Speaker 1: Welcome into Wins and Losses. I'm your fearless host Clay Travis.
Speaker 1: Encourage you to go check out the entire catalog of
Speaker 1: Wins and Losses podcast. Just letting you guys know, it
Speaker 1: took a little bit to get the audio ironed out,
Speaker 1: so if you're listening here at the beginning, trust me.
Speaker 1: After about seven or eight minutes, it's gonna be great
Speaker 1: for the rest of the conversation, but it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little bit spotty in the beginning before we get
Speaker 1: the audio issues worked out. Just want to let you
Speaker 1: know Nate's awesome. We had a great conversation. You're gonna
Speaker 1: love it, but it gets better, So I don't want
Speaker 1: you all tweet me be an audio guy saying hey,
Speaker 1: the audio audio is not great for the first few minutes,
Speaker 1: and then it's gonna be great after that, so just
Speaker 1: trust me on it and thanks for listening to Wins
Speaker 1: and Losses this week. Fun guest a guy who's almost
Speaker 1: exactly my age I think, graduated from high school in
Speaker 1: Nashville in the exact same year. He is Nate Bargasky.
Speaker 1: He's been doing comedy comedy I think basically since uh
Speaker 1: since he graduated from high school and he is killing
Speaker 1: it of late, he's got a Netflix special. I want
Speaker 1: to bring him in. First of all, thanks for being
Speaker 1: on Nate. Uh. Secondly, am I correct? Are we the
Speaker 1: exact same year graduating from Nashville area? Think seven yet
Speaker 1: seven represent which used to be a big deal back
Speaker 1: when you're in high school the class of nineties seven.
Speaker 1: So you are forty years old as well as I am,
Speaker 1: and you graduate from high school and immediately good decide
Speaker 1: you're going to be a comedian? Is that what you did? Like?
Speaker 1: At what age did you decide this is what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna attempt to do in my life? Now? I started,
Speaker 1: and I started when I graduated. Uh d c A
Speaker 1: is where I went. And then uh so I graduated
Speaker 1: ninety seven, and I was like, I thought I've been
Speaker 1: doing comment in but I didn't touch a twenty three.
Speaker 1: I just like did whatever jobs like I've worked. Uh
Speaker 1: actually's uh I delivered, Like you know I do this
Speaker 1: to Mac. I say this to Mac now, but there's
Speaker 1: I've never had a job that I can't go back to,
Speaker 1: Like it's like nothing's nothing's changed. Every job I had
Speaker 1: is just like lifting objects, Uh, just stuff so but
Speaker 1: I so I've start I mean Chicago, and I was
Speaker 1: twenty three. So you graduate from high school in eighteen
Speaker 1: A lot of people decided to go to college. You
Speaker 1: went to Donaldson Christian Academy, which is a private school.
Speaker 1: How did you decide not to go to college? Well,
Speaker 1: we went, We got to go there. My dad was
Speaker 1: a teacher to so this week there it's not and
Speaker 1: I fare to graduate. So it was I tried to
Speaker 1: go to college, but there was like there was no
Speaker 1: sign that was like, hey, the kids should be in college.
Speaker 1: I went to Volunteer State for one year. I tell
Speaker 1: this joke. I went one year, no credit, all medio classes. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I at what I say, a good local joker
Speaker 1: that went the Vulteers State. This is a Vanderbilt Galaton
Speaker 1: and the strict local jokes and but they so I
Speaker 1: went there and I was there for a year no credit. Uh.
Speaker 1: We went to Western Kentucky for one semester, chilled, no credit,
Speaker 1: fell go way. Uh. So it just what was happening.
Speaker 1: And then that's when I had done out just like
Speaker 1: whatever job and then then until I decided to go
Speaker 1: to outread Water meeting my funnel jump green Water meter
Speaker 1: that I do it. So I'm curious. So you go
Speaker 1: to Western Kentucky for a semester and it's not like
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky is the most elite academic institution on the planet.
Speaker 1: Neither is Vall State. How did you end up getting
Speaker 1: no credits? Like? What did you do at Western Kentucky? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: it's hard to do that. And uh, did you know,
Speaker 1: I just say, go to class at a at an
Speaker 1: unbelievable time. Uh, the greatest whatever smest of four months
Speaker 1: of my life. And it just I just partnered and
Speaker 1: like I didn't go to anything, and I was already
Speaker 1: in like when I was to went out to the
Speaker 1: ball Street, I think, I mean unless the T was
Speaker 1: like real bad. Even when he took I forget what
Speaker 1: it's like eat like they're like it's the little lowest
Speaker 1: at worst. And I was either an eighteen or right
Speaker 1: under it was real bad, and I was like a
Speaker 1: like a college astute, Like you know who took him?
Speaker 1: The year was his name, Jonathan, you'reson got ten and Jack.
Speaker 1: He was like in our grouper like my buddies groups
Speaker 1: when we took THET and my buddy said, he just
Speaker 1: toild this thing. Out and put it head down, which
Speaker 1: tweets it didn't matter if he was going to like um,
Speaker 1: but I didn't have that luxture, so I just didn't happen.
Speaker 1: How I just didn't have a great And that's like
Speaker 1: school was just like kind of I just didn't care.
Speaker 1: So at what point do you start thinking? So you gratuate,
Speaker 1: you you graduate from high school, you kind of mess around,
Speaker 1: you have all these different kind of wacky jobs. At
Speaker 1: what point do you start thinking, Hey, maybe I'll try comedy.
Speaker 1: I've always kind of thought about it, you know, my
Speaker 1: dada that you and so I grew up around that,
Speaker 1: and so it was it was didn't you know, it
Speaker 1: was always kind of in the back room line, and
Speaker 1: uh I always kind of wanted to do it. And
Speaker 1: then I was working at Bread Water Meters at that company,
Speaker 1: and I julious in my buddy Michael Clay that I
Speaker 1: worked with their uh he. I had another friend that
Speaker 1: said that he wanted to go to Shogle the Second City,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I kind of only like
Speaker 1: do stand up. So I just was like, you know,
Speaker 1: sway three, I'm like I can see that, and uh
Speaker 1: so I just preached Shago. I date, the money, uh
Speaker 1: and and um. Then moved to Chicago and the thirty Pub.
Speaker 1: I mean I started in Chicago. It was like two thousands.
Speaker 1: I mean there, you know, I started in two thousand three.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of guys umel not be and
Speaker 1: he started with me, uh Hannibal birth pet Home. There's
Speaker 1: a like a lot of TJ. Miller, a lot of
Speaker 1: people in that uh Chicago seeing that was all starting
Speaker 1: at the same time. So would you go out and
Speaker 1: you do your So you moved to Chicago and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get into comedy. How do you even
Speaker 1: go about making that decision? So you you do you?
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by that. So do you How did you
Speaker 1: have to get accepted into into like Second City? How
Speaker 1: how do you show up? Is it just like anybody
Speaker 1: can show up and start taking comedy classes? I have
Speaker 1: no idea how that works. Yeah, anybody job second to
Speaker 1: you could just like people that are also saving classes
Speaker 1: a po mention or be better speaker, that's his job.
Speaker 1: Say so they taking class second to anybody can find it.
Speaker 1: And I did that for like eight weeks of it
Speaker 1: and not any like improv because it was you were
Speaker 1: allowing on too many people, Like improv is like very
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna hope that everybody's funny. There's nothing
Speaker 1: funnier to me than some of that's not good at
Speaker 1: improv because the whole pointment problem is you say yes,
Speaker 1: and so it's someone's like I went to the zoo.
Speaker 1: The next person should be like, oh I was at
Speaker 1: the zoo too, Like they gotta keep it going so
Speaker 1: then everybody can play off that stuff. And if someone's
Speaker 1: really bad and then brought, it's beautiful because they go.
Speaker 1: Someone will be like, oh, look at the zoo. They're like,
Speaker 1: we have to zoo with closes though, and you're like,
Speaker 1: well now this whole thing's ruined because you just shut
Speaker 1: down the zoo. So I started, which is so funny
Speaker 1: to see. If you ever see bad improfit's so funny
Speaker 1: just because it's usually one person out of the group
Speaker 1: that just doesn't get it. And but so I started there.
Speaker 1: I started taking class seas and then I did that
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to be that more. I want
Speaker 1: to be stand up And I actually signed up for
Speaker 1: a class like just a guy that appliers and said
Speaker 1: come take learn how to do stand up comedy, and
Speaker 1: I'm very pro class at some comedians tait them, but
Speaker 1: they're not gonna teach you how to be funny, Like
Speaker 1: I think you have to learn that. But then you
Speaker 1: just get around a group of people that are also started.
Speaker 1: Because it's very scary to start giving you about yourself.
Speaker 1: You're showing up to some bar and you don't know
Speaker 1: anybody and you're about to go in front of them
Speaker 1: and talking a microphone and trying to tell some jokes.
Speaker 1: So it's very like scary and very neaty to like
Speaker 1: to turn around you like, now, I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this at all. So when's the first
Speaker 1: time you get up and actually tell a joke in
Speaker 1: front of a crowd? And so I started taking the
Speaker 1: stand up class at the beginning to three. I have
Speaker 1: a VHS my first three times on stage, I have
Speaker 1: a DHS of it, and I mean it's brutal, dude,
Speaker 1: it's ah, I have like a chain beard. That was
Speaker 1: the thing that you're rocking backed in? Uh you know
Speaker 1: it was. I mean, it's just it's it's the disgusting.
Speaker 1: I don't think I could even watch it. How many
Speaker 1: people are in the crowd. You know, your first time,
Speaker 1: sometimes they're pretty good because a lot of times you
Speaker 1: have friends come and so they're rooting for you. So
Speaker 1: I worked at a restaurant in Chicago, and so I
Speaker 1: already had made some friends and I told him I
Speaker 1: was doing it, so they came and watched. So your
Speaker 1: first time doing stand ups can sometimes be okay, and
Speaker 1: then it's the time. It's the time after that that
Speaker 1: gets real bad. Uh. That's when you get into jokes
Speaker 1: and nobody here and you know, I mean you're doing
Speaker 1: like two or three minutes at least. Have a open mic.
Speaker 1: In Chicago, the lines in and then would start at
Speaker 1: I think eight o'clock. You would sign up and then
Speaker 1: they would be like a bucket and uh, then they
Speaker 1: put all this stuff and it would run from eight
Speaker 1: to like two in the morning, and you wanted to
Speaker 1: be you wanted to get help age. Around ten that
Speaker 1: was like the sweet spot where like some regular people
Speaker 1: would come in if you went on first or last.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're performing just for like five comedians, and
Speaker 1: so you get up and you're trying to do like
Speaker 1: two or three minutes. So is that how long you
Speaker 1: went the first time that you did stand up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I believe it was. I believe it might have been
Speaker 1: five minutes, but it was. It's two to five. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean you're just saying that, and it feels like
Speaker 1: an eternity. I mean right now now where I'm at now,
Speaker 1: I mean five minutes. It's not like it's not enough time.
Speaker 1: But at that point when we first started, five minutes
Speaker 1: is you know, if you had to stare at the
Speaker 1: wall for five minutes, you'll see how long five minutes
Speaker 1: steel like. And so if you're talking to a group
Speaker 1: of people that are not laughing and just staring at you,
Speaker 1: it feels even longer. It's uh, it's remarkable, crazy that
Speaker 1: you know what that feels like. And uh, you both
Speaker 1: you know, if you just have a lot of different people,
Speaker 1: you see a lot of different comedians. There was guys
Speaker 1: that were because they were good. You need see you
Speaker 1: guys that have put open mics for ten years or nowhere.
Speaker 1: They you know, they know what they're doing. There's guys
Speaker 1: that would just plague the ring just like do like
Speaker 1: make fun of the comedy, you know stage and those
Speaker 1: guys are very fun to watch. But you can tell,
Speaker 1: like you can would be that guy, like that guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna know you know, he's very funny here, but
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be that's not in this room. Laught.
Speaker 1: So you get up the first time in two thousand
Speaker 1: three and you do a you do a bit. What's
Speaker 1: your bit? Like, what's your joke that you're going for
Speaker 1: at that point? And how long did you craft what
Speaker 1: that joke would be? Like how much time did you
Speaker 1: spend to have three to five minutes or whatever it
Speaker 1: was going to be the first time you got up
Speaker 1: on the stage. I don't you know, I don't remember
Speaker 1: the exact like how much time, but mean you worked
Speaker 1: on it for a while and you would just think
Speaker 1: of the jokes. I believe one of my first I
Speaker 1: can't remember this is my first joke. One of it
Speaker 1: was about the rats in Chicago. We had rats in
Speaker 1: our apartment and in Chicago and they're they're they're bigger
Speaker 1: than squirrels, you know, like their rats are like it's
Speaker 1: another thing. So it was a joke about that, like
Speaker 1: and then like given the rat like a life and
Speaker 1: just you know, like we have these rats. He comes
Speaker 1: in and I just wake up and he's like and
Speaker 1: he's got the refrigerator open, getting some of the drink um,
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, like talking about that. And
Speaker 1: the other one was like about directions in Chicago when
Speaker 1: you move. When I moved to Chicago, they would they
Speaker 1: would always tell if you asked for directions, someone would
Speaker 1: be like, you got to go south about five blocks,
Speaker 1: you gotta go north about eight blocks, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't. I don't know north and south,
Speaker 1: like I've never told that ever. And then they would
Speaker 1: always tell you what the lake is east and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't see the lake though, Like I can't, but
Speaker 1: you know it's not I don't want to cut you off.
Speaker 1: That's so funny because my wife is from Michigan and
Speaker 1: when she moved out to Nashville, she was always well, like,
Speaker 1: am I going south? Am I going north? Am I
Speaker 1: going to east? Or I go with I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't nobody talks like that, Like you just say you're
Speaker 1: going to like this particular town, you know, like or
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm going to this part of the
Speaker 1: city or whatever else. I don't know, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: She's like, am I when I'm getting off at this exit,
Speaker 1: am I gonna go east or west? I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I've never thought about that in my entire
Speaker 1: life North talking about it. I don't carry a compass around,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's something in the West where everybody's like that,
Speaker 1: like that they've all got compasses. I always think of
Speaker 1: it when I hear traffic reports, like when they're like
Speaker 1: going when they say south going on to four or forty,
Speaker 1: You're like, is this Am I listening to the right town?
Speaker 1: Like they're saying, they say where there's in traffic? And
Speaker 1: I never I'm like, where is this? What are they
Speaker 1: talking about? Because they just give like these references of
Speaker 1: between Briley and Donald's and Pike And You're like why,
Speaker 1: You're like, where is that? Yeah? All that so and
Speaker 1: so you do that. And you're also, by the way,
Speaker 1: you said, working in a restaurant at the same time.
Speaker 1: So then you are you trying to do everything in Chicago?
Speaker 1: Yeah at the beginning, I am. You know when I
Speaker 1: was working there was during Bartman. Oh yeah, the Bartman game.
Speaker 1: So I worked that night and if you watch them Bartman,
Speaker 1: uh the thirty or thirty embartment. So when he left
Speaker 1: to go, um, you know, when he got escorted out
Speaker 1: and that girl had like take him to his apart
Speaker 1: her apartment. I worked with a girl that that was
Speaker 1: that was her roommate. So like the next morning, during
Speaker 1: that time, she comes back and tells us that when
Speaker 1: she got home, you know, we're watching all this on TV.
Speaker 1: This is for social media, but you would see it
Speaker 1: all on TV. And uh, she came home and the
Speaker 1: next day she's like, I walked to my door embartment,
Speaker 1: was just sitting in her living room and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable, Like it's the craziest thing. Uh it was.
Speaker 1: It was just wild, like you know, just to be
Speaker 1: like she has no concept that he would be there
Speaker 1: and then he's just there. Uh. So I worked, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I was just working, you know, I was waiting
Speaker 1: tables during the day, summer night, and then you would
Speaker 1: go do open mics, you know, once or twice a week,
Speaker 1: and then you started like just doing a little bit
Speaker 1: more three, four or five times, and then you start
Speaker 1: going out every single night. A big move, a big thing.
Speaker 1: I watched, Uh Comedian came out with Seinfeld. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Netflix, it's unreal, And so I went and
Speaker 1: watched that in a theater by myself. And so right
Speaker 1: when I watched that, I was like, I need to
Speaker 1: move to New York, Like that's where we need That's
Speaker 1: where I need to be going. And so I was
Speaker 1: in Chicago for those two years and then I moved
Speaker 1: to New York. And so you moved to you do
Speaker 1: you have a job at all or your you know
Speaker 1: your years old? I guess what's your job when you
Speaker 1: moved to New York. So when I moved to New York, Uh,
Speaker 1: I started there was a I started barking where you
Speaker 1: handed out flyers to get people in this club. It's
Speaker 1: exactly like there's a HBO crashing a show on HBO
Speaker 1: with Pete Holmes. Pete Holmes got me barking at that
Speaker 1: comedy club. I didn't what that show showed. I barked
Speaker 1: at that Boston comedy club. And so you would do
Speaker 1: that all day. And what I did when I first
Speaker 1: went to New York, I started delivering. I worked for FedEx,
Speaker 1: and uh, because I was already I knew how to deliver.
Speaker 1: This was back when you had to read yet to
Speaker 1: do it by a map, you would have to book.
Speaker 1: It's a map. And since I knew, I knew how
Speaker 1: to do that stuff. So a guy got me a
Speaker 1: job at FedEx, and so I started delivering and uh
Speaker 1: I was like I delivered in New York. Uh just
Speaker 1: driving a FedEx truck up and down the streets of
Speaker 1: New York Brooklyn, Queens truck in New York City. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was done. One day we went to New Jersey
Speaker 1: and it was more like how I used to. I'm
Speaker 1: used to delivering where it was just regular houses, and
Speaker 1: I mean I did so good. The guy was like
Speaker 1: that the fastest I've ever seen, Like he was, I
Speaker 1: delivered faster than anybody they've ever had there. Uh So
Speaker 1: I knew I had a good fallback playing because I
Speaker 1: was crushing at FedEx. And uh so I got stuck
Speaker 1: in a snow storm. And I mean I remember being
Speaker 1: on Martin Luther Team Boulevard in Brooklyn and I have
Speaker 1: this truck and I will try to go up a
Speaker 1: hill and I it was just this major snowstorm and
Speaker 1: just got spun sideways and they had to like slide
Speaker 1: all the way back down and then make it back
Speaker 1: u to the make it back to just were the
Speaker 1: the you know, the fed X place to drop the
Speaker 1: truck off. And it was like I would may just no,
Speaker 1: I would think that. So I've never known anybody to deliver.
Speaker 1: And we're talking to night bar Gassy, this is Wins
Speaker 1: and Losses podcast. I've never But what's like the best
Speaker 1: thing that can happen on a delivery? Is it like
Speaker 1: you show up your twenty five year old guy and
Speaker 1: there's like a good looking girl who comes to the door. Like,
Speaker 1: when you're a delivery guy, what is the best thing
Speaker 1: that can happen for you? Did anybody ever like a
Speaker 1: good looking person, a good looking girl ever come to
Speaker 1: the door naked? Like, did you ever have exciting deliveries?
Speaker 1: Not that I remember. I remember I delivered peaches too.
Speaker 1: That's how I saved money up before I moved to
Speaker 1: when I was in Mount Joliott and uh, the only
Speaker 1: thing I remember there. I do remember. I remember going
Speaker 1: to someone's house and they gave me money to go
Speaker 1: buy them beer. It's like adults, like we can't go dry.
Speaker 1: You go to Yeah, so when you go to Kroger
Speaker 1: and like buy us some beer. And I went and
Speaker 1: bought them beer and brought it back and they're like
Speaker 1: giving money like that was the only like think the
Speaker 1: only kind of weird I mean, yeah, obviously a very
Speaker 1: attractive lady would be your your biggest hope. But I
Speaker 1: don't think we ever did. We never had anything when
Speaker 1: we when I delivered U mattresses, I've delivered everything, but
Speaker 1: I delivered matches. Is that was in uh Nashville. This
Speaker 1: is my buddy Hunter, Jimmy Hunter. He only Hunter's Delivery Service,
Speaker 1: and we, uh, we delivered since one ladies house a refrigerator.
Speaker 1: We take her old refrigerator out and there's a dead
Speaker 1: cat behind it, and she's like, oh, that's where that cat,
Speaker 1: that's that's where he went. She didn't know where he's been.
Speaker 1: She was like super old. And so then you just
Speaker 1: got to you're like, yeah, that's crazy, right you just
Speaker 1: kind of talk to this old ladies like you're like
Speaker 1: like literally like how how dead was the cat? Like
Speaker 1: was it like something dead like or like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: And she just she just didn't know, she didn't smell it,
Speaker 1: like she didn't know what was there. No. No, I
Speaker 1: mean just I mean she was just like see now
Speaker 1: like it was just like it was it me the
Speaker 1: very you know, poor neighborhood. It was in Nashville, like
Speaker 1: he was. And we and then we got caught in
Speaker 1: a drive by right after that. This all sounds made up.
Speaker 1: This We we were driving and then we're going back
Speaker 1: out and then we hear like some pops, sounds like
Speaker 1: fire truck fire, and we look and at this car
Speaker 1: behind us was like shooting up this house. And then
Speaker 1: they shot at our car on our truck. We had
Speaker 1: like a twenty six ft box truck, and they shot
Speaker 1: at and we swerved over, and then they drove by
Speaker 1: us and drove away. Yeah, we got he had and
Speaker 1: went through the back of the the back door and
Speaker 1: went out above where I was sitting. So this is
Speaker 1: this is gonna sound ridiculous because I've also been in
Speaker 1: a car in Nashville and gotten shot at and had
Speaker 1: the car get hit. So we were saying earlier, you're
Speaker 1: a class of nineties seven too, So for people who
Speaker 1: are from Nashville, this will probably make some sense at least. Um.
Speaker 1: So I went to Martin Luther King Magnet High School
Speaker 1: in Nashville, and the cheerleaders at our high school this
Speaker 1: was our senior year of high school. We're having a sleepover,
Speaker 1: and so I mean it's probably I mean for guys
Speaker 1: out there now, you're like that sounds awesome. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you're a senior in high school, the cheerleaders are
Speaker 1: all having a sleepover. So we decided we were going
Speaker 1: to roll the house. Right, it's a it's a house
Speaker 1: in Antioch. And so it's me and like six of
Speaker 1: my buddies, and we're in two different cars. It might
Speaker 1: have been eight of us, six six or eight of us, right,
Speaker 1: all guys. And so we pull up at the house
Speaker 1: and we've got toilet paper in our hands and everything else,
Speaker 1: and we're like throwing the toilet paper rolls all in
Speaker 1: the trees. And there are two cars. And my buddy
Speaker 1: who would later be the best man in my wedding,
Speaker 1: he had an old SOB convertible and he had put
Speaker 1: like it was. It was awful car, but he had
Speaker 1: put like somehow he had decided to turn it into
Speaker 1: a shark, so it had like a shark fin on
Speaker 1: the top of it. And he parked his car back.
Speaker 1: It was a dead end street. He parked his car
Speaker 1: fairly far back, and then there was another car full
Speaker 1: of people that was parked closer. So while we're rolling,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we hear like a shotgun, like
Speaker 1: a you know, like a like somebody clearly like cocks
Speaker 1: a gun and then fires into the air, and we're like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, what's going on? So we all panic and
Speaker 1: we all run, and a bunch of dudes get in
Speaker 1: the front car, and then me and my buddy Ian
Speaker 1: and my friend Paul, we all get into the back
Speaker 1: of his car. There's like five people. It's probably eight
Speaker 1: of us. There's like five people who get in the
Speaker 1: front car. They drive away, they're fine. The guy who
Speaker 1: lived across the street from the head cheerleader has got
Speaker 1: a gun and we dive in the back. We're in
Speaker 1: the back seat. My friend Ian is driving and he
Speaker 1: has got his his gun, and as we drive by
Speaker 1: his rifle, he takes aim at the car and he
Speaker 1: fires once, aiming at the tire well, and he misses.
Speaker 1: But when the car gets hit, like you can totally
Speaker 1: feel it, you know, like the car I didn't felt
Speaker 1: like to have a are get hit, but the car
Speaker 1: like jolts right. And then as we piss him, he
Speaker 1: aims for the back window and he barely misses and
Speaker 1: just hits right below the back windows. So there's this
Speaker 1: huge embedded bullet directly beneath it, and so the guy
Speaker 1: later said, oh, I thought they were robbing the house,
Speaker 1: and I'm like this guy. First of all, I don't
Speaker 1: think they did anything to this guy, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: we were at toilet paper. This would be the worst
Speaker 1: robbery of all time if you're throwing toilet paper into
Speaker 1: the house, white toilet paper, so that everybody can see
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Like the guy totally lied. I sometimes
Speaker 1: wonder what that guy does now and if he's still alive.
Speaker 1: But that happened to us in Antioch, and so we
Speaker 1: were like terrified. So maybe, but I didn't know you
Speaker 1: worked as a delivery guy. So you're working as a
Speaker 1: delivery guy in Manhattan FedEx guy and then like are
Speaker 1: you up late at night going into comedy clubs? Like
Speaker 1: how does that work? So I did that and then
Speaker 1: I realized that, like, well, someone a strong FedEx career,
Speaker 1: like this is I'm I'm you know. I was like
Speaker 1: sometimes working until eight nine o'clock a night. Uh, somethings
Speaker 1: you get off at two in that soon somethings it's longer.
Speaker 1: So it was two. I was like, I can't do this,
Speaker 1: Like so then I switched to just loading trucks, which
Speaker 1: was like five am. And what I would do is
Speaker 1: we'd go in at like seven pm. I'd go into
Speaker 1: the city. I would hand out flyers for the shows
Speaker 1: that would start at like eight, and the show would
Speaker 1: run from eight to one to and I think two
Speaker 1: in the morning, maybe even three somethings like uh, and
Speaker 1: we would just stand out there and do that all night,
Speaker 1: and I would get up. I would get to go
Speaker 1: up late at night, like one of the last spots,
Speaker 1: so you were lucky if there was five people in there,
Speaker 1: and uh. And then what I would do is I
Speaker 1: would just stay awake, Like I would just stay up
Speaker 1: and go into fed X at five am, worked at
Speaker 1: ten am, and then sleep during the day and then
Speaker 1: started again at seven. And you did every night because
Speaker 1: he was you know, uh, there's no nights off. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm here. They're due is stand up. And I
Speaker 1: mean that was like, I mean, this is there, like
Speaker 1: Chappelle's show was going on. So Chappelle used to come
Speaker 1: in there. Uh you know, it's like two four, and
Speaker 1: I mean we would just be standing outside hiding these
Speaker 1: flyers out and Chappelle would just like pop in and
Speaker 1: go up and there'd be eight people in the crowd
Speaker 1: and he would just go on. I remember him and
Speaker 1: having uh makeup on his ear, like behind his ear.
Speaker 1: One day, it was like, tell us about it, and
Speaker 1: it was like, I don't know if it was the
Speaker 1: it was like he was either painted like as a
Speaker 1: white person when he's doing some sketch, one of those
Speaker 1: sketches like that, and uh. But he would come in
Speaker 1: and would watch him go up in front of nobody
Speaker 1: and just sit there and you know, talk and whatever,
Speaker 1: and then we go outside and say like Chappelle's on stage,
Speaker 1: and then I mean he would take fifteen minutes in
Speaker 1: the room would be sold out because we led him
Speaker 1: in for free, and we just like Chappelle's on stage,
Speaker 1: so then everybody would just come in. I'll never get
Speaker 1: one couple, I said Chappelle's day sapells on stage and
Speaker 1: they were like I don't believe you. And I go,
Speaker 1: why why would I make this up? Like is that
Speaker 1: a comedy? I'm telling him, like why would I lie
Speaker 1: about this? And the like, I think you're just trying
Speaker 1: to make us come in the room. I was like,
Speaker 1: go to that window and if you do not see
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle, turn around and leave and they were like no,
Speaker 1: and then just left. I've never always think about those
Speaker 1: people like what, like, you know, they literally, what do
Speaker 1: you think we're trying to kill you? Like, it's a
Speaker 1: comedy club. He's a comedian. It's not that far off.
Speaker 1: It's actually perfect. It makes perfect sense that he would
Speaker 1: be there. Uh but yeah, you so I would get
Speaker 1: to sit and watch him. Bill Burr, Patrese O'Neil another
Speaker 1: unbelievable comedian that passed away. Uh, Greg Giraldo, I mean
Speaker 1: collin Quin. Like all of these people would just come in.
Speaker 1: They'd come in like they would just stop in whenever,
Speaker 1: and they would go up and then you would just
Speaker 1: you know, you get to start meeting these guys and
Speaker 1: hanging around them, and that was like, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of where you learn everything. So when do you
Speaker 1: start thinking I'm decent at this? There would be more,
Speaker 1: you know, you could have moments where I mean I
Speaker 1: remember the bad moments of the ones that I remember
Speaker 1: that hurt the most. I remember one time getting the
Speaker 1: ghost on a weekend, like the place would sell out
Speaker 1: and uh so you get to go up on the
Speaker 1: late show. Uh one you you do get into one spot.
Speaker 1: It's from the late show, and I remember this crowd
Speaker 1: was so hot and so great, and uh, they this
Speaker 1: girl that went up that I knew that I didn't
Speaker 1: think was I thought I was better than her. And
Speaker 1: she goes up and murders and I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: she's murdering, I'm gonna just slaughtered like two A big problem.
Speaker 1: I go up and bomb the hardest you could bomb.
Speaker 1: I bombed so hard, like it was like I never
Speaker 1: wore the shirt I had on ever again because I
Speaker 1: thought it was the shirt I go. I would just
Speaker 1: anything in my head I could make up. And I left.
Speaker 1: I had to go walk around like the West Village,
Speaker 1: like by myself. Like I was like sick to my stomach.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know where you just kind of
Speaker 1: have a moment of just like I'm terrible. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on. Uh why were you so bad
Speaker 1: then at night? Uh? You know that. I mean I
Speaker 1: was never that like I I mean, I bombed definitely
Speaker 1: a lot of times. It's situations when you bomb. It's
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's comics that are definitely terrible comedians.
Speaker 1: But if you're if you have jokes and you're you know,
Speaker 1: and your jokes are funny, it's usually gonna be a
Speaker 1: crowd problem. Like it's usually like they're drunk. They're not,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean there's situations. One day, I had
Speaker 1: to weight tables at that comedy club because the waiter
Speaker 1: didn't show up. So I was like, well, I knew
Speaker 1: how to wait tables, so I waited tables and then
Speaker 1: I would go Then I went on stage and like
Speaker 1: then came off stage and went to the table, and
Speaker 1: it's like and brought them more beer. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of like that situation is like
Speaker 1: no one would take you serious. No one really takes
Speaker 1: you to you know, if I'm hatting a flyer, trying
Speaker 1: to make you come into this show, and then you
Speaker 1: watched me on stage, you're not like, oh wow, that's
Speaker 1: cool man, Like you're like, who is this? You're not
Speaker 1: predisposed to think that guy's good, which oftentimes can impact
Speaker 1: initial reaction. But on that particular night, when you're out
Speaker 1: having your West Village walk of like shame what happened
Speaker 1: that your jokes didn't work that night? I think I
Speaker 1: got too cocky, Like I got to like I thought,
Speaker 1: if she did good, there's no way I can't. I'm
Speaker 1: better than her, And there was like two confident, too cocky.
Speaker 1: You may be walking up there with more of a
Speaker 1: swagger than I've hearned. And you know, a big thing
Speaker 1: for us is like if you ever if you see
Speaker 1: if I see a comics sit down on the stool,
Speaker 1: I mean like it's a big no note. Like it's
Speaker 1: like and if a comic does sit down, you better
Speaker 1: be unbelievable. Like Bill Cosby sat down on a stool.
Speaker 1: So unless you're that level of comedian, You're like, you
Speaker 1: don't deserve to sit down on the stool, like because
Speaker 1: it gives a fake confidence. I don't. I hate fake confidence,
Speaker 1: and people like, you know, it's like there, it's not
Speaker 1: a real they can just they're like, I'm gonna sit down,
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know. It's very cocky, and
Speaker 1: I think I had that. I was very I didn't
Speaker 1: sit down on the stool, but I'm like there was
Speaker 1: like a mantle kind of behind you and people would
Speaker 1: lean on it, and I'm like leaning on it, like
Speaker 1: just very nonchalantly talking like I got everything and I
Speaker 1: just and then once like the first joke doesn't work,
Speaker 1: then it's like I mean, now you're just like you're
Speaker 1: just struggling hard. They're like, oh, even now if I
Speaker 1: do comedy, if one joke doesn't work, you felt the
Speaker 1: next one out quicker and then quicker, you know, and
Speaker 1: then it's like then they're like, what's going on? And
Speaker 1: then you never really get the back and then you're
Speaker 1: just done. So like that night that happened, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody murders except me, and I mean I got no
Speaker 1: laugh so it just like destroyed me. I still remember, like,
Speaker 1: you know, like it was like that it affected me
Speaker 1: that much. So that would have been at what age?
Speaker 1: So two dozen does rights four, two five, twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty four? Maybe when when do you start being able
Speaker 1: to make a living off of touring and other things?
Speaker 1: Like at what point do you say, Okay, I've you know,
Speaker 1: kind of served my apprenticeship. How much time do you
Speaker 1: put in doing the you know, sending out get trying
Speaker 1: to get people to come into the comedy club and
Speaker 1: working full time doing another job. At what point do
Speaker 1: you kind of take that next step? I would say,
Speaker 1: I mean, so I started two thousand four, I mean
Speaker 1: I got married in two thousands six. Uh, that helps
Speaker 1: my wife was working in New York should a good job.
Speaker 1: So I'm still doing like some like temp work where
Speaker 1: you would just you know, I don't know, do whatever
Speaker 1: you go. Like I'd go to the convention center and
Speaker 1: just like ask some questions if you need help or something.
Speaker 1: I remember still doing that, like a two six two seven,
Speaker 1: I'd take two. I'm not really making I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not making much money to the day you get to
Speaker 1: where I just remember I wanted to get to where
Speaker 1: the amount of money I would make if I waited tables,
Speaker 1: you know, I just need to make like twenty gran
Speaker 1: a year. Like if I can get to twenty gran
Speaker 1: a year, like that's how much, you know, And that
Speaker 1: was like a big deal. I was like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: I'm making this same amount of money I was making
Speaker 1: waiting tables, like you know, And you were like that
Speaker 1: was like a big mark. And then you get you know,
Speaker 1: then it just keeps in. Then the mark kind of
Speaker 1: goes in the next year, you might make thirty and
Speaker 1: then you remember, you know, you might make fifty. And
Speaker 1: now you're like, oh, this is like a like if
Speaker 1: I had a regular job, you're making what would be
Speaker 1: a regular person salary, and like you're just like can't
Speaker 1: believe you're you know, that's all you're doing. And so
Speaker 1: it's two doan dight was like a big year for me,
Speaker 1: Like that was I did Montreal Comedy Festival just for
Speaker 1: last and they had a thing called New Faces, and
Speaker 1: that was I got. I did that. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: I did a Conan and Live a Gotham. So I
Speaker 1: did all of that in two thousand and eight. Live
Speaker 1: and Gotham was a little comedy Central where you do
Speaker 1: like five minutes, and then uh, I did in Late
Speaker 1: Night with Conan was my first time. But for for
Speaker 1: it in I was very nervous, like so they came in.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of stories with it. So the first
Speaker 1: time I go do it. I have have these managers
Speaker 1: and they're good guys, but they were like kind of crazy,
Speaker 1: like they're kind of lunatics. Like I would always say,
Speaker 1: like if you saw a manager, if someone walked into
Speaker 1: the room and you're like, who's your manager, and I
Speaker 1: would be like, who'd you thinks about to get kicked
Speaker 1: out of here? That's my manager. Like he was a
Speaker 1: guy that would he'd wear a cowboy hat and a
Speaker 1: handlebar mustache and they're Jewish and they just like he
Speaker 1: just was like he was just like kind of a
Speaker 1: redneck kind of Jewish person. And um, so I go
Speaker 1: and the first time I do toll In. I tell
Speaker 1: this in my act now, but like it's I I
Speaker 1: go do what they picked me in my wife up
Speaker 1: at our house and we go to thirty Rock where
Speaker 1: I mean, pull up the thirty Rock. All these pop
Speaker 1: rocks as are taking pictures of the celebrities going into
Speaker 1: thirty Rock. So they come to the car because they think,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna be some celebrity. And so then
Speaker 1: I opened the door and I opened it. Uh, they
Speaker 1: all got their cameras up, and one guy just goes,
Speaker 1: it's nobody, just yells it out, and they all turned
Speaker 1: and walk away from me. And it was just so
Speaker 1: like deflating to like, you know, and I know I'm
Speaker 1: not acting like I'm somebody, but it's like you don't,
Speaker 1: like in my head, I'm like, just to let the picture,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to shout it out, like just
Speaker 1: pretend to take it or something like you know. Uh.
Speaker 1: But so that was the first time. So then I
Speaker 1: did so I did conan and uh, and then a
Speaker 1: couple of months later, they were doing auditions again for Conan, like,
Speaker 1: and I told my managers, like, I want to try
Speaker 1: to do it again, and uh, they were like, you
Speaker 1: can't do it again. Nobody does it within three months
Speaker 1: of each other. And I was like, well, I think
Speaker 1: I can try. Why not trying? They were like, no,
Speaker 1: these done. These managers they were like no, So I go. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I just went and got it set up on
Speaker 1: my own and I got it again. And I wasn't
Speaker 1: even going to tell them. I was at the point
Speaker 1: of just like I just want these men. I want
Speaker 1: my managers just just see me on Conan again. Uh,
Speaker 1: just to be like, yeah, I went into it again
Speaker 1: because you game. And uh they end up finding out
Speaker 1: they came to the audition and I then I got
Speaker 1: it and they came to Conan and they're like, oh
Speaker 1: that's cool, man. But you know, they just played off.
Speaker 1: So what's the benefit for people out there? We're talking
Speaker 1: to night bar Gassy, I'm Clay Travis. It's wins and wasses.
Speaker 1: What's the benefit for and And I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: fascinated by the comedic industry in general, but I think
Speaker 1: I'm kind of the average a listener here. The benefit
Speaker 1: of doing a show like Conan is what it's a legitimizing,
Speaker 1: it's a stamp of approval. It's the amount of people
Speaker 1: who are watching. Could you tell any difference in your
Speaker 1: career before and after you did Conan? No, you don't.
Speaker 1: I mean you could mostly that do Conan for the
Speaker 1: first time, go back to a day job. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: they're they they haven't made it. They're making you know
Speaker 1: there there there, You're struggling the whole time. The point
Speaker 1: of doing it, you have every time you think this
Speaker 1: could be at the time, like you know, because when
Speaker 1: you used to do Carson Carson, that changed. Those guys
Speaker 1: live like they was back then. They would get a
Speaker 1: tour around the country and they was you know, if
Speaker 1: they're if they're on a once, you know. But Steve
Speaker 1: Martin says it took him like eleven times on Carson.
Speaker 1: He said that in his book. So I always thought
Speaker 1: it was just like you did it once, But like
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of guys Seinfeld took off. Stephen Wright, Uh,
Speaker 1: he got asked back. That was when Carson waved him
Speaker 1: over and he got asked back on the show that
Speaker 1: next week. That's how good he did, so that was
Speaker 1: like huge, but that was there's three channels. So when
Speaker 1: I did Conan, you're doing it just to like you
Speaker 1: hope it's going to be something crazy, but it's all
Speaker 1: just check marks in your career that like means you
Speaker 1: keep moving forward. So now I've done I think thirteen
Speaker 1: Late Night Steps, maybe fourteen elements. But it was like
Speaker 1: so it's like all of it is just like you're
Speaker 1: just staying around your faces on everything. You're going through
Speaker 1: the system of like trying to move up to a
Speaker 1: special and like so it's that's what that's the the
Speaker 1: huge benefit of it is that I mean like when
Speaker 1: I did Conan, I mean I wasn't even headline. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I could have even done in an
Speaker 1: hour or worth of material. Uh, you know, you probably
Speaker 1: have like thirty forty good minutes. So you just do
Speaker 1: it just to it's a check mark. It's a good
Speaker 1: thing to get. You have a credit that helps you
Speaker 1: with when I go trying to play clubs in New York.
Speaker 1: Like in clubs of New York, it's not like a
Speaker 1: typical it's not like going to Zanies in Nashville or
Speaker 1: like you know, an improv or something where you have
Speaker 1: one headliner and then they have an opener. Clubs in
Speaker 1: New York there's like seven guys go on, so you
Speaker 1: have like, you know, every night is like seven comics
Speaker 1: are on every show and everybody's doing like twelve to
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Those credits like a conan helps you get
Speaker 1: into those clubs because now the club can be like, well,
Speaker 1: this guy was on a Conan, you know, and no
Speaker 1: one knows that you're on. No one's like, oh I
Speaker 1: know that guy, you know, but it's just he's been
Speaker 1: on late night. So it, you know, reaffirms that we're
Speaker 1: a professional comedy clubs, you know. So it's I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: on the economics of this. So has comedy become like
Speaker 1: you're either a superstar and you make a good living
Speaker 1: or it's like you can barely afford to make a
Speaker 1: living at all, Like there's almost no middle class of comedy.
Speaker 1: Would that be accurate or inaccurate? Um? I would say so.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, there's like the problem with comedy is
Speaker 1: like the problem with you know, probably what you do
Speaker 1: is like someone doing the podcast. Anybody can have a podcast,
Speaker 1: it's gonna sw skew the skew the numbers because like
Speaker 1: I can have a podcast, you know, like anybody on
Speaker 1: earth can do a podcast and no one listens. I
Speaker 1: mean you see it all the time. There's nothing greater
Speaker 1: than we've been seeing comedians post videos to their fans
Speaker 1: and you'll see like four people like it. You're like,
Speaker 1: who're you talking to? It's insanity. But that guy says
Speaker 1: he's a comedian. So that guy's walking around saying he's
Speaker 1: a comedian. So there's there's way more of those people
Speaker 1: then there are that actually you're doing it. But when
Speaker 1: you're in the the meat of it, of the guys
Speaker 1: that are you're doing it, I think there's your gaffigans,
Speaker 1: just Seinfeld's Sebastian, I think Special Meniscalco, like these guys
Speaker 1: now I mean Gascan, Sebastian Menscalco, Brian Reagan, Anotherland. But
Speaker 1: like they're they're guys that have made their livings from
Speaker 1: stand up. Like it's not their shows, that's not anything else,
Speaker 1: and they make crazy livings down like they're on those
Speaker 1: Forbes lists. I mean, you know they they can make
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars a year, like just touring and if
Speaker 1: you can sell the tickets then you can do these arenas,
Speaker 1: you can do these big things. So there is that
Speaker 1: there is these guys that are making a ton of money.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of guys though, that can make under
Speaker 1: a million, make two thousand dollars a year, like you
Speaker 1: could do like I'm clean. So if you're a clean
Speaker 1: comedian and you say you just have some of the
Speaker 1: if you don't have any of my specials, but I
Speaker 1: just have like my Late Night my Tonight Show appearances,
Speaker 1: those are the check marks you have in your career.
Speaker 1: So I remember my career. At first, you're just you
Speaker 1: want to get to where like, no matter what, I
Speaker 1: could do cruises, I could do private gigs, like you know,
Speaker 1: I have enough credits where you know, I could probably
Speaker 1: make a hundred thousand dollars a year. Like just you
Speaker 1: just want to get to that point where you're just like,
Speaker 1: all right, I can do this now. You have like
Speaker 1: it's like a safety net. You feel I have an
Speaker 1: hour worth of material that I can go do these
Speaker 1: gigs or whatever that you know you don't want to
Speaker 1: be doing. But they're good, you know, they're not bad gigs,
Speaker 1: and guys can make livings. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: guys in that I would say a hundred to they
Speaker 1: can make hundreds of three hundred, four hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, you know, and and and do and do
Speaker 1: pretty good. I mean, like, you know, and then there's
Speaker 1: another leap. And I think once you get above that,
Speaker 1: like people are starting to leap into like where you know,
Speaker 1: I think you can be making you know, you can
Speaker 1: make a million, two million, then you get and then
Speaker 1: as you get up it's like four or five and
Speaker 1: you get gas and I mean some of them are
Speaker 1: making thirty forty million dollars a year and they're just touring.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious on this. Can you tell the difference?
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example, like, um, I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of times with music, you can't really tell
Speaker 1: the difference between somebody who is the most talented musician.
Speaker 1: It might just be the person who gets the most
Speaker 1: marketing behind them and everything else. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: comedy is a meritocracy and that the guys who do
Speaker 1: the best and the girls tend to be the best
Speaker 1: comedians or when you guys sit around like you know,
Speaker 1: for instance, writing there are a lot of great writers
Speaker 1: who don't make great livings because they're not writing for
Speaker 1: the masses. Do you think that the people who tend
Speaker 1: to make the best livings in comedy are the best
Speaker 1: at what they do or their comics? Comics and you
Speaker 1: guys are like, man, this guy or this girl is incredible,
Speaker 1: but they just don't make that They never cross over,
Speaker 1: do you know what I'm talking about? Like the like
Speaker 1: people in the in the craft that appreciate them in
Speaker 1: a way maybe that the masses don't. Yes, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of like you know, a lot of guy eyes.
Speaker 1: I mean, look the top right now, Chapelle and burg
Speaker 1: Bill Bird. That bird has had a special come out too.
Speaker 1: So there's your two top guys and those guys. The
Speaker 1: thing that separates a lot of them is a point
Speaker 1: of view. Like there you you get what their point
Speaker 1: of view is. And so when they have a point
Speaker 1: of view and they're talking to themselves, whatever they talk
Speaker 1: about is like their own thing. There, HiT's their own
Speaker 1: take on it. Everything's original. You want to you you
Speaker 1: want to know what they think about those things, and
Speaker 1: the point of view is what separates. I've listened to
Speaker 1: I'll do it a lot with myself, Like I'll listen
Speaker 1: to like comedians like on the radio like serious, you know,
Speaker 1: Netflix and Comedy Central Radio or laft all laugh uts
Speaker 1: say whatever. You're listening to all these like comedians and
Speaker 1: also listen to guys and be like, why why is
Speaker 1: that guy not famous? Like that was a funny joke.
Speaker 1: Why is he not making any money? He's just like
Speaker 1: a dude that's just like plugging along making sixty grand
Speaker 1: a year maybe. Uh. And it's like it all comes
Speaker 1: from point of you. And that's that's like the main
Speaker 1: thing to me that I that I see the difference
Speaker 1: is like everybody has to have a point of view.
Speaker 1: You have to have something. I mean, you're in a
Speaker 1: business that no one cares if you do stand up.
Speaker 1: No one needs you, no one you know, no one's
Speaker 1: begging us to do stand up. We're trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: do something that's you know that no one's asked us
Speaker 1: to do. So you have to be you have to
Speaker 1: have something that makes people want to be like I
Speaker 1: want to listen to this guy. So I think that's
Speaker 1: what separates those guys. I think if you're there's no
Speaker 1: one that's terrible that that's at the top, they couldn't
Speaker 1: be not your cup of tea you cannot like what
Speaker 1: they do or that you don't enjoy it. But even know,
Speaker 1: if you see people always you know, like they're the
Speaker 1: cable guy. Like I remember guys saying like, oh about him,
Speaker 1: like you know, he's just doing get or done and
Speaker 1: all these stuff, and they act like it's easy. And
Speaker 1: I would just you know, all I would say is like,
Speaker 1: didn't go do that? You go do it. If you
Speaker 1: can do that and makes sixty million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: then why would you not go do that? But they
Speaker 1: can't because he did create something, So like that's what
Speaker 1: that's what's great is he did create something you might
Speaker 1: not like. It might not be your thing, but it
Speaker 1: is a lot of people's things. Kevin Hard, he's created something.
Speaker 1: People love what he does. There's different guys, you know,
Speaker 1: to me, the best right now is Bill Burn and Chappelle.
Speaker 1: I mean, which is pretty clear, but that's the best
Speaker 1: between even comics. We all think that those guys are
Speaker 1: that's the best comics working gask into uh. But then yeah,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of people that are like, yeah, they're not
Speaker 1: like my thing, but there's a market for Look that
Speaker 1: Hannah Gatsby, you know, she put that special out whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like that's why she didn't have doing
Speaker 1: comedy on it, Like she's just like doing it, you know,
Speaker 1: but if there's a huge market for people want to
Speaker 1: hear it, so she's doing something. She's like figured something out.
Speaker 1: So it's like what you just sometimes have to like
Speaker 1: you gotta take yourself out of it, Like I was.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what I'll say, I it why they are even
Speaker 1: if it's not someone that I like, I'll be like
Speaker 1: I get it though, I get why people would like them,
Speaker 1: and that's what I think those people as Uh. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Chappelle and Burr. You also mentioned that you're a
Speaker 1: quote unquote you know, kind of clean comedian. So how
Speaker 1: I want to I'm gonna come back to Chappelle and
Speaker 1: burg because I've watched those comedy specials as well, But
Speaker 1: I want to come back to the decision when and
Speaker 1: how do you decide, Okay, I'm gonna be a clean
Speaker 1: comedian And for people out there, I'm assuming that means
Speaker 1: that you don't like tell off color jokes, you don't
Speaker 1: really curse in your specials, Like how do you make
Speaker 1: the decision that that is going to be your avenue?
Speaker 1: Were you ever not a clean comedian? Did you try
Speaker 1: different persona so to speak, before you found your voice?
Speaker 1: How did you come to do comedy the way that
Speaker 1: you do it? I started like, you know, I grew
Speaker 1: up here, So I mean, that's all a love let's do.
Speaker 1: I mean, you grew up. You know, you're Southern Baptist
Speaker 1: Christian family, just typical national you know family, and so
Speaker 1: you just I've never was allowed to like listen to
Speaker 1: any of this stuff. And uh so I just grew
Speaker 1: up like that's just how I grew up. And then
Speaker 1: so when I started coming, I knew I couldn't be dirty,
Speaker 1: and it's mainly because of my parts. I was like,
Speaker 1: my parents are gonna they would kill me if I
Speaker 1: was like filthy, and so that's been that's been my
Speaker 1: thing ever since the beginning. I was saying, like what
Speaker 1: I've learned, I this is something I've learned about my
Speaker 1: stuff recently. It's like all the stuff that I write,
Speaker 1: I write to not make my parents mad at me,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want him to be embarrassed. So every
Speaker 1: joke is like I'm writing to make them not be embarrassed,
Speaker 1: or like they're gonna be mad at me. And I
Speaker 1: think it helps because you're writing for something so specific
Speaker 1: that it didn't relate to a broader instead of trying
Speaker 1: to I'm not trying to relate to everybody. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to not make them mad at me. And uh so
Speaker 1: it's like I just always I've always started that way,
Speaker 1: and I was doing like midnight uncensored shows, like that's
Speaker 1: how the shows were advertised, and everybody in the show
Speaker 1: is just filthy, and then I just I never had
Speaker 1: I never had those jokes. I never had sex jokes.
Speaker 1: I just never did. And but I learned that I
Speaker 1: would have to tell these jokes and I didn't want
Speaker 1: the audience to be like, oh, this is a clean guy.
Speaker 1: So like I you know, because people just write you
Speaker 1: off when they're like, oh, you're a clean comedian. My
Speaker 1: thing that I like the most that people tell me
Speaker 1: is when they is that they don't realize I'm clean.
Speaker 1: And that's the ultimate goal is like for you to
Speaker 1: be like, oh, I didn't even think about it and
Speaker 1: like that, and that's what you wanted. That's what you
Speaker 1: want to be, is you know, to be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't think about it. And I look at like, look,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of dirty guys. Whatever, there's there's whatever you want,
Speaker 1: we can send you to someone that does that thing.
Speaker 1: So there was plenty of people being dirty. So then
Speaker 1: once I started that way, then you're realizing, like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm like not being dirty just because every single comedian
Speaker 1: is being dirty. So why would I? Why would I
Speaker 1: put myself with them? Why would I? Why would I?
Speaker 1: You know, if I talk about sex, They're all talking
Speaker 1: about sex, every one of them. So why would I?
Speaker 1: Why would I want to try to write a better
Speaker 1: sex joke than the thousand of them that are out there.
Speaker 1: If I don't do that, then that's just one extra
Speaker 1: joke I have. That is something different, that's something that
Speaker 1: no one's thought of. So I want to go back
Speaker 1: to the Chappelle and the burr Um when you watch
Speaker 1: a special and you are in the same industry as
Speaker 1: those guys. I remember when I first started writing, people said,
Speaker 1: you have to find your own voice. And it's an
Speaker 1: interesting dynamic because, uh, you want to find your voice,
Speaker 1: which sounds different than everybody else's voice, but also you're
Speaker 1: trying to learn simultaneously from the voices that surround you. Right.
Speaker 1: In other words, for a writer, the best way to
Speaker 1: learn how to write is to read the people who
Speaker 1: are the best writers, and then hopefully you develop your
Speaker 1: own voice that builds upon whatever they have created. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming the same thing is true of comedians. Do you
Speaker 1: still kind of you said you listen to the radio
Speaker 1: and you're talking about Burr and Chappelle and things like that.
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself taking notes almost watching it like
Speaker 1: it's film if you were an athlete, right, if you're
Speaker 1: a quarterback, you want to go watch what Tom Brady
Speaker 1: and Peyton Manning do because you can learn from them
Speaker 1: because you do the same thing. You just don't necessarily
Speaker 1: do quite as well. Do you watch comedy the same
Speaker 1: way as a young quarterback might watch game film? You? Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I watched Burds such a last time, and like, so
Speaker 1: I was with ber like a year ago or something,
Speaker 1: maybe your hash I went to Talladega and so I've
Speaker 1: done Dayton and Talladega with him, and like, so I
Speaker 1: gotta see some of this, like whenever you're like first
Speaker 1: starting to put it together, and uh, what you take
Speaker 1: from Look, when you first start, the biggest thing you
Speaker 1: take is you take people's cadences. So that's the that's
Speaker 1: the thing that you get influenced with the most. The
Speaker 1: speech pattern, like the speech pattern, the thing it makes
Speaker 1: him laugh like Brian Reagan's is you know, whatever he is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's thing that he has that makes people
Speaker 1: ask Burger is like, you know, he burd has his
Speaker 1: arm on the like stand, he props up and puts
Speaker 1: his arm. So you would start seeing everybody, every younger
Speaker 1: comics starting to do that, and they grabbed the mic
Speaker 1: stand and they start moving it a little bit more Chappelle,
Speaker 1: he hits the microphone on his leg. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hate it that he does it, but that's like what
Speaker 1: he does. And you can start seeing some other guys
Speaker 1: do it like and you start seeing it and like
Speaker 1: when you first start, everybody in New York, everybody sounded
Speaker 1: like David Tell. David Tell was probably the pound from Pound,
Speaker 1: the funniest comedian has ever lived. Truth, Like, if I
Speaker 1: if I had to pay to watch someone, I'd watch
Speaker 1: him because it will there will be nothing fun er,
Speaker 1: nothing is more fun than watching him. And uh so
Speaker 1: U Tell was like everybody sounded like a Tell. Everybody
Speaker 1: just you would like if you went and watched him,
Speaker 1: you just you would start you know, you start taking
Speaker 1: the cadence from him, because they you gotta learn a
Speaker 1: cadence that makes people laugh. So the way they can
Speaker 1: talk is like the way they say something is like
Speaker 1: they just figured something out and it's their thing. So
Speaker 1: you start, like you get influenced by it very heavily,
Speaker 1: and you have to be very aware of it, like
Speaker 1: you have to, like, you know, you would realize that
Speaker 1: Like there's times I was like, oh, I can't go
Speaker 1: watch David Tell anymore because I would might I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm sounding like him or Bird or like whoever Chappelle.
Speaker 1: Like you, just every every young Southern novelist sounds for
Speaker 1: a while like William Faulkner, right because they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the guy who's got the most pronounced and
Speaker 1: voice that kind of defines a region and you grow
Speaker 1: up reading him or whatever else, and so everybody has
Speaker 1: a falkinery and twist, and for you, it would be
Speaker 1: that guy that you're talking about right now, where everybody
Speaker 1: mimics him because he's literally the master of the craft. Yeah,
Speaker 1: David Tell. Have you heard of David Tel? You know
Speaker 1: Insombiac Central. He's unreal, so uh, just very jokes, very
Speaker 1: quick whatever. Yes, but you you so you catch yourself
Speaker 1: doing that, so you have to you have to like
Speaker 1: learn to like sometimes get you still need to be
Speaker 1: watching them because you need to see you know. That
Speaker 1: was the big thing about moving to New York, because
Speaker 1: like I would see people make it. I remember these
Speaker 1: I'm sorry getting passed at the Comedy Seller. Past means
Speaker 1: he's allowed to play there, and and he was was
Speaker 1: doing open mics with him, and then he's like, now
Speaker 1: he's playing at the Comedy Seller. And then he was
Speaker 1: hosting the MTV Movie Awards and you're like what, So,
Speaker 1: like you need to be around it happened very fast,
Speaker 1: and you need to see that. I saw Bill Burr
Speaker 1: like Birds is almost entire. He was probably a ten
Speaker 1: year comic when I moved to New York, and he
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. And so I watched him go from that
Speaker 1: comic to the comic key is right now and so
Speaker 1: and I've seen birds like my guy, Like that's the
Speaker 1: guy that, like I I couldn't believe when I first
Speaker 1: saw him. I went to HBO one night Stand taping,
Speaker 1: and I mean he murdered so hard you could still
Speaker 1: the crowd like be like you know, like they were
Speaker 1: like what what was that? Like what happened? Because they
Speaker 1: just they were laughing so hard and you were just
Speaker 1: like you just knew, like, oh, this is it's happening
Speaker 1: right now. This dude's about to shoot off on a
Speaker 1: rocket and become the guy he that he is right now.
Speaker 1: And so it was very neat to like see that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes you have so now when I watch it now,
Speaker 1: I will sometimes watch Old Bird specials if I but
Speaker 1: I'll do it to get motivated, Like I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I get very excited when I hear a joke like
Speaker 1: really working and a joke that's really funny. It gets
Speaker 1: you like all juice uff and you're excited and you're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to create something like that. So you're not
Speaker 1: doing it like learns, I'm not, Like I'm not, you know, now,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't like what I would learn from like like
Speaker 1: I opened for Chris Rock and like so I would
Speaker 1: just learn from Chris, like you know, some of it's
Speaker 1: just even how to be Chris Rock, Like you know,
Speaker 1: some of it's you know, it's like how do you tour?
Speaker 1: What do you do like on the road, and like
Speaker 1: you know, seeing how they you know, when you do theaters,
Speaker 1: like you could just be asking them, like you do
Speaker 1: an encore, do you do how do people come out?
Speaker 1: Not that I'm at that level that those guys are at,
Speaker 1: but you know you're just like asking them like some
Speaker 1: little questions like that. But for if I watched this special,
Speaker 1: I'm a lot of it is motivation, Like it's just
Speaker 1: to like get you up and writing and like get
Speaker 1: you excited again about like stand up. So when is
Speaker 1: the first time so you're you get married and uh
Speaker 1: and obviously your wife you probably give a shout out here,
Speaker 1: has to be pretty supportive. I would imagine when do
Speaker 1: you start thinking, hey, like I like I'm getting so
Speaker 1: the career trajectories. You get on cone and you pull
Speaker 1: up and people have no idea who you are, but
Speaker 1: you keep plugging away. I mean you're talking years now,
Speaker 1: and you said initially your goal is to make twenty
Speaker 1: dollars a year, and you know you're putting in years
Speaker 1: to be able to get just twenty tho dollars a year.
Speaker 1: And obviously this podcast called Wins and Losses and we're
Speaker 1: talking to a parkassy. But you gotta get years in
Speaker 1: to get to there. And that's what I say from
Speaker 1: a writing perspective, I had to put in years before
Speaker 1: I made anything right writing online. I just didn't grind
Speaker 1: and grind and grind, And I feel like there's this
Speaker 1: idea that you're gonna be instantaneously successful. It really doesn't
Speaker 1: happen like that for most people in comedy. No, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. It takes them all. I mean Burr Louis
Speaker 1: c k Uh, you know some guys. You know, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of times it's either people make it
Speaker 1: like very young or like they're forty, and like that's
Speaker 1: when they that's just what it happens. That's when they
Speaker 1: make it. Like so, you know, I remember Bird tell
Speaker 1: me something a long time ago, like he has some advice,
Speaker 1: Like he was like he saw me and uh, this
Speaker 1: is one of the first times he saw me do
Speaker 1: stand up. This is like, you know, I'm prinds of
Speaker 1: burn now, Like but like this is a longer where's
Speaker 1: a big deal When he like knew my name and
Speaker 1: you're like you can't believe you know he knows you. Uh,
Speaker 1: and everybody's like just keep doing it means they look
Speaker 1: it takes us. Is it takes comics like us a
Speaker 1: lot longer, but you, when you get fans, you get
Speaker 1: them for life. And it was just like that advice
Speaker 1: of just like, yeah, you gotta keep doing this, but
Speaker 1: when you get new fans, they will stay with you.
Speaker 1: Like you're not You're not a flash in the pan.
Speaker 1: You're not getting people that are not invested in you.
Speaker 1: You're getting fans people that are discovering you. And then
Speaker 1: like I know it now when my on my show,
Speaker 1: my live show, I say that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: right when I started, I look, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on me for this show to be good. I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of pressure on a lot of
Speaker 1: you because I know a lot of people introduce my
Speaker 1: comedy to their friends and bring them to the shows.
Speaker 1: So this needs to go as good as for you
Speaker 1: as it is it does for me. Are you never
Speaker 1: going to suggest anything in that friendship ever? Yet? And
Speaker 1: then yeah, I say you. I was like they're really like,
Speaker 1: oh you heard about a new restaurant, and like as
Speaker 1: that neapor gets too good, I think we'll pass. Uh.
Speaker 1: So it's like that's you know, but it's like I
Speaker 1: know that these people are invested, Like so when they
Speaker 1: come and they're fans of you. Like there there's a
Speaker 1: lot of them have been. I mean, I've got some
Speaker 1: people that have been there since two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: and like they saw me alive a Gotham and then
Speaker 1: they you know, and then it slowly just gets bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger, and you just get people that like, you know,
Speaker 1: how do you I mean you probably know, like you
Speaker 1: get fans, you know when sometimes when your fans become
Speaker 1: your friends, because like you can't believe that somebody even
Speaker 1: likes what you do. And then you end up like
Speaker 1: talking to these people like you're like, oh, now I
Speaker 1: like know them, like because they were they talked to
Speaker 1: me when nobody knew who I was. And then you
Speaker 1: end up like just kind of knowing them in your life. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's like you just you know, you slowly just
Speaker 1: get these people and they become way more invested because
Speaker 1: you're not you know, Seinfeld, You're not like a Walmart
Speaker 1: or a Target. You're not just this gigantic thing You're
Speaker 1: you know, it's I don't know, people are really rooting
Speaker 1: for you. And that's what I've learned is that you
Speaker 1: want you want people of the root for you and
Speaker 1: so as people are rooting for you, you also then
Speaker 1: have some awful I'm sure times. Like I I talked
Speaker 1: about from a writing perspective, the worst thing that can
Speaker 1: happen to you for a writer is you have a
Speaker 1: book signing and nobody shows up right. And I think
Speaker 1: every single writer has had that opportunity happen right where
Speaker 1: you show up and you know you do like I
Speaker 1: tell this, and I've talked about it before, like I
Speaker 1: had when I did dixieland Delight, my first book, I
Speaker 1: drove down to Birmingham. I had a signing at Books
Speaker 1: a Million on the north side of Birmingham and I
Speaker 1: showed up there and not one person bought a book
Speaker 1: and not one person showed up right. And I I
Speaker 1: love that. I would I would have paid good money
Speaker 1: to just sit and want you sit there for two
Speaker 1: hours at a Birmingham area. I mean I did a
Speaker 1: book signing. Everybody, Yeah they're like and and by the way,
Speaker 1: I wrote a book about SEC football in Birmingham, which
Speaker 1: is like the most hardcore market imaginable right for college football.
Speaker 1: It's not like I was trying to sell, you know,
Speaker 1: like something that the market had no interest in. And
Speaker 1: I did like book signings at dead at Walmart, like
Speaker 1: not even I tell people, not even the good Walmart.
Speaker 1: Like there's good Walmarts if you if you are you
Speaker 1: know your neighborhoods, like there's like, oh, that's the good Walmart,
Speaker 1: right like I did. I did bad Walmarts and Knoxville
Speaker 1: and you know, like there's just like fat people with
Speaker 1: you know, carts full of diet dr pepper and you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: you interest didn't read you know, a book too, and
Speaker 1: you're I mean you're there for like an hour. You
Speaker 1: don't want to leave because like you know, I I
Speaker 1: don't want to look like a diva. But you're just like,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a long time to be here, right,
Speaker 1: And so I'm sure for comedians you guys all have
Speaker 1: experiences like that too, right where you show up and
Speaker 1: like there's nobody there or there's one or two people
Speaker 1: and you're like you just want to sit at the table.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you my routine, you know, like, well you
Speaker 1: have a beat. I had the hairline Carolines on Broadway.
Speaker 1: They were doing my first headlining thing. They gave me
Speaker 1: they would do these like uh, they would give like
Speaker 1: the New York comics, like the guys that were kind
Speaker 1: of coming up. They give us like a Wednesday night
Speaker 1: and it'd be like, we get a headline, Ney Bar
Speaker 1: gets I get a poster outside of Carolines on Broadway Club.
Speaker 1: Huge deal, and you're like, I can't believe this is happening.
Speaker 1: And so I go downstairs and they they told me
Speaker 1: and the audience that they don't have enough people and
Speaker 1: canceled the show. They told us all together, and I
Speaker 1: was just in the bar and they're like, there's no
Speaker 1: show and I just have to walk out with these people. Um,
Speaker 1: so you're yeah, you would get I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: I would said I performed for one guy once. Uh
Speaker 1: he wouldn't leave and I asked him to leave in
Speaker 1: the microphone and he said no. And then uh, you
Speaker 1: would get two people, three people, four. I mean at
Speaker 1: the beginning, you're I mean six, You were like, this
Speaker 1: is all starting to come together. It's happening. Uh. It
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. And that that's why New York comics are
Speaker 1: the best, because you have I mean it's a hard
Speaker 1: three to four years of just you know, because because
Speaker 1: when they would run shows, they you would run a
Speaker 1: show like you just be in a basement and it'd
Speaker 1: be like eight o'clock and if you've got two people
Speaker 1: to go down there, be free. And if you've got
Speaker 1: two people to go down there, and then someone would
Speaker 1: be like, hey, they're about to leave, and then you're like, well,
Speaker 1: then someone's got to go up and though someone would
Speaker 1: go on stage for those two people, and then you
Speaker 1: would other people be out front trying to get more
Speaker 1: people down there. You're just trying to get something started
Speaker 1: so we can get a show. So yeah, you're regularly
Speaker 1: performing in front of I mean, and you do gigs
Speaker 1: like where you would uh I mean you you'd be
Speaker 1: at a sports bar and they would like, not cut
Speaker 1: the TVs off, and you would, you know, just the
Speaker 1: TVs are on like over your head and people don't
Speaker 1: even know what show is happening. Uh, I mean this
Speaker 1: is and it's just the norm. Like you just get
Speaker 1: there and then they tell you like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: last week was packed, I don't know what happened this week.
Speaker 1: They always tell you that it happened the week before
Speaker 1: it was like the greatest show they've ever had, and
Speaker 1: now it's the worst show. I remember doing the show
Speaker 1: once at some Italian restaurant and the stage was in
Speaker 1: the middle behind the bar. But when you stood up, uh,
Speaker 1: no one could see you because of the wine glasses,
Speaker 1: so no one could do your head. So you would
Speaker 1: have to just like you would have to there's no chair,
Speaker 1: you have to like just bend over and like talk
Speaker 1: to this crowd that you know, and no one's invested.
Speaker 1: One show was in the people were in two different
Speaker 1: rooms and you just stood in the middle so they couldn't.
Speaker 1: But like when you're doing that, it feels like you're
Speaker 1: performing for your two different audiences. No one's laughing at
Speaker 1: the same time. It's very weird. And you just and
Speaker 1: I mean you do that all the time, and like
Speaker 1: you would do it for like free food, like they're
Speaker 1: like we're gonna pay, We're gonna be a free food
Speaker 1: and you drive out there, uh you know and spend
Speaker 1: all this gas money or whatever you're spending. You're just
Speaker 1: making no money. I just remember it was like that's
Speaker 1: why the one thing good comments It was never about
Speaker 1: the money for me, because if it was, I would
Speaker 1: have never made it to this point because you just
Speaker 1: can't have it be about the money at the beginning,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna lose money. You're gonna just lose a
Speaker 1: ton of money. So if you not taking gigs because
Speaker 1: of money, then you're not getting up enough. So I
Speaker 1: just remembered, like, you know, you would get paid twenty
Speaker 1: dollars if someone didn't pay me. I would just remember
Speaker 1: thinking like this, if this twenty matters to me this much,
Speaker 1: like I'm doing something I shouldn't even be doing this,
Speaker 1: like if I'm like, dude, I need this twenty dollar.
Speaker 1: Like you just keep a day job until you don't
Speaker 1: have to. That's basically all you do. So how close
Speaker 1: did you ever come to quitting? How many were there
Speaker 1: times you were like this is just not gonna happen
Speaker 1: for me, or at least maybe not quitting, but like,
Speaker 1: I've got to focus on something else. I gotta have
Speaker 1: a different career goal. The only I never I never
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna quit. I remember my wife when
Speaker 1: we only had one conversation, she was like how much
Speaker 1: She's like, how long would you do this? If before
Speaker 1: it worked? Because it is it's five, seven, eight, nine years,
Speaker 1: you're not making any money. Uh, And I mean I've
Speaker 1: I told her. I was like, I'm not gonna quit.
Speaker 1: I was like I was like, I'm gonna do this forever,
Speaker 1: so you know about very That's what I was telling
Speaker 1: young comedians. If you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend,
Speaker 1: if someone's like, you know, how long are you gonna
Speaker 1: do it? Like you know, you need to be like, look,
Speaker 1: this is what's happening, so either on board or you
Speaker 1: can leave. But like, I'm not quitting this for you, like,
Speaker 1: and you have to dive in that much and you
Speaker 1: have to be like that up front about it. You
Speaker 1: just have to trade up, you know. When God, I
Speaker 1: just so many dudes, uh, they getting relationships and they're like,
Speaker 1: my girl wants me to hang out on Monday, you know,
Speaker 1: And it was like ridiculous to me that he was
Speaker 1: like what are you talking about? Like you don't you
Speaker 1: don't like, you know, sit there and be like, oh
Speaker 1: oh oh that's cool. So you can't go out of
Speaker 1: the show on Monday because your girl wants to watch
Speaker 1: the Bachelor or something like. You're like, it's insanity, Like
Speaker 1: you have to go out, So you have to just
Speaker 1: always like do that. The only time I would the
Speaker 1: only thing I would have done that was crazy. My buddy,
Speaker 1: I remember, for money, he went to this was in
Speaker 1: like to only say, two thousand and eight was my year.
Speaker 1: That was good. Uh. He went to Iraq and did
Speaker 1: like he was a contractor where you would like he
Speaker 1: worked in like the Camp Liberty or something, and they
Speaker 1: were just like checking people in and out. And it
Speaker 1: was like one of these gigs that you go over
Speaker 1: there for like eight months and you can make like
Speaker 1: a hundred grand or something, but I don't remember what
Speaker 1: it was because something like that, and they just you
Speaker 1: go work there, but and then you come back. And
Speaker 1: I almost did that because I thought if I could
Speaker 1: go there for eight months make a hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: I could come back and then I wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: have a day job and I'll just you know. But
Speaker 1: I ended up not doing it, uh, which I'm glad
Speaker 1: I didn't, because you know, you don't need to take
Speaker 1: yourself out of something too when you're in it. That
Speaker 1: was the only time I ever did something. When did
Speaker 1: you file taxes and you were like, wow, I had
Speaker 1: a really good year. Was there a dollar figure as
Speaker 1: a comedian or you're like, boom, check this out. I
Speaker 1: remember making fifty was fifty was a big number. And uh,
Speaker 1: I remember twenty two. I remember like twenty, I remember twenty,
Speaker 1: I remember fifty. Then it's like sixty, you know, and
Speaker 1: then like you know, and then you get the point
Speaker 1: when you I mean like you know, not talking all
Speaker 1: about like when you get to you do an LLC,
Speaker 1: Like when you get to that, and then you're like
Speaker 1: that's insane, like you think you all you want is
Speaker 1: like you're like, I just want to get like I
Speaker 1: gonna make up a name that people have to write
Speaker 1: these checks to me, and like you know, and so
Speaker 1: you get to that point where you do it, so
Speaker 1: it all just starts getting like where it gets more
Speaker 1: and more and then you have no concept of like
Speaker 1: I have no you know, money, Like I have no
Speaker 1: concept of any of this money like or like how
Speaker 1: what to do like or anything. So it's all like new. Uh.
Speaker 1: But it's like, yeah, I would say it was like fifty.
Speaker 1: I remember making fifty and then sixty, you know, and
Speaker 1: then get into like sixty and I always just maybe
Speaker 1: these jumps and then you know where you're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I have like a regular job, Like you're like you know,
Speaker 1: you can go eat, you take a cab home instead
Speaker 1: of taking the train. Uh, And then you know and
Speaker 1: then it all just kind of keeps you hope, it
Speaker 1: just keeps building from there like a hundred You're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is like the richest person alive. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know if many earned, how many days a year
Speaker 1: are you on the road as your career starts developing? Now?
Speaker 1: When I was in New York, I stayed in New
Speaker 1: York and then I moved to l A. Uh, I
Speaker 1: moved on like this out of the money. This is
Speaker 1: my advice, the best advice I've ever read. Jerry Wintrob
Speaker 1: had a great book. He was Elvis's manager and then
Speaker 1: became a big producer, produced Ocean's eleven, all this stuff.
Speaker 1: He's a great book. And Uh, the best advice that
Speaker 1: I've ever heard was he I remember in his book
Speaker 1: he said he knew any time he was starting to
Speaker 1: feel comfortable, it was time to make a change. And
Speaker 1: I have like lived my life by that. When I
Speaker 1: heard that, I moved to Los Angeles two months after
Speaker 1: I read that, because I knew that I was comfortable.
Speaker 1: I knew like I was in New York, I was
Speaker 1: getting up at all the clubs. I was not like
Speaker 1: chasing anything in New York anymore. I was in late
Speaker 1: night spots. You know, I could be making like I
Speaker 1: was making probably like the round sixty grand a year
Speaker 1: or something like that, you know, where You're like, all right,
Speaker 1: I got a living in all this, and I knew
Speaker 1: that if I stay here, next thing, I know, I
Speaker 1: will be fifty calling in you know, calling in a vails,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to make a thousand dollars a week
Speaker 1: if I'm lucky, and uh so I knew at that point,
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to go to afenses and
Speaker 1: put myself in a situation that I'm not comfortable with
Speaker 1: that that then is going to make me like, you know,
Speaker 1: have to like work like now now, you know, Like
Speaker 1: there I was like settled. I was like I went
Speaker 1: up every single night. I wasn't fighting for these spots.
Speaker 1: I wasn't having to hang out. And then I moved
Speaker 1: to l A and then nobody knows me and I'm
Speaker 1: back to you know, you're not at square one, but
Speaker 1: you're you're you're starting your lower than what you just
Speaker 1: left from. And then you're you know, you gotta go back.
Speaker 1: Well and what was the other thing that's you said?
Speaker 1: What you said? Other than that, I don't even remember
Speaker 1: now because I got so the idea of once you
Speaker 1: get comfortable, you gotta you gotta shake yourself off. It's
Speaker 1: it's the best of advice I've ever heard. Man. Once
Speaker 1: you I mean it's true literally and everything that uh
Speaker 1: I've ever done. If I start feel uncomfortable, I I
Speaker 1: mix it up and you do that until you're you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, you really should never be comfortable. You should
Speaker 1: always be like and like always like, oh, I need
Speaker 1: to go to another thing and I come to you know,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm starting to tour now, and like so
Speaker 1: now these people are coming and then you know, then
Speaker 1: we you know, it was like doing this show that
Speaker 1: I just did, that TV show, like doing that that
Speaker 1: was like a very thing that was uncomfortable, that made
Speaker 1: me uncomfortable, and like, you know, we talked that. We
Speaker 1: talked about that. Yeah. Yeah, alright. So so first of all, um,
Speaker 1: when did we I came and watched your act And
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of when it was. I think
Speaker 1: we had you on the radio show that I did
Speaker 1: in Nashville, right a couple of times back in the day, uh,
Speaker 1: back in the day one or four five, you came
Speaker 1: with me to uh to third Man Records at the
Speaker 1: UFC Nashville event. That's right. I was town and uh,
Speaker 1: I saw my wife and I were out and we
Speaker 1: were like we were trying to decide what we were
Speaker 1: going to do, and we just in the fight. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, we're going to do a show.
Speaker 1: We were doing a recording at Third Man Records, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, we're going over there. We took
Speaker 1: a golf cart and drove over and you you absolutely
Speaker 1: killed it. You were telling the story about going to
Speaker 1: the North Carolina like the Guse or whatever. Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: and you know like you absolutely killed it. Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the tiny I don't know what a hundred people
Speaker 1: there maybe in Third Man Records, like in their back room,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. And so we saw that in person,
Speaker 1: and then we stayed in touch for a little while,
Speaker 1: you know, texting back and forth and everything else. Because
Speaker 1: you're a big we haven't even mentioned this, but you're
Speaker 1: a huge Vanderbilt sports fan, right, I mean, for people
Speaker 1: out there, I don't know, like, how big of a
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt fan are you. I grew up and watching my
Speaker 1: cousin Ronnie Bargetti coach at Vanderbilt in the basketball in
Speaker 1: the seventies and uh and then was the color commentator forever.
Speaker 1: So we just grew up around Vanderbilt and my mom
Speaker 1: works in a ticket office and uh, I've been my
Speaker 1: vall State. My one experience. The one thing I did
Speaker 1: good at vall State. I gave a speech about Vanderbilt's
Speaker 1: uh nineteen nineties six football season where we uh we
Speaker 1: won five games, and I had and I had a
Speaker 1: highlight reel of those games and it was uh and
Speaker 1: I just talked I knew every player, my favorite player
Speaker 1: of Vanderbilts, Corey Chavis and uh and then so every
Speaker 1: I knew every player at that point, and I'm like
Speaker 1: just talking about Vanderbilt, and I just remember I was
Speaker 1: like very passionate about it. And it's like something I
Speaker 1: think back now with comedy, like you learned that, like, oh,
Speaker 1: when you're really passionate, like then that's when people want
Speaker 1: to hear because they're like, this dude's way into this.
Speaker 1: So like I would listen to you listen to anybody
Speaker 1: if they care and uh, and so like I remember
Speaker 1: just giving this speech, I showed like some of the
Speaker 1: highlight thing and then then it showed up to that
Speaker 1: LSU game where we got that was the year the
Speaker 1: land l Shoe where we had two delay of game
Speaker 1: penalties trying to go for two and then we got
Speaker 1: an extra point blocked and lost the l S which is,
Speaker 1: by the way, the story of Vanderbilt football in a nutshell.
Speaker 1: That was actually good Tennessee Tennessee for Yeah. Remember, I
Speaker 1: mean I've watched all these games over the years. I
Speaker 1: mean we're the same fun, have fun, expect to win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was very Logan's fun. And then, by the way,
Speaker 1: Wood he wouldn't offer, ended up working as a as
Speaker 1: I hope he's still alive, but he was working on
Speaker 1: the destined toll bridge in Florida. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, you know what that does? Sounding my co
Speaker 1: host on three h L back in the day, we
Speaker 1: were going down to do the SEC spring meetings and
Speaker 1: he's like, he's Brent Doherty and he's like uh and
Speaker 1: he he we we we met up and he was like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna believe this. He's like, I just like,
Speaker 1: I just drove over the toll bridge and I looked down.
Speaker 1: The guy's got like a world, you know, like a
Speaker 1: super Bowl ring and it's what he wouldn't offer who
Speaker 1: used to be the head coach of Vanderbilt and he's
Speaker 1: now working in the toll booth at Deston, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: but have fun, expect to win. Uh you tell him
Speaker 1: that that's what you should told him when you paid
Speaker 1: him to win. What an amazing Yeah, but there can't
Speaker 1: be anybody else who's ever won a Super Bowl that's
Speaker 1: worked at a toll booth before. But I mean literally
Speaker 1: had a Super Bowl ring on working in the toll
Speaker 1: booth one day sec I had SEC football coach. He
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I just like this job. But so
Speaker 1: you go to like Memorial Jim, you would go to
Speaker 1: all these different Vanderbilt athletic events when you were a kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah we we Uh we used to be to
Speaker 1: go on Vanderbilt's football field like you could just walk
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah. I remember going on it and like
Speaker 1: playing football with like my parents. Yeah you know when
Speaker 1: we were really young, like they never had it locked up.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, So I mean I would go. I mean
Speaker 1: he know was I was basketball Drew. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: a dreamatics around our age a little bit older, but like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing all damn Ron Mercer when he was
Speaker 1: going to maybe go to Andy. I asked him, Actually,
Speaker 1: I I golf with him, and I mean I told
Speaker 1: my buddy, uh, when we were gonna get Adam saw
Speaker 1: another guy to play basketball Belmont and he I grew
Speaker 1: up with him, and so I told him, I go,
Speaker 1: how long do you think will it'll take? Before I
Speaker 1: asked Ron Mercer how close he was to go to
Speaker 1: Vandy and I didn't. I didn't make it off the range.
Speaker 1: And I mean literally maybe the second sentence that to
Speaker 1: the Ron Mercer was like, were you were you going
Speaker 1: to go to Vanderbilte And he said no, He said
Speaker 1: he never was going to go to Vanderbille. Yeah. For
Speaker 1: people who don't know out there, Ron Mercer is one
Speaker 1: of the greatest UH Nashville area basketball players of all time.
Speaker 1: And obviously he became a lottery pick, went to Kentucky,
Speaker 1: won a national championship up and Vanderbilt their board of
Speaker 1: admissions refused to admit him, and it was a huge
Speaker 1: story in Nashville, and the idea was, oh, he was
Speaker 1: going to go there because he was friends with Drew
Speaker 1: Mott dramatics. They played together at a high school locally
Speaker 1: Good Past your high school and they were gonna go
Speaker 1: together and it was gonna be like the greatest tandem ever.
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt basketball was gonna be incredibly relevant. And they didn't
Speaker 1: let him in. And so you asked him, I've never
Speaker 1: heard him like he said he was never gonna go.
Speaker 1: He said he never was going to go. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't let him in, but like, uh, he said,
Speaker 1: he said he was never going to go. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean he was the top high school player the country. Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was going to be very insane.
Speaker 1: It's like Darius Garland actually went to Vanderbilt, like you know,
Speaker 1: but he's he was that high of a level of
Speaker 1: a player, So it didn't make complete sense. I mean
Speaker 1: I watched him play in high school and in high
Speaker 1: school basketball, he was as good of a high school
Speaker 1: basketball player as you could possibly be. Like you went
Speaker 1: and watched him play, and it was like watching I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think of an equivalent outside of the world
Speaker 1: of sports. I mean, he was Lebron for Nashville, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, like that's how good he was in high school.
Speaker 1: You watched him, and even if you didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about basketball, somebody could watch for like five minutes and
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, that that guy is so
Speaker 1: much better than everybody else. Yeah. Um, and so you
Speaker 1: grew up a Vanderbilt fan. And so the reason why
Speaker 1: bring up the Vanderbilt thing is I'm circling back around.
Speaker 1: So uh, when we were finishing Walking in season one,
Speaker 1: there is a hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel on Avenue with
Speaker 1: the Stars in Los Angeles that overlooks the Fox lot.
Speaker 1: And so I was sitting at the bar they're talking
Speaker 1: to I think the Fox bet people who are now
Speaker 1: you know, running the betting universe, and I see you
Speaker 1: walking in and you were checking in for how many
Speaker 1: days at that hotel? You went went to the front
Speaker 1: desk because I've spent months at that hotel, maybe years
Speaker 1: of my life now because working at Fox, like you're
Speaker 1: right there, you can just walk back and forth. And
Speaker 1: you checked in and they were like, oh, we got
Speaker 1: you here for fifty days, Mr Barghassi. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: lady says, the longest she's ever she's ever checked in, yeah,
Speaker 1: because she's never seen that. Yeah, fifty days. So uh,
Speaker 1: and so like then we hang out for a little
Speaker 1: bit and I've stayed there so many times, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, you need to check out the room
Speaker 1: that I always stay in. It's got the sun deck.
Speaker 1: Like I'm giving you tips because you're gonna be there
Speaker 1: for fifty days. We leave, uh, finished shooting season one
Speaker 1: of Locking In. Then we get like six weeks off.
Speaker 1: We come back to start the second season, and you're
Speaker 1: still at the same hotel. And while you're there, you've
Speaker 1: been doing this pilot, uh, the Nate Bargazzi show, which
Speaker 1: they're filming on the Fox A lot. It's with Disney
Speaker 1: because Disney now controls a lot of the Fox A
Speaker 1: lot because of the asset purchase and everything else. And
Speaker 1: so you're like, hey, come by and check out the set.
Speaker 1: And I gotta say, the set is unbelievable. It's set
Speaker 1: at Nashville, and I mean there's a zany stage, but
Speaker 1: all the details, like I was wown away. They basically
Speaker 1: built a Nashville house on its l a sound stage
Speaker 1: and we're walking around in all the details, like there's
Speaker 1: a flyer for Titans tickets, there's like the mayoral election
Speaker 1: was about to happen in Nashville. Like every detail is
Speaker 1: so incredible. I mean my mind was blown by it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it's how much detail they you know, the
Speaker 1: people that put all that together. Uh, they're just it's
Speaker 1: like what they do and like, you know, I remember
Speaker 1: them talking to me about the house and like what
Speaker 1: do we want the house? Because the show is basically
Speaker 1: and everybody loves Raymond. Uh so it's like every you know,
Speaker 1: we have the parents and the parents on that Sevenie show.
Speaker 1: The wife is Katie Adeleton and she was on the league.
Speaker 1: Um and so like that they made us like when
Speaker 1: we were designing the house, it was like, how do
Speaker 1: you want to design? Like, you know, what do you
Speaker 1: what's Nashville Like it's all this stuff that you You're like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know you know what stands
Speaker 1: out you know? Uh, but you slowly starting. I remember,
Speaker 1: and I don't wanted an island, and I remember I
Speaker 1: wanted to like the garage either to go everybody enters
Speaker 1: through the garage in Nashville, like are a lot of
Speaker 1: people you get your garage doors are open always and
Speaker 1: uh they you know, just this incredible detail. The lighting
Speaker 1: guy he grew up in the South, but he made
Speaker 1: the light the lighting look like Nashville lighting where it's
Speaker 1: humid and hot, and it's just like thicker, so like
Speaker 1: the airs thicker. So the lighting, like the sunlight looks
Speaker 1: different than it would in California, So they may they
Speaker 1: make it all look like this crazy. Uh, they're just
Speaker 1: just such a different thing. And it feels like a
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it's a real home, you know.
Speaker 1: And so you're out there for all this time working
Speaker 1: on this show and then you guys eventually do a
Speaker 1: version of the show, like you tape a pilot, and
Speaker 1: I mean it's amazing, like how detailed it is and
Speaker 1: how everything is put together, and has there been any
Speaker 1: like you're sitting around now waiting to hear have you
Speaker 1: heard of any verdict on what the pilot looks like?
Speaker 1: Or has it been flipped put four together yet? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen it. Uh, I've seen it. We're editing it
Speaker 1: and putting it all together now. So I watched it
Speaker 1: a few times and then uh, we're no. We turned
Speaker 1: it in shortly in uh week was two or something
Speaker 1: like that, and then we give it to ABC and
Speaker 1: then it's kind of out of our hands. So, uh,
Speaker 1: it's twenty three minutes. How many hours do you think
Speaker 1: you worked to put together one three minute pilot. Boy,
Speaker 1: it was those fifth I mean it's every day you
Speaker 1: were doing something for those fifty days. I mean I've
Speaker 1: been you know, we started selling the show two years ago.
Speaker 1: So this show has been around for two years and
Speaker 1: has been told no twice. And then we got very
Speaker 1: stuck in the Fox Disney merger. Uh and because we
Speaker 1: were at Fox originally that we were at ABC and
Speaker 1: then they got told o it again, and then my
Speaker 1: special came out and like just some other stuff happened
Speaker 1: and then they were like, oh, let's let's try it again.
Speaker 1: And so you're I mean you're working on it the
Speaker 1: all time. It changes. I mean we had casting. Casting
Speaker 1: took like two months, um, and I'm then all the
Speaker 1: casting things, I'm like, you know, I'm who you're gonna get. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's every It's every single day of your life. You're
Speaker 1: just like just absorbing and taking all this stuff in.
Speaker 1: And then you start writing. I mean you're in the
Speaker 1: writer's room and you're in there for you know, you
Speaker 1: could be in there for ten hours and you're just
Speaker 1: you know, and you write a script. I mean, how
Speaker 1: many times you change the script is? That's the thing
Speaker 1: that I'm most like always blown away because when you
Speaker 1: first write it, you think like, this is it, you know,
Speaker 1: like Seinfeld, like when George stands is like, this isn't
Speaker 1: the show. So that's how you feel. Like you're just
Speaker 1: like this is it. It's perfect, and then it just
Speaker 1: changes to thirty times and you're blown away, you know,
Speaker 1: because you think it's good. And then the next day
Speaker 1: you're like this is maybe the one. This is unwatchable,
Speaker 1: and then you you just go through these big extremes
Speaker 1: and like you know, as a comedian, you want to
Speaker 1: put in jokes, but jokes just don't matter if they
Speaker 1: don't matter at the beginning, like the story really matters. Uh,
Speaker 1: So you and the jokes, I mean the jokes like
Speaker 1: you're and then when we tape, because we do it
Speaker 1: in front of a live audience. The night we taped,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're getting they're giving you jokes and then
Speaker 1: like if a joke doesn't really land, uh, then they
Speaker 1: come and say, like we'll say this now, and you
Speaker 1: change it up, and like you just kind of change
Speaker 1: it up on the fly, and uh, you know, and
Speaker 1: I've never done acting and this so I mean I
Speaker 1: was like I was doing meeting with an acting coach
Speaker 1: like you know, four to ten hours a week whatever
Speaker 1: I could do, and we would just like work on stuff.
Speaker 1: I had a dialect coach there, uh because you know
Speaker 1: with Southern people like I, I don't we don't say
Speaker 1: words correctly. I really don't and I mumble, so you know,
Speaker 1: they he would like work with me, so they like
Speaker 1: how to say something like like well, like I was like,
Speaker 1: if you say we will be right back, We're like,
Speaker 1: we'll be right back. And we tend to like throw
Speaker 1: an R in there because of the South doesn't really
Speaker 1: like use their jaw, and so we would spell it
Speaker 1: on my script W I L L and I would
Speaker 1: just say we'll be right back, and if I said
Speaker 1: it like that, it sounded correctly. So we would go
Speaker 1: through and like you know, put those just to make
Speaker 1: sure I'm saying because I'm not trying to get rid
Speaker 1: of my accent, but you know some stuff that like
Speaker 1: no one knows what you're saying, dude, like no one
Speaker 1: can understand it. And uh so yeah, it was I
Speaker 1: mean it was every day. It was like you'd go
Speaker 1: in at like seven in the morning and I would
Speaker 1: go back to hotel one in the morning, and you
Speaker 1: just did that for a week because I was writing too.
Speaker 1: If you're acting, you're usually done about four and then
Speaker 1: you go back the next day. So like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's basically like, uh, I don't know, show production boot camp.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that a good way to describe it.
Speaker 1: I mean, because you're you're basically just going back and
Speaker 1: forth the whole time, and you're putting in these hundreds
Speaker 1: of hours and then you'll put together a finished product
Speaker 1: and then if they say yes, boom, you gotta do
Speaker 1: how many shows? Like you just mean? I mean that's yeah,
Speaker 1: you do. I mean it could be three the sixteen
Speaker 1: thirties probably the most. And then uh so you just
Speaker 1: see what they want to order. I mean, there's so
Speaker 1: much of it plays to like where you would be,
Speaker 1: where you would be placed on in the an ABC's lineup. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a million different ways that different directions of this
Speaker 1: can go. But yeah, you learn a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I learned, you know, like the TV
Speaker 1: just learned. How like specific I mean, you gotta be
Speaker 1: careful when you say stuff, because I would say if
Speaker 1: I said something, I said I wanted a refrigerator a
Speaker 1: certain way in the parents house, and then refrigerators there.
Speaker 1: Then you're like, I don't like the refrigerator. I wanted
Speaker 1: a different way. And then they're like, you know, but
Speaker 1: like if you just even say that in passing, they
Speaker 1: like someone's doing it. And then you're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: gotta make sure when I say something, I really want it,
Speaker 1: because like there's people here that will do that. They
Speaker 1: will get that, and they will get you whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: they're your job is to make sure that this house
Speaker 1: is believable. And you know, I mean they had newspapers
Speaker 1: from there. We're Williamson County or Davidson County newspapers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like on the tables, so you would just know that,
Speaker 1: you know. So it just so everybody like gets in
Speaker 1: the mood of you know what the show is. You're
Speaker 1: also a really unassuming you know, like I would say,
Speaker 1: totally normal guy. I like to think that that also
Speaker 1: defines the way that I kind of carry myself. Right. Um.
Speaker 1: I think Nashville in some way, I don't. I think
Speaker 1: Nashville in some way maybe is I mean, you're born
Speaker 1: and raised here. I was too. I think maybe it's
Speaker 1: a city that doesn't really kind of it's it's I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe it's different now for kids who are
Speaker 1: growing up now, But it seems like a city where, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, like putting on airs is not really a
Speaker 1: thing people do, And so I think it tends to
Speaker 1: be a very normal, like middle of the road kind
Speaker 1: of place, at least in the era that we grew
Speaker 1: up in. And I know, when I walked on that
Speaker 1: Fox lot for the first time, I was like, holy hell, Like,
Speaker 1: what in the world am I doing being here? And
Speaker 1: I'm on the Fox lot, you know, like doing our
Speaker 1: television shows or whatever else. I can't even imagine when
Speaker 1: they build a version of the house that I live
Speaker 1: in in Nashville and the entire show is built around me,
Speaker 1: Like that has to just be a mind blowing experience, right,
Speaker 1: it can't possibly feel real? No, it doesn't. I mean
Speaker 1: like it feels. I mean, you know, yes, I try
Speaker 1: to ever make anything lost on me. I try to,
Speaker 1: uh you know, you just be nice to everybody and
Speaker 1: you appreciate it, and you you know, I mean you
Speaker 1: just kind of like, yeah, you give off. I don't
Speaker 1: want anybody to think that they can't come talk to me, like,
Speaker 1: you know, because in that world they can, Like that
Speaker 1: world they that it is called the Naparkes Show. So
Speaker 1: and you get it in this world where you're like,
Speaker 1: I if I want an ice coffee in the morning,
Speaker 1: it's just there. When I get to like, I'm not
Speaker 1: even as you know, like everything is like that. So
Speaker 1: you try to always like be very aware that this
Speaker 1: stuff is happening and like then also being very appreciative
Speaker 1: and make sure that you're like saying that stuff because
Speaker 1: it is tough and there's a lot of stuff on
Speaker 1: your show. I mean, I mean I remember the night
Speaker 1: we take. I mean I almost cried before we take
Speaker 1: because it was so overwhelming, Like it was you know,
Speaker 1: I started and I wanted to be sign film and
Speaker 1: then now I'm doing this sitcom and then you're like,
Speaker 1: it's happen. You know, it's here. It's taken sixteen years,
Speaker 1: but it's happened. And then your name is on this thing.
Speaker 1: You're like, you know, when you when you think about
Speaker 1: you like, if I'm the only person that can't leave
Speaker 1: this show, everybody else can leave, I'm the only if
Speaker 1: I stay, then we do this like I can't. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like I used to have a joke about quitting
Speaker 1: and staying in comedy. I was like, it's a weird
Speaker 1: job because there's no one. I don't have anybody quit too,
Speaker 1: Like I'm you know, I can't call Signfeld and be
Speaker 1: like I'm out, Like there's nobody to quit too. And
Speaker 1: so it's a very weird kind of thing. And then
Speaker 1: you're doing this job now where you're like if I quit,
Speaker 1: all these people like don't work here now and they
Speaker 1: have to go find different jobs and they have to
Speaker 1: go do different things. Uh so he yeah, it was,
Speaker 1: it was. It was wild, and but you also got
Speaker 1: to do a good product. You gotta do a good thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the best way that I feel like we're
Speaker 1: doing this show is you always want to go like,
Speaker 1: this show would change my life if it goes, it
Speaker 1: would change about what life wildly. But that being said,
Speaker 1: if I didn't have this show, I'm gonna be fine too,
Speaker 1: Like you always want to get to that point to
Speaker 1: where you go you want to almost when you do
Speaker 1: a show you want to like is then you can
Speaker 1: work on it being like, hey, I don't need this
Speaker 1: show and like and it is, I think it gives
Speaker 1: a better product instead of being like please let me
Speaker 1: I need this show so bad, Like you know that
Speaker 1: was like when you're doing spots when you're making twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: I never wanted to be like I have to have
Speaker 1: this twenty dollars and I'm not going to eat tonight
Speaker 1: like you just you know you. I'd have a day job.
Speaker 1: I would figure a way out. But like to do
Speaker 1: in this show is that you'd like to get to
Speaker 1: a point we're like, look, I don't need this if this.
Speaker 1: If this doesn't go like, I'm gonna be fine. I'll
Speaker 1: keep doing my stand up. That being said, I want
Speaker 1: this show to go more than anything. Yeah, I I
Speaker 1: absolutely do. But it's nice to be able to do
Speaker 1: it and not have the weight of my life depending
Speaker 1: on this show. I get it completely now. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's also wild to be when when you guys turn
Speaker 1: it in to be at the beck and call of
Speaker 1: your phone when you don't know when you're gonna get
Speaker 1: the word right, Like I remember before Locking got picked
Speaker 1: up right, I did a bunch of pilots with Fox
Speaker 1: on the Fox Sports a lot, and you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen. I did two different OutKick
Speaker 1: shows and you do it, you think you put a
Speaker 1: good product out there, and then things can change. Like, right,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that you got caught up in the Fox
Speaker 1: Disney uh you know interlude. Well, you know, they changed
Speaker 1: the leadership of Fox Sports, and so there's different people
Speaker 1: making decisions, and you know, it's like it's like being
Speaker 1: a player on a on a franchise, right, the coach
Speaker 1: likes you, the coach is gonna be able to maybe
Speaker 1: build around you and like they create a system for
Speaker 1: you and everything else. Or you're just some other guy,
Speaker 1: you know, another recruit and they're like, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: really think this guy is gonna execute my game plan
Speaker 1: that well. And so but when you're waiting on that stuff,
Speaker 1: it's like every time your phone buzzes you like skip
Speaker 1: over right, You're like, oh my god, is this what's
Speaker 1: the new? We're going to get a three window? You're like, oh, somebody,
Speaker 1: and Beverly, who is this gonna be? Is this gonna
Speaker 1: be it? Um? And so it's it's a crazy process
Speaker 1: to be in, but it's a good spot to be
Speaker 1: in where you're like, if it happens, that's awesome. I
Speaker 1: want it to happen more than anything. But if it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, my world's not gonna end. Yes, it's that,
Speaker 1: and that's what you want to do. Do you want
Speaker 1: to you want to build yourself up to be like
Speaker 1: you always want to be in control, especially in something
Speaker 1: like this, uh, like something that's not the norm. Uh
Speaker 1: maybe even it is the norm. Yeah, it feels nice
Speaker 1: to be in control, to be like, all right, I've
Speaker 1: created this thing. That's why I'm staying up so good.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm so glad I'm not an actor. An
Speaker 1: actor's entire life is just waiting, just waiting to see
Speaker 1: if you get something. You're either you're either gonna make
Speaker 1: zero money or maybe ten million dollars, like it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you and you're just always waiting for that
Speaker 1: kind of like saying you're either not famous now you're
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise like you know, it's like and you're just
Speaker 1: always waiting. Like so I'm glad like to have that
Speaker 1: outlet to be with stand up. That's why I stuck
Speaker 1: with stand up. Like I knew a lot of guys
Speaker 1: in their starting people would do like different videos or
Speaker 1: different this or different that, and then they would do
Speaker 1: stand up and I was like, well, I should just
Speaker 1: be great at one thing, Like if I could be
Speaker 1: great at one thing that opens doors to everything. But
Speaker 1: if I'm but if I'm just whatever, if I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, also being like well I do this, and
Speaker 1: I do that, and I'm making these sketches and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to like, you know, see what lands It's like, well,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna you know, it says Steve Martin, be undeniable.
Speaker 1: That's what he That's what he always said. That's what
Speaker 1: you gotta get to be undeniable, and then all the
Speaker 1: doors will open because you're bringing something to the table.
Speaker 1: Then if I never got this show before and it
Speaker 1: was like like it was brutal because it was I
Speaker 1: couldn't I probably couldn't have handled this show. But now
Speaker 1: it's nice to get it and then you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you're actually bringing something to the table, like
Speaker 1: you actually have an audience and fans. You know, we're
Speaker 1: talking to a BARGATSI. This is wins and losses. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, like the reason why I haven't given
Speaker 1: up writing. A lot of people who start doing radio
Speaker 1: and start doing TV, they decide, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna write anymore because writing is tough. I've continued to write.
Speaker 1: But it's funny you mentioned that because I remember the
Speaker 1: first time I went out to Fox they had a
Speaker 1: Terranea Resort, which is a fabulous place out in l A.
Speaker 1: And they had everybody who's on Fox Sports was showing
Speaker 1: up because it was the launch of f S one,
Speaker 1: and so like there's Troy Aigman, and there's Jimmy Johnson,
Speaker 1: and there's Michael Strahan and like every famous person you
Speaker 1: can think of that's ever been associated with Fox Sports,
Speaker 1: Aaron Andrews, who at least I knew a little bit,
Speaker 1: Joe Buck, you know, like all these just massive, huge,
Speaker 1: famous people. And I remember having like an almost mini
Speaker 1: panic attack because I'm there and I'm like, oh my,
Speaker 1: what am I doing here? Like I feel like, you know, like,
Speaker 1: am I sure, I'm thirty, you know, three or whatever
Speaker 1: I am. But I'm like at that point, I had
Speaker 1: been working, you know, for a long time to kind
Speaker 1: of get an opportunity there, but I was like, I don't,
Speaker 1: am I supposed to be doing television? Like, and so
Speaker 1: what I was getting at with the like the Nate
Speaker 1: Bargatsky Show is and I think this is very l
Speaker 1: A and Hollywood related. It's very hierarchical. So you mentioned
Speaker 1: like if I want an ice coffee, it's gonna show
Speaker 1: up there. Uh. Trying to treat everybody the exact same
Speaker 1: has always been. I think I think maybe that's a
Speaker 1: Nate Nashville trade at least of our generation, Like, is
Speaker 1: something that I try to aspire to do, whether it's
Speaker 1: the twenty two year old p A who has just
Speaker 1: started or you know, the president of a network. And
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's such an overwhelming experience that sometimes
Speaker 1: you're like, you know, I don't know, do you understand
Speaker 1: what I'm meaning? Like, it's it's just it's such it's
Speaker 1: even hard to quantify, sir. Yes, Like yes, like growing
Speaker 1: up like learning to be nice like that, and then
Speaker 1: and then whatever level you're at, you treat everybody like
Speaker 1: that and everybody just wants to work with you. Everybody
Speaker 1: would just and eventually when you get higher, like it's
Speaker 1: like the work experience is wonderful because everybody feels like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a nice place to work. Do what you mean?
Speaker 1: Like growing up like yeah, it's like you're just you're yeah,
Speaker 1: you're just like like growing up here, you know, we
Speaker 1: grew up. It's you know, it's just everybody's normal. Everybody's
Speaker 1: doing their own thing, and you just like everybody's very
Speaker 1: polite and nice to people, which I always think naturals
Speaker 1: to something. I think it's too nice, Like that's like
Speaker 1: you know, how to like where it's like no one
Speaker 1: do driving, no one's going, no one's hanking, and it's
Speaker 1: like a nightmare because you're like everybody's being too polite
Speaker 1: and like, you know, get people are not even like
Speaker 1: near like they're pulling out of a store, Someone's like, nah,
Speaker 1: come on out. You're like they're not even up there yet,
Speaker 1: but they want to let that person go. Uh. But it, yes,
Speaker 1: it translates into like regular business where it's you're you know,
Speaker 1: you just are more appreciative and then people are willing
Speaker 1: to help more, which produces the best product. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I guess I should say like people may be listening
Speaker 1: to this right now and they're like, like, Travis, you're
Speaker 1: a total asshole, And I don't think that's true. But
Speaker 1: I certainly don't think that's true for people that I
Speaker 1: work with. Right Like, I'm in the opinion business, so
Speaker 1: sometimes I might have to be you know, brusque, and
Speaker 1: certainly in social media or my radio show or television
Speaker 1: or whatever else in the way I deliver my opinion.
Speaker 1: But it's important to me that the people that I
Speaker 1: work with like don't hate their job, right. In fact,
Speaker 1: they like hanging out and they have a good time
Speaker 1: and it's a good environment. And I could tell, even
Speaker 1: in the limited amount of time that I've spent around you,
Speaker 1: that your show would be like that. All right, we've
Speaker 1: been talking for a while. I want to get to
Speaker 1: just a couple more things. What's the impact of Netflix now?
Speaker 1: Like for a comedian, what did getting your special on
Speaker 1: Netflix do for your career? How important is that? Uh?
Speaker 1: It's huge? I mean it changed. Uh that was the
Speaker 1: first big changed, uh in my career. And I did
Speaker 1: the half hour on the Stand Ups are right at
Speaker 1: that point, I already did an hour on Comedy Central
Speaker 1: and Conversation was always great. But they aired my special
Speaker 1: on my hour on Conversational They aired it the same
Speaker 1: night of the Mayweather packy off fight, like it was
Speaker 1: I didn't even watch it. I watched the fight like
Speaker 1: nobody watched it. So when that happens, the conversationals consent
Speaker 1: us make it. You know, they don't re air it
Speaker 1: a thousand times, so people cannot even know that I
Speaker 1: even have that. And then so when I went to
Speaker 1: a half hour Netflix, at first, I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to go down. I just did an hour.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to a half hour. And
Speaker 1: I knew Netflix was this big force and stand up
Speaker 1: and so I knew. I was like, look, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get more people probably see that. If I'm lucky, then
Speaker 1: I would. And so I did a thing called the
Speaker 1: stand Ups and it was like six of us and
Speaker 1: we all did a half hour, and uh so that
Speaker 1: was the first thing. And that was pretty immediate, Like
Speaker 1: I remember the first time on the road, maybe two
Speaker 1: weeks after it aired on Netflix, Like my shows were
Speaker 1: like it wasn't the like Fried, Like Saturday Night was
Speaker 1: sold out and I could tell they knew who I
Speaker 1: was and they were there for that reason. So like
Speaker 1: you just you know, it's it's not crazy when you
Speaker 1: slowly start building. And then I did that hour special
Speaker 1: and it was you know, and and then and now
Speaker 1: it's jumped to a very big like now we're doing
Speaker 1: theaters and uh, you know, I just said Salt Lake
Speaker 1: and Denver and you walk out and everybody knows you
Speaker 1: and the crowd is excited when you walk out, and
Speaker 1: it's because Netflix, because you're staying up just stays up there.
Speaker 1: It's just always sitting there, and so people flip around
Speaker 1: Netflix and then they catch you and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think I heard about this guy. I always said,
Speaker 1: you want to be the guy like remember when you
Speaker 1: go to conty clubs and you could be like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I know who that guy is. Like that's
Speaker 1: your first like thing. It's just to be that like
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh yeah, I think I know who
Speaker 1: that guy is and then you just keep going forward.
Speaker 1: But net for is uh. I mean it's given stand
Speaker 1: ups where they just can do stand up comedy there,
Speaker 1: we have to do other things so well. And this
Speaker 1: may be the last question, So I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: fascinated by the process. So you have an hour, let's say,
Speaker 1: Stand Up Special. Do you feel obligated to let that
Speaker 1: hour disappear and like not do that material again? As
Speaker 1: probably millions of people will see it on Netflix and
Speaker 1: yes they love it, But do you feel an obligation
Speaker 1: to go back and recreate something new or do you
Speaker 1: keep those jokes and keep them forever? Like Seinfeld, for instance,
Speaker 1: would be a guy who if he has a joke
Speaker 1: that he really likes and he's refined it and he
Speaker 1: uses it, he'll use it over and over and over
Speaker 1: again at his stand up act. Are you what is
Speaker 1: your process now, Like when you do a full hour
Speaker 1: special on Netflix, is it your idea that like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's gone and now it's time to go back to
Speaker 1: the to the drawing board and come up with new stuff.
Speaker 1: Or do you think you'll use this stuff from a
Speaker 1: one hour special for the next fifteen years, ten years
Speaker 1: of your career or whatever it may be. Yeah, it's gone.
Speaker 1: It's like, so now when I go out on tour,
Speaker 1: I do an hour of new stuff and then and
Speaker 1: then I've been doing like an Encore, I come out.
Speaker 1: I'll do ten minutes of old jokes, some more from
Speaker 1: my old time in Central special. I'll do like ice
Speaker 1: coffee with milk is like my big joke could really
Speaker 1: so like I'll do like that kind of stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gone. I mean like when you first you know,
Speaker 1: I'll do the same act until it goes on something.
Speaker 1: You do the same act for as long as you can,
Speaker 1: and then once you especially when people are now coming
Speaker 1: because of you. If you look, they could they can
Speaker 1: even say they want to see that old stuff, and
Speaker 1: they could think I wish you would do you know,
Speaker 1: but you will lose people dramatically if you do not
Speaker 1: create new things. If you if they go and see you,
Speaker 1: and you know, right when the special comes out, you're
Speaker 1: you know, I was probably like four, I could do
Speaker 1: forty new minutes, and he's got on all of that's great,
Speaker 1: But I could do like forty new minutes. Uh and
Speaker 1: and I would maybe have to do twenty from the special,
Speaker 1: and then you slowly get that out. And so now
Speaker 1: I do like an I can do an hour do
Speaker 1: and I would say thirty of it is could be
Speaker 1: special worthy, and then the front thirty is kind of
Speaker 1: like you know, some of the stuff I've even said
Speaker 1: on this talking to you, like the Conan story, Like
Speaker 1: I'll just tell some stories and you whatever, just like
Speaker 1: some filler at the beginning, just like trying to be
Speaker 1: funny and making it funny, and then like and then
Speaker 1: I'll slowly just be working in new stuff until I
Speaker 1: could have that whole new hour. So you have to
Speaker 1: turn it over. If you don't turn it over, I mean,
Speaker 1: Louis c. K started, I don't think guys like they're
Speaker 1: trying to put out special every year, and I always
Speaker 1: thought that was too much, Like no one needs that.
Speaker 1: Uh So, I think it's like, you know, you probably
Speaker 1: every two to three years, you know, depending on what's
Speaker 1: going on in your career. If I get this show,
Speaker 1: then I'll probably back off completely and like I'll probably
Speaker 1: just hang on to this hour I have just so
Speaker 1: I can tour with it. If I'm working on the show,
Speaker 1: I would just hang onto my new hour and wait
Speaker 1: to put it back out because I don't need to
Speaker 1: put a special because I will have a TV show.
Speaker 1: Uh But if your creative energy is being poured into
Speaker 1: trying to do the television show as opposed to understand,
Speaker 1: it's different mindset. Yeah, it's just as completely different like
Speaker 1: how you create like when I yeah, when you're creating jokes,
Speaker 1: you're like thinking of stories and stuff like this, and
Speaker 1: when you're creating a show, you're I'm thinking of like
Speaker 1: the parents that you know. Different, it's just a different
Speaker 1: kind of mindset and uh so, yeah, so I would
Speaker 1: just I would just dive into that and give that
Speaker 1: and then stand up just kind of hold back, hold
Speaker 1: this new hour, and that way I could still too
Speaker 1: or some to just kind of keep active. Uh, but
Speaker 1: I have an hour that no one sees. But if
Speaker 1: that doesn't, if this show doesn't go, then I'll probably
Speaker 1: shoot to try to take a special the end of
Speaker 1: May and try to you know, have that come out.
Speaker 1: Probably would be like the next one, and then that
Speaker 1: would be like that would be like two years. Uh,
Speaker 1: you do a special every two or three years. All right,
Speaker 1: So in thing here, first of all, I think the
Speaker 1: pilot's gonna get picked up. So I I think it will,
Speaker 1: and if it doesn't, at some points canna happen. But
Speaker 1: if the Nashville Show pilot gets picked up, my request
Speaker 1: to you is, I want to play myself at some
Speaker 1: point on the show. Can you allow me to have
Speaker 1: a line or two at some point when the pilot
Speaker 1: gets picked up and you've got multiple episodes where I
Speaker 1: have in some way a role on the show, yes,
Speaker 1: Well you do this wins and Losses podcast where the losses, yeah,
Speaker 1: or I can you know, be in some way just
Speaker 1: right in a reason and that also gives you a
Speaker 1: reason to talk about sports on the show too. But
Speaker 1: it can be golfing. It can be something related, but uh,
Speaker 1: that's my only We'll see it's a big request. Your
Speaker 1: only request is to be on a network sitcom. That's it.
Speaker 1: Not a recurring role, just like I got to do.
Speaker 1: They they had me on Blue First of all, I
Speaker 1: can't act, so they had me on Blue Mountain State.
Speaker 1: I got to play myself on Blue Mountain State. I
Speaker 1: didn't know anybody created with Blue Mountain State, and I
Speaker 1: got to come on and play myself. So I don't
Speaker 1: think it's an landish request, but it is a yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean well and yeah, two mass Right Park guys, Yes,
Speaker 1: I'll get you. We have on the show. The odds
Speaker 1: would have been low on two people playing baseball Moss
Speaker 1: Right Park. Uh working on the Fox lot in Los Angeles. Uh,
Speaker 1: if if we've been setting off, not that not that
Speaker 1: one of those teams made it to the uh Little
Speaker 1: League World Series, just through the roof from that for
Speaker 1: that to end, uh to end up working on the
Speaker 1: Fox a lot at the same time. All right, so
Speaker 1: this has been fantastic. Uh, you can go follow Nate.
Speaker 1: Your Twitter handle is just at Nate Barghassy right now.
Speaker 1: I'll tweet it out obviously, when this podcast goes up,
Speaker 1: but encourage people to go check out the Netflix special
Speaker 1: and hopefully, like when if the pilot gets picked up?
Speaker 1: Is that something you just weed out. I don't have
Speaker 1: any idea how that works, so you're just like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I've got to teach that show now, Like so just
Speaker 1: watch your Twitter feed and that's how you'll be announced. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be announced in the Uh. I definitely, we would
Speaker 1: definitely be letting everybody know. So yeah, that's understanding. Awesome, man, Well, congrats,
Speaker 1: I've loved it. The congrats on all the success and
Speaker 1: it's awesome to get to watch and I appreciate all
Speaker 1: the time. Today I think people are gonna love this. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: thank dude. I appreciate it too. If you enjoyed this,
Speaker 1: I'm Clay Travis is Wins and Losses podcast. We talked
Speaker 1: to people about the wins and losses in their careers
Speaker 1: and how they ended up where they did. Uh. You
Speaker 1: can go listen to this one. Obviously you just did.
Speaker 1: And there's lots of others, whether it's Colin Cowherd, Jason Whitlock,
Speaker 1: Kirk herb Street. We've had some fun convos. So I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy it, Don Clay, Travis and this has
Speaker 1: been wins and losses