The Commercial Break - A Little HARE Of the Dog

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

EP933: Allison Hare MAY be responsible for TCB! She must now face the tough questions! How? When? WHY? All will be answered today.... TCB is a The Commercial Break LLC production Visit: www.TCBpodcast.com Insta: @thecommercialbreakBryan Green on Insta: @BryanWGreen Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley Created by: Bryan Green Written by: Bryan Green, Krissy Hoadley Produced by: Astrid Green & Gustavo  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh my gosh, Brian, the entire front of the episode got cut off. Where in the world is the intro to our episode? I'm always keeping you on your toes here at the commercial break. Eight wonderful years ago. My wife pushed me out into the podcasting universe in an effort to get me to shut the fuck up. It worked. Now, for at least six hours a week, I'm talking to,

Chrissy and not Astrid. However, that's not the entire story. It took a little extra nudge from a former co-worker, good friend, wonderful human, and podcasting queen, Allison Hare. Allison's been doing her own podcast for about a year longer than Chrissy and I have been doing ours. It took on different forms and fashions over the years, but the name is culture changers. It's nothing like the commercial break, and that's a good thing. She usually talks to serious people about serious subjects, thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, and it's likely that her serious podcast gets more laughs than our comedy podcast. I'm not jealous, swear to God, I'm not. Allison is a thoughtful, self-aware, interesting, and restless human that I find endlessly fascinating. Besides all of our podcast

connections, she is really a dear friend of ours. Celebrating her seventh year of doing the show, she decided to do seven hours of live streaming. She asked me to join and help kill some time, and I said, I'll do you one better. Let's do a co-show. A co-show with the bro show, and I hope I can get the technology to work, so we're not a no-show.

So we're going to take a short break early in this episode so you can hear our conversation with Allison Hare in its entirety from her live stream, celebrating seven years of culture changers. We'll be back right after this. Let me do something Brian has never done. Be brief.

Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us. 212-4333-3-TCB. That's 212-4333822. Visit our website, TCB Podcast.com for all the audio, video, and your free sticker. Then watch all the videos at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. And finally, share the show. It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters.

See, Brian? That really wasn't that difficult, now, was it? You're welcome. Hi. Hi. Wow. This appears to be working, except our camera on our feed is not on. Hold on one second.

Let me see if I can turn it on. There we go. Okay. All right. You can see us? Yes. Okay, great. Hi.

Hello, Allison. I'm going to shut off this Instagram live feed. Okay. We're on a marathon right now. Oh. So if you're watching on Instagram, go on YouTube. And I'll be back in an hour. All right.

Hey, guys. Hey, how are you? I'm great. I'm excited for that. Yeah, we're excited too. Congratulations on your big anniversary. Yeah. Seven years.

Wow. What? How many hours are you into this now? I'm almost up to 300 episodes. I mean, I'm not commercial break. No one's commercial break. Volume. No one's dumb enough to be commercial break level.

Yeah. It's a lot. That's just silly. We were just talking on the intro, we were talking about how this kind of all coalesced. Like your role in standing up the commercial break, your role. And I was saying to everybody that I'm not sure that the commercial rake in its current form would exist without you putting out the siren song. Yeah, you being the catalyst. To do this cohort that I ended up joining.

And then, you know, I think it, I think, if I remember correctly, it was you who said, hey, you know, you should do a comedy podcast, right? That's what you should do. And, and then in my mind, it all took a turn. I was like, okay, well, I guess, you know, I have a sense of humor. Maybe somebody wants to hear it. And then I invited Chrissy to come on because, you know, it was about three and a half months between the end of that cohort and the first episode of the commercial break. So it took me a while even still to get up the courage to go. on the microphone and do it. And I didn't want to do it by myself. So I found that Chrissy was a good backstop. I got the laughter. Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. I said, hey, well, if you're around, you could do it. Yeah, I'd jump on for one episode. You look like you have nothing better to do. Well, it was April of 2020. Yeah, we were all stuck at home. You really literally did have nothing better. Literally. Yeah. Wiping off groceries. I think we recorded our first episode on March 15th, exactly, is when we recorded it, and I put it out about three weeks later. It took me about three weeks to edit that first episode.

You do a seven-hour live stream on March 15th, 2027? Yeah, could you? Well, we've already done the 12 hours of TCB. Yeah. Yeah, we've been there, done that. And then we did the 23 days of CCB for Christmas. So that was that, too. I literally was driving.

You guys are Gleddon for punishing. I was driving an hour to Roswell. I think she was here on Christmas Eve, if I'm not mistaken. All through December. Yeah, it was crazy. How many hours are you into the marathon now? Are you just a couple of hours in? I'm just a couple of hours in, so I started at one.

It's 308 now. Okay. My voice is getting ragged, but I'm good. I'm doing fine. Are you? But, you know, like waiting for you, I'm like, all right, I got to think of some I gotta think of something to say.

I'm like I could go into a whole other round, but you guys could pop in at any time. So you guys came at the perfect time. Okay, good. Good. So what is the agenda for the seven hours? Like when you're mapping this out in your mind, how do you play it out?

Like, do you have a list of topics that you want to discuss? Do you have other people besides us that are coming in, I hope? Yes, all of the above. But actually, I was trying not to over prepare for this because it would just stress me out. Like if I have too much structure and order, I'm, I'll like run through real fast and like be nervous and weird. Like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's why we don't do episodes.

Yeah. That's why we don't plan for our episodes either. So when I think about culture changers, so the podcast. is like where I love to throw gasoline on fiery topics like power, politics, religion, relationships, sex money. So I figure I'll do an hour for each. There you go. Oh, that's a good idea. Are we in the, which hour are we in? Are we in the sex? Sex hour or what it? We're in the, you're in the, we're in the comedy. We're in the mediocre comedy hour. Right. We're in the break. You're in the mediocre.

Yeah, we're in the break. We're in the break. The hour she's not going to rebroadcast. Right. Okay. So now, so I know this is your show. I don't know who show it is, but we'll assume it's a co-show, right? Tell me what have you learned over seven years of podcasting about yourself, about the nature of digital media? What have you learned? What's the big takeaway? If you've had to stop tomorrow, put it down. What would you say that this period of your life, this thing that you've done that you've held on to so tightly. I was telling the audience before we jumped in, I said, you know, good, bad, and different. One thing you've got to give to Allison is that she has never given up. She's never put it down. She's always found the next version of culture changers to do.

And I think that's incredibly brave and bold of you. And, you know, I said even in- Takes dedication. Yeah, it takes dedication. Even in times of great success with the commercial break, I have sometimes felt like, that's enough. Like, okay, let's put it down now. It's been a big fuck this. Yeah, honestly, sometimes it is a big fuck this. But, you know, but you find a way and you, and you wake up the next day and it's, you know, give it a minute. It's like a relationship. You have your moments

with it, right? And some of those moments, you just want to say, fuck you, this is, I've had enough. And then other moments you're madly in love. And a lot of the time, it's just somewhere in between, you know, it's like, well, this is what we're doing. I have to say and answer your question, And there really two main things that are coming up. One is one is something that you would help me with is that I would get to the point where I think it's natural for us as somebody who consumes podcasts, that when you are creating your own show, that it's natural to kind of mimic what you hear. So if you're listening to Jay Shetty or Mel Robbins or Lewis House or whoever it is, you almost are like, all right, I can do that. but if it's not your voice, it's not your voice. And so I had gotten to the point where I was like editing so much out of my own so that

it would fit in this little tiny box that it needs to be 30 minutes. It's got to not have any umz and Oz. And you were the one, Brian, where you're like, if they're not going to listen, fuck them. You know, like they're not the right people. You have to go to yourself. And so, you know, I work now. as a podcast strategist. So I help people, I help predominantly founders, like coaches, consultants, people that are like mission driven and have some type of thought leadership, but I help them

launch and grow podcasts. And most of my time is not spent teaching people about podcasting, but it is kind of welcoming them home to themselves. And one thing I know about you, Brian, I remember when we first started, like your first iteration of your podcast, when you were going to do like a commercial real estate that we were just talking about that. I mean, that would have been boring as shit. It was. I did a number of episodes. You would have figured out a fun way. Yeah.

But when you released your first few episodes, my jaw was on the floor. And the reason why my jaw was on the floor is that knowing you and Chrissy, both of you, for so many years. And you had shared with me, Brian, where you said, you know, I just think of these voices and I think of these characters and I, you know, I mean, what am I going to do with like stupid voices and characters? And you had put, like, you had created your own commercials before your own show. And they were so ridiculous and so outlandish. But it was such a shock to the system of like, surprise of you were not expecting that. And that's what I love about your show and why I know it took off because you did something unexpected, but you stayed completely true to yourself.

And then I sit and listen to you guys and I'm like, God, I wish I could riff like that. I wish I could not think about what I was going to say. Right. I think that perfection is the. perfection is the enemy of consistency, and consistency is the key to... Honestly, like consistency and the need to get it done sometimes allows you to be authentic

because there's no other choice. You just have to do it. You just have to go and do it. And I think that's part of the key to the commercial break is that am I always 100% Brian Green on the commercial break? No, not find me to be, you know, so ornery or so brusque, like outside of the commercial break sometimes. But that's a part of the muscle of Brian Green that I can exercise when I'm here to accentuate something that I want to make funny or more interesting or give it that.

But the need to get the episode done, the fact that it's got to be there allows me to sit back. It's kind of like I would imagine the people who take off to go to the moon. once you're strapped in, just let go and let it happen. It's like being on an airplane. You're going to take off and you're going to land, or you're not. Enjoy the ride. Stop stressing about it. And so I think that that consistency, that need to be consistent for us,

allowed us to get so many reps in that eventually it really was authentic because we're just turning on the microphones. And that's it. That's all we're doing. We're doing six shows a week. I don't have time to cut out the ums and all. Yeah, you're doing 12 episodes. A day.

Yeah. You don't have time to cut out the ums and oz. You don't have time to be particularly persnickety about this or fussy about that. We've put a lot of episodes in the can for one reason to the other. But none of them were because I had too many ums or oz. Or because I got it wrong. I wanted to say this and I ended up saying that. It was only because I had fear that we took something too far.

I didn't like the subject matter that I thought it was tasteless or in bad taste. And that's saying a lot. If you've listened to the commercial break and I put something in the can. Or we talked about Scientology and we had made your technical problems. That's right. Every time we have tried to do an episode about Scientology, it ends up that it doesn't get recorded. There's some kind of static. Yeah, it's really weird.

We've done it like four or five separate times. And every time there is some technical issue that we're not aware of in the moment that appears later on and we don't run the episode because it just sounds terrible. It's really weird, actually. Either it's real coincidence or, I don't know, space lasers or something like that. I don't know. Jewish space lasers. Yeah, right. But I think that that's like, I think one of the things that you and I've talked about a lot in your evolution is how do I get over my need to over-analyze everything that I'm doing? And I just shared with you once that, and I remember the conversation, you know, people are going to like you or they're not going to like you. And it's not going to be because of an um or an awe. The only people who would be persnickety about that are other podcasters or audio files. And, you know, maybe you want them in your audience. Maybe you don't. But honestly, you probably don't. Like if that's the degree of judgment they're going to put on everything that you do, why do you want them in your audience? Fuck them. Let them go listen to. Jay Shetty. I mean, you know, it's like, let him go listen to someone else if that's what

it's going to be. How, do you still feel the need, like I feel the need, like it's a compulsive to get an episode out there every week? Yes. Yeah. It's compulsive, isn't it? Doesn't it feel compulsive? Yeah. I don't, it does, but I also, there are times when I'm like, I don't need to post one. Yeah. I can tip them. Yeah. I think there is.

But I think that is just, it comes with having, like when you have a podcast because it's not like, it requires work. Like, you treat it like a job because it is when you show up. But certainly taking a break, there's there. I do, I do get. Yes. I definitely feel compulsive about it. And I also have a huge bank. to pull from because I do a lot of interviews.

So what's that? I said, can I borrow some money? Absolutely. I'm curious for you guys. Like, do you ever show up where you're like, I'm just not funny today? Oh, yeah. Yeah, like 90% of it. Well, the good thing about having the two of us, I think, is that maybe one of us is in a different mood than the other.

and then we can really kind of start riffing on each other. Yeah. That helps. But yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. One of us by ourselves, that would be hard. It's a relationship, right? It's just like a relationship.

It's like sometimes Ashtred and I look at our relationship like this. Ashton is your wife. Astrid's my wife, yeah. No. And that is the mistake that is often made by people who don't know us. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

especially when you have children, you come in and you say, I'm at 20% today, hon, like, you know, and I need you to be, I need you to be the other 80%. And she'll say that to me a lot too. And I think it's unspoken in the room. That's not how we address it in the room. But I think it's unspoken in the room that there's a lot of days where, you know, I got a lot going on. Chrissy's got a lot going on. We come in here. It's a break for us. So we have a little bubble. There's a little bubble in the room. But there's also like interplay. There's interpersonal tension that sometimes happens. But whenever we turn on the microphones, I think it somehow finds a way, right? And I know there are days where we put together an episode and I'm like, eh, eh, not the best.

Yeah, we've done that before. But since we put out 12 episodes a day, it doesn't matter. Yeah, you've got to put it out. Yeah. But I've heard from a lot of people over the years and especially the ones who are like kind of like more like kind of hardcore commercial break listeners. I've heard from a lot of people that the nature of our friendship and the nature of the interplay and the nature of the back and forth is what makes them keep listening. It's not the punchlines. It's not the funny voices that come out sometimes. It's not the, you know, Brian being angry about the next dumb thing. It's that Chrissy and I and the friendship is what shines through. And that it's like they're watching a soap opera that doesn't have much drama, right? It's just two idiots just kind of sitting there.

And I think that they appreciate that. Two or three years ago, someone wrote us an email, I think it was. And they said, or they wrote us a review on Apple. And the review said, this is the dumbest, funniest, stupidest, smartest show about friendship I've ever heard. Yeah. And so that I had struggled for so many years to describe to people what exactly the commercial break was besides mediocre comments. podcast. And it struck me when I read that review, when we read that review, I said, it's a show about friendship. That's what it is. It's a show about friendship.

Well, as if we were talking to each other in a bar like we used to do all the time. Yeah, exactly. So it doesn't need to be funny all the time. Sometimes it's just, you know, we're not in the greatest of moods and here's what we're thinking about right now. But I think that that's also the benefit of having someone else in the room. I cannot imagine. having done a thousand hours without Chrissy or without someone else in the, like, just by myself, though the original plan, I can't imagine I'd be an episode 100, let alone 1,000. I really can't. I can't imagine that. So I give you. There's so many people that wish they would have a show where they're like, hey, my best friend and I, you know, people tell us all the time we should start a podcast.

And it's not always like, there has to be a special chemistry. Like you guys are, magnificent. Like, I could not imagine this show being the same show if there was somebody else in either one of your seat, you know? Like, it just wouldn't. You guys really, really are magic. And I wonder what your advice is for people who want to have a podcast, they want to have a co-host, but, like, finding that chemistry and somebody that can play off each other and behind the scenes is, you know, on the same page. That's, that's. That's like a whole other thing. It's like going into business with somebody. Yeah.

Well, I'll say this. I mean, I was just thinking about this. You and I, Alison, for like a year, did probably just as much content on Clubhouse as Chrissy and I did inside of the commercial break studio, if not more. That's right. Clubhouse. Clubhouse is still going strong. I know. We just looked it up the other day. I need to tell you about this. What? I went to an event where there was somebody that, it was a speaking event.

And there was a guy who, like, gets a ton of business from clubhouse by doing this, like, breakfast club meeting. I think that started when we were, like, back in our clubhouse. It sounds familiar. Yeah. It's still a thing. Yeah. Well, I don't know if it's still going like at what used to because we went in there and we saw. That was game busters.

Yeah. When we were there, it was a blast. Now, we looked at it the other day. I don't know what version. I don't know how to describe this without being too rowdy about it. It was really, first of all, it seemed to me that at least the rooms that we were getting served were very much focused on. You don't like crypto rooms? Hip-hop culture, I think is probably the best way to describe it.

It was more. I don't even know what that we're talking about. We thought we heard LeBron, but it was not LeBron. They were talking about Iran, but they were really talking about who was going to sleep with LeBron. It was weird. It was weird. And then I think we heard the N-word five times in the 13 seconds we were on the on the time. Yeah, we were like, okay.

Okay, well, we'll dip out of this real quick. Did you record that? Yes. We did it on the show. Yeah, we did it as part of the show. Yeah. That's where we're at too. And to where we just look up stuff on our phone.

Yeah, it's just like, whatever. Okay, all right, let's do it. I think it's, I think in a lot of ways the commercial break has gotten tighter by getting looser. Fucking on it. We used to be that we would do a video. Season number three, I think like a hundred of those 300 episodes, are just us, like, reviewing videos. It became like a video review show for a while. and then we were doing nothing but interviews for a while.

And then, I mean, you know, there's been like iterations of the show. I was doing the bits for a long time. And I still do them on occasion, but it takes so much time that it's just not something that I'm afforded right in this moment. But I was going to say to answer your question, like, my advice to people is, like, you and I had chemistry in a different way, right? We were doing those rooms night after night, day after day, time after time. and we were good in those rooms together,

doing what we were doing regarding podcasting. Find the right person for the right tone that you want to set. You have lots of people in your life. They're probably good at different things. You know the friend you're going to go

to the Grateful Dead concert with, and you know the friend you're going to go to the Jonas Brothers concert with, right? My friend is Astrid. That's why I go to the Jonas Brothers concert with, but I would go to the Grateful Dead concert with, concert with Chrissy. So there's like you have those people in your life. You've got to find the person

that sets the tone. I know Chrissy will laugh at my jokes. I've known her for a long time. She finds me incredibly enduring and charming and handsome. And handsome. Who doesn't find me. That's right. Well, I find it most funny when we're making fun of you. Yes. Which is most of the show. Yes. Most of the show is me making fun of me and Chrissy laughing. The misadventures. Yeah. The misadventures of Brian Greene. Oh, no.

This is the next podcast we're going to start. The misadventures of BG. That would be a good one, actually. I'd listen to that. Yeah, so, you know, people want to start a podcast. You know, I think if you're going to do a chatcast, if you're going to do more than one person in the room, you should obviously know who you're getting involved with to some degree. and they should fit the mode or the tone of whatever it is you're about to do. If you can do a business podcast, don't do it with the guy that you get all with in the garage.

Yeah, exactly. It was in a band still at 52 years old, right? Don't do that guy. Do somebody in your office who you can talk to, who you know is smart about business and you guys can have an elevated conversation about that. That's my advice. So Chrissy just fit the right tone for the commercial break. It was silly and it was stupid, and Chrissy found it to be funny.

And she's right. It is mostly me just being self-effacing about my own ridiculous life. Yeah, we don't take ourselves seriously at all. Oh, we never took ourselves seriously. No, I mean. I think my favorites are always the religious takedowns, the pastored takedowns, and like the dating, the dating guru. Oh, those are so, such an easy target. Get enough of those.

Yeah. Are we still doing Frankie B? We have a Frankie B for tomorrow, actually. Yeah, we do. We have a Frankie B for tomorrow. I need to tune in. Who is Frankie B? Tell the culture to do you.

Oh, yeah. Frankie B is Frank Bernardo. You found him, what, five years ago? I found him, I think, late season one. Yeah. In late season one. So five or six years ago, almost now. And I found him on YouTube.

I was trolling around on YouTube looking for pickup artists specifically. And even though I don't call Frankie a pickup artist because I don't think you could pick anybody up with his advice. But what he was was an old fashion. Fashion, music, fitness, and fun. I'm Frank Bernardo. Well, it was no advice for men over a certain age. Over 40 when we started. And that's over 60.

We've only been doing this for six years, but now it's for men over 60. He was giving advice to men over 40, 50 years ago. Who had just become divorced? And we're trying to get back in the game? He didn't even say that. He said still trying to live your best life or whatever it was. But the first video I found from him was five signs your wife is cheating on you. And I saw the first three minutes of it.

And I was so fascinated and laughing so hard at this guy. And it had like 12 views. I mean, it was nothing. And I said, Christy, we got to listen to this. this guy. And it was instant magic. I mean, I'm not sure the, I'm not sure the commercial break exists without Frankie B. If I'm being honest. He's such a, he's such a fabric of the, of the show. But the truth is, is over the last couple of years, Frankie, when he finds a girlfriend, so he puts out videos and bursts. Yeah, he stops doing content when he's dating somebody.

And then when they break up, then that's when the gold comes out. Because he tries to tell people what not to do based on what happened to him. So he doesn't tell stories from his relationship, but he'll tell stuff that's so, like, so specific. If someone puts their phone down, if you're at a Ruby Tuesdays on a Thursday night in Chicago, Illinois, and your girlfriend puts her phone down and it's a text message from Jason that says, hey, you want to fuck? And it's likely she's cheating on you. Just remember that guy. And you're like, oh, okay, so Jason was fucking your girlfriend got it, 10-4.

Like, he's so transparent. He's so thin. He's just like, it just bubbles out of him. And he's done travel reviews, business reviews, neighborhood reviews, restaurant reviews. Yeah, the guy is just, he has tried. He also, I got to give him credit too, because he's been through his own iterations also. And he just keeps evolving as a content creator yet stuck in the same small mind. But he's really, he's fantastic.

And so, but he did put out a recently another video and we're very excited to see what Frankie's up to. We found him on Instagram too. Yeah. Actually, Christina. Yeah. Our editor at one time, our producer at one time, found him on Instagram. And so we learned a little bit more about who he was and what he was up to. He has kids and they're older and he's got X, Y, 4-2, I think.

But Frank, the thing about Frank is, about Frank. Frankie. We gave him the Frankie name. We gave him Frankie B. Yeah. He calls himself Frank Bernardo, right? And you can look him up on YouTube. The thing about Frank is, Frankie is when we started doing his videos, I started noticing that his view counts were going up. And the comment section was people were starting to call him Frankie B. And they were starting to parrot some of the things that we were saying. They were like trolling him, but not like being mean, just trolling him, but saying the same stuff like one of the one of the videos he says look at my body yeah when you walk into a bar you want the women to say look at you look at that guy you want you want you want without saying it to say

look at my body look at my body and i used to start i would scream that every time that we would do a frankie be look at my body and people started putting hey frankie look at your body it was like crazy that people were going there and his view count started going up and they started trolling him I think that Frankie knows we exist. Yeah. Because when you... Oh, 100% you know. Because when you do...

You think that's why he goes underground? No, I don't. I think... You think he has any self-awareness? I do, actually. I imagine in my head that Frankie actually probably has a pretty good sense of humor about all this. I think he's too blustery, not... He's too ego-driven to stop.

And I think if he watched one of our videos, I think he would appreciate the views. I don't sure. I think you appreciate the point of view. I think he appreciates the views, right? But here's why I 100% believe Frankie knows we exist. Because when you do a video on YouTube, you will get, if someone reviews your video or puts your video up there, YouTube's algorithm will catch it. And they will tell the other person that, hey, your videos on this video, make sure they're not busting your copyright, right? I've gotten that before.

People have taken parts of our videos and put them out there for this or that or the other thing. And we've gotten notifications that our videos are out there. So I know he's at least been alerted. I mean, who knows? Maybe he doesn't know how to work YouTube. But we have for so many years, we have thought to ourselves, when is the right time to reach out to Frankie and tell them to come on to the show? And I have a thought that maybe for the 1,000th episode. Everything.

When you have uploaded on this guy for years. I would love to just ask him about everything. Where do you live? What is your story? Tell me about your first wife that you're so angry at. Tell me about your kids. Is that an apartment that you live in? We've thought about it.

We've thought about it. I think the mystery, I don't even know if you would, because it's obvious, like, in the apartment thing, there were all over those waters. I mean, it was a show apartment. Yeah, he was. He's videotaping out of a show apartment. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, out of like a model apartment in an apartment complex.

Yeah. And when he did a couple videos that we knew it was in, it was a completely different kitchen. It was like a tiny little apartment. It was definitely a man cave. Yeah. I mean, you know, but God bless. I could be there in 10 years. Who knows?

Like, I don't want to bust on him too much. Yeah. Yeah. Your car's wrong. Yeah, you play your car's wrong. I do love Frankie B. Oh, I know. He's endeared.

Yeah. At first, I just made fun of him. I just, like, thought, what a fucking cheeseball. You know, didn't really think all that much of him. The more that we got to know Frankie through his videos, the more I actually started to really fall in love with Frankie B. Like, he's one of a kind. Yeah, or my cartoon version of him, right? I was, I was making it up as we go along. And just, I thought to myself, wow, I actually think if I went and had a beer with Frankie B, I'd probably get along with the guy. I'd probably have fun with him. I'd think he was funny. I used to have a friend. Chrissy and I used to have a friend. He smelled bad. Oh, yeah. He was just like, he was a comic book, I don't even, not even a dork, just like a comic book loser. But he had all the money in the world. That was the only thing that made him different than like the comic book loser was he had all the money in the world. He came from like an extremely wealthy family. But besides that, he was like a comic book, oh, I never get. Well, it's because you smell like shit.

Take a fucking shower. Maybe you'll get laid, right? It's because the first thing you say to a woman is that you have a small penis. It's like, you know, these are things of reason. He was like, just he could not get out of his own way. And if you met him, it was likely you were just going to be so annoyed by him. Everybody, except for a few of us, everybody just didn't like being around the guy, right? He was an oh me, poor me, everything sucks.

I hate life. Life hates me. You know, I can't get anything right kind of guy. But I fell in. love with him because he just was a caricature that I, that I, I, I, I, I connected with in some way. I found it funny. I found it enduring. I found him actually to be charming and quite sweet if you got to know him. Yeah, he was a nice guy. He was a nice guy. Yeah. But when he got out in the real world, he just couldn't have any confidence. He didn't have any deodorant either. No,

he didn't. He smelled so bad. I remember having to wash my, my, like, pleather. sofa when he left. Like, I got to watch this. He smells so bad. Oh, that is awful. I can't believe you guys make money just trolling around on YouTube for like dips shit. That's it. That's it. I'm curious. What are you seeing? Like, what trends are you seeing out there? Do you see like new accounts or YouTube accounts popping up that is kind of showing there's there's a new like subculture or subpoens that's coming up that's one to watch? Well, we did find that one guy, which we ended up not really wanting to go back to the well to visit. He was the younger guy that was falling asleep.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Pauly Couchon. Yeah, we found one guy and we thought this is the new Frankie B. Right. He was a younger guy, and he was really like hardcore, like, he's a hardcore misogynist, New Jersey, you know, Jersey boy. I heard one of your episodes on that, and I could not. stop listening. We were fascinated. Yeah.

We were fascinated by this guy, really were. And we did probably five or six videos on him. But there was an issue. So the answer to your question is, yes, I troll the internet constantly. I'm always looking for new stuff. We haven't done videos in a while. I've probably been three or four months since we've done a video, simply because we started streaming live and I didn't want to overcomplicate our live situation.

But we figured it out. Actually, we figured it out with you just fine. That's true. But we figured it out. But we have found, to Chrissy's point, we have found people before where we start going down the rabbit hole with them. And then we see something that's not as funny. Yeah. Like troubling, not as funny.

We think we might be amplifying something that we don't want to amplify. And this guy clearly had a drug problem, clearly. had a drug problem. And he was like nodding out in the mid-mid sentence. He was like, why he was posting those, I don't know. I don't know either. He seemed to have his girlfriend behind the camera sometimes. And they were still posting these like long soliloquies that he was doing. But some of them were like high energy, eyeballs blaring, you know, he was going, going, going. And then within a heartbeat, he would be like, he'd be nodding out like Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting.

Yeah. Like, it was so weird. So we stopped doing him just because I thought, well, I'm not going to make fun of someone's clearly complicated and desperate addiction. Like, that's, I don't want to do that. I'm not that guy. So there is a line that I don't cross, believe it or not. Did you guys watch the Manosphere documentary? I did.

Yeah. I have not. I did. I mean, it seemed like there's, even from the misogynist. aspect, like there is no line, right? It doesn't matter. No, there's no line. But that, but that, but that, but that, those are characters that those people are playing. I think they believe in some of it, but I also think that they just know. Amplify. They amplify it. They know where the clicks are and that's what they're doing. They're looking for a quick payday,

and they're getting it. And so it's just, you know, I wouldn't want to be in the same room with any of those people. I certainly wouldn't invite them on to my show, but I do see the strategy behind what they're doing, but I see it for what it is. It's just a strategy to get money. That's it. It's just a, it's like a lot of people these days. They're chasing the extreme on one side or the other because they know that those extreme videos, the algorithm favors them. So they, they, they, they doesn't matter what they're saying. As long as it's extreme and as long as it's bothering people or inciting people, then they're going to continue to get views. And those views pay the bills. And so it's why I think a lot of these people who were very much non-political,

non-in that arena, all of a sudden jumped on the bandwagon because they saw the grift and they saw it happening and they wanted to jump on. Well, I'm wondering even for your content, like going through an evolution of that, you said you're not really doing videos now because time allows. So like even from a content thing, obviously you guys are entertainers, right? this is your business, this is your podcast, this isn't, you know, she's laughing. This isn't like, you know, because we feel like it anymore, you know, you are potentially compulsive, obviously, about needing to publish a certain amount of episodes a week. How do you create your content and know what's going to be funny and going to be perfect for you?

Yeah, we don't. We don't. There's no grand plan behind this. I promise you. I'm not playing 40 chips. No, I mean, we have, and we've even tried in the past to come up with, like, a spreadsheet of, like, topics that we want to touch on. But, I mean, we don't, we don't really do that anymore. We don't really do that. But I think that we do kind of have topics that maybe we want to talk about to begin with. But then we always go down another route.

Another route. Yeah. I always start the show. I said this kind of from, like, from like, C. reason one, just come in and I'll shoot at you and you can, you can respond. And I always have, like I have a list of a thousand things that I have, I have a list that's going. I walk down the street. I see something funny. I write it down. Or I'll send something to you. Chris, you'll send something. And I put it on that list and then right before the show open, I'll look at that list and I'll say, okay, or something happened yesterday and I just know I want to talk about that. and then I go for it. But it's strategically like I'm not chasing after a particular laugh,

if that makes sense. I don't have a strategy to move one way or the other to chase the listeners. The listeners have been good to us. They've stuck around regardless of what we've talked about, actually. They have. And that's good. And I think that they are coming along on the ride with us, for us, not always for what we talk about. And I'm sure. sure, if you asked any one of our listeners, there's some people who've listened to every, every one of the thousand episodes. There's more than one. Who are these people? Have you ever met them? They've got a lot of time on their hands. We've never met them face to face, but we've talked with them. Like, we connect with them on, on the phone, or we talk to them on chat or via

email or whatever it is. You know, I, I, listen, I appreciate their dedication to something they really enjoy. If I die tomorrow, I'll have done something that I was just saying this. If I die tomorrow, I'll have done something. I'll have done something. I don't necessarily know what it is, but I'll have done something. Put together a thousand hours of mediocre slop, right? But it's not AI. I didn't cut corners. I did all thousand hours. I've been behind the microphone. I got my reps in. and, you know, some people really appreciate that, but I have not strategically pointed the show in a direction to chase after the audience. The audience has come along with us, regardless of what we've done. And for that, I'll be forever grateful. Oh, definitely. Yeah. I mean, they've paid our bills largely. Well, sometimes. Yeah. You know.

Yeah, depending on how the podcast gods, depending on the podcast gods, I mean, that's another thing. It's been a wild ride over the past few years. I'm sure you know, too, with just the business of podcasting and how people get paid. How people get paid, how they sell into the show, what they're selling into the show, the metrics they use to sell into the show. It's all very wild. I mean, you know, the digital media space is ever evolving. And so you really have to, that's why I get afraid of chasing, not afraid, but I don't want to chase after a particular topic, right?

I don't want to go after Charlie Kirk's death or, you know, I don't know, you know, whatever it is, space lasers or, you know, whatever the next, pick anything. Yeah, pick anything. The next trendy thing. I don't want to follow it because the digital media space is ever changing. And if you're off topic for even a moment, the audience goes away. However, if you just stay bland and mediocre, then you can get a good base of people just to listen to you no matter what you say.

Yeah. I mean, because it's just so different. We're always talking about different things. So you never know what we're going to come out with. It's mostly my. What are they talking about now? Today. It's mostly my misspent youth that we talk about. We did that for a while. Now it's moving into family life. Yeah. It's your pool. So what I'm hearing is you don't plan anything. There's no strategy. You just wing it.

Yeah. In summary, yes, Allison. I mean, listen. Find somebody you can just wing it with and get on a microphone. Yeah, that's it. Listen, there's been some thought put into it. I just don't want to make it sound like a lot because that would be a lie. It's largely been just, hey, let's talk. Yeah. I mean, I used to plan out like, you know, I'm going to do this bit on Friday and this bit on Wednesday. But, you know, who wants to work that hard? Who wants to work?

Who wants to work for a living? Who do you have cut? Now that let's turn the tables on you. Who do you have coming up in the next hours of your day here? I've got a guest who I heard about. She wrote a book and this is a woman that's like a badass president of a company. Okay. And like up and just hike the entire Appalachian Trail.

Oh, wow. Kind of like wild. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think... That's tough. Yeah, that's fascinating. We've talked about that.

We've talked about that. We have. I love that stuff. Her name is Jen Cooper. She's here in Atlanta. I've never met her. I don't really know her story. I heard about it and heard this was a really, really great book that's not even publicly

available. So I thought, let's have her on. Yeah. Cool. And have some interesting things. Allison's Underground Book Club. I like it. I like it.

I like it. Yes. All right. Well, listen, why don't we let you get on with your hour and Chrissy and I are going to wrap up this episode because we have 30 more to do. Yes. Well, thank you guys so much for coming on. Absolutely. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's a big accomplishment. Seven years. I want to thank you for always being a wonderful supporter of the commercial break. You're probably the first person that ever heard it. Yeah. You're probably the first person to ever say you liked it, even maybe before my wife. Took my wife about 600 episodes before she found one that she liked. And you've been a great support to us.

I don't think that we would be here in this current format had it not been for your encouragement and your help and your guidance along the way and your partnership throughout the gold years of the coronavirus and clubhouse. And well, I will say this to your audience and to mind. Check out culture changers, first of all. Second of all, I think you'll like it. It's not the commercial break. and for that reason you should check it out. And second of all, I will say that I feel a great sense of pride on your behalf that no matter what you have continued to evolve and your voice has continued to evolve in this space. And I think it's, I think it's a true testament to your, I don't know, to your blind ambitions to be a podcast star and to be creating all the time.

And you're like the true, you're like the true embodiment of what it is to be a creator. You just keep on doing it. Yeah. No matter what. I'm blushing. Thank you guys so much. You're such an inspiration for me. And also just personally, you know, I love you both.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And grateful to have you here. And even just, you know, kind of the inner workings of a hit show are always so fun. to learn. And I can't wait for Frankie B. And obviously anyone listening to Culture Changers, go. Make sure you listen to the commercial break. It's always such a good palate cleanser of just ridiculous fun.

Yeah. And it's smart and funny as well. Oh, thank you very much. Dumb and funny. Yes. The smartest, dumbest, funny as I forgot what it was a really good review, actually. It was my favorite review ever. The dumbest, smartest, funniest, stupidest show about,

friendship I've ever heard. So all right, we love you. We'll tune in. Love you guys. As soon as I put all my kids to bed, I'm going to tune back in. All right. Have a great rest of the day. Bye. Bye. Talk to you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Oh, well, you know, listen, we love Allison. And I'm happy and proud of her. Me too. I'm happy to be a part of it. So let's do this. Let's take a very quick break. We'll come back for a very quick wrap up. Um, yeah, what else is there to say? That's it. Bum, bum.

Bum. Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely, Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid, too? You know you do. Leave a message for her, or me or Chrissy, at 212-4333-tcb.

That's 212-4-33. 33, 3822. You can be on the show too. Mm-hmm. Just call and say something. Anything. Or text us and we'll text you're right back. Promise.

Then head over to TCBpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide. You get the point. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and watch all the episodes on video at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. Best to you. And Astrid, especially Astrid. Well, Allison has always been a supporter. She's always been on our side. She's always been team commercial break, team TCB. And for that, listen, you don't get many of those in life. And so when you find one, you suck up to them. So that's exactly what we, that's exactly what we just did. She's a doll. She is a doll face. Super smart. Her show is super smart. Go check it out. She's actually got some very interesting interview. You can go root around. She's got some very interesting interviews. She's got some very interesting interviews. She's.

He's friends with Jesse Eisen. No, not Jesse Eisenberg. That's an actor. Jesse Itzler, who is married to Sarah Blakely, who started Spanx. And Jesse himself is like, oh. He's very successful in his own right. Very successful, yeah. The two of them are a power couple.

And they're friends. And Allison is interviewed, I think, a couple times. She interviewed Seth Godin, of course. He was a very famous author. And marketer. And marketer. Probably changed the way we all think about marketing. I've read all his books.

What is that, Purple Cow or something? Purple Cow. Purple Cow is a great book. I remember when I first... Tribes. Yeah. Tribes is another one. Yeah.

And then lots of other people. She's had a lot of interesting people on her show. And then, you know, sometimes her show is interesting. And she doesn't have anybody that you would know on. And they just always have thought-provoking conversations. And then she had us on. Yeah. I'm sure this is the highlight of her day.

She's going to have a CEO, former CEO, that hiked the Appalachian Trail. Right before she was. She had the commercial break on where she asked, you know, tell me about your strategy. And I was like, what? We don't have one. Huh? Strategy. I'm playing 4D chess.

I don't want to give away my strategy. My strategy is press record. Make sure Chrissy's here. Lights are on. There we go. But we know that's why you love it. And that's why we love you too. Yes.

Thanks for joining. I know Allison's not the only one that's been listening since the beginning. Thanks to everybody. We really appreciate it. We love you. We love you. We love you. If you're watching the stream, we'll be back tomorrow. Frankie B. Mountain Monsters. You won't want to miss that. I can't wait. If you're listening on the RSS feed, you'll get those next week.

Chrissy and I will return the first full week in June for more live episode. I mean, after tomorrow, for more live episodes. So tune in tomorrow Friday on the stream, YouTube.com slash the commercial break. I know it gets a little confusing when I'm talking about this stuff because you're listening on. if you're listening on the RSS feed, but you'll figure it out. YouTube.com slash the commercial break. Make sure you hit the notifications so that you get notified when we go live. TCBPodcast.com, all the audio, all the video, your free sticker at the contact us button.

And at the commercial break on Instagram, follow us there, and you can DM us if you want to get a hold of us. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today. I think so. I'll tell you that I love you. I love you. Best to you. And best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say.

And we must say. Goodbye. He-hoo.