The Church of What's Happening Now: The New Testament - #582 - Erik Griffin

Episode Date: May 7, 2018

Erik Griffin, comedian and actor seen on "Workaholics" and "I'm Dying Up Here," joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt LIVE in studio. This podcast is brought to you by: ZipRecruiter - post your job to 200+ job sites with a single click for free at www.ziprecruiter.com/church   Onnit.com - Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount at checkout.   Recorded live on 05/06/2018.  

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Are you fucking kidding me? Here we go, here we go, the flying Jew, aka the Christ killer, Eric Griffin, and Uncle Joey Diaz, ready to go here. A little Michael Shankner on a Monday morning to get your fucking heartbeat. What's happened, you bad motherfuck. Fuckers Monday morning, feeling good.

If you came out to the Soldout shows in Tempe, thank you very much. I appreciate it. The weird thing about that club is I started there as an MC in 98, and now you go back 20 years later, and you're headlining and you sound out the fucking room. I don't know what I put up. I even got banned from there for a year.

You got banned, and now you're back? And the Tempe Improv for a year with Danny Murr. Comedy Cup bands never last. Danny Murr, God rest of soul, that creepy motherfucker. Danny Murr was a judge. jealous guy. Did you ever work for Danny Mur? I don't think so. No. I don't think so. No. When we first, when I first moved to LA,

the Tempey Improv was the premier improv. Like, you just didn't work Tempe. Like, you'll never work Tempe. Like, you had to be recommended and recommended and recommended. But you had to be recommended by Cokefeans. Because his favorite comics were Coke Feens or anybody that was a celebrity

he would mooch up for. So the guy that owned Tempe was an AA guy. Like the guy that really owned the club was an alcoholic anonymous guy who hated alcohol He had bought the club when he was a drinker and now that he was the president of A a Arizona Oh, so he didn't let you drink on stage. He didn't want nothing like that. He wanted to sell food So the club was really weird the owner was so the general manager posed as the owner and he lost it Eric Griffin Eric Griffin we talked about it this week. We saw the decline like He was just a club guy that really cared.

He knew how to book good comedians. He booked a good feature. He knew how to not put a dirty act together with a clean act. He just knew a bunch of shit. But then he lost his mind. And he loved Joe Rogan. So every time I would go down there, he would be in my ear, tell me where Rogan's going to drink afterward.

And I would tell him, Danny, you don't want you around, because Danny would do Coke. And this was when Rogan didn't get high. all that he didn't even understand that concept and he would go that guy creeped me out look at his jaw how he moves his jaw and shit and i was thinking one night we all went out and we were in scotsdale out of club and then joe was on fear factor so we were talking to the who's the man that's a while ago long this is how long we've been going to that club who was who was the chick that was married to tita o'ties the porn star jennon jameson jameson lived in tempi in phoenix or something at the

time and she was there with her then husband at this club with us Danny I think Ari and we they let us stay at the club a little while longer where everybody got out we got out some kid took a bunch of ecstasy and didn't wait for the valet he got the car and he ran over the valet and like three other kids so we walked out of it I just to remember this we walked out of there and bodies were all over the place. Somebody had thrown a brick at the windshield to stop the car and the kid was bleeding from his fucking head. The cops were there that had the

crime scene up. It was fucking crazy. This is, Tempe's a crazy fucking place. And it's too hot. But eventually Danny Murray lost his mind. He lost the club and then they reopened it. And the owners of this club, one of them is Joel.

And it's interesting that I was there at the Improv, the Miami Improv, the night Joel started. Like, he even came to the club this week and he goes, yeah, you've been in it a while man. Yeah, 27 fucking years. How long have you been doing it?

Man, since, I mean, for real, since 2003. No shit. When I met you, you had just... Yeah, I just... You were doing it four years when I met you.

Yeah, yeah. I just, you know, I, okay, when I... Earlier, I took like a comedy class when I was like 22. And then I started to go to open mics a little bit,

but like not, I wasn't really, trying to do it. And then it just, you know, it was a pipe dream. That's what I thought. I just didn't have it at that time. And then it wasn't until eight years later that I was like, okay, I really want to do this. That's when I started going to open mics every day and really trying to make it. What did you do for those eight years? I was, man, I was going to school. I was working. I didn't know what my life was going to be. I thought, I just thought, oh, you know, I was born and raised in LA. So you're born and raised in this environment. It's

different when you're from someplace else and you see the dream and you think, I'm going to work to get there. I grew up here. So, you know, you go to a comedy club and you go, well, how do you get on stage? There was no mentors. There was nobody trying to help you. There was nobody trying to tell you how to do it or anything like that. So, you know, I just, it just, I needed to be older to like, okay, I got to build relationships. I got to like, you know, cultivate relationships. It's interesting to say that because I started working with Joey six, seven years ago. And I was like, I messaged Joey because I was a stand-up fan, but I never thought I wanted to do it. And then now six months ago,

So I started doing open mics. And every once in a while, I'll kick myself almost. Like, oh, I should have started six years. Where would I be? But I don't think I'd be ready. Like, do you, are you glad that you waited those eight years? No, you know, people always say you shouldn't have regrets, but I don't feel like that. I feel like whatever you regret pushes you to work harder wherever you're at now.

Like maybe you say, well, I shouldn't have done that. I don't believe in all you. Everything happens for a reason. No, I'm just making up for it. That's all. Right. You know, I just knew what I, I just fast tracked at that point. Because it was like when I was going to open mics, Jamie Kennedy was going to open mics and living on people's couches.

I went to an open mic with Jim Gaffigan. I went to open, you know, all these people. So you cut to like eight years later and I'm looking at all these people that are like, wow, look at everybody's doing it. Why did I stop? So instead of thinking like, oh, my God, what am I going to do? It made me go, oh, I got to really bust my ass. Now, when you, what was going on through your mind, those eight years? Were you watching Comedy Central?

No, I was like, you know, I wasn't. I really wasn't like... Where you're going to the movies? I was going to the movies. Exactly. I was watching like... And the thing that really... I always remember the thing that really clicked in me was like watching Raw, like Eddie Murphy's Raw.

Like that was really the thing that I looked at and I was like, oh, man, that's the first time I really thought I think I want to do that. But I didn't know what to do. I don't know where to go. So that's why I took so long to finally figure it out. Is that the weirdest feeling when you're helpless? Yeah, man. That's a helpless feeling. Oh, dude.

Okay. I'm going to tell you even better than that is when I first, I just, I just, you know, I first, I just, took a comedy class taught by Sandy Shore, by the way, Mitzie's daughter, rest in peace to Mitzi. And, you know, the showcase was at the comedy store. And it was like the end of the class graduation, you know, it was in the OR. And I did just, you know, oh, man, I knew I had it. I knew I had the bug right then and there, you know, just that, that thing of like the whole crowd laughing at you, you know, I was like, oh, man, I love this. But after that, I didn't know what to do. Like literally right after, because they rolled the show. So let's say the seven o'clock

show was our graduation. And then they kept the crowd there and then they started the real show. And it was like, Mincea went up first, you know? And I remember watching Mncy and I was thinking, oh, I think I could do this. Because at the time, he wasn't, you know, who he was. He just, he was doing Taco Bell jokes and things like that. But he was dynamic. You know what I mean? So I thought, what year is this? Oh, man. It must have been 90 something, you know? Four. Yeah. And like 90. 94, 95, because he brought up Chris Tucker. You know, he had just, so Def Jam and all that was going on too.

You know, this was like around that time. So he brought up, Mancia goes up first, and then he brings up Chris Tucker. And I remember watching Chris Tucker and thinking, I don't think I can do this. Because he just like, force of nature on stage at that time, you know. So I didn't know what to do. I just, I didn't know what to do. That's the helpless feeling. Just sitting there thinking, okay, well, how do I get on the,

that show and you have no idea. There's no blueprint. There's no, you know, there's no learning annex class, you know, how to get on the main room stage. None of that kind of shit. You know, yeah. And I just figured it out. I just started going to open mics. I went to the Long Beach, the Queen Mary. They had a comedy club at the Queen Mary. They had this open mic called Marves and Marys on Washington. The dude, he loved comedy. So he would have like a, every night at a week. He would have two or three open mics and then I just started to go on all these places. There was Canoga Bowl. There was all these little coffee houses.

Some of them you had to pay for. I just kept doing it. And then that's how I realized, you know how you get work? You get your peers to think you're funny because they're the ones that get you work. I just did that Queen Mary gig like two months ago. That's a different. That's a new. Back then it was on.

It was crazy. It called laugh is hope. But yeah. And then you just start, that's how you start doing it. So I went from the Long Beach. Then I went to the Ice House Annex show. I was doing that for a little while. And then from the Annex show, I went to the Haha.

You know, I had to win Terry over at the Haha. And then I started doing there. I was hosting and doing a bunch of shows. And then from there, I went to the comedy store to try to showcase. I had my first showcase. Mitzie didn't even look at me. She didn't even talk to me when I got off stage. Past Jay Davis that night, too, by the way.

So I wanted to kill myself. You know what I mean? She passed Jay Davis on the night I showcase with him. And she passed Jay Davis. I look back on it. I think that was like a way to motivate me. That motivated the shit out of me. So it was like a year and a half later, I got another showcase.

But in that time, I was going to trying to get into the laugh factory, the improv, and I was working those big clubs, trying to get into those big clubs, you know. And so then I was doing the belly room show in a comedy store. And then I finally got my real showcase. It was in the main room on one of those bringer shows they had. And they were doing showcases during that. And they had her sitting at her booth, you know, and she was still,

she was starting to be ill at that time, you know. And the only words Mitzie has ever said to me as I got off stage and they're walking in her through the hallway to the kitchen, she stops. She looked at me and she says, you were funny. And then walked away. and that's the only words she's ever spoken to me

and then Tommy came up to me like, well, you know, you were past, you know? She passed you. And then I had to go do the belly room for a solid year before I got like made a paid regular. Like I said, once you get there, now it's a complete different story. Totally now because you just thought like I told once Mits he died like a tribute thing. And it really, that weekend, there was like a whole week of thought like

like Ari called me and so I'm coming back from Australia because she might die and that whole week I started thinking about how important Mitz he was in my heart and my development

I'm not going to, you know I'm not going to lie to you her passing me made me stay here I was ready to leave yeah and she passed me and now now what are you doing it's so weird that

once you get passed you're happy as fuck but now you get thrown into this thing that you're really not ready for not at all you're never ready for it You're never ready for it. And then you're looking at the lineup and you're thinking, now there's a new challenge.

I remember being on the lineup, looking at the OR lineup and being like, oh, I'm going up at 12. Like, I don't want to go up at 12. Then it's like, oh, this is the struggle. This is like, it never ends. That's what I knew it never ended. You know, you're like, okay, so now I got to go up. Now I got a fight to get into like, how do you do that? And then you realize it actually has nothing to do with the comedy store.

It actually has to do with what you do with your career. You know? And it's like, so that's why I was like, okay, so I got to go do other things, you know, you know, commercial agents and acting and all this other stuff. And in combination with working yourself through, you know, getting better at comedy is going to get you, those two things go, they go together. Who is your biggest? Who did you have to follow that every time you followed on the drive, you wanted to take the call and crash it into the building because you knew you were going to go die. You know what? It was a. It was Dom Marrera and the black dude with dreadlocks. I think of his name from time to time. He's not around anymore.

He was a solid dude. He wasn't that guy that he would do prints. Remember that guy? No, no, no, no. This guy didn't play an organ. He would just go up there and do a straight stand-up, and it was ferocious. You know what?

It wasn't like that for me. You know, it really wasn't like that. It was like I just, because at that time, too, Tommy had just taken over. So he was just trying to fix the lineup, you know? Like as much shit as people give him, I mean, there was a short time that he did, you know, he was doing work, you know, to change the culture of the place and get, and get people in there and really take thoughtfulness to the lineup and all that kind of stuff. You know, was he like, I don't know if Tommy was racist or anything like that. I don't know.

He just, maybe he's insensitive and, you know, whatever he was. was, but I thought there was like a method to madness. And so at that particular time, and I never thought, I never, it wasn't like that. Because those guys weren't there anymore. There wasn't a big guy at the store when I was coming through. It was just John Coparillo and Brett Ernst and Sebastian and these people. And I never thought anybody was like, I never thought, I love those guys. But I had confidence in myself where I was like, I felt like the enemy was, that this lineup is the

enemy Tommy was the enemy trying to hold me back so I was like no I'm gonna work and I always had just you know a delusional confidence about myself that I didn't think any of these dudes were funnier than me so you got into the store about 2007 yeah to yeah yeah yeah that's when I left I was exactly around there 2005 2007 yeah and this was before I even got anything like I got into the store and started doing spots and then I got on TV it was weird you know it's when Tommy first got into the First off, I was there with 10 different fucking down-coordinated. Yeah, you're dunking everybody.

And it was crazy how they end up going crazy. When you have direct contact in those days with Mitzi and 80 calls a day, but they all ended up going crazy in their own little way. Like, you had my favorite was Scott Day. I really like Scott Day. Scott Day was the guy that was there when I became a regular. Scott Day got it. Scott Day really had it.

What is a certain type of personality? Yeah, he had it. To deal with these people always coming at you. You know, give me a spot. Can I get a spot? You know. It's weird. It's a weird power.

It's a weird power. And you have to have a certain personality to deal with that, you know? But he was gay. Oh, well, there you go. So he was gay, handsome, and he fucking just was a great guy. But I saw an argument, and he would hang at the store. Because he would drink. So he would hang at the store and watch the comics and talk to different comics.

and I still remember a certain argument he had with dice one night. He was sticking, you know, I liked Scott. And then Scott quit, and I don't know who. Then Corey Cuomo replaced Scott Day. And that was completely crazy. I don't even remember any of these. No, Corey was Freddie Soto's, rest of peace, his wife. So she started booking it, but then it seemed like Walter Brothers would go there to see Eric Griffin.

But Freddie Soto would be on the lineup after Eric. before Eric. You know what I'm saying? It was just, it started getting biased and people started to know it. Danny Kelly was there for a while. Danny Kelly was a phone guy.

One day they just made him, and poor Danny Kelly was also trying to be a comic. Yes, that's what I'm saying. So now Danny started giving himself nine, 15 spots. You know, and it got out of hand. He shut up one day, and he had a box on his fucking desk.

And they replaced him with Duncan. And then, you know. And Duncan didn't want to do that. Duncan didn't. He was doing alphabetical order. He didn't want nothing to do with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then when they did the reality show, Duncan got out.

Duncan got out before the reality show. I remember that. Minding the store. Minding the store. And then Tommy came in. And now, if they were to do minding the store, now is the time to do it. For real. Now is the time to do it.

But I'll say that it's different, not bad, different. Because what was taken away from the comedy store with this new regime, what was taken away, is this idea that you were a part of a club and you had to earn your way to get something, no matter what you had, you know? And now it's not necessarily like that. Like if you've got stuff going on, you're going to get in the rotation

and you're going to be in. And it's like, you know, and that's fine too. But like if you come from the old way, like for me, I remember having to do our, I had to do a year in the belly room, you know, I had before I could do OR spots. You know, now it's just not like that.

And some of the new people that come in, they don't have the same respect or reverence for the place because they didn't have to go through that, you know? And so it's not bad. It's just different. So if you're from the old school, you got to wrap your brain around that. But I feel privileged.

I feel very, uh, it's, I feel very lucky to be a part of what's happening at the comedy store right now. And I think in 10 years, they're going to look back and be like, man, remember when that's, you know, the new golden years of the comedy store right now, you know, so that credit to Adam, you know, for what he's doing. It's sensational that I walked in there and I was like, this place, I'll never be a regular

here. Like, this will never work for me, you know. Look at these fucking people in that. And when I first got into the comedy store, I'm not going to lie to you. I put my heart and soul into it. Like, that was all. That was it. That's all I had.

That's it. This is all you have. Remember when they told the bitch of gear he had to leave? He said, I got nowhere else to go. That's exactly. I was homeless. I would take showers in the main room at 9.15. I would drive to the comedy store and take a shower at 915 in the main room

and then go back at a quarter of eight and take another shower in the back. I had towels, shampoo, the whole thing. I would do laundry, a laundry mat and sleep in the fucking car. I mean, that was the comedy store to me. I ate there and fucking, you know, if the waitresses got food, I moots to half a sandwich. I ate the cherries. That's why I ended up weighing 400 pounds.

I would eat those maricino cherries like a motherfucker. Only in America, you could be homeless and still end up fat. Yeah, only in America. I was eating those Wendy's dollar menu. Oh, wow. $4 or $5, you give the bowl of chili, you get the junior whatever. That's it. You know, the lunch special, I always walk.

And it just clicked, huh? You know, $15 bucks a set. Felipe Spars or Willie Barsena, 40s, Rudy. Moreno 50 down at the bruno oh yeah you know what I loved about that I started doing those gigs yes and that's when you really fucking the only gigs the only gigs they're paid with a Latino gig it only gigs they're the only gigs they paid oh my god you have to go to like weird places and bar with here with taco stand outside but they'd be like a dude will come over to you and be like thanks for coming and you'd be like oh shit this guy just gave me 50 bucks 50 bucks yeah Jeff Garcia used to have all

They give you a taco. Yeah. You can eat. Edwin San Juan would show up a fucking pipe and a fucking bag of weed. I mean, it was like this fucking Latin fly. That's how I got in. My first TV credit was my second TV credit as Paios. My first TV credit was actually Night Call.

It was this show on the Playboy channel. It was like the it was like the it was like the tonight show for porn chicks. You know, and I did a stand-up set on there. and then my second one was, but you know how I got that? You know how I got Paiasso? Darren Carter, the party starter, you know, Darren, he hit me up and was like, yo, can you come with me to this gig and like deep wittier? Like, it was like deep in the hood someplace, right?

The Latino hood, you know? And he goes, come with me. If he just wanted me to come with him so we can get the carpool lane on the freeway so he can drive in the carpool lane. So I go, I do a set. I just happen to be going up in front of. Alex Ramundo and Alex says to me because that's the only reason why he watched me because you know you don't really watch people until you unless you're going up after

them then you may sit and watch Alex comes up to me and says hey I'm about to do this show I think you'd be good on it let me talk to my guys and then you could we're doing a show at the improv you know and I went did that show at the improv that's when I met Scott Montoya and all these people and they were like all right they booked me on the Biosel Comedy Slam what did you think at first I thought well I didn't have anything So I thought, wow, I'm going to be on showtime. I thought it was going to be this big thing. To his credit, the way he put it together then was the way you should put things together.

We did two shows. You know what I mean? If he was doing it now, he wouldn't have done two shows. It would have been, if it was two shows, it would be like 10 comics. You know what I mean? And it just wouldn't have came out. I thought they got the best out of it by doing two shows and combining. And that's how they should do all those things.

But anyway, I thought it was great. And we're at this big 900 seat theater and San Bernardino and all these people. And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. Look at what I'm doing on a TV thing. And I thought I was going to be great. And then I thought, well, this is the potential for a tour for this too. And like, you know, all these great comics on the lineup, you know, Johnny, Johnny Sanchez and, you know, Joey Medina and Alex Romando and, you know, all these people, all these up and comers. And, you know, I thought, how this is good.

And then what happened? We did one show at that Indian Casino, and that's the last we heard of Paiosso Comedy Slam. When they approached me, they had been talking to me for like a year. The day he was going to do something. The guy kept coming up to the store, the old guy, his partner. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was his name? I forget what his name was.

Oh, my God. And then they made an offer, and when they said Showtime, I'm like, look, do you know how many fucking things I've shot over the years? Do you have any idea? Totally, totally different. places in our career at that time. How many people gave me $800, $1,000, $3.50 to shoot a special, they were going to sell at the Showtime or PBS. You know how many of those deals I had?

I could count them on five. It's amazing. I wish I had an abacus. Like, that's how many things. Do you do the same set for all of them? No. You just, people contact you and go, look, we'll put the show together. We shot one at the ha.

I'll never forget that was the most embarrassing thing. I was ever involved in because I was cheering for it not to air. I just wanted the money. That's it. I did a movie like that about it. Yeah, you just care about the money. You don't care if it failed. You don't want nobody to see you in this.

You're like, I hope nobody ever sees this. There's a guy that shot me, I swear to God, maybe 10 years ago, we did a special at a theater in Hollywood. This guy went all out, borrowed $80,000 from his grandfather. Oh, no. The whole thing, as he's giving me

money I'm like you poor bastard you're never gonna get you you're in no danger he's like yeah I got a cousin the one in telomundo special and all this shit and he fucking sold it he went off bro he called me a year later dog can I have permission to put it on youtube fuck no fuck you and fuck no you're not putting it on youtube I was prepared for them I mean it has been so many of those people approached me over the years so what made you do it The Paiasso slam? Yeah. Cocaine.

Same thing. Same thing. It was like that back then? Oh, yeah. I didn't know that. Bad. Bad. Bad.

That was the tail end. That was the tail end of the... Do you remember? I didn't go to the party. Oh, that's right. I had to catch my drug dealer before he closed the 12 o'clock. Yeah, but you did that... Paiasso.

You did the... You were at that gig we did at that Indian casino. Come on. Yeah, man. Remember that gig we did at the Indian casino? No. Oh, yeah, you were gone. You were that, that, that, you don't even remember that?

No. Yeah, man, we went to, um, I gotta remember where it was. Like deep, deep in the mountains. Yeah, it was something. And the guy called me Gabriel. I don't even remember that one. The guy was so drunk. He's like, look who it is.

It's Gabriel. I remember Johnny didn't come because he was at a funeral. He says he was at a funeral. But we did, anyways, we only did one show. I know you were there because I remember you were talking shit in the green room. That's where I remember specifically. You just were like going off about. different things.

So when I shot Paiaso, I shot Paiaso like anything else I shot. Like this ain't going to go nowhere. Yeah. Like this ain't going to go nowhere. I'm just going to do a fight. Until today, I fucking regret it. Until today I fucking regret it. Well, for me, I just, like I say, it was my first real major life.

No, it's, I said, no, no, I mean. I don't regret what I did. I wish I would have dressed better. Oh, that kind of thing. I wish I would have prepared myself for it. I didn't take it serious. I didn't show up for the wraparounds. I didn't want to be involved.

I didn't care. And this is the regrets that you have as a comic from time to time. But I had to call Montoya and actually tell them, I'm sorry for my behavior. Oh, wow. I wish I would have done it differently. I would have been a different comic today because I didn't take it serious. I sound like I sat down with a notebook and worked on a set for three weeks ahead of time. I just went there.

It was a night after Thanksgiving. Do you remember? I don't remember that. We shot the evening after Thanksgiving or the night before Thanksgiving. I think it was a weekend. It was two grand or something. I told them it better be in cash. I don't have time for checks.

I don't have time for a check. So you better put yardsticks in there. I used to yell everybody. Years ago, Rudy gave me a check that bounced. And after that, I won't take checks from comics. Don't give me no check. Just give me cash. Rudy Marino bounced a check.

Come on. One time by mistake. I love Rudy. No, I love Rudy. Come on. He was the one of the guy. He gave me a check. me some of the best spots I've ever when I was first coming up.

Look, man. This comedy game, I was sitting in the Tempe Improv, and they were talking about that the week before DiL. Hugley had been there. D.L. Hugley was D.L. Hugley the first time I stepped on stage. Mm-hmm. Like, D.L. Hugley was already big 25 years ago. Like, the journeys people have had. Everybody has a different journey. You know, like, D.L. Hugley was D.L. Huligley.

I saw Dio Hulay do something I never saw any other human being do He got a standing ovation as an MC On that Damn On that chair Standing ovation as an MC Just

destroyed the room Like whoever had to follow him God bless his soul Just leveled the room D.L. Hughley was there before me the week before This is a phenomenal journey this comedy like

yeah yeah yeah yeah for real it's a phenomenal journey the first 10 years suck depending on how you look at it yeah and it sucks depending on the effort you put in it but everybody has a different journey so you can't judge yourself

it's like you said you got you did it for two years then you fucking put it off your mind three years and then one day it's such a fucking weird calling yeah like you could have been a dentist a doctor a lawyer you chose something that is the hardest thing in the world.

And it's so weird because once it bears fruit that the addiction of the comic mind is the bearing of the fruit. The little fruit burricks. Guess what? Last night at Rudy's room, I did 38 minutes, bro.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you made. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I remember the first time you had to do like a long set. Somebody fucking didn't show off. I remember for me, I had to go to I did triple runs. Do you ever do triple run?

Come on. Yeah, so I had to do. Yeah, so I had to do. you know, I was doing these 30 minutes. And I was like, wow. First time I did 30 minutes, I was like, oh, shit. What places did you go? Oh, man, come on, Billings.

What they look at you like in, Missoula and all those places. Missoula, Montana and Bozeman and all these places. It was great. I remember my first time ever doing a road gig was the first one was I went out to like San Marcos and near San Diego. That was my first gig with one of those type of bookers. And I was like, oh, this is great. And so now my first out-of-town gig is a is a, is a, is a, is a, uh, triple run. And I have to go to, um, what was that, uh, Montana, someplace in Montana.

And I had to fly to Utah to meet the headliner, this guy named Scott Bennett. Okay. And I get there and he's all like, yo, man, my licenses, uh, my license is, uh, you know, expire, whatever it was, you restricted license. So you got to drive. You know, so I'm driving his car, you know, from Utah to Montana with his dog. He has a dog, right? And the place is packed.

The car is jam packed. You know what I mean? So I'm driving, but I loved every second of it. And we got to this little town and we were at the holiday inn and the show's in the bar, you know, and I go down early to look. No one's in there. And I'm thinking, okay, the people are going to show up. You know what I mean?

They're going to come. And then the show, the show's about to start. There's like 12 people in this bar. And I'm like, what's going on? Then the guy looks at me. He's like, you ready to start? And I was like, okay. You know, and he's like, all right, here we go.

He goes on stage. He's like, all right, everybody. Just a few announcements before we start. Remember the Dart tournament. You had to sign up for that on Thursdays. And we got karaoke on whatever, you know. And he's going on. He goes, all right, the comics here from L.A.

His name's Eric. You know, here we go. And that's how I got brought on stage for my first out-of-town gig in front of like 12, 13. rednecks in Montana. Here we go. And I got on stage and I just, I was like, I made it. And I loved every second of that $100 I made. That hotel room.

And we traveled, there were night. And we traveled like 500 miles every single day for a week. You know, and it was no rhyme or reason to the gigs either. So it might be Bozeman's here in the next closest city might be something else. But no, we had to drive past that place to go to some faraway place and then drive. back and it was snowing and it was just we had to go to Miles City, Montana, which is way up there. It was like, that was my first experience in a row and I thought, okay, does it get better?

I was like, damn, this is, and this is. How many did you end up doing? Not too many because I did a few, but not too many. I also did Pat Wilson. Remember Pat Wilson's gigs? She thought that a run was the third, the ninth, and the 12th. She thought that that was a run. Yeah.

So what am I supposed to do between the third and the night? Well, in Seattle at that time, they had, you had Pat Wilson, you had another chick that she's dead. God rest of the soul, she was a fucking cunt. And you had the chick from Portland, Oregon, the chubby chick. And then you had Donna Richards. What's her face? She's still a lot. I know the chubby chick, partly because she had like, she would do gigs in Tahoe.

Tahoe and shit. Yeah, yeah. When you booked the third, the seventh, and the twelfth. 12 is because you would call the other lady and say, hey, I'm doing runs for Pat Wilson, and she'd go, what date are you going to be here? And then she would fill those in. And then you would fill the comedy underground

on Monday for the open week. Right, right, right. And then you would that show, it would be eight or 10 days to Seattle. Yeah, those were the days. You'd go from, and then you called John Fox, and then your week in Bellingham, all the way by the Canadian border.

He had a bunch of bullshit. All bullshit. He had these little bullshit bars you would do, and you'd wonder, like, What's going on? No hotel. No hotel. You're driving.

And so at that time, I thought this was great. A hundred dollars, no hotel. And who was the mid, who's the mid-country guy? C.W. Kendall was Texas. But there was somebody that would be like right next to. And then there was, when I was coming up, there was a company that were very good. They were very good to me. I forget what their name was.

I sent them a tape and they made me a co-headliner. I remember right off the bat. I remember the first time I did that. I remember the first time I did that. I ate dick the first week with them on the road and they were as nice as can be. Bute, Montana was my first hour-long gig for Tribble. I had to do an hour. You think I had an hour?

Please. I didn't have an hour. I was like, how the fuck am I going to do this hour? But I powered through it. That's when I knew I had to take it a little more serious. That was like when I was like, okay, I got to take this serious. You know, and I was doing all these things. I had a commercial agent.

I booked a few commercials. That's why I saw a state al afloat. And then, like I said, when I got to Paiosso Comedy's Land, that was 2006. Then in 2008, I booked Live at Gotham. You know, live at Gotham is when I got my first agent. T.J. Mark Walter, Mark Walter, he was my first. He booked me from that. And then he's the one that, like, on his reputation, got me out doing, like, low-pay headlining gigs.

And then from there is when, you know, that's when, you know, that's when, you know, when everything started to happen. So how many years into this were you both, when you started doing road gigs? Well, for me, I started doing road gigs like, but see, these aren't great road gigs. Yeah, no, yeah. So it was like a year and a half.

I was out, I was out doing triple runs. You know, I needed to, I knew, because I knew. That's a shell shock in a year and a half. But I knew I couldn't make it in L.A., though. No, no, no, no, no. So you came from someplace else. Yes. See, I knew in L.A., like, I don't know why people come to L.A.

Like, these guys that don't just started doing comedy. crazy. What the fuck are you coming to LA for? It drives me crazy. And then they get upset about, they're spoiled because let's say you're a comic and you live in Tempe, okay? You're a comic. You live in Phoenix, Arizona and Tempe.

And then like, here comes Joey Diaz is coming into town and you get to open. You get to BNC. So you think that's regular. You think it's regular to be in front of 600 people every night. You think, oh, this is what comedy is. Like, motherfucker, no, it's not. It's, you're, it's in. LA, it's the open mic in front of 11 people. It's the belly room at, you know, 1 o'clock in the

morning. If you even had the opportunity to get into the OR, you're going up super late when you first start, you first get into these things. 11. Yeah, 115. And they don't even know how to deal with that. They're just like, there's only 11 people here. How can I perform in front of 11 people? See, that's what that taught me, how to perform for 10 people, 8 people, 7 people. Exactly. I never forget a story that I went to Houston and I did a show. In fact, Joel, was saying he goes do you remember Easter Sunday we did a show on Easter Sunday once at the Miami Improv that had 60 people in there and it started at 8 and then the 11 with a naked woman getting up on stage and let me eat fruit off a pussy and shit it was

crazy but I learned all those small people set from the comedy store and then something happened one night I got to call at about 1030 at night and it's a club owner in Houston, he goes, I gotta tell you something. He goes, now I understand you guys from the store. He goes, Johnny Sanchez was here tonight. There was a Houston Rocket playoff game, so we only had

14 people. I was on the cancel the show. He said he wouldn't cancel it. Joey, you know he was one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life. He goes, that's what you guys get from the store. Yeah, man. Mitz, he wouldn't put you through three years of fucking midnight. In those days, for me, it was following Paul Mooney.

See, this is what I'm talking about. Yeah, oh no, I'm saying. I earned my strife. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, you have a whole, there's an idea of like, and even, even what I went through, pales in comparison to what you went to. You know what I mean? Like, it's not even the same kind of thing.

So now it's just a simple, like, you know, and the thing is like sometimes it causes a thing. Like, I remember, you know, it's like, like, there's a thing after the store. It's like, you know, you call if you're going to be late. And then the next person goes up and then you go up after, you know, like these new people come. They don't even, they don't understand any of those type of type of things. So it's just different.

You know? But like I say, I remember coming up and just... I like that people... I've had a lot of bad situations with young comics in L.A. Because of the movement, what they expect to happen. Oh. It doesn't drive me crazy because I know the ropes. I know what needs to be done.

I did them. I know how much time needs to be spent. so you come to me with any story and I know when you're ready and when you're not. Do you know what I'm saying? Because I know the time frame and I know the work ethic that needs to go

and then something else has to happen. You have to become it. And that's a complete level. That's what happened to you after those eight years when you came back. You become it. That's a different fucking feeling. You know what I was,

I tell young comics, I always say, you know, you have to know you could do, this. You don't have to answer that to me. This is a rhetorical question. Yeah. No, no, no. You have to with you and whoever you believe in, they have, you, you have to believe this is what you're meant to do. And you don't really feel that until you've gone through some stuff. Like when you stop worrying about, when you stop feeling like you're entitled to things, people in this business think that it's like a deli where you take a number and you're

waiting for Hollywood to go, number 75. And you're like, yes, my chance is my time to go make it. No, it doesn't work like that. Sometimes people skip the line. Sometimes people take a long time. Sometimes people get a chance and they fall right off. Sometimes people work for a long time before they get a chance. There's no right or wrong way. You just got to be ready. You have to know this is what you're meant to do. But see, the young comics in Los Angeles, what happens is that they mingle with guys like you and I or other comics and they feel how come I'm not moving as fast is he's not moving, where if you developed in Michigan, you're not worried about a fucking head shot.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not worried about being seen at a coffee shop. There's so many variables that aren't involved when you do comedy in Boston per se, or in Miami or in New Orleans, or you're in Houston, Texas, per se. There's things you don't even worry about that you don't need to worry about at that level.

Do you know what I'm saying, do you? At that level, when you start worrying about the three years, Well, I should have a commercial lady. No, you shouldn't. You never even done a fucking triple run. You'll shit your pants in a fucking commercial audition. You will shit your fucking pants. I know when you're ready for a commercial.

You'll know it. When you go up there and you're going to audition and you fucking read and your hands shaking. You know how many times that happened to me at the Sopranos callback the third time. First season. Oh, wow. You should have heard it. You thought it was a fucking

hurricane on CNN. You know, when you go into an audition, you have to have the side to you to base you. Even if I was off book, I'd always have something to base me in those days. That's how I was taught. I can't tell you. What's the movie of Will Smith

and the other guy? Rona Cress. She was huge when I started. When you got read by Rona Cress, oh shit. That's like Clinice Wooden shit. I remember one time, it was like a fan was off in the room. They kept saying, Joey, put the fucking paper down.

Put it down. Put it down already and shit. You know how many auditions you have to blow? Before you know. Oh, my God. So it all works in unison. If you really see it, before you book the commercial, you had to go to Butte, bitch. And that half hour that you didn't have, you just earned that commercial.

Going to an acting class. Yeah. It's crazy. what the pattern is and I hate when people try to move ahead of it all you could do that's what people don't want to do they want to skip steps

they want to skip the line and it drives me crazy because you're going to have to go back I always compare the Penzole commercial from the 90s you can either pay me now or you could pay me later how many times in the last comic standing did somebody win and they were not a headliner they were put on the road

they did one good stint on the road and then they disappeared because they were not ready to headline but the agents got greedy with them still put them up how many stories have we heard the people know going out i've been to have you have you been to clubs and them talking about how yeah i can't bring i can't bring that person you know they they want this and but now it's too they they busted it's done so even if that show comes back and those people going to road the clubs know now they're like well let's see let me see who comes. You know, they really, I see, but I always think they messed up in that particular. NBC, NBC did not have enough respect for that show. If they did, this could have been a different

thing. Like American Idol, what legitimizes American Idol is when the person that wins goes on to do a record contract and a song comes out. So if you're NBC and you have the last comic standing, you're supposed to take that person and throw them on a sitcom. Make them a star. That's your net. You could do it. It's your network. Give them a five-episode arc on law and order.

Make them a star. But they just throw them to the wind. Oh, we did this thing and now it's over. So America's been watching. And now they're like, well, I thought that was, you made it seem like this was an important thing. That's where they messed up. That show could have still be going on today.

It could be like a hit. It could be great for comedy if they would have done that. Like if the winner gets a development deal and they had their own sitcom that comes out that year, you know? They easily could have done that. But nope. They just like, they canceled the show one year before the final. Before the finale, they canceled the show.

So, well, it's interesting because I'm at a place at six months that even like 12 people sounds exciting to me because I'm doing it for old comics. But you were talking about people wanting to jump the line. But it's a weird industry where we don't really have this information. Like I understand that like it's a little bit jumping the line, but how are you really supposed to know? Like I know I'm not a headliner, but why could? In my head, I'm like, oh, maybe I could do a triple run, but you're like, no, you're at least a year or two away from a triple run. Well, I'll say there's no right or wrong way. It's all about the work ethic that you put into it.

Like times have changed now and the old school heads got to remember, got to realize this. Like for instance, if somebody is on, got an Instagram following and they've done their little funny videos and they've gotten millions of followers now and they want to start doing comedy, that's their open mic now. That's their process to get on stage. And it's valid. When people complain about Instagram people or YouTube people, I always say they're just better at Instagram than you. If you were good at Instagram, you'd have a million followers too. So nobody wants to go to open mics. Open mics suck. But we had to because it was the only way to get on stage. Now there are numerous ways to get on stage. There are actors like Jeremy Pivens who decided I want to be a comic now.

So because of his fame, he don't have to go through the open mic process. Excuse me. You know? They decided for him. He's sexually harassed. Now he's on the road. But either way. And again, that's a mistake.

He didn't have to go through the... I'm going to put a guy who's crazy over pussy on the fucking road. You know what I'm saying? It's like, for years, whenever a player would fuck up, they send him to Miami. Really? Yeah. But the guy's got enough problems living than them. can't stop snorting.

Now you're going to send them to the dolphins. You're a fucking genius. But I'm just saying there's no right or wrong way to do this thing. What's what I'm telling to you is that you just, it's all about your own work ethic. So because the problem is this, you might get an opportunity and you have to be ready. Being ready is putting a lot of time and work in. So when your agent calls and says, hey, there's this audition for such and such. When you get there, you're not going to be out of your element.

you know and that's what happened and that takes all the practicing and all the time you put in to hone your craft and and know how to deal in with situations performing in front of five people and performing in front of a thousand people like all these different things are going to lead you to when you are in front of that casting director you are ready that's what happened to me when i when i got workaholics i remember the day i was auditioning willie barcena was there johnny Sanchez was there. So I got the first call. The second call, you know, I did my, I was looking around the room and I was like, I'm not going to get this because it was the dude from George Lopez show, the dude from Boston legal. It was like all these guys, uh, uh, Jay Phillips was there. He had just

done the, the Phil Will, a Will Ferrell movie. And I'm looking around like, I don't have shit. How am I going to beat these people? And I just thought, but I was ready. I prepared for that audition. Man, I busted my ass on that audition. Had my front. I was working on it with my friends. I was making choices. And I went there and I was like, bough, they had to give it to me.

So after that experience, when I hear people say, oh, I don't know if they're looking for me. I go, don't think like that. But how do you learn? I learn that next.

So now anything I go on, I feel like, oh, I can book this. I don't care who's in the room. I'm in the same. I don't give a fuck. Who's in the room? Dog,

I remember going to auditions and skating in, signing your name, turning around, sitting down, looking at your sheet. You're so insecure. Then you pop,

your head up. He just glazed across the room and you see he was in the room with you and the more you move your head, the heart of your heartbeat. Because this guy wasn't... Oh my God. This guy's 7. This guy wasn't Ocean's 11. This guy wasn't Rambo. Oh my God. What's he doing? He was on a

sitcom for eight years. Yeah, yeah. And then you get the callback. And now you're in the room with even heavier hitters. Like, how remember getting a call back for for a for a, the movie they made about boxing the fucking, the black dudes.

Creed? No, wait. This was right before the first strike hit LA. Oh, shit. That the first one reality show was about, reality TV was about to take over. Who went to jail? Splayed.

Oh, Wesley Snipes. Wesley Snipes did a movie where he was a boxer in prison. Oh, yeah. Okay, where he was a boxer in prison. and I remember I got a call to be one of the gangsters and Jesus Christ Eric they put me through hell

in those days it was a thing called the pre-read in this town a fucking pre-read high level casting people would just make you them come in and talk to you. Hi Eric what's your name what you like to do? I like stand-up how long have you been a stand-up for?

Do me a favor and read this for me and then they would call your agent and make sure you could read for the role I started there with this fucking guy. His name was Ruben something. He was black. His offices were on La Brea and Wilshire. That tall building there on the right-hand side, they were all in there in those days. Rubin, the chick-the-cast, the volleyball movie, they were all in there. If you went in there and dropped off ten headshots, you'd get a call in three days because they were all in there. I would go in there every 90 days and just drop off headshots, all ten floors. I had a different

casting director. So I went in there. He pre-read me. When I went in there, he pre-read me, when I went to that first fucking read. It was in Hollywood then. And they made it like a nice office with white people where they offer you water and shit. You go to those auditions? You're like that now. Oh yeah. No, you're going to offer people water.

But usually you go to an audition, they don't offer you shit. Yeah. That audition, the first time I went to read, read, they offered me fucking water. I almost shit my pants. They took, they validated my parking. I was like, oh, shit. This is real. And you're walking

room and there's four fucking guys and they've all been in big movies the one guy was the guy that fucking he was in cell i'll never forget that read that was the scary because i just saw seven the night before it was on cable and i went in the next day and he's sitting there reading for the same part i'm reading for but then something would happen and you want me to tell you what started happening what's that because i bet you i feel the same way two things happened i had to do half time of a buffalo sabres game one time oh shit and i got booed so bad I got booed so bad, Eric, I got booed so fucking bad. For 15 minutes, it was just horrible.

Like, nothing could bring you back from that. And then I got made a regular at the store, and for years I had to follow Paul Mooney. So actually, this is what would happen to me. I would go to those auditions, walking very insecure, my little mafia suit on, walk in, sign in, you know, sit down, I'd look at the sheet, like, I don't know what I'm doing.

And then I'd pop my head up and look around the room, and I'd see Frank Stallone. I'd see Johnny Roast Beef. I'd see the guy that got freezing, freeze in the sopranos. I'd see all those guys and auditioned. And after a minute, I would go, you know what? Yeah, this guy probably went to Juilliard. And this guy studied with Johnny Bananas. And this guy studied with Johnny Goobots.

But guess who the fuck I am? Number one, I did the halftime on the Buffalo Sabres game. And number two, I follow Paul Mooney on a nightly, and I know for a fact, none of these motherfuckers in the room can do that. Yeah, man. And that's when I started booking. Where's that Tony Bennett you were talking about? Yeah, man. That's when I started booking.

I want to be around to pick up the pieces when somebody breaks your heart. Some somebody twice as smart as I A somebody who will swear to I want to give some shoutouts real quick to young runt My brother Pat Shea who showed up in Tempe With some hot chick that kept trying to make videos Knock it the fuck off I want to give a shout out to Lieutenant Scott Smith

Tempe's best for coming to the show. I want to give a shout out to Pistol Pete for giving us the cover of this in a single. Also, Nick Becker, Adrian Valdez, the Latin bastard, Ken Riffey Jr., and Aaron Andrew Ramirez. Thank you, motherfuckers,

for coming out to the shows and having a great time and all that shit. And that's it. So, did you take an acting class? Yeah, I did. I took a class with this lady named Janet Alhanti. and she was great like this Meisner

like this old New York Jewish lady she was a big woman so she would sit in her chair you know and she would sit back in her chair and she would sit back in her chair

and she'd be funny stop trying to be funny you know she's very mitzy-esque actually in terms of her like how she attacked comedians

you know with the acting and I I love to intellectualize things so like to me the best part of acting class was not actually doing it

sometimes was watching other people people. Yes. And then hearing the notes and then really examining like, I was like, damn, they really, this is some, this is something's going on here. Yes. You know, and that was great. Like my first real acting class, I see a lot of those people working today. Like the girl, Jamie Alexander, she's on that show Blind Spot. She was in that class. I remember. And I remember her at the last act in one night. She was like, she started crying. She was like, I remember our class together. And I was like, wow, like, you know, we've come a long way. Like, you know, people come a long way. So I think actually, actually, acting class is important. It wasn't until I started doing acting class and improv that I felt my stand-up popped. My stand-up really like because I understood that this was a, this is a performance. What were you doing improv at? I did, I did a bunch of places, you know. I did, I took a class. I took this kind of like, you see the extension, like comedy acting and improv. And then I did like, what's the one in, not UCB, but the one on Wilshire, my Melrose. There we, we all, um,

Groundlings. Groundlings. Okay. I did the first, first thing of groundlings, but I didn't. didn't continue because I always felt like improv is a skill to make acting and stand up better, not something that should stand on its own. To me, it's, you know, you know what I mean? Like, I think improv is like when the improv shows, I'm always like, ugh, I don't want, you know, but the people that can do that, like, at a high level, that's always very entertaining, but I think that is great for, like, when you do it within, like, oh, here's a movie situation, stand up, a TV, or a play, or whatever, whatever that, you know, you're using that skill to enhance another part of entertainment but anyway I went through a chapter of my career

it was like a two-year stint when I went to New York I picked up a bad habit of talking to the audience I picked up a very bad habit it's a lazy habit you know of talking and I got good at it I got good at what's happening it's not hard to be good at that when you're a charismatic comedian I got really good at it and it but oh it was always 50-50 yeah it's always a 50-50 show. It's always like, so I would have 22 minutes of material

and I would bank on 30 more of improv. And I would start in the middle or close at the end for a year. I went through that phase. I forced myself because when I was a house MC

at the Boulder broker, it was the same mooches every week that came into eat. So after a while, they're like, we know your material. Yeah, it was steak night. It was 1595 for a steak

and you got a comedy show with the steak. So it was the same, fucking 40 people came in for steak night and then they would stay to watch the comics and that was the headliner so I would just do topical jokes in those days I would just go through the paper

it's really weird when I look at my journey and then I started talking to the audience and that ended in Seattle when I moved to Seattle somebody goes dog you lived everywhere yeah somebody goes dog you got to stop fucking talking to people because you're good at it

don't get me wrong and the improvising is good but once you move to L.A. it's not going to be bueno for you. And then I stopped at the store. I never fucking really talk to people. Never, ever, ever. Especially because, like, we're not watching the whole show.

And now I don't even consider fucking doing it. Like, now that people paying to come see me, I wouldn't even take a chance and fucking improvise them. I'll throw a tag in if it's appropriate. Like, sometimes you're right on stage and stuff like that. So workaholics you've been on, but now more than ever, you're on, I'm dying up here. Yeah, we started, you know,

started workaholics so that was from 2010 till we did seven seasons of that you know this crazy character i i enjoy it i i'm always going to look back with fondness of being on a show that's like people's favorite show you know people still come on to me today every day it's like montes you know they they love that show so that was great but then to get this show this kind of like meaty dramatic dark, you know, it shows a different side of me. And I'm really, it's very rewarding. You know, that's why I need people to watch it. So hopefully, if this is Monday, this is going to come on Monday.

You know, hopefully you watched Sunday night. And if not, get on on demand, showtime anytime and watch, I'm dying up here. Sundays, 10 o'clock, starting this week. Sundays, 10 o'clock. You already missed the first episode. So catch up. No, the first episode. came out like on showtime a few weeks ago.

That was just a premiere. A premiere. But tonight, there was Sunday night is the actual premiere for, like, premiere on showtime. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You fucking learn something. Yeah, man. You don't even know.

And tonight, I'll see you at a party. Tomorrow night. Well, tonight, tonight. Yeah, yeah. I'm all confused. Are you happy that you act? You like it? Do you enjoy it?

I do enjoy it. I enjoy like, you know, it's like people say to me, do you like acting or stand up more? And I think I like them equally because they're different. You know, I like taking somebody else's work. Like, you know, this, this pay, words on the page and then bring it to life. There's something great about that. There's something great about being in this like made up environment and you're like creating something. You know, you're making people feel things.

I love all that. You know, it's funny. I had a weird thing this week. Listen, success. Winston Churchill defined success is moving from area to area with constant enthusiasm. you know that's why I knew I couldn't make it in the real world as a human being like as a fucking get up at 8 and go to work type of guy I can't do it I can't do it you have to move around a little bit I like I like switching it around I enjoy acting I enjoy

stuff but they all have like I enjoy podcasting I don't want to do a fucking podcast I know exactly what you're saying it's like you know I love doing stand up I love being on a road but then there's a time when I'm like I'm at this airport again again I'm I'm Oh, man. I like that. I won't go out back to back no more. No more back to back weeks. When I don't want to go out and take pictures of people,

or I don't want to do little things. Yeah, man. I don't want to be there. Yeah, I'd rather go out every other week and be 100%. They deserve that. They deserve that. They deserve that. They deserve that.

I don't want to be a fucking whore. You know, I like that. I come in and I book a show for two days. And I'm not talking negatively about the show. It's just aspects of acting that. It's the other stuff You know I like the freedom of podcasting

I've loved doing This was my thing since day one Because I got nobody Looking on my shoulder Yeah yeah yeah We could say whatever the fuck we want We can book whatever the fuck we want You know we could

We could get a couch right now And get some pose up in this Motherfucking stream this shit And whoever you know Thank God I'm not doing coke I'm doing a fuck out Because I'd be doing a podcast Norton Coke

You know how many people would tune into that shit It would not have been good If they had podcasts 20 years ago I would have got arrested every other week. I was going to say ATF would be watching. They would just bring the video like, this is you. Can you imagine like going on piracy?

You titled the episode, Snowing Coke on YouTube. Yeah, you don't wonder why the cops are here? Can you imagine becoming like the mad periscopor? Just popping up every, like you'd have two million followers. You'd run commercials on the periscope for fucking Coke dealers and shit. Call me now, 1-800. This phone will disconnect in 30 seconds. I never understand when people like put, people send you these snaps.

Like all these workerholics fans will semi-snap chats and stuff like, you know, we don't pile of weed in front of them and all this stuff. And I just go, Dan, you're like, you're like, you're, this is out there someplace. You don't smoke weed? No, I sure don't. No, I never did. No, I never did. No, no, I don't drink. Never.

No, I never did. I mean, just only recently in the past like two years, I went on on a vacation with a friend and the deal was, okay, on vacation, I'll try. So I tried a couple of drinks and I just didn't like it. You don't like it. I just don't like it. It's not even about like being goody, goody or anything like that. I just don't like it.

What's your hobby? I don't like to play video games. My hobby and my work is the same thing. I love going to do stand-up. It's like things happen to me in life and I have this thing where I'll go right to the stage and talk about it, you know? So that's my way. I saw your growth there.

You know, well, I appreciate it. No, stop. Tell me more about me. No, no, no, no. It has been, you know, it's not my journey that baffles me. I looked at other journeys. I looked at Ralphie Mae's journey. He came in second.

I look at Mitch Headberg's journey. I look at Doug Stan. I still remember seeing Doug Standup in 96. I'm going, I'm canceling this. I'm not doing this ever again because I'll never be this good. You have that feeling? You just said by Parker. You saw him in See a Brin.

Yeah, for real. I just thought I can't I can't do it How can I do this June of 96 Stanhope was up at the up to the fucking Seattle Underground And I still remember That was his spot too And I still remember going

Like I have a spot tomorrow I'm canceling with Pat Wilson And I went camping with my girlfriend For two days I really thought about my life I was like if I'm going to do this That's the only way you're going to That's the only way I'm going to do it

I got to go balls out to the wall like that. He was my first real, like Lenny Bruce and Richard Breyer, when I saw Stanhope in Seattle, like I knew him from triple runs. You know, he lived on a triple run. That's what got him really good. There's no secret

to that. He backed his car and just wanted a triple run for a year. Triple runs. Jesus. And karaoke bars. So, and drinking and still carrying on.

And then he entered the San Francisco Comedy Comedy Comedy competition. And they were like, you know what his chances are of even placing up there? Zero. He's too dirty. And he destroyed them all. And the night of the fucking final.

Isn't that the famous one? The famous finals, it was him and Dane Cook. Him and Dane Cook. And they broke into his car and stole his clothes. So he had to go to a thrift shop and buy his secondhand suit. That's why he dresses the way he does. Because he put that suit on and he fucking won the thing against Dane Cook. You know, I did.

It was phenomenal. Like, it was like... Did you do any of those? Did you do any of those contests? I did Seattle. I did Seattle also. I took sixth. And then what Aisha Taylor and Josh Wolf and the year I did it, David Crow one.

And then San Francisco, I quit the third night. You know, it's just so funny. I did the Seattle competition. And when I finished that, I said, I am never doing a competition ever again. That is the worst three weeks Like you know the only thing the good about it is is it teaches you how to showcase It teaches you like quick stand-up showcase different level of the game Yeah six minutes yeah you're like boom you got to come and get six minutes

But after but just the way what it did to the comics and and then like having to like roam around for three weeks and like you have to put yourself up in the second week and I I will never forget I was in what year did you do it? I did it 2004 and who was was it? 2004, 2005. We wanted that. Oh, man,

I don't even remember, man. But I remember like, you know, you know, Sadiki Fuller? Yes. Sadiki was in it,

you know, just flipping away that year. I don't even remember everybody that was in that. And I remember I was thinking to myself, I got robbed, you know what I mean? But whatever. Did you make a film?

Oh, Lamont Ferguson. Lamont Ferguson was just, no, I came in six that year on my thing, too. But I really felt like it was like, I said, I just wasn't,

some stuff was. happening where I was like, come on. This isn't, what's going on here? But then I thought, it doesn't matter. After that, I was like, I'm never doing this again. And I remember John Fox was in L.A. at the M. Bar doing showcases. And he came up to me and he was like, Erica, I love for you to be in San Francisco comedy competition. And I said, no. I was just like, no, I don't want to do that. And it was crazy to me because two years before that, that's what I was, that was my goal. That was your goal. That was everybody's goal. That was my goal was to be in this. And then, Oh, shit.

Sorry. And then I was like, nah, I don't want to do this. Let me tell you something. Let me explain this whole thing to you. So, Eric, we'll break it down to you. I did the Seattle County competition because I lived in Seattle. I had moved to Seattle to develop. Seattle, when I was coming up in comedy, there was a county newspaper that was run by John Fox,

and it was written by comics. And it was very interesting. I learned a lot in that thing. But the back of it had every club in the country, in state by state, Alabama, Arizona, you know, Arkansas. And I would look at those and circle the ones, and I was going to perform that. And every month it came out.

And if you were part of, like, came out to Comedy Works and which end, it got delivered there for free. And that's how I got turned on to Seattle. That logo just fucking made me go crazy. And I met a stripper in Michigan when I was on the road. road. She was moving to Seattle. And I said, fuck it, I'll meet you up there. And I had nothing going on in Colorado. I was just going to end up in jail. And I went up to Seattle and I stayed the summer. And I liked it. I liked the comedy scene up there. It was Josh Wolf. It was

Brody Stevens. It was a bunch of us up there fucking around. Then they asked me, do the contest. And I got to tell you something. For me, it was a great experience, but I lived there. I don't, listen, I don't regret. Now, Lee, in three years, yeah, go up there and do it because you get Airbnb. And just stay there for three weeks? Three weeks. How many shows you do? Four weeks.

You go. Oh, you do it. Because what they do is after the first round, you get the money. Like, they give everybody the last place money. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? So, like, let's say the last place pays $500. They give everyone $500, you know, because, you could end up being last place.

So you've already been paid. That's how they do it. Because I've never even looked into any of these. No, no, no, no. You don't have to look at it right now, but it's pretty interesting. For me, it was very interesting. I lived in Seattle, so I... My first one was a Rocky Mountain laugh-off, by the way.

I don't think you ever did that one. That was out of Utah. I did the one in Colorado. See, I was... In the 90s contests were big. Eric, big. The biggest one was Johnny Walker, National Competition. They did the finals on TV.

Oh, wow. Johnny Walker, Black, or John. Walker Redd then the HBO comedy competition so every city had a comedy competition and then the end you would battle it out in like Michigan somewhere or in LA and sometimes they go Vegas Vegas was where you all went and did this battle off every fucking year I when I got into comedy I was sponsored by Beck's beer it was a Bex beer comedy competition and it was all of Colorado and you the rules were you couldn't get paid so the first time I got on stage was in June

And that night, somebody came up to me and goes, I have a gig for you. I could give you gas money. And I'll never forget when I won the finals of the Beck's comedy competition, there was a red flag that I took $5 for gas. The second time I got on stage, and the judges were like, fuck you, he won, hands down. I liked that one.

That was a six-month competition, and it was just people from every Tuesday. Seattle, man, I die. Seattle was five nights in a row. six nights Monday through fucking Saturday yeah you did it so in your mind

and it wasn't by the way it wasn't just in Seattle it's Seattle it's called the Seattle comedy competition right but it's all over it might be yeah yeah you might be 200 miles away

you could be in Everett you could be on the on the Billingham up in Bellingham is on Sunday night yeah the Bellingham is up what I loved about that competition is the fact that

that was the first time I performed in front of like 2,000 people you know that one of the nights was this kind of casino gig that was this huge room and it was like thousands of people and that was the first time I remember being out there like

oh man this is great it is so you like it's like so I enjoyed all that but in the end I was like I'm never doing this again like I loved all that experience you know it's like going through boot camp or something you needed but I wouldn't do the shit again

I remember driving there every night with Josh Wolfe but in my mind like I already thought what really kills you about his liars it teaches you not to size up nothing like I went in there going on I got this I'm I got him I got him I got this guy covered for real

I'll fuck this guy up any night of the week this guy can't run with me some nights it was just somebody's night and all of a sudden there's like a little black guy in the corner you don't even know who he is and you just dismiss him and the first night God rest is snow his name is Floyd J. Phillips

I just read recently he died no bro the first night at that pizza place in Ballard, Washington. It was a Monday night. I will never forget this memory. I went up there thinking I was going to win that whole thing on Monday night. And I came like in 13th.

And the guy who ripped that room apart that night was Floyd J. Phillips. Man. I heard he died. That is really bad news to hear. Kidney. God rest his story. Oh, yes. Very good to me.

Man, I have some. I had, dude, I did a triple run with him. Yeah. Man, I did a triple run with him where he calls me and he says, he says, hey man, I want to bring somebody to be our opener. Because remember at the time it was a two-man show. And he goes, I want to bring an MC, but don't worry, he'll stay with me. First night, we do the show. And then he comes up to me and he's like, yo, he's staying with you tonight.

And I was like, no, he's not. And we had this thing where, because he was like telling me, I shouldn't be co-headlining with you. That's what you told me. He was like, you ain't, you ain't fun. So then that night I was like, okay. So we did this show in like, Idaho, you know? And I went up and I was like, I had that like, I was like, oh, I'm not good enough. Okay.

And I, ah, just, I was going for it that night, you know? And then he came up to, we became good friends after that. He's a great guy. You know, because he came up to me like, all right, all right. Let me tell you something. He took that room apart. At that time, he was flung. He was great.

He was amazing. Where did he live, though? He lived in, like... He lived in Portland. I never knew who he was. I never knew who he was. I never knew who the fucking this kid was. That makes me feel sad that I didn't keep up with that Monday and destroyed.

He had a joke about the Portland Mall. Excuse me, security. You know, have you seen any black people? Yeah, they're everywhere. What the hell are? Like, something like that he just destroyed with me. But I know what you're saying. You would go to these contests and you would see these guys and you'd be like...

You're sizing them up. Yeah, yeah. But don't judge a book by its cover. But then guess what? Then guess what? what lease I have when they announce your name 13 guess what happens you drive home you don't say a fucking word your friends like you want to go eat not really you go home and you get that notebook and you will stay up all night yeah man and the next night I came back in place like third

remember that thing they used to do I don't know if they did it during your time would be like this like this extra point from the audience cheers yes so that was like a big thing too that was like a big like it's crazy you had to get that you had to get that thing it's so it's basically one one week of every night, then another team comes up, dirty comics, whatever, 15, and they do their week. Now, if you plays that week, you got to come back the third week, and your crew goes up against his crew, and then the finals, it goes down to five comics, and that's a whole other week. So it's four weeks of your life, but let me tell you something.

I learned to love comics, like, that's the first time I was ever involved with a circle of comics. Yeah, the camaraderie. So this day, Al Trifaris, James Inman, Floyd J. Phillips, Josh Wolf, Gavin Boyd, that contest taught me we went to a Seattle fucking football game that Sunday. Somebody

gave us a handful of tickets and we all went together as comics. It taught me a lot. It really did. And I, Aisha Taylor, I still remember Aisha Taylor jumped in the pool with her big fucking titties and shit. We all went crazy. We were like, she had a body of

death back then. She was just hot, you know, and so no, it's an experience for comics if you've never done it. Eric, listen. I'm happy we finally got you on the show. I know, right? This is great. I feel like we could talk comedy and

no, no, you're very insightful on it. I can tell you take it seriously. If not, you wouldn't be where you'd be. I am trying to take it as serious as I can. Like I say, you should intellectualize it and then forget about that stuff and just do it. That's my advice to you. I appreciate it.

That's it. That's all. Just like Nike says. Yeah, just do it. Just do it. And you're going to run into roadblocks and then you figure them out. And every time you figure them out, it strengthens you.

Yeah. Those triple runs are very fucking. That was, I look back at the back at the time fondly, but I still go, damn. I can't believe I was doing, you know. Still booking. You know what I always say? I say, I would do triple runs today if they, if it was more professional.

Like, if it was like you could get a good take at the door and like, You spend like five days in Montana. I would do it. If you could leave with a hefty chunk because you're doing like these great shows. Because those are great cities, man. Bozeman, Butte, you know, Missoula. You could still do that with one of your best friends. I know, I know, I know.

Just flying for Billings, rent the car. Yeah, exactly. And do all those towns, take a piece of the door. Yeah. You know, book radio. Triple told me he didn't want me doing it anymore. And I knew exactly why. because when you get to a certain point

where I knew I just was like you know it was like you can't have that out there because you can't have these people going because there was some bad like no they got bad comics some terrible terrible so you know you can't have somebody doing even a little well because then the people there

are going to be like wait we need more comics like that you know yeah that's what you work with so he stops booking you when you got better you work with comics who that's crazy triple runs are an experience But I'll tell you what, for some people, some headliners, it becomes a reality. And you've seen it out there where. Or cruise ships.

They have. You've done a cruise ship? No. And I'm not interested in me to at that point I go sell fucking forwards down the corner. I did a crew. I did. I wanted to check it out. I did.

So I did like four or five of all. I wanted to see because I was in my mind. I was thinking, could I end up here? And let me see how it is. I did. I enjoyed my time, but I was like, I feel sequestered. And I saw these comics, it becomes golden handcuffs. What they do is they fire everybody.

They don't need agents, managers. There's 50 ships. There's so much work that they could just, this is it. They're like, I'm going to do this for the rest. I could do this for 10 more years, save money. You don't spend any money. It's like, it's a lane that I thought, well, let me check on that lane. And listen, comics coming all sizes and forth.

Yeah, man. Listen, man, there's comics in Michigan that'll take you. and me, chew us up and spit us out. And they got six kids and a job and a wife and a job that has too much insurance that covers their kids and they can't leave. That's the reality of this line. There's 20 fucking comics out that will level us. One smokes crack and lives with his mother, you know, and he can't, you know, Otto and George

would fucking God rest his soul. He would take calls from a pay phone on Tuesdays. You had to call that pay phone to book them and he would only go down and get crack, you know. No follow-through is what it is. come in all sizes and forms and whatever you want your career to go it could go that's the choice that you have yeah I have a choice

I got into the podcast business tickets started selling the comedy caught up because it took 20 years everything to catch up all those movies I did caught up you follow me yesterday they're putting it together they were like oh that's the guy from

oh that's the guy from yeah it's a circle it is such a fucking circle yeah a wise guy once told me this business is a business of cultures. The people who come here with a quick fucking dream and a quick, it has to happen, it don't happen. And if it does happen, they don't last. They go to fuck away.

The guys that eat this and eat shit, and then later on when you're doing movies, you're like, I remember why I'm getting this. You know why? Because I got a flat on the way from Bozeman to Billings that time. And I had a fucking, that flat. I paid my dues.

Eric, thank you. It was great. Don't forget to watch. I'm dying up here. I'm an episode one and two, I suppose. Because somebody said they've seen me, so I don't fucking know. I don't know the episodes. You're in the first episode for sure.

Yeah, I'm the first episode. Taffy. Taffy. So thank you, Eric. I wish you much success. Do not watch a Piazzo and Jam on Netflix. Because we don't get the dime. We don't get the dime from that shit.

And my daddy dates coming up. I know you just got a Netflix special. I did know. Showtime. I did it for Showtime. That's coming out. I can't announce the date, they told me. But it's coming soon.

It'll be on while I'm dying up here is on. But my next date is coming up May 24th. I'm going to be at the Bridgeport Stress Factory. Okay. And I'll be at the Stress Factory in Jersey on the 18th or the 20th that sold out. And I hope I don't have to shoot. I'm dying up here and cancel it. Now you guys know the truth.

The dates might coincide. So you heard it here first. You heard it here first. But no, I don't know. Now you're going to have people calling like, is he going to be there? Are you going to be shooting? No, no, no, no, I don't think so.

I think we'll work it out. I think I have money. You can check me out at ericryphin.com at Eric Griffin with a K-E-R-I-K-Griffin. That's what I am. I'm Eric Griffin on everything. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat. And don't forget, as usual, a shout out to fucking on it

for always being there for us. If you need supplements, they're the way to go. Trust run. I can't hook you up with kettlebells and shit. That's not my division. But as far as the protein shakes, the hemp force, the alpha brain, the shroom tech, all that stuff. I give you 10% off to live it right to your house.

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You get it for free. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash church. C-H-U-R-C-H. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash church. church that C-H-U-R-C-H ZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. I want to thank Eric Griffin. I want to thank my man the Flying Jew. And I want to thank you guys for putting a great week together.

I love you guys. I'll see you Wednesday. Stay black. Stay strong. Hit it, Lee. Oh, shit. Oh,