Fitzdog Radio - Owen Smith - Episode 1105

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Comedian/ Showrunner/ Good guy Owen Smith hangs out. We discuss Coldplay concerts and Bernie Mac. Follow Owen Smith on Instagram ⁠@owensmith4real Watch my special "You Know Me" on YouTube! ⁠⁠http://bit.ly/FitzYouKnowMe⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠@GREGFITZSHOW⁠⁠ Instagram ⁠⁠@GREGFITZSIMMONS⁠⁠ ⁠⁠FITZDOG.COM⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to this year's championship game. This is the big one. With Amex Platinum, you have access to an annual dining credit to some of the hottest restaurants around town. Score! So you can raise the bar on game night. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca slash y-a-m-x. That means you can tune in to hit shows like Paradise, Deli Boys, and King of the Hills Season 14 coming this summer. All available to Disney Plus subscribers. Visit DisneyPlus.com to sign up and stream now.

Summer is what you make of it, and Tim Horton's fruit crunchers have something for every mood. So choose from a variety of fruity flavors in sparkling, frozen, or lemonade. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. So choose from a variety of fruity flavors in sparkling, frozen, or lemonade. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Hey now, welcome to Fits Dog Radio. I am your stuffed up host. My nose is congested. I slept about four hours last night. I'm dog sitting from my buddy Mikey Fitzgibbon, who rescued a dog from Tom O'Neill, who rescued the dog, and he needed me to babysit for the night. Great dog, beautiful, well-behaved, doesn't bark,

doesn't hump other dogs, doesn't lick its own vagina. It's pleasant, doesn't smell. So I said, yeah, let me take the dog for the night. He's like, oh, she's a piece of cake she'll just sleep you know no hassle so we go to bed and then at 5 a.m. I hear noises inside so I wake up and I go inside and the dog has torn apart the ottoman there's stuffing all over the living room she got into the yarn that's ripped up all over the room. Giant shit on the rug, piss on another part of the rug and she knew, she knew. I called her over to me and she just ran. And I thought, you know, we had dogs for 16 years,

beautiful, cute little dogs and loved the shit out of them but they've been gone for two years and I gotta tell you it's nice not having dogs they I'm exhausted I'm so fucking tired all I want to go to do is go to sleep but I gotta keep walking this dog anyway sometimes they say this show needs no introduction well guess what this show needs no introduction. Well guess what? This show needs no introduction. I just had a great talk with my buddy Owen Smith and yeah we just we just got into it. We had a great conversation and we recorded it

about two hours ago. I am coming to see you people! Batavia, Illinois this weekend July 25th and 26th at the Comedy Vault. Pottstown, PA at Soul Joles July 31st Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Uncle Vinny's August 1st and 2nd. La Jolla at the Comedy Store August 29th through 31. Then I'm coming to Denver, Connecticut, Fairbanks, Alaska just announced, October 1 through 4. Vegas, Chicago, New Orleans. Go to FitzDog.com, get some tickets, come out, see some live comedy.

My guest today, he's got a new podcast called Good Luck Everybody. He just created a TV show called The Crutch with Tracy Morgan, that'll be out on Paramount Plus this fall. He wrote on Black-ish, Arsenio Hall Show, Whitney, Everybody Hates Chris,

The Last OG. He's done stand-up comedy on Conan, Colbert. He's regular on the Joe Rogan Experience. You're gonna love him as much as I do. Here is Owen Smith. ["The Little Mermaid"] So I first entered the porn industry. My guest is a married man, a father, stand-up comedian, writer, showrunner, and now podcaster. There you go. Good luck everybody, everywhere podcaster, writer, showrunner, and now podcaster. There you go. Good luck everybody, everywhere, podcaster.

Found, whatever. Yeah, way to jump in on it in the early stages there. Let's get it early, man, in case anybody goes scene enough. Right, that's like the guy who's like, yeah, yeah, I had sex with Elizabeth Taylor, and you find out, I was like, yeah, when she was 73. Yeah, man, it works.

It still works. Halle Berry still counts, where is she? Dude, she does still count. I'll take dry veg Halle right now. What? Ha ha ha ha ha. This isn't how I imagined it, Halle, but okay. I mean, it's like she is eating child's DNA.

Something's going on with her. She just doesn't age. I mean, it's like she is eating child's DNA. Something's going on with her. She just doesn't age. She's gonna skip her. She thought menopause was gonna skip her. Yeah. And then she profited off of menopause. Oh, did she? Yeah, she has a company now bringing menopause awareness.

Oh. I forget the name of it. I would plug it. I don't know the name of it. And she sells- Womenopause? I think she sells like lube and stuff. Really?

I have a theory, I don't think her vagina's dry at all. I think she's, I think her business manager's, cause she's paying like child support. Yeah. So I think her business manager's would like, we figured out a way you could- No, what it is is it's like goop. It's actually her vagina juices

that you use as lubricant, because she's that wet. She's that wet. Yeah, she just, every day it's like milk and a cow. She just puts a bottle down there. She sends it out. It's called Halle's Berry. Halle's Berry.

There it is. That's how you're supposed to use it on. Oh, sorry. Shut up. Salad dressing. You can use it for anything. I lost 20 pounds thanks to Halle's Berry. Where's Cam?

Where's my camera? Oh my God, I forgot the word oh my God. Oh God. Man, are we gonna talk about this Coldplay guy as being two married guys? Yeah. Well. Coldplay guy as being two married guys? Yeah. Well. Coldplay concert.

I've been to a Coldplay concert. First of all, it's one of the best concerts you can say. I don't know if that's your music, but. Dig it. Yeah. I would go. Yeah, yeah. But what do you think of it?

I mean, he's married, she's divorced, she's separated. Oh, she was separated? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I think he clearly never cheated before, like by his response. Right.

He was like, oh! And then he, he was like, I'm a faithful man, that's my own cheat, I can't, I would have done the same thing. Right. But if you're going to cheat, you need to take an acting class. So when you have those moments,

you can just stay in it. So now you only have to deal with trouble at home. The world is on repeat. Your kids are seeing it. The fact that he cowered was so difficult. All he had to do was just glance away, let the arms drop, and let the. Yep. Let the arms drop. And let the camera move on to the next couple.

And where would you learn that? That's right. You're caught. You're busted. But you're not. You just stay in it. That's why I saw high fiber. Right.

That's why Burt Reynolds, all these great actors, they cheated like crazy and they never got caught. They never got caught. They knew how to just stay. That's right. Burt Reynolds, all these great actors, they cheated like crazy and they never got caught. They never got caught. They knew how to just stay. Yeah. Yes. Was that Burt's wife? I don't know. It was so good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was so, just watching it. Yeah. Oh my God. It was cringy. It was cringy. Yeah. You can't be a rookie in these streets. My boy who got caught years ago, he said something. He said, while he was going through therapy

and trying to figure it out, he said, you know why you always gonna get caught? I go, why? He goes, because you don't know how you normally act. Right. I was like, that makes sense. Yeah. Right. But your wife does, your wife sees you.

Yep. She sees that when you walk in the house, what hook you put your hat on. Yep. What hand you drink, you know. Whether you kiss her. All of that. Whether or not you come home and go,

I'm gonna grab a shower, honey. It's like, it's three in the afternoon. Yeah, why you showering? Yeah. What's going on? Let me smell your balls. You smell like Halle Berry. I smell like, yeah, these Halle Berries. Ah, they got me.

Yeah, man. That's why dogs do it. They're checking to see if their partner's cheating. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, they smell the button. Where you been? Yeah. That's it.

Come on now. We're sitting down on the street now. I'm gonna sign. We at the dog park? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on now. Come on, get off street now. We're at the dog park. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on now, come on, get off me now. We got a dog wandering around today.

Come here. Cute. Come up here, show everybody your face. Beautiful. He's like, I am in the union. This is Lexi. Hey, Lexi. She is my friend Mikey Fitzgibbon's dog.

Oh, wow. And he had some kind of procedure done, so he asked me to take the dog. And this is a rescue, right off the street, literally like a rescue. And, but the sweetest, kindest, never barks. So she stayed over at my house last night, took her for a monster walk.

We walked 16,000 steps. And then last night before bed, I took her for another long walk. Seven miles, eight miles. And then I woke up this morning at five a.m. I hear noise inside. I come in, she's ripped apart the furniture, shit on the floor, pissed on the rug.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Yup, yup. Well, she put on her best face for two days. Yeah, I know. I gotta give her respect for that. Yeah. Then she was like, all right, now I gotta show the real me. I mean, tear this couch up. Yeah, this is why we don't, we had dogs for 16 years. We did? Yeah, we had two of them, which was nice

because the kids grew up with them. Yeah, and they keep you healthy, they make you walk, they keep you active, which is necessary. I think they're also good for your endorphins. Every time I walk in the door and that dog comes in and greets me, I love it. You know what? I get that from my kids right now.

Yeah, right. And I was like, man, when I come in, they're like, daddy, daddy. And I'm like, man, nobody. And my wife just like, yeah, I'll do that when I come home. Oh, they don't act like that when she goes home? They do, but she likes to act like that. like, yeah, I'll do that when I come home. Oh, they don't act like that when she goes home? They do, but she likes to act like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sometimes they'll just be like, hey, mom. Yeah. But for me, it's like, daddy's home day! I'm like, oh, yeah, we're really putting it on. Yeah. That just means you're out more. I know, I know, I know. You know what I did that horrified me,

but it worked out amazingly. So I went to the improv, the forum, and I saw an 11-year-old, two 11-year-olds in the green room. Yeah. And I go, who's, who are you with? And they said who they were with, and so then I asked the management,

I go, we can bring our kids here. They go, yeah, just, because I thought the liquor license, we could just sit up there, it's cool. So I race home and I tell my son, I go, hey man, you know how you've been wanting to know where daddy's going all the time? You can come with me to the improv. He was like, bad, yeah, can't wait.

My son is eight and it grew to, I say, now I gotta take my daughter too because she's gonna feel some type of way, she's six. I go, I'm gonna take both of y'all next time I get a spot at the improv. It balloons to me also bringing their cousins, my mom, get out of here. I'm taking four, No.

Four kiddos with me, ages nine, six to nine, right? To the improv. Yeah. I am petrified because I'm thinking, what am I going to talk about that I don't want to scar them, but I don't know what act I'm going to do. So what are they gonna sit on the steps on the way to the green room? They sit on the steps there and they can peer down.

Right. And then there's the TV that they can watch. Oh, right, right. And so I'm like, man, when I was nine, I saw Eddie Murphy, Delirious. And Eddie didn't know I was watching. Yeah. It is that.

And it made me want to do stand up. Yeah. And so I was like, do I act like that or do I? And so I called my friend, Sakaya, and I said, man, I don't know what to do. He goes, I'm coming. I got to come see this. Ah!

Ah! So he comes and he's like, this is either gonna be, we're witnessing a moment. You're about to send your kids to therapy or it'll just be just a wonderful precious moment, a great memory. And so my kids come in and my daughter loves to bring it on. First person we see is Al Madrigal. And Al comes in and he goes, listen,

we're doing a fucking show. Yeah, he said that? Yeah, he talks to him like an adult. He doesn't even, because he just got off stage, I'm assuming, so he was just talking to adult moles. Talks to them like an adult. They didn't blink or anything. He was like, this is the green room,

get whatever you want, tear it up, get as much as you want. And they were like, yay! Yeah, there's candy in there, there's drinks. And they went tearing it up. Yeah. Great. And they were jumping up and down on the couch. And then I showed them the main room. My daughter takes to the seat immediately

and is peering over. And she sees, what's my man's name? Oh, I just lost his name. He does the great one-liners from New York. Oh. Cool slick back hair, leather jacket, look. He does the great one-liners from New York. Oh. Cool slick back hair, leather jacket, look. Jeselnik, Jeselnik's on stage. Anthony Jeselnik, okay.

Jeselnik's on stage, and my daughter's wearing light-up shoes. And so he sees the light-up shoes, and he goes, who the fuck's wearing light-up shoes? From the stage, you said that? Yeah. So, and my daughter is loving it. So then my daughter comes in, and she goes,

daddy talked about my light-up shoes. I go, what'd he in and she goes, Daddy, he talked about my light up shoes. I go, what'd he say? He goes, who the F word has on light up shoes? So I thought that was very cute, the shit. She knew not to say the word. And so I was, all right. So then Anthony comes up and goes, sorry, man. I bought my kids.

First of all, let me, can I interject here? Yes, yes. There is probably not an act I would less want my kids to see than Anthony Jessalyn. It's pedophilia. It's pedophilia. It's all the things. It's murder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They stayed for us. They didn't really ingest it. They just saw the environment. Right, right, right. Taking it in. And then she became the show. So I don't think she heard any of it. OK.

Yeah. So then she runs back in the room jumping up and down. I go up after Jessalynic, and then they all come out and they watch, and I see the light up shoes, and I just do my act. But I tell the audience early, I go, look, kids are here, so I may wince on a few of these punch lines.

And they all like, when I get off stage, and I had a great set, and when I get off stage, my son and daughter are jumping up and down like when I walk in the house. They're like, daddy! And they gave me the biggest hug. Ah. And it was the best feeling. It was like the best, like showbiz

could never give me a greater embrace than that. Yeah, you brought your two worlds together. Yeah. That's amazing. And knowing to keep them separate as artists. Yeah, but the thing that's interesting about that is the first time, and I'm sure my kids had seen me on the internet a little bit, but the first time my son saw me live,

he was probably 15 or so, and I was working at the Denver Comedy Works, so I flew the family out so we could go skiing after we did Denver, going out to Vail. And so my daughter was too young, so my wife took her out for pizza. My son came to the Comedy Works, which is maybe the best place for your kid

to see you do standup comedy. You play the Denver comedy. Not yet. I need to- It's insane. I need a plug. I'm there in September, I'm gonna bring you in. Okay, I'll be there, I'm there, man.

I'm not bringing you with me. I'm gonna plug you to the Booker. Thank you. Because you got a headline. I'm gonna get an open for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would love to have a headline there. Who did the special where she shot footage there?

Kathleen Madigan? Kathleen, but it was another more recent. Maria Banford? Drawing, I'm blanking on names of my tribe. Yeah, I know. She has the funny voice. She had a show on Netflix for my tribe. Yeah, I know. She has the funny voice, she had a show on Netflix for a second. The bushy hair.

Oh, Wolf, Michelle Wolf. Yeah, yeah, and I saw it, I just fell in love with it. Yeah, yeah. No, it's graded back, the seats raise as they go back. It's pie shaped. That's great. And the seats are bolted into the ground and they're all facing the stage.

So you have to pay attention. You are staring at the stage and they're tight. I don't think fat people can go to the Denver Comedy Works. Well, Colorado is the most in-shape state. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. And you've got these people, Denver has people that are just like,

they're cowboys, but they're urban. So they're hip and sophisticated, but they also have that woo energy. And it's just, and then you don't bring an opener. They have a local comedy scene that's so good that they'll put three or four people on ahead of you. And they switch the lineup every night. And I've gotten to know some guys really well

over the years, Kevin Fitzgerald, and these guys kill. So yes, I'm there in September. I'm gonna push you. Thank you, man. You hooked me up in Barcelona. Oh, that's right. That was so fantastic. Yeah.

And the main thing is we both did it in Spanish. Pissy. It was a three minute show. Fantastic. Yeah. And the main thing is we both did it in Spanish. Pussy. It was a three minute show. Three minute show, it was so fast. But they gave us the door. They gave us the door, but they gave me this weird fucking money. I was trying to use it here in the States,

and people would be like, I'm crazy. I wouldn't pull it out now. They'd send your ass right back to where that money came from. That's right. Just the Spanish word. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I bring him to the Denver Comedy Works.

Yeah. And he's sitting there, and the waitresses, who I've known forever, just spoil him. They give him a great table. They're bringing him sodas. They're bringing him chicken wings. And he loves the openers. And then I come on, and they told me when I got off stage

that he was doubled up laughing and wiping tears the entire time. And we walked outside and he goes, Dad, that's the funniest hour, and I crushed. You know when you got somebody special in the crowd? You pull, you draw on shit you didn't know you had? Yes. And I annihilated, and he goes,

that was the funniest hour I've seen in my life. And then he started saying things like, where do you think of your jokes, and stuff like that. But it sounded, this is the weird part, it sounded like a fan all of a sudden. Because, you know, he was experiencing it like a fan. And it made me really sad because I had this very personal, customized relationship with my son

that was based on playing baseball together, building a fort together, reading him books, giving him baths, watching, introducing him to TV shows. And all of a sudden he was just like somebody else, and my self-esteem is so tied into myself as a performer, and I hide behind that. And that's a mask I give people. I'm cockier, I was just talking about it before with them,

is like, you know, there's this sort of ironic, racist, homophobic, middle-aged, cis white guy character going on. And like, and it's not really me. Right. And my son saw that and he loved it and it made me sad because I didn't want it to take the place of the real dad. And a little bit.

How old was he when he saw you? 15 and now he's 24. Okay. But, and now he's 24. Okay. But, and now they both come out and see me at the clubs a little bit. And I don't like it because, does that make sense to you? Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

I mean. It's not my genuine self. Well, you know what's so funny? And it takes us so many years to figure out who our genuine self is up there. Right. And the last person you want sitting in the audience is someone that, you know, who's butting you.

Someone who's like, I remember when I first started, my family in Asbury Park, New Jersey, my mom's, on my mom's side, they all came to see me. Yeah. Was it a decent club? No, it was a room. Back then, you know, I was doing rooms before I went to clubs. It was some room and they were sitting,

and all of them were wearing these glasses that were like reflecting. I knew my family. I just saw the lenses and I saw their faces of like disappointment. Like that's not only,, how do I present, how do I talk in front of them when they have this specific image of me?

Because the room was so small, I didn't know how to rise above being Owen to them as opposed to the performer for this crowd. So I did okay. Some of my cousins dug it, but some of the other, it just didn't, it wasn't until I did Radio City that they were in the audience and I was, I had this is what I, for me, from my perspective.

But I mean, they've seen me on TV and things like that. But yeah, it is, but for my, I can get that from your kids. Like my mom, she loves me and she's very supportive, but she has a hard time watching me because I talk about fucking my wife in detail. It's hilarious. And it just makes her so uncomfortable.

It makes, like it violates. She's a very Catholic person and she's pretty conservative about what she likes and doesn't like. And I think my comedy is a reaction to that. You know, I think I am the way I am because I grew up with so much shame and so much like, you know, we did not curse. If you cursed in my house, you got slapped.

There was no cursing, there was, you know, no sexuality was allowed to be discussed or shown. And this is a movie. We see you growing up in your household. None of that stuff. Cut to you hosting the porn awards. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I've had people come to me and say, man, you're so funny. And I would think, wait till both my parents are dead. I'm gonna be really, so afraid. I guess stuff I wanna talk about.

Right. Well, you're super close to your mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was raised by my mom. When I started doing comedy, she didn't really know how to embrace it because that's when she realized our entire life, I was like a permanent,

it was like a permanent record button was pressed. I just like absorbed like all of her, you know, how she raised me. Because you know, you first start, you talk about what you know. And so, but I made it a point, whenever I talked about my mom in the bit, she would always win in the bit.

Yeah, right, right. So I would never talk, you know. Yeah. And so it took a while for her to kind of see that. Now she loves it and it's cool. Yeah. And you have her voice down. Oh man, her voice is very.

Yeah, yeah. I should play something. I just called her to ask her, when did I start comedy? Because I started at night, every comedian has two answers. Trying to piece together something for my podcast. Good luck everybody. Oh yes, come in, we're gonna talk about that later. Don't worry about it, we're gonna plug you.

And so I'm doing a, I was trying to, I started in 1992 in the summer. And it's not a clean way of saying it. I was home for the summer from Notre Dame. So I just did my freshman year at Notre Dame. Home, back home in Prince George's County, Maryland for the summer. And my mom got me a job with the Department of Energy.

So I caught the subway to work every day and while I rode with her, I can't remember, I think we may have rode together and I worked at the department. What's the name of the town? Prince George's County. They got a subway in Prince George's County? Yeah, it's got us out of Washington, D.C.

Oh, it's part of the D.C. system. Oh, okay, got it. Why did you say D.C.? Cause I'm not from D.C. If we're driving in D.C., we both gonna get lost. I'm gonna be like, I thought you said you were from here. Yeah, I'm from P.J. County. So, and so I grew up, so back then I was living in Largo.

I was living in Largo, Maryland. And we would, I think me and my mom would ride in and then I would go to Department of Energy and I was just a cut up. I was just funny. And I used to like, they called it joning. We were from, I used to jone on people, you know. And then Kevin came over to me and said,

you funny, I'm gonna take you to this comedy club. I was like, what? And I never heard, I didn't know. It was like a threat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in true like BC fashion, he goes, I'm gonna take you to this comedy club. Then he goes, pick me up. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm gonna start right here, I'm gonna run in, I'm gonna wait in line, he runs in together. Like, what? I was like an Uber driver before.

And we go all the way to Greenbelt, Maryland. Me and this cat. And we get there on time, show starts at eight, it's a black road. I didn't know that that minute would start about 8.45. I don't know what people got there. And it was a list, it was like just a list that was set out. And I signed up first on the list.

And I sat in the back of the room with bubble guts. Like, I was so nervous. This was right at the tail end of the comedy boom when people started papering rooms. So they would have like buffet food. So they had like hot dogs and old pizza and stuff. So I'm eating that, which is making the bubble guts. That's where I was in the back.

Oh God, I don't like where this is headed. Well, and then the host, Chris Paul, is his name. He went up, and he's super funny, and he's doing the show. And I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, you don't know, he might call my name next. He went through the whole list, whole night. I didn't get called. Yeah.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And I'm competitive, and I kind of took that personal, like, oh, it was messed up. So I go home, go back to work, da-da-da-da, come back the following week. With the guy? No, I'll go by myself this time. Sign up, like on different slots,

sign my name several times. Oh, nice. And I'm sitting there. Did you use different names? That would have been genius. I was thinking like that. I didn't know. I would have been so smug.

And I just did O.S. Smith, O.S. Smith, Owen Smith, Owen Smith, Owen Smith, Owen Smith, which was like, it sounds, if you're reading it, it does sound like you're about to be audited. Owen Smith, who the hell is this? That's not a comedy name. So he doesn't call my name again. Oh shit. And I sit there and I watched the whole act

and then I go up to him and I go, hey man, and I was so nervous. Hey man, I've been coming in the last two weeks, signing up, you haven't called me. He goes, oh, I just didn't know you, come back next week. Oh, there you go. My first showbiz lesson. That's right.

So you know. Yep. So I come back the following week and I signed up in like space number five or whatever. He calls me up first. I didn't know that was the, we don't know about him spot. Yeah, yeah. Calls me up first.

I think even before he did any warm up. Oh, so it's cold open. Boom, go out, do my act, and I'm talking so fast. Yeah. Like, and one of my first jokes was about the Power Rangers, how the Black Power Ranger had to do this, like why does he gotta do,

that's his karate move, the snake. And I was like, if I'm fighting somebody and they do this, I'm whipping his ass, you know, I was doing my hook. Yeah. Like, where they teaching the brother? You know, I was leaning, if I'm fighting somebody and they do this, I'm whipping his ass, you know, I was doing my hook. Like, where are they teaching the brother? You know, I was leaning into it. I was so proud of that bit. And then years later, so I'll tell you another story. So did you do all right?

I did good. I was talking so fast. I got some laughs, but I remember like, I was afraid to look at the crowd and I would glance down, they were just like looking up at me like, with like smiles and things like this. And a few people laughed. Did they say it was your first time?

I don't remember. Yeah. I don't remember. But he brought me up and then. And you had nobody there to watch. Nobody. Oh, that's so sad. You're the only person I've ever met

that didn't have anyone in the audience their first time. I know. Oh wow, really? Yeah, you're a renegade, man. Yeah, man, I'm a loner, man. When I got off stage though, all the comedians, and I think this is only a DMV thing, all the comedians on the show came up to me.

They gave me applause, they gave me dap, and they would tell me, you were funny, and they were giving me tips. First of all, slow down, you're talking too fast. This bit is funny, you can say, they were extremely additive and helpful. It was the first time I was around other black men where it wasn't, like sports wasn't involved.

Right. Just so engaged. And so I was like, I said, I'm a home. Yeah. And so I stayed and watched the rest of the show and you know how the comedians progressively get better based on how long they've been doing it. A guy I went to school with in eighth grade goes on stage

and he was one of the more seasoned guys. I was like, that's Mike Brooks, I knew him. He went up to A was up, Joe was up, and he was funny, he was doing his thing. And I was, hey, remember me? He was like, hey, what's up here? And so I became his driver the rest of the summer. Hey man. Did that mean he got to open for it? Yeah, yeah, I would say we would go to gigs. Yeah, yeah. He would like kinda show me the rest of the summer. Amen.

Does that mean he got to open for it? Yeah, yeah, I would say we would go to gigs. He would like kind of show me the lay of the land. And my goal was to get paid. Yeah. I was like, if I get paid, I'm a professional. You can't tell me nothing. And so we were doing all these rooms

called like cabarets and stuff. We're like, the tables are long and everybody's eating crabs. Yeah, we got it. They got a crane and neck back to look at you. Huh? What'd you say? All right, man. Hey, watch out, man. Hey, pass me the thing. You know, fights break out.

You on stage. And so I'm here now. Yeah. Hey, who this cornball? Who that? How can we get to talk? Yeah. Who let the police up? Because I used to tuck my shirt in. Oh, my God. Let the police in. Police I used to tuck my shirt in, hi, guys. Let the police in. Police in, like the audience would be more ruthless.

You up there like, hey, man. So for me, it was like, if you can get laughs in these venues that weren't designed for comedy, I was like, I can only imagine when I get to like, I didn't even know there were nicer places. Dude, early 90s was pizza places, bowling alleys. All of them. We did, and Mike always had this blind confidence

that was so beautiful. Once I knew it was this, the mayor of Rap City, Chris Thomas, from DC, he headlined the comedy connection in Laurel, and Mike got a call saying Chris was coming down early. Did we want to come down and go up after him? And Mike was like, hell yeah, let's go, Joe. So I'm gonna rise, I'm driving,

we driving to the green belt. I mean, the Comedy Connection in Laurel, Chris, Paul just obliterated. Like there is no more laughter. Yeah, yeah. Are y'all ready for more comedy? People are like, huh? Like people are ready to go home.

Give it up for, and Mike used to tell me to lie with my intro because Mike's intros would be, they would be big lines. He told with Martin, you seen him on the Sin Bachelor, you seen it, I was like, you didn't do all those things, you got figured you'd make a joke. So I would add like fake stuff. And then give it up for Owen Smith. And I come out, crickets.

Crickets. I'm like, I got feel man, give it up for Laney. Whatever I was doing, poop, poop, you get that sweat. I just ate it for like 10 minutes. I get off stage, I'm like, why did we do this? And then Mike went up, he got some laughs, but I just remember learning, never follow, like I had been in the game a month.

Yeah. What am I thinking going after a seasoned headline? Right. But at the end of the summer at that same club, this gentleman named Pops gave me a crumpled up $25. Nice. And I was like, I'm a professional. Yeah.

So then I went back to Notre Dame and you couldn't tell me nothing. Cause I was like, I made people in DC laugh over the summer. South Bend is light work. And so they came to comedy club in South Bend, a funny bone. Yeah.

I became the house MC there and- While you're in college. Yeah. So you go to class during the day and then you go host there at night. Go host there at night. And that was like the greatest. Yeah.

Do you have that 20th? I got paid $10 at Barnabees in Haverall, Massachusetts. And I have a photo album from my first years in comedy and I saved shit and I got the, I wrote the name of the club on the $10 bill. I put it in there. I would have tried to save it because I was driving Mike so much.

I think I went right to the Shell gas station. You actually needed it. I was driving some car that burnt so much gas. Yeah, right. But I just remember going back to South Bend being so confident, but I didn't learn, I learned how to perform in front of people but had no substance.

But I knew how to be like fearless and, and back then we used to talk about the audience. So if you ran out of material, you would talk about the audience and you would- Well, yeah, I think early on, you're learning how to be on stage. You're becoming a performer. You're not an artist yet.

You're learning the tools, you know? Just how do I stand? Where do I look? How fast do I go? How loud should I be? You know, how to behave backstage. Like you're just in, you're in boot camp. And then eventually you get to the point

where you start not sounding like, everyone's got another comic they're sounding like when they start, you know? And then you break out of that guy and you start to sounding like, everyone's got another comic they're sounding like when they start, you know? And then you break out of that guy and you start to become, you know, Don Gavin in Boston. Oh, wow, okay. Legendary comic out of Boston, yeah. And then I came to New York and I was David Tell

like everybody else. Everybody was David Tell in the arc. Some guys still are. I know guys that have been doing it 15, 20 years that are still David Tell. Still doing it. Yeah. Some guys still are. Still are. I know guys that have been doing it 15, 20 years that are still David Tell. Yeah. Man, I think I used to laugh. I always gravitated toward the taller comedians.

So I used to do Damon Wayans laugh, because he seemed cool. He would laugh like that. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was amazing. You know? I would do that. And then Mark Curry was so fluid and goofy but cool. I was afraid that I would get compared to him,

but when I was maybe 40 pounds lighter, people always said I look like a tall-ass Martin. Yeah, yeah, I can see that, yeah. Martin's from the same area, PG County, Maryland. And so is Chappelle, his dad is from Ohio, but Chappelle grew up in Montgomery County. And shoot, so many people, Taraji P. Henson, a lot of people come from the area.

Yeah. So when I would be sitting there with a hat on, and then people would be looking at me like, did I stand up? Man, you look like a tall-ass Martin. Yeah, yeah. Like people would just tell me. So I would lean into those, but I didn't really.

What about Chappelle? Was he around when you were coming out? He was around. I got a great Chappelle story. Did he have an effect on people's voices or was he still figuring his out? Well, you know, Tony Woods. Yeah, the great Tony Woods.

Yes, Tony Woods. So Tony Woods kind of had that cadence first, right? I would say first, but this is what I saw. Because Chappelle is the same age as I am. So we were both 19, but he had just done Robin Hood Men in Tights, I believe. And when you are like young 20s, you have this struggle with,

how am I in front of black people and how am I in front of white people? Because growing up in PG County, we worked the minority. Like I never had a white person over my house like growing up in PG County, we weren't the minority. I never had a white person over my house until I went to like Notre Dame. Right. So when you're in front of a white audience

for the first time, you're like, they don't get any of my references. Yeah. And I don't do they don't get them, they don't care. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't get them. They're not looking to learn. They're not even curious about the context,

it was nothing. So you're just like, whoa. So it's fascinating to see some black performers that are successful in mainstream rooms, kind of like what their moves are, versus performers that have made their nut in front of largely black crowds, right? And so Chappelle had just done Robin Hood,

Man in Tights, so I think he had gone through a moment where he was, I'd just done Robin Hood, Men in Tights. So I think he had gone through a moment where he was, he had just done Star Search, not just, he had done Star Search. You know what I mean? He was kind of going through the mainstreaming of it. So he had come back to this urban room, black working class, middle-class black folks. And he was talking about something

and they started booing him. Really? Hard, hard they started booing him. Really? Hard, hard, just booing him. Like, boo and it just escalated, right? And so then he goes, fuck y'all, I'ma be famous. That's what he was saying. I'ma be famous. I was like, he was standing there, fuck y'all,

I'ma be famous. That's what he was saying. He was doing that. I'ma be famous. I never forget that. And I was like, there. Then he walked off stage in all the comics, how we would generally run up and go get everybody parted

because nobody wanted that bomb on there. They were like, hey, you, all right. And he walked right in front of me and sat down right here. I go, why is he still here? I would be in my car. And he sat down, they go, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna keep this show rolling. You all ready for Tony Woods?

And Tony Woods goes up. Tony goes, man, wow, that's crazy, man. You ever been fucking a girl? And he did something, and he gets a standing ovation. Standing ovation, does his whole set, standing ovation, and then he walks off stage, and Dave gets up, and I walk them leave together and get in the same car. And Tony was driving, and Chappelle was in the passenger seat, and I was like, man, I was just leave together and get in the same car. And Tony was driving and Chappelle was in the passenger seat

and I was like, man, I was just like Batman and Ron. Hey man, you should have zigged when you should have zagged. Right, right, right. Yeah, I can remember when I was in Boston, I'd only been doing it for maybe three years or something. And maybe four years. And Patrice O'Neal took me to a black club in Roxbury. That was the first time I'd ever been in front of

an all black crowd. Which is, you know, people go, oh that must be fuckin' brutal. I mean, my act was so white. I had jokes about the Brady Bunch. It was great. About college girls being drunk at BU. And I went up and I got my ass handed to me.

And I'm talking to Patrice, but I go, dude, it was fucking, I go up there, I go, I didn't have anything in common with anybody out there. And they couldn't, and he's like, yeah, what do you think I go through in Boston? I didn't fucking hit me. I was like, wow, yeah, what you're doing is way harder than what I'm doing in front of the white clubs.

Yeah, yeah. And white clubs are, well, I would say, Bill Burr used to always tell me I should develop this into a bit and I never really did. But it was like, I used to tell him, there's one difference and this may have changed, this was like 20 years ago

and I was so passionate about this point. I was like, there's one difference between black people and white people and it's one word, expectations. I said, white people expect everything to work and black people expect everything to fail. So. On stage you mean or just in general? Yeah.

So if a place is comedy club, white people will walk in going, it's supposed to be laughs. They said it's supposed to be laughs here. Black people go, if I haven't heard of any of these people, just about to be some bullshit. Let's get ready for some bullshit. And so then, so the laughs come from a skeptical,

ha, ha, ha, ha, you was all right. You know what I mean? But they aren't coming in expecting for it to deliver, you know what I mean? And that's just kind of like how we operate as a protective tool, but then once you become, once you pierce through that, ay yo, yo, yo!

Get it. No, there's no better, but I got, as I got more seasoned, I started doing black clubs in New York. We go to Harlem and do clubs, sometimes in the Bronx. And as long as you addressed the elephant in the liver when he walked on stage, you were fine. You were fine.

You had to, I mean, it's the same way, you know, just the hacky version of like, when a black guy goes on and a white crowd goes, I'm the only chocolate chip in the cookie. Like just something. It doesn't have to be a whole long bit, but just so we're not at a disconnect about what's happening right now.

And then they're fine, you know? And not only fine, like you will never get as much love and excitement. You know, literally the doubled over. It's the best. Slapping the table. Running around in the back, bro. It's the best. Slapping the table. Running around in the back, bro. It's the best, man.

I remember one time I told this joke. I watched Odin Polanyi's, these people playing NBA, get up and run back and forth from howling from laughter. And I was like, oh, that's so dope. Like, it's just stuff I thought of. Yeah. It is, it is a connection.

But you have to be, you just have to be more honest. Yes. Or if you are lying, you have to be honest about the line. Right. No, it's like the greatest set I've ever seen. Like when I see young comics, these LA comics that have never worked the road

and they do these alt rooms, and I'm backstage at the Westside Comedy Theater and somebody goes, oh yeah, I just saw Jimmy over at what's it, he destroyed. And I just want to stop and go, you know what, I wasn't there for the set. Jimmy did not destroy.

I said, do you want to see somebody destroy? Put on Bernie Mac. When he comes out at a deaf comedy gym. I ain't scared of you. You know this story, right? Yeah. And the crowd is dead, everybody's bombing and he walks out and here's this guy who's,

what was he, out of St. Louis? I don't know, but somebody bombed in front of him. Yeah, he was from the Midwest and somebody- Oh, Bernie's from Chicago. Oh, Chicago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he comes out and he walks on stage in his fucking zoot suit and the music's playing

and he walks up to the mic and the first thing is, I ain't scared of you motherfuckers. Kick ass! Kick ass! And then the music would kick in and like the first beat they weren't on board and then by the second beat, it was euphoria. And he kept, he didn't let them breathe.

He cut off his own laughs halfway through to start the next line. I ain't scared of you mother. Dude. Early season. That's killing. Yeah, and just a slight correction for people that are watching,

that said he didn't have on the suit. That was in Kings of Comedy. Oh, okay. He had on just, it was like a white shirt that had a cool design or some jeans, some kind of. Oh, they were very marble games. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hung low, I'm doing it here. Yeah, yeah, right. Ernie told my mom, so when I was living in Chicago, I was living in an apartment smaller than this, drum, in, on the north side in Chicago. I was living in an apartment smaller than this, Jerome, on the north side of Chicago. And Ali LaRoy, you know Ali, used to write for Bernie.

And Bernie, before he got the Bernie Mac show, he had wanted to be Bob Hope. And he was doing, he had a show called Mac out all night on Mac Mac on HBO briefly. No shit. Yeah. And so he used to perform every Tuesday in a small room called Milt Trineers. Milt Trineer is a jazz musician.

He's a part of, I think a jazz trio, his brothers, they played on Ed Sullivan. So when you go downstairs, it was all these like jazz records. And in the corner, it was a small stage, but it was a full band set. And Bernie would do 45 minutes up top every Tuesday that he wrote and Ali would work on with him.

Like a new set every week? New set, bro. And it was amazing. And he demanded you dress nice, you come and bring your best self. The crowd was like middle class, upper class black folk. It was beautiful. It was just a beautiful, beautiful place.

Amazing. And so Ali saw me perform at the Funny Firm, then it turned into The Fall Out. And he saw me- Funny Firm had two floors. Yup. And when you work there, when you headline there, you did two shows downstairs and three shows upstairs. So you would finish one set, run upstairs, do another one, back and forth all night. You can get five shows out.

Yup. And I loved it, even though I didn't pay anything. And Lenny Osterich. Mark Osterich. Yeah, he ran it and so. Ran it to the ground eventually. Ran it to the ground. And so, and I also didn't know he taught comedy.

He taught Alonzo Bowden in the comedy class. Oh really? Yeah man. Oh. And so I had just come to town. I had done my, can I showcase? I'm showcasing this night. On this night, I meet Dwayne Kennedy.

Oh really? He was on the show, he was hilarious. Met this guy named Ted Lide. And I met, and Ali was there, but I didn't see him before. So I did all five rooms and then he goes, pays Dwayne. He paid Ty Phipps, who was the host. He paid Ted, he paid everybody, but he didn't pay me. He was calling for spots.

And Dwayne goes, man, that's fucked up, man. And Dwayne gave me some money. And then Ty Phipps gave me for spots. And Dwayne goes, man, that's fucked up, man. And Dwayne gave me some money. And then Ty Phipps gave me some money. And I thought, man, comedians. Yeah, yeah. I drive home that night and I turn on the TV, it's like three in the morning,

an episode of Amen comes on. And Dwayne Kennedy is acting in that episode and he's playing Halle Berry's boyfriend. With her? No shit. No shit, bro. Like he had a moment when he was out here, he had a deal and all that boyfriend. With her? No shit. No shit, bro. Like he had a moment when he was out here, he had a deal and all that stuff. I didn't know that.

Yeah, Dwayne is such an amazing artist that he's lived many, like, He's a Boston guy. No, Dwayne Kennedy's from Chicago. Oh, he is? Oh. Yeah, he got dreads and so, but that night, I got money from Tyler,

and that night also, Ali saw me go, hey man, you got dreads and so, but that night, I got money from Tyler and that night also, Ali saw me go, hey man, you funny. Yeah. I want you to do Bernie Max's room. I was like, all right. I was like, let me give you my number. He goes, I'll find you. I'm like, gosh.

It's before the internet. Yeah, yeah, right, right. And I get a call, I think her name's Carolyn, forget her last name, I get a call. Hi Owen, Ali Leroy gave me a number, I want you there this Tuesday, dress appropriate, be there, and I get there and I'm blown away, man, small room, miltroniers, Bernie Mac does 45 minutes,

he brings up two singers and two comedians. Nice. And he is crushing. And is there a band on stage? Full band on stage. Yeah. And Bernie sits behind you when you perform. And he called me Owens.

Owens, give me 10 minutes Owens. And then it go, then it come back over. Owens, give me fives. All right. Owens, now give me seven. And luckily, what I used to host at the Honeybone, I knew, I could, I knew how to be on time mentally. I knew if I had- You could calculate it.

I knew it. So I was on, I was like, all right. So I was. You could calculate at 17. I knew it. So I was on, I was like, all right. So I'm standing there on stage and he's sitting behind me. I do my first joke. He start laughing. Hit me on the leg, get me five more on. So I was like, oh, God dang, all right, Bernie.

So I stayed there, got five more. And he had me come back. Like he enjoyed what I did. Wow, that's so cool. Had me come back and I would come back almost as many Tuesdays as I could. So this was the spot I said I was gonna break the news to my mom that I'm doing this.

You must've started to build a little name for yourself doing that show every week. Probably, I never even thought about it that way. I was like just so enamored with just finding a space where I could literally talk about everything that came into my head in front of a receptive, that I didn't have to explain it to. Because Zanies was great,

but you still had to kind of explain some stuff. Boom, I can get right into it, right? And it was just a joy for me to be able to do that. And then, so my mom comes to town and I'm bringing her, Milch and I'm performing. But she doesn't know I'm performing. We're at the show, just sitting there as an audience, you know, and she's having a good time.

Oh, next performer, coming, la, la, la, la, la. And he brings me up, she's like, what? And I go on stage and I rip it. And I'm like, ah, ah, ah, because she didn't know I was doing this. And then afterwards, Bernie, after the whole show went down, Bernie talked to my mom for over and out. No.

And it made her go from straight fear to my biggest supporter. Okay, Bernie says you gotta make these calls, you gotta do this, da, da, da. And so she, because no one in my family was in showbiz. Yeah, right. Like you don't know how you can make a living doing that, but because he talked to her,

and she never told me everything he said, but she would divulge something. Yeah. Like when he got his show, oh, he told me about his sister. Like she would just like, you know, it would come out. I remember that, I remember. But yeah, man, I'm so, I'm forever grateful

for the way Bernie saw, he saw like the panic on my face. Like I think, I don't know how he knew. Yeah. But he talked to her for over an hour. It's amazing cause you talk about comics being generous and supportive. And there's always like, you always get one or two mentors sent your way. You know, God sends you some mentors.

I had Kevin Meany. Wow, big pants people. And I'm walking around with the big pants. That's not right. Amazing. We're loose pants people. I really laugh so hard. Your father's not wearing tight pants.

Your brother's not wearing tight pants. And so he took me under his wing. He gave me guidance. He became a dear friend. He was at my wedding party. And I ended up in his wedding party. We became like the closest friends. And yeah, and then just back in Boston, there was a lot of guys that just put their arm

around you and just said, hey man, you got something, stay with it. They'd give you taglines. That was a big thing in Boston. People giving each other taglines. We'd all do, you know, open mic night on Sunday nights at Nick's Comedy Stop and it was me, it was Rogan, it was Burr, it was Dane Cook, and we would get offstage and just be like, it was a workshop, you know? And you stay all day, it was a two and a half hour show

and we stayed to the end. And then we'd go out afterwards and yeah, it's great. And so I try to be like that to comics now myself. Yeah. And it's funny cause sometimes they hang on every word and you stay in touch with them. And then sometimes they just look at you like, All right, OG.

Yeah. I got this. Yeah, you got a hundred thousand Instagram followers. I'm good. How many people watch Instagram again? Yeah. Yeah, they have no idea. I know man. I'm good, I'm good. How many people have watched Instagram again? Yeah. Yeah, they have no idea. I know, man.

I'm good, I'm not gonna. Right. Yeah, when I lived in Chicago, All Jokes Aside was kind of a, that and a guy named Damon Williams used to have some great rooms. So I would do both rooms. I would do Zany's and then I would do like The Rooms or I would do All Jokes Aside

and All Jokes Aside at that time. It was Dion Cole, Corey Holcomb, D-Ray Davis was there. Damn. Those are all Chicago guys? Yeah, B. Cole, a bunch of funny just, George Wilborn, Damon Williams, a bunch of really just funny George Wilborn, Damon Williams, a bunch of really just funny, like in their own way.

Oh man, oh man, I can't remember his name. This dude was so funny, Mark Simmons. Mark Simmons. Just great guys, right? So it was kinda like, I wasn't from Chicago, but they embraced me. And it was a point when me, Dion, and T-Rex used to write every Tuesday.

Oh, I love that. Meats and writes every Tuesday. And tea was in the smoking weed. I wasn't really into it, but this is when I tried it. I go, maybe this will make me, and I, I don't know what kind of help I was in those sessions. Like, we wasn't my thing to be able to tap into, like what we were there to do,

but we used to write some great stuff. Yeah, we used to do that shit, man, during the week, because this was before social media, we weren't doing radio interviews, we didn't have an agent sending us on bad auditions. We just did stand up, and then the next day, we woke up at noon, and then we met, and we'd go to a movie, we'd write,

we'd go to a restaurant. We used to play softball Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Then me and Rogan, we would write almost every day. We'd just get together and riff on shit. Yeah. It's like, and then you did life. I And now it's like, I mean, forget the kids and all that stuff, but just all the, I mean, I love podcasting, but I do three podcasts a week.

You do? Then I'm doing other people's podcasts. Then I'm trying to do social media. Then I'm flying to gigs instead of, you know, Boston. We just drove to the gig that night, staying at hotels. All right, listen. Where you got? Owen Smith, we're gonna get to some-

You got some prepared stuff? We got to, well, first of all, I wanna talk about Good Luck Everybody is a brand new podcast. Now listen, everybody, is this my camera? Owen Smith, as you've seen on this podcast, he can spin a yarn, he's funny as shit, he's got an interesting life, and this podcast is something you want to watch. Follow it, whatever, download it, subscribe, do all that shit, and give it a shot.

Give it a shot, guys. And let's get his numbers up. So tell me about why is this podcast different than any other podcast out there? Well, it's going to have a little more polish to it for me because I'm afraid to, like, I feel safe with you so I can talk with you, but I don't want to just be talking. Yeah. So I've always been a fan of a funny, I want to do a funnier version of what Malcolm Gladwell does with stuff that I'm interested in. So cultural, deconstructing cultural.

Yeah, yeah, with funny bits like interspersed in between. So that's the kind of thing, I love that because you can go from that to going, oh, that's a bit. I can do that on stage at the Comedy Store. Yes, yes. And it's also, I can do that on stage at the Comedy Store tonight. Yes, yes. And it's also, I'm also enamored with how much time we spend on our phones, going, taking deep dives down things.

And so I'm gonna do, take you on some stuff that, basically, I went on a deep dive on that I didn't, and just asking more questions about it. But looking at it, looking at some things that happen just from a different perspective. Right. So, like- Are you gonna have a video up at all,

or is it just you talking? It's gonna be me talking, and you'll see some video, and then it would enter, we would also mix it in, so it keeps, so it feels like it's moving against emotions, not just me just telling you the whole thing. Guests? Yes, I do, I also want to have guests because there are some things that some people in my,

I've been in showbiz for over 30 years and there's some amazing stories. So I want to, I want to see if I can get, I want to do this whole piece on humility, right? Yeah. Every episode I kind of have like a light, a loose topic, like humility. And so I'm gonna be talking about how

a lot of people that I've written shows for, the ones that I knew were gonna make it, they all have one thing in common is humility. Yeah. Like when I worked on Ice Cube's sitcom, Are We There Yet? He invited me to go see, I was afraid to talk to Cube.

Cause Cube has this energy that, if you don't have nothing to say, don't be over there. You know what I mean? Even though you just wanna be, hey shoot. But one time he was like, I recognize you from them commercials, you better say hi to me. I was like, hey, what's up man?

Cause I was just working on the show, man. Just like, I didn't want to. So I still didn't waste words, but it was cool enough that he invited me to one of his performances. Yeah. At BB King's, he was doing- In New York? In New York.

He was doing the America's Most Wanted album. Which was like, for my youth, it was one of the best rap albums that I had ever heard at that time. Because he was a West Coast guy, paired up with these East Coast beat makers that did Public Enemies beats and made this insane album to me. It was just funny, it was poignant, it was all these things. So he goes and he does it, and I'm there,

and the crowd isn't really vibing. And what was so funny is the show started at eight o'clock. Ice Cube's getting older, so at 8.03, yay, yay, he came right out. He didn't have to wait till 1130. They trying to make me leave. The crowd isn't even there yet. Yeah, and he's doing it.

And I'm in there like, I'm going crazy. Like this is, I'm looking at the crowd. It just wasn't matching. And I'm going, man, this is what's going on? And so I thought, man, I wish I got to see this in LA. Cause people will be tearing down the paint, paint tearing the paint off the walls. So I get back to the gig, get back to work.

And I go, hey man, thanks so much for inviting me to the show. He goes, what you think about it? I said, man, I loved it. Like I was very specific, like I loved it. But I didn't wanna be like, the crowd wouldn't. He was like, for real? He was like, that was our worst show.

He said the crowd, he said New York, they feel a certain way about it. And I was like, that's why you're great, because you not only witnessed what I witnessed, you acknowledged it. And he wasn't like, he was like, yeah, I knew what it was. And then I saw- Looks like Chappelle, bombing that night at the club

and then hanging out. Yeah, yeah. And so I wanna talk about like, I'm enamored with people that can't turn it off. Like they had to be, like Jim Brown had to be a certain way to be great. Yeah. But then when he got older,

he couldn't stop being that way. Right. So I have a friend who has a Jim Brown story and I wanna bring him on. He's a famous actor and I want him to tell the story about, because if you talk to Jim Brown now, he's like, so, Terry, you do podcasts. Tell me about your podcast.

Just start telling me. I'll tell you what Jim Brown is. Well, it's, you know. Fuck what you talking about. You don't know shit about podcasts. You want to talk about podcasts, you got to come. That's how Jim Brown was. Right, right, right.

Hey, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I get the humility thing, but I think it's a humility that is kinda intertwined with a belief in self that's so entrenched. Yeah. That it goes beyond, like I remember, I have a friend who used to bartend with Bruce Willis, and he was a struggling actor and he'd go out on audition and he'd come back

and he'd say to him, how did it go? And he goes, I didn't get it. They don't know what the fuck they're doing. It was always, they don't get it. Like I know I have it. Instead of what you're doing, like what could you improve on? Right.

That's the lack of humility. No, no, no, no. I think what I'm saying is there's humility, but there's also such a deep belief that you're going to make it. Oh, interesting. And that these are obstacles, but they're not gonna stop you.

Yeah, I think I'm talking about it. I'm talking about it from a different, I'm talking about a once you've... Oh, how you handle success. I'm talking about like, I've I'm talking about a once you've. Oh, how you handle success. I'm talking about like, I've dealt with so many successful people. Like I wrote in this one guy show and I wanted to know why it wasn't hitting.

So I took this gig and once I figured it out, I go, oh, that guy has no humility. I was like, hey man, you should do this. You should do this. Why would I do that? Yeah, yeah. Well, because it's funny and if you do this. Why would I do that? Yeah, yeah. Well, because it's funny and if you did this, then you did it, then why would I do that?

Yeah. I said, all right. I said, you gonna be canceled then. And that's what happened. The show got canceled. And I was just like. What about Tracy Morgan? Does he have humility?

Of course. And he is one of the funniest. Because you were the show runner on The Last OG. The Last OG and Crutch, the show Crutch, you gave me this thing. Oh, thanks. Tracy Morgan is one of the smartest people I've ever met and I've never met anyone who knows how every cell

of their body looks on camera. Really? He can decide to be funny if he wants, or he can make you cry if he wants. He is the epitome of like always living in the moment. Yeah. And he has like a photographic memory. So when I was working on the last OG,

I would give him the script, he would go, let's go, let's go, let's go baby. Really? If it made sense. It didn't make sense to his character, yo, why the fuck would I do this? Like he would wanna know, cause it just didn't register with the character

that he already built. Like he did so hard. And he is a great leader, man. He knows where he understands this business. That's crazy because that is not the perception of Tracy Morgan. People see him as out of control, irresponsible. I didn't experience any of that.

I will say to me. Do you think he plays that as a character? No, I really do think that. Cause here's a full circle Tracy Morgan moment. So again, back to when I was living in Chicago, after my mom was team Owen doing standup, I took her to see Tracy Morgan at Zany's. Tracy was headlining at Zany's Comedy Club,

downtown Chicago, audience was 90% white, me and my mom were in like the back, and Tracy does this set that has those Chicago white folks like. Yeah. And at the end he's ending on this porn bit, porn sound, uh, uh, fuck me, fuck me, and I'm like watching my mom laugh,

I go, what the fuck, who are you? Ah, ah, he does it, it feels like he does it for 20 minutes, uh, fuck me, fuck me, uh, he's's doing all these things. What's the crowd doing? They just, you know, a few dudes are laughing. At the end he says, thank you for letting me be me. And I go, well, I didn't know you didn't have to give the crowd permission that should be you. You could just be you and whatever happens happens.

That was the first time I saw and Tracy is always 100% himself. But I grew up around Tracy Morgan. So I grew up in a neighborhood where everybody, it felt like everybody was yelling at you. So I didn't care, but they were telling you positive things like my friend Anthony Griffith, great comedian, we would laugh about when we used to play basketball,

we'd go about the time when coaches could hit you. Yeah. Man, get that fucking rebound, poof, I'm like, I did. And so that was like, so when Tracy would say stuff that to other people with seeing all those things, I would hear, oh, he's just asking for one thing, he's just not being heard. Right. So when I got the gig, would hear, oh, he's just asking for one thing, he's just not being heard.

Right. So when I got the gig, I go, oh, you just want, that's easy. Yeah. Once I fixed that one thing that he didn't like, easy. Yeah. It wasn't a problem, but to other people, Tracy's doing this, nah, what is he saying?

Right. Oh, he's not wrong, let's just fix that. And then it wasn't hard, but it's a frequency thing, right? What is he saying? Oh, he's not wrong. Let's just fix that. It wasn't wrong, but it's a frequency thing, right? I remember when Patrice O'Neill, we just thought referring to him as the honorable, the late great Patrice O'Neill, he was on some show on Fox, and this always stayed with me.

But there was a point where Fox was having comedians on, and they would be sitting them next to, I don't know, serious cultural thinkers, and they would be sitting them next to like, I don't know, serious cultural thinkers or, they would always put them next to like- Like a round table discussion? Yeah, but it would always be him sitting next to like a feminist maybe, whatever would happen. And then the host would be doing this bad

Jerry Springer impression, tell me more, you know? And Patrice said something when they were like butting heads on a perspective. Patrice says something when they were like butting heads on a perspective. Patrice said something, he goes, everything I think is funny first. And you don't operate like that. And I'm paraphrasing, he didn't say, but when he said that I got it, he was like,

yeah, when you put us in rooms next to serious, that's why comedians go, hey, I'm just a comedian, don't ask me about politics. Because we're thinking, when we're around our friends and we're not sewing our heads about our bills or our kids, we are thinking funny first. And that doesn't always translate next to the bean counters who were thinking that's like yeah that's why I feel like I don't want to tell people to stay in

their lane but there are a lot of comedians getting into politics that don't know what the fuck they're talking about. And they don't know how to do follow-up questions. Right. That's the only issue I have with the new media. I'm happy that people are finding their voice, but their follow-up game is so terrible. Cause they don't know how to do that yet. And so you get like all these, yeah, you're getting kind of like what you're getting.

Well, because the problem is that politics has become culture. And so when comedians used to talk about whatever's in the zeitgeist, what's culturally happening right now, whether it's fashion or this crazy couple at the Coldplay concert. But so much of that space is dominated by politics right now that comics are sort of forced to be drawn into it. and they don't know what the hell they're talking about after that.

I don't know. I try to avoid it. It pops up a little bit. I try to avoid it because What do I know? You know, it's like I can't name the congress people from California. Yeah, no, I know. I know. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, and we, and you also watch a lot of your friends, it's like they're still working out, it's almost like them working out a bit, they're still working out their point of view. Right.

And then there's also this disconnect. Well, also they're gonna take the funny take on it. They're not gonna take the responsible take on it, they're not gonna take the responsible take on it. They're not gonna fact, and I'm not saying they should. Like I'm not saying, you know, Theo Von should be thinking about how his listeners are. Theo Von is trying to be funny in his own way. Maybe he gets a little too serious sometimes,

but that's what's in the zeitgeist right now. That's what you have to talk about. But don't look at comedians as like you said, it's funny first. Yeah, that's right. If everyone can, if you take one thing from this podcast, just know when you see a comedian, a real comedian, they are thinking funny first.

So it's kind of like, I've been married for a long time now. And one of the things I've learned is grace. Gotta give grace to things you may not immediately agree with or understand. When you do that, you can get an understanding of it. Comedians are leading with funny first. If your life isn't like that, then you may be offended. Cause you're not thinking that this guy is trying,

this guy or woman is trying to lead the funny first perspective and just let them work it out. Yep. And that's the problem with, that's the challenge that the internet prevent. We used to work the road and get it polished and then present it. Yeah.

You know, like on late night forums or what have you. And now it's the opposite. It's like what I just said with your podcast. You're gonna shoot the shit about it and then take it on the road. Then take it on the opposite. It's like what I just said with your podcast. You're gonna shoot the shit about it and then take it on the road. Then take it on the road. Yeah. Yeah. All right, listen, it's time.

Uh-oh. For, well, actually, I wanna talk about, all right, so good luck, everybody. We'll be out on Wednesday. Yeah. You got a TV show called Crutch. Crutch, Crutch. With Tracy Morgan and Jermaine Fowler.

You created it? Created it, yeah. It's a spin off of the neighborhood. I had fallen into show running, man. I ended up show running The Last OG season four. And then we got wind early that TBS was gonna discontinue making what they call live action comedies. So they just cleaned out their whole slate.

So that meant The Last OG wasn't coming back for season five. Cedric D'Entertain had reached out to me and said, you know, I have a deal over here at CBS. I think we could do a funny spin-off with Tracy Morgan. Here's our take. What do you think? And I was like, I like that take but here's something that I pitched this and they liked that better. And so I was able to develop what I created, which is Crutch.

His last name is Crutchfield, so we call him Crutch. And it's basically, I took, cause Tracy Morgan wanted to make a modern day sampling son, cause it had to be multicam. And so what I always loved for Multi-Cam, you gotta have built-in conflict. Right.

And so I always loved how Family Ties had that because they were these two liberal parents and they birthed the most conservative kid. Right at the time that Reagan was coming to power. Right, it's like a beautiful, this like every time Alex walks in the room and you're gonna to have something. And so I said, what is our version of that today?

And a lot of my friends who have heavy degrees and everything, one of my best friends, Floyd, he graduated from Notre Dame. He went to Columbia undergrad, graduated from Notre Dame law school, was a practicing lawyer. His father, I don't even know if his father got his GED or not. He may have, but his father was more of a blue collar type energy. And a lot of my friends have that. Like my mom only got her associate's degree, you know what I mean? So because they had that theory, you have to do better than me.

Right. So, but Floyd was living at home with his dad, so they conflict, Floyd would know everything. Dad, you don't do that because you're so smart. Why the fuck you living here? Like that, I was like, this is the show. So, I made Jermaine Fowler be a lawyer who had a big job, job. He'd just passed the bar on the pilot. He has a big job, he'd just passed the bar on the pilot,

he has a big job with a corporate law firm, but he decides to turn it down to work for the people. And Crush still was like, all right, that's cool, what that mean? He go, well, that means I'm gonna have to live with you. Fuck you. So now you have the internal conflict of his super smart son, but he's still living at the crib.

So Tracy is Jermaine's dad. Tracy is Jermaine's dad. I love Jermaine Fowler, he's great. He's an actor, bro. So that's coming out on Paramount Plus in the fall. All right, look for that. And then it's time to do a little thing called Fastballs with Fits.

I love the alliteration, the F's. Fastballs with Fets, the LeGrig. Alright, inside joke. Alright, who's the worst opening act that's ever gone on in front of you? Damn, bro. You know, I block out negative stuff, but there was this one dude when I was in, I did Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yeah. And I remember he used to come up and he bought an entourage with him and he was

just music-use sensual. Every bit was about fucking something. He was always fucking, and I used to just go on stage and he raised his whole ass by going, damn, I think he got this dude pregnant. Like, we should check. Just get it over with. Every week, fucking, and fucking DJ, hit me again, hit me again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a whole bunch of like, but I remember, I used to, I get it, because he just had no substance. Yeah. It was all just like, yeah, so, you from California, Hollywood, you can't, I was like, and I, it was like, like, yeah, so you from California, you Hollywood, you can't. I was like, and it was like, he just gets so mad.

I know the guy you're talking about. And he was one of those features for life guys. He never made it as a headliner, and he used to come on, and I remember he kept going long. He kept doing hacky shit, and I'm out there selling my CDs and then he wanted to sell something. Yeah.

And I go, no. Yeah. I go, you're not selling your shit. Yeah. And normally I always let people sell their shit. And you help promote it. And I remember that, that was my only way of getting at that guy.

Yeah, man. He was so pissed he couldn't sell his shit. Fuck that guy. Who is your best Asian friend? Oh my God, I love this question. I should preface it by saying you can't say Bobby Lee. No, it's not. Because that's everybody's past.

I'm trying to think of, because you know what's so funny? My wife really is annoyed with me. When we were having, when we were raising, when we had our first child, we would go to places and we would always be sat next to like an Asian friend that seemed to have this shit way more together. I was like, I said, baby, we need Asian friends.

Like, go say hi. We've really like, seriously, look at this. Look at us. We look terrible. Look at the order. In shape, they're just- Their clothes are tailored. Even the kids, the cufflis right on the shoe.

Yeah. I'm drawing a blank. That's why I asked this question. I love to see people struggle. I don't process it as them being Asian. I just process it as them being human. Oh, shut the fuck up. All right, I'm gonna let you go to the next struggle. Well, you know, I don't process it as them being Asian. I just process it as them being human. Oh, shut the fuck up. All right, I'm gonna let you go to the next question.

Thank you, thank you. Let me think. Have you ever not finished a set on stage? I've bailed. Yeah? I would say this. One time I was doing this club in Chicago, South Side, South, like South Suburb, DeRay's room. Who DeRay, I don't wanna start no shit,

but he has stolen a lot of my material. Really? In this room. No shit. But I sent him a text about it. I'm not trying to start nothing. You're right. They were observational bits, but still. He observed you doing them first.

I would have appreciated a call like, yo, I'm kind of stuck here and we could have worked out something else together. I don't want to see my material. But it was stuff I'm not doing anymore. But I was like, oh, D, just call me, man, hit me. Right. Is my point.

I'm not trying to say don't go. I think he's a fantastic artist, performer, all that stuff. But anyway, he used to have this room and it was young, young, young, young black room. Like first time in the club. And I was up there doing my act and they just started booing me.

Short, boo, boo, yeah. And I could see like, see them like, like everybody starting to be boo, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it becomes contagious. And I was like, they ain't going nowhere. I just stood there going, all right, get it out. Yeah. Get it out and then they all stopped booing.

Then I finished my act, I ended up getting the standing ovation. You did? Yeah, cause I was like, y'all don't know. Well that's not bailing. I was like, y'all don't know how to be an audience. That's the opposite. Y'all don't even know what y'all doing,

y'all just following. Right, be an audience. Y'all don't even know what y'all doing. Y'all just following. Right, then once they pick up on that, and the thing is with black crowds is they want to boot one person that night. Oh yeah, they can't wait. Somebody's getting the, you know, the Trump card. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Oh yeah, I was saying South, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

South Bend, Indiana, this is, God, this will haunt me forever. So I was a big deal on campus. I'd won every competition, all this stuff. But my material was college. The Doritos Comedy Championship, that's where there was what I was in college. Yeah, something. I won another five months, whatever you win,

doing all the stuff. But it was no agents, no, this is Midwest. But this club in town called Kevin's on the Hill they had a comedy night and they wanted me to perform in town. And so I said, yeah, I'm gonna do it. Word spreads. Every black student at Notre Dame comes to Kevin's on the Hill.

Jerome Bettis being one of them. So all these future Hall of Famers are like in this club. So it was the townies meets the Notre Dame. Hilarious. And so all the townies feel some type of way that all these like muscular like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And all the ladies like, ooh.

And it was in a room, it was a nightclub. And it was, so the stage wasn't lit, it had Christmas lights and shit, like the multicolored Christmas lights, that was my lighting. Look at my skin, you're not gonna see me. Microphone, whatever. And the show was supposed to start at eight

or something like that. I didn't go up to 11. So everybody's been there. Yeah. And then the dance club is just starting to get hot. People are really starting to make bad decisions. Like, are y'all ready for some comedy? And I go on stage and I'm like, hey y'all day, what's up y'all?

Everybody like, hey, all right. And they're like, man, you ever been in your dorm? And somebody go, fuck, go today. And I had been out there so much that my muscle, my DMV muscle from what the fuck you say, you know, that was that atrophy. So I was like, hey man, I tried to bargain with him. Can't we all just get along easily?

And I saw Jerome better start laughing at me bombing, like, ah! And I was like, hey, so like I said, man, get the fuck off the thing. All right, guys, thanks for coming out. And I kind of just conceded. And everybody was like, sorry, man. That's rough, because all those people came to see you.

Came to see me. But then, about two years later, I conquered Cabins on the Hill. I went back. Yeah. And had a great set. But I still have not performed. Didn't help with that dorm joke, did you?

Fuck no, I was doing it. You were doing the Power Rangers. And I was ready again, I was ready. I want somebody to say something, I was ready to, but that's the thing about comedy, it's the most humbling profession in the world, but you can always, it's always there for you. Well, that's what's great about it

is no matter how many years you've been doing it, you can't ever mail it in. If you got a big name, you've done movies, whatever, they'll give you five minutes. But if you're doing it an hour, you gotta earn it every single time. Every single time. Yeah, which is great.

I leave for work, people go, hey, you know, I go to Denver, I got friends there. Yeah, let's have dinner before the show. No, no, I gotta get fucking ready. I gotta get centered, I gotta get grounded. I'm not saying I'm sitting there writing jokes for three hours, but I'm gonna review my material. I just need to be centered.

I can't be at a. I just need to be centered. I can't be at a dinner table and talking to someone I don't like and then all of a sudden, you know, it's hard. These are great questions. These are great questions. Here's another one. When's the last time you apologized? Shit, I'm married, bro.

Probably this morning. What? If not, I got one coming. But I mean a heartfelt, like, you had to think about it. You had to be vulnerable, not a cursory apology. Probably some, to my wife, maybe I'm bad with timelines, but it was, so we just celebrated 11 years. I say on stage now, you know how it takes you 10 years

to find your voice as a comedian. I feel like it took me and my wife 10 years to find our voice in our marriage. So I think I apologize to her for ways that I may have made her not feel seen, even though I see everything, but just not being a good communicator with that. You know what I mean?

Like, cause that stuff like builds and can birth resentment, you know? But it's kind of like, so I think I- You cleared the slate on that. Yeah, yeah. I was able to acknowledge that I may not be the, you know, yeah, you have to, as a leader in your family, you have to,

leading is exhausting, man. Cause like as a show runner, you're a leader, you have to cater to everyone's, you have over 150 people that you have to cater to everyone's. You have over 150 people that you have to make sure that they're, you know, feel safe enough to be their best self. Then you come home and you have to make sure that everybody is, you know, feeling seen and heard and there's some casualties of war in that. You may assume that your wife is in it with you, but just don't go, hey, I really

appreciate how you've been holding it down when I was out of town and I see the things that you do. But my wife is slick though, if I go too far, it turns, she'll make it feel like I'm patronizing. It's like a portal, it's like that Mission Impossible door is closed and I gotta get through that right spot. Yeah, right, right, right. If you lay it on too thick,

then it feels like you're trying to build credit for the future. But I would say the last time I pouted was to my son, was to my son. I had said, I had gotten upset with him about something and I could have communicated the way I said it to him, Ben. So I wanted, I had to acknowledge to him that I know I didn't say that the best way,

but the message still remains the same, but I am sorry for that. And it was cool. I think he appreciated it. And I just try to do stuff I wish was said or done to me. No, I think it's profound to apologize to your child because they see you as human and you're modeling apologizing for them. Yeah, I like that. Good for you, man. All right, the last thing I'll ask you is, what's the hackiest bit that you've ever done? Hee hee!

I can tell you, let me see. Ooh, here, uh. Sometimes you just wanna vomit in your mouth while you're doing them. I mean, early on it'll be black people, white people stuff. Yeah. It'll just be like, ugh. But I remember, so when I first started,

this was a genuine, genuine experience I had. But then once I started, kept doing it, I go, this is fucking terrible. When I won a competition at Notre Dame, one of the prizes I won was a week's pass to a tanning salon. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha to white guy winning Magnum condoms. And you win these Magnum. I'll trade you for the tanning sessions. Second place is, I know, you want to trade?

So I would say, then, so then I probably was, so then I went to the tanning salon and I'll wait till it gets good and packed and then I'll bust in and go, hey, hey, you said you wake me up in 20 minutes. That was my, that was my. That's not hacky at all, that's fucking great. Thank you man.

And I guess after a while, I just felt like, cause I was so far removed from it. Yeah. It felt hacky. But I would say, then I would say, I would say it has to be, if ever I'm doing like, I don't know man, I always try to has to be, if ever I'm doing like, I don't know, man, I always try to run from it,

which to my, sometimes I miss great bits because I don't fight through the hacky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, because sometimes people can categorically say you can't do airplane jokes because it's hacky. It's like, no, that's untrue. Yeah, whatever you're, I mean, people are, I remember when I first had kids,

oh, you're gonna be the guy who talks about their kids? No, I'm gonna be the guy that talks about my life, which is what I've done since I was 19 years old. Yeah, and I like my perspective on having kids and being married. I would say, yeah, I don't know, I've always kind of run away from probably to my detriment. I should probably lean more to-

Yeah, you gotta hack it up a little bit. Yeah, I would just- Still wanna deraze, bitch. Hilarious, I'm not fucking- If you just look at his early stuff, he was so funny. Yeah, yeah. I was like, why do you need to do this, man? Just call me, man.

But anyway. All right, listen, Owen Smith, man. Just call me, man. But anyway. All right, listen. Owen Smith, the podcast is called Good Luck Everybody. It's on all the platforms out on Wednesday. Watch The Crutch in the fall. Yeah, watch Crutch. And you don't have a website, so I won't promote that. Owen Smith for real on all things social media

or on my YouTube, I think it's OwensmithTV. But no website. Nah, I stopped it. I wasn't getting much traffic. All right. You know what I mean? I was, I would look at the analytics. Yeah.

And it'd be like two people and it'd be like my mom checking on where. Nah, the people you don't want know when you're personally there. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, you got a website? Yeah, fitsdog.com. I don't know who it looks at.

I never checked the analytics. I just, I put my dates on there, links to my special, the podcasts are all on there. You think I should get one back? I have it. Yeah, get it. It's olesmithlive.com. Yeah, keep it simple.

Get the 404. Put your dates out there, whatever. All right, listen. You are one of my favorite people. Same. Always love seeing you. You put a smile on my face always. We love coming to your house, me and my wife.

Yeah. Our house is so nice. Yeah. All right, stop talking. All right, that's enough. Ha. All right, we want to come to your house next. Yes, yes, you gotta come.

All right, thanks for doing this. Love you, man. Love you, too. Love you gotta come. All right, thanks for doing this. Love you too. Love you. Ha.