Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 183. Ryan Hamilton Returns: You Better Have Some Jokes

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Three years ago, comedian Ryan Hamilton was hit by an airport shuttle bus. Two years ago, Ryan came on Working It Out to talk about the experience. Now, he returns to explain how he learned to talk about the traumatic event on stage and find the humor in the pain, which included buying weed with his mom during his recovery. Ryan also breaks down the daily routine of touring with Jerry Seinfeld, and shares the blunt advice he got from Chris Rock.Please consider donating to Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation

Yeah, I have this weird mindset where I think, and I do talk about this sometimes, where I go, I'm supposed to be young or have children, and I'm neither of those things, and that's how you relate to people. Yeah. And one time I was talking with Chris Rock, this really stuck with me because it came from Chris Rock. We were just sitting there talking, and we're talking about dating and marriage. He goes, you're not married? And I go, no. And he goes, you better have some jokes.

Oh, my God. That is the voice of the great Ryan Hamilton. We are back working it out, a new episode, one of my favorite comics, Ryan Hamilton. He is back on the podcast. He is a brilliant, brilliant comedian. He's opened over the years for Seinfeld, and he has a special on Netflix called Happy Face. He is filming his next special in Seattle. at the Neptune Theater, October 4th, two shows.

If you're anywhere near Seattle, I mean, he's honestly, like, one of the funniest live comedians I have ever seen. We have a great episode today with Ryan. You are listening to it right now, I know, but you can also watch it. We created a YouTube channel two years ago, almost exactly two years ago. And the episodes over there, if you've never, I mean, you're listening to this right now, I know. if you've never watched them, they really make a great viewing experience.

One of my favorite cinematographers, Graham Willoughby, did the lighting in the room and here in the studio. And a lot of times you can see the expressiveness of things in the case of Jane Wickline and leave a pierce. You can really see the music and the instruments. I don't know. It's just definitely it's worth checking out the YouTube.

If you like it, subscribe to it. And so anyway, this is a great talk with Ryan Hamilton today. He is on tour. He has a wild, wild story. And we talk about it a lot today where he was hit by a shuttle bus at an airport. And he's okay. You'll see on the video. He's okay.

But it was serious. It was a very serious thing. He talks about on stage. It was an arduous recovery journey. And when he was on the podcast last time, he was really just trying to figure out how he would talk about the incident in his act and find the humor in it. Now, man, has he found it?

It is so funny. And we kick around jokes and lines and things like that, but man, just a really funny, inspiring story. It's actually, if you didn't listen to that episode, I might recommend listening to both back to back. Ryan Hamilton Part 1, Ryan Hamilton, Part 2. And we cover a lot of other topics.

We talk about what it's like to open for Jerry Seinfeld and how to make your way in the world when you come from a small town. He comes from a small town Idaho. Just a really insightful, funny person. Enjoy my chat with the great Ryan Hamilton. Oh, working it. So you open for Jerry Seinfeld sometimes. I'm so jealous of your quality of life when you travel with him because you'll go to the local movie theater.

really fun well he has one of the things i've learned from him is that he's how to live as a comedian which is like he's really spent his life like honing this uh you know his craft but also at this point probably close to 50 years right as a comedian yeah since the late 70s yeah yeah yeah it's unbelievable yeah and he has like he's constantly tweaking just like we do with material the routines around how to live, I feel like. So it's great. Yeah, we go to the gig. I mean, we do the gig.

You know, and all the travels also really fun because it's like you have your seat. And it's like, okay, this is where you sit in the car and now we don't ever have to worry about it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So every time it's just like everybody goes to their seat. Yeah, yeah. And then we do the show, walk off the stage,

go to the next city. And then the next day is really fun because it's 9 o'clock breakfast. Doesn't matter where we got in, what time we meet at Jerry's. Yeah. Regardless if you get it at 3 a.m. or 10 p.m. Yeah, 9 o'clock.

So at Jerry's door, then we have breakfast, then we go to a movie, and the movie's all pre-planned. What's in the theater these days? He chooses every week, and it's like a private screening of like, so every week he has, chose it. He doesn't really remember until we get there.

I mean, this is fantastic. It's great. This is the way to live. Yeah. If. But it's very simple. It's very simple. You just start with a billion dollars. We can do this version of our, for ourselves. I mean, mostly. What's the carve out for us? When it's not Jerry, and it's just you and me on the road. Yeah. Could we do a variation on this? The hard part is getting to the next city early enough.

like the night before. That's true. You have to get there the night before to have this day, kind of. That's really the hard part. That's viable. Yeah.

You get there the night before. Then we do breakfast. Then we can go to a movie. I mean, it's not going to be scheduled. Yeah. We won't rent out the whole theater like they did in the movie Annie. No.

But, yeah, it's fun. It is fun having the private screening because you kind of, you talk and, like, that's part of the thing. Yeah. It just becomes part of the thing. Jared would be like, what do you think, Ryan?

Is this guy going to die or what's going on? You know, it's fun. It's fun that way. And then we go to lunch. And lunch is like we just find a place. Like we just find any place, random place. And then we go for a half hour walk generally. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. And if it's raining out, we'll walk on the treadmill. We talk about our bits, what we're going to work on that night. Yeah. And then we have a few hours. to write, meditate, whatever, and then we do the show, and then it's great. But, you know, it's very simple, but it's like, it's a routine. You kind of know what to expect every time you do it.

How many days does he go out in a row, or is it like weekends? I've only done, like, a Thursday, Friday, Saturday with him once. I think generally it's like he does a Friday Saturday. Friday. Yeah. Yeah, I love learning about how to balance comedy and life from him. I love that because I feel like I have no balance. Really?

No, I seem like you're so productive. How do you not have balance if you're so productive? I think I'm very productive. Yes. I think I have no balance of the life stuff. Really? The stuff that you're describing, I think I don't have that. You have a whole family.

You do well. I have a family, yes. So what's missing? I don't want to make this about me. But this is fascinating. No, but it's the reason I'm enthralled in this. I've had the opposite problem because I feel like I just am focusing all the time on balance, but I don't get anything done.

Oh, interesting. Oh, come on. You have so much. I mean, I saw you at the cellar. You have so much material. I'm constantly creating material, just because I get on stage constantly, and I force myself to try something new. But I'm not at home forcing myself to ride as much as I should.

Yeah. It's just like, I just sketch. Schedule the spots and then eventually I have some new material. I hate to admit that, but that's a lot of the truth of it. And I'm trying to get better because I know when I'm writing and forcing myself to do the combination of the two, I'm much more productive, much fast. I mean, my last special was seven years ago. Oh, that's interesting.

It's a long time. Yeah, you're filming in October. Yeah. In Seattle, two shows. Yes. And are you, what will you do? to prepare between now and then? Between now and then, I am really just tweaking, you know?

Like, I'm really working on the order of things fine-tuning. It's the meticulous part. It's the least fun part, I feel. I hate it. It's the least fun of all of the stuff. It's all fun. What goes first, well, it goes second, what goes through? What do you close with?

Yes. Do you know, at this point, what is one, two, three, and what closes? I'm still, basically, I think I do. I know what I've been doing, and that's kind of what, Otherwise, I'd have to make a dramatic shift and I'm a little scared to make a big dramatic shift this close to it. So I think I know, but I'm still,

I still, the opener is still not, I'm not happy with it. I don't feel like it, it works with the flow. I think it's always nearly impossible to write a great opening joke. It's so hard. Malini said it the other day, he goes, me and Fred Armisen and Nick Kroll opened for Malaney collectively.

We were like special guests. It was super fun. Yeah, that's amazing. Amphitheaters. It was unbelievable audiences. but it was it was funny because he even john one of the one of the greats if not the great is working right now is like it's impossible to write an opening joke really yeah yeah he's like it's just some people have it Gaffigan's really good at yeah nailing an opening joke there's certain people

who are really good at it yeah it's so hard it's so hard there's something about it that is the math of it confounds yeah yeah you need to introduce people to who you are what they're doing there yes and also this is funny yes and fast and it's gotta fast be fast

all in one joke yeah and strong yeah I know it's so hard I mean that's why I kind of always am resorting to like you just acknowledge something about your physicality you know especially when you're new when you're like your first time out

was something big right I felt like I was so much more relaxed with my first one because I had a joke that just, I go, do you want to just start with my face? And that was so easy. Did I just start with my face? Yeah, should we start with my face? And I go, I look like this all the time.

I feel like this. I look like this, but I don't feel like this. You know, I look happy all the time. And that was like so perfect to just get into it, like right into it. And that just, oh man, that makes all the difference. That's one of the, I always recommend your special because the one that's on Netflix, which is called Happy Face, right? Yeah, that's for the bit. Because two reasons.

One, it's clean and two, it's evergreen. It's a case for making an evergreen special. I appreciate that. That's by design. I mean, I always am thinking that way. I like designing stand up to make it last as long as possible. Yeah. I'm sure people are still finding you from your special.

from seven years ago that's just so funny you're like it's seven years ago i'm like gee i feel like i you know just came out oh yeah people it's still yeah people still find it i mean that's the beauty of the streaming world right it's just like always kind of there yeah just and for whatever reason someone gets introduced to stand-up comedy and then they go oh i'm out of i've watched all of millennia i watched all the kaffigan i've seen Seinfeld Nate's this new guy I'm really really loving Nate. Yeah, yeah. And then someone will go,

there's this other guy if you really like looking for more. Yeah. And then they'll watch me. And Nate, De Bargazzi, is directing this special, right?

Yeah. Producing and directing the special. That's great. Yes, it's really exciting. It's really fun. I'm so excited. I mean, we've known each other for so long.

I've always, when I first moved to the city, I was like, this guy, I just have been a fan of his from day one. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm really excited. He's a riot.

That's great. Yeah, it's just, you know, he's great. He's great to work with. It's been really fun. Yeah, it's cool. It's a cool thing. Last week on the podcast, Fred Armist, and I discussed how, what to do when you have an icy audience. Oh.

And Fred, this is surprising. Fred said he chooses to not break the ice, which I thought it was an interesting take. What do you do when a crowd doesn't? warm to you at the outset. Oh, man. I have a compulsion to start talking to them. I'm not really like drawn to doing tons of crowdwork, like intentionally. Yeah.

But when that is the case, and I guess it depends on the venue a lot. But if I'm in a smaller room, even if I'm in a bigger room, actually, if it's that way, if it's just apparent that I have not connected for whatever reason. right right right like we are not moving forward i i tend to try to find a way in like if something that i would have ignored typically a little distraction yeah i'll go to it instead it's funny like it is like the way you're describing it of like it's not starting yeah it's not moving yeah like it is a weird thing when you hit a crowd where you're doing jokes that have worked before yeah and you go, oh, they're not, you know, it's like a band where the drummer isn't playing.

And you're just like, is he going to play? Because the drums are here. Yeah, nobody did that. And I'm doing one, two, three, four. It's just like, we're like, but I think that's what happens sometimes is when you see a comedian going nuts on stage because they're not doing well. Yeah. Like, you don't realize that. That's what they're experiencing.

Yes. Because sometimes you see a comic and they're like, hey, how come no one's giving it up for blah, blah, blah. You're like, well, I don't know. It's up to you to do that to the crowd. My favorite is, oh, you guys are a good crowd. You guys are a good crowd. You know that they're like panic.

You guys are a good crowd. You guys are good. Yeah, just like, how do I make them a good crowd? Oh, my God. That is the funniest observation. When a comedian says you guys are a grid crowd, you know they're panicking. Because why else would they be talking about? Yeah, yes.

And you can't, and if you've learned this lesson a few times, if you say they're a bad crowd, sometimes they believe you, it doesn't help, you know? Oh, it's the worst. It's the kiss of death. Yeah. How come this crowd isn't laughing? It's like if you say they're a good crowd, it'll just make it true somehow, you know? Oh, man.

But it's funny, like, that is, you know, obviously this massive phenomenon of crowdwork clips catching on. Yeah, yeah. But people don't realize, I think, often is that, like, the thing you're saying, which is that it's a device that comedians use. Usually when the show isn't going great. Right. And the reason you're doing it is because you don't have much material that is connecting with the people.

So you're like, hmm, well, I could talk to them. I see what they're up to. And then maybe I might have some jokes about it. But the crowd seems to love, I mean, it does wake them up for some reason. They're just like interested. Well, it's about them. Yeah, I guess it becomes about them.

It's like, oh, it's about us. Great. that seems good but it's crazy how it is from a comedian's perspective I think it's crazy that these crowdwork clips have taken off

because from our perspective we're like oh it's a crutch it's what you do when it isn't working the internet's like we love this we love it when you do the thing after it's not working

that's our favorite part we don't need the jokes that you've written for years? I was doing this thing where I was talking about crowd work on stage and I would ask the audience

what do you think is more difficult doing crowd work or coming up with a joke and they would always go crowdwork and I would go you're wrong. Oh my God, that's so funny. Because when you explain it

to them it's like so hard to craft and write and do this thing but crowdwork and then i would go these i shouldn't even i can't i it's not that i don't respect great crowdwork but it's just interesting to analyze it you know no i respect it too i mean top barry's great at it i mean there's a lot of people great job laster's great at it yes yes there's a lot of people and but i was i was i was talking about i would go i can teach you the four pillars of modern stand-up community first um where are you from yes if you can answer if you can respond to these questions uh are you are you on a date relationship is always great if you any kind of relationship thing uh what do you do for a living

and if everything else fails then like you just nice shirt you comment like whatever kind of awful attire they have on and if you can master these four then you can become a great Modern stand-up community. No, it's true. And what's crazy is, you don't know. I have, I was going to post, I decided not to post those intentionally, but now here it is on the podcast anyway.

Did you see, you grew up in Idaho? Yes. You see someone in Idaho doing stand-up? Was that the first place you saw live? I did stand-up comedy before I saw anyone do us. Really? Yes. There was nobody.

I mean, I was watching it on television. And I got really interested in it. But, yeah, I started, I wanted to be a newspaper columnist. Did we talk about this before? A humor columnist, like Dave Barry. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know if you know who Dave Barry is. He was fantastic.

And I would read his thing every Sunday in the paper when I was like 12, 13, 14. And then I called the county newspaper in Idaho and said, can I have a column? Because he has one. He has one. Sure. And at this time in rural Idaho, they would just go, yes, because, you know, why not? And so I started writing this column every week, and that was kind of my foray into comedy. And they published it?

They published it. They paid me $10 a week. Yeah, I did that all through high school. I mean, that's fantastic. Yeah. What a gig. Yeah. It was, you know, I just, they're terrible.

But I tried to make it about what was going on in high school. And it was a little news driven, but it was, I tried to. be funny and they let me try to be funny and um and then i the television station called me and they were like do you want to learn how to shoot sports we hear you're interested in journalism yeah i go sure so i would drive around and shoot sports and then the sportscaster guy he liked to be funny on so i would run back to the station and we would edit and write copy yeah and we would try to make it funny and every once in a while I would get a joke on the air and he would credit me he would go that's Ryan Hamilton yeah and it was just this weird for it and then I had a radio show

in college and we were interested in stand-up a couple of us so we started producing stand-up shows for our radio station and that was the first time I did it and I'd never been to a stand-up comedy show wow yeah I had a similar thing when I was in high school but I didn't get published I was a big am Boston sports fan and there's this Boston sports writer named Dan Shaughnessy wrote for Boston Globe and you I wrote him a letter oh

and I said this is a column I wrote really every columnist really wants a child to send them the column they wrote I said it was the column I wrote about the baseball strike this is 95 I wrote a column about the baseball strike wow a bit of the strike

yeah yeah and then Shaughnessy called my house really they called me wow that's so cool but he called my parents and was like oh your son's a good writer and wow he could maybe have a future in this wow it was really sweet that is really sweet i know that's very cool well see if you grew up that's the equivalent if you grew up in idaho you would have had a column you can't get it you can't get a column you can't get a column in the boston globe it's too big a market yeah no i know they give it to you yes honestly honestly yes that i'd sometimes In my first special, I had these jokes about how you really can become a well-rounded person living in a rural place because you have to do everything.

It's not like you get to do everything. It's you have to do everything. That's funny. Like if you're not in the music. You have to make the food. Yes. You have to grow the food. Yes. And you have to be star in the musical because if you don't, it doesn't exist.

That's true. So it's like you do everything. You have to be an athlete. You have to be an artist. You like it doesn't exist otherwise. First of all, last time we talked about this, you had been hit by the bus, and you were going to talk about it on stage. Yes. And you're going to, and it's special, right?

You're right. I don't want to give away what you're going to talk about. It's fine. But like what, how are you feeling and how is the journey of like figuring out how to put that on stage? Because a lot of times people ask us when we do the Q&A episodes, like how, like comedy is tragedy plus time? Like how long? Yeah. You know, it's like getting hit by a bus.

How long after getting hit by a bus can you make that material? It's interesting because I have a line where I say I realize that it's not a tragedy with time. It's a comedy. and I realize this because if someone says I got hit by a car, people go, I'm so sorry. But if someone says I got hit by a bus, people go, I'm so sorry. How did you not see it? That's right. They immediately get the humor of it.

Yes. So I think maybe the time frame is compacted when you get hit by a bus. The bigger the vehicle. Yes, the bigger the vehicle. The shorter for the jokes. The funnier, the vehicle. The less time it takes. If you get hit by a caterpillar truck,

if you get hit by a forklift, you can tell that joke five minutes later. Immediately, you go from trauma to comedy. That is crazy. Yeah, you were hit by, because we've talked about this so much, I know it's like you were hit by one of those rental car buses, like one of those shuttle buses? Is that right?

Yeah, it was a very big shuttle bus. Jesus. Oh, my God. It's like the biggest shuttle bus I've ever seen. Oh, my gosh. And I don't reveal that until later. Oh, okay. No, no, no, it's fine.

I say, I have to disclose something to you that it wasn't, it was a shuttle bus. And then I go, are you disappointed? Because the audience is truly disappointed. Because I've talked about it for like 20 minutes, and then they're like, and I go, but it was a big shuttle bus. I don't know if that. Are you wondering if you'd be happier if I was hit by a bigger vehicle right now? But it is a shuttle bus, yeah.

How is it? What's recovery been? What's been the hardest part of recovery? Man, in the beginning was definitely the hardest part. It was just like I couldn't understand if I was going to get my life back. Oh my gosh. Just like, am I going to be able to do the things I used to do? Like, I didn't know if I'd be able to really perform.

There was a long time where I couldn't breathe properly. So I'm like, am I going to be able to, like, is it going to, first of all, I'm going to be able to travel to go to these shows, and am I going to be on stage, kind of like, always wondering if I'm going to have enough air, you know, I could talk, but it was like, can I perform, can I project, like, stuff like that? And because when you were lying in bed, could you not speak and breathe in a way that you formerly could? Yeah, for sure not. Yeah, I mean, that's, I was going to keep all my shows for a while, like for a month.

I didn't cancel anything and didn't tell anybody. And then I was like 10 days out from these big shows. And I was like, I was, you know, I would try to practice and I'd go. And then I, and it was just like. I can't do, I can't be on stage and like, they're going to know. Right. And if they know, then I have to talk about it. And I was going to just use one arm because my other arm would have to be.

So, yeah, that was the hardest part, I think, just thinking about and wondering, like, what am I going to lose or am I going to lose anything? And I had this, like, depression in my back where the bones were like, you know, like my ribble. cage was kind of collapsed and I was like is it going to be like that all the time I would look in the mirror and it would be like I don't look right oh my gosh you know and so it that was the hardest part of like just I mean wondering and like but it was really motivating to do the work that I had to do right get healthy you just went hard physical therapy yeah yeah and that and it's it's a habit that it's interesting because it's like you know my therapist would I always remember talking about this going you don't know what good is going to come out of these bad things and it's really hard to hear it sometimes you're just like I know that but like come on right like you know I have a line where I say people say you're you're so lucky you're walking you're talking this could have been a lot worse and I just I don't want to be ungrateful but I didn't feel lucky it wasn't

I wasn't laying in front of the bus going, wow, I'm on a hot streak, you know? So, but now I do, like this physical therapy, this intense physical therapy where I just like shut my life off and went, okay, for four or five months, this is my full-time job. Yeah.

That created this kind of mindset and habit where I realized when you treat your body, in a certain way. It will respond. And it's amazing. It will heal and do things that you didn't think it could do. I'm not perfect. I have weird things occasionally, but I'm pretty much

good. Even you describing, this didn't work, and this arm, I'm like, oh, you look 100%. Yeah. I still, like, when I'm training with my trainer, it's like, this arm is way behind, but it's slowly catching up. You know, he's always like, there's something wrong with you, and I'm like, I know, let's just keep going. but it kind of created this mindset and habit

and it's just I do think in a weird way that I might be stronger than I was before the accident physically you know and so do you feel like you're better as a comedian um do you think anything that you had that in the recovery applied to your stand-up yeah it made me talk about

you know I really had never talked about anything personal before. So that was, it kind of forced me to talk about something that was personal. Yeah. So that was interesting. Do you like it? You like talking about personal stuff on stage?

Not really. No. I mean, I guess I'm getting better at it. I don't know. I don't really because I don't know. I always feel like if I was in, if I was married or something that I would open up a lot more. Do you think so? Yeah, I

I have this weird mindset where I think, and I do talk about this sometimes, where I go, I'm supposed to be young or have children, and I'm neither of those things. And that's how you relate to people. And I go, there are people in my demographic, but it's not enough to make a career out of. Like, I have to relate to people. That's true. And so every day that I get older or my job gets a little harder, that's kind of the mindset that I have. Because most people are in your age group, have kids or are married.

Yeah, and the people coming to see me, I get a little different from them every day. Yeah. And one time I was talking with Chris Rock, this really stuck with me because it came from Chris Rock. We were just sitting there talking, and we were talking about dating and marriage. He goes, you're not married? And I go, no. And he goes, you better have some jokes. Oh, my God.

And I can't stop thinking about that because it was one of those statements where it just hits you in a way where you go, that's true. Yeah, yeah. Let me go to the slow round. Okay. Here's what someone said in the comments last week

that I thought was so funny on YouTube. They go, you don't have to say it's the slow round anymore. We know. They go, just keep talking. Just keep asking questions. All right. it's apparently it's not adorable to do

yeah was that good or bad yeah sometimes the comments are too familiar yeah right get off my back mom yeah

all right what are who are you jealous of oh um who am I jealous of and second question is who are you jealous of that you thought of but didn't say my first thought was anybody selling tickets i'm just jealous of people who are selling tickets yeah i just

i just want that experience where you just like post your dates and then people show out yeah yeah sell out and you don't have to like get the call like tickets are low can you do a shout out you know of course i mean i i've talked to people at the highest levels and lowest levels and lowest levels levels of comedy and music, rock and roll, who still, when they put a tour on sale, they go, is anyone going to show up to this thing? You really find out. You put your tickets on sale. You go, oh, people still care about my comedy.

Or, I guess, I guess I'm done. It's kind of like that. I guess I'm cooked. Yeah, yeah. But it really, it's everybody. Yeah, I guess it is everybody. I think it is. Yeah.

I don't think I've spoken to a single comedian or musician who doesn't experience what we're talking about. Right. Because whatever it is, you're just at a different level of it, you know? And so it's like, can I do it at this level? Yeah, and also, like, you don't know if year over, year over year, if people remember what you did last. Right.

Yeah. It's so out of your control. Yeah. Right. Yes. The whole thing. How people consume stuff. What is something that you believe 10 years ago

That you don't believe now? 10 years ago Maybe recycling I still recycle But I don't believe in it That it works that much anymore I'm like I'd still do it And I put it all in

But I'm kind of like I don't think that this is going Where it's supposed to go I think the jig is up on single-use plastics There's always the wishful recycling where you see a lot of single-use plastics and you go, come on, come on. Have you read any articles?

This is going in the ocean. I mean, I think it's good, but it's not as good as that. Maybe what they can do is they can coat the inside of garbage cans with pictures of ducks with the, soda ringlets over the thing. And then you think about it a little bit. You go like, maybe we'll cut up the ringlets.

Yeah. Maybe we'll, yeah. Maybe we'll be more cautious about what we put in there. I haven't seen those soda ringlets in forever. Oh, the soda ringlets, it's been a while for this. For a period of time, those are almost exclusively murdering birds. Yes. They were real fun.

They were like toy handcuffs and then they would murder birds. Yeah, the wishful recycling drives me nuts. But I did, I dug into it again recently. Did you? Turned out I was wrong. The plastics are tricky. Yeah. But the paper, the paper and the cardboard and the hard glass is getting recycled.

Right. Yes. In New York, at least. Right. I dug into that recently because I was good. I became a real cynic on recycling after reading a bunch of articles like you're describing. Yeah. You're like, oh, Jesus.

What are we? Yeah. Now we're wasting water. Cleaning the thing. Right. That actually isn't going anywhere. All right. You're going to drive these guys nuts because I always talk about recycling.

Oh, really? Being a fucking hoax for the last decade. And, like, it drives them nuts. I'm overstating nuts. Whatever. I guess I brought it up. Enough that they always just cut it out of the episode. Oh, wow.

That's interesting. I brought it out. Are you not going to keep it in? You can cut it again? I'll leave it to Peter. Yeah. Controversial. Wow.

first or take i thought this was your podcast that's what i thought was there ever a time where you were caught in a lie oh i'm sure let's say i don't know i'm honestly like generally till too much of the truth more than i lie oh that's interesting why

i think it's because of me i just want i i can't handle the burden of it so i'll unload a lot of information that i don't need to unload on somebody you know what i mean i overshare rather than i'll go um like if i'm in a relationship or something i'll i'll talk about the tiniest little details of things yeah but just so you know and then and then and then and then and then and then and they're like i get it that's too much yeah just to be clear i was fine like before knowing this yeah and you didn't need to say this yeah so do you ever do a bit about that i never that feels right for a bit yeah

i should over overstatement yeah of things that are obvious right i have a bit in the good life special where i go i'm i'm the narrator of our marriage who no one asked for jenny describes me as the narrator of our marriage no one asked for that's really it drives yeah it drives you're nuts it's like it's a lot i'm a lot that's kind of being a comedian you know you have to be the narrator of your life i know you're doing crowdwork in crowdwork with your wife all the time what you're from yes you know where i'm from what do you do for a living you know what i do for living you know what i do for living I have a couple jokes.

Okay. I'm at that stage where I'm at the beginning of my next special because I just filmed. And so I'm going like, I'm kind of going through things that were in my notebook that like didn't quite fit with other things. And like I have this thing where I wrote this down the other day. I was making a left turn and I in my car and I went too soon

and this lady drove past me and I waved to apologize but we were pretty we were like a few feet from each other and I waved to apologize and then she I could see her lips mouthing the words what's wrong with you

and it and it kind of like it kind of blew me wide open because I was like what is wrong with me like it's weird when like a life Peckler is right? Like you're not like screw you. It's like, yeah, what is wrong with me?

Maybe I should ask her to pull over and have a cup of coffee and like we could brainstorm. What precisely is wrong with me? There's a lot. Yeah. That is a very funny thing to say to another driver. What's wrong with you? It's like most people would say like that you missed a turn. Yeah.

Look where you're going. Like, where are your eyes? What's wrong with it? She really went to the elemental. And it was like a sweet old lady. You know what I mean? It was like a sweet old lady. Oh, that lady, I'm so sorry.

What's wrong with him? Where do I? Where do I begin? Where do I begin? Where do I begin? Mouthing these things. You should talk to my family. They have a lot to say about this.

So I think there's something there. There's definitely something there. That's really funny. What's wrong with you? It's also maybe a good title for a special. What's wrong with you? I love to. It's wrong with me.

Yeah, that's fun. And then I also jotted this down. I don't want my daughter to be on an iPad, not because it's not a great invention, but because it's too much stuff. It's like, I'm a phone and I play music and I'm nuclear weapons. You know what I mean? You're like, all right, maybe we should get something simpler. But then I went shopping for like, what's the simpler version?

And it's like not enough. It's like the Amazon Fire, which is like the PC version of the iPad. And it's like, I'm a record player and a fax machine. It's so simple. No, no, we need more than this. How do we split the difference? Yeah, that's interesting. Why don't you want her to have everything?

It's a good question. I mean, like these days, it's like every, if you have kids, it's like every article is like the, the, The Apple products are melting your child's brain in real time. Yeah, of course, yes. You're like, maybe we shouldn't do that. So it's more about the digital, like, distraction of things than, like, I don't want her to have a toy that does multiple things.

Yeah. Yeah, if you read three articles these days. Yeah. You know, on raising kids, they're all about how their kids are, you know, it's like iPad. It's like the, you know, it's like an oven, letting your kid stick their head in an oven. It's so dangerous. Yeah.

It's just like insane. So you're just like, well, okay, then what else? So how do we? Maybe you should get some weapons for your child. They're very simple. They're very simple. Safer. Yeah, yeah.

Some kind of a club. It just does one baseball bat. Very utilitarian. Yeah, tennis racket. So those are a couple of things I jodd out. Do you have anything in your notebook? right now that's new or yeah it's funny i saw you at the cellar recently yeah is that in the special you're like no no no i've been you have a lot of a lot of new stuff i've been doing all this stuff

that's not in the special at the cellar because it's so hard to work on these long bits you know right in 15 minutes yeah but i have a couple of pieces from the long bit that i'm trying to fix and i'm adding yeah i have this thing about um buying marijuana with my mom yeah Oh, you did that? I did that because I was very anxious and after, and I couldn't get over it. And we were in California and I'm with my mom and she's like taking care of me. And we're leaving California to go to Idaho. And I'd never done any drugs or drank in my life.

My mother's the same way. And she had this idea, maybe we should try marijuana for your anxiety. But there's this pressure on it because we're leaving California and you can't get marijuana in Idaho. I know, yeah. So I say we found a dispensary, like a couple of vigilantes on the run out of town, and we walked into this place and I go, Mom, you do the talking. And I'm all banged up, you know, I can't breathe. And this woman behind the counter, my mom says, well, this is a very nice established room.

We've never been anywhere like this. My son was hit by a bus. And we were wondering if you might have anything that could take the edge off of that. Yeah. And the feeling behind the counter. was like elation. Yeah. Like this woman, I think, felt her life's calling was being fulfilled in that moment.

And the vibe was kind of like the Oracle, we'll see you now. And I went home with enough marijuana to supply all of Idaho, but it didn't really take. I would just bolt up in the middle of the night and go, call the lady from California. But that's a little story that I'm working on. I have a couple of those in the special that, like, will make it, hopefully. there's another one about actually getting hit and like the moment that it happened because nobody ever know

like I talk all around it and one of the big holes is that they want to know what happened so I have this little bit where I was saying I'm standing in the street and I'm trying to look at my hand and I can't see my hand

but I'm looking at my hand and I know my hand's right there but I can't see my hand and the bus driver's out on the street because he decided to eventually stop and he's on the phone and I think are you calling 911 and I realize

he's talking to his boss to find out what the company policy is when you hit somebody. Oh my gosh. And I go, could you wrap that up because I can't see my hand? Oh my God. And then I realized

that my hand was behind my back. Oh, my. my god and i go and that's the punchline of that joke that's wild it's a hard thing to talk about because it's so gruesome but i'm trying to but i have to because it just there's this huge hole in the thing people like after the biggest question i get what actually happened so this is a no no i think that's a great story and then i go i and then i think well i'm going to call 911 my So I pull my phone out with my other hand and I can't figure it out. I can't.

And then I think, I'm going to pass out. Let's try not to pass out. So there's some grass across the street. And I go, that looks like a good place to not pass out. Oh, my gosh. And I sit down on this patchy grass and then 911 starts calling me. And I go, this is a pretty great service. Oh, my gosh.

But it turns out that if you call 911 and all they hear is, Hey, I can't see my hand. Can you call 911, click? They call that person back over and over and over again. Oh, my God. And someone eventually came over and said, are you okay? And I go, that's 911. Can you just tell them where we are?

They know everything else. That's actually a great example of, like, I've seen you do a lot of this material before, like talking about getting hit by the bus and the recovery and all this stuff. It's a great example of, like, what happened moment to moment in the actual story. I think sometimes in storytelling, we avoid the really peak moments of it. Because almost like we don't even want to deal with it. Yeah.

You don't even want to think about that part of it? Yeah. And it's like, it's like breaking down and sometimes doing a free write on like, well, what actually happened at that moment and the moment after that, the moment after that, and how did I feel in those moments? but I think that's great. I would keep that in. Because even if you think about it, like the filming in Seattle, it's like the people who are there are there to see you and to see you tell that story.

Right. And to see the human being, Ryan Hamilton, say how you feel about this really extreme thing that happened. They don't want it to be a laugh every 30 seconds at that moment. I think they can handle that you tell the truth. Right, yeah. And actually, I would argue, like, crave it. Oh, interesting.

People crave that. Obviously, they don't crave it if you're not, you don't have laughs the rest of your show. Right. But if you are the kind of joke octane that you have in your shows and then you have a section that's a minute or too long where it's like pretty intense in this thing that is totally earned and justified that you're talking about, I think the audience craves that. Okay, that's good. I tell myself over and over again every time I perform all of my shows. No. No, I do, I do.

Really? Yeah, yeah, I've just spent time thinking about that and talking about that with my director because a lot of times it's like, you know, last special, it's like talking about my relationship with my dad when he had a stroke and all this stuff. And it's like, I don't want to think about

when I was in the hospital with my dad when he had a stroke is awful. Yeah. But the audience in a certain way wants to connect on that. Yeah. If that's what you're talking about. Right, right. But I think like the whole thing

of looking at your hand, with your hands behind you? Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's really what it was. But it's just, yeah. So that's me attempting to fill the little gaps and this kind of thing. I feel like there's more in the thing

of like holding up your hand, thinking or thinking you're holding up your hand and thinking that, oh, it must be a mental thing. No, it's a hand thing. It's a hand thing. That's true. The hand isn't present. Yeah.

The hand isn't present. The hand is absent. That's true. It's a hand thing. And also, it might be related to other bones, too. It is a funny thing, too, like, if you think about, like, to the people who are around, like, you're you. Yeah. In this situation, you get hit by a bus.

You're still you. Yeah. To the people around you, you are a cartoon character. you got bone coming out of your body you're trying to hold up your hand there isn't a hand you are literally you are the high and lowest

of their lives you are the Calvin and Hobbs of their existence in their day I have this line about how I was standing up and that really made people upset people did not like that I was standing yes

Yeah. But it really is like, it is worth sitting in the moment. Yeah. Like the thing that you're doing right now, I would almost say, like, do more of it. Like, do more of the, like, going on stage, telling the story and honestly, like, seeing what comes out. Yeah. Like, just, like, living in the moment, be like, be like, I'm going to tell the story, but I'm really going to, like, try to relive it. Yeah.

Maybe I should do that part. Because there's the whole part leading up to it. that I used to have jokes about, but I kind of dropped, but it was like, I was in a hotel with COVID for 10 days, and the first day out was January 1 when this happened to me. Yeah. So I had these jokes about that whole experience, but I kind of cut it out.

But it is interesting to kind of get into, like, the moment. Because I have that moment, but maybe there's more proceeding. And after. I'll tell you something from my, kind of traumatic jumping through this window sleepwalking story. I went back to Walla Walla last year and I talked to the doctor in the ER who took the glass

out of my house and I asked him what was that like do you remember that? Yeah. And he goes yeah I remember because I was like it took hours to take the glass out of your legs and it drove me nuts because we had all these other people coming in and it was busy

I had to keep coming back to you taking the glass out going back dealing with people and I was like oh, that's so funny because if I had interviewed him years ago, I would have put that in the original show. Right. So you might want to consider like, can you get in touch with any of the doctors and just be like, what's your experience? That's really interesting. If you're willing to talk to me, what's your experience of this? Because I'm writing a whole piece of it. Yeah. The surgeon is a friend of mine now. Like, I should ask him. Maybe ask the surgeon, like, how they felt about it.

Because it's like probably so different from how you see it. That's a really good idea. I should do that. because who knows what he'd think maybe it was like a routine and also like hey do you think i was going to be okay yeah you can tell me now right i'm good yes right what did you think in that what you think now you can tell me yeah i have it even like in walla walla where it's like i went back and it's like i talked to cops and stuff and they're like oh yeah it was on the radio that night a guy jumped through the window at the motel really yeah yeah like it was all like about it was like about town yeah sure of course that's a crazy thing to happen yeah wow that's that's a great idea even people tangentially involved

yeah that actually are aware of when it happened why wouldn't i think to do that that's so good why wouldn't yeah that's a great we don't we're so specifically wrapped up in ourselves a stand-up comedians in my experience of our own perspective but in this kind of event it's like that makes so much sense i should do that yeah because it's wild like if your instance of you you know you looking at your hand and your hand's not there. It's like that from someone else's perspective is also wild. Yes, right.

Because they're looking at this version. Right, you know, your things, your bone is coming out and all that kind of stuff. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Hoof. I'm glad you're okay. Thanks. I mean, yeah, I'm doing great. Those were kind of like, I have other stuff.

I don't know how much. Oh, yeah. What else you got? It's all great. What do you think about this as an opening? It's hard to get there, but I talk about people focusing. We don't focus. It's too hard to focus.

This is what it takes. You've got to go to another location, turn the lights off, get a spotlight, get a guy with a microphone, put your phone away. Like, you've got to put your phone in another place, and then they go, now we're ready. And I go, you want it. You want your phone. I know you want it.

You're proud of yourself that you put it. away right now you're going like I knew I could do it I knew I could do it yeah and when you leave here you're going to go if I'm called upon to put my phone away again I know I have that in me there's little things like

gnawn at you like how tall is this guy and you'll never know you'll never know because you won't remember to Google that later yes and even if you do you go I don't know that guy's name I don't know what am I supposed to Google poor man Seinfeld is that what I'm supposed to

but it leads into this thing where this is kind of like the core maybe i'll open with this where i go but i'm glad we're together because this is rare we don't gather we're we're not socializing as groups and i love this but i don't know if it will last things are fickle maybe one day you'll be walking through a museum you'll see a guy in a glass case with a microphone there'll be a little plaque down at the bottom they'll go society was very anxious so much so that they would actually their laughter together at specific times and they would gather themselves in laugh rooms throughout the country and there were laugh leaders who would try to encourage them but it was ironic because they were often angry or sad oh that's so funny they're often angry or sad yeah but it's like very

uh self-referential kind of thing which i normally don't do you could also point out that at at rooms called laugh house. Yes. And laugh hot. Laffat. Yeah. And improv, which was odd because they never improvised there.

Yeah, they never. Okay, so the last thing we do is working out for a cause. Is there a nonprofit that you like to contribute to? And we will contribute to them and link to them in the show notes. Yes, that is so nice. I do a lot of, um, events for this group Scott Hamilton Cares and it's a cancer research which had affected some people in my life and Scott Hamilton's a great guy and great organization so that's a good one great well it's called the URL is scotcares.org funding advanced innovative research that will turn cancer upside down we'll contribute to them great we'll link to them in the show notes Ryan Hamilton so excited for your special this was really fun it's great ah for the best Working it out because it's not done

Working it out because there's no... That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. You can follow Ryan Hamilton on Instagram at Ryan Hamilton. That's with an E at the end. You can watch the full video of the episode

on our YouTube channel at Mike Berbiglia. Subscribe because we're posting more and more of these videos. Check out berbigs.com to sign up for the mailing list I'd be the first to know about my upcoming shows. Our producers of working it out are myself along with Peter Salomon, Joseph, Barbiglia, Mabel Lewis, and Gary Simon, sound mix by Ben Cruz. Supervising engineer Kate Balinski's special thanks to Jack Antonoff

and bleachers for their music. Special thanks. As always, to my wife, the poet Jay Hope Stein, and our daughter, Una, who built the original radio fort made of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. If you enjoy our podcast, rate us and review us on Apple Podcasts. I always say this.

And it seems like a silly thing, but it actually is how people find our podcast. As you go in, you put some stars there, and you say, which is the first episode that you listen to, or your favorite episode? You could say, I really like the Ryan Hamilton episode because of this. And people know where to begin

because at this point it was over 180 episodes. And people wouldn't even, I mean, if I found a podcast, if I found Radio Labrary This American Life, I really wouldn't even know where to start. I'd go, okay, I don't know. Is it, what is this show even about? You know, it's about so many different things, so many different guests.

So thank you, thank you, thank you for writing a review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks most of all to you who are listening to the show and have been with the show for so long. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell the clerk at the dispensary where you're buying weed with your mom, which is, of course, very common. And awkward, ease the tension of that moment with a solid gold podcast recommendation

while your mom is picking out weed for you. Tell the person who, works there. Hey, I know this whole thing might be seem a little strange, but I heard this comedian Ryan Hamilton doing the same thing on a podcast called Working It Out. Actually, you might like that podcast. It's Mike Berbigley. Works out Jokes Out and ideas about the creative process with other comedians and creatives. Maybe you should check it out as soon as my mom pays for her weed. Thanks, everybody. We're working it out. We'll see you next time. Thank you.