WEBVTT - The Light and Dark Sides of Tim Dillon 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.960 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:11.520 Thing from My Heart Radio. Brazen, blunt, unapologetic. These are 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.920 just a few of the words that describe the unexpected 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.040 comedy of my guest Today. Tim Dillon named one of 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.160 the top ten Comics you Need to Know by Rolling Stone. 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.639 This former child actor has released specials on Netflix and 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.400 Comedy Central, and graced the stages of the Glasgow Comedy 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.560 Festival and South By Southwest. Dylan is also a fellow 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.760 podcaster since two thousand sixteen. His blend of truth telling, 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.480 hot takes, and controversial opinions can be heard every week 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.680 on the Tim Dillon Show. Like many who make their 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.880 living on the road, Dylan was mostly sideline from touring 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.680 throughout the pandemic. We spoke about where and how he 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.800 spent his time during COVID. I was in Los Angeles, 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:58.760 and then I went out to Palm Springs, which is 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.720 a desert. Because if I don't have to be near work, 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:03.880 I can be in the desert. So I went out 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:05.800 to the desert. You have a home there too, No, no, 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.399 I have on your business card, he says, Palm Springs. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.160 But part of are you in Yeah, Beverly Hills, Beverly Perfect. Yeah, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:18.319 Beverly The office is of Tim Dillon. Beverly Hills, Palm Springs, Texas, 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.240 New York and New York. Yeah. I went out there 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.440 and we were able to podcast and make people laugh 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.920 on the internet. And thank god because that helped our 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.320 sanity and obviously we're able to monetize that and make money. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.720 But you know, important for comedians is to be funny. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.800 That's how we live. We're screwed up people that need 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.200 an outlet, and thank god we had an outlet. Well, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.720 we're gonna get to your background, right, a glorious background. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.640 You and I share a Long Island background, Long Island background, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.360 which is don't all the most polished and sophisticated. You know, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.200 I know that we're being funny, but maybe that is true. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.600 It's true. Maybe it is true. When you're starting out, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.440 you're in an age where you're not a kid. Did know? 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.880 And and and everything is not the Internet and the 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.320 way things are now. What was your comedy diet when 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.200 you were growing up? What it was a lot of SNL. 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:09.080 So it was a lot of SNL. It was a 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.399 lot of Farley in Spain and Chris Rock and Mike 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.520 Myers and and and even the next generation of Molly 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.639 Shannon and annagasta Ire and Rio Terry and Will Ferrell. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.760 I loved SNL. I like Mad TV, which was you know, 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.400 was already Lang and all these other people. I love 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.360 sketch comedy. I would watch Carlin and Pryor and Hicks 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.679 and and Kinnison and Joan Rivers and all of these 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.680 people as I was growing up, so vintage people like Prior, yeah, 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.720 for sure. And I also loved, you know, sitcoms. So 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.080 I loved Fraser, and I loved I thought Kelsey Grammer 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.160 and David I. Pierce, I thought they were brilliant. You know. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.079 Comedy to me was was kind of this very broad 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.280 thing that I didn't know what it was or or 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.320 how I would make a living at it. It seemed, 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.920 you know, incredibly unrealistic to make a living at comedy 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.000 because it was something that was so happening somewhere else, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.120 far away, you know. And then as I you know, 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.280 got older, I was an actor as a kid, and 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.079 I did some you know, off Broadway, off off Broadway. 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.760 I toured around the country, came into the city, came 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.680 into the city a lot. I toured with any Get 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.720 Your Gun, which was they had a touring version of that. 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.400 But I was always in the city as an actor 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.720 and it didn't work. You know, I from the why 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:24.280 why do you think it didn't work? I had the 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.480 same voice I have now at seven, and that's challenging. 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.519 It's very hard for director. I have a peanut butter 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.520 and jelly sandwich and some strawberry quick. Yeah, it was 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.280 very jarring because I was a cute kid. But then 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.000 the director heard the voice and he went, you know, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.360 this is a bit much. And it didn't work, but 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.720 it gave laid the groundwork and the foundation for the 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.960 idea that I loved being on stage and I love 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.480 the entertainment business and I love New York City. So 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.120 eventually it led me out of Long Island into New 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.680 York pursuing stand up comedy a decade later. But it was, 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.440 you know, the acting never it worked in the sense 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.000 that I was a part of a lot of really 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.840 cool things, but it never got to that next level. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.200 I never booked in a part that took me to 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.360 l ayer. I think, do you think you could now? 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.040 Do you want to? I mean, I don't know that 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.560 I could or couldn't. I think that, Um, I'm not 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:23.800 the greatest actor. I'll be very honest, and I'm it's 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:29.000 actually stunning, how bad. I'm pretty good at uh being 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.240 me and being funny as me. But when I do auditions, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:33.800 you know, I have friends who on lines with me. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.840 It's stunning how not good I am. I'm surprised by 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.280 how bad If you don't have that appetite. I mean, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.400 we just didn't audition. Eli Roth was doing a movie, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.760 a video game movie. He's a fanny. He said, I 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.800 want you to work, and we didn't mean. My producer 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.600 drilled forty takes to get a really good take. They 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.400 went with an older guy who, in Eli's words, was 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.919 older and fatter and more Russian. And that's fair. Uh 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:58.919 and uh. But it takes me a while, but I 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.400 think I think it's a possibility. Well, the only reason 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.240 I say explored is because there's something about certain comics 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.040 that lead you to believe there's a kind of the 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.479 root of the comedy is to some extent, the trauma 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.640 of some experiences from childhood. Then both of those events 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.880 are there, and both of those events have been installed. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.520 When Seinfeld did this show, he said a line once. 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:25.840 It really got to me. He said, when I go 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.480 out on stage, he said, I blow myself up, almost 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.680 like a Macy's day. You know, he says, I make 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.240 myself larger, and all of my presence is kind of 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.760 inflated and larger. Is that true of you? Are you 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.120 the same on stage as you are? Also? No, No, 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.880 I'm an exaggerated version of myself on stage. I think 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.400 I'm more animated on stage. I think off stage would 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.000 be exhausting. You couldn't get through a dinner with me 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.320 if I was not like Tom Arnold. No, it's not 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.479 exactly the same on camera. Really bless him. But I 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.760 know I need a, you know, some time to refuel. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.400 And I think that, uh, I used that off stage, 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.040 and I think, but people meet me, they're a little surprised. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.200 You go, oh, you're a little more scaled down. I go, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.800 you will. Of course. Now you talked about how your 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.520 parents divorced and your mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, mother's kizophrenic, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.880 and out that came. She came to that later in life. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:20.720 That was when you were how old. I was in 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:22.840 my late teens when it started to come out. When 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.000 I started to go there's something wrong, and then you learn, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.560 you know, you learn about mental illness, and you learn 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.960 that it's physical illness essentially right, and it's you know, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.080 there's treatments and things. It can't really be helped. And like, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:36.840 you know, I have jokes about it and I make 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.240 fun of and and and you know, I think to 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.039 certain people they'd hear that and they go, well, that 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.760 seems very callous or very cruel. But it's how I 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.839 deal with it in the same way that many people 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.880 deal with tragedies with humor. So I think, I love 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.320 my mother, and my mother, you know, did great things 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.400 for me, and I appreciate her. Your father was gone, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.039 and no, he was there. He's there. They were still married. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:03.280 They were still married and they got divorce eventually. Siblings none, 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.320 You were an only child, just me, Jesus Christ, just me. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.720 They wanted one person to experience at all. They didn't 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.920 want to, you know, spread it out. They wanted one 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.520 guy to take all the all the fun of that 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.360 long island upbringing with the schizophrenic mother. For me, my 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.440 therapist said to me years ago, you don't want to 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.440 recreate the pain of what you experienced as a child. 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:27.320 You're going to restage the play, but in your version 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.760 of the play, you solve the problem that you couldn't 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.600 solve as a child. Yeah, I'm only mentioned that that's 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.120 something I carried over. What did you carry over? I 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:39.040 think I carried over a sense of chaos, A very 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.800 unhealthy sense of chaos. Um. I grew up in chaos, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.520 and to me, I'm very comfortable around it. Right, I'm 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.920 very comfortable. I mean, as you said, what's my address? 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.560 Who knows? Right? I mean, that's kind of a good idea. 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.760 You know. I've moved every six months during the quarantine. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.480 I liked the new things and new I mean, there's 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.560 many frustrated realtors out there. You I've left a lot 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.160 of them in my wake. But I do, I do. 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.680 I think unfortunately, maybe I've tied a little bit of 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.680 my creativity to the chaoss And there's a fear that 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.280 the cast is actually good, and the cast is actually 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.080 it's fuel and it's what I'm used to and what 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.080 I know, and hearing you say it, that's actually a 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.720 very interesting thing about recreating you know, those environments that 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.760 we grew up and we learned to thrive in, we 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.800 learned to survive in and I could see myself doing 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.040 that with a lot of some of the decisions I make. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.439 How would you describe your style? How would you I 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.080 mean every comic has a style, your own style, or 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:37.800 who would you compare it to? No, I mean I 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.880 think that it's like it's it's certainly darker comedy, right, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.160 So it's dark comedy. There's a lot of different comedians. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.640 The problem with comedies whenever you compare yourself to somebody 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.920 or saying you're as good as them or anything, which 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.000 is not true at all. Right, So everyone hates doing that. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.559 I hate doing that, But I mean I do think 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.640 it's somebody described it once they said it's very dark 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.439 in a light way, which I think is fun. Right, 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:04.040 There's there's darkness, but then there's also complaining about frozen yogurt. Uh. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:09.560 I think there's a way to experience the unpleasantness of 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.480 the world in hopefully a light way that allows people 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.120 to laugh at things that they wouldn't necessarily laugh at 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.920 it on days when they don't want to laugh. That 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:21.679 to me is kind of what the show is about. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.240 What the stand ups about is that when people reach 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.160 out to me and go the show has gotten me 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.040 through the last year, or your your live show was 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.160 so great. We're also happy. We had a rough week 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.320 and it made us happy. That's really good to me. 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.480 I don't really want or need happy people in my audience. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.600 I need a challenge. I want someone coming in that 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.000 needs to laugh. If you're if you're twenty and yeah, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:46.840 you know, i'd love them to be drunk. And but 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:48.880 I mean, if you're a model, and you you know, 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.719 sometimes they go on stage of the Hollywood Improblem, I 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.760 look at the audience and everyone's twenty three in a 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.440 model and I go, I don't know. I don't know 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.680 about this because you don't need this, and I don't 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.760 need this either. I don't need when you don't need me. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.560 So we're on a bad day. Set, you're all set. 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.199 We're on a bad game. But that's okay too. But yeah, so, 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.960 I mean, I think that's the style is darkly funny 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.160 in a in a light way. Now because you don't 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.440 you don't do sitcoms. You're not on a sitcom. You've 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.160 had TV specials and stuff and things like that, Comedy 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.080 Central and that. I've never booked a role on a 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.200 recurring thing. But so for you stand up is the 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.800 main meats Well, it's stand up and the podcast is 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.760 not really big. Yeah, but that but that stand up 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.480 thing is your is your is your car with the podcast? 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.920 That's right? And when you do that? What is writing 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:36.200 like for you? Mean? They are you one of these 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.800 guys that's walking around saying, you know, squirrel, you know, 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.199 get the best acted me write that down, squirrel? No 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.479 are you constantly writing? No? I think I have like interests. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.480 So I have these weird interests where I go, I'll 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.000 read stuff, and I'm interested in stuff. I have natural 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.840 curiosity about a lot of weird things. And usually the 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.000 things that interests me I find funny, I find amusing 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.280 because they amuse me. So whether it's uh, cryptocurrency now 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.280 that I'm interested in, and I don't really have a 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.520 hard position either way. I just find the world fascinating. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.760 I find this that there's pictures of apes selling for 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.840 a million dollars online. This interests me. It seems like 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.520 it's all about to collapse, and again you know the darkness, 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.160 the pain running towards that. So stuff like that, I'll 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.440 start writing about that. I'll start writing about what's funny 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.679 about that? To me? What's funny about an economy based 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.640 on pictures of animals? Why is that funny to me? 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.080 Why is that ridiculous? Why is that absurd? And I'll 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.120 start writing about that. I'll start talking about it, maybe 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:35.800 on the show, and then I'll bring it to a 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.320 comedy club eventually. But I'm not a guy. I don't 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.560 have that skill set that some comedians have with ay 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.839 you can look at the squirrel or something and go immediately, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.040 I have it immediately. I just kind of I have interests. 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.760 You don't seeking it comes to you. Yeah. I don't 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:52.559 sit down and write. Sometimes i'll write, but it will 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.640 be once I have an idea. I'll have an idea 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.360 about brunch. I hate brunch and I and I hate it, 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.720 and I want to write about why I hate it. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.200 And I don't like Disney World. I don't like people 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.440 to go to Disney World without children. It's strange. And 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.679 I'll write about that. And I write about these things 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.480 that interest me, and and things that might look at 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.160 something that's not quite right. That's where it maybe starts. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.400 That's not quite right. A picture of an ape seng 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.199 from million that's not quite right right to thirty five 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.160 ye olds to Disney World. Not a kid inside, not 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.560 quite right, brunch, a bunch of these young, boozy trunk 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:34.040 professionals eating you know, French toast and complaining wedding DJs. 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.960 Not quite right. So then I reverse engineer from that. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.160 So the COVID you were locked down in h we're 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:42.080 locked down in l A. It was fine because it 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:43.600 was you know, the weather is great and you can 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.760 walk outside. Compared to the New York lockdown was much better. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.600 We got away on the West Coast a lot easier 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.880 in terms of weather and just the natural, you know, 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.520 kind of beauty of the area. I'm not an l 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.200 A person in terms of I hate being in a 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.719 car what have and growing up on the island and 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:03.280 being I'm going to get to that in a second, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.640 having being a New Yorker and a Long Island or 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:07.880 you love what in that l A? Do you love 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.760 being in a car and the noble being in a car? 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.680 I don't love being in a car. I do think 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.280 that LA's new and different, you know from me as 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.199 a guy that grew up in a Long Island, grew 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.600 up in New York, and I think there's a synergy 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.600 there that is good for creativity. Uh again, the chaos 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.520 right again, the idea of like, Okay, I'm happy and 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.160 comfortable in one place, let's move, Let's go somewhere else, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.679 Let's find a new circle of people that. Yeah, and 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.120 so I enjoyed it, and I didn't think I'd like 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.480 it as much as I do. It came as a 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.040 surprise to me. I trash it all the time because 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:46.280 there's a lot of things worth trashing, but you learn 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.560 to live with it. You pick a coast, you know, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.360 and I think that uh, you know, it was it was. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.040 It was good. I love the comedy store, I love 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.600 the history, I love the you know, the idea of 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:58.960 you know, show business there, and I love the idea of, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.400 you know, people that are really focused on making things happen. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.320 But that also comes with the fact that you have 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:09.000 a lot of fake, spineless, hollow, shallow human beings. That 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.320 is tough, but you learn to love them. You'll learn 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.760 because we're all that in a way, we're all not 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.920 you know, we're not as ugly and exposed as they 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:20.800 are in l A. We're not as you know, naked 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.160 in the sense of our ambition as they are. But 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.600 I think that, like you learn to have a higher 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.120 tolerance for that out there than than you do. Like, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:30.440 you know, when I went there and everyone in New 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.080 York was like living there's fake and they pretend to 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:35.880 like you, And I said, well, that sounds kind of nice. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.720 There's something that's nice about that. You know, in the 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:40.680 beginning I hated that idea. Well, I don't want anyone 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.040 to pretend to like me unless they love me. Now, 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.400 people go, hey, how are you great to see? And 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:46.880 I get my card goes they hate me. But you 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.360 know what, that was lovely, So I think that there's 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.120 there's a you know, I know for a fact they 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.440 hate me. It's a delightful phone. But it was a 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.040 nice little meal we had and we're sitting near each 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.040 other in a restaurant. So to me, you get to 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.640 a point where you go that's okay. And then in 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.920 New York, immediately you land and people start unloading twenty 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.520 years of problems on you immediately, and you go, oh, 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:13.920 here's the problem with reality. Comedian Tim Dillon. If you 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.600 enjoy conversations with boundary pushing comedians, check out my episode 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.480 with Jordan Clepper. When I got into college, I did 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.880 the improv team and I think. What was so eye 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.560 opening for me at the time is what I found 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.320 in the arts and or improv specifically, was like I've 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:30.920 never been asked to kind of think in that way. 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.400 It was creative. There was no yes or no, there 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.040 was no right answer, and I was sudding around people 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.720 who were very curious in different ways and something It's like, well, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.200 there's no right answer. We want to know how you 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.920 feel that. I think I had gone eighteen years where 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:44.440 I was like, oh, nobody asked me how I felt 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.880 about this. They just asked me like, what was the 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.560 slope of this this line or this angle? And for 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:51.640 that was that was really kind of a game changer 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:56.440 for me. To hear more of my conversation with Jordan Clepper, 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:01.720 go to our archives at Here's the Thing Org. After 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.640 the break, Tim Dillon shares with us how he thinks 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:17.960 we can find common ground in a contentious culture. I'm 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.560 Alec Baldwin. You're listening to Here's the Thing. For a 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.960 stand up comedian, life on the road is a prerequisite, 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.760 but not all stops on tour are equal. Tim Dillon 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:34.800 shares with us his favorite places to perform. I love Denver, 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.680 It's a great comedy town and everybody there's hiking and 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.560 up and down taking edibles. They're all relaxed, they're all 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.480 ready to receive. They're very healthy, but they're also off. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.280 They're off. There's something wrong when you look at them. 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:51.920 I like Denver a lot. I love Chicago. You know, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:58.160 my big markets are Boston, Chicago, Denver, places where you 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.360 know you would. There are cultures in pep Bull that 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.200 you know enjoy comedy, and these are great towns and cities. 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.280 But then I also have the privilege of going to 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.080 other places. You know, Portland, Maine for example, place I 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.320 didn't know, but I'm sure when you say Boston, in Chicago, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.480 places where let's be playing, where straight talking white guys 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.280 are a hit, well, they're a hit. But a lot 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.760 of things are hit. Comedies a hit, right, because there's 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.119 there's places where straight talking white guys are hip. A 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:29.800 comedy is not a hit. Oh yeah, Wyoming wouldn't work 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.160 for me. And if you're a straight talking white guy Wyoming, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.320 you're a hit. But comedy doesn't work there because they 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.880 don't get irony. I really get satire. Uh they're not 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.440 with it now, and God bless them. And I'm sure 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.639 there's some lovely people that proved me wrong. But in 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.879 mass it's not a great state for comedy. It was 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.520 your family still on Long Island. Oh yeah, why leave 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.840 when the world is divided between people who Then they'll 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.399 write me on social media, well I left Bay Shore. 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:04.600 They've never left. They talked at one of years ago 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.000 and then and they'll say, oh no, I miss Robert Moses, 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.000 I missed the beaches of Lona. And there's people who 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.040 they're never leaving. Right. Well, my my friend's mother was interesting. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.400 Every dinner we ever had. These were very good friends, 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.280 and they take us on vacations and we go to dinner. 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.280 Every dinner we had, she talked about a condo in Naples. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.639 I mean, this was her dream of condo in Naples. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:23.800 They're gonna get a condo in Naples. Name. She dragged 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.640 her husband down to Florida and they go endlessly look 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.960 at condos and Naples and this is all that she wanted. 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.320 And then her husband, Sadley, passed away. So I asked her, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:32.879 you know a few years ago, I said, you ever 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:34.640 gonna get the condo Naples? She goes, well, what would 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:36.320 I do there? And I said, but that's all you 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.119 talked about for your whole life. And then I realized, oh, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.040 that was the important thing. It was the idea that 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:44.760 she could escape, but there was no escape, So the 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.520 ideas that made the option. Many people talk about leaving, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:50.360 but they never leave. My parents will never leave. They've 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.720 talked about Georgia and the Carolinas, They've talked about the 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.200 humidity and the nights and Charleston, but they're they're never 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.320 gonna leave. When I was a kid, my dear wrist 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.280 friends who lived in the house behind us on our 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.280 block and my best friends growing up until I was 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:11.000 nine years old. Kevin and Keith Cornelius were my best friends. 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.119 And their father, Harold Cornelius, the name they called him, 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.800 hap hap Cornelius, was a builder. And we're standing in 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:18.320 my drive and he turns to my daddy goes, we're 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.240 selling the house. We're moving. My Dad's like, wow, you're kidding. 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.120 He goes, yeah, we're gonna sell. We're gonna move out 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.399 to Smithtown. And this is back in the sixties. And 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:27.640 my father's like, wow, well, you know, God, we're gonna 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.480 miss you. In best of luck to And as he 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:31.040 walked away, my dad turned to my mother and he 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:38.119 goes Smithtown, Jesus, that's Siberia, and he said, can you imagine. Yeah, well, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.119 I mean that's I think the attitude was it was 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.280 back then. It was intensely local. Everybody was very local, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.199 and now everything's global. So now like you, you know, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.040 I have people that messaged me. You know, a kid 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.840 from Pakistan messaged me the other day, young kid fifteen. 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:54.920 He goes, I like your podcast because you make fun 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.000 of your government. And I said, that's awesome. It was 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.080 this amazing, mind blowing moment. But it didn't even and 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.400 rock me. That's how global the world is right now. 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.840 Later on that night, I sat back and I and 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:07.760