Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 224. Stavros Halkias: Stavros Ex Machina

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Comedian, podcaster, and actor Stavros Halkias is having a moment right now but he’s been doing stand-up since he was 19 years old. Stavros talks with Mike about starting out in Baltimore and hitting rock bottom healthwise just as his career was skyrocketing. Stavros discusses acting in Bugonia and this summer’s Tony, a film that reflected Mike’s own real life experience working in a Cape Cod restaurant. Plus, Mike and Stavros decide which accent is worse—Boston or Baltimore—and what Stavros means when he says he wants to go “Birbiglia mode.”Please consider donating to The Fund For Educational ExcellenceText BIRBIGS to 917-444-7150 for updatesFind Mike:Website: https://birbigs.com/Instagram: https://instagram.com/birbigs/Facebook: https://facebook.com/birbigfansTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mikebirbigliaFind Stavros:Website: https://www.stavvy.bizInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stavvybaby2/Hosted and Produced by Mike BirbigliaProducers: Peter Salomone, Joseph Birbiglia, Mabel Lewis, Gary SimonsSound Mixed by Ben KruseSupervising Engineer: Kate BilinskiVideo Consultant: Graham WilloughbySpecial Thanks: Marissa Hurwitz, Josh Upfal, David Raphael, Nina Cwik, J. Hope Stein, OonaMusic: Jack Antonoff and Bleachers Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I like the little racket you set up with one-man shows. I think that's a beautiful move. A little racket. It's awesome to just add a little more heart to a stand-up hour and charge $400 for the tickets and stay in New York. I'm like, oh, I'm going Barbiglia mode. Hey, everybody, it's Mike Barbiglia. This is Working It Out.

That's the voice of the great Stavros, Halkius. We've been trying to get Stavros on this podcast for quite a while. Our schedule is never quite lined up. We got them. six months ago, and then he got sick. We had to reschedule, but it worked out because it timed out perfectly with his brand new special on Netflix

called Uncle Stav, which is great. It also with the movie Tony that he's in that Matt Johnson directed that I loved, and also then this summer he and I both played roles in the Judd-Apato film with Glenn Powell that is coming out in February. So we just had more to talk about, which is great.

Meanwhile, I'm deep in particular, of my next film, Old Friends, New Friends, right now. I'm super excited. I can't wait for everyone to see it. When this all wraps up, I'll be back on the road next year working out my new hour of comedy. I probably have about a half hour at this point. So trying to find, I would say, like, another hour or two. And then usually what starts as like 90 minutes to two and a half hours of comedy, whittles down to about an hour, 15 or so. But I'm so excited to share that with you, join the mailing list and get updates on all that. I love this chat with Stabros. We talk about his hometown of Baltimore. We talk about whether or not you can be a Knicks fan and a Celtics fan,

controversial. We talk about the movies he's been in like Bagonia and Tony, which I love. I think it's still in theaters. I just saw it recently in theaters. I thought it was excellent. And, you know, the director, Matt Johnson, I think is brilliant. He did another movie called Nirvana the Band, The Movie, that I loved. Both of those are great. Stavi is, of course, great in Tony. He plays someone who works in a Cape Cod restaurant kitchen, which I have done.

And we talked about that today. Enjoy my conversation with a great Stavros Hawkees. Yes, I do this. This is new for the YouTube people. Crazy. Mike Barbiglia, working it out. I'm here with Deveros, Alkias, and this is, yeah, this is it.

Hell yeah. I'm thrilled you're on. You were gonna come on six months ago, and you got sick. I got really sick. I've been really sick the last, this whole year. This whole year's been horrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're almost through, you know, knock on wood.

Right. It all goes right and all goes wrong at the same time. Yeah, that is really true. This has been the year of like, unimaginable awesome stuff. Totally. And also truly the worst like bass humanity. Like what does this even mean?

I mean, so much pain. Like there were days where I was like just had to be late. I had to lay flat. My back was so fucked up. There were days where I lost my voice on the road. So I spent the whole time steaming my vocal cords, drinking water and spitting out phlegm. I would do like a six hour shift of that and then go, you know,

do a show with tea. and like throat, opera singer throat spray. And every like eight minutes I would spray down my vocal cords to get past, to get through a show. It's been very funny. Yeah, it's like anytime any of us feel envy towards someone who's having success, just no. Yeah.

They're steaming their vocal cords. They're doing some kind of weird voodoo. There's masochism. My body was not built for that level of, you know, works. I think it's the success. I think I was allergic to do it. well. I think I was, my body was like, what the hell is all this responsibility for?

Well, you do have, like, if anyone is having a moment, it's you. I mean, like, it's a weird, it's a hilarious summer, which is like, like, the king of prestige. Yeah. And then you're, this summer, you're in Judd Apatow's movie with Glenn Powell, which is, like, mainstream, hilarious comedy. I was, I worked a couple days on that, so you and I hung out there. But, like, and then you're in one of the stars of Tony, which is kind of both.

prestige and it's mainstream. It's a cool indie movie about one of the coolest guys of all time with a great director, a great young cast, very fun hangout movie. Yeah, Tony was awesome. Where I got to be, like I got to be funny, I got to kind of do my own thing. Bologna, it's like you're sliding into an autore's vision. And I'm so nervous because it's like, you know, real actors, you know. No, of course.

It's not tires, no disrespect to my boys. But there, it's a little more. being again me versus me and Plemons versus me and my boy Hank Foley little different. Little different. And then on top of all this, your special came out. Yes, I've been on tour the whole time. And you've been on tour.

I've been on tour the whole time. And the special came out. Yeah, this year has been like, it's really funny this summer. I'm in a movie in theaters, Tires is the number one sitcom for like a couple weeks. And I have a Netflix. It's great. And none of this was planned to have like. this insane summer.

Yeah. And it's not very fun. Like, this should be awesome. I should be at the fucking, you know, I should be going to sporting events. I should be like, and maybe I'll do that in the fall. I know,

but I have to fucking fill in for you on a festival show, you piece of shit. One of my friends had tickets to the final and I was like, I can't go. Burbiggly had dropped out and I'm in a fucking festival. Yeah. No, I, because

because I had to drop out of that because my movie that I've been writing for like three years came together. So now I can't go to the U.S. Oven final. I know. Wow. Oh, so you're doing one of the Malini shows? I'm getting in there. Those are fun, though.

That'll be fun. I can't wait to see the Priglia fans getting 30 minutes of, you know, little my dick small, I'm busting fast jokes. They're going to be a little mad. Forbigliah getting some waiting, got glasses. Why is you being so crass? I haven't heard any of these jokes on NPR. Oh, my God.

But yeah, it's crazy. Like, you're, it all seemed to happen all at once. But meanwhile, like, you know, you've been doing this a long time. Totally. I mean, I was 19. So it is that classic thing of, like, you know, everybody knows this. There's no such things like an overnight anything. Like, very few people are actual overnight success.

It's like, yeah, I've been doing stand-up for, whenever, you know, we started Comtown in like 26th. Like, for a decade, I've been a podcasting twice a week minimum at this point, plus being on tour this entire time. And, you know, but it's great. I mean, the acting stuff is, is it kind of a complete out of nowhere. I don't even get what's happening situation. Comtown is, first of all, you took the name of this podcast.

I know, I'm sorry. It was taken. You had your patent attorney look up like, Oh, it's already taken, sorry. But it seems to me, if people don't know it, it was this kind of like OG massive podcast, like massive. It was, I think it weirdly, I think culturally on the internet, it was a lot bigger than it ever really was numbers-wise.

Is that right? That's my sense of it, right? Maybe it traveled in ways that you guys don't even understand. Yeah, but I think it was like, the people who liked it really liked it They were really online. Because I remember, look, my career has gotten, I remember when I was touring off Comtown Fame. Yeah.

And, you know, I was doing well. I was like, you know, I was getting weekends. Maybe I would sell out the Saturdays. I wasn't really adding too many shows back then. And I was started. But again, I was also just kind of starting as a headline or two. Yeah. And so it was like, the numbers weren't crazy,

but the people who liked it fucking loved it. Yeah. And that's a great way to start a fan band. right that's like a very nice starter dough of sourdough you know it's like a lot of people have now the flip side is that when I left a lot of people fucking hated me and were like you ruined the only good thing I love

you broke up the Beatles I'm Yoko and you know and George Harrison at the same time you know and and which is I do kind of get it I mean I remember wait are you the reason that group broke up no I mean I was the first one who was like what the I gotta get the fuck out of here but I mean it was like one of those things where we were all kind of

I think the vibes creatively and personally were getting a little stale. And we were, you know, whenever you, it's so funny because it was always just, you just get annoyed with someone when you work with them for five years.

Yeah, of course. And it was nothing really crazier than that. But yes, I was the one who was like, I don't know, man, I got to fucking, I got to get the fuck out of here. Yeah. And, and, and so people were mad at me for that. But, but like, the people of state

have been the best fans of all time. These are people who know you from the time you were broke as fuck. I mean, that podcast was like, Nick Me, Nick Mullen, Adam Friedland, me, we just were like, I mean, Nick's idea to start it was just like, let's do a podcast when we're, you know, in our mid-20s broke, miserable. Yeah. We'll just say, we'll just, the conversations we have fucked up after open mics, let's just put them on. Yeah, why not? Whatever. And I, again, it's like, it's a bad idea.

This one at work. He was a fucking genius for that. He saw it in a way I didn't see it. And then, yeah, it was just that. And then that became people at that time really wanted to hear some 26-year-olds who had nothing to lose say insane shit. Because it was in the height of, you know, it really wasn't.

And again, none of this was planned, but it was in the height of woke scolding. It was in the height of like, let's go through all your old tweets and find you saying, making a racist joke. And then we were like, well, what if we just fucking record ourselves doing them? Right.

Like, what if we make fun of some dumb guys and you for being Tattletails was kind of the... I mean, I don't think we ever thought of it that way, but it was kind of what we were doing. So we just kind of got lucky that Nick... And it was Nick's sensibilities more than anything. Yeah. I was kind of like a setup...

It was fun to be like a... I felt like kind of a setup man for Nick. Yeah. But he's the funniest guy. When riffing, he's the funniest. Podcast riffing, he's in the zone. He's the fucking funniest guy. So, yeah, it was like a very strange

that a podcast called Cumb Town. started it all and like kind of found we found ourselves weirdly like a politic like people looked at us politically

which was bizarre just because we were guys we were leftists who said slurs as a joke yeah people that really short-circuited people's brains where they're like wait

but that's bad to say bad stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah what is this literally every other part of history until we started deciding this is how we're gonna fucking destroy people's lives yeah well it's weird

it's like I find myself, and I think you find yourself way more than me, carrying water for this kind of comedy culture that's whatever. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Rogan and Bert and all these guys. Every fucking, every question, every question, like every interview with like a real, with like a real, you know, news outfit, not something like when you're in your friends, you know, room. Yeah, addict, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

Every one of them likes to ask about politics or what does what does, you know, the culture of stand-up mean and what is the, you know, a bunch of the biggest podcasters or, you know, Trump got, like, what does that mean about stand-up in general? And so, yes, I get asked about that type of stuff a lot. I think I don't talk about that much, but because you're here, talk about it. Sure. It's like, I feel like maybe what happened was in culture, people were asking the right questions. and then the wrong people were answering the questions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what I mean? Certainly. Like, hey, this is weird, right? This thing feels wrong.

And then these people are going to go, yeah, we're going to punish these people. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if that's actually the answer. It became a pitch. I mean, look, we don't have to go down because it will just not be funny at all. Yeah, of course.

But what I think happened is the Democratic Party became just centrist corporate party that was pretty much identical to Republicans of the past. And because they were offering no actual policy for the stuff people wanted, like health care, like, you know, curbing inequality, doing any of this stuff. Because they went away from being a party that believes in anything, they had to do a lot of, like, window dressing and say, well, but if you said something racist, you'll get fired. Right. Now, we're not going to help minorities.

We're not giving them health care. That's, we can't do that. Health insurance companies paid for our entire, you know, our entire, you know, like the campaigns. campaign, all that. Yeah, yeah, sure. So we're not going to change anything, but we're going to make it look like we care. Sure.

And so that's what I think happened. It was like to be on the left in America started to mean nothing. It started becoming completely symbolic. Yeah. At a time when people's lives are getting even worse. Right. And that's also why you see people turn to fascism.

Right. Democrats weren't offering anything. And Republicans were like, well, actually it's immigrants and gay people that are doing this. Right. And if you're, if no one is saying anything else, no, billionaires are doing it. you know, no inequality is the problem.

You know, if no one is saying that, then you are kind of for, if you're, if the two options are, uh, you know, people that are different than you are causing this or actually it's because you said the N word in,

and a tweet in sixth grade, this is why the world's bad. It's like, you know, neither of those two things are good, you know, those are bad messages, right? But it's also like,

we have to be realistic here. The biggest problem is inequality. And it's like, and we should, in the future curb that, you know, behavior. Kids in the, you know, I like that kids now are more with it than kids were when I was growing up. Yeah. But, you know, we have to also be realistic.

If our society did have these like infrastructure, racism problems, then yeah, when you were younger and didn't know any better, you probably, you were a part of that culture and you said some fucked up shit. Yeah. Let's move towards like, hey, that's not cool anymore. And let's actually fix the real problems, which I think are all economic and are all, it's all class. It's all class. So that's what I think happened. And that's why in 2016, we got caught in this vortex where, you know, the Hillary Clinton campaign was offering pretty much nothing.

It was like, this will be symbolic, a woman, which again, all great stuff. We should have a woman president. It's embarrassing. We didn't. But we should have a woman president that says like, hey, let's fix something instead of, you know, the whole culture being a little. It's just scolding with no results. Right. And so, and I think that kind of infected comedy a little bit.

and then we saw bifurcation happen on both sides. I always end up carrying water for those comics who, politically, I don't actually agree with. Sure, sure. Because I'm always like, you guys realize, like, if we just say, like, you can't say that, that'll go for you too. Of course.

You know what I mean? It's kind of a crazy road to go down. I know. It's so clearly, like, we should be able to say anything we want. Yeah. And if you say something that sucks, people will get mad at you. And that's really all it is.

It's all fine. One side is like, well, no, you can't say anything you want. There's a list of words that are inappropriate. And like you're saying, if we start that list in 20 years when somebody else is in power, that list might look a little different, right? That's right. And then the other side is like, well, no, I should be able to say anything I want, and no one can get mad at me if the joke sucks dick.

And it's like, no, man, you still have to be funny. But yeah, I think that's sort of, I think we're dealing with it now. Like the were deal with, obviously dealing with the fallout of that type of thought. And it's like, but you see people really trying to go back to their old, like people are really like, no, actually, let's double down. Let's not look at this with an economic populist message. Let's actually say, now let's censor speech when we don't like what people say about our foreign policy or ICE, you know, Gaza, all this kind of stuff. There's definitely censorship happening, but it's not in the way people think it is, I don't think. That's interesting.

Yeah, so you and I hung out this summer on Judd Appetow's movie, which comes out I think in February. February, which seems insane. I saw just a like a clip really put together. It was hilarious. Yeah. You're great. Yeah, no, it was

fucking cool working with Judd, and that was fun being in we were in Savannah. Yeah. A couple nice dinners. A couple nice dinners. We watched the Knicks. We watched the Knicks. I think we watched Game 4 at a bar. Yes, that was electric. It was like.

It was fucking incredible. One of the best nights of my life just fucking sitting there. I mean, a big comeback win, it was awesome. People coming up to you during it, you were like, I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, I got to get in the zone, man. Let's get at the commercials. I mean, yeah, a New York City bar in like a college town is kind of like I begged to get noted. It's like, a good thing a pathetic guy would do.

It's like, let me go hang out where people will see me, you know. But I was just, we were just there for the game. It was fun, though. You were getting recognized maybe more than anyone I've ever been around. I think it's a little, yeah. It was intense. I think it's a little bit of Nick's game, college bar. Yeah.

You know, that's part of it. Certain places I'm really famous and certain places I'm not famous at all. Do you feel like when you're at your shows, you're looking at a lot of people who look like you in the car? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You become a mascot. Because what we do is, what we do is technically achievable, right?

If you're a fan of an athlete, if you're a fan of a singer, even a guitar player, right? Yeah. You're never going to do that shit. Totally. But you can convince yourself, you could do stand-up, and at the very least, if you just get a little bit of this swag, maybe your life is better.

You know what I mean? Like, if you're a slub, we are role models for, you know, just fucking schlubby motherfuckers. And so, yes, I see a lot of guys. And I actually love, I used to be very cynical, but a lot of fat guys do come up to me or even DM me, and they're like, dude, thank you for just, like, being fat.

and not like ashamed of yourself in public. And it's literally helping their self-esteem. And I would have, so I never cared, I never thought about being a body positivity guy. Right. Right. But just by not being ashamed of yourself and being fat as shit, a lot of fat boys take some solace in that.

So I love that. So how do you express that in a way, how are you expressing that in a way that people are picking up on, are like dialing into that frequency? I don't think I'm doing anything. I think that it's just what I'm like. Right.

I mean, like, I think they're just seeing someone who truly, I am not doing anything. This is just what I've always been like. Right. And to them, they're like, well, how did you develop that? Why are you like, you're confident? Why are you confident? Basically, like, why are you confident? And why are you confident?

I don't, why, I just never have thought about that. Yeah, I mean, I just, you just kind of are at a certain point. I, if we really want to get psychological with it, probably my mom being the, like, most supportive woman of all time and, like, gassing me the fuck up and telling me, I'm a press. perfect little boy. Yeah. And I think that's, my mom was the classic doting Eastern European mother. Yeah.

Who thought I was the smart, like, she was mad I didn't stand up because truly her thought process was you were robbing the world of your beautiful mind to solve its problems. She thought I should be president. She thought I should, like that's the level of delusion my mother had. Yeah. But that's what you, that level of delusion filtered into what I liked, comedy, makes it so that even though you are poor, fat, you know, drop,

out of college, whatever, balding. Like, it makes you think I can be famous in comedy. Sure. Which by every metric was so, I'm realizing now, it's like, whoa, it's crazy. I believe that. Yeah. No, I knew no one who was successful at anything. The most successful guy I knew in my community, he became a millionaire because he inherited

his father's machine shop. The roofing company did a bad job on the roof. Yeah. And he won like an $8 million lawsuit. because it collapsed. And to his credit, he then turned it into like a bit. But it's like the only rich guy on you was rich because of roof collapsed. Right.

Right. Like there was no, no one made it out of my community and got like any real, any real success. They became successful for Baltimore maybe, but like I never saw that. And so I think thanks to my mom, I just never doubted myself. To the point where it was, again, complete delusion, which you need to do this. No, I think you need that. It's like, it's so funny because like when I look at you, I feel like it makes perfect sense why you'd connect with people while you're successful. Because you're authentic.

You're you. And I think that's the hardest thing like when we answer questions on the podcast about stand-up or aspiring stand-ups. It's like a nearly impossible thing to explain to someone that actually what the audience wants is you. in your most raw form. Yeah, but still entertaining, right? And entertaining. That's the rub. I think it's like it's really easy to be yourself on stage.

It just sucks most of the time. But yeah, early on, I was trying to get so authentic on stage. I started feeling more comfortable on stage than off. Yeah. And recently I've tried to kind of bring that honesty into my personal life. I think it goes both ways. It's not just about the stage. You also have to, if you get good enough off stage and honest enough

on stage and say what you think on stage, I think it has to match your personal life. Yeah. And I think that's helped me because I'm much less confident in my true personal life than on stage. Like, you know, growing up I wasn't, you know, I was not confrontational. I was like, I had the doting mother,

but I also had like the dad who was cool and we got along and he was funny, but it's like he, you know, he wasn't satisfied with how life was going. He had some anger issues. He was a hot and cold guy. Yeah. And so you're not.

super secure in that relationship, and it kind of makes some people, it develops some people pleasing in you. And I think mother who tells you you're the man, dad who makes you kind of sing for his attention, is kind of the perfect way to get a comedian. Yeah, exactly, exactly, you know it, right? Like, I mean, how many comedians do we know that that's the exact, and sometimes it's flipped. It's really interesting to see the guys who were dad doted on them, mom didn't, those guys are even more fucked up. Renzinski was here the other day, and he's this exact same way. When he talks about his family. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's my family. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's important, but it's also this nebulous thing

to tell someone. That's the hardest thing with stand-up is, like, you just have to do it forever and figure it out yourself. Yeah. There's no books, there's no courses. And you have, whatever that means, whatever being real, being yourself means, you just have to figure it out. You reference not talking to your dad right now in the special. Yeah. You don't go into it, right? No, because I find talking about my family is the hardest thing to make funny. Yeah. And every time something's actually happening, it takes me like a couple year lag to address it. So these jokes, these jokes are actually, I cut out one of the jokes.

There's a joke about, you know, if my parents had gotten divorced, it's like my parents stayed together for the kids, which never works. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? It's like it's never worked even one time. and it's like, there's a two Christmases joke where it's like, you know, now I get to watch Dad break a coffee table every month, but at least I don't have two Christmases, right?

And that was, that joke was in the last special, but I just felt like there was more to it. Yeah. And so everything that all the five minutes around that are built out. You know, that's, like, all this other stuff about my grandma, all this. Yeah.

I was like, it's just not ready yet. So I cut it out of that. And then, yes, the peak, and then those jokes are about a time where I had kind of reconciled with my dad and I was ready to sort of figure the shit out, hopefully. And then we had another little setback

in our relationship. I think we'll be fine. We're talking a little bit, but, you know, it's just very difficult. And I just didn't want to do a half-ass job. That's the thing. I owe it to the people in my life. If I put them in the act,

it has to be fucking good. Yeah. And I think about, That was the hardest one, the one about my dad, because I'm just like, you know, I feel bad. You used to be able to be a kind of shitty dad, and most of the time your fucking kids don't turn out to be stand-up comics that have a huge hour special where they talk about it.

To millions of people. To millions of people. And again, it's not that he wasn't a shitty dad. He just had failings that every human being has. Yeah, of course. And his inability to accept them and sort of like talk about them and be honest about them is kind of where we have, what's difficult for us.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like you'll probably eventually deal with this with your dad because your dad, you know, you're younger than me. So it's like I had it probably, you're like in your 30s. 37, yeah. Yeah, so like I think it was, I'm 48. Like I think it was in my 30s when I had to start to realize like, oh yeah, my dad is like in his 70s. Yeah.

It's not changing. It's not changing. It's really not. And it's like, it's not fundamentally changing, but it's like, can you move this much? Yeah. Which is not a lot. You or him? Him.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if there is a move. I need a slight move. I need, I know. I know, but I need this much. Dude. And I know it's going to be a Herculean effort for him to come one millimeter.

I just, I'm telling you, you might have to accept no movement. you might i don't know that i can because the age i know that he'll hit an age where you go this is this is going to be it i just need just a little so and i i'm not asking again i'm talking about 95 5% here in terms of like i understand and so that was the hard part it was like i was like i was feeling like we were getting there and then he just you know anyway it doesn't matter but sometimes you do have to realize they're not changing whatever whatever. And we're at a point right now where it's like, you know, we'll figure it out. Maybe we get that little centimeter emotion.

The centimeter that we got me and my dad, and maybe this is helpful. I don't even know if this is healthy. Sure. We got to a point where we won't talk about this. Right. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is totally anti how I feel about everything.

I feel like, hey, the more we talk about things, the better. It's like, of course. We were like, I think we got to a point where it's like, okay, if we just, if we siphon off this section of topics. 100% we can be loving. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. The dam.

You got to build the dam to leave you. Yeah. And yes, there's plenty of those already. But I'm open to that. I'm open, you know, at the end of the day, it's weird because you wouldn't let, I wouldn't let anybody treat me or talk to me the way my dad.

Of course. In fact, in many ways, the way I decided I need to be respected is like, these are the things I will not accept. Yeah. And a lot of that was, it was my dad's behavior that then, like, you know, all this psychological shit,

it's not a coincidence that you seek out people that treat you in a similar hot and cold fashion. It's not a coincidence that you, like, develop these, oh, look at me, you know, these look at me tendencies. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, it's just, but at the end of the day, then, and that was me in my 20s. It was like, fuck my dad, nobody can dish yourself, you know?

And then you're in your 30s, you're like, he's my fucking dad. Yeah. He went through a lot. And I do really have, for my father, it's not easy. And so you're like, all right, let's meet halfway, whatever. And then I think, I don't know, it's so, you know, family shit is so complicated.

Yeah, of course. And then maybe you're right. I'll get in my 40s and I'll be like, who fucking cares? Yeah. Just fucking watch, you know, just put on a soccer game. Yeah. Eat up Bratworths next to them. We don't, we'll fucking nap half the time.

You know what I mean? Like, I'd love to get back. I truly want nothing more than to get back to barbecue, sitting on the couch, watching, you know, a football. soccer game with my dad. I would love that. One of my jokes from my last special where I go, my dad, you know, had a stroke, which is devastating.

But if I'm being honest, it has calmed him down. Yeah. I have to say, like, that has way more truth than you think. Of course. I've been oddly, that was two years ago, I've been oddly closer to my dad in this period of time because something fell away. Yeah.

that maybe that was part of what was distancing us. That doesn't seem crazy to me at all. I mean, I fucked my backup this year, and I've always had kind of like, you know, anger problems run in my family a little bit, and I've done a lot to, like, curb that. But I would occasionally have that dumb-ass thought that every man thinks.

It's like, you know, obviously I'm not a trained fighter, but if shit went down, I would tap into this well of secret alpha energy. Yeah, sure. And so like, and, you know, I run my mouth, my whole life, even as like a fat little kid, I've gotten in trouble just like, I can't help. But if something, if an insult comes to me, I've said it in my whole life. And really, fucking my backup made me realize, like, first of all, you always should have shut the fuck up in public. But now, what would I be, you know what I mean?

I'd be like, hold on a second. Does anybody have a weapon I could, you know, like, I talk, I thought myself talking shit and I'm like, what are you doing? Like on a city bike where if someone comes into my lane, I'm like, what if this guy stops his car gets out? Oh, I know. He would beat the fuck out of you. Oh, yeah, of course. So I think hurting my back made me real,

maybe that vestigial growing up in Baltimore, run your mouth and pretend you can fight because you'll scare most people off doing that. That has fallen away. So I think as you become a broken man, you can put up less and less of a fight, and I get that. In some kind of assembled gang fight,

you and I would be last pick. Of course, of course, of course. I got right this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, who's left? Like in Stabi? Just go with anybody. Yeah, absolutely.

And I would break my heart, but I would have to fuck you up when they picked us last because it would piss me off. I'm like, me and this fucking guy? That's what I'm saying. It's like, in my head, I'm like, I'm a strong jock. You know what I'm? That's been my whole life as like thinking I'm like,

thinking I'm cool in the ways I'm not. What were your sports? I played, growing up, my dad played soccer in Greece, so I played soccer. And then... Like professional in Greece? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He played like, yes, he played like for this team called Apollonas, which they were, they were one of those teams that like was between relegation because it's, you know, but still he played he played pro soccer for a little bit. It was awesome, yeah. I would watch a lot of Greek soccer with my dad in like coffee houses. Yeah. Those are some of my most cherished memories, like me in a fucking coffee house where men are smoking illegally, you know what I mean? Way after the cigarette ban, but who the fuck is going to enforce it in, you know, in Greek town? Just watching, you know, pirated. Champions League soccer. Yeah. And so I played sports. I played Greek Youth League basketball, church Greek, Orthodox Greek youth league basketball.

Nice. That was the highest level of basketball I achieved. I respect your Knicks fandom because I remember you being a Knicks fan before it all happened. Thank you. Thank you. You know and Sam, I'm trying to think of who else was like hardcore Nix. There's a lot of comics. There's a handful of comics. A lot of comics love the Nix.

Yeah. Who would go hard for the Nix. when they weren't great. DeStefano was another big Knicks guy. DeStefano was like that. We would beat some of those games with them. But yeah, when I moved here, I moved here the year they drafted Porzingis,

and I'm a Baltimore guy. And if Baltimore had a team, don't get me wrong. I would be, the biggest heartbreak of my life is that Baltimore doesn't have a basketball team. I love the Ravens. I love the Orioles. And definitely basketball is my favorite sport, my American sport,

and then football's a close second, but I just like basketball. I like the experience of going to games more. I love it. the game more. I'm just, I mean, I've been here for 25 years at this point. Yeah. I grew up with Celtics fan of the 80s. Yeah. And at a certain point, you just go, I've lived here. What am I, this is, this is the team. That's crazy. I would never behave that way. I understand that. I respect that. I respect that point. Yeah. But I'm also just like, if you live. This is,

this, this proves you and your dad don't get along. Because the second you could fucking getting you team, you're like, fuck the Celtics dad, I'm a Knicks guy. My daughter will be a Knicks fan. I mean, I'm not going back. Yeah, I get that. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not moving back to Boston. But Greece still means something to me.

You know what I mean? That's still where I'm from. No, I get it. That is actually a big, this is huge psychologically. I go to Knicks games into Mike Brubley's mind. For the last like 15 years or so. Like I go. I get it.

I go to like one or two games a year. I get it. But if Baltimore, if Baltimore, at a team, I would fucking, you know, I'd be like, fuck the Knicks. You know what I mean? Baltimore at a team, like I'm, I kind of believe in healthy tribalism. I mean, Seth Myers is like that too, where he's a Steelers guy, even though he grew up in, you know, New England, because his dad was like, if you even dream of not rooting for the

Steelers, I'll fucking kill you. But what are the rules? I grew up in Central Mass. Like, what are the rules? Do I have to. Central Mass is interesting because you're not exactly in Boston. No. But you enjoyed those.

See, I would say enjoying those 80s championships. Right. That kind of binds you for life. You're obliged to say with him. I also was moved by Celtic City, the documentary. I see, you're fighting Mike. I know, man. You got it.

I think I would never do that, but I get, and you didn't even come from like, you know, Cincinnati or some bullshit. You know what I mean? Like, you're from a place with a historic basketball team. One of the greats. Yeah, you can't do that. You can't behave that way, unfortunately.

In fairness, it's not like I go hard for the Knicks. I'm just like generally rooting. You can, but it's just, it's a big move. It's a big move. The flippancy with which you're talking about this, this deserves more solemnity, I think. Where it's like, I am really making a break from Boston. This is symbolic.

This means something. And, you know, which I think is not necessarily untrue. Right. I think that is how you've organized your life. Your kid is a New Yorker, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, where's your wife from? New York.

New York. See? It's starting to come together. Yeah. I'm just saying me, I can never, could never be me. That's what I'm saying? What do you think is the worst accent, Baltimore or Boston? Ooh, Baltimore is so bad.

I mean, Boston's horrible, too. They're just different types of, what I like is that Boston is its own. Because, like, the Baltimore one, it's kind of the whole mid-Atlantic. You can kind of track it from Philadelphia to Baltimore all the way down to Pittsburgh, actually. they're all connected. I do think, there's something so beautiful about Baltimore. Baltimore is so bad,

it kind of comes back around and is good again. Yeah. It's so disgusting. Whereas like, Boston, you see linguistically how it developed. Yeah. You know what I mean? But Baltimore, it's like,

how the fuck did you end up talking this way? Baltimore? How, fuck. Oh, my God. You know, it's like, disgusting, you know, the swallowing those hard o's. It's just like, the Boston, it's really the ah

is doing a lot of heavy lifting. You know, that shit. Yeah. You guys have one sound, really. Yeah. Whereas Baltimore has a lot of disgusting stuff going for it. Yeah. Matt Johnson directed your special.

That's my guy, yeah. Yeah, and you and Tony, you're great in Tony. Thank you, I grew up working in a restaurant in Cape Cod. Oh, fuck yes, dude. So when I was in high school, like when I was roughly the age, In those kitchens, holy fuck. And I was terrified of the cooks. Yeah, of course.

And the cooks are scary. Of course. I was just like, are these people going to murder me? So you were like washing dishes, bus boy, tough shit. That's so, and that was a summer job. And I think my brother Joe is a prep cook. Like, we were really in the mix at this place in Cape Cod. And so that movie was so nostalgic for me.

And you guys nailed it. Yeah. I mean, that is exactly what that kitchen looks like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I guess I'm curious, like, how did Matt connect with you on it? And, like, what was the vision for that group of people? Yeah, I mean, I think, I feel like, yeah, that I'm really proud of Tony because I feel like I was a really important piece in making that kitchen feel real.

Yeah. You needed that ball-busting, the guy in a blue collar job that just completely fucks with you. And there's different guys, right? Mike, who's in it, who plays Tyrone. you know, he's just there to be physically imposing, right? He's there to, like, grab the, you know, and then Leo, you know, who's the bulk of, Leo and Antonio Banderas, obviously, like,

Leo's just got to be the cool, like a cool guy burning out, right? We need to see the guy right before he burns out, right? And it's like, that is aspirational when you're a kid. That guy's all, he gets pussy and he does drugs. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. When you're 17, you're like, that's the coolest guy I've ever seen. Honestly, when you're fucking 37, that's a pretty cool guy.

Right. But, but Leo's there to do that. Antonio's there to be fucking Antonio Bend there is the wise whatever. And I really was there to bully and bust balls in the way that I was bullied and my balls were busted when I worked blue collar jobs. Yeah. And so, yeah, with Matt, it was kind of a conversation where he called me and he was just like, this kitchen's missing a little something. Oh, interesting.

Because I think my character kind of gets added into like a later draft because I think it was all very like chef, Sal, Tony, focus. And I think they're like, we need this kitchen to feel like a kitchen. Yeah. And it was cool because the way we shot it was just they had a real, a restaurant. Unfortunately, it was like a historic restaurant. Unfortunately, it went out of business. But we caught it when no one was renting it. Yeah.

So we just had at our disposal a real restaurant. Yeah. And it's not a set. It's not different places. That's all that bar. Yeah, it feels like it. It's all real place. And the way we shot it was we just did these long takes where we just felt like we were working

at a shitty restaurant. Yeah. Like we were the worst. It felt more like working at a very bad restaurant than shooting a movie. And that was really fun. And I think Matt was very smart to do it that way because it just feels real. And you're especially talking about hitting rock bottom. And you say every day you gave yourself the kind of day you give a dog before you use an ice it.

Yeah, true. I lived like that for three years probably. What was the most awesome day and what was the worst day? The most awesome day was after the second special, the fat rascal, we shot it in Austin and to celebrate, and that was like right at the height of this time period where I was like, fuck, I'm getting so fucked up constantly. But the way to celebrate there was we rented a huge house in Austin,

me and my boys, Eldis, who's my producer and my tour manager, Ben O'Brien, they're my creative producer, just, we've been friends since Baltimore, Ben's then-girlfriend, now wife was there. My brother flew down, my best friend from college, and it was like, we rented this house, we took mushrooms, we had a barbecue, and then as we're swimming in the pool,

and we rented a place with a home theater, and as I'm coming down the day after my special, we watch Heat, maybe my favorite movie of all time, and it hit, when you pick the right movie for the right occasion. It hits so good. You're coming down off mushrooms and you're getting a little fucking high

and it's one of the best feelings of all time with my best friends after accomplishing this really hard thing. Easily the best day. The worst day, it's hard to know. I mean, maybe when I was in Rochester and I had taken so much fucking Xanax and dick pills, my fucking,

I couldn't breathe and I was like, I'm probably gonna die. Oh, Jesus. I was like, I was like, I could. Like when you got the CPAP on and even the CPAP can't get through how fucked up your, how fucked up your fucking capillaries are from the dick pills, you're like, I should, I'm probably going to fucking die. I'm on fucking pain.

I never thought I was going to, but I was like, if I don't wake up, there were a couple days where I was like, if I don't wake up, I'm not shocked. Right. Right. And I think, and they were always in the most depressing places. It's always like Rochester or wherever, you know, no disrespect. Sorry, I know I canceled. Sorry, Rochester.

I'll come back. or just, you know, somewhere horrible. I mean, you don't remember, but I remember that feeling. The feeling of the CPAP can't get through whatever I've done to my body, whether it's, it wasn't, I only did cocaine a couple times that. At that point, I was too fat to do that. But it was like, I was just doing edibles and pills. Why are you too fat to do cocaine?

I think we know the answer to that. No, no. Every fucking, whatever, every fat comedian. Oh, right. It's like the ones I'm doing. Farley, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, not what I was doing was good. Don't get me wrong.

Right. Right. Your heart can't. If you're over what your heart can't handle cocaine. I pick downers, yes. I think uppers get you going too much. And so I was like, I'm too fat for uppers. So let's do fucking pills and edibles and shit.

Yeah. Yeah, you say that in your special where you're like, you'd have nights where you're like, if I don't wake up. Yeah. Which was really how I was thinking. Oh, my God. And, you know, it's not like I was not suicidal at any point, but I wasn't putting up that much of a fight.

either. It was more like I was voting present. I wasn't voting yay or nay about living. It was like, hey, whatever happens happens kind of vibe. Because it was too much for me. Like truly, you can tell. Like, I gained so much. I was like three, by the end of that run, I was 350 and I'm 5'7. Like right now, I'm 280, 2.75. Yeah. I'm still pretty fucking fat. Imagine 70 pounds more than this. Unbelievable. I related to that part of the special so much because after I sleepwalk through a second story window. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had like, honestly, like, a couple years where it really does have to do with, like, being in small towns where there's not a decent hotel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I would, I would be like, I mean, I guess I could jump through. Right, right, right. I'm on my convent or whatever, but, and I have my sleeping back, I don't know. Like, anything could happen. Of course. Man, is that a crazy feeling? It's tough, dude. It's weird.

It's bizarre because, well, it is kind of this, it's almost freeing where you're like, we don't ever have control of for anything. anything. Yeah. Like, yes, I have pushed myself into something bad. Yes. But the reality is, you know, we could all fucking die at any point, you know what I mean? Like at any point, it could happen. But at the same time, you shouldn't tempt it.

Right. You know what I mean? You shouldn't be like, you know, hey death. You know what I mean? Totally. Check me out, death. Totally. Hop, hop, hop, hop.

You know what I mean? Like, well, it's funny, like, when I had the sleepwalking thing, you realize you go, oh, there's not a definitive cure for almost anything. That's even more insane because mine was purely my behavior. Yeah. And I'm sure there were some psychological triggers and there was shit you could do to like to and probably all the stress, all the what all the traveling. Like yes, but for me it was like and look to some degree stand up comedy just kind of forces you to live that way. Yeah.

Not as extreme as I was. But like for me it was the kind of thing where I'm like, wow, I really need the, I am doing this to myself. You had like a very bizarre thing happen. It's bizarre. That feels a little deus ex machina. Whereas like for me it was like very. very much, I was the Stavros ex machina. I was the machine forcing me to die, you know?

What is your daily struggle, like now? Now. Do you feel like when you wake up, you're like, okay, I got to make sure you do this, I got to do this, I got to do this, and now I should be okay. Now, and really for this whole year, the struggle is just, did I get everything done? Like, this is it, I actually am disappointed in myself because the year we were talking about right now where it was like the best and the worst day, I told myself I would never, get back there, right? And I didn't quite get back there, but I kind of, like, I fucked my,

if I wasn't this busy, I know I wouldn't have fucked my backup as bad. You know, my, I, I have maintained, I've sort of, with the help of the world's most powerful weight loss medicines, I have lost three pounds in a year. You know what I mean? Like, I've just plateaued. Well, I'm just kind of plateaued, where it's like, instead of, now I know I would have gone crazy. I would have been back at 350 this year. But my struggle is just like, I've just, I've again said yes to too many things. I haven't respected myself as a human being or an artist. I've thought about my career first and foremost.

And I am letting it kill me. And it's, again, not as bad as that year, right? I don't have as big a hole to climb out of. And if my back wasn't fucked up, I think I'd actually be fine. But that's what you realize is that's what you're eligible for at this age. Right. When you burn the candle at both ends now, after a, after your entire life being just so unhealthy,

of course, like, fundamental shit is going to break down. Of course your back is going to go. They say stress, your back is so connected to stress. Of course that's happened. And so I am a little, so the struggle is just like right now, I'm very close. Again, knock on wood, like specials out or, you know, whatever. And hopefully it's doing really well. We're recording this just before it drops.

And at the end of this month, I'm going to do press for this for, you know, the whole month because I really believe in the special. I've worked really hard on it. And but when I'm done with that, I am like, let's get back to being a fucking person. Yeah. Let's not put our career first. Because, yeah, the struggle changes every day. Like, before I'm in the fucking Uber over here, like, giving notes on a tour doc that we're releasing.

I'm doing all the, like, promo stuff for it. I'm, like, getting my schedule together because I want to do every podcast. Like, I want people to hear about this. And so yeah, it's just been a lot of every week something insane and different has happened. And again, I'm very happy to do that. But like, you know, one of my shows, the movie we did, I had a broken arm. I did pretend it wasn't broken. Yeah.

I had to take it out of the brace, put on Western wear and, you know, have a lighthearted scene with Glenn Powell while I'm in fucking excruciating pain. You know what I mean? No, I know. And you were great. Thank you. I appreciate it. And everything I saw was like unbelievable. I appreciate it.

What do you, I feel like you've, in the last year, I feel like you've been. gotten everything one could even want more comedy acting career more what else do you want to I want to chill dude I want to fuck it I want to like set up shop I want to find a place my entire the last decade of my life has been chaos that I've wanted I've courted yeah to you know create this career and now you get to the point where I mean I say it a lot but this year was the year where I realized oh my youth is gone yeah right there's no more when I grow up I have grown up, right? Yeah.

And so I'm kind of like, I'm kind of excited to, I like what, I like the little racket you set up with one man shows. Yeah. I think that's a beautiful move. A little racket. It's awesome to just add a little more heart to stand up hour and charge $400 for the tickets and stay in New York. I'm like, oh, I'm going Barbicillian mode.

I'm doing a, you should go for bigling mode. I'm sure, no, I'm not even kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm busting your balls, but I literally think it's incredible because it's, it's, you're smart to be, to actually work harder on something and say something instead of just get a bunch of jokes, but also stay home. And also like, and treat it like a fucking theater. Like, hey, if people will buy tickets to see me, because I do, the thing about my dad actually,

the immigrant stuff and the dad stuff, I'm like, I think this could be its own. That could be a show. Because everything, everything that I have ever, like, every time I've done something about my family, I'm like, this does need more thought. than the regular stand-up. Yeah. And I'm like, and, you know, people love immigrant stuff. They love families, families of all kinds have the same dynamics.

Yeah. So I'm like, fuck, dude, I'm going Briglia with it at some point, you know, when I'm an uncle or dad. What I'll say about that is like you could easily do a variation on that. You've lived a lot of life. Mm-hmm. And it really just takes, I think, in my case, collaborating with Seth Beresh, who's a theater, you know, theater director and actor in Ira Glass, who's like, you know, genius storyteller.

That was a weird moment of my life, by the way. Yeah. Because I was both a stand-up fan siloed off and a This American Life fan. Oh, wow. And as a kid, and it was true, it was like when, like, the Ninja Turtles go on the Jetsons. You know what I mean? Or like, you know what I was like, why is the critic in this episode of The Simpsons? You know?

I was like, what the fuck is Bruegelian doing over here? I remember being like whatever year that, like, what year was two told me? So I was, I was, yes, that was exactly. I was a, I mean, there's going to make you feel horrible, graduating high school. Of course. I know I'm older than you. I've done that to a lot of people. I was like, I've been a huge fan because as a child I liked a lot of stuff.

And I've lived a hard 37 years. So it's tough to hear as a youth. As a youth. But it really was a thing where I was like, hey, what the hell? Was this guy that I used to watch on Comedy Central half hour during over here? And that was a really, anyway, I'm sorry to cut you off. But that was a really interesting moment in my life being like, whoa, I guess you. you could do more stuff with stand-up than I realized.

Here was my takeaway from all these years of doing these solo shows. I think I've done the six at this point, but like is Ira and Seth and a handful of people who I worked with through the years have really taught me is like the audience is okay going there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sure you find that on tour sometimes. Sometimes you have a moment. It doesn't have a joke. It's just a honest moment.

It's a raw moment. You go, oh, this is actually deep. Well, that's the thing. It's like, I do when I'm at a comedy club legitimately feel not embarrassed, but when I'm like, I shouldn't be generating this emotion here. I should be generating laughter. And there have been particularly acting too where what you're saying about collaboration is huge because working with Matt particularly and John, but like especially working with Matt on the special

and like not just Matt but Jared, you know, the DP who's fucking incredible. and Kurt and Bobby, his editors who are fucking insane. I mean, Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie, if you don't have genius editors putting that stuff together, there's no way to do it. Yeah. But collaborating with somebody on my special, a thing that I thought was sacred,

I was like, no one can tell me anything. Of course. On stand-up, fuck you, you can't give me notes. But working with somebody who I respect, who was completely outside of the stand-up world, you're like, oh, their notes are really interesting. Yeah. And, like, I'm not taking all of them,

but the ones I do take, it's something I would never have thought of. And so it is interesting to me, like, putting all this together where there's like, especially the family stuff, yes, it gets deeper or you do something that feels more actor than it feels stand up and collaborating with people I really respect. I'm like, I do, I could really see this being an interesting combination of what I'm doing in terms of like screen acting, stand up. And it's like I am, for sure, once in my life will do a one man show. I just don't know, you know, I don't know when. I don't know what. I do think it's going to be family and immigrant, like, kind of based. Yeah. But there's also one about weight and body. Those are kind of the two main things, right? For me, it's like my family and my body issues.

Yeah. And then where they collide, which is dating, you know, it's like, if you combine those two insecurities, it kind of is dating. But anyway. No, and there's a lot there because dating is for almost everybody, so vulnerable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, painful. Yeah.

I mean, dating is just like, I mean, I remember dating. in my 20s, I mean, one of the more painful parts of it is you go, oh, I guess this person just never calls me back and that's it. I've poured my entire self, like, worth into this person's opinions, and they've decided they're done. And then they have that with me sometimes. Yeah. And that feels bad, too, by the way.

And that feels bad, and you feel bad and they feel bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's just bad all around. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like if you did that in like a really truthful way, you could be mining something that's really deep. I think there's something there because, I mean, look, my goal is to make one great stand-up special, right? And I think I got closer than I've ever gotten, but I'm personally not satisfied.

Like, I think it's really good. And I shouldn't be promoting it being like, I didn't nail everything I wanted. You know, like, I think it's really great. I really believe in it. But I also was sick. My back did hurt. It was at a very stressful time in my life. And I think there's, and there's a couple things.

I'm like, fuck, I wish I forgot that joke. or I flubbed this thing. And so I don't think I fully got there, but that will always be like my main operating system. But within that, I've realized like now, yes, there's more act. I never really thought I would take this much creative joy out of acting. And to me, I do think like a state, eight stage show where it's not just about the laugh every second. Yeah.

Because you could also see that on some level as a crutch, right? Like, I am, it's like, jokes are my weapon. I can survive any, any weird situation with jokes. Try and fucking win with one of your hands tied behind your back. Yeah. Is interesting artistically. Yeah. I don't know if it'll come out.

I don't know if anything good will come out of me. But it will at least be fun to try, I think. Yeah. And that's, you know. Now, this year I'm fucking chilling. I'm not doing shit. Yeah. I'm not touring.

No, it's just a good long-term thing to think about. But long term, I do want to do that. So the last thing we do is working out for our, cause is there a nonprofit you like to contribute to, we will contribute and link to them in the show notes. Oh, hell yeah. There's a nonprofit I do contribute to in Baltimore. So if we could just kind of work with them, that'd be great. Great. We will link to them in the show notes. Stavi, long overdue, love talking. Come back again. Let's keep the conversation going. I'd love to come on Stavi's world. I will. Yeah, please. Amazing. Thank you for having me.

Thanks, buddy. Thank you. Working it out. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. You can follow Stabros on Instagram at Stavi Baby 2. Check out his podcast Stavvy's World. Watch Uncle Stavv on Netflix. Our producers are myself along with Peter Salomo, Joseph Perbigli and Mabel Lewis and Gary Simon.

Sound Mixed by Ben Cruz. Supervising engineer Kate Balinski. Special thanks to Jack Antonoff and Bleachers for their music. As always, special thanks to my wife, the poet J. Hope Stein and our daughter, Una, who built the original radio for Made of Pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. if you enjoy this podcast.

Please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts. It really helps, particularly if you just say which episode you like and there's a good entry point into the podcast. You can also rate that honestly in the comments of any of the YouTube episodes if you want to watch the podcast. You know, this one today or almost any of them. The last hundred or so are all on YouTube for free. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your friends in Baltimore.

Just be like, hey, when you're not eating crab cakes, rewatching the wire, or your, John Waters' movies or Uncle Stove on Netflix. Check out Mike Barbiglia's working on podcast. It's where Mike Barbiglia talks with other comedians about the creative process. He even talks to Baltimore natives like Stobby Baby. Thanks, everybody. We're working out.

We'll see you next time.