WEBVTT - Clay Travis chats with Dave Rubin 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:05.760 This is Wins and Losses with Clay Trevis. Play talks 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.840 with the most entertaining people in sports, entertainment and business. 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:21.000 Now here's Clay Travis. Welcome in the newest Wins and 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.400 Losses podcast. If you haven't signed up for it yet, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.560 to go listen to everybody else. I think you're gonna 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.560 love them, whether it's Jason Whitlock, whether it's Washington State 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.320 football coach Mike Leach, Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference Greg Sanky. 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.720 We're kind of intersecting the world of sports, media, politics, 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:41.040 and business and telling stories about how people ended up 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.960 where they did, the wins and losses along the way 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.520 for the process of their lives. And this week's guest 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.440 is Dave Reuben. He's at Reuben Report on Twitter. He's 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.080 a man of many talents. Uh and you guys may 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.000 have watched us together on YouTube on his show before. 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.240 We've had a lot of great conversations. We've met. Couple 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.240 of years ago during the fallout of my my comments 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.680 on CNN. Would you have ever known about me if 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.560 you hadn't seen that clip? Did you? Had you been 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:11.840 cognizant of me existing before that? I think I had 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:13.680 come across your name a couple of times, and I 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.240 don't think I was following you yet. When I saw 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.160 that moment with you and Baldwin, I was kind of like, 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.680 whatever is going on here? And as you know, I 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:24.960 am a sports guy, but just because my life has 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:26.960 gotten so busy and the politics thing has just kind 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.080 of taken over, like I just don't have as much 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.400 time for that any right, But I was like, whatever 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.880 this guy is up to? That moment was so exactly 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.280 everything that I'm talking about all the time, related to 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.839 free speech, related to outreach culture, related to the mob, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.880 related to the lunacy of the media and the crantastic 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.080 programming of CNN, yes, and all of those things that 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.000 I was like, I've got to talk to this guy. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.120 And then what was interesting was then when I had 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.680 you on the show, which was just within a couple 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.360 of weeks of that, um quickly I was like, whoa, 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.600 it's not just that he gets it, but we do 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.280 both occupy what I think is coming a really increasing 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.280 space of people that are desperately trying to find some 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.520 sanity here and not trying to ransack everything that is 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.480 so good about this country. So uh so, yeah, I 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.799 don't think I really knew who you were before then, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.920 but but since then it's been incredibly beneficial for my career. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.240 Uh And a lot of people listening right now may 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.440 have initially discovered me then. Obviously, It's not like I 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.920 hadn't been in the public arena before. But it's so 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.560 hard to cut through, you know, in general, and make 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.880 a name good or bad for yourself in such a 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:34.120 complicated and competitive culture. I wasn't planning on that happening, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:36.919 but I definitely leaned into it. Also, the way that 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.120 they booked those shows. It's also an impossibly difficult thing 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:41.840 to figure out. So for example, I just told you so, 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.920 you so, we're in my studio right now, and we 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.600 just tape my show, and I totally I'm doing Tucker 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.720 Tonight ones and I go on Fox Now probably once 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:51.680 or twice a week. I'm not paid or anything. I'm 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.960 not a contributor. But I always find that they let 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.160 me say whatever I want. Tucker puts me on live, 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:58.679 we don't we don't do a pre interview anymore. There's 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.840 none of that. They trust me. I can say whatever 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:02.400 I want, I can agree with him, disagree with him. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:04.360 The rest of it but then people will say, we, well, real, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.640 but you don't go on CNN, you don't go on MSNBC, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.400 And it's like they don't invite any right, you want 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.200 me to just I literally took a picture when I 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:12.560 was in New York last week. I don't know if 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.519 you saw this on Twitter. Yeah, I tweeted a picture 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.600 of a selfie sitting downstairs at the time Warner Center, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.440 which is where CNN is upstairs that Whole Foods. Take 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.359 a picture of myself. I said, hey, I'm here, I'm 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.160 happy to come on. Yeah, you know, but they but 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.359 they don't want to. Yeah, And really that does get 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.680 to so many things that we talked about about which 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.880 way tolerance is sort of veering these things and it's 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:34.920 not the side that you think or that you've been 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.040 trained to think that it's going in. All right, So 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:38.800 I want to get into your background because one of 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:40.280 the things we love to do on this show is 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.960 figure out how someone ends up where they are. So 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.360 kind of a set the scene for people listening. Right now. 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.560 We're sitting in your studio and you're a Los Angeles 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.160 abode here, which is phenomenal. You do a couple of 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.680 different really popular shows on YouTube, you distribute them. You've 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.560 had a tremendous amount of success. You're working on a 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.080 book now, You've got a lot of opportunities. You just 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.240 mentioned you're going on Tucker Carlson. You've got a ton 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.080 of different media opportunities all happening at the same time, right, 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:07.920 Which is a good place to be on the last 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.840 time I saw you, we were in uh, Washington, d C. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.360 And you and I and kandas Owens all went out 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.880 for dinner together Trump or the Trump Hotel whatever steakhout 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.680 the Trump Hotel steakhouse there. We had an incredible conversation. 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.960 Was an awesome time. Um, And so I want to 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.919 circle back to you grew up a where like the 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:28.680 very beginning, you grew up in New York is right. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.440 I'm a true New Yorker. When people say they're New Yorkers, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.000 there's very few actual New Yorkers. But I was born 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.159 in Brooklyn before it was cool, ipster Brooklyn still crappy Brooklyn, 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.440 where my dad and my grandparents were from. UH. When 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.599 I was three years old, we moved out to Long Island, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.000 which was that was the dream for if you were 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.120 a city, New York City or Brooklyn or Queen's person. 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.479 The dream was you could move to Long Island, maybe 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.280 to Westchester or from suburban part of Jersey. My folks 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.680 moved this out to little town called Sayasset, which is 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.080 basically smacked dead in the middle of Long Island, Exit 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.760 forty three on the l I A and uh So. 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.320 I grew up in Long Island. I went to college 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.120 in upstate New York, Sunny Binghamton. My dad was very 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.280 clear when I was applying for colleges. I wanted to 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:13.839 go to Syracuse because I wanted to be a sports 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.840 bro ester. I wanted to be on ESPN, and Marv 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.360 Albert went there, and Bob Costa went there too, and 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.360 all those guys went there. And my dad said, if 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.320 you go to a Sunny school meeting an in state 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.400 state University of New York school, we'll pay for it 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.800 because it's about nine grand women a year. And he said, 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.159 if you go to a private school or at a 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.159 state it's on you. I think maybe he was going 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:35.600 to make up the differences. You know, he would have 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.359 taken care of the nine and then I would have 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.520 had pay over. And Syracuse at the time was about 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.599 twenty five grand it's probably something like sixty girls. And 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:46.839 I remember thinking, I was like, I would love to 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:48.960 go there. I want to be on Sports Center. It 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.719 was the heyday of Sports Center. Kilbourne was was new 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.560 and fresh and funny before crazy before, but yeah, he 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.880 was great him and damn pack. That thing was amazing. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.599 I loved every moment of it because it was funny, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.320 it was edgy, it was rever ir reverend. But basically 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.320 I was like, well, I can either go to college 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.960 for free and hopefully figure out a path if I 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.400 was even thinking about it that much at seventeen years old, 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.800 or I can go to this place but then have 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.920 a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt. If I had 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.840 only known now that the Democrats, you know, pay off 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.160 my debt, maybe I would have done it. But and 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.000 then I lived after that. I lived in Manhattan pretty 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.039 much right out of college after a year back with 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.760 my with my folks. Lived in Manhattan for about fifteen 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.440 years and that's when I started doing stand up and 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.280 all that, and lived there until February when I moved 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.240 to l A. And this is like Hotel California. You 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.040 can get in, but you can never get out, alright, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.480 so that is a that's an awesome run through. Now 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:49.200 at Sunni Bingam, what did you major in and how 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.760 would you describe your academic performance while there? Yeah, I 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.240 majored in political science. So I like to say that 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.840 Ben Shapiro and I are basically the only two POLYCIGN 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:02.120 majors that actually use their degree outside degree um. But 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.520 I remember that most of my political science classes, everything 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.120 that we were taught, it was like, but none of 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:12.800 this works, right. We really was like that, like very yeah, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.920 like they but they'd be saying these things. They would 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:16.960 be saying these things about this is how the government's 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.280 supposed to work, in separation of powers and all the things. 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.440 But but they would always veer at the end towards 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.600 but none of it really works this way, you know. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.800 And but I I didn't have you know, a lot 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.080 of people I think have sort of or younger kids now, 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:31.960 Like when I go to colleges now, I meet these 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.960 kids and even younger high school kids who are so passionate, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.320 so driven. When I think that that a college kid 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.040 is coming up to me and going, WHOA, you know, 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.840 I just read Jordan Peterson's book watching your Show, and 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.280 I listened to Sam Harris talk about atheism and Joe 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.920 Rogan and that, and that they're putting so much investment 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.520 in their in their intellectual worth. It's incredible. I mean, 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.280 I truly I spent four years of college. I was 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.520 smoking pot. I was pot. I was smoking pot, playing 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.800 video was playing basketball top video games. Well, I was 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:08.920 playing all the e A sports games right then. So 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.720 it was like NBA Live and NHL nineties, So we 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.800 are close to the same, like basically the college like 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.360 the video game that the sports like. So you love basketball? 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.560 Basketball is my real sports. So yeah, basketball in your 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.400 in your office here, so you would you play intermiroal 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.920 basketball and everything else. I played every league that you 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.240 could possibly play. And my one regret, you know, I 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.640 really don't have regrets in life because most because I'm 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.200 in a good place now and I view the mistakes 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.559 or whatever as things that ultimately ended up getting here. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.680 My one regret is that I didn't pick up basketball earlier, 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.720 because because I was really good for for a while. 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:46.120 I'm about five eleven, relatively fit, or at least in 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.040 my hate it really was, and I had a great 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.760 three point shots, finger roll. I really could play, But 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:53.480 I really never picked up a ball until about eight 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.680 or ninth grade. Yeah, so if I could have started. 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.240 Yeah when when when I really was good in high school, 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.400 I was already a senior and I tried out for 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.120 the team with the high school team, and the coach 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.440 of the Sea of the high school basketball team was 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:11.040 my years before, had been my elementary school coach, elementary 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.959 school gym teacher, And I remember him coming up to me, 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.760 Mr Myers, and saying, you know, he's like, he's like, David, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.360 you know when you were a kid, you were this 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.520 little scrawny nothing. He's like, you've got skills now, but 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.439 you're too old. He like. It was completely honest with me, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.160 and I sort of appreciated the honesty, but so I 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.120 really it was. It was more of a recreational thing 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.240 my whole life. Yeah, but I love basketball more than 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.199 anything else. If that would be I should be in 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.720 the w n b A. That's as for our earlier 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.400 maybe you could if that plan, if this all the 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.920 whole thing, you can be Joanna Man. Now let's go 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.480 to Uh did you live at home for a year 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.000 like a lot of people do after school? Do you 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.040 have any idea what you're gonna do? Polly Side degree 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.400 and in that year, well, I was a video game guys. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:54.760 So if you love video games, what do you do? 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.400 I started working at Electronics boutique, which you may know 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.600 as game Stop. My age Basic Lisa Electronics Cutique, which 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.560 most of the people listening to this became working at 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:05.559 the game Stop. So I was in the Broadway Mall 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.360 and Nixville, Long Island, and I was assistant manager. And 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.520 I moved more Pokemon gold than anybody. Um so I 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.559 did that, and you know, you quickly find out I 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:17.920 don't even know what the hell I was thinking. I 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:19.720 just needed a job, you know, I needed a job. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:21.920 But I remember thinking, oh, I love video games, like 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.480 I'll be a video game sales but like that seemed 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.959 like a sensible thing. But then you quickly realized, I mean, 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.600 it's just a real retail job. And like most things, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.000 and I'm sure you feel this way a little bit 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.959 about sports, that the more that you get in on it, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.400 the more that you see that that dirty underside of 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.240 it has nothing to do with the things that you 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.760 love about it. So like selling video games has nothing 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.720 to do with telling people why you love playing Googles 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.160 and ghosts. For Mario brothers. You know. So, Uh. What 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.600 I started doing though, was literally the last thing that 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.160 I did in college. Senior year, I had my finals 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.920 were over already, my bags were packed, I was heading on. 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.040 I had to finish, to finish out my required courses, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.600 I take a public speaking class. And all I had 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.440 to do was give a ten minute talk on whatever 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.840 whatever it is that I want to talk about. And 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.280 I gave a ten minute talk um about what it 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:15.880 was like to be in college, and I did it. 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.560 You remember Bill Cosby himself. It was his great HBO 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.079 special from did you ever see That's Chocolate Cake? And 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.480 the Dentist and all that? And I remember seeing that 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.480 as a seven year old. I remember seeing that in 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.400 my parents house in the in the living room, and 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.280 I remember being buckled over as a seven year old 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.000 in laughter. I could not it was the funniest thing 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.800 I've ever seen. The pain in my stomach. So basically 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.080 I decided to do, basically do a stand up routine 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.160 for ten minutes, and I sat just like Bill Cosby, 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.240 sitting that entire routine. Uh. And I told him what 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:46.520 it was like to be in college, and I talked 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:48.640 about hooking up and I talked about drugs, and I 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.800 talked about law of class and blah blah blah, and 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.040 half the class was laughing, and half the class was 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.560 looking at me like I was crazy. The professor completely 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.480 thought I was nuts um. But from there I was like, 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.600 whoa that that feeling of making people laugh, There's nothing 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:03.959 better than that. And a week later I was at 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:05.640 my first comedy club that I had never even been 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.960 to a stand up club. They said, you know, I 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:09.679 called this place in New York comedy club. They said, 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.240 if you can bring five paying customers, will throw you 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.640 on stage. And that's what I did, and I was hooked. 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.760 I was beyond hooked. I mean like a like a 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.080 drug in the best sense of it hooked. So how 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.320 often would you be doing stand up comedy? So the 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.280 first couple of years, I mean, this is very similar 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.320 to most of how comedy went back then. So comedy obviously, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:31.400 like most industries, has had its up since its stands 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.200 and everything. Most people when they think of like the 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.960 golden years of comedy, you really think of like sort 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.880 of the late seventies, eighties into the very early part 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:43.560 of the nineties, where every comic basically from Louis Anderson 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.200 and Tim Allen and Ellen DeGeneres and Jerry Seinfeld and 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.600 Richard Lewis. Basically, you could get on the Tonight Show. 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.960 You could work the clubs for a certain amount of years, 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.280 you could perfect a five minute set, and then if 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:54.880 you got on the Tonight Show and Johnny liked you, 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.040 if Johnny Carson liked you, called you over the chair. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.959 I mean everyone knows this. And he called you over 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.360 the chair, and then you were golden. You get a 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:02.000 sitcom and you were good to go. I mean, this 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.760 happened with Rosanne. We could do the list. This happened 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.320 with everybody when I started, so I was out of 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.800 college in eight So I started in June of ninety eight, 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.800 So it's twenty one years basically this month, um that, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.400 but that bubble had burst, I mean majorly. They they 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.680 always looked back the night that they say the comedy 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.400 bubble versus when Andrew Dice Clay sold out Madison Square 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.719 Garden and basically everyone was announcing his jokes with him, 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.200 you know, Jack and Joe went up to who and 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.120 then everyone tells the rest of the joke, you know, 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.640 and and that that was sort of symbolic of how 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.120 the whole thing crumbled, and then comedy clubs started closing 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.280 all over the place because also television made it more ubiquitous, 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.600 so you didn't have to go to clubs anymore. And 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.240 you know, it's just like anything else we're we're in 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.280 industries right now that are massively changing. So um so 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.320 what happened was to go to comedy clubs or to 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.760 perform a comedy clubs. For a while, it was bringer shows. 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.600 So if you just brought a certain amount of bodies, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.160 and right out of college of someone that grew up 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:57.920 in New York, I had bodies. So the first two 0:13:57.960 --> 0:13:59.560 years I could just get people a couple of times 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.480 a week to just show up. But eventually you run 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.760 out of steam on that, and then uh so that 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:06.760 lasted let's say two years of a couple of nights 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.680 a week and you're working anything else or yeah, so 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.240 I was working as so I did the video game 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.200 thing for a while. I interned at the Daily Show. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.520 Also a year a year after college, I forged a 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.560 letter from Binghamton University. I faked their letterhead and I 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.880 said that I was a professor in the communications department 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.680 or something, and I recommended myself to get to get 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.000 an internship at the Daily Show. So I'm interning at 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.560 the Daily Show during the day, which was a really 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.560 interesting time to be there because John had just taken 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.280 over from Kilbourne and I loved the Daily Show from 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.640 Kilbourne because I like Kilbourne. But it was a really 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.200 bizarre time because try to picture two public people with 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.920 different personas than those two guys. Killboard is the most smug, 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.720 you know, into himself whatever. John is the most self 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.280 deprecating personever. So the staff was in upheaval and rights 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.080 are getting fired left and right and all that um. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:57.840 But then over the years of new and stand up, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:14:59.880 I mean, I did every odd job you can think. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.000 I mean, well, first off, I cleaned up comedy clubs 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.040 and clean bathrooms and literally the lowest kind of level jobs. 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:06.840 I would have done anything to get on stage. And 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.240 I did do anything. I mean I I bartended, I 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.280 I worked a catering companies. I used to hand out 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.920 merchandise for promotion companies on the streets, just anything I 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:17.440 could do to make a buck to go by. For 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.400 one year, I had an office job at a PR 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.800 company in New York. I've literally no idea what business 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.120 they because my head wasn't there. Somehow I got the 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.400 job and I showed up, and I guess I faked 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.600 it enough to be able to keep a job. Yeah, 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.800 but I have no idea what it's a hand amount 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.680 existence at the time to write you're making like I mean, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.200 I was making nothing. I remember what your rent was, like, 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.240 how many roommates did you have? Like so when I 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.440 finally so then I left my parents house. And then 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.200 when I had that office job, so I had, you know, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.840 maybe I was making forty five grand or something like that. 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.880 I had a couple of roommates on on an apartment 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.480 on ninety and first, so pretty far up on the 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.840 fur East Side, um, which was a really interesting place. 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.040 Ninety and first, because try to think about New York 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.600 City for a second. So if New York's an the 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.760 subway up there is eighty six and Lex. It was 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.440 basically ninetieth that York, which is one more east than first. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:08.760 So it was basically as far as you could get 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.360 from a subway in New York City. Because eighty six, 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.040 that means I had to ninety Then I had to 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:19.080 go les third, second, First York, which it's a long 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.320 walk for for a New Yorker, especially when you're working 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.240 at a job you don't want to be at and 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.000 the rest of it. Um. But anyway, then, uh, and 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.080 I just did all sorts of just any gi like 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.040 name a job, like I pretty much did it. But 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.000 then what I had to do to get on stage 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.640 once the sort of age out of the bringer thing, 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:38.640 your friends are like, yeah, I've heard all those jokes. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.400 You know, I don't want to come to shows anymore. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.440 And there's nothing to do with whether you're good or not. 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.760 It's just like it just is. The other way you 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.120 get on stage is your bark. You hand your hand 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.840 out tickets and uh, you hand out tickets, usually in 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:51.680 Times Squares where most of it went down. And I'm 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.880 sure you've been harassed. So you did that, You would 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.080 stand in Times Square. And I did that for like 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.960 eight or ten years, six six nights a week, sometimes 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.920 twice a night, two hours a night, and often in 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.880 the early years of that you didn't get paid either. 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.720 So you're dragging people into these clubs just with the 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.760 hope of getting you know, seven minutes of stage. Then 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:12.600 and I did that for a couple of years, and 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.120 then this was the first moment that my my business 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.120 sense that I think has led me here now kicked in. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:19.600 I realized that I was out here with all these 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.800 other comics, some of them whom were pretty good. Um, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.960 most of the guys from my crew have all disappeared. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.720 And it's just a sad thing about comedy that often 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.479 the best guys just they can't hack it anymore, like 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.280 the true artists and the ones that are truly doing 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.160 something amazing get to a point where it just breaks them. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.080 So out of my crew, um, we had some really 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.359 really talented people. The only one who really broke through 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.280 I guess I had now. But the only other one 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.399 Melissa Routs, who you probably know is that on a 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.040 Big Bang Theory m. She was at my crew. I 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.240 remember seeing her the first night and I said to her, 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:53.840 you were going to be the star because she could 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.399 do voices and she was just a great talent and 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.119 she's a great girl. Um, but basically just bark being 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:01.840 handed out these tickets. And then finally I was like, 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.680 why am I doing this so that somebody else can 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:06.840 be taken all the cash here? So me and a 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.760