Shaun Newman Podcast - #611 - Brett Forte

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

In 2016 he was Yuk Yuks top new comic, 2017 Edmonton’s funniest person and since he’s been banned by the CBC. He now travels with the Danger Cats and has performed at Joe Rogan’s comedy club “The Mothership”. SNP Presents returns April 27th Tickets Below: https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone/ Tickets for the Danger Cats in Lloydminster May 11th: https://vicjubatheatre.ca/ Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text: [phone] – and be sure to let them know you’re an SNP listener.

This is Alex Krenner. This is Dave Collum. This is Bruce Party. Hi, this is Jeremy McKenzie, the raging dissonant. Hello, this is Maxim Bernier. This is Danny Beaufort. This is Chuck Prodnick. This is Vance Crow, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the podcast, folks. I'm happy Monday. I'm joined in studio by my oldest Shay. Would you like to say hello? Hello. And we got to, well, before we get into a whole bunch of different things, okay? First, let's talk. Let's talk, it's a Monday morning.

It's April 1st. There is a protest that has begun on the east side of Lloyd Minister, 8 a.m. It's supposed to start. And so if you're in around the area, you're looking and you're trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It's a one-lane closure on both sides of the highway. They're not blocking it.

They're slowing traffic down one lane. It's going against the carbon tax. If you're wanting to find more information, go to nationwide protest against. the carbon tax.ca.ca.ca. You can find a location or map with all the locations on it. Lloyd Minster would be one of them. If you're a Facebooker, go to nationwide protest against the carbon tax. You type that in, a whole bunch of different things are going to come up. You can find one that's dashed Lloydminster, dash Alberta, dash Saskatchewan, and it gives you specific information on your

area. So that has begun. That is here in Lloydminster on the east side of town. Moving forward through the week. I'm kind of all over the place, but we hope to get there this morning for a little bit and see what's going on. We'll see if we can't provide you a little bit of coverage. And, you know, depending on how long it goes, we'll continue to hopefully get some things, you know, to shine a light on who's there and what's going on and if anything's, you know, of pertinence to all of you. Shea, any thoughts? What do you think about the nationwide protest against the carbon tax? I don't know.

You don't know? Do you even know what the carbon tax is? Not really. Not really? You got to speak right into that mic, buddy. You're awfully quiet. What is it then? The carbon tax? They're taxing us on the carbon we all admit. It is going to Ottawa, and then it is saving the planet. Does that sound like a good idea?

Kind of. Kind of. There you go. That's how you get the kids, folks. Is the carbon tax. I guess maybe we won't see Shay all the way down there on Monday, Yep, you won't see me there. For a long time. How about we get to today's episode sponsors with government deficits running out of control? Now it'll be the perfect time to diversify some of your hard-earned savings in a physical money that can't be printed. That's gold and silver.

You were looking at the silver coins. What did you think of the silver coins, Shea? They were really cool. They haven't been wrecked, and I guess, yeah, they're really cool. Yeah, really cool. There you go. There's a young silver bug maybe in the making. For the precious metals dealer here in Alberta, they offer a full suite of services to help you buy sell and store precious metals, and they ship it discreetly, fully insured, right of tracking straight to you.

And I was just talking to Graham last week about the Royal Canadian Mint Silver Maple Leaf. We got a special offer just for you. Shoot him in text, ask him about it. The only way you can get the deal is by talking to him and walking through all the things. you need to walk through. Otherwise, go to silvergoldbolt.ca for everything else. Or just shoot him a text. Down in the show notes, you can shoot Graham a text.

We'd appreciate it. I think Shay would kind of appreciate it if you... Yep, I would. If you sent him a text saying, hey, thanks for supporting independent media and the Sean Numa podcast. Cal Rock, they're your trusted partner in surplus oil field equipment, leading supplier of new used and reconditioned oil field production equipment here in Canada. But that's not all.

They got tank fabrication, new and refurbished fluid storage tanks, trucking, pump jacks, and demolition, calrock.com. Profit River, Clay Smiley. They specialize importing firearms from the United States of America and pride themselves on making the process as easy as possible for all their customers. I've been talking an awful lot about their showroom, Shay. Do you remember the gun store I took you into? And what did you think of that? It was cool. Speaking to the mic, buddy.

It was cool. I'd probably want to get a gun there. That's what I would say. Well, there you go. So if I can't sell it, maybe Shea can. If you haven't been into the store on the west side, make sure you pop your head in and you see, you know, their new location now. I mean, it is over a year old, I believe, if memory serves me correct, I'm trying to do the math here. I think it's close to a year.

If you haven't been in there, you should poke your head in. And if you're anywhere else in Canada, head to Profitriver.com. Of course, they are the major retailers of firearms optics and accessories serving all of Canada. Of course, you can get gift cards as well if that's something up your, that kills your fancy. You should get a what there? You should find a river there too. Find a river? Yeah.

Profit River? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Talking to the mic, people can't hear you. If it's called that, it should have a river there, shouldn't it? I believe the SMP presents Cornerstone Forum. I'm just taking a quick boo. I should have done this before, you know, before we started the podcast.

So bear with me here, folks. You should have did it at the very start. I should have done it at the start, shouldn't I? Yeah, all right, all right, all right. Fair enough. Getting heckled by the young one here. I'm no young person. I'm the oldest in my class.

I'm kidding. All right. He's having fun. We have 23 tickets left. to the S&P Cornerstone Forum. So if you have not got yours yet, now's the time, eh, Shea? Just time to go there!

That's right. Okay, if that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what, Will. Walk in there. I hope all of you have a great Monday. It's an interesting having the kids out of school. He has no idea what he's doing, you know? I do know what I'm doing, so you stop.

Uh-huh. Maybe I should be the Sean Newman podcast. Well, it could be the Shea Newman podcast. you'd have the same S&P. Yeah, yeah. And then I'll be like, get out of your daddy. Okay, we're going to slide into the tail of the tape. You think you can say, now onto the tail of the tape?

Now onto the tail of the tail? Tail of the tape. Oh, now on the tail. No, pronounce it. Come on. Say it all the. I forget what you said. Now onto the tail of the tape. Now onto the tail of the tape.

What he said, folks. In 2016, he was yuck. Jack's top new comic. 2017, Eminton's funniest person. Since then, he's been banned by the CBC. He now tours with the Danger Cats. I'm talking about Brett Forte. So buckle up. Here we go.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Brett Forte. So, sir, thanks for hopping on. Thank you. I got to give a shout out to Tim Mowen for getting me connected with you. You know, it was Uncle Hack who came on one of our shows. show is probably a month and a half ago. And it's been a long time since I've received so much hate in, not even hate, just so much people did not like him and people loved him all at the

same time. It was a wild, it was a wild next day. It was interesting. And you being a part of the Danger Cats, I know, I know that you're quite the comedian yourself. I'm like, I wonder how this is going to go over with everybody. But I've listened to you and Tim Mohn. I'm like, man, this guy, This guy's a boat is, I don't know, regular Joe as it gets, just comedian style. But I'm not going to tell your story. I want to hear it from you. And I assume some people know who you are, but if they don't, let's start there, Brett. Who is Brett Forte?

Where do you want to go with that? I'm going to be the guy that plays a theater in your city on May 11th. And you have to be a good comedian to do that. And that's what I am. And these articles you're reading are kind of painting us in an unfortunate light. And it's going to take them only one time to see us live to kind of get rid of some of those preconceived notions. And that is the fun of it right now, is trying to convert this into a positive. There's going to be a lot of people that hate us.

And all the people right now, like picketing our shows and emailing our venues, these are not people that show up to comedy shows anyway. So they're not our audience. They are just the ones that people will spite. Are we still reading the CBC? Yeah. And our audience, which is growing, will now come out to shows like May 11th just to spite the people that want to see it shut down.

And it's why it's been called the Spite Tour for the last couple years. And seemingly every month there is a new company logo or group of people to add to that. spite list. And yeah, it's got its pros and its cons. It's a bit it is fun, admittedly, a little bit to have to dance around this and be creative and still stay funny.

When you're watching 35 people protest beneath you, I'm looking over the railing the other day in Vancouver and they're out there with a loudspeaker. They had a better fucking sound system outside that we had inside. It was unbelievable. I was like, wait a second,

We need that thing. Yeah, eight cops blocking people from coming in, turned into like 12 or 15 cops. Like that's as wild as it's gotten so far. And all because of jokes, man. Maybe I'm getting ahead of the story here, but all it was was a roast battle joke from two years ago. A roast battle joke from two years ago. Something that is not in our axe. That was Uncle Hacks joke.

and then a t-shirt design that had been on a website for a year and not offensive until we were targeted. And when parole came for Robert Pickton. So all things are only offensive when they're in the news and they're, you know, they're recent, this whole too soon thing. It wasn't a problem during his 24th year in prison, but it is now a problem during his 25th year in prison because he is up for his day parole. And we are being called racists because we made a William Picton shirt. It has nothing to do with race. Okay. This is a serial killer joke.

This has nothing to do with the race or creed of his victims, but it is being attacked as so. And for every new station in Canada, and when I say every, I mean every, the CBC, the CTV, the global, the city, the blah, blah, blah, to cover this and to put the image of the t-shirt in question on daytime television, Sunday at 12, Monday at 5, and they don't blur it and they read it out loud, over 50 flavors of hookery, smoke bacon. That means it must pass muster. There is no explicit content warning before it. there's no blur job.

If it's good enough for after church on a Sunday, what are we talking about here? Well, that's 2024, Brett. This is 2024. And so you're offensive for now in this time. You're inconsiderate of certain people, and that's what they're coming after you for. I should mention, you know,

if it wasn't for Tim Mowen, I don't watch CBC. You know, in saying that, me and me and twos certainly, read off the headlines every week of what's going on. But other than that, I don't watch the CBC. I'm going to guarantee that 90-some percent of my audience has no idea this is going on. So you have to give us some of your backstory because, you know, me reading it, I was just kind of curious what the outrage was, you know?

And the outrage from the CBC news media was that you're insensitive to victims of Robert picked it that's that's their angle on this that's what everybody was upset about um one of the things about comedy is you know in order to be funny you have to say things most people wouldn't right like that's that's that's kind of part of the game i'm sure you can you can elaborate more on that i'm definitely not the funny guy uh on this side but um maybe before we get into all of that i just wouldn't mind hearing a bit of your story you know like uh when guys come on i just want to hear you know what made you gravitate to being, you know, the top new comic in 2016? Like, was that like something from age two?

You're like, oh, yeah, I'm going to be a comedian. Or did you fall into it? Like, because you've had a pretty, in my eyes, I don't know what other comedians say. I don't know. I look at you. I've watched some of your videos. I think they're funny. Like, you've had a pretty decent career thus far and hopefully a very long one to come.

And I feel like, you know, when you watch comedians, eventually they get targeted and get thrown in the limelight. as being this, you know, awful human being, except it's comedy, you know, like I can't remember a big-name comedian who hasn't fallen into the limelight and been attacked. So the fact they're attacking you, you know, probably lend some credence to who you are, because they just don't, they just don't pick on nobody's. I guess you're right. I don't know if all big-name comedians have to go through a cancellation or a, but certainly the ones that decide to try a risky joke or,

because to me it's a fucking, it's a wordle, man, like it's a, it's a puzzle. Oh, here's a topic you can't talk about and here's another topic you can't talk about. Well, I'm going to try to talk about them because you told me they can't be talked about. And, uh, I know that's total Woody Woodpecker. Like I'm just trying to be a little asshole in society you could view it as, but I'm genuinely trying to be smart about it.

I'll give you an example, man. Before I get to my story of how I became a comic is this weekend. I'm going to post this clip too. The show in Vancouver, man, it went well. People came in and we had an awesome show despite the noise outside of it. and unfortunately one guy and this is the kind of guy that gives us a bad name I've been told by my ex-manager who dropped me recently

that he goes it's not it's not what you guys are doing it's not your jokes it's your fan base and how they're interacting with the people that are angry with you and in a way he's a little bit right like you'll see some people say we're terrible people and then our fan base or whoever these guys will actually start saying like racial things towards them and trying to hurt them.

You know how people are on the internet, right? Oh, go drink some Listerine. You fuck, you know, this kind of shit. And it's like, uh, now I've always been the kind of guy that doesn't really read, uh, comments. And I just, it's just noise. I just let it go. But the act of not censoring or not checking those comments or deleting some of them that crossed the line may make it look like.

like we are enabling that sort of behavior. Content or behavior, yes. Not. That's not our act. These people do not represent what we're doing. This is how people kind of like speak behind closed doors and in the privacy of their cars and stuff like that. But unfortunately, it's all on the right now in comments on the internet. This is not okay.

So my point is this guy comes to the show and he sits front row. and he he misses the boat man I can't really say the word because we're on a podcast but like he during hack, hack opens hacks on stage and he's doing a Jeffrey Dahmer bit I think he said

anyone watch this new Jeffrey Dahmer series on Netflix and he goes like nope and then hack goes how come and he goes because I don't eat gay N-word loudly like leans into it. And I just, from the green room, hear it.

And I go, what the fuck was that? And Hack, to his credit, does a good job of in the moment. Like, hey, guy, gear down, put her back into neutral, bud, fucking, this isn't what you think it is. Sit down and shut the fuck up. I'll handle the jokes from here, okay? And he sets up the bullet, like, well, free speech, brother. Oh, God. Here we go.

these idiots. And, because that's not what free speech is about, right? And so I'm kind of pacing in the back and I'm like, I tell Sam, Sam, you might not know his thing with hecklers is he keeps a flashlight on his hip. A thousand lumens, right one, police issue. And if you start chatting, bang, you get hit with the lumens. And you want to be a part of the show? Well, now the spotlight's on you.

and that's how he gets people out or embarrasses them or addresses them. It's kind of a neat way. A lot of the comedians really respect. Probably appreciate it. Yeah, because normally it's the comic getting lit from the back of the room. That's how we're told like you're running out of time. You show a little like flashlight that your time is almost up.

That's how we kind of communicate with each other from the back of the room with a flashlight or the thing on your phone. But Sam is the first comedian to like the audience. So I tell him, hey, get the little. Lumen's ready. This guy's going to be a problem. Well, he wasn't really much of a problem during Sam set, but I held a grudge. And the minute I get up there, I do this bit not about the N-word, but it dances around the issue of it. And it lands on an applause break, which means the joke is good, it's accepted. And then I look at them and I go there. That's how you handle that discussion. Okay, you do it with some intelligence, some grace.

I go, I never want to hear you say that word in public out loud again. You say it in traffic like the rest of us. Okay. Yeah, still have some fun with it. And he says something about like, well, that's, I'm for shocking off, bro. I'm for shocking off. Like, he just misses the boat completely. This is not what this is about.

This is about jokes. We are gathering here to be intelligent about this. And you are running with this free speech narrative with your fuck Trudeau bumper sticker. your flag and you're probably carving you're that guy that carves fuck trudeau into his crops just so that the west jet plane can see it from above you know you're ruining a whole year's worth of corn just to get your little message out there for free speech uh these are the guys that bothered me and clearly i uh tore a strip off of them that night and i like i spent a couple minutes like embarrassing the guy saying this is not what it's about you know this uh oh i'm just saying type of guy i'm just saying

we've all met this person who says something fucked up followed by the phrase well i'm just saying as if it absolves everything that happened right before it uh no it took us me nine years to get to the position to talk about um the end word in a joke without actually saying it again and to do it in a creative and intelligent way where the audience understands it's a joke and they clap it took me nine years to get to that point this guy thinks he can just jump right in with the boys and start slinging fifty dollar words and i was like maybe it was because of the all the cops in the showroom next to me, you know, that I felt a little brave. But I went in on him.

And he came with this flag, this diagonal on fucking move. I don't even know if he's in it, but there's this like black flag with a white stripe down. I know all about it. Yeah. Yeah. And he displayed it proudly on the chair in front of them. And I just ripped, I go, get your little skunk flag out of here. And I ripped it off and threw it back at him.

And he folded it up very neatly. And he didn't say a peep. And within five minutes, he got up and left on his own accord. And then I go, where did he go? And then the rest of the audience was like, hell yeah. Like, we wanted nothing to do with that guy. It chilled the room. It was on, like, what it does, the hack said.

After that guy yells that, and then Hack has to move on to his next bit about like, so the McDonald's play fit. Did you ever know? Like, everyone's just thinking about what just happened. So he derails the show. He's a hijacker, as Sam would say. He tried to hijack it. And clearly he had his flag.

He wanted to like get some, some eyes on what his thing is. And he was the only problem outside, too. He was the only one getting in their way for the protest. So I am trying to distance myself, A, from those skunk flag boys, because they don't have anything to do with what we're doing. The only overlap on the then diagram is words, like free speech sort of thing. Politically and shit like that.

we have nothing to do with politics. We have nothing to do with any of that. We are just here to get closer to having something like a First Amendment, like they have in America, where we don't get sued for jokes like two comedians have. They've already lost $50,000 in the last 10 years because of lawsuits, because of jokes. And then now with Bill C. Yeah. It could get worse.

So that is the only... I bet you're on the vend... diagram with diagonal. You know, if you, if you talk to a few of them, I bet you there's more overlap than you think. You probably just talked to one of their and saw one of their guys and maybe several, maybe I'm wrong on it, Brett, that is on the edges or the fringe, if you would, because I've had Jeremy McKenzie on here multiple times. And, you know, when you talk about jokes, you're not supposed to talk about X and you're not supposed to talk about Y. And you're like, well, I'm going to talk about it. I've been told many a time that I should never have

Jeremy McKenzie back on the show. And anytime I'm told I'm never to do something, I'm like, well, then I'm going to go see. I'm going to let them talk because all we're doing here is talking, right? And if that offends anyone, then they can turn it off. Like, it's not going to, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Um, certainly I'm, um, I'm, I'm foreign against certain things. And, and, and, but I let people come on and talk. And Jeremy McKenzie is a pretty smart man. Like he is articulate in his thoughts. And I bet you would, you'd probably line up with more than you think. In saying that,

does that mean I think you're the same person? No, not at all. I think that's a ridiculous notion. I want you to open up one tab. Open up one tab, Brett Forte, open up another tab, Jeremy McKenzie.

Tell me which guy comes up as a comedian, right? The things I say are jokes. They cannot be misconstruited statements. So when he, whatever he's labeled as, that whole movement, when you Wikipedia it,

extremist this, far right, that, this, that white nationalist this, all these big words. Yes, I understand they're being hit with a bunch of bullshit labels to bury them because I guess a lot of them are like what, like ex-military and shit, the government takes them rather seriously.

I understand that much, but I am a comedian. That's the only thing on my Wikipedia comedian. So there is no overlap as far as that goes with the Vendai round because they're not, when they're joking around, they don't have the badge. Like the FBI, I could say, hey, I got the license to kill here. I got the license to walk in here. He doesn't have the license. In fairness to him, he spoke out against the narrative and went to Ottawa and is political.

And when you go against the political machine, they came after him hard, right? And that's exactly what's happened to him. So although I agree with you, if you Google that, that's exactly what you're going to find. I also don't really trust Google anymore. I mean, Google is going to, you know, the Wikipedia of things. I mean, this is how we start. When I, when I Google you, what comes up right now, although your website and a couple other things,

and I've got to watch some amazing, you know, like fun videos of you. It's all the stories about how horrendous of comedians you guys are and you're, well, not F this, but they paint you in a certain light. So it doesn't mean I just look at it and I go, I've talked to Jeremy several times, and I agree with you. He has said some things that are quite over the top, but he's also said some very true things. As far as comedian go,

yeah, I agree, you're cutting your teeth and have been for some time as being a comedian. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's just the general public is who I'm looking to entertain and they don't understand the difference between the two.

So I'm not really coming at the guy's throat personally. I'm just trying to say, I'm not here to be aligned with anyone, especially people that walk around with eggs on their back. I don't care what flag it is. Well, tell us a bit about yourself. You know, I normally start off with trying to get to, you know, you to tell me a little bit about before we ever get to where we currently are in the middle of a, you know, and once again, if I aren't sent, if I'm not sent at all, I don't even realize it's going on. I feel like that's how much people are following the CBC. Now, obviously, there are people following it, but overall, the viewership of those programs are through the toilet, right?

Like, they're going down the drain. And I can speak for my audience, for the most part. You know, I don't think many of them pay attention to it. So tell us about Brett. I want to hear, you know, your story. Where does it begin? Where are you from? And, you know, how do you get into comedy?

and one of the things I like about comedians, like, you know, when I watch your acts, I'm like, man, you, you're, I enjoy a good comedy show. And I have been picked out of the crowd before, but I'm like, I just want to be the guy who gets to sit and listen and have a laugh or two.

And one of the things that you do, I think pretty well in your show is you pick out like people and you talk about them. And majority of the time, it's like there's a couple times. You're like, who that's some fire rate there, but you have everybody laughing regardless.

So I just want to hear, you know, a bit about your story. story. Like, where are you from? And what makes Brett, Brett? Yeah, I'm from Calgary. And I started comedy because I was in radio and not able to kind of be creative. Anything I would do was reprimanded. Like an example, Tim Horton's roll up the rim to win. A story came out in Calgary, front page of the sun. It was some girl won the Honda Civic. This was like 2015 and it was big news. So I get her name in the paper. I find her on Facebook. I get her phone number. I call her from the radio station, but I pretend to be Tim Wilson from Tim Horton's Canada.

Hello, I go, hey, this is Tim Wilson from Tim Horton's Canada. How are you doing this morning? And she goes, oh, great, hello? I expected my call. And I go, yeah, unfortunately, this is the first of many phone calls I have to make this morning regarding an ongoing police investigation at the Deerfoot Meadows location of Tim Hortons. Are you aware of this? She just sinks. Like, no. I go, okay, well, because it is an ongoing investigation, there's only so much I can say, but what I can tell you is there's been a large number of fraudulent cups that have come out of that location. So what you can do for me right now is read to me exactly what it says underneath the lip of the cop right now go get the cup she goes okay she's like it says win civic and i go oh it doesn't say

Honda no i go uh well sadly um that's an indicator that you most likely have a fraudulent cup she breathes in and just spits fire well there's a fine print on this and that and we didn't even think this was real the first place and it just goes to show you this and that and see we're just hold our bells in the studio while she goes off tears a strip off of us you go she goes tim hortons or just messing with us and i go yeah it's either tim hortons or it's 95.3 fm and your husband on the other line say hello to him and i patched him through he was there listening the whole time i got his like consent for this and he goes hi honey and she goes oh you mother you know we bleep it out she tears a strip off the husband i go okay guys the good news is like uh

like you you still have the car the car is still yours enjoy you may be splitting up now, but like, the vehicle is still yours, no harm, no foul. So I put her through like 40 seconds of misery, but no one got hurt at the end of it. It's all good. It's just fair play. It's what we used to tune into the radio for. Yeah, I think that was one of the- As a listener, that's what you want to hear.

Yeah, I truly, to this day, think that was the best thing I ever did in radio, and I should have been able to do more, but it was the opposite. it. I was called into my boss's office, the program director's office immediately, and it was like, door closed, and it was, Tim Horton's just called us, they heard the call, they're not happy with you whatsoever, right?

They're a sponsor of the show. We now have to give them like $4,000 worth of free advertising just to keep them with the station. Don't do that shit ever again. And I just kind of in that moment was like, okay, well then there's not, my brain doesn't fit here.

then because that's what I'm good at, that Woody Woodpecker shit. So, at the same time, every week, we'd interview a comedian from yuck yuck, usually. And that guy was allowed to say whatever he wanted on that side of the mic. And oh, we'd bleep him out if we had to or, oh, you're so crazy, blah, blah, blah, okay, 10 tickets to Brian Callon tonight, 403, 2,25, you know, stop. Stop that, Brian, you know. And he was allowed to be who he wanted to be. So I just sat there going, okay, that's interesting.

And at the same time, all your friends as you grow up saying, oh, you're so funny, you should do stand-up, you should do stand-up, you meet people, you go on a date, oh, you should be a comedian. They start adding up. And then after you get told like a hundred times, you're like, okay, maybe this is something. Because I don't know, I was too logical coming out of school. I'm like, okay, I'm good at talking, but that's acting is kind of a Hail Mary. Stand-up comedian.

I don't even know, really, that's a Hail Mary. I'll go into radio. There's a program for radio. There's a Bachelor of Arts for radio. We'll get into, you know, so it just took me a couple of years of wasting my time in the machine to realize I got to just be my own thing. And then I went and did I. If I may, I don't think that's wasting time. I think that's pointing out exactly where you need to go, right?

Like it's probably, you know, now you get to tell that story and you know exactly where you don't want to be. Right? What year were you working radio? That was in Calgary? Yeah, I produced a morning show for Tarzan Dan for like four years and then did an evening show. That would have been between 2012, no, 2013 to like 2017. And I had started comedy in like 2015, 2016.

And then the second year in comedy, I won, there was top comment. in 2016 and then Edmonton's funniest person in 2017, I believe. And that's, you win a giant check. And I came home back to the station the next day with a giant check. Like, yeah, your boy took it home. And then they let me go that day. They fired me. The contest was called funniest person with a day job and the next day I lost my day job.

It was perfect. And what reason did they give you for skidding you? Oh, it was nothing like. it's just I'd been George Costanza for two, like I had been doing nothing. They were slowly, um, you've been sleeping under the desk. Right. After that moment where I wasn't appreciated anymore, I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to coast and do the bare minimum and edit the little morning show promo in the

Hollywood 360 and throw up the voice tracks and get the hell out of here. Uh, and pretend to always be like, I'd have like, producer studio and first of all I have this button if you turn on the mic it turns a thing on air on air light is on the rule is in radio if the on air light is on you do not enter the studio you don't make any noise so that helped me a lot that's like a fuck off button but you couldn't have that always on so if the door was open people I could hear people coming by and any time someone walk by I'd always just be moving papers from one side to the other like all right and then they walk by hey Brett do you have a moment for something and I'd go um yeah

Just one second. Okay, quick. What is it? What do you need? You don't just make it look like I've always just up to my eyebrows and work. And I had no work. I had three things to do a day, maybe an hour's worth of work that I would stretch for eight. I'd go to the gym.

I'd come back. And I'd be late hours. And the boss would come by going, well, bro, really putting in the hours. Good work. So yeah, total George Costanza behavior. And eventually they were just trying to trim payroll. And they realized it took actually some guy called the, what's his name? There's a guy that is in radio and it is his job to, they fly him in and he spends a week at the station.

And he looks at the books, he pops his head in, he listens to the show, the consultant. That's what his name is, the consultant. And it took them flying in the consultant. And he looked at the books and he went, this guy. What does he do? They're like, actually, we don't know. Because in radio, usually it's two stations under the same building owned by the same company. So you have a program director of like the country station and a program director of like the pop station.

And I'm the producer. So both would give me tasks to do. So I would tell the one program director like, ugh, Kath's got me up to my eyebrows and work. What do you need? And then I go over to Kath. I go, Mike's got me up to my mind. Like, holy shit, I'm doing all this shit for it. And I had no work for either of them, but I was just pitting them against each other.

But the consultant figured that out and good on them. So then that's why I was pretty much let go. They're like, we don't need you anymore. So a day after winning funniest person was a day job, I lose my day job. It gives me that nice little kick in the ass to go fly the coop for the first time and see if I can maintain flight. And I have. and right now I am trying to be shot out of the sky.

You know, I'm sure you have your favorites in radio, but the goat when it first started in Lloyd Minster, this is back 2001, I want to say. Somewhere right around there. I think it was close to high school. Maybe I was a bit younger than that. It doesn't matter. They had Wheeler, and he used to do the mullet talk.

And I remember one of the things that to this day still sticks with me is being from Calgary, you'll recall the guy who streaked, and fell and had to be carted off by an ambulance, buck naked, right? And Wheeler called his mom. And it was, I thought it was, I thought it was hilarious. You know, I'm sure a lot of people thought he was hilarious. And that used to suck me back to the radio all the time.

I used to like mark it. Like, okay, got to remember to tune in because it was so good. Like, you know, did it cross the line sometimes? Yeah, sure. But overall, was it hurting anyone? no, you know, were there different things he'd call it, you know, like the Tim Hortons and different things like that, all that stuff is great. Now, like, I, I feel for a radio host because, you know, as you're pointing out, a decade later, maybe a little longer than that, which is still a decade

before right where we're sitting, it was already being cut out now. Like, I don't listen to the radio near as much as I ever did. Because once it's just, it's the lost, it used to be the frontier. It is no longer that, right? And, um, I mean, That's what, you know, comedy, you know, is attractive to it is when it's on the edge, right? There's going to be some times where every, if, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong on this. I'd be curious your thoughts. I remember watching Family Guy like when, when I was in college. And one of the things I liked about Family Guy, even though it annoyed me sometimes, is it offended everybody.

I feel like that's what it tried to do. And there was a couple jokes in there that I'm like, you can't, you can't say that. I'd be offended. And then I'd be like, but, man, they really go out. everybody right and that was one of the beauties of it isn't that comedy yeah unfortunately i'm not a cartoon i'm a human being so i'm held to different standards than that but that's been the rule for whatever reason in human history if you draw the joke it's acceptable but the minute you put some flesh on it it's uh you're a racist so uh i don't know that's why bill bird did

deft is for family because he had a bunch of material that he wanted to uh get out that he Get out. Yeah. No, you're right, man. That is no one is above these jokes. I end this one term right now that you hear a lot of victims talking about, a lot of losers, a lot of people with self-cut bangs and Septim Pearson's talking about punching down. Comedy should be about punching up about the people that are rich and in high-powered situations. That's what we should be doing.

Like, it's so hard to define what is up and what is down. They're pretty much saying, oh, just people with money, I guess. People that own a corporation are above. So this is how you view people by their bank account. This is how, like, I am not, I'm punching all over the place. I'm spinning in circles, throwing haymakers. And some are up and some are down. And I don't know.

I don't view myself as very high up. So I would imagine I am always just punching straight out. I don't know, you've heard this term. It bothers me because that's not what it's about, man. It's like family guys based on jokes that are about either like racial tropes or stereotypes and shit like that. This is fun. People can lean into them, you know? And curb your enthusiasm.

It's full of it. But and there are like right now, so we have the First Nations population. a bit upset with us, but we also have the First Nations population very happy with us. But the people that are happy and say these jokes are great, and I'm sorry for this, I'm sorry for our fellow people being a bit butt hurt and causing you a problem, they're not as vocal as the people that are butt hurt. The people that support you are not leaving five-star reviews at the same rate as the one-star reviews. They're not calling the venues going, hey, I just wanted to say, I think the show should happen.

That's not how life works. So you're only hearing the negative. But I'm telling you, the DMs right now are full of people going, hey, keep going. You know, or I see con. I just did an interview with Joe Quarles, which is kind of like the Sports Center for comedy. It's the big leagues. Yeah. So there's a video with Joe Rogan and then Bill Burr and then last week, me, which was kind of nice.

They covered something and they deemed it big leagues. and if you look at the comments in that video there's a lot of like first nations and Native American people one guy's like I'm Native American and the jokes not offensive and like there's a lot of people like that

which tells me what I'm doing is fine you know and something I learn in radio now I'm not very I don't know I didn't get a lot out of radio but the one saying I did get was from my program director and he goes do which is funny that he told me this it's ironic because then he

fucking gave me shit for actually doing it but he goes don't do something that people just like like he goes either do something that people love or hate in the middle is mediocrity it's boring you either want to be loved or hated and usually that happens at the same time. And like you said, with Uncle Hack, that was the feedback with that episode. People loved it or they hated it. The middle is boring. And I've kind of employed that in my career since. And I'm okay with the hate. Every day that goes by, you get a little bit more comfortable with the chatter and the negative comments because you realize it's just water off a duck's back. It doesn't really matter. And it's all for jokes, too. This isn't like a me-to situation or some shit like this

that some comedians have been through, you know what I mean? Where it's actually like them as a person being attacked. This has nothing to do with me as a person. This is just how the joke was written and delivered on stage, which is forever defendable and is not a strike on me as a person at all. So I have no worries other than the occasional death threat and stuff like that. You have to, most of them you don't take seriously, but when 20 of them are walking around the city of Winnipeg looking for you, we had a Wolf clan actively looking for our location. You know, that's this kind of stuff you have to worry about because there's idiots in every in every group,

just like the one we were talking about that came to the show in Vancouver. Like, you're right, maybe that movement isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be in that guy. Well, I'm, I'm, all I mean with Diagallon is I've talked to, like, I just,

look at the Freedom Convoy. I'll talk about Freedom Convoy. Let's get away from Diagon for a second. I was there. What did they, well, I was there. What did they frame it as? A Nazi flag, right? Defecating on a statue.

And I go, were those, were there people, there that did that or that were not the best of us. Well, I mean, all the stories now, we know a bunch of it was plants and everything else. But I mean, out of the thousands of people there, where they all stand up, no, I guarantee not. But I would say the healthy majority, very good human beings. And, and that's all. I mean, they try and, if you point at one person to represent everyone of any type of movement, I think that's, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's ridiculous. Um, and so like,

To me, I guess what's sticking out to me about your Brett right now is I'm like, when you gone to comedy, I bet you this isn't what you thought it would be, death threats and the amount of like just hate being thrown your way. Actually, what's surprising me about our entire chat is just, and forgive me, maybe it was a long night, maybe some of the things I've talked about, but I'm like, oh, you're pretty like, docile is the word that comes. And not that I thought you'd be like, you know, doing it. an act for me at all.

It's just, I'm wondering if it's wearing on you, I guess is where I'm at, or if it, you know, it doesn't bother you at all anymore. Cause like when you go from radio, you know, and I'm sure there was some feedback on radio about some of the things you did, but into like being confronted and having people at your shows and everything else

and having to defend who you are all the time. I was just curious, like, is that wearing? Like is it, you know, something that you didn't predict when you got into comedy. Well, first of all, it's 10 o'clock in the morning. So maybe that's why I'm a bit to us out. You don't have kids. We talked about this.

I've been up for like three and a half hours. I'm like, this is my go time. Right. Well, I'm, my body's conditioned to like have that coffee at 6 p.m. And start getting funny around 7.30 p.m. And this is also not a typical podcast. And where it's just like,

hey, we got a comedian on. Let's shoot the shit. It's kind of like, let's talk about some serious issues here. So that maybe is why my demeanor is a little less cavalier right now. But I would say I didn't expect, well, I expected now. In 2020, I got hit with a thousand death threats on my own before I was even affiliated with Uncle Hack or Sam Walker. A thousand death threats over what? 1.0, zero, zero.

Yes. I made a joke about a turban. And the joke is as follows. a guy saved a woman out of the river with his turban. This was her story out of Kamloops. And she was drowning in the river. All he had on him, the seat guy was his turban. He unravels 14 feet of fabric, throws it in, unravels this turbine like a whip, like a lasso, saves this woman out of the river. And the paper said, man saves drowning woman. And I said, this is the work of no man. This is the work of East Indiana Jones. Okay. I just.

made a pun and I even sold merch this like I picture East Indiana Jones but then with the turban you know what I mean saving the day and that joke was funny for four years and I heralded that guy as a hero a champion and it was not a punching down scenario or anything like that it was just funny and a real story that is still funny just a dumb just a pun that works east Indiana Jones. It should be a goddamn movie. Bollywood should fucking take the idea. But then the world changed. Like kind of how you said no, but it's 2024.

You're an asshole now. Well, 2020 came. So 2016 to 2020, the joke's funny. 2020 comes. Everyone's on edge all of a sudden because we're on lockdown. Right. We're all just fighting each other on the internet because that's all we have. And yeah, I got, well, the truth of the matter is another guy saved a woman out of the river the same way in Calgary this time. So imagine you're me and you have this joke already that's polished about this news story. And then another one pops off and you're like, oh, like, send it out.

You know, let's do another round. Maybe I'll move some merch. I literally posted the clip thinking, I'm going to move some merch. This is going to be great. No one's going to jump on this story like I am because I've already got the joke done. This is a joke that I would do during like a just for laugh showcase. You know what I mean? It's a joke that got me just for laughs new faces in 2019.

Like the industry said, yeah, we like this guy. And that was one of the jokes that they liked. So here I'm thinking this is safe to post. And then within minutes, I remember I was at the horse track. And I just look at my phone. I'm like, what's going on here? And it was just madness

Some Sikh memes page was like A quarter million followers took the joke Clipped just one part of it To make me look more like racist than ever Like what they did was They did a compilation They went to 1992 Calgary Alberta And they showed this woman like outside

City Hall and she's like well if they want to come to our country Then they're going to have to follow the rules we have in this one Not the rules they have in that one and then it goes present day 2020 and it just cuts to me with a mic cord like acting out the turban and like throwing it just such a just such a smear piece it was great editing I had to laugh I was like oh wow well done because the whole turban thing like in 1992 is about the officers that weren't allowed to wear the turban while on their motorbikes and stuff like that that was the issue and then now they're pairing it up with me doing this silly act out on stage at the laugh shop.

Oh, and the Sikh community, by the way, is very closely knit. There are 25 million people across this planet. A lot of them reside in Canada. And they hook up fast and quick. And when there is a job to be done, they get it done. And right away emails, calls, calls at every venue I'm scheduled to perform at. all messages to me, death threats, pictures of guns, knives, addresses of the next club I was going to be at. We're going to rape my mom, unraveling testines out of my dad, do this, like all this.

They went to the next level, which is kind of what we're seeing again four years later with this, where it was like we made a T-shirt design, and then now we're getting told we're going to kill you for the joke, which is they go, what you're. you're doing is hate speech. Your little doodle on your shirt is hate speech, but the death threats aren't. Okay, I'll leave it at that. So yeah, I went through this once, and at that time, I'm alone. It's just me. I'm fresh off of Just for Laughs. I have a special on CBC. And within minutes, it's taken off air because of all the tweets that pour in. Most of them said CBC actor, Brett Forte. They didn't even understand I was a comedian.

They just saw CBC that I had something on it. They go, he must be an actor. They flood their Twitter with a bunch of things. CBC wants nothing to do with it. They take my special off air within literally minutes. Man, it played once on TV and it was cut. And they never even messaged me about it. And to this day, they've never spoken to me until the other week they reached out.

just they're like hey um this is so-and-so from cbc we want to do a story about cancel culture uh with comedians and we just wanted to reach out to some comedians and see what they had to say about cancel culture and i was like you guys are cancel culture okay you guys pulled my special within minutes because you got mentioned on twitter a couple hundred times you didn't even look into the joke you guys folded and then she got oh i'm so sorry i didn't look into this my apologies goodbye like she just backed off right away she didn't know the history I had with her, with her organization. But, yeah, they backed out.

Everyone backed out. My podcast co-host at the time, my right-hand man in comedy, he goes in and deletes every episode we've ever done together in the middle of the night. He wanted to distance himself from me online. What? Yeah. Yeah. And then what else happens?

Yeah, you're red-xed all the same. son. That was probably the right there was the turning point in my career because you're just hit with this, this mark. And now things like CBC and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, Halifax Comedy Festival, just for laughs, things that matter in Canada to Canadian comics. These are like the big paychecks in Canadian comedies if you can get a televised festival, you know, and they're all paid for by like the government and CBC. So when I become enemies with CBC, that I therefore am kind of not in line

anymore to do that corporate stuff. The most I can do is Hubcap Festival in Moncton, which was a lot fun. It was great, but they're like the only ones not associated with CBC. Now, the goal was never to just be a CBC comic in the first place. The goal for all Canadian comics is to get the hell out. So that doesn't change anything.

and oddly, being banned from the CBC has turned out to be a better credit than ever being on it in the first place. And the proof of it is every night when the MC announces me because you guys ready for your headliner? All right, you guys have seen this guy just for laughs, the Hollywood Comedy Festival,

but most importantly, he's banned for life from the CBC. They're like, yes, that says something right away. They start turning to each other going, well, this guy must be a real prick, yeah, okay, here we go. and then when I walk out and do like what you notice with the crowd work and I go at someone right away, it fits the character. They're like, okay, this is, we knew this was coming and here it is. Well, there's people that I, there's people that go to comedy shows to sit front row to be that guy.

They want to be that guy. I'm sure you notice it all the time. And then there's other guys like me that go, I just want to sit and have a beer. I want to laugh. And if I get picked out, I'm not offended. I understand going to a comedy show. I went to a, my wife used to work on, um, uh, a, uh, a, Reserve, First Nations.

And their Christmas party, the one night, was all First Nations and one white guy, right? And my wife's white as well, I guess. And he picked on me for, you know, 15 minutes. It was really funny. Like, I was like, I've never been singled out like that before. It was really funny. Like, I go to a comedy show understanding what can happen. I prefer for the people who enjoy it.

But there are people. You probably see that every show that just want to sit front row. and want to be the guy. Those are the people that's like suicide by cop. They want it. They sit front row and they go, come on, come on, do it. And those people actually can be more problematic than good because they want to be a part of the show so much that they don't shut up.

But any, regardless of you want it or not, I like doing a bit of play like that because even if I do piss that person off, I call it sacrificing a goose for the gander. You know, if that person is going to lip off or say something and then I come in heavy on top and maybe like make them a bit uncomfortable or whatever, the rest of the people in the audience really enjoy it. And that's what they go home talking about in the car ride home.

They go, holy shit, what about that girl on the front row? Yeah, she was embarrassed. She'll read her face was. Yeah, holy crap, he got her good. He called her this, this and this. And to me, that's a good write-off. That's like, okay, I sacrificed maybe this person from ever coming to one of my shows again, but the 200 other people were like, we have to now go back to that guy's show.

So that's the love, hate that we're talking about. This girl hates me, these people love me. It's better than being in the middle. May 11th, you're in Lloyd Minster, and you're going to be at the Vic Chuba Theater. You know, like I've been on stage there, not for comedy. Actually, to open a comedy show before. Beautiful, beautiful theater. But, you know, you mentioned about Vancouver,

about them trying to get you shut down everywhere and that people don't reach out. You know, I'm sure you want to, you know, bringing that up if people are interested in coming to make sure the venue knows. Yeah. So that's only going to happen in Vancouver because Vancouver is Vancouver. You know what I mean?

Fair. Right now, Lloyd Minster is worried about the fucking carbon tax and the gas prices. They're not worried about what Roaks Battle Joke happened two years ago on a Danger Cat show. That's the reason why we don't have to hide the venue name for the Vic Juba or anything like that. And the Vic Juba is behind us. And they go, yeah, we're not running away from you. Come have a good show. it's also one of the bigger venues we've ever taken a swing at and it'll be interesting now yeah you're

right i don't want to scare people off you're not going to be walking into a um a you know a mosh pit you know in the front doors it's not going to be like that um and this is a theater show and i'm headlining and i have a theater act i have an hour that i've been working on for years now that and I'm not like I don't know you're going to have to come just see it because it's like well it's it's marked on the calendar because I'm like I remember hearing that it was coming I'm oh yeah you know whatever but like watching this listening to you I'm like I'm more intrigued by you by you know we're almost an hour in I'm more and more intrigued now than I ever was to the point where I'm like well I'm just going to have to go see it for myself right like yeah

that's the only way this is going to work is is to go see and witness it and be in the building is, you know, is the way my brain works. Yeah. Yeah, I do makeup jokes, man. You know what I? Like, I do all sorts of shit. The thing is, is like, I, right now I tour with the Danger Cats and headline this tour and that is a dirty show.

And we lock up phones and we lean in, right? And you were marked with that same red X by doing that. But on the other side of the fence, comedians oftentimes do corporate sets. They're hired by a dentist office to go do clean comedy. And then they have to, so around Christmas time, that's where a lot of comedians make good money is doing the Honda dealership and doing the dentist and stuff like that you put on a blazer. You put your lipstick on and you do your best to ingratiate yourself with the corporate types. And that is a, like I said, a wordle. That is a challenge to figure out how am I going to make these people have.

a good night. And then the danger cat shows is like the opposite of that. That is a dirty show. You take off the blazer, you put on a wrestling t-shirt, and you smear some shit on your lip, and then you make fun of the real housewives of the truck or convoy. And you go a little harder at them. And then that's how you solve. That's what they want. Every audience wants something a little different. And as the jester, that's all I am. I have to figure out which hat to wear and how to wear it and uh and that's fun for me that's fun but they don't see it as range right now they don't go oh that brett forte he's got range he's got he's got he's got range he can do a dirty show he can do out corporate right now they're just saying uh he's racist but hopefully that's temporary

yeah have you ever had a had a room you couldn't figure out i'm sure early on it was a little rough but like you know when you talk about walking into a building and staring at it you know i'm a i'm a hockey guy so i think of going into all the different buildings i've been into and trying to play a different game again you know you got to have different paces different strategies against different teams when i hear you say that i'm like so you walk into a room and you know you got people that light up about the picton joke you got people that light up about lipstick you know and and makeup um have you had rooms that you just can't crack Well, yeah, there's like, statistically the original room at the comedy store is just a tougher room for whatever reason.

But I would say I've made mistakes before. I like coming on stage and taking a big swing because if you hit the ball, it makes the rest of the set downhill. because it's like it's easy they love you right away but if you missed that first swing you kind of you're underground you're eight feet under and you got to dig yourself out you got to climb out like bane and uh i guess an example of that i did a a fundraiser for the women's synchronized swimming team in calgary it was like i don't know the age it was young it was like either under 20, U-19, something like that. They're like 18, 19-year-old girls in a swim,

and their synchronized swimming team. And I'd seen them at the talism center, like right next to my house. I see them practice in the pool. You know, the lady that sits on the chair on the side with the microphone and she's got the thing, I think there's an underwater speaker or whatever, and she can speak to them and they flipped their legs up and shit, like that team. and so I do this fundraiser and I get there I get on stage and none of the girls are there

it's just all the parents and I was like where's all the young pussy I was like this is the only reason I took this gig the parents did not appreciate that swing they did not appreciate me referring to their daughters as young pussy and so I had to dig myself out of a hole and I was like by the way what's with this hole like I go what's with this this cart of electronics right next to the pool with all these wires. Like you're one slip away from

the whole team floating on the surface. They also didn't appreciate that visual. And I remember getting off stage after that fundraiser to half the audience clapping and half of them booing. So that didn't go so well. That was a not a very intelligent first move by me. I can tell you about a real bomb, my third time ever on state. Third? Yeah, third time ever. And so you come out with your first five minutes. And I went and did it in Colonna, a province away, because if I'm going to go bomb,

it's going to be in the secrecy of the night. No one's going to hear about it in my city. Well, my five minutes goes well. I win like the $100 prize. I come back to Calgary. I do the five minutes here. It goes well. I'm like, man, that five's fucking goaded.

Frame it on the wall. It's done. Let's move on to the next five. Because that's the idea. As a comedian, you're always trying to build more material. So here we go. I think I'm Jerry Seinfeld. I grew up watching Seinfeld.

I think I am it now. I literally put on a blazer. My third set ever. Boundtank, d'em, down. I walk to the Ombudsman. oak tree tavern in kengington now kengington if uh you know anything about calgary is like a rather vancouver part of the city it is very woke with the septum piercings and the bangs and the they had their fucking wooden straws before that turtle was even pulled out of the ocean okay um

and so i don't fit and i my dad told me that growing up even when he would take me to kank to pick up we went to a vitamin store there just to get his vitamins he would be like we don't he's like I don't get along with these people like we just we do our family does not mix well with these people and I remember being a kid like oh okay and then I grew up and then now him feeling that like no you're right dad like we do not belong here we belong in bone s or forest lawn there's some people watching right now who understand what that means but um here I go third said ever And I meet Sam Walker for the first time.

This is where we meet. And he's hanging around for a spot. And I have a spot on the show. I got to do bullet, which means first on the lineup. And I guess I'm just trying to warm up my mouth. You know, I meet Sam. I go, hey, how you doing? I start making fun of his shoes.

I go, I'll get a little of man tracker over here. What's going on? Look at these hiking boots. And I guess Sam took that to heart. and wasn't happy with me for making fun of his clothes. I guess he tried to shake my hand and I didn't see it. I walked right past him. So he already had a hate on me.

And he showed me that night in his journal, in his journal he wrote, Tonight I met a swaggering douche. Didn't even know my name. He said I met a swaggering douche and I watched him die a thousand deaths on stage. Made him very happy because I go on stage after running my mouth. to him with the blazer and I get no laughs. And I'm supposed to do a five-minute set. And when I say no laughs, I mean no laughs.

And I'm trying to dig myself out of the hole and get to leave at least on a laugh. And I remember on the piece of paper where all my ideas were, the last thing I circled, as if to say like, here it is. This is where they stand and clap. This is where they love you. And I got to that line and not knowing in comedy like, Even if the joke is funny, if you're going into it off of no laughs, if you've bombed the last three jokes, even the funny joke is not going to do well because the audience doesn't trust you.

That's something you learn. And then you learn to like pretty much plan your escape route out of a bad joke. You're like, okay, if this doesn't work, how can I make fun of myself or someone else or something to get a laugh to allow me to go into the next joke? I didn't have that yet. It was this bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bum, bum, bum, closer. I'm already running the light, meaning I'm going over my time. I'm seven, eight minutes in. The guy lighting me at the back of the room is furious.

He's clicking, clicking, clicking. I try to get to my thing. I start speeding up too, which now it's even worse. Now you're talking fast. And I get to the point where the circle is and I deliver it like this. I remember going like this with my hand. like, you're welcome. And this side of the room didn't make a sound.

And I went, okay. And I looked over here to see what I salvaged. And all I saw were two women go for their drink straws at the same time like this. And look down. And that is burned into my retina for life. Those two girls avoiding eye contact and going to their drink straws. And then you're out. And at this point, the guy with the light walked right.

up to the stage a foot away from me like this in my face you're done thank you good night uh you guys were great thanks you know every comic okay you guys are great have a good night holy shit sweat pouring worst thing too is at the back of the room is chris lebell chris lebel at the time ran the best shows in calgary they were slammed full of hot ass too he had a dj he had every a this is it was a fucking party. It was like the best shows you could ever see. And I got to be a part of it next week. I was getting five minutes on his show.

And here he is at the back of the room watching that shit. And I just remember walking straight up to him while taking the blazer off. And I go, I am not doing that material on your show. I'm going back to the old five minutes. That'll never happen again. I'm sorry. And I walked out of the building. And thankfully he still gave me my spot the next week.

And we were good. And I've never worn the blazer on stage since, with the exception of a one wedding gig I did recently this summer. I roasted a bride and groom. I put on a blazer for that out of respect for the environment. But the blazer haunts me. The blazer haunts me. You know, I can't act like I know what bombing on stage feels like. I've certainly been on stage an awful lot, but never as a comedian.

and I'm not trying to make people laugh. I'm trying to make sure the night goes smoothly, meaning I'm the guy with the flashlight clicking it at you, like, you're going over time and you're messing with my night. That's, I'm that guy. Like, I fully understand the light. Daniel Smith, small little story here. My first show I ever did had Daniel Smith on it.

Before she was the premier. Oh, okay. She came to Lloyd March 22, okay? This is right around the time she's announcing she's going to run. So I have her on stage. I have an MLA on stage. You have a doctor and a lawyer. And they each get 15 minutes.

It was 12 minutes. Keynote speech, four of them, 48 minutes. Tag on a couple for me just introducing them. I'm like under an hour, not a big deal. Daniel Smith is the last one going on stage. She goes up to like 16 minutes. And I don't have the flashlight. So I just start inching out on the stage to be like,

you need to stop talking right now. I cannot have you go for 20 minutes. And I think about that now and I'm like, that must have been funny in the stands. watching this like, I've never hosted a show before my life. I'm just looking at the time and I'm going, if she goes over and we lose all this stuff that's planned. And so I actually know the flashlight guy.

Like, I'm like, that's a great idea. I'm going to steal that. Not that I'm stealing it because, I mean, it's used all over the place, for the back for the speakers. Because they never stay. The ones that go over, they never, you can't get them off fast enough. You're like, just come on.

You're going to go 20 minutes. Why are you doing this to me? When I told you how much time you have, I know the flashlight guy. Yeah, and do it with your phone and cover the phone like this and just show the light like this, just flash it. And then it's discreet. And then the performer can see the flashing of the light.

That's brilliant. Median has like a light up top that tells them that they're right, a red light usually. When I opened for Christ Delia in Calgary, first couple years in stand up, it was for 2,500 people at the Great Eagle event center. It was like my first huge gig. and I was told to do, I think, 15 minutes.

It was either I was told to do 20 and I did 25 or I was, I had to do 15 and I did 20. But that's one of those moments where you're like, this is a once-of-the-lifetime opportunity. Soak in your son, you know what I mean? Take your extra five minutes. I knew what I was doing. I was trying to make a good impact on my city, my 2,500 Calgarians in front of me. And honestly, I haven't heard anything in a while, but for about five years after that show, people would still come up to me in the streets and go, hey, I remember you from the Delia show.

Because a lot of people with comedy don't go to comedy clubs. They go to one show, and it's when their big name comic comes to town and plays the big theater. They don't actually know anything about comedy other than Chris Delia and Bill Burr. So if you get an opportunity to open for the big dogs, you get yourself in front of a lot of people that would never come to a comedy club otherwise. So I did recruit a lot of those people from that set. And they didn't have a light is the point of this. They didn't have a light up top or a flashlight. And apparently the stage manager was just pacing frantically with her headset.

And she was telling my friend who I came with. She goes, go out there now and get him off. Go out there on stage and get him off right now. And so it would be like you coming out. Hey, man. So you got to go. He's like, I can't walk out on stage. Like it's a huge stage.

And $2,500. Hunter. Like, how big is this Vic Chuba we're playing? $6.50? Five. Five and change. $5.50 something, I think. Four of those. Double the stage. There's no way he's coming out, you know? I did my five. And what, then you...

The thing I don't understand is, like, the reason she's mad is because there's, like, a rental. And if you go over the allotted time, you didn't have to pay, like, an extra maybe more than $1,000, maybe $2,000, $4,000 more because there's a hard out and there's like people working and they only have X amount of hours. So now I didn't understand that at the time, but now it makes sense. Like, hey, asshole, these people are paying $90, not to see Brett Forte. They're here to see Christa Leah. So give Christa Leah some time to do his hour. You know, you're taking from the reason they're here. So I do understand that now. But at the time, come on, I'm going to take my fucking, uh, you're going to take my shot. Yeah. You've been, you, uh, am I

correct in this? I think I am. You got to perform or you've been to the comedy mothership. Is it the easier of those true? Correct and correct. Yes. But now I obviously folks have not been there but I'm uh you know one of the reasons I got into podcasting is I started listening this guy named Joe Rogan which I mean nobody knows who's that who that is but um the the comedy mothership like what was it? Like I don't I'm one of those guys that you just eloquently said probably never shows up the comedy shows except for when the headliners come through. Yeah, that that's pretty much me.

I'm going to make an exception in saying that when you come through. Lloyd Minster, right? Yes. So it's not, there's no comedy club. There's no, you know, that makes sense. But in big cities, it doesn't really make sense. What's your question about the mother? Well, I'm just curious.

You go, look, what was the mothership like? You know, because like when Rogan first announced it started talking about, I'm like, oh, man, if I'm ever down in that area, that'd be super cool. In saying that, it's not like you just show up on a random night and there's tickets everywhere and it's an empty house. By sounds of it, it's packed all the time. But, you know, you have an interesting view of it of being a comedian, getting to go on stage and then getting to watch other performers perform on stage.

What did you think of the venue? And I don't know, just the atmosphere, everything. So it's perfect. It's built perfectly. And you might have heard part of that is Louis C.K. Right before they were about to open up, Louis C.K. was called in by Joe to say it. And he said, what do you think of the venue? And I guess Louis at the last second went, cut this, tighten that, lower that, add seats there.

He had a couple notes. And so they delayed the opening of it because of Louis' notes. and just a cool little story, you know, some folklore to it. And regardless of how much impact that had, it's perfect. You go in there and there's two rooms, the little boy and the fat man, and they're both just like acoustically perfect. There's a big arch, arch behind you on the main room that lights up all different colors and has this nice little display to it when bringing on a new comic.

Little things like that that are really nice. They also change the spotlight depending on the comedian. The comedians that move around a lot get a nice wide one. Guys like Brian Holtzman get this like almost top down silhouette spotlight that helps the act. Like they've thought about little production notes and everything. Even the lighting like when they, when you. do the open mic, they keep the room brighter so you can see the audience. But then when the open mic's done and the professionals go on, it goes dark.

And they do that on purpose. They want to make it tough for the open micers who are showcasing themselves for the Booker. They want to make it tough. They want to see who's actually funny. And that's a weird thing is like when the audience can see each other, when it's lit up like Walmart, it's tougher because you're more conscious of who's laughing next to you if it's a dark joke. Whereas if you're in the dark, you can just be yourself and you're not worried about what's next to you. It really does help. It's insane how much little things like sound and light

help with comedy. They figured it out. They're also shooting from three angles, like 4K. I just got my hands on. So Brian Holtsman I'm touring with now. He is like the guy. that closed out to comedy store for 25 years he is the comedian's favorite comedian he takes wild risks on stage has meltdowns he's awesome you love him or you hate him he really embodies that so joe having seen him at the store and working with him his whole career brings him over to the mothership now he has a weekly show on thursdays and uh joe pays all his comics really really well there too. And Holtzman the other night does an hour and 20 minute set. I'm watching up on the balcony of the main room. Hour 20, he goes at it on the one year anniversary of the mothership

actually. It was the one year anniversary. And had an awesome set. Really did. And he goes, I just want to really, he's honestly planning on just like releasing the whole thing on edited. And so I just got a copy of the three angles. And just the house angles are ready. They're like special quality already. So Joe's place is tight is what I'm trying to say. And the security is even tighter because it has to be. You're on 6th Street in Austin where shootings happen.

It's Mardi Gras. That street every night is blocked off. And it's just madness. And every bar is playing their music louder than the bar. next to it and throw one dollar shots one dollar shots come on beads tits out fucking uh a horse will run by like it's just madness um and yes there's like shootings that happen every once in a while when i was there in 2021 there was a shooting on the street the day of a kill tony performance and also there was a guy that tried to come in he threatened tony he goes i'm coming in to like kill him to actually kill

Tony. And the security stomp them out front of the Vulcan Gas Company. That's when the show was at the Vulcan. They were like beating this guy and they're at a hose. They had to fucking hose off the blood from the street while Sam Walker was on stage. I had this moment of like watching Sam crotch. The place was just shaking. People were slapping the walls. He was roasting David Lucas so hard that the place was just going wild. 2021 too our country locked down the only comedy shows that were happening were backyard next to a tool shed and the neighbors like look it over the fence and we're standing in fucking dandelions

meanwhile 400 people packed on a Monday at the valcan fucking slap in the walls and there's blood getting hosed off the street out front 2021 will never be replicated in texas that was insane every club and every venue was like that slammed on a Monday night. Now, because of the mothership, those other venues, they have seen their attendants kind of fall off the wayside. They still can have good nights, but it is not the way it was. And now it is, the mothership is sold out on every show. And the people lined up trying to get into it. If they can't get in, then they spill over to the creek in the cave or the Vulcan or the sunset strip. And these are all comedy clubs within a stones throw away. from the mothership.

So it's kind of this New York city sort of feel where you can go do a set here, a set here, a set here. And that's why Austin is now being compared to LA and New York as a comedy capital. You know, I remember being a younger man and thinking the small things didn't matter. And as I've gotten older, and I listen to you talk and describe the mothership.

And now that I put on my own shows, you realize how important the small things are because all of it gives a feel, gives a feel for the audience for the performer. You know, I hadn't thought about the different lighting, you know, but that makes perfect sense to me, you know, and the crowd being light or dark, you know, for the comic, how we all interact, you know, when you look at, I talk about, you know, when I come back to the Freedom Convoy, I'd been talking on this podcast for almost a year with doctors, lawyers, professors, on and on and on and it went.

I've been talking COVID. So if you've been listening, you knew where I stood. But in my brain, I sit in a room and I'm never around anyone. And going to the Husky gas station and Lloyd and kind of like physically outing myself as the semis were rolling out of Lloyd Minster was like a really special, interesting moment that I didn't realize I hadn't done yet. Because you just do it to the mic and you walk away and you know, and you don't actually see all the people who listen and that type of thing.

And so that actually makes a ton of sense to me when you're saying. sitting on stage and the lights are up and you're sitting in the audience and you're like, oh, can I laugh at that? Because you're looking to see, you're already worried about how other people are going to perceive you laughing at a dark joke. When if the lights were off or you're sitting in your house and you're watching on Netflix or something, you can laugh hysterically and nobody catches it, right? And I get that actually makes a ton of sense to me.

Yeah. You might have another trucker thing right now in Lloyd with the carbon tax. April 1st. April 1st. Yeah, April 1st is when all the carbon tax goes up and the MPs get their raise and on and on it goes. And so there's 12 different locations from what I've been told across Canada where they're going to set up on the highway and allow traffic through but also be trying to slow it down. So if it's a dual lane, take up one of the lanes, right? So on the divided, each side is supposed to have a lane slow down, right?

they're supposed to be staying there until the carbon tax is taken away. Huh. Well, hopefully the blockade is gone by May 11th so I can come on through. I went to that Coots one, man. What did you think of the Coots one? Yeah. The one they're still being held for? Yeah.

So that was, uh, that I don't know. I, I've all, I have this segment called Stories That Matter on my Instagram. I like kind of doing journalism a little bit on the side. investigative shit and then try to make it funny but so yeah I was told okay here we

go there's this thing just south of me let's go check it out and there's a video on YouTube about this I'm sure if you Google like Coots Brett Forte you'll see it we try to drive down there and first of all we were blocked by the police you're not allowed to go to Coots at all even in a passenger vehicle and what they had done is they there was a guy standing in the middle of the road in a full ski suit with a ski helmet, ski poles, skis, standing in the middle of the highway. And they go, we can't let any traffic through because we got this guy in the highway.

And I was like, this guy. I was like, just telling the move. You're like, well, you can't. They go, there might be something in the bag. He had a backpack at his feet. So right away, I go, okay, this is the sport of your buddies in the fucking ski suit. all right there's a reason he's wearing a helmet to disguise his identity this is your way of blocking because you they didn't they didn't want people joining the movement and clogging it anymore

so they thought what can we do a few kilometers away to stop that and all they were letting in were people with identification with addresses that said they lived in coupes so i came prepared i got to the check stop and i made a fake performance car contract. I said, I go, I'm scheduled to perform at the saloon here. And I had a real like contract and everything. And they looked at it and they're like, okay. So I get through the blockade because of that. And then we get to the saloon, which was like the kind of the town hall of that whole thing. and very nice people. At the end of it, they just said,

we don't want truckers to have to show their Vax passports. It was kind of the whole thing, the backbone of it, right? We don't need people showing their medical records to live their lives. It was kind of their argument, which isn't crazy. And they were also well-behaved. And the little things I noticed were like the children were running around playing. And they made sure that there was no open alcohol. Like if you were going to go drink, it had to be inside the saloon.

Don't even stand outside with it. No loud music, nothing. They made a point of that because they're like, the police are looking for anything they can to come and harass us and shut us down. So we are going to be the most well-behaved as possible. And then so I spent the day down there, just kind of getting footage and made a little piece with them and, you know, recorded them secretly and some of the things they were saying. like there's going to be plants here.

There's undercover mounties. And they were telling me how they spot an undercover mounte. If he doesn't have any caluses on his hands, if he doesn't have shit out his cowboy boots. One guy apparently came into the saloon and he's like, so like, maybe we should just wrap this thing up, guys? What do you think we just go home? And they're like, get out of here, you pig.

You know, like, and then you find out that there was undercover mounties. and that's how they got some of the recordings of these guys talking tough. Now, I don't know the case inside and out, but as far as I understand, they have some audio or whatever of these guys, you know, talking tough. Well, if they fuck come in here, I'm going to fuck, I'll show them the double-barreled shotgun, and we'll figure out who's who. Like this tough guy talk that on paper does not look good at all. You know what I mean?

So I can't really speak on behalf of those guys, but what I can say is they were, most of them were so well behaved and not antagonistic at all. And then I went home that night and on the news, oh God, the news said that they attacked the cops,

that they sidest wiped an SUV, a cop car, that they rammed a police officer and that there was all this bullshit. I was like, I was there hours ago. None of this happened. Like, these guys are not about that at all. They were crossing their T's,

dotting their eyes making sure that this was purely about just staying in one location and not moving and not doing anything that might jeopardize that and the news made everyone else believe that these guys were radical and they were insane and that's everyone talks about mistrusting the mainstream media but i was there and that was finally my first time of like being able to watch news and then be there for it. And I got to pair the two things up and go, okay, definitely a lie instead of just kind of guessing. That was the first time

seeing it. So I'm glad I kind of did. I had nothing else to do. Right. Comedy was shut down. So I became a journalist for a little bit. And yeah, I also have a clip. You mentioned Danielle Smith. You might want to end. I can send you a clip. I have a bit of a joke

about her. I did a roast. On Daniel Smith? Yeah. I might have made up as to about her, but it really worked out nice for this girl in the front row because she was not a fan of Daniel Smith. She booed her. The women hated her. I said, really, women, boot, not supporting women. What's up with that? And then I really hop blonde in the front row. You'll like the clip. I'll send it to it. Sounds good. If you got five minutes left, this is going to air on April 1st. And April 1st is two years of full-time podcasting for me. That's Monday. And if you got two extra minutes, I'm going to make everybody, well, if they're want to. They can slide over to substack. We're turning on the substack paywall, so this part of the, you know, Brett Forte exclusive will only be on substack. So if Brett will give me one or two more questions, we'll stick around for five, ten more minutes and then a let them out of here. So we're going to take a brief break. And if you want to come on over, folks, please feel welcome.

Substack exclusive coming up.