Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 200 | when parents don’t approve with Mandie and Danae

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Today we sat down with social media content creators Danae Hays and Mandie Kaii. After meeting this couple at the Nashville Celebrity Softball game earlier this year, we really wanted to get to know them better and thought what better way to do that than by having them on the podcast! Danae makes hilarious videos on TikTok for her 2 million followers and her wife, Mandie, creates content about fashion, fitness, and everything in between. We had deep conversations about judgment and religious trauma, and we also had conversations where we laughed until we cried. There's a little bit of everything in this episode and we are so honored to have had them on our show! Learn more about them with the links below! Also, Head to genate.com to learn more! Danae’s Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@danaehays  Mandie’s Tik Tok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@mandiekaii?lang=en  Their YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Pj7OnYOXPk450OhLGMr4A Danae’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danae.hays/?hl=en Mandie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandiekaii/?hl=en Love you guys! Shawn and Andrew  Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/AndrewDEast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. What's up everybody? Welcome back to a couple things with Sean and Andrew a podcast all about couples and the things they go through. We laughed so hard during this interview. This was a fun one. It was a fun one. It was. Mandy and Deney. Deney is someone we met during the celebrity softball game here in Nashville, which Andrew was like the MVP of. We had a blast. We had a blast. But Denae is hysterical. She's a comedian. She was also like a boss. herself. She won a national championship in softball at University of Alabama. Just an amazing

athlete but also a hilarious comedian. We wanted to have her and her wife Mandy on the show and we had a lot of giggles but also a lot of serious talk. So we talked about religion and how that's shaped their experience. We talked about their relationship with their parents, which got I feel like pretty sensitive and I learned a lot now that we're raising two kids ourselves. I feel like I have a new perspective on how I want to approach that relationship. And also just how they've evolved growing in their careers, moving cities. They've been through a lot. And it was really fun to talk to them.

So Deney, Mandy, thank you for giving us time. We hope you enjoy this interview. And if you want to learn more about Deney, hear her comedy. She also has some songs out on Spotify. We'll link that information down below. But without further ado, we bring you Deney and Menae. Mandy gymnastics I know it's a team sport but like it's solely dependent on one person at one

time you know but it was really cool last night though when we were watching the floor routines like the other like the team on the side on the side it's like they memorize the floor routine and do it while they're doing it it be it started out as like a shocking thing that you would see and now it's like a requirement that from teams they're like well they're doing it you have to do it so see I hated that in softball when we were like the whole cheer G-W-O-D-E-Y-E. Hate it. That was totally it.

God, I hate that, didn't you? No. What? You enjoyed the cheering? Yeah, just because, like, I think energy is real. You're like, wow. Me, I was like, y'all, shut up. I'm trying to hit the damn ball.

Like, be quiet. That was more me. I, like, didn't hear it anyway. Yeah. So I'd just be like, stop screaming. Dude, you're your face. Like not facial like that was bad your like zone mentality that poise how does a 16 year old I guess if you've done it all through up to that point But like you're in front of a massive stadium at 16. I don't know I will say to a certain extent it's easier at 16 than it is at our age

That's true. Because like at 16 you don't have the mental capacity to understand the magnitude of the way that makes sense you're just playing I started to understand it right as the Olympics were happening and so I'm really glad that like that was just the beginning of it and not you know but no I mean I ended up retiring because I tried to go a second time and yeah a lot of I wasn't able to process it yeah yeah that's crazy that is wild to think about because I I I just mani and I both grew up playing competitive softball and like in front of the biggest stages you know but I don't know if I could have done that was different I was 21 then when we went or like 19 when we won the national champion 90 10 let's go Damn!

Yeah! It's like 80 times. Andrew is full hype mom. Dude, I love him. With Deney and I first met, I was like, oh, yeah, I think we had some chest bumps. Yeah, we did. I got home and I was like, Mandy, I really hope Andrew doesn't think I'm a complete idiot. Total wavelength.

Do you remember the comment I made? Whenever I told Ernest goes, dude, what happened to Andrew out there? And I was like, dude, I think you got caught adjusting his crotch. And then Sean was like, you told him that? And I was like, hell, yeah. And then Ernest looked at me and he goes, oh, okay. It's kind of weird that like you knew he was doing that. I was like, dude, I was just playing.

It did, though. It's a nervous tick I have, to be honest with you. Just go for the crotch. Yeah, Hunter for it's like. Oh, no, dude, I made that completely up. I didn't like, I didn't see you out there. I was completely That's why I thought it was so funny

that you told Ernest because I was like he for sure was and I was like you caught that I was like of course No I just completely made that out just to get Ernest's reaction

So you were 19 when you won a national championship Yeah Oh let's go back to that Yeah 19 A complete and utter mess of a human being

at 19 So that's why When we were watching your stuff last night I was just like wow did you play softball in college i did where yeah at seattle university oh no she was a pitcher aka prince i was how'd you meet instagram believe it or not yeah fled into her dms well i was still very much in the closet guys i was in alabama still living in my hometown so i was too scared even in

the private dms to be like hey you're cute so we both played softball so it's like an 80 chance especially college yeah I was like well there is a chance but no I saw her and I thought she was so pretty and I followed her and then I did the whole unfollow because she didn't follow me

oh wow and then finally like what maybe a month later I saw her profile again it just popped up on my explore page and I followed her and then she finally followed me back and it was just my utter charm.

No. Charisma. No. No. Well, it's so ironic about our life now. It's right when Instagram Live like popped off. Like I think it just became a thing actually. And Deney hopped on and I was like, oh, what's this chick doing on Instagram Live?

Nobody's doing that at the time. And she actually was like in the gym working out and she started being really funny. And so I was like laughing at her video. And I'm like, how is that such a full circle thing of like me? actually trusting that she was a real person was because of Instagram live and then we started talking from then. I cracked some joke. I feel really bad. Shout out to the guy that I

kind of like made the joke at his expense, but we were at the gym. It was just me and this guy and he was probably like 16. It was like 1 o'clock in the morning and I went live on Instagram for no reason. I have no idea. Just like the feature just happened like that week. So I was at the gym and this dude looked just like Justin Bieber with his haircut. And so like I have my phone up and I'm like

what's up y'all happy instagram live and i was like i'm just working out with justin beber and i pan to the guy and the guy goes like watch you throw me under the boss and uh that one joke mandy thought it's so funny i was like i don't know why i don't i think it was that i'm like it was the awkwardness yeah i think it was like his reaction the fact that she like was being funny on video because like back then like what eight years ago people just weren't as candid on social media so it was really refreshing to be honest and I was like oh I guess we'll talk and she's like no want to date I'm like yeah I wasn't that forward but like to think I wasn't that forward but with her words she definitely was I was like okay I guess we're dating now yeah but it was crazy because

she was living in Alabama and I was living in California so I was just like hey we're gonna talk like let's just meet in person yeah so yeah I flew to Alabama and that's where we met for the time yeah that was in 20 like February of 2017 it was a while ago what was the first date well we went and stayed at an Airbnb on the lake that I grew up on straight first day yeah well in Alabama I mean like it's not like I could she couldn't have stayed at my house because my parents did know that I was out so I was like what are you doing this weekend I'm going to the lake yeah you go with a friend you know but no at that time mandy and i had a conversation before she flew in and she was like

i think out of respect to yourself and to your parents you should probably tell them you're hanging out with a girlfriend and so i remember um i was cooking eggs in my kitchen and my mom was sitting at the bar and she was like so what are you doing this weekend and i was like it's now or never so i just watched this video on youtube where if you count to five and then do you're supposed to do it makes it easier. Mel Robbins, the five-second rule. So I was like, well, I just watched that video. I'm going to do that. I'm going to the lake with my girlfriend. And she's like, oh, you have a girlfriend. Like, what's your girlfriend's name? Like, girlfriend isn't best friend. And I was like, she drives a BMW. That's the all I could come up with. I was like, she drives a

BMW. And she was like, oh, well, what does she do for a living? And I was like, no, mom. Like, she's my girlfriend and my mom was just like just kind of like looked at me and asked a couple like inquisitive questions about it didn't really say much about it and then I left for the lake the next day and we spent two days at the lake and it was awesome because my mom kind of like let me be like who I wanted to be for the first two days and then obviously the questions came after once we got home um but i knew it was really wild because i'll never forget this the first day we woke up at the lake mandy was already sitting on the balcony and it was a sun sunday maybe right it was a second day yeah um and mandy was watching a church service and i had so much religious trauma

because of my sexuality and religion around it um and so mandy's watching a church service and i walk out and I probably watched 10 minutes of it with her. And out of nowhere, I just start breaking down crying. Like weeping. And I was like, did I just, like, what? Like, I didn't know how to react because I've never met anybody with religious trauma prior to that. So I didn't, I wasn't exposed to it. Yeah.

But I just started like, yeah, weeping. Yeah. And it was this very, like, euphoric feeling of, like, for the first time after so much hurt and suffering of God giving me just like a, sense of peace and so in that moment I was just like this is who like this is who I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you don't just meet this stranger off of Instagram and she flies from California to Alabama and then you have this moment of connection over a healing religious moment and I was like this is it so ever since then I've just been like this is my soulmate like I never believed in soulmates before that but I met Mandy for 48 hours and I was like she was

made for me i was made for her and uh seven years later that's it yeah do you have a similar story mandy or i mean yeah it it's crazy because at the time i had just got out of like a really awful relationship and when dena and i first heard talking i was like there's no way like i'm not interested i'm definitely not interested in somebody that's in the closet because i i've been out and like proud of who i am since i was like 17 18 and so how was that for you you know I had more internalized homophobia than experiences outside like my mom was really mad at me for lying to her than she was for me having a girlfriend and so it was really interesting that I was like more ashamed of myself versus like the people outside having opinions about it and then once I like

kind of got over the idea that my mom was okay then I just I never came out I just shared an Instagram photo my girlfriend and I just went full send I was like you know what if my friends are going to have any difference of opinion in me, then this Instagram photo is going to be the thing that we're going to stop talking. That's fine with me. And I went to college and I kind of just fell into my identity and then never looked back. And so when I met Dene, that was 2017. I'd already been out for a good handful of years and very comfortable with my sexuality. And it was the last thing I expected to fall in love with somebody that was in the closet where I'd never had to be you know and so it was an entire different experience and like the amount of trauma that I learned

about and the amount of empathy I had like it was just wild and the moment that Dene was talking about it was like a moment of healing for me too because even though I didn't personally experience that from people I you know I expose myself to it my own like thoughts and emotions and growing up at the time that we did you didn't see it as much you know and so and especially growing up in this awful world that you like heard a lot of talk about being a lesbian and like people wouldn't make fun of you for being a lesbian and it's just the it's always funny because it was like do you wear a bow or do you not wear a bow I wore a darn bow I wore a bow I was like I was bowed up apparently if you wore a bow you weren't gay called no bow lesbo yeah so I was like oh I'm not going to start

that rumor about myself put two bows in my ponytail maybe it was my mom put the ponies or the But it really is wild, though, like her growing up in Southern California and me growing up in the middle of nowhere, Alabama, like how different our childhoods could be. But that's the beauty about us being together. This episode is brought to you by Defender. With its 626 horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine, the Defender Octa is taking on the Dakar Rally, the ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at Land Rover.

You can get protein at home or a protein latte at Tim's, no powders, no blenders, no shakers, starting at 17 grams per medium latte, Tim's new protein lattes, protein without all the work, at participating restaurants in Canada. Do you still have religious trauma? I think that it's going to always be something I have to work through, but I no longer have that shame of like, I can't have a relationship with God because I'm ashamed of who I am. I've had people ask me, well, now that you've come out, like, do you feel like you're, you no longer have a relationship with God as if, like, you can't have both? And the craziest thing is my relationship with God has just expanded and become so colorful now

versus before it was so black and white. Manny and I said we weren't going to get into this on the podcast, but I was also taken to conversion therapy as a kid, which is a form of therapy to help you get rid of homosexuality. This was after you told your parents? No, this was when I was 11. So as a kid, I had told my parents that I like girls. And I was taken to see this psychiatrist that specializes,

in children who have told their parents that they have feelings for the same sex and then that psychiatrist helps the parents and the kids guide themselves away from that, quote unquote, lifestyle. And then we never talked about it again after I went through therapy and all of that. So that's why I think it was less of a shock

when I told my mom that I had a girlfriend coming into town. It was kind of like, oh, those feelings that were here a decade ago are still here, if that makes sense. So the religious trauma started at a very, very young age. at 10 because the conversion therapy and the psychiatrist, it was all wrapped around religion

as to why you can't live this lifestyle, as to why you don't need to act on this lifestyle. So it was, I would say I have lived at this point with religious trauma more than I've lived without it, so I'm still navigating that world. But I just feel so closer to God now. better understood and more open to go to him than before because before I felt like I was unwelcome than ashamed of who I was. So it's still a journey I'm navigating, but it's a much more colorful and inviting journey, if that makes sense. You said you weren't going to get into him. I know. At this point, we're just like opened it up. You can't really explain our story.

It's tough. It's the reason we said we, said that we don't want to get into it because there's a big part of the story that started us that we don't want to have our identity for the rest of our life but it is a part of our story it is and so it's it's hard to navigate not always talking about versus

like living in the present you know and so that was our conversation but no we are an open book about it so I have one more question then I'm curious because you said at 11 you already have these feelings you voiced them to your parents they put you through conversion therapy you ran away from the church because of the association with religion so you basically went into hiding for how many years and then when you came back

and you told your mom were you just okay with the response that you're going to get no matter what and you said she kind of let you live your life for two days and then the questions proceeded was it was it 11 year old you all over again or was you all over again or was you you more open it was uh i think it first started as dene this is not the life i want for you this not the life i imagine for you and i think it was a uh she tried to shut me down really fast when she saw how persistent i was to be in a relationship with mandy because i would fly out to California like twice a month. And I was living with my mother at the time. My parents are since divorced as of when I was 18. People always ask that. I think the story makes more

sense when you realize that my parents who are polar opposites from each other and how they treat me. It makes sense that they're not in the union because that would be very polarizing. But no, I think she definitely turned her nose up at it once she saw how I was just admit, I was Mandy, Mandy was it. Then it started to become more of a, okay, well, let's keep y'all's relationship a secret. But as a family, we'll understand the dynamic of the relationship. And Mandy's more than welcome to go out to dinner with us. Mandy's welcome to come over for family night and dinners and all of that.

It was more like a, it's being tolerated for the moment. Yeah. which like there's so many there's like a handful of photos out there of that short stint of when Mandy was then Mandy moved to Alabama we got our own apartment and there's a there's a handful of photos out there of where Mandy and I are like at top golf with my family or we're out to dinner with my family and it looks normal but you would just think Mandy and I were friends it's not like Mandy and I were you know openly having PDA in front of our family or like holding hands in front of our family. It was just like, don't ask, don't tell, this is unspoken. We understand that

y'all have a one-bedroom apartment, but the rest of the world doesn't need to know that. And this was the feelings between your mother and your father? Just my mother. Okay. My dad, I don't know how it's to explain it other than my dad is just like, he's just your biggest cheerleader. He's just in anything. Yeah. I always say that when God that made my parents, he was like, I know you're going to have to be put through hell on one side of your family, so I'm going to make sure that the other side

of your family is amazing. I just, I don't know how to explain it. My dad is just my biggest cheerleader. I just love him. Like, I just, there's not a single thing that I've ever done where my dad is just like, that's not good enough. And we've had conversations as an adult,

about how he allowed me to go to that conversion therapist when I was 11. And if you ask him now, that's his biggest regret. But I've asked him, like, why would you, why did you put so much stock into my sexuality as a kid? And he said, I was just so afraid of you growing up out in the middle of nowhere, Alabama, where if you were to go into high school or middle school and told one of your classmates that you were attracted to girls, that would have, they would have ostracized you and bullied you for the rest of your tenure there. And he was like, I was just trying to protect you. And I knew that once you got off to college, you were going to find yourself.

But I was just doing my best to keep you in this small box for as long as possible to just protect you. He was like, I went about it the wrong way. But that was my intention was protection. So, you know, we've talked about it. Mandy and I and I don't know. I don't know what I would have done in that situation if I was him back in the early 2000s in the middle of nowhere, Alabama. So I hate defaulting for that, but he was doing what he thought was best. So closing question on this topic.

Fast forward. You guys have been married now for seven years? Well, we've been together for seven. But married for two. Oh, amazing. Has it come full circle with families? Our families, our family is like a part of the picture, have we kind of walked away? from family great question um is it an ongoing process close as ever with my dad and my stepmom okay

it's so funny because they don't shy away from like even if they're at a grocery store and the cashier's like what do you do in this weekend my stepmom is like well she's so southern she's like well we're gonna go and we're gonna hang out with my daughter and her wife you know and the cashier is like you know but But my stepmom just doesn't shy away from it. My dad is like, he just thinks.

He's also my biggest cheerleader. Yeah, he thinks Mandy's the bee's knees. He's like, I don't know how he got such a hot-looking wife today, but by God, hey, the pickings are slim when you're gay. He was like, and somehow you managed to get a good-looking one.

So, kudos to you. But he just, I think he was, like, deathly afraid that I was going to marry, like, I don't know. Something rough and tough, like woman. But no, we have not spoken to my mom going on over five years. Yeah.

Sorry. That's okay. It's one of those things where we always say you can't love somebody hard enough to make them love you back. I try that for years. I thought, well, I'll just put myself in the box. She wants me to put myself in. And what that ends up doing is it just lowers yourself worth immensely to where you end up cutting your own legs off to help somebody else and um i just got tired of doing that and honestly

i was i wasn't vibrant and i i wasn't living a life i was proud of and my career wasn't growing because i had no self-worth so yeah it's always an ongoing conversation though like it's never i mean like i don't think you you can take trauma go to therapy for a year and then it's just gone so we always have open conversations about like how she's feeling or if something's triggered or you know and it's not something that's overtaking our life at all you know but and it but it is something that like we always pulse check yeah you know and i mean like even if dene's in alabama i'm like how you feeling you know like are you good are you good um but it was like that was excuse me what first two years of our relationship that was just some of the hardest

times in my life in terms of just accepting us working through i mean when you're dealing with somebody else's battles and also trying to build a relationship at the same time it's just like that navigation process was one of the hardest things i think we've ever gone to and that's why we always say if we can get through the first two years of relationship we're golden like you know and so after after that we just i feel like with every piece of adversity or triumph or with her career now it's just like everything feels so celebratory um which is why we try to focus on now presently instead of what has or been you know done to us or what has happened yeah it's interesting I've uh if there's anything I've learned in our seven

years of marriage it's like when there's areas of friction I used to just get bummed out and disappointed and like dang what the heck is this what do I do like she's annoying me why does she why does she have to be like that right um but I've learned to try to look at that frustration and be like, okay, well, what is that saying about like me? What can I learn about that? That being said, relationship with your mom or like siblings, it's such a different game. But for what it's worth, it might be, you know, I lost my dad six months ago. It's like parents, that relationship is precious. So obviously there's a lot of life that I am not privy to, but coming up with a game plan to see if that could be

rectified. We've, you know, we've thought about what that would look like and it's... I think of what we've never actually expressed is there's been things beyond just sexuality in that relationship. Yeah, we keep that relationship zipped up. Yeah. Things that, because, you know, it's, it's, tough because the Bible talks about honoring your mother and father and your days will be longer and

you want to you want to always make sure you're respectful because the world doesn't need to know all the ends and outs. Good with that. So we yeah so we we we buttoned it up as just gotcha. I think it's easy to explain the trauma versus all of the the religious trauma and the you know the conversation about her sexuality but there's so much more to it that yeah that's probably honestly like 30% of it so we can move on yeah yeah we can move on but let me say this let me say this last thing it's it's one of those things where you know i i do my best to try and remain in a respectful manner because i'm never trying to tarnish somebody else's livelihood or career or the rest of days here on this earth, but I'm also trying to protect my side of the family, which is now

my wife and our future kids. So I have to always make sure that I'm respectful of both because if I just like were to come out and just do like a whole damn tell all, you know, I feel like that actually speaks volumes of the person that I am versus what the actual memoir or tell all would look like. You would find some juicy details in there and be like, oh my God, that makes sense now but that also would make me look like a horrible person so we just zip it up and keep it as sexuality isn't I dig it you know what I mean yeah so next question well can I add one thing that's something Andrew and I have talked about a lot because he definitely comes from a family that's more like family is everything right no matter what we're going to always like work to

maintain this like large family I come from a family of like blood, doesn't matter. It's like your family is your family that, like, you would ride and die for that, like, kind of earn that. Whether they're related or not. Whether they're related or not. But something Andrew and I really had to work on from his family and, like, dynamics was the whole, like, biblical leave and cleave of, like, just like you said, I have

to protect my wife. I have to protect our family now. Right. And we have, we have our first priority and duty to protect us. Right. Before we go to the outskirts. and that can be really hard and the dynamics are very difficult and what is best for us sometimes would not be best for an extended family so and i you know it's funny because i'm more teeter on

andrew's side where mandy mandy is like very much like you sean where you know it's like how you treat me repetitively is actually how you are it doesn't matter if we're first cousins or nieces and whatever me on the other hand I'm like, you talk about your third cousin twice removed his family. Yeah. Yeah. What does that have been for me? I know.

I know. You don't know their name. I love family, though. Like, that's why that whole situation was heartbreaking because I come from a family where like, you know, we go to Christmas and Thanksgiving and like 80 of us show up, you know, so. I don't even know any of my family. There might be five of us. Yeah. reading playing learning stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision they slow down the progression of myopia

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Array! Array! The Conjuring, last rights. Only in theater September 5th. I do want to touch on the religious trauma since Deney experienced it, but you didn't. Yes. How did you circumvent that? I think so when Deney and I first met and that first night happened where I saw her response to practiced religion, you know, it wasn't even a response to Jesus.

It wasn't a response to faith. It was literally a response to practice religion because I was watching an actual service with, you know, a beautiful sermon. but watching that transpire there was nothing a part of me that was affected by it personally but I was like so devastated that anybody could create a relationship with God or instill the belief that a relationship with God looks like that and so I'm a very big fixer like I was like no no no if you've never seen unconditional love I'm going to prove it to you and I'm to show you and it was my immediate thing to show dene a unwavering love about your faith and whatever that looked like for her and i was i was not going to tell her hey you have to believe in god if

we're going to be together or you have to pray with me or anything like that i just i tried to do my best to instill a beautiful spirituality about her versus like practice religion and i tried to separate the two conversations and then we worked really hard through therapy she went to therapy for her religious trauma for a year straight and we'd come back she would tell me what she learned and we would talk through it every single week um and so it hurt me to see it more than it hurt me personally um but then again at the same time when I lived in Alabama I started feeling those things like maybe we are like you know second guessing myself for the first time of my life so it's hard for her to watch both transpire like I was trying to fight back the

additional love and show her that but then I was also like trying not to second guess myself at the same time because I was all alone in Alabama other than Deney like I didn't have any friends I didn't have any family and because we were in the closet it was like how do I meet friends like I can't tell them that we're together you know even our neighbors didn't know obviously they knew because we lived in a one bedroom apartment but you slept in a cow yeah but we never had the conversation of like oh this is my girlfriend you know and so I think at the end of the day it came back from me just being so secure in my beliefs and I think that came from my parents raised me not to push me into religion but to push me to believe in something that was higher than myself

and my mom did such and phenomenal job and we've talked about this I literally like three weeks ago was like thank you so much for never pushing religion on me but always encouraging a relationship with God it's so beautiful and polarizing and so different because then after we We lived in Alabama for a year. Then we moved to California for two years and lived 10 minutes from her mom. And her mother is one of the most spiritual people I've ever been around. She doesn't make a decision unless it's rooted right in her heart and with God. I mean, it is like this woman, the relationship she has with God is just like so admirable.

Like I look at it and I'm like, I want that too. And so when we moved out there, I got firsthand experience of being next to her mom for two whole years. And I was just like, like my eyes were just so open all the time because I went from this organized religious trauma to what functioning in a certain piece looks like. And you can you can't color outside of the lines. You have to be here the whole time. And a lot of public images involved and all of that. to then moving out to California and watching her mom just like

draw me closer and closer and closer and it was like I had broken off so many pieces of shame and guilt and shame and unworthiness and Debbie, which is her mom's name, Debbie gets so much of that credit. And luckily she's moving to Nashville.

So I get to be around it more. She's an amazing human being though. I was watching a video on your YouTube channel. You moved from Alabama to California to California to Austin to Nashville in like a pretty small amount of time we did yeah our parents think we're absolutely crazy you just love moving

well no not really we were I think in order to start the relationship I was working as a real estate agent in Alabama so I couldn't just that's bother me I talked about we need lint rollers because I couldn't resolve a move Mandy ended up starting her own business

on online on Instagram and so she was able to move So once we got there for a year We were like, we know this isn't our forever spot So then we moved to California For two years. We thought we'd be out there a lot longer Then the pandemic happened

And stuff was just bananas Well, we were both self-employed Where we could live anywhere And then we started looking at real estate prices At 24, 25. You're like, man, I really don't want a $900,000 studio apartment Yeah. I don't really that's a lot

if I want to live. So it was pretty crazy because then we started looking at other states just to like kind of explore and we're like we weren't set on anything and my parents kept saying like you would love Austin, Texas. And I was like, okay, I don't know what the heck's in Austin, Texas. So we went there to visit, not thinking that we were going to move there, not thinking that we were even looking at houses. We found one house on Realtor, which is funny because it was a Sunday night.

She found it on Realtor while we were still in California. we booked a flight two days later to go visit Austin just to look at the house and see the area and stuff but again just mostly visiting Austin by day two we signed a contract to build a house. I was like well I guess I'm move quick man it's like

yeah dude lesbians man we're going to like two days and we'll pack up and get in a U-Haul in two days and then we'll be on our third house by year two which is crazy I mean like but our time in Austin was wonderful like we love the city it's very much like Nashville yeah it's very much like Nashville

Yeah, it just didn't feel like us and, you know, my sweet wife over here needed to be back in the south. Like she, like this sweet southern girl. Look, if I have the thickest southern accent on our block, I'm in the wrong place. Like, I need to be back in the deep south. So then. Nashville's the better Austin. I agree. Yeah.

Actually, it's not. For those of y'all watching that are trying to move to Nashville. Yeah. Nashville's horrible. Don't come here. So bad. No, but Mandy's parents then let us know. that they were going to retire here

so we were like, well, I'd like to be two hours for my dad, so then we moved. But yeah, it does look very sporadic. We look like we're crazy people. I get it. I feel like we need to start telling people. I wish we just went from like Alabama to Nashville versus the entire. I mean, we did the same exact thing. We're going to wait. We were all

up. Well, bouncing around the NFL, we're constantly moving. We did our stint in California for two or three years. Back in Nashville, we talked about going to Indianapolis. We've been we've been all over as well. Yeah, I guess it makes a little more sense though because it was like a job. We were just like

psycho people doing like a victory lap around the U.S. We have also had these conversations. There's something so cool about being with your spouse and having that life of like I don't know how to say it. We talk

about this like this contentment of so many people are born raised in middle of nowhere Alabama and they live there for the rest of their lives they work a nine to five they have like dreams to a spot like to go other places but they just won't yeah there's something so fun about doing that with your spouse yeah because it's like that's all I need right now oh you should have seen it's so cool the look on my face like the faces of my neighbors and people I grew up with because I had never lived outside of my hometown other than just briefly going to college an hour away and I was like I'm moving in California

They were like, what? They were like, why? I was like, well, how do I explain? Well, my friend. Well, my really pretty friend that shares the bed with me, we're moving together. No, but California was fun. We lived in Huntington Beach, beautiful. Yeah.

Are you guys frequent Zillow surfers? Hell yeah. I stay on Zillow. Weekly for me. We were just sending a house to each other this morning. I was like, babe, there's a hundred and eighty acres listening. What are you trying to do? I'm like, I don't know.

In Nashville? Yeah. Is that like an hour and a half away? I'll show it too much. Okay. 20 minutes north of Nashville. Wait, you should show Nate. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, dude. Miss Natty Champ herself. We need a community to go in on the thing together. Okay. Is it makes it sound like a softball field or something. You know, Moogie bets? Yeah. Well, we don't need a.

Hey, hey, keep. We don't want to do you. Sorry, don't look this up, guys. All right, all right. We'll chat. Okay. Okay. You guys share your lives all over the internet like we do.

Unfortunately, yes. You subject yourselves to millions of opinions on a daily basis. Love that for us. And considering your roots are so spread out. You have very southern, middle of nowhere, Alabama. You have California. Yes. You have very religious, organized religion.

You have California, not organized religion, but religious, spiritual. How do you navigate that on a daily basis, subjecting yourselves to opinions of every kind? God, I'm, tell me if I'm over speaking, but I don't feel like, I, like, no joke. We do not get a ton of, like, hate over our sexuality. Like, no, like, seriously, I, Mandy told me this quote a couple years ago, and it was actually, confident nobody will question you and ever since Mandy and I are just unapologetically and confident in our relationship and we put our best foot forward we really don't get a ton of hate about our sexuality now what we do get a ton of hate about which people are like how the hell

did this hillbilly land this girl and I'm like that's what y'all are upset about yeah I think the only comments come from like oh Mandy actually isn't gay she's secretly dating somebody or something Like the weirdest comments The Tim McGraw My God I didn't interview with Tim McGraw And everyone's like Yeah

I'm like sweating thinking about it No I'm just kidding But people are like Oh yeah She's definitely straight She's definitely into Tim I'm sorry Deney

And I'm like Everybody's in the time Everybody's in the Tim McGraw That would be weird If my wife Didn't think Tim McGraw was high I thought Tim McGraw was I think Dinah was sweating

more than I was Dude, his chest muscles? He's harder than dinner plates. You haven't been dying with that, dude. It was so nice. Have you seen his whole rig that he travels with? Oh, yeah. The workout.

Oh, with the workout. It is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Yeah, well, his chest muscles show that. He's very fit. And then on top of that, the only hate you get is some people think that her comedy is immature. That's the only conversations. But it's comedy. I know.

I'm like, what do you expect? have mature comedy? I mean, anyways, but... I feel like that would go off the rails. There is one thing

about, I think, us that we purposely do tastefully, and I'm gonna... That sounds like I'm like boasting about ourselves.

But even though we're a gay couple, we don't lead with our sexuality. And that's been something really important to us. And I think that people respect us more as a couple

because we're not in your face gay people versus... More of like, we don't label ourselves. Like, it's not necessarily like in your face,

gay it's we've talked about this it's more of like we don't have the rainbow flags in our bio and hashtag LGBTQ this and hashtag lesbian this it's just like it's mandy and dene before it's mandy and dene the gay couple we just want to show people like the biggest thing is is we want to show people that you can live a normal successful happy life and also happen to be gay instead of let's make because I have nothing else interesting about me, let's make my entire identity about my sexuality. And I just want the younger generation that are creators or that are professionals or going into business

or going into their classrooms to know that you can be confident in your sexuality, but don't allow it to take up so much space that it absorbs and overshadows who you are as a person because there's so much uniqueness to each of us as individuals. And if we only allow one brand, one umbrella of hashtag LGBTQ to absorb who we are, we're not allowing our friends like you guys to see that we have common interests. Like, Andrew and I could be buds. We could, like, you know what I mean? Like, we can hang out. But

if I'm just like constantly talking about like this or that, then it overshadows it. And that's one thing that we've actually found really remarkable on social media is that a lot of the couple things that we share is the same kind of couple things that you guys go through i mean we've already related on so many different topics already and so when we're sharing our relationship like i think it's refreshing especially for people in the middle of nowhere alabama to see that my wife does husband thing all of the time like all of the time like a noise are really bad no i'm not doing addition there's so many more commonalities to our relationship than there are differences to any normal relationship and it's been really amazing to see the support around that yeah what's the a on your

necklace for the a is that an a m oh and that makes more sense that makes more sense have you have you have you taken batting practice from mandy i don't want to she she throws heaters well the thing about mandy oh it's been about eight years since she's pitched so it can get a little sporadic you know For your safety, you don't want to. I've seen her pitch in the front yard. You know, like, she'll throw one and just, like, piping down the middle. Y'all, I haven't not pitched for eight years. Remember at the lake, you know, piping down the middle, and there may be one up near the head?

Remember the celebrity self-ball game when you dropped a pop fly? Oh, man. See? Marriage. It's pretty normal. Do you guys work out together? We used to. We don't know as much anymore, just because our gym space is kind of tight, but.

Oh, we just can't. Yeah. We don't work out together. Yeah. We started a workout yesterday. I said, can you, can you maybe pause? I'm just going to. She was like, do you think maybe you could not use the whole mirror?

And I was like, I'm sorry that the mirror is this wide. Do you want half a shoulder and I'll get half a shoulder? Like, how does that make sense? One of us needs to be the mirror person. So that worked out was like six minutes. And then I walked downstairs and then we reached. She continued and then I walked back up 45 minutes later. That's great.

Wait, the gym's too tight for tea I started signing up for your workout program You what? I started signing up for your workout program You signed up for ours? Like the Google form thing I'm not like I saw a picture of Deney with the Bama

It was like the before and after Where is he? We need to get this down We need to get this off the internet That was an old business of ours I think it's screenshot because I thought That was such an old business of ours Wait, I saw that. I got, yeah.

No, but did you see that? I saw the after picture. Y'all, where did you see that? I was thicker than a snicker. Like, I was, hey, you were digging them home runs. I bet. Friking boom of those. My coach, his motto, when he recruits people in Alabama,

um, he says that to me, like, you know, he shouldn't be saying this. But he does. And then he says, I'll like a girl with a big ass, because big ass, big power. And I'm like, coach. you can't say that before it's like you're going to get me too yeah you can't say that but no i was a i was thick at alabama dang i was like uh it's probably 35 pounds heavier than i am now i was 5 foot 9 about 180 yeah i was i was crushing but burgers Andrew, you got it to

250 I was a big boy, thick boy Yeah, I'm like 220 now and I still feel big But it's like, bro, my legs Were huge. He was thick. I can't even imagine you at 250. I got pictures and I had dreadlocks At one point in my life.

Not with me. And then directly after that phase I was like a frat boy So it was like, there's a lot. You were wearing boat shoes with Abercrombie and Fitch polos. No, no, this is directly after dreads. Oh, I was like, dude, what? He went from drug rugs and dreds to Abercrombie polos.

Like with the moose on it? Yes. And no, I did not have, it was not. And pleaded khaki shorts and boat shoes. I'm sorry, we all went through some. Is that calling it? That was the beginning of dating me. And I was like, we could work on this a little bit.

I like to diversify interest because it's like an empathy building exercise. I did my senior year of high school, I did a theater play because I was like, I don't understand why people do this. And I did it, fucking slayed it, met some new friends. He also joined a frat. And then I. Is that empathy too? Yes. I was my junior year.

I literally, because I wanted to know what the, what do you call it, the pledge process was like. But then you didn't do the pledge process. The Pledge Leader beforehand, I was like, this better be the hardest thing I've ever gone through it. And it was actually weird. It was actually weird. Yeah, they make it seem like you're going to be in like this dark basement doing like seances and stuff.

We kind of did that. I'm glad it was true. You didn't do that? No, I never joined. I don't, first of all I don't think I could have joined a fraternity and I definitely wouldn't have been to a sorority. Especially in Alabama sorority, this is different level. I have a character.

that I play on TikTok called Emma Kate Grace and I get super dolled up and I'm like hey y'all I'm Emma Kate Grace rushing for the University of Alabama my daddy just bought me this St. Laurent bag my dad doesn't always buy me stuff but when he does he buys me the good stuff and I'm like today you act like

you didn't use to wear miss me jeans and hoop earrings oh wow yes I had all the men do you remember the big hoop phase though what the bangles bigger the better what's a bangles the bangle bracelets

pretty much hoop earrings for your wrist I hope you're a head of risk. You do this to get your... But you do a lot of them. Yeah. Yeah. Make noise. Yeah.

Who is more creative between the two of you? She's more creative when it comes to strategy and marketing and having a game plan. Like, she's helping me write my comedy show right now. Um, I think performance wise, like, I wasn't the question here, but creativity here. She is, I'm the show. Yeah. She's... Mandy does a ton.

a ton of writing especially with jokes but like today is so good at improv of anything like if i mean she can have a conversation about anything and everything and then with her comedy and stuff it's just like so quick wit i think with me it's a lot more like strategy i love creation process i mean i study strategic communications in university and i love marketing that's what i was doing prior to um influencing social media i was like i don't even know what to call it social media life um but i just i love creating like i love video i love photo i love spatial creation i just i'm a very creative person yeah but she's also like really really like to me her bread and butter is marketing strategy yeah she's a she's a fantastic she's got a brain

for understanding trends and where the world's moving i was going to say obviously we're still getting targeted for your before and after ad you're doing something right so i have no i'll link that down below i'm word of part i did get a message today saying i think you've been hacked so maybe that's a part of that i have no idea it's funny you said this though because i distinctly remember seeing you a couple days ago on instagram it's before and after yeah meant somebody's using it it's not us oh oh somebody is using an like it was a post i'm not gonna lie i didn't take it in a lot but I was like Danae. Yeah that's definitely

yeah kind of like they did old Lainey Wilson shall see that one? No what happened? So you know how Lainey lost some weight over the past year people are saying that she takes their weight lost gummies and so Lainty got on Instagram she's like hey y'all I want to let y'all know I lost weight because I'm hustling my butt off I don't take weight lost gummies

That would be nice though she's like I would be nice though so I need to get on there I don't know where that is that's why I was like where did you guys Oh, no, no, I found the link, though, and I know exactly where it is. Okay, is it? But I got to target it at. It's on a YouTube video, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's on an old YouTube video in the description. That makes sense. Yeah. All right, good to know. Who's your creative inspiration? Do you have any, like, creators that you? Creators? Or comedians?

Yeah, I, uh, I like Cat Williams. Oh, wow. For whatever reason. Wow. This little white girl from Alabama, like, all of her favorite comedians are all black guys. And it's so funny because it's like, I grew up in a predominantly white town, but my dad's favorite comedians were Dave Chappelle and Cat Williams, Tracy Lawrence, not Tracy Lawrence, Martin Lawrence.

She was like, what? Tracy Lawrence. I'm out who you breed, darned out of Martin Lawrence. Shout out to Tracy, though. Great song, man. Hey, you're missing your icon. I was just saying, you're also a country music singer of these things. Yeah, it's getting weird.

y'all. We're writing a full-length album. Who am I missing? Lucille Ball. Oh, yeah. She wasn't black, though. I was going through my favorite background. I know, but I'm surprised you didn't say that. Well, yes. That's her biggest inspiration for a comedy. Really? Yeah. Lucille Ball?

Man, Lucille. Oh, my gosh. I just love that show, dude. Yeah, she truly did change the game when it comes to women in comedy, especially in that era. Not Liza Koshie? Are you a Liza Koshy fan? She doesn't know who that is. You're lying. I just showed you her. She was, like, she got really. girl you should look at it yeah yeah she has that she's not a tic-tag girl

she's not a tic-tac girl she's a tic-tac girl she started on TikTok no she started on vine oh yeah she started on vine but YouTube and then she's been in a lot of she's been in like every movie I've seen lately you got she's like now transitioning into like Hollywood yeah she got she was the biggest creator I would say she's transitioned she's there oh yeah she's like a lot yes I mean because she was in this movie and then she started promoting this movie and then she was in yeah and she's like no longer on socials no as much but go back and watch her youtube video you can take notes because she does different characters but like uh jet

what's his last name jet kaczynski or something like that oh my gosh she has different and helga i used to love i'm a youtube i would take a watch her on like ticot though because her no take it back youtube i but she does her short skits on ticot which like give you the summary of her comedy okay i'll i'll find her youtube I literally just showed her. And then I'll watch her on TikTok or not telling me. Watch them all! I showed you her, what, like a month ago?

I was like, how do you not know who this is? Because we were watching a movie with her in it. She was like, I don't know. I'm not a huge consumer, though. Like, I have my people that are like, and I'm not out trying to like find more. I got my people. Like, I'll watch Cat Williams from the early 2000s,

Dave Chappelle before, like, 2004, and then Lucille Ball. Like, I've, you know, I've got my people. that I like and then I just don't consume a lot of content like that's probably better I don't know she assumed but I what's her name Eliza Liza Liza Liza yeah okay yeah you're gonna shout out to Liza I'll send you some TikTok please do I can't wait to watch her it doesn't have to be the closing question but I'm just curious I want to jump to it I know I just hang out Andrew would keep every get we need to start giving you a time

limit I actually had this thought that Caroline's gonna be in the back going like um i feel like one of my favorite things that we've taken away from this conversation is like how to navigate relationships with trauma i feel like we get a lot of questions about that if you guys were to give one piece of advice to couples yeah given everything that your journey's kind of gone through what would that be wait can i give you advice real quick could you I just needed a little bit. I thought it was really going to say, well, let me start with you, Sean. I think you smudged the, you colored outside.

You know how Dana was talking about coloring outside the lines? You did a little bit of that with your eye show. You're being creative and I appreciate that. There you go. I appreciate your creative outlook. Yes. If I could give anybody any piece of advice, I think it would be to lead with empathy. I don't think you can be angry.

I don't think you can be overreactive if you're in an empathetic place. So I think we forget that, like, you are in a merriment or in a relationship with somebody that grew up so different than you. No matter what it may look like on the outside, there was different conversations in the household. There were different experiences. There's different personality traits. And, I mean, like, us as individuals, that's just an entire entity of things we can go down. But then try to create a relationship around two different worlds. I mean, I think we forget that.

I think a lot of, I mean, like the conversations you guys had about. your relationship with family, you would think growing up that everyone was like that or you might think that everyone was like the way that you were. And I think if you can be empathetic and open to other people's experiences as well as finding empathy to have patience and just leave with kindness and love, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if you're not showing your partner unconditional love, then you're just hurting them. You know, like, and that was something I had to navigate really intensely and intently with Deney because even though I was so angry sometimes that she was choosing her mom's conversation or the trauma that she had over me

to where it hurt me deeply, I had to remember she's not doing this to me. She's doing this in a reaction of, right? And so the empathy had to lead or I had to lead with that empathy to show her unconditional love, no matter how you react to your trauma. I'm still going to love you through it and I think at the end of the day there's no person that would be mad that you're showing them empathy you know there's only goodness that can come out of that absolutely um how you're gonna follow that one I don't know man that was give you some baby the thing I've had to learn in our relationship when navigating it is when my wife comes to is telling me a feeling that she has or a problem or anxiety or a struggle, I want to find a

solution. And there's some moments where she's not looking for a solution. She's not looking for me to lecture her or give her like the clear answer to something. She just needs me to be there and to listen to her. And so for me, it's just to really hone in and work on those listening skills because i think i get that from my dad my dad always gave me lessons and always gave me a solution versus sometimes i just needed my dad to just listen so for me i've had to like really work on that and make sure that she feels heard um because especially as women which it's funny i don't know when god made me i think you got real confused he was like we're going to put you in a woman body but give you a man's brain it's just so for me like i i just have really had to

to hone that skill and not always try to be the masculine energy that wants to provide the solution and fix it in that moment as just let's just listen for a moment make sure she feels really understood and really heard so i love that i bet you do i bet you do because it's it happens at least once a day where i'm like i got to work on that dena she doesn't need a solution right now she just want she to just freaking sit on a stove and listen to her talk while she's in the shower.

Seriously. Yeah. Love that. I know. To your point about empathy, someone the other day said, like, don't you think God's just up there

like bored with humans at this point after like thousands of years? I was like, no. The amount of ridiculousness like you, everybody is so different and wild and quirky.

It's like, bro, that would be. I think we keep surprising him probably. I know. He's like, I have that feeling too. What are you doing now?

But that's what makes it fun. It's like, wow, you know, Murphy's Law, like anything that can happen will. It's like, all right, well, what are the possibilities today, baby? It's really crazy how you can have the same experience as 300 people and there will be 300 different reactions. I'm like, how are we all not crying, laughing, screaming, or whatever? Like, everyone's, like, the way that we react to good news and bad news. And like Deney was saying, like when she, when I do need her to just. listen and she's being reactive it's just like why did you think that was going to work

you know and so it's like it's it's comical and I think that's where like you the empathy comes in it's just everyone's so funny like and then you add media into that and social media and outside opinions and then our world of having to manage that also while talking to a microphone right now hoping that this is being perceived well right right oh my gosh yeah I really this comes across well yeah yeah has social media been a good thing net net positive for you guys yeah yeah it's given us more freedom to just live the life that we want to live mandi worked a nine to five before we met and then i was tied to you know other people's schedule with real estate with uh content creation it's like we not only get to create the things that we're most passionate about like

with mandy it's a lot of beauty a lot of lifestyle a lot of fashion with me it's comedy that's all ever wanted to do. So not only are we filling those passions, but it also allows us just like you guys to be able to spend the time during the day devoted to creating and then spending the time we want with our family. Yeah. And I think growing up, I think if myself or Deney saw a relationship like ours, our early 20s would have been a lot easier, just personally. And then also, I think it's such a beautiful thing. You can connect with people that you would have never met. I mean, we had a message the other day that this person was going through chemo that would just go to our pages every single day and just find joy and laughing with us and she was like this is what i do in chemo

and i'm like what like that is what our little 15 second minute clips can do for people like and that's where all of the weird hate comments or the spam or whatever like it just doesn't matter because if you're changing somebody's day like making them smile because of a video that you created because you were having fun at home like how freaking cool people people give social media bad rap I know but I'm like it's pretty amazing it really is

I don't feel like people give social media bad rap that are our generation or younger if you've like grown up with it you understand it and you can utilize it I think it's really hard for anybody older than us to wrap their head around my did my did my dad's still my ditty he still ask how do y'all make a little

living? Yeah. You know, it's very hard for him to understand just because again, like you said, he just got an iPhone not long ago. So it's like... Yeah. I just feel like they're on the wrong side of the algorithm if it's not a positive space. Or they're just on Facebook. I'm like, you're creating that space. You know that right. Okay. So my

agent was like, you need to be on Facebook because when we start booking out your comedy tour, like Facebook is a big reason where we can find your demographic to know what cities to go to. So I was like, oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah, let me get on Facebook. oh my god

yeah the comments they're always I love 65 and plus community okay but on Facebook let me just go and pinpoint this demographic 65 to 75 they don't realize or maybe they do that they're leaving a really nasty public comment

I think they think sometimes they're sending it to somebody else and they're like look at this ugly lady that looks like she could be a man in her wig And I'm like, why would you type that out? They're brutal. And then they usually always have some sort of political affiliation as their cover profile or their profile picture. And I'm just- Don't share all, like, syndicate all your stuff to Facebook as well.

Yeah, pretty much. I will say this. That's his. You grow, like, wildfire on there. Like, you could, but you got to be, they will cut you to your knees. Yeah. I just always think it's funny. Like, my parents are on Facebook and, like, nothing else.

Yeah. And some of the links I get sent from, like, my mom, I'm just like, mom, what are you doing? This is the Russians. You can't be believing these. She's like, did you see what happened? I'm like, that didn't happen. I know, because, like, that age group, they're like, propaganda, propaganda. And I'm like, y'all are propaganda on Facebook.

You are cultivating propaganda. Like, it is the most, it's just the most depressive app I've ever been on. And I've never been on the right side of Facebook, so I'm not sure there is one. I will continue to bless Facebook with my content and not read the comments. Yeah, I can't do it. That's just today's content on there. I'm like, I don't even want to play in the sandbox. Comments are so bad.

I have two more questions. One is, what are your goals career-wise now? Well, we have a lot in the works right now that we haven't really been able to share. So thank you for asking that. but right now I am writing with Mandy and some other songwriters in Nashville, a full-length comedy country album. So the album will be integrated. A lot of the songs will be integrated into my one-woman show.

So I'm coming out with a comedy show, hopefully by Q1 of next year. And the comedy show is going to be, it's not stand-up. It's a one-woman show where it is me, the entirety of the show, and I'm going to have characters that I've created on TikTok integrated into the show I'm going to be doing a lot of storytelling and then those storytelling

or those stories will lead into the songs that I've written about those stories So Can I buy tickets yet? Not yet, but soon, but soon. And Mandy has been helping me write the comedy show. She surprisingly, being from California,

she has such a knack for southern culture and humor because she has such a fresh perspective. It's just so much funnier. Yeah. I think it's so much funnier. But, yeah, those are like the two big goals right now. And I can't, I'll tell you all fair, but it'll happen within a couple of weeks. Something really cool that.

I, like I was saying earlier, I love the creator process. And so obviously Instagram and building our social media platforms out. But writing the show has been so fun because it's not just, people think that you're just like sitting down writing jokes but it's an entire show process of like when you're going to enter the stage what exit how are you going to integrate the audience what type of way are you going to integrate each you know new character and stuff so I'm helping write the show helping write music um I also she's a big right on road hard which is so funny because she's so classy like so classy for her to write roadhart and put up wet like this is weird I know um but I also like in this season I'm

big support to Deney's career, but down the road, we are about to launch a podcast as well. Let's go. So we would love to do like a podcast tour and have you guys own it, of course. Yeah, of course. But also like I would love like a TV sit down morning show or just a conversation. Like, and I think it'd be really fun for Deney and I have a new space in that, whether that looks like a late night show, a morning show, a talk show. But what I was also saying is Deney recently signed. to she has an agent now for TV and film as well and they're booking out her comedy tour but also

with so many more opportunities I mean like I'm just so open to creative spaces as well as entertainment and so like my goals are obviously to build out her comedy career and our podcast and that tour but also to just be more in the entertainment space like I would love to do interviews for Vogue one day like that would be so much fun um I also love architectural digest so i would love to if i could tour some of those houses yeah she would make like mandi and i've talked about it hosting in some capacity or interviewing whether that's at like new york fashion week or at the oscars on the red carpet mandy just like loves high fashion so she would know like you put me on the red carpet i don't even know what those brands are but mandy loves high

fashion like fashion week would be like her jam so to be able to like host in some capacity like I think she'd knock it out of the part so it was cool to see you do Tim McGrawl well not do Tim McGrawl but it was cool to see your interview Tim McGraw a couple of weeks ago just because that's the trajectory of where you want to go is to be able to get in those spaces

and then with TV and film if like ever say Deney had a TV show and they wanted me as a cameo I wouldn't say no we actually not to derail this combo but Mandy and I got to be extras in a movie with Eugene Levy from Schitts Creek,

Diane Keaton and Kathy Bates back in March. That's awesome. It was so cool to do that together because we're sitting in this room where they're filming this scene with all these massive A-list actors. And like, Mandy and I are like almost forgetting that we're on camera because we're like so enamored

with the actors. We're like watching them and it was really cool to see them all do their thing. Like Kathy Bates is like a method actor. She never breaks character even when she. he's on lunch break. So, like, you can't go up and be like, hey, Kathy, because she's still in her character.

Eugene Levy's the most serious comedic person I've ever been around. Like, he would be pacing the room and counting his steps and being very strategic and methodical. And then he'd get back to a comedy space where he's being super goofy. And then, like, Diane Keaton is Diane Keaton in every movie she plays.

Like, all on or off camera. But I think we really got bit by the bug of I've always wanted to be in television and film but I think Mandy really got bit by the bug when she was on set for those two days because it was like this is such an art and it's so cool to see people do it

especially from behind the scenes when you've never seen that side of it our last thing I want to hear your engagement story oh my gosh y'all it was the best we have a YouTube video on it hopefully we don't have workout links in that YouTube video

but but Mandy Mandy it was her birthday and I had booked a resort that I could barely afford at the time. This was back in... You could leave those details up. Yeah. I'm just kidding.

It was like a bougie resort in Southern California. I was like, babe, we do not belong here, but we about to be engaged here. And I booked it and I told her on her birthday on January 7th, I said we're going to go to this really nice

steakhouse. It's in the resort. She was like, babe, you're so sweet for doing this for me. Like, nobody's ever done something like this for my birthday. Can I talk like that? I was like, well, get ready. Um, I was like, but hey, if we could though, like let's, let's, uh, get outside like an hour before our reservation because I want to fly the drone up and I want to take some pictures with the ocean in the background and because it's January at a beach resort, there was like nobody there. So it's like, we are all by ourselves. So we got out there an hour ahead of time and I had put the ring in the drone pocket and I was like, okay, go stand over there while I get this drone ready. And she's like,

no, no, no, I'll just stand right here. And I'm like, go stand over there. You put the ring on the drone? No, no, no, in the drone like case. Because I didn't really have it. Because I don't ever fly it and so she knew I wasn't going to open it. Okay. I was like, no, no, no, go over there, Manny. So Mandy walks and takes her cute little place. And then I go. And then I grab the ring and put it in my hand and then I fly the drone up and I get it just right to where I want it and it's just beautiful landscape and Mandy and I are just right in the middle and then I was like all right well I'm going to snap a couple of photos with the drone and I was like let's do one where we spin and so I spun her and as her back was to me I got down on one day and she spun around I had the ring and I was holding it up and it was like in the video you see her she goes like she just rocks back like oh my gosh How did you pull this off? But I thought she fell at first. I was like, are you okay?

Yeah. And I was like, oh, my goodness. And I had her mom and dad's at the very tip-top balcony. She had no idea that they were there. And so they started clapping. And then this lady that was on her balcony, she goes, I knew you were going to propose. She started clapping. And then we went and we had dinner at, I think it's a bourbon steak.

Is it? I think it is bourbon. The same bourbon. Yeah. Here, I believe they had one of that restaurant. Have you guys ever been to Dana Point? Yes. So it was the Monarch in Dana Point.

Oh, sick. They changed the name since. Somebody bought them out. But, yeah, it was... It was beautiful. It was amazing. And then we called my dad right after and got to celebrate with him. Yeah, the video is on YouTube.

And it's really cheesy because it looks like we're just going to have a blog. And then at the end, you're like, wait a minute. This is a very extravagant engagement. Yeah. Did you get married and tell you're on? ride and no we went on a honeymoon and telluride and i got i got so sick i was like fuck oh i ate a buffalo sandwich at the airport which was no buenos never do that at the montrose airport i think it has all of one gate and a man that's like buffalo sandwiches buffalo sandwiches and i was

like god i'm so hungry i'll take one and then by the time we got to our resort i was altitude sick And I was sick eating bollablo chicken. So Mandy and I had a very romantic honeymoon. She was, she had altitude sickness for like a day and a half. And then we did, we were able to like go and it was rough. I'm not going to lie. We went to tell you right once. Buffalo's baby.

I could not function. Really? I was so sick the whole, like my brain felt like it was coming out of my head. I'll never go again. No. It was. No. It was beautiful.

It was so beautiful. It's 11,000 feet above sea level. I literally thought my brain was exiting my body. No amount of Tylenol. Nothing. I felt like death. He was like, just put this oxygen tank on your face and just like breathe in every 10 minutes. I'm like, what kind of honeymoon is this?

He was like just like really suck it down and I was like, what are we on Everest?