Duncan Trussell Family Hour - 398: Derek Waters

Episode Date: September 5, 2020

Derek Waters, creator of Drunk History and one of Duncan's best friends, rejoins the DTFH! It's been nearly 4 years! This episode is brought to you by: DHM Detox - Use offer code: DUNCAN at checkout and save 20% on your first order! BetterHelp - Visit betterhealth.com/duncan to find a great counselor and get 10% off of your first month of counseling!

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and today our guest is Derek Waters, host of Drunk History, co-creator of Drunk History, and one of my dear friends. We're gonna get going with this thing, but I thought I'd let you know that the reason those ravens are circling your house, or if you've seen coyotes galloping down the streets of your neighborhood, and they stop and stare at you with a penetrating gaze, or if you wake up

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and ejaculated into paradise. All you gotta do is subscribe at patreon.com, Ford slash DTFH. Now, without further ado, everybody, please welcome to the Duncan Trussell Family Hour Podcast, one of my dearest friends, Derek Waters. Hello there. Welcome, welcome on you,

that you are with us, shake and no be too bl winner, Welcome to you at, it's the Duncan Trussell Family Hour Podcast. Derek, welcome back to the DTFH. It has been, feels like a million years. I think it was probably last four years podcast. It's been, it's been E E on.

I saw one of the things about the pandemic that is so we always just think back to the ancient times before this pandemic. And I used to say that kind of sarcastically, like, you know, the before times, but the longer the shit goes on, the more like all the stuff that used to seem so normal just seems like something in the distant past, you know,

like a- When there was time, when there was like a deadline, when there was like, I was thinking the other day, sorry, my first line, I cough in the mic. It's been four years, you know? I'm pretty sure I could tell you what hour it is by walking outside. I've gotten used to know where the sun is like,

like I wear a watch that doesn't work. Oh, me too. There's no- Do you feel ashamed about that? What's that? Do you feel ashamed about that? Not at all. I love them people.

I'm sorry to interrupt this. I'm sorry, can you record on your end on Zoom? Oh God. And we got it. Hey, do you mind if I just get some water? I forgot. Yeah, man. Like, you know, just this thing that just happened,

we've become used to these Zoom, you know, we've become used to these Zoom technicalities, just all the weird shit that is suddenly, like, I don't want this to be normal. I don't want it to be like, oh yeah, it's a Zoom problem that I'm having talking to my friend. You know, but it's becoming normal. My kid, you know, when I'm wearing a mask,

he'll point to it and go, mask, mask. Oh God. Sorry. You know? What was your son's first word? Masky. Mask, mask. And it's like, this is the weirdest time, you know,

when you, there's something so wonderful about humans' ability to adapt to our environment, but God damn, there's something tragic about it too. Isn't there? It's all tragic. I don't know where the good part is, but it's gone on for so long. It's why humans are constantly asking why about everything.

Like when a baby, fart, your child probably says why after everything, right? Did you call my child, Fart? Fart, and then I stopped because I was like, maybe Duncan doesn't want people to know his name. I was out of respect, out of respect, I called him Fart. To protect him, his name is Fart, Trussell.

Your baby, Fart. You know, little Fart Trussell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can say his name. I'm just saying, kids always ask why, we always ask why. And I think we're trying to act like this is normal. And that's what I don't like. It's like, this isn't normal.

We shouldn't be pretending like this is fine, but we also have to, whatever. I'm not gonna get in a mask ramp, but it fucking pisses me off. I ride my bike every day and I just, this isn't a bike story. This is a mask story. Yeah, well, I mean.

And just the amount of people that still aren't doing it. And I just, I wish there was a shirt, or wish there was a fucking necktatt I could have of like the ventilator diagram of what it does to you and how it goes inside of your throat and down your lungs, like put on your bib, put on your bib. You know, man, you can't, this is one, I've had a few like epiphanies

when I've been thinking about that, going through the mass frustration. Then I just remember people fucking smoke. Like, you know, like these are people's, people are complete, they're, how many times, I can, I can, I can, I can, I've been at a cafe but in the ancient times with my kid, my wife, and some fuck will just light a cigarette,

a few tables down, the wind clearly blowing the smoke across the people and we'll pretend that we don't notice it when we obviously, nobody likes having a carcinogen blown through the wind on them. And you look at it, you know, you look at the person doing it with this combination like indignation and underlying shame, right?

And that's what I see with the people who are adamantly anti-maskers. It's the same fucking thing. It's like, I'm not going to adapt is what their, their ego has gotten attached to non-adaptation. Dude, when I got fucking cancer and the doctor told me I had cancer, I remember saying to him, but I can still,

I had the tour, a little tour coming up. I'm like, I can still go on this tour, right? And he's like, you have cancer. No, I just told you, you had cancer. Like, you can't go on a tour. You gotta get, this is, you, there's no time to waste but my mind could not catch up to the new reality. And so I think all these people that it's a combo denial

mixed in with lazy thinking, mixed in with anti-science irrationality, mixed in with terror, you know? But I, and we're all like, come on motherfucker, just put the goddamn thing on for two weeks. If everyone did it, the show would be over. Yeah. Should I put on a mask?

No. What's, is this sound okay? Is it working? Sounds great. You look upset. No, I just upset myself. You look good, man. I like this new Jimmy Buffett style.

Look, I'm a dad now. I'm gonna wear wine and fucking shirts. Fucking dad, I wear a wine and shirts in the day. I don't care. Derek, so, man, so let's just hit the first thing everyone's gonna be wondering about drunk history, the beloved drunk history. Really?

It's like in the comedy world, this was like, you know, this meant a lot to a lot of different people, me included. You're the first person who really put me out there in front of people over and over and over again. Some of my favorite memories that I can remember. When we, yeah, when we, when I asked you about Tesla, when we first did it.

No. What's the memory? It's every time I'm about to go into an amnesic blackout and the patience in your face is I'm realizing over the years how you've gotten progressively better at talking to drunk people. And like the delight in knowing that I could trust you to allow myself to fall into some kind of demonic haze

that you weren't gonna use whatever I said that would like be horrific. You know, it was, you know, that's I think one of the many, many things that weird talents you develop when you start doing weird shit. And you became this Sivangali for drunk people. But also you became a very trusted person

because no one's gonna say yes to doing a show where you are supposed to get blackout drunk if they think you're gonna use shit that they said when they were blacked out drunk against them to make them look bad. You achieved this like everyone trusts you that and that's when I say beloved. I mean, like you gave us all,

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That's nodayswasted.co ford slash Duncan. Notcom.co. And then all of a sudden, everything's fucked in the world. I'm always trying to keep myself from plunging into the abyss of cynicism and negativity. Another person has died, another person's gone nuts. And then all of a sudden, on fucking Twitter,

what pops up, but the drunk history has gotten canceled. And that was a shadowy moment for me, man. I just was like, come on. Like, come on, what the fuck are you doing? Like this show, not just because I was on it and it gave me a little bit of a spotlight and let me ramble in a drunk way and was delight. And I would always think to every single one,

I'd be like, I'm never gonna do another one. I can't enjoy these hangovers. And then you'd always call and be like, have you ever heard of this story? And I'd be like, whoa, shit, and wanna do another one. But, you know, it's sad, man. How are you doing with a cancellation? I'm good, I'm good.

I mean, it's definitely, it's hard because when the obvious things you work hard for something and then somebody makes a decision that's completely out of your control and it just feels, it feels like a funeral but no music. Like I just, I'm okay with the funeral. I just would like there to be music so I could end it. You know what I mean?

What do you mean music? Like, what do you mean? I would like to end it. Like an upbeat, there's a difference between a funeral and an upbeat funeral, you know, like a celebration, you know? Yeah. And so we had filmed all of season seven. You remember the amazing Poltergeist story

that you were told and we had shot all those. All those stories are completely finished and, you know, we stopped for COVID and then, yeah, these new people came into the network and just decided they didn't wanna do it anymore. And I had figured that they were gonna come in and say, let's just, they're notorious for like buying cheap shows that make a lot of money and so I was expecting,

okay, they're gonna say the show's too expensive and we gotta cut it down. And I was prepared to pitch ending the show like it started and just shoot it in our backyards with even dumber wigs than before and just making it feel like how it originally started on YouTube. And I just thought that would be authentic and it would be like cheaper and a good way to end it.

It's the stuff that we hadn't, like I'm okay with the show being over, but it's the stuff that we were doing that I just wanted to finish that. I don't know if you remember the teacher appreciation episode, like as you know, I would do this thing each night with everyone where I say like, you know, Duncan, do you mind looking in the camera and saying like your name

and what we're gonna be learning about today? And each night this season I could feel when they were drunk enough where I, they thought I was just gonna say that again and so I'd go, will you just look in the camera, tell me who you are and who your favorite teacher was and everyone's face just like lit up. Cause it's like, that's the best stuff of, you know,

talking about our teachers and nobody forgets that. And then I talked about mine and then Mr. Stang, my history teacher came on the show. I got like a little school desk and he's like by a chalkboard and we just get shit face and he tells the amazing story of the whiskey rebellion with Alexander Hamilton. And it was just like, this is it.

Everybody wants to be friends with their teacher, but like to get drunk and have him tell a story. And then I said, I save everything and I saved my binder from his class and he like regraded my papers. It was so cool. I just thought that would have been a great way to end the series of like a history show

that was, you know, gave a shout out to the most important job in the world, teachers. Yeah, I mean, usually the, like I, like usually when you have a show like Drunk History that has been successful for a long time that's become like everyone's familiar with it, usually when you have a show like that that's been going on for so many seasons,

it is when it's finally, when it's time to end, usually there's some kind of joyful goodbye between the network and the creator. Like, fuck, we did this for this long. Thank you so much. And you're like, thanks for letting me do this thing. But there's something in this that is so jarring and is seems to actually be weirdly perfectly in sync

with this time period in human history where it's like shit just is falling apart, you know? And like that, it's like the idea that, you know, that it would be sort of unceremoniously just, well, now, like, yeah, you did it for how long again? How many years? I mean, the YouTube was 2007, but then when it became a show,

I think we did the pilot in 2012 or 13. Yeah, so, I mean, been damn near decade of doing this here's the reality. Uncreative people shouldn't be allowed to make creative decisions. And that goes in every job. It's like there's somebody at the top making decisions, no matter if it's a hardware store or a TV network,

like, where they shouldn't be, you know? There's just certain people that I'm just like, why the fuck would you make, why wouldn't you just talk about it? What is the problem? Let's help each other. Is it that it's too expensive? Okay, let's change it.

Okay, you can't say it's COVID because COVID's going to be gone. Just hold the show and we'll come back later. But just cut the dick off and not talk about it? I mean, it's Lorena. Yeah, what are you? What are you? Lorena Bombett?

Yeah. I was gonna see where you were going. What are you, Jeffrey Dahmer Bombett? Come on. That's, yeah. You know, this is the, like, I get, to me, like, you know, there's a lot of industries. Like, to me, like, there's something,

I just hope, anything you say in this regard, you sound naive and ridiculous, but I mean, I would hope that humans, like, evolve past the whole, well, it's just business, man. You know, to me, like, the whole just business. Yeah, don't take it personally, it's business, babe. Hey, it's just business. It's like, look, this is, that's the, you know.

We're humans, we're all humans. A robot didn't make this decision. A human made this decision. So people at the top, this is the thing, take 90 seconds out of your goddamn fucking day and call someone and say, this isn't working out. Do the breakup. Don't just all of a sudden take the keys away.

Like, breakup, do the breakup. Do, be a fucking human. Prove that you have some sort of human quality. Humanize yourself. But it's people in power that hide from that crap. They make a decision based off money, but you forget how many people that affects. I'm sad about the show, but more importantly,

the world that I had of people, of crew, of, you know, narrators that don't work as much, people that I can hire, like, and then them losing their, you know what I mean? Like, that's the thing is I don't mind losing a TV show because I am excited to do more stuff, but I get sad at just how, just how it's done. How it's done needs to change because it's just,

again, I'm not playing poor to me. I just get really upset with people that have no human qualities that are making very big life changing decisions. Look, you know, first of all, you don't seem, you know, I was talking to you on the, when we were talking last, one thing I said to you, which I still feel like today, is like, you're not being whiny enough, you know?

Like you're, I don't know if I would be able to, like, I don't know, like, it would, it's, to me, the key part is that thing you just said, which is a TV show that's been around as long as yours is, has, it does become a family. It's not a cheesy thing to say. It becomes a community. It becomes like an artist colony.

You, and also it becomes like a methodology of creation that's specific to that group of people, a sort of process that gets refined over the years and all the mistakes you made early on that you fix and all the things you learn. So by the end, you get this like incredible machine that's designed to produce this one thing in a smooth, beautiful, funny way.

And so it's like, yeah, it's not just like you're canceling a show. You're canceling like a factory, a process. And yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, maybe there's no good way to do it. I mean, and the other thing is the, you know, don't you get the sense there's just not, you're not getting all the data, right?

Isn't that the other infuriating thing is like, and because you're not getting all the data, you have in your mind one person who you're fucking pissed at, but you don't know what happened. Cause you know, it's connected to a whole web of others. Who the fuck knows? That's the part that's got, that's weird. Yeah, it's absolutely no one has told me the reason.

That's like, oh, force majeure. Like, well, you can't call that if, whatever, I can't talk about that, but you can't use that term if you have other shows in production. It's like the act of God didn't just happen in Burbank. Man, the, look, this is my paranoid self, you know, driving around LA, looking around,

looking around and thinking some's, some's off here, man. Not that some should be on, but it's like, I've lived in this city so long, I love this city. And I remember like sitting with my wife when I began to realize I was gonna have to leave. And just, and she saw it on my face. She's like, it's okay, it's okay. I didn't cry or anything, but I was like, wow,

this beautiful place, this beautiful, beautiful place that, you know, help both of us kind of like live out dream lives. Something's cracking in a way I've never seen it crack before. And I, and I, like it was this realization of like, oh fuck, like, it's bad, it's what, it's bad. And it's bad in a way that people are gonna talk about years down the road, but right now,

I don't think they've even formulated words for it. And so that thing that happened to Comedy Central, to you and Comedy Central, to me indicates a huge chunk of data that you don't, that you're not privy to. And that's my conspiracy theory part of me. I just keep thinking, man, all this shit, you know, you're driving down the road here, man.

And you look up and it's like shantytowns. It used to be homeless encampments. The homeless encampments are turning into shantytowns. Like, people are building little like houses with like plywood and shit. And like, there's Porta Johns, you're like, that's a shanty, that's a shantytown. And you know what I mean?

And that means that if that's happening and it's spreading and expanding, then to me, that's like a little, like, it's like when you see one mouse in your house or you see like, you know what I mean? It's like there's, it means other shit's going wrong. Other shit's spreading out in the industry here. Just think about this industry, man.

Like, these execs, man, they're having to deal with the craziest fucking problems, you know? And like, but I don't, so who the fuck knows what happened, man? Who the fuck knows? But I think what you're saying is that we always have been like, you know, the man, you know, fuck the man and all that.

But like, now, you're like, oh, now I, you can see more of why we felt the scum-ness. And I think since all of this started COVID, like, you start to really see who cares and who doesn't. And it's like a test for everyone because there is no instruction manual for this. No one's done this before. So we're not like, oh, well that's what they did

and they turned out fine. Like, the only thing that we could learn from or the other countries that started this before us, but we're really seeing who cares and what they care about. You know, like, and I think that because so many places have lost money because of the obvious, people make terrible decisions when they're in fear. Nothing good.

Have you ever heard someone going like, holy shit, I was freaking the fuck out. I made the best decision. No one's ever made a good decision based on fear. Ever. No way. And all these decisions, and I'm not talking about the show, everywhere is based off fear. And we're all scared because what do we know?

What do we know? We know now, which we have talked about forever. That's all we've ever known. But even more importantly now is, that's all we can focus on is this moment in time because we, this is just the craziest whacked out dream anyone has ever been part of. Dude, have you heard the litany against fear

in Dune that Ben Jezzer at litany? It's like the sci-fi book Dune. It goes, it's the best. It goes, I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. Is it that cool? Wow.

I love that. It's like once the amygdala starts, but it goes on, it goes on a little bit longer. I just haven't memorized all of it. But once the amygdala starts taking over, all your decisions are gonna be fight or flight. And I think what you're shining a light on is like right now, we're seeing people

who have either allowed themselves to get swept into their amygdala and are acting in a survival way, which usually is the opposite of morality quite often. It reduces a human to like an animal level. Like when you see dogs rip food away from each other, growl or fight, that's what's happening. And I think it's happening in every level

of the American life right now. It's happening in the boardrooms. It's happening in the living rooms. It's happening in the hearts. And yeah, man, it all comes down to a simple decision, which is like, you can die unafraid or you can die having fear but not reacting to it and in your dying, try to help the people around you.

That's like the ultimate cool decision to make because you're gonna die anyway. Right. What, yeah, I know, I guess I said it again, but like, yeah, what moment in your life were like, I'm glad I was scared. I'm really glad I was freaking out. But right now it's hard to.

It's hard not to. It's hard, it's, there's so many unknowns. We just have to hold on to what we know. And yeah, I just, yeah, you realize what's important and what isn't, you know? Yeah, and you know, it can all just get boiled down to me. It's like, it's really beautiful. It all gets boiled down to helping like pretty much.

That's it. It's like, how can I hope? You know, that's it. You're, you're, that's it. And then that's a simple thing, easy to forget though. Cause then whenever you start trying to help yourself, you're going to get bored and like confused. But anytime, you know, you just try to,

you try to help people around you if you can. Somehow. I'm going to miss you. You know, here's this funny thing about life. And I guess getting older and our weird business is like, we probably see each other. What do you think? Maybe four times a year?

If that. That's crazy. I mean, you're one of my closest friends. Same. And how was that? I mean, that's even before COVID. I mean, there was a time we saw each other more, but maybe, maybe when we, whatever,

I'm just saying like, I'm going to miss you. But I'm like, I'm going to come down and see you. Yeah. And I, that's for sure. I mean, that's like, you know, I have a, yes. And we will see each, I mean, we'll see each other in the flesh. Here's the funny thing. This is another part of my decision to leave. I just realized like, it's not like I'm going to be hanging out

in person with that many people for about, for a while. You know what I mean? It was that sense. But that thing that you're talking about there, it reminds me of what happens when someone dies. Because when someone dies, their body's not there anymore. But you have this bizarre sense of them still being there. And the cynic will say, well, that's just, you know,

your nervous system, your brain is wired in a universe where they exist. But anyone who's had a true loss knows like, no, that actually isn't quite right. They're still here. Yeah. They're just, they're not, they're not talking. And friends like us, we always feel like we're hanging out.

Like if, with your dear friends, if you look in your heart, it's weird because you're with them. Like this is quantum entanglement, man. Like they talk about, you take two particles and put them together, you could still transmit data from one to the other. Somehow they stay connected forever. Right?

And so, and to me, man, the stigma against, right now we have got to shift into a world where we're decentralized, right? And like centralization in a city around an industry that is no longer even happening in that city. Centralization around any, it's superstition, man. Like centralization is superstition. Meetings are superstition.

Like this idea that we all have to gather together in offices and dab these fucking fart meetings. You find that superstitious? 100% superstitious. You've got to make a plan. When are you gonna say like a head coach talking to like his football team as superstitious? No, there are some industries that still require exports.

What are you gonna do? Do you have a Zoom football game? No, no, no, I'm saying, what you were saying, are you, I thought you were just saying in general, when a boss has like a meeting that's superstitious. You're seeing in this time. In the, no, I'm saying, if you run a company that does mind work and you're getting bodies together

like you're all are gonna dig a trench together, when you're just gonna watch each other eat donuts and drink coffee and talk. Yeah, yeah, that's great, yeah, great, yeah, great. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's pretty good. It's superstition, that's all. And the superstition is just like superstition always does,

it hurts the planet because people are so fucking superstitious they're commuting two hours to get to a place that they don't need to be to do a thing that they could do using this incredible technology we have and missing their families. Their kids don't see them, their families don't see them. When the family structure starts collapsing in on itself because of this ridiculous two hour commute

blowing fossil fuels into the air, then you know what I mean? Then you realize like this dark religion of gathering together in towers to do things that you could do remotely is collapsing around us. And that to me is the grand utopia. And as soon as artists and creators

and everybody realizes that, though, oh yeah, we don't have to be here or there. I'm not saying that just cause I'm leaving. I'm just saying like this sooner people realize like we can still make good stuff and be scattered across the planet. It will be the beginning of artistic renaissance because artists generally are poor as fuck.

You know, these poor comics or creators coming to LA, the city of dreams to do what? To do shit that they could easily do remotely. This is over and this is initially gonna suck but then it's gonna lead to something so wildly beautiful if you ask me. I think, I agree with you. I remember when I first moved here,

I was like, I don't, everything that I'm writing or thinking of takes place in Baltimore. And I'm like, well, I guess I would have to make it look like Baltimore here, like, cause this is the only place to do things. And there's so many different types of people that have evolved that, Tyler Perry,

but also, you know, Danny McBride, you know, in North Carolina, making that a new place like that. I think, and just adding to your point is that that was already happening, but due to this, there's so many things that people are realizing. Hey, I could live not that much further away or I could live in a really, really nice place for kids. They wouldn't have to go to private school or public,

and just, you don't have to be in a line. I'm just repeating, I agree with what you're saying is all I should have said. No, man. I'm asking as I'm saying, I'm like, why do I still live here? That's an important question to ask cause a lot of times people are living here

just cause they live here. And, you know, I think it's the job of the artist to be, you know, I think the idea, as much as you can is to realistically begin to push the boundaries. And, you know, I think that like LLA, when we first started doing, when we were here initially, right?

We had to be here. There was no way we could have gotten where we're at if you'd stayed in Baltimore, if I'd stayed in North Carolina, there's no way we could have got, we had to be, if not for the Martini Cafe, where we'd be. Remember, but we needed that.

Melrose and Largemont, 2000. Yeah, we needed that, man. And we needed all the connections that we made and all the people that we met out and all the like inspiration we got from being around people. And what the other thing that this ties into is yes, there are things we can do remotely, but we need to be around people.

As human hearts, like people need to be, you know, I'm alone. And then when I like, I don't, I've seen like five people through all this, but when I see someone, I'm like a fucking dog going, someone's coming inside. Oh my God, yeah, oh my God, it's so good to see. What have you been doing?

Oh my God. Well, you have ears, I have ears too. Wow, your nose is like mine. Oh wow. Yeah, dude. So there, I agree with you creatively, we'll be fine. But I do think as human beings and human happiness, there is a thing that is,

I find the hardest part of all this is like, not like I miss touching people, but I miss, you know, not thinking about how far I am from someone. Well, I mean, yes. But still having, you know, I give people, I have always been giving people social diss, but now even more, you know?

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that's betterhelp.com forward slash Duncan. Come on, are you really gonna pretend you're feeling great right now when it's like there's a swarm of bees in your head? Well, that's me, I gotta try them out. But, and you know what I mean about touching people, I don't want that to be misunderstood. Oh, I know what you mean, trust me.

And everyone knows what you mean. You little love that human touch. Ah, you wanna lick a butthole. No, man, we want to be, look, you're right. I'm just talking about any time, you know, I'm talking about LA aside. I'm talking about idolatry, man. This is why in the Bible, you know,

if you really wanna piss God off, one of the great ways to do it is start worshiping a false idol. Nothing infuriates the Old Testament God more than looking at His, or His, in this case, beautiful creation, like bowing down to a fucking golden bull, right? Who's doing that?

Give me who the golden bull is though. Well, the golden bull represents the, I mean, so like, in, there's- Like Hollywood. Well, I'm trying to, like, let's take it a look, let's go meta. The golden bull, like there's a type of anarchism called anarcho-primitivism,

and it's the idea that the moment we started semantically representing reality, you know, like that's a beautiful mountain. Look at this beautiful field. Then we reduced reality to the language itself, so a human being will come to you and go, I don't feel, I feel happy, I feel sad, but really the way they feel is probably, like,

indescribable, so in these broad sort of grunts, we end up losing all the nuance of human identity. So this is exactly what happens whenever artists get confused, like how many completely disgruntled, depressed, brilliant, genius, creative types of you run into who are deeply frustrated because they have decided that the only methodology for them to produce good art is to go through this incredibly difficult series

of obstacles to get a corporation to fund their idea and put it on their particular network, right? And you meet a person who in that terrible war has become so depressed and so hard on themselves and so down on themselves when they are literally sitting in front of what in the 70s would be like the most powerful TV studio on earth with the ability to instantly publish.

So what I would say the golden bull is, it's not LA, LA is great because of the people here. It's not the entertainment industry, the entertainment industry is great because it's filled with a community of creative people. The idolatry is the localization of that in a place that is very expensive to live, that is charging insane amounts of income tax

and which is for whatever reason, seemingly disintegrating because the reason people came here originally was because it was like you could get a lot of sun and it was beautiful. People came here because it was beautiful. You would smell flowers in the air. Remember that? It would rain.

Yeah, it would rain. You know, remember there was no fire season. Do you remember that? The Martini Lounge, we weren't walking outside looking up at the yellow sun covered in smoke, were we? No, it was beautiful and you were living here like damn, I get why this place is expensive because it's flowers in the fucking air.

It's beautiful and it's a thriving community. Look at it now. It's not that and not just because of COVID, man. And so for me, that's the golden bull. That's the golden bull is worshiping a thing that's dead when it's just, it's moved on. It's not there. People are in Detroit.

People are in fucking Montana. People are in, where's Danny McBride? North Carolina. North Carolina. People are like scattered all around the country and they're still making brilliant shit. So the golden bull would be the thing that's keeping you locked into a place out of sentiment.

But isn't there something so rewarding when you realize this thing that you thought was the toll master or the gatekeeper, isn't the gatekeeper, you know, that there's a huge amount of joy. I had this really, really amazing experience. When I first moved here, I was up for a TV show and I got to like the final level of testing

and in the room they like said that they weren't gonna pick me. And I was probably really upset. I don't remember, cause I'd try to block it out. But what I do remember is Henry Winkler was auditioning to be my dad. And he said, what happened? I'm nice.

They told me I was too green. I don't even know what that means. I remember knowing like, I don't know what green is. And he goes, you know that this has nothing to do with you, right? And I was like, yeah, he goes, no, look at me. Tell me that you know that what they said in there has nothing to do with you.

You know that, right? It was just like, in that same thing of like, you put all this pressure on yourself as a human of just like, am I good? God damn, do you remember this thing? I don't know why this fucking just came ahead. Hot or not. It was like my space stays like hot or not.

And people would put their picture up, hot or not. It's just, I think where we're stirring the bull here is what is, we all wanna be reassured that we're okay. And that's another hard part is there's a lot of people, myself included from time to time, when you feel inadequate. It's like, what is my purpose? What I'm doing here?

It's like, we just need to be looking in the right places for what's gonna give us that. And the unfortunate reality and fortunate is it just, is you. It's you, that's it. And that sounds cheesy, but it's real, it's real. And why people go, man, that person's so, I'll say, I'll preach about this till I die. You look at someone, you go, what is it about them?

There's something about them I just like. And it is confidence. And confidence comes from being secure with who you are. And I will say, getting the shit beat out of you out here helped me figure out who I was. I don't, I'm not saying that's how you figure out who you are, but I do think, I didn't start getting good until I had confidence.

Or I don't wanna say good, I wanna say like, finding success was being like, it's okay. And if this fails, I don't care because I'm, I believe in it. You know, and I think that's the bottom line. I don't care where you are doing this, like whatever you believe in. Oh shit, I failed at something I really believed in.

Then you didn't fail, you know what I mean? Like it's just being secure with yourself and not looking to a fortune cookie to tell you if it was right or the wrong decision, you know? Yes, man. I mean, that is like, that's definitely the goal. It's like Mitzi summed it up. She would always say this about comics.

She would go, remember, Heine, they need you. And that was her whole ethic. That was her whole thing is like, don't, artists, if you're not careful, you, and I am not, I am definitely not saying that like, I'm not necessarily talking about the exec that put fucking drunk history on the chopping block

because I don't think anybody's like, wanting to send that guy roses right now. But the, like, I'm not trying to demonize people who are like part of the system that makes beautiful shit in the world. They're just not the creators. Cause I think that's a very naive and stupid and like generally people who feel like that

about the whole industry or whatever, it's, they're not working hard enough, generally. Generally, that's what it is. It's like, you know, they, and they haven't like, they don't want to- Well, they blame it. It's the blamers. It's like what, this is a funny thing

I was saying about the other. It's like, people are blaming COVID on things. Like, dude, you've gained like 300 pounds. It's COVID. What do you expect? Yeah. Come on. Yeah.

Yeah. They put the blame on somebody like. Yeah. Cause it feels better than autonomy and it's easy to feel, and you know, so, but it's really like sitting down and writing, which is something you, you, which I love about you is you're always working on something, man,

but sitting down and writing sucks. It's hard. It feels weird. It doesn't feel, it's like trying to like, like, you know, do cursive with your left hand. It's just like, what the fuck am I doing? You're going to hit moments like obliterated. You're going to hit moments where you're just like,

I, I guess I'm the ultimate hypocrite and fraud that ever walked the face of this dark earth that I would ever think I even could do any of this shit. What's wrong with me? And so if that's hard as it is, but if you, so you don't want to experience that cause it's painful. So if you start waiting for someone to give you permission to create, and especially if the thing you're waiting

to give you permission is a massive machine, a network of people who are always dropping in and out of different positions and jobs. And you're waiting for that to perfectly align and for you to get a phone call from your agent saying like, they're going to do it. And now you can start writing. You're going to find yourself exactly

in the same fucking place. Except now you've got a whole network of people being like, where's the fucking thing you were going to do? So yeah, to me it's all about pushing that fucking golden cow over, forget it, man. You don't need a priest. You don't need a shaman. You don't need a wizard to come down and tell you

to start making shit. Make it now. I don't care where the fuck you are. I don't care if you're in a cave in the fucking Ukraine. If you got internet, I guess you have internet because you're listening to this, what are you waiting for? Like start making the thing. And then that, to me, is what pushes things

to where they need to be. We just have to keep making stuff, man. I agree. And it's hard right now because it's not like, oh, if we make something right now, like, hey, let's go do this. We do have to go, this is ready. This is just on the shelf. We can't shoot it right now, but when we're allowed to.

And I think that's the hardest part of this, where there's no deadline, where the thing I'm right, I'm like, oh, I just can't wait to shoot this. But then you're like, OK, it's just on the shelf. I'm going to fuck with it a little more because I can't do the thing that its next process should be. So it's, as I said, no one, this isn't how, no one is enjoying this.

Amazon, that's about it. But no one thinks this is great. Like no one does. So don't think like we're not in, I'm not going to say we're in this together because we've gotten that from day one. But nobody enjoys this. No one. No.

No one enjoys it. No one expected it. And it's like, you know, the, whoa, but what a cool, like, it's a once in a century event. So it's like, you know, you're, I don't want to say we're lucky that we get to be here, but it is a magical time. And, you know, like, who, you know, when have you ever heard, like with comedy, especially, if you want to be a really funny

person, get comfortable, get really, really comfortable, have everything you need, have no wants for anything at all, and you will be the funniest motherfucker that ever lived. Never. It's like, you know what I mean? The adversity, the struggle, the, you know, weirdness, the thing, it's like suddenly the gift from the universe disguises pandemic is like, look, I'm ripping the fucking rug right out from under

you, motherfuckers. And now you're going to be falling through space. You don't know where you're going to land. You don't know what's going to happen. Now what are you going to do? And it's like, this is the, to me, this is like, oh, OK, this is, this is where we start, you know, we really just use it as a fuel and start making stuff.

And, and, and, you know, I don't know why I'm doing some kind of missionary stuff or, you know, if you're either going to make shit or you're not, but just right now isn't the time to wait for someone to give you permission. No, but I do think this is creative hibernation. You know, this is kind of a pause that hopefully will never have this much time off again, where you can kind of go, what have I been doing that's good? What have I been doing that's not good? And how can I do it better?

You know, so no one now, I was thinking the other day, it's like, no one. There's phrases people can't say anymore. Like what? I haven't gotten around to it. I'm too busy, man. The fuck doing what? You know, I always had this thing and I just remembered it because I'm looking at my PlayStation that I bought Red Dead Redemption to and I said, I'm not opening this unless I get like the stomach flu or I'm sick

because I'll get stuck here. But I still haven't opened it. There's a certain thing here and maybe that's like optimism that I don't want to do it because like once I get sucked into a game, I like I stay there for a very long time and like when you're sick, you can't go outside, but I'm not sick. Um, I guess what I'm trying to say is this is a dark time, but we're all like trying to act like it's not happening when it is. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's that's the worst fucking. This is that's the thing. And I look, here's a hacky thing to say, man, but God damn it. When you're scrolling through fucking Instagram and in the middle of a fucking pandemic, somebody's popping these beautiful pictures of their vacation, wherever the fuck they went, right? Oh, it's beautiful.

Oh, look at the palm trees. No masks. Oh, look, are you having a fucking margarita? Wow. I guess I guess it ended. Huh? I guess it ended. I just didn't see the fucking news. So to me, what when you're seeing that sort of like, uh, not that you should

like you should be feeling yourself trembling and horror the pandemic, which some people are doing, which is to me, the opposite. But like it's to me, there does seem to be a little bit of deception happening. You know, I just keep thinking like an influencer goes to the beach. Start in LA. Influencer goes to beach in LA. Influencer takes pictures standing in front of the beautiful ocean. Influencer looks, you know, in the picture like, wow, man,

you look at that person, you're sitting in your fucking house. It's like one o'clock. You're like, you stink, you stink. You're trying to remember if you brush your teeth. You're looking at your phone. You see this person beaming at the beach, right? But it's like, man, I want to see everything in between. Like how we got that, how he or she got there.

Yeah, like all this stuff. Like what were you talking about? What was going on? Because if you I just think if people are and I by the way, I think I'm allowed to critique this because I've done it. Like, you know, with with with my wife, you know, I like she'll be like, oh, yeah, you guys are posting and you're like, yeah, sorry. Yeah, is that what you mean?

On the other end, when you guys were at Joshua Tree. What? Yeah, exactly, dude. That's what I'm saying. It's like we're seeing this fucking picture of us and like, I don't know, Big Bear, some shit, you know, looking like we're like fucking. Hey, well, it's the best. You don't see the moment driving there when we're like, you know, what is this?

What is this? What are we doing where Aaron's like, I got I got a pee. Well, we can't go to the bathroom. You can't go to the bathroom in a fucking gas station. You don't know what you took a shit in there. They're going to be COVID shit in there. So we're you know what I mean? Like you don't see that.

And so I and also personally with her, sometimes she'll be like, I don't feel good today. I feel scared and I'll be like, oh, everything's fine. But inside, I'm like, oh, fuck, I know me too, man. I think we're about to I think we're a few days away from here and Trumpets in the sky. Yeah, I mean, doesn't help anybody. That's all. But it also doesn't help people to act like you're upset when you're not. You know, it's just I think, you know, that's the trick is good to like make

sure people recognize that you're also going crazy. Yeah, but it's like when someone dies, you go to them or you not them, but their friend who lost, I'm sorry for your loss. They're in a better place that we are instinct is to make you feel better. What relationship with you if you Aaron said, sorry, sorry, Farts wife, Farts mom, Farts wife, he's not even two yet. Yeah, but when he gets older, they're getting married. Wait, what was I saying?

Shoot, no, well, well, relationship would be good. And that if she said, I'm scared and you're like me too, like. And it's it's balance, right? It's balance. And you're just but explain to me the Instagram thing so that the guy or girls like the influencer, just all the crap that they're just acting like everything is all right. Yeah. That's what I'm saying is like it to me, the really like it's someone in post

apocalypse in the in post apocalyptic films in general, Mad Max being the classic. We we don't really have the internet right in Don of the dead classic zombie thrillers walking dead. There were phones and stuff that I don't remember them like really like connecting to like the internet. I think they're made. There may be a little bit of that, but in general, in post apocalyptic films or in apocalyptic films, we don't have this amazing technology that can be used to

simulate reality. So what what's like it's hilarious to see a person projecting a reality into the world during a once in a century pandemic. And the more that that reality they're projecting into the world seems like what happened before the pandemic, the crazier they fucking seen. Oh, yeah, because they're the delusion. It's a perfect example of someone who's delusional, self-centered. And and again, we're seeing like a real human experiment happening of like true

colors, like everyone's taking their fur off and showing their skin. They're just like, oh, that's who you are. Like I I've been feeling like it's like, you know, you had that friend that you really felt comfortable with. But then you went on a trip and they acted so fucking different. You're like, yeah, oh, that's how you respond outside of this. Like, well, then you're too faced and you're not real. You know what I mean?

Like if someone's acting completely different in this period, then they're a sociopath and there's a lot of those. Look, I this is what I disagree with that point, man, because I think that like we're seeing people's shadows that doesn't mean you're a sociopath. You know, like if you're like, if you're encountering a person in general, who's being a dick and I have had moments where spectacular, you know, dickishness where you're really a mate, you're just like stunned. And I've been an asshole back in those situations.

I regret it because I keep forgetting like this is an amygdala situation. This is fight or flight. You're encountering people who are really experiencing the wrath of of impermanence right now. And they and you know, that doesn't mean that there you should like not call them out on it or confront them. Or, you know, it doesn't mean you should be compassionate by not acknowledging it because that doesn't help them at all.

But it's, you know, I just think we whenever I'm annoyed with someone, I have to stop for a second and remember. Oh, yeah, they're alone. They're in there alone. They're never know what people are going through. Yeah. And they're losing their shit. And like, yeah, but so I don't want to imagine that if I see somebody being

a complete fuckhead right now, that's the totality of their being. I just think it's no person under stress. You know, you know, but we do have to watch out. You know, it's like, again, this is the thing like everyone's got that. You got a shadow. I got a shadow. We might have to go on a long trip before you see mine, Derek, but at some point. You've seen it.

You've got to be hammered. I've seen it many times. You've seen it more than most people have. What do you think? How would have this gone in 1975? It would have, it would have gone, it would have been much better in the 70s. It would have been horrible. People would have died, but in the 70s, you wouldn't have the fear

amplification mechanism of social media. Uh, you know, the pro it's like, so in 75, here's how it goes. Uh, pandemic, people start getting sick. Um, you know, public on the news and stuff. That's what they're going to say. Wear a mask. The president's going to come out and be like, you should wear the best thing to do is wash your hands and wear a mask.

People are going to look at that and be like, all right, let's just wear a mask. They're going to wear a mask. And then in a couple months, we would look more like some of the other countries on the planet right now, and it would be dying down. It would still be there, but to be dying down, maybe pop up in cold and flu season. But now what's happening is, uh, because of this magical technology we have, man, it's like, you know, it used to like, okay, so in the 70s, you would be walking your dog wearing your mask during the 70s pandemic, right?

And you'd go by a park and there'd be a person with a megaphone who would be yelling, they want you to wear the mask because it represents submission. And you'd look over and be like, what a dumb shit. And you just keep walking your dog. You wouldn't even pay them any mind. Now, instead of the megaphone, you got someone being like filming, using this incredible technology that costs nothing now, using stock footage, something like a documentary called like the truth of the pandemic.

And, you know, they've got a charismatic voice. It's not a megaphone. They're just using stock footage. They pay 400 bucks. It's just like stock footage that they've assembled with a voice under it, you know, saying, this is who they think you are. A sheep, but you're not a sheep. And then what happens is you got someone in their apartment who hasn't seen

people for about two weeks, except for the delivery driver, bringing them groceries. They can't get their meds because the mail service is fucked up because the president's dismantling it. And so they're starting to go into a nice manic episode. And then they had some algorithm serves up the truth of the pandemic and they watch it and they're like, oh, I knew it was a lie. I knew it was a fucking lie. And then boom, now you've got psychic contagion on top of a normal contagion.

And it's produced this thing that we're in in the United States. That's what happened. What do you think it'd be like? No, I just, I was excited to hear what you would say. Yeah, I think you would, I think about that dog walker. And then I also think about, oh, I'm almost late for the six o'clock news is coming on, or it's like you heard the news, you know, at a certain time from one source, and that's what everyone was kind of going through.

And now there's just 800 million people that aren't even news telling you news. And just, it's just, I don't know. It's, uh, I think the Amish really had it, right? You know, no technology. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, you can't deny it. They're, well, they're, they're, they're awesome. Like the outfits, they wear a fucking cool and their barns look awesome.

Really, you know, the, the, yeah, I think like what happened is we just, you know, we, they used to put cocaine and Coca-Cola. That was normal. He would go to the drugstore and be like, you get a tincture filled with opium, fucking slurp it down. It was the best. A lot of them. Those were the old days.

You know that, man. That's what it's like. And there's something really beautiful about that. Oh, wait, sorry, sorry. I just got a visual of Bert Reynolds, like with a mask doing like a beer commercial. Do you know what I mean? Like when you're six feet away, have a sip, you know, like, and like it would have been cool, not COVID wouldn't be cool, but the way it was presented with a cool

mass, like pull it down, have a sip, like we would have just done. I don't know. Look, I mean, this is, you want to place, you want to point your finger at something. What you point your finger, do is all the elements in society that are creating division and anything that's actively trying to keep people divided is the reason this disease is working is because the disease depends on people having, you know, not just a difference of opinion, but a sort of aggressive difference of opinion.

And, and all, and like, so yeah, this is the reason it's fucking everything up because we got, we're supposed to be the United States of America. That was the idea. Like United, it was like, you're, you know, I think, I think you're a fucking dipshit and I don't like your politics, but I like you. I was, and I like listening to you talk about your crazy fucking politics, but I don't believe it. And you know, I don't believe it.

And you think I'm a fucking liberal piece of shit, dumb, dumb, but we're still friends. We hang out together. You know, that's the dream. That's the American dream is like, look, yeah, you believe in this stupid thing. I believe in this stupid thing, but we're still, we're still Americans. That's the dream.

I don't even know if we don't know if it happened, but if we've been achieved it yet, it's the aspiration. And in that situation, it's like, I will help you and you will help me and I like you, you know, I disagree with you and you like me, even though you disagree with me, but I'll bring you a pie and I'll like, you know what? I've been like, my kids can play with your kids. And, and, but, and the idea was that was, that's the dream. But now look what's happening, man.

It's like you've got not just people from inside the country, but people from outside the country trying to confuse the elderly, trying to confuse people who have mental illnesses, trying to confuse children. And it's created this incredible fragmentation of our, of society. You know, so yeah, man, we just have to get back to what. We have to get to, rather, because I don't know if it ever happened. It might have, you know what I mean? But we have to get to a place where we're all together.

And it's the nightmare of a lot of people out there because people make money from us being sort of divided amongst ourselves. Isn't it crazy like when you think about it, that we all want to be together, but there are certain people that don't want to be around others or other types of people like they're rich, you know, I want to be with only my people. Like it's just, it's just disgusting that, you know, I, I believe we are united, but we're not doing a good job of showing it. And yeah, maybe it hasn't happened, but it, yeah, it's, it's really hard.

It's really sad. It's really sad because we do all need each other and we can help each other. You know, to me, that's why drunk history is special. Aside from the fact that it's a hilarious concept. If that was just the concept, the show wouldn't have lasted. No one would have cared to watch it and no one would get a fuck about it because it would just seem like some frat boy drunk bullshit. Right.

Yeah. To me, the reason that it lasted for so long and should have gone on for much longer is you have this heart and that, that, that seeps in that, that seeps into drunk history and you were like using this amazing device to shine a light on really crazily catastrophic, difficult moments in American history. Your show way before woke was happening was like illuminating like shit that people didn't even know happened racial stuff that people didn't know. Fucking crazy shit that the government was doing stuff for gay rights, trans rights.

Your show is doing this before it became like a thing where everyone realized you should be doing this. And to me, that was what was like that. That was the, that's what made your show. So in my cheesy 46 year old dad had made your show. So particularly American is that it was embracing the entirety of our history, illuminating it in a way that was biased because it's a drunk person. But yet within that drunkenness, real editorialization, a real commentary was

coming out of people's mouths who deeply connected with some of the stories they were telling because, you know, they, you know, they, they have had direct experience with racism in a way that like a white dude doesn't. Right. And like, you know what I mean? And so that was what was coming out of your show all the time, man. Was that like that beauty? It was beauty.

And it was powerful and it was tricky because some people just sat down like, let's watch these dub shit, get drugged and talk about history. And then they're like, what the fuck happened to you? Stonewall riot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That in all serious, that's the stuff that, you know, it chokes me up because that's what we were doing something that wasn't like a typical comedy show. And I don't mean that in Pat ourselves in the back, but just like using, using the format in a, in different ways where there were still silly stories. But then I knew we could do the silly stories so you could slide in the really important ones, you know, as well. So there was a balance. Like it, and I think, I don't know.

I become a real nerd for all this, how to get someone's attention. And I really feel like so many things in life, whenever you're, you know, don't do drugs, okay, I'm going to go do them. When you're told a certain thing, you go the other way. And to me, history, you're always looking up, but like there's something humanizing. And I'm not saying that alcohol humanizes people. There's something humanizing the stories where someone is just telling you something that they love.

They're not going, this is why you should know this. You're going to listen to someone that's just telling you something that they love. And that the stories like the, and then like the section 504 sit in the disabled act that we did, like those were the things that I'm just like, man, we were doing something that everyone should be doing. And I just, we had a couple more in there that I was like dying to like, oh man, people have never known this guy, the first gay black baseball player, the black guy I played for the Dodgers in Glenberg.

Oh yeah. And he also just so happened to invent the fucking high five. Well, not be a great story and all that's the shit that he had to deal with with homophobia and like in the MLB and like, I don't know. I just sorry, it's hard to like talk about it because that's the stuff that makes me emotional because like we I'm if the show was like failing and it wasn't like being funny or telling important stories, it would, this part would be a lot easier.

But the fact like we were doing the thing that everyone's saying you should do. But right, like I'm just repeating what you said, but we were doing that. And then we get cut off. Like it's just like, I don't know. Do you what are you trying to say? Is there something I'll say it. What are you, what is, do you think you, you could figure out a way to repackage it or, you know, do, do what's the deal there?

Can you not talk about that? Taking it somewhere else. I don't know, I'm trying, I'm trying to finish it somewhere. I'm going to try to finish it somewhere. Um, you don't want to, you want to, you want to just like do it one more season and then that's it. I want to finish where we started. Yeah.

And I do think there's more stories to be told. And I don't, um, I also know the energy when a show ends and then comes back. I don't want this show to be the cover band, you know what I mean? Like, so it would be great to come back every once in a while and go like, oh man, let's just do a quick, like five or six stories and put out like a two hour special, you know, something cool like that and do that every once in a while. But, um, yeah, it's hard, but I'm also very excited to do new stuff because, uh, yeah.

Yeah. Cause isn't that kind of the, like that's the double edged sword of, you know, having a successful show, right? It's like in the midst of it, you're like, you really don't have any time. I mean, you don't, I remember when you were shooting it, like that's part of the reason we would, it was tough to hang out, man, you're always working. Like anytime I talk to you, you were in between meetings. You were working hard because you're making this show.

This is not easy to make. And, you know, it required like not just a script, it required like you physically being with someone and drinking with them. Like there were so many elements of it that were not exactly what you call healthy. Right. You, cause you're like at me, it's like, oh, look, I got a two day hangover. I'll be all right. But you, you know, you were having to like, there was a lot to it, as I'm saying.

And so I won't miss that. Yeah. Yeah. And not to me, I mean, there is there a sort of, I don't want to call it dark, but there's a part of me that's like, well, this is, there is a good thing about this in the sense that now you're unleashed into the world to take everything you've learned from making a successful show. What, every think of all the shit you know now, man, and, and, and put that all

your energy into like, into something completely new, completely different. I think the world deserves that. You know, I think there's something beautiful in whatever it is you're going to do next. And that, don't you kind of have that feeling? Are you starting to realize like, you could do anything you want now. Like you could, everyone's going to want to work with you. You're going to have any body, any, any celebrity you want and something you write, you're going to be able to get because everyone trusts you.

Why isn't that, that must feel pretty good. Uh, yeah. That's the part that, you know, yeah, it chokes me up because this is what I've always, I'm sorry. No, I just always, I've always wanted to do this. So like, but I never thought it, I never thought it would happen like this. And, uh, you know, I say these give stress as people, you know, came to me and, you know, yeah, I feel like this is, this is my school now.

Now I'm ready to go. But yeah, sorry. It just, it hits me because, um, it's when I talked about confidence, I still struggle with what you just said. Like, don't you realize like people want to work with you? We still do that dumb shit in our head where we're like, yeah, but I don't know if they're going to like this idea. You know, it's like, stop it.

So thank you for saying that. It's hard. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm so excited to go out and do this new show. And, um, and I also like, I don't want anyone to feel like, um, I left them behind and, um, yeah, so, but yeah, I'm very excited for the new thing. And, uh, it, it is a weird thing of like, oh my gosh. Now this is why also I worked so hard on drunk history because I thought if I, if this doesn't work, I might have to go back.

You know what I mean? And I humbly say that I think where it got to a, I got to direct more people that I ever knew produce a show, run a show. And now if now this is over, I, I'm not over, you know, and, and, and when this started, I, I, I didn't have that. I didn't have that confidence or, you know, credit. So I'm so fucking excited to do something new that if it fails, I won't. And I don't take that for granted.

You know, look, man, this is like, think of all the different incarnations of Monty Python, right? Like they had their sketch show, then they, they did all these incredible movies that were many of them very different from each other. I think like, you know, Woody Allen or think about like, um, you know, the upright citizens brigade or like any great, like any collective, uh, it's really interesting to watch the way it really did. You realize like, Oh, the form that, that they were utilizing in some

like thing that they did for a little bit, it didn't matter. It wasn't the form. It's like, it was the, it was the, it was the, the community and the mind behind it, because think of that, the community of drunk history, man. Like think of like, like the next thing you make, what'll be cool about it and what's going to be so liberating for you, it must be a little terrifying. I understand the fear is that people are going to look at it and they're going to be like, Oh yeah, it's Derek Waters.

It's a Derek Waters made this. It's like, think of like, uh, the DuPlace brothers, you know, you watch their, you know, their movies, the stuff they put out and it's like some of them are very different, but within it, you're like, Oh yeah, there's that thing that I love about the stuff they make, you know, and, and then you liberate yourself from the golden ball, you know, of the prior form. It's the, it's the idea of like, Oh, I have to, the form is what people liked. It's not the form.

It's you. It's your heart that was, yeah. When you are you, it's like, Oh, how did you come up with this? Whatever the thing is, like when you see someone, you're like, Oh, that thing that led to this was always in there. You can see it in there and that's what anything good is. It's like, it's, it's honest. It's like, it's not trying to be this, not trying to be that.

It's just being, you know, and like, that's the goal for every human is being like, Oh, I know this person. Like, Oh, she would love this gift. He, Oh, this is something he's going to love. Like that defines the, or that, that, that shows that you are defined. And that's, that's the goal for, for us of just like, Oh, I, this is so up Duncan's alley. Duncan is going to love that.

Yeah, man, that's it. You know, one time we did an interview, and you said, when I threw up your eyes, man, we've got the shot. We've got the shot. And I just want to bring it all back that when I started crying, your fucking eyes lit up like, I got him. I've got the golden tea, Keith. Look, man, I'll cut that part out if you don't want that out there.

And no problem, because there's a place you picked up. And look, I like the tears to me. I like, you know, the smartest people I know, they openly cry all the time because they're not afraid to cry for some reason. So it doesn't, it's like emotion coming out. But, you know, man, this is like, but when you think about this, though, you and I, the things that you and I've got to do from the show. I mean, you can cut this out if you want.

But like this poltergeist thing was so great. Dunga was telling the story about poltergeist, which we don't need to go in the whole details, but it ended with, it was, are you afraid of the drunk? Oh, fuck, sorry. There's so many things that I forgot we did. So Rich Fulcher tells a story at the beginning. Tell them you're rich. Oh, wait, no, I'm sorry.

He tells a story about Dutch Schultz who was in the mob and buried like a hundred million dollars in bail bonds that still to this day have not been found. And so at the end of that, I go, you want to go outside and try to find some money and I have like a metal detector and I get a reading and it goes off and this like saying this out loud. It's like, no wonder they don't want me to do the same more. I was doing whatever I wanted. And so that's the detector comes up and I go, oh, we got something.

And then I find a coffin and inside the coffin is Duncan Trestler. And it's real casual. It's like, hey, Duncan, how are you doing? Like, good man. This is like the best blood tank in the world. That was so fun and creepy, dude. Being in a coffin is scary. I didn't want to tell you how fucking creeped out.

I was laying in there with a dirt landing on top of the coffin. It was so scary, dude. But like, you know, man, this is the look. This, I don't know what you're going to do next. You're going to do a lot of stuff and it's, you know, it's a nothing. And there's no, I'm not trying to make you feel better, by the way. This sucks and sucks to lose a community. It's a death.

It's a real legitimate death. It's a real legitimate death. But, you know, your your metal detector is going to find another fucking coffin that you're going to open up and who knows who's going to jump out. I mean, that's the point, man, is like, you're not, you're like the moment. This is what I love about Christianity. Jesus is walking and suddenly he gets this sense that something is some energy feels something and he goes, who, who touched me, who touched me?

And this woman is scared and she goes, I did, I did. And she's healed and she's like you and he says, your faith has made you whole. And the implication being, it wasn't me. It was your, you, you, you. It was liber, it's liberation. That's liberation because it's decentralization. It's saying, don't, if you get too caught up in my physical form here, then you, you're going to be lonely.

You're going to be confused. But when you realize this is in you, at that moment, you know what I mean? Then you rise above the form. And I think that's, that's what's going to, that's any, any artist who, who has to say goodbye to a project that I don't know. I'm, I'm rambling here. What the fuck am I talking about? No, you take it with you.

You know, some people don't like to phrase everything happens for a reason because there's really some awful things that happen. But I'm sorry. Those awful things do mold you. It's not like I'm glad those bad things happen to you, but all these things mold us and you, you carry on the things that you learned and you bring the ones that you want to be with you. And that's the dream of any artist, any community, any leader, I think is

like finding your team and that the one thing to end the LA talk is like the thing that LA dad and what we all need is finding your team, finding your people. You know, and we didn't, we didn't have that. So those are the good things. It's, it's like, but once you find your team, you can go to a different stadium. That's, that's exactly right. Yeah, man, this city, I love the city so much that I like, I'm legit.

I'm like, I have a lot of grief about, about leaving, but you know, we can always come back, you know, I don't, it's just, it's, it's, I like also the idea of like, you know, experimenting with moving about to see what happens. You were the new neighbor. I just feel like that's already a show. Podcast. Podcast. Well, you know, we'll see what happens.

I just think, you know, the future is really, really bright, as dark as it might seem right now. And I am so thrilled to be friends with you. And I am always here for you, man. Always, no matter what part of the world I'm in, I'm always here. I love you, buddy. Love you, Derek. Thank you so much.

Thank you. And a shout out to Andrew Ferguson, a friend and a huge fan of yours. Andrew Ferguson, howdy, Krishna, to you. Maybe I'll see you out there. That's right. Thank you, Derek. I love you, Duncan. Thank you.

And thank you all your listeners. That was Derek Waters, everybody. All the links you need to find, sweet Derek will be at dougatrustle.com. A big thank you to better help and DHM detox for sponsoring this episode of the DTFH. You can find all the offer codes at Duncan, Trussell.com. And a big thank you to you to listening to this podcast. Remember, subscribe to us at Patreon, Patreon.com forward slash DTFH.

I'll see you next week. Until then, Hare Krishna. A good time starts with a great wardrobe. Next stop, JC Penney, family get-togethers to fancy occasions, wedding season two, we do it all in style, dresses, suiting and plenty of color to play with. Get fixed up with brands like Liz Claiborne, Worthington, Stafford and Jay Farrar. Oh, and thereabouts for kids, super cute and extra affordable.

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