Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 52 Grace Helbig Pt. 2 - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: October 3, 2014

Our very first "Ear Biscuits" guest and leading female YouTube personality, Grace Helbig, is back at the round table of dim lighting one year later to talk with Rhett & Link about the long list of events, accomplishments, awards, and milestones that the past year has brought her including cutting ties with My Damn Channel and starting her own independent YouTube channel, starring in the feature film "Camp Takota," launching a #1 podcast "Not too Deep," and preparing for the release of her book, "Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-up" later this month. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet. And this is a very special episode, a milestone, if you will, because this is the 52nd episode of Ear Biscuits.

And if you're familiar with how time is kept and the fact that there are 52 weeks in a year, you know that this commemorates one year of biscuits, Ear Biscuits. Well, but it's not the one year anniversary. That would be the next episode. But it commemorates. I'm saying this makes it one year.

So if like you just took 52 and set them aside, that would be a year. But then the 53rd would be an anniversary. This is not the anniversary. This is the milestone. Okay, so at the round table of dim lighting today, we have Grace Helbig, the sequel. What? We've already had her on the show, Link.

That's right. Why are we doing that? Okay, we just thought it would be a cool idea to bring Grace back on. The sequel. What? We've already had her on the show, Link. That's right. Why are we doing that? Okay. We just thought it would be a cool idea to bring Grace back on. She was our very first guest. Yeah. And now one year later, is it minus a week?

You've really messed with my head now. Just say the 52nd episode. It's not one year later, because that would be 53. To round out the year, Yeah, there you go. We're bringing back our first guest for this milestone episode, Grace Helbig. And part of the reason is not just for what we'll get into

in a second, which was her perspective on what she got out of the first time she was on the show, but because she's had quite a year. Yeah, I mean, there's lots to cover. I mean, she cut ties with her main channel, Daily Grace, and migrated all of her content, basically making the vehicle for her brand, a new channel, It's Grace,

which technically had existed all along as kind of like a side channel. But that was a big move. She was in Camp Dakota. She started a podcast. She's written a book. So we talk about all these things. So it was kind of like, okay, Grace,

let's have a retrospective with you. And a little bit about her perspective on coming back on the show. On her It's Grace channel, which is about to break 2 million subs, she has a Friday show called Fry Diary. That's Friday and diary put together link, just in case you didn't know.

And this is when- I do know that. She vlogged about coming on the show again, and we got a clip to kind of give you a little perspective on what she was thinking. This is called Birthday Vacation. We're headed to see two of my favorite content creators, Rhett and Link. Why did I refer to them so professionally? Like content creators and human beings in general.

We're going to go record a podcast with them. I don't know if you guys know this, but I got to be their very first guest on their very first podcast last year. And so we're doing a follow-up episode of what's happened this past year, which will be interesting. And it also puts it a little on guard, because I think I got lucky being the first guest on their podcast because they weren't totally sure what it was yet. And it has since developed into this really amazing podcast

that ends up getting pretty deep in conversation with people. And fortunately for me, I didn't have to get too deep with them. Now, unfortunately, they know what they do. So we'll see. And I don't like talking about that kind of stuff. They're actually the inspiration for my podcast, Not Too Deep with Grace. I think specifically they are the inspiration.

So it's interesting that the show has developed a little bit of a reputation. Yeah, did we succeed at taking Grace to a place of deep conversation? You be the judge. I am glad that, hey, maybe this is a forum for people to talk about things that they otherwise wouldn't and to go a little deeper to get that side of things. I think that was the design of the show

when we first had Grace on, we were just getting our sea legs, so to speak. So yeah, I didn't want her to be nervous coming back on the show. Here's a little preview of what we talked to her about. We talked about her personal and public life balance, including how she manages her dating relationships in the public eye.

Details about her new TV pilot for E! And a potential next movie. Here it is, Us With Grace, the sequel. You know, this is a nostalgic episode. Yeah. For a couple of reasons. For us, this is the 50, I think this will be the 52nd episode. You are our first guest. So maybe this will be nostalgic for you because a lot has happened over the past year.

Literally one year since we had our Ear Biscuit conversation we're having this one, give or take a few days. Sure. So it's, you know, maybe we can go down memory lane, have a little, you can experience some nostalgia and saying, oh wow, this has been a big year for you. Maybe, and we were thinking we could step through some of those things.

First one most recently is the new house, so we've covered that one. Yeah. That's done. But since that first, since a year ago, you've started your own podcast. Yeah, I started my own podcast that lives on my own channel now, which is also a really exhilarating thing.

Right, we got that too. I remember last year being here with you guys, and I couldn't really even talk about, I knew what was going to happen in my future. I knew what I was about to do and I couldn't talk about it to anyone. Right. So Daily Grace was a My Damn Channel channel. Yeah.

It was an idea that was developed with My Damn Channel back in 2008 and I was paid as an independent contractor. Basically like a hired actress if you will. A hired actress playing myself in a production that they owned the rights to and they owned all the content. So that was

a really bizarre five years I think. Yeah, five years. Yeah. The last three were on YouTube. Yeah, five years. Yeah. Three of the last three were on YouTube. Yeah, the first two were only on madamechannel.com and then it got moved over to YouTube. And that was a really weird experience of one, learning what YouTube was while participating in the community

and meeting content creators and finding out that my situation was so different than everyone else because I had no idea. And then being like, oh oh how do i change this this is not i i felt kind of like it seems extreme but i felt kind of like a fraud every time i went to like a vidcon or a playlist that it felt like i'm no one really knows that i'm owned by a corporation that i feel like this like human meat puppet that is promoting this company. Because I mean, that was the feeling I'm owned even though it was a channel

but the channel was so inextricably tied to you as a person daily grace that you felt like you were owned personally. Yeah, I mean, it felt a lot of like the milestones on that channel weren't, I didn't really feel them because a lot of, you know, when you wanna get viewers and you wanna get subscribers, you wanna get view counts because that essentially means more money for you

and for me that was never a thing. I was getting paid a salary, so I could have a viral video every single video that went up and nothing in my life would really change other than like, you know, building a stronger, better fan base, which ultimately was, became like, in a way it was great because I didn't have to think about any of the financial stuff with YouTube at all.

I could solely focus on, I want to cultivate a community of really great people. How do I do that? And I want to create content that I think is really great. So let's only focus on those things because those are the only things you have control over right now. But then at the same

time it was like it's really frustrating when something did really well and you don't necessarily get the benefit of that um and also just not being able to talk about it with anyone but as i slowly like started talking more with people like hannah and uh and other content creators in the space and the fine brothers i found out the way that I was hoping I could move forward with it. But you, I mean, we were talking, and it was almost October, again, a year ago. You already knew,

but you ended up launching It's Grace in January. Wasn't there a process to be like, hey, let's work this out. Let's restructure this thing. There was a process to be like, hey, let's work this out. Let's restructure this thing. There was a whole process of that. And technically, I didn't know no until December that I was walking away from a channel. You were trying to restructure it then? Yeah, there were negotiations happening all the way up until December.

And the leverage I had on the negotiations was that I wasn't afraid to walk away from it and to start a brand new channel. And just with the hope that the community that's built is strong enough and loyal enough that they'll understand and come over. Because I hate talking business talk and especially trying to explain business to an audience of two million people is really not totally necessary either. And so, yeah, I knew that My Damn Channel owned Daily Grace, but they didn't own Grace Helbig. So you're just hoping that your personality and the intimacy that you've built based on yourself is enough that it carries over.

So were they calling your bluff? I can't believe that they would just, they would allow it to get to the, they would force you to walk away. I mean, that seems stupid. It's. Yeah. So they called your bluff.

They didn't think you would do it. No, I mean, no. I think that they, to be honest, there were a lot of negotiations happening outside of me with my agent and manager and with My Damn Channel. So I don't know exactly what the conversations were. I knew the things I was hoping to get out of the conversations and that would be relayed back to me. And I hate confrontation on any front,

so I didn't want to be a part of those conversations. So to be honest, I don't know what they were wanting or what their trajectory was or what else they had going on that maybe was influencing what they wanted to do. I don't know. I mean, we split really amicably. We wish each other well and I'm not totally sure what they're doing now, but hopefully it's something cool.

But you said that you weren't afraid to walk away and start your channel anew, but you had to have been a little afraid. Oh, terrified, yeah. I mean, in negotiation terms. You were afraid, but not too afraid to not do it. Yeah, I wasn't afraid, but I was terrified. Yeah, of course.

So yeah, because you never know. I mean, that's the thing with YouTube in general is you could wake up tomorrow morning and there's a whole audience of people that are like we don't think you're interesting anymore unsubscribe and then it's like oh what what okay well let's talk about the dynamics of that because you know this is um uh in one sense it kind of defined your year starting the the new the new channel. You know, did you, I mean, I think there's some things that on the surface that anybody can see, right?

It's like, okay, well, you're not saying you've been hazed, you're saying you've been praised. Yeah. You're not saying new views or you're saying new personal alert. And there's a, and I think anybody who thinks about it

is kind of like, okay, she's doing the same things, but it's, you're almost, I mean, even the You've Been Hazed t-shirt is the same t-shirt with PR put over the H. Like written on a notebook piece of paper. How much of that process of the decisions that you made to keep it the same,

but to keep it different were based on almost a dig at having to do it or just trying to keep it as close to the original as possible? It was honestly trying to keep because I wasn't able to. The thing that bummed me out the most is that I couldn't give like a proper closure of that channel in video form or even inform other people that this was happening and that I was moving to a different place. Legally, I couldn't do that. But wonderfully and speaks really highly to the community is that people like John and Hank Green took it upon themselves knowing I couldn't talk about it to talk about it on my behalf.

And God bless them. They're far more articulate than I am at speaking to an audience. And so they wrote some really amazing blog posts and things got passed around. So my thought process was if I'm going to start this new channel, I do want it to be my own. I do want to be new, but I want it to seem as familiar as possible, at least in the beginning, so that the audience doesn't feel like that much has changed. It still feels like the personality that you're used to and the conversations that you're used to and the topics and how everything works is the same.

It's just a different box clicked in your YouTube browser. And did you get, you know, we all know this from making YouTube videos, but a lot of times people's not very high IQ isn't revealed in the comments. So I would assume that a lot of people had questions about why you were doing things similar but different but had no idea why it was happening. Yeah, and the really amazing thing about the audience

is that they're wonderfully self-policing. A lot of questions were getting raised, of course. You know why why why why why and a lot of um a lot of different viewers were answering those questions for me and in a way that was accurate if there was if there were any inaccuracies i tried to address them but i also didn't want to i didn't want the start of a new channel to be overshadowed by the business side of things. I wanted to still focus on the comedy and the silliness and whatever else Grace Helbig is as a brand and not the legalese and all of that stuff. And like I said, people like John and Hank

were covering all of that for me. And the conclusion of it was you picked up right where you left off, right? Isn't that what happened? Yeah, essentially, yeah. Yeah, I just started the new channel. I started with- In terms of performance though. Yeah, there was nothing new.

I wasn't marking a brand new style for myself or anything like that. And in terms of views, you were, I mean, subscriber numbers pretty much migrated over pretty quickly, right? Really quickly. There was like over a million subscribers in the first month, which was crazy because you can always kind of try to project what you think will happen, but you'd never know. And because a lot of content creators...

How many did you leave? How many subscribers in December? I think it was like 2.2 million, something like that. The most jarring thing I think was that My Damn Channel, and I believe they're still doing this, continued to upload my old Daily Grace videos that only lived on MyDamnChannel.com. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.

Yeah, to be honest, I had no idea what they were going to do with the channel. And I didn't I wanted to ask you about that. Yeah. I, to be honest, I had no idea what they were going to do with the channel and I didn't really care to know at that point. They call it vintage grace, right? Yeah. I'm not sure what they're calling it, but so for the first two years that I did daily grace, the videos, like you said, I only lived on my channel.com. And so there's a whole library of old videos that people on YouTube probably haven't seen. So they started re-uploading to YouTube the videos from their archives every day. So it was like a weird younger version of you impersonating you as competition. And the people that weren't aware of what was happening were like, Grace did something different with her hair today.

That's just me from five years ago. So that part was hilarious. And so it was a, yeah, there was this weird confusing time where it's like, oh, there's two new videos of me on YouTube every day, but I'm not posting one of them. And how long did that last? It might still be going on. I don't know. I haven't looked. I've tried to like,

you know, same with like bad comments or negative comments, you try not to look at them. You're not paying attention. Well because there was something else going on there for at least that initial month when we were looking at it. There was like a story time series or something? Oh, bedtime stories. So that's how I started. They brought that back,

which is how you started. That's how I started making internet videos is that I took improv classes at the People's Improv Theater. And then there was an audition for this web series. And I did that for My Damn Channel first. And then we talked about Daily Grace. But you want to focus. I mean, you obviously are not focusing on what they're doing. You're focusing on what you did.

And at that point, you were launching a new channel. You wanted to keep continuity, but maybe it was an opportunity to do things a little bit different. Yeah. I mean, I think I feel like now this part because the new channel has gone through a lot of like for me creatively, a lot of peaks and valleys. And especially because my schedule this year has gotten really intense.

And so I've recently downsized to three videos a week because mentally and physically I wasn't creating the quality of content I wanted to create by doing five videos a week anymore. And launching things like the podcast, I feel now this fresh air of inspiration because I feel like trying to do the same thing that I was doing on Daily Grace, my brain just started to get really stale and the channel was getting really stale and I was traveling and couldn't upload on the regular time schedule that I wanted to and felt like it was stressing me out and I feel like the audience could tell it was

stressing me out and so it wasn't fun to watch someone be- Your success stretched you too thin. Yeah. and so it wasn't fun to watch someone be- Your success stretched you too thin. Yeah, the projects that I started taking on and working with, and also my brain creativity had a lull for a second in time. I just wasn't inspired by things. I think I was doing a lot more creative stuff

that was kind of using those juices in different areas, so I felt really dry when I came to sit down at the end of the day and make a YouTube video. And then I also felt like I was just kind of recycling the same content, repackaged over and over. So right now I'm actually feeling a big inspiration of wanting to evolve a little bit and change, not necessarily change the style, but just refresh a couple things and like really look at it and make

choices which I didn't really do when I started It's Grace I was like I was dedicated to keeping it consistent so that the audience would not feel the change as much and with that I feel like I didn't give myself an opportunity to make it how I wanted to make it since I have creative control over this now and now I do feel like I'm getting there. So within the context of three videos a week, you're still looking at ways to change. Yeah, I just launched the podcast, which has been a really cool thing to do.

Thanks for having us. You guys were great. I love that you guys were so, you're really great, but because we don't really tell you anything about what you're getting into, I feel like you guys were really on guard for a lot of it and just like waiting for something to happen. A lot of cotton balls flying around here in the wings. I don't know what.

It was killing me though. Just watching someone slap a spoon of cotton balls into their head. It was killing me. It was really fun. But so the podcast is now taking over the Monday slot. So I feel like I'm getting scheduling. I feel like a television network where it's like, I got this new pilot that's taking over Monday nights. Now, was the title, was that a direct reaction to our show?

Oh, you are the inspiration for that podcast. And I just said that- You're the inspiration for the opposite of it. Yeah, absolutely. I said that in a- I just said it in my vlog on the way here. I was like, I'm going to film this podcast. And I'm really nervous because I got off really easily the first time because they didn't

know what they were doing. I've heard nothing but like stories of people being like, I just did Rhett and Link's podcast. I'm like, I talked like, Hannah came back and she was like, I think I have to email them and say they can't use some of the stuff I talk about. I was like, I did not have that experience at all. So yeah. It's developed a reputation at this point. Yeah, I think it's something everyone wants to do because they feel like it's going to be a therapy session. They can't wait to get all this stuff on their chest. And yeah, so I wanted to create the opposite of that.

And that's why I feel like you guys are on guard the whole time because you're like waiting for like this moment of sincerity or a moment of like having actual conversation. I was like, nope, isn't that gonna happen? Honestly, I think what you were sensing was, that's not what was going on in my mind. I think it was, oh, I see what's happening here.

I got to try to be funny. Yeah, right. And so that was really what was going on was, okay, the setup here is like, So that was really what was going on was, okay, the setup here is like, every question is out of outer space. Because we try really hard to be funny.

Right. We really put a lot of effort into being funny. Every question was like, I am just really trying to get some answer together. Yeah. I'm sorry. I could gush about myself and my pain for hours, but you start talking about why my door won't lock and who's taking a crap back there.

I'm like, all right, it's go time. I really do. Like the eyes are squinting. So it was more of that was a performance mode. Yeah, well, I apologize for forcing you to be on or feel like you had to be on. No, it was good. It was a great opportunity.

It's just, you saw it. You saw the gears turning in our heads. Oh, yeah. Well, now I think because, well, the other part is that you guys hadn't gotten to see how anything happened on the show at all. And now that like episodes are out

and then when we start shooting with other people, at least they can understand like, oh, this is what it's going to be. Right. But you're a gifted comedian and gifted at improv. Oh, thanks. And I would say, you know, if your note for us is, hey, people might be intimidated opening up,

I think our note back to you is people might intimidated, might be intimidated sitting across in a seat across from you and you're gonna kill it. It's like, okay, how am I gonna be funny? How am I gonna hold my own here against Grace? Note taking. I think that's. No, it makes sense, yeah.

A potential guest might be, depending on their chemical makeup, might be more intimidated by your podcast than ours. For sure. And my director, Jack Ferry, loves leaving people in the dark. And that makes me so anxious as a person that wants to know what I'm getting myself into. And it's really interesting because you can see right away who's comfortable with not knowing and who isn't. Like for instance, Mitchell Davis,

whose episode's going up next week, he was just like a pile of uncomfortableness the whole time. But he was fabulous. It was great, yeah, you guys were there. You shot it after ours, and we sat and watched the whole thing. Yeah, and also he's a friend, so he knows I'm not gonna do anything that terrible to him.

Well, and I don't know if you revealed this in the intro that you do for him, but he also didn't hear himself for the first half of the podcast. Oh, I know. In his headphones. In his headphones and he didn't tell anyone. He thought the headphones were props. I know. And then it made me feel so bad.

So I'm like, on top of you already being anxious about not knowing anything. So if he's talking very loudly during the first half, it's because he cannot hear himself at all. I mean, I just, I would have been honored if you would have called it the anti-ear biscuit if you, instead of not too deep. That would have been a little too direct.

I am still honored that- I was caught nose muffins. This forum informed the formation of your podcast and that you actually had us on it. So triple honored, triple honored. Super, super fun. Okay, so new channel, beginning of the year, check.

You made it through that. You even convinced people to take two less episodes a week. Yeah. And that seems to be doing okay. Yeah, it's doing okay. So check. You launched your podcast. Yeah. Check.

And you were about to launch the movie. Camp Dakota was about to be released when we were talking last year. Yeah. In my brain, it doesn't feel like Camp Dakota came out this year. It feels like that's so far ago that that happened. It's very strange. Having, if it feels like a far-flung memory, maybe that allows you to say,

okay, so what's the conclusion? I think from an industry standpoint, a lot of people were saying, what does this mean? You know, we're looking towards, I mean, we've certainly heard lots of conversations of- Now what people say is the Camp Dakota model. Yeah. Yeah, which is so- It is a model now.

In less than 12 months, it is the model. Yeah, it's very strange because we're not the first people to have done this. Like Michael Gallagher did Smiley before we did this, and so they didn't release it in the same way yeah i mean the distribution i think is a little different and it was yeah to michael goldfein who was our you know an ep with us and who was the one that really championed this idea i give him so much credit for taking a risk which is he did kevin

hart's film before that which was also a risk and a huge success. And so that's kind of his thing. And he gets the internet and he understands how powerful audiences can be and how loyal they can be and that fan bases are a really important thing. And so none of us, like when switching to a new channel knew how the audience was going to take it um but i think the way we what i'm really really happy about and hope to like continue doing in the future is one work with my friends which is really always such a you guys know it's a great experience uh and two is keep the audience with you as the whole process unfolds daily grace that turned into a daily vlog about being on set

every day making this film and so the audience felt like they were making it with us which i think made it feel um more intimate when it came out. It felt like, oh, the project that I've been working on with my internet friends is finally out to watch. Let's all watch it. So keeping them in on the whole process instead of being like, ta-da, here's this thing that you didn't know we were doing for so long.

Yeah, it was really, really cool. And we broke even on our budget in like four days after the film's release. Crazy. Which means you didn't spend enough money. Yeah, which means we could have put in all those lasers I wanted to put in at the end of it. Yeah, for us it just meant like, oh, one, we're not embarrassed by the film itself. We think it's a great movie. And two, financially for someone like Michael Goldfein

who put up a lot of the money for this, it wasn't a bad choice. Right. Yeah. And so does that mean you're going to do that again? Hopefully. There's a couple projects that are getting developed right now that we're all really excited about

because the process was pretty smooth the first time around. So why not do it again if it's not broke? We meaning the whole team? Yeah, hopefully. I mean, we've all gotten really busy, Hannah, Mamrie, and I, over the past year. And so we all want to work together on this next endeavor, whatever it ends up being. It's just now managing more schedules. But yeah, I'm really hopeful that something cool

is gonna be coming down the pipeline. Mamrie and I have been working on a lot of ideas and so it's going really well so far. Like writing? Yes, yeah. Yeah, we have a couple. This is the thing I wish that I knew if I could talk about this or couldn't talk about this.

Well, I can answer that. Yeah. You can. Well, let me. Nobody here at the round table of dim lighting is stopping you. Yeah, let me text my lawyer. No, we have. Well, you said Coming Down the Pipeline, so it's a surfing movie.

It's a surfing movie. Okay. Yeah, think Jurassic Park, but with whales. It's going to be really good. No, we have a couple ideas that I am really in love with, and if I was in a park- I think that's called SeaWorld, by the way. I know. You don't want to go down that route at this point.

Blackfish. Yeah. Blackfish 2. Unaffiliated. Yeah, Blackfish 2. That don'tated. Blackfish 2, the comedy. God, that would be so awful. No, we have a couple ideas that if I wasn't part of coming up with them, I would be really pissed that someone else came up with them

because I think they're really good. Oh, that's a good. You know you've got a good idea and you're like, oh, yeah. You're like Googling to see if it exists. Yeah, exactly. So I'm hopeful. Okay, so you're just, oh, yeah. When you're like Googling to see if it exists. Yeah, exactly. So I'm hopeful. Okay, so you're just saying Camp Dakota 2. Camp Dakota 2, the sequel.

No, we've all been saying, no, there's not gonna be a Camp Dakota 2. There will be another project, but not Camp Dakota 2. Camp Dakota 2 will just be the subtitle. Yeah, exactly. That'll be the logline for the film. How much have you written? Now, Mamrie wrote Camp... Did you participate in the writing on that one too?

I'm sketchy on who. Sure, so Mamrie had the initial idea. She went to a camp. She was a camp counselor. And so she had started this script and had like 30 pages done. And when she met Michael Goldfein, he had a raging boner for the idea of a camp

movie because he also went to camp and I've never gone to camp but I understand that it's very nostalgic for people so they together came up and they flesh out a full outline and then we had a writer come on and write the first draft of the film based on their outline that was pretty you know intensive and then Mamrie went back and kind of rewrote that draft in more of like our voice and gave jokes. So is this one different in that you're co-writing it? No, this one is basically the same process. Mamrie and I have come up with a full outline

of this film that's really, it's really extensive. It's a long outline and then hopefully another writer comes in, writes the first thing, and then Mamrie will go through and redo that because she's great at punching things up. She's great at making punch and punching things up. Well, that's exciting. Yeah, I'm excited. Like I said, it comes down to a lot of scheduling stuff.

Your book comes out October 21st. How long has that been in the works? And how difficult was it to write? It's interesting because people were telling me that I said that to you guys on the podcast last year, that I said I'm hoping that one day I'll write a book. And I didn't have the idea for the book I knew uh yeah I don't remember that part I don't remember either but someone told me on

tumblr they're like look how far she's come it's like I don't know so I Hannah and Mamrie had both sold their books and I've known for a while that I wanted to write a book I just didn't have the idea yet. And I guess it was kind of like divine inspiration. But it was like, I mean, if they've got books, I have to have a book. Yeah. Well, it felt like right timing. I was like, yeah, publishers are interested in this idea of internet personality.

The same way like blogs became books, you know, like look at that hipster and like my dad says and stuff like that so it felt like good timing and then I had the idea that I wanted to write a kind of tongue-in-cheek self-help guide for millennials I wanted to give it directly back to the audience why write for someone else if you know who your audience is so I created my my pitch and then to new york in the beginning of this year and pitched the book around to a bunch of publishers and um for for your pitch you basically it's like a powerpoint presentation with like sample writing and what the book's going to be and how you want to look and the tone and then you go and you sit in a room with a bunch of publishers and you just you basically are pitching the book and yourself and the whole idea of like this is my personality and this is how the book is going to sound and this is who the audience is and here's my demo and all my numbers and blah blah and then they

uh all the publishers will it goes the book goes to auction and they bid on the book really yeah and then you can choose whether you want to go with like the highest bidder or if you want to go with a different publisher because you had a better connection with them. And so luckily for me, one of the highest bidders was this publishing company, Simon and Schuster, that I really touched on books that I really wanted to work with. And Lauren Spiegel, who's my editor, is this phenomenal, amazing human being that has been with me the whole time and I also pitched them on the idea

that I felt like I could write this book really quickly and I wanted to have it out by the fall, which is insane. Usually you have like a year or plus to write the book and then it comes out later. So I was under this impression that I could do that. And I did it. I wrote it all in, I think, May and June. Hey guys, we just wanted to take a few seconds to break in here and tell you about Audible because they're helping to make Ear Biscuits happen. Audible is the home to over 150,000 audio books. If you're not familiar with audio books,

Link and your Biscuteers, that's a book on audio. That is a book that someone has read. And I don't mean like in a robot voice, like Siri's trying to read it. I'm talking about like a person read the book. And my- I'm aware of this. My favorite time as a child, my favorite thing was Ms. Lanier's class.

Cause she would read to you? She read those books, man. I mean, it's like, it stuck with me. And as you know, I was in Ms. Campbell's class and she didn't do that. Yeah, Ms. Campbell was a loser. No, she was a nice woman, but she didn't read to us. But Ms. Lanier, like Audible is like the Ms. Lanier

of the modern day of 2014. I don't know if Ms. Lanier of the modern day of 2014. I don't know if Ms. Lanier actually signed up and read any of these things. It's like Ms. Lanier is in your digital device. And this is not a streaming service. It's not a rental service. You actually own the books that you download. In audio version.

So here's what you need to do. Go to audiblepodcast.com slash Rhett and Link for a free audio book and a free 30 day trial. Free trial and a free book. Audiblepodcast.com slash Rhett and Link. Now let's get back to the biscuit. So were you right? Was it that easy for you?

It was. Two months? Yeah, it was insane amount of writing. And there was a lot of like mental breakdowns and that sort of thing. But it was great because I went to college to be a screenwriter and I love writing and I hadn't had a real reason to focus on it. So it felt like I was exercising a muscle that I hadn't used for a while. Describe mental breakdown. while describe mental breakdown um crying into cold spaghetti in a tiny hotel room in london when you're about to go to do a no filter show oh wow what was put on a happy face what was the

moment well there was just broke you there were a few moments where it just there it was overwhelming there was we were doing our no filter shows in um the uk in london and dublin at the time and i was trying to do five videos a week and i was trying to finish up writing this book that's 200 plus pages and i was there were like four other things that were happening so it was uh it was just like an overwhelming time. Have you ever cried to your audience? Have I ever cried to the audience? Like in a vlog? No, no, I haven't.

I've gotten like emotional, I've gotten like sweet and sincere, but I don't think I've ever cried. So you've almost like cried tears of joy, but never tears of sadness? No, yeah, never tears of sadness. No, yeah, I never tears of sadness. Well, there's one vlog back in like the early days of My Damn Channel that didn't live on YouTube

that people have found. I literally came out of the subway one day in New York and got hit by a bike and then I was fine. I was just like- On camera? No, no, not on camera. Okay. I got really shooken up and then I came home and On camera? No, not on camera. I got really shooken up and then I came home and I had to make my video but all the power was out in my apartment

and I just turned on my laptop and I'm like kind of crying in that video because I'm like just overwhelmed. I was like, this just happened and now all the power is out and I know this sounds stupid but I didn't know what else to do. And yeah, so I think that's the most sad emotional I've gotten.

I'm not a huge fan of putting emotions like that out there on the internet because one, I want people to focus on the comedy. And two, I do put a part of my life out in videos on my channel, but I want something that's just for me offline so that I can maintain a balance and sanity. Who knows? At some point in the future, I might break down and put it all on film. Well, is there more of you, more of the personal side of you in the book? There is. That's the other thing too, is that my editor and I really wanted to make a point to put in personal stories that I've never told online before and there's a huge section of the book that deals with um like

anxiety and panic attacks that I went through a period of time with that's all in the book that's probably the most personal I've gotten um with the audience in like a creative form and it was really refreshing and I don't think it overwhelms the book you're not reading a memoir you're not reading an autobiography um but and it was great to hear my editor tell me that she related to the chapters and um enjoyed the stories and then the tips the thing is there's there's actual advice in the book it's supposed to be funny and you know tongue-in-cheek but at the same time, I tried to really reflect on my life and think about what I've actually learned that has been really helpful

for me and give that to someone else because I think that's helpful and a nice thing to do as a human being. So it was actual soul searching. It was in a way. Yeah, it was really sitting down. And I have a terrible memory for even my own life to think about like stories and events that have happened to me that have like I'm were really nice to share, but it's not exploitative and it's not too much, I don't think. I think it, for me, validates giving someone advice. I don't like when people give advice that haven't actually experienced the advice that they're giving. So instead, it felt like, here is why I know these 10 things I'm about to tell you about. So for the anxiety and panic attack,

you felt like you had to get specific in the book. Yeah, that was a big part of my life in New York and moving to Los Angeles. And I've talked about it very minimally online, but it reached ahead right before I moved to los angeles and so there's a big chunk of that that i wrote about in the book that uh i hadn't really talked about before and it is so give us a taste of it i mean where did well where did you find yourself new york is well the thing about new york is that it's an amazingly cool city but you are constantly around people all the time

every hour of the day all day long so you can tend to get really claustrophobic and so I just had a period of time where it kind of all started to hit me at once that I would get really claustrophobic every time I left my apartment or every time I got on the subway and I started having panic attacks and I didn't even know what panic attacks were but I was terrified of them because you couldn't control them. And I was very much a person that was into control in my life and so it felt like this side of me that came out of nowhere that I couldn't control and now I'm in this city and everything seems like wild

and crazy and around me all the time. And what was the physical manifestation of this? Like you couldn't breathe? Yeah, there's a lot of... And you were in public? Yeah, I would have to jump off the subway a lot of times because I would just start to get really hot and sweaty and shortness of breath and feel like I might pass out on this train or throw up. I remember I was coming back from Manhattan once and I was feeling so, it was on a really crowded train too and I had to stand and the fluorescent lighting on a train is never that, you know, healthful, I think.

So, I started it really hot and dizzy and honestly thought that i was going to throw up in this subway car and then i got out um whatever stop was it was somewhere in brooklyn and uh i just went and i sat in a dunkin donuts and it was like snowing and cold i remember i got out of the subway and like grabbed two things of snow and like put them on my face because i felt so hot and like terrible look at that crazy woman that just got out of the subway. Yeah, I know. And then I realized, I was like, how can I keep doing this if I can't even like finish a subway ride? Like I need this mode of transportation to continue.

How did you get over it or have you? I went to a doctor and I talked to, I got into therapy and started talking to a psychiatrist. And things are more under control now. It's not, you know, you don't just like take medicine and then it goes away completely. You still, it's manageable now. And you just learn your triggers. And it's really about kind of reflecting on yourself and finding out like there's something deeper going on that's manifesting itself in this like state of panic that keeps coming up. So let's look at that and figure out what that is.

Now, the Amazon description of your book includes, it says the book includes everything a young or new or regular or old adult needs to know from how to live online to landing a job to surviving a breakup to decorating a first apartment and much more uh surviving a breakup so you were writing this in may and june was this were you writing about a recent breakup uh the breakup that i talk about in the book was one of the more poignant breakups in my i've had very few relationships i'm like a serial long-term relationship person. And I had a really wonderful relationship in the tail end of college. And we broke up after I lived in New York for about a year. And we still talk now. And he's an absolutely fantastic person.

But it was a... And he... We had a really amazing like two, two and a half years together. And it was at the point where I realized that I wanted to do comedy. And he was realizing goals and dreams that he wanted to chase. And so it felt like a really beautiful magic transitional time. And then when we broke up, it was really dramatic.

And that whole story is in the book. And it was one of the most painful moments of my life when it happened but is one of my absolute favorite memories now in hindsight the breaking up part or the relationship yeah the breaking up part essentially we knew it got to a point where we were fighting so much and we finally knew that uh we breaking up, so we decided to rent a room for the weekend at the Chelsea Hotel in New York and just spend the weekend breaking up and getting drunk and yelling at each other.

And then we also bought a bunch of art supplies and we're just like painting things. And I'm not a good painter, neither is he. Which is what the Chelsea Hotel is famous for. You got the artist types living in there. Yeah, exactly. And it was just like- Breaking up constantly. Yeah, it was-

Making art. Do you still have these paintings? No, but there's a photo online of me just like on the floor painting. It's really dark and you can't really tell what's happening. It looks like some six year old just gave me their art and I like am surrounded by it. But it was great.

In hindsight, it was like a really beautiful weekend it was really was that your idea or was that it was like a mutual idea we were in Manhattan we were walking and we got in a big fight and we're we didn't have anything with us and we decided that we're just gonna go to this hotel right now for the weekend and then we said goodbye on the corner of 7th and 23rd and then I didn't talk to him for like two years after that, yeah, three bonkers. After that moment. Mm-hmm, it was really crazy.

Every time I walked by 7th and 23rd, I always had this like weird feeling. But you didn't keep any of the art? No, that was for room service. They were like, what happened here? They're like, how are these five-year-olds able to rent this room by themselves? Was that your, is that still your longest relationship or was there one after that? No, there's one after that that was really long, but I don't really talk about that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, but that was one of the more, it was such a transitional time in my life. And the moment, like being in that relationship is when I realized I wanted to do comedy and pursue comedy. And that was like a really huge moment in my life. And he was part of that. And so there's always that connection there. It's interesting that the book was an occasion for you to open up i'm i'm curious why because

there's certainly a there's a pressure with anyone who makes any type of youtube video you know if if you're a comedian if you're a vlogger if you're a musician it doesn't matter what you are if you're a youtuber there is There's an intimacy. There is a pressure to be, to connect and to be transparent, to let, to pull back the curtain. Yet you chose, you're very guarded there, but then the book was your opportunity. Yeah, and even though I say

there's lots of personal stories in the book, it's not, you know, it's not a memoir. It's not every story in this book. And there's a lot of funny, fun stories that I haven't told and quick anecdotes. But I do think that there's a huge pressure for people online to be very transparent, to show you their lives. And I'm guilty of wanting people to do that. Like I watch reality television. I watch vloggers on YouTube. I want to, you get fascinated by human beings. And so, but I've also

never been a person that expresses myself that way. And so, I have to remind myself that that's not what I want to do. I'll give a portion of my life. Sure, I have Fry Diary every week where I vlog my week and what I'm doing. But I don't think you have to tell or show everything because to me, after a while of being so emotional or whatever it might be, it becomes kind of inauthentic. I feel like there's a lot of, because there's so much pressure to talk about thoughts and feelings and fears and that, and it's great.

And I think the people that do it are really helping their audience because there's a relatability there that everyone wants to feel like they're humans and feel like, yeah. But you're certainly not on that end of the spectrum. No, and I don't think I ever will be. I think for me, it's always been kind of a tentpole

of myself and my brand to not reveal everything. Well, I can definitely relate to that. I think that part of it has to do with seeing yourself as an entertainer first. Yes, absolutely. We definitely see ourselves as entertainers first. And so when you begin to share too many personal things, you're like, am I doing this to entertain you?

Versus I think there are people who came up from a different place, maybe more tradition, even though you are vlogging, I don't necessarily see you in the same way that I would see somebody who just came up through vlogging who is like you're just experiencing my life with me and that is how you are entertained right yeah yeah I didn't mean to cut you off go ahead no that I feel that same way and I say this all the time that I understand that on YouTube there's a certain desire for an audience to want to see every inch of your life and want to find out who you're dating and find out where you live and see all those things and

that will garner a lot of views a lot of people watch that I mean as a teenage girl myself at one point in my life I wanted to live vicariously through people that I thought had really cool, interesting, fun lives. But my mission, if you want to call it on YouTube, is to be a comedic entertainer. And so that's first and foremost for me 100% of the time. And I have to really balance that for myself because it is so popular and because it is so prevalent online to show part of your life and to document everything, I have to catch myself from going too far into that area

because I think it's what the audience only wants to see. I'm reminding myself that I am my own audience. Would I want this for myself? Do I want to put this out there? Once it's out there, you can't take it back. So I have to remind myself to like maintain the theory you started with. You're a comedic entertainer. But you put a, you know, you start doing the Friday,

how do you say it? Friday. It's Friday. You give them a little. Yeah. And they're going to want a lot. Right. And they're going to, you know, And they're gonna start speculating about,

okay, is she dating Chester? Is that happening? Hashtag Dresster. So, is it? My mom said that to me. Are you guys a couple? I don't talk about that because that's not important for people to know.

I mean, he might be in my videos, sure, but there's no need to acknowledge that. And I think the audience that, the real audience, the core of people that I really want watching the videos completely understand that. And I don't feel, and Hannah and I have had these same discussions because she's kind of the same way. She keeps, you know, her romantic life offline because it keeps you sane. I don't want to be in a relationship that has too many microscopes on it. I don't think that that's very healthy.

I mean, you guys talk about your wives and children, but you're not gonna like always put them on there, I assume. We don't put our wives in any of our videos because they don't want to be there and we don't argue with them about that. Right. Our kids are too young, we can force them to do,

no, they're at a point where it's whether they are excited about it or not too. But yeah, I mean, we each have to find that line and it's difficult. And I would imagine at certain points, it does get pretty complicated. Hey, I'm going to Ikea to get some stuff. Whoever's with me is gonna, you know,

that means certain things about a relationship. Sure, people can assume anything that they- You can assume, yeah, people will wanna do that. But you have to decide if you're gonna, well, am I gonna, what kind of footage am I gonna put out there? Sure. Okay, go ahead.

No, I think I will let the audience assume anything that they want to assume they they can do whatever they want and that's how i've been like i've been in a bunch of different relationships since i started making youtube videos and i've never talked about any of those relationships to the point that my previous relationship it was a long-term relationship and no one knew about it. I would go to YouTube events and when I would mention him, people had no idea. And I would kind of pat myself on the back for that because that's not what I want out there. I don't want that kind of speculation. And that's kind of how I wanted to continue. I'll show certain things and I do kind of look at all of my footage and judge like what should go in here and what shouldn't go

in here. Especially because Fry Diary is still a relatively new concept for me of doing more daily vlogs like that or day in the life vlogs or whatever you want to call them. So it is finding that balance and checking yourself and making sure that I don't only live online. I live in the real world as well. It's just for me. And yeah, it's just kind of like a personal choice that I've made. It's that I don't confirm or deny any of that stuff. It seems like you've made a decision to,

you're okay with the speculation. Sure. You're okay with the speculation. Sure. You're okay with people having a conversation, but you, and that may mean that, okay, I'm not going to worry about who is or who is not in my content or who you see at my house or whatever, but you are not going to confirm, you're not into to confirm it or discuss it with your audience. Yeah. I don't think it's necessary.

to confirm it or discuss it with your audience? Yeah, I don't think it's necessary. I don't want it to become the sole focus. And I can see how for a lot of other YouTubers, it has done that or it has taken away, I think, something from what they are doing. And so I don't want that for myself. I still go back and forth every week on whether I actually want to do Fry Diary if I wanted to cut that for myself. I still go back and forth every week on whether I actually want to do Fry Diary

if I wanted to cut that out completely. But then you have the pressure of, oh, I started revealing stuff about my life. If I stop now, that's going to be upsetting to an audience. But yeah. It's interesting because even from a comedic standpoint, I feel like the pressure, there's a whole set of questions associated

with this pressure of transparency and putting your personal self out there when you're a comedian, because it's such a turning on of a switch to be funny that I've met people who are just, such a turning on of a switch to be funny. That I've met people who are just, they're constantly on, but more often than not, a comedian can turn on and turn off. There may be a fear of if I give them more of the off me,

it will undermine the comedic me. Or do they want to just know the gossip about me or do they want to be entertained by the comedian me? Yeah. Like I said, it's about balance and finding I want them to be focused on the comedian side of me. But I do understand the value and the intimacy of showing your personal life. So I want to do both of those things, but under the parameters and the guidelines that I approve of for myself. And to be honest, I think that's why Mamrie and Hannah and I

have all become such close friends is because we all live by that kind of byline. It's like we talk about personal things, but there is a line where we realize, no, that's just for me, that side of my life. Like I need to be a real human being sometimes. And I think that's healthy. I don't know what's going to happen with. It does ring of health in that. Boy, that's disturbing, isn't it?

Isn't it gross? Isn't it gross isn't it gross yeah i know i'm always so not concerned i guess concerned or just interested in what is going to happen in the future with how much things are documented i very much have to check myself about overly documenting things and letting myself experience something with my eyes instead of my camera. And so because kids are born with cell phones in their hands, I'm interested to see what happens if everyone just becomes their own reality show all the time. It's very fascinating.

Well, let's shift to the television show. Tell us about the E! pilot. The E! pilot is really cool. So I sold this pilot in the beginning of this year to E! And we shopped around to a bunch of networks and they're just like a great fit. And it didn't happen for a long time it kind of got pushed to the back burner to the point that i stopped talking about it because i was assuming like a lot of things in the entertainment industry they don't happen so because chelsea handler left i

guess earlier than they anticipated or leaving they you know put the green light on and like rushed like we need a pilot from you and they they have a lot of other late night talk shows in development as means to try and replace the Chelsea slot and maintain that audience. So who knows what's happening? Because going to the traditional machine of media is a little scary because you do lose some creative control because you're collaborating now with a traditional network. And so I wanted, if anything, they didn't have to pick up the show at all. I just don't know if they have. I just wanted to create something that I was really proud of that if they did pick it up, I I wouldn't be like, well now I have to do this show that's not me and I have to pretend it is. And how did you communicate that?

I communicated it by creating a late night show that's kind of like the introverts talk show. It happens in my house the same way my videos happen and all the guests come to me and we hang out there and it's really low key and it's not in front of a studio audience, but I so maintain my normal life around it. I'll go run errands. I'll interview people in my car while I'm doing other things and getting, you know, takeout and that sort of stuff. So it feels really low key and casual and silly and fun. And the conversations a lot like the

podcast are kind of nonsensical, but they also draw from the Internet where I wanted it to be interactive in that way. People submitted stuff through Twitter that got used in the show. And so I'm really proud of it because I've been fumbling in my brain with the idea, knowing that TV was a goal at some point, at least to try. knowing that TV was a goal at some point, at least to try. And people like Chris Hardwick and Andy Cohen do a great job of trying to merge the internet into a comedy show. And so I was trying to figure out how to do it, and it became like this convoluted, like overly complicated thing of like, we'll have a live stream during the show and all this stuff.

thing of like we'll have a live stream during the show and all this stuff and uh and so just kind of paring it down and having the voice of the vlog that i have but making it feel big enough that it should exist on television and so you actually made the pilot we made the pilot we shot the pilot in three days 22 minutes an hour or 22 minutes it's a 22 minute pilot we shot in three days we shot it in between two separate shoots for Hey USA, the travel show that Mamrie and I did. So the great thing about that is that I didn't have time to overanalyze everything that was happening. It was just like, put your head down and go.

Can you tell us who was on it, like guests? I think I can. Tom Lennon was on it from Reno 911. Yeah, he's great. He is so great. We met him, he was on our Mythical show. He's great. We interviewed him in his own hot tub.

That's pretty amazing. While clothed. That's amazing. Okay, so. But he's the nicest human being and has a philosophy of work and life that I totally subscribe to. I kept thanking him for taking the time out of his day

to come and do this interview. And his response was just why wouldn't i why wouldn't i i had time so yeah of course why wouldn't i like he was just really well like i said he was on our show so yeah it's just it's super nice like he gets like the hustle he understands that like it's you're never like too good for anything or it was really it was really refreshing and really nice and he was of course hilarious was he the only guest no um ej johnson was who is like an e personality he's on um rich kids of beverly hills this reality show okay and memories on the show as well and is that magic's uh son yeah okay yeah and he's fantastic he's this like fabulously rich gay boy that is so sweet and so nice and i was really intimidated when he i found out he was going to be our second guest

because he's fabulous and i'm picking him up in a rented priya wearing basically like flannel and cut off jeans i mean like hello and then telling him that I've never been into a Nordstrom before and him like almost choking on his own spit. I couldn't believe it. So you had like mic'd up the car and it happened in the car? Yeah, we did it. I leave my interview with Tom to go pick up Mamrie and while I'm on the way picking up Mamrie,

I pick up EJ and there's just a bunch of GoPros and I just talk to him in the car. And Mamrie's like in the backseat? And then Mamrie comes in and we force him to sit in the backseat. I force him in the backseat. Yeah. I'm like, this is my friend. I don't really know you. So you have to sit in the back. And then we go to Del Taco and we get tacos. And we just, that was my favorite part was watching EJ Johnson, who's wearing, carrying a purse that costs more than my house and wearing like this scarf thing, just eating a Del Taco in the back of this car.

It was great. So it's a simple show and it's fun and it feels. What's it called? Right now it's called Grace Helbig Has a Television Show. Yeah, really cryptic title. And when do you expect, I know you can never expect these things, but when do you hope to hear something?

Feedback is really positive. It's out to focus groups right now. Focus groups. I know, which is so scary. Your show and your entire future is in the hands of 8 to 12 people. Of a bunch of strangers in Wisconsin. I know. And they have like dials where it's like, I'm interested.

Turn to the right. Turn to the left when you're uninterested in something, which sounds like kind of degrading. But I understand why they do it. So we'll find out. At the end of the day, like I said, I'm really happy with the piece of content that we made. And I've slowly, I don't really have like a bucket list and I never have had like, here's my five year plan. But as I've been doing things in my life,

I feel like I'm creating and also crossing off things on my bucket list as they happen. So for me, I'm like, if this doesn't get picked up and I never do a pilot again, at least I did that and I made one that I'm really happy with. So great job. And what happens if it does get picked up? How does that impact the rest of the Grace Helbig world?

I'm not totally sure. I think if it gets picked up, how does that impact the rest of the Grace Helbig world? I'm not totally sure. I think if it gets picked up, I'll have to evaluate it. I won't stop making YouTube videos. It's just how do I make content that exists online and how do I make content for television that are all within the same brand and within the same umbrella but don't overlap. So you still- Because this would be a daily show, Monday through Friday? I think it would start as a weekly show.

And then depending on how it goes, who knows? Okay. But I think it could be really interesting. And if it did get picked up, it would be reevaluating. We're not reevaluating, just evaluating. How does this all work together? Let's figure this out. Well, you know, we've talked about, you know, I think when you really sit back and think about all we've talked about, you've had an incredible year, right? With all

this stuff that started and all the things that you've accomplished. When you think about those things, when you think about the book, you think about the TV show, you think about the podcast and the movie. How does that make you think about the core of what it was in being a YouTube channel and now it's so much bigger? How does it make you think about the sustained success? How important is the sustained success of that main YouTube channel to you at this point?

It's hugely important and Hannah has this quote that I use all the time now that I was on a panel with her. I bet you're about to use it again. Yeah, I am. Get ready. She says, dance with the one you came with, which makes so much sense to me and like really was a turning point

in how I thought about YouTube when I heard her say that. YouTube has afforded me a lot of these opportunities and for me to not focus on maintaining that my channel I think would be a real bad thing so I the it's interesting doing this podcast because I don't really give myself time to reflect on a lot of things that have happened especially in the past year because i'm always of the mindset of like just work forward forward momentum no time to really like look back because that'll slow you down and then blah blah so uh so it's crazy and the only thing i can hope to continue is making things that i would want to watch if i wasn't me or want to be a part of if I wasn't me. And to cultivate,

uh, hopefully an audience of people that are nice, cool, fun, interesting people with a lot of potential. Um, and so far that's been happening. So it's maintaining that,

how that happens. Not totally sure, but we'll see. Well, I think it is happening. It has happened this year and, uh, I think it's going to keep happening. Yeah. And we, but we'll see. Well, I think it is happening. I hope it continues. It has happened this year. And I think it's gonna keep happening. Yeah, and we can't wait to see what that is.

So, and then a year from now, hopefully you'll be back here talking about it. Yeah, hopefully I'll finally have my line of airplanes that I've wanted to release. Hopefully we'll still be living, or at least one of us. Oh yeah. And I volunteer to be the one. Okay, well at least one of us. Oh yeah. And I volunteer to be the one. Okay, well I didn't know how it works.

So that's the deal, you come back in a year and at least one of us will still be here and alive. It's a promise, unless we die in the same accident, that can happen. I don't want that now. We fly together. This took a turn. Yeah, we made it about us, and we made it about us dying.

That happens a lot. Yeah, we talk about death. Our own death. Thanks so much, Grace. Sign the table again. Yeah, okay. How does that work? You know what? Yes, you did sign it the first time.

I signed it, yeah. I was just looking at how you can get a lot from someone based on their signature. And my signature is so obnoxious. There's exclamation points after it. I would hate me if I didn't know me just by looking at that. Yeah, I'll just trace my own signature. Well, it says Grace 1, so you should put a Grace 2 somewhere.

Oh, perfect. There you go. It's as if I knew that I'd be back. Yeah. There it is, an Ear Biscuit, second biscuit with Grace Helbig. I'm really glad that Grace came back on. You know, we're friends, huge fans of hers. And you know, I guess I was a little flattered

to see in her vlog that she was nervous to be on the show. I guess she told us that too. Yeah. Oh wait, what are you guys gonna get out of me this time now that you've figured out what your approach is on your business. Well and I do think that we haven't really talked about this, I think the two guys sitting across the table

from you, one who's very large and one who is actually larger than average but people don't realize it because the other guy is so large, I think that might be intimidating. Or at least unfair. It's kind of like a, the word's not a trial, but what's the word I'm looking for? An inquisition? Inquisition.

It's not an inquisition. You don't have to convert. I do think that we kind of got to know more of getting Grace's headspace and kind of understand, you know, her approach in separating her personal life from her comedic public life. Because she was able to be very open about her philosophy of neither confirming nor denying certain details

of her personal life without being open about those specific details. There's a nuance there, but I think it's important because she wasn't just like, I don't talk about that. Shut up. Yeah. She was, I don't talk about that. Now let me talk about why I don't talk about that.

And I gotta say, I respect that and appreciate that. Like you acknowledged when we talked to her, there are some things that we don't get into. We don't talk a whole lot about our relationship with our wives, with our wives are not in our videos, as an example of one of the places that we've kind of drawn a line. Sure, I mean, she's a comedian.

Yeah. She's not a reality star. Right. And there's a professional. Yeah. She's not a reality star. Right. And there's a professional choice to be made there as well as a personal choice. I want people to want to spend time with me online because I'm entertaining and I'm funny, not because there's something, some juicy detail in my personal life

that happens to entertain you. And I will say that there are a lot of people, I would say I would almost characterize it as a YouTube generation that is characterized by, you are entertained by the fact that they are so open about their lives. I'm not judging that and I'm not saying it's right or it's wrong.

I'm just saying that I personally, and I know you do too, and Grace, much more relate to, I wanna entertain you. And I wanna give you enough of myself personally so you can connect, but you're not being entertained by the connection exclusively. You're being entertained because, well, I'm thinking about what I'm saying

and I'm trying to make it funny and I'm trying to make it interesting. You know, and I think that that's a distinction and I think that you can only respect that. Let Grace know what you think of her willingness to go deeper here on Ear Biscuits. Tweet at her, Grace Helbig, that's her name.

And her Twitter handle. That's pretty cool, right? And you know what? Look out for the book. October 21st. Right around the corner, October 21st is when the book will be available. I think it's available for pre-order now. Is that when it becomes available for pre-order? Pre-order now.

You can pre-order now, but you can actually buy it then. Gracesguidebook.com. So check that out. Grace's Guide, the art of pretending to be a grownup. And as always, we appreciate your feedback, your ratings and reviews on iTunes, your comments on SoundCloud. Thanks for letting us insert this biscuit into your ear.

We will do it again next week. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. We'll speak at you.