Bussin' With The Boys - Nate Bargatze

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

Recorded: February 15, 2021 Nate Bargatze is one funny MFer. The boy hopped on the bus to catch up with Comp & The Crew, and he did not disappoint. A Nashville native with a new Netflix special coming out March 18 called, "The Greatest Average American," Nate jumps right into things by talking about his own podcasting experience, why consistency is huge, and the process of "making it" in football vs comedy. Next, Nate addresses how difficult the road is for a comic trying to make it, Will gives some insight into why he has always focused on creating business ventures outside of football, and Nate reveals who he thinks had the most impressive rise to fame of any comedian. After that, Will and Nate share how valuable it is to have mentors, the importance of setting attainable goals, and why accountability is crucial. At this point, Nate starts whipping out stories from his comedy journey that leave everybody on the bus rolling, he opens up about how he knew he wanted to be a comedian, and he explains the path his life took to go from a rookie stand-up to a legit world-renowned talent. Then, we hear about Nate's clown father (no, really, his dad was a clown AND a magician), performing in front of tiny crowds, doing shows to audiences who don't speak English, and the worst performance he's ever had. This one's packed with laughs, so beware if you're taking this one to the gym with you. Enjoy. ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB/ Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: Roman: https://www.hellorory.com/BUSSIN Paint Your Life: https://www.paintyourlife.com - text BOYS to 64000 for 20% off + Free Shipping.For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Deanna Maria Riva and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to fupas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try.

So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like, I'm on stage. I mean, you're on stage performing. 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.

With the boys, presented by Barstool Sports, huge guest on today, Nate Bargazzi. Am I saying that right? Bargazzi? Yeah. He has a Netflix special on called The Tennessee Kid. Yeah. Hilarious, by the way.

Thank you, man. Your story about, before we get in that. So Taylor, so Taylor calls me 30 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 going to 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, 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, since this has happened a couple times,

like I'm just thinking to myself, like, I shouldn't react. We got a pot in 30 minutes. you know, I'll go and, I'll go and do it. You know, it's funny, I did a podcast a long time ago. My buddy, Yonis Pappas, who does his own now. And we started in 2000, I want to say 10 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 10 years ago. Like Joe? Yeah. Yes. Doing it in his 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 Janus was, I'm not saying that Taylor was like that, but it's like super, Taylor's got a lot more going on than my friend Janice 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 you got to do it consistently because it won't work. Right.

It throws everything off. It throws everything off. Like you, at least, even if you, you're, you know, 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 do mine you're like you haven't done one in six months like no yeah 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 yeah yeah 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 I was, Taylor was like, you know, do you have anything else going on today? He's like, oh, I got to go do the pot of two. And she's like, you know, you got to go see the house. You have a meeting at 2.30. Yeah. He's like, oh, shit, let me call Will. Yeah.

And 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 on the way over here. I'm like, man, Nate's coming over here. He's not going to get the three-time pro bro. The three-time pro bowler. He's not going to get the $85 million, man.

He's going to get the great value version. Yeah. The several hundred thousand dollar, man. not wanted. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's more,

we can talk about real things, you know? Yeah, he's a helicopter probably, you know? 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 pot, 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 backlog them days in a row. I'm like, if you just show up, I'll handle the rest. So we kind of have like that understanding that it can get a little fickle or something can change at the last minute. Well, it's like if you as long you stay consistent with it to be 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 it can be more of a focus.

Oh, absolutely. But I mean, yeah, but to have, you know, one that's with both of you, I mean, it's great. Like, and it's like, you know, and you deal with all this stuff now then eventually. I know. You'll be here? 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 was like, we were going to do it in the summer.

The first summer we were going to do it. We were 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 pot if you haven't done one in six months yeah you would I mean that's you know because you get asked to do a lot and uh which I'm sure you do too and you get where some of them because this is the key to I mean everything like You know, playing football, doing comedy. Like, it's all consistency.

And that's what weeds people out of anything. For sure. More than, because overall, a lot of people are talented. And, but consistently showing up and putting in the work is the most important thing. Yeah, it pays 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 like, no one's really original. Consistently doing it.

Right, right, right, right. There's always someone else that's like you. out there. Right. You hear like your story and you hear your Olivia story where you're sitting there in your shirtless 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 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. Yeah. In a heartbeat.

Yeah. And not bad an 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. and footballing this where 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're into you know a guy that is a construction worker like works for the city like you feel like he's owed 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 the moment of the window's small yep uh that yeah that is true because once you're done, it's like, you know, no one's going to give a shit about what, what you did. Like, people remember certain things about you,

but that next guy who replaces you, everybody's going to be like, you know, they're taking my place out on the field. And no one's going to remember, like, any plays that were made back, back whenever I played. But that's what you all with football is that, because you have to start,

when do you have to start thinking about that? Like, because y'all, you're thinking about retirement. Yeah. Because you're done so young. Like, for me as a comedian, I'm 41. So I am kind of hitting.

a decent stride right now, but that's not until my, I turn 40. Like, you're always kind of going forward, but our really peak for most comedians is 40 to 60 is when a lot of guys end up being really good. Yeah. But for football, I mean, you're, the average career is three, three years, three and a half years. I mean, like, my first thought when I 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 $100,000. Like, you know, then that's what I knew.

need. You know what I mean? Like that's what I'm going towards since that was my 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 start playing a few, a couple years in the tank. And then I probably really started thinking about it. Honestly, when I started doing this, putting this vision together. Yeah. It was in 2018 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 30. This could potentially be my last year. Yeah. 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 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, you're a retired NFL player and you're trying to do something, this is me saying it. I'm not saying this. 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. Yeah. So that was my whole mindset. So I started thinking about it when I was probably, what was that, 27? Yeah, 27.

And then I got to go to Oakland. I play well in Oakland. I bought another year. Got to come here. And it's just kind of like snowballed a little bit in my benefit for me. But I was thinking about it at like 27, like or 28, however old 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 Federer, like, right, kind of these freaks, their peak is like 20 or 18 or something like that. Yeah. And you're not even an adult.

That's so young. Yeah. Yeah. And you're basically done. Right. Like a lot of them are 18, 19. They're done. And that's where they play at the highest level.

Yeah, that's when it fizzles out. With comedy, when you say your peak is like 40 to 60, is it just that much of a grind on consistency and being just showing up over and over and over just jokes like writing new street, like all of it. You're just grinding to make it to basically 40. I say that my whole, I always say you either make it at 20 or 40.

And so no one makes it in the middle. Yeah. And like, so you either come out of the gate and you get grabbed up quick and you become super famous early. R, you got to go through all the ropes. And so you got to do everything. So a lot of guys, you can see where you had your Bill Burr, Louis C.K., you know, Chappelle blew up early.

Kevin Hart 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 is 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 10-year comic. No one knew who he was,

but 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, 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 a 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 do the act that he did he was like 21 or something yeah that's pretty crazy

yeah because that's like an adult act that is a 30 year comedian act that he was doing at 21 so that's 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 don't take any of it for granted. And then so your act, you just put more work into it. 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're,

like, you know, a superstar, like you're kind of a superstar. It's not like you're more so just telling stories of celebrity. You don't have a life. Yeah. 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 a guy comes up first, you know, he's number one pick and then just off and running versus your experience. It's going to be much different. And you're going to know, you're going to understand like, now this is how it goes. And you appreciate it more. Oh, for 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 minicamp twice so 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 uh 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. But at the time, I know the first year when I was in training camp and you're the bottom of the debt chart and stuff and you're like, you're 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. And that's just me talking. Like, I'm not, I wasn't getting the opportunities that I felt like I wanted to be, yeah, 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 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 to get more and you get the bitterness out of you. Like, everybody has it. You've got to have some,

I even think you have to have a little bitterness. It's, you have to go through that to realize, like, well, this is, 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, absolutely. And it's over for them. I mean, I saw plenty of comics that were just so bitter and they never really make it past anything

because they get so caught up in it. And so you're so, like, comparing yourself to someone else or you want that something that they have. And instead of trying to go get it and maybe you don't get it on their time table, you got to get it 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 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 going to keep doing what 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. And so you just kind of stay your pace and just. Right. 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. Yeah, that is a cliche, but that's like the reality that you have to do. And people can get can get hung up on the business side of everything because everything in life is business. Yeah. And people can be, yeah, you know, I didn't do this because the business side of it. Or 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 got to, the money you can come, but you can't really chase it.

Like if your whole goal is to get is such a direct, like I want to get this money. Yeah. Like, it's not going to be good. You got to, because you won't want to, whatever you're doing, you're not doing it for the right reason. You're doing it. And you'll just be up and down riding that roller coaster. Yeah. You're chasing.

You know, it's going to, it's going to come and go. And like, so you got to just sit and build like a steadiness. Burr's 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 10, 15 years ago. But he goes, how old are you know? 41. 41, okay.

Our 10, this is probably 12 years ago. Like, and then, because I've been doing comedy for 18 years. And, but he's like, your path is going to take longer, but you gain fans and you're going to gain them for life. And I really like that because it was like, yeah, your path does take longer. But every fan you get, it's not like you kind of, they, you earn them. Like, they find you. You know, you're not just putting it. Last night I was just talking about it with a little night.

Like that song with, you know, whatever his song is. Yeah. Right. The most famous song, everybody in the world knows this song. He's like, Little Nas. That song he's probably thinking I'm going to say. I'm like, yeah. I don't know it either.

No, it's the, what is it? Old Town Road. Okay, yeah, Old Town Road. I'm saying this like, but obviously you know the song you've heard of this. Yeah. But like what, that guy can't probably go sell out arenas. He probably doesn't have a full show that you could go watch. Yeah.

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 that's like more

of like that guy has 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 right right kind of came up to that and so those guys truly

earned their right there's Rucker I mean Darius Rucker went from who do you Boe Fish to And now he's a country singer. 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 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 has 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, like, I always thought, like, you need to have someone right above you that you can talk to. I always thought you need 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 mic or no one. knows, you know, I've just, I've been doing the comic for two years. Nothing he can tell me I could relate to. He's too far ahead. So you need, if you're two-year comic, I need to talk to like a three-year comic and like, be like, where, what 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 $100,000 practice squad. Like that was your goal. You're like, that's attainable. Yeah. I can get it. And then once you get it, then you can go to the neck, whatever the next.

plane is but i don't think you should put goals because people can your goals can 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 mass square garden you're like all right dude like you know how long it's going to take to get to that point like yeah 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 your New York City. You're 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 20 degrees outside. No one wants these flyers. No one's excited your hand. Like, no one's happy about it. Yeah, any flyer you go up and see you're just like, all right. 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 got to, just a long fall. Long fall. And you got to pick it up. You're like, all right, yeah. And I got to pick it back up and try to give it to someone else. It's wet now because. the snow 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 stay in 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 i don't want to work the door i just want to be going 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 or Conan.

So you're, hey, how do you get like, what do you got to do what's 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 Conan? Because that's another like too many people, they just, I would get ass all time. They'd be, hey, how do you just, can you get me on Conan? Like they're like, what are you crazy? Yeah, well, like, I'm just going to hit him up.

Yeah, you can go in tomorrow. Yeah, he's good, dude. 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, 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.

Like, here's what you need to do. You know, I'm still learning. But like, you're hearing it again and you're helping. someone that's younger than you. Yeah. And so then 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 like you kind of give yourself some accountability too, 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. Yeah, 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's 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 faster is this guy or not or you can do this or that whatever it is yeah and then comedy is very you know like i always said 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 can be right you're going to list because everybody likes different things right because like subjective 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 Regan like or something like you just want to be among like in the list right of the you know who's the best yeah how'd you know you wanted to get in a comedy

like it seems like your first you're kind of what what made you want to get in a comedy and then how in the hell did you get up in New York and you're passing off flyers yeah 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 St. Louis. It's called Bantere. Shoutout BT, a little small spot. But, yeah, that's where I'm at.

So I, my dad's a magician. So I grew up, I mean, I grew up at least somewhere around him doing magic. And he would always do shows. And he always had day jobs, too, but he still does magic. He's very good at what he goes. You know, that's awesome. Yeah. That dad that does magic? Yeah, it's, I mean, you just grow, it's just like was normal. Yeah. Like, your friends come over and they're like, hey, hey, Mr. Bargazi, can you do these tricks? You're like, all right, here we fucking go.

All right, go ahead. You 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. Tax right off for your birthday. And I mean, 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 ruined You just see I saw them practice all these tricks All the you 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 mystique 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 seen 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 to 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 I mean I'm just not the guy like you have no fucking clue anybody else I just do not care like I got to act like I'm going to be amazed you know it seems like a very funny thing to not be amazed but it's like I don't pick your card you're like I don't yeah my old life my card's been picked me I've always seen every card pick so it's uh but the 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 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 so he was five years old. And I used to 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. So you would get to come see that. But yeah, you're just around.

I mean, I've had joking. about it where I talked about I met the my first memory is meeting the Easter bunny. My first memory of life is my dad pulls up in our car.

He's dressed in he's in clown makeup and the Easter bunny's 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 bunny needed a ride home. He wasn't he wasn't crushing it I guess and he goes yeah I'll take you home but you mind like

just seeing my kid first. And so my dad pulled in and so I got to meet the Easter Bunny. It's my first memory of my life. Oh, wow, that's awesome. Yeah. And I remember he did, he dressed as Batman one year for, I want to say at Opry Land. So he used to be a theme park here in Nashville. And he would work it.

And he had a full Batman costume because he was Batman at this theme part was his gig. And so he came home in that. So there was a lot of kind of crazy things, bro. I mean, he comes home in a real legit Batman suit. with the voice was he trying to do the voice and all this was this was pre-voice okay okay so it wasn't yeah it was before that that all got taken all you know Batman talked normal like the Adam

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 can fight this Batman it wasn't until his voice got real deep that you're like this guy's the real deal yeah 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 fuck it was an eight of spades that was the card

you're just cursing at eight like you're like oh well it's just the end of mouth you're like we talked about that my buddies from New York New York we cursing is

you see kids you know because I think growing 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 it some maybe football guess you're yeah yeah coaches yeah eight years old yeah you know what I did My first, youth football.

The first thing 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 had the double stripes, so you had to weigh, 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. So it's like an adult 12-year-old.

It's like wrestling. Yeah. They're wearing all the stuff. They're wearing all the stuff. So it's like an adult kid. And I remember, I just remember these kids was so big, man. And then the coaches, you do that. What's the drill where you stay in the middle?

And then everybody's around you. Bull in the ring? Yeah. Yeah. And they would do that. I would always pretend my helmet broke during it. I would be like my thing. I'd be yanking.

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 fake. Because I was like, I'm not, these are grown men. We're like 11. That kid weighs.

He's trying to lose 40 pounds to not play the line. You're like, I'm not, this is not, I shouldn't be here. Dude, the shit 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 each day everybody be sitting in a circle and you go around like Doug, duck, 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 going to be... And coaches would want kids to quit, and I would be like... I would be like one of the guys, they'd be like, hey, Will, I'm going to put you... I'm going to put you in this drill with him, like, you know, try to get him to quit. Like, we don't need them on our team.

I swear to God, dude, I'm not joking. I mean, you're nine years old. But what did you say? And you're like nine? Yeah. You just imagine telling nine. 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... I mean, it's just, you can't, you're again, now they're playing flag football. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's, which is so, like flag and then you got to play like, I want to say the,

you got to go through like phases now of like learning how to tackle, right? Maybe. I have no clue. And obviously how's. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, like, it's football like, 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, it's like, yeah, yeah. It's all these millions of dollars to study. Like, I mean, people are hitting each other with their head. I bet that has a lot to do with it. We just study after study. Like hitting hard. Yeah. Because I want to say like one of those studies too, like when all the concussion stuff

came about the movie and everything, it was still like another study that came out that like, you know, 90-something percent of the NFL players had like CTE, like the ones, the brains they got to work on. And it was still like 90-something percent of like lower 90 percent of like high school players that got their brain examined on, figured out that they had some sort of CTE. So it's like. Yeah, you just get it. Yeah.

You're just going to get it. Yeah. You're like running into stuff. You're going to get. Like that's, it's a game with your head. Yeah. So that's a big part of it. It's football.

Like being a vandy guy, I assume you're a baseball guy. We got to take a moment and shout out, paint your life.com. No free shoutouts, paint your life. It's this awesome, seamless portrait. You send in a photo, anything. As you guys have heard me talk about it before, I got this beautiful portrait of my dog Waffle. Shout out Waffle.

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Again, B-O-Y-S to 64,000. Paint Your Life, celebrate the moments that matter the most. Terms Apply, available at Paint Your Life.com slash terms. Well, so I grew up, yeah, I mean, we got to have to be so football. Why we were just talking about, because I got, I was just at Vandy and walking on their field. And so I grew, so growing up, we didn't, before the Titans came, we didn't have, all we had was Vandy. and so people who grew up a Tennessee ball fan or Vanderbill fans are a Vanderbilt fan and then 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 would just we I mean I was just talking about today I was I showed him I remember we were playing Georgia like this is like 95 96 7 something like that and we're playing Georgia Georgia Georgia's like seven to the country we're winning 7 nothing in the fourth quarter And so, like, we're not ranked. I thought you're going to say the first quarter. We're winning seven nothing. The first quarter. Yeah.

Some of those were like, all right, we got them on the ropes. Yeah. But I remember we ran a fake punt on our own 30-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 him very quickly.

And then they just won. I've seen us also. we played LSU one year and we score with 10 seconds left 7 to 6 we're going to go for 2 Woody Woodenhofer was the coach and we're going to go for 2 LSU's ranked and so we're like we're going to go for it

because it doesn't matter this would be big for us we get two delay game penalties and then have to and they get the extra point blocked and we lose 7 to 6 and I mean that's just like the extra point block dude and we're kicking from the 50 I mean like 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 lay game is whatever, but you 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, 25, 30 seconds? Yeah. And you still, and then at the next day in the paper, I had this 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, oh, 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, no, we're going to do the same. What were you all talking about

over there? You know, like is that? Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, so it's been, but I'm excited about Vanderbilt now. We have a, uh, we got a new coach, uh, Clark Lee, you know, pretty pumped about him.

And, uh, he's, he's putting a pretty interesting staff together. and so hopefully it seems like Vandy is investing in their sports which is that's always the biggest thing is like getting the athletic department uh or not the athletic department but the school to invest in like the athletic department yeah and invest in sports because like me so the five years I was at Nebraska I played in Nebraska my strength staff that was that was there that I know very well was the was is a strength staff at Vandy yeah so the past few years I trained it I trained it I've 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 the strength coach stops and shout out Dobson he would um 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 this shit 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 ball game like you know and Nebraska you would have you know your advice 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 in during finals weeks like guys actually lose a shit ton of weight because people are stressed and they're just up all the time studying for finals because it's such an academically successful school yeah yeah Way different from Nebraska. No, I'm not knocking Nebraska, but it's just a different. It's way different than basically 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 Bo Polini and the staff that he had in Nebraska. Tom Osmore had came to the school. Everyone was going crazy about Tom Osmore. 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 like trying to, like, to get a picture with him but he visited and then like I visit with the staff and stuff and absolutely love the facilities at Nebraska and that's why I ended up going to Nebraska but that was a shrink staff I had and it's just a way different world than like a world at Vanderbilt football yeah I remember Nebraska was always uh it was crazy because I mean uh I mean when they were they were so good the 90s I mean it was and I really they were that's the kind of my first awareness 90s 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 period of Nebraska, to me, Nebraska is always look at them as the most dominant team in the country.

Yeah, because they were backed in. 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, right. And the baseball team started getting good. And Tennessee was, the volunteers were down. So there's a lot of kids, like my friend's 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 be to 60.

Yeah, manning back there. I mean, them in the 90s were just always there in Nebraska in Miami. Yes. Yeah. Ohio State's always been there. But yeah, 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 I'm not a fan of. But they were, I mean, they were so dominant, dude. Yeah, and they're being in the SEC too. Like, 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? Vandy ain't competing with that.

There ain't no one's coming out of Vandy. He's not paying anybody. Yeah, there ain't no one's coming out of Vandy. I wish they would. Yeah, honestly, that would be a huge help. We had Derek on yesterday. I was trying to get them. I'm like, we need some sanctions against Alabama right now.

Like, you know, how much did 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, the question of them is usually like, how many Natty? How many Natty's did you win when you were Alabama? And some guys would be a two and be like, oh, you were part of the trash Alabama. Yeah. Like the other Alabama guys who won like four.

Yeah. And you're just kind of sitting there like, you know, we went to a Big Ten championship and a big 12 championship. You know, we lost both. But, yeah. We got the Motor City Bowl. That's what our Vandy. He's just like, we almost won the Motor City Bowl. We had the first bowl game I went to is at Vandy.

We played Boston College in the Music City Bowl. And I've told a joke about that because I got, I went or had tickets from 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 going to go Telgate. And I had to go in.

Dude, no one was even the players were 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 90 minutes and it didn't even, it wasn't even started yet. Oh, you're just looking at that. And I mean, I was the only one in the stadium. I just walked around the stadium. It's not even 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's great in here. It's fucking awesome. It's great. I just walked around.

The concession stands are not open. I mean, it was brutal. But we had, we've van derbying. Andy won that, but our punter was MVP. First two bowl games we had in 20 years, our punter was the MVP of both those guys. How's the punter the MVP? Just because we do, man, it's what we bring

to the table, you know, like, you don't understand we need a good punter. And it matters. It's like Brett Kearns. Like a 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 couldn't score, like what, how's

the punter of the MVP? Were they just dropping them inside the five like that? Just, yeah, keep it on back. Keep it on my bag. You hand the trophy to the punter. You guys won't win. Yeah. No one else really brought enough to the table.

There you go. I guess punter did pretty good. You never answered, but how did you end up getting to New York? Oh, so I moved to Chicago first. So I was just doing whatever job. I read Water Meteors in Mount Julia here. Like I was re, I just worked, you know, I didn't go to college. So I just was doing whatever job.

I had a friend. my buddy Michael and he wanted to move he wanted to go to second city in Chicago so I moved 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 there's a great uh documentary of Seinfeld called comedian I believe it's on Netflix and it's him building 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 to 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 gotta 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 No 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 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 bad. There's a big thing now. People that lose fantasy drafts will go to open mics. So like their punishment would be if you come in the last place, you've got to do stand up.

Yeah. So, I mean, like, you have a mix of just like, it's just a joke to one person. And another kid is like, this is. is his dream. Yeah. 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 when 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 you would go on stage. I mean, I went on stage every day for, I mean, eight years. Like you used to go up every day.

And you go on for at the beginning, it's five minutes. and then eventually it gets to 15 until you start headlining and traveling on the road and you started 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 he, right when he quit, you know, right before that, he would come down. I would see him every, I mean, he'd come down every night. Like, after he 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 Zanis here in Nashville or any club using this, there's 40 people.

there are at the minimum, you know, usually even 100, 200, 300 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 in to coming and it'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 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 want a 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're just getting no laughs. And you're just like, does anybody 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 awesome. Yeah, you're like, who doesn't really speak English? And like everybody just, the whole room claps. You're like, ah, boy. This is going to be brutal. And you've got to do 15 minutes. But being in those situations are what helps you because you know how to, you know how to talk where it's, I mean, it's uncomfortable. I'm sitting here like, you know, 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 aren't laughing like they're laughing at the other people and you just got to continue to be in the room. We were, I remember being on stage, because, like, you would just be at a bar. So, 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, 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, I asked him to leave in the microphone. I go, you should just, we shouldn't do this. And he was like, ah, it's fine. I was like, it's not, it's not fine. And then I 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, these comics 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, they trap them basically in the room before they figure out that, yeah, they shouldn't be there.

This is not a good situation. Yeah. And so you would go up and you talk in front of four people and then, then two more people come in and six people, eight people. I mean, if you've gotten for eight people, you were like, you're like, I made it. Like, eight people was like, unbelievable. You know comedy in New York.

Yeah, you're like, could someone film this? Yeah. I need to get, this is huge, dude. 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 a, 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 perform in a lot of bad situations. I mean, I remember one, this one place is. It's called Village Lantern in the Village in New York. And so I'm on stage and there's just 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've got to 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, you're on stage performing. I'm 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,

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 looking. Yeah. 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 a 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 kid special came out.

So I was having people show up for me. I would have, I would say it would be 75% of the crowd is there because they know who I am. but 25% is there just because they got free tickets to a comedy club. Yeah. So 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.

Yeah. And so they would get in a fight. I mean, I was on stage and all I see in the back, I just see a hand, just go like that and then just a braw breaks out in the very back of the room. How'd you handle it? And I mean, I was in the middle of it, dude. I was like, you say I have to do an hour, I'm like 30 minutes in. You know, if it's, if I'm at 40, 45 even, you're like, all right, good night.

Like, that's, let's, I got to keep going. Yeah. And so I, 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 the situation. There's no really preparation for it. You just, the preparation is all the years of doing bad shows.

Yeah. 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 something at me if you don't fight each other you're going to be better than that Thursday night crowd that's hilarious what was uh what was your first time on stage like it was that i did this comedy this class called comedy college i have it on VHS my first time i had a chin beard that's awesome that was when

chin beards were a lot cooler than are now. And, you know, you had to get made fun of if someone saw it, but now it would be, you know, back in it was like, it was like pretty like, whoa. Yeah. It's new money over you. So that's right. That's right.

That's right. Like white trash like Nashville. Like where you live, Antioch. So there, uh, I went on stage and it 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 going to be rooting for you. They want you to do good.

Yeah. So they're going to 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, man, I'm not bad at this. But it's when you go up with no one there, no one's supporting you, that's the real, that's the real, like, where you actually, you're probably more nervous for that than you were when you were going to 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 look, 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? Yeah. I'm looking at the, you know, and you're just like, and I remember comics you just always come off stage and be like, dude, you see that chick in the front row. She was unbelievable. And I would be like, I didn't see anybody.

Like, because I just wasn't looking. I never understood like all these comics that were, they were like, did you see, dude, these two on the two on the two on the, the right, the hottest chicks ever seen in my life. And I'm like, I didn't even know. Where were these people at? Like, I didn't look at nobody. 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 got to look up. I got to be looking at people. And, you know, because that really matters. And 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,

why I got to go. I don't want to go to do this show because I was so scared to go talk in front of everybody. And I remember thinking, I was like, God, if just the building would burn down. You know, because then I would say, I would be like, I tried to go, but the building was on fire. The helmet, I couldn't. Yeah, it's like, I want to get in there. Trust me, dude, I want to. You guys look like you're having so much fun.

God, just 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, yeah. That doesn't help either when you just look like a loser. Yeah. You just got like an old fullback helmet. I weigh 84 pounds.

The helmets half. All I wanted was like that one. I still look at that helmet and just think that's such, that's all I wanted. That's, I would have probably stayed with football. You probably would have gotten bowling the ring if you would have had a. I want to just give me a good, that one was too expensive. So they bought me the worst one. So, yeah, I don't remember what you were talking about.

But I think it was, you were talking about your first. I'm like how nervous you were and you hoped 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, I used to have to go to work when I worked regular jobs at like 7 a.m. And I was like, if I could just get in just a little wreck. like not much of a wreck just enough that I can sleep in the car just a fender bender just a fender bender that I can sleep in the car and I got to be like I got an wreck this morning dude like it's just so I can have a good excuse you just want something to happen 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 talk about in this new special coming up but uh another one that's going to come out on Netflix yeah when does this come out this is going to come out in a couple weeks.

Yeah. After Valentine's Day, after this. When's your, when's your special come out? March 18th. We can make it the week after that. Oh, okay. Unless you want it to come before.

All it's got to be, if they didn't, I'm not announcing my special until February 16th. So after February 16th, they can come out whenever. Okay, cool. We're solid. Yeah.

So that's when I got to announce it. But March 18th's 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. average American, but I'm the greatest at it.

I go to all, I guess I say, I always go to the nicest applebees. I can always, I have a good gauge. Hey, I mess with Nate, dude. I mess with you. I get, I have a good gauge of when shows are going to get canceled because I can, if I, if I'm like not on board, I'm like, then most of America's not. Yeah. I have a very American taste.

Like, you can just feel it. You're like, it's not going good. Like, y'all got to, you got to wrap it up. But so, but this special. 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 years ago so like I'm for an entire hour the whole hour and I mean I'm doing I mean I'm you know I'm 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 they told me that most most everybody there did not speak English So it was a Christmas party and all his employees, they don't speak English. And he never told me that until afterwards. And I mean, I was that entire hour, you're just like, dude, it's tough. Maybe I'm past my prime. Oh, you think about, yeah, maybe the prime's not 40. Maybe I'm just going down.

Yeah. My peak was the day before and I'm already down. Yeah. 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 get through your material a lot quicker. But one of the first bombings that I remember feeling, I bombed at that Boston Comedy Club. Everybody was doing good one night.

Everybody was like going on stage. 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. And then I went up and bombed so hard. And I remember I changed my shirt. I never wore that shirt again because I thought, well, that shirt had something to do.

I think 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. I bet that had that had to do something. I didn't blame me.

I blame just the outfit. What goes through your mind like when you bomb something like that? Like it's something like a loose sleepover. You're just kind of like, fuck. You know, you don't do it as much as everybody says, says you do. There are people that do bomb that much. But I think those people don't ever, 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 tonight. Sometimes it's the crowd. 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 I'll 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, that was a pretty good set.

And I was like, you, that was the worst set. So just no awareness. I realized at that moment, oh, he doesn't know what it sounds like to do good. Like up there. It's different. When you really murder on stage, it's unbelievable, man. It's, you know, people are losing their mind. You can hear people catching their breath.

It's the most amazing sound ever. but if you don't ever hear that then you don't know like to him that sounded great but he just got from him 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 yeah so you're self-aware enough

to then know when it's not going to have you ever had to correct a comic like was that somebody you he's like what you think and you're like yeah you're straight man uh no I don't know you lied to him yeah dude that was great like I thought it was great. And they're like, now, I've had a couple where I've seen this one club in Edmonton, Canada, and this guy, I think he does it on purpose, but he would put a new comic up in, he put a new comic on stage 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. And she's like, finish his joke. Like, oh, 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 to talk 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 a 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 going to do like five minutes. Yeah.

And she goes up and same thing, dude, completely silent and the whole time. And then the guy goes on after her and just murders. So you can't even be like, well, 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 want to be like, just go home.

You know, like don't. And you imagine just having to walk back into that crowd. I've been like, excuse me, my seats over here, and everybody's like, oh, that's that, all right. Yeah. How was, how would you say the Nashville scene's 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.

It's a 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 some female comics like, you know, good diverse comics. And so it's, the Nashville scene is

great right now. And so it's exciting to see that. And the New York scene is, I mean, still the New York scenes. I still think that's the best scene in the country and that's, you know,

there's going to 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. Well, I would go up 10 times a week. And I did that for eight years, nine years. Like, I'm going to be a, I got way more stage time, way more than anywhere in the country. So that's why those comics are going to 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 is going up 10 times a week, working on sets. It's like having to surpass hanging out or like going on different weekend trips. Yeah, when you're hanging out. You're just thinking about the garage. Like you're just thinking about how can I get more in? Oh, yeah. I mean, you just want more 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 Aziz and sorry and Amy Schumer And like so I saw we were all open micers And I saw them rise to the how big they are You need to be able to see that stuff You gotta 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 I'm just a kid from Nashville Right right Why would I get to do this? Yeah you feel like it's beneficial That guys like Theo Vaughan and Josh Wolf have I've moved to Nashville.

Like is that going to change a 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 the comedy store. You feel like that kind of creates a culture for Nashville to where maybe you guys are going to Zanis? Or how does that kind of work in the comedy world? I mean, definitely.

It's been a huge help now that Theo and them are here. Because I've been back here like six years, Steve Byrne, another comic. So a lot of real headliners. And I think it helps the scene because then the younger comics actually get to see real headlining comics every week. And guys that are very good. Guys that are going to go up and they're not really going to 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 at Zane where they do 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 Monday. I went last night. It was whatever night, Monday night.

I went Monday night. You go work out to work out on my, because I got to build a new material with a special coming out and trying to build this new hour. And so I've been there a lot. Theo's there a lot. Like, you know, sometimes we're there. Sometimes we're not. But them going that, it gets, then those younger companies are getting in front of a packed

crap. I mean, you know, it's a huge thing to get real stage time is what you're searching for. Yeah. It would help to build a scene. You've got to get in front of a real audience. Because otherwise you're performing in front of other comics. Yeah. 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 they're, Brian Bates has kind of been in New York for a little while now. I'm in Nashville. He's been doing it for like 12 years or something. And then Aaron would be a new one. He's like, he's on Aaron Weber.

He's been four-year comic. I think he is. Dusty Slay, who's been doing it a little bit longer, probably 10 years, but his name's out starting to get around a little bit more. And he's done some late night shows and stuff like that. And he's very funny. And he's probably the top comic of the guys that are, he's kind of really starting to headline and people are coming to see him.

And then you got, I mean, the guys are some younger guys that are even year or two year comics that are, you see at Zanies that are very, very good. And you can go see them. You know, that Monday night, that new material night, is a night where you can see all those or is any all- Yeah, that'd be cool. We should go to one of those.

Yeah, you should come to one. They're very, yeah, they're at one. I'll let you know. And then y'all come out there. It's fun. That'd be awesome. Yeah, it's a good. It's good to see.

I mean, I think people are moving here to start comedy. That's a good sign. National's growing. I mean, it's one of the cities that are, like, growing faster than as much as any. We can be a Chicago here. Like, I mean, I'm very biased to Nashville, obviously, but I don't think anything's better than Nashville right now. Yeah. I think it's the best city in the country.

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It's free to chat with the doctor, and your first order is just $5. That's hello rory.com slash bussen. Hello, R-O-R-R-Y.com slash bussen. Eligibility requirements and additional terms may apply. How do you like doing Nate Land? It's good. Because that's newer, right? Yeah, we started like 30-something episodes out.

Yeah, yeah, not only. You got to do these forever. You really get good. Yeah. And so we started it just because it was like, you know, I mean, I've been off the road for a year now. Right. With all the COVID stuff.

I kind of wanted to keep stay being funny. And, you know, it's kind of a muscle. You got to be funny. You need to actively try to be making jokes. And another reason why I think New York is so good. You're around comics so much that you're just so much like just breaking each other's balls. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I wanted to kind of keep that going. And so that we started this podcast. And it's been fun. It's, you know, it's a good thing to keep your brain like, I mean, just making jokes, dude. 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 made it about as easy as possible. It's out on like all the podcast platforms, 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. It could be better as we got it because we always thought. It could have been better. Like it was, yeah.

We called it what we thought everybody would tell us in the comments. That way they couldn't criticize this. Because if they're like, your podcast stinks, you're like, boy, it's named. It could be better. We are agreeing that it's not good. Yeah. Yeah, just go ahead. Get it right in front of it.

Yeah. So, yeah, that one was a long time ago. But it was, you know, it was fun to do, you know. I wish we would have stayed with it at the time. But, you know, it all works out. in the end. I mean, yours will probably grow and be awesome one day.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's awesome now. I mean, all of ours are awesome now, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, no, you got to keep, just keep that.

There's more work into the whole video side. Y'all got a unique thing here with, I mean, because you would, like, dude, your scenario. Yeah.

I mean, you're in this bus. This is, you know, it looks like the, it's what you see. Yeah, bust 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, bro. Stuff to work on.

Yeah. Where we started off, this bus was in a parking lot because it doesn't move. Yeah. We can't get it fixed costs, you know, way too more. We might as well just buy an actual,

like, big awesome bus. Yeah. 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 a buddy of ours at the time who was producing it, he was like, would you think you'd be interested. 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 going to want the bus. He comes in, he shows him and tells him, and he says, oh, yeah, we got to go see that. We go out there and,

you know, it's obviously it has to 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 Taylor's like, listen, I'll put 10 grand into it and clear it all up and make it look presentable. If it doesn't work, then I'll just, sit 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 to work. Managed to put all this stuff in there. We're just sitting on the heat blossoms with us back then. And, uh, dude, 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. We're going to survive through the season. There was one week. We did 12 episodes in one week. And it is like in the 90s. Yeah. Yeah, out.

We had to have, like, you know, we had to try and put coverings over and stuff because we were just in here sweating. Like, Shaw, Shob came on. He came down to Du Zanis one night. And I'd asked him he wanted to come on. Michael Chandler helped me get him on. And Shob comes on. And one of our AC units wasn't working. We have, like, two AC units in here.

And his boys are on the back. And he's like, yeah, I think we're going to need to wrap it up. Like, one of his brother was about to, like, 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 we finally. upgraded we got into a shed abandoned shed.

Yeah, yeah. But it's been a, it's been a journey, man. But thanks for coming on, bro. Absolutely, man. When is, uh, when is your special coming out? March 18th, Netflix. And it's cool. We, we put this out before March 18th.

Yeah, just after February 16th. Okay. The only thing that it's going to be. Yeah, everybody check it out. What's it called? The greatest average American. I can't wait, dude. It'll be on Netflix and all.

On Netflix. And yeah, just on Netflix. So just, yeah. Not all that stuff. Anywhere you can watch Netflix, it will be on Netflix. Awesome. Well, thank you very much.

Presented by Barstool Sports. Nate Bargazzi, Bus. Love and support Bustin 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 wouldn't be doing this.

do this without you guys and all of your support we also have a youtube channel if you like if you'd like to watch our show or these episodes they're on youtube at busting with the boys we're also on social media at busting w tb you can follow us everywhere go buy our merch you guys know that whole deal but thank you so much we are forever grateful for you the biggest of hugs and tiniest of kisses for the boys always in forever hey guys it's us the jonas brothers i'm joe i'm kevin and i'm nick and guess what we create created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast Point Game. the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, I was calling. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.