Nate Bargatze

Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert. I'm Dak Shepherd. I'm joined by Monica Padman.

Hi. And today we celebrate Nate Bargazzi. Yeah, you made it Italian.

I did. It sounds so Italian, but he does not present as Italian.

That's not.

Nate Bargazzi is a stand-up comedian and an actor. His credits include your friend, Nate Bargazzi.

Hello world, the greatest average American, the Tennessee kid. His day and a bit so damn funny.

Yeah. It's so funny. The world agrees.

He's a big deal. I'm the last to acknowledge this, uh, but by gosh, and he has a new movie out

on May 29th called the breadwinner, which is just a bullseye of his comedic brand.

If you like his stand-up, which I know everyone does, you're going to love the breadwinner.

Please enjoy Nate Bargazzi. This episode of armchair expert is presented by Apple TV,

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coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints all in one place.

Watch every race live only on Apple TV.

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You're a fancy man.

Fancy what? You know, I have a bunch of stuff this week so then they all come everything.

Are you touring right now? Yeah. Where are you at?

I'm in the middle of it. It'll end in August. How many dates?

150 or something like that anymore. Almost every other day.

Almost. Yeah. How are you maintaining your energy?

It's like I would read these things about Leno. He's like hosting the tonight show and then

somehow doing 80 dates a year. I'm like, how the fuck is this man doing all those things?

I have pretty good energy where I live. We got a crazy storm. So I was into

like five trees in my yard. You know where I'm out, Julia, where you are a water man?

Yes. I heard you're out there. You're out there full time yet.

I wish. No. All summer thanksgiving Christmas.

So any moment we have three days we're there. We love it so much.

Yeah. Our friend Hannah was staying at the house because she knew she was going to do

her power where she was at. Can we say your house? Great.

And she's just sending more and more photos every day like the streets down the streets down.

So you were in Nashville this morning. So I was in Toledo Saturday.

So I was going to Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville got canceled because of the weather.

So I was going to go home, but the weather got kind of just too crazy of a, we got stuck

and so then we went to Vegas. They got full power in Vegas.

They got full power. We did the same thing. We did not lose power, but like my brother,

he's got his power back. So then I got my buddy Brian, his family's lost power. So they're

coming over today. There's a ring that I love. And then there was yesterday, my wife goes,

I told Benny and his three roommates from Ole Miss, they could come up and stay at the house

because they lost power. Like, first of all, one of them staying planned. They're going to drive seven

hours because the buck and power is out. And then three dudes that are in college at my new house

no way. Yeah, yeah. When I said, you bet. And then luckily they got half way there and then

they jettisoned the plan. On icy roads. That's not the part of it. Yeah, you're already there.

And I looked up the weather. I was like, bro, it's 43 in a row. I think the ice issue's going to

be gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wherever Ole Miss is. Ox for Mississippi. Yeah, that's got to be further

south the mountain. Juliet, we would agree. Much further. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What if that was a skill

you had where we'd set a college in, you knew exactly the town it was in. I bet you do.

Pretty close. Touring, touring and college football. You can name a college and I can

make it. Who's your team? Are you a tennis team? I'm a Vanderbilt fan. Okay. I did not go to Vanderbilt.

His mother worked in the box office, though. Yes, yes, yes. So grew up a diehard Vanderbilt fan.

Now, where do you live currently in Nashville? Brimwood. I'm from Old Hickory, which is the side

you're on. Yeah, you went K through four there. Yeah. No, I was public till ninth grade. I went to

Donaldson Christian my senior year. My dad was a teacher and so he was able to teach there and

then we're able to afford to go there. Yeah, he was what history teacher there. Yep. Is that a

bummer or fun to have your dad teaching in your high school? You know, I never had him as a teacher

because he was teaching a different grade. I played basketball. I got cut all four years from my

basketball team. But the first year my dad was the assistant coach of the basketball team. That's

it. Did he give you the news? I think I got the news to announce, but you know he's in on it.

Yeah, part of the decision. Yeah, part of the decision. They set down. I was cut too. I tried out

with my best friend in seventh grade and he only tried out because he wasn't hanging out with me

and then I didn't make the team and he did. Oh, so then he just quit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was even thinking, well, I wonder if now that he quit, they'll call me and I don't think I

was even second runner up for the cuts. He still couldn't get you in. He sure said, I'll only play

if you bring. Yeah, there's brothers in the NFL that are that way, right? One brother, I

want this incredible real sports. Well, one brother, he's missing a hand or something. Do you

know this story? Yeah. And he went to college. He was basically like, I'll play here, but you

got to take my brother too. And then the brother's fucking great. And he plays with one hand. And I

showed my little girls when they were like four and six, the 60 minute segment are real sports.

I'm like, look at these two. That's you too. That's how you be a sibling. Oh, I don't know.

We'll lose a hand. That's when one of you. Not if when. And we don't know who I'm betting on

you, Delta, but how athletic and great you have to be to just not have a hand.

No, it's unimaginable. It's hard enough with two hands. You and I have everything. We have

all of our appendages and we can't make the team. And for him to get that high glide by us.

So golf for John daily. Well, he's a local legend in Mount Julia. Yes. He was a guy that was so

talented, but drank his warm up would be three Diet Cokes and a couple cigarettes. And then he

would just go out and then he won like a major championship. He tells the story himself quite often.

He loves this story that he invited Tiger at the end of a match to the bar to have some

post match drinks. And Tiger said, if I was as talented as you, I could go have drinks. Yes.

But I got to go practice. And since there's seen he tells that story and he likes it.

Well, yeah, it's a compliment. It is. But what I see is, yeah, now if you had done what Tiger did,

you had the talent. God knows. If you didn't go to the 19th hole, I mean, he had a great time,

clearly. Two majors. I mean, yeah, he's got a tour bus. He's got tour bus. He's doing great.

I watched some documentary. It was like about drug lords and Netflix. And it was a woman from

Compton in the 80s. She came the biggest drug world ever. But she was also growing up.

Could have been an Olympic sprinter. A person like that. You're just great. You're a winner. Yeah.

So it just matters. How do you apply it? And so where do you send it? And her path went his other

way. And then she's like, all right, well, I'll just be the best. I think she does talks now.

She has a podcast. She could. She should. But like motivational speaking, I thought that's what

happened towards the end. But again, now I'm starting to make up. That's all right. We do a fact check.

But it led us to an incredible segue for me. So your father, I think very interestingly,

was a clown and a magician and a motivational speaker. Yes. What did his work life look like when

you were a kid? First of all, I know you guys are really close. You adore your dad. Yeah, yeah.

What did dad's work life look like growing up? He was a magician. I always say like my daughter,

your kids, none of this seems out of the ordinary for them. That's all they've ever seen.

So it was that kind of aspect. He always had a regular job. He was a teacher and then he would do

magic and stuff. Well, even let's go back. He was going to be a preacher, yeah. Yes. He had a very

rough upbringing. My family was in Tennessee. Then his mom, I remember they ran away when she was

like 17 to Louisville. So my parents are both from Louisville, Kentucky. And then when my dad was

18, he ran away back to Nashville and then lived with our cousin Ronnie Bargazzi who coached

at Vanderbilt too. He was like a coach and broadcaster. So the reason we kind of fell in love with

Vanderbilt and then Ronnie like kind of got him straight. He's a Christian saved him. I mean,

was he drinking and floundering? Yeah. I think he was just lost. You know, my dad had a Christmas where

he woke up. All the kids had a present but him and some stuff like that. So he was just kind of lost.

So your dad was kind of the black sheep? Very much. So we ran away then moved home and really

straightened up and they were really strict with them, which was something he's never had before

knowing ever cared where he was. Now they cared where he was. Right. And they're like, you buy

to be home at this time. And my mom and my dad have been together since seventh grade.

Uh-huh. Seventh grade and they're still together. Yep. My goodness. So did she come too? Yeah,

they got married. She came and then I was born 79. And when I was five, my dad went to college.

Treveca graduated and started teaching and still do a magic and all that kind of stuff.

I mean, to me, all that's of show business, too. Like I've interviewed several people that were

going to be preachers or Jack White was going to the seminary, but they wouldn't let him bring

his amplifier. So he didn't go. It's so interesting how many people that desire that you feel like

you have a communication skill or something. Yes. Just like I'm going to head that way. You feel

drawn to stand in front of people and try to convey something. Exactly. I think no internet,

even for me, when you've started, you don't see anyone succeeding. So the high school I was going to

go to is a pretty rough high school. So a lot of parents would try to switch. I went to a very

blue collar Christian school. It wasn't a high, high end place, but kids had money. You know, you would

see, I graduated 97, but they have like a 1997 Mustang and Cameroon. And then I had like a 1985

Mazda 626 nickname on blue. Great gas mileage. Great gas. So when I look back now,

because I'll think about whatever drive or whatever wonder that you could have had,

I wonder if I would have had that if I would have just stayed where I was in the public schools.

Because as public schools, no one has a nice car. You don't see the teachers. You have no idea

that someone could have a million dollars. Yeah. That couldn't even fathom into your brain.

It's not part of reality. Yes. And when you would see celebrities, that's like seeing a

king when you're coming up and you're in a public school and you think, well, what could I be?

You could go be a full-time caddy at a very rich golf course. That's a good racket actually.

Yes. I don't know how you would ever know that someone has done that as a career. Yes. Or even

valet parker. Because your parents never fucking valet. You don't even know about valet. None of it.

A restaurant that you could go work out where you're full-time at a five-star restaurant.

That's a career. I agree. I always get asked in interviews.

When did you know you wanted to be an actor? I hear people say all the time like, when I was

nine, I'm like, I don't know how I would have thought that in Detroit. I never met one. Never saw one.

You watched TV and you're like, what are they doing? I wanted to do a video. They're from another

reality. I know. They're not even in my world. I think now with social media, you see behind the scenes

and you see their personal life. So maybe you're like, oh, that guy does sound like you.

There's no barrier to entry. You can be a producer of content and post it. We just had this

expert on talking about this. The internet phase one was all humans could be publishers. Before

that, you had to get through the gatekeepers at New York Times to share your thoughts in writing

with anyone. Everyone became a publisher for better and worse. And then now we're in a phase where

everyone's a producer or has the capacity to be going to New York Times. I would never even heard

of New York Times. I would hear about some kids make it out of that and they are very curious.

Our world is a lot smaller. That's how we can sum it all up. I think it's like, I knew my town

and then the town my dad lived in when I'd seen him on the weekends and then my grandparents time.

That was that. It was very rural. It can be rural, but it's not the sticks. They have restaurants.

But you didn't go downtown when I grew up in Nashville. Nashville downtown was pretty rough

and so no one went down there. But dad, so he did other stuff, obviously. But he did perform.

He still did magic. When you look back, he was trying to get a career, but he had a family and

I think he had a chance to move to Vegas, but he didn't want to raise in us. So he stayed in

Nashville. I don't know if I remember exactly how much him going out trying to do this stuff.

My mom did great. My mom had to stay home with us and dad would go pop off. We had a really

big Christmas one year. What age? 12. Oh, perfect. And now I know it's gigs. My dad just

got a lot of Christmas gigs. Yeah. Yeah. So it was kind of like we had a little extra money.

What was the big present you got? I got a snake. A real snake? A red toe boa. Yeah, I was

going to snake. Oh, wow. You were a weird kid. Yeah. Yeah. I know. And then I like hang with a kid

and invite me to do his bedroom. And there was a snake. Yeah. It was a certain type of child. Yeah.

That was a amateur herbitologist. Yeah. I always like steaks. As I've gotten older, I'm not going to

go grab him. All of that went away. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you felt brave? Like it was a way

to exercise bravery in some sense with this snake? Yeah. Yeah. Because they're scary as fuck.

I don't know the thought that that deep really? I mean, most people are afraid of snakes. It's kind

of like an innate human fear. My dad would just always go grab him and show him. He was from the

country in Kentucky. He'd handle anything unsupervised. So if he saw something, it was always to show us.

We lived in Del Rio, Texas when I was five. My dad moved down there to teach at a

pesky school school. We only lived there and then we moved back. But I remember going to a church

and we saw a snake in the middle of the road. So I'm a five. And it was doing like the cartoon

way where the middle of it would be up. That's how it was moving. Then my dad got out and caught it.

He was like, oh, I'll go show it. We're that family. I'm going to go show it. The kids are going to

love it. So then we're driving and then my dad's got the snake. It's like over his shoulder.

And I'm like right behind him and this snake is furious. But then when you get there to the camp

and lays it down, all the kids get around it. It's very exciting. That's the family ethos.

We kind of are a lot of games like you're making up games and you're like, all right, let's play

this and that kind of circusy circusy. Yeah. And there's three of you. There's three of us.

And what order are you in that? I'm the oldest and then my brother Derek and then my sister Abigail.

Okay. And you were by all accounts a pretty big fuck up. You barely graduated high school and then

you go over to the community college. You do a year there, right? And then you end up going to

Western Kentucky for a year. Just one semester. It was all remedial classes at Ball State.

And so it was just to try to even get you where you could go to a college.

Yeah, you have the best joke I heard this morning. I was watching one of your students that

they call it community college because they have a sense you're going to be staying in the community.

I'll show you the ropes of the community. I had an old joke where I would say it was

between college two. I was like, all of my classes were outside because they were like,

you guys will be working outside one day. But did you acclimate it to the outdoors?

Yeah, they just knew all my jobs were outside before comedy.

I went and actually got a degree at a community college and transferred.

Sometimes I think about trying to go get just a community college. I don't need the full.

I like community colleges. Some reason. Me too. They're attainable. They're very

democritizing. I'll say it's what's really great about our country is most countries that have a

really good university system. You'd test in early or you don't go. Whereas our country,

you could start at any moment at a community college and transfer somewhere really good. That's

an incredible part of our society. Trade schools. People need to go. My last

serious job is a water meter reader. You drive around and I listen to comedians and

when I look back I can see it. I would go up and do some shows with my dad when I was a kid.

Not a ton but pop up. I'm around it. Yeah, and you liked it. And I liked it. I like the comedy aspect.

I like making people laugh. The magic part of it. I don't know. I mean, it's a lot of work.

I mean, I could see when my dad does magic. I mean, he's kind of doing it all day at home. And

so I liked the making people laugh. Was he happy? Because I do feel like the idea of a magician

or a clown, even a stand-up. I think we're out like, oh, they're funny. They're happy. But more

and more people we talk to. I'm like, oh, wow. Those people are almost caring the most weight and

sadness. Yeah. And I've decided to channel it. Yeah. I mean, I would think he was happy. But

I'm sure there's a mix of both of that. When you're up there on the show, it's so fun. And I

just know this from personal experience. When you're up there, it's like the best. And when you come

off, it's like reality kind of set back in. Yeah. Yeah. You have ultimate control for this finite

amount of time. And then you enter back into the real world where you have virtually no control

over anything. You can be a little bit disjointed. You can be celebrated. Yes. Yes. I mean, I'll walk

out in front of arenas every night. It's this applause, this big, big, big thing. And then it kind of

gets back to normal. Okay. So I do have one question about the reading the meters. I'm so snoopy

by nature. Did you enjoy having full permission to just be like walking on to people's properties

and taking a little peek about how people live? So when we did it, the meter's always in the yard

in front. And so you would get a crowbar. And it was like a mini manhole. And so you would lift it

up. You just go to the top and you just type in what they're doing. Did anyone ever try to grease

you? Like come out and be like, man, type in bubble. I was struggling. Let me throw you 20 bucks.

Yeah. I don't know. They would try to throw you money. But they would, you know, it's like,

no, I'm going to pay. Just give me whatever. And my buddy, Michael, and I started talking with,

he's till works there. Yeah. I wonder if he's fucking with my meter. He could be. We can find out.

I want to say this out loud. I am so grateful for the water department in Mount

Juliet. Cause we had this big issue with the pool. The auto fill flooded for a few days. So I

did this crazy water bill. And we call her like, I get it on the water bill. But the sewer fee,

it didn't go into the sewer, went into the lake. And they're like, okay, cool. Like if I made that

call in LA, I would have never got any one on the phone ever that could have made any decision.

And they like suck it. And they were like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I was very grateful.

Yeah. I'll let them know. And I'll find out the Michael region.

I mean, he might have been the one. I was like, what the fuck happened to you? I'm just

having Michael pop up your house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He still works. He told me recently,

I think he had someone that was upset with him and said, you know,

neighbor gets used to working. I'm gonna tell Nate how he got to do it. Not knowing that he was the

one. He started. He was like, all right. He goes to tell him. I'd like to think that I have that

much bull still that water cup. But I go, miss Geel. I'm gonna back off for a little bit.

All right. I'm really good to take off from up the gas. They need a second to breathe and

catch the breath. Okay. So yeah, you and Michael move up to Chicago to start commenting. You try

second city. Second city. I did it very brief. And why wasn't that a match for you? I knew I was

always going to be clean. And so I could tell you did improv. I can't control where they're going

to take you. Not only can you not control your obligated to join them. That's that's that's the

point. Yes. So if he says my condom fell off. Guess what? You guys are in your situation. Yeah.

I can make it a good person. But I'm going to be in a predictive.

And when you start to, they all go there. Yeah. So everything is going to get it. It's the easiest

route to take. Yes. So I pretty quickly was like, yeah, this is not going to match with what I

want to go do. And I already wanted to do stand up. Michael wanted to try a second city.

It was almost like I just needed someone to go like, hey, I'll try something different.

You want to go? Yeah. You're like, yes. That's what you need. That's all you need it. I need it

Aaron and try to join that basketball team with me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something. Yeah.

Someone to kind of come in. Like you really want to do it. But you're so scared to say you want

to go do it. And I love how much you talk about this. I think it'd be very comforting for all the

people that are trying comedy. You're really honest about the fact that you had gone to Jim Roth.

Yeah. Jim Roth. Yeah. Went to comedy college. And I think a lot of comedians are too

cool for that or would turn up their nose at that. And you were like, for me, I needed some starter

stuff between that and open Mike. Yeah. It's just a comedy class that he does. I mean, he still

doesn't. It's just you're meeting people that are starting. We're all pretty nervous. Yeah.

And we're all scared of what's going to happen. There's a comic. I remember he's still the very

funny comic John Roy. And he just won star search the year I started. So he came in and talked to

us. And so you're like, this is nuts dude. Like this dude just one is two out of three. And he's a

real comic. And then you would go to open mics and you could grab a guy from that class. Let's do it

together. Yeah. Let's do it together. And then so you slowly start, it's kind of like groundly.

Yeah. I'm going to be even darker, which is it's so comforting to see.

Minimally, some people are worse than you. It's like that simple. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's

why punk bands are so encouraging. As you go and you're like, yeah, I think I might be able to

play in a band. The Mars low. Yeah. Everybody's trying it and everybody's doing it. You just

got to get where you're comfortable to go try stuff and like kind of pushed into the direction.

It's practice. You have to go. Yeah. I paid. It is getting over that fear every time you get up.

Exactly. I remember I wanted to get a call every Wednesday and be like, the building burnt

day. We can't do it. And I'm like, oh man. So I could be like, I wanted to do it. You want that.

All you're looking for is something. So you could be like, even if you never did it,

you're like, I tried every time. I should alleviate the self-legilation of not trying.

Yeah, we just interviewed Anderson Pack. You know that musician. He's incredible. And he just

directed his first movie and his son was in it. He's like up until a week before the movie.

I'm just like praying. My kid changes his mind. It doesn't want to do it. It's like a boy.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. The mind works. It's like, how can I still have on record? I did

everything I could, but then I didn't have to do it. It's so weird. You do a show and you're like,

oh my God. It's the best thing ever. And then the next show, you just hope this gets canceled.

Your car gets blocked in. I remember my car got blocked in before I had a show. And I was like,

I can't. I'm so sorry. I can't make it. I was so happy. I was so relieved. It's so wild.

Yeah. And that's the thing that you got to get over. Because some people are like, I can't wait.

I know. But are they? Or are they also doing that? Well, you're like 16-year-old any Murphy.

Like, there are a handful or something. I can't. We're like step back, mother fuck.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There are those people. Yeah. They're very excited. And they can just jump

right in. And then a lot are like, who do I think I am trying to? Yeah. It's the confidence.

And I'm going to say that you are uniquely challenged because A, the persona you end up carving out

for yourself that works so beautifully is not a high energy rapid fire thing. So that A works

best at an open mic. You have limited time. You got to crush immediately. You're going to be clean.

You had additional challenges. I would argue. Yeah. Why do we decide in 04 I guess to move to New York?

The documentary comedian, the Seinfeld. I believe it's on Netflix. It's Seinfeld. I got

done with the show. And then taped a special. And then was going to build a new hour. I don't know

if he taped a special, but he was building a new hour of material. And so it showed him going

through the New York comedy scene. If you want to know anything about the scene of comedy,

it's still the best one to watch. Anybody that pray around my age or class of starting or really

being in the comedy that moved to New York is very much because of comedian. I think it was in that

dog right where he says, when I go on stage at this point, I'm going to get four free minutes.

Yeah. They're going to just be so excited. I'm there. But then the reality is going to take over.

That's the beauty of comments. Jack Nicholson, they're going to be like for four minutes

their clap. And then they're like, all right. Yeah. Yeah. What do you really got? Tell Joe.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's as objective as it gets. And in New York,

you just dive into it and you're just obsessed. You started as a barker at Boston,

commonplace in comic books. That was what it's called in New York. And I moved there in 04.

Burt Christchurch was a barker too. So you're standing out there. He'll be coming to

a brand new ones at that club. Yeah. Oh, no kidding. So you're out there on the street begging

people to come in and give this comedy show. You got flyers. So you're standing on a corner.

And you're like, Hey, we got a great comedy show. And I started, if you ever saw Pete Holmes

had a show on HBO about his comedy crashing, I started with Pete. But yeah, you would stand out.

Dustin Chaffin, a comic buddy of mine. And we were kind of together during all this time. And he

still comes with me out on the road. And he would run a show at Boston, comical. It wasn't

normal. It would start at like eight during the week. And it would run to like two a.m. Okay.

A lot of comedy. And so there wasn't really set show times. You're just kind of trying to

get people in. Have a couple drinks. You'd be out on the corner and you're like, Hey,

we got a great guy. And then you would get him to walk in. And they could walk in. And they'd

be like, All right. And then I performed for one guy once. You have two people. Then you have

four for a pair. You said, Oh, yeah, that was in South Dakota. That was on the road. That was on

the road. There's a pair in the room. Did it talk? Yeah. I mean, great if it was heckling you.

It did with it's loud screams. And there are a lot of time. You know, you know, they're coming.

Yeah. Yeah. I was in South Dakota and indoor pool. And it's a human in there. Yeah. You're

staying in that hotel. Your whole world just in this thing. There's two shows. So there's a pair

in the back. And you're like, well, why does he have to be in here? And the guy was like,

he likes to shows. And you're like, what? All right. You know, you're just like getting paid.

Yeah. It's shocking that alcoholism tracks high. I mean, you're just sucking some shit

on hotel for three days. I mean, come on. What are you going to do? Try to do your show.

Parrot's yelling. Oh my god. Then you do the second show. The pair. It's not there.

And so I go, where's the pair? It goes. We have his own room. And you go, why don't you put

him in there? Yeah. I thought like the pair lived in that room. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go.

No, you guys know the pair don't watch his one show. Then he goes back to his folder. It's

fine. Yeah. Now, how did you socially get along with all the other comedians? Because I'll say

improv sketch scene was lovely. It's a kin to Broadway people like everyone's insanely supportive.

I got along instantly with everyone. But when I did stand up, I felt like that vibe was trickier

for me to navigate. And you're from the south. And you were clean. How did that whole aspect?

I think it's kind of like school. You just find your group that you're kind of going to be with.

Weirdly, my group that I was the closest to were the dirtiest comedians. Big J. Oaksin,

Lucia Gomez, Dan Soder, Dan Soder, like the dirtiest thing. That always makes sense, by the way.

Because you're not doing the same thing. You're no threat in some sense. Yes. They're playing

in the fucking trumpet and you're playing stand up. That kind of makes sense. I would open for them.

The shows I would do a lot coming up. They were uncensored and they were advertised. Edgy was

super sexy at the time when I was in New York. That's when Burr started. Burr was a big one for me

because I watched Burr kind of become Burr. And so he was just doing spots. I remember when I was

painting out flyers one time and I go, Hey, we got a show in its billbird. I'm like, I'm so sorry.

And he was doing his first letterman. So we would know him as a club. It's not like people knew him.

And then the Opie and Anthony rant happened where he just roast Philadelphia. I don't know if

you've ever seen it. It's amazing. I should go look. So it's Opie and Anthony was a radio show.

And so they had comics. And then they do a live show and they're doing this live show in

Philadelphia. And they're just booing every comic. They booed. Bob Sagitt drags him more. I

booed everybody. And so then Burr went up. It was on YouTube. This is kind of right when we're

even in a video could be uploaded and all this kind of stuff. And so Burr goes up and just starts

tearing into this crowd. Well, they love it. And so I mean, he's just trash. Oh my god. Oh, I

must see it. One man versus Philadelphia. So that was a big, big thing where it was funny as we

would go watch Bill Burr at Caroline's because Burr was the comic we all were like, can we go see

Burr? Can we go see Burr? Yeah. Louis K was kind of right above Burr. So he was like a little bit

over at its time. So Burr was like the younger ex it next something I learned to from Burr.

Is I remember right after that Philadelphia thing, he would do a show and they would start going like,

I'm from DC. I'm from Texas. Start trash. And they wanted that. They wanted to get roasted.

They want to get ready. And he's like, no, because I got an act. And it was like a learning moment

to go like, Oh, yeah, you don't give them what they've been his whole life is a whole life.

So the rest of your life, you have to go to towns also think about how much work you have everywhere

you go. You've got to learn everything about your whole, yeah, routine is like and you're in

Skokie, Illinois. I don't know how much stuff you're going to be able to dig up. Oh, you need a

team. Collar Wisconsin, making toilet bowl jokes. And then you're also encouraging that your

audience is going to yell out. And they're going to lead you. You're not going to lead them.

No. And they're going to be just screaming. And then it's not a fun

life. That's the thing. Sometimes with like the crowd work comics, unless you're like a phenom,

like Matt Rye for some of these other guys Trevor Walls, Nate Jackson's another one.

Where these guys are really, really good. Ian Bagg, when you go down that route, if you're not

going to become the best at it, you're going to invite a lot of problems. Yeah. You better be

very skillful. Yes. It's not easy to do. And it's not consistent. And then you also end up getting

some jokes. I mean, if you're all married and you're like, Oh, interracial couple married.

I'm going to have 10 go to about 10 of them. Yeah. And then you're like, Oh, you have a kid,

you divorced, you have this, you're going to end up having stuff. Yeah, you have a routine

in essence that is under the veil of improv. Yes. Yeah. But it's a bag of tricks. There's even

cheats in improv. They have them. Others cheats in every year. She's not used to cheats.

We used to do in New York, you perform for a small audience. It's like, we could just

done this in a cab. That was like everybody. Yeah. Universal.

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I remember one comic we were in the back and someone said that and then this other comic next

to me goes, dude, that's my joke. I remember just thinking. There's like little lessons that you

learn where you're like, no, I think we're all sane. I think we've all agreed that we can all say

that. You're just the idea that he's like, are you kidding me? You stole. Yeah, yeah. Were you ever

tempted like when you're seeing Bird do his thing and it's crushing and all these people are crushing?

Are you like, should I try to do something a little dirtier? Should I try? My mind just didn't go

that route of writing that kind of way. I never wanted to make someone feel bad in the crowd.

I just didn't like it. It would make me so uncomfortable to do that. So I was always making fun

of myself. Yeah. So I think it kind of kept me in that realm. I had a joke on YouTube though

and it was one that I didn't like that I put up. Remember there's a bunch of pros to be murdered

in New York when we were there and so then it was a joke kind of about that kind of situation.

You're right. I'm a young comment. It works very much in those rooms. Yes. And then I did it

maybe out here. I didn't put it up on YouTube but it got put up on you too. Yes. And then I remember

and this is kind of early on in my space and so then actually a lady that is in that line of work

messaged me something and then I wrote back and said, look, I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was

going to go up. I wouldn't do that joke again. I know I did it. I know I came up with it but

yeah, you felt bad. I was like, I'm so sorry. That's just so rare in your space. It's so rare.

You just made of self in the running for Best Boy Award. I know you might be the best boy.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a very best boy. Yeah. That's the best boy. Just keep your hands

feel through that. Yeah. Coming in the mail. Make room on your bookshelf. Yeah. I love that. You

know, we've had other comics on everyone's great but they don't feel bad. They double down

on why they can be which is fine. There's a lot of reasons for that with that works.

Yeah. And there's a lot of reason you need that. You could have a big book. I always think about

a singular person. You know, it's like this group thought where you think like even in this country

where it's all so nuts and everybody's so crazy. But if you pulled everybody individually and you

could get them and talk to them one-on-one, you would go like, we're the exact same person.

Yeah. Right. I know. And so it's like that kind of aspect. You do you, you have no judgment over

anyone else that's doing their thing and you recognize there's a space in a need because

let's be truthful. Also, comedy is this incredible political force often for good and people should

do that and people should do what you do. They should, you can have everything that you want. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And we live in a world where you can select exactly which that was even the heart

decision when it was getting political. Saying your opinions and there was a time where it was like

a lot of comics that were younger than me were just flying by me career-wise because they were

being more vocal on both sides, whichever way, but just being politically vocal. I want everybody

to do everything that they want to go do in this place is for all of us. There's a lot of arenas.

There's a lot of arenas. I just felt like I have a direction I'm supposed to go. I mean,

I was very pulled because it was just like people were passing. Yes. It was happening to us in

the podcast space. There were moments where I was like, huh. Should I could shore up half this,

you know, exactly. It's right there on a platter for you to take. And you got to just sit

and I trusted that I'm being led. I'm supposed to be. And you just go, I'm not going to do it.

And then I see signs of it now more than ever where I'll have someone come to a show. One girl,

she's 16 and she's at my show with her dad. It was very just honest and upfront and went through

a hard time. Was going to kill herself. Start listening to my comedy. Then got them listening to

my comedy together because you weren't pushing them apart. You weren't going to get them in a fight.

Yes. They're laughing at me. I'm being dumb. And then that story kept happening more and more

while I would have people come up. And so did now you do get to a point where you go, I have a

trust to that audience. I can go to San Francisco. I can go to Alabama. Both sides, they want to come.

Well, and the dad and the daughter who most certainly have different political meetings.

Oh, yes. Get to come together. And then normally wouldn't have anything in common.

But now they have this thing they can share. And that's fucking valuable in love with music,

TV movies. They don't have anything right now with a lot of entertainment. Even families

is disney or animated movies. That's it. You're trying to have this kind of thing where you're like,

yeah, we all want to go. That's what sports are. Mr. Mom, your movie is Mr. Mom. And when I was a kid,

everyone from every edge of the spectrum was at Mr. Mom. Yeah. You need to be as place of Haven.

Yeah. I haven't been thinking about this so much obviously because there's a lot of pressure

to stay your political opinion. And I have a lot of them. But I think not doing it. And as you say,

like, have a space where everyone can listen or you can show the humanity of people or you can laugh

at something unrelated is political. That's a weird thing to say. It is a force to drive people

together, which should be the hope. As you said, we're all the same. That is a political stance

that we're all the same. So we're not saying it out loud. But hopefully that's what we're showing.

So this movie that we have coming out, it's my first movie. And it's cute. I think very funny

stuff. I'm a comedian. So like, I mean, I have funny stuff that won't feel like it's written down

for children. But it's fun. It's Mr. Mock. We're not doing anything too crazy. I was watching

the clips last night and my daughter was walking through the room and she was hellbent on Brooklyn

night night. She's already announcing that's what we're going to watch tonight. My other

I was like, no, we're going to watch pulm right now. There's already a debate heating up. Yeah.

And then I'm like, okay, while everyone's yelling, I'm going to watch these clips for tomorrow.

And then both of them just shut up because there was kids at their age and they weren't talking to

the dad forcefully. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I like this. One of my favorite scenes from the office.

So when Jim and Michael Scott were managers, they were co-managers. And then they were going to

be layoffs. And Michael Scott is playing a detective game or whatever. And then Jim comes over

and Jim's frustrated because everybody doesn't know if they're going to get laid off or not

laid off. And then he sits there and Jim pulls Michael Scott aside and is like mad to be like,

we need to be talking about what's going on. And then Michael Scott just goes, this game is all

that matters right now. We don't know anything that's happened with this game is just the distraction.

And I've always thought of that moment is one of my favorite moments of that series because it's

like that sometimes need to happen. You need that distraction to go, it doesn't matter. Right in

the moment, this thing doesn't matter. It's out of our hands. It's something that's not controlled.

And again, there's plenty of places to go find it. All I'm saying is like, it's okay to take a break.

Even if that's your main thing, it's also healthy to take a break. Why is friends still the highest

rate of show on Netflix? You go look at the top movies on all these things. You know, be a couple

with Jason Statham. Anything he puts out wants to all of them. He puts asses in seats. Yeah,

it's just like I'm going to watch it and it's fun. Yeah, I think Zootopia was like the highest

movie. Yeah, but they don't go to old movies. People just need a break and everything is so

like hopeful to heavy. You got to be so invested. Brooklyn. No, no, no, they just want to go back.

There was a period where yeah, it felt like it was that. And then it just went a little too far.

Everything was taking me to church for like a better word. Yeah, I'm like, I don't need to

I want to break. And by the way, I bet you feel the pressure that Monica and I feel which is

make no mistake. I got a lot of fucking opinions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I don't want someone to

not feel welcome listening to whatever we have to offer. I don't want to alienate anyone

and I want everyone welcome. There's a lot of criticism that has come with that. But my higher

principle is much more, I would always want everyone to feel included. I saw something today that

said, the biggest political move you can make is consider more people friends. And I was like,

that's so true. That is sort of our goal here is get to know every single person. If you really

get to know every single person, it's hard to judge. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then I want to hear

everything. There's a comic Patrice O'Neill the past way, but very, very dirty. Yeah, he was nasty,

but unbelievable. He was actually in the office. Yeah, I've seen him do stand up a few times. And so

I remember when we'd be hanging out at first moving New York, I'm from the South. So he was like,

you don't believe in dinosaurs. And at the time, I don't think I even realized that that was like

a stereotype. Yeah, yeah. We wouldn't believe in that. I mean, now I know people don't believe in

that. I don't believe in a lot of things. Some people don't believe the earth is round. You know

what? I'll talk to that person. Sure. That guy is way more interesting to talk to than just like

the earth is round. Around earth or

cliche boring. Yeah, I would rather talk to that because again, I know my beliefs. Yeah. So I'm

not going to be swayed, but just pure enjoyment. And so he asked me if I didn't believe in dinosaurs.

I said, yeah, I don't. I just was like, I didn't even know that this is style. I was like, I'm

gonna just go there. Whatever. Yeah, you're improvving. I'm improvving having fun. So then cut to

later on, here's a part of his house. My buddy, Jay, I wasn't supposed to be going. And he was like,

they told me you don't want Nate coming. And he goes, what? He goes, that guy doesn't believe in

dinosaurs. You don't think I don't want that in my house. I want that all over my house.

I very much believe in dinosaurs just to say that. But it was like that mentality changed my

life because it was a welcoming mentality to be like, what if I didn't? What if I really didn't

believe in dinosaurs? He's still going to be like, dude, I would love to talk to you about why

you don't believe in dinosaurs. Yeah. Well, how do you explain these fossils? He would have

believed in dinosaurs. And he's not going to walk. I don't believe in dinosaurs. You know what,

he changed my mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe he does. I was good. So I want to talk about your

in New York, your starting to do shows, takes you year before your starting to even get paid 25 bucks

or whatever a show. I want to win because you've also said, the writing the jokes is the easiest part.

And the most elusive is to figure out what is my unique delivery system that is true to me that

will define me as a comedian. That's the big battle of becoming a great community. So if you move

to New York and all four, at what point do you think you found your actual identity as a comedian?

I was up to write the jokes first. And then naturally I had a slower rhythm just being from

the South. I had some kind of voice. You couldn't skip it. I couldn't skip it. I sounded

different. Every show I went up, I had to say something why I talk like this. Yes. Yes. So you

would start every show like that. It's all evolving. It's so insane. It's how much I love

staying there. It's like, I remember once I saw an interview with Lucy, Lucy Kay was like, you don't

even know what it is to be a comic till you've been doing it 20 years. Which at the time I was like

10 years in. And it's also one of those things that you're like, that's so unfair to say to like

it's discouraging. Yeah. But then I've done it 23 years now. But you do know what you are as a comic.

It's not that you don't know. But the difference at 20 is unbelievable. Is it the consistency? It's

like you know how to do you. The way it was said, which was a good way was, yeah, everything I say

is going to be funny now. You're cadence. And then people really know you. Yeah. And so then you're

able to kind of go like, I know how to do this kind of stuff like that. Like I look at my stand-up

career, I would hope that people would go listen to my first CD and then watch my last special. And

then you're actually seeing a life I used to drink. No kid. I have a kid. I don't drink. I'm there.

You know, she you're watching a full on person's life being told to you. That's what I always

thought was stand up. And that's what I liked about it. It kind of got out of jokes where it's

ends up being even those jokes in there. But it's just the next phase. The progression of your mature.

You've got to go live life. And that's what a big thing with comics is you have to go live a life.

You need to go get married or go give kids. That's what I was going to bring up is you get married

in. Oh, hey, it's not like you've made it. I got married no six. That had to be rare for the

comedians in your group to be committing to someone at that moment because it's such an unstable

life. That in itself is a rare choice. Oh, yes. When you have a kid, most would be 40. And then

they would kind of start their family. You had been with Laura throughout this whole period.

Yeah, we started dating before I started a comedy. We met at Applebee's. Oh, you were both working

at Applebee's where we met. But we were together when I was reading water. And she's from Alabama.

Yep. Huntsville. So what was she doing? She moved to Nashville pretty quick. Maybe a little

community college. Just type thing. They moved to Nashville and just started working

waiting tables at Applebee's and that kind of thing. That's a fun place to meet. Very fun. Yeah.

That's also what a ride you to have been on. Yeah, I mean, she'll tell you when I first met her,

I think it's in me that I wanted to do comedy. My senior year, they wrote like where you'd be

in 10 years. And I like my first thing was like, I'll be in the NBA joke. Yeah, joke. Which I play

church basketball for Nashville Baptist Association. So it was technically. Oh, nice.

So a little loophole. Then my second one was to perform at Xanies or comedy come and tell.

And so then I ended up doing that. But when I wrote it, you're kind of riding it as half serious.

You're so protected. Someone's like, you're going to be a comedian. You don't want to get caught

believing in yourself. So weird. So that we are like that. Yeah. And I think culturally it's

different state to state and say like, we're off from Detroit. You're not to be caught believing in

yourself. It's not a good look. A man probably makes my body. Julian McCullough comes out of the

road with me. He's from Philadelphia. And if you had dreams, he's like, you never mentioned them.

Say we're all pieces of shit. We all agree on that. And who the fuck do you think you are?

I guess they call tall popping in other countries. But yeah, the two big first breakthroughs are

you do a little spot on Comedy Central in 2008. I did Montreal Comedy Festival

cone in and live it got them. Things are cracking. You and I had the same experience funny enough,

which is a unique experience that I cherish, which is similarly the first time I did Letterman,

Tom Cruise was the first guest. And they had shut down the whole goddamn street. And I pulled up

in the SUV and people were fucking pulling their hair out screaming. Cameras were ready. And I stepped

out everyone just like, oh, save your film. You know, yeah, yeah. And you had that cone. I had

the same thing a color. Yeah. What do we do? Yeah. What do we do? Yeah. What do we do?

Julian, these drivers was on mine. I pulled up, get out. And right when I get out, all these people

come up with cameras. And then I hear him go, it's nobody. You're about to be on TV for the first

time. Quite a fucking feeling. I remember one guy did go, he held his camera up like just to his

waist, just in case, I guess, like if I was going upstairs to murder someone, like at least he

has something, he's like, that's enough. I got it. Just I got enough. I need help when you pull

up. You know, I don't know. You know it's coming. Yeah. You're like, can I just get out somewhere

out? Bring me around. Yeah. Let me just walk up to it. Yeah. I'll just walk. I can come in the

front door. Yeah. Yeah. It's fine. The other cute and fun thing is immediately after you are

a celebrity. So I remember going with my aunt to see stand up in fucking Sarasota, Florida,

had like a best Western. And of course, the dude, well, I don't care about the dude at all.

Then the dude's on stage. And I'm seeing a guy on stage get laughs. And yeah, when it's over,

I'm like, this guy's Johnny Carson. Like, and now I need a fucking autograph.

Yeah, he's guys rich. Yeah. He's blowing it into the business. You're like, I mean, that guy,

he's probably made $7. Yeah. That guy's struggling. It's bad. Yeah. He's drinking a lot.

And I saw Jim Brewer was the first stand up comedian. I saw Zany's. And I remember the whole show

seeing the host. And then the middle act. And you're like, they're famous. And then you get

into it. You're like, that host might have been paid $15. Yeah. He's got to get up the next morning

and go to his real job behind the curtain. It's depressing. Yeah. You're like, uh, okay.

It never ends, by the way. Every time you get behind a curtain, you're like, oh, okay.

So yeah, I still feel like shit. Okay. I mean, yeah, even now when you're hosting the award show,

do you still feel like no one cares? I don't feel like they know me. The image is like,

you walk out there and you're like, I don't know. I was there and you did a great job. I loved it.

Yeah. Yeah. I had so much fun watching it. Yeah. I don't think they love the Boys and Girls Club.

I liked that a lot. I thought it was fun. I will say this. There is an enormous

chasm between a live experience and what you see on TV. It's why improv doesn't work on TV.

They've tried many times to put improv on TV. It doesn't work. You can't feel the stakes of it

on TV. You're safe in your room. Similarly, like, I've been to SNL and I've seen a few people

and every time I'm like, I think that's the best host I've ever seen. So you don't know what the

experiences on TV. I didn't have a bad experience in there. The only thing I regret with it was,

I wish I would have went out to the audience and talked to them before and just to go like, hey,

I was really doing this. You know, that was a week that was Charlie Kirk. Yes. That was a heavy,

heavy, heavy week. Yeah. I think I wish I came out and like, warmed everyone.

John Oliver, Seth Rogan did a good job. John Oliver was great with it. He was like,

F-Nate, and he would go short to cost me more money. I feel like some of the audience

like bought into it. Yeah. But I understand that some of the actors, when it's these big moments,

it's serious. You're threading the needle because all these shows have to be entertaining on the

couch to watch. The kids were watching it. Get out of clock. I know I love them. It was a fun

aspect to it to like, how are you going over? And yeah, I was never going to let, I mean,

they did go under, but I did not think they were going under. It was a cool experience.

I would like to do it again and just go back, but y'all do what everyone do.

I thought it was a fun, really fun day. I brought a comfortable chair,

I mentioned every country you want to mention. You don't believe in dinosaurs. Tell them right here,

you're safe here. It is frustrating, though, because you were like, we can do something. We can

raise some money here. There's some action that can be done. Yeah, the boys and girls

club, which we can all agree on is a good cause. To be honest with you, again, I don't always think

of the individuals, but there's a lot of companies there. See this gave a hundred grand,

so they go to that, but they were like, if someone win, they go wherever she goes over,

or work, cover her. I thought they would get it. Everybody has publicists. I thought everybody

would go like, yo, if you win, just go, hey, I'm sorry, Netflix, you're giving money to the boys

and girls club. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I kind of thought of it as a win-win, and I think I wish I

explained this. For the week that it was, I thought it was like, look, you could go over and just

tell Netflix. And on top of you going over and you get to give your big, big, big speech,

you get to go, you know what? And Netflix give boys and girls a couple hundred thousand dollars

on my name. Yes, you thought of the clever fix for them. Yes, but they didn't necessarily come up

with that. But I don't know if that's their fault. Another reason I didn't feel crazy bad about it,

I'm nominated. Yeah, it took me 23 years to get to this. And mine wasn't even on that show.

I was in a garage two weeks before. I understand how hard it is to get where you want to get. But then

I think of it as the entertainment aspect to go like, well, you need to be a show. And that's

one of the things everybody tells you that this is going too long. You met him with a problem

when they should fix. And if I would have known, I didn't know the presenters. They got to chill that

out. I know it's long. And people are going off script. And I know they want to be funny. And if I

could have been live in the moment, started just packing some time off these presenters. Those guys

work hard. Yeah. If it means so many, there's so many, they have to come with so many, so many

different, there's a lot, a lot, a lot that goes into it. Being a part of it, it's one of those

where I was like, I would never do it again. Then you're like, I don't know. I think I can fix it.

That's the comic. Yeah. The comedian in you when someone's bombing the comic before you,

this crowd's terrible. Everybody's this crowd's terrible. You always go like, well, let me get up

there and then usually get up there and they are. And it is a bad ending. There we go. Like, you

go, I bet I can get them. Yeah. If you don't think you can crack it, what are you doing?

Yeah. It's like Max Rastap and they're one of these rancers that if you're not going for the

fucking pass, you're not a race car driver. So I think the Oscars will be good this year,

because I think they got a lot of movies that people know. Yeah. F1 centers. People have seen

them. Have seen them with TV and the Emmys. There's just so much. It's fragmented. It's fragmented

and the people at home, you're not thinking about that crowd at home that's watching it. They want

to watch in a workshop. It's live. It's fun. Yeah. You don't know who's going to win. It's sports.

Yeah. You have sports at your hands. So like, make it sports. Yeah. Make it exciting. And then

you don't have to come up with a gimmick. You're kind of just purely like, what is going to happen?

Oscar parties were always the giant parties and all this kind of stuff. Nothing to say that the

movies. I know they don't make them movies. That's period. They don't. Yeah. We're not pulling

from the same middle. Yeah. We just did this the other day. We read like the 98. Every one of them

was a five million. Everyone saw it. Everyone loved it. And they had passed over another dozen

great movies to get to the will. Yeah. Okay. So post live at Gotham and Conan, do your venue size

chain when you're starting to tour? I guess I'm wondering what are the markers? I know there's

these big moments for you that get us to 2024, which is an insane year for you. What are the big

markers in crowd size venues? I love giving advice to young comics because I've done every single

gig you can do. I wrote all the rides. Yeah. Yeah. There was no quick, when I got SNL, I was doing

an arena. I always say like SNL added the second arena. So it like made me more mainstream. But I

went through the whole process of doing the show with a parrot. Yeah. And then being in clubs,

you start selling clubs and it was Netflix. First half hour Netflix special, which was like a

series. It wasn't even a standalone scene. Yeah. It was a series. Nikki Glazer was in it,

Dan Soder, Fortune Feamser, Dion Cole. From that, I was at a comic club. And the week after that

aired, some people came to show it and I was doing jokes from that special because you didn't have

to overturn jokes that much because no one knew. I remember doing jokes and then I was like, have

y'all seen? And they're like, oh yeah, yeah, we just watched a special and you're like, oh my gosh.

So then at that moment, you realized like, oh, I have to write a new hour now. Which is

funny and it's different because when I was a kid and you loved Andrew Dice Clay and you had

heard the rhymes, you still wanted to see him do it every time. The paradigm changed a bit.

Tell him come, he's still of extremely new art and then what it is today. If you go look at and

not to mention Bill Cosby's name, he's one of the greatest of all time. Yeah. But and he's the one

of the first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's alive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like George Carlin, he would be alive. Yeah. George Carlin's not 200. Yeah. And the pride

didn't have a mask. He'd be alive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All be alive. Seinfeld started like

Seinfeld's kind of the one now. He's a virile man. Yes. These these guys are alive. So this art

form, how you see it has changed so much when they came up, stand up was a niche thing and then they

have booms, but as all these live experiences, but you need to get into TV. You need to get a sick

on. You went on Carson. You got a sick calm. Yeah. That was the path. Even when I started, that was

kind of the path, but then he's kind of had the Gaffigan and Sebastian, Miss Galko.

Dane Cook, I think was important to stand up comedy and the fact that you were able to go like,

oh, this is a guy in an arena through my space as well, not through being on Carson. No, yes.

And Dice Clay was one that you knew from stadiums and all this, but again, this was further back,

your access to him wasn't as easy to see it. Right. You saw it on HBO and it go with live,

which is what I saw and we videotaped it, but I would have loved to have gone and seen him in

person and do all this stuff. I just saw those were giant things that were like going like, look,

people are making it to this extremely high level. And then you have Dane Cook, where now media

and social media and like everything's out. So now everybody gets to watch everything Dane Cook

is kind of getting to do. And so then Dane Cook is giant. I'll add to the Dane Cook thing because I

did a movie with them at the peak of that, which was comedy as a cultural identity. So like,

when I was watching Dane, I was like, oh, there's something more going on than Richard Pryor. This is

like, this is my band I like. Yeah. He is an identity marker for me. That's new to comedy. I think

that was like kind of the beginning of he represents what I'm all about as opposed to Dice tells

he's nursing rhymes and they're funny or probably no one's watching Pryor going like, yeah, that's me.

You liked his story and they broke boundaries and they did stuff and they were just such big

personalities. I mean, so is he Dice? I'm such a big fan of Dice, but he was just this big,

big personality. He's called for the media's like he's on SNL and he's on talk show. Yeah,

it's like Elvis. It's crazy in movies. And then even to see where he's at now, then he goes and

was an entourage and all this thing. He's unreal. I've want to meet him. But I mean, Dane was a big

part of that. Then you got Gaffigan who's very, very prolific and writes so many hours. I come from

the School of Writing and Act. An act is very hard to create. And that's why there's certain points

where you get it can thin out a little bit is because you have to keep writing a new act. You got

to feed the machine and writing a new act is one of the harder things to do because you got to come

up with stuff every time you take a special, you're like, I don't know what I'm going to talk about.

Yeah, you're going to do an hour of material, but my guess is you're going to workshop 10 hours

of material to whittle that down to the one hour or maybe it's more. I don't know. Yeah,

what depends on how you work, but you're just in your head looking for any. I'm serving. Yeah,

oh, this I got to say when I was in the groundlings is like we had to put up hopefully five or six

new sketches every Wednesday. And by the end of the year of Justin, I'll be sitting at a restaurant

and I'm like, oh, do you see how that guy grabbed the napkin? That's funny. What if we had a sketch

where you know, you're out your mind. Yeah, yeah. And that's what standup is. Yeah, it's exhausting.

And it kind of fucks up. You're waking hours because all you're doing is looking for it. Yeah,

it's like grabbing nuts squirrel. You're going to hibernation. I'm such a big fan of standup because

they kind of have to do so much. You have to write direct produce. You have to come up with stuff

of you're talking about a girl in the middle of your act and you got to try to sound like that or

this and change your voice. There's just so much stuff that they have to go do. And you got to

just stand up by yourself and then just entertain like all these people. Doesn't go well all the time.

Not when you're creating it. Yeah. So it's this disjunction between you're on the road doing the

hour that was say on Amazon Prime or on, you know, whatever. And that thing works great. And now we're

back to the batting percentage is going to drop for a while. And you got to adjust to, oh, I'm not

crushing. Yeah, you have nowhere to go. And you know, it's funny too. Sometimes like after I taped

my last special, the day after I taped out flew to and did this kind of corporate kind of event.

There's some corporate events are great. They're big. They set up. They have a nice stage. And then

this one was a little chiller and everybody's kind of in nice comfortable chairs. I did an hour

material the night before in an arena. And then this was in front of like 40 people. And I did that

same hour in 25 minutes. Whoa. Like that's how much. Oh my god. The crowd and energy impact.

You're not pausing. You're not pausing. You're not. I mean, it is. That's an awesome bit of

data. Yeah. Oh, you can jam. Because the pace is literally is more than two acts of what is the

night before in your head. You're like, I can't believe I'm at where I'm at. In my ass.

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So, yes, you're just one of the episodes of the thing, but then you quickly do a Netflix

special in the same year. And that goes well, and then you do a second Netflix special.

That one goes great. They need to do Amazon. That one's huge. That's their biggest stand-up thing.

Every three million people watch it, and I'm 28 days. It's bonkers. You go back to Netflix.

And then SNL, was it at all like, I thought I was famous. I sell out arenas. And then I do SNL.

I was like, oh, no, there's a whole other world that I really hadn't touched.

Did you have that moment where you're like, oh, this is kind of trippy.

I love awareness. So, I was very aware of like, I knew I had to go destroy on SNL.

I was doing a sold out arena weekend. I was in Oklahoma City, Thunder, where they play on that Sunday.

And then I flew to SNL. So, I knew that I was going to fly to somewhere where people there

are not going to know what I just did. And you're smart enough to know like, I know that you started

doing small rooms in New York to prepare for your monologue because you knew SNL is a small room

in a weird way. Yes. Well, and I knew the monologue mattered the most. Yeah, yeah. And so,

I just picked eight minutes of my hour special. Comics do that. A lot of comics, they think when

you go on SNL or if you go on a tonight show, they'll be like, I've already heard this mature.

Yeah, man. I got to go do it. I got to do this as a whole. I knew I was going to talk to people

that are not watching my standup. Yeah. You're being introduced to a whole bunch of people.

Yeah. I would always joke and just be kind of like, well, I'm not even famous.

An idea that you could go sell and arena out and then go be like, but I'm not famous.

I know it's weird because you said a record with 1.1 million tickets sold in 2024.

But also, that's not a large television audience. Let's say everyone that knew you came and

saw you and bought a ticket. That's actually a shoulder going to camp. Yeah. Yes.

But it's huge in standup. It can be misleading to get them to come out and go do that.

We're going to see if this works out in this movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I knew I had to go on and make a point. And the good part about getting it so late in my career

is I was much more prepared for that moment. I was the most nervous about the monologue

because I was like, that has to go good. That's where I'm supposed to be good at.

Yeah. And then the rest of it, the expectations will be that high.

I thought it would be fine because it's live performing. So I was like, I think I'll do fine

in it. And then we got lucky with the George Washington sketch. It goes crazy.

I mean, the George Washington thing is bigger than it's the thing on YouTube.

Like just views wise. Views wise, but what people come up to me.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They love your standup, but they'll be like, George Washington,

it was like the funniest George Washington thing is the reason I can almost like walk up

to anybody now and you know they kind of know. Yeah. Yeah. They're having some weird feeling

whether they went to high school with you or something, they recognize you. They recognize

you now. And I know it's probably from SNL. Now it's just a bunch of other stuff. Yeah.

All kind of clubs. Now, 2018, you quit drinking. And as someone who quit drinking in 2004,

I want to know what precipitates that things were cracking. I was about to start doing

theaters from comedy clubs. It was my last comedy club. I was in Charlotte, Comedy Zone,

great club is last time I drank. I just knew if I wanted to get where I wanted to get,

this was in the way. You would have a fun night, Thursday night, because that'd be your first

show and you wouldn't be drinking. You'd be hungover on Friday.

If I hungover Friday, there's the week in your hungover. Yeah, you're fine. So then you're

not going to mentally work on and try to expand. You're going to survive. The extent that I wanted

to get to, I just knew I couldn't get to that. Were you also letting people down? You logged

were you inconsistent? Were you not available? You're just embarrassing. You know, just even waking up

and being like, I don't know what I said, you know, where you just feel bad. You're taking an

inventory of all the things that happened and each one's getting worse and worse. And you're like,

who do I got a call? You know what? Helped was, Alicars got a great book. His is big on none.

He doesn't smoke, but he has all the other ones. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not only

the hypnotist. He just talks to it. He frames everything in an entrance. There's another book I read

too. And I'm blank on maybe the big book of alcoholics anonymous. No, no, yeah, yeah. I did not

do. You're an anomaly. Yeah. I mean, it's not easy to do without some structure. You don't

have to rob low on Howard Stern years ago. I heard I think he quit drinking. He said, I didn't

have it because you think alcoholism is you're waking up drinking shots of vodka. And I knew a guy

like that. I remember him showing up to work at 7 a.m. and shouldn't have driven to work in the bag.

And it wasn't like he was up on, he already started. In my case, the end was like, I'm not someone

who's going to drink in the morning, but also this hangover isn't sufferable. I don't want to get

drunk. I want to alleviate this fucking anguish of this hangover. And then I'd be like, oh,

yeah, I drink Sunday mornings. I can manage that. That's on the weekend. And now Monday mornings,

I drink and I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna do two fucking drinks in the morning. Yeah, it's easy

to get there. But then the level where you have a problem with it, what I liked when Rob

Low said it was, it wasn't just it's dream thing where you're like, I'm drinking 24 hours a day

or whatever. Right. I never drink at home. When I was at home, I would never crack a beer open

and have a beer. But when I was out with friends, I didn't know how to stop. Right. And so I was like,

you would just get going. And then that's its own woman to there'd be times though. I'd go two

weeks without drinking. It wouldn't bother me. Right. I wouldn't be like, oh, I need to go drink.

I think when I heard Rob Low say that, it was like, oh, this addiction, you think it's just

driving off a cliff. No. Yes. There's like, there's so many levels of it. That's a great point.

Because I've had dudes in training. It's over in like, well, I never did coke. And I'm like,

okay, I remember watching this HBO show called dope sick. And there was a dude who was buying

crack, melting the crack and shooting it up. And I'm like, okay, well, I smoke crack and I could

be sitting here going, well, I never melted it and shot it up. And that could keep me from addressing

this. You can always find someone worse than me. You can always find someone worse than me.

But all you think is the worse than me. And so then that's what makes you think you don't have

like a problem. But I think even the analysis of does this thing take more than it gives? And if

you know it takes more than it gives, and yet you somehow can't stop, that's worth questioning.

Why would I do something that I know takes more than it gives? Yeah. Food is the one I have now.

And that's the one I'm working on now is trying to. We have a medical treatment for that one.

Yes. They do. Yeah. I mean, if I could take a shot and drink two jack and diets once a week.

Fuck. That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. There's no shame in that. No, no, no. Yeah. That's been the hardest

for me to get going like to eat it. I just don't. I like fast food. I like all this stuff.

And you get stressed and then you end up going to it. Well, you're regulating all this stuff.

Whether it's sex, it's booze, it's food, you feel discomfort and you have a very quick solution.

And that's very tempting. Yeah, it's tough. Okay. Now you had one deal to do a sick comment.

One point that failing was producing at Universal. And then you had an ABC pilot that you shot.

Side note. Do you love Kurtwood? Oh, the best. I love that man so much. I had lunch with him last

week. I mean, what a beautiful fuck. Yeah. He's a wonderful man. I feel so lucky. I know that guy.

So why do a movie? I mean, I guess I probably already know like this sitcom thing is not for me.

Tell me the decision to do a movie. Well, the sitcom thing I did. I wrote a script every year.

We only shot one pilot. I always made it to the point where we wrote the script but never made it

to the pilot. So I tried it for eight years and eight scripts. And then some of them weren't.

Some of them were. It's a demoralizing experience. It's really crazy. You know, it's a year-long

process in a sense. I got a call that they weren't going to do it. And I mean, I was in like Edminton

and it was minus 20 degrees right outside real fast. I'm walking to the club. And they're just

like, yeah, it's not happening. And then you just go to go do your set. You guys can do your show.

I'm about to go on stage and you're like, okay. And a guy puts his camera down. Save your film.

Yeah, yeah. He's still not made it. I kind of learned quickly. And again, this is kind of

the aspect of being clean because I would go out on auditions and I would do auditions. I wouldn't

want to curse and stuff. A lot of auditions would be maybe doing something that I was like,

I don't really feel comfortable doing it. And then even if it was one that I did, I would never

commit to it to even even get a chance to get it. I did a Cohen Brothers audition within

past couple of years. I have not met them, but their personal books, all their stuff.

They were most wonderful. There was a lot of cursing. The character I would have played. And I said,

like, I'm just not going to curse. Were you going to say like dad gumming and stuff in place of it?

Were you going to try to fill in? No, I would have just figured. And the way I do it is like,

I try to do it where you don't know I'm not doing it. You don't make it super obviously. It's just,

I have to think of a different way to say something. And I always think, that's not your problem.

That's my problem. You can give me a rated R script. I'll go through it. Yeah. I'll make it

how what I'm being comfortable. It's not on you. Yeah. This is my thing. They were very

wonderful. But it's like the more and more you realize auditioning and all this stuff, you're like,

I'm just not going to get you're a very square peg in this round hole. And so I learned it earlier.

And then you just kind of learned that like, all right, I'm going to have to create anything that

I want to go do. And I'm going to have to be at a point in my career where I could go. I'm not

doing that. So whatever. So that's where I was like, yeah, you just kept doing stand up and

kept trying all this kind of stuff. And then it just kind of worked out with the

specials and everything. It all kind of started clicking. And you know, when I go on SNL,

it's like, I'm not going to do something political or I'm not going to curse. You're proving your

concept. People are like, yeah, he does it this weird way, but it works. Yeah, we all like it.

I'm out of my own business. I'm not better than you. Yeah. Yeah. You do. Whatever you want to go do.

Some side of it too is like competitively, you just look and go like, I just don't see a lot of

people doing it this way. You need to be yourself. Maybe who you are. So when does breadwinner

come about as a concept? Because I was watching your friend today. I was seeing, oh yeah, we're

touching. There's some of my stand up. Yeah, which I think is an obvious and smart place to start.

So how do you start thinking? I'm like, okay, what package do I put this point of view in me

writer Dan LaGonna, who we wrote a pilot together again, 10, 12 years, whatever, 15 years,

that didn't go. And then so we've always just stayed in touch. So Dan came to me. When you write

a TV show, this show runner, and I think the writers really matter. So when you go do a TV show,

that really matters. A movie. Like, when you saw half of what I know about Hollywood is

cause of entourage. So like an entourage and they go find those guys shooting at that gun range.

A movie can come from a guy that lives under a bridge. The writer, it just doesn't matter.

The director is going to be the director. That's a director.

Manium TV's a writer. Yes. When you do that, I even liked that because you're like, all right,

now you're not getting just completely paired up with, you know, well, this guy did this and this

and this and this and you want to go like, now I want to write it with my friend or whatever. So

me and the guy that got on the phone and just started talking about trying to write a movie. And

then, you know, it just kind of falls along in my standup of about being, I don't know,

just whatever I've talked about my standup. We're making a movie. It's such a, like, it was

funny. I didn't even think of Mr. Mom. We were talking about John Hughes movies. That's what I

want to create more of. Yes. The home alone's, playing Trains, Autumn, but it was like,

all this kind of stuff like that. Mr. Mom, I knew what it was. I don't know if I've ever seen it.

I didn't watch a ton of movies growing up. So I'm like, pitching. I was like, yeah, this is great.

And then it is funny that it's like, yeah, John Hughes, you're like, a course. It's like,

so it's essentially, it's exactly, you're like, oh, yeah. Well, he did that. Yeah. That's

why it's a good idea. Half time he's come up with a good idea. You're like, dude, is this

the best idea ever? Yeah, it was 50 years ago when they did it. We're not trying to be something

better than that, but it was like my take on it. And two, because there's this thing where it's like

the dad is dumb and everything and all this. This movie is not that. Can I set up the premise?

Your wife gets to be on Shark Tank. She has some invention. And then they tell her, you know,

you're going to be quite busy and you have a family. Use your husband going to be able to take

over. So you'll be free for us to invest. And then you happen to be backstage eating,

talking donuts. And they bring you on stage and you embarrass her and you're a dipshit. And so

that kind of crumbles. And then now she's going to be gone for a month to go out and try to get

this thing. And I got to raise the kids. And you got to step in your car salesman. Yeah, so

with Camel. Camel. Yeah. Yeah. We love. We love them so much. Me and Camel started together in

Chicago. Oh, yeah. One of my oldest B homes, Camel, like Hannibal Burris, TJ Miller,

there's a lot of comics that we're in Chicago when we all started. Yeah. He homes, obviously.

So Camel is unbelievable. And it was very great to have Camel on the set because he's done so much

and I've been in movies. And so to have someone that you're friends with and that you've known

for 20 years, I could ask him a lot of stuff. You can be vulnerable and not feel.

Yes, because that was a big thing of where people are like, yeah, the dads sitcom, you know,

well, this dad doesn't want to do anything. Just another dumb day. Well, you're like, dude,

I don't want to do stuff, but a lot of roles in life. If one leaves, the other one's going to be

like in some pretty big trouble. And it's also based on like, I have a joke about my daughter at

school. Her school called me and asked me what bus number my daughter's on. I'm like, why would

you call the dad? It's like that joke. If I walk up to anybody, that's the joke they bring up.

Yeah. To anybody because everybody could relate to that life, whatever. I got a joke about

because I did my own laundry forever. I thought it was a big deal. And it wasn't as big of a deal.

No, no, I'm gonna, I want you to say he goes, yeah, I knew my laundry. I'm gonna bring that up

in a fight, but I'm gonna sit on it for a minute. Yeah, that's right. I forgot. Yeah. I thought of it

one day because I knew my mom did my dad's laundry. That's how you grew up. That's how it happens

a lot for the record. My wife does all the laundry. Yeah, I don't want to lie. But I just did it

because I, you know, I'd always be traveling. She would have. I just dumped it in there and like

whatever. But I thought, oh, yeah, that's it. Because my neighbors like there was you know, so I was

just like, well, I'll just wait. I'll hold onto it and wait in my head. It's a bomb. I'm like,

in my head, I'm like, it's a fight ender. Yeah, it's the nuclear option. Yeah, like if I set the house

on fire, I could be like, okay, but you got a guy that does his own laundry. Yeah. And you should

apologize. Yeah. Did you use it? Yes, I did drop it in. It did not go like, yeah, the punch line is

he goes, he goes, yeah, I dropped this fight ender and I had not anticipated. It was going to start

another fight. That's right. That's right. It's so much much. Yeah, yeah, it was tender.

It just kind of said it and then it sparked and then it flew. Yeah, now you got a great cast.

How did you get Forte? And his wife has accepted a bunch of bids and some guy came in way under.

It's Will Forte who's just the sweetest and so funny. So funny. Yeah, the whole cast is

great. Mandy Moore is my wife. Got Colin Jost in it. Very funny. He's going to go line dancing

with the mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He plays like to stay at home dead. Another reason I thought about

this was because there was a guy I knew that was to stay at home dead. It's funny. He would be

around women so much that I was like, if he came and hung around with us, it would kind of be weird.

He's like one of the mom. He was just like, he just did it. It was like very funny.

And this was just in real life. So that's when I somewhat thought of the idea was that kind of

aspect that you get kind of lost in your just surroundings because you adapt to it. We're all

a product of whatever context. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I kind of thought of him and I got a buddy that's

the opposite. His wife's a dentist. They own their own dentistry. So he's a stay at home dead.

It's a mess. He was another. It was both of them were kind of the ideas that I thought he's

yeah, like a dude. So the moms cannot, I mean, he barbecues every night for dinner. Oh, he's

five nights a week. He drives his car to the pickup and it ruins everything. There's no system.

It's like the most man. If you like call him and you're like, hey, let's go watch the game

tonight somewhere. He brings his kids because he doesn't have that in his head to go like

you know what, I should probably get the kids to sleep. You know what, they can stay up till midnight

too. I just liked the idea of just the kind of chaotic and Colin is so funny in it is playing

the stay at home dead. The execution, I wish I could have seen the whole thing. I can only see

the trailer and the scenes I saw, but the execution is incredible. It has your spirit. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's the look. I'm excited about it. I think this is a movie that if you've watched

me as a stand up, you would think I would make this movie. You're going to see some jokes that

would make sense and maybe a bit of my act, but we do have a great cast. It's a family movie.

That's live action. Yeah, live action. And we just want you to bring everybody. It's definitely

feel good. We need some of that. Yeah, yeah. My last question for you and this is selfishly

motivated. Now that I've spent so much time in Nashville, you're going to open a theme park in

Nashville. Yeah. Yeah. That's as much as you can say about it. Yeah.

More will come, but we used to have a theme park on Opulan. There's my first job. I was a

sweeper at it when I was 15 probably a lot of cigarette butts. Oh, cigarette butts. Yeah,

they took when I was like senior in high school and it's a mall now. Everybody loved Opulan.

It was profitable. It was like, why would you take it away? It was part of the 08 collateral

damage. Was it? No, no, no. I graduated from 197. I'm 46. Oh, so it shut down in the 90s?

Like 90. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In the 90s. So it was just annoying. Now I didn't think at that time,

I'm going to go do this. Resurrect. You hit points in your career where you got to figure out

what's your purpose of being here. And so one for me when I did Bridgestone Arena.

19,375 seats. Yes. So I used to day dream about that. And so my dumb little thing that I would say

is I always think think like your goals, you should be embarrassed if you don't get them.

And your dream should be embarrassed to say out loud. And so it was kind of like that. So day

dream of that bridge show, right? So then I get to that Bridgestone night and I can't leave

them there. And then you're directionless for a second. That's what's so confusing about success.

Yes. Because it can't be about you or that's what I believe. Anything that you're doing cannot

be about you. If it's about you, it's only going to go back because it's never going to be good enough.

And so you have to have another reason for it. And so then that's when I kind of came up with the idea

of Nate Land and the company that I'm starting and like this movie where I really want you to be

a trustless brand and trust when you see it, you know what it is. We have a motto for production

company or movies like Good Clean Funny. And but I think we can do good clean drama. It's basically

like I can make die hard, but the one that airs on TBS. I even like that you said, you know,

there was this arrow where you could go to the mall. You let your kids fuck off and run around

forever. You got to have a good meal with your friends. Yes. What a dream. I'm in experience with

going out and touring. And so they tell you it's always well, no one watches movies anymore.

There's no one wants to go. I just find that hard to believe when I'm staring at people out.

And again, it's one of those where you're like the system that makes the thing is blaming the

person. I don't think it's their fault. They're just doing what you're you're not. They're responding

to you. You give them an animated movie or a horror movie and they have no choice. What do you

want them to go? And then the movie theaters, that's just a dude that owns a theater. He can't get

people to come in there. So I just wanted to create that experience. Hey, I want to really try to

see if people will come back to theaters. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. I have no idea. But then

the theme park is the bigger aspect of it to go and be like this place that you can come bring

your family. I want you to be able to let your kids go run when my parents, they could drop you

off at opulant. And you could go hang out with your friends and be alone. Maybe you have a

girlfriend that you get to go hang out with or you have all these little experiences or maybe you're

12 and your parents are like, y'all go meet here. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. And you have, it's on me,

that freedom. Yeah. And now you've had those freedoms. Weirdly, the only way for

people to get them is they actually have to go become very wealthy and live in gated communities.

And they can go live like the 50s. It's the other people that can't. And so I want to create a

space for that. And some of it would be free. Some is going to be a theme park, like a downtown

Disney where you can just go walk around. Yeah. But you want it to be this place where people go.

And I want you to be able to feel that you can drop a safe bubble, a safe bubble that they can

have a place to go. So I've heard you say that potentially you would stop touring the 2024

tour generated like $85 million. Mentally, how do you get yourself to a place where you know you

might unplug from that safety that's coming your way? It's hard. I mean, especially right now,

because we're doing feasibility studies and we're doing all the stuff this theme park. I'm paying

for all this. So everything that's going into this theme park, which these studies and these

economics studies and all this kind of stuff is very, very, very expensive. Yeah. So right now I'm

paying for everything. I'm paying for the tour. We have employees that work for us, health care,

we have all this stuff that I'm able to provide gracefully because people come to

shows. Yeah. So I don't want that to go away. When I said stopping touring, I did have the idea

of where I was like, I want to get out of the way. If someone else comes along, I don't think it's

as soon as I probably thought I initially when I initially said it, but there is a point. I want

to go develop younger people and find them. I think that's what's happened in the industry that

we're in now is the developing of younger people. I'm not trying to even do anything different.

I'm just literally taking your 80s, 90s way and just going, we need to probably do that. I know

if I need to be in movies, I'm probably going to have to star in movies to sell the tickets for

the movies. I want to be able to do it to find the people to then find the next big time.

I'm going to pass the baton off and break them off and try to have them go do stuff and build a

world and really go develop. Let people develop. Social media, especially with comedy, it forms a

lot of bad habits because you're first told to get booked at a comedy club. You have to have

followers. Well, to get followers on Instagram, you got to do stuff that you cannot...

Undo. Well, you cannot undo and it's too hard to create. You got to create it every day.

Well, you get into a clip mindset, not the routine set. So you're filling all day.

And every clip's got to be crazier and crazier and crazier. Well, you're trying to hack the

algorithm. Like your new job is not the audience. It's kind of hacking mail and you have to

grab the low hanging fruit. That's all you can do or you can build an act where people can trust.

And they're going to come to it. And I still think that exists. I think a change is happening.

And you're seeing it. Younger people are annoyed with their phone. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yeah,

people are starting to like start to go like, I don't like this. That's why experiences are

becoming a thing. That's why people want to go out and kind of go do stuff. Restaurants are

having pickleball and all this stuff in it. And so you're seeing this aspect being do it.

I very much hope for you and all of us that everyone goes, I think, would be very fun for everyone

in their family to go. Thank you very much. Do you need those options? And this has been a

fucking blast. Yeah, thanks for giving me so much time. I loved it. Y'all were so fun to talk with

and I can't wait to see it home. Oh my god. I know. All right. Great. Thank you so much.

Stay tuned for the five tracks so you can hear all the facts that were wrong.

Ready? Yes, I have two drinks. I feel safe. Good. Okay. I'll go to both in this little chat.

I know you can take a lot of fluid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, speaking of that, I was at an event

and I was sitting with a stranger, also just another, just so funny to be at events and feel

like a little kid, you know. Uh-huh. What event was this? It was four rows, the hair products that I

love. Yeah. And it was at DuPars. What's that? It's a very cute diner. Okay. And they had rented

out this space. It was so cute. But there's like tables and people were kind of sitting at

tables, mishmashed, you know. Uh-huh. And I was with Rachel, my friend Rachel. And we were like,

what are we doing? We had to ask if he could sit with someone and it felt like a school cafeteria.

Yeah, middle school. Yeah. Even worse. And then they said no. They said no. Yeah.

Because it was taken already. Yeah. They were like, we have someone coming. Yeah. Oh boy.

Yeah. Okay. Luckily, we found these two women who let us sit with them.

She's yeah. No thanks. Yeah. And um, one of them was half Indian. Okay. And she also didn't drink water.

Okay. So interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and my dad doesn't drink water. Yeah. Just

make a lobe. Sometimes make a lobe. But no water. And I was like, it's conceivable. We just don't

need it as much. Well, what's very conceivable is if you monitor water intake across populations,

you would see different levels. Yeah. And it would be quite interesting if Indians were like,

yeah, very low on that. What if you, what if Indians only need one

thimble a day? Or I'm going to make an armchair theory. Okay. Okay. And this goes to why

African-Americans have higher rates of hypertension. Yes. I've already said this before. But

when the people were kidnapped and enslaved, they were marched across the continent of Africa.

And half the people died of dehydration because they were not offering them water.

And then so the people that made the boat, they had a really an above average salinity count.

They held on a salt in their body. And then they got on these boats. They did not serve them water.

This interior was running rampant. Another half of them died of dehydration on that trip. Right.

So the only people that got here had a really a normally high salinity count. Yeah.

And which is now leads to hypertension. Right. So it's conceivable to me that the environment

Indians came from hot and warm. Yeah. That you guys do hold on to your salt better. Yeah. In which case

you would need less water. Yeah. But I wonder what the rate of hypertension is for Indians.

Sky fucking high. Is it? I don't know. Okay. It says approximately 25% to 30% of adults in

India have hypertension versus how many in say England. Okay. That's a very white. We're Sweden.

32 to 33 same. Okay. All right. Well, there goes that. Well, I mean, I hate to be, I'm going to

they're going to run the risk of being offensive here. Okay. Go ahead. How many people in India

are getting measured for hypertension? Like how many people are going to the doctor? We know that

like 700 million of them are living in such poverty. They're not seeing a doctor ever to be a labeled

high village doctor. I just doubt that the data on hypertension in India is you anywhere comparable

to the data that's coming from England because so many people don't have medical care in India

versus maybe maybe that hurt your feelings. No, it's in it. It didn't hurt my feelings. I just don't know.

I don't know, you know, you don't know. I don't know about the village doctors. A big issue with

India is there is very the cities. There's some very rich cities and then there's extreme poverty.

Yeah. So yeah, it's hard to know what these numbers are based off. Yeah. And you know,

if you're a epidemiologist or you're an anthropologist that study this in the comments, tell us if

there's any data that suggests Indians require less water. Yeah. I feel good just having a

thimble. Then like I think maybe it's fine. My body would tell me like you get thirsty. Yeah,

I don't know what's what with me. Right. I just do things compulsively. Sure. Anything I like

I do not stop. I know, but you like drinking water. Love it. Love it. I know you love it because

of the way it makes you feel, right? Yeah, I love how cool it is and it's refreshing. Yeah, see,

I get none of that. Yeah, I love it. None of that. Benny. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I told you,

you should carry around a gallon of my well water. Sure. Everywhere in high school people

get on Jesus here's a tax with this gallon of well water. So I love the taste of our well water

so much. And when I was in wall lake where I went to high school, everyone's in city water.

And so I needed my jug of well water. Isn't that perverse? So you're like empty out the milk

gallon and put the well water? Well, I wouldn't empty it out, but once it was empty, I would

want to start out. I wouldn't waste a gallon of milk. No, that would that's waste. My mother would

be fucking up in arms. Yeah, I just I think, you know, I've told you this that sometimes I get

actually like very, very full off water. Uh-huh. And that doesn't seem I'm not seeing other people

get very full. I can drink a gallon of it. Exactly. I'm seeing you guys be thirsty. So to this half

India, she didn't have Indian drink water too. That's what you discovered. Yeah. Oh, wow.

So I'm building a real. You have N of three, I guess. You're dead. Good. I guess people can weigh

in, but only weigh in if you are on my side. If you're half Indian or above, we don't. Yeah.

No one 30% right? No, no. I prefer, honestly, I prefer 100%. Yeah, like you're 23. That's right.

Something at the event. That was just that. It was that you felt uncomfortable or is there

another thing? No, just the water. Yeah, the water. Um, well, I went to an event too. Oh, tell me.

Yeah, I traveled to New Orleans. That's right. You did. To be a guest at Walter Isaac's. I don't

know if it's his primarily with the Tulane, New Orleans book festival. Um, I put a lot of

words together. I don't know if it's called the New Orleans book festival or the Tulane book festival

or the Tulane New Orleans or New Orleans Tulane. It's a lot. Whatever. Those were the people.

And it's Walter Isaac's sin. Walter Isaac's sin. Yeah. That's what I didn't say. Yeah.

The New Orleans book festival at Tulane University. Okay. That is a lot of words. And you didn't

hit them all. Okay. The New Orleans book festival at Tulane University by Walter Isaac.

Was it fun? It was. Okay. I haven't been to New Orleans. And I guess since Christian

shot a movie there, we had a rental house directly across from Tulane, which is north of the city

by 20 minutes or something. Mm-hmm. Much different vibe than downtown New Orleans. I was

in downtown. Okay. And so I haven't been downtown in a goat's age. So I got there on Friday

and I decided I'm going to take a walk. Okay. Before everyone's completely annihilated.

Okay. It's a huge, everyone. I don't know. I'm not shedding any light on this. It's a boozy

fucking city. It's such a good city. Maybe the boozeous. Yeah. And I walked down to

Bourbon Street in Canal and then was cruising down. I immediately saw this like 16-piece jazz

band, the Ragtag group, like no uniformity in their wardrobe or their style or their seeming

their background. It was rad. I watched that for like an hour. I even recorded some of it thinking

I'll show someone and then I was like, no, I was going to want to watch this. I found myself recording

a little bit. That was really fun. And yeah, New Orleans is, I got to say, if any city in America

has the most distinct fingerprint, it's that city. It's culture. Yes, it's like so French. It is.

It's so black and in Creole and all these things. And it's like the vibe is so unique. Yeah.

And all the food everywhere you're at, even if you're at a corner thing, it's going to have

something. They're going to have turtle soup or they're going to have some weird animal on

there that I don't normally eat. And there's going to be a French items on any menu.

Mmm, turtle soup. And I knew my event was on Saturday afternoon and Anderson Cooper was

interviewing me. Yeah. And which was great because we interviewed him a long time ago.

Yes, for his Vanderbilt book. So he reached out like, hey, can we chat before the event? I'm like,

great. Then he said, hey, I'm going to work out. Then I'm going to eat at the steakhouse in the

hotel. If you want to swing by, so he did. So then we had like an hour sit there on the river

shooting the shit. I can tell you how he had already eaten a poll boy at another spot.

Oh boy. Do you like coboys? I can't fuck with them because of the bread. So I'd just be

in a plate of shrimp, I guess. And you don't like seafood. Okay. I like shrimp.

If it's in that's that's a asterisk. Okay, but I bet you do like fried shrimp cocktail. I

love fried shrimp. So you would like the poll boy. I've liked poll boys in the past. They're hard

to say. Yeah. Oh, not really. Oh, poll boy. It's not poor boy. I know, but you want to say

poor boy. Oh, poor boy. All to say, I felt very, very grateful. I was like, look at me sitting

on the fucking Mississippi River chatting with Anderson Cooper. How did I get here? This is

very fun. Yeah. And unique. And I was grateful for it. We had a lovely time. We could

and I was like, oh, when you get a drink, it's happy hour. So I know he drinks. He's like, no,

I'm just going to have a coffee. And then later he's like, I got to go. And I'm like, where are

you going? It was like six. I have to do the news. Oh, fuck. I'm thinking because he's in

New Orleans. He does. He's not. Oh, yeah. I get the day off. He wasn't. He had to leave my

table side and go to a remote studio and do Anderson 360. Wow. So after I walked around the

French quarter a little bit, I got back to my hotel before all the blackoutness started. Although

there was some, there's plenty of blackoutness. Okay. Yeah. And then I'm in my hotel room. And I'm

like, oh, I'm going to turn on 60 minutes, which I never watch. Sure enough, there was Anderson.

360. I don't know how we're just shooting this. It was very. That's weird. I felt like the fabric

time and space was tearing. Yeah. And then the event was Saturday. And it was

completely lovely. It was in their basketball arena. So I don't know how many thousand people

there, but it was huge. Great. And the topic was grief because Anderson has a podcast called

all that there is or something like that. And it's all about grief because when his mom

died, he started going through all of her stuff and he decided to start recording his thoughts on it.

And then it turned into this grief podcast he has all there is with Anderson Cooper. All there

is with Anderson Cooper. And so it was about grief. So then it was all about my dad. And it was

just lovely. It was outrageously lovely. He was reading from the thing I had written about him,

which I hadn't heard in a while. Oh, yeah. And you would have hated it, Monica. I bet I

I bet I cried six times on that stage. I wouldn't have hated it. Let's not make that a thing.

Okay. What would you have felt about it? I probably would have felt like I was sweet.

All right. I won't make that a thing. It's not a thing. It's a unique experience to cry on

stage in public in front of five or six thousand people. I'm bad. Yeah. You did it once before. You

did it. I got shook up one time on stage. I know. Yeah. It was really sweet. It was. It was about

your dad. It was about my dad. Lo and behold. Yeah. Dads will do that. You know. God. Dads

are a lot to handle emotionally. Yeah. They are. And I bet they're they're different

daughter to father than son to father. I mean, I'm sure it's individual. But yeah. I mean,

I think the broad trend. I know. I feel bad about. Do you feel bad about that? About what?

That you're feelings about your dad or your emotions? Like you love both of them obviously.

I mean, I'm in my dad. Yeah. Yeah. But your emotions toward one are a little different than your

emotions toward the other. I sometimes have guilt about that. Well, one is historically your

nurture. Right. And the other is like, again, forgive me historically. Like the rational one

that's going to tell you you're on course to be right. That's like your that person's

you're signposts of like, good job. You've done this. Now, here's what you do with your

tack. I don't know. It's just more like I didn't get it. That's not what I have. Yeah. I feel

like friends of mine who had dads taught them how to do a lot of stuff and their moms comforted

them and taught them how to be emotional. But my mom taught me. I don't even know what I'm saying.

I more think not in terms of like how you feel about a mom versus a dad just like what a daughter

feels about a dad versus what a boy feels about a dad. Right. Like I tell me, I think

boys are looking for much more validation from their fathers that like they're becoming men

or they're waiting for that boy I'm proud of you. You become a good man.

Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. So we're in March, which means it's a moment to celebrate

and I want to take a second to acknowledge some incredible women in my life. My family of course

and Monica obviously who I get to work with every day. The women on our team, the women in this

industry who are constantly juggling a million things at once. They carry so much. They're managing

work, relationships, family dynamics, and about a thousand invisible responsibilities that nobody sees

or acknowledges. And here's what I've learned. Taking care of everyone else is exhausting,

setting boundaries, creating balance, making space for yourself. That's not selfish. That's

necessary. And therapy can be a really powerful tool for that. It's a space to work through the

pressures, the expectations, the roles we all play. BetterHelp makes it easier to get started.

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Is that what you're looking for from your dad?

Um, not like you become a good woman because I would be like,

how would you know? Right. Exactly. But definitely you want your dad to be proud of you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. So there's something going on with the roles for sure.

Yeah. They're not one for one. There's like, there's definitely like different baggage with each.

It is. It's it's it's it's weird. And like my baggage with my mom is is not the baggage.

My brother has with my mom. Yeah. And all all the iterations are everyone has baggage with

everyone. And they're all different. Yeah. And I it's I'm sure it has to do with gender. But also

yeah, I see the tension between my mom and my sister. And it's just not tension that I have.

But it is the same tension I have between my dad and I, you know, right. There's only about

the same gender that yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyways, it was lovely. Um, I met Kenny Chesney backstage.

Big country star. Huge. At a great chat with him. It was quite fun. And then I went back to my hotel.

And I had noticed there was a Creole restaurant in the bottom of my hotel that it was highly

recommended. So I'm like, okay, tonight's I'm going to go to work out and then I'm going to

eat a bunch of turtles. And so I do all my little chores. And then I go down by myself.

And I see in the menu for the table whole fried chicken red beans and rice.

He's got a cool name. It's a hundred dollars. And I'm like, I can't eat a whole

this is for like four people. Right. I can't eat a whole chicken. And there's no other option

for fried chicken. It's just that. So I'm like, I can't eat all that. And if the only way I can

have fried chicken, I'm going to get it. Yeah. It came Monica in this huge fucking metal

pan tin. And it was the best fried chicken I'd ever had by like three deviations.

I can't tell it was so much breading. So much. So it's a little contradictory toy we're just

talking about with the poboly. Right. Cause I did say fuck it. You're right. Yep. But worth it.

But I want to say the breading to chicken ratio was 65 35 65 percent breading. And it had

three dipping sauces, a hot chili one, honey. And then a garlic one I couldn't fuck with.

It smells so good. It's delicious. If you put that garlic on it.

Anyways, I ate so much fucking chicken and breading. Yeah. All the sauces I killed all the honey.

I had my rice and my beans. I was so full at the end of it that I said, you must go walk for a

half hour. Yes, smart. Let's try to help your insulin a little bit. So then Monica got out on

those streets. I started pounding those streets. And again, I was overall I went in different

direction that night. And I was over. It was more of the upscale direction. And I was smelling

so many fun smells and the architecture was different and all the little balconies. And I was

smitten. It's a great city. Oh, I loved it. It was great. It was a great little excursion.

Speaking into run-ins, I had a sim moment. Oh, great. Well, you were gone. I went to a store I like

to go to. I feel like maybe I shouldn't say I don't want to like blow up anyone's spot.

Okay, then don't don't say the name of the store. Okay. I went into a store. Yeah, I was looking

and I saw this woman from the back and I liked the backup for sweater. Yeah. I was like, I want

that sweater. Yeah. Cool. And then I kept looking at the clothes. And then all of a sudden

she turned around and it was Amanda Pete. No way. Yes. Oh, my God. And it was social. It wasn't like

well. It was Amanda. I confirmed. And she said, Oh, my God. So crazy. I was just we were I was

just talking about you. Because one of the sales associates there said to her, I just heard

you want something. She said, Oh, was it armchair? And then he said, yes. So this was very

semi. It was so exciting. And then we were all chit chatting. And it was I did invite her to

mage on she has. She's not she's on the fence. It was such a good run in and she's so fun. And

she was like meeting friends for dinner. And I was like, Oh, what a life. Yeah. And one of the

friends she was meeting was Amanda anchor. Okay. So she came into the store as well. Oh, my goodness.

And you guys get to talk about astrology a little bit. What did you guys decide? We decided

were right. Okay. Yeah. Just and I were on our way to sunset tower. We were very indecisive.

We wanted to hang out, but we didn't know what we wanted to do. And finally we were like,

let's go to sunset towers. We're on our way. And just said he said, well, my friend said that

if you're indecisive, it means you have bad gut health. And I was like, I have good gut health.

And then you know, we're driving and all of a sudden I say, I want to go to this store. I want to go

right now. Yeah. And he was like, Oh, okay. And I was like, unless you don't, unless you don't want

to, but it'll be fast. I just want to run in and get these pants. Yeah. He was like, yeah,

fine. No worries. And so then I go and all this sim stuff happened. Wow. Good gut health.

That's what I that was my takeaway at the end of last episode. I ended up cutting it because

we were signing off. And I said, Oh, wait, wait, I have something important to say.

And then when I was editing, I was like, whatever, I'll cut that because it felt wrapped up, you know,

but I will say now that I have a new wrinkle under my eye. You're convinced now it's here for good

because you thought maybe it was a result. I was hoping that maybe it was temp because you had

I did something weird with my eye. Yeah. You swatted your eyes. Yeah. And I thought maybe that

was a result. Yeah. But it's still there. Okay. And I had a really long,

wierry gray hair the other day. Okay. So stuff's happening. Yeah. And I'm welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Welcome. Welcome. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. Yeah. As my hair grows out, I'm like, oh,

yeah, so great. So great. I know, but you're a man. I know. I know. It's different. I still don't like

it doesn't mean I enjoy it. But you know that the whole thing is like men look hotter with age and

women like, I mean, get married. I think we make a big meal of when someone does like George

Clarence. I love his salt and pepper, but there are a lot of people that are salt and pepper

that that's not the consensus. So I do think we hone in on the ones that's working really

well for and we build a whole story around it. But I guess percentage wise, we're going to I

would say more men are appreciated with gray hair than women. Yes. Totally agree. Yeah. We pulled

it right out. Did you save that? I don't want any reminders of that. Okay. There's a very classic

fable about the king with a gray hair. The second the king shows a gray hair. He has to start

ascension or whatever it is the succession. Oh, they're like living in fear of this gray hair.

And you know, you never had to read this in an industry class. I think you brought this up

before. Probably, but I don't really impact, but I can't remember. I don't remember. Yeah.

Anyway, look, this is life. We age. That just reminded me of something nice. Oh, I know. What?

I want to talk about one juicy thing. I just, oh, do you want to talk more about your wrinkle? No.

Okay. I know more. Okay. It just I understand. I started the Murdoch doc. Have you?

I started it last night. Okay. But I only got a few minutes in because I decided to watch

the pinstead. Okay. It's unbelievable. Okay. Like we all have been told succession is based on

that family. Yes. The show. But if you watch this doc, you can't imagine how. Exactly.

Plot point by plot point. It is all the exact same. Whoa. It's crazy. That is crazy. It's one of

the craziest. So they had access. Like how did they know all the little details? People have

just been reporting on that family so thoroughly. Right. And when different family members are out,

they tend to talk more. And then they're re-engratiated. They're giving another role. Then they

sing the party line and they're out. Yeah. I really want to interview. What's the one brother's name?

There's Lachlan and then the other brother, which one middle the younger brother, the cute,

the Kieran Culkin character. Lachlan James. James. I really want to interview James Murdoch.

Because he's more of a rascal. He was like the smartest member. It's the smarter of the two boys.

He actually ran divisions successfully. Lachlan had a much more checkered track record. James

didn't want to keep Fox News as conservative as it was. In the wake of Bill O'Reilly, Roger

Al's, all these huge payouts and huge controversies they had. Yeah. And the defining moment was their

coverage of Charlottesville. Yeah. And his wife said to him, if you're not going to push back against

Nazis, who will you push back against? Oh, I love that. Yeah. Like a little morality. So

if they suit each other, they tried to change this irrevocable trust that was created.

There was discovery and all their laundry had to come out in a renal courtroom. I mean, it's

fucking mind blowing. Family drama. And that whole world news of the world, whatever that

shit hole magazine in England where they were hacking the phones of like victims who had been

killed. That's what unraveled. They had been hacking all of the royal family and prime ministers

that but no one really cared in Jude law. The public didn't really care when the elite were being

fucked with. But then they were intercepting the voicemails from this girl who had been kidnapped

and was ultimately killed. And because they were erasing them so more could come in. They were

losing important information like the fucking private investigators that the journal is hired.

We're erasing emails from this victim to make room for more emails so they could keep reporting.

So it was horrendous. And they did that to a bunch of different murder victims and kidnapped

victims. So that's tied into this. Well, they owned that. And James had just come into run world

news. So then there was this huge public trial in England. They ended up shutting down the entire

publication. And it was their most valuable asset that he feels is the in it. Are they in it?

The dog no one sits for an interview, but they've been interviewed so much that they can play

the interviews. I just wonder like did he yeah, yeah, what are his ethics during that?

If he's yeah, they're they seemingly are in and out. They're in and out. Yeah, they're like,

okay, I'm going to play dad's game. Right. And then the daughter

shiv is the smartest of all of them by a long shot. She's had so much independent success

away from them. And it's just like the ship story. She's like she's the smartest and he just can't

see it because she's a woman. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's so juicy. That's cool. I'm going to watch that.

I feel bad for all the kids, to be honest. I mean, what what what what a ride they were born into

that they couldn't get off. I do like you're just a product to whatever family brought you home

from the hospital. Yeah. Yeah. And you have this like incredibly powerful smart

conniving father. Yeah. Who's quite good at creating animosity between the four of you

to see you all rise at the top. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. In that way. Yes.

And the in the leverage of money he constantly had, it's like you might think you'd be above

turning down a billion dollars. Right. Let's just let's see if you would be. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah. That is true. It's not the fun privilege like I would think being born into a billionaire

family would be right to say that. Yeah. I mean, you see it on that show. Like they're on

yachts aren't doing it. I mean, they're doing this stuff. Everyone's so miserable. Yeah.

Yeah. I would never want to be. Yeah. I guess that goes. I would never want to be one of them.

So no nor would I want my family dinner to be like this crazy game of thrones happening

the whole time. Although you would like that because that's like fun and game. Well, I would try to

be the. I'm going to try to get diurn throng. Okay. Speaking of dynasties. Yes. This is for

Nate Bergatz. He's creating a dinosaur. That's right. An empire. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You bring up

the NFL player with one hand whose brother also played in the NFL. Shakim and Shakil Griffin are

the NFL brothers famous for overcoming immense adversity. Shakim, who had his left hand

to amputated at age four, do it a congenital condition, became the first one handed player drafted

into the modern NFL 2018. Joining his twin brother, Shakil with the Seattle Seahawks. Yeah. That's

really cool. There's the most. Well, it might have been a real sports. I don't know if it's a whole

doc. Yeah. You said real sport. Okay. And I made my children watch it. That's sweet. Didn't hit

them. They take care of each other. They take. I don't think you're forcing it down their throw.

They were babies. What's going on? Do you have a sibling? You will always protect your siblings?

They protect each other. Yeah. Okay. Nate brings up a Netflix documentary about drug lords and

a woman from Compton who became the one of the biggest drug lords in the 1980s. Drug lords

is the docuseries on Netflix. Episodes called Gemma Ker Thompson. Crack Queen of LA. Crack Queen.

Sounds good. No one's looking for that moniker. You want to be a lot of queens. But like crack

Queen is probably lowest. If you pulled the nation. Yeah. But you can make a lot of money and

crack. She did. It's good margins. Almost as much as those Murdoch's. Yeah. What year did

Opryland close? The amusement park Nate worked at 1997. I remember Opryland being like a big deal.

Sure. It was in the south. Yeah. I went to it. You did? Yeah. How were the rides?

I don't remember. It was a little. Well, then then we're not that good. Because I went to

King's Island as a baby. And I remember. I remember the beast. You shan't forget the beast.

I'm getting mixed up. The pit is making me a little mixed up. Okay. Because I almost said,

did you hear about that case? The guy you hear about those people who the water slide that broke

and people died. Wait, this is real or the pit? No, it was the pit. But I'm sure it's happened.

I'm sure it's happened. And it really got in there. It really got in that noggin of mine as real.

Yeah. Huh. What are we going to do? I'm going to safeguard against this. I need to, I might need

some plans in place. They just, they do that show in such a honest telling. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good as to the pit. The very similarities of it. It really is a great show.

All right. Well, that's it for Nate. Those were the facts. Yeah. Those were the facts.

Just kind of a couple references from Netflix docs. Sure.

All right. Love you. Love you.