Speaker 1: Are you leaving?
Speaker 2: I you wanna way back home?
Speaker 3: Either way you want to be.
Speaker 2: There, doesn't matter how much baggage you claim and give
Speaker 2: us time and a terminol and gay. We want to
Speaker 2: send you off in style.
Speaker 4: We want to welcome you back home.
Speaker 2: Tell us all about it.
Speaker 4: We scared her? Was it fine?
Speaker 2: Malborn?
Speaker 4: Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride?
Speaker 1: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 2: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 1: Do you need with Karen and Chris welcome to Do
Speaker 1: you need to ride? This is Chris Fairbanks.
Speaker 4: And this is Karen Kilgariff.
Speaker 1: Karen at the beginning of each episode for audio reasons,
Speaker 1: so we all sync up. She leads us in a clap,
Speaker 1: which sounds kind of religious because your hands were clasped
Speaker 1: in prayer. And so I just heard prayer and I
Speaker 1: got really nervous.
Speaker 3: Remember sometimes, Yeah, right before the clap lead that I do.
Speaker 3: I say a quick prayer to the podcasting a patron saint.
Speaker 1: It's convenient, Clia, Yeah, your hands are already in the
Speaker 1: prayer position through preliminary clap.
Speaker 4: Why not ask for a little help before you start?
Speaker 1: You know what, there's never not a bad time to
Speaker 1: ask a little from God.
Speaker 4: That's right, Chris, Yeah, I guess Ris.
Speaker 1: I went swimming today. I just wanted to say Jordan
Speaker 1: pressured me to swim, and I wore a swim cap,
Speaker 1: which is why I look like I got electrocuted. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, and I've just seen maybe you had been swimming.
Speaker 3: That's private. I don't reveal any private information on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Karen, we're nervous.
Speaker 4: We're both incredibly nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm nervous because we have a real guest today that
Speaker 1: I look up to, that's right. Yeah, So I just
Speaker 1: want to get that off my chest because usually it's
Speaker 1: all just flippant and we're we're just talking to our pals.
Speaker 1: But I haven't met Mike yet. And see, I did
Speaker 1: the thing where before you introduce someone, you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to say their name, and I did that.
Speaker 3: Shit, Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today. You might know
Speaker 3: him from his many music albums. You might know him
Speaker 3: from his podcast network or his podcasts he's been doing
Speaker 3: a while.
Speaker 4: Please welcome open Mike Ego.
Speaker 5: Hi, guys, I'm nervous too now because you guys are
Speaker 5: staying so much nice stuff about me yep, and I
Speaker 5: want to Can we just get to the pal thing?
Speaker 5: Can we just be pals so that so that we're
Speaker 5: not nervous.
Speaker 1: I think we can do that. There's a setting that
Speaker 1: I can default to. Okay, it's buddy, it's been a while.
Speaker 1: Remember that last party we hung out at.
Speaker 5: We remember when we swam earlier. Oh man, that was
Speaker 5: fun swimming.
Speaker 1: Hey, next time, let's not wear the swim caps.
Speaker 5: Huh right right? Your hair's your hair looks so healthy
Speaker 5: and good though, oh it's.
Speaker 1: Dry and brittle. This is just complimentary lighting.
Speaker 5: I uh.
Speaker 1: I am a big fan of you, Mike, and I
Speaker 1: am a fan of your entire collect Project Blowed, and
Speaker 1: early on when I was a kid, Freestyle Fellowship is
Speaker 1: one of the first I wouldn't call it comedy rap
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I think they would be offended. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: But it was the first album that I'm like, these
Speaker 1: are these guys are just riffing. They're mentioning skateboards and
Speaker 1: I'm laughing a lot. And I know that a lot
Speaker 1: of it is sarcastic, and it spoke to me right away.
Speaker 1: And you are a part of that group. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Project Blowed is still happening, but.
Speaker 5: It's still like a collective. We don't meet anymore. We
Speaker 5: used to have an open mic that ran every Thursday
Speaker 5: for many many years, but then a guy got stabbed
Speaker 5: in it, so it got shut down. But we're still
Speaker 5: a family. We're still a family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes families there's a stabbing. That's it's hard. I
Speaker 1: wish I hadn't said that, Karen, you want to take
Speaker 1: over here?
Speaker 4: You're seating the floor after the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you have been talked for a bit. I
Speaker 1: made that lighthearted stabbing joke.
Speaker 3: Now you go, here's well, Ken, I'm going to ask
Speaker 3: the question because I've only known you from a already
Speaker 3: known of you.
Speaker 4: I met you when you're at Bridgetown.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 4: It was such.
Speaker 3: It was really a good year and I was It
Speaker 3: was when I was with Drennon Davis and it was
Speaker 3: the last night party and it was one of those
Speaker 3: things where it was like he was like, hey, I
Speaker 3: want you to meet my friend. And then I turned
Speaker 3: around and I was like who's this and you're just.
Speaker 4: Gonna like what's up?
Speaker 3: And it was like these are the people that are
Speaker 3: doing music at Bridgetown. Yeah, it was that vibe where
Speaker 3: I was like, this is I don't comedy music. Like
Speaker 3: I was kind of Chrystmas saying, it's like it's not
Speaker 3: the greatest label, so then you don't want to like
Speaker 3: be the personal I was like, I'm the guitar comic
Speaker 3: that's on eighth because you know what I mean, like
Speaker 3: you don't wanna And then but then suddenly I was like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'll be in this group and this guy's in it
Speaker 3: sounds good to me.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it makes me nervous all the time. I
Speaker 5: lose my credibility and rap music a few times a
Speaker 5: year because I do funny stuff. You know, it's it's rough.
Speaker 5: That's why I really was prepared to hear about like
Speaker 5: freestyle fellowships like wait a minute, Oh, I can't bring that.
Speaker 1: Right now, and don't let them see you don't let
Speaker 1: them see and oddly, yeah, when I bring that up,
Speaker 1: I stump most current fans of hip hop, I admittedly
Speaker 1: don't follow. I'm an early nineties hip hop guy and
Speaker 1: I like that and hieroglyphics and everything because it was
Speaker 1: in skateboard videos. That's kind of how I got introduced
Speaker 1: to it. So that's real.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean there's an underground access point for a
Speaker 5: lot of people that had to do with stuff like,
Speaker 5: you know, skateboard videos and Atlance Bangs was doing about
Speaker 5: a bunch of that stuff, and like, yeah, a lot
Speaker 5: of people were brought together that way, kind of representing
Speaker 5: this kind of worldwide underground thing, you know, like even
Speaker 5: stuff like Tony Hawk the video game, like the underground
Speaker 5: songs that they were put in that stuff like that
Speaker 5: was the way a lot of people got on to
Speaker 5: a lot of artists.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was huge for a lot of bands
Speaker 1: and skateboarding. All of a sudden, there's regular people playing
Speaker 1: that game. I call them regular people, those that don't skateboard, right,
Speaker 1: all these raggies are out.
Speaker 4: There, Mike, have you ever skateboarded.
Speaker 5: I've tried. It's not good. I'm not good with wheels.
Speaker 5: Like I'm okay with a car, but like like when
Speaker 5: you put wheels on your feet, it usually doesn't work
Speaker 5: very well for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, specifically, heey's I don't know if you. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: good with wheels on my feet, but if you actually
Speaker 1: put them on my feet, I uh, I become some
Speaker 1: old timey slapstick comedy.
Speaker 3: Sometimes if I pummis my heels too much and then
Speaker 3: moisturize my feet. It's like I have wheels on them.
Speaker 3: You're trying to walk across tile like slidy feet. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you have.
Speaker 4: Wheels for like forty five minutes. You have to just
Speaker 4: watch TV.
Speaker 5: That's a good floor too. You've got like no spaces
Speaker 5: between the tiles. It's all real smooth.
Speaker 3: It's like a fucking museum in here. It's unbelievable. It's
Speaker 3: like marble, very dangerous, very dangerous.
Speaker 1: I mean when I said comedy rat, I when I
Speaker 1: what you do? I feel, Yeah, I take it back.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, I can't stop thinking about those commercials
Speaker 1: where they're pummice stoning dry skin off a heel and
Speaker 1: what that does. It makes my mouth water in a
Speaker 1: way where I'm not hungry but ready to vomit anyway,
Speaker 1: I h I mean that when I like, you're doing
Speaker 1: stand up while intertwined with rapping, I've done that.
Speaker 5: I've done that. It's funny. I did that like like
Speaker 5: five times, you know. And then sometimes there are much
Speaker 5: like I have songs in my live show when I
Speaker 5: do like a concert that like I have a little
Speaker 5: bit before the song, you know, but I respect stand
Speaker 5: up so much. Like I'm around a lot of comics,
Speaker 5: and like I know the amount of reps it takes
Speaker 5: to like be serious as a comic, So like I
Speaker 5: never call myself of that. Like I end up, you know,
Speaker 5: being put in that category, and I don't mind it
Speaker 5: at all, But I don't. I never call myself a
Speaker 5: stand up because like I'm not willing to go and
Speaker 5: bomb for six years, you know, I'm not. I'm not gonna,
Speaker 5: you know, So I don't know, Like I I definitely
Speaker 5: borrow some and I love performing on shows with stand ups,
Speaker 5: but it's mostly because I really like how comedy audiences listen.
Speaker 5: Like that's that's what really God did it for me.
Speaker 5: The first time I performed in front of a comedy audience,
Speaker 5: I was like, oh my gosh, Like these people are
Speaker 5: they're laughing where I put the punchline, Like they listen
Speaker 5: to what I said, they found it funny and reacted,
Speaker 5: and like I was used to performing for rap audiences
Speaker 5: where they surprisingly they didn't listen much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're just they're just listening for the flow or.
Speaker 5: Yeah, or or just or just vibing with the beat
Speaker 5: or just putting their hands up when you tell them to.
Speaker 5: But yeah, like you know, they're not engaged in your
Speaker 5: you know, the way you've crafted a verse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which is what I always have appreciated with.
Speaker 1: I like wordplay, Yeah, I like turns of phrases. I
Speaker 1: like cadence, and you would do all that. It's great.
Speaker 4: Well, also, isn't it like in live shows?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 3: Am I right to assume that maybe the goal is
Speaker 3: to get them to be quieter, start paying actual attention
Speaker 3: to what you're like, to the wordplay or to the flow.
Speaker 3: I don't want to use technical terms. I don't really know,
Speaker 3: but like that idea that like actually as as opposed
Speaker 3: to kind of the big party feel if people are
Speaker 3: going like whoa, whoa, whoa actually like following the lyrics, Like,
Speaker 3: is that.
Speaker 1: Is that the goal?
Speaker 5: Like at a music show?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Or like that when you're saying like rap audiences can
Speaker 3: not be particularly listeners as opposed to stand up audiences,
Speaker 3: is there a moment in like at some rap shows
Speaker 3: where you can actually hook them into being like listening
Speaker 3: to the words like that?
Speaker 5: Yes? I think a big difference is this though, when
Speaker 5: that typically happens in a rap show, like you typically
Speaker 5: already have those people captivated in a sense because they've
Speaker 5: come to see you, or if I'm opening, they've come
Speaker 5: to see who the headliner is, but they're prepared to
Speaker 5: engage with some music that they already know. And and
Speaker 5: you would assume, I would assume me being booked, there's
Speaker 5: some inclination that they might be into my stuff as well.
Speaker 5: So like there's certain moments I can create where like, yeah,
Speaker 5: people are paying attention now, But like the difference in
Speaker 5: comedy audiences is like around the world, people will go
Speaker 5: to a comedy club and have no idea who's going
Speaker 5: to be there. They just want to go and sit
Speaker 5: and laugh. And it doesn't even matter for general entertainment.
Speaker 1: I enjoy laughing.
Speaker 5: Let's go to the last Let's go to the last place. Exactly.
Speaker 5: Nobody wants to go to the rap place where they
Speaker 5: don't know that's terrible and and and because of that,
Speaker 5: if you're if you're in a situation where you're wrapping
Speaker 5: for people who aren't necessarily fans of what you're doing there,
Speaker 5: it is a little harder to create that moment of like, Okay,
Speaker 5: here's here's what I'm doing. Are you going to get
Speaker 5: with it?
Speaker 3: Or not you know, yeah, and join the build of it.
Speaker 3: I was watching her Tiny Desk concert, which was amazing.
Speaker 3: You but there's the first song you did. You did it,
Speaker 3: you did the first verse and then you went how
Speaker 3: are you doing this afternoon? And then right into the
Speaker 3: second verse like it sounded sincere, and there was not
Speaker 3: one moment for even people to collab or anything in
Speaker 3: the room. It was so it made me laugh out loud.
Speaker 1: Is that that's a series? It's like in a bookstore, right, It's.
Speaker 5: It's it's in the corner of an office at NPR. Okay,
Speaker 5: But the funny thing about it is it's a really
Speaker 5: big ass room, but the way they shoot it, it
Speaker 5: makes it look like it's in a corner somewhere. It's
Speaker 5: so funny. That's great funny.
Speaker 3: Us A little bit was that like nerve wracking because
Speaker 3: it feels to me like it's so pared down at
Speaker 3: the it's almost just like it's you're either going to
Speaker 3: do it or you're not going to.
Speaker 4: Do it in that moment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's challenging as a rapper because, okay, I'm
Speaker 5: very used to have to performing with beats and having
Speaker 5: like a monitor so I can hear what I'm saying
Speaker 5: back at me over the beat, but they don't allow
Speaker 5: any of that, Like there was no amplification of anything allowed.
Speaker 5: So like I'm trying to hear myself over these musicians
Speaker 5: who I'm like not very used to playing with. It
Speaker 5: was challenging. But I also have learned that if you're rich,
Speaker 5: they let you do whatever you want. I didn't. I
Speaker 5: didn't have those privileges, but I've learned it. Okay, you know,
Speaker 5: yeah maybe one day.
Speaker 4: Monitor yea that everything else, Yeah, it applies to all things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, actually, yeah it was. It was one of
Speaker 5: those lessons. It was one of those lessons.
Speaker 3: Hey, yeah, that's funny because that's that started with a trumpet, right, yeah,
Speaker 3: so like it was.
Speaker 4: It must have been kind of loud. It's something to
Speaker 4: adjust to.
Speaker 5: Yeah it was, and we practiced a lot and everything.
Speaker 5: But I think it was just like this stark realization
Speaker 5: we got there that like, oh they were serious, I'm
Speaker 5: not going to have a monitor, Like they really they
Speaker 5: really meant that, Like, no, you just have to be
Speaker 5: able to hear yourself in some way. That sounds impossible
Speaker 5: to me.
Speaker 3: It almost feels like a musician test when I watch
Speaker 3: people were you know, like being able to being able
Speaker 3: to do it without hearing yourself and sometimes being drowned out.
Speaker 3: Is I mean, that's a real like it's a game
Speaker 3: show for musicians.
Speaker 5: Escially, it's not easy and there's a lot to lose.
Speaker 3: With that NPR crowd. Bye, Goodbye. How was your quarantine? Oh?
Speaker 5: Oh gosh, gosh, it was so many things. So like
Speaker 5: I moved into an apartment and then like three days
Speaker 5: after moving into apartment, I went on a tour. And
Speaker 5: in the middle of the tour is when everything shut down,
Speaker 5: and so like my world had just changed. And then
Speaker 5: I went on this tour and then that stopped it
Speaker 5: and all of the plans, like all of the income
Speaker 5: everything like crashed like really quick, and there were a
Speaker 5: couple of moments where that were just like really dire
Speaker 5: last spring. But the first thing that happened is I
Speaker 5: started doing this thing. I started doing a fake radio
Speaker 5: show on my Instagram every day we called a Quarantine
Speaker 5: Drive Time Radio and we did it every Monday through
Speaker 5: Friday from like April to December, and like it galvanized
Speaker 5: this like group of people because the whole reason we
Speaker 5: were doing it originally was I was watching people lose
Speaker 5: their minds because they didn't know what day it was,
Speaker 5: and being a musician, I was used to never knowing
Speaker 5: what day it was. So I made myself a shepherd
Speaker 5: of reminding people what day it is. And we built
Speaker 5: the radio show every day around like what day it was,
Speaker 5: and we made this really really dope community. And then
Speaker 5: it ended up like turning into like a it's not
Speaker 5: quite like a fan club for me, but definitely like
Speaker 5: a galvanized support group where I could just like take
Speaker 5: stuff and show people stuff and I don't know, and
Speaker 5: it really helped me a lot. And then luckily I
Speaker 5: had the podcast recorded that I started my network with.
Speaker 5: I had that done before the lockdown, and my album
Speaker 5: that came out last year was done before the Lockdown,
Speaker 5: So it was just about like, luckily I wasn't in
Speaker 5: the position where had to try to figure out how
Speaker 5: to make something. There's my neighborhood, there it is, there
Speaker 5: we go that on cue, and like, luckily I didn't
Speaker 5: have to figure out how to make stuff. I just
Speaker 5: had to figure out how to put stuff out. Like
Speaker 5: that was the big challenge for me because all of
Speaker 5: the typical pathways for getting stuff out to people were broken,
Speaker 5: like the press stuff, the distro stuff, everything was broken,
Speaker 5: So like I had to take a gamble on when
Speaker 5: to execute stuff, but everything just kind of ended up
Speaker 5: working out.
Speaker 1: Okay, did you do zoom shows and drive in movie
Speaker 1: car car shows? Like?
Speaker 5: I did both of those. I did. I learned pretty
Speaker 5: early on that the zoom shows were not going to
Speaker 5: work for Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, I just kept doing them. I just kept doing them.
Speaker 5: I had to stop at some point because I don't know,
Speaker 5: you know, I learned a lot about what I get
Speaker 5: out of performing last year because I was getting it
Speaker 5: when I performed, and I just felt empty and dead
Speaker 5: every time, like for two days. Yeah, it was like
Speaker 5: a hangover it. Yeah, terrible. Yeah, So I learned the
Speaker 5: zoom shows wouldn't work for me. Those were excruciating. I
Speaker 5: ended up going on a drive in tour with Hannibal
Speaker 5: Burris last September where he was doing you know, his
Speaker 5: act and I was an opening act on it.
Speaker 1: So that has to be a great audience that's receptive
Speaker 1: to suddenly saying hip hop, right.
Speaker 5: Except that they're fifty feet away from the stage right
Speaker 5: in cars, yeah, cars, And when they applaud as we
Speaker 5: assume they were doing. Yeah, couldn't hear anything. Yeah, it
Speaker 5: was terrible.
Speaker 1: See I did it on a hot night and you
Speaker 1: could hear windows were rolled down. They were being a
Speaker 1: little loosey goosey, and they were trying to honk like.
Speaker 4: Bee beep beep.
Speaker 1: It wasn't laying on horns, which would trouble me. It
Speaker 1: was like little spurts of honk. They have to be
Speaker 1: good honkers.
Speaker 5: So Hannibal's tour, I think they thought they were getting
Speaker 5: ahead of it, and they had a lot of signage
Speaker 5: and instructions on the big screens around every show that
Speaker 5: said don't honk.
Speaker 1: Oh really, oh no, that changes.
Speaker 5: So people were when when instructed to or when they
Speaker 5: felt compelled to react, they would try to yell at
Speaker 5: the top of their lungs or try to clap, and
Speaker 5: it just it was lost.
Speaker 1: Well, I understand, I understand someone saying no honking, because
Speaker 1: in traffic it it means hey, do you want to fight?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But what I what I didn't expect the improv did
Speaker 1: these drive in shows in Irvine and and right away
Speaker 1: I was like, oh this I need it. I like
Speaker 1: it already. It took a minute. It's weird to have
Speaker 1: a bunch of cars honking. But I immediately loved it, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't have predicted liking that. I understand someone making
Speaker 1: it no honk rule, but it worked. It works.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think in retrospect we could have used some
Speaker 5: of the honks. We should We shouldn't have told them
Speaker 5: not to.
Speaker 4: It would booyed you as you performed. Oh well, oh
Speaker 4: yeah we did.
Speaker 3: Chris and I did the same Zoom show one night
Speaker 3: because people were playing like quick lash games, you know,
Speaker 3: like uh and doing those comedy shows, and it just
Speaker 3: started to be to me. It felt like it wasn't
Speaker 3: just like, oh, we all wrote a joke for this
Speaker 3: phrase and everybody liked that person's more, which is a
Speaker 3: pretty hilarious thing to put yourself through when you're already
Speaker 3: kind of like isolated and questioning your entire lifts.
Speaker 1: Suddenly you're in a competition.
Speaker 3: Suddenly you're in a competition, and then you start hating everyone.
Speaker 3: You're like, this is a dumb game that were we
Speaker 3: all came together to play just for fun and to
Speaker 3: do something, and now it's like I'm super competitive and
Speaker 3: like that wasn't fucking funny and you're a hack and
Speaker 3: like it brought out in me all of the things
Speaker 3: that I was trying to escape from doing the show
Speaker 3: in the first place. I was just like, this is
Speaker 3: very ironic that I am this, Like I feel lonelier
Speaker 3: and worse and angry as I get off.
Speaker 4: This stupid game that's just to bring people together because.
Speaker 1: You're alone in your apartment, yet at the same time
Speaker 1: you're at a judge high school party, yes, where everyone's
Speaker 1: being categorized.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I gotta say that. Those though, because I
Speaker 5: did quip lash stuff like a couple of times, those
Speaker 5: are probably the best of my Zoom experiences because really
Speaker 5: what it came down to for me was my my
Speaker 5: performance setup is like very like technical. There's a lot
Speaker 5: of like beat machines and stuff, and there's just no
Speaker 5: accounting for like if I press a button over here,
Speaker 5: there's no accounting for what people hear over the inn.
Speaker 5: There's no there's no nothing I can do to ensure
Speaker 5: that the sound people here is what I want to
Speaker 5: hear or what I am hearing. And that's what would
Speaker 5: drive me up a wall.
Speaker 1: Was, Yeah, that's horrifying.
Speaker 5: I'm putting out, you know, the energy I'm trying to
Speaker 5: put out in a song and the music that I
Speaker 5: put out last year and specific was like very emotional
Speaker 5: and into like you know, I'd get these texts afterwards
Speaker 5: from people who knew me, like, oh, the sound was
Speaker 5: messed up, like half of the set, Like oh, that's wonderful, fantastic.
Speaker 3: You're like, was my heart messed up as I stuck
Speaker 3: it out there for fucking everyone in my whole life?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: Yeah? You just you felt? Yeah, it felt pitiful. A
Speaker 5: lot of those performances felt genuinely pitiful.
Speaker 1: And that album is are you talking about the trauma divorce?
Speaker 1: What's it called? Sorry anime trauma and divorce? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh and so you were finished with that before Quarantine,
Speaker 1: but then you felt you have to promote it and
Speaker 1: put it out there at a weird time.
Speaker 5: Yeah it was.
Speaker 1: Did you find it fit well? Because I look, I
Speaker 1: watched something else and you were talking about how it
Speaker 1: was more personal? Did it help that we were all
Speaker 1: going through a weird time?
Speaker 5: Almost to I think it certainly helped helped the project
Speaker 5: resonate with people. Yeah, I think it did. It a
Speaker 5: lot of a lot of moments, it felt very like
Speaker 5: self centered trying to promote it you know, like like
Speaker 5: it was already felt kind of gross anyway, because it's
Speaker 5: like all personal and I'm trying to sell it, you know,
Speaker 5: I'm trying to like like point people to it and
Speaker 5: get engagement around it and all of that robotic stuff.
Speaker 5: But yeah, then on top of that, like people are
Speaker 5: going through really real stuff. People are dying, people are
Speaker 5: losing jobs, and you know, it's like, yeah, here I
Speaker 5: come with my bullshit. You know, it didn't seem like
Speaker 5: the best timing, but I think some of it did
Speaker 5: resonate with people because it was such a dark time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going through a similar like while when
Speaker 1: my special came out that I felt I needed to
Speaker 1: tell people meanwhile marching on my street for something way
Speaker 1: more important than my comedy special. And I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying shit. I'll let it sit out there for
Speaker 1: a little while and then maybe occasionally mention it. But
Speaker 1: like you said it, it's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: we do resonated with people in the past year, and
Speaker 1: it's worth it. But I'm like you, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna shove it down people's throat, even though that's
Speaker 1: part of our jobs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's that's that's the that's the part that
Speaker 5: I think is more and more becoming our job. As things,
Speaker 5: you know, everything gets more digital, it becomes us who
Speaker 5: are the like where the needle move is ultimately like
Speaker 5: what our social media on, how our products get marketed,
Speaker 5: and it's kind of just where we are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when did you You already had a pretty steady
Speaker 1: hip hop career, but when did you start intersecting with comedy?
Speaker 1: How did that happen? Was that in Chicago?
Speaker 5: No, that was that was in La that first time
Speaker 5: that I was I was describing earlier, that first time
Speaker 5: I performed in front of a comedy crowd. It was
Speaker 5: at uc B. Oh okay, yeah, Like so I like
Speaker 5: wormed my way into being an asscat monologist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I've done that. It's really fun. It's self indulgent,
Speaker 1: but there at it's the best.
Speaker 5: And the way I did it, I just like did
Speaker 5: a couple of songs and talked about where the songs
Speaker 5: came from, and then you know, they they ripped the
Speaker 5: sketches off of those and it was just really it
Speaker 5: was very just fulfilling for me as a as a
Speaker 5: writer to be in that sort of environment and and
Speaker 5: I just kind of started chasing it from there. Pretty
Speaker 5: much like the second time I did the asscat thing,
Speaker 5: I make sure I had it, I had it videotape
Speaker 5: because I then I used that to try to get
Speaker 5: on other comedy shows, Like I ended up getting on
Speaker 5: Paul F. Thompkins show at the Largo because I was
Speaker 5: hounding him with this video. Look look it works, and yeah,
Speaker 5: and he and he, you know, he got me on
Speaker 5: a couple of his shows. And that's really when it
Speaker 5: started to take root, because then I got started to
Speaker 5: be like part of the community, you know, like meeting
Speaker 5: people and you know, and and somebody would invite me
Speaker 5: on their show, and somebody would see that invite me
Speaker 5: on there, and like you know, and and that's kind
Speaker 5: of how it really kind of took hold.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's a perfect fit because Largo is the
Speaker 1: only place I've seen where music and comedy are married
Speaker 1: and it works. It's so hard to make it work
Speaker 1: and and it always works there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that audience has been trained over the years of
Speaker 3: like you might.
Speaker 4: Because I'm definitely in the.
Speaker 3: Old Largo used to do those nights where it was
Speaker 3: like Colin Hay from Men at Work and it's his
Speaker 3: night and his audience has no interest in comedy, and
Speaker 3: you have a half an hour to fill before he's
Speaker 3: going to walk out there. We were just like, they
Speaker 3: fucking hate my guts, Like they don't.
Speaker 4: They just that's not the that's.
Speaker 3: Not the plane they want to be on that evening.
Speaker 3: They're on a full different trajectory. And you're just like,
Speaker 3: I have some great observations about Sephora everybody, and.
Speaker 4: They're just like, you know what, I'm not doing that
Speaker 4: with you right now.
Speaker 3: It is night meritally hilarious, but it's almost like planning
Speaker 3: and got in there, and of course with all those
Speaker 3: people that just kept coming back, like audience and performers,
Speaker 3: because of course all musicians want to be comics and
Speaker 3: all comics want to be musicians.
Speaker 4: So it was like he just kind of kept going,
Speaker 4: it's working, it does work, Just keep doing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think now that audience is like, we're
Speaker 3: up for what you give us, like.
Speaker 5: We trust whatever, Yeah, down for whatever. And it's a
Speaker 5: it's a it is a great place for that because
Speaker 5: I've been on the other side of that too, where
Speaker 5: like I do music that's too musical on the comedy
Speaker 5: show and you know, people aren't necessarily you know, into
Speaker 5: that either unless they put you at the very end.
Speaker 5: If they puts you at the very in it works.
Speaker 5: They put me in the middle so it can be rough.
Speaker 3: I have talked to Chris about this a bunch of times,
Speaker 3: doing because I used to do like comedy guitars songs.
Speaker 1: And you'll do it again. They're gonna make you.
Speaker 3: There's nothing more painful than like you just finish the
Speaker 3: first chorus and you can see some fucking blonde twenty.
Speaker 4: Eight year old staring at you.
Speaker 3: It's always a blonde guy for me, where there's always
Speaker 3: just like no thanks, you still.
Speaker 4: Have You're just like, why did I write four verses
Speaker 4: in this song? Like it's just you are trapped in your.
Speaker 3: Own fucking idea and it hurts.
Speaker 4: It hurts every muscle in my body.
Speaker 3: Like that's the thing of the make or break of
Speaker 3: like when it goes great that for me, comedy music
Speaker 3: is like the best cheat in the world because you
Speaker 3: don't have to do the moment by moment speaking performance.
Speaker 3: You're just like and away we go, and everyone's gonna
Speaker 3: go with it. It's hy energy or it sucks and
Speaker 3: it slows time down, does.
Speaker 5: You get. You get trapped in that in watching every
Speaker 5: lyric come out of your own mouth.
Speaker 4: This was my idea, so was this? This is my
Speaker 4: idea too.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, it can be so excruciating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the reason? Did they give you a reason?
Speaker 1: When Comedy Central canceled the New Negroes? Say, God, I
Speaker 1: said it and I don't. Did they cancel it because
Speaker 1: they were uncomfortable saying that word? Do you think the executives?
Speaker 1: You know, like, I can't say this anymore.
Speaker 5: It's so funny, because man, that title ended up being
Speaker 5: such a story on its own, Like we never could
Speaker 5: have imagined how much, like how much we'd end up
Speaker 5: having to talk about about.
Speaker 1: That really, like I was splitting the room.
Speaker 5: Oh man, it was from the very first pilot test
Speaker 5: it it came to our attention at the title was
Speaker 5: a fucking problem. We ended up having to reshoot part
Speaker 5: of our pilot to address title like and and that
Speaker 5: didn't really work either, because what happened is that we
Speaker 5: had a title that people would have a reaction on,
Speaker 5: and they wouldn't if they had a negative reaction, they
Speaker 5: wouldn't go watch the show to see whether or not
Speaker 5: the title gets explained they were out.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they were just telling other people to be out
Speaker 5: on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Upon reading that the first time, all I had
Speaker 1: to do was hear it said in Baron Vaughan's voice,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, I know
Speaker 1: what this is.
Speaker 3: You also, you'd watch that trailer where it's just like like.
Speaker 4: Ask comic after kick ass comic after.
Speaker 3: Kick ass musician, where you're just like, Lizzo was on
Speaker 3: that show, right, yep. I just it's just like, these
Speaker 3: bookings are very high level. They're not your average Comedy
Speaker 3: Central show bookings at all, and.
Speaker 5: They didn't know how to really deal with any of
Speaker 5: that either. They didn't really know how to take advantage
Speaker 5: of the fact that we were able to like get
Speaker 5: Lizo like you know, like a week before she was
Speaker 5: like a worldwide Yeah. Yeah, like you know, they didn't
Speaker 5: really know how to but well, of.
Speaker 1: Course they don't know. They're all just twenty five year
Speaker 1: old executives.
Speaker 5: But sorry, there was stuff we didn't know too, honestly. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and like even like getting Lizzo, like the way we
Speaker 5: got Lizzo because she signed to a major label, so
Speaker 5: like the major labels typically don't let their artists do
Speaker 5: music that they don't own, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: Like that's why they signed people to really expensive contracts.
Speaker 5: So to get Lizo, for instance, we had to have
Speaker 5: her giant record label Atlantic sign a waiver that they
Speaker 5: weren't gonna mess with us about doing this song. But
Speaker 5: what that meant was nobody in her world was going
Speaker 5: to really acknowledge it at all, like it didn't exist,
Speaker 5: and they went one they went one step further and
Speaker 5: like got it taken off of some very important playlists. Wow,
Speaker 5: because they aggressively did not want it to exist because
Speaker 5: they weren't making money from it.
Speaker 1: Did she kind of blow up sometime in between taping
Speaker 1: that and when it was going to air.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she was already like popping when we taped it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think our episode with her maybe aired in May,
Speaker 5: and in like by June she was Everywhere's absolutely everywhere.
Speaker 3: I wonder if that was rape before she did that
Speaker 3: Coachella that like it was almost like people had been
Speaker 3: saying the name and then she blew doors at Coachella
Speaker 3: in a way where people just couldn't.
Speaker 5: That sounds it sounds about right, Yeah, it sounds about right,
Speaker 5: Like The next thing I remember is like she was
Speaker 5: half naked at the Lakers game.
Speaker 4: Next thing, yeah, it was, it was so ready.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think the story now is that you and
Speaker 3: Baron broke Lizzo and actually are responsible.
Speaker 5: I like that.
Speaker 4: That's what I would do.
Speaker 5: I'll take the social credit percentage points. You know. However,
Speaker 5: that deal gets the.
Speaker 4: Back end of Lizzo's career like a girl.
Speaker 1: So will then sorry, go ahead, No, go ahead, No,
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead. Uh did you was that an audition
Speaker 1: thing where you just met Baron for the first time
Speaker 1: or were you already?
Speaker 5: Yeah? We we had been working together for years and
Speaker 5: New Negroes was his concept that he built at Bridgetown.
Speaker 5: He was doing it there I think, going back to
Speaker 5: like twenty fourteen, fifteen something like that. Uh, and then
Speaker 5: he brought me on to that and we started doing
Speaker 5: it at different festivals around the country, and we started
Speaker 5: doing it as a monthly here in LA and along
Speaker 5: those Along that route. It developed as a TV concept
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 4: So did you do that at Meltdown? Was that a
Speaker 4: Meltdown show?
Speaker 5: I don't think it was it. No, you know, we
Speaker 5: did it. We did it at a at a We
Speaker 5: did it at UCB for like two years, and then
Speaker 5: we did it at this place.
Speaker 1: Virgil, Yes, the Virgil Yes, yeah, I a one hundred
Speaker 1: percent remember it at UCB because they used to have
Speaker 1: stand up there. There was that used to be a hang.
Speaker 1: It's still there, right, the.
Speaker 5: One still there? The same the second one. The second
Speaker 5: one's gone. Yeah, the second one. I do believe the
Speaker 5: first one is there. I just don't know if it's
Speaker 5: not open, is it. I don't think it's open.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4: Guys, go down there tonight. Yeah, it's time to reopen.
Speaker 1: Let's egg it. Well that was just my sorry, that
Speaker 1: was just my idea.
Speaker 5: I don't know too.
Speaker 3: I was just going to ask in all of this then,
Speaker 3: is was it after your drivetime radio show that you
Speaker 3: started thinking about doing a podcast network or how did
Speaker 3: that come into playing?
Speaker 5: So I had the podcast, like the Flagship Show, that
Speaker 5: was all taped, and so I had made the deal
Speaker 5: for the network all in a year prior the show
Speaker 5: that's the Flagship Show is called. What had happened was
Speaker 5: where I sit down with like a hip hop legend
Speaker 5: for a season and interview them about, you know, their
Speaker 5: big projects. So that was a podcast that I piloted
Speaker 5: at another network and they ended up passing on it
Speaker 5: but reverting the rights back to me, and I just
Speaker 5: really it's like the kind of thing where I just
Speaker 5: I knew that the concept would hit based on the
Speaker 5: people who love that music, and even though they didn't
Speaker 5: see the value in it, they didn't see how they
Speaker 5: could sell ads on it. I knew like, oh no,
Speaker 5: this could be something. So then I had the invitation
Speaker 5: to start a network with Starburns and took it over
Speaker 5: there and we kind of built our thing together from there.
Speaker 4: So awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember you tweeting about that and it was
Speaker 3: probably like it was probably two years after we started
Speaker 3: our network, where it was just like I was, you know,
Speaker 3: I think I said congratulations to or whatever, but what
Speaker 3: I really wanted to say is.
Speaker 4: Like, get ready. Get ready.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like it's like it's a real thing,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's like but it's such
Speaker 3: a great I mean, for me personally, it's such a
Speaker 3: thrill to be in this business because it's like it's
Speaker 3: kind of cutting edge. It's definitely different than everything we've
Speaker 3: done before, and every kind of way things have been
Speaker 3: done before. And it just feels like it's the one
Speaker 3: area of show business where creators really can have the
Speaker 3: agency and control.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't have to ask anybody anything, like as
Speaker 5: long as you can press record, you know, like can
Speaker 5: literately do whatever you want. If you believe in something,
Speaker 5: you can make it and try to sell it. And yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean there's there's just no upward limit to the
Speaker 5: options you have as a creator in this field. I'm
Speaker 5: still trying to figure it out though, Like I still
Speaker 5: don't know how any of this shit works business wise,
Speaker 5: but like, but you know, it's it's it's certainly fun
Speaker 5: so far. And I've assembled like a collection of shows
Speaker 5: that I really really believe in a lot, So we'll
Speaker 5: kind of see where it goes from here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you when you're started by uh, were you
Speaker 1: kind of making fun of the drive time radio, like
Speaker 1: the kind of radio you have to do at six
Speaker 1: in the morning to promote something, because that's Karen, that's
Speaker 1: our favorite game to welcome back to the Bean and
Speaker 1: the Dumb Girl. Did you want to that game?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: No, I don't know. I don't know how to.
Speaker 1: The freeway connection coming up.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, I'm a guy I'm a Chicago
Speaker 5: kid and I grew up listening to Man Cow, so like,
Speaker 5: I have a special place in my heart for that stuff.
Speaker 5: But I didn't really I didn't riff on that theme
Speaker 5: so much as I just like wanted to program an
Speaker 5: hour sure. No, so like I just kind of rolled
Speaker 5: with with the with the drive Time name for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it would have been a mistake to mimick it.
Speaker 1: I know that that's.
Speaker 4: No one wants it.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to do, is all. That's all.
Speaker 1: And so it's just coincidence that is Baron Van a
Speaker 1: Chicago comic.
Speaker 5: No, he is from Las Vegas originally.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, I that's from Las Vegas.
Speaker 5: That's that's not a real place at all.
Speaker 1: It's not a place to be from.
Speaker 4: That is so property Brothers of him to be from,
Speaker 4: that's insane.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. What I performed in Vegas Open Him
Speaker 1: for Daniel Toush and Hannibal did a guest set and
Speaker 1: the we turned and the Property Brothers. I didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about them, but they were both in there with
Speaker 1: their shoulders were touching, and they kind of hovered into
Speaker 1: the room. Do you want to play Danny? And they
Speaker 1: both had these girlfriends that looked like sisters really, and
Speaker 1: I I backed out of the room. I couldn't remember.
Speaker 1: Hannibal and I were both freaked out by the property brothers.
Speaker 4: They were like that, they were like the VIPs.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, show Yeah, And they came in and and
Speaker 1: uh and Daniel made fun of him and said they
Speaker 1: slept in a bunk bed and then they left. It
Speaker 1: was like a but Hannal was in the room.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They bought the place, fired him, Yeah, yeah, hired themselves.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well that's probably why I haven't worked there since
Speaker 1: they owned the Mirage or whatever it was. That's right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just assume Hannimal's Chicago. I wondered if
Speaker 1: you were in the comedy scene back then, But it's
Speaker 1: interesting that you stumbled on it at UCB. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I was just a fan of comedy before before
Speaker 5: that really and not always been like a huge fan
Speaker 5: of it. But I'd never I never realistically thought that
Speaker 5: there was a way I'd be connected to it at
Speaker 5: all as funny.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, it just made me think because Chris and
Speaker 3: I have talked.
Speaker 4: A lot on this show, where which before.
Speaker 3: Quarantine, I think we were both very like you know, happy,
Speaker 3: grateful or whatever for like comedy festivals and those kinds
Speaker 3: of comedy hangs were you And during Quarantine and doing
Speaker 3: the show, we talk about it like it was pure heaven,
Speaker 3: Like remember that one you're at Bridgetown when you put
Speaker 3: a refrigerator box on and you fought yourself in the
Speaker 3: street where it's like it's like these hilarious memories which
Speaker 3: I think I have always taken for granted because comedy
Speaker 3: is like I was always a fan and I loved it,
Speaker 3: and then I got to do it, and then like it,
Speaker 3: I was in it for the hanging out Like I
Speaker 3: never I was always like, well, I can do a set,
Speaker 3: but it seems like the audience, I don't know, like
Speaker 3: it always seemed hard, but it was the hangout part
Speaker 3: was so worth it that we I don't know, just
Speaker 3: the festival element or like the culture and the community
Speaker 3: vibe of comedy is just so like enlivening it is
Speaker 3: and I never appreciated it like I did sitting in
Speaker 3: my house alone for a year and a half, where
Speaker 3: it's just like, yeah, that really is a.
Speaker 4: Very nurturing thing.
Speaker 5: It gives you a lot, ye know, it's funny. So
Speaker 5: I was talking about I was on a tour last
Speaker 5: year and the world shut down in the middle of
Speaker 5: the tour. And you know, the first way that I
Speaker 5: knew that shit was real was that they canceled south
Speaker 5: By Southwest. I was likening because never fucking like people
Speaker 5: die south By Southwest and keep it going. Yeah yeah, yeah, cars,
Speaker 5: people get kidnapped. Big.
Speaker 1: I was on that street from the people that God,
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: Lost in line and then I walked away going, I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna wait for X when I can hear them
Speaker 3: right here, and then the car turned up the street.
Speaker 5: Holy cow, Yeah I was. I was on a tour
Speaker 5: and we were driving into Austin as that happened, like
Speaker 5: that was wow. Yeah yeah. So you know, I talk
Speaker 5: about that south By being canceled usually because that was
Speaker 5: like I was gonna make a lot of money down
Speaker 5: there doing a bunch of things and so like it
Speaker 5: was a big blow to me financially. But I also
Speaker 5: know in my heart that I that I was, I
Speaker 5: was set on that Sixth Street experience with with like
Speaker 5: in my world, that's like them the comedians, the musicians,
Speaker 5: like it's always such hang and it's like an epic hang.
Speaker 5: It's like a it's used the word nurturing like it's
Speaker 5: it's that kind of thing where like there's I got
Speaker 5: buddies of mine that I still pick on about stuff
Speaker 5: they did in the green room of it's like two
Speaker 5: years ago. You know, it's but you're you're you're spot
Speaker 5: on about that, Like that's that's a big part of
Speaker 5: what's been missing and coming from, especially like underground Wrap,
Speaker 5: Like we don't have that. We really don't have that.
Speaker 5: There's not enough of a there's not enough really there's
Speaker 5: not enough success in it for there to be that
Speaker 5: sort of community, Like we don't have events where we
Speaker 5: all come together typically. So finding that community in the
Speaker 5: comedy world has been like secretly big for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's lovely, you find you find it way more
Speaker 1: like a friend group and nurturing among other comics and
Speaker 1: everything that maybe isn't in the hip hop.
Speaker 5: Because there's it's just hard to like that. There's there's
Speaker 5: there's luminaries and independent hip hop, but it's there were
Speaker 5: very rarely all brought together for any reason. Like everybody's
Speaker 5: kind of scrapping and scraping by on their own and
Speaker 5: and people are doing their own gigs, and it's just
Speaker 5: it's just not very often that we're able to experience
Speaker 5: each other where, you know, in comedy like you know,
Speaker 5: we would do We did New Negroes once a month
Speaker 5: at uc B. The green room was a community hang
Speaker 5: people all sorts of people that weren't on the show
Speaker 5: would just come hang out, like and that's that. That's that.
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't get that from the hip hop world,
Speaker 5: Like I just at least my station in it, that
Speaker 5: wasn't something that was able to well.
Speaker 1: Hip hop is supposed to be competitive for some reason.
Speaker 1: There's always this like like you're in a battle with
Speaker 1: the next or not. I'm not talking about battle rapping
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 5: It is, you know, just the ego thing. But it's funny.
Speaker 5: I experienced that in comedy as well.
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ, that's all it is in comedy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: I guess it's funnier. It's funnier, there's a way to
Speaker 3: hang with it.
Speaker 1: I never if someone's I I don't put up with
Speaker 1: a lot. Maybe I'm not. I don't know. It seems
Speaker 1: like I just don't like roast type battle comedy, and that,
Speaker 1: of course done better is a is a battle rap, uh,
Speaker 1: because you also have to rhyme usually. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just that whole element.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: I just want to be friends.
Speaker 5: You guys, Me too, man, I bring to friends vibes too,
Speaker 5: in both worlds. I'm not I'm not roasting nobody. I'm
Speaker 5: not bad anybody, do you not?
Speaker 1: You're probably good at battle rapping.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I came up. That's that was my start
Speaker 5: in rap, was battling. I did battles before I ever
Speaker 5: even Yeah, wrote songs like that's just you always feature
Speaker 5: feel bad.
Speaker 1: I would feel bad even if it was a good
Speaker 1: joke or a funny ride.
Speaker 5: I would feel bad as a young person, and I
Speaker 5: was ruthless.
Speaker 1: We used to.
Speaker 5: I remember that. Somebody reminded me once because we had
Speaker 5: a friend group in my high school and we were
Speaker 5: all like the rapper, breakdancer, graffiti guys. Everybody knew we wrapped.
Speaker 5: And it was one day where like we were just
Speaker 5: like on the train in Chicago, like battling our female
Speaker 5: friends like for no reason, and somebody told me something
Speaker 5: awful I said about one of them, and I was like, God,
Speaker 5: it's terrible. But I thought about it, and I remember
Speaker 5: at that moment, I was so pleased that I came
Speaker 5: up with this clever, awful thing to say. You know,
Speaker 5: but that's just that was just I don't know, that
Speaker 5: was the only thing I cared about at the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the name of the game. I mean, like
Speaker 3: it's it's almost like, yeah, it's just it's high level
Speaker 3: wordplay and then kind of like social bravery because it's
Speaker 3: like I'm about to ream you right now, and I
Speaker 3: also know you're going to try to do the same
Speaker 3: thing to me, and I trust myself that I can
Speaker 3: think of like the metaphor that's actually going to be funny, accurate,
Speaker 3: you know, those accurate ones are the greatest when you
Speaker 3: you know whatever.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that's a one that I very much relate to.
Speaker 3: Like if it's a great insult, then hurt feelings be damned,
Speaker 3: because I look at my accomplishment like that's my entire life.
Speaker 1: Not Yeah, I'm not proud about how specifically mean I
Speaker 1: know I can be. Yeah I don't. It doesn't feel good.
Speaker 5: I certainly I certainly could not like the things I
Speaker 5: used to say in battles back then. I don't think
Speaker 5: I'd have the energy to do stuff like that now
Speaker 5: at all. I don't think I'd be able to look
Speaker 5: myself in the mirror say say mean rhyming things to
Speaker 5: people the way I used to very easily.
Speaker 4: It gets you.
Speaker 3: It's an engine. It gets you places you know you
Speaker 3: can do it. Then you have it in your back pocket,
Speaker 3: but you don't better to not use than use. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's kind of the maybe the I always think
Speaker 3: of Bridgetown in that the year where there it was
Speaker 3: like in a where the after party was in a
Speaker 3: warehouse area, so you kind of had to like travel there,
Speaker 3: and it seemed like it was very it had a
Speaker 3: real mad Max feel to it, where you're.
Speaker 4: Just like, sorry, are we gonna walk out of here
Speaker 4: at three am?
Speaker 6: Like where are we had like a dirt floor or
Speaker 6: something to there's different.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just remember the one year I went where famously,
Speaker 1: I was in a car. Everyone had done mushrooms and
Speaker 1: I jokingly said, because we're just going around there, go
Speaker 1: down this street on the railroad tracks. I announced that
Speaker 1: there was railroad tracks, and this car drove on the
Speaker 1: railroad tracks high centered on the railroad ties, and then
Speaker 1: we were stuck and I look down and it's an
Speaker 1: active down the tracks. There was lights blinking and everything
Speaker 1: so on on much Okay, I was on not t
Speaker 1: rooms too.
Speaker 4: Oh h, thank you, thank you for being ho I was.
Speaker 1: I took a lot of them, you guys, but I
Speaker 1: calmly without panicking in a way I think I would
Speaker 1: have panicked more of a sober found the party, grabbed
Speaker 1: fifteen people and brought them back to the car, and
Speaker 1: we lifted the car. Oh my god, swiveled enough of
Speaker 1: the car off the tracks to where it just kind
Speaker 1: of pinned the wheels so made the matter worse. And
Speaker 1: the cops came and they had guns out, but they
Speaker 1: were like, I'm not kidding. The cops were like, they
Speaker 1: saw the group. They saw that clearly it was the
Speaker 1: most eclectic group of people because there was girls in
Speaker 1: poodle skirts that were in some sketch. You know. It's
Speaker 1: just like, these are a group of people that are
Speaker 1: all helping this car. I'm going to put this gun away,
Speaker 1: and they but they had to call the train people
Speaker 1: and make them stop the train.
Speaker 2: Gosh.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was insane. And the next guy, that
Speaker 1: guy was just he was driving. He was sober, by
Speaker 1: the way, he was just driving around. His car was fine,
Speaker 1: but they had to stop a train, it would have
Speaker 1: hit the car.
Speaker 5: That's not like a real nightmare on mushrooms because and
Speaker 5: you feel like the everything in the world as bad
Speaker 5: as your fault, like on you.
Speaker 1: I discovered that no, just saying the wrong thing in
Speaker 1: a green room is horrifying on mushrooms. When when shit
Speaker 1: hits the fan, all of a sudden, you're at a
Speaker 1: heightened performance ability or that's what I experienced, and then
Speaker 1: an hour later I'm jumping into dumpster or what all
Speaker 1: my stories about being fun at Bridgetown, let me know.
Speaker 1: I was an alcoholic and so during quarantine I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't need to be doing that stuff, diving
Speaker 1: into it.
Speaker 4: I don't know, though, I will miss it.
Speaker 3: It's a forty weekend and you're never gonna you know,
Speaker 3: you're probably you'll see these people again.
Speaker 4: But they don't care.
Speaker 1: Am I bleeding the next day? Bleeding? Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: was punching that garbage in a jump I forgot well
Speaker 1: to make people clap what it's for?
Speaker 3: I remember that that same year in the warehouse one
Speaker 3: it was like there was something. It was when someone's
Speaker 3: manager was trying to DJ instead of April or Chip
Speaker 3: and so the music.
Speaker 4: What Hey fucking Wire.
Speaker 3: It was like he was trying to do interesting radio
Speaker 3: head B sides on the dance floor.
Speaker 4: Everyone's like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Like we're ruining, and so of course everyone's like trying
Speaker 3: to come on to their drugs or whatever. So I
Speaker 3: went outside because I was it was like this, I'm
Speaker 3: starting to get too much of that anxiety of like
Speaker 3: CNB seen where I can do it a little bit
Speaker 3: for like ten minutes or say hi, and then suddenly
Speaker 3: I'm just like I need to be in a dark
Speaker 3: corner smoking something, or like just being separate and being
Speaker 3: like those you know, Gothy whatever. And so Howard Kramer
Speaker 3: and I were outside smoking and trying to like just
Speaker 3: be a little bit away, and then we heard that
Speaker 3: train come because the train was literally behind the warehouse
Speaker 3: we were in, and so we were stone out of
Speaker 3: our minds and then it was like, oh in the distance.
Speaker 4: And I go, Howard train, and we both just started
Speaker 4: running and we fucking ran down to watch the.
Speaker 3: Train go by, and it was like that kind of
Speaker 3: it was just a very it like I love when
Speaker 3: comedy because sometimes it can be so painful and so
Speaker 3: lonely and so like why am I doing this to myself?
Speaker 4: Like what's the end result?
Speaker 3: But then when you get everybody together that's doing the
Speaker 3: same thing to themselves and to like let off some steam,
Speaker 3: there's like those moments where you're like it's the greatest
Speaker 3: you know, summer camp vibe or whatever, where it's like
Speaker 3: truly people having the best time, the best sets, and
Speaker 3: then like the best party afterwards.
Speaker 5: It's amazing that those parties ever end. Like that's like
Speaker 5: we're all fighting for that moment, you know, we get it,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, wait a minute, how did people go home?
Speaker 5: Like why why do people go home?
Speaker 1: It was like Peanuts gang. There's no parents. We're just
Speaker 1: dancing in a warehouse.
Speaker 3: You're just hoping there's somebody can get at least one
Speaker 3: uber to start coming down there, because that was one
Speaker 3: thing too. When it finally did and it was like
Speaker 3: three in the morning, and we're just like, yeah, all
Speaker 3: the ubers cost two hundred dollars or you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, like or they won't come to this the
Speaker 3: River District wherever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the warehouse stabbing area. Please come pick me
Speaker 1: up at the stabbing docs. I love that.
Speaker 3: I figured out yet again another way to like a
Speaker 3: wax poetic about festivals. I really I'm having like that,
Speaker 3: like you know, these are the days of our lives.
Speaker 4: Thing about it where.
Speaker 3: It's like what's beautiful is because it feels like at
Speaker 3: this point, it's like it's been so long it feels
Speaker 3: like it's never gonna happen again.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm afraid for it to happen again, even though
Speaker 5: I want it real bad. Yeah, I really, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm not going to know what to
Speaker 5: do with myself. Yep.
Speaker 1: Yes, because even though we're all vaccinated, it's like, well
Speaker 1: that's not a ticket to just act normal. You can
Speaker 1: still get this. Yeah, it's hard to know. Are you
Speaker 1: going on tour? Do you have like dates coming?
Speaker 5: I have dates in September? Yeah, and that that whole thing,
Speaker 5: the whole thing feels where like you know, so I
Speaker 5: start putting computers together during the damn pandemic, I started
Speaker 5: like trying to learn how to cook and shit, you
Speaker 5: know what I didn't do work on my set? Yeah,
Speaker 5: nothing new?
Speaker 1: Well, of course, I mean, do you how much of
Speaker 1: your writing is literally writing it out it? If you're
Speaker 1: anything like me, you have to be doing it on stage.
Speaker 1: That's more than fifty sets for me, it's like eighty
Speaker 1: percent in point.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I'm I'm, I'm typically I'm not quite
Speaker 5: wired that way like I. You do write it all out, Yeah,
Speaker 5: everything's all written out, And you know, I'm always working
Speaker 5: towards like albums, so if I have some new songs,
Speaker 5: it's just stuff that I'm trying to refine or you know,
Speaker 5: test out. But you know, most of my work is
Speaker 5: done at home, and I didn't do any like I
Speaker 5: just started making songs like in the last two months.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was hard to be inspired. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean too. I got into cooking and making miniature houses
Speaker 1: and stuff, golf and things that don't help my career.
Speaker 5: At all, exactly.
Speaker 1: Like I'm seventeen again.
Speaker 3: Mike, when you're when you have your first set again,
Speaker 3: don't forget your great line from the Tiny Desk concert,
Speaker 3: how's everyone doing this afternoon? You could don't forget you've
Speaker 3: written on the fly before. I'm just saying you're a
Speaker 3: bit waiting for you.
Speaker 5: Because it might not be It probably won't be afternoon
Speaker 5: at that point, so I can't say that line exactly.
Speaker 4: No, you've got a bang on it. That's the job
Speaker 4: that my part.
Speaker 5: Do you know what my favorite line that I said
Speaker 5: that day was is that it smells like so many
Speaker 5: different kinds of soup in here. Because it did.
Speaker 3: It did.
Speaker 5: Everybody was eating their lunch per formant. It was great.
Speaker 4: That is a set that looks like it would smelling soup.
Speaker 5: It You imagine jobs getting.
Speaker 3: Some smugs quiet, quiet soup, SIPs of soup.
Speaker 4: In your desk.
Speaker 1: Yourrd's logo sh just be a steaming mug of anything.
Speaker 3: God, I can't wait for live shows again. Wait, so
Speaker 3: are you you're going on tour? Because I saw that
Speaker 3: you're gonna play at the Echo Plex, right I.
Speaker 1: Am, yeah, Oh that's down my street.
Speaker 5: Yeah I missed that place too. It's just in my
Speaker 5: head is a really giant cavern, and I don't know
Speaker 5: how we're going to find enough people to put in it.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I tried to go on the website and
Speaker 3: it's I couldn't figure it.
Speaker 1: I'm just happy to hear their opening because it's been
Speaker 1: boarded up. Everything else in Echo Park seems to have
Speaker 1: opened up to a point that makes me uncomfortable, But
Speaker 1: I'm willing to risk it to go to the Echo
Speaker 1: or the Echo Plex.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I miss those places so much, like such
Speaker 5: a formative part of my like LA performing experience. Like
Speaker 5: it's like, wow, I don't even know. Yeah, it's going
Speaker 5: to be interesting for me in twenty twenty one to
Speaker 5: intersect with that place again, just even see what that
Speaker 5: feels like.
Speaker 3: And when you're on tour, are you do you do
Speaker 3: like you're in a bus or do you are you
Speaker 3: separate flying or is it like a big old group
Speaker 3: touring around every time?
Speaker 5: It's different And we haven't worked out all the travel
Speaker 5: details of this one, but I think there's only gonna
Speaker 5: be like five people total performing, so we're probably gonna
Speaker 5: try to do like a minivan situation. Yes, and you
Speaker 5: know the whole like the old school traditional drive all
Speaker 5: day thing and get there and sound check that sort
Speaker 5: of thing. Like I've done the bus thing a few
Speaker 5: times when I've like opened for bigger acts. That shit
Speaker 5: is incredible. Well it's not even just it's it's the
Speaker 5: it's the time, like because when you do the bus,
Speaker 5: you all load up the bus after the show, and
Speaker 5: then the bus you know, like the driver's been sleeping
Speaker 5: all day, so you just drive all night to the
Speaker 5: next town. Uh, you wake up, you're there already. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you can actually like enjoy the city. You can get
Speaker 5: a bagel, you can walk around the town square, like,
Speaker 5: you can do all of this stuff that like we
Speaker 5: never get to do. Wa we never get to experience
Speaker 5: a place when we drive all day and we get there,
Speaker 5: it's like time to work. So luckily, like if we're lucky,
Speaker 5: we get to even like stop at the hotel. But typically, yeah,
Speaker 5: we don't get to enjoy it much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny how much of tour. I'm going to
Speaker 1: Portland that next month, and I'm nervous for a number
Speaker 1: of reasons. But I sometimes don't look forward to doing
Speaker 1: stand up and then I arrived there and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is great. I just don't look forward
Speaker 1: to flying. I don't like the travel logistics. That's what
Speaker 1: I never will look forward to. If you could take
Speaker 1: that away, it would be the best. I need to
Speaker 1: get a bus, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I love the idea.
Speaker 3: I have always like had a very romantic notion of
Speaker 3: the bus because it, first of all, to me, it's
Speaker 3: like what musicians, how musicians do it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: And yeah, it like I love the idea of.
Speaker 3: Keeping everybody together because it's the same festival vibe. But
Speaker 3: it is like, you know, whether you're it's business or
Speaker 3: you're just watching TV or or whatever, but you're still
Speaker 3: kind of it's like still the group.
Speaker 1: Paying it is.
Speaker 4: I think it's like that's so fun.
Speaker 1: Do you sleep in bunks and then you sleeping you
Speaker 1: sleep in like fucking coffins man summer. That's great.
Speaker 5: It's tight. It's really it really is dope, Like it
Speaker 5: really is dope, like that common area like during the
Speaker 5: drive and like you know, somebody's playing beach so somebody's
Speaker 5: playing PlayStation and you know, like you know, it's it's
Speaker 5: it is the communal thing, and it's on wheels and
Speaker 5: it's and you know, you're just waiting to stop and
Speaker 5: get a coffee somewhere and get back on the bus.
Speaker 5: Like it's just really nice, really nice. That's the good ship.
Speaker 1: Is there any plans to ever do more Project Blowed
Speaker 1: stuff like with Acy alone and those guys do you
Speaker 1: talk to them? Are they your friends?
Speaker 5: We get together at least once a year. We have
Speaker 5: an anniversary a party slash show that we do over
Speaker 5: here in the Mert Park there's always like the biggest
Speaker 5: dopest like family reunion every year. And there's there's something
Speaker 5: I talked to him more than others, Like I talked
Speaker 5: to Abstract Rude a lot and Mike and nine a lot,
Speaker 5: you know, like and those are just like my big homies.
Speaker 5: And I'll and I'll do whatever anything he asked me anytime,
Speaker 5: I'll do.
Speaker 1: See. Yeah, that of those guys that make I nerd
Speaker 1: out so much thinking about you being friends with them,
Speaker 1: because like I said that, that that and the fire
Speaker 1: Side and you know that everything that nineteen ninety three
Speaker 1: era of me loving all that stuff.
Speaker 5: Did you see Gift of Gab passed away today? Did
Speaker 5: you see that?
Speaker 1: I did not see that.
Speaker 5: Yeah he did. Black Delicious is oh no gap passed
Speaker 5: away today?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I love Black Delicious.
Speaker 5: Yeah, They're amazing. He was an incredible writer and rapper,
Speaker 5: you know. So rest in peace. Yeah, come too soon.
Speaker 5: Like so many others, so many others. This year, it's
Speaker 5: been really bad. Yeah, it's been really.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it has been.
Speaker 3: That's why I think live performance experiences for both the
Speaker 3: performers and for the audiences are going to be so important.
Speaker 3: It is like that these are the feelings people you know,
Speaker 3: like want to get when they go to those shows.
Speaker 3: It's it's people are needing full on injections of like
Speaker 3: positive up, you know, kind of like high vibe energy
Speaker 3: because there's just been it's just been like a series.
Speaker 4: Of surprise terrible early.
Speaker 3: Deaths or just shock or just the fucking the after
Speaker 3: effect of the Trump chaos where every day I was
Speaker 3: just like, this can't go anywhere but so much what
Speaker 3: like we're gonna spin out, Like this is all getting
Speaker 3: so insane, and it's like we all finally landed, rested
Speaker 3: now we're all kind of like coming to terms, and
Speaker 3: then it's like people need escape.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's.
Speaker 3: Teed up so nicely for big ship, like good big
Speaker 3: ship at the Echoplex. I want to stand in the
Speaker 3: echo flex and listen to people fucking scream at the
Speaker 3: top of their lungs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, making out with wallpaper for each other, garbage.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get into another trash can and
Speaker 1: dance with wood with nails in it.
Speaker 5: When and when are you doing that show you're whining
Speaker 5: that's in September. The date on that one is Septimber.
Speaker 5: I think eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to be there, and so is Karen. Karen,
Speaker 1: you're coming. Yeah, absolutely was the nineteenth.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, so the nineteenth.
Speaker 1: What's your website? I mean, mama as well? Do these
Speaker 1: conclusionary things?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is there?
Speaker 3: Well? Wait, is there any last topic that we haven't
Speaker 3: hit a play like that you'd like to discuss.
Speaker 5: I don't have nothing in mind. Sure, I'm just roll
Speaker 5: with the breeze.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope we were windy enough.
Speaker 4: A lot of winds. That's the one thing we can't guarantee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're You're the coolest and nice and it was
Speaker 1: really cool to have you on.
Speaker 5: Man, it's pleasure. It's great to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell a c alone high high for me.
Speaker 6: Okay, whether I met highs, don't do it, don't do it,
Speaker 6: forget about it.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't the Virgil. Yeah, you were probably at
Speaker 1: the Virgil that night. It was like, oh god, I
Speaker 1: mean it was ten years ago, but it was.
Speaker 5: Is it back when they had the when he was
Speaker 5: doing the Weekly over there? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was as serious. And who's the Vermont the
Speaker 1: grouch guy, the I don't know. There was a bunch
Speaker 1: of I don't know. It was a great night, but
Speaker 1: uh yeah, maybe you were there. I don't know.
Speaker 5: I didn't know you. I used to be over there
Speaker 5: as much as I could in that era. I was
Speaker 5: like helping them put that on and like, yeah, doing
Speaker 5: design stuff and all of that. Man, I was that.
Speaker 5: That was my part of my formative years here in
Speaker 5: the city.
Speaker 3: Oh cool, well Virgil with their signature cocktails and they're
Speaker 3: copper mugs to drink things, or just like, really, guys,
Speaker 3: you're all and you're all wearing suspenders.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: I love the suspenders and the old timey tap histories
Speaker 1: behind you.
Speaker 5: I just having to walk through the stage to get
Speaker 5: to the yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the stage. I used to get really self
Speaker 3: conscious and.
Speaker 4: I realized this stage is sized.
Speaker 3: Down like one quarter. Like I normally don't walk on
Speaker 3: a stage.
Speaker 1: In my head brushes, it's walk stage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a complete it's like a it's like a
Speaker 3: grammar school performance stage.
Speaker 4: It is the I don't like this.
Speaker 1: I do the sync in sync. It's up and try stage.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: You thought I wouldn't talk about in sync.
Speaker 4: Maybe you got it in there. You always have to
Speaker 4: sneak those assholes in here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm always sneaking in the sink. Well yeah, thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot for being on Mike, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 3: And Mike's podcast network Stony Island Audio, Corn Island Audio.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's us and your album again.
Speaker 5: With Anime, Trauma and Divores, and that is the most
Speaker 5: current album. That is the most recent one.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I mean I'm not pushing prep. There isn't
Speaker 1: one new where's the new stuff?
Speaker 4: It seems like I haven't written.
Speaker 5: Breaking away on it though, making all sorts of stuff
Speaker 5: that I can't tell is good or not.
Speaker 1: Well, I think I use your words. I think when
Speaker 1: I say thank you for fucking with us? Absolutely absolutely delightful, delightful.
Speaker 1: Indeed you've been listening to Do you need a ride?
Speaker 5: D y n A R?
Speaker 1: Are you leaving on?
Speaker 4: You want your way back home?
Speaker 2: Either way we want to be there, doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: much baggage you claim, and give us time and a
Speaker 2: termino and Gaby, we want to send you off InStyle.
Speaker 4: You wanna welcome you back home?
Speaker 1: Tell us all about it.
Speaker 4: We scared her?
Speaker 1: Was it fine?
Speaker 3: Malcorn?
Speaker 2: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 4: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 1: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 4: Do you need to ride.
Speaker 1: Do you need to ride?
Speaker 3: Do you need do you need to ride?
Speaker 4: Do you mean.
Speaker 1: With Karen and Chris.
Speaker 3: Mhm.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to show off mouthhorn to mic.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at mouth horn