh man yeah it'd be terrible it'd be bad uh uh Michael Sanchez says you're underrated bro he says wait till the rest of the country finds out what y'all know and that you're hilarious he's just trying to suck up now thank you Michael thank you man yeah we definitely need this stuff man and I could see wow dude and and just talking about this it makes me think about the veterans that really struggle bro like that that have actually like seen combat and like you're saying and like it and it's just like you know and they have to and some of them choose like suicide bro it's like damn what are the other options like do they really seem like they have like no other option bro like how how can uh I you know you know it's a there's a lot of moving parts there um they they feel and and I know this just from talking to them and working with them I worked with uh I had a DOD contract for two years with the Air Force Wounded Warriors and I talked to a bunch of them and you know they have post-traumatic stress disorder from the things that they've seen and done and some of them have what's called survivor's guilt where they lost uh a lot of their friends you know like we've when we we watch movies about war and the good guy sometimes is like the only guy left alive you know and it's like wow man that dude's badass or whatever you know yeah but the re the reality of when that happens is like that dude lost all of his best friends like they don't understand that like when we're in war together when you're deployed with people and you spend every day and all day and all night with those people they really become your brothers like war is 90% boredom with 10% extreme fear you know just crazy stuff happening and during that 90% of boredom like all we do is sit around and wait and there's nothing to do a lot of times and we just tell each other we we tell every story that we have literally like to each other like man I remember this time one time when I was a kid blah blah blah you know I had this girlfriend one time blah blah blah you know we know everything about those dudes and they know everything about us just like a real real brother um so when you survive combat and somebody else doesn't it's like you left them out there that's how it feels like in your heart to to these guys you know yeah man I mean it's real real deep and and it and it really sucks and to a lot of them they feel like nobody understands even the doctors at the VA you know it it just doesn't connect.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know so that's why I encourage I encourage veterans to reach out to to your brothers you know we got to do buddy checks you know and we're getting good at that we're getting more diligent about that and it's becoming there's always kind of in this stigma of like just be a man and just don't say nothing to nobody and don't talk about it and you bottle it up you know and we gotta get away from that we have to because because we're dropping dead at 22 a day man we have to it's not working.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not working something's not something's not jiving yeah yeah wow so man so you know but there are other issues just besides that that veterans go through just the transition alone uh there needs to be a lot more done to bridge the gap from soldier to civilian just that there needs to be transition assistance because it's like you live this life in the military and then all of a sudden it's over.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: One day you sign the last piece of paper you sign that D D214 and one day you walk out the gate for the last time and then it's just like you're trying to blend in trying to fake the funk for a while into civilian life again and that's really hard on a lot of guys uh we we miss it you know we miss being in we miss the suck you know like when we were when we were in it sucked but you learned there's a phrase in the Marines called embrace the suck it's like you learn to love it.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we're it's like we're trauma bonded yeah you know it really is it's almost as shocking leaving as it is entering yeah more so even yeah wow absolutely man I couldn't imagine that I can't imagine that yeah man and you went and so if you go in at an early age bro you don't you hadn't even seen much up until that point you know and then the initial exactly wow and like you know a lot of guys are like me where my dad wasn't really around a lot especially you know in my teenage years and in my formative years so I never really had a male role model when I needed it when I was really forming my adult personality right so it's like I feel like my daddy was the Marine Corps my daddy was those drill instructors you know they were the people who taught me to shave and how to stand up straight and and how to be a man.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah jokes man the uh about the step in your clothes yeah yeah yeah that's yeah bro and you're learning that for the first time you're like what the heck is it oh man dude it was crazy to me yeah it was it was wild I was like what am I into man you know but after a little while I loved it I was like hell yeah man I'm in it together at least with like these dudes you know yeah bro that's funny bro wow uh we got another uh simperfy Marine Corps guy in here he's in the 50 states of terror podcast uh we had him on the on the show one time and he's semprefy brother awesome man dude that's freaking awesome uh the I mean I mean it's awesome like the cambrodery you know thinking about the cambrodery that you had with others you know what I mean and then it's even it's even like even more heart wrenching to know like the story you were telling me earlier that you could just lose them like that and then you're out of the army out of the the service and golly bro man I can imagine how freak how mentally damaging it can be to a person yeah man it really is it messes with your head because it's like my very very best friend in the Marine Corps it's like I know he's out there somewhere I can't find him you know he dropped off he don't get on Facebook you know he was always too cool for that kind of stuff and like I just lost track of him he's gone in the wind and I think that's something that a lot of a lot of military veterans can relate to it's like man every now and then I'll remember one of those guys and be like oh yeah like that dude what is what is he up to you know like I'd I'd love to know like did he make it is he in jail like yeah and it's it's cool too like when you think about that that you have dudes from different parts of the country you know and and you get to learn like their like how they are in that part of the country.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that's cool man yeah man it really is like uh you know I learned I had friends from Ohio so I learned about skyline chili I'd never heard of that apparently that's a big thing out there uh like uh I had a lot of Latino friends in the in the military uh which I guess it's I don't know and now it's like I still do with Michael Sanchez and uh Orlando with the reality Lito Cortez right Leto Cortez yeah I like how you say Lito I thought his name was Leto no it's Leto Michael has a group uh he used to have a podcast called uh Los Comedy Compadres you know okay and it was all of the all of the uh Latino comedians from the Houston area and like we hit it off and made friends and then I was I went on his podcast and they let me know like I was the first like uh white dude on their podcast and and on their shows so I'm like a like what do they call me I'm like a an honorary compadre you know I'm like all right that's cool yeah he lives in the neighborhood we'll we gotta accept we he's got it he's acceptable yeah yeah yeah I got I got the pass for some reason yeah oh shoot that's funny man golly well thank you for coming on man uh let me see what else we got here uh yeah so article 15 you guys are gonna be in Cal Allen at the VFW and I'll leave links on the bottom uh of this post and so you can check it out cool so yeah so we're yeah man tickets are going go ahead all right yeah so yeah tickets are uh already starting to get bought uh you don't want to get left out I've got it at 200 uh capped at 200 so once we get to 200 tickets uh I'm probably gonna cut it off unless I talk to the VFW and see how many chairs they got and all that but uh go ahead and get your tickets now you can get them on uh article15comedy.com and just click at the top on the tours page and you can see our tour and each town that we're gonna be in just click on uh I think it's under Corpus Christie or Cal Allen you'll see it there uh but if you're listening from elsewhere we're also gonna be check out our tour we're gonna be in Houston uh we're in uh uh Waco area Austin area Georgetown um Victoria Tombaugh Pearland Lufkin yeah we're in talks with Tyler and um uh there's a second one in Houston wants us to come back and do a second one oh Houston's huge bro yeah so maybe we can do two in Houston and kind of spread them out we have uh one in October in Houston so we could come back in December or January but uh yeah I expect the tour to keep growing so I would uh advise people to keep an eye on Article 15 comedy and check out our website every now and then follow us on our Facebook page you can follow us on Instagram both of those at Article 15 comedy and uh you might want to get in early because you're gonna watch us grow all the way and I I have uh I have a feeling that this thing's gonna get really really big that's gonna be awesome probably going nationwide yeah hell yeah man dude that's awesome you help you're bringing comedy dude what I like about it is you're bringing comedy of course everybody likes we like comedy but you're doing it for a specific purpose man that's what I like about it I mean you know that's right and it's really special for Corpus for the corpus listeners because you're gonna be our first show you know you get to kind of set the bar for us so I'd really love to see the people of Corpus Christi show up and show out for their veterans and and just uh and if you just want to do it for a selfish reason come on because it's gonna be a funny hilarious show a comedy night is a perfect date night nice hell yeah yeah yeah every time we go out of town man my wife and I we go see we go we go see some kind of comedy somewhere man it's awesome dude yeah so uh so anything else before you before you take off man no I think that's it I yeah I gotta get ready and go I got two shows tonight good dude hell heck yeah man do good man all right well thanks brother yeah thanks a lot you guys have a good one thanks for tuning in you guys everybody in the in the live stream uh stay tuned for the next episode but check out article 15 comedy uh and you got it man thanks a lot man have a good one you bet brother