Rippee Writes: Ole Miss alum, Jimmy Fallon staffer Mack Hubbell

0:00What is up, I'm Brian Scott Rippy. Thanks for tuning in to another edition of the Ripy Rights Podcast. Got a little bit of a change of pace for today. We have on Jimmy Fallon writer, Mack Hubble. Mack is an Ole Miss alum, a fraternity brother of mine, who is a stand up comedian, does social media comedy and is a writer and on-air correspondent for the Jimmy Fallon show. We talked about how Mack ended up from Oregon to Ole Miss, his path into comedy and writing, how in the world he ended up on the Jimmy Fallon show, getting on-air on the Fallon show for the first time recently, and his path in a really, really tough industry to make it in. He's a remarkable story of success. Great guy, really smart. I really enjoy the conversation. He's got a great story. So buckle up, I think you really enjoyed this story about a really fascinating and successful Ole Miss alum.

1:00So, before we get to that, we want to take one quick break to remind you. This podcast is also brought to you by Watson Turnipsy, Attorney-A-Law. Watson Turnipsy, a friend of the show, one of the smartest people I know. Have you been injured in a car accident work? Have the insurance companies denied your storm-related claim? Right now, Istorm, or the insurance companies denying your Istorm-related claim, get more than one call with North Mississippi's premier boutique law firm Watson Turnipsy at Law. Watson has offices in the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans and focuses on client-based relationships to ensure the best outcome. Over the last four years, Watson has assisted clients in recovering millions of dollars related to any one, any personal injury or insurance claims. Get more than one call, get Watson and beat them all. Visit WatsonTurnipsylaw.com for more details. For call 504-636-8217. Given the call today, it's already helped our list, some of our listeners out of your doing with some Istorm-related claims, they are having trouble with the insurance companies. Watson Turnipsy is your man. That is WatsonTurnipsy at law.com or call him at 504-636-8217.

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3:10Again, just for listening to show. Happy to have Cowboy Country Club onboard this podcast, looking forward to the partnership. And I thank them greatly for the support of the podcast. Go boss and merch. You'll thank me later. It's awesome. Cowboycountryclub.com. Okay. Here's Jimmy Fallon writer and Ole Miss Alarm, Mac Hubble. All right. We now welcome on Mac Hubble, who is a monologue writer's assistance for the tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon. He's an Ole Miss Alarm. He's a fraternity brother of mine. What's up, man? Thanks for joining the show. Yeah, good to be here, man. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Let's just, I guess, start from the beginning. You're rocking the Ole Miss out here on the feed. Always wrecking. Man, I had to. I had to. We're a couple days away. I know. I can't wait. It'll be a fun weekend for sure. You're come to Ole Miss, but I want to think I've forgotten. When I first got to know you, you're from Oregon. How did you end up at Ole Miss from Oregon? Yeah. I was raised right outside of Portland, Oregon, but my dad is from the Delza. He's from Cleveland, Mississippi. Okay.

4:11And then my mom is from Baton Rouge. And my mom went to Ole Miss. Her father went to Ole Miss. So we have a long line of rebels on her side. And then some people in my dad's family went to stay to actually. But my mom got her claws in very early. We drank the Ole Miss Kool-Aid and the startful thing didn't really stand a chance. So I grew up going to games, visiting family, you know, and the Delza and going to box for all that stuff. So I just always wanted to go. And I'm the middle. I have an older sister, younger brother, and all three of us end up going to Ole Miss. So we were all hookline and sinker bought in. So how did your dad from the Delza who went to state and your mom from Baton Rouge who went to Ole Miss? And ended up in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah. They were in DC after college, like many people who go to Ole Miss and they said they stayed art. And they were working and living there for about 10 years.

5:15And my dad just got it. It was like, you know, back in the day when you got a job somewhere and you just had to go without knowing anyone and you couldn't work remote or anything like that. So he got a job in Portland. And they moved out there and just ended it. Neither of them had ever been. I don't even know if they could have pointed out on a map before that. But they just ended up loving it and decided to raise, you know, start a family or keep their family there and raise us there. So it was just like random. And they're back in Oxford now, actually. So they were there for like 26 years or something like that, 25 years and loved it. But they were ready to come home and be closer to, you know, all of us are kind of more on the East Coast. And so yeah, but great place to grow up. I have a kid cousin who's a freshman at Ole Miss this year. One of the things we were talking to her about is like, oh, Miss gets so many kids from all over the country and you meet so many different people from different places and different backgrounds. And for you, like growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have to imagine like Ole Miss was a very cool like change of pace from what you grew up with to go try for college.

6:17You are a little different because you know, you're familiar with it. Your family's familiar with it. A lot of these kids just kind of come on a whim. But what is that like? Like how big of a change of pace is moving from Oregon and then coming to college in the South? Yeah, it was like, like you said, I had the exposure and I wasn't going in like totally blind. But I mean, it's different in almost every way. You know, culturally, it's a lot, you know, August in Oregon is a lot different from August in Mississippi when you're actually first living there. You're like, this is really hot. But it was like exactly what I wanted. I wanted to go somewhere new, meet new people. I felt sort of like a sense of homeness just being where, you know, my mom had gone to college and a lot of my family lived in the state. And it was just kind of a cool like new, it was kind of a cool home away from home type feel. But yeah, I feel like now more and more so many kids are coming, you know, kids who live in New York City or New Jersey or, you know, Santa Monica or just like going Ole Miss

7:20which is really cool. And I'm, you know, one of my best friends, Cam Glager who was also in our journey, like he was like from Grand Rapids and just went Ole Miss because he just chose it. And so, ended up becoming one of my best friends. So yeah, I feel like it's cool that it's more and more people are kind of seeing how special it is there and, you know, wanting to go. When I got to college, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I got into like the sports writing thing kind of by accident. But then a junior year comes and my parents are like, you have to declare a major. I think the first one I declared was risk and insurance. I did not know shit about insurance. I was just like, sound stable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quickly changed to business marketing because I got like some advice that I didn't necessarily need a journalism degree to pursue it. Did you know that you wanted to do this? Did you know what you wanted to do? What did you go into college thinking you wanted to do or be? Yeah, go to football games and join the fraternity. That was like, yeah, that was all I knew. I was much more like it's funny talking to people who were like, yeah, I went to this

8:21school for this major and I'm like, I literally had no name to major. Fresh me or like I just went because I wanted to go to Ole Miss. But yeah, I was the same way. I think I had declared like sophomore year and I was, I did public policy for like one class, like not even like a full class, just like one session of a class and I was like, not for me. Because so many people did that. I just tried that and then I tried, I tried something. I feel like I tried economics, even on like terrible math because it felt like a really smart major and then I landed on IMC because I was like, this is my speed. But no, so the answer, short answer, no, I had no idea that I wanted to do comedy or act or write. I mean, frankly, I didn't really think that was like a real career. You know, I didn't grow up around that. I didn't grow up around like people in the industry really.

9:21So it felt kind of silly to say like, oh, yeah, I want to be a comedian. That's not a real job. So yeah, it was like college was when I figured that out, which I guess is what college is for. But I did not go in knowing. Yeah, well said, that's exactly what college is for. It was like for me, I didn't grow up around that either. I didn't really think about it as a career. I was just like sitting there like, all right, they're paying me like beer money to get these games and write about it that this could be worse. Like this sounds great on and then it kind of one thing leads to another and it kind of snowballs. I remember like talking to my parents about the first time. They're like, I don't think this is a real job. But I'm like, but it is newspapers and women. Yeah, haven't you heard? Yeah. So they're real pumped about that. Did you, what did you do if anything in college to like prepare yourself for this path you went on? I obviously there's a student newspaper, but what did you do like writing and comedy wise? It all missed until I get prepared for this. Was there anything? Um, I mean, honestly, I got my experience when I, when I interned, I interned two summers

10:25in New York when I was in college and that was like my, my comedy experience. And then, you know, I, once I, once I did those internships and I came back, I started just writing. I wasn't really performing comedy or, you know, I, I was actually talking to a recent grad who lives in New York. And I think there's like an improv troupe at all miss now. And I know that there's like a good, you know, mose and some other places have like stand up. And so I feel like it's, there's more and more kind of starting to happen there, which is really cool. But at the time, there wasn't really anything. And I wasn't, you know, I wasn't a theater major. So I wasn't like performing really. So I just started writing like I got advice from a writer at the first, where the, where I first interned and she was just like, if you want to write, you should write every day. And so I just started doing that, like kind of on my own to myself, trying to write sketches, trying to write like, you know, pilots and screenplays and just, just trying to flex that muscle a little bit. And then, I mean, most of my comedy was just, you know, it, it occurred within the, the

11:25confines of the fraternity house or the houses we lived in and just kind of like, you know, joking around. I guess maybe I, I, I got a lot of good material from, from a lot of friends and Ole Miss. So that was, that's probably helpful. So you interned with Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. Did Seth Meyers come first? Is that correct? That's right. Yes. Seth Meyers was the summer going into my junior year and then Fallon was the next summer. So like, how did you get that with, like, I don't even know what the experience or prerequisite would be? Like, how do you, with not having any sort of like background, how did you get that internship? Do you show the material? How does that work? Yeah, it's actually just like a, it's just sort of like a run of the mill internship application, like you apply online. I'm sure there, there, there were some questions about like, your interest in the show or in late night or, or whatever, but yeah, I just applied. I had a, I had a, I had a cousin still in New York on my dad's side who works in like the music industry. He's an artist manager and he had known someone, one of his bands had been like a drummer

12:33on one of his bands had been a guest drummer on Seth, like a year before, back when they were doing this like weekly guest drummer. So he knew the music coordinator and he told me about the internship. He was like, you should, you should apply for this. So I did not really, I mean, not thinking I would even get like an interview or hear back from them because I was like, I'm sure there's thousands of applications and like, probably people with last names of very famous people who will get these internships. You know, like, yeah, so I, it was kind of just like on a whim, I applied and my dad was like, you should probably apply for other internships because that one's probably not going to happen. I was like, I don't know, maybe well. And yeah, I got, I got an interview and went up to New York my first time in New York to, to do the interview and then ended up getting it. So like I think of a combination of like just good luck and, you know, maybe it was just good luck, honestly, I don't know if it was skill or anything else. What had to be some skill? Because it's, you mentioned there was an in person interview process after see, obviously

13:34crushed that. But even with that, when you found out you got it like on scale, one to 10 house shock for you, we're like, holy shit, I did this actually happened. Yeah, no, I was like, I was like, fully shocked. I was in a class in the mar and like got a call. I was in two one, two, no, I think it was an NBC number. And I think it was a call, maybe it was an email, I don't know. But yeah, I was like, I like left the class. I was like, this is insane. And I told my parents they were like, well, you have to fly to New York because you could do the interview remotely. But they were like, you have to go in to do it because this is like your one shot. And if Ole Miss made me good at anything, it's like interviewing for things and talking to people and I'd interviewed for so many, I was like, annoyingly involved in college. So I was like, I'm really good at charming people and interviews. And so I think that pushed me over the line. But yeah, it was very surprising. So you get up there, you do that internship. Like I remember the first internship I actually got, I felt like the first couple of days

14:35I had like in post or syndrome, I was freaking myself out. I was like, can I actually do this? You get up there. What is it like and what is your mindset? What does the internship turn out to be? What are you doing? Yeah, it's, it was definitely that. I mean, you're around not only like real comedy writers and you're in the big city and it's like you're in Rockefeller and it feels very, this revered place is kind of like these hallowed halls. And you're also among, you know, there's a group of 20 something interns and some of them literally do have the last names of like A-list comedians and others are like at NYU and have been doing stand up for, you know, 10 years somehow since they were like 12 years old. I don't even know how that's possible. So yeah, I'm just like, I went all this. Everyone, I think almost everyone else from this internship was like, you know, either, if they weren't NYU, it was like Harvard, Brown, Yale, you know, all these like really

15:35smart people. And so yeah, there's definitely the imposter syndrome, but you quickly kind of like, and again, going back to just sort of, I think Whitman Smith would like say this, it'll miss or something around this about how, you know, Ole Miss teaches you how to talk to people and I feel like, I was like, maybe I'm not the smartest one in the room and I'm not like the funniest and most talented, but like I can definitely talk to people and I can definitely like, when asked to go get a salad bowl, I can definitely go do that with enthusiasm. And that's what a lot of the internship was. It was like, you know, going on general production runs, which AKA like, yeah, the show runner needs like a Chipotle bowl, you know, going and getting costume pieces and some random warehouse in New Jersey that they need for a bit that ends up getting canceled, you know, on the way back to the studio. I was also, I did like some script work, so like helping the script coordinators like deliver the physical script, the editor control room, show runner.

16:41And things have changed a little post-COVID, but NBC is like the only place it still uses cue cards. So they do like, when they do live changes on SNL or tonight's show or late night, like they're literally taping over the cue cards, rewriting on there and they have to print new scripts and you, we would go run the scripts out all over the building. So it was like, it was a fun internship because you were moving around a lot and seeing sort of like these back ends of how a show works, really seeing how the sausage gets made. So for me, it was like kind of a dream interview because I wasn't just like sitting at a desk or something. I was just out and about getting to get in another city and getting to know like how a late night show runs. I remember reading a story a few months ago about, I don't even remember who it was, but it was some sort of late night talk show that was leaving their network. And one of the things that stuck out to me with like reading the story of how massive of a staff the person had, again, I can't even remember who this was, but like how big of a production it was. I've seen shows about this, like I've seen some like mini doc and stuff, like describe

17:42to me the production of like the Seth Mottor show on a daily basis. Like is it as intense as it sounds? Is it a bunch of people running around? What is like that daily hustle and bustle like if that makes any sense? For sure, yeah, I mean with the late night and then tonight's show, tonight's show is like a little bigger just because of the scale of the show. But I mean, I would compare it to like bait, like it's kind of similar to baseball where you play so many games like every single day, you have to create an entirely new show. And so like you really do have to have a short term memory. I think especially if you're writing of like you can have a bad day on Monday and then you gotta wake up Tuesday and go do it again. It's not like a football season where you get one chance a week in and if you blow it, it kind of sticks with you. So it's just very fast paced and sort of like short term oriented in that way because I mean, yeah, you get in at 9 a.m. and there's like, you know, sometimes there's some pre-taped bits or there's some guest pieces that are already pre-determined.

18:45But for the most part, you're just creating an entirely new show every day. So there is some like running around towards show time, like physical running around chaos. But it's honestly such a fine-tuned sort of like turnkey operation at this point because they these shows have been doing it for like decades and decades and decades. And some of the people, especially on the crew side, like union guys have been there for decades. So it's like they know what they're doing. And it's cool to see. Yeah, it's sort of a dinart and I don't know how long all these shows will be around. But it's cool. You know, it's one of the craziest things is like a writer, like the power of being a writer of like you can write some, you know, you can write a game that involves like this, some crazy wardrobe and some guest inside this crazy like, you know, set piece. And so the as soon as you write it, it gets approved in the morning meeting like the crew

19:48will start working on it. The wardrobe will start sourcing pieces. They'll send an intern to go to like, you know, macy's and pick up like this Gucci suit that you wrote into a piece and the set team will start building it. And then by like 330, the bit can get canned. And then like all this stuff is just like, you know, thrown out done and you just like start over. The nature of late night is just sort of like this, this quick turnover, being able to adapt all that kind of stuff. In this first internship, did you get to do anything like writing or on the creative side? Or was it mostly kind of like running errands and things like that? Yeah, it was mostly, it was all just like running errands. The most I got on the creative side was like being a script assistant of like, you know, but that wasn't, you're not seeing like the script getting written. You're like overseeing like script distribution and making sure it's in the right place and all that kind of stuff. So I got to have like cool one on one meetings with with writers and, you know, got to like,

20:51we had a big thing with Seth, the intern's did and got to like ask him questions and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it was just just strictly like, you know, classic internship. Like you just worked your butt off doing random stuff and helping the show and like, have a good attitude and you're and you're all good. So it sounds like you got close enough to the creative piece of it that to like get the bug or the itch that you wanted to do that. So after that first internship ends, you come back to Ole Miss. Does your like mindset attitude change as far as like what you're focused on and what you want to do? Yeah, definitely. That was the most valuable piece is like seeing people write comedy. I also was like taking improv, I took an improv class at UCB. I was doing like stand up that summer. So I just started like kind of diving in and really got a taste for it and really enjoyed it. So yeah, when I got back to Ole Miss, I was like, okay, this is what I'm going to do. There's not a ton for me to do here for that. I did like some stand up in Oxford and stuff like that. But I just started like focusing mostly on like, how do I get back to New York next summer?

21:56How do I keep these like relationships with these writers kind of intact and again, continuing to write and sort of like, yeah, that was the summer that kind of set me on the course of like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do and I just need to figure out how to do it. Kind of. I'm sure that made you super focused on like your econ classes. It'll miss throughout the year. I was locked in on accounting 201. I mean, just laser focus. Yeah, that was like the probably like detrimental piece of it was. I was just, I would be like, well, PR 101 isn't really helping me with comedy. So I probably don't need it. I was like, probably should just be like it, it'd probably be more helpful to just go to a bar and talk to people because that's where I'm going to get materials. So that's really what I need to be doing. But yeah, no, I still like past all my classes and we were good. But I definitely was a little less focused on like trying to find my passion through, you know, my marketing class.

22:57When you did stand up for the first time back in Oxford or wherever it was, I always like, I mean, I talk and like write and like do radio and stuff. But like if I mess up on this podcast, I can just hit pause and cut it. There's not a bunch of people staring at me. I actually get still getting nervous. I'm mc'd like a couple of things. But I don't love like talking to people in front of a crowd. The first time you did that, did you have to get over that hurdle or did kind of come naturally to you? Yeah, it is weird how different it is from public speaking because I've always been fine. You know, with folks beckoning class or assemblies or whatever. But when you're going up with the expectation of being funny, yeah, you have to get a reaction out of them. Yeah, that's when you're like, silence is like so scary. You never actually get like, you know, I was so scared doing open my ex early on of like getting booed. You never get like booed. It's just quiet, which is worse. I think like somehow worse. If you get booed, you could like turn it into a joke. Like that's like, you get booed. You get booed.

23:57Yeah, and now in like the era of like cutting up stand-up clips, like people want to get heckled because that's how you get like a viral clip is like you just people just do crowd work. But this was a 2019 pre-COVID world. I didn't know like, you know, what, what, what, pre-tick-talk, all that kind of stuff. So it was just like, I mean, you have to get over it. But I think like you start to realize too, especially when, you know, and I don't do stand-up that much anymore. But like early on when I was doing a lot of open mics, like 90% of the people there are also getting up. So it's more just like an opportunity for you to like get comfortable on stage, try out jokes, see how like different cadences work, see how your delivery is. Like it's, it's really just a tool for you. And if you can get over it being awkward and not feeling very funny, you know, you're, you're, you're golden. We'll get back to Mac in just one second. But before we do, we'll take one more quick break to remind you. This podcast is brought to you by Astock. What is Astock?

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27:04This podcast is also brought to you by LB's University Avenue there. An Oxford if you're a ripyright subscriber, you listen to this podcast, you get discounted meets. Right now it is, right now if you tell them you're a ripyright subscriber or a listener, you get three, six ounce bacon rat fillets for just $25. Spend a $35 evaluation there. You're getting for just $25. Just shop, stop by, show proof of subscription or tell me, listen, he'll get you set up. Then go find your own favorites. It's the best butcher shop in the world. All kinds of delicious cuts of meat, sausages, go find your own favorites at LB's University Avenue there in Oxford. Back to Mac. It's also, it sounds like I got listened to a lot of comedians on podcasts. I actually had one on a couple of years ago that Michael Portner's put me on. And they all say the same thing. It's happened to everybody. It's literally just to find a passage. Any sort of comedian, no matter how big or good they are, if they had incidents where they bombed. It's almost getting your feet wet or getting initiated. You have one that bombed. I'm part of the club now. That next summer you get the foul in internship.

28:07Imagine you probably weren't a surprise, but what was the process of getting that one? Did you feel a little bit more confident about like, I can get this and I probably will. Yeah, for that one I had kind of worked some connections that I made at NBC beyond the late night. Like, you know, you had your intern coordinator through NBC. I just tried to keep those relationships. And so when I applied, I reached out to a lot of people to tell my apply. So I felt better about that one. I've like, I didn't, I don't think I have like a bad reputation there. I think I did fine in this first internship. Like this, this should be, I should be able to get this one. So it was still very cool, but yeah, I felt a little more like, I wasn't a surprise there. And so yeah, but that was another really cool for that internship. I was a writers intern. So, which sounds very exciting, but what it meant was, I would get like basically breakfast lunch and dinner for the writers. And I had like a clipboard with that I would pray on a new sheet every day. And like quadrants that had like all of their names on it.

29:10And I would go to each of their offices for like each meal, get their orders and their separate credit cards. And then like have to run to like Starbucks, sweet green, Kava, Chipotle, and just like it. So that was mostly what being a writer's intern was. But I did get to form relationships with like a lot of writers, some of whom were still at the show. Others who were, you know, have gone on to do really some really cool things. So that was like the most valuable piece of that internship was, getting getting that much like sort of just time around the writers and getting to talk to them every day and kind of learn from them just in passing. So yeah. What is a writer's day on that show in tail like from start to finish? You in the morning, every morning writers will submit pieces like to kind of like a large creative doc. They have to submit like three pieces every morning.

30:10Those will then go through like the headwriters. They'll decide what Jimmy sees. Jimmy will decide what he wants. Sometimes there will be another round of like submissions depending on how many are picked. If you have a bit picked, you kind of spend the day working with, you know, costumes working with wardrobe, working with production, working with it. There's a guest in it like the guests team. There's a rehearsal so you kind of like go through all that. And that's like more on the sketch writer side. That's kind of what your day would look like on the monologue side, which is what I'm on. Like you're just in the news writing, churning out jokes kind of like all day. Which, you know, some days is pretty easy. Like the news kind of write themselves. And other days you're going to have to dig for a story that doesn't feel like you've already done it a thousand times at this point. But yeah, the monologue, the probably biggest piece is research just knowing what's going on.

31:12Sometimes crazy things will happen at 4.15 pm. The show goes on at 5. So you need like 10 jokes on this insane thing that just went down. So it's a lot of just like, again, quick kind of being quick and light and being able to kind of turn on a dime to write on a new, you know, topic. How many writers are on staff like for a production like that? And is there a lot of collaboration with one another? I know they have to submit like individual things, but are they on a room like workshopping stuff? How much collaboration there and how many people is it? Yeah, there's like 15 writers right now. I think it can kind of go between like 12 and 20 just depending on there's no like real like this is when people are higher, those are people are like go it's kind of just like changes and sometimes new headwriters come in and bring in new people. So it can be kind of ever changing in that way. But you know, for the monologue site it's really not collaborative.

32:13Like the monologue team looks like they could be like accountants because everyone's just in front of their computer kind of not moving all day. Just like reading news, writing jokes, reading news, writing jokes. And it's very formulaic in that way. You're just kind of like you know what your job is and you're pumping them out. The sketch side is more is more collaborative, like especially for some of these bigger bits that we do weekly like thank you notes or some of those like larger reoccurring bits. Everyone's kind of submitting jokes on that. So yeah, like it's not as I think I was surprised when I started that there wasn't there is a writer's room, but like that there wasn't this room where all the writers were and everyone's kind of just like joking all day like like something or something. Yeah, exactly. And everyone's like you know, tossing a ball around riffing together. It's a lot more of a head's down to work job just because there's not that much time. Like people don't have a ton of time to screw around because you know, you get in at nine

33:14and there's a show at five and you've got to do your job to get it on. So it's a much more it was a much more like tame environment than I expected when I first started coming out of college. So you go through that second internship and you come back to Miss for your senior year, take me through the process of end up getting a job there like how did you end up back in New York after after graduation that what how did that process go? Yeah, I basically just bothered people that I met in New York kind of all senior year and would just you know, my intern my you know, intern coordinator at the show and other comedians I met and writers, I would just which is really advice that my dad, you know, has all has always given me and unfortunately he was like very right that it's it's not who you know, it's who knows you and you know, they see he was like you know, they see 25 interns at the show every every semester. Like if you want to stand out, you need to just be top of mind.

34:15You don't need to be like the best. You just need to be the one that is in their email inbox. So I would just like reach out every few months and be like, hey, you know, finishing up college plan on moving New York like keep me posted and I just kind of kept doing that and you know, all of my friends were like a accountant so they had had jobs for a year and I'm like, man, I have literally no idea what I'm doing and uh, ended up moving I went to New York like January of my senior year to kind of like meet some people and interviewed for kind of just random jobs too because I was like, I might not be able to get a really cool TV job right off the bat. I just need to get to New York. So that's what I ended up doing is taking a sales job at a real estate tech company. Okay. And it's now bankrupt. I mean, bankrupt or gone or I don't know. They're they're like big thing was like buying office space and then like super suit and it for you know, kind of tailoring it to a company's needs. So during COVID they had like $50 million in in a office space that they couldn't fill.

35:20So I think I think they they went down pretty quick. RIP to no tell. So I moved there for that job. I moved there got that job and my sort of thought process was like if I can just get to New York, I can do this job on the side. It's like sales so it's kind of fake work anyway. I'm just like sending doing cold calls and stuff like that. So I got there and just kind of hit the ground running and you know, stand up and sketch writing and reaching out to people. And so finally, my old intern coordinator at the tonight show was like, hey, this is a research job is opening up. You know, would you do you want to come in and interview for it? That was about 10 months in New York into my time in New York. And so did that and was lucky enough to get the job and then have been their sense. So that was that was the week COVID started. That was March of 2020. So I started literally with COVID. And like that Monday was my first day and that Wednesday was when the NBA shut down in time

36:25bank. We also time banks was going to die. And I was like that was also my first because my job was like so news heavy like my whole job was just researching and I hadn't really kept up with the news up into that point because I was like at a college and I didn't really care. And so I was just like learning about COVID in real time. And I was like, is this our things always like this grim like this? That is normal. And so that was my only week in the office and then I spent two weeks or sorry, two years working from home and didn't go back to like after the the the winter Olympics in 2022. So it was a weird way to start a job and was a bummer because you know was very excited kind of during job and then it's like yeah you're going to be in your apartment for the next two years. So it was crazy but we have survived survived a riders strike as well. It's been interesting. It's been like a lot of unprecedented things that have happened. That is wowed. What were you doing?

37:27So you get to New York, you mentioned you were just going to get up there. You graduate 2019 and you're going to get up there and figure it out. In those 10 months where you're working this real estate tech thing that's no longer in our existence, what are you doing on the side of the hustle? Like is this when you start building out your social media and doing like comedy stuff on your own? I know you've already been doing that some but like what are you doing on the side to kind of hustle and find leads on the the job you want I guess for the lack of a better phrase? Yeah, I mean I was doing stand up so I was trying to just and through that was just trying to meet a lot of comics my age. People over the me trying to get classic just like get coffee, get drinks with people and just try to get some advice looking for even just like short production jobs and if people needed runners for shows and just like telling people I was open for anything. So that was a big piece of it and then again it was staying in touch with people I'd met through NBC reaching out to them and just trying to like yeah stay stay top of mind. The social media stuff

38:30started really went COVID like for some many people when COVID started. You know I was home. I was working from home at a lot of time. My roommates there was a period where my roommates left when that all started so I was like in this apartment alone for three months and that was when it was super shut down like you got like one government allowed walk a day like it was it was bleak and I would just go to the liquor store every Friday and just like buy a bottle of wine and drink it and just watch a mood that was like my weekend it was a huge bummer. So that's what I started doing like online content and just posting kind of for fun and then I started realizing like oh I've all these years of writing I have like all these ideas I haven't done anything with and started just getting a little more into it and you know got like mixed feedback but I was enjoying it and then once once things started opening up again I started meeting other comedians who

39:32were doing the same thing and became really good friends with them and then we started all working together and so that's that's kind of been like what's up for the past few years is just like doing a lot of content meeting people through that you know getting brand work through that which has been cool and yeah it's it's a cool way to kind of open up your world for comedy because like now I know so many people you know in LA, New York it's a very small world and so yeah it's been it's been neat I was I kind of wasn't barrispied at first but it's kind of with anything you just have to like climb your own shame mountain. It takes some reason just to like not care and say I'm gonna let this rip because this is what I like to do it takes like it takes some guts to overcome that I know exactly yeah yeah like yeah your friends are like what are you like genuinely wanting to conduct the wellness check on you. Yeah like are you good I'm like I don't know but yeah and then once you know people start coming around but if you're if you're enjoying it it's like who really

40:33cares but yeah it's been cool that like it's it's sort of I never really imagine that being something that could actually again never thought that could be like a real job and a real source of income and all that kind of stuff so it's been cool that that's kind of like come around in the way. So you get the research job that you shut that not shut down for two years but you're working remotely for two years after you land this dream job take me through that job to getting onto this writer's monologue side and then making some on air appearances. Yeah I uh the head writer at the show is like always been really great to me and just really encouraging and so like early on I just would practice I mean I I learned so much about writing jokes from reading them like because I would read I read so many a day and you know kind of proofread them and help clean them up and through through kind of like picking a part of joke you kind of learn the structure of one and what makes a good one and what makes it bad one and all that kind of stuff so he was always really really encouraged me when

41:38he knew that I wanted to I wanted to do comedy I wanted to write to like you know and he invested in me in like a cool way and so as I was the the on screen stuff is just like as I was posting the showrunner like people at the show started following me and stuff like that and the showrunner basically was like hey would you want to do something for the show that you would basically like something you would post on your own why don't you just do it for the show and so I got like free ranged uh you know write something and cast some of my friends in it and get the remote team from the show and shoot it uh and so that that was super cool and yeah like hopefully there will be more of those um but it was a cool sort of full circle moment of stuff that I just started posting online for fun leading to like an opportunity to to be on the tonight show it's very cool that's you just summed it up perfectly that was about to say that's pretty awesome that's what happened is like this stuff you started doing on the side and like you had to get over like hey this is not embarrassing

42:41like this is what I like to do actually led to opportunities on like the professional side of it I guess we'll call it like your actual job that's that's pretty incredible so you have this one I believe this first one is is where you go out and you do like the spoof of like the man on the streets I watched it this morning it was really funny I uh is like just do things change for you overnight after you're on air and from that big of audience like did anything change for you after that ran I mean honestly what's what's kind of funny about it is like it was a huge deal to my parents and like all of their friends and people who like you know for their generation like growing up with the tonight show of like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno and like being on TV um but what was I mean what's kind of crazy about it is like you can I can reach you can reach so many people just posting online and that's kind of the world that like we our generation more lives in because some of my friends when they knew I was going to be on there like what is in be where do

43:41I find in BC I was like I don't do you have you I mean it's there it's like you do you probably watch NFL football on it so you should be able to find it but um it it it it was funny how like it was really cool to see myself on TV but then at the same time you're like the world's just changed so much that yeah our generation almost on the tiktok internet side our generation on the cable TV side of stuff yeah it's almost like you can reach just as many people I can just like come up with an idea and shoot it in my apartment and post it and I'll reach like just as many people like that so it's like it's just weird how it's changed and um you know in a lot of ways probably like not for the better just in how disjointed like Hollywood in the industry is but it's also cool that anyone with the camera and an idea can kind of go and shoot something and like you know put it out there immediately you don't have to wait for approval and you know getting someone to produce it and pay for it all that kind of stuff but um I'll make a personal level it was it was very cool it's very like it makes it more of a meritocracy in some ways

44:45because like if you're good and you're talented the cream arouse the crop like you're funny and people ended up finding that out whereas people who aren't can still do it but it's just it's not gonna go anywhere and they still get to like scratch the creative itch side of it so for you when that happens like was that validating for you of like okay you're like you know on the your two worlds kind of collided you get to do this on this gigantic show was that validating for you at all yeah definitely I mean going back to the imposter syndrome thing I think one of the biggest points of um one of my biggest like sources of fear when I was initially posting it's like the real writers at the show are gonna like think I'm an idiot and they're not losing and so uh it was really cool to it was it was it was definitely validating to something that I had started just doing on my own that I felt pretty insecure about early on then led to to me being on like it's a night show and and getting to write my own comedy and do it exactly how I wanted I didn't have

45:47to like rewrite anything it was um that that was that felt very cool um yeah it was it it was a good feeling so now that you have like your your established like I guess that's a better question was there a moment where you felt like I've made it like I'm established now I mean how when I was talking the other day about that other thing for my day job like you have like a booking agent that sounds pretty fancy and official like with their moment where you felt established and like I'd I've kind of done this I'm not you know at the top by any means but like I'm I'm established I've got my feet feet on the ground in this industry yeah I mean I think what keeps you going in like entertainment is like which is probably similar in journalism is like the little the little moments that are like I've made it moments because you have a lot of like I suck this is a bad idea why am I doing this moment so like yeah you get there are like little moments of like yeah I get a bit on the show like that that gives me some juice to keep going like you know my first manager reaching out a couple years ago one to represent me it was like that that was a validation of like someone's

46:48someone thinks they can at least make money off me so like that's good um you know having a brand reach out not for you money to just like make make a video that you would you would already make but do it for with with their product like there are these little getting in audition for for you know a movie or a show that you've watched before like there are things that sort of give you the the at least the affirmation of like I don't I'm not terrible at this like someone's at least giving me a shot um and so I think there are a lot of those along the way because you know obviously you never feel whatever I'm like bored and cliche like you never feel like you fully make it or whatever but um those little those little wins I think are are are big and you have to celebrate those that's what I was gonna ask is we kind of wrap up here when I go go do you have IMDB credits the have you done like commercial acting like what what led to that I think my I think my main credit on there is the tonight show appearance but uh yeah so that's been like the focus of the last kind of year and a half couple years for me is like I really want to do more

47:51acting and so been like you know taking acting classes um auditioning for for shows films commercials I've done like some social media commercials and like random local stuff but I haven't done like a national commercial but um yeah that that's really been the focus is like leaning you know investing more on the acting side and and trying to kind of break into to film and tv so that's that's been my sort of um what I've been going for the past like year and a half we started with at this conversation of like you know I didn't know this is a real job now that you've kind of got this and you get to do what you like for a living does it feel like a real job it does I mean it still feels pretty silly uh when we're when I'm with like my friends and everyone's talking about like actual like desk jobs yeah yeah desk work in like salaries and people having like more security of like yeah I'm gonna be making this much money next year and um I'll be able

48:52to like buy a house and you know like the the um the few tiledness of like this this kind of work is just like it's sort of feast or famine and sometimes you have a lot going and sometimes you don't and it's pretty unpredictable and a lot of it's out of your control so like yeah it still feels like a pretty goofy job but it's really fun and I don't I don't know what else I would do and now that you have these worlds kind of collide on the you're kind of personal comedy side and on the show do you have a plan for what you want to do next or you kind of just along for the ride and seeing what opportunities come because you're obviously like broadening your horizons with the acting side of it do you are you just kind of seeing where it leads or do you have like a set um like you know next stop in mind or next goal in mind if that makes sense for sure yeah I mean I think a lot of this kind of whatever journey for me so far has just kind of been walking through the doors that open up and not thinking too much about it but you mean that the my my

49:53ultimate goal is to be in front of the camera like on film and TV and I'd also like eventually love to write my own show and like write myself into it um you know write write my own movies and and be in them so that's that's kind of the ultimate goal so yeah lately it's been mostly just like building continuing to try to build my brand or whatever do you want to call it online and then yeah trying to audition as much as I can which is another kind of like also very humbling you know process similar to stand up or posting online that you just kind of have to take a lot of else before you before you see success but um yeah so that that's sort of the goal but again like I've kind of just tried to say yes to everything um and and and not be scared to fail and I think I've learned a lot about like what I like and what I don't like and what I'm good at and what I'm not as good at through just like a lot of trial and error you mentioned it being feast or famine I imagine though with like I mean I'm sure there's some natural anxiety that comes to that but I bet

50:55like there's a sense of peace too of like how far you've made it so far when this started you probably didn't think it would turn into this so like I imagine there's some sense of contentment of like this has already been a pretty awesome ride we'll just kind of see what happens next yeah totally I I think that's why you have to acknowledge like success and you know I'm pretty my wife gets on me because I do a lot of comparison but like it's just a terrible thing to do because you can you can like immediately go from being excited about an opportunity you got to look in at like one of your peers who's doing something that you think is better and you're like bum so yeah I think I think I have to remind myself on like tough days and tough weeks or you know slow months whatever that like hey you know this started off like nowhere basically so you've at least made it a little bit down the road so have you know have faith that it'll it'll continue tell everybody out there where they can find your stuff yes I am at big Mac Hubble on all platforms so

51:57I am there and you or you can just look at my name on on the internet and I'm sure something will come out hopefully good Google the man he is Mac Hubble I really appreciate it man this is a lot of fun learning about your story it's been awesome you're you're crushing it keep doing it I'm certainly rooting for you and thanks for joining the show man this is great thank you so much and howdy tady be Louisville all right that'll do it for our show today I've got a Louisville guy on for Friday as well as some solo thoughts as I did last year in the football season about Sunday's game so a little football primer for you as well so get a bonus podcast this week thank Mac for that a man of the people really enjoyed getting to hear his story um hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and we'll have some more football stuff for you tomorrow stay tuned as always and thanks for listening