Good News York by Growth Mode Content - Homebrewed Comedy In CNY! - GNY EP15 Feat. Mike Peters

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

The Unplanned Sync: Mike Brindisi & Matt Masur Interview Mike Peters In this fun and engaging episode of 'Good News York,' hosts Mike Brindisi and Matt Masur sit down with comedian and promoter Mike Peters. The trio shares laughs over their accidental wardrobe sync, ponders whether comedian schedules are like synchronized cycles, and dive into a lively discussion about the comedy scene in upstate New York. Mike Peters shares his journey from starting as a stand-up comedian to becoming a successful comedy promoter, creating 'Home Brewed Comedy.' They discuss the challenges and rewards of booking shows, paying comedians fairly, and tailoring performances to different audiences. The episode also includes humorous anecdotes about tough gigs and the importance of adapting to different crowd sizes. With insights into the intricacies of the comedy business and the importance of promoting local talent, this episode is a must-listen for comedy enthusiasts. 00:00 Introduction and Hosts' Banter 00:53 Guest Introduction: Mike Peters 03:27 Mike Peters' Comedy Journey 06:37 Building a Comedy Scene 12:09 Challenges and Rewards in Comedy Promotion 25:12 Audience Engagement and Show Dynamics 34:52 Psychology of Comedy Shows 37:22 Dealing with Tough Crowds 38:07 Hosting Challenges and Surprises 39:39 Memorable Comedy Show Disasters 48:08 Upcoming Shows and Favorite Venues 53:40 The Comedy Community and Personal Stories 59:15 Mike Peters' Comedy Journey and Reflections 01:05:25 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts

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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. All right, good morning. Welcome to Good News York. It's Tuesday.

I don't even know what month it is, so I'm not going to attempt to do the date. Mike Brindisi, Matt Mazer. You're tuning into the day that we, I knew it was going to happen at some point. We showed up with the same outfit on. Somehow our laundry piles had the same clean shirt on the top. I don't know how that worked.

Is it like when women get like their periods are on the same? same cycle. It might be. Now we're on the same clothing. What color underwear are you wearing? Let me check. I'm wearing pink thongs. Blue,

blue underwear. I'm going blue underwear today. All right. I don't know. I want to answer that because now it's getting scary. Okay. Anyway, we don't want to delay this nonsense any longer because we have a guest waiting for us.

We do. Give us a quick introduction and then we will bring him with us. I feel like I don't have to give an introduction because I feel like we've just mentioned him so many damn times on the podcast. on the podcast because we've had a bunch of comedians on. And we always reference Mike Peters. Mike Peters at this point, I call him a friend of mine. A brilliant comedian and I would say promoter.

He started home-brewed comedy. It started as a small thing. And now it has blown up. And I'm glad to be a part of it. He has created, single-handedly created a comedy scene in all of up. state New York and it's incredible it's awesome and we have them on the show ladies gentlemen welcome mike peters what's up buddy welcome to good news york hey thanks guys appreciate you're extending this invitation and by the way i am not brilliant i did not single-handedly create a

scene though i will accept both of those is it fair to say you're like the the the phil farta of the southern tier he is the phil fart of the southern tier that's sort of uh i don't know if that's something he might want to be called but I don't know. Anytime you're compared to Phil Fart, it seems like an insult. That's perfect. I think you have more hair. Yeah.

I do have more hair. Yeah, see? Way more hair. Actually, Mike, we were talking about this off the air recently, and I need your... Clicking. Sorry. I need your point of view on this. Doesn't it seem like Phil continuously always has hot women around him?

Yeah, I wonder why. It's probably an accident. It has to be an accident But we were saying the other day I'm like, why is it every time I see Phil? He's got hot women with him And I love Phil But he's Brad Pitt

That is the blessing of being funny That's true That's true Having a mild sense of humor is the only way A schlub like me ever found a wife That's true That's true But there's really

I'm not taking any shots of you man But I'm in the same situation And without being mildly funny, like I can, I'll make my girlfriend laugh so much harder offstage than on stage. Oh, yeah. And like, without that skill, no way. I'm probably, listen, I got three cats. And I have three cats for a reason because I plan on being alone for a long time. So Mike, enough about us and people that aren't here.

Yeah. Let's talk about you. How did you get into this? Did you start out as a comedian yourself and then kind of stumble into the business side of things? Or how did that work out for you? Yeah, absolutely. I started doing stand-up when I was 33. So I'm 42 now.

So if you do the math, Mike, I'll help you. That's almost nine years. Thank you. Thank you. I was at 12. Thank you. No, I used to be a sports writer. And I always wanted to do stand-up.

And then I stopped having a second shift job. And when I moved up to New York, I was in Baltimore for a while. moved back to New York and I was like, I need an outlet to write. So I started doing stand-up. And then Mike can probably attest this, but like when you start doing stand-up, you're mad at everybody else because you're not getting enough work. Like people in the local scene aren't booking you. Sure.

So I started hosting the open mic in Binghamton like four or five months in, almost by default, like nobody else wanted to do it. And I was like, fine, I'll do it. Because I've always been like a natural leader. I was like, screw it. If you're not going to get me on your show, then I'll just start booking my own shows. Because what I've learned, maybe the most important thing in comedy I've learned is that nobody can not book you on your own show. That's true.

That's very true. So I, but what I did was like there were a couple of people who were really working hard in the Binghamton scene. And I didn't feel like they were getting enough recognition for the work they were putting in. So I wanted to promote them too. So I would book three or four people. I'd go to Ithaca to see people. I'd go to Syracuse and Scranton. And I wanted to make sure the, in my mind,

the underrepresented comedians who were working got their due. And then a bar owner at Maddie B's name Marty Arnison is like, hey, man, do you want to do weekly shows here? And I was like, yeah. So then I'm like, okay, I'm constantly on the hunt for new. were comedians just to add because, you know, it happens everywhere, but you make friends and then like you only book your friends. Yeah.

And then eventually it's your, it's a disservice. No matter how good those comedians are, it's a disservice to the audience members. Like Adam Sandler movies. Yeah, but everybody's seen that show. Yeah. Yeah, but they're better. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

No, I'm not, no. I love those guys. Right. But they're earliest and they're doing the different. So it's similar. But the guys I saw coming through and getting shows every week, every two weeks, whatever it was, in the same room with the same audience, we're telling the same jokes. And eventually that audience is not going to come back because they're going to, they would recite jokes to me via text. So I'm like, okay.

And so I'm like, let me go to Ithaca. Let me find somebody funny there. Let me, whatever. And then that kind of tumbled into me going up. off on my own and because I was working with a group for a little bit then I went off of my own and I'm like screw everybody else I want to do everything my way and then I started finding new venues in different areas because I didn't want to oversaturate the one area Binghamton so yeah it just somebody from Syracuse reached out hey you want to do this show somebody from Cortland

reached out Seneca Lake like all this stuff so it was like a little bit of an avalanche and then the pandemic hit and then I had to rebuild but At least I had the framework. But yeah, it definitely started as a comedian who was like hungry for work. And I took advantage of an apathetic town and seen and said, fuck you guys. If you got, I hope I can swear, whatever. Oh, yeah. But I was like, fuck you guys.

If you're not going to put in the work, I will. And I will benefit. I think it's worked. That's awesome. That's great. We were on a Christian network until he just swore. Now we're going to get dropped. Thanks, Mike.

I feel like to Sarah Silverman, looking over his shoulders, will save us. Jesus is magic. That's a phenomenal background. Dude, I absolutely. What is that? Are those like canvas prints? Yeah. Yeah, it was a pandemic project because I told Mike this a little bit ago, but my relationship

with my last girlfriend went so well that we had separate bedrooms. And like she moved out and I banned. And you didn't know? No, I knew. Trust me, I knew. It was a party day. But for a year, I had a guest bedroom there. I bought it for like, okay, comedians come in.

They can have my second room. There you go. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, 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. It was used one time by a person, and it ended up being like a cat room. So like the cats would have the bed. It was a ridiculously expensive bed for a cat. Sure. It was not an expensive bed, but for a cat. My cat, one of my favorite guys in the world will sleep on a cardboard box.

So he did not need a king or quinceau's bed. Sure. But no, I took that out. And I'm like, all right, I have like the pandemic money. I was on unemployment. So I was getting like that bonus check. And I'm like, screw it. Let me spend some money.

And yeah, I bought like, like 63 canvas prints of like albums I really like. That's awesome. There's Allspring Smash and Motion City of Sontech, bad religion, like, you name it. All the albums like I grew up with, my favorite bands, and a lot of my favorite comedians. And I'm like, let me dedicate that. And then I got my picture for my podcast on the Michael Mike Peters.

I love that, dude. Because I was like, everybody needs one fan, right? Sure. So I might as well be me. So I put that up there. So when I record my podcast. predominantly through Zoom, then I at least have something to look at behind me.

So I figured, and I wrote it off. Perfect. It was just a suspense. I told him it reminds me, remember we used to go to Hot Topic and pick out a T-shirt? Yeah. The head all the squares.

Yeah. But much cooler. And I would buy all those T-shirts. I didn't even think of that. I wouldn't buy the Mike Peters one. But I would buy all the other ones. I feel like you had that Offspring one. No.

You strike me as a dude that had that T-shirt. You know what? I had Offspring. So I'm a very big. obviously into rock music, pop punk. I never really got into offspring. I was blink. I was Green Day.

A newfound glory. Slight, I don't want to take too much with detour, but I got to ask, do you have either one of you guys, do you have any of those 90s band T-shirts that you got as a kid in the 90s? Do you have any of them still? I do not. I have a couple Metallica shirts. Because those are, we're old enough now. That shit is very.

And it's worth money. That's pretty, I never thought about that. I have, like, unless, like, they were ruined or a girlfriend took them, I have all of my shirts from, like, high school. I can't fit into one of them. But I don't want to, I think I was like 185, 180 in high school. And I'm bigger than that now. So they're all, like, saved somewhere. We always, I don't throw away my clothes because I'm hopeful.

that I can one day fit into them. Yeah. But like, there's, I have some larges, and I'm like, my leg will not fit in a large. So my girlfriend's like, you should throw away. I'm like, you should wear them. I'm not going to wear a blinkwene two shirt. Whatever. I got nine of them.

You can hand them down to your cats. Here's the thing. If you have original band shirts, man, that's like when grandpa used to collect stamps. Yeah. That shit is worth money. It's true. It's an investment at this point. You're going to be able to buy a house with that.

You're going to be able to buy a house with that. But keep those safe, buddy. Keep them off balls in there and keep them in good condition. I have a brown cardigan sweater that I bought at the Ileian Salvation Army. Hell yeah. Back in 97. It was when I had first heard Nirvana. The old Sally Ann.

And we went from spandex and teased hair and deaf leopard. And then overnight, there's a guy in a cardigan combat boots and long hair screaming. at me in Smells Like Teen Spirit video and I went out and bought a cardigan because I thought that was the coolest thing and I said that's the only that's the only thing I have. Still a great sweater. It's a great and I wear it on Thanksgiving. It became my Thanksgiving. But anyway, enough about me.

Why? This is great. You're a guest man. So Mike you went from being in comedy to putting comedy together for other folks. What does that like for you today? What is your? business model because I see you all over the place doing all kinds of things. And what's your plan? My plan is basically, it's homebrewed comedy is where I run everything. So I don't want to

stray too far from the general ideal, which is promoting the local comedians. So every once in a while I get somebody from Boston or Connecticut or L.A., but what I like about my business is that the comedian can be from your backyard. Yeah. Like Mike and I did a show in Dryden on Saturday. We did. And I'm from Binghamton. I am 40 minutes away.

Mike is, you're from Utica, right? No, I'm originally from the Mohawk Valley, Utica area. Now I live in Ithaca, yeah. So you're what, 25 minutes away from the place? Yeah, 25, 30 minutes. Aaron Rontowski is a phenomenal comedian. She's from L.

I forget where she grew up, but she lives in L.A. for a long time. She lives in U.S. So like the three of us together drove a combined like two and a half hours, three hours, whatever. And we got there and we put on a really good show for pretty cheap, $10 tickets. So. And yeah, we had 50-some people there. And people might poo that or whatever, but like we had so much fun.

People left. We got another show date. my branded. And that's what it is. It's like, we do a good show, we get another show. Sure. But like my whole thing is I want to, I want to show the audience that you don't need to go. As much as I like the clubs, you don't need to go to the comedy of the Carlson.

You don't need to go to the Syracuse Albany Fonney Fonney Bones just to see the state theater, just to see comedians. Like, you have options near you for cheaper. And these are the people who, hopefully, hopefully. are going to be ascending to those club stages. And I work a lot of people to do clubs and theaters or whatever. And that's great. But I don't know what I want in the long term. But right now, I want to keep being the conduit to, from like open mics to good shows.

So people can feel like they're not spinning their wheels. Like, all the work they're putting into on the side is going to pay off with 60 people who didn't know their name. Like, they're not. Yeah. Let's take a shot at Mike Brindisi because I like doing that. But who the fuck is that guy? Sure. But he goes there and, oh, yeah.

I laughed at that one joke. Just the one. Just the one. But they'll have a good time because somebody, they didn't know. of until they got there made them laugh. And they're like, oh, wow, there is funny. There are funny people here. And I really like doing that.

So I don't know. Like I think that kind of is my model. That's great. Let's promote from within. And I still host open mics. And it's a really good spot to grab new talent and reward people. I try to be as humble as possible and say, oh, I'm not rewarding you with a show. People, it is.

Yeah. You do the open mics to get recognized by your peers first. Yeah, right. And then the audience. I don't know. It's fun. And let me just embarrass you in a good way for a moment. But coming from my point of view, one of the comedians, the thing that's amazing about what Mike is doing is that it has never strayed from exactly what he was saying.

Like his original idea was exactly what he explained. And fast forward, I don't know, whatever, five, six, seven years later. that he's been doing it. The things that have changed are there's more shows, more venues, more comedians, but he has not strayed from finding those comedians that need a voice. 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.

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But also rewarding the comedians that have been on the roster, but more importantly, and we talk about this all the time, he knows what comedians to put with who, when to put them on, where to put them on, based on geographically, based on the type of crowd,

and people overlook that point. That's such an important, like when you're a promoter and you're booking, that's a key component to it that a lot of promoters overlook. And Mike puts all of that thought into it and he spreads it around so everybody gets work, but he puts you in a position to succeed

because he's not going to throw you in front of a crowd that might not, you might be a darker comedian, you might be a dirty comedian. You know what I mean? So, Sure. I think that's a big reason for your success, Mike, is because the way you do it is the right way. And that's hard to find these days.

And I will say, most importantly, if you're watching and you're a comedian, you never have to worry about him not paying you or paying you unfairly. It is completely transparent. And that's an important part, too. Yeah. Yeah. I figured that when I started doing shows, we didn't know how to ask for money. Like, you're a musician. And so, Mike, you probably did local shows with your band to start off.

So, like, when you went in there, did you know at first? Okay, I should go and ask the bar manager or the owner for a budget. Yeah. No, that's the thing is you just learn as you go. Yeah. So we didn't know that. And in Binghamton, the bar we were doing stuff at first, Maddie B's, was the owner was comedian as well. and it was just a place to do shows.

We would charge $5 at the door asking for money before. It didn't even dawn on anybody. And at least, I know Buffalo right now is pretty transparent about the comedians saying, okay, if you're going to do a show, ask for at least this much money. We didn't have that. So it was just like, hey, can we do a show here? We'll just charge $5 at the door.

We don't, you don't have to pass anything. Whereas it's fine, but as a promoter, it puts you in a really weird position because I got to be like, hey, Matt, Mike, you want to do this show? There's no guaranteeing money, but it'll be a door split. And it's $5 at the door. So like on a good night, when you're starting, 20 people would be awesome. Yeah. But then you've got three or four. And at that point, we had five or six because we didn't have a lot of time to, you know,

We didn't have many jokes. So you got to build an hour and a half show. And I can only do 10. So we need to find somebody who can do 15 or 20. And then you end up having five or six. So that $100 is split now between five or six people. And then Mike's coming from an hour away. Josh is only 10 minutes away.

So does he get let? It's weird. So like maybe on a good night, I'm paying somebody $20. So in hindsight, like that sucks. because now I'm able to ask for money and then maybe it's ticket. Maybe what I did, and I feel bad about it sometimes, but I put out tip jars. No, that's phenomenal. Here's what it is.

It's a psychological move because, and I think it's like a DIY thing for me. But like my budget from the bars is still probably on the cheap side, but it's guaranteed money. It's three, four, 500, whatever it is. but it's guaranteed money. So when I ask Mike to do a show, I'm like, hey, Mike, you want to do the show? It's $100 plus tips.

So Mike knows that he's getting $100. I know that I can pay Mike $100 because I'm getting $300. So like I have that money. That's guaranteed money unless the bar defaults, which almost never happens. But again, because I'm transparent and got a relationship with them. But I know that if the show's okay, we're probably going to get $30 and tips.

So I can pay Mike $110. Split between three people. I can pay Mike 110. So Mike goes away saying, shit, man. He told me I was going to get $100. I got $110. It's not much different. But psychologically, Mike knows that not only is he going to get that guaranteed money,

he's also going to get something extra. So it might be worth the further, like the farther drive to get. And usually we get paid more on tips or whatever. because I do free shows. I do low-ticket options so people feel more compelled. Oh, we got a great show for $10. Wow, they deserve another 10. I don't know, but that makes me look better than I should be looking.

Yeah, but it does tell the comedian, hey, man, and then the word spreads. You could trust Mike. Because a lot of bookers don't pay. No. Or they're not transparent about what. So take a. it's 25 bucks and hey Mike you want to do a show we don't talk money and then Mike does the show and gets paid 25 it's like we had 50 people there at 25 a pop yeah and I got one tickets worth right

it sucks I don't want to do it that way because I am still booking as a comedian so I'm trying so hard to play both ends okay I know what I need to make money but I know how it feels to not make enough money Sure. So I never want to do that. I think, but that's also perfect because what I learned in my time when I've done radio in the past is almost every GM of a radio station in small markets and media markets was they always said the best GMs are the ones that have been on the air but have also worked in sales because they have both perspectives. And I think that's what you bring to the comedy scene is because of what you just said. You're doing it as a promoter, but also as a comedian. And look, here's the deal, though.

When you're starting out or even when you're at this level, if you're doing it for the money, then you're going to quit the same day you start. You know what I mean? Yeah. You're going to be very disappointed. You're going to be very disappointed. The money for me was always like, the money will come if and when I succeed. Sure.

I'll just take what I can get for now until I feel it's unfair. But it was never unfair. And yeah, no, I commend you for that, man. you've always done it right from the start. There was never a hiccup. That's what always blew my mind about it. No, there were hiccups for sure. But I think when I started working with you, it was what, 2019, I think.

I think so. It was before the pandemic. It was before the pandemic. I think Truman's Bird was the first show we did together. Yep. You're right. And we had, and that was a large part because of you, but we had 63 people there. That was a big show, yeah.

It was a big show. And I forget how the ticket breaks. breakdown was, I forget what I paid you. But like, I know I paid you more than what I guaranteed. Always. And yes. Always. Yeah. And here's a little trick. I very rarely, like if you're local and we didn't have the people to give tips or whatever, maybe I'll pay you exactly what I promised. But even if we get zero tips, I'll probably throw in five bucks. That's amazing. So just to make it, so it feels better for me. Like we did a show on Friday. Friday and we got we had four people on the show, including me, we got $15 of tips, which is like weird, but I doubled everybody's tip money.

I didn't take anything and I doubled everybody's tip money, but I'm like just, I felt better about that. But no, I, that's standard that I've set for myself. And I'm like, I just want everybody to walk away saying, all right, because no matter what you're getting paid, you're like, is it worth it? It's an hour and a half away. So if I can throw you, that's gas money. Yeah. If I could say, okay, here's $10. Here's $5.

That'll help for gas. It's like, oh, it was definitely worth it. Okay, cool. You're, but see, you're also in that weird, you're in this amazing window where you have also created, I guess everybody wins is what I'm saying. You walk away happy, the comedians walk away happy, and the venue walks away happy.

It's so hard to do, and you do that consistently. And I agree with that. And also the audience should walk away. That's what I meant to. Yeah. Yeah. Now, obviously, there are times where an audience member does not, didn't laugh or whatever, the stick in the mud, whatever.

But for the most part, I think most people are happy. We get a lot of repeats and we could do better with ticket sales and everybody could. Or I have a lot of free shows that, like, sometimes their work. Yeah. We're like, we got 18. people here and that sucks but those 18 people i guarantee you most of them have had a really good time because what i really enjoy about the comedy scene in general around here at least people i work with is that they're not for the most part they're not going to play down to the numbers of the audience so

mike's not going to see three people in the audience and say fuck you guys i hate you why Why didn't you bring more people? Mike's going to see those three people and say, you know what? Thank you so much for taking time out of your nights. It might be kind of funny, though. That would be not going to lie. Just walk up and be like, fuck me.

I'll tell you what. I think it would be funny to watch, but as a producer, I'd be like, those three people are the only reason we can do this show. But yet, and I know, like, in the past, I've had that. It was at Barry Daycorn and the summer last year. And we had three people.

We had the staff, which I think was one person. And then we had three people who paid maybe there's another person there. And Abdul Hiddi, super funny comedian in Syracuse and Dario Joseph, really funny comedian in Rochester. They came down and they did their entire set, full set, didn't give a shit. And I paid them. We didn't make, I made no money because the deal I had, with buried acorn fell apart and i was doing those shows to do those shows so it's solely on tickets

i paid them out of my pocket more money than i promised because i was like you guys killed it for me and you didn't say screw this show screw this audience you gave those three people a really good show and hopefully and i think they did but hopefully they'll come back next time and we can build because it just means so much to me. And I feel bad too. I want them to have 30 people, not three, and have a great experience. But the fact that they didn't take the night off

was just phenomenal to me. Yeah, that's, for me, that was something that was instilled in me at a young age when I started performing, whether it was music or whether it was comedy, I was always like, you put on a show, if there's three people or 30,

thousand people you put on that same show. And it sounds simple, but people overlook that. There was definitely shows I've done in the past, like in the dead of winter in Owego where there was like five people. But you know what? You still, because we've talked about this before, too. They trudged out too. And we've talked about this too.

You're also what's different in comedy where in music, if you're in a band, you guys can play a song in rehearsal and go, God, that sounds like shit. and then you rehearse and rehearse until you are polished and you're like, you know what, we're ready. In comedy, the only way for you to rehearse truly is to go out and do it. So those nights where there's three people, if you're smart, you'll go, maybe I'll stray off what I was going to do and do these five jokes that I want to try out. You've got to work a little bit.

It actually can work for you in some ways. Sure. Yeah. I always think that the smaller the audience, the heart of the night. Totally good. Because like when you have I'm not going to say 30,000, I wanted to tag off that. But there's no fucking way. I'm doing that. But if you have 100 people in the audience and a joke works okay, it works.

But if you have eight people in the audience and a joke works okay, that means one person laughed. Two people left. Oh, shit. You can, you really see how much that joke didn't work. Yeah. Like you can't be fooled. So you have to make an intimate connection with these people. So I'll do a couple tricks.

If I have a low turnout in the audience and hopefully it doesn't happen, so I don't have to do this very often. But I'm like, oh, it looks like my eighth birthday party. Are we going to put together a model car with Steve? We're Stephen Yarrington. Where is he? Because that's who showed up in my eighth birthday. It was whatever. It wasn't a popular kid.

No, I get it. But I'm like an empty table. It's like, oh, I feel like this is going to be my wedding, where that's the groomside. Yeah. So there are certain ways you can break the tension and make that audience know that it's a unique experience from that. That's right. Hey, this show is for you. So if you go off script, be like, hey, what do you guys want to hear?

Do you mind if I try something new? Something like that. So where, or do more crowd work. There's a show at the Barlicorn where I was doing it weekly and I would host it every week. And I'd have, I try to bring a different 10 to 15 minutes to host every single week. And it wouldn't all be new. But a lot of it was like done that week at the open mic. And when I'm doing it weekly, I'm like, if it's good or bad, I got to fucking do it.

Yeah. So I bring there. There's one set where I, somebody dropped off the show. I had to do longer time. So I remember doing 12 or 14 minutes of crowd work. And I'd never done that much. And I felt really good. Yeah.

And like I think my set was 25 minutes, which for an opener probably is too long. But we only had we had two other people who like weren't expected to do longer. I think I want to say the headliner dropped. So we had to do a three person show. And so the last guy was only going to do 25 minutes anyway. But it was one of my favorite shows there because I got to know this audience really well. and I went off script and did crowdwork with people

who hadn't been there before and it was so much fun so like any show you have has you have the opportunity to like make connections and make it so much fun for everybody that's why I will try my hardest never to take like a night off

like not I don't want to go to work and be like eh it's a fucking paycheck whatever you guys want to do I don't care. Yeah you get he's right and then to take that even further

like the one amazing thing about comedy is it's never the same show. Even if the comedian does exactly the same jokes, you're going to get different reactions, there's always interaction with the crowd. There's this beautiful thing in comedy that, and that's why those shows where there's only three people is an opportunity always, because something magical could happen inside that club, an interaction with somebody that is never going to happen again and never happened before. And I actually, I want to ask you about this. Matt and I were talking this past week. weekend. It was a big comedy weekend. Obviously, you and I, Mike, we had our show March 22nd in Dryden at the Corner Brew, and that was great. Sunday I went and saw Colin Jost at Cornell, and it was in Barton Hall, which is this giant airplane hanger. It was the size of a graduation. There were thousands of people. Wow. And two, it was Michael Longfellow from S&L opened as well as a woman. I can't remember her name. She was on S&L from 22 to 24. And I can't say,

they bombed, but it was rough. 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.

I was like sweating and cringing in my seat because obviously as a comedian, when you see other comedians like going through it, it's hard. It's what you feel for them. And then I had this realization and it's the opposite of what we're talking about. I think, I think it's like there were so many people and you're so disconnected. Like you can't even see them that it's hard. It's almost if you took that. same set, but they were in not even a comedy club at the barley corn.

Or I just think the jokes would have translated better. You know what I'm saying? Do you agree with that? Yeah, like that setting is probably, and I haven't been there, but it's probably a little more impersonal. Oh, God, yeah. So if you had Anna also, I don't know, I mean, if she was on SNL for three years, she's obviously known. But those people probably went there to see Colin Jost. Yes, sure.

And to, Mike, you were in like an opening band for a while. Yeah. You probably were like, all right. People probably talked over your band way more than you wanted. Because what they wanted was the headliner. And that every comedian goes through it. So in those two people from SNL probably are like, maybe they're not headlining comedians yet, though I imagine they are. But like, they're just going through the motions because fuck, man, this is a hard gig.

because all they want to see is joist. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to eat it for a little bit. Yeah. College audience is harder. Yeah. It's the census at least.

It was. And it was just, it was so big. It just reminded me when you would hear big comedians like Kevin Hart and other comedians that are like, I actually don't like doing arenas. I prefer small comedy clubs because of that connection that's just naturally there. There's a lot of subconscious parts of comedy. Makes sense. Like we've talked about with ticketing.

and seating. Like, when you sell tickets and you provide seating, on your way to the comedy club or on your way to the bar to the comedy show, you're already subconsciously setting yourself up to be open to laugh more because you know you're going to a comedy show as opposed to drinking at happy hour

and then all of a sudden a comedian gets on stage and you're like, what the fuck is... Like, the difference with a free show and a ticketed show. 100%. Because, you know, it's... I wish I took more psych in college. Like I took a family relations just because I have a fucked up family and I got a really good got a really good grade in the course

And then I took intro to psych which was at nine o'clock at a fucking lecture hall. So I got nothing out of that stuff But nothing can be taught at that hour. They're trying to keep that shit secret. That's right so dumb. So Also in comfortable chairs. Yeah, what are you doing? Ridiculous. Yeah, but I think there's so much psychological psychology in comedy because like when you buy a ticket like I run don't tell shows in fangent as well and their whole brand is secret shows in secret locations tickets are $25 so the shows I'm offering people at most are like $10, $15, $20. It's usually in that area, but I let the venue decide to pay or what the ticket is. So if they want to give me the money to have a free show, they do that.

So we're all over the spectrum. Don't tell us $25. They don't know who's on the show. They don't know where the show is until that morning. And they get an email. So they're spending $25 to laugh. That means they are invested. They don't get fuck if Mike Brandtisi or Karen Routowski is on the show.

What they do is they're paying $25 to laugh tonight. Yep. They're an easy on it. You're still going to win them over, but like, they're set up for you. When you go to a show at the Barleycorn, which is $5 donation, I mean, it's basically a tip show and with a budget behind it. You go to, I have a show, Beer 30, completely free. There is zero expectation for that show to be funny. So you have to work so much harder than that room because you're also dealing on these shows with people at the bar who don't give a fuck that you're there.

Just random patrons. who are mad at you because you turn the jukebox off. That's right. That's right. Who can't see this TV because my banner's in front of it. They can't use the, I'm talking about one beer 30. They can't use the middle room because, oh, there's a show going on there. Yep.

So you're battling some elements. That's a hard show. Yeah. So when you have that setup, you're like, okay, that's all on me. Yeah. And that your material, it's a hard room. you either do really well because the audience is into it or you think about doing something else

because the audience is like, uh-uh. I don't want you. You're like, am I doing this? Am I wasting my time? Yeah. I found out of what Mike's don't tell comedy shows the hard way. I showed up for my show and I was like, oh my God, there's nobody here yet.

It's a secret show. He's like, nope, everybody knows you're on the bill. There's just fucking nobody here for you. Oh my God. No. This is no joke. I am completely in my head about this stuff. But when I was running shows with a group of comedians of Binghamton,

I would host pretty much every show. And then we would get five people, eight people, whatever. We were still growing. But the minute I was not on the flyer and I'm just producing the show, we get 60 people. I swear to God, it happens all the time. To the point where I host an open mic every week at Kelly's on Mondays, every week. And I host it.

And we get five people in the audience and 10 comedians, whatever it is. And I've had a couple people who are like, hey, can I host? And I'm like, I don't announce their hosting. But they'll host, they'll guest host for me. And we'll get 30 people in the audience and 15 comedians. I'm like, what the fuck, man? people sense that I'm not hosting. And they're like, you know what?

We're going tonight. And I'm like, it feels like a conspiracy. Do you just not like me? That's the worst. And that's happened for nine years. That's the worst. I got to, before we move on, I'm hijacking the interview.

I apologize. No, no, we're good. I got, you just reminded me of a show that Mike and I did. I tell this story all the time. Remember when we did, what the hell was the name? of that part. I know. With the wedding party.

Yes, the bachelor's party. What? Dude. Rhythm and booze. Rhythm and booze. The F&A, rhythm and booze.

That was the name of the bar? Yeah. Yeah. F&M. Rhythm and Booze. Yeah. Do you want to tell that story from?

All right. So we go there and I think this is the third show I've done there. Second or third. The room is really, it has potential. Yes.

Because you go there, yes, beautiful stage and then they set up like 30 chairs in the middle of the room like the first two shows this is what happened they set up 30 shares so everybody can watch nobody comes over and watches because like they're all hanging out at the bar which is on a different level but like to if you're on the stage they're to your right and see them like your bar okay yeah so like you can see the people they can see you but like you can't really interact with them because they're technically in a separate room.

Sure. There's a railing and a stairwell, so separate you. But and then a couple people will be sitting far at the end in like, I'm folding tables with for food. All right. So this whole 30 chair setup is beautiful, but it's useless. So the third show we do there is me, Mike Brandesci, and Zach Hammond from Pennsylvania. Which he crushed.

Yeah. crush yes but here's why he crushed so I'm almost excited because the owners hey we've got a large party committing here for the show and I'm like sweet and she's like it's a bachelor art party and I'm like not sweet so I'd never done a bachelor party before and I was like I've heard stories that they're the worst so I think the last weekend like a week and before that I had done like a set at Wisecrackers Comedy Club and Scranton. And I killed. So I'm like, sweet. I'm going to take this. It's going to go well. It's basically a lot of what my feature said is now.

It's pretty strong for the success rate is strong. So I go there. They hate me. So there's 19 people in this wedding party and they don't care. They're all at the very end of the room and at the folding table. and everything eating and the one person from that 19 person party came up to sit with us it was the mom of the bride sat right in the front and then we had like maybe three or four other people sitting to watch and then they're like five or six people on the side at the bar listening

and i do a little bit of crowdwork and they like it because it involves them sure the minute i step went in material they didn't give a shit at all and and what i think one of the first things i said was like i forget what the punchline was but i said fuck and the mom who's like in the first row she goes she covers your ears it goes i said what she goes that word i go you're in for a lot of those yeah i said we got 90 minutes left it's really like my second joke and i was like all right All right, cool. At one point, I think I'm probably like 15 minutes in for something like that. Somebody from the back yells, when is the next guy coming on?

And I said, in four minutes. And I did four more minutes. And I introduced Mike. Mike didn't do it. You could tell it. But Mike didn't do much better. They all left. Let me tell you from my now from my point of view, right before Mike's about to go on, I can tell he's nervous.

And he's never nervous. It was bad. And he's, I'm just, we got this Bachelorette party, and I go, this is going to end two of one of two ways. It's either going to be fucking epic or awful. And so Mike gets up there. And as he said, about 15 minutes in, it's falling apart. And I turned to the other guy, the headliner, and I go, you know what, though? I go, Mike always keeps his composure like, it'll be fine.

Mike fucking lost his composure. He ended up being like, fuck you guys. And they... I did not say that. Not fuck you guys, but basically. And they ended up, like, leaving by the time I got on stage and I was like, I've never seen an MC clear out the room. Like, usually the opener cleans out the room.

No, you remember this wrong. So I did not say fuck you guys. I think I was polite. But Mike gets on stage and he does his material. And three or four minutes into your act, they left. That's what it was. So I'll take... Listen, give me the assist.

Okay. I'll take some. Yeah, it was a group effort, but dude, they cleared out. That made me feel a little better. They're like, okay, they didn't. I would have cried probably if they all left during my set, but not that they liked me anymore, but I was like, okay. And then Zach, like, Mike does his time. And we had fun.

Yeah. And then the headliner, Zach gets there. And he's basically calling them every name he can. He went. And the people on the bar side. loved it because they all hated them. Yeah. Because they made noise.

They weren't there for that. Yeah. Yeah. They talked to the show. They were rude. They were probably demanding up top of the bar. And they were just happy to have them out. So like, I didn't think about this, but the staff was probably part of the people who were cheering.

Yeah. For Zach. Yeah. No. And Zach, who's amazing, by the way, he like started with his material, which is fantastic. Then he just went like, like he said. He just went off script and just fucking lambasted. Yeah.

Bachelorette parties and that Bachelorette party. And it was like, but I just remember being up there doing my time. And it was like me, there was one person in the seat and then another guy who I feel like he had a disability. Like he was in a wheelchair or something. And he's just looking at me. He couldn't leave. He was below where the steps are. That's right.

So he was ours. He literally couldn't leave because he was disabled. Like he couldn't get up the steps without help. And there was nobody else. and I remember his face. What they call a captivated audience. Yeah. He had this look on his face.

I put a stick in his spokes. I'll never forget this, though. I get up there. I'm about five minutes in. They leave. I look around. It's me and this disabled guy and one other person and Mike and the other comedian.

And I just remember the guys look on his face. Like, he kept looking around and his jaw was dropped. Like, he just couldn't believe what he saw. He could not believe the epic fucking disaster that he had just witnessed. It's incredible. But Mike, you got paid, didn't you? I did. I did. I did. I got paid.

Amazing. Always an adventure. That was the last show we did there. Yeah. And it was one of those things where, like, my girlfriend, because we had two shows there. And I think the first show was okay. And the second one was the other way around. And the second show was better.

But it was one of those things where it's like, if they asked me to do another show, I'll do it. because I didn't have, I had room with a calendar. Sure. And I will do anything for money. Got nothing better to be. And like I want to give somebody stage time. So I'll take it. And yeah, she just never asked me again.

So I'm like, all right, cool. Because it didn't work. And it's a music venue for sure. And it's like, we tried. But it was called FNA, Rhythm and Booth. And now I know what I left. That's right. Yeah.

And I walked out going, fucking A. You know. Man, there was a lot. There was no rhythm. Truth in advertising. Yeah. I've had to drive past that, like through Waterloo to get places. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that place.

Okay, never going back. Yeah, that's wild. The owner was really nice, though. Yeah. I can't speak enough about her. Staff was great. You know, she tried. She tried.

And that's the thing. Sometimes comedy just doesn't work somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Take the aisle. Let's talk about where it does work, Mike. Where are your next coming shows where folks can see you and your band of local funnies.

My probably my favorite place right now is a place in McGraw, which McGraw, New York is McGraw. It's the McGraw Box Brewing Company. I do, actually, I do a show in Syracuse every month, North Syracuse. That's like the second Friday of the month. And we've got really good convenience coming through there. What's the venue? Yeah, where's that one?

It's McGraw Box Brewing Company. It's fancy. It's behind the Mr. Tire. Oh. It's, yeah, you've heard of it. There's a Taco Bell across the street. It's like on Brewerton Road. Okay.

So it's, I think they opened. The first show we did was April 12th last year. And I think they opened in like February or March. So there, it's fun. It takes like 10 bucks. Plus you get a beer with a drink or with your ticket. And it'd be great if you got a beer with your drink. Yeah.

It's a new promotion. Order a drink, get a beer. Yeah. But those shows are fun. But yeah, I do a show. This week I got a show at Beer 30 on Thursday in Binghamton. But we always end of the month at McGraw Box in McGraw, near Cortland. And that's so much fun.

I got a comedian from New York City. 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.

Coming up, Will Pipera. Yeah. He's very good. And then I have RJ Pipera from Rochester. That's what I was thinking of. Yeah, yeah. But I'm like, ah, this will be fun. So I asked RJ Prepera.

I'm like, hey, I got two dates for you. Do you want to work with Cindy Arena? Are they related? No, he doesn't know. Oh, that's going to be fun. And I'm like, or you can work with Will Perpera. He goes, I've seen the name. Let me work with Will.

We'll see if we're related. So we might have a reunion. It'd be great. What if they show up in their identical? That'd be sick. Now, they do look different, but I don't know how many. Like a matching birth mark or something? Yeah.

Or like a scar. Yeah. They were cut at birth. You got my dad's nose. Wait a minute. I actually saw RJ. It is a pretty common name. I did a show with RJ at the John Barley Corn.

Probably, yeah. And he dug himself into a hole like with a racist joke. Not a racist joke. A joke about race. And some girl in the crowd started yelling at him. But he recovered brilliantly. but that was a wild night. He's R.J. Purpura.

R.J. Purra has one of my favorite jokes because he's talking about a home robbery. And he's like, there's a story about this woman who had, like, her kid died. And she had, I've heard this so many times. I think it was a miscarriage. Oh. And she. or something like that.

And she had in an urn, like his remains. And then that was stolen from the house. I guess I just don't understand crime at this point. Like, you couldn't think of anything more valuable to take. And he's, you guys, I guess if you lose the same kid twice, you're not meant to have a kid. Oh, my. So, but he wraps around.

his whole set. So if that joke goes well, and it doesn't always. Because it's fucking dark. Yeah. And if it doesn't, when it's told it, it's even better.

Yeah. But he comes around at the end of the set. And he goes, it's a joke about ghosts or whatever. He goes, if not, I guess baby Travis still needs a home. And like when they get it,

if he has an audience that's on to him, call back. Oh my God. It's a great callback. Yeah. So it's one of my favorite joke. I'll listen to it against so I can tell it better the next time. But that's kind of him.

He doesn't really deviate his style too much. He's a very good writer. I had a callback joke. I tried it three times and it never worked. And it was like in the beginning of the set, I would just brush over. Yeah, I just recently went and visited my grandfather. We found out he has Alzheimer's, so I'm just worried what's genetic, so I'm just hoping it doesn't affect me.

Then at the end of the set, there's like a break. it's quiet and I go, yeah, I just went and visited my grandfather. He's got Alzheimer's. That's good. I thought it was good, but it bombed three times. Nobody got it. You're right. If you hit a callback, man, that's the best.

Just walk off the stage. I'll tell you what, Will Phillips this weekend at that show. He's the master of that. I don't like Will at all. I don't like Will at all. No, Will is one of my favorites. I love watching him work. He's amazing.

I just saw him on. But I just saw him on Sunday. He came down to Owego. We hung out for a little bit. I love watching him. Yeah. He is, since I've started, he's been one of my favorite local comedians. I used to see him in Syracuse a lot.

He's so good. And I just, he's performance-wise. He's great. I wish he didn't live around here so he can be bigger. Yeah. Because I think he's that good. Yeah. No, he's.

I agree. It's phenomenal. What are you going to say about it, Matt? No, I was just going to, we were talking about callbacks, and I was just saying this past weekend, I saw him on Friday night. Oh, yeah, yeah. And he did a great set, and he just masters that callback at the end, and it's perfect. He opened for Ryan Neemiller from AGT.

It was Phil Fartis show. Ryan's real good. Where can we check out all your info? I know, but I'm just making you say it. Where do, homebrewcom. It's how this works, Mike. Yeah. This isn't his first podcast.

feeling. Yeah, everything I do is on homebroodcom.com or my personal Facebook page is where I put a lot of my content. Any jokes I write, I usually try it on Facebook first. And then when 13 people are like, yeah, we're going to look this on sympathy. I'm like, cool, I'll try it on stage. That's great. But I do shows all, just search on Facebook for Homebrewood Comedy. And you can follow. I have, I don't know how many venues I have. It fluctuate. It's between like 12 and 20 usually. But for the most part, I'm doing like 14, 15, 16 shows a month around upstate New York for the most part. Dipping up Pennsylvania a little bit.

That's incredible. And I'm always trying to expand. Go ahead. I got a podcast on the mic with Mike Peters. So that comes out every Friday. That was the one thing I was going to. Yeah, on the mic with Mike Peters is his podcast as well, Homebrewd Comedy.com. I always forget to ask you this.

What is your quote unquote roster? what's the number? Where are you at? I feel like you started small and I went to the website the other day. I was like, holy shit. Oh, yeah.

I have to update that too. In terms of comedians or venues? Comedians, sorry. So on my website, there's a section for comedians. And what I've done with that, and I probably am like 100 short of what I need to be there

because I keep adding, I just looked today in just before, and I have booked 281 comedians. Wow. I thought it was like 80 to 100. I've been saying, holy shit. Regular comedians? Sure.

Yeah. Some of these, some of it's a little elevated because I did Zoom shows over the pandemic. So my podcast, what I did for a little bit was like I had a Patreon thing and I did shows every other weekend. So in order to do the show, you had to have been on the podcast. So I would have a guy from Idaho or Oregon, whatever, or Utah, whatever. So there are people I booked because I've had them. It was easy to do online. So all of those guys aren't on the website.

But I would say I probably rotate through about 80 to 100 throughout the year. Like I probably will book about 100 comedians every year, not unique. So it won't add to my total. but 281 is from the last nine years. So yeah, I would say that's why I tell every venue. I'm like every show you get, if we do monthly, it's going to be different. I'm going to be the only one who repeats because I host all the shows. But even then, I'll have different material.

So you're not going to get the same show at all. And I'm just fortunate that around this area, there's Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, Cortland, Elmira, Scranton, Louis. Louis for Pennsylvania. There's so many pockets, Binghamton, obviously, but there's so many pockets of comedians who are working hard that I can keep adding to that roster. And I have goals every year. I want to always book 30 new to me comedians. So I can get them on stage. I can add some numbers thing for me too. But it also makes sure that I keep going to open mics. I keep looking for new talent because I owe that to the audience and the venues who have us because I don't want anything to get stale.

And again, I want to promote from within. So if you guys are working hard, there are comedians in Ithaca right now who like probably I should be trying to get more work. We had Kenny on recently. Yeah. He's not one of them. I don't like him either. Why don't you guys have any comedians?

I like, no, I like Kenilat. And that I get along with pretty much everybody. That helps. But no, I don't know. It's fun for me. And yeah, on the website, you can see, like, their bios that I use for the posters and everything. Usually it's submitted by them, but I write a lot of them. But, yeah, I need to go back and basically take a day.

Like, okay, I got to add this guy. I got to add this woman. A lot. Yeah. Yeah. It is. But I think, like, that for me is, like, a kind of a nice touch because I had one guy from New York City, Ryan Garcia.

He worked in Rochester. He goes, he says, I haven't talked to him in maybe a year since he moved. And he sent me a message a few months ago. He goes, hey, man, I just got to thank you. I go, why? He goes, because I think it was an aunt or some relative. Yeah, she Googled my name. And she saw me like my bio on your website.

And that made me legit to her. Wow. So I'm like, all right, cool. It's kind of a cool thing. I didn't think would happen. I wasn't sure where that story was going. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I got to say it's number.

And I got to go through the family. So we're ahead to it. One thing I want to say before we go, I know we're wrapping up. Mike did something that I think you would appreciate. One of my favorite shows I ever did is he did his own funeral. Where he was. Wow. I didn't do it. Hold on.

Oh, it wasn't you. It was thrown for me. I keep fucking up all the stories. You tell it. I'm not that ego. statistical. That's true. I am. It was Stephen Brown. Stephen Brown and my girlfriend, Sasha Ernest. They, it was as I believe it was Sasha's idea. We've been dating for about two years at the time, maybe a year and change. But yeah, for my 39th

birthday, they decided to throw a funeral for me at the barley corn in New ego. And it was like they picked a Sunday. Yeah. That's where you go place. Yeah. And that's, that's where you go. place. Yeah. And that's where every funeral is. All the time. So no, they threw a funeral for me. And they invited, it was really touching. They invited like 23, 24 comedians came down from out of state, upstate, and basically roasted me for about an hour and 45 minutes. Then I went up and roasted all them for a few minutes. It was so good. It was so much fun. And I had to go and grab a new suit because my, other one shrank or whatever. And so I stood up there for two hours basically, listening to who I thought were my friends, make fun of me. But it was really nice because, like, I don't see Brindisi all that often. I don't see.

Like, RJ Purra came down from Rochester to see it. I had people come up from Scranton. I even wore a suit. I wore a small. I know. They all dressed up for the most part. And it was, Matt, I don't know how familiar you are with, like, local comedians, but, like, these guys don't do anything unless you pay them. Or if it's about themselves.

And for one day, it's a quiet effort. Yeah. For one day, I felt, wow, these guys actually like me. And they, the tip jars are passed around. And they're like, yeah, this is all for you. And I'm like, what? Why? I felt like I had to Venmo everybody after.

Hey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to do this. And nope. It was just, it was really touching. We did it for free because we love them. Of course. And who doesn't love a good old fashion roast?

It was honestly one of the most fun sets I ever wrote in my life. I just, it was so much fun. The whole thing is on YouTube. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I watched the funeral of Mike Peters.

Yeah, if you go to my YouTube channel, I don't know. It's just, should be Mike Peters, but I really don't remember. We'll find it. It's open for me. I can send it to you.

Yeah. But it's really funny. And everybody hit it out of the park. And the funny part was the best part for me is like a as a book or whatever. And because Mike, I don't know if you booked a lot of comedy shows. But I think you're in a good position because you're the hired help at this point. Right. So you load off your back.

You don't have to deal with a lot of this bullshit. Sure. But when you book a show, you're going to get inundated with people saying, hey, how can I get on that? Think of me, whatever. It's annoying. But there's this one comedian who is awful. She's the worst person in the world. And not non-politician, at least. But she's terrible. Just bad comedian, bad human. And she came up to me afterward. Is she from Albany? No, but she might be. I don't know where she's living now. She's from originally, I think Long Island. Okay.

Originally. But I'll say her name. I don't give a shit. Say it. Ler Rubenton. Okay. I just, whatever. She's whatever.

Anyway, she's the only person I told, couldn't do my show because she's not funny. Wow. It was so therapeutic. For six years, I tried to be nice. And you ever watch, it's always sunny in Philadelphia? Yeah. All right. Gail the snail?

Yes. Okay. So the way, Mike, do you know the character? I don't. Okay. I don't watch anything that watches. All right. I'll describe you.

So the main cast has a brother and sister. And their cousin, Gail. They call her Gail the snail because she's weird. It rhymes, obviously. But she like breathes in. She just does annoying things. And she doesn't know boundaries. So the only way...

She's like somebody from Mohawk. Oh. Okay. So the only way they figured out a way to handle her is by salting her. Like being rude, but also throwing salt. It's weird. So that's how I deal with this person. I tried for years to be very nice and tolerant and whatever.

And finally, I'm like, no. Just be truthful. Wow. And like just which is mean. So she, she called me. He goes, hey, could you do a show? If I paid you, would you promote this show for me and book me as that's one of your shows? And I said, no.

And she says, what do I need to do to get on one of your shows? I said, you can't do one of mine. She goes, why? I said, because nobody laughs at you with the open mics. Yeah. And she goes, they do a paid shows. I said, send me the tape. I'm still waiting.

I'm still waiting. That's impressive. that she must be bad because I've, you are very, you book him. Yeah, you book me. First of all, you book me. Second of all, I've seen some people dying on stage before at one age. I book everybody. And you've never said a bad word about, you get the game.

You get that those things happen. So for you to not only call her out and refuse a shit, it must be bad, real bad. Yeah. Everybody, Mike Peters, homebrewed comedy. That's the place to go. On the mic with Mike Peters is his podcast, Mike. We really appreciate you joining us, man. Yeah, man.

Thank you so much, buddy. It's so good to see you in this realm instead of just when we're doing shows together. It's nice to catch up with you for real, man. Anytime you guys won't talk. I'm here. Come on anytime. Open invitation.

Nothing going in the morning. I'm waiting for my dog groomer to call so I can go get him. There you go. What a life. Thanks, guys. This is so much fun. I appreciate you guys. We'll talk you later, buddy.

See you. Bye, guys.