Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / RJ Rice on his time playing Utah FB, Morgan Scalley era beginning, Pursuing stand up comedy, Playing Wise Guys in April + more

Transcript

RJ Rice on his time playing Utah FB, Morgan Scalley era beginning, Pursuing stand up comedy, Playing Wise Guys in April + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:06
Speaker 1: You tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
0:10
Speaker 1: Shevrolet Studio of ESPN Don O'Connor Show. Welcome back. We're
0:20
Speaker 1: at Big Willies today, Patrick sitting down with us, the
0:23
Speaker 1: mastermind of all big Big Willies. He runs the place. R. J.
0:27
Speaker 1: Rice is also here on site. He's gonna join us
0:30
Speaker 1: in just a couple of minutes. Former Utah football player
0:34
Speaker 1: turned comedian. He's headlining at Wise Guys locally coming up.
0:38
Speaker 1: We'll talk all the details with him in just a
0:41
Speaker 1: couple of minutes, but before we get there, Sweet sixteen
0:44
Speaker 1: opening day. A lot of reasons just from the sports
0:48
Speaker 1: perspective to come down here to Big Willies, and then Pat,
0:51
Speaker 1: on top of that, you add the drink specials and
0:53
Speaker 1: the food specials. Really, it's just a bad idea to
0:56
Speaker 1: miss out on Big Willies.
0:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, with our icing and our food and
1:01
Speaker 2: our cocktails. I don't know why you'd go anywhere else
1:03
Speaker 2: then Big Willie's. To satisfy your sports thirst.
1:07
Speaker 1: I love that. Satisfy your sports Put that on a
1:12
Speaker 1: T shirt. I think I will maybe painted on the
1:14
Speaker 1: side of the building.
1:16
Speaker 2: Michelle will not allow that. But the T shirt is
1:19
Speaker 2: a high possibility.
1:20
Speaker 1: I learned about the division of labor here. You do
1:23
Speaker 1: radio and Michelle does television.
1:26
Speaker 2: Yes, I was told that I have a face for
1:28
Speaker 2: radio and Michelle does all live interviews for obvious reasons,
1:32
Speaker 2: on camera stuff.
1:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it hasn't been fair because you do a
1:36
Speaker 1: lot of radio and she's only.
1:38
Speaker 2: Done at Oh yeah, they're a few and far between.
1:40
Speaker 2: It's definitely when I struck the deal, I didn't realize
1:42
Speaker 2: how often I'd be on the radio and how few
1:45
Speaker 2: times she'd be on TV.
1:47
Speaker 1: Well kind of specials. You run it all weekend long,
1:49
Speaker 1: because it's not just today. Obviously Sweet sixteen starts today,
1:52
Speaker 1: but there's games the rest of the weekend in baseball, hockey,
1:56
Speaker 1: NBA basketball, college basketball, to fight, PFL and UFC going
2:01
Speaker 1: head to head on Saturday night as well.
2:03
Speaker 3: So you've got a lot going on us. Yeah, there's
2:05
Speaker 3: gonna be a lot going on this weekend. For sure.
2:08
Speaker 2: We do have nine TVs, so everything will be broadcast,
2:12
Speaker 2: maybe not all the MLB games, but the UFC, the PFL,
2:16
Speaker 2: the Sweet sixteen games will definitely all be on.
2:19
Speaker 3: And we got great specials.
2:20
Speaker 2: I mean, like today we have Jefferson Oceans for five dollars,
2:24
Speaker 2: which is ridiculous. Wheatley other options at four dollars and
2:31
Speaker 2: a great cocktail menu, so come down try a craft cocktail.
2:36
Speaker 2: And like I said before, everything is freshly made, simple syrups, juices.
2:41
Speaker 2: Everything is very crafty here without the stuffiness of a
2:44
Speaker 2: craft bar.
2:45
Speaker 1: And then you've got the number one pool haul in Utah,
2:47
Speaker 1: which is attached adjacent right there through those doors. Also
2:53
Speaker 1: trivia nights. We just did How I Met Your Mother trivia.
2:57
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, that was on a Wednesday last night.
3:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bingo is on Tuesdays, right.
3:03
Speaker 3: Bing goes on Tuesdays.
3:05
Speaker 2: We mix in some craft night uh and peyton nights
3:09
Speaker 2: on Mondays, so keep an eye out for those. Sunday
3:14
Speaker 2: we do poker, which is a fun you know, it's
3:17
Speaker 2: free to play Jackpot's three hundred nice.
3:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then the in the poll room.
3:23
Speaker 2: Guys, if if you haven't been to a pool hall
3:25
Speaker 2: in a long time, come down to Big Willies. The
3:28
Speaker 2: pool hall is immaculate. We keep really good care at
3:31
Speaker 2: the tables. It's really fun environment in there as well.
3:33
Speaker 2: We have TVs and music blasting on the weekend, So
3:37
Speaker 2: if you're not wanting to go to a movie or
3:40
Speaker 2: spend money elsewhere, you can come down to Big Willies
3:42
Speaker 2: and we'll be easy on your wallet.
3:45
Speaker 4: Uh.
3:45
Speaker 1: Just don't try to hustle anyone at a cool game here.
3:48
Speaker 3: No, don't get wrapped up in that.
3:49
Speaker 1: Because Patrick's gonna have to step in.
3:53
Speaker 2: And yeah, there's there, there's there's people here that are professionals.
3:57
Speaker 3: So just just stay.
3:59
Speaker 1: With your own seventeen seventeen South May that's where you
4:02
Speaker 1: find Big will He's the best place to watch any sports.
4:05
Speaker 1: And even if there's not an event that you need
4:07
Speaker 1: to watch on, just come down and have dinner here,
4:10
Speaker 1: have lunch here. The food is truly incredible and they
4:13
Speaker 1: keep the drink specials very walid friendly every single time.
4:16
Speaker 1: Thanks for having us down.
4:17
Speaker 3: Yep, you're welcome, Thanks y much.
4:19
Speaker 1: Look, I've been looking forward to this next conversation RJ.
4:23
Speaker 3: Rice.
4:25
Speaker 1: He and I had similar similar times at the University
4:29
Speaker 1: of Utah. He was a little better than me, but
4:31
Speaker 1: not necessarily a megastar player. He has now decided to
4:36
Speaker 1: dip his toes into the stand up comedy world, and
4:38
Speaker 1: you can find some of his highlights on social You
4:42
Speaker 1: can also find him at Wise Guys. The former Utah
4:46
Speaker 1: defensive back RJ. Rice sits down with us to talk
4:50
Speaker 1: all things, well, maybe talk a little football, but I'm
4:52
Speaker 1: mostly interested in your comedy journey.
4:54
Speaker 4: Welcome to the show, Annie, thank you very much, thanks
4:56
Speaker 4: for having me. I'm pump pump to be here, all right.
5:00
Speaker 5: I can't wait.
5:01
Speaker 1: And for the people the uninitiated. You were on that
5:05
Speaker 1: Sugar Bowl.
5:05
Speaker 5: Team, right, I was.
5:06
Speaker 4: I was on the That was my senior year Sugar
5:09
Speaker 4: Bowl team, two thousand and nine. We beat Alabama, We
5:15
Speaker 4: were undefeated. It was, It was fun. It was a
5:18
Speaker 4: good year to end on. It was And also too
5:21
Speaker 4: was coach Scally his first year as defensive back coach,
5:25
Speaker 4: and that was I was his one of his safeties
5:28
Speaker 4: at that time.
5:29
Speaker 1: So now he's the head coach. So you know Morgan,
5:33
Speaker 1: I know Morgan. Everyone here is super excited about Morgan.
5:37
Speaker 1: But he's got huge shoes to fill.
5:39
Speaker 5: Oh buddy, does he ever?
5:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, most of us don't have to be the guy
5:44
Speaker 1: to follow a guy. I guess I kind of did
5:46
Speaker 1: this stepping in for Bill Riley. I don't know why
5:50
Speaker 1: I decided that was a good idea, but here we are.
5:53
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, what do you think it's going
5:55
Speaker 1: to be like for Morgan.
5:57
Speaker 5: I'm pumpformer.
5:58
Speaker 4: Honestly, I went to practice for the first time in
6:00
Speaker 4: a while because I hadn't seen him in a while,
6:02
Speaker 4: and it was great seeing him.
6:04
Speaker 5: He's seeing the good spirits Steede. The team looked awesome.
6:07
Speaker 5: They looked just fun.
6:09
Speaker 4: Everybody was chippy, having a good time competing.
6:14
Speaker 5: And and I'm honestly excited.
6:16
Speaker 4: I'm pumped for coach winning him and pump that he gets,
6:18
Speaker 4: you know, opportunity to go and coach for Michigan. I
6:22
Speaker 4: think that's great and pumped for him. But I'm really
6:24
Speaker 4: excited for Skelly and what he's got going.
6:27
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about your decision, your efforts. Let's
6:31
Speaker 1: talk about stand up comedy. Because of so, I think
6:35
Speaker 1: that most people, right they see someone who's acting like, man,
6:40
Speaker 1: it would be cool to be an actor, and we
6:42
Speaker 1: see professional athletes all mad. It'd be cool to be
6:44
Speaker 1: a basketball player. It'd be cool to play professional baseball.
6:47
Speaker 1: And I think that stand up comedy falls into that
6:49
Speaker 1: realm where everybody watches it, laughs at it, enjoys it.
6:52
Speaker 1: It's like, oh man, it'd be really cool to be
6:54
Speaker 1: a stand up comedian. Is it really cool to be
6:56
Speaker 1: a standup comedian because there's like kind of a grind.
7:00
Speaker 1: You're not like a big time head, like it's not gamorous, Like, so.
7:04
Speaker 5: Is it cool?
7:05
Speaker 1: It?
7:06
Speaker 4: Uh, for the first few years.
7:08
Speaker 5: No, it is not. It's terrible. Honestly, it's it's one
7:12
Speaker 5: of the worst things you can do as a human being.
7:17
Speaker 4: It's it's you're just putting yourself out there. You don't
7:20
Speaker 4: really you know, you don't really know what you're doing,
7:23
Speaker 4: and it's hard. Now it's a lot more fun because
7:25
Speaker 4: I'm getting you know, I get laughs, and you know,
7:27
Speaker 4: for the last year or two, it's been a lot
7:29
Speaker 4: more fun doing it.
7:31
Speaker 5: And it's always been fun.
7:32
Speaker 4: But man, the first little while, when you're just bombing
7:35
Speaker 4: all the time, it's rough.
7:37
Speaker 1: I could not survive that, Okay, Like I've been knocked
7:41
Speaker 1: out in front of many thousand, maybe a million people.
7:44
Speaker 1: I've had bad experiences, embarrassing experiences. I could not stand
7:49
Speaker 1: up behind a microphone and watch people think I'm not funny.
7:53
Speaker 4: Oh dude, yeah, I mean, well, at least somebody else
7:55
Speaker 4: was knocking you out right and stand up.
7:58
Speaker 5: It's you.
7:58
Speaker 4: You're knocking yourself right, Like you're saying something that's so.
8:03
Speaker 5: They're like, why why did you Why did you say
8:05
Speaker 5: that into a microphone? Right, like you said that out
8:08
Speaker 5: in public.
8:08
Speaker 1: That's why radio is so great. I say things that
8:10
Speaker 1: people don't find funny all the time.
8:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't have to see it. Yeah, you don't
8:14
Speaker 4: have to see you don't. Yeah, No, that is nice.
8:16
Speaker 4: That's very nice. But yeah, it's uh in stand up,
8:19
Speaker 4: it's it can be very rough there.
8:22
Speaker 5: Yeah.
8:22
Speaker 4: There was once. Man, there's always one that comes to mind.
8:25
Speaker 4: I had a little corporate event and I what I
8:29
Speaker 4: thought what I was going into was people were drinking
8:32
Speaker 4: and having a good time.
8:33
Speaker 5: But it wasn't any of that. It was like this
8:36
Speaker 5: thing where they were.
8:37
Speaker 4: You know, all buttoned up and ready to go and
8:39
Speaker 4: lights were on and everyone could see. And I'm like, ah,
8:43
Speaker 4: and this was a couple of years ago, and I'll
8:45
Speaker 4: never forget that moment. It was just so rough and
8:47
Speaker 4: it was like twenty minutes of just pure Oh yeah,
8:51
Speaker 4: it was rough.
8:52
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
8:53
Speaker 5: It is, it really is.
8:54
Speaker 1: That's incredible. But you stick to it.
8:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you just stick to it and you learn
9:00
Speaker 4: and you get better and you you know, try it
9:02
Speaker 4: a different way. There's a lot of guys that go
9:05
Speaker 4: and don't do that part, they just keep going and bombing.
9:12
Speaker 5: Those are fun to watch too.
9:14
Speaker 1: That would be me probably, Yeah. Okay, So like there's
9:18
Speaker 1: you see these people doing crowd work all the time.
9:21
Speaker 1: You see guys or gals that seem like there may
9:23
Speaker 1: be a little bit more improvisational. Obviously, you got to
9:26
Speaker 1: write your routine, and we were talking off air, You've
9:30
Speaker 1: got you know, almost a full hour.
9:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I got about a full hour. I talk
9:35
Speaker 4: a lot about my kids. I've got kids that are
9:37
Speaker 4: about teenage, you know, pre teenage, so that that's plenty
9:41
Speaker 4: of material right there.
9:42
Speaker 5: I could do a whole hour on that.
9:43
Speaker 4: But I talk about I used to be you know,
9:46
Speaker 4: Mormon college football player.
9:49
Speaker 5: I talk about right now.
9:52
Speaker 4: A fun one that I've been doing speaking of CrowdWork
9:54
Speaker 4: is conspiracy theories, you know, especially with what's going on.
9:57
Speaker 5: In the world today.
9:58
Speaker 4: So that's been a fun one, kind of talk about,
10:00
Speaker 4: you know, different conspiracies, get people's thoughts on them and stuff.
10:03
Speaker 5: So that's been a fun thing.
10:05
Speaker 1: So do you do you like the off the cuff
10:08
Speaker 1: stuff or the writing better.
10:10
Speaker 4: I like both, honestly, And the writing stuff is really
10:13
Speaker 4: fun just because you get to kind of work on it,
10:16
Speaker 4: and like, you know, you try something, it didn't really work,
10:20
Speaker 4: you know. But that's also that also always hard because
10:22
Speaker 4: you'll go and you'll spend you know, hours on this
10:25
Speaker 4: thing and then you go and you try it and
10:27
Speaker 4: it doesn't look at and you're.
10:28
Speaker 1: Like, oh, come on when you try it right, because
10:32
Speaker 1: like we'll use a sports analogy because that's what we're
10:34
Speaker 1: doing here. Yeah, talk radio.
10:35
Speaker 3: Right.
10:36
Speaker 1: So, like you're an offensive coordinator, you design a play,
10:39
Speaker 1: you think it's gonna work, you got a special personnel
10:42
Speaker 1: package for it. You're just like, we got to get
10:44
Speaker 1: the ball into RJ's hands. This makes perfect sense.
10:47
Speaker 3: Let's do this.
10:48
Speaker 1: You take it out to practice, you run it a
10:49
Speaker 1: few times, a defense blows it up. You're like, oh,
10:51
Speaker 1: that didn't work out the way I thought it would,
10:54
Speaker 1: and it never sees the light of day when you
10:55
Speaker 1: are trying out your stuff. Are you doing it on stage?
11:00
Speaker 5: Yeah? I mean yeah for sure.
11:01
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:01
Speaker 4: I mean you're doing a lot of open mics. So
11:03
Speaker 4: that's that's where the open mic comes in. Uh, you know,
11:06
Speaker 4: people to hear about you know, comics going to open mics,
11:08
Speaker 4: and that's kind of like practice honestly, that's that's like
11:10
Speaker 4: a comedian's practice. They're going in, they're you know, trying
11:14
Speaker 4: new material, they're trying different things. And the other thing
11:16
Speaker 4: about open mics there's different you know, there's different places,
11:20
Speaker 4: different people, you know, different environments. So you want to
11:22
Speaker 4: try it in all different environments. And that's usually how
11:25
Speaker 4: that goes. You know, usually where where the worst bombs
11:29
Speaker 4: happen is when you do you're bombing on a weekend,
11:32
Speaker 4: you know, because that's usually when like you should be
11:34
Speaker 4: doing a lot better.
11:36
Speaker 1: That's when you're not running the practice place. Yeah, that's
11:40
Speaker 1: like this is our bread and butter.
11:41
Speaker 4: This is yeah, yeah, and they and they's and they're
11:43
Speaker 4: taking your stuff that yeah, you've been you've been working
11:46
Speaker 4: on and you will throw some stuff in, you know,
11:49
Speaker 4: like I'm doing some weekend shows this uh you know
11:51
Speaker 4: up in our up in Wise Guy's Ogden uh opening
11:55
Speaker 4: for Jenna Kim Jones and and and so I might
12:00
Speaker 4: try you know, maybe a joker shore of different tags
12:04
Speaker 4: you know in some of those, you know, can get
12:06
Speaker 4: longer sets on those, but I usually don't go too
12:10
Speaker 4: far into the woods on weekend stuff.
12:13
Speaker 1: So the the grind of like climbing the ladder in
12:19
Speaker 1: stand up comedy. I'm a big stand up comedy fan,
12:21
Speaker 1: So I don't know if I know anything about the
12:24
Speaker 1: industry or not. I feel like maybe I at least
12:27
Speaker 1: pay attention to the idea that like, it isn't glamorous
12:30
Speaker 1: at first. And there's a lot of similarities with like
12:33
Speaker 1: certain sports, Like I was in the MMA world, the
12:35
Speaker 1: combat sports world for a long time. Your first fight
12:38
Speaker 1: is for either free or for fifty dollars, and then
12:41
Speaker 1: you hope someday you're fighting for a million or whatever.
12:44
Speaker 1: Stand up comedy feels like it's a little like that.
12:47
Speaker 4: Oh very much. Oh yeah, I mean you're yeah, I
12:49
Speaker 4: mean open mics. You're not getting paid for open mics,
12:52
Speaker 4: so yeah, I mean the first couple years, you know,
12:55
Speaker 4: first first one hundred times you're on stage, at least
12:59
Speaker 4: you're not even getting Oftentimes you're paying money. Sure, you
13:02
Speaker 4: know you're paying. Hey, I gotta pay parking lot to
13:05
Speaker 4: get into the venue. I gotta pay to get into
13:07
Speaker 4: the venue. I gotta pay for you know, I'm eating
13:09
Speaker 4: while I'm there. So you're losing money, you know, for
13:11
Speaker 4: the first long while, you know, and then yeah, and
13:14
Speaker 4: then you start to get gigs, and yeah, it's few
13:16
Speaker 4: and far between, and they're twenty dollars here, fifty bucks here.
13:21
Speaker 4: You know, you get a hundred bucks. You're like, holy cow,
13:23
Speaker 4: I got a hundred bucks.
13:24
Speaker 5: What shut up?
13:26
Speaker 1: When did you have the realization and maybe it's still
13:30
Speaker 1: coming yeah, that you're like, no, I can do this, like,
13:33
Speaker 1: because there's there's the idea of like, I want to
13:36
Speaker 1: learn how to play the guitar. You pick up a guitar,
13:38
Speaker 1: you start playing around with it, and then maybe you're like, oh,
13:41
Speaker 1: I'm actually decent at this, and maybe you put that
13:43
Speaker 1: guitar back down and you never touched it again again.
13:46
Speaker 1: In sports, we do this most of the time when
13:48
Speaker 1: we're kids. I played basketball, I was terrible at it.
13:51
Speaker 1: I'll wrestle instead. Right, A lot of people, I imagine
13:55
Speaker 1: in your world, they go to that first or second
13:57
Speaker 1: or tenth open mic and they're like, you know what
13:59
Speaker 1: this is for me? Oh yeah, I did you decide like, no, like,
14:03
Speaker 1: I'm getting a few laughs, I can actually do this.
14:06
Speaker 4: I mean it was pretty early on, I would say
14:08
Speaker 4: within the within a couple of weeks I was I
14:11
Speaker 4: was like, all right, I'm getting at least laughs because
14:14
Speaker 4: there was a few guys, uh, because I started write
14:16
Speaker 4: during COVID and so there's quite a few people that
14:18
Speaker 4: started around the same time as me, and so I
14:20
Speaker 4: was kind of comparing myself, you know, you.
14:22
Speaker 5: Kind of do that sort of thing.
14:24
Speaker 4: And I was getting some laughs, and I was like,
14:26
Speaker 4: all right, this is worth pursuing. And at least it's
14:29
Speaker 4: it's fun. And that was the main thing for me,
14:31
Speaker 4: is I was having fun. I kind of told myself
14:36
Speaker 4: as soon as I stopped having fun, I'm gonna stop
14:37
Speaker 4: doing this. But I've just been having fun, you know,
14:40
Speaker 4: the whole time, and and just continuing to do that.
14:43
Speaker 4: And so it's been, you know, a great thing. I
14:46
Speaker 4: saw Louis c k last year.
14:50
Speaker 5: He's a big person.
14:53
Speaker 4: I look up to it and and it was awesome
14:57
Speaker 4: seeing him and watching how he did things, and that
15:02
Speaker 4: was a huge Actually, that was a big moment for.
15:04
Speaker 5: Me, like, oh, okay, I see what you're doing. I
15:06
Speaker 5: see what's going on. And that was actually very helpful.
15:10
Speaker 4: And watching other people is very helpful in understanding how
15:13
Speaker 4: you do things. And so he was actually really helpful
15:16
Speaker 4: just to watch and just go, oh, okay, I kind
15:19
Speaker 4: of get I canna get what's going on.
15:21
Speaker 1: Okay, that's so interesting to me because again, like I
15:25
Speaker 1: watched football a lot, and I know that I can't
15:28
Speaker 1: play football.
15:28
Speaker 3: I tried.
15:29
Speaker 1: I know that, like I know where my limit was.
15:31
Speaker 1: Like okay, like Weaver state beyond that, you're not good. Okay,
15:36
Speaker 1: couldn't get on the field that you tall. Like I
15:38
Speaker 1: don't watch NFL games and be like I could do
15:39
Speaker 1: what that guy's doing. I do find myself Like I
15:42
Speaker 1: went to my lovely wife got his tickets to Shane
15:45
Speaker 1: Gillis when he came to the Delta Center. I love
15:47
Speaker 1: Shane Gillis. I'm watching Shane Gillis. I'm laughing at every
15:50
Speaker 1: single thing he says. But I have this delusional attitude
15:54
Speaker 1: towards it, just like he's not doing anything special. I
15:58
Speaker 1: could do this, we could all do this. He's just
16:00
Speaker 1: going up there, he's just talking about his life. He's
16:03
Speaker 1: laughing at his sister or whatever. I'm having those thoughts
16:06
Speaker 1: at the exact same time where I fully acknowledge from
16:09
Speaker 1: an intellectual standpoint that the gap between like the funny
16:12
Speaker 1: guy at the party and a headliner at a at
16:15
Speaker 1: a stadium show, that's a massive, massive gap. So like
16:19
Speaker 1: like but again there's no like set. The NFL doesn't
16:24
Speaker 1: even pay attention to you if you're the guy sitting
16:26
Speaker 1: on the on the couch being like, hey, I could
16:28
Speaker 1: be I could do that in stand up comedy. You
16:30
Speaker 1: can go try it?
16:31
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I mean essentially, yeah you can't.
16:34
Speaker 5: Uh Ji mean that, you know.
16:36
Speaker 4: With with stand up it's it's one of those things
16:40
Speaker 4: where you can.
16:41
Speaker 5: Get better at it.
16:42
Speaker 4: It is a skill, okay, And you do have to
16:45
Speaker 4: have you do have to have some you know, just
16:48
Speaker 4: like with football, right, Like you can't send a guy
16:50
Speaker 4: that's five to two out there and expecting to play
16:53
Speaker 4: defensive line.
16:53
Speaker 5: It's not gonna happen, right.
16:54
Speaker 4: So you have to have some you know, sure, some
16:57
Speaker 4: something doing natural abilities which out of something.
17:01
Speaker 1: A sense of humor, Yeah, a sense of humor.
17:04
Speaker 4: You know you've got you know, you're willing to say
17:06
Speaker 4: things that others aren't willing to say.
17:09
Speaker 5: But you're.
17:11
Speaker 4: But the big thing is is practicing getting better and
17:15
Speaker 4: trying things and then and like even with Shane gillis
17:18
Speaker 4: the way he says things, his pauses right, the way
17:21
Speaker 4: he stands all those things he's thought about. He's been
17:25
Speaker 4: doing it for you know, fifteen twenty years at this point,
17:27
Speaker 4: I think. And so that's all stuff that he's thought about,
17:30
Speaker 4: and he's you know, calculated through, and he's thought about, Okay, I.
17:34
Speaker 5: Need to sit here, and.
17:37
Speaker 4: I'm gonna stay here for this long, right, and and okay,
17:40
Speaker 4: and that was too long, right, And so those are
17:43
Speaker 4: all things that he's developed over the years. And but
17:46
Speaker 4: you do have to have some level of something to
17:50
Speaker 4: start with.
17:51
Speaker 3: Can it be coached?
17:53
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, I think so. I mean there's definitely guys
17:55
Speaker 5: that have gotten better.
17:56
Speaker 1: Aren't you lame though? If you like have like you
17:59
Speaker 1: call a comedy coach, like I'm asking genuinely, like yeah,
18:03
Speaker 1: because because if you want to get better at what
18:06
Speaker 1: I did for a long time or what I'm doing now,
18:09
Speaker 1: like yeah, it's totally acceptable for you to be like
18:11
Speaker 1: I need to I need to get some coaching on this.
18:13
Speaker 5: Yeah.
18:14
Speaker 1: In comedy, isn't that like there's things no, you're not funny.
18:17
Speaker 5: That happened well yeah, okay, So there's both.
18:19
Speaker 4: There's definitely guys that it's like, hey, you're just not funny, dude,
18:22
Speaker 4: Like let's just move on with our lives, like come on,
18:26
Speaker 4: and and a lot of the you know, some of
18:28
Speaker 4: those guys still don't get it, and they're open mic.
18:30
Speaker 5: You can come see them wherever you want. But you know, with.
18:34
Speaker 4: Guys that are trying to get at it and trying
18:37
Speaker 4: to do better, there are people that do coach I
18:41
Speaker 4: where I've where I've seen the most success because there
18:45
Speaker 4: are guys in Utah that have you know, pre good
18:47
Speaker 4: followings one hundred k followers on Instagram and things of
18:50
Speaker 4: that nature, and are headlining and traveling around. And really
18:54
Speaker 4: it's about learning from the guys ahead of you, the
18:57
Speaker 4: guys that are doing it, the guys, Hey, what do
18:59
Speaker 4: you want to be doing?
19:00
Speaker 5: Asked that guy, Hey, how did you do it? What
19:02
Speaker 5: did you do? What were the things?
19:04
Speaker 4: And really most comedians, most guys are pretty chill, they're
19:06
Speaker 4: pretty nice, they're pretty you know, open to hey, this
19:09
Speaker 4: is what I did, this is what works.
19:12
Speaker 5: You know. One of my favorite advices that I ever heard.
19:15
Speaker 4: Was one of the guys was saying, I'm not gonna
19:17
Speaker 4: say who the famous comedian was, but the famous comedians
19:20
Speaker 4: to him, you know, you should do do something that
19:22
Speaker 4: nobody else has ever done. It's like, well, yeah, of course,
19:29
Speaker 4: of course, how do you come up with something.
19:31
Speaker 1: That has never been yeah, exactly human history. Yeah, exactly.
19:34
Speaker 4: So anyway, so that's yeah there, yeah, so there there
19:38
Speaker 4: is stuff that can be coached, there's stuff that can
19:40
Speaker 4: be done.
19:40
Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day,
19:41
Speaker 5: just got to kind of be funny and have a
19:42
Speaker 5: good time.
19:43
Speaker 4: R J.
19:44
Speaker 1: Rice is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
19:46
Speaker 1: We're down here at Big Willies seventeen seventeen, South Maine.
19:49
Speaker 1: It is opening day in baseball Sweet sixteen basketball tonight,
19:53
Speaker 1: food and drink specials at Big Willies. What's the funniest
19:57
Speaker 1: thing that happened to you while you were on the
19:59
Speaker 1: Utah football roster?
20:01
Speaker 4: Oh, man, dude, there was a lot of silly things
20:06
Speaker 4: that happened.
20:08
Speaker 5: We Uh, I'm trying to think of something that I
20:11
Speaker 5: can say on the radio.
20:16
Speaker 1: It's apparently friendly.
20:18
Speaker 4: I was like, well, the first one that comes to mind,
20:20
Speaker 4: I can't say exactly, Robert don't the funniest thing. One
20:31
Speaker 4: of the funny ones was when we left Brian after
20:33
Speaker 4: the Sugar Bowl. Wait, Brian Johnson, our quarterback. We won
20:37
Speaker 4: the Sugar Bowl. We had just won the greatest game
20:40
Speaker 4: of Utah football history.
20:42
Speaker 5: We were undefeated.
20:44
Speaker 4: Brian Johnson, our leading quarterback, did all these things we
20:48
Speaker 4: had celebrated, and then we're almost to the hotel home
20:52
Speaker 4: and Brian's trying.
20:53
Speaker 5: To call people because we left him at the stadium.
20:58
Speaker 1: Wait, is this a story we've heard? Eight seven seven
21:01
Speaker 1: three zero seven hundred if you're listening, I'm sure did
21:05
Speaker 1: we know this happened? And I've just forgotten about it?
21:08
Speaker 1: Brian must have told this story.
21:09
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sure he has. Yeah, that's what we just
21:14
Speaker 5: left him.
21:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just left him and somebody I can't remember
21:16
Speaker 4: whose phone, somebody's phone's like, hey, somebody answers, like Brian's
21:21
Speaker 4: at the Superdome.
21:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that was That was a silly thing.
21:28
Speaker 1: Will you tell the story of your accidental touchdown?
21:31
Speaker 5: Oh, dude, the accidental touchdown. That's a funny one.
21:33
Speaker 4: So we were playing Wyoming and it was a windy
21:37
Speaker 4: Dame Wyoming because there's nothing in larer me to stop
21:39
Speaker 4: the wind.
21:40
Speaker 5: It's always windy there.
21:42
Speaker 4: And we were I was on punt team and we
21:46
Speaker 4: were going down and the ball went right over the
21:48
Speaker 4: guy's head, barely missed him, but we didn't know it
21:52
Speaker 4: touched him.
21:52
Speaker 5: He didn't know it touched him. The only person that
21:54
Speaker 5: knew was the referee. It touched like his head, It
21:55
Speaker 5: touched his head, just barely touched his head.
21:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And so it went. It trickled past him
22:00
Speaker 4: and went into the end zone. And so Clint Mauer,
22:03
Speaker 4: he was the long snapper, He gets up there first
22:06
Speaker 4: and then I get up their second, and we kind
22:08
Speaker 4: of look at each other and we look at the
22:09
Speaker 4: ball and balls just standing there. So I just kind
22:11
Speaker 4: of casually pick it up in the referee and I
22:12
Speaker 4: just kind of handed to him and he's holding his
22:14
Speaker 4: hands like this and touchdown position, and I said to him,
22:18
Speaker 4: I was like, did I just score a touchdown? And
22:20
Speaker 4: he goes, are you serious? So, so now it gets better.
22:26
Speaker 4: So I told so that was back, you know, back
22:28
Speaker 4: in the day, right years ago. So I saw Clint Maher,
22:31
Speaker 4: that guy about a year ago and an alumni thing
22:34
Speaker 4: and I was like, hey, Clint, you know, we were talking,
22:36
Speaker 4: we were chading I and.
22:38
Speaker 5: I said, do you remember that play?
22:40
Speaker 4: And he's like, dude, I have nightmares about that play
22:42
Speaker 4: every day.
22:43
Speaker 5: And I was like, nightmares. That seems obsessive, but why
22:45
Speaker 5: would you have nightmares? And he's like, RJ.
22:48
Speaker 4: If I had picked up that ball, I would have
22:50
Speaker 4: been the only long snapper in Utah football history to
22:53
Speaker 4: ever score a touchdown, and you were just some guy.
23:00
Speaker 5: Like, hey, I scored an accidental touchdown. Thank you very much.
23:03
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I mean it goes in the record book.
23:05
Speaker 5: Hey, it's in. It's on the stats.
23:07
Speaker 1: So you get to tell people that they scored a touchdown.
23:10
Speaker 1: That's right, major in Division I football, that's right. That's like,
23:14
Speaker 1: that's a tiny percentage of the human population.
23:16
Speaker 5: There's very few of us.
23:17
Speaker 3: Yep.
23:18
Speaker 5: I was Also.
23:18
Speaker 4: My other claim to fame with football is that I
23:20
Speaker 4: was on Uh were you on the college football game?
23:23
Speaker 5: The video game?
23:24
Speaker 1: No, it was it was pre the uh pre outlawing,
23:30
Speaker 1: but they were they only went too deep.
23:34
Speaker 5: Oh yeah yeah, And.
23:35
Speaker 1: If you were like yeah, yes, yes, Like I was
23:41
Speaker 1: very very hopeful.
23:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, like, oh yeah.
23:43
Speaker 1: I'm on the roster. In my second year on the roster,
23:45
Speaker 1: we're like, we're one of the biggest teams in the country.
23:48
Speaker 4: This is cool.
23:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then.
23:51
Speaker 1: The game comes out and it's just like, oh, dang it,
23:54
Speaker 1: there's no number forty nine at all on the roster.
23:57
Speaker 5: I was the same way my first two years.
23:59
Speaker 4: My software is in your same exact thing I was
24:01
Speaker 4: not on the game. And then finally my senior year,
24:03
Speaker 4: we were you know, we were hyped up to be
24:05
Speaker 4: a good team and Yadagaana and I killed the game
24:08
Speaker 4: and I was so pumped. I get on number seven.
24:10
Speaker 4: I'm right there and in the game, I'm black.
24:14
Speaker 5: I was so excited. I was like, dude, how awesome?
24:17
Speaker 3: Is this?
24:18
Speaker 5: So fun?
24:19
Speaker 3: I was?
24:19
Speaker 1: They put me in the uf in the UFC two
24:22
Speaker 1: video game. Uh, and I was like super thrilled.
24:27
Speaker 3: It was cool.
24:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it. I have the kind of face that if
24:32
Speaker 1: you render me as a video game character, it looks
24:35
Speaker 1: exactly like me. Really, all right, they can do it.
24:38
Speaker 1: I am whatever you call that video game jenik. I
24:42
Speaker 1: look just like I actually look And they got my
24:45
Speaker 1: tattoos right and everything, and I was just like, oh sweet,
24:48
Speaker 1: I'm in the UFC video game. And then I had
24:50
Speaker 1: one more fight in the UFC and then they cut
24:52
Speaker 1: me and so then they took me out of the
24:54
Speaker 1: video game. So there was like a blessed nine months
24:57
Speaker 1: of my life where I was in a in the
24:59
Speaker 1: UFC video game. Cool and you can find it actually,
25:04
Speaker 1: like Mike Tyson is also a downloadable character in that
25:07
Speaker 1: UFC video game. So I did a film thing for
25:10
Speaker 1: the Professional Fighters League. We were down with Mike Tyson
25:13
Speaker 1: at his like camp, at his weird like compound. We
25:19
Speaker 1: were filming some stuff, watching fights together, and as an icebreaker,
25:24
Speaker 1: the producer found a YouTube video of his video game
25:28
Speaker 1: character beating the you know what out of my video
25:31
Speaker 1: game character. And we watched that together and I was
25:35
Speaker 1: just like making a beg Oh, Mike, come on man,
25:38
Speaker 1: and he was so confused. He was just like, wait
25:40
Speaker 1: a second, I'm in this video game. I'm like, yeah,
25:44
Speaker 1: we're both in this video game and you're beating me
25:46
Speaker 1: up in the video. He's like, this is a real game,
25:48
Speaker 1: and I was like, yes, Mike, Like this is UFC two.
25:51
Speaker 1: You're a character in UC two. And he's looking for
25:53
Speaker 1: his manager and he's like, He's like, nobody paid me
25:56
Speaker 1: to be in a video game. How do they get
25:58
Speaker 1: me in this game? Like, I'm sitting there with Mike.
26:02
Speaker 1: He's just knocked me out in the game in like
26:04
Speaker 1: forty seconds, and I think it's gonna be funny, and
26:06
Speaker 1: it's upsetting him because he doesn't think he's not getting
26:10
Speaker 1: royalties for the game.
26:13
Speaker 5: Like I'm not sure how I ended up here. Oh,
26:17
Speaker 5: that's funny this.
26:18
Speaker 1: Coming in on the text line from ninety six to
26:20
Speaker 1: fifty three. The funniest part is r J was black,
26:23
Speaker 1: Joe Dale was white. He was actually, that's true, he
26:26
Speaker 1: was Joe Dale.
26:27
Speaker 5: Joe Dale was the other guy, and here was white.
26:30
Speaker 4: Who's right on that.
26:31
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure that's sure.
26:32
Speaker 1: That is fantastic, Yeah, Dudel Joe Dale.
26:35
Speaker 5: That's right, baby.
26:36
Speaker 3: All right.
26:37
Speaker 1: Tell the people how they can find your stand up comedy.
26:39
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, any if you're on any type of social Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube,
26:44
Speaker 4: I'm on all that, r J.
26:46
Speaker 5: Rice.
26:47
Speaker 1: Uh.
26:47
Speaker 4: And then as far as the show, I've got a
26:48
Speaker 4: show next week April third. You can go to Wiseguyscomedy
26:52
Speaker 4: dot com for tickets for that. So yeah, I love
26:54
Speaker 4: to see you.
26:55
Speaker 1: That's salt Lake.
26:56
Speaker 4: I'll salt Lake, salt Lake Downtown location u Lake.
27:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, Friday night.
27:02
Speaker 1: Go check it out. And like the football alum have
27:05
Speaker 1: come to your shows every now?
27:06
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, dude, you can.
27:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
27:07
Speaker 5: Coach Kelly came last one, dude.
27:10
Speaker 4: We had Scali, we had we had Robert there, we
27:12
Speaker 4: had Stevenson, Sylvester old Sly came out. Who else we
27:16
Speaker 4: had Boon Brothers. So yeah, you come to a show,
27:19
Speaker 4: you might meet some NFL guys cool, not me, but
27:22
Speaker 4: somebody else.
27:25
Speaker 1: And you will see when he's on stage, RJ. Actually
27:28
Speaker 1: he's white.
27:29
Speaker 3: That's right.
27:30
Speaker 1: If Joe Dale comes the show, you will see that
27:32
Speaker 1: he is not he's not.
27:33
Speaker 5: Nope, i'd like the video game. Dude.
27:36
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming down and doing this.
27:38
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me.
27:39
Speaker 1: And let's when you have shows right when you when
27:41
Speaker 1: you like, just come on.
27:43
Speaker 5: Oh yeah for sure, shoot.
27:44
Speaker 1: The breeze and I appreciate it.
27:45
Speaker 5: All right, Okay, thank you so much.
27:47
Speaker 3: That's r J.
27:48
Speaker 1: Rice Go get his h stand up comedy tickets at
27:50
Speaker 1: Wise Guys, Salt Lake, April third,