Good Guys - Pickleball Ponzi Schemes with Neal Brennan

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

This week the Good Guys are joined by comedian, writer, producer, director, and vegan Neal Brennan. The three discuss the odd nuances of fame in Hollywood, why celebrities are buying pickleball teams, television reboots, if ayahuasca restarts sobriety, Neal's Sunday sugar day, and Ben tells a story of how he ended up on Jordan Belfort's podcast?! Good Guys is hosted by Ben Soffer and Josh Peck every Monday. Listen now! What are ya, nuts?   Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.   Sponsors: Shop better hydration at Liquidiv.com and use code GOODGUYS for 20% off ANYTHING Head to Factor75.com/goodguys60 and use code goodguys60 for 60% off your first box   Produced by Dear Media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following podcast is a dear media production. I'm Josh Peck and I'm Ben Saffer and we're the good guys. There's a lot of guys out there and we're the good ones. Neil, welcome. Oh, God. Gosh, thank you. Thank God you. Thank God you guys you're here.

I fucking God. Guess. Did it start? Oh, yeah. It started. We have a pre-recorded, but I like leaving it in. Yes. We have a pre-recorded.

Welcome to the good guys. I'm Josh. Oh, got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we kind of defeated the purpose of that by saying, To our listeners that we have a pre-recorded. Guess Neil's first job. What was your first job?

Well, in show business? We're two Nickelodeon boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. Oh. Yeah. Oh. You want to guess?

The show? Yeah. Oh. Drake and Neil. Drake and Neil. Neil and Neil. Drake and Neil. All that?

That's right. Wow, what a guess. Season two. Wow, that's awesome. Season two, they had stolen Pierre S cargo from me, and then I didn't get credit for it, and then they hired me for the second season. Wow.

Were you in Amanda Binds close? I was there before Amanda. And I was there before, and I was there before anybody. That was the first one. Your original. First one and last one. Yeah, I was in and out quickly. You were let go?

Look, Josh. Josh, you know, when you say it like that, When they, Brian Robbins, the exact producer, said something really funny to me at one time he goes, I should have fired you and I had the chance, which is really funny.

I was, it was like openly, not like I wasn't qualified, I was just very, I was like 20 or 21, and they said that my writing was experimental, which always made me laugh. Like, it was a nice way of going,

like, you don't get this show. But I've recovered. I made a full recovery. But you created characters that they stole from you, and you also had a bit that I thought was maybe the funniest thing, I've ever heard.

Go ahead. Which was the hair club for boys? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a way for young 10, 11-year-old boys to have chest hair. Again, not for that show. A good idea. Just don't do it on an actual kid sketch show. I would have loved it.

Of course, you would have loved it. At that age, look at you now. There's three swarthy men. Yeah, I've got nothing. In fact, I had so little, I'd just shave it off. Really? I had, my chest hair is garbage. You're a special version of Irish.

Mm-hmm. Go on. Well, because they come in, you're not... We're ready to fight. Go and maybe fighting you. Yeah, go ahead. Well, because, like, we're different flavors of Jew, me and Ben, right? Like, you wouldn't...

You look, here's the small world. You look Irish. I look Jewish. To people. I was going to say, you definitely look Jewish. Yep. And Brennan, which, it's Irish. Yeah, it's very Irish, yeah.

But if you say it like this... People say Brenner all the time. Brennan, you know? There you go. If you say anything like that, it feels Jewish. Yeah, exactly. Jesus. Yes.

Was a Jew? But yeah, I mean, because we think... A lot of people don't know. Fun fact. A lot of people are saying Jesus was a Jew. Go ahead. You think Jesus quetched? Do you know that word?

Yeah, of course. Come on, I know all the fucking Jewish words. I know all the Yiddish. I know all the popular, the hit Yiddish words. Did he have, you think Jesus had Jewishisms? Sure he did. Sure he did. For sure, right?

Definitely. Like, worried about, do I have too many apostles? What are they in it for the right reasons? Honestly, he probably just fetched about. Judaism in general, which is why he started Judaism light. You know what's funny is they say the Jews killed Jesus, but then also didn't Rome kill him? There's a lot

of conflicting stories. And I don't want to get hung up on it. Only the anti-Sem I'd say that Jews killed Jesus. It was 100% Rome. It was Rome. They killed Jesus. You know, he sounds like a lawyer right now. By the way. I don't want to say. I don't want to be Semitic,

anti-Semitic, but I had a question Oh, so you're married to a comedian. Yes. Was she a comedian when you met her? No. How did you feel about her becoming a comedian? I think it was what she was born to do. She's really funny. Great at what she does. Great takes. Can really work a crowd, room, sell tickets. It was all sort of there. And I felt great out. But has it affected her nervous system at all in a way that you, whatever, you're never going to tell me. But if you don't, like, I'm not sure, I don't think I would want to be married to a comedian, personally.

But may I say she's not, she's not. aggravating? She's not in the traditional, she's not doing, she didn't have to start doing open mics at the comedy store. Got it, correct. Like, she cultivated an audience, the audience told her we'd love to see a one woman show, basically.

She curated one with the audience already built. They were coming there. So a lot of the trauma that is accrued from a stand-up life, I don't, I feel like she doesn't happen so much. She has her own similar trauma, but not from the- Doing, not from me. stand up and being booed. No, but like, it's funny.

Like, we actually have spoken about this without doing the circuit. Like, she has the, unfortunately, dad passed a 14, like the classic. Like, there's an archetype of a comedian. 100% you need to be, like, beat down to a point where you're just, like, you want to be funny. And you want that level of validation. And so she didn't have to fight it in the streets. I like, she guys are talking like, I'm not here. Yeah.

By the way, that was the whole last episode. But you said something brilliant in your episode of comedians in cars when, you know, Jerry Seinfeld validated him as one of the greats. You said, you know, great boxers never come from veil, right? Yeah, nobody great. It's like you don't do it if you don't have to do it. Or unless you have a huge following and they tell you to do it. Those are the two things that birth. That's how Pryor started.

He had a huge following on Instagram. I'm okay. Prior had a podcast and they, I'm kidding. But does Malaney have trauma? Every great comedian is out of their minds. In some ways. Like I'm not saying, I'm not disparaging anyone, but I'm saying that there's all,

there's a core thing to all of them. So, including his wife. What's your wife all about? Normie, perfect. Great, not a drunk, good, secure family, likes herself, cute. Does she like yourself too much? I don't like when people, you know what I'm saying?

No. Does she like herself too much? Adorably insecure about silly things that she shouldn't be. Have you gotten her over any insecurities? Have you like healed any of them? Like, where they're just not, she just doesn't have them anymore. No, she's, she comes from an athletic family. Her dad was a quarterback for the Jets. Great.

What's her last name? O'Brien. I remember. Jewish. Yeah. You know? What of yours. Yeah, yeah.

Early age. O'Brien was the quarterback. Yeah, 10 years for the Jets. Yeah. And brother, QB1 at Fresno State, like, all the girls are six feet, and they're all, like, stunning and insecure and worry about how they look in clothes and food stuff. So it's nice. It's reassuring to know that, like, people insecure about their weight don't just look like me.

But she's... Are you insecure about your weight? Yeah. I mean, to a certain... Of all my isms, I've weirdly been able... weirdly been able. Like, I'm a, you know, I'm a drug addict, alcoholic, 15 years, thankfully recovered, but I can have a cigarette and not smoke a pack tomorrow. I can spend 200 bucks in Vegas and not be at the tables all night. And I can eat a cupcake and not then, you know,

follow it with a gigantic milkshake and three cakes and then blackout. So I feel like I've, I've somewhat, I wouldn't say mastered it, but I have the food thing under control to an extent. But yeah, I'm wildly insecure because I ruined my body. I ruined it, Neil. I like how you're grinning ear to ear. I ruin my body. I ruin. Well, the sitcom shit never leaves.

Yeah, that's great. I ruined it. Yeah, dude, it hurts. It's a bummer. What do you mean? All right, well, this is interesting. Because I think people are going to have eating disorders regardless of what happens. And I'm not saying that I don't know what your food thing was.

But women's eating disorders fucks up their, their dad. digestion forever. Yeah, like gallbladder. Yeah, like, can't die, like, celia. They, like, make, they fucks up their teeth or throat, like, so many systems that you don't even think about. And not like, it's like, young ladies, just so you know. Obviously, I hope they don't have them anyway, but that's one of those things where I didn't

know I dated girls with eating disorders and afterward. It's such a bummer. And when you say you ruined it, what do you mean? That I ruined my body? Yeah. I stretch out my skin. I can't ever really take my shirt off at the pool. I mean, I can.

Can you do the removal thing? I did that. Great. But it's never quite right. But it's okay. Yeah, I'm leaving. Here's the wildest part, if I may. I was thin-ish until I was like eight or nine.

And then I got like chubby, but like within the normal realm of like, oh, he's a chubby kid. So I was like 12 or 13. Then I got wildly overweight at the exact time I was being introduced to the world. Right. From 13 to 17, I was like 100 pounds overweight. And then I lost 100 pounds. I've been mostly of a normal size my entire life. And people only know me.

I was going to say, weird, right? Well, it's just odd. Well, that's the odd thing about famous, that most people know you from that. And it doesn't matter how long ago it was. We laugh because people still, to this day, and now it annoys me, will go, hey, man, you look great.

20 years ago, Jack? Yeah. I'm like, can I please? Well, that guy, Adam Rich died from the sitcom 8 is Enough yesterday. And that was, 8 is Enough was just leaving syndication when I was a kid. So I have like a vague recollection of him. He died at the age of 57. And in my head, I'm like, he's a little kid.

Yeah. How did a little kid die? But it's because he was 57. Today's episode is brought to you by Liquid Ivy. year is here and there's no better way to kick off 2023 than by making sure you're feeling like your best self. Look, I've used liquid IV in the past and the truth is it's delicious, it's good for me. And I don't mind drinking it, which first and foremost is the biggest hurdle to get over when we're talking about adding a little something, something to your water.

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Heard of it, or you can get 20% off when you go to Liquidiv.com and use code good guys at checkout. That's 20% off anything you order when you shop better hydration today using promo code good guys at liquid ivy.com. What were your shows? No shows. You've never been on a show? No, nothing. What do you, what was the, what's the boy without a job thing? Memes, funny, humor, relatable humor.

That's sort of my schick and my thing. But really, I'm just a very normal guy. Very normal guy with a podcast. But I know I'm aware of the account. I started it like eight years ago. Probably early, yeah. Been a, meamer for a very long time.

How many do you try to come up with a day? It's a great question. At this point, it's just whenever something comes to me. Right. Back when I was treating it like a job, try to come up with at least two to three. And that's honestly when it is less fun. It's a lot more fun to just...

We have a segment on the show, which we'll do later called What Are You Nuts? which is exactly what memes are honestly. It's taking little minutia on a day-to-day basis and blowing it into a bigger... Did you do topical ones or you did like... Yeah, we do topical ones. We would. Yeah, it's funny the social media.

It's the liberation of all this shit where it's like we all have to self-motivate. Yeah. Like when we were on the elevator, I was like, fuck, because I'm just behind on a thing that no one cares of. You know what I mean? Like, for sure. These like ongoing... I don't envy I mean I guess it's better

It's just pick your poison No you gotta be on Yeah Sometimes when you don't want to be on I think is what you're saying Yeah we all have these These volunteer Jobs

That are lucrative Or relatively lucrative But it Yeah you're there's no downtime It's the entertainment gig economy Yeah Anytime you could be employed If you want to tap in it

Like you could turn the meter on on your creative Uber. Yeah. Yeah, that stinks. Yeah, it's bullshit. Well, but I guess it's better than writing for a show or writing. I'd rather do that than have to write 20 jokes for Gordon or Seth tonight. I was going to say the good news is that I don't, there's no boss in that equation.

There's nobody to tell me if something's funny or not. I decide if something's funny. But the thing I learned was like, you know, the audience is your boss. You're going to have a boss. I was going to say, though, the difference is the traditional validation. So even as you asked, are you on a show? Like, what have you done? Versus me just saying, oh, I'm a regular guy with almost two million followers.

It's like there isn't that thing, right? Like my wife transitioned from being a mimer to a comic. Yeah. For me, it's, I am an entrepreneur. I own a beverage company, but there isn't like a thing. There isn't a reason I have an audience beyond the fact that the internet is really cool and a large group of people love my humor. But I also think at a certain point, and it's probably in the next 18 months where, I mean, when I think of sitcoms and I've talked to Bobby and people,

about this like that shit's like a doing a corporate at this point relative to just being bert Kreischer or sigura or Tim Dylan or one of these guys where it's like those guys have a ton of freedom in a way that like they want a sitcom like Santino is way better known for podcasting than he is being third lead on Dave right you know what I mean like that's unheard of. Yeah. But to the point, my point being that in a year and a half, no one, I assumed you guys know each other from acting or something.

That's why I said. I'm not like, are you legitimate? No, but it's a fair question. Can't beverage. Where might I know you from? But like, I'm on, I was on Double Dare as a kid. And I had to do it for charity, which is bullshit. And I was on a show.

And it was like, you know, when they'll sometimes take like the two shows on the network and say, you're going to come out a game show. But I was 13. And you were like, I'm going to make so much money. And they're like, it's for charity. You're like, fuck. And I was fresh off my bar mitzvah full of rage on a steroid cycle. And I got so into the game.

You were on steroid cycle for what? No, no. You're making a dismal. Got it up. And prednisone step down pack. Got it. And I got so into the game that I started like literally when other people would be messing up on the challenges.

I'd be like, get your head in the game. This is for keeps. Do they keep it? You're embarrassing me in front of Mark Summers. Yeah. But I'm on two sitcoms right now as like a reoccurring thing I do. How I met your father and I, Carly, I don't mean to brag. And, you know, I got away from that for a long time.

And I did one hours and half hour comedies and these things because I was like sitcoms antiquated. I grew up doing this. It's a corporate. To your point. And now I'm doing it and I find it like wildly refreshing. I'm sure. And the whole system. Bring a doorbell, walk in, say something funny.

It just kind of works. But you know what else works? I've done half hour single camera sitcoms, which basically, to the normies out there, a sitcom, you get three days of rehearsal. So you're working through the jokes. And then you put it up in front of the writers. And Neil goes, this joke worked, that didn't. Let's go. All the writers get together.

Let's make that joke better. So by the time you're filming on Thursday and Friday, it's gone through three or four iterations to like, it might not be the greatest, but this is the best version of what you've done that week. On another show, on a single camera comedy, you're showing up, and maybe the only time these words have been said

were in the writer's room. Right. So you just don't know. Hopefully it's brilliant and it's 30 rock. Right. But sometimes it just, sometimes those words just feel weird in your mouth. I did some acting recently.

Yeah. On a, it was a musical kind of run. It was, whatever, the 29-hour Broadway thing where they have like, so it was a musical and I was like the narrator. I can't say anymore. But it was fascinating to just be an actor and see the writer sulking and see the director and see the all the performers and having lines where I was like, this shit doesn't work at all and trying to muscle it out and wanting it. And you can't say to the writer like, yeah, man, I'm a writer. I can't be like, yeah, motherfucker, this shit doesn't work. Yeah, what's that like? Yeah,

What's that like? Because you are... You just have to not... You have to not... You just have to eat it. You have to signal to them. You have to be like, I don't know. You just got to play it dumb.

But I wanted to be like, yeah, man. It's Chappelle you say to me. If I pissed a sketch, he goes, what the fuck am I going to do on that? Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah, good point. So interesting. I've never thought about that. Whenever I watch, like, a bad Netflix movie, and it's noticeably bad,

I can't even imagine how bad... The actors feel... The actors all know. You know, it's like a bad date. They know. Well, it's a sour note. You're like, that was the wrong note. Like, I could say it.

Let me try it again. And then they're trying to make you say it the right way. And you're like, dude, there's no right way to say this. It was very interesting. But it was fun. It was fun, actually. Well, can you believe how much... I would imagine that as an actor, and this is...

Now that I do, like, social media and this stuff like Ben does and his wife, like, there's just so much control. And then when I walk on a set and I'm like, don't you need me? Like, can't I just jump in and help? They're like, no, no, just stand where the tape is. And shut up. You're now paint. Yes.

We're going to put the paint over here and a little paint. Shut up, paint. You're going here. I didn't mind it except when it was bombing. Then I'd be like, oh, but when it's when you like feel like you put the thing on it that makes it work, it's, it's worth it. But I want to believe that I am so wildly magnanimous that if I was ever in the position of showrunner and I've got.

a fucking hot gun like Neil Brennan that I'm paying I'm under pain is only an actor. You would think that I'd be like Neil you got anything you would think didn't come up once that's hubris. No it's it's it's a it's a it's a it's a playwright it's a playwright who's like he wants it a certain way he heard it a certain way and it's like yeah okay cool I can't do it maybe somebody else could but so I don't begrudge them it happens all the time I'm doing commercial, I do commercials and I'll pitch ideas and I'll be like, I'll be like, okay. Like, you got me. How is it in the reverse when you're the writer? Do you want to hear someone's pitch? Don't you say a word? No, I love when people. No one ever pitches me any. That's the thing is like

no one really ever pitches me jokes from my act. I pitch everyone jokes. No one pitches me. Like occasionally, someone who pitch me jokes. But I love when people pitch. It's like a little uncomfortable, but, like, I can't, that's how I got jobs in the first place was pitching to comedians, so I can't be like, get away from me. I want the help if you got it. Like, please, fucking please help me. Is that how you came to make what is probably the best special of 22, your new Netflix special blocks? How did that feel to hear? Did that hurt? As a meamer, Did that did that

I didn't even hear the question I blacked out You just knew it was getting good It's somebody who Derek Delgado The director has a joke in it He pitched a joke And then I was editing it

And I It was like a fork And I One did better than the other My joke did a little better than his And I So I used my joke And he's like

Anything on them On my on a Gilmore girl whatever and so people want their idea and everybody people just want their idea I remember when I was like very young

it doesn't matter how old you are it's everyone wants to take credit at a party or in the car or whatever they go you know that was yeah that was I used to a joke of Chappelle where it was like when we're doing half baked and they pitch and I just I

and I the joke was like how about Just let us do what we're going to do, and then we'll pass around a hat at the end, and you guys can pull some out that you can take credit for. And just until then, leave us alone. But they don't, they want it. Today's episode is brought to you by Factor. This new year, you've got goals and Factor is here to help you achieve each and every one of them.

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Get Factor and enjoy clean eating without the hassle. Simply choose your meals and enjoy fresh, flavor-packed meals, delivered to your door ready in just two minutes. There really is no easier way to eat well. Head to Factor75.com slash Good Guy 60 and use code Good Guy 60. to get 60% off your first box. That's code good guys 60 at factor 75.com slash good guys 60 to get 60% off your first box. I guess in the special you have this great,

and I don't want to give away any punchlines, but you talk about being surrounded by some of these icons of comedy and feeling like you had sort of been delivered, like a version of a finish line for you, and then you were quickly reminded that you weren't, in quotes, part of the club perhaps. Like, what, when you said, start with something like Chappelle's show.

And then you do three mics and now blocks. Like, is there a version of the finish line there? Is there like a chapter close for Neil? Well, the funny thing, no. Well, no, there's just like plateaus, I feel like. Like, now I feel I've never, I'm not going to say I'm secure, but I'm not, I'm less insecure than I've ever been. But I don't, so now it's more like open path kind of thing. Like, what do I want to do?

What's interesting? Yeah, instead of. And not like I was chate. Critics or whatever, it's also a lot of it's arbitrary. So whether what they like, they like three mics more than they like blocks. I have no fucking idea why. No idea why. So I just, now I'm just going to ignore it and work with the audience.

I mean, again, not like they didn't like it, but critics. But even like on the Mount Rushmore, people kind of fall off. So it's like someone who's so good at one point. like their sort of talent dissolves or like sort of gets washed away or they just don't care any so much anymore so all the it's always shifting like what the the goalposts like if a person is a goal post then then then they will there are people that I mentioned that are just not as good as they use so like I'm less I don't really look not like I don't look up to anybody but but the the idea of a

hero is less it's having a hero is cartoonish like and they must have just thought of it like he improvised the whole thing no it's like people get it's people have a process and they go work and well yeah heroes are

bullshit anyone the 27 club is bullshit because if Jimmy Hendricks had lived he'd probably be a judge on the voice like you're absolutely right yeah you're cool if you're Jim Morrison or Janice Joplin or Boscake yeah because you didn't have time to be corny because you were at the height of your powers and you died. Yep, that's correct. Yeah, this is a funny anecdote around that, which is, so I had a joke

that if Biggie and Tupac were still alive, they'd both be playing detectives on Law and Order. And then Rock did a joke in his movie Top Five. If Tupac was alive, he'd be in a Tyler Perry movie movie kicking Jill Scott down a flight of steps, just funnier. Like, just like beat me. Same idea. And just one of those like, oh yeah, he threw the ball harder. So in terms of just like grates and all that stuff. Like occasionally, or whatever, but sometimes I beat him. The thing in the joke in the show where he zings me and then I kind of zing him arguably better than his.

Yeah. Like, whatever. Sometimes he beats, sometimes I beat him too. So your special drops at midnight. What's the first big baller call you get? Is it rock? Like, I mean, I imagine a lot of these people had seen it before. Rock had come a bunch of times.

Tell me the valid... I want to hear the validation. I want to hear the... Neil, you're good about if you arrived. I've been printing. I've been texting. I've been... You know how you... There's an app where you can get pictures printed from your phone?

Okay. I screenshot them and now I frame them. Because I just... I am like, I'm not... I like this. I was talking to... I have a podcast called Blocks. I have a specials called Blocks.

I have other people on. They talk about their blocks. But Letterman's been on. Sebastian did it. today and Sebastian was talking about how crazy it is and maybe you have this, maybe you have this. People who have giant pictures of themselves in their house. Wild. It's a level of insanity.

But normal people have it. You mean like normal? No, I'm not talking about bankers with a greyhound. Yeah, like my boy has it with his wife and like they're over the mantle with the family and I think it's wild. That's bananas. It's my friend Len. Len. Quit it.

But yeah, so we were talking about. talking about, but I've started printing out text from people. The first nice one on this was Sandler sent me a really nice text before it came out because he'd seen it. That feels good. It was great because I really, really like Adam and I've known him a long time, but I don't know

him, like, know him, so it's like he was doing Happy Gilmore. Yeah, it was a good special. He was doing, happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, the producer of that produced half-bake, so like we were, you know, was the poster on the wall when we were pitching.

So it was like, so to add up for Adam to say something nice was awesome. Can I ask you, I want to do, maybe word association or Roorshack is wrong, but there were some things I've been seeing lately and I was like, I would love to hear Neil and Ben's take on this. No, no, you too. Well, you too. I mean, yeah. The word pickleball. I'm not mad at pickleball.

Really? It is a tragedy of a name. The worst. I didn't even think about it. It doesn't make any sense. So dumb. So weird for such an explosive sport. By the way, what is with everybody needing to buy a pickleball team?

It's fucking corny. That's what it is. Back in my day, people would buy a soccer team three years ago. It's the same way that people thought the WNBA would blow up. So they started to buy teams. I don't know if you remember that, but obviously that didn't happen. I can't step into this. Do you think I'm going to fall for this?

Do you think I'm going to slander the WNBA in any way and say whatever? If you think I don't have five jokes about the WMBA at all times that I will never do in public. Speaking of Safe Spaces, do you want to speak on behalf of your good friend Dave Chappelle in his comments about the Jews? I sure don't. I saw you guys had a nice episode and I'm going to, and I thought, you know what? We're going to stay out of that one. That's, well, that's like you, like, you look great. Shabelle Show, I haven't worked on Shepel Show in 17 years.

Right, same thing with Jeff. People wouldn't know. you'd think I did it I'm on my way here from there 17 years but yeah people once they know you for that thing

it's like impossible to do people ask you do more of it like I get that about Drake and Josh like oh you're gonna do another season yeah but I don't like that thing you were saying about reboots and people ascribing all of the like fondness for reboots it really is they just want to be

15 Right. That's it. It's like Lauren Michaels always said, he can tell how old someone is by what their favorite cast of SNL was, because it's just when they were in high school. It's like me wanting to go back to camp. Every once in a while, I think of my fond memories at summer camp. I think I want to go back. How old are you? 30. Yeah. Yeah. You just want to be 30. Yeah. Okay. You just want to be 15. I want to be 30. You want to be 15.

Yeah. You want to be 15. When was the last time we went to camp? How old were you? 15, 16. Yeah. What kind of camp? Jewish sleepaway camp. Jewish. I don't know. Yeah.

Actually, you know what? You didn't have to say Jewish, I would have assumed, if you just said sleepaway camp. You know, it's weird that Jews, we love camps. Yeah, you would think you learn your lesson, but no. 100%? We keep going back. That's how they got you. That's how they got you.

Camp, you say? Really. Yeah. Again, I have some jokes in that area, not going to touch them. So Pickleball Pickleball Yeah I've never played it

And it is a tragedy Of a name And buying the teams Just buy Crypto Did you guys Promote it or lose money on it? No we're not those types

No nobody But if they had asked me To promote it And paid me I would have done it in six seconds Yeah I'd still do it But we talked about this on the pod

Like You're You're Larry David Right You got a billion Yeah So weird Yeah.

And I'm sure they, you know, like if you get offered $5 million for a Super Bowl ad, that's that's top tier. I'm sure FTCS gave him 30 probably. Let's just, let's be nuts and get something ridiculous. I feel like they didn't give him 30. 20. Maybe they, I mean. Why does he get out of bed, Neil?

Because it's free money. It's free money. And he's not, it's like he's between seasons. Stop it, really. It's free money. It's free money. It's free money. It's hard to turn down money.

It's hard to turn down money. Especially when it's so short. We didn't talk about this last time. What's he probably recording for? Two hours. Well, no, that's, I direct a lot of commercials. And when it's a celebrity, they, it's, you get four hours. Right.

So you have to set up. I did an ad with Kevin Hart last year that's like, I think, supposed to start airing in the next week or something. But there was, it, we had to set up 13. sets next to each other on a stage. Like, we had to build them all. It was so expensive because he only gives you so much time. And it's like, yeah, I'll go to all these sets. I'm not, you don't want to do a company move.

So you have to build all these sets next to you're, they're still worth it. Yeah. This is worth it. So if you're, if you're Larry, I, look, Larry was one of those where I was like, that's, he's the only one I've seen where I've been like, why did he do that? The athletes I understand, but he's richer than all that.

But even like he seems to be like somewhat of a do-gooder, like Matt Damon, and I can talk about this? He's my castmate. Like, he's out there hawking crypto. And I'm like, you seem like a pretty virtuous guy. Like you didn't have a pause for a moment to be like, this is the one. Maybe I'll do an old Navy ad. Maybe he believed in it. That's the other thing.

It's also possible that all the money went to charity. All right. It's pretty easy to believe these Ponzi. schemes. Like, that's why they're, they're successful. Well, they say the genius of Ponzi schemes is that it's, they say they're fixing something that clearly seems broken. And it's the, I got to get in. Like, they say made off for the first three times, like you were trying to go, like, convert to Judaism or going to a Tibetan temple. He turned you away. You're like, Neil, you're a great guy. If I have an opening, maybe, but I got nothing for you right now. You're like,

please, Kevin Bacon said you're awesome. Yeah. Well, that, but the, the, the, the, the, I, I would argue that the bigger thing of that Ponzi scheme, or any of these made off or any of this, it's that there's a phrase you can't cheat an honest man, meaning everyone goes 24% a year. And no one goes, what? 24% that's impossible. Did I tell you about the time that I went on Jordan Belfor's podcast? No. Have you ever speak about that?

His team reached out to me, DM'd me. Wolf of Wall Street. Wolf of Wall Street. Fly out to Miami. Come on my podcast. I'm like, great. This sounds like God. You fly or he flies you?

No, no, me fly. That should have been the first red fly. Yeah, yeah. I get to his house. He has no clue who I am. I'm on the podcast, but he has no, like literally no idea. He's like, are you here with the guy that I'm interviewing? Like, who are you?

Knows nothing. We go through the whole podcast. He's on, I guess he must rent this house, I would assume. And he's talking about how he thought that he had purchased a home that could fit a 60-foot yacht when in actuality it could only fit a 30-foot yacht. Meanwhile, he has neither yacht. And every single door in the house, you know when you can tell the difference

between a sturdy home and a not sturdy home by the weight of the doors? Those like flimsy doors where you go on a bachelor party and the doors, like you could rip the door off even though it looks gorgeous. All the door is incredibly flimsy. It just made me, as you're talking about Ponzi schemes.

Yeah, you just go like, this guy's lying somewhere. Yeah, and once I'm sorry, but once you're a mass criminal, you're a criminal. Like, there's something going on there. He's also constantly promoting crypto this, crypto that. I don't know if I never thought we needed a new currency. Never occurred to me. Like, we need a new currency.

We didn't even need the dollar. What's wrong with gold? What's wrong with gold? By the way, is the U.S. dollar not another Ponzi scheme? Look, if you want to get in, I mean, bro, You're blowing my mind right now. You know that. I ate too many mushrooms for this.

I'm just saying the paper dollar is a Ponzi scheme. Yeah, but it's one we all agreed to a long time ago. Are we- Before we were born. Am I breaking my sobriety if I take ayahuasca? I don't think you are. Right. I don't, I know people, well, you know people probably that are do like microdose now, right?

Me? In sobriety? No, but sober people are taking-me. You? Yeah. What are you microdosing? Mushrooms? Yeah.

Regularly? No, no, no, not regularly. Definitely not regularly. Right now? Once in a while. I hope you guys break up over this. Once in a while. How did you?

Once in a while, you go out on the town. Have a little mushrooms. But I do like mushrooms in nature. I was just in Belize. I took some mushrooms on the boat and it was wonderful. But you're not like taking them to be better at podcasting or to not feel depression in your day-to-day life. I've taken mushrooms. You're not doing them for a reason that would help you.

I've taken mushrooms 12 times. in four years. So the answer is no. Right. Not to make me better. I actually find that it would certainly make me worse. I would be bugging out the entire time doing this. And not, yeah, unless we were all on mushrooms. Yeah. Oh, well, that's, well, that's called an addiction. I want, yeah, like, I think a lot of people would benefit from it. And you would certainly, you know, like Ron White, the comedian. Yeah, it changed him. And stopped drinking. Yeah. Like, he had apparently quit like a week before or something. But, But yeah, it's a bit of a miracle.

But I also know people who quit drinking through hypnosis. And the first year was great. And the second year was okay. And every year following was just a little bit worse. And then they told me that they like to drink with their wife and they're going to have a drink here and there. And now it's fucked. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't, you do the program?

You do a 12-step program? Trump, 12. All that you do all 12, though. You do like nine of them. Well, there's only three to do on a day-to-day basis. Good. So, look, I don't, I can't argue with anybody's method. I don't know.

Totally. Well, I think it's amazing. I had a kid, you could tell me, I had a guy who I was helping in sobriety. Yep. And, you know, whatever. He had some suspect behavior leading up to this. But inevitably, he was like, I want to, I'm going to go to Peru and do the whole thing. And go on an ayahuasco journey.

I said, great. I would suggest you reset your date of sobriety. And he was like, absolutely not. And I won't be needing you to help me anymore. I said, okay, good luck. And my feeling was, if you really think it's going to help, which is valid. If you truly think it's going to help you in a real way, who cares about your time? Who cares?

Yeah, that's a weird thing to like, what do you get? You don't get into the frequent flyer? You know what I mean? Like, you don't get into the... You don't get a gold star. for dying sober. And if you really believe that this thing is going to give you something that maybe you're not getting from the program or whatever, your quest, what does it, what does it matter? If someone told you that Lexa Pro was going to save your life or, but you had to reset your days,

like what's there to think about? Would you have to reset your day? No, no, no. I mean, that's a different thing. But I mean, if you're willingly going to change your, you know, they sort of say... I have a question about this. Please. Okay. So he says he doesn't want you to help him. Are you 100% rooting for him still?

Is there a part of you that's not like the human pride part? You're like, you'll see. He wanted me to read a script. Oh, say no more. There were enough things leading up to it where I was like, oh, you're fucked. But no, I have guys who I really love and I feel like they've helped me as much as I've helped them on this journey. And if they were like, because I've had to find outside things to help me. And yet sort of the sobriating the 12-step thing is the anchor in which everything can be born, right?

It's the roots of the tree. And did you reset your date? No, but I mean antidepressants. Got it. So, and I avoided him for 15 years. And mostly because I was an actor and I was like, oh, this is going to, I can't do anything to rewire myself. And then I realized like, well, you're not that good. And I'm like, and you're pretty miserable.

And your life is awesome. So you got to try something. And did they work? A lot. Ooh, guys, I'm in the running for an asthma ad. Is that true? Oh, God, fingers crossed. It's going to be big money.

What is the brand? I don't know. What? Oh, it's one of those. I remember when I was doing that show with John Stamos grandfathered, he comes into the dress room and goes, anybody here got diabetes? And I was like, why? He's like, because I hear there's three million up for grabs if you got the diabetes.

There's a big pharma commercial. Probably Neil Brennan's going to direct. And yeah, so God willing, I can get a nice asthma. thing and pay for my two kids. Adult asthma. What? Adult asthma? I guess.

Adult Jewish asthma? Yeah, it's a given. I don't know what that means. It comes to Judaism. Hey, should we do our, in closing, our what are you nuts moment of the week? My what are you nuts moment. I was cleaning up my email. I saw a gift that I had received from eight years ago from a company called Gift Rocket.

My agents had sent me a gift. Doesn't happen a lot. For $150 to any restaurant I wanted to go to. And if I didn't apply to a restaurant, then I could have just gotten the cash. seven years go by. I'm like, huh, it'd be a shame to just, this is cold hard cash. Just email them. Hey, I somehow missed this. It went to my spam. Love to just, you know, whatever, send me a prepaid debit card. They go, oh no, this has expired. And because it was cash and not a gift card, in quotes, it doesn't fall under the card act, which is what protects like gift cards so they can never expire.

So we're just taking their money. And you don't get it. So I wrote them a strongly worded response saying, this is a shame. It feels like a weird loophole you're exploiting. And I would love for someone to get back to me so I could rave about my positive experience to my large Instagram following. Was that a threat?

Am I nuts? I'm asking me, one of my nuts? Are they nuts? Did they pay you? I've heard nothing back. Giff Rocket. I'm dragging them on the pod. Gifrocket, what the hell?

I threatened one time a rental company in New York that I was renting from. And I got a sizable right markdown on my, on a six-month lease, five-month lease. And I got, like, a lot of money back. Yes. And by threatening them. It's the only time I've, like, demonstrably made money from Twitter. So I was like, look, I get a lot of, me.

Be real shame. So it works. All right, I'm going to write the tweet. Let us know if you get paid. Let us know. What do you know? What do you not? How bad do you need the money?

I'll give you the money. Gift rocket, you're on notice. I was thinking the same thing, though. Like, yes, you're a little bit nuts because recouping 150 from seven years ago is crazy. It's a principle. But also, what are you nuts, gift rocket? You know, you hand out a gift card. I find the gift card.

The gift card should be good. Also, shit name. Ben go. Gift rocket's a terrible name. I'm from New York. We didn't talk about this. I'm not from here. I'm just happened to be in L.A.

I'm on my flight. Oh, yeah. You don't live. Oh, yeah. He said you weren't in time. I don't live here. I'm on the flight, as you know, post-pandemic times. They give you a little bit of Purell.

They give you one of those, like in the thing. I take my Purell to my seat. I sit down. The guy next to me totally masked, like double mask. Coughing up a lung. Non-stop coughing, coughing, coughing, asking, ask for two blankets. The guy is incredibly sick.

Does he have COVID? I don't know. It doesn't matter. The flu? It doesn't matter. If you're sick, you're sick. and you don't belong on an airplane because what did he do? He gets the ginger ale

takes his mask down, takes a sip of his ginger ale right? Coughing for five hours that's it. What are you nuts? What are you nuts? Don't get on an airplane and there's nothing to do with it. It's this whole like oh if you have COVID you shouldn't get on a plane or if you have COVID you shouldn't be near me. If you have the fucking flu

Right but that's new. Be nowhere near me. That's a new thing. It was we were all supposed to fight through this shit until COVID. Yeah, but my mom used to be like, just smile and go to school and get everybody sick. Yeah, that's the thing. Get everybody around you. But that was the policy and only Japanese people would wear masks when they were sick.

Like, that's the why they wore masks. Yeah. And everyone's like, they're fucking, fucking weirdos wearing masks. Yeah. Bearing considerate. Being considerate. Ugh. So you're correct, but that guy's probably from a world where even if you're sick, you're,

you fight through it. Also, have the decency not to get a middle seat. Is that fine to ask? He didn't, look, you're asking a lot of things. He's infecting two people. Have the decency to not be poor. Left and right. Have the decency.

Have the intelligence. Yes, thank you. He could have gotten an aisle seat. What's wrong with an aisle? When? When? He could have booked it earlier. There's no sick insurance.

Also, you wouldn't have gotten any less sick if he was on a, in an, across the aisle. I would have had half the chances. of being next to him. How did you handle it? I told the flight attendant. I'm like, hi, this guy next to me is unbelievably ill. I don't want to sit next to him. He said, tough luck.

There's no other seats on the plane. Yep. He said, it's not my problem. There are no other seats on the plane. What was the airline? Giprocket. So what did I then do? Giffroget, not a horrible name for an airline, by the law.

It's pretty good. I asked for a mask. That's what I did. Good name for a porn star. You weren't wearing a mask. It's my GIFRocket. You wear a mask on a plane today? Fuck yes.

Okay, so that's a different story. What are you nuts? Fine. You're the problem. You out of yourself. Fine. Fine. You sting operations yourself.

Well, I started to wear... I started to wear one once I heard his black one cold and cold. I was going to wear a mask on the elevator here. I know there's no downside to wearing a mask. In 95? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about your own breath? It's wonderful.

He's a vegan. It's a present. It's been fantastic. You guys should come over. It smells like kelp and ambition. I'll sniff your mic after that. We'd love to see you over here. What am I, what's my, what are you nuts?

I go to a restaurant. I get, I'm vegan, I get French toast. And they have, one of the things that I get has like a hash brown side. Like on the plate, right? A lot of carbs. I know. Yeah, no.

Somebody's not out of the woods on this food. stuff. And they, so I go, do I get the hash run of it is? Just make it well done. He's like, yeah, whatever, he's a waiter, he knows. They end up giving me a side of the hash brown wasn't part

of the French shows. It's a side of French, side of hash brown. It cost me $5. And looking back, I'm like, I should have said take this off the bill. Are you with me? I'm with you. Yeah.

I don't, that's my, that's the best I could come for a segment that I didn't understand. Is anyone nuts? Who were we asking as nuts? I'm not, you were nuts, and then he was nuts, but you ended up being nuts. Ideally, the person who you are describing was the one who is nuts. When Neil Simon came up with this segment name, what are you nuts? I think you having double carbs at breakfast is a nut.

I think Neil Brennan treating himself. Oh, you want to hear some food stuff? I have a sugar day. Yes, Sunday is my sugar day. I try not to eat sugar all week. And then Sunday I had, I mean, yesterday I had salt and straw for dessert. It's a refeed day. Yeah.

What do you call it? A refeed. Refeed. Refeed, yeah. Spell it. R-E-F-E-D? Yeah. Refeed.

Like you refeed yourself. Yeah, it's like it's in the training community. This idea that if you do a calorie deficit throughout the week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like you're giving yourself all those glycogen stores and all the shit that you haven't gotten for six days out of the week. Okay. Yeah. Yes, I do that.

And it was pretty sweet yesterday. Wow. It was pretty great. I don't like to think of you treating yourself. I don't know why. I like your style. Because you want me skinny. You want me tortured and skinny.

I want me tortured and skinny. I had a very liberal day yesterday. I had two vegan meals and I went to an art museum. Wow. Just punched me in the face already. Driving my Tesla from fucking art museums to vegan restaurants. Kill me. Guys, what an episode.

Thanks, dude. Thank you for joining us. I do the wrap-ups now. How do we say goodbye? We already did. Oh.