Berner Phone - Francis Ellis: Fired From Barstool & Feeling Sensitive

Episode Date: July 9, 2019

Francis Ellis was fired from Barstool right before he was supposed to come on the podcast. We decided to go ahead with the interview to discuss the article he wrote that got him fired, what went down on his last day at work, why he was always anxious about getting fired, at 20 minutes he reads the controversial blog post that got him fired, at 24 minutes he reveals his barstool crush, he discusses cancel culture, how he started with barstool, why he enjoys playing sports with girls, how he’s attractive for a red head, how he feels about summer house, his deepest insecurity, why he’s so sensitive, all the jobs he’s been fired from, why he thinks he wasn’t a great fit for barstool, how to come up with new creative jokes, he admits he’s vain, and discusses where he goes from here. Follow Hannah Berner on Instagram & Twitter: @beingbernz --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/berninginhell/support Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I had some people say, like, you know, he's going to be a mess. Like, it's not going to be a good podcast. But you came in positive. You seem like you have a good head on your shoulder. Yeah, I wore my favorite Hawaiian shirt. You look like a lost tourist. Oh. You look like you suck at your biker gang.

Like, what are you going for? I said I look like a middle-aged dad is going through a life crisis, but then, like, make it sexy. You look like you're trying to remember your ex-boyfriend who didn't, do well financially. This is great for a podcast when no one can see what we're wearing. I know, right? Welcome to Burning in heaven. Okay, so I just want to preface this podcast.

Have we started? Has this begun? I didn't want to warn you because we're in hell and the devil doesn't have time to warn you about this. Heavens to Betsy. My name is Hannah Burner, and welcome to another controversial episode of Burning in Hell. I'm an innocent bystander. I got fired from Betches back in the day for something pretty stupid.

It involved a ring light. I don't know what that is. It's a millennial thing. It's like a round light that girls use to have good lighting. Oh, that doesn't sound particularly. evil. What do you, can I, can I hear that story? Perhaps you've told it on. I feel like you're turning this on to me immediately. I mean, this is your podcast. He's smart. He went to Harvard. Okay, so I have Francis Ellis on the podcast today. Thank you for having you. I just want to say, when I say I'm

innocent, I mean, I don't, I'm not a follower of Barstool, but then I've met Elie Schnett. I've met Kate Mannion. They both were amazing on this podcast. And I reached out to one of my home dogs and I was like, I want to have one of the guys from Barstool on. What guy do you think would best be for my podcast and he immediately goes this guy Francis he played sports you know he went to harvard so he's not that dumb and he is a stand-up in his own right and i think you guys would hit it off and i was like done so i damn francis and he immediately responds so kindly says i know who you are and it's funny that we haven't crossed paths before and i was like let's do this we book it for Monday. Then I'm hung over a shit in the Hamptons and I've Francis texted me. I'm like,

what does this dude want? We set it up. We're all ready to go. What do you need for me? I didn't need anything. I didn't. I needed to let you know. I didn't. I didn't, I don't work for Barstool anymore. Did you first say that you're off on Monday? Um, I don't know that. No, I think, I think I told you immediately. Yeah. I had said that before. I was like scheduling wise, we can do this any time on Monday now because we don't have work on Monday. And it turns out, I don't have work ever again. I mean, we could do this anytime, any day. So why don't you kind of explain on your end what happened? So I worked for Barstle for two and a half years. And on Friday, I was fired because I wrote a blog about a young woman who had gone missing for a week in Utah. And her name was

Mackenzie Lewick. And it was a pretty big story that had a lot of developments. And I wrote this blog because as I read, Friday was the first time that I'd actually read about her. And I saw that the big news breaking news that day was that her sorority sisters had seen that her Instagram account was active, that she had liked a post and that this was cause for hope. Do you know what post it was? It was for an account called At Fatherless, and I went and looked at that, and it's an account, I think it's a tongue-in-cheek account that says, like, girls with daddy issues. Okay. Which is all of us? Sure.

This was good news. And I had this idea of like, okay, wow, in the age of social media that we live in, that sorority sisters are finding clues that the FBI is missing. Yeah. The sorority sisters had turned this news over to the FBI. So it was like, that was the good news. That wasn't in a New York post article. And then I looked and I was like, all right, is this, what's the story? What's the latest update?

And I started digging a little bit, but I was very, like, lazy and careless in my digging. And I saw a headline from an article on ABC News that said, McKenzie Lewick missing, no foul play suspected, per the authorities. And that, to me, was, is police speech for, like, we. think she's gone off of her own accord. Okay. And then every article I read was always mentioning that she was on these sugar daddy dating websites, seeking arrangements. Yeah.

And it may have been, and I don't actually know this, that they thought she was with somebody from that website. Yeah, because when I first heard it, I'm like, really? Are you trying to pick, like, all these articles that were written about it? Are you trying to find these, like, embarrassing side facts? But I guess maybe they were using it to try to discover what dude might have kidnapped her. Exactly. I'm not really sure.

And then I finally, I went and looked at her Instagram and it was closed. But in her profile, it said that she was a huge fan of one of the Barstow podcasts, Call Her Daddy, which is like a big podcast. And so I thought, okay, Given these three pieces of information, I'm going to write, I'm going to present this, this blog. And I basically, I started the blog by saying, like, look, first and foremost, we hope she's okay. If anyone has any news about her, please contact your local authorities, et cetera. And then I was like, her sorority sisters found the Instagram activity.

And hopefully that's a good sign. And what was the activity? Well, let's see the account she liked. and I posted a couple of the posts from that account. And I was like, it's a hodgepodge of like pro-feminist stuff, messages, but also some like thirst-trapy photos. And I included a couple of those with some like offhand remarks about like, look, here's a girl filling up her automobile with fuel in a scandalous way.

And whatever. None of that had any bearing on McKenzie Lewick. Yeah. And then I wrote in the end some offhand remark. I was like, and finally she's a fan of Call Her Daddy. Let's hope that the girls can send her some merch when all of this turns out. Okay. Thoughts and prayers, period.

And I blogged it and I posted it. And, you know, I write like, I don't know, four blogs a day. I was about to say, what's your blogging process? Yeah. Are you contractually obligated to write four or five a day? Not really. There's no quota necessarily. But I am a writer and I've been writing for a while and I was at Barstall and I don't submit to an editor in chief or an editor because I was a senior blogger and I how do you become a senior blogger at Barstall?

I think it's just like have you demonstrated that you're a good enough writer and you have high engagement on it. Yeah, but also like are you at a risk of posting like stuff that needs to be sanctioned or overseen. So you for two years, have you ever gotten trouble with your editor before? In the first year that I was working there, I had to submit all my blogs to an editor. And some of those, he'd be like, nope, you can't, that's not going to go. Why? You know, just subject matter or like, you know, it was like it was too dark or maybe. Off brand? Not, I don't know if I would say off brand just like he he had a very good sense of like what would be what would like get us in trouble oh okay so he was like the censor guy but it's a thin line because to get good reactions

you guys want to have strong opinions right yeah and i was i was always a comedian there who wanted to push the envelope i found humor on the edge yes and that's how i am as a stand-up and people aren't going to Barstool for their news. They're going for like the funny opinions on the news. Yeah, fair. But I mean, look, I'll just say this. Like Barstool is always trying to be funny and humorous. And what I had chosen as subject matter simply was not funny at all. And in that sense, it was off brand. And what I had written as a topic choice was something that I don't think anyone else at the company would have chosen. So do you think that if the girl wasn't found passed away, it would have been cool.

I don't think I would have gotten in as much trouble necessarily, but I still think that they would have been like, dude, what are you doing here? So it's hard to know. Do you think it's kind of a culture? There is a little bit of a culture of online bullying that's easy when you have a little bit of power to make a joke at someone and people laugh. I mean, bullying and joking is like very close. Sure.

And I feel like you were kind of just making fun of the girl. But then the girl died and then it wasn't that funny. I have to say I was not trying to make fun of her. That wasn't my goal. And I think my idea, I don't think I was really trying to make fun of anyone. I think my thought was it was relevant, you know, to our audience based on the call her daddy connection. I think I thought that people would, I don't know. I really don't know what I was thinking.

Honestly, I don't have a great answer for why I would ever have chosen this piece to talk about. It was like 11 a.m. on a Friday right before the 4th of July. And I was struggling to find any stories to write about. and I like I always get anxious I did get anxious at Barstool when I like hadn't written anything before noon because I I knew it was my job to write and I wanted to make sure I had shown that I came to work that day. So even though you are you were one of the top personalities at Barstool, you still put a lot of pressure on yourself. Like you feel like it's a competitive environment to like constantly be writing the funniest shit and performing the funniest stuff. Sure. And you know I don't know if I would say I was one.

one of the top personalities. But I would say I felt always a professional, you know, requirement to put out content every day. Right. So I had my radio show on Sirius, parcel breakfast, and we did that on Friday morning. And then I came out of the studio and I was looking for stories. And we have so many writers that I had, a lot of the stories I would have wanted to write about had been taken already. And so I saw this one. And so I saw this one and I thought, okay, you know, that's fair. I wrote my blog. I hit publish.

And it's very important to note that when I wrote the blog, she was a missing person for whom there were hopeful signs. That was my impression. Yep. That she was a missing person that a lot of news outlets were kind of hinting that she was not missing for bad reasons. Within an hour of me posting the blog. They had named a suspect, and then they were like digging in his backyard,

and it started to look really, really bad. Yeah. And that was when I took the blog down. Yep. And after that, very quickly. When you heard that she had passed away, did you immediately realize that you could be in bad trouble? I think it started, I knew when they said they had named a suspect. I think I knew when that was the case.

Did you think you could lose your job? To be honest with you, I thought that almost every day that I worked there, I thought I was going to lose my job. And that was just me. I'm like an extremely anxious person. I always thought that I wasn't doing well enough or that, you know. It's funny because I was like, I think you're one of the top personalities. I just talk with my friends and they're like, yeah, Francis is really well respected for comedy. I appreciate that. But it's interesting to see how sometimes anxiety makes you do

things that aren't necessarily in character. For listeners, I'm just talking in general, like this is burning in hell. This is people who are going through hard times. And you know, you even said to me, like, it was lazy. And the reason it's probably lazy was because you weren't really caring about the content. You just wanted something to come out that was funny and you wanted the result. It wasn't Like, you weren't enjoying the process of writing a well-done comedy article. Yeah, look, I mean, this is the important thing. Like, I didn't think it was funny. I didn't think what I had written was funny.

I don't even know if I would say I wrote jokes in the blog. I don't know what I was doing. Yeah. It was just an absolutely ridiculous lack of consideration and a horrible oversight and a very tone-deaf moment in my country. career. Yeah. I've had them before. Yeah. Fortunately, um, I guess the other ones that I've had have always been like less, uh, incendiary. Yeah. But this one was so, um, so bad in, in light of how everything turned out. Do you think it's one of the worst things that anyone's ever done at

Barstool? I, I don't know. I don't. I don't. I don't know. I can't, I can't really say. I can't compare what I did to some of the other things that have happened there. I think it's very important. Because I didn't read the article you wrote. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm not like buttering it up here. What I just described was exactly how it was. Yeah. And there's a Washington Post article that wrote about my firing. Yeah. The Deadspin wrote about it. And they were pretty fair. But, and basically they were like, we, Who knows why he did this? Like it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, like it's not because you're sexist or racist or have something of vendetta against that girl in particular. Right. I didn't see like, oh my God, missing girl.

Here's a source for humor. Yeah. And, and, uh, it was more the connection with Barstool and her. No, I can't really blame it on Barstool because nobody there would have, would have like encouraged me to write it. But like, call her daddy stuff. That was my thought.

Yeah. But like it was, yeah, exactly. I was like, hey, this people would. will connect with this story, want to read this story. Okay, so sitting here right now, what have you learned? Well, um, it's fresh. This shit is fresh. Yeah, I've learned a lot. I mean, I've learned that, you know, you must never, certain things are just too messed up to, to, to really ever try to present in a humorous way.

But it's hard with comedy. Like I was just on a podcast where I talked about how I had a date with a guy who gave me, um, chlamydia. And then the next morning, I didn't know he gave me a chlamydia yet. But it's romantic. It's just a pill. It's really nothing. But I went to brunch with him. And the podcast guy was like, why did you go to brunch?

Come up an excuse. Say like your family died. And then we started going on this long joke about how like the excuse of your family die. And it's like, oh, they died again. They died last week. Right. And I lost a lot of grandparents in college for paper extensions.

So it's like, where is the fucking line? Everything's going to affect someone in a wrong way. I do think what you did was tone deaf. Totally fair. And I think the important thing to know is that everything that comes from Barstool, in my opinion, in my understanding that I gained while I was there, is that it's always meant to be entertaining and funny. It's not meant to like ruin lives or, I don't know. I mean, everything I did, I'm a comedian. Like, that was always what I was trying to do.

Yeah. Which is why this blog really, unfortunately, was a massive misstep for me. Because I don't think I was trying to be funny. I was just careless and lazy. And I was writing something to show that I came to work that day. And I chose the wrong topic. And when you step back and you look at it realistically, I was making light of a young lady.

whose family, you know, was going through a horrific ordeal and who, I guess if I had looked closer, signs were not good that this was a good, that this was going to be an okay situation. Were you also writing about like her thirst trapping? No. Not her. The post that she was liking. The post she liked was of an account that had nothing to do with her. So the crazy thing is one outlet, the Daily Beast, and I hate to even name them, this guy reached out to me for comment, and I offered my statement. And then his article was titled Barstow Sports Writer Slut Shames a Dead Girl. I actually saw that this morning and I was like, oh, different spin.

And I don't know that anybody who has read the blog that I wrote could possibly come up with this idea that. I was slut-shaming her. Okay. Should I read you what I wrote? Yeah. Would that make sense? Yeah. Okay.

It actually would. Okay. So the title I had for the article, and this speaks to everything I just said, college student McKenzie Lewick, fan of call her daddy and proud sugar baby, still missing. Sorority Sisters hopeful due to her recent Instagram activity. Okay. I include the part from the New York Post, and then I wrote, let's start with something meaningful. If anyone has seen or heard from McKenzie Lewick, please contact your local authorities.

She's been missing for a week, but now the sisters of Alpha Chai Omega have reason to hope. McKenzie's Instagram recently liked to post on at fatherless. What can we find on that account? Why, your traditional hodgepodge of pro-feminist messages and body. positive methods of refueling one's automobile. And then I included a picture of a girl who had her butt out, filling up her car with gas. That was on the fatherless.

And then another picture from fatherless. Oh, also, surefire ways to summon helicopter rescues in the mountains. And there was a lady up in the snowy mountains, like with her butt out. And I said, cool account, but let's get back to McKenzie if we can. As it turns out, the young lady frequents sugar daddy dating websites, including Seekingarrangement.com. Initially, the police said they did not suspect that foul play was involved, which is good news. But now they're saying no comment to the foul play question, and they're digging around in her neighbor's backyard, and it wasn't looking good until the Instagram like popped up, which, thank God, was seen immediately by our sisters at Alpha Chai Omega. We won't break out the bubbly quite yet, but it's nice to have a glimmer of hope in this.

otherwise horrific ordeal. I did some more digging myself. Here are some things I found. And I included this like interview that a private investigator gave. And I said, what the fuck was up with that private investigator? I quoted him. He said, I actually met McKenzie three or four weeks ago to bar having a drink with a friend. It was kind of revealed to me she was on seeking arrangements.

And I said, dude, give us a break. You set that date up because you found her. on seeking arrangements. We should be looking at you and stop speaking half Australian. He had this weird accent. I then checked her Instagram, and I included a screenshot of her Instagram bio. And I said, this must be her Finsta because 222 followers is pretty weak for anyone in a sorority. Point is, she's a huge call her daddy fan.

Woo-hoo. I'd love to see Alex and Sophia discuss McKenzie's plight on their next episode, provided things turn out well, thoughts and prayers. and that's the blog I wrote. Do you hear slut shaming in any of that? I don't. Yeah, I mean, that guy was just trying to like click bait. It's clickbait. But I feel like the fact that it was under Barstool's name

and Barstool has already been under attack for being looked at as like a misogynistic website. It's like, yeah, it's under that brand, which makes you look at it through a different lens. Yeah. Do you agree with that? I do. I can understand that.

But I also think, like, you have a, I mean, this guy, this writer, if he considers himself a journalist, and I know that he does, has it has a, an obligation not to, like, write libelist things. And he also accused me of being homophobic due to a joke that I wrote in a blog, like, many months ago, where I fantasized about making love to a fellow male co-worker. That sounds like pro-homo. That's exactly right. I mean, I am, I have everyone, everyone, like, it's no secret. Is he's cute?

Is he's very cute? And I, and everyone knows, like, I'm an incredibly outspoken, LGBTQ ally. I literally told my friend, I was like, I wanted someone on my podcast who would be very open and, like, not, and just not full of shit is what I wanted. Yeah, and then that writer also wrote, he was like, and then he had also, Francis also at one point wrote

a long article trying to paint himself as an outraged leftist in defending Christine Blazy for during the Kavanaugh trial. And that's true but I was 100%

sincere and everybody knew that. Well, now that your name is being talked about in this way people are going to start digging a little and trying to have their own opinions on you yeah which is kind of similar to what happened with the girl her name is out there people are digging and writing their opinions but did um portnoy call you into his office he was away so he called me okay this is funny yeah as i was on the way to meet my girlfriend's parents shut the fuck up and I was on a train and he never calls me or anybody and he called me and I was like yep I'm about to be fired and he fired me and he was very you know he was nice about it yeah

he said look our hands are tied um and he fired me and he said what you wrote just isn't what we're trying to do here and I totally understood and 30 minutes later I had to walk in to my girlfriend's parents' house where they were already sitting down to dinner and claim my seat at the table as a newly fired person. And they said, why were you fired? And it's like, well, I wrote a very bad article about a girl who had just been killed. So those are not good first impression things. You could have done better. It really wasn't good. They didn't want to pass me the fish they didn't want to feed me what did they say they were they were all right about it I mean look I was able you what what was going on your like right now you're carrying yourself very well I had some

people say like you know he might he's going to be a mess like it's not going to be a good podcast but you came in positive you seem like you have a good head of your yeah I wore my favorite Hawaiian shirt you're you look like um a lost tourist oh but you look like you suck at your biker gang like what are you going for i said i look like a middle-aged dad is going through a life crisis but then like make it sexy you look like you're trying to remember your ex-boyfriend who didn't do well financially this is great for a podcast when no one can see what we're wearing i know right if you're not Hannah's wearing a harley davidson midriff cutoff like a pajama shirt Because I have to assert my dominance over you.

Oh, okay. I know what Harley Davidson's are. You do? Never touched one, but goes well with my eyes, the orange. The orange. Brings out the brightness in my brown eyes. Don't overthink it. Huh.

So what'd your girlfriend think? This kid's trying to get me off topic. No, I, um. What did your girlfriend think? She was, look, she's incredibly supportive and was super cool about it. I mean. How long have you guys been seeing each other? Almost a year.

Okay. Okay. So she's not like, oh, God, I'm dating a monster. No, hardly. She's seen you. Like, if she just are dating you, I'd be like, you know what? I don't really know this guy and this wasn't like a great thing, but she knows you. Yeah. Look, you know, in this, in this profession, and I would call you a comedian as well. Thank you. We try to be funny. That's what we're trying to do. Yeah. And sometimes we get it wrong. And unfortunately, unlike any other

profession. When we get it wrong, we're getting it wrong in front of people, right? And people who don't know us. It's not like fucking up at your accounting job. Yeah. Where someone will call you into their office and be like, hey, man, you did the numbers wrong. Like, don't let that happen again. Or, you know, you cost us a lot of money. Honestly, you're very right about that. And I know a lot of comedians who are very upset about the current cancel culture. I mean, look at comedy back in the day. I mean, it was primarily like white dudes making fun of minorities. Yeah. And And that's, I think that, like, rhetoric is so important how we speak about things. So it's, it is important that, like, we're not, that we are speaking positively about things

and not just making fun of things because they're the minority. Right. But then making fun of someone is being mean to an extent and also partially true. So it's a very difficult culture that we live in right now. Has Barstool, within the whole Me Too movement, which, like, I'm a huge supporter of. And I think it's already been great, like us changing how we talk about, just how men deal with women behind the scenes, I think has already changed some culture. If it saved one guy from making a girl suck his dick for a movie role, then one girl saved 40 years of therapy. Right.

And like, I'm not about cancel culture. I'm about education. I'm about, but like with you, there wasn't really anything to educate you about. Like, no shit, you shouldn't make fun as someone who was missing. was missing and and I don't I think you overlooked the severity of the missing case yeah um and then someone also mentioned to me like do you watch true crime uh yeah I like I like the stuff on Netflix yeah like I love all the sick murder documentaries everybody does maybe it makes me feel like I had a good day right because I see how their day went but the thing is we're not watching

them and laughing right yeah yeah yeah I mean yes but there's like a it's part of our pop culture now These, like, murder stories. There's an obsession with darkness. And I'm very dark as well. I mean, I have this podcast. So I wanted to, it's actually fascinated to have you in this dark moment. Can you explain your emotions from the firing until now? Yeah.

As I said, I had to go into my girlfriend's family, and it was like a big family reunion weekend. And this first time you ever met them? Yeah. So her. Did you wear that shirt? Because that would be bad. No. Okay.

No. They were, they were, her grandparents were there. I'd never met them before. Her step sisters were there. There was a whole group of people. It was a big house. Do they, are there, they Barstow fans by any chance? They don't really, they don't know anything about it.

They don't. If I hadn't worked there, I don't know that they would have ever heard of it. But I walked in and I was so dazed by everything that had happened. I mean, I had worked at Barstle for two and a half years. years um every day you know where were you before barstole i was doing stand up for five years before that and then i was tutoring i was running a tutoring so you were tutoring during the day and stand up at night yeah and then how did you get involved in barstool um i i saw that they were starting to run this like a talent show called barstool idol and i applied for it i got an audition i got passed

into the, like, Idol week, which was like 10 people. Every day we went in, performed a bunch of tasks, and then they would fire someone at the end of the day. So it was like The Apprentice slash American Idol. And I ended up winning that. That's awesome. So I won like a six-month trial contract, and within two months had proven that I was pretty good at what we were doing.

Did you enjoy it? That? Did you enjoy your first two months? It was tough. A lot of weird things happened. What was tough about it? They give you wedgies? No, no.

For one, I, in the first couple weeks that I was there, a couple of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models came in to the office, and I did an interview piece with them, like with three of them. And I thought one of them was like, I thought we were getting along well. So when she left, I went up to her friend and I was like, hey, you know, what's the story with her? Is she single? And the other lady was like, I don't know, want me to find out?

And I was like, yeah, sure. And so she like took my number and then told me to like DM her. So I DMed her, something very innocuous. During the interview thing, she said how do, she exercises by doing boxing. So I said, I just DM'd her and I was like, hey, it was great working with you today. You know, when you get back from Atlanta, we'd love to go boxing sometime. And it turned out that, you know, they were, I think they were kind of messing with me. And my boss, Dave, was with them down in Atlanta.

And like, they went over to him and showed him. And then he turned it into like a huge content. He was like, who the fuck does Francis think he is asking out the hottest women in the world? you know, this guy, he's only been working at the company two weeks. And then he was kind of, after all that, he was a little mad because it was unprofessional of me to ask out a woman that had come into the office for content. Does that make sense? So that was like a big storyline.

There's so many weird lines that I don't know should or shouldn't be crossed. Like you don't work with her. I mean, I would argue it's probably worse to say something offensive to someone you work with and just ask out a girl who stop. by the office. Yeah, but like, you know, look, there are certain things that I can't do. I'm being tough on you. I know. But like there are certain things that I can't get away with, like Dave can.

I mean, it's his company and he's established a tone and a following. And he's built the whole thing. So, so he has probably more leeway than I do. But also like with great power comes great responsibility. It's a Spider-Man quote. I love that. That was from his uncle, Ben, who was killed. RIP.

I remember that quote very vividly, too. The only important quote that ever happened. Yeah. But it's like because he has such, he has the power to like, not to like, I don't know. I don't know. He has power. To act like a spider. What a weird superhero.

I mean, why would that be something we would like, you know? But with Dave, he has the power to change conversations in certain ways. And Barstool, I think, is evolving. How were your recent months at Barstool? Good. you know and and uh i did love working there i mean there was a lot of they did wonderful things for me they backed me um they were so supportive of me erika nardini the CEO was like an incredible supporter of me um they gave me everything i could possibly have asked for they never said no to me about an idea

about a project i wanted to work on they they built me you know they turned me from a fucking Do you feel like you are anything without barstool? It's, what, now? I think now, I think now, maybe. Like your handle doesn't have barstool in it anymore? Yeah, but I still, I didn't lose followers when I left. And I am excited to start building again on my own. So now when you create content and stuff, did they own anything?

No, I'm not. So you're free? Yeah. I guess that's the way to put it. Is that scary for you? No, because I'm a, what are you going to do now? Besides just like trying to come on my podcast all the time. What are you going to do now? Well, I was hoping we could play some tennis and maybe golf. We had such a lighthearted beginning to this relationship. Do you feel like we've fallen off a cliff here? well Francis is like I like your golf swing and I'm like oh it's so nice of him yeah and then you complimented my tennis swing and then I was like he's trying to fuck me oh gosh no no well I mean I have I have a lovely girlfriend whom I adore yes yes I know I really like playing sports with women I love athletic women I don't know why it's just something that I prefer it over playing sports with men no I just like I just like I

I like co-ed sports. Like, I love, I've always like, you know, my mom was an athlete. She played tennis at Princeton. Oh, my God. She was the first coach of women's tennis at Yale. Shut up. She was an all-American squash player at Princeton. When did she stop coaching at Yale?

Probably in the 80s. She was doing her Ph.D. there. Cool. And then my sister played lacrosse at Yale. So we come from a family of, like, great equality and title niners. Yes, hell yeah. I played tennis for my high school team, but it was in the Upper East Side, and we only had a boys team. So Title IX made it possible that I played on the team. On the boys' team?

On the boys' team. So I was part of some controversy. This was in high school? This was in high school. Some coaches were very upset that I was playing on the team. What school did you go to? Beacon. Yeah, I know Beacon. And then we ended up winning the public school athletic league championship. But then we had the singles, and they were like, well, Hannah has to play.

with the girls and then I felt so much pressure to beat out all the other girls to show like that I deserve to beat but I got in trouble because I wrote I was what 17 and like the New York Times the daily news were asking me and I was like I want to play like a boy and all these feminist blogs kind of came at me and they're like what the fuck does that mean like you need a support like playing like a girl and that we have to change how people think girls play and I was like holy shit they're so right I don't want to play like a guy I want to play like a guy I want to play tennis the way it's supposed to be played regardless of the gender it's not a physical sport it's a sick mental game and I was also I was I was playing tennis six days a week and I was playing against

high school guy players who played like once every other week if I lost to them I would have you know broke my racket over my knee so um I grew up with a dad who was very supportive of women and sports and that kind of thing but it's hard for me to date because like sports such a big part of my life. And I want to be with a guy who has like at least 20 handicapped of breader in golf, which is difficult. I'm a three. You're a three shut up. Two point nine. That's hot. Oh. It's hot. And then I want them to be able like just hit a tennis ball. Like I don't need you to be like incredible. But then I played guys who were like pretty good. And then they get upset during matches. I'm like we're in a date. We're having a date right now. You play sets though?

No, I'll, like, be hitting and they're like cursing, chugging the racket. And I'm like, dude, this is so unattractive. Like, let's just have fun right now. If I peg you in the face, it's funny. There you go. You don't have to get upset about it. Well, that's abusive. But that's okay.

That's great. That's my sports rant. Everyone knows in this podcast I have to mention tennis at least once or my brain explodes. Got it. Got it. What's your handicap? Do you have a handicap? I'm 15.

That's great. On a good, when I was playing pretty well. You just had to play all the time. That's the only, I mean. You're right. I was playing, I played when I was eight years old, and then I quit at like 11 to choose tennis. And then I played tennis. And then I dated a guy who loved golf after college.

And he had me out on the links every weekend. Wow. Where did you play? So my family has a house in Shelter Island. Oh, that's nice. So that's where I like discovered tennis and discovered golf. Because I was like, you're from Brooklyn. Why are you so good at Country Club Sports?

like, because I hang off my grandpa in the summer, he's taught me how to be a good, I'm going to be the sickest retired person. I'm going to be winning every league. Anyway, this is not even my prime. 70's going to be my prime. There you go. You're trying to get me off topic. You're good. I'm just having a conversation. You're good. So I looked at your website because I'm like, who is this dude? He's throwing me all kinds of loops. Says you're a comedian, a heart throb, and a simpleton. I don't know who wrote that. wrote that. I did. Why would you say you're a heart throb? Because most gingers, not heartthrobs. Yeah, I know. I think I'm, you're a minority of the heart throbs. I am, I'm, I'm, I'm, people tell me I'm

attractive for a redhead, which is like, sort of like winning a gold medal at the special Olympics. It's like, well, it's cool, but ultimately not that great. I don't know. Do you have like blonde pubes or red pubs? Uh, orange. Orange. Orange. Orange. Yeah. Yeah. But I keep it tight, you know. I don't like to let those leak too much. I think life is just a lot better for everyone who's involved with it. Is the rest of your family ginger's too? Not really, no. I mean, sort of, like much more strawberry blonde than I am. And I used to have way more red hair. Yeah, your hair, you're very strawberry blonde. It's very blonde now. Did your life, how do you affect your life when South Park had the whole ginger's have no soul thing? Well, when I was younger, that came out. And everyone started saying that to me and being like, ha ha, like, fuck you. And I was like, yeah, I don't have a soul.

I'll eat your newborn babies when you have one. Yeah, people would try to bully me for it. And then I was like, I would just pick them up and throw them. Were you big? I was huge. I've been this size, 6.3, like 210 pounds, since I was nine. Wow. That's not true.

But I was always bigger than everyone else. So it was astonishing to me that people would, people tried to bully. me all the time. And you also do like get good color. You're not completely pale. Right. Yeah. So at some point I learned to like own it and lean into it and that quiets everyone. So did you get pussy? Heavens. What a what a foul way to pitch that question. Did you get pussy? I mean, you want to talk about like a, it's like you're talking about me like accumulating some commodity. No, I'm bringing power to the word pussy. Okay, so great, good.

I did all right, you know? I think I did okay. Were you a nerd, though? Like, are you a nerd? Are you a nerd? I was smart. Yeah, I tried hard. Did you like, was your smartness, like, put forward first?

Or was it kind of like, yeah, I play sports on a lacrosse guy and it just happened to be smart, but I'm not going to brag about it? Or were you like, guys, Guess who got an A in calculus again? No, I never, I didn't brag about my academics. But, you know, I always made sure to take. Where'd you grow up? Connecticut? Where are you from?

Oh. Yeah, rural Maine. Freeport. Normally I would come up with something that I know about the place, but I don't know shit about me. Nobody knows about me. I'm such a dumb New Yorker. There's nobody from Maine. Maine.

Very few people ever make it up. It's cool, isn't it? The winters are long. It's dark. Did you want to go to New York City? I hadn't thought about it. I don't even know how I got here. You do have a small town vibe to you.

Do I? Yeah. That's cute. Like you're the kind of guy that would walk on the subway and be like, Good morning, everybody. Hi, everyone. I'm not here to ask for money. I'm doing fine.

But I just want to make sure you knew. I mean, after Friday, I don't know. I mean, I'm here. This is on you. No, you're right. You're like the first stop. This is the first stop. On the redemption tour.

I do want to say, I'm excited to be the first on the redemption tour. And I do think you do, you are obviously apologetic, but you also did say, if you don't want me on your podcast, I completely understand. Yeah, I wanted to give you an out. Yeah. And I was still a little drunk at the time. And I'm like, what is this dude talking about? But I do appreciate that. And I think it told me a little about you to show that, like, you were empathetic to the entire situation.

How would you describe your humor overall? Well, I used to say that I really liked dark humor. but we may have to rebrand. Are you, like, are you that dark? Uh, you're not so bad. You're not, do you make like a lot of morbid jokes? I had a, um, I just did a special, by the way. Oh, yeah, congratulations.

The first ever special on Barstool. Yeah. Are they going to keep it up? I don't know. Oh, these are all the things that we're going to find out in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned, folks. When I talk to HR, yep. Oh, fuck.

I don't know. Um, if they'll keep it. But, uh, It's still up. Were you proud of it? Yeah. It was good. How long was it?

I liked it. How long did I do? Yeah. Like 54, 53. Do you now, because it's out, have to like start over with your jokes? Yeah. But that's the model in comedy now. Yeah.

And I always wanted that. I wanted to dump all that and start over. I think there's a mix between like comics who always come up with tons of new jokes. They never really like put the work in to make the certain jokes really good. Then there's the ones that just. repeat too much and are too scared to come up with new jokes. Do you do stand-up? So I dated a stand-up for a while, so I, like, watched so many shows.

I listened to so many of his podcasts, and I think I was just kind of subconsciously a sponge because I was writing comedy videos for betches. And I always loved writing, and I'm not afraid of the camera. But the point is, is things do happen for a reason. Yeah. Sure. Why are you so positive right now? You're pretty perky.

Yeah. Yeah, I had that honest tea. I had like an organic peach tea, just a tad sweet. So I did a show at Gotham Comedy Club that was like put on by Carl and Everett. Carl and Everett? Oh, Everett, excuse me. Everett. He does the heal.

Oh, I was supposed to go to that show, but I had something better to do. If you had gone to that show, I don't know that you would have me here now. I don't know. I have tough skin. Okay. So I went to that show and a couple comedians went up. Carl was hosting it. And Carl had never done comedy before.

So Carl called me beforehand and was like, do you have any tips? Mind you, I've done like stand up at Caroline's for my own show, but I've only done it in front of people who know me and are rooting for me. How many stand-up shows have you done? I've done my own Caroline show for 10 minutes in front of like 250 people. It's the only time I ever did stand-up. Oh, okay. But I've done like shows where I tell stories and stuff,

but the only time I, like, wrote something was my own show. But the whole, the place was packed. I mean, there were 300 people there. Wow. All fans of Summerhouse, I'm assuming. And people, you know, that it was like a military benefit, but it was like fans of the show. Yeah.

And then the cast of the show was sitting dead center all together, like five rows back together. Uh-huh. And comedians were going up and they were doing their material. and some were doing better than others. And it was like, okay. And Carl goes up and he made some joke about like, and he was like, he was really nice to me.

This was the first time we'd met. And Carl goes up and he's like, this next guy went to Harvard and played lacrosse so you know he's a douchebag. Put your hands together for Francis Ellis. And I was like, Carl, you can't call other people douchebags when you are who you are. Right. So I was like, all right, I'm down.

Let's fucking go. And I took the microphone and I just did five minutes of destroying Carl. It's so funny. He didn't tell me this part. And the show in general. But have you watched it? I've watched parts of it. Have you watched season three at all?

No. It's my season. So you didn't join until season three? Yeah, I'm a new cast member. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, then then I should.

should check it out again. Season three is a game changer. I watched some of season one and I went on stage and I shit on Carl and then I was like, by the way, the show you guys are on, have you guys, like I was, I looked to send to the audience. I was like, do you guys watch Summer House? People are like, yeah. And I was like, why? It is so bad. It is the worst show I have ever seen. I was like, have you guys renewed your contracts for another season? Fire your agents. You are ruining your career this is not something you can come back from do your parents know you're doing this it's so bad i can't i was like i was just teeing off just roasting them and i could see their faces yeah the guys were laughing the girls were not laughing i would have been dying laughing i know you would have but also because you

haven't watched my season yet so you're not like educated and it was just a sloppy joke which you i'm done in the past um okay um so season one and season two we're good season three they got some new cast members and I'm pretty proud of the last season in terms of like it is my numbing it does make you question why you're watching these things and what better things you could be doing with your life yeah but ultimately I think it's not like housewives drama where people are like sleeping with each other's husbands and like stealing their children I don't know what they do it's very relatable drama um to just kids who go out to the city right and it's been a cool platform for me to trick people and to listening to my podcast.

Well, you've, you've done a brilliant job. Oh, thank you. I mean, no, because I have a good friend who did reality TV early in his career. Cool. And then it took him 13 years to redefine himself as a stand-up comedian. And now he's enormous. This is my friend Theo Vaughn. Yeah.

But, like, he is so aware of detain. of detaching himself from his reality TV beginning. And I know that was a really difficult process for him. So reality TV has evolved, which it's a lucky time for me, where it really was so authentically trashy back then. We're now like Cardi B and Kim Kardashian and Bethany Frankel make like full lives of it. I was fortunate because I would never, I'm too competitive to do a show.

the bachelor or something like I don't like that shit it makes me uncomfortable and I would rather um they called me and they were like it's a show we show people who have cool jobs in the city who then go out to the hamptons and like that's fun because that's what i've been doing my whole life i mean shelter island is like the on hamptons hamptons like the chill hamptons um but i was like if i want to show that like girls can be athletic girls can be funny girls can be like you know bosses in their jobs, directors, producers. I was like, I really am not, I'm very not confrontational. I'll make a joke whenever I feel uncomfortable.

And I'm actually not very good at drinking. Great at eating, terrible at drinking. And I'm like, if that's what you want, I will crush it for you. If it's not what you want, please don't push me into something I don't want to do. Did they reach out to you or did you audition or like send in a tape? So my name was being thrown around because I like, I had interviewed Carl at Betches. Oh. And I was mean to him.

I probably did something similar you did. Yeah. Dude, I tore, I tore Carl apart. Oh, my God. But Carl, like, Carl likes it. Yeah. He just loves attention. Yeah.

And he gets it. And he's, yeah, he's a really good sport and a good guy. Also, I thought it would be cool to go on TV and not, like, try to be perfect. Uh-huh. Like some scenes I just don't wear makeup because I think it's interesting to see a girl on TV without makeup. Right. And I think that stuff needs to be seen. It's like more girls playing sports.

Like, just put it in people's minds and it becomes more socially acceptable. And there's less of like a high quota for women to look like fake and perfect all the time. Right. So that's what I'm giving to society. What a gift. What a gift. How noble. I'm like, I sometimes wake up in the morning and don't wash my face.

Wow. So I'm Mother Teresa. Yeah. What's your deepest insecurity? Oh, boy. I think one thing that people pounced on while I was at Barstole was how sensitive I am. And it's not that I can't be made fun of because I can be. But when people make fun of me, I like to make fun back. And sometimes when I come back, I'm like, okay, you threw the

first punch. I'm now about to burn your entire livelihood down. Because that's as a comedian what I was taught. Like on stage, if somebody heckles you, I focus in on them and I bring down artillery and black out the sun with my with my skill which is to to make make light of what they've done um so i think there are definitely professional shataka yeah there are times where it's like i could probably let a few things roll off my shoulders a little better would be would be uh definitely something um being sensitive i think is a good quality yeah maybe and i'm not trying to like say oh my biggest weakness is like, oh, something you should actually celebrate.

When you fight with your girlfriend, are you sensitive? Like if she says a little thing, do you, like, not just let it roll off your shoulder? Oh, I hate to be this guy. We honestly really don't fight. Almost ever. And I think the reason is that she's just, like, the most relaxed person I've ever met. Because I had an ex I never fought with, but that was because I wanted to be, like, the perfect girlfriend. Because, like, if you have self-control, like, he could do something annoying and you're just like, I'm going to consciously not address this.

But then, like, eight months in, I was like, if you fucking breathe in my direction, I will lose it. Right. So, um, I do think it's healthy to have, like, banter and communication. Yeah. So you don't fight about anything. I mean, we've had, we've had, where's the hate sex? We don't have hate sex. Do you have makeup sex?

Yeah. We've had a couple fights. We have a thing that I've never had with anyone else Where Sometimes we'll be fighting And we'll start laughing Like in the middle of it I love that

We just start laughing We're like we're like what are we I love that so much Yeah That happened once when I was trying to break up with a guy And we just started laughing But it's like I was like I don't like you anymore And he's like no you don't

And I'm like yeah I fucking do We started laughing I'm like this isn't helping Did you stay together No So it isn't that funny But he just didn't get it Or like

He wasn't letting me break up with him And finally I was like This is ridiculous Right And like just because you break up with someone Doesn't mean you don't enjoy them Yeah right I just was like

I can't introduce you my parents You're a loser Oh no You know Yeah You know You know I do know

I do know What's your biggest fear Probably getting canceled In this day and age You know I've committed so much to this life of being a comedian, being a performer. And we see it every day.

Yeah. And it sort of happened to me on Friday. But I think fortunately, we are evolving into a time where people are not, they're able to differentiate between mistakes. And on Friday, I wasn't sure. I thought that, you know, people would say like, okay, what Harvey Weinstein did, what Louis C.K. did, what Aziz Ansari did, what Francis Ellis did. It's all shades of the same straight white male, you know, shit, horribleness. And what I learned is that a lot of the Internet and the outrage culture isn't as bad as I thought it was. people are giving me the benefit of the doubt. And a lot of people are like supporting me that I would not have thought would.

The executive producer for Ellen DeGeneres' show tweeted his support of me. A very prominent writer at the New York Times, she kind of came to my defense and lauded my apology. And I think the overwhelming response has been like one of understanding. not like let it you know who cares it's more like look clearly you fucked up yeah and you made a mistake and you shouldn't have done what you did but we're not going to bar you from this industry yeah we're not going to chase you out of town yeah and um i think it's important for me to remain contrite um i thought about whether i should like reach out to the family or like try to do something, but I didn't want to, I didn't want, I didn't even want to bring it to their attention.

Yeah, like it didn't even, you didn't even want to be significant enough that it could have possibly hurt their feelings. Yeah, I didn't want to offend them. No. And I think one thing Portnoy did say at the end was like, the bigger story here is like rest in peace to that girl. Right, of course. And like we all feel that way. But you were involved in that and cancer. The culture is real. It is. It is. So I think for me, I was, I've been very worried, you know, that as a comedian who does live

on the edge, that someone was going to take a surreptitious video clip from their cell phone of me working on a new joke at a comedy club that I, you know, that I was just working out, posted online out of context, and that that would. go viral and that would be the end of my comedy career. And I think what I've learned is that people aren't as vindictive. People aren't like, yeah, you've got rabid people who say like, ah, men are the enemy, whatever, I don't know. Some people are, there's, there's, there's, I think people that are extreme on either side.

Yeah. Are, are not helping. But I'm hopeful based on what has happened to me. yeah that um that things are not as hyper and uh hysterical as as i had thought they were have you ever been fired before from a job yeah which jobs i was a bartender why did you get fired i i went um to the beach one weekend and i went body surfing and i got a concussion diving into a wave and i showed up to work the next day and i had no idea what was going on and i just kept fucking up orders like i was i was putting in order

was into the computer and like the wrong lunch was coming out and they were like dude you're literally the worst bartender we've ever had like you can't work here anymore so that I got fired for that um what else it's like this guy went to Harvard and you can't even put in a menu item I know it was embarrassing um I what else did I get fired from I've been fired a few times um does it hurt your ego no because all the jobs I was fired for were jobs that I knew weren't right for me. And it was sort of a process of elimination. Like the world was eliminating me towards what I should be doing.

I like to say the universe, like there's a path for you and you could take any path, but the universe will keep kicking you back into the right place if you go the wrong way. Yeah. Do you think that right now this is where you're meant to be? Yeah. I think so. I think I'm hoping that I can say that like the best thing that ever happened to me was that I got hired by Barstool. And then the second best thing that ever happened to me was that I got fired by Barstool.

That's exactly how I feel about Batches because the first, the best thing that ever happened was me getting hired from Batches. And I don't think I would have had the balls or like known that I needed to leave. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I would have ever left Barstool. and I and I don't know that that that I was like a great fit there. Why? As I said, I'm a very, I'm like a very sensitive person. I think the audience was really hard for me. A lot of people, I was a polarizing person there.

I had a lot of really good fans, people who loved what I did. And then a lot of, like a lot of my humor played upon my, the fact that I went to Harvard and that I, you know, I come from a good family. and played lacrosse and had a lot of things going for me. Like sometimes people would be like, fuck you, you Silver Spoon, bitch. Like, why don't you just run back to Daddy's money? Do you have any idea right now? Like, you woke up this morning.

You came to this podcast, but like, what are you going to do after this? Hannah, I'm going to start a podcast. Are you going to? Absolutely. I'm excited. Me too. Please stay tuned. Do you have any idea?

I do. I think I don't know what I'm going to call it yet, but in the next couple weeks I'm going to. to start a podcast. What's cool about being an entrepreneur and like stand-up is being an entrepreneur your own brand is that you don't have to like have someone above you telling you and it's scary sometimes but whether it's good or bad, whether it's okay or not. You don't have someone that could just fire you at any second. But then again, they say the two most addicting things in the world are heroin and a monthly salary. So like you've lost that comfort. Yeah. But you've also gained a lot of

freedom? Has anyone given you advice for how to wrap up the situation? Because this is very fresh. You give a great apology. You know you fucked up. You know that it was a bad article that you probably regret. Is there anything else that you want to do to wrap up this or just kind of see what the press is doing? Is anyone helping you in this process? Yeah, you know, I've got the PR department at my agency. Okay. They didn't really, look, I came up with that statement on my own. I knew what I had to say. I knew what I wanted to say. Yeah. And I said it. And I felt it. I realized I know how I fucked up. I know that Barstle had to fire me. I have no resentment towards them. I have only gratitude. And I am excited now to kind of start over and build things. Okay. And I'm also very

happy that the whole time I was there, I continued doing stand-up, you know, five to 10 sets a week. Like I've always been a comedian. That was my heartbeat, my pulse, and I never thought, well, I've got this now so I can step away from the stage. And so I'm still in good shape. And I just had this special come out. I'm already writing new material. I'm excited about it. And now I have a wealth of topics that I can mine for jokes. And I'm excited. To wrap this up, we're going to end with the seven deadly sins. Seven Deadly Sins What are you greedy about?

Greedy about followers. Really? I love it when I get a lot of Instagram followers. Does it piss you off when like color daddy girls come and they just blow the fuck up in a week? I don't resent the success of other people.

Okay, good. Yeah. Do you feel less worthy when you're, Instagram doesn't get a lot of likes on a photo? No, not really. I also know kind of what will do well and what won't. I know what my sweet spot is. Do you care about, you're like, I have strategy to come down.

Do you care about how many followers the girl you date has? Like, would you rather date a girl with a ton or none? That's a great question. Thank you. The right answer to this question is that it doesn't matter. I don't want the right answer. What are you bullshitting me about? I want your answer

because it does and this is like it does matter it says something about you here's the thing ready you have a ton of followers yeah but it would if we were to date

it wouldn't it wouldn't affect me yeah I think it's your relationship with your followers like some people their followers are like their obsession to me it's more it's more like how much does it define you

exactly and you're like you're goofy on social media and you're not and I don't know but I get the sense that you don't think you're better than people because you have so many followers. Oh, no. Oh, God, no. Right.

And I've met people that do. And that is something that would turn me off. Yeah, I don't like the vanity of it. Like if you're like, I'm the shit because I have this many followers, but if you're like, I worked my ass off to like influence people and have really funny content and be creative and I love that to share my voice, that's cool. Yeah. If you're going to look down on people because your ass looks good after face tune and guys follow you i don't have time for that shit right so i was talking about your ass oh thank you i have a terrible ass it's just a hereditary thing my poor family it's like so flat assed as a guy it's not that big of a deal but my god the women in my family i feel so bad do you prefer ass or boobs probably ass how old are you 30 yeah it's generational

I feel like guys who were older, like, boobs because they grew up and like Pam Anderson, like, mid-80s born. They like that stuff where, like, you guys were more like J-Lo. Huh. This is my theories. It's hard to say. The male psyche. I also think butts age better than breasts. Mm.

Good point. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. Not always. Who are you envious of? Oh. Um.

I'm envious of comedians I see that are seemingly able to just come up with new material and jokes very quickly. I have no idea where my next joke is coming from, my next good joke, and I can't make it happen. It's so true. You can't force a joke. Sometimes they come in waves and sometimes I have droughts. And I have no idea how to really hone that process. or how to, like, encourage the flow more? That's a great answer. I tweet a lot, and people are always like, what's the deal with your tweets?

I've never once sat down and been like, I have to tweet. It either comes to me or it doesn't. And sometimes I'll have, like, 15 in a row, and then I won't tweet for a month. Right. The best advice I've heard from comedian friends is, like, just live. Like, instead of just sitting home and thinking, like, go out and do something. It's great. And observe.

and the more you observe and the more your like stories will come and just keep this comes with depression too like if you're stuck in your own head go out and live go out and talk to people and you that's all the like creativity and inspiration you need it's kind of just living right um and also when you have a goal to come up with a joke then like your your brain kind of manifests like to look at things in a certain way right what are you gluttonous about I'm gonna give you a fucking boring answer. I have a sweet tooth. And I, especially when I smoke marijuana, which I do almost every night. You do? Does it help you write? No. Some people are like, I'm an artist. No, I can't, I can't do anything high other than just like veg out and eat raspberries. What's your sweet of choice? Don't

give me raspberries. All right. So let me tell you something. That's a boring. Hannah Burner. I'll tell you something. That's some simpleton main shit. I buy fruit in ridiculous, quantities very expensive well you know I'm sorry to hear that for you um I mean talk to your dad uh I love that you're making these jokes now without any income I know right I'm gonna be fine no you have you've Instagram you'll start doing like fit tea and stuff to make some money sponsored posts yeah I buy all this fruit and I get rid of all the bad shit in my apartment because I know that when I'm high I have no control and I will eat like four or five containers of sliced mango,

which is still so much sugar. A ton of sugar. But it's natural sugar. Do you like care about your being fit? Yeah. Why? Your vein. Well, there's two reasons.

One is that for me, I have to exercise because it helps me sleep. Me too. If I don't exercise during the day, I just kind of go crazy. I feel like a dog that needs to be run. Like I'm just jittery. Yes. And I've always been that way, even as a child. It was way worse.

I just imagine you're just bouncing around the house. It's like, oh, damn it. He needs to go for a jog. But then I also have, you know, I care about my body and how I look. It's good. Yeah, I can admit that. But I never post like shirtless pictures. It just, you know, what's fascinating is because so many guy comedians don't work out.

Right. It's because I think they love self-hate and like working out it is self-love. And I think they just love hating themselves. Yeah, that. And also it's much more related. to be a piece of shit. Like, if you're on stage, it's funnier if your body sucks, and you have jokes about that.

Yes, it's true. Yeah. When was the last time you experienced extreme wrath, so anger? Oh, good question. Thursday. Maybe. I don't know. Was Thursday when the article came out?

No, it was the day before. I had a, I don't know about, oh, man, I wasn't that mad. I got in trouble on Tuesday too for not dressing up for this award show that was a sponsored thing we did the company and my boss reamed me out what did you wear

just a t-shirt and jeans I wasn't really aware that we were like I kind of missed the boat on that I missed the email yeah and then he also was like you know you're special he said this like live in front of our audience he was like you're special only

only got 70 people to sign up for barstall gold you know you could have spent the money we spent on your special buying a suit to uh to wear tonight damn damn they go hard oh yeah into your emotions he tries to like yeah that's i mean that's part of the show yeah yeah brutal when was the last time you were a sloth like a lazy person like a lazy piece of shit but cute yeah and furry i don't i don't i don't I don't know. Oh, so you're always hyped up? It's been years since I like...

Did you go out of coffee? I only have one cup in the morning. It's been years since I like was a piece of shit. A long time. You don't give yourself like a day off to just like cuddle with your girlfriend and watch Netflix? Yeah, occasionally. Yeah, sure. But I don't know about like I feel like I need that every once in a while.

Yeah. Because we run around so much. Well, the toughest thing with being entrepreneurial is you're the one that has to tell yourself to take a break, even though you feel the subconscious pressure that you're like, you're always a little behind. Right. Yeah. Just planting a seed in your head. I like it.

Okay. Good. It'll grow into a beautiful flower one day. Let's hope. When was the last time you let your pride get in the way of something? This is a tough one. Oh, no, that's actually a very fair question. You're saying, so when did I put my pride aside?

Or when was, did my pride get in the way? Was that your question? Either or. well I think with all of this I've had to put my pride aside and and I'm not able to say like you know something I don't know I mean I mean yeah you want to be able to defend yourself in a way but you also have to admit like that you made a mistake right but it doesn't make you a bad person right but you made you're human right well so so I've been I've read a couple of the tweet responses and some someone was like you slut you know when someone says you slut shamed a

girl and I want to be like well first of all I didn't slut shame her and second of all I thought she was alive yeah nobody wants to hear that yeah nobody wants to hear my side of it so I have to just brush it off and block that person are you do you look at the comments like have you been reading articles and look at the comments um a little bit I I've I've stayed away from like the bar still audience and I've just mostly seen a little bit of the response on Twitter to gauge you know how fuck am i do you think bar still audience is primarily not on your side no i think i think they are i mean i think people thought that i was a good employee there i think people liked me there the majority last one great when was the last time you lusted over someone hmm am i supposed to like

am I supposed to like give some politic answer about like my girlfriend I like lusted for her? No, but you could say like I watched this movie last night and this girl was hot or oh this this guy I work with a barstool I would make out with because he's cute. Uh huh. Yeah, right. Yeah. Or you could be like damn when I, my girlfriend, when I was crying about bar still, my girlfriend looks so hot when she was wiping away my tears. I don't know. Yeah.

Hmm. I guess the answer. Who's your celebrity crush? Celebrity crush. We'll be PC about this. Natalie Portman, I've always had a huge crush on. Oh, I like her. She's very smart and cool.

She is. She went to Harvard. Interesting. Did you know that? She was shooting the Star Wars movies while she was at Harvard. Shut up. That's very cool. Padmey.

So to wrap this whole thing up, this is a different podcast than I thought it would be when I originally hit you up. We got pretty serious. so we got pretty dark and you know you got fired three four days ago yeah i would argue that you're in a tougher place than you have been in the past what advice would you give to people because there's people listening that are also going through tough times yeah what advice would you give to people on how to cope with their hell yeah great quite yeah that's great um i think when really life-changing things happen to you,

you don't need to rush to find the silver lining. You can sort of process at your own pace, and it's not necessarily like wallowing. It took me two or three days to like figure out how to remain, how to get back to being in the moment and being present and understanding where I was. Getting out of your own head. Yeah.

And the most important thing you can do is rely on your friends and the people, your family and the people you love and trust that, you know, they're not going to abandon you in these bad moments and that you can still forge a head. This all sounds like very general. No, I'm liking what you're saying, though. Yeah. Um, but, you know, I thought my world was over and then, and then I, and then it wasn't, you know, and it's not. Um, and now I went from being destroyed to excited in three days. And it, and it took me three days to get there. And some people will take a lot longer, right? But, uh, there's usually a chance to find a way to get, get back to it. And also you get a little.

People are scared of like, God forbid this happens. God forbid that happens. God forbid they do happen. Trust that it's going to be okay. Right. I want to thank you so much for coming on. Hannah, this was my, this was so fun. This was so fun. Really good. Yeah. Francis, I'm excited to see what you do in the future. I'm excited to see how you learned from your past. And I'm looking out for a new podcast probably in the future. Where can people follow you? People can follow me on Twitter at Francis C. Ellis, Instagram. at Francis C.C. Ellis, which was just a typo that we're not going to be able to fix and is absolutely fucking nightmare for me. On Instagram? Yeah. Damn. Because I switched it from Francis Barstle on Friday. Yeah.

And I'm verified. So they had to like reach out to Instagram to help me do it. And they submitted the wrong name. But that's okay. Do you think they did it on purpose? No. I'm just kidding. And what I may have to do is I may have to switch my Twitter to Francis C.C. Ellis.

but I just don't even like what the fuck why are the two Cs my male name is coarse and I don't know why my OCD is like freaking out right now and I'm not even I don't even have OCD but thank you so much for coming on and if you guys are enjoying Burning in hell I have a Facebook group the little devils and you know if you're enjoying this episode screenshot tell me what you think put on Insta and I'll talk to you guys later bye I don't know.