MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Storytime with MrBallen | Tom Segura

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Today's episode is something completely new! But don't worry, it's in addition to the regular episodes!For the first time ever, I am interviewing a guest. Joining me is superstar comedian, Tom Segura. Tom and I discuss storytelling, share some stories, and I tell Tom a brand new strange, dark & mysterious story I've never told before. It's one that defies logic and belief. You won't want to miss this story, or this discussion!WATCH the full video here: https://youtu.be/8SEDCUaL0hYSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. All right, today is a very special episode. I'm actually trying out a brand new format, but don't worry, it is not in replace of core Mr. Ballin content. This is in addition to. So we're calling it Storytime with Mr. Ballin, and I'm going to be interviewing a guest.

I've never done that before on any of my shows. This is the first of its kind. and it's going to be really good. We're going to look at the art of storytelling, how my guest employs storytelling. We're going to tell some stories because, of course, it wouldn't be a Mr. Ball in production if there wasn't actual storytelling. And in fact, I'm going to be telling a story that I've never shared anywhere. It's a really good story, so that's going to happen today too. And our guest is incredible. He's got movies coming out. He's doing stand-up specials left and right. He also happens to be a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And I'm really,

really excited to talk to him about the art of storytelling, swapping some stories, and just seeing what he's all about. So, without further ado, let's get into today's stories. Tom, welcome to Storytime with Mr. Ballin. Thank you. Thank you for being on the show. And for those who somehow don't know who Tom Sagar is, you are arguably one of the hottest comedians, both physically and career-wise, in the game. Yep. You are acting, producing, directing.

You are seriously everywhere right now. And one of the things that I noticed about your sort of performance across mediums is that you really are like a remarkably the good storyteller. Oh, thanks, man. You really have, like, nailed the art of storytelling, even though oftentimes when you tell stories, it seems sort of effortless. Yeah. But, I mean, is that, were you ever sort of intentional about, like, threading being a storyteller into your work? I love storytelling. I've always loved storytelling. I've always been, like, very hyper-observant of good storytellers. Yeah. My mom is, like, an amazing, natural storyteller. Like, she has all, all the gifts that you need for great storytelling. And my dad was as bad as you can get at telling a

story. Like the single worst storyteller. A toddler tells better stories. And so like you can, I think it actually helped to be like, oh shit, that's really good. And like, God, that was so bad. He would be like, I was in the store. And then the guy punched a guy. So cops are there. And you're like, wait, where? What happened? And like, her version of the store. And, like, her version of that story would be like there was a hundred people in line which you know is an exaggeration but like that's part of storytelling right where to punch something up sure and she's like and it was hot and this man walked in and he looked dirty his head was heck so she's like painting a picture and you're like yeah and then the other guy he said move and you're talking to my dad you're like

what about yeah oh yeah that guy you're like that's that's the main guy of the story you missed You don't have anything of, oh, yeah, yeah, then he can, all right, and he's dirty. It's like just none of it, like none of the information, leaving out all the key information. Whereas she was like a naturally dramatic storyteller, heightening parts of the story, drawing you in, telling, like, adding color, right? And then like knowing when to pull the pin on the whole, like, just like natural. What you realize is like when you're like a beginning as a comic, telling stories is actually, it's kind of advanced to get people to come along on a story. It's, it's, it, if you don't see like year one, year two comics, like, oh, he's a great storyteller.

It's short for him. It's like, because you're also, you're just not, you can't manufacture being a comfortable comic. It happens because you've done it thousands of times. And you have to have a level of comfortability to be like, I'm going to tell you stories. So do you have like either a favorite or a go-to story that you would use on stage? It's a joke, but like a story that you love to tell. Probably the lost wallet story because that's a true story. It's about a guy named Justin, right?

A guy who lost his wallet in a cab. And the story is that I'm sharing the cab with a woman and she finds the wallet in between us. As of its mind, I say it's not and she's going to give it to the driver. and I go, no, give it to me, I'll give it back to its rightful owner. And all this happened. I mean, this was in Adams Morgan and D.C. And then I took it upon myself that I'm going to return this wallet to its owner, like this righteous kind of feel good, do the right thing, path that I'm going to.

And I announced it, so now I feel even more obligated. And I went through a number of, like I put a lot of time into getting this wallet back to this guy. I do call a bunch of places. I use all the information I can find in it. The only person I get a hold of is this guy's father, Justin's dad. And when I tell him, I have the wallet, he's just like, he's not going to amount to anything. And I'm like, what? And he's like, he's a piece of shit.

And I go, okay, can I give you the wall? And he hung up the phone. And so that was like this kind of crazy, you know, closure to this of like the guys being like, my son sucks. And then a long while later, I'm at, I mean, I still remember it. quite vividly. I'm at a lunch place on M Street in Georgetown. And I'm with my cousin. And we sat down and we're just looking over the menu, catching up. And the waiter walks up. And I go, Justin? He's like, how do you know my name? And I go, dude, I have your wallet. And he's like, do you have it on you? I go, I don't walk around with your fucking wallet. No, I have my wallet.

But I actually have your wallet. And he was like, oh, cool. You want to do. something to drink. And I'm like, that's all you're going to say about this, dude? Like, I found your wallet in a cab in Washington, D.C. Like, it makes me crazy when somebody's reaction to something is like that. And so I ended up telling him to come meet me. And he came to the door, and I was like expecting, like, now we're going to connect. I gave him the wallet, and he was like, cool, thanks.

And then he turned around and walked away And I was like, you're a dad's right Like you're a piece of shit And I shut the door It's funny like so even just now Like the way you tell a story Is you understand That there are aspects of the story

That I need to appreciate the context Yes So that the story matters And so like that You just you turned it into Like this context is like the biggest thing Of joke telling too Sometimes like you watch

I watch comedians That you go like Man that's really funny Why isn't that working Like why doesn't it work Because it's not that it's not funny. And then you go like, oh, you have, you need to convey more information at the top, at the setup for that observation and joke to work. Like, they don't understand what the joke is about yet.

The only reason you don't know the joke is about is because you haven't set it up clearly. Like, you need context for it to be funny. I got to ask you, dude, like, how are you able to? to do all of these things. I mean, right now, you're doing stand-up specials on Netflix. Like, you have a thousand of those. You have your amazing new show, bad thoughts. It's this incredible sketch comedy show on Netflix. And the way I would describe it is like, it starts one way, each of these sketches. Yeah. And it's beautiful cinematography. And you have a sense of where it's going to go, right? And then it just takes the most ridiculous detour into just,

A just crazy territory, and it reminds me of, there's this story by Edgar Allen Poe called The Imp of the Perverse, and I'm not going to get into it, but the gist of the story is like he writes about this guy who he commits murder. It's a fictional story. It's this guy, he commits murder, and he gets away with it, and he can't believe he's gotten away with murder. And so he becomes obsessed with this idea that, like, he got away with it, to the point where he's like, I got to tell someone I got away with murder. And he begins talking about it, and he eventually gets himself caught, and he gets executed. And it's like this notion from that story that we all have these, like, thoughts that are self-destructive.

Yeah. That, like, you're standing on the edge of a building, and your fear is not that you'll fall. It's that you might jump. Yeah. And I feel like your show, bad thoughts, it sort of encapsulates, like, the worst intrusive bad thought that somebody in that scene could act on. And they do. And it just takes it to this extreme level. Like, how are you coming up with these stories?

Yeah, well, thank you very much for that. I do appreciate it. I've always felt this thing, and I think it's part of the release that you feel in comedy, right? When you go to a lot of times you go to a show, and the big thing is people go, well, what is it about it? It's like, well, he says the thing that we all want to say, right? Like the comedian does in some way, and that's like such a release for an audience that, like, they're saying it. They're saying the thoughts that I have. It's so relatable.

And I've always felt like that thing that I know I feel that human beings, we all have dark thoughts. Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts, right? And part of it is like on an individual basis, part of it's societal norms where you just, you have your thought, but you don't act on it. Right. I mean, and then you just try to like process it. And then, you know, social media, I think, is this great. example of like oh these are things that nobody will say to your face right but it's like this

permission to like and let and it's probably it's a release for people to be able to be like I fucking hate you like cool it's really cool because they'll never say it to you right and so in like in coming up with these stories it's like you know the the coffee shop one yeah was one of the was the first thing we shot a few years years back. I actually filmed a few of the stories. That's how I got the show. And so coffee shop one was one of the original ones we filmed before we had a series. And so, but that is like an example of, it's like, everyone has had a bad retail experience, right? Where you're like, I just want to kill this person. And then it was like, well, why don't we just make that? Like,

why don't we have the person deserve, you know, backlash in some way? and just take it over the top. So we just, like, went to an extreme place. And it's the one that got the, by far, I think, the biggest reaction where people were, like, writing things to me like, yo, they deserved. And like, cool, yeah, they did. They deserved to die for the bad coffee order.

But, yeah, that's a fun, you know, kind of way to exercise the thoughts. It's like, what if we think of the thing we've always wanted to say or do were the impulse in that moment and actually make it. Yeah. So actually, I saw in one of your earliest stand-up specials, it was completely normal, that some of these ideas that popped up in

bad thoughts like the Steven Seagall bit and the barista one, the two-headed girl, it's like those stories become fully realized in bad thoughts, but it seems like you at least had some concepts early on. Oh, some of them have been sent with me for a while. Yeah, yeah. Or even like the

the origin, the nugget of the that became something else. Like, there's a, the whole reason, the storyline of the, you know, the virtual reality guy. It's so good. That's the second episode, right? Yeah, because it's a three-part story, right? It's so good. So there's the office where he gets, like, disrespected, then he creates the video game.

Then you reveal that it's a game. And then there's the part three where it's like, he's become the successful guy. Well, in part two, where he's like, we need to sit on that toilet together. The origin, like the whole reason, like what makes me laugh is that the origin of that, the reason that that even exists is,

I've always loved upsetting my mother, right? And I know there's things that she doesn't want to ever talk about. And one of them is going to the bathroom. Right? She just doesn't want to. So I try to say it as much as possible. That's good.

And a few years, like several years ago, I would do father-son trips with my dad. Like where I was a working adult, but I was like, he was like, you know, let's plan something. We'd go spend like two, three days in Portland, Maine or something. You know, and then I'd go back to L.A. But we've been doing those trips for years. And like even 25, 30 years ago, I was a teenager or whatever,

I would go on a trip with my dad and I get back, And my mom was like, how was the weekend? And I would go, well, you know, it was great. And I go, you know, this one day, I go, you know, dad was taking a shit. And she would go, I don't want to hear this. And I go, no, no, no, this is actually, she goes, I don't want to hear this. I go, it's not what you think. She's like, okay, what?

And I would go, so dad was taking a shit. And she would be like, okay. And I go, you know how when you sit on a toilet, there's like a gap between your legs? And she'd go, yeah. I go, so I had to go. and so I sat in that gap and we went at the same time and she'd be like what the hell is wrong and so I would do that to her like every couple of years I would tell her the same thing

she would never remember that I'd already told her that oh you've used this joke I would use that exact thing that we went to the bathroom at this end and she was like this is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard and I basically wrote a story where I was like how can I incorporate going to the bathroom and that's where we created the portal world. But it's all based on that. Do you have any concepts material that you do come back to,

that you think about that that could work, but you don't, you haven't employed it in a public way yet? There is this thing where sometimes you go, you know, I've tried things and abandoned them. And then you find that like five or ten years later you go, oh, there was that joke. You're like, I'm going to try it. Ten years have gone. by. So I'm naturally going to have some difference in my approach to saying it or telling it. And it's one of those things where sometimes you go like,

holy shit, that works now. Like it needed to marinate for a decade. But it is, I think you learn to listen, you listen to yourself, right? It's kind of like your guiding voice internally, right? Of like, it's, it's equivalent to like don't walk down that hallway you know like I think the the thing you have to work on if you're doing this is learning how to listen to that list listen to yourself like hey man don't ignore those thoughts like I used to think that laziness meant not getting up on stage

but what I learned is that laziness in in comedy like in stand-up is about all the times you're not on stage. You can get on stage every night and still be a lazy comic. You're lazy if you don't spend some time kind of exploring your own thoughts, jotting down that thing, thinking about, like, that's the work. The work is in those all that time before you get on stage. And so it kind of surprises you.

Someone can be like, you're not lazy. you're doing spots all the time. You're like, no, you're still lazy because you're not doing anything offstage. I mean, one thing that's very clear is you see comedians who are stuck, you know, like, they're like, I feel stuck here, I'm not evolving.

I would bet almost everything that a lot of the people saying that are the ones who are not trying things, not, not, it's like not doing, you always need like new, something new. New is what makes it. exciting and moving and so it's very easy to fall into that like you figure out 20 minutes that work or whatever yep and you go I'm just going to do that because it works because you get fear of like

what if I leave that and I try to come up with new stuff and the new stuff doesn't hit like that but then the worst thing happens which is that that 20 minutes that works just starts to weigh on you because it's not exciting or new in any way. And then you slowly kind of die inside. That's why you kind of always want to turn things over. Like, I feel like you shoot something or you record a special, and then you just go, I'm done with it, and I need to come up with more.

And then your brain just kind of, you know, you generate more because of the necessity. The idea of like working on material, like going up on stage to a live audience. Yeah. And not even telling them you're doing this, but like trying a new minute or whatever. Is that something that you do? Oh, yeah.

That's the part you get addicted to. Really? That's the whole drive of doing stand-up. It's thinking of something and going, I'm going to try this on stage. And then the build of anxiety of will this work or won't this work, the. the absolute the euphoria that you feel when it does work is like unlike any other feeling which is why I think comedians will do it into their 90s if they live and then the absolute gutting depression you feel when it doesn't is like so it's so powerful that you realize

the only way to overcome that feeling is to try something again and hopefully get the other reaction. Wow. So I can only speak to my limited, I'm not stand-up comedy, but I've done stand-up storytelling. Yeah, if you've, if you spoke in front of an audience. Yeah. But so in my world, I already know the conclusion of all the stories. I know exactly where it's going to go. I remember I had one show that I did and the audience was literally like so respectful. It was difficult for me to like get into the story because they're like so proper, so nice, so quiet. The other crowds were like really reacting to stuff. And it made it so difficult to do the stories I had rehearsed, I can't imagine having the blow of them being like, dude, what was

that? And then getting up and doing it again. Oh, yeah. And the thing is there are audiences, even sometimes in stand-up shows, like you don't expect it, but you get, it's not like every crowd's the same. Sometimes you get these very reserved crowds. Yeah. Where you're like used to people with like a lot of energy and they're just like clapping at the end, mm-mming the bit. And you're like, Jesus. The thing you learn over time is when an audience isn't, like, super high energy or you go, like, this audience sucks, essentially, you don't go, hey, like, when you're starting out, you're like, why do you guys suck? Because you don't realize that sometimes, and this is true, that audience that was just like, they weren't high energy, they had a great time. Like, you don't realize it until you've done this a while, that, like, you'll finish that show and you go, what the fuck was that?

that. And then you run into people and they're like, I had the best time at that. And you're like, really? Because what happens is an audience, for the most part, they don't, they're not referencing this show to thousands of other shows. You are. Like, you know that they're down here on the list of audiences. They don't know that. That's true. They're just like, like, this might be the first show they've gone to in like three years. And they're like, this was a great time. Wow. And they'll become aware if you tell them. So you're like, just so you know, you suck. And they're like, I thought we were having a good time.

They just don't have that, like, level of energy. Now, the next night, you could be in a venue where it is just, like, fireworks. Yeah. And those ones you almost want to tell them. Like, you guys are unbelievable. Like, they don't, I don't know if you know this, but you're insanely good. Yeah. Mr. Ballin here, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now

are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation? You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there. Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now, much like how another Ballin Studios podcast, redacted Declassified Mysteries, brings hidden government secrets to light, and it's called Lawless Planet. Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, cover-ups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger. The systematic destruction of our planet. From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes,

these aren't just stories about the environment. They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet, early in ed. free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad free on Amazon music with your prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries and Mr. Ballin's

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Yes. So it wouldn't be a Mr. Bolin episode if I didn't tell you a story. Yes. And so we actually looked for a story that would specifically resonate with you. And I'm so excited. And I also, we even, the way we got the story, this is the context part, this story isn't really on the internet. Like we heard references to it.

And we tried to find the source material for it, but we couldn't. Like we literally looked, we couldn't find it. It's a story out of Mexico. And so we finally had our Spanish language research or tracked down this library in Mexico that had a copy of this story. There was a very unique recording and transcript. and it's being stored, like, locally, at this library in Mexico. And so the way to access this story is you can't just, like, contact the library.

You have to write them a letter to get access to this story. To hear a story? To just read the transcript. To read a transcript. In the story. The story without the transcript, not really a good story. You need the transcript. You'll see.

So we followed their steps. We contact the library, and we get access to the story. and they're like very weary of what we're going to do with it, but they're like, okay, be careful with this one, right? Because it's like a sensitive story for Mexico. Okay. So that's the setup. This is, by the way, let's just stop.

Great setup. Great setup. I mean, I don't know where this is going to go, but I'm fucking in, dude. I mean, you just, you set up like a bond story. It's pretty good. I had to, like, request access through fucking headquarters. Dude. Like, hear a story.

Okay. So in June of 1976, there's, this 23-year-old kid named Raphael Perez, and he's training to be a pilot. And he's flying, he flies his training missions, if you will, he's a civilian. So he flies his training flights out of this airport in a Chimala Khan, Mexico. It's about three hours inland from Acapocco. And this kid, he's flown many times, but always with another pilot. So he's learning how to fly a small plane, like a Cessna. And on this day in June, he's going to fly on his own for the first time. The flight profile was very simple. You're going to take off like you always. You're

have, fly in a loop, come back and land. Nothing more to it. You're basically demonstrating you can do it without panicking on your own. Yeah. And keep in mind in 1976, the controls, the instruments inside of the aircrafts were pretty rudimentary. Like they didn't have GPS systems. It was sort of like you had like your compass and you had your altimeter. But honestly, a lot of flying was literally dead reckoning, like looking out the window and just seeing where you were. Right. So he takes off at 9.15 a.m. June 23rd of 1976, he takes off. And right away, he notices that it's very foggy. And this is something he knew on the ground. But from a dead reckoning perspective, looking out the window, he's got limited access to reference points on the ground. So he really has not really a good sense of where he is. He's using his instruments. And he's sort of guessing when he's supposed to make this turn, to bank around, to come in and land. But on his approach, back to the airport, he's successfully done this flight. he can't quite find the airport, like he's struggling to see it. But at a certain point, based on his instruments, he realizes he's off course, he's lost.

And so he tries calling in with a radio back to the control tower and he'd be like, I'm lost, like I'm letting you know, it's going to take me a minute. He doesn't really hear back from them. It's sort of garbled static. And then he realizes, oh, I need to fly back left. I need to go left. So he takes the yoke, the steering wheel, and he tries to bank the airplane left. But the airplane doesn't go left.

It just continues flying level at 7,000 feet in a straight line. And he's thinking, okay, there's clearly some sort of issue here. It's okay. He's not panicking. He hops in the radio and he says, hey, I'm having some issues. I can't go left. He tried going right. Nothing's affecting the plane.

It's flying straight at 7,000 feet. He hops in the radio. He starts talking, like, what do I do here? I can't do anything to my plane. And as he's trying to get a hold of anybody who's not getting back in touch with him, but we have his voice being recorded into this radio, the plane actually begins to climb and he's not pulling back on the yoke

he's not making the plane climb the plane is climbing on its own and so it begins to climb and the way the fog and mist was is there was like this big like huge cloud that he was basically flying into so he's ascending up to like eight, nine, ten thousand feet he can't go left, can't go right

he's just going straight up into this cloud and so he can't see anything he's like in a void he's totally panic now he can't get a hold of anybody on the radio about the time he's totally obscured in the clouds, he feels this overwhelming tiredness come over him. And he passes out, just passes out in the cockpit. He wakes up in the cockpit, has no idea how long he's been asleep for. Could have been a second, could have been days, but he's immediately shocked that, holy cow, I did not

crash the plane. Like, I know I just fell asleep in the plane. But a couple things immediately become clear to him. First of all, his plane's still flying. He's still in the air. He's still coasting along, right? But he's back down to 7,000 feet. He was climbing before. Now he's back down to 7,000 feet. He also looks out the window and there's no more mist or fog or anything like that. It's actually just the open ocean underneath him. And immediately he thinks to himself, I took off from this airport that's three hours inland from the coast. If I went in a straight line and he looks at his clock and it says 1130. He took up at 9.15, 10.15, 1115. So two hours and 15 minutes from the time he took off. I'm doing the math right. It's below three hours.

what body of water am I over? The amount of time that has transpired that apparently I was asleep for is not enough time for me to arrive over any body of water. That flashes through his mind. In addition to that, he looks at his gas gauge and it's at three-quarters tank.

And he knew that not only is that way too high, but he wouldn't have had, even if he had three hours, he wouldn't have had enough gas to reach any water body. So wouldn't have enough gas but have three-quarter tank of gas. Also, again, how did I get here? I have no idea how I got here, has no idea where he is.

And as he's, like, coming to, like, what's happening here, somebody chimes in over the radio and goes, hey, hey, are you there? And he grabs this radio, and he's like, he's totally frantic. He's like, hey, I fell asleep in my plane. I don't know where I am. And there's a pause, and this is all recorded, there's a pause. And the guy on the other end, he introduces himself sort of cautiously. He's like, hey, this is Carlos. Are you alone in your airplane?

And Raphael is like, of course I'm alone. Like, where am I? What? I think I fell asleep. I don't know what's going on. And Carlos, his reaction is just sort of, okay, well, listen, here's what we're going to do. You're just off the coast of Acapocco, and for the last hour, you've been flying out over

the water. He just kind of showed up, right? And by the way, going back to the timeline, he arrived off the coast of Acapoco now an hour earlier. That was 10.30 in the morning. Took off at 9.15. It takes three hours to get there. He apparently did it about an hour and 15 minutes.

He's circling over the water. And Carlos is like, hey, just come into the airport where I am. I'm going to get you in there. You're going to land. And we'll talk to you then. And so Raphael is just happy to be alive at this point. He comes in. He lands at the airport in Acapocco.

And as soon as he gets off, there's these people in suits that are there to meet him. And they immediately take him. They detain him. Put him in like a black car. He's asking what's going on. Nobody knows. They don't tell him. And they drive him to a hospital.

And he's the whole time saying, I'm so sorry about the craft. Please tell where I flew out of that I'm sorry about the crap. I hope it's not damaged. They bring him to the hospital. They drug test him right away. He's not on drugs. He's sober. And they also have a psychologist come in and they give him a profile, make sure he's sane.

And she determines that he is. And so the whole time, Raphael has no idea what's happening. He doesn't know what they're doing. He doesn't understand any of this. And so finally they say, okay, we're going to tell you what happened. So when you showed up off the coast of Bacopoko at about 10.30 in the morning, which no one understands how you got there. It's not possible. You showed up on the radar screen of who you were talking to, Carlos, the air traffic control guy. And he talked to you for an hour

while you were out over the water. That whole time you were circling, you were talking to him, and it was recorded. And I'm going to read to you the first thing that Raphael said to Carlos. And you're going to see in a minute why Carlos's first question when Raphael came to was, is there somebody else in the plane. He said in a very deep, almost robotic voice, when Carlos saw this blip on his radar at 1030, he said, hey, who is this? You're flying over Acapulco's coast. What's going on here? The voice came back and said, the pilot is speaking, but not of his own free will. We are using him as a microphone. Your equipment is too primitive. It is not important who we are or where we come from, only that we are inhabitants of the same universe. For the next 30 to 45 minutes,

The voice being projected through Raphael talked about humanity is the only intelligent species in the entire universe that uses warfare and conducts violence on each other, and you are poised for a nuclear holocaust, and you may be exterminated if this continues. And then, at about 1130, Raphael wakes up, and his voice changed completely. And he's, oh, what's going on? I think I think I fell asleep at the wheel. And that's why Carlos is like, wait a minute, I've been talking to you for an hour. He's like, is somebody else in the craft with you, right?

No one has any idea how Raphael wound up over the coast. They examined his plane, nothing wrong with this plane. It really was three-quarter tanks of gas. It didn't make sense how it got there. Nobody knows. Raphael has no idea how he got there. And the Mexican government quickly took this story, buried it, and now you can only access it in this obscure library in Mexico.

That's a great story. So what's your take on what happened? first of all great job telling the story I mean there is only one summary you could get either this is like a I guess it's two it's either a bipolar or schizophrenic who is having a pretty crazy episode

or there's another being involved which is more exciting more entertaining because we're in the era now of the government being like, yeah, we have stuff. UFOs are real. Yeah.

And we have aliens and they've been here and other places have them too. And most people just go, oh, cool. Like, the thing that we used to make a movie about as being like, can you imagine if there were aliens

and everybody would go like, that would be fucking wild. And then now we're like, yeah, we have them. And everyone's like, yeah. It's very strange, right? like that there's like congressional testimony I know about aliens nobody's heart even skipped a beat I thought we would all stop and be like no way nobody cares I know some of the footage that's

been released that uh some of the videos of these apparent UFOs yeah I mean either it's an incredible CGI which is entirely possible but I think the idea that there's just like widespread conspiracy by the government like what dupe us into believing that maybe they're that these aren't real or something. It doesn't make any sense to me. No, it doesn't. Do you believe in aliens? I mean, extraterrestrials, life outside of humans?

So for me, it was always like when you have, and I don't even have the full comprehension of it, but when you have some grasp of the idea of the size of our galaxies in the universe, it becomes, for me, it just always felt like too arrogant to be like, it's just us. Yes. I stand with you firmly on that point.

Yeah, and then, like, I think the natural thing is that you just become naturally more curious, you know? My wife is a huge, like, dude, it's all day. She's like, you know what this guy just said about UAPs? I'm like, I don't know. And she gives me like, like, she'll read back the transcript from like the senator. And I'm like, wow, that's pretty wild.

That's pretty good. But honestly, it's made me realize that it is a more exciting thing to, like, think about and talk about. And then, I mean, I think the natural thing is like, it feels like it's almost like being crumbed out for us. You're like, yeah, but where's the next thing, right? Like, when are we going to see or hear from something? You know, like, you just want more. That point exactly, I think it was Neil DeGross Tyson who gave this example.

I don't know if it was him, the astrophysicist's guy. He was like, humans think that if there were alien life, extraterrestrial life on Earth, that effectively we believe we could just simply identify it that he would view it as like a three-dimensional being, let's say. Right. But he was like, think of it this way. What are the odds?

Or I should say, when you walk down the street and there is a ant on the ground, are you like, I want to get down there and talk to that ant. Right. No. You might step on the ant. You might not even notice the ant. Go even lower than that to like algae.

Are you like looking to communicate with algae? No. What's to say that we are not equivalent to an ant or algae to other beings? Suggesting if there were higher beings on this planet, it's very arrogant to say we would simply, one, they'd be interested in us. Are you interested in algae or two, that we could even recognize them as anything close to what we are. Algae and humans couldn't be more different in terms of their makeup. And so it's like they could absolutely be here, but they're four-dimensional.

Imagine the aliens watching, like they're just like trying to figure out people, and they just pull up this clip. And they're just like, look these two fucking ants, like talking about the dumbest shit. Two ants. We're going to waste our time with these morons. There's also the theory that it becomes, you know, it feels like fantasy, but I don't know, you can let your mind kind of embrace the idea that certain humans, you're like, that's a reptilian. like you know i mean like that's an like these evil like these like innately evil seeming people and i don't know that they're already here you're like it's kind of fun to to play with that idea i like to believe man yeah it's fun it's fun so for you i mean i i i uh you've been

successful in so many different mediums you know you just got renewed for season two of bad thoughts which is amazing you've sort of done like all of it what's the next chapter like you described evolving i mean you've done a lot of that what's next um honestly it's uh i mean i keep doing as many of those things as you can and then it's i have um a movie this summer i'm really excited to do uh i've always loved movies like i'm a huge fan of cinema yeah and so for me it's like i i feel like i won the lottery where i get to i'm like i get to do a a movie. This is so awesome. I'm so excited to do it. Can you tell us anything about the movie? Yeah, I mean, it's a cartel comedy. I get to play more than one character. I get to play two

characters, which is like, it just feels insane that they're allowing me to do this. And it's really, really funny script as it's so ridiculous. And it's an R-rated comedy. It's wild. It's wild it's fun but it also has like a lot to me like the thing that I loved about great comedies growing up especially like R-rated comedies was like you almost take the comedies for granted

the comedic parts of it it's like you have to have great story supporting the comedy it's almost like you go like I know this is going to be funny but is the story a good story and I think this is a really good story that has like great dynamics

great characters and it's outrageously funny, but you still care for this main character. And, I don't know, I mean, I'm talking to you about six weeks before we shoot. I hope if it, they'll definitely cut this up and play it if we make a piece of shit. It's going to be so good. But I'm very excited to do it. I'm so excited. So that's, to me, like, the most exciting thing about, like, what's next?

I'm like, I'm so stoked to do this. I've always been, I moved. to L.A. when I was 22, thinking that, like, I'm going to have a movie career. And I'm 46. I'm crushing it, dude. I'm going to do a movie. Yeah. So I'm excited. Well, dude, congratulations. And seriously, you need to check out bad thoughts on Netflix. Season two is very exciting. I look forward to your movie. You're the man, dude. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. It was a lot of fun. Thank you.

Hey, Prime Members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. I'm excited to tell you about something special. For the first time, my show, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with redacted, declassified mysteries with Luke Lamanah to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles. This special episode is called a redacted medical mystery. In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker,

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