BOBBYCAST - Comedian Mark Normand on Hating Crowd Work, Being a New Dad, Going Viral & Why He Still Loves the Grind

0:00This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey there everybody, Amy Robock and TJ Holmes here from the Amy and TJ podcast. We're going to cover everything you need to know during this heated political season. Yes, we just saw Lindsey Graham, the death of a long time senator. Also, we've got a couple of missing members of Congress. Also, we got a lot of members of Congress behaving badly. We got accusations, allegations flying all day long on Capitol Hill. Listen to Amy and TJ on the I Heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'm Brett Coleman and I'm Trevor Sikama. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show NFL Pro. Every week we break down the biggest plays, trends and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a die-hard fan, NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the I Heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:04On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image, discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant, the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Wright. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the I Heart radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Self-care September is your reminder to slow down, check in with yourself, get off your phone, and maybe ask why am I like this? I'm James Beck, host of the Psychology of Your 20s podcast. And this month we're helping you make sense of the person that you are becoming from setting boundaries and navigating friendships, to understanding anxiety, confidence, relationships, and attachment. Sometimes our biggest decisions, without us even realizing it, aren't driven by what we truly want,

2:05but by what will prevent us from feeling lonely or being alone. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Then you go to the audition, you show up, everybody looks just like you. They're all hotter versions of you. They're all ripped and taller than me and full head of hair and all this shit. And then you're like, I'm not kidding. Today we're joined by my favorite current comedian, Mark Norman, one of the most prolific and talked about stand-ups working right now. From New Orleans, originally moved to New York and built this career from the very bottom all the way up, which we talked about. I mean, super sharp, super observational. He's got a ton of comedy specials. He's got one on Netflix, it just came out a couple of months ago, it's really good. Jerry Seinfeld's called on the best young up and coming comic.

3:05We do talk about that a little bit. And he's also huge in podcasting. Tuesdays with stories is one of them and we might be drunk. So he's all over the place, he's super funny and his special, I'm talking about soup to nuts, is up now on Netflix. So if you're watching this on Netflix, as soon as you're done with this, go over and watch soup to nuts. And I'm just going to say this, he says stuff. He's about to say stuff. And I'm not saying that you'll be offended, but he's a comedian and he's going to say stuff. And that's all I want to say. So if you'd like to hear stuff, listen, but if you are easily offended, maybe he's going to say stuff. That's all I'm going to say. Here he is, Mark Norman. I did a benefit show, like a fundraiser and John Daly was the big star, I was the comedy. And he has this RTD sells like a drink, like a canned drink.

4:06And I was like, I would love to try one. He's like, well, good luck because I got to get drunk to get through this. And I was like, all right. So he was just putting them back, putting them back. He goes on stage to do some award intro. So I find one, I grab it, I go, great. He's going to bring me up, I'll have this for the stage. He brings me up Mike Normal. He says my name wrong, he's hammered. And he brings me up, I go, hey, thank you, and I'm holding the drink. And he goes, oh, dude, thank you so much. And he just took it out of my hand and chugged it. And I was like, that was my drink, but that's done daily. Did he play music at that event? Because he has one song he plays everywhere. He did not, but he did karaoke. He comes out and does knock on the heavens door. Uh-huh. Because it's like three chords. Like with a guitar. Okay. Yeah, he comes to it pretty much at every event. I'll occasionally get a text. I wonder what my last John Daly text is. Because whoa, you text with him? There's only five of us from Arkansas, he got out. That's incredible. This is not even a flex. Uh, but John Daly, his last text is probably something. How do we pay more for our football program?

5:07Wow. That's what it is. Because we're both Arkansas guys. Nice. Yeah, that's it. Those glasses and that sweater did not read football. You played? Not at a high level. Oh, okay. I work for the NFL. Does that count? No. Okay, what? Yeah, but I'm saying I'm a big Arkansas fan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you played in high school. Yeah, but that's weird to say. No, I don't care. Did you play high school sports? I did not. No, I was a skateboarder. I couldn't do the structure. I couldn't do the practices. I was driving down this road yesterday morning because, aside from this show on Netflix, I do a morning radio show every day. It's five hours and it was in the morning. There's not a lot of traffic. So I'm able to look around a little bit and I saw your name on the sign. Oh, yeah. And I literally texted. I was like, because I'm a massive fan. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm a man. I'm a G. And I was like, oh, Mark's a town. Any chance he can come up. And they were like, yeah, I would love to. So thanks for coming in. Thanks.

6:07I am a massive fan. Hey, I said to the club, everybody at the club, they're like, what are you doing tomorrow? I said, I'm doing Bobby bones. They said, oh, we love Bobby. Bobby's the man. Radio Legend. High school football. Yeah. They know. Yeah. It's often high school football than radio legend. I appreciate that. Are you bomb proof at this point? No. God, no. No, I'm like a Middle Easterner. I can bomb at any moment. I've bombed kind of, kind of had a struggle last night. But it's a struggle different than a bomb. Of course, of course. I mean, I'm, I'm, I did it an hour for Netflix. It came out. I don't know, April or something. So it's all new material. So I'm working it out. So there's going to be some lulls. If you're working new material and well, do you start with new material? If you're working new material or will you place them hits just to get in the mix? I go all in raw dog. I don't do any old stuff because you start relying on it and then you have a cushion. I think it's way harder and it's way uglier.

7:09But if you go in with all new, you have to build that muscle back up. You have nothing, no jumping off point. How much will you have? I want to say finish because it's not finished until you actually recorded. How much will you have done at the very beginning? How much of that makes it to the end? Oh, that's a good question. Not much. Maybe like I have about 45 minutes right now of clunky half baked stuff. Maybe 30% of it will make it to the end, 35. Do you have any stuff that you start with that you for sure believe in? Yes. And then laterally. A premise or a joke? Both. Both. I have a couple jokes there. I'm like, this is making it to the end. This is a great joke. And then I have someone like this will never last, but I need it to get by. Uhhh. That's the water. That's the weird water. It's a lot of sodium in this son of a bee. No, it's literally salt water. What? Oh, did you know that? That's what that is. Why am I drinking salt water? Is that bad? No. I don't need all that sodium. How do you say stay salty on the can?

8:10Ah. Yeah. I didn't even notice that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to start reading that. I thought this was a beer. No, no. Stay salty. I thought salt was bad for you. We just put them in there because nobody else would drink them. Ah, shit. All right. That was a tall boy. So you get into town yesterday. You did two shows. Yes. How many shows have you done with the new material? A lot. A lot. I go, I go, just jump right in the pool. So I go all in. So I've been doing the road every weekend since the special came out. So do you feel good now just generally with the hour? I feel better. It's not where I want it to be. And I can tell some of the audience is like, hey, we're going to go see this guy. We love to special. Then they see you and they're like, yeah, something. There's something stuff there. So I don't know where the audience knows. They just think like, hey, funny guys. He'll go be funny. It'll be a good show. I don't think they understand that like you have to start from scratch and work your way up. It's an uphill battle. And they're part of the process. But they just want to see a good show, which I think is fair.

9:13They're paying money. They're getting a babysitter. And then I'm up there like, is this anything? How about that? So I feel kind of guilty, but that's the only way to do stand up. Do you ever take notes up early? I take notes up early all the time, and late. So you'll walk up with paper. Oh, yeah. And I show them the paper. I try to keep it very, what's the word transparent? How long do you do that? Till it's just locked in and the second nature. Do you ever, because we live in a memorabilia world now. Is it? Do you ever sign it? Oh, no, I need them. I need to see them. But you don't need it every show. Let's say you finish the show. It's like a set list for the artist, right? It's really cool to get a set list for the artist. Right. Let's say there was a Mark Norman joke that you were working on and you signed it. I'm ever like a memorabilia company even that I work with. Oh, okay. Like I think there's some real money there. Interesting. Well, I got to stack this high up the joke notes. So if you want them, I can sell them for a nickel each.

10:13We'd make a fortune. Have you felt you becoming Gen Pop famous? Gen Pop famous. But no, I don't know. That actually scares me a little. Like I hang out with Shane Gillis last week and you know, you just can't go anywhere with the guy. And that's so cool and great for him. He's, you know, he sold out the fucking Eagle Stadium. But that worries me. I like being a little under the radar. You know, I don't want to be the black out guy. I want to pee in a bush and come back to the bar and not be not if TMZ shooting my dick, you know, so you want to be able to sell tickets. I want to be like a Brian Regan or like a good kind of what's like a doctor dog. You know that man? No. Exactly. But they can play everywhere. They sell out. I know dog star. Dog star is Keanu. That's right. On the base. Yeah. But you're starting to cross over though to that. I know you have to feel it a little bit. I do. I get recognized a lot and it's very nice and I love the fans and I appreciate it.

11:14But I'm scared of that that moment when you're out with my kid at a park and somebody's like, fuck you. You suck. And my kids are like, what was that? You know, how old is your kid? Almost two. How's that going? I'm loving every minute of it. Oh, shit. I just realized I left him in a way, Mo. But no, good kid. Cute. And it gets better every month. We have a five month old first baby. Oh, congrats. Thanks. So when you say I left a minute of it, that feels something minutes are hard. Oh, it's hell on earth. Don't get me wrong. No, you just said that. Well, you're in the thick of it. It's only going to get easier and easier. And then before you know it, there's a girl. It is girl. Before you know it, she's walking. Then she starts saying like two words like a car. I'll go a bunch and go, car. Car. And you're like, car, your heart melts and then I do the road. So I come home with the suitcase. I'm hungover. I'm gay. I'm walking and the kids like, dad, dad. Oh my God, there's nothing better. When do the weeds stop? Like I'm in the middle of it right now.

12:15When does that start to be not as intense? Probably about nine months. So yeah, but it's going to get it. They're going to sleep better. They're going to eat better. And it just keeps, it keeps progress as good. It just keeps going up. Can you be present when you're at home? Oh, yeah. That's where I lock in. So you don't have to like fight with the phone or... Oh, the phone is tough. Yeah, the phone is ruining my life. It's actually kind of bad. Because we're on the road. We're alone. So I want to flight for six hours. So I look at the phone for six hours. And then you go, all right, put the phone down. You psycho. What are you doing? Then you go, oh, I'm going to stare at the back of the seat. Get with the phone again. And then our work is on our phone. I'm getting texts from my manager, my agent, the wife, friends, podcast partners, you know, and all these producers. So you got to keep it on you. Who's funny to you right now? Oh, geez. That you've heard of? And no, it doesn't matter. I was asked this and I had to probably wait at the end.

13:17You're my favorite comedian right now, period. Whoa, come on! But I'm not just saying that because you're here. I was doing an interview recently about that, like who I think's funny now. And it wasn't just comedians, but I think you're my favorite comedian now. I know you're my favorite comedian now. Geez, this is unbelievable. So I'm a massive fan. I actually saved that for the end. So I don't look like... Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm uncomfortable. Me too. So... Hashtag. Who is it for you? Who's funny? Oh, man. I think John Malini's very funny. I think there's a couple of people that no one's heard of that I think are great. So I don't know if I should shout him out or if it's gonna be. Well, there's a guy, Zoltan, who's very funny. He's got a San Diego. There's a guy Kyle Kanane is very funny. Just got Sean Murphy. I mean, Carmen Lynch, Jordan Fisher, a lot of funny cats out there. But Jeff Asmiss, but if we're talking about people we know, let's see, who have you

14:18heard of that I think is really great. I feel like comedy's in a weird place with the whole clip culture. If people would put out too much shit, me included. So that watered it down a little bit. Do you feel the need in clip culture every night to do something somewhat different that you're never going to do again so you can use that as a clip? Not really. I don't want the clips to push my comedy a certain way because that's really bad. I've heard guys like, if you talk about horse goaps, it goes viral. You got to do a horse go bit. I'm like, I'm not going to write a bit about horse goaps just for the virality, but I will write like I use as an exercise like, all right, Fauci's in the news. Let me write a Fauci joke that no, an angle no one's hit. Let me write a joke about the WNBA or these cocaine guys at the fraternity at Penn State. So I try to get one of those out, but that's also a good exercise. Because if it's so current, you can post it and it's also not going to last until you get to the special because it won't be relevant.

15:19Exactly. So you're not burning material, but you're also getting some hits and you're staying relevant. What was the first joke of yours that went viral? How much so that it felt exciting, but weird? I had a joke about getting yelled at by a trans person. We've all gotten a million views here, a million views here. This one hit like, you know, 30 million or some crazy number. And it was about a trans person who yelled at me and she was like, you're not funny. And I said, well, you look like a man. And she was like, that's the horrible thing to say. And I'm like, but you insulted me. So I'm just insulting you. I can't remember the bit, but it just hit. And I was really, I didn't make fun of trans bills. So I was really proud. I constructed it. So nobody was really hurt. And it just blew up. And it was right during, you know, when all the trans stuff was kind of new. And you weren't really allowed to poke at it. And so I think it clicked.

16:19I'll send you the link later. Richard Link later. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months. I survived. And I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart. And these are the survivor files. And just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up. Don't say anything. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed. And I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

17:20Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Beniero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip,

18:20I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm gonna have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is the Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place.

19:21Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Dear Hunnies, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patre Mathers, and her husband Michael, nailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died by suicide. By the time you get the shalliter both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Patre and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to a truly hope that Patre was a thousand percent on board with the plan. Do you think of him as having killed her? Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible for my mother's death. I'm Leon Nefak. And I'm Alice Gregory.

20:21Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patre and Michael's letters, as one married couple trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back on the BobbiCast. Do you have no phones? It shows. Put them in the bag. I wish. It's too expensive. So I feel bad asking. People can record your shows now. They can put it all the time. I get the security on it, but is that, does that come out of your paycheck? How's that work? Oh, that's so frustrating. The yonder bag that you have to watch to see if people are using their phones during a show all the time. Will you point them out like Deffel Epper used to do with chicks back in the day? Like will you like get it? Yeah, I'm like, uh, quit filming me. Now there's a million videos out there of me going like, hey, turn that off.

21:21Were you doing the show where the person passed out? I had seizure? Yes. That was me. Tampa, Florida. You're on stage. What happens? I'm on stage and I'm cooking. And I was about 40 minutes in into an hour set. And a guy just goes and then falls out of his chair. And I was like, ah, we got another drunk guy because it was so far away. And then somebody's like, whoop, hold on. This is serious. And then the owner came in and the manager came in and they had to drag the guy out, took a crazy edible. Oh, that's what happened to him. Yeah, he took an edible and he was in the lobby like, I'm good. I'm good. I just, I've never had a season like you've never had one. That's even weirder. So they're like, you can't go back in there. You're too, too messed up. So they put him in an Uber. Be ready to stop the show. I had to stop a show and riff on it. And in my mind, I'm like, is this guy dying? Is it a heart attack? I didn't know what it was. So you don't want to make fun of him, but you also want to keep it funny. But it was a real tight rope. Is it hard to get a crowd back? It was, yeah, but I made the funny part about how the joke was so bad that a guy had a seizure.

22:23So I kept referencing that back. That was the angle. You grew up in New Orleans? Yeah. Boy, you really transitioned. I know you're like Elliott Page. Yeah, yeah, I grew up in New Orleans, born and raised on the playgrounds where I got molested. But yeah, yeah, New Orleans, fun town to grow up in or fun town to visit. I think it's a weird place to grow up. I always say grown up in New Orleans, like having Charlie Sheen for a dead. You know, it's fun on paper when you're 11. You're like, I could use a hug in a vegetable. Were you in the city? Yeah, in the city. Trimae. It's right out. You've been to the French Quarter. I've been to New Orleans a lot. Yeah. Okay, yeah, I grew up right outside of the French Quarter on this planet Avenue. It was dicey. As in crime. We were the white family. So that was weird. There's a lot of racial tension. I know we do a lot of stuff about white supremacy. When you're the white guy in the black neighborhood, it was bad. It was somebody spray-painted, kill whitey on our fence at one point.

23:23I mean, it got hairy. Were you a funny kid? I think so. I was just a goofball. I get rid of the kid. All my friends were funny growing up. Were you funnier to the point where people told you you should do something funny? No. No. Or even perform in some way. Yeah, I did plays and stuff. I did school plays. I was a lad in the school play. That was pretty big. I got the titular role. But goofing off, big comedy fan. I still have a couple of lines I remember from being in, you know, fifth grade, sixth grade. At the point, a teacher was doing a teaching about like expressions and she goes, all right, if you're in a glass house, you shouldn't. And I went shower, killed, killed, still remember it. That was the one. That's how you knew. Yeah. That was the moment. Someone said, let's start you walking down the street here. Oh, it was on the phone. Okay. So you didn't walk here? No. No, I took it over.

24:24I'm staying right on Broadway. God, as someone assumed you walked from the comedy club to a test that I don't think he stays at the comedy club. No, there is a condo there, but there's a condo at the comedy club. There is. It's ain't easy across street. Did they let people, the people that are performing stay there? The openers are there to tell all weekend. Is that, does that happen at a lot of clubs where they have some more Tuesday? Yeah, I'd say about 50% have a condo. Do you like staying in that place or is it disgusting? Oh, no, I think you, you ever, you grow out of that. I mean, it's, that's like some, it's the dorm of. Yeah. Okay. That's some early on shit, but when you start selling a couple of tickets that put you in a nice hotel and then the hotel gets nicer and the more tickets you sell. When you first started telling jokes, did you, were you the host or did you start trying to do it by yourself? I did the whole, I did I barked. You didn't know about barking? Standing outside and yeah. Standing outside and yeah. Hey, we got a comedy show here. Then they give you a couple of minutes depending on how many people you bring in. Then I did check spots. You know about check spots. Do not. What? I mean, I'm not a comedian.

25:24Bad. Okay. See, see minus at my, at my heart. All right. All right. This is a hell of a review. Bad. Okay. So the check spot is at a comedy club. They do take about 10 minutes to pass the checks out and all the people have to fill out their shit. You know, ah, bad. We got the Mai Tai. That's great. It's $11, whatever. So then you have to go on stage and perform while they're filling out the checks just so there's not dead air. And it's the worst gig on the planet. Is that not even listening? So they're just like, ah, who's got a card? Are we going to split this? Whatever. And then you're up there like, so Uber's weird. What's up with lift? What's the difference? But it couched a sofa. But you know, what's after checks then? Then another guy goes on our gal. No, no, no, like what's the next step? Oh, sorry. Um, I'm an idiot. After checks is showcasing. And this is how New York is. So then you do 15 minutes in a lineup of like five people. And then usually go first if you're the new guy and there's a host, then you, then somebody else, but then, then you go on the road and host.

26:29Then you go on the road and feature. Then you go on the road and headline. So feature would be like in music. There's like the main support. Is that the feature like the support? The middle. Yeah. We call them. Is that a big jump to go from the feature to the main? Do you have to have huge huge? Because that's, that's, you got to bring people in as the headliner. You can headline and they, they paper the room, which means the funny bone or whatever club, the improv will give everybody free tickets just so they get in and buy food and drinks. And then they put up a guy who's new and they give them like a thousand dollars and you do the weekend. Is there resentment towards and I use my situation? I am not a real comedian. I told a bunch of jokes for a few years and toured a lot, but I just, I started in theaters because I, but, but I don't say that as a fleck. I say that as I was very fortunate to do that because I had people that liked me already. Right, right. And I have friends that are really good at being funny and, and have had to work their way up and pay, and pay their dues. There were no dues for me to pay.

27:31Wow. I just started doing theaters. A guy like you that's done it all, but is also the best at it. Is there resentment towards people that do that? Well, I don't know how you, how'd you go out there the first, the first time? How did you, did you just struggle and was it awkward? Yeah, all, all. But the benefit it was for me, I knew all those people were there for me. Yeah. So I got like five to seven minutes free. It didn't matter. What I said for five to seven minutes, I knew they were there for me. It did not matter. Also, I got to do some kitschy things. I would grab my guitar, I'd write funny songs. Sure. So the new stuff, which it was all new at first, if it wasn't working, I just got my guitar and play songs that I know were funny. Right. And so I had different crutches. I could lean on. That's great. Until I had enough material that I felt good about where I didn't, then I just wouldn't take a guitar and say it all. Once I get to that confident point, but I got to cheat. Like I opened for me for a while. I had a comedy music duo and we were selling out theaters. So I would go up and do 10 minutes. And then when it sucked, we'd get to a point where it sucked. I'd be like, all right, that's it for me. We'll be back out in a second.

28:32I could end whenever I wanted. Wow. But the cool thing is you're aware of this cheat code or whatever. It was all fraud. It all felt fraudulent. I thought I ended up being C minus C, maybe C at my best. But it felt like I didn't come up the right way. Well, I don't know if there's a right way. And I like that you're aware of it. There are guys who have this opportunity like you and then they're like, but I'm great. Look how great I am. I'm killing it. But if I put you in Oklahoma and in a club, you'd eat shit. So you are aware and you acknowledge it. And I think that goes a long way. That's why I didn't do clubs. Wow. Because I knew it would be terrible. Clubs are tough. They yell at you. They heckle. They're on their phones. It's a struggle. The closest thing that I'll get to that now is playing the Grand Alopry because they didn't come to see me. Oh, right. Well, there are also a lot of them are old too. Sure. So any pop culture reference does not work. It's mostly I just talk about gun smoke for 45 minutes.

29:32But they're not there to see me. So if I can win them, that's the closest thing that I get to going into a club where people aren't coming for me. Sure. So if I finish a show like that and it feels good, that feels like that's the closest I ever had to get to that. Well, are you kind of itching to do a club? Let me see if I can go do it. No. Okay. I appreciate that as well. Yeah, none. Because I see people that can really do it. I feel like a junior college pitcher. And then I watch Roger Clemens throw like you. And I'm like, oh, yeah, no, no, I don't have that. Right. Like, if you come to the small town and watch me, and I play my little junior college game, I'm going to strike out seven. It's going to be a pretty. But as soon as it's time, like I know where I stand. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. I think the problem we have is like a stormy Daniels coming in and doing stand up and take it up a club weekend. And she's up there like, so let me tell you about blowing Trump, which, look, I'd like to hear that too. But don't call yourself a comedian. That's what we get annoyed. You know, these actors who come in and try to act like they're a comic in the 10 minutes.

30:37I have trouble even using the word and I taught for three years consistently. The theaters did a special that was bought by CMT still. I if someone asked me like, it's almost a bad word to come out of my mouth. Yeah. Like I tell jokes, well, see, this is great. You're very self aware. And some of them are funny. But I, but I don't go comedian. All right. Well, you know, what you're doing is we call a bringer show where like, you know, you see a very green comic go up and bring 10 people. And then they do their set and they kill with those 10 people in the club. But I would do it like 3000. Yeah. That's a good bringer. That's a good bringer. Yeah. No, but did you see how your second got better over three years by far? How cool is that? And totally did a whole second one. Like I developed a whole second. So, but I got to do it again when it's all your own people that are coming for you. And this is really cool to talk to somebody who's great at it. So what I could tell was I would go out and I had the first seven to ten minutes for

31:39free. It did not matter what I did. And there got to be a point where I didn't want to put anything that I was trying to make better early because they were going to laugh at it anyway. Right. So I would put it something that I felt like maybe wasn't there that I was that was chasing maybe the micated was a right maybe my words. I'd put it in the middle because there's a point where I had to earn it back from them because they just spent 80 90 bucks a ticket. Yeah. And they're not going to give it to me for free the whole night. So there was a point where I could feel if I didn't hit they didn't hit with me. And that's when I would try the new stuff because that's the only true reaction I could get. 100%. So nothing new or unproven went early. Yeah. Only easy stuff went early. Wow. Okay. I love it. I respect it. You treated the art with some respect. Oh, fully. It's the hard dancing was hard. Dancing. Dancing. I want to dance with the stars. Holy shit. Yeah. I didn't know that stand up was harder, but that was it was an acute illness.

32:42Dancing was. Yeah. It was I don't know how to dance, but it was much quicker. It was in a much more packed three months. It's way more physical thing where it stands more mental. Yeah, but I hadn't done either one of them. You know, I know I played high school football. So I had a low athletic ability. Yeah. I heard. I don't know if you heard them and you got down. It's kind of what people share of you. Well, that's incredible that you took on that feat because I couldn't I wouldn't do it. It's too much. It's too. I was dancing. I got no rhythm. Me same. Really? I've never danced at all. I got out there and I told jokes. Ah! On the tour though, I literally that's all I did because I can't dance. Yeah, same. I won because people liked me and I tried and I got better, but when we did the tour, they contractually obligated you to do certain amount of shows on the tour. And so I think I had four shows and I went and I said, hey, can I just tell jokes in the middle of the show because I don't want to dance. But you have to dance. They didn't make me dance. Come on. I don't want to hold you when without dancing. Well, on the show I won, on the tour, I just told jokes. Got it. Because of the tour who cares. It's everybody, all the great dancers.

33:42So on the tour, it turned into like a seven minute comedy show for me. That was my fill and I. And you killed? And I did B+. All right. Well, let's see. That's not your crowd. And you still did B+. A lot of dancing jokes though because I knew what the crowd wanted. That's what they want. I think that's something. That's impressive. I'm aware of my limitations. I know. But I think that's something that's impressive. I'm aware of my limitations. I know. But just the fact that you took that on is that's what life's all about is going for. You're probably a whole different better person for doing that. Yeah, maybe not. Brutal fan base. Oh, really? Brutal. Well, they don't want to see you. They do not want to see social media is awful to me from that fan base. Oh, really? Yeah, it was bad. Damn. Do you go into your comments? Oh, yeah. It's a mistake every time. Do you ever not go into your comments because you know it's a mistake every time? I mean, I'm not reading everyone, but I'll just pop open. I'm eating breakfast. I'm like, oh, let me check out how this YouTube clips doing. Jesus Christ. I didn't know my face did that.

34:47Oh, I get a lot of ears. You know, like to me, if I get a comment that's surface, like you got weird ears, you know, you move like a robot, you're autistic. I'm like, this is nothing. But when they hit on something where you're like, I do do that. Oh, I thought I was hiding that shit. I didn't know I did that. That's when it hurts. What would those type things be? Oh, you know, like I can tell this Joe, he's got no confidence in this joke or his old stuff was better or he's losing it. This clip sucks. The fact that he posted this shows that he just needs content and he doesn't really care anymore. And they, you know, I'm like, damn, I did need content. So I did throw that up. Oh, my old joke about that was better. You know, whatever. Do you feel you have to get better every time you put a special out? Definitely. Definitely. At least the same, but it should be better. But you also don't know until it's consumed. That's true. So will you know it's better? This is what I have trouble with. I have to now go to a lot of therapy.

35:48I have to before anything goes out, it could be even like I did a TV show on that geo and we did the whole season and I thought, do I like this show or not? I need to have a conversation with myself before I put it out because if it gets eaten up, I need to at least know I liked it before it went out. Right. Like I have to like put a marker in it. And that's good. You want quality work out there. But regardless of what the feedback was, I was going to remember how I felt about it before. And I wonder if you're doing a large body of work. Can you like something more than before, but then it's not received as well? 100%. That happens a lot. Can you though be happy with it even if it's not received as well? Yeah. Yeah. I'm bummed. I'm disappointed. But I'm like, hey, I did my part. I like what it is. And that's what it's going to be. Like, you know, you got to think like, etiocracy, great movie, Mike Judge, bombed in the theater, made no money, failure commercially. Everybody talks about that movie now.

36:49Oh, we're living in a yawksy. Oh, have you got to go see this movie? He nailed it. It was time. So it's not always about how it's received right then. I don't, I sound like I'm making excuses, but I think things can be good and still not received well. The bobby cast will be right back. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months. I survived. And I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

37:49They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their story is about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Beniero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes, without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smile good, that's not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version

38:55of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. I'm bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments. Nothing is off the table. So like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is a Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations,

39:56or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Dear Hunnies, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patre Mathers, and her husband Michael, nailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died by suicide. By the time you get the shalliter book, Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Patre and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to a truly hope that Patre was a thousand percent on board with the plan. Do you think of him as having killed her? Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible for my mother's death.

40:58I'm Leon Nevock. And I'm Alice Gregory. Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patre and Michael's letters. As one married couple, trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Bobby Cast. Were you ever neurotic in your art just hoping you could pay the bills so you had to remain in it as like you had to be good. Yeah. Well, the bills is always a factor. It's this tough balance because we got this content monster that just consumes and he's never satiated and he just needs more, more content. But also you want to keep the quality up. So you got to weigh that. Because they don't go together. Not usually. You can't constantly put out an idea with us to a whole lot of content that is great. If you put out a whole lot, it's obviously not going to be all the great because there's

42:00only so much great. Yeah. Just speaking of a little bit of great, a lot of medium, a little bit of bad. You can't put out a lot of great. I know. I know. I mean, that's songwriters struggle with that, I think. Because they're like, this isn't a hit with the hell. But I'm like, well, the whole record can't be hits. It's 20 songs on this thing. I think that's how it is for comedy. Do you sing? No. With this voice, you're good. No music at all. No, no, I shouldn't even be speaking. My wife likes dirty talk in the bedroom. I'm like, I can't do it with this voice. It just won't work. What music do you like? I like, I'm a big boomer queen. I like the old style. I like the singer songwriter stuff. Boomer queen? Yeah. I like, you know, Van Morrison and Jackson Brown and all that stuff. How did all that become your favorite? Your parents have that around the house? I think I used to listen to oldies growing up. And you know, you say, oh, the Beatles. Well, like these guys, then you start branching out and you're like, hey, now I'm listening to Almond Brothers and Warren Zeevon.

43:01We had cool 95 at the radio station, but that was oldies. So that's how I know all the oldies is my listening to cool 95 and then playing all the stuff. But now oldies is like food fighters. I know. In that crazy. Classic rock. It's like coming up classic rock, Zeppelin and the chili peppers. It's like crazy. But I say, Nick at night has friends and fresh prints. I'm like, holy shit. It's all flying by. What about acting? I wrote a movie with my buddy. We're shooting it in a month and I can't act. So I'm taking classes. What do they do in those classes? I haven't started yet, but it's like, I got an acting coach and he's going to read lines with me and be like, no, he got to do like this. You got to do that. You got to, I hear you got to let go and I can't let go. Have you auditioned for anything? Millions of auditions never got one thing. My agent still pushes this shit on me and he's like, this is the one. Here it is. I do the audition and people are horrified. What kind of roles do you often go for?

44:02I go for like small comedic roles like the wacky janitor or the silly nurse. And none. And never gotten what? I'll dress like a nurse. I'll wear black face. I'll do whatever they want and cannot get a roll. What about a call back? Have you gotten that far? Call back like a handful of times in 20 years. And that's very exciting. They got you on the hook. Then you go to the audition. You show up. Everybody looks just like you. They're all hotter versions of you. They're all ripped and taller than me and full head of hair and all this shit. And then you're like, I'm not getting it. So the movie you wrote, why? Well, we feel like, hey, like me and my buddy said, we started a whiskey together. We kind of do like a, why not us? And he's, he's got more self worth and self esteem than I do. So and I'm lucky he takes me along. He's like, Kevin Hart's got a tequila. Why can't we have a whiskey? I'm like, well, Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart with the hell are we? And he's like, wow, we drink. He doesn't. That's a good point. So we started a whiskey.

45:03And then we said, ah, it's not a lot of great comedy movies out right now. We're joke guys. Why don't we make a movie? And I was like, oh, yeah. I never assumed I could make a movie. He's very good at doing things. So we wrote it together. We wrote it over zoom like in 10 zooms. Wrote the whole thing. We wrote it. We wrote it. Me and this guy, we got a guy named Noah Garden Schwartz who's written on a ton of TV. He knows how to make a movie arc in a structure, which we didn't know. And we put it all together and we sold it. Why aren't there comedies now? Two reasons. One, no DVDs. DVDs, that's where comedy lived. You know, like, oh, you got to watch office space. So you got to watch half baked. You don't pass around DVDs. Not that many people were going to see half baked in the theater, but it had a double life as a DVD and you can make it fortune. Those are gone. And then two, I mean, think about something about Mary. Amazing movie. So funny.

46:03The opening scenes are. You know, it's fucking headphones on. Going Franks and Beads. You know, these zips are balls up at one point. There's a million jokes about Matt Dillon having a. And the main character female gets jizz in her hair. That's the big takeaway of the movie is the hairges. That just, that doesn't fly now. Everyone's so, you got to think these, these execs in Hollywood. They're wearing suits. They're in a board room. All they talk about is diversity. It's a bunch of white people in the room. Then they go, uh, well, why take a risk and get to the movie. It's offending offending some people. I'm gonna lose my job because they're not actually talented. They're just marketing people or finance bros who work in entertainment. I don't know why we go through them for selling shit and ideas and comedic advice. You know, it's insane. So, well, you know, so we said, fuck it. We're, we're gonna write it ourselves.

47:05But somebody bought it. A independent finance earbottie because he believed in us. But he's not like a Hollywood guy. So then is, uh, uh, uh, uh, goal be a weird word? Is it to, to release it independently? Like, should it for as cheap as possible? Release it independently and hope it catches? That's the plan. Do you have a budget? We do. About three mill. Isn't it crazy? That's a small budget. It is. But when you think about all the factors, the equipment, the talent, the directors, the locations, the film, the editing, you know, costumes, all that shit. But then the pressure is on you as well because you have to act. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm pretty much myself in the movie, which helps. I don't know. I played myself once in that show, Nashville. Mm-hmm. I played four different characters in that show, which is weird. Wow. That word. The continuity just terrible through seasons. I just, I started as an extra and then my career was getting a little bigger as that show was getting bigger. So then they brought me on as a different role. I played four different people, weirdly. Yeah. But I played myself and I'm not an actor.

48:06It was oddly the hardest because even though I'm playing, your body just feels weird because you're playing yourself, but you wonder what I even do, everything about it felt odd. Yeah. No, I'm with you. And then you're like, what do I do with my hands, normally? You know, all that shit. So I'm totally with you. I'm in my head the whole shoot. So the fact you did Nashville is that's a huge accomplishment. I couldn't do it. No, I didn't really do that. I made my accomplishment. Wow. TV show. I used to play four seasons. Like I literally sat there with the book and yelled something from the back. Well, you had speaking role. Yeah, fair enough. Okay. And I was listed as a reporter, number one. All right. Yeah. By the way this drink is making me thirsty, which I've never had with a drink before. I've had to need a, a water to go with my, do you, with your water. Yeah. You need a water for your water? Yeah, this is ridiculous. Well, when you're on the road and what do you do all day before show if you're in a city that you don't live in? Good question. usually get lunch with the opener, then I try to work out, which is embarrassing.

49:06You know, I'll do a couple of pushups and jerk off. And then I try to write, you gotta get the writing in, and then the show. But I like to take it easy during the hour. I don't want all these people like, we're in sacred, we gotta go to see the arch. We gotta go to this restaurant. They gotta a museum, but for boogers. And I'm like, get outta here. I'm writing. I wanna take it slow on a show day. What is your writing process? Is it, yeah, do you have a notes app on your phone? Are you laptop or your handwritten on a piece of paper? All handwritten, folded pieces of paper from years. And I have like, I don't have it on me now, but I have a stack of notes. And on the top of the stack is the current jokes I'm working on. So I'll take that stack, take the top paper off, put it down on the table, got the notebook next to it, and I kind of, I transcribe. I go, all right, first joke, coffee table books. What's funny about that? That's just a bullet point. And then I'll take that, I'll walk around in my hotel room, talk it out, talk it out. If I come up with a funny line, I write that down in the notebook.

50:08So it's just kind of taking an idea and then fleshing it out on a notebook. I have songwriter friends, and sometimes we'll hear old songs that wrote a long time ago, or even old concepts they had on their phone they forgot about. Does that ever happen with jokes where you'll see a joke that maybe you started or just completely forgot about? You're like, man, this is good. I can use this now. It does happen, and that's a great feeling. Because you become a better writer. Also, you got to get away from a joke sometimes to see it clearly. You know, it's like when you see a word over and over, the word loses that meaning. Sometimes you stare at a joke, and you're like, I don't even know where I thought this was funny. But then six months go by, you find that joke, and you go, oh, I see where to go with this, but you need a little time. Couldn't do it in the moment. Do you like to see people's faces when you perform? Not really. Do you have them shut the lights off, or is it just whatever it is it is? I just, in a theater, I go lights off. I want to look at that just vast darkness, because it just feels like you're alone almost. I run and I just hear the laughter. So you're just kind of just going off. It's like surfing.

51:08I'm just going off the waves they're giving back to me. If I can see them, you start going, wow, she's hot. Damn, that guy's fat as shit. Holy hell, she hates me. Now this guy's the last one. So it's too many factors going on in my head. I want to worry about the jokes. What about the guy that doesn't laugh? Then I don't fuck with you. I call him out usually. Which I shouldn't do. At one point, I was kind of struggling last night. I was killing with half the room, but this one guy in the front was doing this shit. Like trying not to laugh. And at one point, I cracked him and he went like, and I was like, hey, you blinked. You cleaved, finally you moved. And he was like, what do you mean? I've been joining the show. I'm like, well, tell your face. I mean, it'd be like banging a girl. And after she was like, that was great. I'm like, you were silent. You didn't make a pneumonia or nothing. So what about crowd work? Crowd work is not for me. I like the material. To me, it's all about a point of view. And like, what if Mitch Hedberg did a bunch of crowd work? I want to know Mitch Hedberg's thoughts on bananas, you know?

52:12So I think it's a good tool in the tool belt, but people rely on it too much. Your act should be a written piece, an hour piece of great jokes and angles and ideas and premises. And if you do crowd work, it's just, oh, this guy's the dentist. Get out of here. Come on. What are you doing at cavity search? Yeah. At K9, watch out. Mollers, who gives a fuck? Are the comedians that do a lot of crowd work looked at differently than the ones who don't within the group? I think so, yeah. I think, well, we all came up watching Chris, but I love Chris Rock. And no one's ever like, hey, you heard that Chris Rock crowd work, but no, you go, hey, how about the bit about the police or the N words versus black people? That's the stuff that makes you. And so a crowd work, I'm like, you can have a great moment. Don't give me wrong. There's some great crowd work out. There's brilliant people at it.

53:12But it's like a potato chip. I want the steak. Who's your favorite ever? Chris Rock in the 90s is up there for me. That run he had was unbelievable. That's kind of what got me into comedy and got me in a standup. I always loved Seinfeld growing up. We had watched with my family. But Chris Rock in that 94 to 2005 was probably my favorite standup of all time. But then Louis had chewed up and Bill Burk came around and there's Brian Regan, there's Jim Gaffigan, there's David Tell, he's hilarious. So it's hard for me to pick a favorite ever, but those are my favorites, probably. Is there a special though, specifically that you think of and go, man, that one hit me at the right time in the right way? Yeah, bigger and blacker and bring the pain. But then Norm, I'd probably say Norm is my favorite because no one is as funny as Norm all the time. Hitler's dog? Hitler's dog is great. Me doing standup is great.

54:13Hitler, uh, Hitler. Norm is funny on podcasts, he's funny on stage, he's funny on a TV show, he's funny in a movie, he's funny in the interview, he's never not funny. I loved Hitler's dog because it just starts and then it just ends and he never moves. It is Norm just being Norm, there's no bell, there's not a single whistle. Yeah, straight ahead, it's almost like a single camera shot. Oh yeah, it's, he almost seems enlightened, you know, he was on a different level. Like later in my life, I'm not about to die, but later in my life of, because obviously there's a time in our life when things hit us, music hit us different because we're growing as people. Yeah, but that was like a later, like I think that's my favorite late, in my life special. Yeah, there just, there was nothing to it except everything to it at the same time. Right, right here, here. And he's so effortless and that's really hard to do. Embrave, brave. Very brave, he had balls, which we kind of, we're kind of losing now. Now it's more, county feels more conformative.

55:14We're all conforming. What do we allow to say? What do we allow to say? What topics can I go into? People always talk about, you can't say anything anymore. That's not true. I joke about everything. But I will say the most pushback you get is when you tell the truth. The truth is what bothers people now more than offending or more than a zinger. It's when you tap into something that's true, that's when people get mad now. All right, which is scary. I love George Carlin. I still get a lot of stuff that comes across my feet now because you talk about people way ahead. Way ahead. Like so, like, the balls. 30 years ahead. Yeah. And so his stuff will come through now and it feels like it could be done today. And if it were done today, it would still be 100% elite. And you know what's crazy about him is the right and the left both embrace him, which is funny because he has all these jokes where he's like the classification of America, get the hell out of here, stop policing the language, all these people policing language.

56:14And that's very left wing shit. But then he also has like abortion should be legal. What are you doing? Enough with the wars, too many wars. So then the right hates that. So he's just keeping it real and both sides, still like him. That's a good sign. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months. I survived and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying shut up, don't say anything. Every week I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming.

57:17They are abducted, stalked, controlled and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Beniero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies your soul about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind,

58:20or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm gonna have to look up this story. I'm obsessed, so obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. So like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is the Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives,

59:21smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. That call was really pivotal for me. Hey, it's Emily Tish Sussman and this season on She Pivots, the podcast where women share bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. I sit down with culture shifting women who share their pivots like Para Olympian Alley Truett. I was like, I'm on out from a shark attack. There's no way in 11 months I'm making the very long text. Advocate Elizabeth Smart. I still feel that drive that I can still make a difference. So I'm gonna keep going. Celebrity chef Carla Hall was that scary to walk away from such a stable career after just two years? No, I was more afraid of being unhappy than I was broke and in a dead and job that I didn't enjoy. And feminist legend, Gloria Steinem. All of us were trying to express women's real lives.

1:00:23We need a meeting place of our own. And if I can contribute to that, I'd like to maintain that and leave this house for that purpose. Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back on the Bobby cast. Has someone who has been and is very successful. And so you have a lot of friends that have been in the industry even generations before you. Does anybody ever talk about experience with Andy Kaufman? No, I'm a big fan. He died pretty young, but a sign fell met him a few times. He said he was amazing. Like I didn't know if there were any like the older guys that would tell stories. There's a couple guys that I know that had met him briefly. Really? But I get every instance I've ever heard of has been brief. Yeah, like there's no one that said, yeah, we used to have dinner every Thursday night. No, well, he was a weirdo.

1:01:24He was a recluse and he had a bunch of like he had that alter ego. How crazy did he had Tony Clifton? So any comments of vegetarian who didn't drink and didn't smoke? Then he had alter ego, which comics have a lot that's kind of normal. But the alter ego would eat a steak, smoke cigars and drink whiskey. So you're like, whoa, that might be more than alter ego. That's like you having some kind of schizophrenic thing, go, you got, you're on a, that's a mental thing. My wife for my birthday last year bought me a note. He wrote himself and it was basically a big, you can do it. Wow. And it's one of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten because I like bravery in heart. It almost doesn't matter what you're doing. If you're, it doesn't matter even if it's good sometimes because sometimes you go out and fail and if it's brave, like we just learn something from that. I love bravery in art and some of the stuff that he does is pretty stupid, but it all led to things though that were transcendent also.

1:02:25Well, he, it's almost like he had no fear of being vulnerable. Like that mighty mouse thing he does. I can't believe you could sit through for him to sit there. I know. It's insane and that's on SNL, by the way. He does that on SNL, which is like the biggest comedy show at the time and he stands there. That is such a brilliant bit too. Like, talk about understanding the instincts of comedy. Like the fact that he knew that would hit genius. That's genius level shit right there. The fact that he would just stand there as the record played and do nothing and do nothing. And then, yeah. Like, again, we go back to, it's so simple, but it's not. I mean, it's, that's so brave to do. So brave. The, you know, and he has very famous things that everybody knows about where he would go and, you know, and read until everybody left. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He would set up a tent on a stage and just go to sleep in it. Right, and I see that's next level shit where the crowd there is like this sucks.

1:03:27But later, we talk about, we're talking about it 50 years later and we're laughing. Do you like awkward? Not really. I'm too, I'm too weak. I am awkward, but I'm not great with like sitting in it and all that and I'm trying to get better at it. I had a joke-ish that I used to do. I like awkward. I like to hear how people feel. It doesn't have to be funny. And so, but I would do this joke where I don't do impressions at all. But I have a couple that I could do okay and then my final impression was my, I did a impression of my biological father and I would just walk off the stage for two minutes. Whoa. Cause he let obviously this guy get's. That was funny. Yeah, I didn't have a dad. Sure. And so, but I would just stay off the stage and people don't know if the show's over. Wow. They don't know if to laugh, they don't know. It was my favorite moment. That's crazy. It never was the same, ever. Sure. But it was so awkward, like that excited me. Ha, ha, ha, that's cool.

1:04:28Because, yeah, that was like one of the more exciting moments because I never knew, sometimes I'd get booed. That was awesome. To my, by my own people. Yeah, yeah. And the longer I stayed off stage, the more intense it was on my stomach. And were you standing, I was off the stage. So they couldn't see you. No, I was gone. No, yeah. And this is like to impression out my biological father and I just walk off and stay off. And the staying off is what was, I don't even must say funny, cause it's not funny. Mm-hmm. It's, um, hopefully it made people feel a certain way. Even if it was angry or sad. Right. Like to me, like that's what's exciting about being on stage. A hundred percent, yeah, going for, cause you're trying to elicit emotion of some kind. And comics want laughs, but it's cool to get other stuff too. Yeah. Louis talks about, I'll do a joke and I'll just sit in it. And the audience will not laugh. Then just sitting in it gets a laugh. Then they'll come back, then the laugh again. And I'm like, wow, that's crazy. I could never do that.

1:05:29I like family guy when they beat a joke and they fall. I love it. He's like, falls down. Sssh. Ah. I don't do that for a minute and a half. And the Conway Twitty, you ever see the episode where they keep going back to Conway Twitty, the country singer? No. And it lays a gentleman Conway Twitty and it continues to cut back to Conway Twitty over and over. And it has nonstop throughout the entire episode. Yeah, I think I liked that. I like the feeling of, am I making people uncomfortable, but not in a negative way? Sure. And they're wondering what's next. But I was not great at writing jokes. Are you great at writing jokes? Writing jokes is so fucking hard. You get why comics quit and go to movies and TV and all this stuff because it is a full time. It's really a blue collar job. You got to like go back to the well and try it again, tweak it, try it again in front of people, tweak it, try it again, and then it hurts. It's embarrassing. It's humiliating, bombing like that. So it's such a long process to get a joke to work.

1:06:31Every now and then you get lucky, one works immediately or after two or three tries. But sometimes I'll have jokes six months and I'm like, it's not there yet. And then sometimes you're in the shower, you're like, I got it, I got it. And then you do on stage and it works. And that whole thing lasted nine seconds. So now you have a nine seconds of new stuff in your act. Woohoo. Now it's gonna take me a year to write, you know, comedy's like reading Dostoevsky, one paragraph at a time. You'll eventually finish it, but it's gonna take a long fucking time. Who was it inside of your industry that came to you and said, hey, I think you're good. And it was cool that they told you that they thought you were good. Wow. Yeah, that goes a long way when you're a young comic because you got nothing. You got nothing to hold on to. But I had the sign felt shout out and that was insane. But yeah, I've just had older comics like one time this lady, I think it was Jessica Kiersen. You know what that is? She's a funny comic out of New York, really a killer act.

1:07:31And she's like, I was bombing it at Open Bikes. She's like, what you're doing is it didn't work, but she's like, you're gonna be, you're gonna be something. I can see something in you and I was like, ah, just that alone helped me going for a while. But she was, that was nice for her. Because comics are so competitive and bitter too that if anyone reaches out of life, life raft, it's huge. So she said something nice. Do you ever play a room too big that it's awesome because you're getting paid, but you realize it's a little too big because the timing isn't exactly right. Meaning the laughs are coming in. You're having a, I've set it up better than it because I have artists friends that when they play stadiums, it's totally different because the crowd, they're hearing the crowd later than they're used to because of the distance from stage. They're putting stage mics to hear the crowd. If they're out on the catwalk thing, they can't listen to the band. They got to watch flickers for the rhythm. Whoa. So you ever play a room that's so weird

1:08:31where the laughs are coming in different times that it ruins maybe your cadence? Oh, completely. Yeah, you ever done an arena? Have I know? Well, I've only opened for people. I'm not, I can't sell that much, but I've owned for people in arena and it's like, you get a big wave over here, but you're kind of bombing over there and this group's still coming in and then there's people behind you and the round and that is tough. That is very, and you have to, because comedy's all about adjusting. Like, all right, that laughs really long. So I got to wait or that laugh was short. So I got to throw something else back out there. And this is like, I don't know where to go. It's just like in a sea of darkness and you hear some titters over here and then one big like, ah, and you're like, I'm doing well with that guy. But then you got to rotate. So yeah, that arena is very awkward. Is it still exciting to do the shows? Oh, completely, especially with all new materials. So like for me, every show is like that, that walk off stage dad joke you have. You know, like, it's exciting. Like I gotta, I'm gonna see what gets to work,

1:09:32what doesn't work. I get to rely on some shit that I know is cooking, but then also try this new and tweak it and fix it. And so yeah, it's exciting. It's exhausting. You know, I got three shows on Saturday. Wow. 4 p.m. 7 p.m. 9 p.m. But it's, you get a lot done. It's like you said after 30 or three years, the whole act is different. I can do three shows in the whole act, not the whole act, but a lot of the act is different. Are you exhausted by the third show? I'm exhausted, but I drink throughout and that keeps me going. Do you drink before? No, never. That'll really fuck up your timing. Had you before and that's how you learned? Yeah, you're slurring up there, you're off. Somebody says something, you're like, hold on, you're just not a sharp. You know, you can't, it doesn't rattle up quicker. Do you have it, you're own special? Yeah. How hard is that? Hell, hell on earth, cause you hate yourself. You see every ooo and aw and come on and like

1:10:33and all these dumb, a sides every movement. You see your fat face, your double chin, your gay hand movements, the whole thing sucks. And that sounds fun. Yeah, it's hard. You really sell it. You gotta do it though, if you don't edit it, somebody else is gonna just butcher you. It's part of the editing process hard because you've lived in it so much that maybe you still don't know what's good and what's not because you've been in it or you just going by the reaction of the crowd. I think you go by the reaction and you go by, hold on. You go by how it felt, was it natural? Did it seem real? I don't know, you've done the act so many times that you know how it's supposed to go I think. Can you go out at the end of a tour, just go out, put it in autopilot and let it roll? I can, you shouldn't do that, but I can do that. How many times do you take a special act? I did three this last Netflix.

1:11:34Same close? Same close, you got it, of course. Do you try to walk to the same parts of the stage? No, no, no. I have the same kind of like, you know, you have an act out where you do this and you do that and so you try to keep those the same, but you've done it so many times by that point that you're locked in. Final question, do you have a concept or joke that you've always thought would work and just never it hasn't yet? Yeah, yeah, I got a million of those, but I had this joke idea about there's something funny that there's mothers against drunk driving, but no dads. Like dads don't give a shit, you know? And these moms got together and the dads are like, I'll be drinking. I'll be over here drinking and driving. You guys figure that out with the kid. We got a dead son, whatever, but I can't join because I like to drink a drive, but it never worked. But that's just a raw loose idea. There's not, there's not really a twist there yet. Do you try to? I've tried, but I feel weird going up there and just saying that with no real attempt at a punchline.

1:12:36Do you ever go up without a full end to just see where it takes you? I have done that, but it's 99% bad. What about going up in general with nothing, have you done that ever? Yeah, that is really bad. Yeah, it's bad. You know, you have these fantasies, like it's all gonna come to me. I'm a genius, I'm in the moment, but you start sweating, you get the mouth dry and you're fuked. Well, I really appreciate coming by. I know you're working. That's not it. And this is a treat. All weekend. And so I'm just looking at tour dates. Like you're up until January next year, huh? Oh yeah. Going hard. Well, my wife's pregnant. We're giving birth or she's giving birth in Christmas time. So I'm just trying to burn it till then. Well, if she gives birth Christmas time, but you have shows in January, hey? I'm gonna cancel those, probably. I thought they were, they're not off the site yet, but those are done. I'm divorced, I guess. No, no, no. Yeah, those will be gone. Well, most of these are sold out,

1:13:37but mumbo jumbo comedy tour. Yes. Yes, it's happening and you can get it. But again, I want to do strong promo and we were talking about before he came in, but I mean, most of them are sold out. So congratulations. Hey, I appreciate it. Check out my pod, twos of stories. We might be drunk and check out the latest special. I didn't know you guys shot that in New York. Yeah, yeah, New York guy all the way. Both of them shoot in the city. Why in New York, not LA? I just love New York. I'm from New Orleans. So New York, I visited. I went to film school there because I thought I was gonna be Woody Allen, but my daughter's ugly. So I didn't go that route, but I just fell in love with the city and I was doing stand-up sets at night while I was in film school. So I was like, this is where I want to live. This is awesome. So I just started doing stand-up and moved back to New Orleans, got my shit and went back to New York. Well, I really appreciate the time. So I'm a massive fan. Hey, it's an honor and a pleasure. It's nice to meet you, Bob. Got burped on, farted on, got the whole thing.

1:14:37I like it. I like it. Thanks, Mark. Thank you, sir. Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production. Hey there, everybody. Amy Robock and TJ Holmes here from the Amy and TJ podcast. We're gonna cover everything you need to know during this heated political season. Yes, we just saw Lindsey Graham, the death of a long time senator. Also, we've got a couple of missing members of Congress. Also, we got a lot of members of Congress behaving badly. We got accusations, allegations flying all day long on Capitol Hill. Listen to Amy and TJ on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Let's go! The countdown is on. To the most talked about music festival, on the planet. Let go crazy! Now, I Heart Radio Music Festival. Presented by Capital One, September 18th and 19th at T-Mobile Arena Las Vegas. 15 artists, two nights, one stage.

1:15:38Listen on I Heart radio stations across the country and stream it live on Disney Plus and Hulu. BTS. I hate, I don't mind. Benson Boone. Cardi B. Sierra. Google Dolls. Kenny Chesby. Ariel. Laney Wilson. Lucera Phim. Major laser. Sneak Doll. Bismashing pumpkins. Weezer. Sarah Larson. A special performance by Breakouts. Sarah Stella Lefty. I'm back to Boston and we're jumping up. And never seen before artists' collaborations. You'll never see again. One wild weekend. Are you ready? Buy your tickets now at AXS.com. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Adriah Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you. 100% of women go through menopause, even if it's natural

1:16:41why should we suffer through it? Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Self-cass of Tampa is your reminder to slow down, check in with yourself, get off your phone, and maybe ask why am I like this? I'm Gemis Begg, host of the Psychology of your 20s podcast. And this month we're helping you make sense of the person that you are becoming from setting boundaries and navigating friendships, to understanding anxiety, confidence, relationships, and attachment. Sometimes our biggest decisions, without us even realizing it, aren't driven by what we truly want, but by what will prevent us from feeling lonely or being alone. Listen to the Psychology of your 20s on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.