Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Advice No One Asked For From Comedies Very Open And Fun Jenny Hagel
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but while listening to podcasts,
- 0:02Speaker 1: right in the middle of an interview, I'll get bored
- 0:04Speaker 1: and I gotta go. And it's like, oh my god,
- 0:06Speaker 1: I feel so sorry for this host, but I gotta go.
- 0:09Speaker 1: I need a choice. I don't want to stop listening
- 0:11Speaker 1: to podcasts. I just gotta go. That's what arro dot
- 0:14Speaker 1: net is all about. A r r oe dot net.
- 0:17Speaker 1: When you lose interest in the conversation and you gotta
- 0:21Speaker 1: get something, it's right there waiting for you. And one
- 0:24Speaker 1: of them is beyond the Calling. We're talking to the
- 0:28Speaker 1: men and women who have served this great nation beyond
- 0:31Speaker 1: the calling, only on arrow dot net, A r r
- 0:34Speaker 1: oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration, Jenny, I tell you what,
- 0:38Speaker 1: I can't put this book down. I swear to God
- 0:42Speaker 1: we are from the same mothers, but we're just different people.
- 0:45Speaker 1: You speak things in this book that just blow me away.
- 0:48Speaker 1: And I thought I was the freak because I would
- 0:50Speaker 1: feel something and I would say, yeah, put it away,
- 0:52Speaker 1: put it away. But you really do bring out a
- 0:54Speaker 1: lot of great things inside this book.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Oh that means a lot to me. Thank you so much,
- 1:00Speaker 2: lovely to hear.
- 1:00Speaker 1: To be so open where'd you get the courage, because
- 1:03Speaker 1: I mean, you had to have had parents that looked
- 1:04Speaker 1: at you and said stop being a know it all
- 1:06Speaker 1: and and and I hated that when my father would
- 1:08Speaker 1: say that, I say, Dad, I'm just trying to learn.
- 1:09Speaker 1: I just want to teach, and even stop being a
- 1:11Speaker 1: know it all.
- 1:13Speaker 2: They did say stop being know it all. They also said,
- 1:15Speaker 2: please stop doing comedy. But like any parent probably would,
- 1:21Speaker 2: I think, I just I don't know. I think I
- 1:22Speaker 2: just I think that at some point, probably everybody gets
- 1:27Speaker 2: to a point right where you're like, I just have
- 1:29Speaker 2: to be who I am. Yes, right, We're all dealt
- 1:31Speaker 2: a certain kind of personality, a certain set of skills,
- 1:34Speaker 2: and you can run away from them or you can
- 1:35Speaker 2: lean into them. And I think that's the best we
- 1:37Speaker 2: can do, is be the best version of ourselves, whatever
- 1:40Speaker 2: weirdo that self is.
- 1:41Speaker 1: But what's great about you, though, is that, in your
- 1:44Speaker 1: own special way, you say, we all have different personalities
- 1:46Speaker 1: at the same time, But are you listening to the
- 1:48Speaker 1: multiple levels that we travel?
- 1:51Speaker 2: I think that's it, right, You just got to be
- 1:53Speaker 2: a tune to who you are, who you are and
- 1:55Speaker 2: work with what you've got, because I do think sometimes
- 1:57Speaker 2: a certain portion of a lot of people's youth and mine.
- 2:00Speaker 2: I can speak for myself, certainly, my youth was spent thinking, oh,
- 2:03Speaker 2: I should be more this, I should be less this,
- 2:05Speaker 2: I should try harder to be more like this person
- 2:07Speaker 2: or that person. And it's a really relaxing thing to
- 2:10Speaker 2: get to the point in life where you're like, no,
- 2:12Speaker 2: I mean, that person could be great. This quality could
- 2:14Speaker 2: be great if I had it, But I can't be
- 2:17Speaker 2: someone else. The most I can do is be the
- 2:18Speaker 2: best version of me. And there's something lovely when you
- 2:20Speaker 2: get to the age or the point in life where
- 2:22Speaker 2: you relax into that and you're like, let's just try
- 2:23Speaker 2: to be the best version of whatever weirdo I am.
- 2:26Speaker 1: I swear we are exactly the way that Mark Twain
- 2:29Speaker 1: wanted us to be as creative people, even he spoke
- 2:32Speaker 1: about it so much about just be yourself, use your
- 2:35Speaker 1: own accent, your own style, put the commas in the
- 2:38Speaker 1: bad places and put a semi cole in somewhere where
- 2:41Speaker 1: it doesn't belong. Just be yourself.
- 2:44Speaker 2: I think that's it. And I think people respond to
- 2:46Speaker 2: writing like that. I know I do. I think when
- 2:48Speaker 2: writing is interesting and unique and it's from a point
- 2:51Speaker 2: of view so specific that I could never have imagined it.
- 2:54Speaker 2: Number one, that's when it's the most interesting. And then
- 2:56Speaker 2: number two, the weirdest thing about very specific writing is
- 2:59Speaker 2: that you connect with it, even if that other person
- 3:02Speaker 2: has a different background than you, a different life experience.
- 3:04Speaker 2: The more specifically they speak about their life, the more
- 3:07Speaker 2: universal it feels, because it has a human quality to it,
- 3:10Speaker 2: and we all end up plugging into it in some way.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Do you find yourself being out there in the public
- 3:14Speaker 1: eye and ear and sit there and you want to
- 3:17Speaker 1: hear these stories because inside my mind, I'm going, Oh,
- 3:20Speaker 1: this is going onto a podcast. Oh this is going
- 3:22Speaker 1: into a book. Oh you are the perfect character. Thank
- 3:25Speaker 1: you God forgiving me this new character for a story.
- 3:28Speaker 2: I don't you know. People ask that a lot, or
- 3:30Speaker 2: people will do a thing and they'll be like, I
- 3:31Speaker 2: bet you're going to use this in your routine. And
- 3:34Speaker 2: it's not that I think, because that would be robbing.
- 3:37Speaker 2: I'd be stealing some I'd be stealing someone else's experience.
- 3:40Speaker 2: If someone asks a certain way, I can't really write
- 3:42Speaker 2: effectively about it because that's not who I am, that's
- 3:44Speaker 2: not where I'm coming from, and I don't mean it
- 3:46Speaker 2: sound arrogant, like I'm the most interesting subject. But my
- 3:48Speaker 2: point of view is the point of view I can
- 3:50Speaker 2: write the most effectively from. Yeah, it's going to ring
- 3:53Speaker 2: false if I try to write from someone else's point
- 3:55Speaker 2: of view, Well, then.
- 3:56Speaker 1: I got to get your point of view. On wearing
- 3:58Speaker 1: an analog watch, I can't. I just feel like that
- 4:01Speaker 1: my left arm or my right arm doesn't need to
- 4:03Speaker 1: be weighed down. Because I'm a speaker, I use my hands,
- 4:07Speaker 1: and I feel like that watch is going No, you're
- 4:11Speaker 1: keeping thoughts from me, but you kind of praise the
- 4:13Speaker 1: analog watch.
- 4:15Speaker 2: It's so funny you said that you don't as a speaker,
- 4:17Speaker 2: because the one place I always wear one is when
- 4:20Speaker 2: I'm on stage. I feel like I need to keep
- 4:21Speaker 2: track of the time. That's so interesting that you don't
- 4:24Speaker 2: wear one when you speak. So in my book, one
- 4:26Speaker 2: of the pieces of advice I give is to wear
- 4:28Speaker 2: an analog watch because I feel like our phones steal
- 4:32Speaker 2: so much of our lives. Yes, and a pattern I
- 4:36Speaker 2: noticed was that I would pull out my phone to
- 4:38Speaker 2: check the time, and then while my phone was in
- 4:39Speaker 2: my hand, I'd be like, well, let me check my texts, Okay.
- 4:41Speaker 2: Then I get a text, and I'd be like, oh,
- 4:42Speaker 2: you know what, let me check the weather, let me
- 4:44Speaker 2: google this thing. Yeah, I google that reminds me of
- 4:46Speaker 2: something else. Then that reminds me of something else. Next thing,
- 4:48Speaker 2: I know, like three and a half hours have gone by,
- 4:50Speaker 2: the sun has gotten down. I don't even remember why
- 4:52Speaker 2: I picked up my phone in the first place. So
- 4:53Speaker 2: I was just trying to limit the number of times
- 4:55Speaker 2: I look at my phone to begin with, to open
- 4:57Speaker 2: that portal.
- 4:58Speaker 1: I'll sit here inside this studio and it's and it's
- 5:00Speaker 1: overlooking this forest in South Charlotte, and by the sunlight.
- 5:03Speaker 1: Is that? Because I have no clocks inside the studio
- 5:05Speaker 1: at all, I do not know what time it is.
- 5:07Speaker 1: All I know is is that by the shade or
- 5:10Speaker 1: whatever is happening outside this window is how I determine
- 5:13Speaker 1: what time of day it is.
- 5:15Speaker 2: That's fascinating. You sound like a boy scout. I just
- 5:19Speaker 2: noticed that, like if I were an analog watched then
- 5:21Speaker 2: I would check my wrist for the time and not
- 5:23Speaker 2: get sucked into the vortex that is myself.
- 5:26Speaker 1: Yes. Yes, Another thing that you covered that I thought
- 5:29Speaker 1: was pretty darn cool, is please at the weddings stop
- 5:32Speaker 1: turning your toasts into roast. I thank god you finally
- 5:35Speaker 1: said something like that.
- 5:37Speaker 2: Oh my god. If there's one thing, if I could
- 5:39Speaker 2: wave a wand and make one change in the world,
- 5:42Speaker 2: it would be for people to stop trying to give
- 5:43Speaker 2: funny wedding toasts, because I think that what you are
- 5:47Speaker 2: doing at the end of the day, whether you mean
- 5:48Speaker 2: to or not, is you're putting all the attention on
- 5:50Speaker 2: yourself and you're not putting attention on the people getting married.
- 5:53Speaker 2: And that's the point of a wedding toast, is to
- 5:54Speaker 2: give attention to them, saying nice things about them, tell them.
- 5:59Speaker 2: You know, often we don't do a lot of just
- 6:01Speaker 2: looking someone in the eye and telling them how we
- 6:03Speaker 2: feel about them, especially if they're friends. We have space
- 6:05Speaker 2: for that in romantic relationships, but you don't often just
- 6:07Speaker 2: look at your friend, I guess, unless you've had a
- 6:09Speaker 2: few beers and just say like, Hey, I love you,
- 6:11Speaker 2: I admire this about you, I think this is great
- 6:13Speaker 2: about you. You've mean this XYZ to me, And a
- 6:16Speaker 2: wedding toast is one of the few forms in which
- 6:18Speaker 2: it's publicly acceptable and expected to do that, and instead,
- 6:22Speaker 2: somehow in the last ten twenty years, this idea has
- 6:25Speaker 2: settled on all of us that instead it's supposed to
- 6:27Speaker 2: be a comedy routine, and it's not. Because what I
- 6:30Speaker 2: say in the book is there's two possible outcomes to
- 6:33Speaker 2: a funny wedding toast. Number one, it goes great and
- 6:36Speaker 2: after you give it people are only talking about you.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Or number two, it goes terribly and after you give
- 6:41Speaker 2: it people are only talking about you. Either way, the
- 6:43Speaker 2: focus is not on the couple getting married. So in
- 6:45Speaker 2: my book, I talk about how we really My advice
- 6:48Speaker 2: if you're giving a wedding toast is to make it
- 6:49Speaker 2: about the other people. Make it genuine and sincere. And
- 6:53Speaker 2: in my book I provide a literal template you can
- 6:55Speaker 2: use if you're giving a toast.
- 6:56Speaker 1: See I will use your book as a tool from
- 6:59Speaker 1: this day forward. In The reason why is because I
- 7:01Speaker 1: believe that you believe in the same mantra. As people
- 7:04Speaker 1: aren't happy to see me, they're happy I see them.
- 7:06Speaker 1: So therefore I'm gonna put all my investment in them
- 7:08Speaker 1: because I think that we can go further by knowing
- 7:11Speaker 1: their story, get them to laugh, get them to do
- 7:13Speaker 1: something emotionally. God dang, that just opens up the path
- 7:16Speaker 1: to grow forward.
- 7:18Speaker 2: That's what a beautiful. People aren't happy. Say that your
- 7:20Speaker 2: people aren't happy. They are I see them. That's gorgeous.
- 7:24Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody is happy to see me. They're happy that
- 7:27Speaker 1: I see them. And that's how I base my entire life.
- 7:30Speaker 2: That's a beautiful Do you want? That's I should have
- 7:32Speaker 2: had you add an addendum to this book.
- 7:36Speaker 1: But it's because there's so much going on. I mean that.
- 7:40Speaker 1: And I think that's the reason why this book speaks
- 7:41Speaker 1: so loudly to me is because that you are speaking.
- 7:44Speaker 1: I mean, I can't figure out if you're a Pisces
- 7:46Speaker 1: or a cancer. I don't know if you're from Montana,
- 7:48Speaker 1: because you're speaking this street that I'm so familiar with.
- 7:52Speaker 2: Oh that's really lovely. I'm neither Capricorn from Virginia. Whatever
- 7:57Speaker 2: that means. It means Charlotte, and I'm a big fan of.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Oh my god, So, so what part of Charlotte do
- 8:06Speaker 1: you get around in when you come down here? Uh?
- 8:08Speaker 2: You know what, I don't even know the name of
- 8:09Speaker 2: the neighborhood because I just go straight to my aunt's
- 8:11Speaker 2: house or my best friend's house. Yeah.
- 8:13Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's the way Charlotte is. I don't you
- 8:15Speaker 1: know you ask me how to get to my house,
- 8:17Speaker 1: I don't know. That's why. That's why you have Google Maps.
- 8:20Speaker 1: I'm not I do not know how to get here.
- 8:22Speaker 1: I just know that if I turn here, I turn there.
- 8:24Speaker 1: I let you know. It's like, oh, you know, that's
- 8:25Speaker 1: why Southerners they'll sit there and say, well, when you
- 8:28Speaker 1: see the tracks, make a left, go up to the
- 8:30Speaker 1: church and you'll see you McDonald's do. They don't give
- 8:32Speaker 1: you real directions and see and that's said language you
- 8:34Speaker 1: speak as well.
- 8:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's just I think that's all right.
- 8:39Speaker 2: Like there's so much performative stuff in life of people
- 8:42Speaker 2: trying to seem like they know what they're doing or
- 8:44Speaker 2: like they have their act together, and it's just such
- 8:47Speaker 2: a relief when people admit that they don't, when they're like, oh,
- 8:49Speaker 2: I made this mistake, but at least I learned this
- 8:51Speaker 2: from it, or I tried this thing it didn't really
- 8:53Speaker 2: work out. I think, like, especially if you know I
- 8:55Speaker 2: was hoping, like in the book, one of the things
- 8:58Speaker 2: hopefully that people take from it if they're in a
- 8:59Speaker 2: spire and comedian is like, hey, these are the number
- 9:01Speaker 2: of times I have failed and I continue to fail regularly,
- 9:06Speaker 2: but that's just part of it. And I think if
- 9:07Speaker 2: we all kind of take off the veneer of perfection
- 9:10Speaker 2: a little bit, then it gives other people permission to
- 9:13Speaker 2: feel imperfect, which is what we all are at the
- 9:15Speaker 2: end of the day.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Right, Please do not move. There's more with Jenny Hagel
- 9:18Speaker 1: coming up next. The name of her book Advice No
- 9:24Speaker 1: One Asks For. You're gonna love this. Jenny Hagel is
- 9:27Speaker 1: back the path that you're walking on. And I've been
- 9:30Speaker 1: in broadcasting for forty six years. There's something that seems
- 9:33Speaker 1: to be happening, and I'd love to know how you're
- 9:35Speaker 1: dealing with it because you talked about how people like
- 9:37Speaker 1: to use comedy, and comedy seems to be on an
- 9:39Speaker 1: uprise right now. A lot of people want to believe
- 9:41Speaker 1: that they're funny. How are we dealing with their funny
- 9:44Speaker 1: versus the funny that you and I grew up with.
- 9:47Speaker 1: Because it is a changing world and the way that
- 9:50Speaker 1: people relate these days.
- 9:52Speaker 2: I don't know what you mean by changing. Fuck can
- 9:53Speaker 2: you say more about that? I don't know what you means.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Well, I think people like you and I we've been
- 9:58Speaker 1: trained by the big name, by those that inspired us,
- 10:01Speaker 1: by consultants, by by bosses, by comedy clubs, by stages.
- 10:05Speaker 1: And now you've got people that are coming out and
- 10:07Speaker 1: saying whatever they want, and you kind of sit back, going,
- 10:09Speaker 1: oh crap, wow, I would have been in the you know,
- 10:13Speaker 1: in the in the dumper for that one.
- 10:16Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, but I think experience teaches you, right.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Oh, And I think right right, yeah.
- 10:22Speaker 2: So I think like somebody who doesn't have the kind
- 10:24Speaker 2: of like maybe more rigorous comedy training that you and
- 10:26Speaker 2: I have, they'll learn from experience. They'll get up and
- 10:28Speaker 2: they'll try. And I'd always rather have somebody try because
- 10:31Speaker 2: the audience will tell you very quickly what works and
- 10:33Speaker 2: what doesn't. So I think that'll be the teacher, right yeah.
- 10:37Speaker 1: And the thing about it is you're proving that we're
- 10:38Speaker 1: always the student. And that's the thing that I love
- 10:41Speaker 1: about what you're doing here, because I mean right away,
- 10:43Speaker 1: and this really got my attention. You you know, we
- 10:46Speaker 1: all want this thing to go one hundred percent right.
- 10:48Speaker 1: You put focus on that about that. You don't have
- 10:51Speaker 1: to be one hundred percent right.
- 10:53Speaker 2: That's right. It never will, nothing will ever go one
- 10:55Speaker 2: hundred percent right. You won't have a perfect career, a
- 10:58Speaker 2: perfect even single day at work. You're not going to
- 11:00Speaker 2: have a perfect marriage, You're not going to be a
- 11:02Speaker 2: perfect parent. None of that is possible or attainable. So
- 11:05Speaker 2: I think it's more about getting comfortable with the fact
- 11:08Speaker 2: that life is a series of wins and losses, big
- 11:10Speaker 2: and small. And one of the essays in the book
- 11:13Speaker 2: talks about specifically. I talk about how much comedy failure
- 11:16Speaker 2: of experienced and I write that in this essay that
- 11:21Speaker 2: I kind of, over time just shifted to thinking of
- 11:25Speaker 2: the victory being in the trying. Right. It's so hard
- 11:28Speaker 2: to put yourself out there in any context, right. It's
- 11:31Speaker 2: hard to if you have a normal office job, stand
- 11:33Speaker 2: up in a meeting and say hey, I think I
- 11:35Speaker 2: have a good idea. That's vulnerable to say hey, I
- 11:37Speaker 2: think I have a good idea because everybody might not
- 11:39Speaker 2: agree with you. It's vulnerable at a comedy job to
- 11:42Speaker 2: turn in a word document with twenty jokes to my
- 11:45Speaker 2: boss because maybe things people stink. There's so much there's vulnerability.
- 11:50Speaker 2: And going out on a first date what a big swing, right,
- 11:53Speaker 2: And so I think that if we can see, if
- 11:56Speaker 2: we can focus less on the end result and see
- 11:58Speaker 2: the trying as the victory. We'll try more, and we'll
- 12:00Speaker 2: give ourselves more of a break when things don't go well,
- 12:02Speaker 2: because at least we gave ourselves the opportunity for them
- 12:05Speaker 2: to go right.
- 12:06Speaker 1: I don't know how you dealt with putting those those
- 12:08Speaker 1: jokes or those lines together, those relatables as I call
- 12:11Speaker 1: them together, and then have somebody else decide if they're
- 12:14Speaker 1: going to use them, because I mean there were many times,
- 12:16Speaker 1: because I call it infotainment, I would do an infotainment
- 12:19Speaker 1: bit on the air and I knew that it fell flat.
- 12:21Speaker 1: And it's like, it's like, if I understood it while
- 12:24Speaker 1: I was writing it, why didn't I understand it when
- 12:26Speaker 1: I was delivering it. So I don't know how you're
- 12:28Speaker 1: able to have that strength to be able to say, oh,
- 12:31Speaker 1: my god, this is the greatest thing on this on
- 12:33Speaker 1: this sheet of paper, or this this thing I'm going
- 12:34Speaker 1: to send us an email, and then they go, eh,
- 12:37Speaker 1: I didn't feel it.
- 12:38Speaker 2: Oh oh, well, here's the thing. I don't think it's
- 12:40Speaker 2: the greatest thing ever. I just think, here's here's twenty.
- 12:43Speaker 2: If I turned in twenty jokes, my boss, I'm like,
- 12:44Speaker 2: here's twenty attempts. Yeah, here's twenty attempts, and then it's
- 12:47Speaker 2: their job to decide if it works for the show
- 12:50Speaker 2: or not. And also, I'll say this, I think I
- 12:52Speaker 2: don't tend to when I talk about comedy talk about
- 12:54Speaker 2: things as good or bad. I'll talk about the work
- 12:57Speaker 2: or they don't, because that's the thing. Is like, if
- 12:58Speaker 2: someone is even halfway experienced comedically, there's a reason they
- 13:03Speaker 2: wrote that joke. They had some core idea that was
- 13:05Speaker 2: funny or something they were trying to say, and it
- 13:07Speaker 2: might just be that they weren't able to package it
- 13:09Speaker 2: in the right words to get it to work for
- 13:11Speaker 2: the audience, for them to laugh, or to communicate what
- 13:13Speaker 2: they were trying to say. So some jokes work and
- 13:15Speaker 2: some jokes don't. And some jokes work for some people
- 13:18Speaker 2: and they don't work for others. Right, Like, I've certainly
- 13:19Speaker 2: told jokes where some people are laughing and some people
- 13:21Speaker 2: aren't because they don't find it funny, or they don't
- 13:24Speaker 2: have the pop culture reference, or they don't have the
- 13:26Speaker 2: lived experience to understand it, and or they just maybe
- 13:29Speaker 2: that's just not their sense of humor. All of that
- 13:31Speaker 2: is fine. I think jokes work or they don't They
- 13:33Speaker 2: work for some people that don't work for others. But again,
- 13:35Speaker 2: none of it is a pure success rate. I've never
- 13:37Speaker 2: in my life hit send on an email to my
- 13:39Speaker 2: boss and thought everything in that email is a piece
- 13:42Speaker 2: of gold. It's just we're all just out here trying.
- 13:44Speaker 2: And there been times when I've written a joke that
- 13:45Speaker 2: I thought was hilarious, Yep, that all flat. And there
- 13:48Speaker 2: been times where I wrote a joke and I thought
- 13:50Speaker 2: this is not going to go anywhere, but I need
- 13:51Speaker 2: something in this spot in the script, and it goes great,
- 13:54Speaker 2: And you just don't know. Audiences surprise you all the time.
- 13:58Speaker 2: But again, I think the victory is in the trying. See.
- 14:01Speaker 1: That's like I'm blessed with the opportunity to talk to
- 14:03Speaker 1: all of these authors, from Ya authors all the way
- 14:06Speaker 1: up to God even you know something, even from just
- 14:10Speaker 1: anything that's got action in it. And the thing is,
- 14:12Speaker 1: they'll put comedy in there and I'll ask them, I'll go,
- 14:15Speaker 1: how is it that you can write this funny stuff?
- 14:18Speaker 1: And it takes comedians and actors time to cultivate and
- 14:22Speaker 1: to sit there and really skillfully get that joke to
- 14:25Speaker 1: work in a live audience. And they go, Yeah, it
- 14:27Speaker 1: just fell out of me and I just don't know
- 14:29Speaker 1: how to handle that, because you know how it is.
- 14:31Speaker 1: It is a skilled art what you do.
- 14:35Speaker 2: Yeah, I think over time you do develop a better
- 14:37Speaker 2: sense of what will work. Right. When I was younger,
- 14:40Speaker 2: I had to put something in front of an audience
- 14:41Speaker 2: to know if it worked or didn't. And then I
- 14:43Speaker 2: just did that so much that I started and I'm
- 14:46Speaker 2: not always right, but I started to get a better
- 14:47Speaker 2: sense when I'm at my laptop of what will work
- 14:49Speaker 2: and wall wall Before I had to get it on
- 14:52Speaker 2: its feet in from of an audience, and now I'm
- 14:53Speaker 2: at a different place where I can look at it
- 14:56Speaker 2: on a page or on a screen and be like, yeah,
- 14:57Speaker 2: I think that'll work. But that's just from time, It's
- 15:00Speaker 2: just from hours on stage, and to be frank, it's
- 15:03Speaker 2: from a lot of failure.
- 15:06Speaker 1: I wish I was a fly on the wall when
- 15:08Speaker 1: somehow someway in your eyes, you felt, why aren't we
- 15:12Speaker 1: giving paper plates to these future mothers at a baby registry?
- 15:16Speaker 1: Because you're right, we always do the diapers, Oh, get
- 15:19Speaker 1: them the diapers they always need, but we totally forget
- 15:21Speaker 1: about the paper plates until I found it in your book.
- 15:25Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we spend we waste too much time
- 15:27Speaker 2: buying people who are expectant parents cute outfits for their babies. Yeah,
- 15:30Speaker 2: the first few weeks are a war zone. No newborn
- 15:34Speaker 2: needs a cute outfit because they're just going to barf
- 15:36Speaker 2: on it. No newborn needs a cute outfit. You just
- 15:39Speaker 2: need to give those parents things that will get them
- 15:41Speaker 2: through the first Like, you know, three to four weeks
- 15:43Speaker 2: of parenthood, it's total chaos. You feel like a feral animal.
- 15:48Speaker 2: And that's the thing is I remember being like I
- 15:50Speaker 2: don't know, two in the morning or something and eating
- 15:52Speaker 2: a meal because you know, time has no meaning when
- 15:54Speaker 2: you have a newborn and thinking like, oh my god,
- 15:56Speaker 2: I have to wash this dish. I'll die. Yeah, that's
- 16:00Speaker 2: the one. Whenever somebody is this is classic advice no
- 16:03Speaker 2: one asks for. Whenever somebody tells me they're expecting. I
- 16:05Speaker 2: have an email that I always send any expectant first
- 16:08Speaker 2: time parent that has ten things you should put on
- 16:10Speaker 2: your registry that nobody will tell you about. And it's
- 16:12Speaker 2: all very un sexy, unfun, not cute stuff like that
- 16:16Speaker 2: where it's like, yeah, sure, you think of having a
- 16:18Speaker 2: baby is mostly putting them in cute outfits and taking pictures.
- 16:21Speaker 2: It's not it's the absolute panic, the flop sweat of
- 16:24Speaker 2: trying to keep a new thing alive. Wow.
- 16:26Speaker 1: So when do you receive your wisdom or do you
- 16:29Speaker 1: see it as wisdom or is it just something you're
- 16:31Speaker 1: going ma nobody's ever talked about that. I'm going to
- 16:33Speaker 1: look into it. But there's got to be a time
- 16:35Speaker 1: when you sit down with a writing instrument and feel
- 16:38Speaker 1: what the universe is delivering.
- 16:40Speaker 2: I think maybe that's just it right. Everybody's a different
- 16:42Speaker 2: skill set, and I think mine might be collecting life
- 16:45Speaker 2: experiences and then it just they happen to float back
- 16:47Speaker 2: into my brain at a time when it's useful. But
- 16:49Speaker 2: I think also part of it, though, it comes from
- 16:52Speaker 2: being very honest in the fact that about the fact
- 16:54Speaker 2: that I'm not perfect. I'm not infallible when it comes
- 16:56Speaker 2: to comedy. I'm not infallible as a human being. We're
- 16:59Speaker 2: just all here trying, man. We're all just as you're
- 17:01Speaker 2: doing our best. I'm about to go on a book tour,
- 17:03Speaker 2: and I'm sure there will be times where I show
- 17:05Speaker 2: up and I forgot a thing I needed. I'm about
- 17:07Speaker 2: to hit four cities in a week. I will probably
- 17:10Speaker 2: get to one airport too early and one airport too late.
- 17:12Speaker 2: I will probably forget a thing I needed, a prop
- 17:15Speaker 2: I needed, you know what I mean. Like, we're all
- 17:18Speaker 2: just out here doing our best. That's the most we
- 17:19Speaker 2: can do.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you? Because,
- 17:23Speaker 1: I mean, they're gonna love this book. This is a
- 17:25Speaker 1: Lewis Grizzard style book that just puts you back in
- 17:28Speaker 1: a place of writing history. That's gonna make you laugh,
- 17:32Speaker 1: It's gonna make you think. It's gonna put you in
- 17:35Speaker 1: an area as a reader where you're gonna go I've
- 17:37Speaker 1: got a better view of life. I just love what
- 17:39Speaker 1: you're doing here.
- 17:40Speaker 2: Oh, I appreciate that so much. Yeah, people want to
- 17:42Speaker 2: check out the book. I hope they will. It's available
- 17:44Speaker 2: today and moving forward any place you get books, there's
- 17:47Speaker 2: an audio book available. You can download that. There's a
- 17:49Speaker 2: Kindle version. And if you if people are you know,
- 17:53Speaker 2: I'm about to go on a book tour. Unfortunately I'm
- 17:55Speaker 2: not going to Charlotte. But if they are listening and
- 17:58Speaker 2: are gonna be somewhere else this coming week in another city,
- 18:01Speaker 2: go to my website Jennyheagel dot com and has all
- 18:03Speaker 2: the tour dates there. But yeah, I really hope people
- 18:06Speaker 2: check it out. It mean a lot to me.
- 18:08Speaker 1: So when you go from city to city and you
- 18:09Speaker 1: know how we are here in the South, it's so
- 18:11Speaker 1: easy just to say, well, bless your heart, because we
- 18:13Speaker 1: want them to kind of just walk on. But you
- 18:15Speaker 1: tend to be that one that's going to go tell
- 18:17Speaker 1: me more, tell me more about what you're going through.
- 18:19Speaker 1: You just have this this ear that is just fantastic.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Oh that's really lovely. Yeah. I had to be careful
- 18:25Speaker 2: because I the opening of my show involves I have
- 18:28Speaker 2: some slides that I show and I was writing it.
- 18:31Speaker 2: I'm doing a book event. I'm doing a show tonight
- 18:33Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, and one of the sides made a reference
- 18:35Speaker 2: to carrying a book on the train, and I thought, oh,
- 18:38Speaker 2: I have to change that because I'm taking these slides
- 18:39Speaker 2: to a bunch of other cities where they use cars. Oh.
- 18:42Speaker 2: I had to remember, like, oh, yeah, we have to,
- 18:44Speaker 2: we can't. We got to remember that we're going to
- 18:47Speaker 2: We're about to this week see a lot of different
- 18:48Speaker 2: people in a lot of different places, who live a
- 18:50Speaker 2: lot of different ways. I love it.
- 18:52Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
- 18:54Speaker 1: The door is always going to be open for you.
- 18:56Speaker 2: Hey, this has been such a lovely conversation. I really
- 18:58Speaker 2: appreciate it, and I really sincerely loved Charlotte. What a
- 19:01Speaker 2: delight to speak to you. Thank you.
- 19:02Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
- 19:04Speaker 2: Okay, all right, thank you. Have a great day in
- 19:06Speaker 2: the Queen City.
- 19:07Speaker 1: Oh you spoke my street on that one.
- 19:10Speaker 2: Oh you know it.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Hell, thank you so much.