The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show 200 Comedian Kevin Gootee of Comics Watching Comics

Episode Date: May 6, 2018

Comedian Kevin Gootee of Comics Watching Comics

show.com the crisp show.com here recording with another live podcast we certainly appreciate you guys tuning in you guys are a wonderful audience and the best audience ever actually what comes down to it so we appreciate you tuning in be sure to refer the show to your friends neighbors relatives tell them to go to iTunes Google Play to subscribe the show you can also go to youtube.com for just crisp boss and there you can see not only the live podcast broadcast you can see all of the uh reviews the great products we do at&t will be reviewing the samsung galaxy s9 pretty soon you can see the new videos of the siberian husky puppy so i want to

welcome a uh very interesting guest this is a kevin goatee and kevin started his journey in a comedy in 2010 he writes jokes that could be defined as cerebral fraternity guy material yeah Kevin continues along the unpaid path of a comedian and he hopes to make it big as a voiceover artist TV show host as well as a game show host he's been practicing since he was five saying the metric words every contestant wants to hear a brand new car I can't even do that well you probably do a bunch better than i uh he has created hosted produced and directed the show's comics watching comics on amazon video how about them apples and licensed to kill no odd job on twitch tv welcome to the show kevin how you doing buddy how's it going sir thanks for having me I appreciate the time yeah yeah so you've got some shows on Amazon video and twitch TV

those are two big platforms they're doing well for video tell us about what you've been up to what got here and all the good stuff I what got me here Jesus I've been in comedy for eight years now, and if you're in comedy, you should really know that just to make it, quote, unquote, you're not going to just make it in stand-up comedy. You've got to have your hand in different things. Hence why the show's voiceover, all that good stuff. And it's funny.

When I first started out in comedy, I never would have thought I'd be venturing down these unknown roads, and I have. And a bunch of comics came about boy three years ago yeah three years ago I was in an open mic one night and a friend and I were just texting back and forth because the comedians at that like that night we're just fucking awful so you were just texting is talking shit back and forth so you know this could be like a show, like a funny show, but I just can't have a show where we shit on people.

That's wrong. It's bad karma, all that stuff. So you like it already? Great. I got another viewer coming up. Perfect. There you go. I'm going to be checking it out on Amazon Video, like I said. Yeah. So it really made me have the idea. At the time, Last Comic Standing was on, I think it was last season. And in Last Comic Standing, that last season was just

fucking terrible. I mean, Norm Macdonald was the only panelist to offer any real insight. The other panelists were just offering, you know, fluffing each other up, kissing ass. Oh, that was really good. And it was mediocre at best. So I'm like, well, let's do a show where people are actually legit real.

And if they have to be mean, so be it. And the idea really is to promote intermediate comedy. A lot of comics here in the city. I'm in New York. I live in Newark, Jersey, but I'm a New York comic. That's where I do all my work pretty much. There's so many great comedians and not enough stage time. And I'm just trying to give a voice to those who are getting better and kind of also peeling the curtain back for those not in comedy and showing people what it's like on the journey, how comics watch comics, how we bust balls, what we say,

when we see comedians on stage, how we can break down jokes, kind of just really take you into our world and showing you what it's like. Yeah, that's really interesting i i've been a fan of uh arty lang's show uh and uh it's on hbo it's the couch surfing guy i forget what it's something on couch surfing but it's the comedian who he plays a guy who's up and coming in the comedy world and and it i don't know if it's an accurate portrayal of the behind the scenes. It might be more comedic theater. It's interesting the aspects of people pulling back that curtain and showing what goes

on beyond there. I guess you guys take that to a reality step. Do comics troll the other comics? You're busting balls. I know that comics do that a lot behind the scenes. What sort of format is it when it's comics watching comics? Is it cruel?

Is it mean? Is it a, I forget the word I'm looking for, but there's the panel where you take and just sear everybody and everybody gets burned and it's all in the state of comedy. No, we don't want to do that. Again, that's just bad karma just to sit there and fuck with people. Besides, how many people would want to be on

the upcoming seasons of that were to be shown as is? I want to get torn apart of the show. You can only sear sheep once. No, the idea is to promote comedy and we do pick a winning comedian to perform at a showcase at Gotham Comedy Club in the city at the end of every season

or two, so that's like the prize we dangle for everybody, and that live show will air on Amazon as well. I mean, we offer advice. We say, oh, that's a good joke. It could make it better. Boom, boom, boom. And if they're great, we let them know it. And again, the shitting on the

contestant, it's part of the show. It's definitely not the focal point of the show. It happens. I mean, that's only if people are really that goddanned awful. Well, you know, I've watched a lot of comedians and they talk about how when most comedians start out, they're going to be bad

and you just have to get stage time, and you have to work through it. At least that's what I've seen comedians talk about. So I guess it's more like a way to help improve other comedians, I suppose. I'm going to have to watch the show, obviously, to get a good grasp of it, but we'll help our audience through this as we go through it. And so was it really hard to get a good grasp of that. But we'll help our audience through this as we go through it. And so was it really hard to get a show on Amazon? Are they looking for shows?

What was your journey in getting that show on Amazon? Right. I had it on YouTube first, and then I met somebody who has a tie-in with Amazon, and that's how it got in. So, yeah, I mean, Amazon is looking for stuff. And I wish I had a better, cooler, you know, rags-to-riches story about how I got on there and how blood, sweat, and tears, and I finally climbed the mountain and made it happen.

Nope, I know somebody. So that's how I got on. So give us some – who are some of the great comedians you've had on so far? Let's see. Jason Scoop is going to be actually, he won season one, and he's going to be a panelist you'll see on season six. And he was on the USA show First Impressions last year, and that's something I think would be pretty good.

We have a lot of panelists you'll recognize. Jimmy Fallon, he now has his own show on Fox News. Troy Lynch created Celebrity Deathmatch on MTV a few years ago, many years ago. Gino Visconti, if you're a fan of Artie Lang, then you know who Gino Visconti is. That's what it implies. Gino is on season five, and he will be on the all-star version, which we're editing right now. And I'm trying to think who else you may know. Jeffrey Gurian, if you know who he is, he's been around forever.

He wrote for Rodney Dangerfield. He wrote for Joan Rivers. He wrote for Dice Clay. He's written for a ton of comics. So we'll be getting bigger names down the road, believe you me. So you guys have multiple seasons now. You're over five seasons. You mentioned five.

Yeah, season six is about to come out in the next week or so. So keep your eyes peeled on that. But, yeah, five seasons on Amazon right now. Cool. So that's awesome I mean you basically took this from YouTube and moved it to there it's which been good to you so far I know Amazon buying them that I just was recently looking at my twitch account notice they've done a whole redo of the dashboards and everything that goes into that in improving being able to do a show. Right.

I've only done one episode for the Twitch show. So too early to tell. Too early to tell. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. I remember when Twitch came to me years ago, I had my YouTube channel, and they wanted me to come over there. And I was like, well, what are you guys doing over there that i should leave youtube and the money and and they're like yeah we have people making 20 grand a month over

here uh uh playing videos of them playing video games and i said to the vice president i said to him that's the stupidest thing i've ever heard you mean people are people are watching other people play video games like that's stupid that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard and it's one of the biggest times i've ever been wrong in my life i know you would you would think that it's just yeah it's just i was just like why would people do that but uh after being the community i get it and and what's funny now is they would they don't want anything to do with me they're like oh let's have so many twitch views we can't give you advertising like screw you I'll stay with you but no it's great you've gone through the journey

you said eight years being a comedian and and now you've got the show on Amazon I really love what Amazon is doing they put a lot of good shows Goliath was the show I was thinking of that I really was impressed first on Amazon. I love the show with the guys from Europe. I'm so horrible with names and titles. It's the show with the three guys from Europe. They do the racing cars and stuff like that. They're always testing out hot, cool new cars. And they have kind of a funny banter.

But Amazon's really done a lot of great things with with you know adding on the competition of quality because network tv has really gone in the toilet and i can't i haven't been able to watch network tv for probably over a decade it's just awful and and half the time on network tv they they do this this. When you come in from commercial, they actually do a preview now. And then sometimes they just do the post. They just stretch out a five-minute

fucking script into somehow an hour. And of course, I have, what, 40 minutes of his commercials for medications, which you probably need after watching the show. And so I've been really impressed by going to Amazon because I can watch really good quality shows. I mean, the money that Amazon seems to be spending over there is really awesome.

And I think that just makes a huge difference. And anything that can get more competition, Netflix is doing the same thing. Anything that can get, competition to better content out there and higher quality content, geez, I'm all for it. I definitely love it. So,

where do you see the show going over the future? Or your career and what you're doing? I see it. We're actually in talks right now of having it at a casino a couple times a month a uh and we'll see if we get that happening where we do live shows at casinos where people can uh and do it and and be part of the show that way as well so i really see this as

like a kind of like an american idol slash last comedy last comic standing tour where we take some of the winners around or and the winners and around, as well as we do the actual local live shows in Atlantic City, Vegas, wherever. So yeah, we're in talks for that right now. So that's where we are in regards to that show. I've always followed the stories of the comedy club in L.A. And I was recently hanging out with one of my friends who did comedy back in the day. He was never a huge comedian, but the way you got stage time

was you babysitted Pauly at the comedy store. Right. And so it was interesting to me. It seemed like there was kind of a while there I don't know if it was the late 80s or 90s where there was comedy places opening up around the nation even in kind of Some rural areas and stuff and I guess some of those that maybe have closed down There's just not as many of them as much is it is it just there's not as much stage time for comedians now Or is there just so many people want to get in the business that that they're just deluging it it's a lot of people trying to get in and make this happen

really yeah yeah well it probably gives you good fodder for the show because there's so many people trying to get in there's probably a whole lot of people really doing some bad comedy because they're they have to learn the hard way and trial by fire and so you guys probably have a lot of great material for that yeah it's uh it can't yeah it can be we see a lot of good we see a lot of bad uh well not a lot of that we see it's like a bell curve like when you're in school you see so many students be and then more b and then a lot of c and then some d and then a little bit of f so yeah yeah some of my favorite comedians are are people that really love to kill and or they they love to die to kill they they can

die on purpose and they can do it so artfully and so well that when they die they kill like norm mcdonald's is a big one of those uh the the community from taxi was good at that um where they they were just funny and and they're good enough to where the the uh the audience gets in on the act and norm mcdonald's just a brilliant comedian you mentioned him earlier uh i just i i think he's probably underrated in most people's minds is probably one of the greatest comedians of our time when it comes to his writing on Saturday Night Live and everything else that he's done. I agree.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Artie Lang's, following him through his journeys of stuff from Howard Stern to what he's doing now. But, yeah, I've listened to comedians. At one point, I thought about maybe doing that and stuff, but I just didn't really think I was that funny. And I don't remember stuff. Well, obviously, I can't remember most of the names of the shows

and names of people that I want to remember. So, God forbid, I should try and memorize a monologue. But, yeah, I would think that you would have a lot of great material for that show, and it should be pretty darn awesome. So, I mean I guess this is actually to be a comedian you go from being a comedian to working on shows to sometimes producing and writing your own shows and either we end up seeing you in movies whether serious or not it's kind of interesting

some of the takes that people have gone to like I remember growing up with Steve Martin and his albums you know when he was first doing the king tut thing and then it was kind of disheartening i mean he did become a great movie star but then he kind of left comedy for the most part you know like hey man i wish steve bart would come back and be funny because he was really i kind of enjoyed him funny than in l.a story that's what i'm saying not a fan of la story i mean i saw the theater i don't remember being i was like what 89 i wasn't that crazy about it yeah i mean you know he's a great actor there's a lot of great movies he's done that i've liked i certainly i hated and

maybe it's because i i don't have a wife and kids but i hated the movies where he had like 10 kids but i i realized there's I realize there's a target. Is it Daddy Daycare or Cheaper by the Dozen? Cheaper by the Dozen, yeah, where he has like a billion kids, and I suppose that's some sort of slapstick comedy, which I just find cheap. But what can you do with it when it comes down to it? So it should be a great show.

How long do you guys have a contract that goes, or does Amazon just do you from month to month? No, we go as long as we want. And the good news is that I can take it off whenever I want to. And right now the real money is still in network or cable TV. So if a show wanted to come by and say, hey, we want to pay you for your shows, I can take it right off and say, okay, bye, see you later. So I can do that.

Yeah, that's good news. Cool. Cool, man. And do they have a set up with your show where they put in commercials? No, I'm really independent. The only thing Amazon does is just pay me for views and that's it. I don't get any budget. I don't get anything like that at all. It's all out of my own pocket. I finance things that they want and I just

get paid for views from Amazon. Cool. Well, it must be doing well and being a hit, so that's pretty awesome there. Which I'll thank you. I'm trying, man. That's for goddamn sure. I am trying. Yeah, I go into my Amazon on my PS4 and watch the shows

on the big TV so I'll definitely be checking it out anyway Kevin do you want to give us plugs as what websites people go to check this out sure comics watching comics calm look for it of course on Amazon comics watching comics season six like I said should be out On Twitter At Comics Watching Facebook, Instagram, Comics Watching Comics I'm Kevin Gauti Kevin, K-E-V-I-N-G-O-O-T-E-E Dot com

As well to find my dates and such At Kevin Gauti Twitter, Facebook, Instagram All that good stuff But yeah, check out Comics Watching Comics It's the big one I don't know, I'll try and figure out when the next likes to kill the law jobs going to air but hopefully soon but I know that's that's

the gist give me give me a look watch the show like it give a review hmm that's that all right well thanks Kevin and we certainly appreciate our eyes for tuning in today be sure to refer the show to your friends and relatives. Be sure to go to iTunes.com or you can go to Google Play. YouTube.com for us. That's Chris Voss and see all the shows we do over there. Thanks for tuning in, everyone. We certainly appreciate it.

We'll see you next time.