The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Daddy Issues: A Fatherless Comedian’s Original Jokes by Allan Andrew Sidley

Episode Date: November 18, 2023

Daddy Issues: A Fatherless Comedian's Original Jokes by Allan Andrew Sidley https://amzn.to/40LSDjz Sidleystandup.com "All vegetarians agree, you should never meat your gyros." Provocative. Edgy. Corny. Genius. Stupid. An inside look of author Allan Sidley's best and worst jokes over his comedy career. Poking fun at real subjects like his family, religion, politics, and pokémon, you'll laugh when you should(n't), groan often, and see words transform right before your eyes. For those who are dads, have their own daddy issues, or are simply human, this book reminds us humor is in EVERYTHING. A therapy session cheaper than your co-pay, Daddy Issues celebrates life's highs, mediums, and loathes.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

There you go. When the Iron Lady sings it, that makes it official, as we like to say on the Chris Voss Show. Welcome, my family and friends to the big show on the Chris Voss Show. We certainly appreciate you guys being here. Today, we're going to have some laughs and some comedy on the show instead of the normal crying that we do, where we just sit around and boob and cry over our navels or something. We don't do that on the Chris Voss Show. Remember, the Chris Voss Show is a family that loves you but doesn't judge you,

at least not as harshly as your mother-in-law. Because, you know, she never liked you anyway. She wanted the other guy. But that's not our problem today, but it's your problem. So we'll leave it there. Guys, be sure to refer the show to your family, friends, and relatives. Go to Goodreads.com, 4chesschrisvoss, YouTube.com, 4chesschrisvoss. You can go to chrisvossface Facebook.com to talk to the show

and our private group there. You can also go to LinkedIn.com Sign up for the newsletter. It's always huge over there. The 130,000 LinkedIn group as well. And also there's Chris Voss and the Tickety Tocky where we're not as cool

as the kids want us to be because well, we're fucking old. So there you go. I'm thinking about shaving my beard off, and we'll ask our guest who has a ginormous man beard on the show. But before we get into that, we want to tell you, order up his book, wherever fine books are sold. His newest book is out called Daddy Issues,

a fatherless comedian's originalokes by Alan Andrew Sidley, who joins us on the show today. We're going to be talking to him, and he's got a stand-up special we'll be talking about, his comedy work that he does, and some of the other interesting things that he does to help people be better at being funny in marketing and business. Author and stand-up comic who does comedy, Alan Sidley has a solid media presence on TV, radio, podcast, print,

and digital publications. He was raised by a single mother after the death of his father when he was 10 months old. He learned early on to carve his path and has done so as a producer, sketch writer, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and the author of the bestselling humor book, daddy issues. He is also the loving girl,

dad to Sonny, his one-year-old daughter. So he's, he's now got kids. Uh, Alan has appeared on comedy stages in New York, LA, Baltimore,

Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and more. And he's also doing benefit shows for the American heart association in honor of his late father and two uncles who died from heart disease. With Alan's irrepressible work, ethic, dry wit, and grand sense of humor, the sky is the limit. And there you go. Welcome to the show, Alan. How are you? Hey, Chris. Thanks for having me. And thanks for pumping me up, man. I'm feeling

pretty good today. We got the pump up there, buddy. We have the brightest people on the show. I'll take you on the road with me, Chris. I have so many people saying, hey, can you follow me and be my intro dude where you just introduce me everywhere? I'm like, hey, for enough money, I'll do anything. Have you seen my OnlyFans lately? Anyway, there's

no OnlyFans people. Alan, give us your dot coms. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? My website is Sidley Standup, S-I-D-L-E-Y Standup.com, and that does have a few things that we'll be talking about. There's like a link to my book on there. There's

an interview on Fox 5 DC, and as well as my stand-up special. That's probably a good starting point to get to. There you go. So, this book title is definitely pre-baby then because you're a fatherless comedian's original jokes so give us a 30 000 overview of what's inside daddy issues when we buy it yeah so essentially you know it was like a project that i always wanted to do i

wanted to write a joke book and if you know me and my style of comedy a lot of it is some one liner some pun some wordplay a lot of misdirection here and there and i noticed i of comedy a lot of it is some one-liner some pun some wordplay a lot of misdirection here and there and i noticed i was writing a lot of jokes that would be funny if i texted them to friends or sent them in an email and just things that actually worked in the written form and some that you know could work in when i say it on stage as well as uh in book form so you know pandemic hit i had so much stand-up momentum that just came to a screeching halt and i finally decided i was like look let's figure out how to put this together and in the book i kind of wanted to give people everything like all parts of me so

in my little handy book i have right here i think it's mirrored so you can't really read it too well in the back but it says provocative edgy cor, stupid. And I think those are the like that embodies all of you know, that's what my guidance counselor called me most of my years. So yeah, I just wanted and I you know, I spent a lot of time because it to me, you know, there's storytellers and there's comedians. And for me, I always felt like that my jokes tell the story. So even though it's kind of, we've got some stuff about traveling, we've got some stuff about family and we've got things like health and religion. So it has a real nice narrative flow and I'm still very happy with it. I mean, even if you just look at it, it just like kind of looks like a, you know, legitimate book.

And my dream is to have this in every coffee table and bathroom stall across America. So there you go. There you go. Are you going to amend the title ever the to say a father's comedian jokes you're just going to leave it as it was i think i'll probably leave it because it's it's an homage to my daddy issues of having my dad ah first period of time versus now having different daddy issues now that i am yeah so now you got to do a second book uh father's comedian original jokes exactly one of the couple working titles that are now that I'm a father. So now you've got to do a second book, A Father's Comedian, Original Chunks.

Exactly. One of the couple working titles that are corny like Daddy Issues 2, but spelling it T-O-O. There's a few things on my mind on where to go with this. There you go. You're going to have some issues as a dad too, especially

with a daughter. So there you go. Everyone tells me. They're like, great now, hold daughter um so there you go uh everyone tells me they're like great now hold on i'm like yeah they're they're fun at three years old they come in and go are you gonna wear that when you go out and you're just like you're three what do you know about fashion and anything and they know it's unfortunate more than we do probably more than we do and more than we care for that matter because we don't uh and uh but they make the world more beautiful uh so uh you know daddy issues pretty much describes 35 years of my single dating life uh tell us why you chose that for your title and and uh and i guess some of your daddy issues and stuff like that. Yeah. Uh, I mean, I basically chose the title cause I sort of wanted to like have some kind

of almost like magazine tie in where you would have like a daddy issue and that would be like the magazine. So I kind of went with daddy issues, uh, sort of like play on words there. And I felt like it was very, you know, like my comedy,

very just straight to the point. It's like, you're holding this book. It has my name on it. What's it about? And then it kind of just gives you some context. You're like, oh, this is a guy who didn't have a dad or, you know, dad passed away when he was young. And he wrote these jokes. These aren't because when I was, you know, thinking about writing this, one of the things I was doing is I would be wandering into some bookstores and I saw that there were like, wasn't really joke books from active comedians. There were, Hey, these are the top 1000 jokes that we've all heard on the

internet. Would you like to buy that? But there wasn't anything that, that I thought was like, uh, you know, unique in that sense. So it was kind of like a sort of supply demand thought that I had in a passion project for me. There you go. So, uh, uh, tell us a little bit about your history. We've kind of heard a little bit about it, but tell us kind of from your words, what, what that was like and, and what contributed to, um, you know, uh, the book. Uh, yeah. Sorry. So are we talking about my like upbringing here?

Are we talking about these daddy issues come about and give us some more in depth of these uh daddy issues that led you down this journey to become a comedian yeah so there's definitely a few facets here um obviously growing up with a out of dad definitely like left a a void that you know would have been probably filled with some more like love and security and validation, things of that nature. So just like overrated anyway. So,

you know, definitely kind of just like growing up feeling like I had a chip on my shoulder, kind of wanted to be the best in all the things that I did as a kid, I guess, validation. So growing up, I was like heavy into sports and,

you know, did decently well in school, but I was always playing football baseball things of that nature and kind of just enjoyed competing and like working hard getting results and then that kind of stopped after college when i was like got my first job and i was like wow this just sucks i don't really know what's going on here because when you do internships you're two months and then you're back at school having fun with your friends again. You're not sitting at some awful desk and surrounded by people and in a cube.

And yeah, it took me a little while, but I eventually was like, I need to be doing something different. And started some improv, actually, is how I started. I took some classes. Yeah, because I'm quick-'m quick with it in that way. And I don't like thinking about stuff ever. And it seemed like more slacker way of getting into comedy. It's like, instead of sitting down and writing down a set,

I'll respond to things. So that was, that was my start. And I've still involved in improv. So it kind of had a up and down trajectory, but I've been doing it again recently with some friends and we're really good so yeah just like it's a really nice outlet and it's just super fun but ultimately i fell in love with stand-up again and that just kind of started hitting it really

hard at one point it was putting on at one point chris i was like producing 200 shows a year. It was nuts. Wow. You were doing good. But I, you know, I helped refine my comedy chops. And I feel like at this point, I've been doing it for 10 years. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing up on stage most of the time and just really having fun with it and just hoping to keep doing it more and having more people coming to see me.

You know, that's the dream right there.'s awesome man that's awesome when did you so when did you know the comedy was like really something that uh worked for you and and uh and hit with you you know they always joke about how um comedians uh we have a lot of issues um but uh i don't know if that's true no that's true uh do you find you're in the same vein hopefully awareness that's what alcohol is for you rephrased the question like I got lost in your punchline there

there you go sorry so do you find that some of the issues you had as a child or what contributed to you wanting to be a comedian? They say comedians have a lot of mental issues, and that's how we medicate. Yeah, I mean, I definitely had a ton of anxiety before knowing anxiety was a thing.

I thought everyone just had panic attacks on math test day, and that was normal. Sure, that's normal. That's every Friday around here. And then here's the fun thing. Socially socially i've always found it a million times easier to talk to one person versus a group of people and that's what makes stand up great because i have one microphone and i'm literally talking to in some cases one person that's just a glob of humans in a room this is the one person who's usually not laughing? Hopefully not.

I do try to focus on the ones that are laughing. Do you? That's smart. The ones that don't laugh get to me. That's what bugs me. I've seen shows where people have literally sat there, arms crossed, and just stared the entire time. And it's like, why did you come? Yeah, it's like you're at a comedy show for you paid

money to not have a good time good time it sounds like most husbands i know uh i don't know what that means but uh check your amazon balance um your wife's amazon balance um so now uh you're you're are you are you going out on the road now or i know you have this special tell us about the special and and what your future is on the road yeah so the special i also recorded um sometime during covid and so covid times for comedians were real tough because some people were really enjoying doing stuff on social media all the time, but I just really crave that intimacy, that reaction from the audience, whether they love it or not. And you know, you can't, there's nothing like live comedy, live music, live entertainment. So definitely, I was definitely hurting during that time. I did zoom shows, I got a lot of laughs, people like my jokes, but I just didn't feel like

I was getting much out of it. Huh? So at some point, I was like was like hey wouldn't it be crazy to you know help promote my book and do a couple things if i just recorded an hour back in my hometown vna va had some family friends and strangers and that's basically how it happened and it was really crazy because i you even see it as like kind of like a tagline in the beginning of my special work i don't know if it's 12 months or 16 months but i hadn't performed live in like a year, year and a half. And then, you know, my style, which is very quick, it was pretty insane for me to try to take on an hour and do that. But I think it came out super well. And it gave me the confidence to think, okay, this is something I could do again. Maybe next time, you know, we get, we try to tweak it, get a little more people involved,

because, you know, it was pandemic time. So we hit pandemic capacity, but that was like 40 people, you know. So but it was it was cool insofar as kind of similar to the book. You know, I tried to give it all encompassing me with some, you know, provocative stuff, some corny stuff, edgy stuff. But personal stuff as well, you know. And like I said, it went really well it was so much fun and then uh ended up getting like 20 000 views on youtube so that was cool yeah and then you're doing well on tiktok as well sony yeah some of my stuff hits really well and some of it doesn't uh

tiktok's just that way these days you know some people i know that do funny stuff on there they're like i can put up two or three things so the same thing like just repeating it uh in different times and like it won't hit and then like the fourth time it'll like just fucking go gangbusters and they're just like i don't know you know whatever I think my biggest thing was like 350,000 views. That's pretty awesome. And that was super cool. And I probably spent 10 seconds thinking about it. Well, that's how most families get started.

A lot of people, it's kind of interesting. TikTok has made some stars. There's one guy making the rounds now who I guess he did 10 or 12 years in the business. And, you know, he was getting drummed out of the business. People were telling him, yeah, you're not that funny. Maybe you should give up. And I guess he had one of his TikTok videos that he wasn't going to put up. He's about to quit, evidently.

It's a story. And it went viral. And now he's making like $12 million a year or something. I don't know if you've seen him i forget his name motivational or demotivational for me you know it maybe it means you're almost there uh yeah i mean that's what everyone's saying oh i'm one one thing away from breaking through and you know get some fun opportunities here and there but i'd definitely love to be making 12 million dollars a year doing stand-up definitely definitely you know especially now you got the daughter that

takes at least 11 million right there exactly because you're gonna have to buy all the dresses and all the things and uh yeah there you go uh so uh how has life uh changed for you and having a daughter having a family and comedy is it do you find it gives you more material or is it harder or yeah how's it how's it changed so it changes insofar as like i definitely have a smaller window to perform comedy so it's making me try to like filter out some of the gigs that i personally think are not a good use of my time and try to do the stuff that's you know better paying more fun so you kind of you kind of come in with do the stuff that's, you know, better paying more fun. So you kind of you kind of come in with that filter. And that's obviously what everyone wants to do over

time, they want to say no to the crap and yes to the good stuff. So that right there off the bat kind of changed my framework. And I learned that, you know, when I was really grinding, I was doing this, you know, four or five nights a week, multiple times a night. And I don't now that I've been doing it for 10 plus years, I don't need to do it at that level to still feel like i'm on my game um yeah that was one aspect and then i mean definitely the wholesome stuff it's just been great seeing you know her grow from you know this little tiny weird thing to just this beautiful she just started taking steps like last week oh and just all those milestones and everything are just you know feelings that i've like never had before in terms

of you know love and connection and just like pure joy and how much fun she can have with whatever nonsense she's getting into so that's been a huge positive boost especially you know say i go to a gig and it's not that great. And then I can come back. She'll be asleep. But the next day I'll be like, you know, taking her out of the crib and just be like, this is what matters. This is what's important. Yeah.

And it's good to have that foundation in life. You have, you need a foundation. People who live or die by comedy are the ones that are abusing the most substances. Yeah. Yeah. You, you see that in the comedy world. Like, you know, I have my dogs as my kids,

and they keep me grounded, and they remind me of what's important. And then, of course, having, you know, people there in your life where I think that's maybe why we lose some comedians. I don't know. I don't know what was going on in their personal life. But, you know, some of the comedians that you've seen

that are pretty great and are up or coming in kind of middle middle uh where they're you know their careers are still coming up um you know you've seen them pass away with drugs and you're just like god so much loss that dude was so funny but you know i mean there's a medic there's the the laughter is the drug. Like people laugh at me. Um, that's like, it's like cocaine, man. And it just feeds the animal too. Cause you're just like, I just want to be funny more now.

Yeah. And so, uh, it's kind of a weird cycle because you live for that, that attention, that validation kind of in a way. Um, although I don't give a shit if anybody likes my jokes anyway. I kind of reached a disturbing sort of narcissism where I just don't give a fuck anymore.

Give me a couple more years. You've been glimpses where I was like, whoa, where did this not come from? Yeah, but I still get off on the comedy when people laugh, but it's like it's just brain juice for your brain. So anything more you want to plug on the comedy side before we flip over and talk about some of the business consulting you do? Yeah.

So on Instagram, I'm at Sidley Standup. And on TikTok, I'm at Alan Sidley. And those should probably be the same, but you know, I like to make things difficult for my fans. So those are, and I, I'm doing,

I'm trying to get into doing more videos all the time. I've been recovering from this really annoying cold that I don't know if you can hear it a little bit. I am feeling better though, but I'd say the COVID did you know? I mean, I've gotten it before twice, but hopefully. Yeah. I mean, I've gotten it before, twice. But again, hopefully.

Yeah. And yeah, you know, if you're interested in booking me for whatever. So I'm starting to get into some college spaces. That's like sort of my number one intermediate goal. Just kind of like use that as an additional platform. Because it's a long story, but I joined an association. And it seemed like there were some really good opportunities that hopefully capitalizing on but you know I can do colleges I can do corporate stuff whatever I just love doing it I love sharing my jokes and just

making people laugh at the dumb stuff I come up with and the smart stuff I come up with there you go make people laugh and what you know we need more of this uh it's interesting you're doing colleges uh i i'm curious how that that tour will work out because a lot of comedians are not happy with the the woke is among colleges and and the uh i mean i think i just can't take a joke it seems yeah i mean it's definitely gonna most, you know, soft or liberal leaning spaces. And you just kind of have to know that you have to navigate. I think also the thing too, and, you know, we were talking about substances earlier, it's just like most of those shows students aren't drinking. So you have people who are, you know, a little bit leaning towards, you know, not wanting to be offended or being pretty sensitive and then not being lubricated at all. Lubrication helps. Double whammy.

But I'll have to report back because I think I'm funnier than those people complaining, so we'll see what happens. Alright, sounds good. Fuck Bill Maher. Hey, so why do you think comedy is important? Why is comedy comedy important thing in this world because it seems to be dying like yesterday there's a new thing on um there's a

new thing on uh uh facebook where you can put like a little byline over your little story picture bullshit and i've never done it so yesterday i just as a just as a snarky thing, and most people that know my comedy on Facebook, they know I'm just really snarky. And so I just put bite me on it, right? Just fucking bite me. I'm just like, I don't know, this thing's stupid. Well, that's really insensitive to people who don't have teeth. Oh, fuck.

So that's what it was. That explains the old man who lit up on me. So anyway, i got like two messages one person he wrote no thank you please delete me from your posts and and he literally wrote and twice so he's clearly there it's and he is an old man so it might have been the teeth issue bite yourself like he literally took offense at someone who wrote bite me. And if he reads any of my content, which he clearly doesn't on Facebook,

he would know that that's my comedy. I'll play the straight man and do snarky comedy. And he literally was super offended to a point that he had followed me because I just said two words, bite me. And then some other chick was offended too. Uh, not quite as much.

I think she kind of half got the joke, but, um, and just to be clear, you didn't say bite me at, and then tag all these people. No, no,

no. It's a, it's a new thing. We're in messenger, you know, you know, you read people's stories, their stories go by. Well, there's a new thing where you can put like a little byline in there.

And so some of my friends have been putting jokes in there. And then some of my friends have been talking to each other back and forth. And they've turned that into a joke stream. So like one's saying the other one's stupid. It's kind of a funny back and forth if you're friends with them. Right. And so I've been just kind of like, am i gonna do with that so i just wrote bite me and like literally i offended two fucking people that i know of there's probably a whole host of people that are blocking me now and so why is comedy important why do why do we all need to lighten

the fuck up um i mean i personally think that comedy is important because you need to laugh at the horrible things going on um and that doesn't resonate with everybody obviously sometimes people are like horrible things let's not talk about them let's sweep them under the rug but if you can make somebody you know laugh by commenting on it or twisting something around i mean you can if you can laugh at trauma, you're winning. That's kind of the way I see it and see people healing from

whatever stuff that they've been bothered with, whether it's current events or stuff going on personally. It's like, if you can laugh at this, you're okay. Yeah. I mean, human nature is comedic on the face of it. I think that's what comedians are great at is they provide a mirror to human nature. And they get us to look at ourselves and maybe not take ourselves as seriously as we should.

And recognize the folly of some of the stupid things that we do. Even when it's horror or when it's tragic you know there's there's still a moment where you can you know people always used to tell me that you know i won't you know my dog died you know they're like someday you'll be able to laugh and smile over this you're like what the um and and and then you reach that point where you're like you know you breathe you get joy when you see their faces and and sometimes the tragedies that you go through in life you know you breathe you get joy when you see their faces and and sometimes the tragedies that you go through in life you know everyone's like you'll look back someday and laugh at this and then you do you're like wow that really it really wasn't that big of a deal and

and whatever um you know there's they're you know bringing levity different things so they don't they're not just not these giant traumas maybe that's what we're doing in comedy when we're telling jokes about stuff that has a powerful trauma in people's brain. We're trying to alleviate trauma. Maybe that's what it is. It's a counseling session, really, when you're doing stand-up. Definitely. And it's an art to pull it off effectively because if you just say the thing that you know upsets people that's not gonna help anyone laugh and then they're gonna get super upset yeah and the great uh comedians do uh do do

a real art thing with where they can pretty much make fun of the full circle they can do the full circum from of of the issues on both sides and make fun of everybody. And I think that gives it the, it's kind of like going around a can opener. And I think that really opens up everyone on all sides to go, yeah, why are we doing this us and them thing? You know, it's really silly what we're up to. I'm a narcissist enough that most of my comedy is about me. So if people hate it, it's just because they don't like me.

There you go. There you go. Fuck those people then. So tell us about some of the consulting you do. I was looking at your LinkedIn, and you've been doing 11 years consulting with expertise in sales, relationship building, public speaking, and technical implementation and hilarity. Tell us about what you do there. Yeah, I mean, so I've definitely done a variety of roles and worn many hats.

You know, when I graduated from school, I kind of just got into like the tech consulting, data implementation stuff, which to some people think it's like amazing. Some people think it sounds like the most boring stuff ever, but essentially just implementing different solutions, you know, for folks trying to digest data and get, you know, reporting and analytical analytics out of it and done like a variety of stuff within that. You know, business intelligence, data warehousing, a bunch of buzzwords. And yeah, I mean, it definitely pays the bills way better than comedy has so far

um but i i like it in terms of getting to do like problem solving and i see it as puzzles you know this is how it is now this is what we want it to look like go figure out how to make that happen and yeah so that was like mostly you know some of the nine to five stuff on sort of like interactive kind of training exercises that are based in improv but are supposed to have uh you know effects on either you know people feeling more vulnerable and safe to say whatever but or like more tangibly you know working on speaking skills leadership skills improve improve morale for groups. I still do that stuff to this day when the work is available.

It's really fun because you just go in, you've got your group of anywhere from 10 to 40 people, and you get to share this experience that you weren't really sure what was going into it. Sometimes it's a difficult thing to sell. I'm like, I'm going to come in and do improv games because some people are like, oh, lame some people are you know you're gonna

have a strong reaction to it really people are like well it's just like it's hard to sell the benefit of it until people do it and then just like wow we really you know it's not just the morale boost it's like we you know thought more creatively for a couple of days and things of that we feel like less limited when we say yes to ideas instead of shooting things down right away so it's it's kind of like sort of trying to combine the stuff that i've learned from consulting as well as just having some fun you know and then and then you know maybe we need more comedy and levity in business environments because it's gotten really fucking, you know, now you've got microaggressions, which I think are complete bullshit.

And, you know, I'm sure that next week there'll be micro-microaggressions, atomic-level nuclear uh cell uh offenses um you know it's really interesting like i think the first department that should be fired in most companies is the hr department um well also because they only help the company and not you pretty much yeah it's it's like i love all the p the attorneys down there on tiktok the hr attorneys or whatever they defend people and their employees and like yeah when you start when you start down the road getting calls from the hr department it's not a good sign they're they're they're walking you slow walking you out the door basically and i'm like wow but you know why why do

you think uh it's important in business to maybe have some more comedy and lighten the fuck up? Yeah, I mean, I think it's just an opportunity for folks to get some common ground, especially if it's a shared experience where you're all laughing at something, you then can reference that as a fun time everybody had. And yeah, I mean, even in meetings I'll have,

I'll be throwing in some jokes here and there because you do have to lighten the mood because business at its core, you're just like, so thanks for everyone for joining my business meeting. We are going to talk about business and here are my 10 points. And then we walk through and then now the business meeting is over and these are the action items that everybody's going to do. And all right, see you later. And it's like, there's no, there's no kind of, you know, no one's having an improved relationship there. No one's feeling, you know, motivated about their work. So I think that's how you, and that's probably what separates some of the better

teams and managers and leaders is trying to make any informational session less, you know, all that. Cause you know, and you're kind of battling two things right because you have all these different types of people personalities you have the people who are just like let's only talk about this thing anything else we talk about i can't focus i don't want to talk about anything else and then you have the people who are like hey how was your weekend what's uh how is everybody doing what's going on so yeah there's a human element to it where it's an individuality especially but yeah no definitely people you have that human interaction i mean it's important as well uh but i think you're right uh leaders need to know a little bit of comedy but these zoom meetings you know I never had to do the whole zoom meetings things cause I don't work for

people. But during COVID, I would see my friends just suffering and they would just be like, I've done 12 hours or eight hours of fucking back to back zoom meetings. Kill me now. And I just be like, yeah, that's why I don't work for anyone.

Um, but you know, the, I, you, I've seen a few of them and they're dry as hell like they're just comedic wise or funny wise or interesting wise uh they're dry as hell and sometimes it's a horrible way to tell stories and you just you can see people you know they're they're they're like

it's like that scene in airplane where they're tying the noose on uh and they're pouring gasoline all over themselves during the zoom meeting you know and you always get that one person who's making it just extraneously painful um you know and making it drawn out and so i think i think comedy is real important you know i one thing i talked about during covid and since is you know leaders there's a lot i could do personally and being funny uh and and trying to gauge and excite and motivate my employees one-on-one you know and that's really easy to do because you know you you know you can you can hang out with people you can stand next to them shake their hand pat them on the back uh although i think that's illegal now as a microaggression.

I just keep six feet away from people at this point and poke them with a stick. And not that kind of poke, people. Don't go there. Oh, shit, HR is calling me now. It's harder over Zoom, especially as a leader, to motivate people and inspire them and kind of win their hearts and minds and of course storytelling is so important as well i

think and i think that's what a lot of people miss in those zoom meetings no one's telling stories just barking orders maybe yeah it's that and you know as a person who hasn't been in a high leadership position i can tell you know everyone what everyone's doing wrong and what they need to do. All you have to do is appreciate your employees. Tell them, good job. We appreciate you. Give them some more money at the end

of the year. Those two things, and you'll have people smiling and saying, yes, what else can I do to help the team? Yeah, we can't have that. That's all you need you know really that seems it seems almost too easy but so we're not going to do that companies will say uh the uh no you're right it's it's it's it's always you fix this now what are you doing now what are you doing now what are you doing what are we doing this is it's like there's no chill you know there's no chill i think that's an important

aspect of it too uh people got to learn to chill a little bit more you know if you you know as so much comes across with empathy and uh uh inspiring people i mean inspiring people is a big part of leadership if you're not inspiring people they're going to go someplace where they're going to be inspired. You know, especially in this new Gen Z crowd, they're going to places where they find good leadership, where they find inspiration, where they're motivated at work. Because, you know, whatever it is inspires them. And that's just so important. It's really admirable they're doing a great job of you know realizing nobody's looking out for them yeah millennials we sort of started that

i like to believe you know in terms of hey the companies aren't really looking out for us we need to do a little more job hopping but gen z just took that and hop three jobs a year to find something that actually works for them yeah and thankfully they're in a job environment now where they can they can kind of they are the you know there's there's a shortage of workers so they are the um the you know they're in demand and so they can kind of command their their value a little bit and you know we're seeing great things with unions and stuff like that. So there you go. So as we go out,

any, any thoughts and things that we've missed about you that we should have our audience know about you? I'm trying to think anything else, anything else. You got your special, your Tik TOKs, your Instagrams,

anything new coming up on the road there uh i mean i've got a couple shows in december um doing something in here let me pull up my calendar real quick if that's all right my calendar says so i'm gonna be doing them so this is gonna be a little interesting i'm doing a musical comedy show in Haverday Grace at the Fair. Or not the Fair. The Haverday Grace Theater. And this is in Maryland. And I will be doing some hip-hop funny rapping.

It's something I've been wanting to do. I used to do a little freestyling back in the day with the boys. So time to dust off those skills. And then, yeah, also doing a show in Cape Charles on December 2nd. So, yeah, I mean, just check out the website. I'm going to make sure to have all my dates up there. And, yeah,

I mean, that's comedy rap. I have things I'm thinking about working on. There you go. Comedy rap. That's got to be kind of interesting does does anybody do comedy rap is that a new thing i'm sure some folks have done it i heard a lot of times what you do is you'll the stereotypical thing is like you break down a rap song and then you say what you would do is different throw in some other stuff and analyze

it but i haven't 100 figured out what i want to do because i have too many ideas for it but i am running out of time so yeah yeah there you go those those kids are those kids are gonna grow up on you yeah so there you go uh interesting balance life work balance you got going on and and uh i hope it really uh keeps kicking ass for you man you're you're doing well i'm looking at the tiktok there i'm gonna have to watch some of your videos and stuff um so alan thanks for coming on the show uh give us your final uh plug outs and pitches before we You're doing well. I'm looking at the TikTok there. I'm going to have to watch some of your videos and stuff. So, Alan, thanks for coming on the show. Give us your final plug-outs and pitches before we go out. Just like I said earlier, hire me

to do comedy. I will make you laugh for your private party, your bar mitzvah, whatever, wedding, or just regular comedy club. Love doing this stuff. Love writing jokes. And people love hearing my jokes. So hopefully it'll be you soon.

There you go. Check them out. Order at the book wherever fine books are sold, folks. Daddy Issues, A Fatherless Comedian's Original Jokes, out March 19, 2021. Thank you very much, Alan, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Chris. There you go. And thanks to our audience for tuning in go to goodreads.com Fortress Chris Foss

linkedin.com Fortress Chris Foss Chris Foss won on the tickety-tockety and what is there the LinkedIn newsletter the LinkedIn group also go to what did we miss I don't know that's all of it Chris Foss facebook.com thanks for tuning in everyone be good to each other stay safe

and we'll see you guys next time