Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 31. The Sklar Brothers: How to Say I Love You, Freshly

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

Mike welcomes the great Randy and Jason Sklar as they trade jokes about how to say I love you to your parents without sounding like you’re in the Mafia, the difference between outsourcing and ‘Mom-sourcing,’ grandmothers owning sex robots, and what it really means to go skiing with Joe Bags. Listen as these three joke nerds come together and create bits in real time. https://www.youngstorytellers.com/

Hey everybody, it's Mike. We are back with a new episode of Working It Out. We have the Sklar brothers today. The Sklar brothers, Jason and Randy Sklar, have been longtime comedy friends. I actually worked as a warm-up person on their show Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic when I first moved to New York. It was actually my first IMDb credit.

They have many specials. They have many albums. They're always on tour. There are so many things they do that are great. Right now, at Nowhere Comedy Club, they're doing a virtual show of their podcast, Dumb People Town, on February 27th with special guest Jack Black. That will be hilarious. I was a guest on one of their virtual shows before. It was super fun, super funny. A really cool group of people who goes to those shows. By the way, I should mention, we just announced another one of my virtual shows which is the

International Pizza Party end of March we're doing four shows virtually get your tickets now it's going to be all pizza jokes pizza slow round pizza special guests but today enjoy some of my

favorite comics and also some of the best people at yes Anding Jokes which is what working it out is all about enjoy my chat with Jason and Randy the Sklar Brothers I can't thank you enough from when I was on your podcast, you sent me a gift box from Zingerman's in Ann Arbor.

The best. One of my favorite delis in the country. Yeah. And it was pure joy. Oh, man. That place for us, I mean, that's where we went to college, University of Michigan. No, we went to the University of Zingerman's. We literally went to a delicatessen.

I majored in coffee cake. The minor in magic brownies. With actually a minor in 100-year-old aged balsamic vinegar. Aged balsamic vinegar. Like there was a point where I went to Zingerman's last time and they showed me a hundred-year-old aged balsamic vinegar. And I'm like, they're like, here, take a little. We're like, no. Please don't.

I know it's high up on a shelf, but some kid is going to break that. Zingerman's is, by the way, I have no problem having a little ad for a local business. Hell yeah. This is our ad for Zingerman's. Yes. This is completely unrelated to the company, because I don't know the people at the company.

Do you know the people at the company? So we know people who know them. You know, we have friends in Ann Arbor. They're like the Wilt Chamberlain of delis. It's like, no, no, I don't know Wilt, but I know people who know Wilt. I know people who've slept with Wilt, yes. It's six degrees of a Kevin Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich. That is so beautiful of a joke.

You guys, I feel like that's one thing that you guys and I have in common in terms of sense of humor, which is, you'll go to the pun. I don't even know how you'd describe this, because I have in common in terms of sense of humor, which is you'll go to the pun. I don't even know how you describe this, because I have it with my Massachusetts bit from Thank God for Jokes. You'll go to the pun if it's worth the

trip. Yep. Oh, we have a new joke. We have a new bit that we talk about wanting Elon Musk to come out with his own cologne. Yes, of course. And call it Musk Musk or Elon Musk? We said that we had a men's fragrance in the 90s that if we had come out with it today during the pandemic,

we would be billionaires. We'd be Elon Musk. We said that it was a fragrance that smelled like Macaulay Culkin and it was called Home Cologne. It's the cologne you wear when you're at home. You're wearing cologne. You want to feel like you're out, but you're at home. It's got cologne you wear when you're at home. You're wearing cologne. You want to feel like you're out, but you're at home. It's got to be airtight, though.

You're right, Burbiggs. It's got to be airtight. If it's not airtight, then it's not worth the trip. You're so right. You have to do the math all the time because you're like, okay, granted, if I do home cologne, there's going to be a couple groans. Yeah, totally.

And we say that's your problem. You know, puns are similar to props. It's like, there's a certain point in guitar comedians. Yeah. There's a certain point in time where people are like, prop comedians are hacks. Guitar comedians are hacks. And it's like, oh no, not all of them.

Yeah, Nick Thune. Nick Thune is a hack. Nick Thune is not a hack. Flight of the Conchords, they're hacks. Okay. Tenacious D, really hacky. Yeah. Give me a break. Yeah. Nick Thune. Nick Thune is a hack. Nick Thune is not a hack. Flight of the Concords, they're hacks. Okay. Tenacious D, really hacky. Yeah. Give me a break. It's the way you do it. And again, it's not something we go to all the time, but you know, it is fun. It is enjoyable. It's like you said, you got to do the math, whether or not you want to do it, but it is mathematical in its own right, you know, like to figure that thing out. You have to be judicious with your puns.

Yes. Agreed. So agreed. I was reading your wiki today. Yeah. And there's a great line, which is on a Mother's Day themed episode of At Midnight, the Sklar brothers' mother, Annette, was asked to pick her favorite son and she picked Randy. I know.

Without hesitation. That was a joke. That was a bit that we did for the show. We were like, how funny would it be if you sort of innocently asked her, and we didn't know if our mom could carry off the comedy, and she did. So we said, Hardwick, just

do it. Just gently ask her. Like she's gonna back down and not say who she thinks. Like, you can't choose. You just can't choose your favorite kid. Is there a hint of truth to it? Yes. Oh, no.

No, I'm joking. Come on. No, there's none. She's, that, I gotta give them credit. Both of our parents did a wonderful job of raising us in a way that they had individual relationships with us. Our dad's no longer with us,

but our mom still does. But they also raised us to kind of, they did a really good job of walking a tightrope on everything. It's why we are together, why we work together today. You guys should rely on each other, but not be dependent on each other. It's such a weird line to, you should be friends with each other, but not have that be your only person that you're friends with. Wow. Yeah yeah that's a fascinating thing and it's like I was talking to the Lucas brothers about this because similar to the Lucas

brothers you you guys generally agree on stage as opposed to the Smothers brothers who famously disagree right and they were the comedy of disagreement and in some ways the comedy is agreement.

It is. It's like two minds building on each other in a way that other people can't. It's a weird, it's almost like, and I think the fact that we are twins almost affords us that because there is a tiny bit of wish fulfillment, I think, for some people out there

who may or may not have a sibling or may not have a close relationship with their sibling. And so they see twins on stage and they're like, I wish I had somebody who if I started throwing this thing out, they would lob it back and together we would build this thing. And it's the fun of it together. My brother Joe and I have been collaborating on writing comedy for, man, since we were kids, basically, and professionally as grownups. And the thing that drives him crazy is that he wishes he could do what you guys do, which is he could veto my comedic idea in real time on stage. Because he'll write a joke

and then I'll go up and I'll do my version of it. But there's no one who can stop me at that point. And he'll be like, no, that's not it. Do you guys ever have that in the post game? Yeah, definitely. And, or definitely, or like, we'll come up with an idea and then you're in the middle of it if it's not working well, if one of us bails, which rarely happens, you know, on it if it's not working well, if one of us bails, which rarely happens on it

because it's not working well. It's like you didn't play it out to the end. You got to play it out to the end and just see if anything is there. And that's part of it because I feel like we do a lot of writing together. It's almost like a band. I mean, it's the perfect thing for this podcast and why we love this podcast so much as fans of it. That you come to, and I was talking about this yesterday with our buddy Ben Glebe, who does Nowhere Comedy Club, where we all do our shows on there.

That it reminds me, I don't know if you saw the Bogdanovich documentary about Tom Petty. Yes, yes. So just, but there was a moment when, after I think Damn the Torpedoes, they're on tour and they're writing, while they're on tour, they're writing music for the next album and Tom Petty has The Waiting. Just the opening riff.

Just the opening guitar riff for The Waiting and he's in his hotel room and the band's like on the road. He's like walking into their hotel room. Just playing over and over again and he just keeps playing over and over again and people they're like can you please shut the hell up or write the song that's what they said they're like this is a great riff but just shut up or write the song but the idea was he brought then they helped him i think they joined they did and he brought this kernel of kernel of this riff that then the whole song was built out after it.

And I feel like that's the way we write a lot of our comedy, which is, here's an idea. This is something that happened in my life. And what's the larger truth out of it? And then what are our roles in it, as you were talking about before? I mean, our old joke about the Smothers, because we're not the Smothers brothers. Our old joke was that mom loved the Smothers brothers more than us. Yes. But, you know, it's like, or love them best. But I mean, it's, you know, we couldn't be that. I just remember there when we were first starting out, people would be like, you got to be the dumb

one and you got to be the smart one. And you got to be the one who's always trying to reel that guy back in. People would tell us this. And while we appreciated the fact that people were invested in what we were doing we're like that doesn't feel very truthful to who we are and as you know the in my opinion my favorite comics are the ones that are closest to who they really are off stage It's so interesting because I feel like the thing that has no place in art criticism or dramaturgy is you gotta. Yeah.

One person being like, you gotta do this. It's like, no, no, no. I mean, maybe. Yeah. I mean, isn't that why we got into this in the first place is to have nobody say you gotta and to do I mean, the't that why we got into this in the first place is to have nobody say you gotta and to do. I mean, the truth is the audience will say. Yeah, the world we're in, our ability to make a living and support our families and continue to work will tell us whether we gotta do anything.

Do you guys both have veto power over jokes at all times? Yeah, I think so. I think if one, it really just depends on if somebody is really adamant about, I don't like this, we should stop this, or we shouldn't do this, we shouldn't go in this direction. And if someone really puts their foot down, the other person has to respect it. You know, it never really goes three or four rounds, or like, let's put it up

you know there are moments and there are moments where you don't know but you have to trust the other person so here so here's an example so we got to go to the comedy store we have a set at the comedy store which you know at the time and right now the comedy store is i mean right before all this went down was a very difficult place to get spots at. It's just only a small number of people would get spots there. It's in the glory day right now. Yeah. It's much like the comedy cellar, I think, in many ways on the West Coast. Right.

And, you know, there's also like, there's a thing at the comedy store, which this is such a little thing that only comics know, but this is such a pulling back of the curtain. There is no, they do tag team at the comedy store. So there's no host. So there's no one who's a buffer between the act you just saw and you. So if you're going to allow people to get their whatever's out in between. Also, even just to like wipe the slate. Yeah, wipe the slate clean. And so, you know, Joe Rogan's on stage and that's a guy who goes and does a 10,000 person arena. Yeah, wipe the slate clean. And so, you know, Joe Rogan's on stage, and that's a guy who goes and does a 10,000-person arena. He's not supposed to be followed by anyone at this point. Like, we need to figure out what to do to clear the slate

from someone who's performing. We got to write something. We got to come up with it. And so Jay had this idea, and I was like, and we weren't sure. You were skeptical. Randy was skeptical about it so much so that I kind of put it away and didn't think about it so much. Then we got back the next time we were at the store. We were backstage and we're right behind the curtain as someone's introducing us.

I forgot who it was. I don't know if it was Eric Griffin or Neil Brandon. It was Eric Griffin. And we were like, hey, man, just tell him like we had a Netflix special. I don't know if it was Eric Griffin or Neil Brandon. It was Eric Griffin. And we were like, hey, man, just tell him, like, we had a Netflix special. And I love Eric Griffin, by the way. And so he's like, these next guys got Netflix. We're like, are you saying that we have an account? We got Netflix.

We have Hulu also. Are you saying we have Netflix? We got some Netflix. And we're backstage and literally talking to each other across the curtain. And I'm like, I don't know, man. Jay's like, we should try it. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know.

So literally we went on stage not knowing. Well, Randy was the one who was saying no. And then Randy launched into it. So the bit was this. The bit was, of course, like for us, very much in our wheelhouse, like a twisting of a common stand-up trope, like an alt version of a stand-up trope, which is just to get the crowd whooped up for no reason. And so, you know, walking around the room, kind of stalking the stage. All right.

All right. Where are my dudes at? Where are my dudes at? Make some noise. And they did. And we're like, okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. All right. Where are my ladies at? make some noise. And they did. And we're like, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, where are my ladies at? And the ladies always, always make more noise than the dudes. Also because they're second.

Anyone who's second in that equation is going to be louder. And so they go nuts and we're like, oh, dudes. Oh,

I feel like you just got we too'd. You got we too'd. And we just, and crowd laughs. So there's a little bit of a laugh, but like, okay, okay, okay, we're just feeling out the crowd.

Okay, so then we're like, okay, where are my single moms at? Single moms! Pew, pew, pew! And like, nobody says anything. So we have this tremendous, because even if there are single moms, no one's going to cheer. They're not cheering. There's like the longest pause, and we're

waiting there, and we're like, okay, all right. I got to sit. So we stop our own momentum and do that. And then we're like, okay, where are my bros at? Where are my bros at? And a couple people cheer. All right, bros, I see you out there. Where are my bros who recently went on a camping trip with their best bro?

Okay. It got cold outside, so you guys climbed in the same sleeping bag. For warmth. For warmth. You only brought one. You were ill-prepared for the trip.

For warmth. For warmth. But then you looked into his eyes for one second, and then it, like, clicked, and you're like, I'd let him put the tip in once.

Where you at? Some noise. So crazy. It's such a long year. And I'm like, all right, where are my ladies?

Are you still out there, ladies? This is going on for so long. Ladies, where are my ladies out there who support the war

but not the troops? Where you at? Oh, God. Where you at? And then it gets silent and we're like, seriously, where are you?

Because you got to leave. You got to leave. Because that is the wrong attitude to have about it. It's no way to support our military. And so like, it, where are you? Because you got to leave. You got to leave. Because that is the wrong attitude to have about our middle. And so like it just in that period of time. So what does that bit do?

That bit is all about energy. That initial thing wipes the stage clean of whatever they just saw. Yeah. Even what we just did for like two minutes just there with you. I mean, that's the bit. You forget what came before you. Even if it was Joe Rog rogan or some mass i have literally i have two bits that are precisely for that yeah which is basically what i do at the comedy cellar if people which like you're saying

is like the new york equivalent of the store yeah is um because the crowd is a mixed bag. It could be anybody. They could know exactly who you are, or they could have no idea who you are, and they're from France. It's their second language. It could just be anybody. And so I always go, it's an old story, but it's like I say,

a few years ago I was asked to be part of a celebrity golf tournament. And my brother and I are paired up with these two guys to play golf. And the one guy says to me, who do you think our celebrity is going to be? And I go, oh, no. I think it might be me. And then I'm apologizing to this guy. I'm really sorry I'm your celebrity.

If you think this is disappointing for you, you can't imagine how disappointing it is for me. And it takes the burden. It's a quick joke, and then I go into a story, whatever I do. Yeah. It takes the burden off the audience of assessing who you are and what your relationship is to them. They're going like, well, I've never heard of this fucking guy.

Right. And then you say to them, don't worry about it. I know that you don't know who I am. Stepping away from my conversation with the Sklar brothers to send a shout out to Freshly. Freshly offers chef-made, nutrient-packed, delicious meals delivered fresh to your door. No cooking required. My favorite kind of food. I'm laughing because later in the show, I actually work on a bit with the Sklar brothers that includes Freshly because I actually sent it.

I get it myself. I sent it to my parents. I actually wrote a piece in The New Yorker where I mentioned Freshly. That's how I got in touch with Freshly because they emailed me. And then I said, oh, you should advertise on the podcast because I eat your meals. And then I can genuinely say I love your meals. And then I can genuinely say, I love your meals. They send stuff like steak peppercorn,

sausage baked penne, chicken pesto bowl. They're all really, really good. Right now, Freshly is offering our Working It Out listeners $40 off your first two orders when you go to Freshly.com slash perbigs. So stop stressing about dinner.

Please stop stressing. Go to Freshly.com slash perbigs. So stop stressing about dinner. Please stop stressing. Go to Freshly.com slash per bigs for $40 off your first two orders. That's Freshly.com slash per bigs for $40 off your first two orders. So this is a thing we do called the slow round. And it's basically like memories and things that, they're sort of props. And one of them I always like to ask is like, what's a story that you guys don't tell on stage,

but sort of tell at parties or to friends? Yeah. So here's a story that we used to tell, that we've always thought, I wonder if this could be something, and this was a story that we loved to tell when we were kids, which are a story from when we were kids. I think this was like the first time we like willingly both like lied big time to our parents, which is great that we went in on it together. Yeah.

We asked our parents, I don't know what magazine we saw this in, but we had like some comic book or magazine or something. Our next door neighbor was doing it. He was doing it, but we saw the ad for a home needle pointing kit where you could make your own pillows. Oh. And so we went to our parents and we said, can we order these needlepoint pillows?

And our parents said no. They just flat out said no. It wasn't that it was too expensive. And now that we are parents, we know that it... It's just fun to say no. It feels really good to just say no to stuff. You can't do that. Why?

Just because. We're not doing that. You know, like totally weird flex, but whatever. Right, because life isn't fair is what my mom used to say. So they just said no, and we, you know, normally took the no and we ate it and we lived with it, and we weren't very, like, rebellious kids in that way. And so, but for some reason, this thing,

our neighbor was doing it. Andrew Sharon was needle pointing up. So we were like, you know what? We're going're gonna do it behind their backs so we got the money together mailed in cash which always a great idea to put cash in the mail and then for like three weeks we're like checking the mailbox before our mom and dad and like we're really trying to get the and the kids come and we get them and we like zip upstairs into our rooms and hide them and then you know needle pointing is not something you can do in like five minutes it's like your project in your room for a long term project

right it's like a craft that takes weeks this is by the way like the nerdiest rebellion ever that has ever existed. Ever. And so dumb. And we're like, all right, let's do it. And so like you're in your room for a long time. And we are like at the 11 or 12. So our parents are like, you know, what are you doing?

Locking the door. What are you doing in your room at 11? What are you doing in there? We're like masturbating. We're not needle pointing. Definitely nobody's needle pointing in these rooms right now. So like, we're like,

I mean, we had to keep it so quiet. Like we each had these like sliding closet doors. Like we cleared out the stuff in our, in the bottom of our closet. We're literally needle pointing in the closet. Yes. Closeted needle pointing. So, and the pillows,

which I have to explain what the pillows were. I don't know what they could have been like. They were pillows that would have been too small for chihuahuas to put their heads on. They were like finger pillows. Like I didn't even know. Like if you're someone who points at someone a lot and then you need to rest that finger down on something, you're a heavy pointer and you got to put that down. It's almost like a tooth fairy pillow. Yes, yeah. You're a heavy pointer and you got to put that in. It's almost like a tooth fairy pillow.

Yes, yes. And so we finished the actual needle pointing of the face of the thing. And then there were instructions on how to turn it into a pillow. And they were like, you need to get stuffing, get pillow stuffing. And then you need to find a piece of fabric that cut it and fit it to the back. We're like 11 years old. We can't be like, mom, can you take us to Michael's back. We're like 11 years old. We can't be like, Mom, can you take us to Michael's?

For what? We don't know. We can't tell you. You know, like, just drop us off. We're meant for masturbating. Yeah. We want to masturbate at Michael's. At Michael's.

You know, it might be the most exciting thing that happens at a Michael's. Look, we did it at Joanne Fabrics, and it was very successful. So we, so we, we, this is where we go like off script and the, you can't go off script when you're in a needle pointing craft. So we, we don't, we don't have like a soft piece of material to put on the back of the pillows. So what I did was I found excess wallpaper from my room that I cut in the shape for both mine and Randy's pillow.

So, you know, the softness of wallpaper behind your pillow. Yeah. Okay. And we've sewed it on because it was kind of clothy and we sewed it on. And then we stuffed the pillows with our old... Underwear. Underwear.

Okay. Underwear that we may have masturbated into. I don't know. Yeah, of course. This is so vivid. Yeah. It's so weird. It's so weird.

And then that became the stuffing of the pillows and we finished it. So lumpy, uncomfortable finger pillows. In every sense of the word, these were the shittiest pillows ever. The worst. And so that's something that happened to us when we were younger. And we were like, God, I wonder if there is a way to tell this story on stage or what it's about. I feel like it's one of those stories that it's like, it's such a good story.

It reveals so much about you, which is like you're like nerds to the core. Yes. And that exemplified itself in like a classic child thing, which is lying to your parents. Right, rebellion. About this ridiculous thing. And I just wonder like, where does it land? Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I guess like today, you could talk about it in terms of today. The fact that we are, have spent a year with our kids with like nowhere to go. Like they can't hide shit from us. Like we're too inside their business. Also, I think parents are, by the nature of the way parenting has kind of moved right now, we're just, as parents parents more involved in our kids lives for better and for worse i i feel i think about this all the time i i'm like i mean the amount

of time that we spend you know talking about our daughter and like working on things with our daughter like i think about my own childhood like i, I feel like I was, I mean, people use the term free-range children. Like, I really, I feel like when there was no school, it would just be like, go outside. Yeah, going out. You know what I mean? And then it would be like, I guess I should go home.

It's dark out. Right. Like, I would be gone all day. I was like seven. We were like playing, we'd be like playing neighborhood sports with like all the kids in the neighborhood, a couple of houses down. And our mom would like come out at 630. I mean, again, we'd be like you, gone all day. God knows what, she didn't know what we were doing, but we were like, oh, we're going to play, you know,

football down the street. And she would come out of our house and just out to the neighborhood, not even say our names. She would just come out of the house and be like, dinner. And then we would turn to our friends and be like, God, she's all over us, man. Jesus Christ. Get off our back, lady. She's a smother.

She's not a mother. She's a smothering us. But it's like, you know, and that was like too much. I was like lighting fires in the woods. Like I was literally possibly creating a calamity in the town at all times. I was like kicking over gravestones in the cemetery. Which now you think about that. You think about how disrespectful that is.

It's absurd. All we were doing was needle pointing in a closet. So this is a new thing. Two pieces of it. They're both kind of similar, but like they're two pieces. You can start with the first part. The first part was when my son turned 11, he wanted a phone. And I, you know, in my mind, I was like, can we hold out till 13? That's a long time. I've heard this. I've heard

my brother dealing with the same issue. It's crazy. So he's 11. I'm like, all right, he's, you know, middle of his fifth grade year. He's going into sixth grade, which is middle school. It was before the pandemic. So I'm like, next year he's going to kind of be on his own a little bit more. I should get him a phone. You also don't want all of his friends to be like texting each other and he's left out. Like, suddenly you have to... You're walking that line.

You've got to ride that wave. You've got to surf that wave. Am I denying him a cultural touchstone versus am I being overprotective or am I being just the right amount? Are you proving a point? Right. So we decided after,

my wife and I decided after much deliberation to do it. And, you know, so you give him the phone. And it's so funny because I talked to a bunch of other parents about the moment when they gave their kid their phone. It felt like they were talking about the moment they had to put their own parents into like hospice.

You just feel ashamed. You're like, well, we held out as long as we could. You know, we're just going to slowly say goodbye to him, I guess. There are some days I'll just walk into his room and just sit there with him just to let him know that I'm there. He doesn't know that we don't talk anymore. No, no, no. We definitely don't talk anymore.

Someone should probably go in there and flip him over so he doesn't get bed sores. That's a good call. That's a good call. Is he eating? I don't think he's eating. Let's just get his affairs in order. Yeah. And then we'll see him on the other side when he's 20.

So this is where I think the bit can bridge to another bit we have, which is giving someone a phone is almost like you're saying here let me give you give this present to you which is a gift of you now asking me for a million other things that you can yes it's a gateway gift it's a gateway gift i mean it's the reason why most genies say you can't wish for more wishes that's more wishes yeah yeah classic that is that's a great point man uh and i think that's so so so basically it's the more wishes wish so i i now for his 12th birthday he was like can i have instagram and i was like jesus christ all right great price great price by the way great price yeah right i can get it for cheap yeah i was just like oh man all right. And again, you like fight it and you fight it and you stay up all night and think about it

and you talk about it. I'm going to have to give it to him. There's a part of you that says I got to give it to him. So you're like, how can I ruin this for him? Right. So I'm like, yeah, that's it. So he's going to get it. And as soon as he gets it, I'm going to regret it.

And I was like, you got to ruin it for him. So I was like, how can I ruin Instagram? And we started talking about, you got to parent Instagram. Like treat it like something you're parenting. And then he won't want to do it. So I got to be like constantly like, hey, you know, I noticed you're following Uncle David, but you didn't like any of his photos. You got to start liking his photos. And like all the black and white ones he takes of his food.

I don't know why he black and whites the food. And you can't just like them. You have to comment on them. Yeah, you got to comment on them and then you have to comment on some of the other comments. You got to get involved. I mean, this is your family.

Someone just wrote a nice thing about your skateboarding video. Did you even like it? Did you even like it? And you can't use that music. You have to sub like it. I mean, it's like then suddenly you become that

and they're like, you know what? I don't need to be I'm going to get off of Instagram. What you're describing is not only a good comedy bit, but a great idea. Right.

It's a life hack. Like, it's a life hack. It's straight up like, I'm already thinking about the things I could do that with with my daughter to make them less cool than they are. Totally. And if you go that route,

that's your only recourse. Like, in those moments when the wave is coming, that's sort of your only recourse is to ruin it in a parenting way. And it is kind of fun. I had one tag in the middle that occurred to me, which is like, well, you know, my son wanted Instagram. And you know what they say about these social media things? If it doesn't cost anything,

then your son is the cause. It's really good. You have to pay with your child. That's right. You have to give your child to the Facebook corporation. That's right. And they are never returned again. Right.

Or they're never returned the same. It's like they went to, like they were one of the hostages in Iran. Or they went to prison again. Right. Or they're never returned the same. It's like they went to, like they were one of the hostages in Iran or they went to prison for three years. They're Tom Selleck in that movie where he went to prison and he comes back and he can't have normal sex with his wife. Yes. And also it's like this thing of like,

like at what point is the technology that they're asking us for, at what point does it cross the line? Like where they're like, Dad, I want a taser. You're like, well, I don't know if you should, what do you need the taser for? All my friends are tasing each other.

I guess, look, I don't want them to fall behind here. Yeah. It's like my friends are tasing each other. It doesn't kill you. They're back on their feet in 12 to 24 hours. Look, it's better than vaping. It's definitely not as addictive as vaping. It's better than vaping.

It's better than football. It's better than vaping is the conversation you have with your wife. That's the moment you know you're going to give it to them. When somebody says it's better. That's the moment you know you're going to give it to them. When somebody says it's better than vaping. Stepping away from my conversation with the Sklar brothers to send a shout out to our sponsor, ShipStation. If you are shipping things or you're selling stuff online, which we all are. Let's be honest. Maybe. We are.

I mean, we, for example, when you're a guest on the show, we send our guests Beats headphones, wireless Beats headphones, and we ship them using ShipStation. So my brother Joey Bag of Donuts, he uses ship station no matter where you're selling if it's amazon etsy your own website ship station funnels all your orders into one simple interface that you can manage from anywhere even your cell phone ship more in less time use my offer code burbiggs to get a 60-day free trial free what Two months free, no hassle, stress-free shipping. Go to ShipStation.com,

click on the microphone at the top of the page, and type in Burbiggs. That's ShipStation.com, offer code Burbiggs. And now, back to the show. I wanted your help with this bit that I tell sometimes over the years, but I feel like there's like something deeper to be found in it, which is that my brother Joe is better than me at

a lot of things. One of the things is skiing. To me, I just don't get it with skiing. To me, skiing is just brainstorming ways to die. Like, what if we got on top of a really steep mountain? And they're like, yeah, that's good. But what if we got to raise the stakes? We could strap four-foot-long razor blades to our feet and then create barriers along the way. Like, we're all human pinballs yeah and uh and so a few years ago he convinces me this is like eight years ago he convinces me

we're in utah doing a gig and uh he convinces me to go skiing and i haven't gone as a grown-up i only as a kid right and i get the rental skis or whatever. I get to the top of the mountain. And I'm just flying, just flying down the mountain. And my skis hit, get stuck in one of the moguls, one of the bumps. And my body does not. And so my body just flies in the air like a 30-pound toddler on a bouncy castle. And so then I land on sort of my shoulder and my face, and now I'm sliding down the mountain with my face as my skis, equally distributing my equipment along the way,

mittens and hats and skis and poles like a yard sale. Yeah. That's what they call it, a yard sale skiing accident where it looks like I'm selling all of my stuff, which is what I should be doing. I should be like, this didn't work out for me. Maybe it'll work out for you. That's right. And I've always thought it's not the best look for a salesman,

just a man with a broken shoulder lying face down on a mountain, just going, maybe I could interest you in some equipment. I'll take whatever amount will get me to a hospital. And I'm lying there on the ground, and I hear laughter, and I look up, and it's my brother Joe, who is taking photos of me with his phone. And I go, Joe, I'm in pain. Ande says mike you're gonna want these photos and and i and i i've never seen the photos and i don't i don't know where those photos are no it's so good that he couldn't even follow through on that is so

funny so yeah that he could yeah exactly i broke my shoulder and you couldn't even just attach it to an email? Thanks a lot, Joe. Do you guys have anything like that where you're like, because I think that it's a fun story, but I feel like there's got to be a deeper meaning to it. It's like, what is it about? So here's what I think it's about. It's so interesting as comics, like we really do more than,

I don't want to say more than regular civilians, but I will say more than people who aren't in comedy. We take massive risks. Every time we step on stage, it could be a disaster, especially in front of lots of people on TV, like all kinds of things. Like we take so many risks. So I think as a result, if you're not a self-destructive person, then if you're not Steve-O, if you're not Steve-O or if you're not a self-destructive person, then— If you're not Steve-O. If you're not Steve-O or if you're not a drug addict or you're not someone who's just off the rails. In other words, if you're not Steve-O, then you've maybe used up all of your risk cards on stand-up. So then when someone invites you to do something else that is super risky,

like, because you're not good at it. It's not risky for him, because he's good at it. Like, there's no chance. But for you, when you're flying down the hill, it's like you are just, you know, to me, it's like you're having sex without a

condom with someone you just met, like, you know, at a youth hostel in, like, Amsterdam. It's like, we don't, you know, like, it's such a feeling of, like, this could be, this could end horribly wrong for all of us. Number one, it's going to end horribly wrong. Number two, your leg could get stuck in a mogul. I think that's true, by the way.

And I think, like, Joe is, you know, in terms of our collaboration as comedy writers, I'm much more on the side of like, let's just go for it and take major risks. And Joe is always on the end of like, well, we kind of don't want to offend this person. We don't want to offend dads. We don't want to offend whatever, my mom or whoever. And I'm actually more on the, you know, we've got to go for it. We only live once, but he has that when he's

skiing moguls. He looks like my comedy when he's skiing moguls. That's right. So how about this? I got this. So you start the whole story, because this is really about the relationship between you and your brother. And you think your brother is secretly trying to get back at you. So you talk about a joke you wanted to do that he didn't want you to do.

And then you say the joke. You're like, here's what I defended. He thought it was going to be offensive to this. And then you can make fun of that. But the idea is that he thinks you're taking that risk. So maybe his way to get back at you is to take you skiing which is a life thing and you talk about how we as comics are constantly on the edge is this bit gonna work is this story gonna work and are we gonna yeah it's

gonna tank it's gonna fall we live on that edge we're at the top of a mountain every time we take the stage and you don't know how it's gonna go you don't know where the icy spot is gonna be on the thing you just don't know and so he going to go. You don't know where the icy spot is going to be on the thing that you just don't know. And so he takes you down literally because what skiing is, is, and then you get into what skiing is. Cause I think that's the larger truth of it is like the risk taking that your brother takes versus you. It's, it's, it's very personal, but I also think it's very, that's the larger thing. I mean, what I would say is there's also a notion that you can go further with it in terms of like – and it's never enough for people who ski. Hey, I'm skiing down this black desert straight down the – and like if you conquer that, that's not enough.

Oh, well, I had a helicopter drop me up on Jupiter Bowl. It's like, who gives a – why? I got shot out of a slingshot with my – I had to put my skis on in the air. It's like Jeff Ross going like, I'm going to roast people in prison. It's like, okay. Right. All right.

But I mean, it's that, the idea is that it's never enough for skiing people. So even if you were to do this, there's someone else going like, well, have you tried this? No, and that's a great example. And it's like, you know, Joe will ski on glades or whatever,

which is like, that you know joe will ski on glades or whatever which is like that's not the mountain yeah that's not where you're supposed to ski like there's no chairlift there well have you done it on parabolic i don't even know what parabolic skis are right so as far as the yard sale part of it i think is so funny because that is what it is it looks like that i think you can go even further with that. Like what's in your yard sale? Yeah, so I mean it was so much for yard sale. It was my hat, it was my gloves, two Woody Allen books that I'm just not sure if

I need anymore. I mean, I respect what he did as a comedian, but I'm just squeamish about it. Best offer, guys. Best offer. A framed magic eye painting, which I already know where it is. It's three dolphins jumping out of what I've out of a fur coat. We just don't need it anymore.

I know fur is making a comeback, but we just don't need it anymore. Some newspaper clippings. Whatever. It's just like all that stuff that was left on the floor. Things you would find at a yard. That's how injured you were. Then you can make fun of yard sales for the stuff that they sell.

Those are hilarious. I think those are hilarious. And I think that those are, that's a great superstructure, this idea of risk and making the story about risk. Because that's, you know, when I work with like Ira Glass or I work with my director, Seth Barish, like what they're always trying to do is pull out of me. Like, what is this whole thing about? Like, what's the story under the story?

So we try and think about that with our bits all the time it's it's what allows us to get into that i mean it's we do like three things we're like what is this bit about how do the two of us fit into it because that's something that you don't have to do that we have to figure out yeah we're like what is this bit about what are we trying to say about it what What are the jokes? And then how can we create some structure that is a good thing for the two of us to be involved in? That only we can do. That's a Sklar brother bit. Because we are where we are,

and it's because we had our kids a little bit later in life, we're in that in-between where you're dealing with that with your kids. There's that kind of an interesting bridge. And then you're dealing with parents that are getting older. Our mom's 75 and she had two strokes. And you're dealing with that aspect of that.

And she's wonderful and amazing, but you're kind of taking care of her and she's far away. And you're thinking about during this pandemic, how she's handling it and how- She has like every preexisting condition so she can't see anybody and it's just hard. And so during the pandemic,

what came out as like a product that was so interesting to us was- I think it was in Japan. Of course it was Japan. Are sex robots that are also companions for older people. It's a safe- Oh yes, yes, yes, that's right. A safe way for older people to have companionship in a sex robot. We were like, okay, great.

We are so on board with this, having a mother who is isolated. We are so on board with the sex robot companion for the elderly. Great idea on paper. But if you've ever tried to help your parents or grandparents set up email, this will kill everything, including your relationship with them. You are not going to want to hang out. Because there's going to be a moment where she's going

to be going down in the menu and you're going to say, that box better come and you better open it up and that robot better come out ready to go. Just start banging. You shouldn't have to be an on banging just start banging you shouldn't have to be an on switch no you should set up anything because like your mom shouldn't say to yourself how do i turn on the sex robot you should be like how does it turn you on that's how it should go

how is it turning you on nana and so you're just like because because. It's almost like you want, it's like, I want that robot on an airplane from Japan, flying first class, getting an Uber to my mom's house, opening the front door and giving her a hug. Yes. I've never rooted for AI like to develop more. I think coming off the giving your kid the phone and giving your kid Instagram, it's the other side of that spectrum of how we are these parents and be people who are almost 50 years old

and in between this thing and that's what we're dealing with. And the sex robot for companionship for your mom and that's just a bad idea. I mean, we have a whole other story and I don't know if we ever even told you this about our mom right before the pandemic, she was out here in LA. And she, she asked me to, she asked us, Jay was in the room too.

She was like, can you guys help me? And then Jay just left. I mean, like he just heard, can you guys help me? And then like in the shape of my body was the dust that was on my body. And then you could hear my car starting. It's just like a car door and a bleep bleep and he was gone. She's like, can you help me?

This is March 7th. Okay, right before the pandemic went down. Can you help me make an Evite for her 75th? 75th birthday party on March 29th. And she's like, but I don't want people to, I don't want it to be called a birthday party. Like, I don't want people to know that it's a party for my birthday.

And we're like, you mean all your friends who know that your birthday is on March 29th? She said, just call it an open house. And we were like, oh, so you don't want people to know it's your birthday. You want them to think that you're selling your house. Okay. So let's put that confusion into the mix there. So I'm looking on Evite with her to try and find, I don't realize what I'm about to step into. This is why you don't get your mom a sex drive. I mean, maybe that's the

end of this whole story, but like, I am looking at it. They have an open house. Thank God they have an open house Evite. That is a template on there. Oh, and I go to show it to her. I but like, I am looking at it. They have an open house. Thank God. They have an open house Evite. That is a template on there. Oh. And I go to show it to her. I'm like, oh my God, we're going to do this in 10 minutes. This is going to be amazing. I show her the open house Evite and she looks at the picture of the house on the Evite and she's like, that's

not my house. I'm like, yeah, mom, they don't have your house on the front of the Evite template for an open house that is really your birthday, but it's your open house. So I was like, we're all in L.A. No one has a picture of your door opening up. So I start to, that starts the next three hours of she and I looking at pictures of doors, opening that. JPEGs of doors.

JPEGs. Images. So, no, that one opens in that out mine opens in okay oh my god no i showed her a picture of a mot or really there was a cool door on like a modern house and you would have think that i was like i'd shown her like pictures of piles of glasses in auschwitz she looked at this door and she was just like, ugh, it was like reviled about how modern the door was. It took so long. Finally, I see this tiny thumbnail of like light pouring into this beautiful house that looks somewhat similar to mom's house.

And she's like, I like it. I'm like, great, we got it. Let's get it. I click it. It's tiny. You can't really see what it is. I put it into the Evite card. And when it's enlarged, it's a picture of a door open in a house and a person leaning down to a kid in a wheelchair.

Oh, my God. To which I'm like, okay, Mom, this is the one we're using. So you're either going to have to combine your open house with a fundraiser for muscular dystrophy or something. You're going to become friends with a kid in a wheelchair because in order to make this thing relevant because this is right she's like no so then we spent another hour looking at french doors she's like they're not gonna be in my bedroom i know they're not gonna be in your bedroom oh my gosh we finally we finally settle on a door i can't believe how long this took me so then she gets me all of her friends' emails to put in.

And I start putting them in and they are, no person over 70 has mikeberbiglia at gmail.com. There is no, every person over 70 is like, mike.berbiglia736, number sign, agf719 at ca.rr.net. And you're like, these are not email addresses. These are the nuclear codes. Like here they all are right here.

So I put them all in and every single one of them bounces back because there are so many letters in there. There's no human way that you could get it correct. And I'm a smart person.

I just am not entering correctly. It takes me two days and I finally enter all of them. And by the way, mom will not allow. She won't let him send it, even though Randy's like, you know, you can add names to the list. She's like, I don't want some people getting the e-vite. I don't want Ellen Gross

to be mad that Linda Wallace got the e-vite first. Right, of course, yeah. I'm like, you mean the e-vite for the open house that you're having? Yeah. So we finally get them all in. And I mean, it takes me two days and we get the last one there like you've refinanced your house

and that was simpler than what I had to do in this Evite process and we click literally click send and send out the Evite and then at that moment the entire world shuts down and she has to cancel the party because all of her friends have pre-existing conditions yes of course this is why old people can't have sex robots.

Right. Well, I mean, the sex robots thing, it's such an odd, it's such an odd thing. I guess the question with the story about your mom and both stories about your mom is like, what is it about? Like, is your mom in St. Louis still? She is.

She is in St. Louis. So she's in St. Louis and it's like, I mean, is it ultimately about like guilt that you're not in St. Louis. So she's in St. Louis and it's like, I mean, is it ultimately about, like, guilt that you're not in St. Louis with her? I think there's a little bit of that. I think there is like, our mom has such a this is such a funny thing that our mom

like, our mom hates whenever we have beards, because I think that Hey, yeah, that's my mom too. You know what my mom says? She goes you look dirty. It's so funny. It makes you look dirty. It is such a funny thing.

And for the longest time, it annoyed the hell out of me. I'm like, mom, you're making me want to grow a David Letterman beard right now because of what you're doing. But what I realized in a lot of ways is that they still see you as their kids. And maybe that's infantilizing and not fair, but like, fine. Like they want you to be their kids. And when they see this like grown man who's like got a beard and a whole thing going on, then they feel again. It's like, it's the same feeling I feel when I give my kid a phone and I'm like,

oh crap, you're going to grow up and not need me for anything anymore at all. But I think the fundamental story of our parents asking us to be tech support for them, when it's like, I have been working for 25 years to be a comedian so that I don't have to be a tech support technician. You don't have to be a tech support technician. Well, but what's so funny is like, then maybe the bit is like that now in more than ever, you understand the concept of outsourcing. So like, there should just be a moment where you,

there should be, we're not saying to India or to another country. I'm saying at this moment, your mom asked you for a certain thing and then you should be able to outsource to another person who's around your age. Mom sourcing. Yeah, mom sourcing. Out mom sourcing.

You gotta mom source it. Yeah, you gotta call this- You gotta mom source that. You gotta mom source that. I mean, it's so obvious. It's so obvious. Like you don't want to deal with that. You just mom source it.

You send it to someone. It's not like random tech support. It's someone who cares about our mom but who's not us it's someone who has a mom and has been a mom right it's like we outsource we're we're we're tech support for someone else's mom i think i think mom sourcing it is really funny like sticky concept it's a great it is because like it's something that's like yeah yeah, for two hours a week, Randy and I, we mom source for a different mom. She's in Cleveland. And, you know,

all the emotions taken out of it. Yeah, I mean, we have tons of compassion for this woman, and, you know, we just helped her set up her TiVo. And, yeah, I know that's 20 years old, but I mean, it works great. She loves the mom, but we had so much patience for her. I think it works great. She loves the book, but we had so much patience for her.

I think that's great. I think mom source is funny. I think one of the things about, one of the unsung greatnesses, I think, of good comedy is when a comedian pitches an idea as a joke that's actually a decent idea. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Like as an invention or a company. You're like, actually, mom sourcing would be pretty good to have. Stepping away from my conversation with the Sklar brothers to send a shout out to Helix Mattresses. Oh, they're so comfy. I've been sleeping on

a Helix mattress for the past year, and it's made my serious sleepwalking disorder go away nowadays. I cannot make medical claims on these podcast reads, but I have had great nights of sleep. It's true. I've had great nights of sleep. If you go to helix.com slash burbiggs, you take their two-minute sleep quiz. They match you with a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life. They have soft and medium and firm mattresses. And you go to helixsleep.com right now for Working it out listeners. They are offering up to $200 off all mattress orders and two free pillows for our listeners at helixsleep.com slash burbix. And now back to the show. So I have a thing about my mom, which is that I say she's like a Christian, but she's like this bizarro, eccentric branch of Christianity that emulates Christ.

And they work with food banks and helping local homeless shelters and stuff that Jesus would do if he was still alive when he wasn't cleaning up in the stock market. And one of the things my mom does that I've always admired is she takes the consumerism out of Christmas. So she always has a rule, which is she does either no presents or presents under $5. Wow. That's amazing.

Isn't that amazing? So I don't know if you've ever tried purchasing a gift for under $5. A lot of secondhand bars of soap. Yep. A lot of used notebooks, half-eaten boxes of cereal. Sure. And then, no, but she usually ends up stopping by CVS. Yep.

Completely serious, going to like one of the bins. And she usually just gets me a notebook, which I'm easy to shop for because I love notebooks. Sure. And I recently had one she gave me that had a prompt, which is like, what's something that you wish you could do if there were no barriers or obstacles? And I wrote down, and this is completely earnest.

I was like, I wish I could tell my parents I love them or do anything that indicates that I love them. And when I say my parents, no one says I love you. They're completely loving. They're wonderful people. No one ever says I love you. They're completely loving. They're wonderful people. No one ever says I love you. They say take care. Like a very emotional conversation. Jesus, are they mob bosses?

Take care. Watch out. It would be a shame if something happened to you, Michael, and your wife, and your daughter. You take care, Michael. Take care of that brother of yours, too. Tell him to put some stuff on his walls. Yeah, I hope nothing bad happens to you

when you go skiing, Mikey. So every once in a while when I was a kid, my parents would say a variation on I love you, which would be we wub you. Which is not the same thing. It's like, you know,

like if my dog died, like my dog Leo died in a motorcycle accident when I was a kid. And they were like, we wub you. And I'm like, it's not the same thing.

No. Your parents are like the Fonz trying to say he's sorry. Wait, did the Fonz trying to say he's sorry. Wait, did the Fonz have a hard time saying I'm sorry? Yeah, he couldn't say I'm sorry, and he couldn't say I love you. He also couldn't say I love you. Oh, really?

Yeah. Oh, that's so funny. I think that's a good joke to say that my mom is like the Fonz of mothers. Yeah, she can't say I love you. Her office is in a bathroom. She wants water skied over a stretcher. My dad makes her live above the garage. So what I did with my parents over the pandemic,

I wanted to do something loving. And so I got them these pre-made meals that are called Freshly. Yeah. Which I think is a terrible name for a product. Like the Lee at the end is very suspicious. Is it fresh? It's freshish.

Freshish. I mean, it's fresh. Yeah, yeah, it's freshish. It's like calling something tasty kind of. Tasty-esque. It's tasty-esque or not spoiledly and so uh so anyway i i uh get them the freshly meals and uh and i i don't hear back yeah and no word and finally uh i i call my mom and I go, hey.

It's like a month later. I go, hey, did you get those Freshly Meals that we sent? Yeah. It was a long pause. And I go, mom, did they get to you? No response. Yeah. I go, mom, are you there?

Clearly, someone had murdered the Freshly Meals. Someone took the chicken out of the container and re-killed it to make sure the chicken wasn't zombie chicken. And my mom goes, yes, I'm here, Michael. And then she paused again. Oh my God. And I go, mom, mom, it's okay

if you didn't like the Freshly Meals. And's okay if you didn't like the Freshly Meals. And she goes, we didn't like the Freshly Meals. And I go, Mom, it's okay if you didn't like the Freshly Meals. I'm just surprised because they're so basic. It's just like fresh chicken. Yeah. And she said. Who could have this much of a reaction to it?

Yeah, and she goes, they're too fancy. Yeah, stop. And I knew what she meant. Some of them were like chicken and macaroni and cheese, but other of them were like chicken vindaloo, which you could construe as fancy. Too fancy. And I go, Mom, I'll cancel them.

I'll get something else and the end of the story is i go it felt like the weight of the world was off my mother's christian shoulders it felt like this was something she had grappled with yeah for weeks she had told me the truth even though it was uncomfortable it was as though she told me she loved me. Well, that's great. I mean, in my brain, I thought she was going to say, you're like, Michael, I'm still here. Did you like the fresh meals? And she said, we didn't wuv them.

Oh, that's good. You're like, oh, that's good. So you didn't, we didn't wuv them. Did you wuv them? Did you wuv them? We didn't wub them. Did you wub them? Did you wub them? We didn't wub them. Oh my gosh. Well, it's funny because like,

I feel like your story, like today, like what we're talking about, a lot of this stuff is like family. And what it makes me realize is that when you're talking about like jokes about your family, so much of it, whether you're talking about your son, you're talking about your mom, I'm talking about my parents, it's like, you're really talking about how you're insecure about how to love your parents and your kids.

And that's sort of underlying all of the comedy. It's like, I feel like so often we think about comedy like it's like a cynical game. But actually, it's like, I think in a lot of ways, or at least some comedy, is really about just insecurity. Definitely. And your insecurity and your willingness to put that insecurity out there makes other people feel comfortable about their own stuff. And they can just be like, oh, my God, me too. If my mom did this, I swear to God, I can't even imagine my grandma with a sex robot. You know, but the idea of like, but just the idea that your parents

could create drama out of a freshly food order is so funny that that became like a whole thing. And just their idea of Christianity. Well, were there other, my question I think for you is that were there other moments in your childhood or in your life where they could have said it, but what did they say instead, like at your wedding or? Oh, I'll tell you a funny thing that I've never said to anyone is, I think whenever puberty hit, like I remember going into my parents' bedroom and being like, my nipples are like hard. And they just like started laughing about it. Like it was an inside joke between them.

Oh, no. And I was like, I feel like it's one of those memories on a loop that I talk about in a slow round of like, I've never forgotten that ever. I guarantee you they don't remember it happening. No way. There's no way they remember that happening.

Like, the fact that you sent your mom chicken vindaloo is a bigger deal than that. One last thing is we do a working it out for a cause where I'm going to donate to a nonprofit that you guys think is doing a good job right now. Anything local or anything you could, that you've done benefits for in the past? anything local or anything you could, that you've done benefits for in the past? Yes.

So we have been involved heavily with this organization for a long time in Los Angeles. And now more than ever, they need it. They're so good. It's called the Young Storytellers Program. And what they do is, you know, when kids were in school, they would go to schools that didn't have sort of in LAUSD arts programs and whatnot. And they would- We did it as mentors. We did it as mentors.

You come in as a mentor, and during kids' lunchtimes, like, 9, 10, 11-year-old, 12-year-old kids for 10 weeks. For 10 weeks, you sit with them and sort of talk to them and bring out of them a five-page screenplay that they dictate to you. You can't change it.

It's their words. You talk to them about it and get them to write like whatever's going on. A lot of times it under, you know, it sort of unearths the things that are going on in their lives. But it's just an organization that we constantly go back to and continue to, you know, give time and effort and energy and direct money towards because they do great stuff. And it has far reaching, you know, far reaching tentacles in a positive way because these kids go on to then sort of become more confident in what they're doing and then pass it on to other people that they know. I think that that's amazing.

I'm going to contribute to that. I'm going to put a link in the show notes and encourage people, throw five bucks, throw 10 bucks. Like that's a great organization that Jason and Randy are involved with. You know they're doing good work. I think that's phenomenal. Thanks, man. Thank you.

Well, Jason and Randy, thanks for doing this, and let's do it again really soon. I'd love to. Love to. Thanks, Mike. Working it out because it's not done. We're working it out because there's no hope. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out.

Thank you for joining us today. If you want to follow the Sklar Brothers, follow them on Instagram and Twitter. At Sklar Brothers, our producers of Working It Out are myself, along with Peter Salamone and Joseph Birbiglia. Consulting producer Seth Barish, sound mix by Kate Balinski, assistant editor Mabel Lewis, special thanks to my consigliere,

Mike Berkowitz, as well as Marissa Hurwitz and Josh Upfall. Special thanks to Jack Antonoff for our music. As always, a very special thanks to my wife, the poet, J. Hope Stein. Our book, The New One, is at your local bookstore. It's the perfect time to get a book at a local bookstore and get local pizza and get local grocery store food

and get local Zingerman's if you're in Ann Arbor. As always, a special thanks to my daughter, Una, who created this radio fort made of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who have listened and have written user reviews on Apple Podcasts and other places. It helps with our algorithm, which is really what working it out is all about. Algorithms. Thanks most of all to you who have listened. Tell your friends.

Tell your enemies. We are working it out. I'm going to be writing down a lot of the stuff they said in the show today. Those are going to my notes. I'll see you next time, everybody.