Like I'm on stage the I mean the you're on stage performing and they just got up as if I was just a sign like and took it. It's the least respect I've ever been shown in my life to go just in the middle of a joke. They just stand there like that's how they go, well, this guy's not this is not a real thing. And they just took a picture and then I think went to the bathroom and then left.
With the boys.
Presented by Barstool Sports Huge guest on Today, Nate Bargatzi.
Am I saying that right? Barcotzi? Yeah?
He has a Netflix special on called The Tennessee Kid. Yeah, hilarious. By the way, your story about before we get into that. So Taylor, So Taylor calls me thirty minutes before we do this podcast and he goes, Taylor, my man, Taylor, it's like you can throw a bouncy ball in an empty room, and that's how my guy is. Like, you just sometimes you don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, he calls me and he's like, hey, bro, like I have bad news. I'm you know, I'm really sorry to tell
you this. Like I'm not going to be able to make the podcast today and I was like, all right, that's cool, and he was like, uh, you know, I know you're really mad and I was like, no, no, I'm solid and he's like you're not.
And I was like, you know, I'm just so.
This has happened a couple of times, Like I'm just thinking to myself, like I shouldn't react.
We got a pod in thirty minutes, like you know, I'll go and I'll go.
You know what's funny is I did a podcast a long time ago my buddy, uh Jannis Papas who does his own now, and we we started in two thousand and I want to say ten or something or nine, so this is when podcasts were kind of new. Yeah, and like I would say, and we stopped it, but it's like we almost like got in on Google and then sold the stock before it, like you know, if we would have stayed with it ten years ago.
Like Joe, Yeah, yes, doing it in is a room with a webcam. Yeah, it's like that.
Then you're in it when no one was, you know, not that many people were in it at a time. And my buddy Yannest was is I'm not saying that Tayo was like that, but it's like super Tayror's got a lot more going on than my friend Jannis had at the time.
Right exactly.
But he would never he would not show up a lot. And it was like, and I kept telling I was like, dude, you got to do this, like I knew, either don't do it or.
I do it consistently because it won't work right. It throws it just throws everything off.
It throws everything off, like you at least even if you're at least if you're just putting it out, but it's got to stay out on a schedule or no one's going to gravitate to it because you see, I mean so many times you get asked to do a podcast and it's like, you know, you're someone will be like, hey, you do mine. You're like, you haven't done one in six months, Like no, you're not even trying, right, Why do I have to go do your podcast? And you're like,
you know, so you got to be super consistent with it. Yeah, you get it, dude, I had to say. He was like, he's got to go see something that they're building.
And his wife was like, you know, Taylorm was like you know, do you have anything else going on? And he's like, oh, I got to go do the pott too. And she's like, you know you got to go see the house of a meeting at two thirty. Yeah, He's like, oh shit, let me call Will.
Yeah.
I was like, it's all good man, Like, you know, I'll get it figured out, because he does. He's got a lot going on. I was thinking all the way over here, I'm like, man, Nate's coming over here. He's not going to get the three time Pro Bowl, the three time Pro Bowler, He's not going to get the eighty five million dollar man.
He's going to get the great value ver Yeah, the several Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's more when we talk about real things, you know.
Yeah, he is a helicopter probably you know, yeah knows.
He's that they got. Yeah, he's on a whole different planet, dude.
Some of those guys who got that, who got just that that fuck you money.
Like they don't need it. Like when I was doing the.
Pod, I was like, I just want you to show up because we're like best friends.
That's my boy. And I was like I'll handle everything else.
I was like, if you can just show up, when we do pods, Like obviously we've kind of bounced everywhere, and sometimes we'll back log them days in a row and I'm like, you just show up.
I'll handle the rest.
So we kind of have like that under understanding that it can get a little fickle or something can change at the last minute.
But yeah, well it's like if you as long as you stay consistent with it, to be like when he did like eventually retires, it's like then it's like, yeah, then we get more you know, you can be more serious or he can be more of a focus. Oh absolutely, But I mean yeah, but to have you know, one that's uh with both of you, I mean it's great, like and it's like, you know, you deal with all this stuff now then.
I know, yeah, eventually everything will calm down for us and maybe who knows what this thing could be by then, But we have a lot of fun with it. And the consistency thing that you spoke on too, is like we were going to do it in the summer. The first summer we're going to do it. We're just going to do it in the summer up until the season. And I was like, all right, then we're just going
to focus on football. And I got on a phone call with Pat McAfee and he's like, you know, if you're going to do a podcast, He's like, it's all about consistency. He's like, it doesn't matter how many pods you do and want to drop in the summertime.
Like that's cool.
He's like, but if you say you do it once a week, Like if you can take all those episodes and try to survive the year and drop one every week, if you can just do it consistently, like, consistency is the key. It doesn't matter if you do one episode or three a week or whatever it is. He's like, if you're just consistent, like it's like getting the you know, keeping the audience in tune. Like you're like, why would I go do a pod if you haven't done one in six months?
Yeah you would.
I mean that's you know, cause you get asked to do a lot and uh, which I'm sure you do too, and you get where some of them consistently the key to I mean everything, like you know, I mean, you know, you know, playing football, doing comedy, Like, it's all consistency and that's what we weeds people out of anything for sure. More than because overall a lot of people are talented and uh, but consistently showing up and putting in the work is you're is the most important thing.
Yeah, it past dividends because like you said, like everyone's got the ideas. Everyone comes up with everything that's going on out there. It's the ones that are one's really consistent, right right, right right. There's always someone else that's like you out there to do it and you hear like your story and you hear your Olivia story or you're sitting there in your shirt list or whatever. It's like I'll just change the girl's name and put a different dynamic environment around and I'll.
Have the same joke.
Yeah yeah, yeah, but uh yeah, no one's really original, but yeah it's funny.
It's like there's uh it is like they're original, but like there is you know, you're like someone will take your place in a heartbeat and not bad and eye and no one will miss you. There's an idea with like, uh, I always think of it like in comedy and I'm sure in football this where you're you got to be somewhat grateful for what you have and to put in put the work into it because uh, you know, it's like we're not owed this, like you know we you know a guy that is a construction worker like works
for the city, Like you feel like he's old stuff. Right, We're not owed any of this, right, and so you have to constantly just like show up and do all the stuff because it can all go away.
Yeah in the moment of the windows small yep uh that yeah, that is true, because once you're done, it's like, you know, no one's gonna give a shit about what what you did.
Like people remember.
Certain things about you, but that next guy who replaces you, they're gonna everybody's gonna be like, you know, they're taking my place out on the field, and no one's gonna remember like any plays that were made back back whenever I played.
But that's what y'all with football is that because you have to start when do you have to start thinking about that? Like, because y'all you've been thinking about what I'm entire mariady, Yeah, because.
You're done so young.
Like for me as a comedian, I'm forty one, so I am kind of hitting a decent tried right now, but that's not till my I turned forty. Like you're always kind of going forward. But our really peak for most comedians is forty to sixty is when a lot of guys end up a really good yeah. But for football men, you're the.
Average career three three years, three and a half years.
I mean, like my first thought when I came when came in the league being undrafted is like, all right, if I can be on a practice squad for one full year and get like one hundred thousand dollars, like you know, then that's what I need, you know what I mean, Like, that's what I'm going towards. Since that was like my first goal. And then it was like, you know, you want to make the team, and then you start making the team, you start playing, you realize you got a couple of years in the tank, and
then I probably really started thinking about it. Honestly, when I started doing this, putting this vision together was in twenty eighteen when I played on the Titans.
I was a.
Backup special teams guy, and I was kind of thinking this could be like I'm getting closer to thirty, this could potentially be my last year because I'm not playing, Like if somebody signs me the next year, I'm going to be a one year minimum guy, Like I'm going to kind of be the journeyman's style guy. So it's like, whatever I'm doing or interested in, I need to start putting it on paper and then executing it, because you know, when you're retired, when you're playing in the league.
I literally said this yesterday.
Your jokes are funnier, you're better looking, you can shake more hands, you can do all of it because you know you play in the NFL right now. The moment you're on the other side of it and you're a retired NFL player and you're trying to do something.
This is me saying it.
I'm not saying this is what it is, but it seems like you're reaching to do some more things out of desperation, like you need to do something.
In pivots.
People kind of look at it differently, like, Okay, he's trying to get into this now.
Because football's over. So that was my whole mindset.
So I started thinking about it when I was probably what was that twenty seven, yeah, twenty seven, and then I got to go to Oakland.
I played well in Oakland, I bought another year, got.
To come here, and it's just kind of like snowballed a little bit and my benefit for me. But I was thinking about it at like twenty seven, like or twenty eight, however, I was I was like, man, this thing could be coming to an end because football, I mean football, NFL not for long, yeah, I.
Mean yeah, because I mean that's the sports. When you guys play sports your whole life and at such the high level, is you know, it's just so young. I mean I always think, look at tennis, you know tennis is I don't. I mean, unless you're Roger Feeder like kind of these freaks, their peak is like twenty or eighteen or something like that.
Yeah, I mean you're not even an adult. That's so yeah.
Yeah, and you're and you're basically done right like a lot of them or eighteen nineteen they're done.
And then that's when they play at the highest level.
Yeah, that's when a fizzle's out with a comedy. When you say your peak is like forty to sixty, is it just that much of a grind on consistency and being just showing up over and over and over, just jokes like riding like all of it. You're just grinding to make it to basically forty.
I say that my whole I always say, you either make it twenty or forty, and so no one makes it in the middle. Yeah, Like, so you either come out of the gate and you get grabbed up quick and you become super famous early are you got to go through all the ropes until you got to do everything. So a lot of guys you can see where if you had your Bill Burr, Luis k you.
Know, Chappelle blew up early.
Kevin r was probably he wasn't like super young, but then you see guys come up where they they blow up super quick, and it's better to like do better later. Like if you look at Bill Burr's a good example for me, just because I was in New York when he was there and I got to watch him very up close, and he was like a ten year comic. Wasn't no one knew who he was, but he was. I could see that. He's like, oh, this guy's the
real deal. He's amazing, and so like seeing him, he went through all of it, he's done, you know, he there was nothing that kind of shot him.
Up where he took a big leap, right, it was all.
He got everything when he was supposed to get those things, so he had to go do Letterman, he had to go do an half hour special on HBO, then an hour special, and then now he is who he is. And I to me think the best comics usually are end up outside of Eddie Murphy, who to me, he's got to be probably he's like a phenom to run to do the act that he did.
He was like twenty one or something.
Yeah, that's pretty crazy, Yeah, because that's like an adult act. That is a thirty year comedian act that he was doing at twenty one, So that's pretty special. But the other guys, yeah, you see, and they become better comics, I think because they just have more experiences and they have to you know, you have to earn everything. You have to go like be around and get everything. So I think you appreciate it more and you you don't take any of it for granted. And then so your
act you just put more work into. You just have more time to put into it.
Yeah, it seems like it all kind of comes together too, because, like you're saying, like you got to go through it all basically you have more of an appreciation and like by the time you get there, you have so many more stories from that experience to dig out compared to like if you were like, you know, superstar young, like you're kind of a suit. It's not like you're more so just telling stories of celebrity.
You don't even have a life. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, your life, you're you know, making all that money. I'm not. I could see it with football.
I could see with athletes where if your guy comes up first, you know he's number one pick and then just off and running versus your experience, it's gonna be much different and you're gonna know, you know, you're gonna understand like now this is how it goes, and you appreciate it more than I'm sure could be. You know that just came in and was like, yeah, it was easy, Like I didn't ever deal with any of.
This stuff, right, Yeah, Taylor and I talk all the time because you know, I was on like practice squad, I had to do rookie mini camp twice.
I'm like, I always.
Feel like I have an appreciation just because like there's there's been so many like of those little gritty stories that you just don't forget about, and you see like young guys going through it now and you just kind of like, you know, give them a little bit of advice on like, hey, here's how it can work. But yeah, bro, it was a it was a it was a bit of a journey. I say now, I wouldn't change it for the world because you got to go through it all.
It makes it that much better of a story, that much.
But at the time, I know, the first year when I was in training camp and you're the bottom of the depth chart and stuff, and you're like talking to your parents and stuff, and you're just like, man, I don't care if I only play one year, Like this is such a business. It's just kind of like it's just kind of fickle like. And that's just me talking like I'm not I wasn't getting the opportunities that I felt like I wanted to be yet I was wanting to get So it's just my bitterness kind of talking.
But that first year, you're just.
Going through like, man, you know this this is shitty, Like I don't care if I play anymore, blah blah blah. And then obviously tables turn a little bit more and you start.
You get them and you get the bitterness out of you like everybody has it, you gotta have some.
I don't think you have to have a little bitterness.
So you have to go through that to realize like, well, this isn't I shouldn't be this is no good, like you know, because some people live in that bitterness and they can't get out of it. Oh that and it's over for them. I mean, I saw plenty of comics that were just so bitter and they never really make it passing because they get so caught up in it.
And so you're so like comparing yourself to someone else, so you want that's something that they have, and instead of trying to go get it, and maybe you don't get it on dirt timetable, you gotta get on your own timetable. You basically just give up trying to get it right, and then you don't, and then you never get it where.
You know.
The hardest part for comedy, I think is when you're not when you don't go blow up super quick, is watching everybody past you, and then like every you're just around everybody and they're shooting past you and they're going to this crazy level, and then you kind of feel like you're just slow and you're like staying there, and it's very hard to not just to kind of be like, all right, I'm just gonna keep doing I'm doing. I
think I can get to that level. It's not going to be at the time that I want, but I'll get there eventually. Until you just kind of stay your pace and just.
Write, you we get like wondering eyes because it's hard to like just focus on what you're doing because everybody always says a cliche, control what you can control, and yeah.
That is a cliche, but that's like the truth, the reality that you have to do.
Uh, and people can get can get hung up on the business side of everything because everything in life is business and people can be yeah, you know, I didn't do this because the business side of it I got I got fucked over, I got screwed. You know, I didn't get to do this or that, or I didn't get my opportunity like they did. I was doing the same thing this, but yeah, people get hung up on and that's you know, those are the people that kind of fizzle out.
Oh yeah, you can't chase money either, Like you gotta the money, you can come, but you can't really chase it. Like if your whole goal is to get Is is it such a direct like I want to get this money. Yeah, Like it's not gonna be good. You gotta because you won't want to. Whatever you're doing, you're not doing it for the right reason you're doing it.
You'll just be up and down riding that roller coaster. Yeah you're chasing.
You know, it's gonna it's gonna come and go and like so you got to just sit and build like a steadiness. Birds said to me a long time ago that always liked the advice where he was like, your path, you know he's talking about me. He saw me do comedy when I was like, this is ten to fifteen years ago, but he goes, uh, how.
Do you know forty one? Forty one? Okay?
Our ten is probably twelve years ago. Like and then because I've been doing conning for eighteen years. And but he's like, your path is gonna take longer, but you gain fame and you gain them for life. And I really like that because it was like, yeah, your path does take longer, but everything you get it's not like you kind of you earn them like they find you. You know, you're not just putting Someone says last night.
I was just talking about it with Little Nas, like that song, you know whatever, his song is, Yeah, right, the most famous song everybody in the world knows.
Both of us were just He's like, Little Nas that song, you say, probably thinking I'm gonna sound like, yeah, I don't know it either.
No, it's the what is it? Old Town? Okay, I'm saying this, like but obviously you know the song. You've heard of this? Yeah?
Uh, but like what that guy can't probably go sell out arenas. He probably doesn't even have a full show that you could go watch. He has that song, and it was a huge song. But that song is almost forced onto everybody on earth. You're just going to hear it because it's the hit new thing versus you got someone like a Chris Stapleton.
Uh.
That's like more of like that guy is earned everything, and people the respect for what he does is much more. It's, you know, because he's sat there and he's earned it, and he's kind of come up, not that I know his whole path, but right right, he kind of came up to that and uh so those guys truly earned their right. Darius Rucker, I mean, Dearreis Ruckger, went from Hohodi both as two than now he's a country sinker. Like that guy's been through it all. He's slowly just kept.
Going yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Would you say it sounds like like you've always been curious and picking mentors people you've probably seen on your levels, people that are farther along than you, and you've always kind of picked their brain or just got advice or advice is just stuck with you to where you're kind of on your own journey with it, thinking like, okay, because you've alluded to the example of you seeing people pass you by, Like what were some of those times
where you're sitting there and you're either feeling down about your journey or some of those hard adversity moments that kind of made you who you made you into what you are now.
Well, I always I do always liked I've always thought like you need to have someone right above you that you can talk to. I always thought you needed someone right above you and someone below you, like wherever you're at in your career, and because the person you can't when you first start, if I'm like trying to go get advice from Chris Rock, like I can't I'm an open micer. No one knows, you know, I've just I've been in to comic for two years. Nothing he can
tell me I could relate to. He's too far ahead. So you need if your two year comic, I need to talk to like a three year comic and like be like what are you?
Where are you at?
Like how do I get to that? Because that's more of an attainable goal. I never try to have too many, Like the goals. I don't ever want them to be like you're saying you want one hundred thousand dollars practice practice squad.
Like that was your goal. You're like, that's attainable.
I can get it, and then once you get it, then you can go to the neck whatever the next plan is. But I don't think you should put goals because people can your goals could be too high that they're unreachable at the time. You know, if I'm sitting here, five year comic going like I'm trying to sell out massacuare a garden, You're like, all right, dude, like you're you how long it's gonna take to get to that point? Like and it's it would become untainable, and so then there's never a win.
You don't give yourself a win.
At the beginning, I just wanted little like I used to bark, where I used to hand out flyers outside comedy clubs. So you'd be in New York City and you'd be like, hey, we got a great comedy show, and I'm just trying to give all these flyers out to all these people. And you get them to come into the show, and it's brutal, and it's twenty degrees outside. No one wants these flyers. No one's excited. You're handed like,
no one's happy about it. Any flyer you go up and see it, they would drop them in front of your face. They would grab the flyer and then drop it and look at you as the flyer hit and then you gotta it's just a long fall, long fall, and you got to pick it up, and you're like all right, and I got to pick it back up and try to give it to someone else. It's wet now because of this stuff, and you would just see that. But I remember just thinking, I don't want to do this.
How do I get good enough to not have to stand on this corner? And it was like that was the first goal was just don't stand on this corner, and then you slowly just then you then you get off the corner and you don't have to stand there, and now you're like working the door at a comedy club. And then you're like, well, I don't want to work the door. I just want to be going to be to do a spot. And so you just slowly have
these little like kind of goals. And so I would always try to like talk to the person that was right above me. Who could I learn from that's right above me that I can try to get where they're at. And then you slowly go up and then you pass those people and then you find and there's another person that you're like, well, they're doing late night sets like tonight show Conan. You so you're, hey, how do you get like what do you got to do with the
process with the conan? And you don't ever ask for something either, Like it's never like, hey can you get me on Conan? It's how do you get on coning? Because that's another like too many people they just I would get asked all the time and they'd be like, hey, how do you just can you give me on Conan?
Like they you're like, what are you crazy? Yeah, yeah, well yeah, hey you can go in tomorrow. Yeah he's good, dude, yeah he said, he said cool. Yeah.
But so it's like you just have those little goals and you talk to those people and then as it goes oh, you're it continues to grow and you continue and then you have someone below you that I feel like it's good for you to give advice because then you get to remind yourself as you say it that like, hey, I need this person to be like, here's what you
need to do. You know, I'm still learning, but like it's you just you're you're hearing it again and you're helping someone that's younger than you and like, uh, and so then there's a there's a good I don't know, there's a good group of people that are kind of rooting for each other and helping each other. Yeah.
I feel I feel like you kind of give yourself some accountability to like when you're teaching somebody below you, because you're preaching something that you've learned and you're hoping they put it into action. But then you're also hoping you're also making yourself accountable to continue to show up to prove that, Hey, this is the discipline that I'm trying to teach you.
And you don't want to see that person pass you, right, and so then you're trying to stay ahead of them. And like you know, it's I mean, because there's a competitiveness to it. Comedy is different than sports are pretty uh. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of politics, but in general, it's a pretty cut and dry like you're either fast or is this guy or not? Or you can do this or that whatever it is. And comedy is very you know, like I would say, like there's
not really a mount rushmore. I mean, there's more of a mount rushmore of comedy than there ever could be one great to me, right, you're.
Going to list because everybody likes different things.
Our objective, Yeah, so you have you just want to be you know, at the end, you would love to be in the group of when people say who's the best comedians ever? It's like Chappelle, Rock, Eddie Murphy, Seinfeld, you know, Ron Reagan like or something like you just want to be among like in the.
List right of the you know of who's the best? Yeah, how do.
You know you wanted to get in a comedy, Like it seems like you're first you're kind of how what what made you want to get in a comedy? And then how the hell did you get up in New York and you're passing off flyers when you're a Tennessee boy? I yeah from here? Where are you from? I'm from Missouri. I'm from like four and a half hours away, like an hour south of Saint Louis. It's called Bonterre shout out BT, a little small spot, but but yeah, that's.
Where I'm at.
Uh.
So, I my dad's a magician, So I grew up I mean I grew up at least somewhere around him doing magic, and uh he would always do shows and uh he always had day jobs too, but he still does magic. He's very good. That's awesome. Yeah that does magic. Yeah, it's uh, I mean you just grow. It's just like was normal. Yeah, like, uh, your.
Friends come over and they're like, hey, hey, mister Barcossi, can you do these tricks?
You're like all right, here, we fucking go right go ahead.
They would do my birthdays because it was free, you know, like it was like so they didn't want to pay for entertainment.
He's like, I'll do it, and that's right off.
Yeah.
And I mean as.
A as a kid that like is just around magic all the time, like magic is just ruined. I always say I can't do magic. I can ruin it for you because it's just ruin.
You just see.
I saw him practice all these tricks all you don't just know how it works. You know how it works.
I can't.
It's a lot of practice, but you know how it works. And then just the the steak of magic is kind of taken away from you because you're like, I know, it's just a trick. It's like you know, it's like I saw it. I see I seemed so much magic.
People are probably trying to like show you magic to see if you can figure out what they're even doing.
Oh, I mean we had I went one time, we went to some thing and the magician came up to me like he was doing walk around and he came up to me being like he might me show you a trick. And You're like, dude, I'm just not the guy like you could anybody else. I just do not care. Like I got to act like I'm gonna be amazed. You know, it's it seems like a very funny thing to not be amazed. But it's like, I haven't pick your card. You're like, I don't. Yeah, my whole life,
my card's been picked. But I've always seen every card pick, so it's uh but my birthday. I remember one birthday, he's doing a magic show and if you could see, and I just didn't want to watch the show, like I'd rather him just not do. But all the other kids love it. Yeah, so your friends are like, yeah, this is great. And I remember I was just sitting on uh. I just I was went and was on a swing by myself as they watched the magic show.
Because I always think if you could see that from a distance, you would just be like, why don't they let that kid come to the magic show?
Not knowing that it's my birthday?
Yeah, and I'm just now alone on a swing, swinging alone. But he was like, I'm just you know, I was around. He was a clown when I was a kid. When I was like five, he started doing that and he would he went to Treveca, which is here in Nashville, and uh so I was five years old and I used to do our kindergarten class. He would come, and that one I loved because I was five years old and he was my dad's a clown. You're like the
coolest kid you know in school. Uh, so you would get to come see that, But I was, yeah, you're just around. I mean, I've had jokes about it where I talked about uh I met My first memory is meeting the Easter Bunny. My first memory of life is my dad pulls up in our car. He's dressed, he's he's in clown makeup, and the Easter Bunny is in the passenger seat. He's in clown makeup, clown makeup, driving the car and the Easter Buddies in the passenger seat. And they were doing a show at a mall. And
the Easter Buddy needed a ride home. He wasn't he wasn't crushing it, I guess, and uh, he goes, yeah, I'll take you home, but do you mind like just seeing my kid first? And so my dad pulled in and uh, and so I got to meet the Easter Buddies. My first memory of my life. Oh wow, that's awesome.
Yeah, and he I remember he did.
Uh he dressed as Batman one year for I want to say an oper Land. So he used to be a theme park here in Nashville and he worked. He would work it, and he had a full Batman costume because he was Batman at this theme park was his gig, and so he came home in that. So there was a lot of kind of crazy things where I mean he was home in a real legit Batman suit with the.
Who was he trying to do? The voice? And all this was this was pre voice, Okay, so it wasn't.
Yeah, it was before that that all got taken on, you know, and Batman talked normal like that Adam Way, I.
Don't know that. I don't know that Batman.
Yeah, he was like me, He's like, hey, hey, you guys doing everybody thought they could take that Batman. You're like, I could fight this Batman. It wasn't until his voice got real deep that you're like, this guy's a real deal.
I would have been one of your I would have been one of his friends at the birthday party, like.
Hey, Nate Man. It was a fun It was an eight of spades that was the card. Like you're just cursing at eight, Like you're like, well, it's you talked about that. My buddy is from New York, New York.
We uh cursing? Is you see kids? You know, because I think we're on the South. I don't know if you remember growing up kids cursing like you just didn't hear it as much.
I heard it some some I heard football. Guess you're different. Yeah. Coaches, yeah, eight years old.
Yeah, you know what I did my first youth football cursing I did here and it was always football coaches.
Yeah.
I played very briefly because I was too little because they were I remember playing and they would the double stripes so you had to wait. If you weighed too much, you had to play the line. Yeah, and you'd have to wear a double stripe on your helmet. So they'd make them run with trash bags on them to lose weight so they could be like the running back. She's like an adult twelve year old. It's like wrestling. Yeah, they're wearing all the stuff. They're wearing all this stuff,
so it's like a like an adult kid. And I remember, I just remember these kids were so big, man. And then the coaches do that what's the drill where you stand in the middle and then there everybody's around you puling the ring. Yeah, yeah, and they would do that. I would always pretend my helmet broke daring it.
I would be like my thing, I'd be yanking the whole time. I would be. I would yank stuff out of it, Like god, dude, can you believe this again? Today? Again? Today? This came out?
All right, I guess I'll go fix because I was like, I'm not these are grown men hitting. They were like eleven that kid weigh he's trying to own pounds to not play the line.
You're like, I'm not. This is not I shouldn't be here, dude.
The ship that you do back in youth football, that's obviously it's banned now. You can't do that stuff now. But man, we would play Duck Duck Goose. So everybody be sitting circle. You go around like Doug dug Duck and Goose. Hit the helmet. You take off around the circle.
They get up and run around the other circle, and all you do is hit.
Yeah, no one's got the ball, like you just collide as hard as you can.
It's gonna be.
Coaches would want kids to quit, and they would I would be like, I'd be like one of the guys.
They'd be like, hey, Will, I'm gonna put you.
I'm gonna put you in this drill with him, like, you know, try to get him to quit, like we don't need him on our team. I swear to god, dude, I'm not joking. I mean, you're nine years old, But what'd you say?
And you're like nine? You just imagine telling my daughter's eight.
I can't imagine telling her, Hey, I want this kid to quit, so I need you to murder this kid. Yeah, yeah, I love that. That's how it used to. I mean it's just you were again. Now they're playing flag football, yeah yeah.
And so that's which is play flag and then you gotta play like I want to say, the uh, you gotta go through like phases now of like learning how to tackle, right, Maybe I have no clue and.
Obviously oh yeah yeah yeah, well I was like it's football like this. It's always like trying to figure out where these concussions come from, and you're like, I mean I have a good idea where they come from, you know, Yeah, yeah, it's all these billions dollars of study, Like I mean, people are hitting each other their head.
That has a lot to do with it. Yeah, we'll just study after study, yeah, like hitting hard.
Yeah, because I want to say, like one of those studies too, like when all the concussion stuff came out to the movie and everything, it was still like another study that came out that like, you know, ninety something percent of the NFL players had like CTE, like the ones the brains that got to work on, and it was still like ninety something percent of like lower ninety percent of like high school players. They got their brain examined on figured out that they had some sort of ct So it's like.
Yeah, like you just hit it. Yeah, you get it.
You like, yeah, you just like you're gonna get see, Like that's it's a game with your head.
Yeah, So that's a big part of it. It's football.
When you're like being a Vandy guy, I assume you're a baseball guy. We got to take a moment and shout out paint yourlife dot com no free shoutouts.
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Well, I so I grew up. Yeah, I mean, we gotta have to be so football. While we were just talking about uh because I got I was just at Vandy and uh walking on their field, and so I grew so growing up.
We didn't before the Titans came. Uh, we didn't have.
All we had was Vandy and some people that grew up a Tennessee vall fan or Vannerable fan and then uh so I'm a diehard Vandy fan and watching games there that I saw some of the most amazing stuff Vandy football in a bad way. We always were just we I mean I was just talking about it today. I was I showed them. Remember we were playing Georgia, like this is like ninety five, ninety six seven something like that, and we're playing Georgia.
Georgia is like seventh of the country.
We're winning seven to nothing in the fourth quarter, and so like when we're not ranked, and I.
Thought you were gonna say the first quarter, we're winning nothing the first Yeah, we're like, all right, we.
Got them, we got them on the ropes.
Uh. But I remember we ran a fake punt on our own thirty yard line and we ran it, not to like the fullback to the punter. They gave him the ball and then he ran got tackled immediately, I mean just and then they Georgia scored very quickly and then they just won.
I've seen this also.
We were we we played l s U one year and we score with ten seconds left, seven to six.
We're gonna go for two.
Whatoody wouldenhoffer was the coach, and uh, we're gonna go for two. LSU's ranked, and so we're like, we're gonna go for it because it doesn't matter.
This would be big for us.
Uh, we get two delay game penalties and then have to and then get the extra point blocked and we lose seven to six. And I mean that's just like the extra point block. Dude, we're kicking from the fifty. I mean like I didn't even make it. It's like I don't know, and we're just sitting there as a
fan and you're like, how do you what happened? I mean, you know how much time you not only the first leg game is whatever, but used all of that time and then it takes time for the ref to throw the flag call it, and then you still have another what thirty seconds yeah, and you still and then at the next day in the paper. Uh, just back when you had to read the paper to see what they're going to say, and they said, You're like, what were
they going to do? And they go, we were going to run the same play, which is the worst thing to hear.
It wasn't like they were You're like, what we are going to do?
Like when we were about to draw something up crazy, They're like, nah, we're going to do the same thing.
What were you all talking about over there?
You know like that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, it's uh.
So it's been but I'm excited about Vanderbilt.
Now we have a we got a new coach, h Clark Lee, you know, pretty pumped about him, and uh he's putting pretty interesting staff together and so hopefully and it seems like Vandy is investing in their sports, which is it's always.
The biggest thing.
It's like getting the athletic department, uh, or not the athletic department, but the school to invest in like the athletic department and invest in sports because like me, it's so the five years I was at in Nebraska, I played in Nebraska. My strength staff that was there that I know very well was the strip was is a
strength staff at Vandy. Yeah, so the past few years I trained, I trained at Vandy all the time, so I was just around, you know, just the culture of Vanderbilt and just how different it was from being in Nebraska. Like kids would have to like, uh, the strength coach stops and shout Outdobson, he would you know. I'm like, Yo, why isn't that dude getting in trouble for you know, not showing up on time because I'm thinking about all the ship we had to do when we were late or anything.
And he's like, Bro, you know, it's different here because kids are coming from class like academics.
Here is just a whole different ballgame.
Like you know, in Nebraska, you would have, you know, your advisors and counselors and stuff like that help you pick your classes, Like you wouldn't have to be present to pick your classes, like they would already pick them for you. Like kids at Vandy would have to leave in the middle of like workouts because there's a window that they have to be at to get in when the when the window opens to get in certain classes, and the athletes themselves have to be there to do that.
He's like, and during finals weeks, like guys actually lose a shit ton of weight because people are stressed and they're just up all the time steting for finals. Because it's such an academically successful school. Way different from Nebraska. No, I'm not knocking Nebraska, but it's just everywhere. Yeah, it's different than everywhere. Yeah, everywhere. Bro. He's like, you know, the criteria to get in, like trying to get walk ons in and just recruiting, Like it's just a different
ball game. Did you grow up a Nebraska fan? No, I was more of like a Notre Dame fan. I went to Nebraska because of a Bo Polini and the staff that he had in Nebraska. Tom Olsmore had came to the school. Everyone was going crazy about tom Osware. I didn't necessarily know exactly who he was because I was younger, but I'm having like all my old teachers, they're like running down the hall to try to get
a picture with him. But he visited and then like I visited the staff and stuff and absolutely loved the facilities at Nebraska, and that's why I ended up going to Nebraska. But that was a strength staff I had, and it was it's just a way different world.
Than like a world at Vanderbilt football.
I remember Nebraska was always uh it was crazy because I mean uh, I mean when they were they were so good then. I mean it was and I really they were. That's the kind of my first awareness nineties would have been, like you kind of start paying attention to sports more and kind of remember stuff more. And so I mean my first been to Nebraska. To me, Nebraska is always look at them as the most dominant team in the country, like yeah, because they were there
back then. And it is crazy to see kids because you know, you look at Vanderbilt, there's kids that so Vanderbilt when Franklin was there, we had we won nine games and we went to Bowls every year right right the baseball team started getting good and Tennessee was the volunteers were down. So there's a lot of kids, like my friends' kids that grew up kind of thinking Vanderbilt was the better school versus when I grew up, it was like we were get crushed, Like Tennessee would beat us sixty years.
Manning Batman, I mean them in the nineties were just always there with Nebraska in Miami.
Yeah, oh yeah, Ohio State's always been there, but yeah, the Nebraska like Miami, Yeah, exactly, and so it's just a different It's interesting to see the perspectives that people go through with, you know, volunteers who not a I'm not a fan of, but they they were, I mean they were so dominant.
Dude.
Yeah, it's in there being in the SEC too. Like we we haven't got anybody on here yet that is admitted to it. But you know, them Southern, them good ones. They're they're paying kids. You know what I'm saying that there ain't no funes coming out of paying anybody. Yeah, there nouns coming out of vain.
I wish they would. Yeah, that'd be a huge help.
We had Derek on yes, and I was trying to get them like we need some sanctions again Alabama right now, Like you know, how much would they pay you coming out of high school?
Yeah?
Because anytime you see an Alabama player we were talking in our locker rooms and stuff, and anywhere you go and there's an Alabama player, the question of them is usually like how many natty?
How many Natties did you win when you were at Bama?
And some guys will be at two and be like, oh, you're a part of the trash Alabama, like the other Alabama guys who won like four Yeah, and you're just kind of sitting there like, you know, we went to the Big ten Championship in a Big twelve championship.
You know you'd be lost both.
But yeah, we got the Motor City Bowl. That's what Van D's just like if we almost won the MotorCity Bowl.
We had.
Uh. The first ball game I went to was at h Vandy. We played Boston College and the Music City Bowl. And I've told a joke about that because I got I went or had tickets for Vandy and I went in and she ripped my tickets and I had to go in the game. I mean a full two to three hours before the game starts, because like if you once they rip your ticket, you have to go in. And I was just trying to grab my ticket. Then we're gonna go Telgate, and uh, I.
Had to go in. Dude, no one was even the player.
We're still in jeans, like they were not even you weren't even getting ready.
For the game. Like that's how early it was.
And I remember the clock was at ninety minutes and it didn't even it wasn't even started yet.
Oh you're just looking at that.
And I mean, I'm I was the only one in the stadium. I just walked around the stadium. It's ain't open, and I just my friends are like out tailgating, like where are you at. I'm like, I'm already in here, like out here it was great in here, dude, I just walked in. The concession stands are not open. I mean, it was brutal, but we had we've Vandy won that. But our punter was MVP. First two Bowl games we had in twenty years, our punter was the MVP of both those.
Guys, how's the punter of the MVP?
Just because as we do, man, as we bring to the table, you know, like you don't understand we need a good punter and it matters. It's like Brett Kerns, Like Bret the punter really helps out a lot.
Dude.
He's a stud man. Yeah, Brett is a stud punter. Yeah, I mean, punters definitely help out. I'm just thinking like if they if they couldn't score, like, what, how's the punter of the MVP? They just dropping him inside the.
I've liked that just just yeah, keep it on, back, keep it on.
Yeah, no one else really brought enough to the table. There you go.
I guess, punter, did you you? You never answered, But how did you end up getting in New York?
Oh? So I moved to Chicago first. So I was.
I was just doing whatever job. I read water meters in Mount Juliet here like.
I was, really I was. I just worked what you know, I didn't.
Go to college. Uh, So I just was doing whatever job. I had a friend, uh, my buddy Michael, and he wanted to move.
He wanted to go to Second City in Chicago.
So moved to Chicago first, and then I did some Second City, which is the improv and that's where like Chris Farley and all them came out of.
Uh.
I just did a little bit of that, nothing at all, And I didn't really like improv. I wanted to do stand up, so I started doing stand up there and then I.
Moved to New York after like two years.
Uh. There's a great uh documentary Seinfeld called Comedian I believe it's on Netflix, and it's him built his new act. This was right after his show ended and he taped his special and he was talking about starting over and he had to build a new hour and he went around and uh, two different comedy clubs in New York. And so that came out when I was in Chicago and then so after that I knew. I was like, you got to go to New York. New York is like the place to be.
Now at the time, are you working on your own like comedy stuff, like on the side of while you're working.
Now, you're just doing I mean, you're doing open mics. So I mean I'll go to a bar like anybody could go and sign up and you go up on stage and so you're just you're there with you know, when you first start, you're you're there with guys that are really trying to.
Be a comedian. You're there with like just a mom that wants to do it. People that lost bet.
There's a big thing now people that lose fantasy drafts will go to open mics. So like their their punishment will be if you come in last place, you got to do stand up.
Yeah.
So I mean like it's you have a mix of just like it's just a joke to one person and another kid is like this is his dream, and so they're all going up on the same stage. But so you just start out doing that. So you go you're just doing you need to get up, You're trying to go.
Up every day.
And then when I moved to New York is what I went to. There was a club in New York called Boston Comedy Club, and I started there and that's where I was handing out those flyers and uh, you would go on stage. I mean I went on stage every day for I mean eight years. Like you just go up every day and you go on for at the beginning, it's five minutes and then eventually it gets to fifteen until you start headlining and traveling on the
road and you start doing an hour. But at the beginning of that, Chappelle would come in all the time. This is when Chappelle's show was on, right before right when you quit, you know, right before that, he would come down. I would see him every I mean he come down every night, like ivery taped, you know, and
we'd have we'd have eight people in the show. Like That's the thing that makes you good in New York is you know, if you go to Zany's here in Nashville or any club using this, there's there's forty people there at the minimum, you know, usually even one hundred, two hundred, three hundred if it's sold out.
So the shows are very good.
It's people that are not as good can do good just because people are happy to be in the room and they're like, yeah, this guy's up there telling jokes and it's a fun situation. But in New York you would go up and you'd have people in the shows that you would have to talk into coming and you'd be free, so you'd like, just come check this show out. And then they're like all right, and they come in there and you're in front of people that don't speak English.
Sometimes. I mean I've went on stage one night and most.
Of the crowd doesn't speak English and they want to go to the show just because they wanted New York comedy experience, right, But you're like, don't come dude, Like they don't.
You go up, you start telling your jokes and you're like what is wrong with this? You get no laughs and you're just like does he might speak English?
And I mean nobody they're like no, Like nobody even understands that.
Have you asked that on the mic?
Yeah, that's yeah, you're like, who doesn't really speak English, and like everybody just the whole room collapse, or you're like you're like, ah, boy, this is gonna be brutal.
Yeah, and then and you got to do fifteen minutes.
So but being in those situations are what helps you because you know how to you know, you know how to talk where it's I mean it's uncomfortable.
Like I'm sitting here like yo that I can't imagine every day, say you string on a few bad days or a few days where you're just not that people are laughing, like they're laughing at the other people, and you just got to continue to Oh, I mean in.
The room we were I remember being on stage because like you would just be at a bar. So there's a lot of times some would be comedy clubs, so people actually know what they're doing. Sometimes at a bar, you would go into the bar and like downstairs, like we got a comedy show down there in the bar, and you're like, oh okay, and then people just kind of they were like going to the bar and now they're sitting in a comedy show. And I performed for
one guy once, just him. He didn't leave, and I asked him to ask him to leave in the microphone. I go, you should just we shouldn't do this, and he was like it's fine. I was like, it's not, it's not fine. And then you gotta stay up here if it's fine. Two people, four people, I mean four people, a lot, a lot, four people in a room. And that was like, you would do it to keep the show going because people are outside, other comics are outside trying to get more people in, so you're trying to
be like trying to get more people in. So you're like, someone's got to go up so we don't lose these four people. Because once these four people, if they start looking around realizing you know this, these comics are probably stink dude, Like, if no one's here, this show can't be good. Yeah, So you're trying to get on. You're trying to keep to trap them basically in the room before they figure out that, yeah, they shouldn't be there.
This is not a good situation. And so you would go up and you're talking for the four people and then and then two more people come in and six people, eight people, I mean, you've got it for eight people. You were like, You're like, I made it like eight people. It was like unbelievable. You've been a comedy in the know. You're like, You're like, it's someone filmed this. I need to get this is huge, dude. And but being in those situations where that's why I think the best comics
come out of New York. The ones that learn how to be a comic in New York are the best by far to me, because they're just in. It's just it's much more of a grind. It's way more competitive. Everybody's competing for all the spots. Not everybody can get on stage, and you just have to be better than a lot of people, and you have to keep performing a lot of bad situations. I mean I remember one. This one place is called Village Lantern in the village in New York.
And so I'm on.
Stage and there's just a two couples that are together, So two guys, two girls, and they're sitting in the front, no one else in the room, and I'm on stage and I'm kind of I gotta keep talking to keep them there until we can get some more people in. So it feels like a show. Yeah, And then the girl, the girl just gets up. The two girls get up and just stand next to me and they just take
a picture like I'm on stage. The I mean, the you're on stage performing, you know, if you're doing your thing, and they just got up as if I was just a sign like and took it.
It's the least respect.
I've ever been shown in my life to go just in the middle of a joke. They just stand there like that's how they go, well, this guy's not this is not a real thing. And they just took a picture and then I think went to the bathroom.
And then left.
That was it, Like they just it didn't and it didn't even face it like.
You just imagine nowadays too, like somebody just takes a selfie and you're just kind.
Of yeah yeah.
On stage, yeah, I mean because there's and there's no bouncers, no one's stopping any of this stuff. I mean, you get fights breakout like there's you know, I had a fight breakout when I was in Tampa once in the back all I see, because this was when I was at a point where it was right before my Tennessee Kids special came out, so I was having.
People show up for me.
I would have I would say it'd be seventy five percent of the crowd is there because they know who I am, but twenty five percent is there just because they got free tickets to a comedy club. Yeah, so those those don't really mix good together because these other people are excited to see you and they want to watch the show, and the other people could care less I'm going to a bar. Oh, there's a guy on stage whatever, And so they would get in a fight.
I remember I was on stage and all I see in the back, I just see a hand, just go like that, and then just a brawl breaks out in the very back of the room. How'd you handle it? And I was in the middle of it, dude. I was like, you say, you have to do an hour. I'm like thirty minutes in, you know, if it's if I'm at forty forty five even you're like, all right,
good night, Like that's' I gotta keep going. Yeah, And so I and not everybody could see what's going on, so I just kind of, you know, describe what was happening.
I was like, that guy hit that guy, and.
Then you just you just talk about it's one of those you're just in this situation. There's no really preparation for it. You just the preparation is all the years of doing bad shows that you just know that you can handle it. And I told every other crowd that week, I was like, if you just don't fight, you will
be better than the Thursday night crowd. If that's all you could do a lot, you could yell out, you can actually throw some to that mean, if you don't fight each other, you're gonna be better than that Thursday night craw each other. What was what was your first time on stage? Like it was that I did this comedy, this classical comedy college. I have it on VHS. My first time I had a chin beard. That was when chin beards were a lot cooler than they are now.
And uh, you know you had to get made fun of if someone saw, but now it would be you know, it was like it was like pretty like whoa, yeah, it's new money over here. So that's that's where I will like white trash like Nashville Wildlife come out where you live Antioch. So there I went on stage and usually your first times are actually okay because you get friends go.
So like if you went and go, did did stand up right? Now?
You would have friends come, they're gonna be rooting for you. They want you to do good, so they're gonna laugh at your jokes more they know you.
So usually your first time is.
Kind of okay, and then you're like, all right, this is the man, I'm not bad at this. But it's when you go up with no one there, no one supporting you, that's the real. That's the real, Like were you Actually, you're probably more numberus for that than you were when you were gonna be in front of your friends.
The first time.
I used to always look down, so I had a big problem with that. I would never really look up at the crowd. And I still don't like looking at the audience in the eyes. Yeah, I kind of. I just look like right above their head. It makes it it's uncomfortable, like when you when you lock eyes with someone on stage. Dude, it's like you just feel like, do they know I'm looking at it? You know, and you're just like and I because I remember comics used to always come off stage and be like, dude, you
see that chick in the front row shoes unbelievable. And I would be like, I didn't see anybody like because I was looking I never understood like all these comics that was like, you see, dude, these two on the two on the right, the hottest chick service in my life.
And I'm like, I didn't even.
Know where were these people at, Like I didn't look at nobody. Uh, but so you would when you first go. I would always look down a lot, never really look up. And then so you have to then like kind of teach yourself to like, I gotta look up. I gotta be looking at people and uh, you know, because that really matters. And uh so you slowly just build up. But you know the first time, it's I mean, it's tough, man. I mean that's the first I remember I would want
because I knew. I was like, well, I gotta go. I don't want to go to do this show because I was so scared to go talk in front of everybody and they uh. And I remember thinking I was like, God, if just the building would burn down, you know, because then I feel like they I would be like I tried to go, but.
The building was on fun helmet. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to get in there. I trust me, dude. I want you. You guys look like you having so many fun.
But Uh, god's got a bad helmet. My parents bought me a helmet with the worst because my parents had no money, and so I got like the one bar down and one bar across helmet. Oh that doesn't help either, when you just look like a loser.
You just got like a.
Old fullback helmet weigh eighty four pounds. The helmet's half. All I wanted was like that one. I still look at that helmet, uh and just think that's such. That's all I wanted. That's I would have probably stayed in football. You probably would have gotten buled the ring if you would had. If I would just give me a good that one was too expensive, so they bought me the
worst one. So yeah, I don't remember what we're talking about, but I think it was, Uh you're talking about your first time, like how nervous you were and you would hope the building was burnt down. Yeah that is you know you ever think about that like I was, if
you were tired driving to work. A guy used to have to go work when I worked regular jobs at like seven am, And I'm like, if I could just get in just a little wreck, like not much of a wreck, just enough that I can sleep in just a fender bender that I can sleep in the car and I could be like I got an wreck this morning, dude, Like it's just so I could have a good excuse. You just want something to happen. And that's I remember that a lot, like just being like I don't want to go Yeah, what's.
The what's the worst you've bombed? Uh? You know one of them I talked about in this news special coming up?
But uh, another one that's gonna come out on Netflix. Yeah, when does this come out?
This is gonna come out in a couple of weeks.
Yeah, after Valentine's Day? After this, when's your when's your special?
Come out? March eighteenth? We can make it the week after that.
Oh okay, well it's got to be if I'm not announcing my special till February sixteenth, So after February sixteenth, they can come out whenever. Okay, cool, we're solid. Yeah, so that's when I got to announce it. Uh, but March eighteenth is the next special called the Greatest Average American, because that's what I think I am.
I love that, dude.
I think I'm the greatest. I'm the most average American and I'm but I'm.
The greatest at it.
I go to all I guess say, I always go to the nicest apple weeks. I can always have a good gaugey. I messed with Nate, Dude, I messed with you. I get I have a good gauge of when shows are going to get canceled because I and if I if I'm like not on board, I'm like then most of America's not. I have a very American taste, Like you can just feel it. You're like, it's not going good, dude, Like y'all gotta you gotta wrap it up.
Uh.
But so in this specially, I talked about I did a show for this private gig that I did, and I bought him for an hour. And this is a couple of years ago, so like I'm for an entire hour, the whole hour, and I mean I'm doing I mean, you know, you know, I'm like successful comedian. Like at the time, I'm like, dude, I'm not bad, like yeah, And I remember just being up there and I was like, I guess maybe I'm bad now, you know, like maybe
just lose it like that. Uh, And I asked I told the guy afterwards, like I'm sorry, and uh then he told me that most most everybody there did not speak English. So all it was a Christmas party and all his employees, uh do they don't speak English? And he never gave told me that until afterwards. And I mean, with that entire hour, you're just like, dude, it's maybe I'm.
Past my prime. Oh about probab it's not forty. Maybe I'm just going down. Yeah, it's like my peak. My my peak was the day before and I'm already down.
Yeah. Uh it was. It was.
I mean for one hour of just you know, you're thinking about a lot up there, you know, and you're yeah, uh, your material, you get through your material a lot quicker.
Uh.
But one of the first bombings that I remember filling, Uh, I bombed at that Boston comedy club.
Everybody was doing good one night. Everybody was like going on stage, and.
I remember this one comic went up and I didn't think they were that good, and they did good, and I was like, dude, I'm going to murder when I go on.
Yeah, and then I went up and bombed so hard, and uh, I remember I changed my shirt.
I never wore that shirt again because I blame I thought, well, that shirt had something to do. Yeah, I had a button down and I think I tucked it in. I like tucking my shirt in. I'm a big fan. I wish you would come back and be more popular than it is. But I remember I had this green button down shirt and I got rid of it and I was like, I'm never wearing that again. Bet that had that had to do something. I didn't blame me. I blamed just the outfit.
Well, it goes through your mind, like when you bomb something like that, like.
Sleepover, you're just kind of like fuck.
Uh, you know, you don't do it as much as everybody says says you do. There there are people that do bomb that much. Uh, but I think those people
don't ever there. They never do good, so they don't know what good sounds like because I've seen people bomb where when they got off stage, I went to go talk, you know, I was like, you know, hey man, this crowd kind of stinks like sometimes it's the crowd, Like the crowd stinks like it's rowdy or they're not they're talking, So that one you don't really care about because you're like, this.
Is not my fault.
But when they I've seen people come off and like before I could, I'll be about to say to him, Yo, don't worry, but this crowd stinks. And I remember this kid he goes, uh, he goes, that's a pretty good set. And I was like, you, that was the worst set.
And there's just no awareness.
I realized at that moment, Oh, he doesn't know what it sounds like to do good, like up there. You it's different when you really murder on stage. It's unbelievable, man, it's you know, it's people are losing their mind. You can hear people catching their breath. It's it's the most amazing sound ever. And if you but if you don't ever hear that, then you don't know. Like to him, that sounded great what he just got from them, it
was like a good set. And that was a learning moment that I remember, Oh, you need to learn what it sounds like to be good, so you're self aware enough to then know when it's not going good.
Have you ever had the correct a comic like was that somebody you? What did you think? And you're like, yeah, you're a straight man.
Uh no, I know you lie to them all.
You're like, yeah, dude, that was great, Like I thought it was great, and they're like, no, I've had a couple where I've seen, uh, this one club in Edmonton, Canada, and they this guy, I think he does it on purpose, but he would put a new comic up in uh. He put a new comic on stage each in front of a like a pat crowd on a weekend. And this girl went up and she bombed so hard, I
mean nothing, zero laughs. So it's someone talking to a microphone for five minutes and there's no reaction, but there's pauses for reactions. So she like finished a joke like I went on the bus and then all right, and then you know, it's just that dude for five minutes.
It's unreal.
And she gets off and when she gets off, he plays another one. Bites the Dust is the song he plays, and I mean, I'm like this poor girl and she and they stay, they have to kind of stay for the show, so they just go sit and then she set at the table and cried, and I went and talked to her, and you just kind of I just made fun of the situation to try to lighten the mood and just be like it's you know, it doesn't matter.
You're gonna go up so many more times that you won't ever forget it, But that one was Some of those are tough to see. I had another girl that once did it set in Philadelphia, very nice girl.
And it was my fault. It sold out room Saturday night.
The two comics on my host in the middle act, they both murder, and this girl just did a guest set, so she's gonna do like five minutes. Yeah, and she goes up in same thing, dude, completely silent and the whole time, and then the guy goes on after and just murders. So you can't even be like, well, of
this crowd's tough. You're like, this crowd is amazing. And then I remember she came back and she felt pretty bad and then she but she actually had to go sit She had a ticket to the show and then had to go sit out in the crowd, and I was like, you wanted to be like just go home, you know, like don't And can you imagine just having to walk back into that crowd and been like, excuse me, my seats over here and everybody's like, oh, that's up, all right?
Yeah? Yeah?
How was how would you say the Nashville scene is different than all the other comedy scenes you mentioned quite a bit.
Yeah, Nashville's Nashville scene is much better than it was when I first saw it. There's actually some really really good comics here and some young comics that are very funny and to me show that they want to do it. They seem obsessed with it and they want to go up as much as they can. And there's a lot of really really good comics and uh some female comics like you know, good diverse comics. Uh and so it's the national scene is great right now and uh so
it's exciting to see that. And then New York scene is i mean still the New York seas I still think that's the best scene in the country. And that's you know, there's gonna be guys that you see in New York that are better than most famous comics, you know, because they're going up every night. They're doing it. It's like dog years in New York. I mean, I went up every night. If you live in Nashville, like you could go up. I mean, you can go up more now than you used to. But I mean, let's say
you're going up three times a week. Why I would go up ten times a week and I did that for eight years, nine years. Like I'm gonna be a I got way more stage time, way more than anywhere in the country. So that's why those comics are gonna be the best comics. They've gone up triple what you've gone up.
Man, That grind is interesting, dude, Like, I mean all those years just going up ten times a week, working on sets, like having to surpass, hanging out or like going on different Yeah, you're thinking about the grind like you're saying about how can I get more in?
Oh? Yeah, I mean you just want where you're addicted to. You have to be obsessed with it. That's what you can't do it if you're not. You know, I remember people would have night jobs. They have jobs that you know, They're like, I got to work at night, and I'm like, what do you do?
You can't work at night.
That's when you got to go up and try to even if you're not getting up, you got to go hang out at the comedy club and be around. And you need to see all these comics. You need to see people get good. You need to see you know. I was with A Z's and Sorry and Amy Schumer and like, so I saw we were all open micros and I saw them rise to the how big they are.
You need to be able to see that stuff.
You got to see people get to the top and that so you can at least see that there's a path, because otherwise it feels impossible. You know, it feels like, well, you know who am I am just a kid from Nashville, right, why would I get to do this?
Yeah?
You feel like it's beneficial that guys like Theovonne and Josh Wolfe have moved to Nashville, Like is that going to change a change the scene a little bit?
Because I guess where I'm coming from.
You see, like the comedy Store, Like I follow those guys like Joe Rogan and all that, that circle of comedians where they're always doing sets of the Comedy Store.
It seems like all those dudes go to the comedy Store.
You feel like that kind of creates a culture for Nashville to where maybe you guys are going to zanies or how does that work in the comedy I mean, definitely it's been a huge help now the THEO and him are here because I've been back here like six years Steve Burne another comic.
So a lot of real headliners.
Yeah, And I think it helps the scene because then the younger comics actually get to see like real headlining comics every week and guys that are very good, guys that are going to go up and they're not really gonna bomb, They're just not like they've been doing comedy too long. And so it helps the scene. The new comics see that, and it makes people want to come out.
We do shows that Zane where they do a new material night on Mondays and sometimes they do these all star shows and they're not announced with the lineup, but if we are in town, I went, uh Monday, I went last night where it was whatever night, Monday night. Uh, I went Monday night. Uh, you go work out to work out on my cause I gotta build a new material with a special coming out and trying to build this new hour.
And so I've been there a lot.
Deo's there a lot, like you know, sometimes there sometimes we're not, but them going that it gets then those younger companies are getting in front of a packed crime. I mean, you know, it's it's that's a huge thing to get real stage time. Is what you're searching for. What helps build a scene. You got to get in front of a real audience because otherwise you're performing for other comics at open mics.
Is there a couple like up and comers that you think will be on the scene one day?
That? I mean, So, I have a podcast called Nate Land and that's with my Brian Bates and Aaron Weber and there Brian Bates has kind of been in New York for a little while now, I mean in Nashville. He's been doing it for like twelve years or something. Uh, and then Aaron would be a newer one. He's like, he's on Aaron Weber, he's been four year comic. I think he is, Uh, Dusty Slay he's been doing it a little bit longer, probably ten years, but his name's
out starting to get around a little bit more. And uh, he's done some late night shows and stuff like that, and he's very funny and he's probably the the top comic of the guys that are He's he's kind of really starting to headline and yeah, people are coming to see him.
Uh.
And then you got I mean, then the guys are some younger guys that are even year or two year comics that are you see it zis that are very very good and and you can go see them. You know that that Monday night, that New Material night is a night where you can see all those or any.
That'd be cool. We should go to one of those.
Yeah, y'all should come to one. Uh, they're very other. When I'm at one, I'll let you know and then I'll come out there.
It's fun.
That'd be awesome. Yeah, it's a good It's it's good to see him. And I think people are moving here to start comedy. That's a good sign nationals. I mean, it's one of the cities I like growing faster than I think be a Chicago here. Like, I mean, I'm very biased to Nashville, obviously, but I don't think anything is better than Nashville right now.
Yeah, I think it's the best city in the lountry. All right.
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We started thirty something episodes out. Yeah no, and you know you gotta do these forever really get good.
Yeah, And so it's it's we started it just because it was like, you know, it wasn't I've been off the road for a year now, right with all those Yeah, so I kind of wanted to keep stay being funny. And uh, you know, it's kind of a muscle. You gotta be funny. You need to actively try to be making jokes. And another reason why I think New York is so good to you're around comics so much that you're just so much like just breaking each other's balls and yeah, yeah, and so I wanted to kind of
keep that going. And so then we started this podcast and it's been fun. It's you know, it's a good thing to keep your brain like just making jokes do that's just making jokes is so important and so just constantly kind of coming up with stuff and keeping your brain fresh, and it helps you with coming up with your new act.
So yeah, I've enjoyed it.
I do it in my house, so it's like, you know, I maybe it about as easy as possible.
It's not on like all the podcast platforms YouTube on YouTube, yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff.
So that stuff's interesting. And you said you did it. You did a podcast a long time ago, but that stopped. Yeah, that went nowhere.
Dude, Uh, it could be better, as we called it, because we always thought it could have been better, like it was. Yeah, we called it when we thought everybody would tell us in the comments that way, they couldn't criticize us because if they were like your podcast thinks You're like, well, it's named it could be better. We are agreeing that it's not good and it yeah, yeah, just go ahead, get it.
Right in front of it. Yeah.
Uh so yeah, that one was a long time ago. Uh but it was you know, it was fun to do. Uh you know, and we wish we would have stayed with it at the time, but you know, it all out in the end.
I mean it will probably grow and be awesome one day. Yeah. Yeah, you know it's awesome now. I mean, all of ours are awesome now.
But you know what I'm saying, yeah, yeah, no, you gotta keep there's more work into the whole video side saying here with that, I mean, because you would like dude scenario.
Yeah, I mean, you're in this bus. This is you know, it looks like that. It's what you see a busting with the boy. We're in a shed, Yeah, just a random shed. We run off a generator in a hot spot that the bill has not been paid so it does not work.
Yeah, but yeah, stuff to work on. Yeah, where we started off, we were this bus was in a parking lot. Because it doesn't move, you can't get it fixed. Calls you know, way too more. We might as well just buy an actual, like big awesome bus. But it started off in a parking lot. Taylor and I were going back and forth on, you know, how to go about the podcast. It was something I wanted to do for a long time. And Uh, a buddy of ours at
the time who was producing it. He was like, would you think you'd be interested in this bus that's out back?
I was like a bus.
I was like, honestly, no, but I bet when Taylor walks in here he sees it, he's gonna want the bus. Yeah, he comes in, he shows him and tells it. Oh yeah, we gotta go see that. And we go out there and you know, it's obviously has a look like this. It's all the seats and stuff moved around like it you had to take.
It to a priest and get an exercise, you know what I mean.
And h Taylor's like, listen, I'll put ten grand into it and clear it all up and make it look presentable. If it doesn't work, then I'll just sit it in my backyard. Like I think this is awesome. And I was like, all right, let's try it. And we were just sitting out We got it, We got it to work, managed to put all this stuff in there, and we're just sitting on the heat Blossoms with us back then, and uh do we'd be out in July when McAfee was like, consistency is the key. We were in July
at the time. We had a few weeks until training camp. We're like, oh, we got a backlog a lot of episodes and we're gonna survive through the season. There was one week we did twelve episodes in one week, and it is like in the nineties out we had to have like you know, we had to try and put coverings over and stuff because we're just in you're sweating.
Like Shaw Shap came on.
He came down to dooz Aies one night and I had asked if we wanted to come on. Michael Chandler helped helped me get him on, and Shop comes on and one of.
Our AC units wasn't work here.
We have like two AC units in here and his boys are on the back and he's like, yeah, I think we're gonna need to wrap it up. Like one of his brother was about to pass out on the back of the bus because they were all like sitting in.
The back listening and we were just grinding through it. Bro.
But it uh now you finally upgraded. We got into a shed, abandoned shed. But it's been a journey man, but uh, thanks for coming on, bron.
When is uh when is your special coming out? March eighteenth, Netflix.
And it's cool. We we we put this out before March.
Yeah, just after sixteenth, okay only it's gonna be yeah, everybody check it out.
What's it called? Uh as average America. I can't wait, dude.
It'll be on Netflix and on Netflix and yeah, just on Netflix, so just uh yeah, just on not.
All that stuff anywhere you can watch Netflix. It will be on.
Well, thank you very much. Presented by Barstool Sports, Nay Bargatzi, Busting love and support Busting with the Boys. Go to whatever podcast platform you're on and subscribe to us. Leave a review rate five stars. If you're already subscribed, unsubscribe and resubscribe again. It helps the boys climb the charts. And again, we can't we wouldn't be doing this and can't do this without you guys and all of your support.
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