Good News York by Growth Mode Content - Brian Enck's Comedy Special: Journey through ADHD and Laughter | GNY Ep09

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Brian Enck's Comedy Special: Journey through ADHD and LaughterHosts Mat Masur and Mike Brindisi from Growth Mode Content present an engaging discussion on Good News York. They announce their guest, comedian Brian Enck, who is preparing for his second comedy special in Syracuse. The conversation starts with their experience with ADHD and the struggles that come with it, transitioning into Enck's preparations for the show, his journey in comedy, and his collaboration with Homebrewed Comedy. The episode is filled with humor, personal anecdotes, and a deep dive into the world of stand-up comedy.00:00 Introduction and Welcome00:15 Guest Introduction: Brian Ank01:24 The Mysterious Letter04:33 Psychic Harassment and Gang Stalking09:13 Witchcraft in America19:56 Growth Mode Content Success Stories27:02 Brian Ank's Comedy Special38:26 Handling Crisis Situations38:37 Traveling to India: Challenges and Experiences39:13 Bill Burr's Perspective on Anxiety41:16 Shooting a Comedy Special at McCarthy Mercantile43:41 Preparing for a Comedy Special55:48 The Importance of Comedy Venues58:48 Shoutout to Mike Peters and Homebrewed Comedy01:08:00 Starting Out in Comedy01:19:30 Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Shows

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from our globally acclaimed faculty to you. Earn your degree from the nation's most innovative university online. That's a degree better. Learn more at ASUonline.ASU.org.org. What's up, everybody? I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode Content. I'm Mike Brindisi. We're here with Good News York.

We're back. We're back. Some really fun adventures. Yeah. Live from the Great Empire State. Yeah, it's Wednesday. We got a guest coming in today. Yeah.

Brian Anke, maybe. Brian Anke, I think I'm saying it correctly. I should know this. He's a comedian shooting a special in Syracuse. We're going to talk to him about that. I did a couple shows with him in the past through a homebrewd comedy, circuit. That's Mike Peter's gig. He runs a hell of a show.

Yeah, Mike's a funny guy. Mike's a funny guy. Man, he's a hustler. Yeah? Yeah, he started home-brewed comedy with, I don't know, 10, 15 of us, and now he's got 100 guys on the roster, and he just does these pop-up comedy shows, and you've been to a couple.

He does them at breweries, he does them bars. Yeah, I came to one at a brewery's, where they held the show in the actual room around the tanks. I was on that show with Phil. Probably the hottest and most uncomfortable room you could ever hold an event. It was so humid and smelled like yeasty beer. Whose idea was that? I know.

It was so humid, and it smelled like a rugby team had just got done celebrating in there. It was just a yeasty fucking hell. I don't know. Whatever. Anyway. But that's in the past. Let's talk about today. You want to hear something wild?

Yeah. Why? Yeah. I got this letter in the mail. Oh, okay. In the mail. Oh, that's what that is. Not handwritten, typed, I guess, printed.

Sure. this is wild Jesus now you got me this is not typically the thing that we'd go into on this show but I found it so amusing that I just We just have to address it The fact that anyone sends you a letter in the mail

Should be concerning Sure I feel like the postal service If they see someone other than Christmas time Yeah mailing a large number of letters To local residents Okay Like that some sort of alarm should go off right

Oh so he's it Look into this dude So there's a local guy mailing letters to local residents. Red flag one. A fellow who I don't know and I've never met, never heard of. Okay. And the return address is his apartment in Syracuse. Okay.

And he sent me this, let's see, three-page, fun little letter and it's wild. Okay. You've talked this up. You've got me hooked. Apparently, parts of our government are embarking on a global, revolution that's intended to the result in a planetary dictatorship

known as the New World Order. Brother. The NWO's coming back. They are. Yes, Hogan, Xbox, all the guys. Bro, what if this was just a huge wrestling work? Is this real? What if that, but...

I think this gentleman is concerned about the other NWO, but... What if it was? Let's just make it a work and fuck it, bring back the whole... Bring back the whole to Syracuse. Unfortunately, it's not. That would be way too much fun.

I'm not going to read you this whole letter. It's bat shit. This is crazy. I don't like to make fun of folks that clearly have issues, but I'm going to today. That's great. Through influence mapping, in quotes, the CIA identifies intellectuals, teachers, artists, social workers. I guess we're safe. Other members of society capable of mobilizing public opinion in ways they might threaten their evil system.

Oh, my God. Why are we here? We got a hunker down, bruh. Is this too early? I know. Infoars. They had a powerful network and they went out of business and now we got people sending letters. This is what happens when you legalize marijuana.

This is the downside. I tried to find downsides to legalizing drugs. That's true. This fellow goes on. I can't even read all this nonsense. But the best part, in my opinion, is page two. Okay. We have more than one page.

Oh, my God. Page two is a survey. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, and we'll take this survey together here, Mike. Yes. But I got to give you the background. Okay. He defines two terms that are important to understanding this survey.

The first one is called psychic harassment. This is wild. Psychic harassment occurs when someone uses psychic processes to experience, observe, control, or punish someone by trespassing on that person's body, brain, or aura. Isn't that called? There's more. The R word. There's a second term called gang stalking. Whoa.

This sounds dangerous. Sexy too. Gang. gang stalking occurs when a group of two or more persons invade another person's life relentlessly 24-7 using electronic or psychic means to including voice-to-skull transmissions oh we're skipping earpieces we're going right to the skull directed energy weapons oh and lies rumors or slander with the goal destroying a person's quality of life over time.

For the purpose of this survey, I'll label psychic harassment and gangstocking, both as psychic harassment. So all those times you and Danny interrupted me taking a dump with a remote control car and a super soaker. That was gangstocking, my friend.

No, that was just typical hazing. Oh, all right. This requires a directed energy. So now what? Hold on. You got to hit the... You know what? I will read you the survey Mike. I was going to say. You answer the survey I love surveys. By the way, I have this. thing, my family thinks I'm weird. I love taking survey. Like when someone's, if you

could stay on the line after the call and take a survey, I don't know why. I love surveys. This is a great one. This is a great one because it's all yes or no questions with no option for comment or any nuance whatsoever. Question one. Do you think America has a problem with psychic harassment? Yes or

no? Sure. Yeah. Of course. Do you think Syracuse, apparently not part of America, has a problem with psychic harassment? Syracuse is in America, so to stay consistent. I'm going to go, yeah, yeah. Do you have a problem with psychic harassment? I don't.

I don't mind it. I feel like it's harmless. Fair? Yeah. Do you know anyone who has a problem with psychic harassment? I got to call a few friends. I would say probably the author of this letter might. The author of the letter would be clearly someone who is a strong candidate.

Unless he's for it. Maybe I haven't understood the letter. I don't know. I didn't actually read it all. Would you like the mayor to be made aware of this problem? Absolutely not. Unless it's going to be televised. If it's going to be like at a board meeting, they're like,

all right, we're going to fix the potholes on Salinas Street. But first, we got a letter from John F. Crazy. All right, here's the final question. Now, this one, they did give us a third option. Okay. For this question, your option is yes, no, or undecided. Okay. You can think about this one.

All right, all right. They really don't want you to hard know on this one. Okay, I'm very excited. If a group of citizens dedicated to ending this evil system were formed, would you join it? I would. Oh, wow. I'm in.

Sign me up. If yes, write your first name and telephone number on this page. Oh, easy there, pal. I'm not writing any of that. So how do I get the results? Hold on. There's one more, a couple more notes on this survey. The next sentence, which seems misplaced in this whole document, but it says,

I've sent 7,000 of these letters to random addresses. I will not be contacting you again. Now, if this was me, that would be the opening line. Wow. Oh. At the end of page two. And then the last line on this survey page here, please slip this page into an envelope and mail it to this guy at his apartment in Syracuse.

The results of this survey will be forwarded to the mayor. I'm sure he's going to love this. Should we book the mayor and see if he believes that psychic harassment and directed energy wet and hurting his aura? Let's book the mayor and blindside him with it. Don't give him any one. He sits down, he thinks we're going to talk about all the things, and we're going to be like, we're here to talk about, he must know. He's actually probably got a secret commission directed at protecting your aura.

I'm assuming he's going. I don't know if there's a secret office under City Hall where they're protected from directed energy weapons. Yeah. And we can meet in safety. It's amazing. You know, I'm more amazed that this guy weapons was able to talk to people in the CIA to confirm that this was going on. Because I'm sure the CIA, they're very open to talking about it. I better be looking for him.

I bet this is a fake name. It's actually a... What is going on? I don't know. Who knows? Dude, that is... There's another page that I'm not even getting into. Okay.

Because it goes on to a completely different topic. What's the topic? Witchcraft. Yes! Let's hit it all. All right, fuck it. Page three. Witchcraft is as native to America as Americans are.

This guy must be from Salem. I was going to say... Ever since America has been a nation, the military, the government, the police, and private citizens have used witchcraft. That's true. To punish or control their peers. Yeah. How come I didn't? Nobody taught me.

I do have a Tom Brady voodoo doll. I still have. This is what I think of this guy. Eric? This is, come on. To be fair, I did use witchcraft to, in Cant Danny to come work for us. It worked. We love you.

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If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. Go ahead. Go ahead. It's just sheer math. So if he sent 7,000 letters out, okay? And you said these weren't hand delivered. These were mail.

How much do stamps go for these days? That means he invested in this stamp. And it is postmarked from Syracuse. So this is those things where it's like somebody in Arizona sent a scam out to, This person's address is legitimately the address that this shit came from, which makes it more crazy. Yeah. And honestly, I almost respect the guy that he believes in this so much that he was willing to spend that kind of money to mail out $7,000. It's really putting your money where you're...

So how much is a stamp? Danny, do you know how it's just stamp these days? Or Matt, do you... No idea. What did he use? I don't even know. He used one of these forever stamps, so technically you can spend it when they were cheaper, but... 7,000 times.

Let me do the math. Let's say they're 5 cents stamps. Aren't they way more than that now? They're like 50 cents. Okay. All right. As of January 2025, the cost of a forever stamp is 73 cents. Holy shit.

Hold on. Big money here. Why can't I find the clear button? Okay, here we go. So 7,000 times .73. There's no... How much? $5,000?

$5,000. Plus printing costs. He had to buy his ink and toner. I mean... If it's true, then again, I feel like the chances of me randomly getting one lead us to believe that it could be true. This guy...

Send that many. Should we call this? No. The closing paragraph of this letter here, after you've read this letter, you might say to yourself, I believe what this guy is saying. What can I do about it?

It's exactly what we said. He nailed it. Yeah. Absolutely what we're saying. This has a watchdog committee to overwatch the people who invent people control. You can write two brief letters. One did Jack Reed, chairman of the U.S. Senate at Armed Services Committee. He's doing the work.

He gives his address in D.C. Write him a brief note, appraising him of your fears. Oh, man, I bet. Yeah. The staffers in some of those congressional offices. Oh, those poor bastards. You get to do this every year. This is their regular job, what we're doing.

Ask somebody else. Who else are we supposed to write to here? The guy's done the work. Keep an eye on these organizations while they're developing people control technology. I'm sending 10,000 of these letters to the Syracuse community. The other page you said 7,000. There's another, no, that's on top of the 7th. So now he's going to invest another.

He's in over 10 grand at this point. This guy's dedicated. 10,000 letters to these folks might persuade them to do the overwatch on these research development organizations. Thank you for your time. Local nut job. Buddy. I don't know where to...

Part of me really wants to give them credit for having the conviction. Yeah, dude. In doing the work? Yes, what I said? This is beyond wacko who just posts on Facebook all day long. That's true.

At the same time, the fact that you're willing to put that much effort into this is concerning. It is concerning. Because you're sending thousands of people in your community letters about witchcraft. Yeah, you're also putting yourself on the map as a fucking sicko.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that anybody who knows him probably had a good idea before this letter. Yeah. I want to know what his apartment looks like. I don't. Dude, my favorite part of that letter is, I know, you're probably sitting there thinking, oh, God, what are we going to do?

Nailed it. The same part is there's probably an elderly man or woman that's reading that and going through, unnecessary strife over this, you know, that may be, that maybe, believe this. But then again, who's to say this guy isn't wrong? And we look like assholes right now. You know what I mean? I think it's all up to the mayor to save us now.

Listen. I really hope that he acts on the results. This guy better get with it, Mr. Mayor. We're talking to you. Hold up. Do you have a problem? I love it. I know.

So what happens if you say no? And you're like, I don't have a, I'm fine. Cool, man. Yeah, all the surveys come back and nobody gives a shit. Yeah. That's the key. You know, hey, democratically, I guess we shouldn't care. That'd be a little.

So he's, oh, this is unbelievable. All 7,000 letters are coming. They don't care. They don't care. Nobody cares. Good news, folks. We're all on board. Good news.

There it is. There's the tie-in. Good news, everybody. No one cares. I think we're going to be all right. Let's get our skulls. Favorite part of the survey. is the fact that if you do intend to return it, that's on your own time.

That's right. There's no self-address statement envelope, no website that you could easily submit your results to, no text me with your answers. You literally also have to be psychotic enough to put this person's address on a letter and walk it down to the post office. No, I, listen. How did he get your address in public? That's a great fucking question. Was it your name? My name.

Oh, I don't know if I like that. Not my wife. It does have the plus four, which leads me to believe. There's a million databases. You could buy any marketing company. If you want to do mailers, you could buy that. This guy's got cash. The fact that he has all that also alludes to the fact that he may have bought one of those marketing lists for additional money.

This guy's got capital. It's Jeff. Or it is all just witchcraft. Maybe the witches made the letters appear. At the post office. I, dude, I don't know. This is how we've got into where we are, right? Just lots of conspiracies.

And look, it would be ignorant or reckless for me to sit here and say all conspiracies are fake. Because just like a conspiracy, how can I prove that all conspiracies are fake? This one's deep. It's on paper. It's detailed. It is on paper in writing. I just like to know what he's doing with the cert. What are the two choices based on the survey?

Like, all right, if I get 70% that they all say this. He's going to share the results with the mayor. So that's going to be a riveting meeting. The mayor must save our oras. Yeah, my aura has been fucked for weeks. And you know what? I know he doesn't have much time left in office. Ben Walsh, if there was ever a man for the job to save our oras, he could do it.

Save our oras. It's good T-shirts made. Yeah. Unbelievable. Dude, I'll be honest when you were like, I got this crazy letter. I'd get, we're on the air. I'm like, okay, he's talking it up. That is legit crazy.

Sorry. I wonder if he, I wonder if there's any sort of like protective headgear we could wear to, to protect us from these skull weapons or the directed energy weapons. Do you think they have oral blockers on Amazon? I bet something with foil might work. Foil. Tin foil, make a hat. Yeah. Yeah.

That might work. That might be the way to go. Tin foil hat. Directed energy weapons. Some other hats. Frickin laser beams. Fucking laser beams. Oh, man.

That's amazing. Good times. Is your wife scared? You never know what you're going to find on Good News, York. Was Kristen like, oh. No, all she said is, do you want me to throw that in the trash? No, I have to bring this to the office, honey. Yeah.

This is breaking news. This is actually material. That guy's great. He is. Look. Pure entertainment. You want to talk about an industrious. New York entrepreneur.

This fella is doing it, man. And you always say, what's the key of entrepreneurship? One of the keys is stop saying, yes, but stop saying and do it. Instead of sitting there and talking about it, do something. This guy took action. It's an entrepreneurial mindset. Maybe he's actually a fan. Maybe I should be worried.

Oh, maybe you have a stalker, a cyclot or a gang stalker. Luckily we got. If there's more than one of them, if it's him and another person, it's a gangstock. I'm going to have to get security like, on back, aren't I? Oh, nice. That'd be cool, man. If you walked around with security.

I was thinking about that. That'd be sick. We have Abel, who works for us. He's built like a brick shit house. He really could do. He's a big boy. Every time we have a guy Abel that works here, and anytime we have a guest on and he walks in,

they're always like, whoa, who called the bouncer? So we have a kind of an in-house. It's true. But we don't know how good he is at aura-blocking. Yeah, that's... He's from Cuba. I wonder if there's a... an aura meter that we can, is there some sort of device?

Like Egon Spangler used to have on the EKG meter? He's got these directed energy. You got to be able to detect that, right? Can we some sort of energy weapon alarm system? You bring up a good point because if someone's going to hack your aura or whatever he claimed they do. Right? You have to be able to find the aura and have a meter.

So there must be something. They got to find the meter. You got to find the aura to attack it. Yeah. We need to get Senator Schumer on this and direct the military. Chuck. Immediately. Let's go.

Put together. Their oral protection weapon. Or he actually might be in on it, though. I think that might be what this fella claims. I'm not going to say the guy's name on the air. Maybe we shouldn't reach out to the senator. Oh, I wish I could say his name on the air because he just sounds like a psycho. Right?

That's a name I haven't heard ever. It's like a shady figure from history sort of name. It is. And it would be so funny, but we're not going to share it because we're good people. And let's not open that can of worms. We're into promoting things, but maybe not that. We've got to draw the line. Good news, York. What are we doing?

It is, man. In other good news, yeah. Our good friend, a number of our good friends, have been coming into the studio, recording more of the episodes of their podcast. Yeah. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy.

upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free.

free and easy. Upload an episode, and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. With mode content, incredible local businesses. Yeah.

One of the things that I feel like we continue. I mean, we've said it from the beginning, the second we started working with these people, but the more that we record with these people, the more that we do, we keep saying it over and over again is so many of these folks are, without insulting them, surprisingly interesting. Surprising. And that's not a reflection on the person. It's really more of their industry. They're in these very kind of common everyday industries that you see and you go about and

you're like, oh, why would anybody sit around and hear about that? And then they start talking about their expertise and their industry and their business and everything that's happening and we're all just enthralled. It's crazy. And it's such a cool thing. And they're seeing it work. That's the best part is that is the best part. From a business standpoint in business, return on investment, sometimes it takes months,

years, depending on what you're involved in. And we all knew the potential that this had and we knew, okay, we'll see results at some point. Yeah. We were like a week or two in and one of our clients wrote us an email showing us a message from someone who she did business with a pretty big deal. And it was because this person saw her podcast and we're like, this is what we wanted.

And it's just, it's amazing. And when you say surprisingly interesting, to piggyback off that, you know, as the producer, as one of the producers, you know, my job is to, if I feel like the ship is sinking or maybe they're like the content's not there, I've got to help provide. As they're recording. Yeah, yeah, as they're recording and get them through. I haven't had to do that.

Yeah. Because as you said, now I haven't to jump in and save anybody because, and this is what we sold in the beginning, which was, okay, you own a pest business, you own a soda business,

and a lot of their questions, wow, are we going to make that interesting? And then during the meeting, as we're talking about their podcast, they're telling these stories, and we're like, that,

just talk about that. And it's been great, man. Yeah. Kudos to you for this. You thought of this. It's really cool. Growth mode content has become an incredible resource. it's growing rapidly.

We're investing in new equipment and more studio spaces and constantly honing our craft. For sure. Adding more people to the team. We've got some incredible videographer talent. Yes. Joining us and we'll bring her in person. I don't want to. Yeah, yeah.

She's awesome. I want you to meet her in person rather than just me talk about her. And she writes really great letters. Great letter writer, I will say. But long story short. We've got so many cool things happening and we're literally only getting started. The long-term plans are huge and it's so much fun because we get to help these incredible local businesses and great people. Yeah.

Tell their story and just grow what they're already doing, which is. And it's crazy too because it's, yeah. And what's crazy about it is I knew them succeeding would make us feel good, but I guess I just didn't know how good. and like after that first email we got and then you know you come in every day and you're like holy cow so and so has you know 10,000 views on this social media

and I find myself like genuinely feeling like it happened to me because we're all what people don't understand is like you're not coming in and we're like how you doing sit down and we hit record this is a pre-production meeting and it's a team effort so it's

hard to make this stuff and so when they get results we get results and no I agree it's like Vidal-Sassoon if you don't love good, we don't look good. I do remember that. Wow.

But yeah, I'm super pumped about that, man. And the only other thing is, too, you got, we have some of these people who, they come in and they're, we've never done a podcast, I'm a little nervous. We started recording. They're actually very natural. We had a client come back for a second. And then we had that same person come back for a second episode that they shot yesterday. They were even better.

Yeah. And I was like, what? How did you, I thought you, this wasn't something you were good at. It's been great. It's so much fun. I come from a long history in the technology field. And our customers are always appreciative of what we do and how we help them. But it's a necessity, right?

You saved them out of trouble they wish they didn't have to begin with. Or sometimes you prevented them from that trouble to begin with. And they're appreciative for that. But it's a whole different feeling and it's a whole different type of a appreciation. That's a good point. When these folks come to us and talk about how we're actually making them more money and how we're helping them genuinely grow their business in these different ways, which is something I've never experienced. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, it's cool and it's fun. It's, like I said, we've always been able to demonstrate our benefit. Yeah. But it's

always been in an operational. We keep you running with this content business. We're helping people genuinely make more money and get more clients and get more exposure and they're understandably more excited about it. And it's just such a cool thing. You just hit on something that I never thought of from your lens. Like you said, you've always dealt with people are calling you unhappy. They have problems. And you're going to fix that, which is obviously rewarding.

Yep. This is a rare service and a rare occurrence for you where these people are coming to you. They don't have a problem. They just want to expand on what's good. They got something good and they want to throw some gas on the fire. That is cool, cool angle. It's a fun thing. as an entrepreneur and I've been involved in different businesses. I will no doubt be involved in many

other businesses. Only fans. Link in the comments. But it's just fun to experience these different things and learn these different things about these different types of businesses. Because it certainly hasn't been easy. Yeah. We've been working like crazy to iron out the kinks and effectively launch what has really become a startup. Yeah. And even though it's a division of a well-established company. Growthmodecontent.com by the way. That's it. Yeah, that is another part of it that I thought of yesterday. We were recording a client. And I remember sitting there thinking,

I'm getting paid for this, but I'm also getting an education. Yeah. And I'm not even kidding you. I've learned so much about pest control, the housing market in the commercial sector. Should write up and tell them they owe you a refund. Yeah, right?

That's the part of the job I never thought of. Yeah. That I was like, I'm going to learn shit that I would never learn or think to learn. So like now, hell, I could be a realtor who can kill cockroach. and make good soda.

I feel like those would all be great skills to combine. Exactly. See? It's like a Voltron. And learning things here. A Voltron of skills. Anyway, we have a guest coming on. Yeah, let's...

Brian is here. Let's take a quick break and we will bring in the gas. Sounds like, I've done shows with him. He's a great guy. I think his name is Brian Inc. We'll be right back with... Yeah, Brian Inc. Okay, welcome back to Good News York.

Mike Brindisi here with a friend of mine. Brian Inc. Comedian extraordinaire. We've done shows together. Matt had the dip out. He had a doctor's appointment. I could have told him you got rashy thighs, bro. That's what it is.

You don't need a doctor. But anyway, Brian is here who is obviously a stand-up comedian, but also recording your first special? Second special in Syracuse, April 12th at the, make sure I'm saying this right, the McCarthy Mercantile. McCarthy Mercantile, April 12th, Brian Anx, ain't, shooting a, second special. A special, I'm so glad you're here, buddy. Thanks for having it. I'm so glad you made it here. I know.

I got the schedule wrong and rushed over here, got here. When you messaged me, I was in bed and then got here 25 minutes later. Dude, I'm going to tell you something. You picked the right show to be late for because I have ADHD, so I have terrible time management. I'm also a comedian, so I get it. Look, you're here and that's all that matters. What's funny because I have three, and my wife makes fun of me all the time, I have three planners because I try. to organize and I did I just put you in wrong.

I know. And I would have had it right. And but recently ADHD, I just got back on, are you a medicated ADHD? Yes, I am. Ritalin. Oh, I recently got back on medication when I was younger because we're about the same age. Yeah. They like, they were like, he's crazy.

Yep. Just give him a pile of pills. That's right. And we were just zombies through high school. And so I was so turned off from it and I was like, I shouldn't do this again. And then they were like, we can control the dosage. makes me some more. Right. Oh, the control thing. Yeah, so we have been back on that, but in the past like month, my meds have been like, I get it. So I booked a client yesterday. You'll get this.

So I don't, for some reason, when March and April come around, the three and four really get me. So I was booking our clients. They were supposed to be booked in March and I was booking them in April on the calendar and had to sheepishly write them back and be like, so I screwed up and booked you in April. It's super embarrassing. Oh, it's super. And it's super. And it. The other hard thing, too, is I think there is a, everything lives on a spectrum now. So there are people who have organizational issues and all that stuff. But they also become the people like, I was a jerk to you because of my ADHD. And you're like, no, some of us are really.

And so that's why like the name of the special is called Letters Are Hard because I'm so wildly dyslexic that it, like, to the point where I was doing a show with a buddy of mine. I'm a New York from Rochester originally, but they got my train. in New York City. I was hanging out with a buddy of mine, Mikey Mays. We were doing a show and we were starving. And I was like, oh, let's go get something to eat. And I look up and there's a neon light and I go, oh, they got burgers there. Sure. And he goes, what? And then I look back and it says drugs. And that's, it gets. No, I know, the wires crossed. And it's, it's very funny. It definitely affects scheduling. It affects everything. So much. And it's to the point. Task paralysis. Task paralysis. But as well as like when you're having a conversation,

This is going to be a wonderful episode because it's two men who really just want to get out what they say. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your podcast. sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.

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I'll be talking with my wife and I'll be like, what are you doing? I'm like, I got something I got to mention to you in a second. I, if I lose my phone, it has nothing to do with phone number. Like I follow this calendar every day and my wife makes fun of me because it's like clip toenails, breathe. Like I have to see it. And I even have another calendar. We call. the ADHD calendar on the side of the fridge. And that's because, and see if you understand this, oh, I feel like I have a brother in here. I know, it's separate. So when I get to the, so let's say you book a show on,

I don't know, we'll just say April, April 12th, April 12th. Look at that. Okay. But so you get to the end of March, right? And you're like, I've got three weeks till my show. And then you realize when the calendar turns, oh my God, I have one week. So I have to have the calendar to see like you're getting near the end of the month.

And look, April's right there. And I feel so embarrassed. No, this was a very good. The show itself was a very good experiment. And actually, we were going to do it at the end of March. And I remember saying, hey, can we do April? Because I know that I need an extra two weeks. I know that this is, it's going to take me two weeks to really get in the gears here and all this stuff.

And that's a big part of it. If you at home have mental struggles, it's okay to ask for, that worse comes or worse, they go, hey, we can't do that. But in my situation and so many other situations, they go, yeah, that works. Yes. Meanwhile, you were like, if I ask for it, they're going to hate me. Set my house on fire. They're going to kill me. And yeah, and just giving myself, but this has definitely been a structured.

Okay, we have the podcast on not Thursday, Wednesday. And we will have, I have the next promo thing that we're doing next week and just really structuring it all out, putting it all in front of me. And then at my desk, there's a whiteboard. and it has clip your toenail I was talking about and then there's the weekly one and then the daily one

and so I just walk around and people are like are you getting your doctorate or you studying like with me just getting through the day no this is me living trying to make it to 5 p.m. The fact that I'm here right now

all this book made it happen that's right dude I've had I went back to college and the only hit me my first class started and I went oh I have to write papers I literally I can't I can, but I, how do I talk texted all of my papers, and then what I would do is email it to

myself, put it into Microsoft Word, fix all the things, and then submit it. And I remember it was like a couple weeks in, and I had this tremendous guilt like I was cheating. And I told my professor, I was like, listen, I've been talk texting. And she's, that's brilliant. So you're managing your ADHD. Are those your thoughts? I'm like, yeah, a lot of them. Let's talk to text, Stephen Hawking.

You're fine. If it's working. If it's working. So it was unnecessary pressure. Have you ever, I put a piece of pizza in the junk drawer once. I was, so I was eating a piece of pizza, and I had to get a screwdriver. And I went out and I handed the screw driver. And when I came back, something happened to where I put the pizza in the drawer and then walked away with the screwdriver.

And when I was about to bite the screwdriver, and that is not a joke. That's it. When people are like, oh, sorry, I didn't reply to your email, ADHD. And I'm like, that's fucking not ADHD. That's the thing that I get it. But I'm, it's, I think, no, I'm sure people who have depression, they feel similar. They're like, yeah, similar symptoms. I'm in such a bad mood.

Depression. No. Everything's going great for me. And I still have a sadness blanket on me. That's it. And so it's, it's, or sorry I was being crazy, bipolar, they're like, no. There are people who are bipolar. They're like, I was holding my baby and thought maybe it's the seed of the devil.

Exactly. You got upset on a Tuesday. Yeah. Things went wrong. Yeah. People do that. I can't stand. But you get it too.

You're like, I don't want to downplay your misery. I'm sure it is tough. But let's call it what it is. You ever been on a roller coaster and just not felt anything? Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That's what depression and anxiety is, like you said. The stuff is hard.

I think people can co-op the mental stuff because you can't see it as clearly. Yeah. And so it wouldn't be like, like for me late today, I would be like, sorry, I'm late today. Missing legs. Because of clear physical thing that some. I can see weird if that's what I scared my slowness to. That's insane. But I think because the mental thing,

it's such a blurb of things, you just understand, you can pull pieces from it and say, hey, that's what's caused my issue today or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, no, this is been therapeutic. I was about to say, this is nice. I've been, we'll start recording soon. Yeah, sure. The one thing I've been working on, which I may have actually been doing horribly so far, is the thing I've really,

now that I'm aware of it, is I really work on not interrupting and listening. That's the hardest. People are always like, oh, yes, you get distracted easy. I'm like, yes, yeah, I get distracted easy. I'm like, there's so much more to it. I take things harder. I interrupt all the time and expect you to like, like the other night I was talking to my wife. Like out of nowhere in the kitchen, I was like, oh, yeah, it turned out he was seven feet tall.

And she said, what? Who? We had that conversation four days ago. And I was like, all right, you can't just jump in on it. It's and the admiration that the people that I really, I've always been drawn to in film or in real life, the very stoic, slow talking person. Because there's such an envy to that of like, how are you doing this without having to shoot it out like a shotgun? Oh my God. How are these monks that when they ask, they'll come and ask them basic questions.

And they really take their time, think about it and go, there's that great scene in a man on the moon, which I just watched. Love that movie. So good. and when he goes, what's the secret to comedy? And the guy pauses and he goes, silence. And then it was just a beautiful moment of a really well thought out question. And I do try to do it more and more. But you have to, while trying to process what the question was, you also have to tell yourself,

hey, really take time with this. You don't need to shoot out your first answer. Or again, it's okay to say, you know what, let me think about that. I can get back to you. Yes. You know, all that good. You are the real deal. Brian, I know.

See, again, ADHD, I saw your eye go to it because mine did too. No, honestly, dude, I love this because you're the first person that I've actually talked to that genuinely has the same exact symptoms as I do. Which does bring people to comedy because other people would go, there's an appropriate thing to say here. There's a well, timed out, slower thing to say. Again, comics I really admire. I really like the alternative. obviously I like the greats like Richard Pryor. Of course.

But I always liked, can't do it. But I love Maria Bamford, Patton Oswald. Love Patton Oswald. The things that they build are these beautiful. And then I remember for a while I was trying to do that comedy. It's not your style. It's not. I did the same thing.

As a comedian myself, I appreciate comedians that are more long form. Or all of a sudden they'll tell, like the way that you can start a joke and it's hilarious. And they go off on this side thing. And it's hilarious. And then they come back to it. And they're in the middle of that story again. And I'm like, oh, and I too was like, I need to start doing that more. And I realized I just, that's not, I'm.

If our acts were walls, the people we admire our brick layers and they're drywall. God damn. We got to get it up quick. We got to get it. I love that. And you can do a lot with drywall. You can hang paintings on it. You can do fun stuff.

I get, can you Google it. Can you hang paintings on bricks? I'm sure you can. Yeah, there's brick screws. I'm sure. We are going to talk about comedy, but just to put it, to wrap this ADHD thing up,

I do, you were talking about people that are stoic. And not only do I envy those people, but I hate those people because I don't understand. I have friends too that are just like, oh, yeah,

I just got divorced because I cheated and gambled too much. And, oh, my God. It is what it is. And it's like, how are you, it is what it is? How are,

you know what I mean? Like, they just handle it so, and they're like, there's nothing I can do about it. And I'm like, I want to feel that. No, I think you and I are people who are people like us are very good in a crisis. Very good.

Very good in a crisis. The day to day is more of a challenge. So when my wife and I, my wife's family is from South India. So we go to India once a year. And traveling is such a creepy thing. Oh, packing. Especially that far. And so things will go wrong throughout the thing.

Or my wife, beautiful, wonderful woman, she sometimes can get anxious. She's what if it goes wrong? And we don't have as much things. Ours is, well, you know what? My whole life it's been going, not wrong. No, no, no, no. Today was wrong. Challenge.

I came on the wrong day. I didn't know what's going on. And I'm here. Yes. So there's a bit of, hey, if it goes wrong, we'll deal with that. I love that Bill Burr line. And Bill Burr... My favorite.

He would, if he ever heard, not like I know him, but I'm sure it's going to start coming. There's going to be a Bill Burr Renaissance. And he's going to be like, yeah, that's what it is. Renaissance. I can't. That's so bad. No, it was good. I got it. I got it. You went for it. It's fine. We'll edit it out.

But he is someone who his act was so angry for a while and it was very. And then you clearly saw marriage and therapy be something that he not. And so now you see him in these interviews and he's the one that I really love is he goes, why? And it's easy to say to someone with anxiety. They're like, yeah, I'll just flip that switch. I won't do it. Right. I'm not saying that. But I like the way he phrased it of, why be anxious about something that could go wrong. If it goes wrong, you'll deal with it then. That's right.

But all the time beforehand, you're ruining what could have been a nice moment. And when it does go wrong, you'll handle it. Yeah. And again, that's like someone saying to us, why can't you just focus? Right. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy.

Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. Taxes was feeling so stuck. Sitting in traffic, squeezing into a parking spot, all to squeeze in, getting tax help during your lunch break. Now Taxes is a TurboTax expert who does your taxes for you.

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mantras are good. So I think we do well in a crisis because there is a little bit of if it goes wrong, we'll handle it. Yeah. Figure it out. You're so right for two reasons. One, you're right. I remember being on a flight with my two kids and my wife and she's a mess and she needs a Xanax and she doesn't take that kind of stuff regularly, but flying scares her. And I'm always very, hey, it's okay.

We're going to be. But then like we get off the plane and the place is closed that I wanted my coffee from and I'm freaking out over that. And it's a hard balance. But the Bill Burline reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from, I think, I guess it's not a quote if I don't remember how it went. But I think it was like the Dalai Lama where it was the same thing where it was like, if there's a problem and there's no solution, there's no sense in worrying about it. And if there's a problem, but there's a solution, why worry about it? You're going to figure it out at some point. And it's the same mantra.

But enough about that. I'm so sorry. People are like, this guy's a comedian. Yeah, what the fuck are we talking about here? It was a show for doctors. Brian Anck, you're shooting a special at the McCarthy mercantile here in Sir. Mercantile. It's a beautiful building.

It used to be a legal building on South Salinas there. And then there was this huge open, I don't want to say basement space, but it's the lower ground floor. And the team that's worked around this has just done an amazing job of, and I know you work with a lot of businesses, they just took this huge space and go, hey, you're a tattoo artist. You don't need a full structure building to do what you're doing. Why don't you rent one of our smaller spaces? So there's like, smart businesses that sometimes rotate or are there for the year

while their buildings getting renovated or whatever. And it's very cool. And I had been there for a festival once. And I remember when we were looking at thinking of spaces, I was like, man, that place was really cool. I wonder if they would do event spaces or would they do events? And they do, and they on the ad or on the dock for it, the guy Michael runs the place. He's amazing.

It says, no weddings, no seriously, no wedding. And then I love he's got his email thing. I just send him an email about how much time we need. And it says, if the subject heading is, can I pick your brain? I will ignore it. Which is such a great way. He's saying, hey, we're either talking. Yeah.

Or we're not talking. Right. Because this whole, hey, do you mind if I take up your time and your focus and your energy for no payback on my end. You're like, I don't know. He can't do that. So it's this amazing space and I'm so excited to shoot there. Mike Abbott, who I think you know. Mike Abbott, I'm bad with names. No, but he's worked in the space before. He's worked through you guys. When I mentioned I was going to be on. He's oh yeah, I know those guys. He's directing and producing it. I met him through the comedy world. He's a big comedy fan. We got three cameras we're shooting with. I'd say if you, even if you're not

April 12th, cameras mine, April 12th. If you guys, he got. got nothing going on. No, but if you've never been to a recording, it's very fun. The show, it's going to be a stand-up show, but not that different. But it is fun to every once and a while see these cameras zipping around. And then it's really set up to be a performance at a big-time show. So I'm really excited about this. And yeah, this will be my second one. We're doing two shows. It's a 7 p.m. show and a 9 p.m. show. And that is happening because inside baseball for everyone. My first one I recorded, I did in one show.

And we lost two jokes that were really good because an audience interaction that ruined the flow of it. Not even that person's fault. I was talking about something. They agree. That happens. And you know the worst heckler is the nice agreeing heckler. You got nothing to go off of.

Can't yell at them. Yes. They are nice like everyone's grandma. And you're like, like okay. Give me something. My boyfriend also like soup. And you're like, great.

Not even talking about. So we're doing two takes just in case someone's boyfriend like soup. Yep. And we can, it just help. That's how all specials are shot and that kind of stuff. Famously, Richard Pryor had a special, his last really good one. I figured that the one, the one he's in the red soup. Yes, that's the famous one.

Wow. But that's such a great special. The people who were working on it were like, Like, yeah, we cut between three shows of that because he was just coming back from being set on fire. Everyone was so excited to see him. And so they lost a lot of takes because he'd be in the middle of a joke and they'd be like, I love you, Richard. And he's like, that one's not going to work.

So we're doing, and it just gives the opportunity for more shows. So it's two shows, 7 p.m. 9 p.m. Adduh is the feature. Ah, yes. I love him. Fantastic. He's done shows of him. Yeah.

He's one of my favorites. And then Katie Arroyo. Oh, is it's a name of Katie. I'm sorry. I love you. You are fantastic, but I always get your last name wrong. You can introduce my name and actually you're hosting. You have to say my name right. She's awesome and she's going to be our host for the evening. I'm so glad we were able to get her. And yeah, so it'll be a great show. I'm so excited. We're going to be there April 12th, Brian Inc. McCarthy Mercantile. And we're

going to give away tickets to that by the way. We are going to give away tickets right here on Good New York. Look for that. And especially because we're giving away tickets, especially if you are someone who wins those tickets, go to the event bright anyway because you can also donate. The other fun thing that we're doing is the show itself is a fundraiser for a foundation that would literally just start. One of my best friends who's no longer with us, his boyfriend and I put together this idea called the Patty Foundation. And it's to help take care of LGBTQ kids who are displaced because they're gay, trans.

And so all the money is going to go towards that. So it's like our first fundraiser for this foundation. foundation. And it was something my buddy Pat really believed very firmly in and he was always wanted to take care of kids like that. We're going to raise money in his name. We started this foundation. And yeah, if you get a free ticket, you can send $5 to the event. Your name goes on the credits. If you want to buy one of the dumb t-shirts that comes with it, that's the money goes to it also. All the money, all the proceeds go to the foundation. Yeah, that's fantastic. If you get free tickets, buy some credits. I absolutely love that. When you're trying to plan a special,

right? I have not shot a special. I'm not special enough for that yet. No, we were talking. You're plenty special. Oh, yeah, I'm special, all right. There's certain way that all comedians, all comedians have a process. There are some things that we all do that are the same. There's a lot of things that everybody has their own way of doing things. What's the difference in preparation other than the obvious of, okay, I got to write a longer set. What's different in your preparation for a special than just like a normal show? I'm going to show you right now. Oh, we're going to demonstration.

We get the cut to me. And this would be a good for. the brains that we have. Yeah, yeah. In my office at home, I have a whiteboard to web chart all the jokes. Okay. And then so it'll have the title of the joke. And then we'll have all the offshoots of places it can go. And then when it's done, it gets a name on it.

I have the joke that letters are hard that comes from my wife's is, like I said, her family's from South India. And I was not what they had in mind when they were thinking about marrying her. My wife's family preferred if she married an Indian doctor who was like a spelling bee winner. And they got a white college dropout who's severely dyslexic. Holy college I've got too. It's dyslexia ornovicity where letters are hard. So if the letters are hard joke is there, just the way you structure it because it's a longer set.

It's going to be a 45 minute set. So what you do is you take the jokes and then move it around here. But then you realize, oh, I got to talk about marriage before I can. get into the letters as hard Joe, but I also got to do in a racial marriage so you guys can sympathize with that joke. There you go. So you literally, nice. You structure what it can be.

And then so for the past couple months, it has been playing around with, what if I save that for the end? What if I put it there? So besides all the promo stuff you got to do and getting the camera crew together and then realizing, oh, we got to run sound on this and all that other stuff. Oh, yeah. It's definitely just bigger, whereas stand-up, you just show up. Like, I was doing a show in North Pennsylvania, and I literally, I didn't have pants.

I didn't have pants. So I was driving. Sorry, I'm late. I've got no pants. Well, now I'm starting to see a pattern. Yeah. I think people at home are going to be like, I think this guy is just. Yeah.

I just don't think he knows how to live. No, I'm not the only one does this. If you have an hour and a half drive, you're not going to wear. I get it. sweatpants. You bring the pants with you that you're going to wear 100% been there. So I didn't bring the pants. And so I'm talking to my wife and I was like, hey, I don't have my pants. She's what's on your leg? And I was like my sweatpants. She's like, get it. You're fine. Get in there. And it was fine. And it was fine. But literally didn't have the pants. Got there 10, 15 minutes late because I was

outside looking for pants. Sure. And you just go up and do time. I didn't even know where I wasn't the lineup. As soon as I got there, they need to time. Okay. Yep. Great. So there's just a lot more work that goes into it's very much like your first day at your job when you get there early and you're figuring stuff out versus anyone else you're like it's wednesday i can zip right in drop at my desk and go yeah when i i bounced back and forth between stand up and i had a band for 10 years stupidly i should just i was in them but anyway so i remember putting shows together and what went into that so i do first of all i appreciate you actually showing us your process that that's fascinating to me but from a production standpoint did you do you

you did you go as far as to be like, all right, I want, I want three cameras and I want to do this. How involved with you, are you going to let them do their thing or do you have a certain direction for that? What about the set? I'm going to let Mike do what stand-up so much. You shouldn't have done a band because stand-up is just easier. Getting four people together to do that's it. That's it. That's so crazy you just said that. Stand-up is so much easier. Standup is low budget. It is beloved. It is, it's also fun because it's always evolving.

Like right now, it's mostly crowd work stuff because people like, I did a show in Utica and, or at Utica College. And I remember thinking before I go on stage, I shouldn't do any jokes. I should just do crowd work because these are TikTok kids and TikTok stand up right now is just crowd work. I know. And I did it. It went well.

And I remember after the show, there's a kid who goes there who, I, I know through life. And I go, you guys think standup is crowdwork, right? And he goes, yeah, I guess it's true. And not in a bad way. No. There was a time where people thought standup was take my wife, please. Right, right.

It's always evolving, which is fun as well. So standup is simple. It is always evolving. And it is also immediate reward for your work. That's correct. So like, we're working on this right now. Is it going to get views? Is it going to get comments?

Is it going to get liked? April 12th, 7 p.m. 9 p.m. show. Is it like that that's the worst. I'm waiting to see if tickets are going to get. So like I, it's a horrible. Yeah. Whereas I do a joke, I know right then and there if it works or not. That's right.

I know why it works or doesn't work, which is great. Especially if you've been doing this long enough. Like, I've been doing this, I think 12 years now I've been doing standup. And so yeah, you start realizing why things are working, why it's not working. And so when it comes to the, definitely second one is easier, just like any, anything else, whether it's a kid or an orgy, doing it the second time. Or kids add an orgy. Yeah.

That's how the kids come to be. Everyone's a little forgetful about things when there's an orgy involved. And then that's where be, oh God, can you imagine be a kid? Oh boy. How did, how did, where was I conceived? Funny story. The factory had been closed for two months and we thought that was a good place to put a bunch of couches.

That's right. And so. Your mother and I were bored. We hadn't met yet, actually. I like her Zoro mask. And so we, you know, I'm going to let Mike do everything with the shots. We got three cameras, but we learn a lot from the first one. And it's going to be just framing shots.

Mike's going to come with me to a show that I'm doing in Binghamton. If you're in the Binghamton area, oh, God, I'll plug it in a second. And we're going to, I'm going to run the special. And so he'll be able, he's going to have a notepad for shots that he thinks would be good. Nice. And stand-up's also not hard to shoot. No. It's just a person.

Sure. But some jokes are better close up. Some are a little bit. Yep. Better further. Some are better on a dolly. And so he's going to do stuff like that. So I'm going to put it in his hands.

All I got to do is show up and do the act. Are you going to have a hand in the editing process, post-production? Yes and no. It's going to be mostly just like so many things. I think it would be great to go, hey, can we try this six different ways and let's find out which one we like best? But again, I trust Mike. I trust.

And again, it's not super hard to do when it's stand up because it's just one thing. Really, it's the words and maybe some of the facial mannerisms. But for the most part, it's let's just shoot this and have it look half decent. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's funny, you're talking about the difference between music and comedy. And it's you can't, when you hear about the way to get better at standup, you hear a lot of community and say, you just got to go do it. And it's so true.

Because more than music, you can practice at home, right? And you can get better as a band. But once, and then you get out there and you know, you know ahead of time, this sounds good. In comedy, yeah, you can practice at home to your stuffed animals or to family. The only way to really know is, do I kill this joke? Do I have to change the delivery or the setup is to just do it, right? Yeah, I was just talking about this with the owner at Legacy Lounge in Waverly, which is another great comedy room. I don't know how they made it.

It's like a perfect little comedy club. and we were talking about it and he's got kids and because we were talking about some comics who are working it out for the first time working on material or working out standup as a whole he's sometimes it's tough to watch I go I know and I the only way you can practice standup is in front of people and he's got kids and I go do you have any kids learning an instrument and he said yeah I go it's painful to listen to it first isn't it and he goes yeah he goes but you get to do that at home and get stronger and get better so standup has to be done in front of people and so it really is a painful process to go through.

Some people, hopefully it'll click in early. You have your jokes that you start realizing work really well. And then you sandwich again, you got a joke that works really well. Yep. You got your intro joke that does really well, risky joke. And then we are going to sandwich it with a better joke. And that's how most comics, in my experience, work out new material. Absolutely.

Put it in between stuff that we know works. We want it to enter at a good wavelength, and we want to do a good job for you. Paid to talk in front of people. Better do it well. Should talk and do it well. Yeah. I was talking about this at some point,

I think on Good News York, and I feel like you'll understand this. One of my biggest pet peeves with stand-up is there was a time I was managing a music venue. And the owner did the age old, we should do like a comedy night. Yeah, okay. Rodney Danger.

I get no respect. I got to do some fucking comedy. That's hilarious. No, I, I was, I was thinking we'll do it during Happy Are. We always have a crowd here. We'll just throw a mic up there. I was like, well, I was like, comedy is a mindset.

I was like, you can't just have people drinking, and then the secondary is a guy gets up there and starts talking. It doesn't work for the comic or the crowd. You have to have seats. Because people don't realize that, like, when you're on your way to a comedy show, whether you know it or not, you're already ready to laugh.

If you're at a happy hour with friends, even if the comedian up there just says something fucking hilarious, you're not going to have an immediate react. You know what I'm saying? There's so much more to it. Then I should have waited until you were done sipping. I shouldn't have sipped while you were finishing what you were saying. God damn it.

Our timing. What's comedy about? What's the one rule of comedy? Timing. Time. Sorry. I was also saying. That's where you mess it up.

You need focus for comedy. That's the hard thing when people, if you have a room and you want to put comedy in there, that's great. The rules are, let's put it out there because there's do it. Lay the rules out. Okay. The rules for standup comedy if you want to put standup in your venue. One, promoted as a comedy show, not a variety show. Though I do think variety open mics are super fun. If you're doing open mic, you can definitely do that. But make it just be standup, not because stand up is the most important thing in the world, but because you're changing the gears of what the audience is doing. It'd be like putting an action movie with a romantic comedy with a horror movie and every single thing because you're changing gears in the audiences. I've done shows where it's an improv team and then a stand-up and an improv team. And even that doesn't work because building a fourth wall, you're tearing it down. That's right. And the audience is getting fatigue. Do the show. You just got to have seats. You got to have focus. And you've got to

know that at some point you really want to dedicate a room. Take notes. You want to dedicate a room to be able to just do it. Whereas music is you can have active listeners and passive listeners. Stand up. It has to be active listeners only. So that's, I think that's the only con. We're talking about how easy it is to do stand-up. Music and bands are really great to run a three-hour set because God bless you. I don't know how you guys do that. Three-hour set. Because some people can be actively listening. I love this track and they go, anyway, so yes, Steve left me.

And then you come back and then whatever it is. And so you just make sure that people have focused. That's what it is. Focus. And then. And I'm sorry, Steve left you, by the way. Thank you. I do, I'm glad you laid out the ground rules.

I do want to talk about, can you mention Mike earlier? The reason Brian and I know each other is, and I've talked about Mike before, I want to give him a proper, that's how he actually got on here. If you want to do a show, ask Mike Peters how to do it because he does the best shows. Mike Peters, I don't know how I got in touch with him years ago, but he runs a circuit called Homebrewd comedy. And I would say technically it's out of the Binghamton area, but he goes up to Syracuse, Utica, all over New York State. He started with a small roster of comedians. He's built it to a roster of a hundred of us, which is how I met Brian and vice versa. And he'll

just do these pop-up homebrewd comedy shows in bars, restaurants, VFWs. But what we were just talking about he knows how to set it up properly there's no he doesn't pull any punches with the owners everybody wins and he puts on incredible shows and i've met some of the best people including yourself through that so shout out to mike peters and homebrood comedy you have a show coming up with him too i yeah i think it's after the special so that's good yeah i'm trying to remember which is april 12th april p mc mcourtie mcourtie mercantile brian inc or if you go on any of my social media, there'll be links for that as well. But Mike Peters does these amazing homebrewed shows. That's definitely a channel to follow as well. He'll do these shows out in the sticks. And I'm

respectfully, in some places you're like, I'm like, this is the hills have eyes. If you have racist jokes, do a Mike Peters show because you. That's my whole act. Yeah, they won't. You're good. But then you get there and there's 50 people in the room. I'm like, how did you do this? You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in the podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free

today at RSS.com. He brings people, it's great, the comics are great, everybody has a good time, and yeah, I don't know. When I moved up here from New York City, my biggest fear was I'm not going to be able to get on stage. I'm not going to be able to get on stage as much as I'd like to. And it was the complete opposite. It was a lot of times instead of fighting for these 15-minute spots for comedy clubs over New York City, Mike's been letting me feature and headline and really. Yeah.

There's no way I could have done this special as quickly as I was able to do it without having regular 45-minute spots to work out material. And it's just, honestly, ties right? back into what we were talking about, the unwritten rules of comedy. He also does it right. He knows, without having to say anything, he knows when someone's ready to feature. He knows when someone's ready to headline. And he also knows that just because you've headlined here doesn't mean you're going to headline here.

He knows your style and where it's going to work and who it's going to work with. Mike Peters Homebrewed Comedy, shout out to that. You have a show coming up with him. I have a show coming up March 22nd in Dryden, New York with him. Which, what a dick I am. I'm plugging my show during your interview. but we're here to talk about April 12th. Your special in Syracuse.

Yep, all the, once again, all the proceeds go to the Patty Foundation, taking care of LGBT youths, and yeah, definitely get tickets. We, and I know we've been going on. I could talk to you forever. Yeah, seriously. It's not a lot. You can't even. Think about what you could do.

You can't even go to McDonald's for that now. You can't even go to McDonald's. You can't even go to McDonald's. What is with all these sites? I get so old. I know. So real quick, though, I want to do a little background. We'll edit this down.

because two ADHD people, we can do a four-hour interview. I know, and you got two ADHD people, and I go, oh. When you show up to the show, and there'll be plenty of stuff to do that. But the entrance that everyone's going to do is because it's this beautiful space, but because we have two shows, we need to keep people before they come down, Jamaica Cues, which is a great restaurant right there. They're going to be our entrance. They're going to be our little room.

So they are, that's where you're going to go grab drinks. That's where you're going to hang out before the show happens. The address is South Salina for mercantile, but your entrance. through Jamaica Cues. So, do you want to hear my Jamaica joke? Of course I do. I was, I worked for a public access television show in Brooklyn. And we got a new president. And she, her family's from Jamaica, a proud Jamaican woman. And we're there. And I am a nobody. I think I just left being a PA. So there is very important people and investors and stuff like that. She comes and she goes, I understand you do comedy. And I go,

Yes. Tell me a joke. And I go, I have a great Jamaica joke if you want to hear it. And the room's like, Oh, no. We got to fill this position. And she goes, sure, I'd love to hear it. And I go, I love Jamaican food. It's so good. I love those beef patties. But if I have too many, I might get a blood clot. And it goes silent.

And then she starts an acclimate. And I was like, what did you guys think I was? Yeah. Hey, put on dreads and be like, hold on it. Yeah, hold up. And that's my Jamaica joke. I love that. And I love it.

I'm so happy I eat at Jamaica Cuse a lot. So I'm glad that they're going to be our front door before the show. I used to, at that same music venue, we used to have reggae nights. And the guy that booked the bands would book these reggae bands. And they were awesome. And a lot of times they'd get up there. And they're like, yeah, ma, rustafari in there. You know, the whole thing.

And they're good. And they're white, which is fine. But they're, you know, they're doing the thing. And then, like, they would get off the stage and come up to the bar. And the same guy that was like, trust a body in there. And he'd be like, hey, man, can I get an Ithaca? And I'm like, what happened to your? I used to have a joke in my set that was like, that's a.

like me coming up here and being like, what's up everybody? I'm from Liverpool, New York. Yeah. You know what I mean? I can't do the put on accent. I don't know if you can sing, I don't know if you can sing reggae music without the that's the thing. Right.

It's like country with twang, right? Oh, very good. You know what I mean? So it's, there's, are they wrong? Because it's not really, it doesn't sound like reggae without it. That would be a funny genre of doing country music and all the lyrics, but doing it with a Rasta accent. That's fucking brilliant.

See a good boy. I don't know what it is. Listen to country music. I was trying to do the whole thing. It's always about a girl and a dirt road. Yeah. Not in this town. I can't do a Jamaican accent.

So I would have to do reggae music with a twang. Yeah. Oh, that'd be funny. In my house, there's a picture on the wall. Rastafar. I don't know. We're all here for good vibrations. Good.

But anyway. Let's come up with the country band that covers Bob Marley music. That would be the best thing. There's, this is, this is, Hank Marley. Google it. Junior, Hank Marley, Jr. Hank Marley, Jr. You're taking the three little birds, sit by my window.

Yeah, three little birds right next to my bourbon. Three little bourbons. I, there is a band. This is, you can Google if you don't believe me, called Dred Zeppelin. Okay. First off, that's your, okay, just keep going, but that's your joke to do on stage. I don't have the music background. Doug.

Hey, we're getting laughs. Okay. I hear them. Country Bob Marley covers a very funny joke. That is a funny. 100% yours. Thank you. This is...

You heard it. He gave it to me. No, this is how... And I'm working with new comics all the time. And I'll, like, we'll talk notes and we'll talk jokes and punch notes. They're like, I can't do it. You wrote it. I go, no, no, no.

The room wrote it. We're part of that process. I go, when you get into a writer's room, you realize it's an echo chain. That's right. And however it got there, it's got to go out. That's 100% true. It doesn't matter. You built a...

Literally, an electrician. They built a house together. attrition's house. It's not the guy who did the drywall. It's not the guy who did the floor. It's not the girl who did the windows to see how I... I did. I did. Yeah, yeah. It's not as... But it's the house that got built by everybody.

So that's the... This is the... I'm so glad you know that. Not everybody knows that. They think it's like it's either your joke or you're joke. No. And if you're really a good comic, you just want the best joke to be out there. A hundred percent. I've never... No, it's... Well, I'm talking about Dred Zeppelin

is a band that plays Led Zeppelin covers, but the singer It's done in reggae style And the singer sings it like Elvis. Try to rap, I know, try to do the mental gymnastric. So it's Led Zeppelin songs, okay, in the style of reggae With a, what is it, Elvis Presley, he sings it like. I mean, it's too much.

Zeppelin always said to They were a byproduct of the southern. blues world. So it makes sense that Elvis, who, and I will go to the grave with this, stole black music, that movie wasn't even that good. His career is not, I don't care, April 12th, come talk to me. April 12th. You want to talk about Elvis? That PM, 9 PM show. After the show, I'll talk to you that Elvis is not that good. Anything that was good about him, he stole from Chuck Barry. Dude. And you need to stop putting this man on a pedestal. He was hooking up. with a 14-year-old.

Stop it. Dude, I love you. So was Chuck Barry. So he even took that from him. Yeah, the only thing you didn't take from Chuck Barry is Chuck Barry peed on women. Elvis didn't. Towards the end, he was probably very, he could control his better. But, dude, I'm, that's a whole other episode.

I like the idea of thriving right now, cutting in between listening to Elvis, listening to this episode and be like, where is this recorded? I need to find him. Yeah, these sons of bitches. You'll never find us. No, I've been on that soapbox for decades, and I keep it quiet because I'm afraid. And finally, I'm going to piggyback off of what you said. I've thought the exact same thing about Elvis. Completely overrated.

People love Elvis. It's fine. Real quick, before we go, I just, let's talk about how you started out. What got you into comedy? What got you into comedy? Where did you start? How did you start? I think it's important.

I talk about, I've answered this question before, but I also realize that there's a part of this that I had. haven't talked about and so I can tell you about it here. So I got into stand-up like a lot of people do where you see, like I saw Martin Lawrence in movies and then they were like, you know, he does stand-up, right? And then I'm like, oh, that guy that I like in the movie, I didn't know. And then you start discovering stand-up and then you realize like people, again, it's movies, it wasn't stand-up into movies. I saw movies and then saw, hear no evil, see no evil. I'm like I like that kind of like Richard Pryor is a comedian.

Or I would see Annie Hall and they go, Woody Allen, originally a comedian. And so it was movies that then brought me into stand-up. And then I was, I graduated at high school in 2008. So I'd whatever that age is. So I was catching comics that there was the blue collar thing. I knew that they were funny. Same way I feel about like Metallica. Like I saw the talent, but it wasn't for me.

It's just not, it wasn't something that connected on my wavelength. And so I'm more of a Dred Zeppelin kind of guy. And then Dane Cook was a popular one. Yeah. Yeah. And then. Ficious circles, one of my favorites. But then this one guy comes in named Dave Chappelle. And I go, oh, that's.

And at the time, my parents had gotten divorced. And so I was living in Rochester. And so I was a suburb kid with my mom. I was a project kid with my dad. And technically the neighborhood wasn't, I don't think it's classified as a project, but every Parker playground was named after someone who died in that location. So it had all the accent on the project. And so we were...

Gene Wilson Park. Yeah, exactly. He got stabbed here by the merry-garon. Now there's a monkey bar. And so the other joke was the pool, the public pool that was there was used as a dog-fighting ring in the winter. So in the summer, instead of diving for rings, we do for collars. That's great. That joke never works.

It's so dark. How? I don't. I wish it worked. It works there. Thank you. I loved it. So I got a stand-up, and what I realized was between the Chappelle show and his stand-up, I was able to bridge a gap.

The suburb kids wanted to understand the black jokes, and they hadn't understand them. And I had just learned them from my friends in my new neighborhood. And then my friends in the new neighborhood loved that I would do the white voice for them with the, which is normally just my voice. Right. Add a little like. They do, hello. Hey there. I don't guys want to go play baseball?

Jimny Krenkitts, you guys really like basketball. Golly, gee whiz. I loved it. And so I loved that moment in time was such a great point because I was like, oh, and you talk about different audiences. I loved the idea of I saw someone be funny for different audiences. And I was like, I like that. I want to chase that. And so I remember being like in sixth grade maybe or something like that. I was having a sleepover at my house. Maranber. This is at my house. My sleepover. I had a yellow legal pad, a big one. And I had jokes written out on it. And I was about, it was like I was coming out of the closet. I was going to tell my friends, hey guys, I'm a. comedian. Okay. And so we're watching stand-up. I go, hey, I want to be a comedian. And they were all like, you're not funny. Oh. And like a slow motion made for lifetime movie, I just tucked the legal pad under the sleeping bag. I guess I just don't do this until I got to college. And thank God. Actually, this is where I met my best friend who passed away. He was working the theater program. I got to jump into the theater world. And that's how we became friends. And then that theater thing

brought me into I can do stand-up now. I started doing stand-up. God bless my dad drove from Rochester to the college to pick me up to have me do a crappy five minutes at an open mic to then drive me back. And then got good enough at the theater thing and the stand-up thing that my director there said, hey, you could go to film school. Why don't you go to film school and then do the stand-up and do that? So I went to New York Film Academy. They let anybody in, if you're interested in applying. And they aren't going to ask me back as an alumni. And then just started doing stand-up in New York City. And then the other kind of fun thing,

and I know we got to go, but the other fun thing, too, was especially for any new comics, something that's been coming up recently a lot is, they're not sure what advice to take. And I think this could go with any type of art. I think you should listen to everything, but not take anything to seriously.

So I started in the clubs, and I rose pretty quick. And I knew how to do the jokes. I knew how to host. I knew how to get a crowd back. I knew how to do all these things. And then at the time, again, I really like the alt comedy scene. And the alt comedy scene is a little bit more, yeah, it's building the bricks.

Sometimes they talk about things like depression or they talk about things like anxiety or they're a little bit more obscure references. And I love that world. And so I would go to those shows to try to, and I didn't, it didn't, my act didn't work there. And I remember there was a couple comics that I got shit from because I was doing what would be considered like club jokes. And instead of thinking, these guys, every time they get on stage, it's silence. And I get laughs. So they're pissed. I'm going to take their advice. And I remember there's so many things I changed about my act for a while. And then God bless him, my buddy, Nico White,

who's an amazing comic, look him up also. He was like, hey, why don't we go up to Harlem? Why don't we go and do, why don't you start doing black rooms? And I go, okay. That's a ballsy move back then. And that's what I did. And I started working black rooms and I stand by. If you can make it in a black room, dude, no matter what race you are, you can pretty much make it anywhere. And here's the thing about the black rooms is, A, they don't care genuinely. They don't care who you are. That's why, like the Apollo, they'll boo people off.

They don't care who you are. You got to be good. And if there is any bad part of you, they'll let you know. And you have, and you have a, what, like a, a, what, like a, a, 30 second window. I feel like more than any other, God, I hope this doesn't come across races, but I feel like it's almost like in a black room, right?

In a room full of black people watching you do stand up, you have about 30 seconds. We don't have time for your maybe bullshit act. Yeah. And so you're on strike two. We're pitching the third pitch right now. And so I would go up and I would go, I'm actually not a comic.

I'm just the landlord. I want you guys to keep it down. And boom. And then they were cool with me doing it. And so I realized, and God bless those rooms, I realized I fell in love with comedy again because I, the alt thing, they were like, talk about your depression. I'm like, I don't have depression. This is. They were like hipsters.

They were the hipsters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Too mainstream, bro. Yeah. And so I just fell back in love with stand-up. I loved talking about, I was always in a interracial relationship. So I was talking about interracial relationships. I was talking about those things.

And honestly, I think those rooms were the easiest ones to talk about race in because everything was understood. and there wasn't a disclaimer I had to do beforehand. And so those are fun. That was a challenge coming up here was if I wanted to do a weave joke, I had to explain what weaves are, which also could be funny. And that's how I got here sitting with you guys now. I've been very fortunate. All the people that I've worked with have been so supportive and so great.

From Mike Peters to the old brick TV that I used to work for, they were great. And all the clubs that have me, the funny bones here are great. And they give me so much time to work. and the audiences that come out. Yeah, I'm very fortunate to be at this place in my career. You're an amazing comedian. Like I said, I met you through the Homebrewd comedy shows. And it's funny, we were talking about doing those rooms.

And I commend you for that because that is a, it's a big jump. It's a tough crowd. And there's a lot of cultural differences and they can eat you alive. I've always said that when it comes to, I don't want to say racist jokes. When it comes to telling jokes about race, I think what people miss is that it's okay to celebrate our differences. There are clear differences between cultures and races and ethnicities and religions, and it's okay to make light of those differences.

But when you just get up there, or when you're just spewing hate speech or just pointing out things that are racist, that's not funny. There's a tact to it. And you've got to figure out that line. It's tough. I always liken it too. It's like the analogy with the guy from like,

lounge of your kids are learning an instrument it's painful to hear it at first that's right everybody has a trumpet i would say if your voice is your trumpet everybody has a trumpet and so i have comics sometimes who go because i talk about lots of stuff and it works and they go why are you able to get away with this why are you able to do it and without being cocky or whatever or what i say is i i worked i practiced my trumpet for 12 years right so when someone in the office does a you know has a a black coworker and goes, happy Kwanza, it doesn't really work because you're bad at your trumpet. But if there's a joke where I literally have a, I used to do a thing where I was talking about the different holidays over the stuff. And anytime I saw a black audience member, I would talk about

Hanukkah, I would talk about Christmas, and I would go, I'm going to get to Kwanza. And that worked just, and it was just because I've been practicing this trumpet for a while. There's a tact, yeah. So I, yeah, I think you're definitely right. I think that there's all topics can't, I've heard this before, all topics can be joked about, but not all people can joke about all topics. Nailed it. And if there's something that I've never had someone from the community come and argue with me about the joke, whether it be a trans, gay, conservative, or racial joke, it's always someone else on behalf. It doesn't happen often, but it happened, like my favorite one was I was I was talking about interracial relationships. I was dating a black woman at the time,

and I was talking about, was it like being an interracial relationship? My sneakers have gotten better, That's about it. And stuff like that. And so I have jokes like that. And I had this white girl come up to me and she was like, you think because you have a black girlfriend. Oh, what? You can say whatever you want. And then at that moment, like God sent them.

A black man, white woman, interracial couple came in and said, sorry to interrupt. We loved those interracial jokes. Bam. Nobody ever talks about that. It was so funny. Anyway, I'll leave you to it. I was like, no, let me come with you. Yeah.

And then mean, and then the craziest part is that conversation continued. She's, that's their opinion. I was like, this is your opinion. And I remember she goes, out of nowhere, she goes, what you don't understand is subconsciously, you want to own her. Oh. Because she's black and you're right. And I loved that I got to. Black women.

Brown women. You know what she just said is wild bullshit because there is no part of a man who owns you at any point in your life. Correct. And I was like, you've obviously never met a black or brown woman because it is our apartment, but it's her place. You know what I mean? Like, there's no part of me that owns this woman. wild, unformed person. God bless you.

Yeah, you're trying to do this. Listen, what we do in the bedroom is none of your business. But what we do, no, our relationship is not anyone. No, the same thing with my marriage. It is, it's our house. Her name is on the mortgage. Dude, I could talk to you. We've gone so long and I apologize.

Do you have me back sometime? Absolutely. I apologize. It's been so long, but it's just, it's been so fun to talk to. Half hour late. You should be. Listen, all I asked for, let me do this. April 12th, April 12th, 7 p.m. 9 p.m. 2 shows at the McCarthy mercantile in Salinas

Street right here in Syracuse. It's his special Brian Ank, April 12th. And tune back in. I'll give you guys like 10 tickets. And we will give away tickets. Proceeds, you're going to build a park for Patty, right? Because he died. And that's, don't you think that's what you should do? We're going to build a park for Patty in your old neighborhood. Yeah. Right where he died. We'll put a little jungle. Just a little jungle gym. So goddamn funny.

Thank you. So we're going to build a park for Patty with this. No, Brian Ank, I absolutely love you. I could talk to you for another hour. Brian Ank, April 12th, Mercantile in Syracuse, go there. Two shows. 9 p.m. I love you.

Jamaica Q's, Ray Ge Zeplin will be there. Yes, Dred Zeppelin will be there. Thank you for tuning into Good News York. It's been one hell of an episode, and we'll see you tomorrow.