Pablo Torre Finds Out - The Anti-4/20 4/20 Episode, with a Stoned Katie Nolan and a Very Much Not-Stoned Dan Soder

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

Comedian Dan Soder has come a long way since the seeds-and-stems days of kitty-litter gravity bongs. After quitting drinking and cigarettes and tethering many super-high people back to Earth, he has ��� at least temporarily — taken a weed sabbatical, ahead of the amateur holiday for dorks. His fiancée and Pablo... not so much. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. Gino's Italian. Hey, love pizza from Brooklyn. Right after this ad. You're listening to Draft King's Network. Pablo, genuinely, I didn't prepare anything. I thought we were smoking weed for this podcast.

I thought you and I were going to bully him and just make him watch us smoke weed. And then we moved it to here and we're not doing that anymore. so I smoked a bunch of weed before I came. I do have a bag full of, I think, Mike Tyson edibles that we've been collecting. Oh, the ones look like ears? Yeah, we got the mic bites. I've had those before.

So I guess I should say that I have collected what seems to be sports media's largest collection of athlete branded weed. God, this is such a tease. For an episode that we were going to do today, until I learned recently, that we can't do it, even though I think we should and will do,

it eventually, yes. Because... This summer we can. Absolutely. So that's this summer. All of this will be consumed this summer. But in the meantime, I want to explain why we can't do it. And that is?

And that is. I've taken an extended break from smoking and consuming marijuana. It's me clapping along. It went into a bunch of edibles. Producers by in the glass, I'm like, why are we applauding this? And I want to hear Dan out. I want to hear Dan out. Hey, we're applauding this for a number of reason.

It's legal now, so it's only for dorks. Okay, don't start. If you weren't doing it when it was actually worth the risk, you're a f*** narque and a nerd. He's not like this, I swear. No. I've been consistently getting high almost daily since I was 15, and I'm about to turn 41. So that's 26 years of dunking my brain in resin. What's the longest break you went on in that time?

For five days. That's why. And I'm at day 14 right now. Woo. I've so many questions. Yeah, I mean, I'm in therapy. I've been in therapy for 13 years, and there becomes this moment,

I quit drinking 11 years ago. And when I quit drinking, there became this moment where it felt like it didn't serve me anymore, started feeling like it was holding me back. And these are feelings that any addict will tell you that when you're conscious of it, you feel like, oh, I know I need to stop,

and I don't want to, it's like being in a toxic relationship. You're like, it feels good, but there's a lot of bad, and I'm ignoring the bad because I still like the good a little bit, but I know in my soul I need to get out of it, and you convince yourself, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. So when I started doing therapy, I was having a lot of problems,

and my therapist was like, well, you're an alcoholic, and I was like, I'm not an alcoholic, I just a fucking party. Sorry, I can, sorry, I'm such a blast. She's like, no, I know. People say that all the time is, like, ridden that line on a composter. Well, what he says was... But it's different for me. I'm different.

No, no, no, no. I'm built. different. So I remember when I was quitting drinking specifically, my therapy, I was like, you know, I drink, but I'm not my dad. My dad was an alcoholic. I'm not an alcoholic. And my therapist just point blank goes, now you're being exactly like your dad. You're drinking and you're not taking ownership of it. You're using it as an excuse. And you're using it as a crutch. And I was like, well, that's not true. And then I quit drinking and I realized he was right. And I have no want or need to go back to drinking. It's very few and far between with how much

non-alcoholic beer has progressed in the last seven years. The one thing I missed was having a beer at a baseball game. I used to love to go to a Mets game and have a giant beer and then seven more. But that first beer was always like, this is unbelievable. And what about it, though, just to explain to set? Baseball is a beer drinking sport. You like watch, when you go to the park for baseball, you want a hot dog and a beer, you want to sit there.

It's a relaxed environment. you're just kind of chilling. I loved a summer day, a beer, and watching a game. And when I quit drinking, there was a lot of things I missed the getting fucked up part, but I missed like, I went to a Mets game and I was like, this is the biggest itch I've ever had is I want a beer. But now non-alcoholics are so good that I can have a Heineken Zero. I can have an athletic and just be like, oh, it feels like I'm drinking a beer.

The ritual gets to be simulated. It scratches the itch. I've been smoking weed that whole time, but I, like, doubled down. Yeah, I was going to ask, what's the substitution effect when you can't do the thing? Cigarettes and weed. I was smoking cigarettes, but then I quit cigarettes six months later. So all I was left with was weed. So that got ratcheted up quadruple.

How long ago was this? 11 years ago. Okay. So. When did you quit cigarettes? 11 years ago? Yeah, I quit smoking. I quit drinking in March of 2013, and I quit cigarettes June right before my 30th birthday

because I didn't want to go into my 30 smoking cigarettes. So I quit June 23rd, 2013. I don't even remember the year, and you remember the date. Oh, I remember the date, baby, because I miss cigarettes still. So I was going to ask about, okay, so. The hardest thing to quit is cigarettes. The hardest thing to quit for me. I know other people have different feelings.

I miss cigarettes daily. Katie and I talk about it all the time. She quit cigarettes. She's actually, she's not going to brag about this, but I'm very proud of her. She was on Nicorette gum and mince and then quit in January. And she's been good. December 24th. There you go.

See, you remember the day. Only because this was Christmas Eve and we were on a road trip and then like two days later we're sleeping in our car and I was like could really go for some of that thing that takes the edge off right now. I still have one on me. And she never used it. And I was very impressed that she quit nicotine in that situation. It's the lamest thing to have to quit is like little candies you put in your mouth every few hours. Yeah, but it's a real. I'm going to get to Werther's original. Well, that's what I replaced him with Pablo. Thank you. Shout out to the Werther's company. They make them in all different flavors. And by the way, she's just walking through bags. Not anymore. I slowed down. But February and March, there were Werther's rappers everywhere because Katie was just popping them.

On the question of the edge off and that effect, is that what you missed to be specific about what cigarettes did for you? I mean, they're cool as shit. I miss going outside. I miss the first. The sound, sorry, but the sound when the flame hits the paper and you take the first pole that like... And when you go like this... Yeah. But don't do it.

If you haven't started... This is the thing that I'm like, don't start. But let us talk about missing when we did it. A lot of young kids now are getting into Zins and they're getting into stuff. I think if you go straight to vaping or straight to Zins, you're missing the coolest part. Yeah. Which is smoking and dipping. Right.

It's like tobacco. Fuck rules. The smoking part I get because I've seen movies. Yeah. Like I want to look like that. Dipping's pretty great. Dipping is pretty great. I have a lot of friends that dip.

Uh-uh. The stuff it does to like your teeth, the stuff it does your breath. The way you have to carry around us as a bar. As a bartender, the amount of times I've had to clear people's spit cups. Anyone that had dipped watching this goes, I get it. I don't. They're like, Nate Bargetse might watch this and go, I get it. I get it and I miss it.

Because I remember he'd pick me up in Queens and he'd pack a lip and I would be waiting to get out to smoke a cigarette. I miss cigarettes. But when I quit cigarettes, I found I could smoke a joint and it would kind of... Yeah, because it fills the same. They say a lot of it, I remember they say a lot of... if it's the physical act, so they'll say, like, cut to a, like, cut a straw real short when you're trying to quit. Yeah, and just, like, do that, like, do a cigarette.

They say, like, dumb, dumps, they say, like, dumb, dumb, toothpicks. You replaced smoking with smoke. Yeah, with, with cooler smoke. Yes. And I just always loved weed. Like, since the time I was 15, I just liked getting high. I love, you know, I still like getting high. But you, okay, but you're from Colorado.

Yeah, which, it wasn't legal until 2014. So what's the, do you remember what, this is where we talk about the first time we smoked weed, I guess, but when. Oh, God. Well, it depends on what kind of weed, because I smoked like Shwag when I was in like... That's what most people smoke in high school, I believe. With seeds and stems and shit. Yes, exactly. It's garbage.

I didn't really like that because the high from Shwag is very red eyes, very hungry, very giggly, a crash. You're like, eh, eh. And then the first time I smoked Chronic is what we called it back when I was a child. So 40 years ago. Yeah, 26 years ago. Damn, I was only joking. Shout out Brian Tannenbaum. He rolled a blunt of, and we were at this girl, Amber's house party, and he was like,

oh, I got chronic. And it was, I remember the day because it was a year to the day my dad died. Oh, my God. So it was December 12th, 1998. And me and Brian smoked a blunt of chronic that he got from Boulder. Boulder, Colorado had incredible weed. That was the light green with the red hairs. No sticks, no seeds, and he rolled it, and we smoked in this backyard, and I got the greatest

high I've ever had in my life. I was laughing my ass off. I was wearing a Mountain Dewbox as a hat. I thought it was the greatest bit of all time. I stayed at Zach's house. I slept at Zach's house, and I've told the story before, but I was so high that the next morning I had a weed hangover, which is I was giggly and hungry, and I went home, and my mom's boyfriend Joe was watching

Yukon's women basketball and I was like, it was like 10 in the morning and I was like, we should order Pizza Hut and he was like, what? And I was like, we should get one of those, they came out with the Brooklyn XL pizza. Oh, yeah. And I was like, we should get a Brooklyn XL pizza.

Like, I could fucking hammer one of those. And he was like, no. And I kept doing the thing of like, come on, Joe. I was trying to get a bonding moment. Like if he, I would have liked him a lot more if he would have gone like, yeah. You know what, do you know what Gino Aureema would want us to do? right now.

You know what? Papa Gino? Yeah, dude, let's get it. Gino's Italian. He loves pizza from Brooklyn. And he shot it down. And then I just remember going in like, Joe sucked. It just became like, oh, like it's like going from drinking $3 vodka to the first time you try like good liquor where you go like, oh, this is like a different category.

Yeah, like I like this. So then it just became who can get. chronic, let's smoke bowls, and then it got out of control. Like, high school, gravity bong hits, we're doing shotguns. Are you making a gravity bong? Yeah, absolutely. I have a great... Like a bucket.

Just to reiterate, this is during the developmental years of your brain. Yeah, well, whatever, dude. It warped it. But we would take a gallon of milk, and then we'd cut off the bottom. And then with the cap, we would use aluminum foil to make the bowl. Yeah, poke some holes in it. Yeah, poke the holes in it. and then we put the bowl,

and then we put it in like this, I think it was a kitty box. A litter box? Like one of the old ones from one of them. A cat toilet? Not a dead cat. Washed it out. We're not fucking idiots.

No, you didn't. You were high school boys. No, we washed it out because we knew what it was. So we put the water in, I have a picture of it. I have a picture at our house. Good. Me taking a gravity ball hit.

And we would just get ripped. And we were just finding ways to get fucked. And then it became whatever money you made at your job, can I go get an eighth? Like who at 8th? Shout out Devin. I think he's in prison right now. But Devin had weed at the apartment complex by my house.

I hope he's not in prison for weed. No, I think it might be murder. Okay. For those not watching YouTube for the Jeffings Network, Dan did the thing that Sammy Sosa did when he hit a home run to Devin who might be in jail. Shout out Devin, dude. I know you're on the inside, but we're on the outside living for you. And we, our senior year, we voted him most likely to brighten your day.

And the school changed it because they found out who it was. Oh, no. They were like, no, we're not giving that to a drug dealer. And we're like, no, no, no, no. But he is the most likely. He was the most likely to brighten your day. So we just became kind of like, I didn't, my dad had died of cirrhosis. So I kind of saw what alcohol did.

So I was like, well, this ain't booze, not knowing I had an addict's brain and just being like, well, I'm just smoking weed. I just became like a huge potty. And I just like loved smoking weed. And I stayed, love smoking weed up until 14 days ago. But the question of like, what does being a huge pot did? pothead actually entail for people who aren't huge potheads and want to visualize this. I'll give you this example. When you go to the doctor, they ask you how many drinks you have a week.

That's a thing they do. No one ever. I remember never telling the truth. Never tells the truth. I didn't go the lowest, but I went to the middle one, even though I knew that I was probably like the third or the one that says, or more. I feel like I did the like three to six a week. I'm on the Mediterranean diet, I think.

I can drink a glass of red wine. I have a couple grass. I remember I was drinking 16 drinks a night. Oh my God. Oh, my God. You're such a tall tree. I would do eight beers and eight shots. That's what I,

because I'd do a shot in a beer. Which, Napargetti always would be like, if you eliminate shots, you're all right. And I was like, I don't know if that's true. I still think I'm drinking eight beers.

But I used to do a shot of Jameson with a bud back, bud heavy. Is that funny? I did not know that because he had quit drinking by the time we met. Yeah. But like,

that's the guy I'm going to marry. That's what he would have drank. So it worked. And then when I got a little money, The guy in this time capsule is your husband. But ask anybody, and they knew... That's the guy I would have picked. He just were hiding from me.

And then a couple of Jamieson with a butt-heavy. Yeah. And then a couple camel lights in between rounds. I mean, he's my true love. That's my soulmate. This is all making sense. That's my soul-me. So finally I said that to a doctor.

I go, I don't know. I do like eight beers, eight shots tonight. And the doctor was like, Jesus Christ. Complete professionalism out of the window. They're like, I got to make a call real quick. I think he went like, God, all right. No. No.

Don't do that. That's what I said to my therapist when we were talking about quitting. I said, that was my Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours. I'm like an expert at getting out of my tits. Like, I'm so good at getting fucked up. I can, like, if someone was too high,

call me like Winston the Wolf. Like, I can, I've walked her back a couple times. So, okay, wait, so let's explain this. Oh, my God. He's walking back good at this. So many times. Why am I good at it? Because he's been up there.

And what's it like when he is guy to you? He knows where the eggs. are. So he knows how to get you to the, I mean, I go. Do you remember during the pandemic? Which one? The godweed. The godnug. The one that made me think that we already knew. Okay, the Orson Wells one. I don't, I'm sorry. I don't even know if I can speak about. Because I don't even remember. I just remember, the only part I remember is that we were watching, we got high. Very high. Very high. And we were watching. Remember when Orson Wells, I'm going to fuck this up, released, he released like two movies at the same time. And one was a movie of like, Citizen Kane. No.

But it was like, and then the other was a documentary about the making of that movie or something. I feel like I heard about it from Ride Home. And so I felt like it was going to be like an artsy endeavor for me. It was like his most recent release. They put out this like Orson Well's something. Again, we were very high. Either way. And I'm already going into this going, is this the movie or is this the documentary about the movie?

Which when I'm high is exactly what f***es me up. It's the concept of some, I'm playing a video game or someone's playing a, a video game and I'm being played by them. The thing inside the thing, when I'm high, makes me go, well, what is, what thing am I inside? And let me explain to you as a Sherpa. Yes. The ground has been moved from under her.

Right. So then there is a mental free fall. Right. The mental free fall is when you have to grab someone and pull them back up and go. Well, the thing that triggered it was Orson Wells is doing the voiceover of this documentary. Yes. And in it, he's saying things. He's saying, and now pay close attention here.

And it's like a clip from an old movie. but then it would go into people talking. But if I close my eyes, my voice just heard like one continuous audio stream and it sounded like the clips that Orson Welles was using in the movie were narrating the documentary. So then I was like, what's going on? Orson Wells is talking directly to us.

Listen, and I made it rewind. And Dan's like, what you're saying is happening, isn't happening. Are you feeling okay? And then I went, I don't know, where am I? And then I just dropped to the ground. And he was like, all right, here we go. And that's when you're like, you fasten yourself on the mountain,

You go, you get her, and you climb back up. He opened the... I got her wind, I got her water. Opens the sliding door. Put a glass of water next to me. Cold wind and water. Calmed Myrtle down, because Myrtle's going, what's going on with Mom?

She's trying to lick her face. Mom's freaking out. Dogs understand this. Dogs know when you're spinning. That's why they're great companions. She'll do this thing where if I give her, like, the right look that I'm not conscious of, she'll come over and just start licking my hand to be like, calm back down to Earth.

He's got a... Hades down in a well. Yes. Mertles trying to tell people. Yeah. Yes, she's lassy. This is Lassie. Timmy's in a well.

That's exactly it. You nailed it. And if you've been around super high people, whether it be mushrooms, whether it be weed or acid, you understand that you need to tether them back to the earth. Yes. You just need to go like... Describe what you're feeling. Describe what you're hearing.

This was the best advice I ever received. And I don't know if this man is alive or dead, but it was a guy we used to buy mushrooms off of. And he always said, before you trip right on your hand, I am tripping, it's okay. Smart. Because then that's you from before. So that gives you your memento style.

I was going to say your memento. That's exactly it. And there had been some mushroom trip. Do not trust him? I'm on fire. You're right. What do you mean? I'm right.

But I am tripping. I always remember I am tripping, it's okay. And like you would look and you go like, okay, got it. So this two shall pass. You're trying to intellectually get them to buy into that. This two shall pass. That's all you need to understand is that it will come back and you will be.

And that's what I kept saying to her. Hey, give it a little bit. You're fine. You're floating right now. You're going to come back down. It's the soda in Willy Wonka. Burb. Just burp.

Yep. And you come back down. What loses you is you're up there and you go, I'm never going to come back down. And then you fly higher. And you do go. The part, my experience, the worst I ever felt with weed was eating the smallest part of a that a friend had told me, like, yeah. Edibles do something different to you.

Yeah, they do. It's like an unrideable wave. And it was the feeling of, oh, no, they put clearly, based on how I feel, something other than weed in here. Well, then that's the- ground. Yeah. Now you're just like free-floating through space.

Smoking weed is swimming in a pool. Edibles are swimming in the ocean. Yes. It's a bigger sea. You can get off easier. You can see where the shore is. There's a rip tide. One of the moments I knew I had to quit drinking was,

I used to work a lot in the city. I wasn't on the road a lot. And I was working at the comedy cellar and I would do like four or five spots in a night. And I would go to a bar called Trioonas in the West Village, which is right around the corner from the cellar, and I'd do some Dan drinking. Because I didn't want to do Dan drinking at the cellar

because I didn't want them going, this fucking new guy is getting too hammered. It's still stupid, but it's smarter than it could have been. I mean, I was born in the darkness, molded by it. So I knew where to go to get. But then one night, I can. came back for a late show and I was too fucked up and I literally felt like I had swam too far away from the beach. And that was the feeling I had on stage was I can't control my words. I can't control

my thoughts. And then the next morning I woke up and as one does hung over, I felt ashamed. I felt anxious. And I was like, man, if I want to be a comic for the rest of my life, I got to change some shit because I'm too, I was too f*** up on stage last night at a place that I have dreamt about working since I was 17. So I need to fucking cut drinking. But weed was always there, baby. And I would always, and I love weed. I still do.

But it got to a point where I, you know, I just released a special in March. Yeah. It's now on YouTube. It's really fucking good. Thanks. It's called On the Road. In 1997, the United States enacted the deadbeat dad law, which meant if you didn't pay child support,

You were going to jail. My dad died in 1997. Buzzard beat him. I'm in the process of building, and I just felt like, man, I need to get better. I need to get better. And I think that's always a step someone feels professionally where you're like, what can I do?

How can I? I want every step to be an improvement. Even if it can't be, I want to try to improve. So your comedy, your craft was the reason. It's just fucking around, you know. Wait, okay, let's leave the art. It's just goofing on. I don't want to go lebitard and just talk about arts and the artist and all that.

Yeah, yeah. But in terms of just you... I love comedy and I want to be very good at it. I want to be the best that I can be. If I get old and I'm like, oh, I could have done this, I'll beat the, I'm very good of beating myself up, as she knows. That's the only domestic violence in our house is me kicking the shit to myself in my brain. But I just like, I'm just like, I want to be as good as I can be.

I had the same feeling with weed that I was having about alcohol all those years ago. I was going to say, you've identified now being on stage with alcohol as the turning point in this too, seemingly being... I was like forgetting words. I was forgetting trains of thought. I was forgetting, like, where am I going with this?

And I'm already kind of dumb. So, like, it was making me dumber. And I just kind of felt like, all right, well, let's try. Let's just like... And I had the same talk, same therapist, you know? And he said... What about quitting weed, you know? And what it specifically was was, I have a lot of anger and a lot of stuff that I haven't worked on from the death of my father and my sister.

Because after my dad died, you know, that December 12th, 1998, I started smoking weed. My sister was killed in the car accident in October 29th, 1999. And so I go through that and I'm just getting like more fucked up. And then I lose my aunt in 07 that I was close to. just getting more fucked up and just people I knew were dying and I was just getting like, well, fuck, like I'm good at this. Did it feel like self-medicating? Yeah, 100%.

Like you were aware that that's what was happening. No, but I kind of did. It's kind of like- Just make you feel better enough. Yeah, man, me feel great. Fuck, great. But then, you know, I was talking to my old roommate, Vecione about this today at breakfast where I kind of had this false, this like fake persona of like, oh, I'm a chill weed guy.

But then I'd lose in a video game in fucking explode. And then we had to get a new table. Shout out, Ikea. It was from IKEA, so, like, they are easy to break in his defense. But I just want to let you know. Down and in. Down and in. I fucking cleared that thing.

I was like, I lost a Rocket League game. I was like, boom. I was Rocket League. And it was like, Rocket League. And it was my, Rocket League. Give me my black belt. The sun was out too. I fucking shattered that motherfucker.

The sun being out while that happened. She heard it on the chat. And she was like, dude. And I'm immediately ashamed. And I'm immediately ashamed. But that's okay. I just wasn't tied to my emotions. I just kind of felt like, oh, this is self-medicating.

And when you start realizing that, you go, what if I take the medication off? Like, what if we, you know, I talked to my therapist. My therapist was like, maybe you're using this as a crutch. Maybe you need to feel things. Katie was in L.A. doing work for a week. And I looked online and they said, you know, withdrawal symptoms usually last about seven days.

And I did the math. That was where I was like, let's chill for a couple months. That's wild to me, if I may, because I was like, wouldn't you want me to, I would love to be there to help you through whatever withdrawal symptoms you're experiencing? Yeah.

You don't have to hide. I know I didn't have to hide it, but I didn't want to inconvenience. It wouldn't have. Because one of the things... I'm so busy. Let me tell you. But one of the things is like, I didn't sleep.

I didn't sleep the first week. I just was like, you don't sleep, because I'm getting sedated. I just had a physical, like, two months ago. And my doctor was like, all right, marijuana use, I was like daily. And he's like, how much? And I lied like we do about our drinks. I was like, yeah, once a day. But I was like, I smoke when I wake up.

I would smoke before the shower. And then that's just how I start my day. And then throughout the day, I'd just keep smoking. And then at night it was like, bong hits edible. Let's fucking go. Before you go to sleep, he would take at least an edible. take at least 25 milligrams, at least. After smoking all that.

Enough to sedate me. That would sedate. I would be, you talk about losing the ground. I'm sleeping through the night. Kind of. Not even really, kind of. But something that I want to know from Katie's perspective about all of this is, to what extent did Dan seem stoned versus also being functional, which is a...

Let me tell you something about the soders. We hide getting fucked up very well. Yeah. Dan never really comes into the other room and says he's freaking out. But the next day, Dan will go, I'm freaking. freaked out a little last night. And I'm like, where was I? You never, he doesn't go through it out loud.

He goes through it all inside. And flexing through his shirt. Which I'm like, then I immediately think of all the times I've been on the ground needing him to fan my sweaty back because I don't know where I am. You want the Sherpa and Dan is out there soloing. Right. And then I feel like a monster because I'm like, I was in the other room just goofing off, probably getting frustrated at you because we're in the chat and you're not responding.

And I'm like, are you on your phone? Why are you answering us in the chat? You guys like video games from different rooms. Yeah, yeah, but on headset With other people We're not just like on headset With each other But in the same apartment

Yeah, in the same Whatever sometimes Should I be more ashamed when I say? No, no, no, I just want people to understand what Whatever, man, we live a life He goes through it Kind of alone

And so... Yeah, as one does No I know, I know, but... But it's so it's, I don't always know So it's... That's only child syndrome There's, I'll notice when he's,

When he gets really, really, I mean, he'll usually come out and go like, I'm gonna get scary high tonight That's literally my words I'm going to get scaled. He's like, hey, what if, I was thinking, what if, you know that weed that we've stopped smoking because you're so afraid of it? What if I put that into a bong and I just do binger bongers and I'm going? And I was like, why do you aspire to get so scared?

Isn't that the bad part? Why are you chasing the bad part? I'd sit there with a full bat and just f***ing to these, you know, and a lot of my friends, we get high like that. It's just kind of everybody I've ever been friends with. That's just what we do, you know, before the bonfire we'd fucking rip. Like, a keef dipped, fucking... Jesus Christ. Moon, what is it?

Everything now, can I just say? All of the dispensaries are like, you want a small little one? Okay, we dipped this one in more weed. Yeah, in resin, rolled around in the... It's called gourmet. Some of us smoke, like, when we tried it the first time in high school, we did not like it. And we went to a scary place. And some of us just, like, to take a little edge off.

But the question of, like, walking around the world and being, functional enough while also overcome, does it feel like I am overcoming the thing that is making me stoned? Does it feel like there is a challenge or I think you enjoy about like I can do something that they can't? I think I have a lot of anger in me that I've never dealt with and I think I have a lot of frustration in me that I haven't dealt with like health like in a healthy way, like actually worked through it. And I think weed was like, dude, put it up on the side. I also, I feel like you have a constant running, I don't know, because I'm not in there, but you've got an inner monologue of anxiety that you've, it's like a hum that has been humming for so long that you've kind of learned to just like push it in the back. But when you smoke weed, it goes further in the back.

So you can really not even tell that it's. It's putting on noise canceling headphones. Yeah. It's like, I get high and I put on those noise cancelling headphones and I'm like just walking around. And what's crazy is, since I've stopped smoking in the past two weeks, my anxiety levels have dropped. I don't have any anxiety. Wow. I get anxiety in certain situations that cause anxiety, but I'm not anxious.

You know, I don't think I'm done smoking wheat. I think I'm done drinking, for sure. I don't want to go back to drinking. I don't want to become that person again, cigarettes. God only knows. But weed, I just need a break. I just needed, like, let me get two months. And by the way, I talk to friends that are huge potheads, and they go, well, yeah, you got to take a break.

And I go, you guys have been taking breaks? I've been doing this. What I told Katie immediately, we were in L.A. getting dinner and she told me about this. She broke the news to me that we couldn't do our athlete. Which we will do. We will do. Again, we're going to do. Trust me.

And if we don't, it's okay. Yeah, but I don't care. When you're a Hall of Famer, you got a ball. But what I told her immediately was, and again, forgive me for not being. the best advice giver given that you are currently trying to stay in the state that you're in,

I was like, but when you do return to it, it's going to be incredible. Well, that's kind of where I want to get. I want to... Like, when I don't smoke weed for a while, I come back and I'm like, oh, this is why I fell in love with them.

Well, that's what I want. I want it to be a treat. I want it to be cake. I don't want it to be a daily vitamin. I want it to be like, hey, dude, let's have some cake. And then you're like, oh, you get that excitement. I'm like, fuck yeah, dude, I could have some cake right now.

The way I was smoking, I needed to do it before I left the house. And Katie will tell you that. She'd be like, hey, we got to go do this. I'm like, all, hold on. And then the window would open and I'd fucking, you know. Or, dude, I had my one hitter on me, like an ankle gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just kept that thing on me.

I would just be like, oh, cool, just walk in and then you're like, yeah. And it just like, dude, I don't have anything against weed. This isn't the thing where I'm like, and now I found Christ. Oh, 100%. I love weed. This is me just, yeah, this is me just, let me get out the pool and dry off. For this many years consecutively, you have nothing to justify to anybody. Your brain has not had a second to go, maybe we should build some neural pathways sober.

Maybe we should have a thought process function soberly through your brain. I had bathtub fingers and I just want my fingers to go back. Yeah, you've had wrinkled reasons. I just, let me get out of the water for a little bit. I've said it to friends of mine who have had real problems with a deal. addiction, like real, real bad problems. Friends of mine that have relapsed, other friends of mine that have gotten through it. And they, the friends of my life, I've seen a reaction from people where you have people

in your life that you trust, that you love and you trust. And when it's a consensus, you go, I'm going the right way. And enough people have gone like, all right. Like Vecchio this morning at breakfast, he didn't know. And I told him, he's like, fuck, yeah, dude. All right, I'm excited to see this. You know, Bargetti was like, all right, buddy. Here we go.

You know, like, let's go. And Katie immediately understood. She went, yeah, yeah, yeah, take a break. And by the way, I'm not mad at her for smoking weed. She smokes weed before we play rugby. I was going to ask. I also don't have any alcohol in the house. So, like, I'm already, I feel like I'm doing my part.

And since you're just taking a break from this one and we have all that weed, like it's not going to smoke itself. We have a lot of weed. And so I, especially today, I felt I had a duty to stay true to the concept of the podcast. You know, it's funny. You know, it's funny. Well, so I was going to ask. She asked that.

I do it in a different room. She was respectful, but I was joking around. But he can't smell, so it doesn't really... Yeah, I have no sense of smell. So I'm like, dude, go fucking rip it. I don't... I'm going to hang out with my friends to smoke weed, and I'm probably going to watch them smoke weed.

And I'm like, dude, that's great. My dad's family is all addicts. I mean, top to bottom, you know, and they're all dead. And it's me and my cousin, and we're kind of like, damn, everyone was fucked up. And it's like, oh, we, our family, my dad's family normalized it. Like, this is what we do.

We get f***ed up. We're good at getting f*** up. And we are. We're very good at getting f*** up. But time to take a break. I'm in my 40s now. I just kind of don't want to be... I'm not yet.

I just... I just kind of don't want to be an old stoner. I kind of want to have my wits about me as I get older. So whatever I have to do, I've been doing it consistently for 26 years. 26 years. Yeah. I don't remember most of my life. But I, you know, I just felt like fucking whatever, man.

It's time to chill out for a little bit. One of the things that I was... in L.A. for was, because I had all these 420 ideas, but really what I'm so glad to do is, like, actually get to what's more interesting about all of this with people who actually, like, sincerely have a relationship with weed. And, like, it's nuanced and it's not as simple as, oh, so. Well, let me tell you this. 420 is the potheads, what New Year's Eve is to alcoholics. It's an amateur's holiday.

And especially in New York, we're fully legal. Thanksgiving is where you get high. Truly, my favorite Twitter search is, like, weed on Thanksgiving, weed, plus, like, cousins. It's like everybody attesting to the joy of discovering this forbidden thing of getting high with your cousins once a year. My mom brought the, my mom kind of kicked that door down for everybody. Shut out of camp, dude. We'll fucking rip it on Thanksgiving. I'll be back. But I, I just don't kind of want, like I said, I don't want to make it the standard. I don't want to, I'm just kind of want to dry off. Yeah. So one of the things I asked in L.A. of an interview subject, Matt Barnes, former NBA player, who was the preeminent stoner while active

in the NBA was like, what do you think about... And a possum, Hunter. And a possum, yes, nine minutes I watched it. Just grab it, dude. Come, bro, hop in, hop in. Hop in, bitch. Come on, hop in. Six foot eight, Matt Barnes.

That whole thing he built. Like, what are we doing? That was a pot head wave. I was solving. He was like, okay, I got this. And then as soon as it touched it, the thing fell over. You could also tell, because, like,

anybody from the country was like, just grab the thing, throw it outside, man. It ain't gonna fucking kill you. What I wanted to know from Matt Barnes was what's his view on. on cannabis as a performance-enhancing drug because he smoked so much before games. And again, there's nuance to the ritual

and how far ahead of games and so forth. But for you, did you ever have a thought of, I am made better because of this? Man, bonfire ripped when we got high. There's a certain high Jay and I would get where that radio show would be fucking cooking. Because we're buddies. We're genuine friends.

And I love getting high with Big Jay. And we would watch silly videos. And it would be like, everything I did in high school that brought me joy after school, I got to do that job for eight years. And I love it. And I love it.

And I still love going over to J's and smoking a joint and watching YouTube fails. I feel like something you said about alcohol is what you're maybe getting at, correct me if I'm wrong, is that when you quit drinking, you were afraid that your talent was tied to drinking. I still feel that about weed.

Right. I still feel, you know, I just headlined my first weekend without weed in Omaha. And it was like, I could not be more fascinated as to how that felt. It felt, I was nervous until I got on stage. And then I was like, oh, this is doing standout. I got to write better jokes.

I was still here. That's not that thought's still here. And I had fun. And I was, what I found was, I didn't lose my place in my set. I found like, I felt like it was a little more concise. I felt like it was a little more like, oh, you know, I think you kind of want to learn how to hit the baseball without steroids. It's like if I can hit dingers not on juice, well then I've got I've got the good, I've got my swing back. But the swing stays your swing.

I feel like shit doesn't get away from me as fast as it did when I was high all the time. That's a good way put it, I think. Stuff would get away from me and I'm back, where it's like, I yukes catch. You like saw that concentration against the lions or he's like, and then it falls in my hand. And you're like, oh, when I'm sober now I can kind of see, I don't go like, I'm just like, oh, just put your hands out, and there it is. So what it sounds like, I mean, this is something that I was hoping you would have insight into was just like, oh, absent this variable, I am like this.

And I've learned that actually the thing, not that, you know, the real championship was the friends we made along the way. But it really is, it's that like. You, you've of course been the guy going on stage the whole time. Yeah, that like, you know, the cliche in superhero movies where it's like, I've lost my powers And it's like, no, you always had your powers. You just thought that this emulate or this thing gave you your powers. The invisibility cloak or whatever.

Yeah. And it's like, no, you don't really need that. And again, this is something that I have gotten to myself. I don't expect everyone to feel this way. It's just something that like if you're struggling with substances, just no, it's probably, it's not the substance. It's, you can get rid of it. You know, I think one of my favorite things about comedy and being able to do, do podcasts and a radio show and shit is when I talk about drinking, people reach out to me and

they go, you don't demonize it. You don't make it like, there's a lot of programs out there that make you white knuckle. And they go, like, you can never do this again. But you go, well, if you understand the relationship, you understand sometimes you don't eat it. So I don't know. I just think substances in this country are a lot of times marketed well and taxed heavily. So they like people to be on them.

And that can kind of blur your relationship with the substance. especially now that weed is legal. There's a lot of people pushing it that demonized it 10, 15 years ago. And those of us that are lifelong weed smokers, it's like, man, some of y'all came to the party when it was safe and we think you dorks. So maybe stop thinking like, I got to. It's going to be me there.

No, you were smoking weed before that. Yeah, a little bit, like a year or two before that, but not most of the, if any of my high school friends still listen to things I make, which I bet they don't. But if they do, shout out to Ashley Studley, who right now is thinking, lady, when we got high in high school, you got on all fours in the driveway

and we're like, I'm dying, call an ambulance. Yeah. But that, I mean, I think there's just people who go through shit that you're like, you see people go through it later when it's safer and you're kind of like, as the other person in this household, Dan has been describing his vantage point

on everything looking outward. What's it been like from your perspective? I mean, he's just, I love him more than anything. So, like, there's really nothing, And even when it's different, I don't really notice. But I think you're like, he's sort of more in touch with his, he's feeling things a lot more. I mean, my God. The volume on the feelings is up.

You can tell like he's. I was weeping watching the Steve Martin documentary. Yeah. I mean, it was like, dude. Things are hitting. And they told me that. My friends who have been through rehab and my friends who have gone through like severe drug addictions, we're like, dude, I know it's this weed.

Get ready to cry. Get ready to feel. get ready to like, you know, she came home last Thursday and she had a day I was thinking of. Yeah, she had a long day at work and she came home and I was depressed and I was just like, I don't know, I fucking. And I was like, oh, Sherpa, I've been here. I live here. Yeah.

I live in this part. And she suffers from depression and she was kind of like, stop going on social media. Stop doing these things. Like, it's okay. What do you want to do? You want to watch a movie? Do you want to take your brain off it? And just sitting around talking to her, I was like, oh, this is when I would go get high.

This is when, like, if I was sad, I'm like, well, let me get high and put on WW2K24 and play, you know, an ambulance match. It would just be like something like that. Of course. As one does. Let me control which wrestler would you be? Probably stone cold in that case. But it was just, it was like actually going through it and then waking up the next day. It is.

It's reverse chirping because I woke up the next day and I felt better. And I was like, I was bummed yesterday. But that's all right. Some days you're bummed. And that's just, that's what we're. what life is. Weed being a way of imposing order on the world when for many other people, it's a way of inviting chaos.

For me, when I was younger, it was always like, I can't smoke weed unless I'm in a situation that is controlled. I can't, I still rarely smoke weed and leave the house because less is in my control. And the first time I enjoyed smoking weed was in college after one of my friends was like, you just haven't been doing it right. We're going to do just you and me. Oh, yeah, I was the first time in college guy for the record. What?

You were? You were? First time ever. Yeah. Huh. And now look how cool I am now. I know, the coolest. Got a whole bag of it down by your feet.

But my friend was like, listen, we're going to put on this show Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. We're going to get, we're going to smoke, we're going to sit, and we're going to watch that. And that's all we're going to do. And no one's coming over, and we have nothing tomorrow's a day off. Like, and I laughed so hard. And I was like, this is so much better.

And that's when I realized I don't like relinquishing control to too many things at once. And that's what we did for me was it like took me out of the driver's seat. And so it's funny to hear you be like, it puts me in it, because at least I'm controlled. I know what the variable is. Well, I was getting, you know, I was getting f***ing earhold by the world. Yeah, exactly. And I was kind of like, well, I can't control that. But I can control this and I can get fucking high.

And me and Byron and Dennis can smoke in my garage. And I think my mom understood that. My mom understood that it was like a thing where I had control over it and it calmed me down. So when I was 16, my mom was like, if you smoke weed, you can do it here. You're not driving. No one's driving, but you can do it here in the garage

if you just want to hang. You could have. Like, here's a safe place to do it. Don't get arrested because you're trying to get into college. It was still very illegal then. And she was like just... He really wants you know.

He was cool. Because it was illegal. It was illegal. I mean, that does... Everyone smoking weed that knew it when it was illegal. I just have you wearing a leather jacket throughout the entire thing. Slicked hair.

I didn't give a shit. No, I gave up so many sheds that I didn't hide. I didn't hide. I gave so many... Your mom, I think you could have... The losses and pain that you experienced from life at a very young age could have showed up as anger and badness in so many worse ways

than like, oh, I smoke an herbal drug. Yeah. Like, you shouldn't have been doing it, but at least you weren't like, you know... No, I feel like the order of operations in terms of... Self-harming or hurting other people or, you know, becoming any sort of like violent angry, you know, you were peace, it kept you at peace almost.

Yeah, it really did. And I think it really did, I mean, you know, 26 years later trying to get out of it. Sure. Or tone it down a little. We talked about it the other day. It was like bumpers when you're bowling. Yeah. And once they're gone, you're like, well, I was doing pretty well with them.

Can we bring those back? I was almost 300 every time. You do have to learn to like, okay, fun. Yeah, exactly. That's what I've learned. As someone whose dad was a bartender in a bowling alley, The oil patterns are clutch. Oh my God, we bowled recently, and I was like,

what the hell is this? He, like, had a hole. I did the spin. I mean, he does the whole. He doesn't use the holes. He just puts it in the palm of his, no, you didn't even. You like put it in the palm.

Well, you do the two in and then you, upside. Let's go. Let's continue to do that. I'm sorry, I won't do the noise. All right. Cut that out. Okay, cut that out. Bowling lines?

It's also hard for me to get an entirely clean read on how you're doing because you also released a special right before you quit weed and when anybody who's ever dated a comic knows right after you release something you guys go to a weird place because you all think you're the least funny person who's ever lived

for at least definitely you do that where you're like oh my new hour sucks well maybe that's because you just put out a whole hour and had to start all over again and that's hard and you're like no I'm never going to write another funny joke again in my entire life and so he's already there and then so I can't

tell when some things are that or if it's the weed. But it's just, I think he's doing a great job. I'm very proud of you. I'm a little miffed because I thought this episode would have been really cool. We're going to do the episode. I know. I know. But this is also me. And I'm also going to really enjoy the episode.

I know. This is also me making peace with you. This is how my brain works. I will now tell myself we're never going to do that episode so that I'm never disappointed. You go, you didn't come back to something that you considered an addiction. Sure. I don't ever want to be subliminally or subconsciously encouraging you. to go back to something you quit.

So I'm going to just make peace with we're never doing the episode. And then if we ever do it, it'll be a nice treat. And I'm going to be the guy sending you photos of the Mike Tyson. We're going to need... We're going to need more stuff than Mike Tyson.

I just have a personal policy to not ingest something given to me by Mike Tyson. Yeah, that's a fair point. So just for my own personal... We got some others. What other ones do you have? We have... We already smoke Gary Payton in the house.

That is our number of... Gary Payton's my number one string. We brought it from L.A. Gary Payton's been getting us fucked up ever since he handed me a pint glass full of Jack Daniels at that Fox retreat. Shout out. And then we smoke exclusively Gary Payton.

When we go to L.A. I go to cookies. And I shout out Ron Funches for putting me on Gary Payton's. And I go get the Gary Payton strain, which I love. I think it's my second favorite strain only to Golden Goat, which is very hard to find, but a very good strain. They had it in Colorado at a dispensary by my mom's house. Yeah, but I love Gary Payton.

We have a mellow, Carmelo Anthony. Okay. As a Nuggets fan, that might be tough for me. Yeah. Yeah, it's selfish. It's selfish that screen. And then we have something I did not know until producer Chris and I went to L.A. Pac-Man Jones.

Huh. Love it. We're going to find out what that feels like. Okay. What's it called? It's just called Pac-Man. What are the names of the ghosts? What are they called?

Oh, they have like different names. like leapy, beepy and sneaky? Blinky, Inky, and Clyde. Clyde! Always got to be that one contrarian. Yeah. Why is the ghost called Clyde is the second expandable tab on Google? What other question could you possibly have?

What are they eating? His name is odd as the other ghosts have names that end in Inky, and yet his is inexplicably Clyde. This could be a reference to his outcast nature or just a board program. I've always said that about him. He just bounces all the way from everybody. Yeah. I love that.

We also have Magic Johnstone. which is another... Fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fun. Great. When the time is right. When slash if.

When slash if? When slash if, and if not, we'll just do it to somebody else. I'm not. I'm not. Because we had come up with what I think is a pretty good idea because, look, like when you're watching, let's say, chopped. And they come to the part where they bring out the food and everybody, you don't really, we don't get to eat the food. So it would be, whereas with the alcohol, we could tell you about what it tasted like. With the weed, you're not really.

It's less about taste. It's more about like how is it affecting them. And so it might be hard for the viewer or listener, but in this case, I'm going to say the viewer, to get a grasp of like what was good or bad about it. And so Dan and I were like, well, what if we smoke weed and then we teach Pablo how to play Rocket League? And then you can visually see if we get better or worse based on the weed.

And it would be a visual representation of the high for the viewer. I am going to punch a fucking hole. Whatever table you replaced. We got two tables. They're 1299. You can each get one, actually. You can each get one. Yeah.

They're the very cheap, like maum or whatever. Yeah. It's great. All right. I will see you guys then at your apartment. Yeah. Which I was so excited to have you over. I cleaned a little bit.

Luckily, I didn't clean a lot of bit. We'll get the setup right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we didn't do it, I was like, oh, this can be ready. We'll get the set up. We'll get it right. Oh, okay. Not a promising.

Maybe in the living room. In the living room. The living room. On Gets. PlayStation in the living room. Which, if you smash that table, that's glass. That's a real problem. That's going to be a real problem, Pablo.

I don't have that degree of dog in me, unfortunately. I do. I'll be back. Thank you guys. That's it. That was a podcast? Yeah. Yes.

All right. You guys, the official couple of Pablo Dore. Well, I don't know. I don't know. Saw Megan Sue on here. Yeah, you guys can. They're allowed to have it. You know what?

The kind of people we are, we'll let them have it. Yeah. You flexing into the camera? No, I'm giving a let's go. Oh, okay. They can have it. We're happy to be second. But as for the people who have to repair the furniture I destroy in this studio,

Pablo Torre finds out is produced by Michael Antenucci, Ryan Cortez, Sam Daywig, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim, Neely Lohman, Rachel Miller-Howard, Ethan Shrier, Carl Scott, Matt Sullivan, Chris Tumenello, and Juliet Warren. Our studio engineering is by RG. Our Post production by NGW Post, and our theme song, as always, by John Bravo. And look, I'm a modern guy, but I respect tradition.

And we'll be back next week.