The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Courtney Michelle (Live From Audacy Studios)

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

The Commercial Break Podcast | EP#790 Influencer & Comedian Courtney Michelle Bryan & Krissy invite Courtney Michelle to head down to the Audacy Studios in Atlanta and join them on the couch! Courtney discusses her early years raised by her single mother, running away to start anew in Miami and her love of LA's creative scene. Plus, Bryan tries to plays therapist and shares some wisdom from Ram Dass (REALLY Bryan??). Courtney's LINKS: Follow Her On Insta Follow Her On TikTok Watch EP #790 with Courtney Michelle on YouTube! Text us or leave us a voicemail: [phone]TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tcbpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CREDITS: Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Green⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits: Written, Performed and Edited by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, real quick, not everything has to be an app. Not everything has to be an application. What are we doing? I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out. What are we doing? What's happening? Okay, I went to go buy a milk frother, a milk frother, and upon further review found out it only works via Bluetooth. What? I'm sorry, what? It doesn't have buttons on it. What are we doing? Okay, bring buttons back, please. Make America mechanical again, okay? That's my platform.

All right, I just, I don't understand it. Listen, I'm all for advancements in technology to make our lives easier. I don't want to have to use Wi-Fi to brush my freaking teeth. That's absolutely insane. The other day I went to go buy a ticket at this venue and in order to get my ticket I had to download an app and create an account, which you guys know how much I love that.

Email me the ticket! That's what email's for! I'm so sorry. It just, we've gone too far. It's gone too far. ["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"] On this episode of the commercial break. I feel a little bit more vain.

Yeah, I think we're given, I think for men, they're given less rope to feel that vanity. And so I think that probably compounds when you're taking a photo and you're like, all right, how do I make this seem like the most casual? I don't give a shit. I'm just going to do this thing with my hands as opposed to making it look like I care by posing. I think women get away with it. It's all making it look like I care by posing. Yeah. I think women get away with it.

Right. We all have the same insecurity, but... Sometimes I wish I could tap into my, a little bit of my gay and like pop out a hip. You know what I'm saying? Tap into your gay, pop out a hip. And just get, if I could tap into a little bit more of my gay, then I think I'd be better. Just practice. If we could all tap into a little bit more of our gay.

I think we'd be happier. Listen. The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now. Oh yeah, cats and kittens, welcome back to The Commercial Break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris and. Best to you, Brian.

Best to you out there in the podcast universe. I say aliens because today, Chrissy, we are aliens in a foreign land unknown to us. We have been allowed outside of the four walls of my child's bedroom, my recycled child's bedroom into the Odyssey Studios here in downtown Atlanta. This is really cool actually. I'm really enjoying this. This is this has been a lot of fun. We have been graciously welcomed by the folks at Odyssey into their studios in a very tall building. Into the inner circle. We've made it. We made it and we've got a bunch of people that are helping us here. Thank you to Slim and Kimberly who have been so nice. All the folks at

Odyssey who have been so nice to help us out. But I like Slim. Slim's my new friend. I know. I'm gonna have to interview him next. In your mind. In my mind. Yeah. We'll talk to him about that later.

Today it's a TCB Infomercial Tuesday live from the Odyssey Studios as we welcome in Courtney Michelle, social media influencer, comedian. Also she's doing a one woman comedy show now, Chrissy. I think she started it in Nashville and now she's taking it a few other places after a one-show successful run. Right. Well, with a couple of friends, but yes, she's the mother of the show. She is. She's been on social media for a long time, making people laugh. It's Courtney Michelle,

I think is, yeah, it's Courtney Michelle Michelle is her social media handles. You can also find all that information in the show notes as we always do. I say we don't waste a lot of time here because I'd like to get to as much Courtney Michelle as possible. Plus, I don't know how long we have before they kick us out of the studios. So, yeah, so we better, we better put our foot on the gas pedal. So once again, live from the, I'm just trying to find the liners here because, you know, we're in a different place. So there we go. I found it.

Look at me. I'm so good, Chrissy. I'm glad I brought our own equipment because I would be running from one end of the room to the other, had we not. Purchasing cords off of Amazon as quickly as possible. Oh, I already did that. I already did that. All right.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a quick break and then here with us for the first time ever, well, at least the first time ever since, actually this is the first time. Well, first time ever with Courtney Michelle and first time ever live in person. With any guest. Oh, Gustavo. Gustavo. But he's not somebody, he's not somebody you know. He's my brother-in-law. That's why he's allowed in my house. I wanted to bring people to the house, but Esther said,

ah, ah, ah, ah, no, no, no. I think she was worried about the paparazzi. For us, mainly. The paparazzi that chases us around. And the attack of blue. Oh God, what will we do with blue? Or the kids. Or the dirty diapers, or the dishes, or the laundry.

It's best to keep the mystery alive. We've eased Chrissy into our chaos at our house. But would Courtney and Michelle deal with that? Probably not. Nate Bargatze? I don't think so. Dusty Slay? Maybe Dusty Slay.

Have you seen him? I mean, come on, let's get it on. Anyway, Courtney and Michelle here with us live from the Odyssey Studios in downtown Atlanta sitting right in front of us. We could probably touch her. I am not allowed to because Astrid's here. We'll give a little hug. Courtney Michelle here with us live from the Odyssey Studios in downtown Atlanta, sitting right in front of us. We could probably touch her. I am not allowed to because Astrid's here, but you can touch her. Okay.

We'll touch Courtney Michelle after these messages. We'll be back. Let me do something Brian has never done. Be brief. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us. 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822.

Visit our website, tcbpodcast.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. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Rogers Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday, anywhere along the GO network. And the Weekday Group Passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network,

starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online GO Pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets. Hey, what's up, Flies? This is David Spade. Dana Carvey. Look it, I know we never actually left, but I'll just say it. We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall. Every episode, including ones with guests,

will now be on video. Every Thursday, you'll hear us and see us chatting with big-name celebrities. And every Monday, you're stuck with just me and Dana. We react to news, what's trending, viral clips. Follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere you get your podcasts. Hey, so what did you want to talk about?

Well, I want to tell you about Wigovie. Wigovie? Yeah, Wigovie. What about it? On second thought, I might not be the right person to tell you. Oh, you're not? No, just ask your doctor.

About Wigovie? Yeah, ask for it by name. Okay, so why did you bring me to this circus? Oh, I'm really into lion tamers. You know, with the chair and everything. Ask your doctor for Wakovie by name. Visit wakovie.ca for savings. Exclusions may apply.

And Courtney is here with us now. We are live in the Odyssey Studios. Thank you, Courtney, for joining us. Welcome Odyssey studios. Thank you Courtney for joining us. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I have a question because Chrissy and I, we need to know, how do you social media? What is, how do you social media?

Yeah, what is it? What is it? How do you do it? Unhealthily. Is it an obsession? I think it's, is it an obsession? I think it's more of a defense mechanism and a very unhealthy tactic. I think it's a place that I go when I need validation or when I need to look at something,

to look at someone hot. There's a lot of hot people on social media. It's like a little pool of fishing for hotties. None of this is good. None of this is wonderful. But you're admitting it. Like you, I think you have a, you seem self-aware about the reasons why you use social media.

Is this how you started on something? Like what did it become? Like were you obsessive about it at first and that's kind of how it grew or? You know what's so funny? So I started off acting. Acting was like my baby. I still do it.

It's still like my number one honey. But, but, and back in the day, I don't know if you remember this, back in the day before like TikTok, there was people would do Instagram videos. Yes. But they were, they were of a certain, they were very specific thing. There was like sound effects and it was very big and it was very broad and I was like, I will never do that.

And it was kind of, if you were an actor, it was kind of looked down upon like these people who were acting in these little skits, like, oh, could never be me. And I don't know when it kind of changed, part of the pandemic and people were like, I have so much time and energy and bravado and desperation, where do I put it? So just like broke that barrier. But I had always said like, I'll never do, I'll never do like, like social media acting.

Yeah. And literally the thing that pays my bills. And it's just the number one thing that I'm doing now, which is crazy. So no, I was never obsessed with it, and now I am very interested by it. Is it because you got the feedback, like the feedback started happening, like you got that gratification, you got the feedback, now you have an audience,

now people are reacting to what you're doing, that you start to like just kind of go down that rabbit hole, you're like, okay, now I'm just going to create, like people are reacting to it, this is something that I can do. Yeah. What is like the first big reel that, like what is the thing that kind of like blew it up for you?

You know, I had, I think that it's been, it's been slow growth, which people would argue it hasn't, but for me, it feels like slow growth. When did you first get on social media? When did you first started doing Instagram reels during the pandemic? No, I started playing with stuff before the pandemic, like 2019. I got like a TikTok and started kind of just like fudging around and then really committed

to it during the pandemic. Yeah. Like most people, it's the most cliche story. Right. Same with us starting a podcast. Exactly. So many things birthed from this virus. But yeah, I think, and then what was the question? So you started in 2019, but like what's the, what kind of catches fire for you?

It's so funny, I did a video, I feel like this is always so boring to talk about, like I did this one video and I was like this, but I did do this dumb video. This was like before you, before, this was when TikTok was like from Musically, right? So it was kind of all like lip syncing and very little. It was either like- Dancing, lip syncing, yeah. It was dancing, lip syncing or like vines. It was very small and short and music based.

And so I did like a lip sync to some song, talking, I think talking about being a whore, I don't remember what the song was. I think it was like a Nicki Minaj song about being a hoe and I lip synced to it with some sort of text on top, whatever, and got like millions of views. This is when it was like really easy to go viral because there weren't a lot of people creating

when they were already on the platform by default. And so I got a couple million views and I go, this is the most validation I've got from anything ever. I was like, could I forgive my parents? So it felt amazing. And I look back and I think, I honestly, and I had done a few other ones that also went viral within a few months, right?

And I go, if I didn't have that, I don't even know if I would be doing this because it really, it validated that I could do it before everybody else started doing it. And then once everyone else started doing it, I was like, well, guys, I've been doing this. I'm a hell of a game. Yeah, exactly.

And so I just kept diving into it. And I think I didn't really catch a stride. I didn't really start making content that felt authentic to me and my sense of humor and what I like to do until probably like two or three years ago. And then just from there. Where do you, what kind of upbringing did you have?

Yeah, let's go there. And you're from Nashville, right? From Nashville. And this is a very dramatic podcast. No, no, no. I live in Nashville, but I'm from West Virginia originally. Okay. What kind of childhood did I have growing up?

What a fantastic question. Well, as you can see, I'm hilarious, so it was awful. Yeah. Do you come from a long line of funnymen? We go back and back and back. I grew up poor, single mom, but loved entertaining people. And I loved musical theater and dancing and all those things.

So always a big ham, only child, always a big ham, no father figure. So like really slutty, just like all of the cliches. And then I went to college in like the same town I grew up in, was like, I gotta get outta here. Went to Miami and I had literally gone to spring break in Miami. I never left West Virginia really, besides going going like the beach or once or twice.

And I was like, I want to live somewhere else. And I'd gone to spring break in Miami and I go, that's a place to live. That's it. I know that place. I know that place. That's the place I know second best. It's exactly. But truly, at that point. So I moved to Miami and which was a total shock. Wow. From West Virginia to Miami. Yeah. That is completely different Miami and which was a total shock. Wow, from West

Virginia to Miami. Yeah. That is completely different. It's completely different. Yeah. It was a good for you though to have the courage to do it. I think it was stupidity. I don't know that I was courageous at all. Yeah, I think youth brings bravado. It does. It's a great adventure. At my age at least a great adventure is like, you know, going to bed after 11.30 at night now, because I know that there are ramifications, but when you're young, there's a great sense of like, oh my gosh, there's freedom and adventure

and I can go down there and start a new life for myself. You get to a certain age and you realize it's never that easy, right? It's never that easy. And it's never that thing. It's never that easy. Never scratches the itch. No, never.

I'm always so itchy. I had just- Me too. So. Never scratches the itch. No, never. No. I'm always so itchy. I had just... Me too. So itchy. Yeah, so itchy. I had just gotten dumped by my first real boyfriend in college, and I think that was like, I romanticized leaving this town, which is so crazy because he also went to Florida.

But I was like, I'm going to leave and go to Miami. Show him. Yes. And just be a brand new person. Like rediscover myself or whatever. And I mean, it was definitely a self discovery because I threw myself into a city that I had no business being in. I'm at 22. I was the poorest person in that city.

I was driving like a 1998 Saab. I mean, it was crazy. I pulled up to Valais and they'd be like, you can't be serious. We actually can't. You can make $200,000 a year and be the poorest person in Miami. I mean, honestly, there are parts of Miami that are just dripping in wealth and international wealth. Not like, not like US wealth, like my daddy owns a siding company kind of wealth.

It's like Saudi Arabian prints kind of wealth or Venezuelan oligarch kind of wealth. Yes, incomprehensible wealth in Miami and showing it on your hands. I mean, it was crazy. But anyways, I moved down there, again, super poor. I was working, I did marketing for a commercial real estate firm. I just, I started doing bottle service I was working, I did marketing for a commercial real estate firm. I just, I started doing bottle service on the weekends because I really couldn't pay my rent. Yeah, that's what you have to do.

And I had met a guy who did background work for like film and TV. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that was a thing. I thought that those were just like people that were there. And he gave me his like agent's information for this thing and I started acting and I think, thank God, because like I don't know what path I was going down in Miami, it was not a great one. But I was like, oh, I think I love this thing. This reminds me of like,

like the musical theater and the dancing and the bands that I sort of with my friends growing up, but as an industry. And that's really cool. I feel the same way, but we're at a job, which is wild. And I fell in love with just the entertainment industry. And then I moved to LA and did LA for six years, and then went to Nashville during the pandemic.

And that's kind of when like the social media part of it kicked in. You were acting in LA? I was acting in LA, correct. Did you get it? Like, can you tell if there's any specific things that we could find you in? Absolutely not. No, really? You were just like a background actor.

LA is such a fucking hard time at the town. It's I only spent time there briefly, right? But I, it feels very transactional to me in so many ways, like Miami, but in a different way, right? And I think it's very, it's a very hard town to be in if you're a creator. I don't know, but I have people, I know the people that live there,

and you can either make it or most people break it, right? It's just a very difficult town to be in. It is. I love LA. I miss it all the time. I think what I loved about LA is that everybody is chasing a dream and that is such a contagious energy. I think inherently in that dynamic, there will be people who are so desperate for their dream

that they aren't able to make authentic relationships. They aren't able to like have a conversation with you that doesn't involve that. It takes up all of their space. Their brain power. And where Miami was about money and wealth and power, LA was similar, but it was more about how can you make my dreams come true?

It was aspirational and transactional at the same time. It was a two for one. It was a two for one. It's like one big networking meeting, I feel like, in LA. When I've spent time there with people who live there, right? It feels like one big networking meeting. It's always an opportunity to do the next thing. Well, and Nashville can actually be the same way, too,

for the music industry. I lived in Nashville for five years, and not for music, but I saw a lot of that same type of thing with the LA and acting. Nashville was for music. Yeah. I think that's why I like Nashville. I'm like, okay, being there. Yeah. Because again, I do kind of miss, while it's annoying to go to a party, every party in

LA, you start off by being introduced as to what you have to offer. It's always like, this is Cassie and she was just... She's a line producer on the newest, greatest ABC flop. Or she's blah blah blah's daughter, or she's blah blah blah's agent, or she knows blah blah blah's agent. So it's always like, that's how you're introduced. Um, which is crazy and I hate it. And I can say it just like, it happens so much that it becomes a schtick in itself.

Um, but I just do love that everybody is, there's so much passion that it kind of, again, it's contagious and there's so much charisma in a place. It's infectious. It is kind of infectious. And I feel like that my ability to like banter with people, my ability to just like talk about a little bit more deeper things did tend to happen in LA because people were in the arts.

But what I do love also about Nashville is because of the music, it is also a dreamer city. So there is that energy, and while it's not my dream, it's still a contagious energy as well. So I've found, and there's like a huge entertainment industry coming to Nashville, I shouldn't say huge, there's like bigger than you would think. It's having a moment. There's something there. It's having a moment. And it has been for like the last 10 years, but it feels like it's reached.

Yeah, well the show Nashville was pretty big and bringing a lot of that to that town. I don't know, to me at least on an outsider looking in, it feels like it's reached a fevered pitch around Nashville. Everybody has a bar there. Well, Jack White's got his, you know, his studio. Kid Rock, everybody's got something going on in Nashville, which up until 10 years ago was a relatively small town,

like a tertiary city that people knew about because there's always been music, country music there. But now it's very cosmopolitan. It's cosmopolitan in a weird way. It's grown a lot. Yes, yes. Which I appreciate for the good restaurants and I appreciate for the cool scene.

It's got a lot going on. Not the traffic, but besides that, it's been lovely. You have a Kid Rock restaurant there. We have a Kid Rock restaurant. How lucky are you? I would say other things make me luckier than that. It is funny how not incestuous, maybe like insular, it becomes, because I was talking to my friend, I did like a commercial with this country music artist,

and I was talking to my friend yesterday here about it, and he was like, who is that? Like, oh, that's right, people outside of Nashville don't maybe know country music the way that I do, because I've lived there for five years now. And it becomes kind of your, it's the industry. So it kind of becomes, you put these people on pedestals just by proxy, which is so fascinating. Yeah, it really is.

So in the three minutes that I've known you, I've already dissected your entire life. Tell me, fix me. I get the sense that, you know, single mother, no father figure around, you found some solace and probably some validation and some gratification in being kind of the center of attention in a creative way. And that just came to you easily. Like, is that true? It's like, you know, I liked being the ham and hamming it up and, and having that kind of being able to create and have people pay attention to it, getting some feedback around that felt good for me too, right? For me too. So this is one to another. There's a hole in my soul, which I fill

with the laughter around me or the laughter that I create or the things that I create. I find great comfort in that and I think it's a gift and a curse at the same time sometimes. And I traveled to great lengths, in my head and outside my head, to fill that hole in a lot of ways. But not everybody is funny at the same time. And you're funny. Like, a lot of people are that way, but they're just not funny. They just seem, they come off corny and kind of weird.

Like, they're pining for your attention, right? Needy, almost. But you're not that way. You have a thing. You've got a thing and people resonate with that. Doesn't that feel good to you? Like, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, and you're making money. You're making money from it. Yeah.

It feels incredible. It feels good when I let it feel good. You know, it feels good when I'm not comparing it to what someone else has or what I should have or whatever, right? Like that's when it gets murky. But yes, to answer your question, yes, I was looking. Well, and it's all the things, you know, to get into my memoir yet. You're doing it right here on the commercial break. We're breaking news.

Memoir scoop. But I think, yeah, it was, again, dad wasn't around and then mom was always looking for love, so she was always dating new guys and blah, blah, blah, and she was a great mom, she crushed it. But I think I was just always looking for attention, so we have that built in. I was kind of the weird friend, I think by default,

because I didn't have, we didn't have a lot of money in a town that had a lot of money, so I felt kind of like I was wearing weird clothes, and I didn't have, we didn't have a lot of money in a town that had a lot of money. So I felt kind of like I was wearing weird clothes and I didn't have like the things that other kids had, so weird by default. I had a lot, my friends were all very hot too and I like took a little bit. So all of those things kind of grew into it. I grew into all of the things. Um, but I think, uh, I think But I think all that kind of equated into me trying to find something else besides looking cool, being cute, having the right cheerleading moves or whatever. And it was entertaining.

So I would be like the goofy, the funny friend who was like, when I was little, it was like, you know, shticks. It was like falling or like playing dumb or... I mean, it was early 2000s, so I was like, I'll be the dumb blonde, that was the hit thing back then. And then I think as I got older, it migrated into comedy that I'm more familiar with now, which was like jokes and like telling stories and like the idea of being with a bunch of people and holding court about a story that I went through and that really sort of feeling very fulfilling. And then I was able to, you know, transition it into like some semblance of a career.

Well, because now you're you've taken that kind of on the road too, right? By doing some shows. Yeah, we're doing live shows. Yeah, we're doing a live show, which is, I still struggle to even define what it is. Yeah. Explain, because I couldn't find much, right? There was some reels and stuff like that, but I couldn't find much. But explain how do you transition from funny person being able to... On the internet.

On the internet, multiple takes, edits, cuts and all that stuff, to then doing it live. That's a brave thing to do. Again, probably stupid more than anything. I don't know. Again, I don't feel bad. I feel like I'm just falling and flailing. But I think this show, which again, we've done a great job marketing it

since no one knows what it is, I guess, but it's a live show. It's basically a bunch of different sketches that kind of tell one story about girlhood. And what I wanted to do was, I feel like a lot of the videos that I do online are geared towards all people, but specifically like,

I kind of make videos for like what I would want to see. And so what me as a woman of a certain age would want to see and what she relates to and whether it's like people that annoy you, whether it's like situations that are embarrassing or whatever. But it's almost like kind of me being a woman and what that looks like, that I was like, how do I do that about a trajectory? Like how can I talk about myself more in a different vehicle and make people even more obsessed with me and be even more narcissistic. Let's try doing it live.

And... Fuck it, we'll do it live. Fuck it, we're doing it live. And that's what we did. So we did, I've been writing it for, I started writing it like last spring with my friend Ali and kind of like using him as a backboard, like constantly like, is this funny? Is this relatable? Is this stupid?

And then wrote this show about girlhood. And it's, again, it's a bunch of different sketches and there's like music in it and there's like videos in it, but it's not really any characters that I do online. It's all different stuff. Yeah. But like it's very funny and goofy and light but it also like tackles my relationship with my mom and my relationship with like dating and my relationship to like girlfriends and

all that stuff in a very light, fun, millennial, very millennial way. It's very nostalgic. Is your relationship, I'm gonna put a pin there and then I'm gonna ask you another question about doing stuff live. Is your relationship with your mother complicated? I mean, all relationships with mothers are complicated. That's like a stupid question, right?

But is it like, are you guys good friends? It's so funny, she just came and stayed with me for three weeks. Three weeks? I am fresh off of that. Nice, okay. Yeah, she's, I think, growing up, you know, my mom didn't have a great mother figure growing up either.

So she was kind of figuring out how she went. Most people are. Yeah, exactly. There's no rule book. There's no rule. Yeah, motherhood is, parenting is, there's no rule book. You're literally feeling it out minute by minute. Yeah, and you know, she definitely did the best she could

and she had some great moments in there, some rock star moments, and I put her through it some moments as well. So always give her kudos for that. And I think now getting older, I feel like we go through these phases with our our parents. Sure. They're like, you know your mother and then you start seeing flaws and you start resenting them and you start blaming them for everything and now I'm in this phase of seeing her as a person and

You relate One of the one of the most wise things that I ever read I had a complicated relationship with both of my parents. My mother was mentally ill, my father was emotionally unavailable like a lot of fathers of people my age were because they just grew up with World War II fathers or Korean war fathers who were a different breed. There was no PTSD. They just stoically, silently and sometimes violently took it, right? And then they sent that on to their children. And so, there's this softening of parenting going on, as I think as you go through time, in some cultures. But one of the wisest things that I read as I was trying

to reconcile with my own childhood was a guy named Ram Dass who wrote that, the most important thing that a child can ever do is recognize that the words mother and father are simply words. There's no meaning behind that. They're words. They are human. They are flawed. They are violent and ugly and loving

and they are as complicated as you are. They are not here to save you. They are not here to be you. They are not here to tell you what to do. They are just people. You were born to them, and hopefully they will give you some good guidance along the way, but not everybody gets that. And so that was like a very powerful moment

when I let go of the word mom and dad, because then I could look at them for who they were, loving people who did the best they could in the circumstances that they had and the information that they had in that moment, which could have just been shitty information, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's not all, you know, we all work human, we know, it's kind of a complicated thing.

So when you say that, I recognize that. I hear what you're saying. That's a powerful thing to do. Yeah. I think, cause I'm single and I've been, I think a lot on like dating and how I've, I've come to the conclusion for a while now that I tend to like fall for the idea of someone, right? Like, and it's these expectations that get built up

and then let down and it's like, I'm doing all of it. Right, exactly. Like there's some, there's shitty people and I've been in shitty relationships or I've met shitty people, but a lot of it is the onus falls on me of building up an expectation for someone that doesn't even exist or a person that doesn't exist.

And I think- And they can't reach your mind. And they can't reach your mind. You have to communicate. Yes. As gross as it feels. It's so difficult. It sucks.

But I think it's the same thing with, I think the strife that I feel towards my parents comes from the same beast. I think if I really look at all of the resentment or ill feelings that I have towards either of my parents, the large majority, I could sit here and I can name, she did this and he did this, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I think ultimately it's the expectation of what I think a mother should be. I could sit here and I can name, well, she did this and he did this, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But I think ultimately it's the expectation of what I think a mother should be and expectation of what I think a father should be and how they've let me down. When really, I've fallen in love with a person that never existed. And I think that has been a huge thing for me as I've gotten older. I'm like, in my thirt, I shouldn't need, I shouldn't need my mother and father to, to love, to like show their love for me or to like take care of me or to, to, to validate me in any way. And one side of that is there, I think there always is a tether. Yes, mother and father is, they're just words, but there also is like a weird tether that you feel. It's your inner child. No matter what.

It's always looking for mom and dad. Of course. It will always be there. Always. Yeah. I think recognizing that that's maybe where for mom and dad. Of course. It will always be there. Always, yeah. I think recognizing that that's maybe where something is coming from, and then is this a reasonable expectation of a person whose story you know, and who was actually, like, I had to forgive, we're getting so deep. I know.

Oh my god. This is so deep. This is crazy. But I had to, like, forgive my father a long time ago after learning about his childhood. And I was like, homeboy isn't capable of loving me in a way that- Some people are. And I'm like, okay, we gotta let him go. And that's huge.

Yeah. You know, expectations, we sow the seed of our own disappointment with expectations, right? That's just it. But it's really hard not to do that. And also when it comes to our mother and father, we can let the words go, but the inner child always still needs mommy and daddy, and I think will till the day that we die. We always need mommy and daddy. It's just the way that it is. And we look for that in the people and the things around us. And we look for that

in the validation on social media or with your spouse or with your loved one or whoever it is. Okay, let's lighten it up for a little bit. Oh, okay, sure. We'll go back and forth. We'll oscillate in the conversation. You don't want to do more trauma? Oh, we're going to do more trauma. I'm keeping you here for three hours. Perfect. Yeah, this is a therapy session that your mom ordered. It's not a podcast.

Great. I honestly wouldn't put a pastor. I'd probably be gripping my own ass. Do you find that doing live shows are more or less interesting to you than doing creating on? How many have you done so far? How many are in the bag? For this show that we're touring with, one. We've done one show in Nashville. At Zany's? I saw that.

I saw that it was sold out too. That's great. I mean, a lot of it was just like friends and people. The promoter doesn's great. Yeah. I mean, a lot of it was just like friends and people. And still, hey. The promoter doesn't care. Exactly. But yes, we did one show just to kind of try it out. I'm more like, if this goes well, then maybe we'll see what we can do with it. And I will answer your question, but I will also say that I left that show, because again, this became my baby. Yeah.

Like not only is it something that I wrote from scratch, that I like brought these lovely, like some of my favorite human beings are also involved in this. It's me and two other people who kind of like play characters around me. Yeah. Then we have like an incredible piano player. And I like brought these people into this like thing to sort of like, like milk

what I know they can give. And it just, it just felt like I just was, it was so precious to me. Interesting. And we did the show. Well, first I'll say we did a rehearsal of the show for a few people and it was okay, but there was like very little laughing. And then we did a tech rehearsal, like right before the show. And I was kind of like watching the people out in the audience to see if I could get any,

not even a huff of air off the nose. And I go, all right, this is gonna be awful. I'm gonna embarrass myself in front of everyone that I know. And so then we did the show and there were more laughs than I could have, they were laughing at jokes that I was like, I didn't realize that was a joke, but it's a lot. And just like the roar of applause,

when people were crying, people had such great compliments about it. I think it's just like, it's an energy thing. I think it just is, you just need a lot of people. Like you need the energy of the crowd around you in order to feel safe, feeling and laughing. So I left that show, I remember walking off stage, like feeling that I've never felt before,

which is, cause again, I've done stage stuff, but this is my baby. So it felt very vulnerable. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna either throw up or cry or potentially shit my pants. Like there's a lot of stuff happening in my stomach. But I couldn't stop like, I was just like laughing for no reason.

It was the most euphoric, crazy feeling having like immediately walking off that stage that I was like, oh fuck, like this. I think this is the thing that I'm gonna was like, oh, fuck. Like this. This is the thing. I think this is the thing. This is the thing. This is the thing. I think this is the thing.

This is the thing. I'm going to end up doing a lot of. And so yeah, so the second we had a chance to tour with it, I was like, wow, this is we have to. We have said this a lot. I've been saying this probably since we started podcasting is that podcasting is kind of a lonely venture in some ways. I mean, I'm lucky to have Chrissy in the room with me, right?

If she wasn't there, I don't know. I mean, I'd just be talking to myself and that's probably, no one wants to hear that. My wife made me start the podcast, so I stopped talking to her. But it's a lonely venture because there's no instant feedback. There's like no reaction. If people react, it's like I'll record

and then three days later when it publishes, somebody might text us or email us, oh great show or whatever. There's no instant feedback. And while that feedback is great, it's not instant There's no reaction besides what's going on in the room So, you know, we've had people come to us and oh do the show do it live and we actually had plans to do a live Show and then I got sick and I had to have surgery but that and then I got sick and I had to have surgery. But that's beside the point, like, my greatest fear was what you said about the first two versions of that,

is that we're gonna get up and we're gonna do this show. And all the places where we think there's gonna be laughs, it's literally gonna be dead silence, and it's just gonna be an embarrassment of our creation. And I don't know if I wanna hear my baby get shit on, right? Because this is my baby. I think it would probably be more the latter, right? Because this is my baby. I think it would probably be more the latter, is that we get the laughs where we expect the laughs,

and then at the end of the night, we'd feel really good about that. But it takes an immense amount of huge testicles to get up when you're normally, you know, putting a phone in front of you by yourself. And then to create something whole cloth, that, and you're not a stand-up comedian, you've never done this before, you're not used to working a room and doing all yourself. And then to create something, whole cloth, and you're not a standup comedian, you've never done this before, you're not used to working a room and doing all that, and then to get up and do that, that takes in a lot of co-onies.

And so I applaud you for that. Just the fact that you got on stage in front of a crowd, even if they were your home team, right? Just the fact that you got up there. It says a lot about your willingness to believe in your creation. Well, having that acting background probably helped too, you know, with some of that. Yeah, I think having, like, again, it's been a while since I've done stage stuff, but it's always kind of like lingered there. And I did, again, when I was a kid, and to prepare

for the show, I actually did a bunch of stand-up. I really enjoy, I've done, I've- Okay, nice. You went to open mics and did stand-up? Yeah, I did a few open mic shows. And a few show shows, just like, tiny little shows. Yeah. To really prep for it. And I love stand-up. I think the difference with stand-up is it's so expect- It's like, it's really hard for me to overcome that expectation of, okay, if you don't laugh,

there's no other reason for you to be here. At least I feel like with our live show, it's more acting, so there's like a performance, there's like a takeaway, there's a story to tell. And I feel like for a podcast, laughing isn't the only expectation of it. I think it's also just like getting to know someone or like feeling related to or whatever it may be. I think first of all, I think you should do it. I think you guys would crush it. Well, thank you very much. We will do it.

We're going to get back to it. We're going to get back to it. Yeah. Yeah. It's, but taking what you do here, improv, right? Which is, I mean, I imagine when you do social media, I don't know what your process is, but I imagine I have a seed of an idea. I find observationally, I find something funny. And then you have a format,

right? I've watched a lot of your reels and you have kind of a format, right? Hi, my name is Courtney and this is my impression of, right? Or whatever it happens to be. We don't have a format necessarily. We just get on here and start spitting shit and hoping that it's funny. And sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. But taking that and putting that into something, like Malibu, like that has a, like thematically make sense, was really difficult. And we did figure it out. We eventually figured out something,

but we'll get back to it. Still nerve wracking to get up on stage. When you were doing standup, did you like it? Yeah, I mean, I blacked out every time. It was so, it was so scary. So nerve wracking? get up on stage. When you were doing standup, did you like it? Yeah, I mean, I blacked out every time. It was so, it was so scary. So nerve wracking. I have really bad performance anxiety. So it, that whole part of it was, I still,

like I had a show two weeks ago. And just getting up, it was like, there was like 20 people there because I was an opener for, so they have no, the people are like trickling in very slowly. But still I was like, Oh my gosh, this thing. Right. I can only imagine. And then, I don't know, I think you go into like autopilot or something. The first laugh, the first joke that hits or the first thing that hits, whatever it may be, really carries

you. It's nourishment. It really breaks the ice. And I feel really bad for people who, like, it takes some seconds to get to that first joke because you're just kind of, like, floundering. And I'm sure it happens all the time with stand-up or comedians in general. My wife and I once saw Pete Davidson at, like, the...

He was breaking in new material. So he's in a club, probably a little bit bigger than this, and I'm not shitting you, it's tiny. And he's got three comedians that come on in front, right? And I don't know any of them. But the first guy who comes on, the crowd is just not with him. They, like from, there's a lot of chatter

going on in the room, and everyone's trying, he's trying to settle everybody down a little bit. But it was the 15 minutes of the most unimpressive comedy I've ever seen. He just started insulting people after a while, and that kind of got some, like he went to insults. But it was the 15 minutes of the most unimpressive comedy I've ever seen. He just started insulting people after a while and that kind of got some, like he went to insult, right? And some people laughed about it.

But honestly, there were very few laughs and I felt terrible for the guy because I was like, you're not very funny. You're not being very funny. But still, it's gotta be terrible to be up on stage and no one's fucking laughing at you. And this is your job. Your only job is to make people laugh

and you haven't gotten one. It's gotta feel awful. Conversely, when you're hot and you get the crowd growing, that's gotta feel amazing. That's gotta be something that really just, it puts fuel in your tank. Yeah, I'm very lucky. I haven't done it enough to ever, I haven't bombed yet.

Yeah. Hopefully none of these live shows will, but you never know. They could. It's part of the experience. It's part of the experience. It's part of the experience. Yeah, you're not going to learn unless you bomb, right? It really is.

So, but yeah, I can't, I mean, I can't even imagine like getting up there and not, I'm such a people pleaser again, that I feel like, oh my God, I'm not giving you what you want. On top of like me feeling like shit, I'm like giving you what you want. You feel like shit. I'm such a people pleaser, again, that I feel like, oh my God, I'm not giving you what you want. On top of me feeling like shit, I'm giving you what you want. You feel like shit, I'm so sorry. Ugh, it's kind of brutal. What do you remember being funny as a kid? Like, what's the first thing you remember

being funny as a kid? Television, show, movie, weird Al Jankovic? I don't know. I'd like to ask this to people. That's a great question. I hate to say that's a great question too, but that is a great question. Uh... And sometimes it's hard to think of, like, yeah.

Like, uncle making a joke. I mean, I don't know. Like, you know, I'd like to find out what gets... What do people remember lighting that fire for comedy? Right? Oh, my God, that's funny. I wish I could do that. You know, it's Oh my God, that's funny. I admire that. I wish I could do that. You know, it's funny, someone, I had an interview last week and they asked me,

like who are my like early comedy mentors? And I was like, I mean, I didn't, like, we didn't watch standup in my house. I didn't really know what standup was until I'm older. We didn't watch SNL. We didn't, like, we would watch like ABC sitcoms. Like my mom loved Reba, you know? Or like those kind of shows. Or King of the Hills, whatever.

King of Queens? King of Queens, yeah. Like those shows that we watched during dinner or whatever. And that was our comedy. And I think as I got older, even actually when I was young, I think I was really drawn to the person in the room who was commanding the room and had control over the people of the room with comedy. Like their ability to like the ease,

mainly ease the tension in the room. Like it just felt like such a superpower to be able to have the right timing to make someone laugh at a funeral or to, you know, when we're all sitting around eating dinner, just to like add that reprieve for a moment, especially if something's heavy or whatever. Yeah, it helps. Those people in my life growing up, and sometimes it was like kids in school, like even like

kids my own age who were just really funny. I can like think of a few in my head of just like some boys and girls who were just really funny. I can think of a few in my head of just some boys and girls who were just like, they had that cadence and they made me feel good. And I was like, that's what I want. So it was more real people in my life that I could viscerally feel that feeling from them than like, you know. Any kind of like, George Carlin at the... Exactly. Exactly. It was more what I was experiencing than what I was seeing. And then as I got older,

I started really appreciating more comedy. And I'm just now learning about older comedians and appreciating older comedians and trying to watch more standup because it wasn't a part of my experience for a while. We watched a lot of SNL. My dad was a big fan of SNL and he was remarkably into MTV when it came out. So there was like, you

know, occasionally there would be like a comedian who would be on MTV as a guest VJ or whatever and you would see them do a couple minutes of material. And I remember getting into standup comedy and you were probably too young for this, but we remember when Comedy Central first came on, it was clips of stand-up comedians doing a bit. So like two or three minutes, like set up punchline, set up punchline. Like MTV used to play videos back to back to back, no commercials, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up.

For days on end, no commercials. Just like, that was it. They were just putting stand-ups, stand-up comedians not doing full shows, doing just one joke. And they would just run it and they would put their name at the bottom with the name of like the name of the joke. Like I, you know, whoever Kevin Nealon talks about a cat or whatever it was. And I remember looking at that thinking that that's a very, I'm laughing at this and it's

in my daddy's too. It's a very noble thing that they're doing. They're getting up there and making a whole bunch of people laugh. Yeah. It's the first time I remember thinking that comedy, stand-up comedy specifically, was a noble profession. They were giving a gift to people. Even at my young age, I remember thinking, wow, you're taking a break there.

You're getting relief from whatever it is that's going on in your life. So I think it's very noble. And now I think social media is just another way to convey this kind of nobility, this gift. And a lot of people do it poorly. I think you're doing it very well. A lot of people do it poorly. I mean, sometimes I do it poorly too.

Well, I mean, yeah, but you put out so much content. There's going to be a few stinkers. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, we're the same. Not every show is like amazing. No, 900 shows, yeah. Nine of the shows I think are probably listenable out of the 900.

We're 1%. Yeah, that's a great ratio. Do you have trouble with any followers on social media when you have this big of a following? That's a good question. Do I have trouble with followers? Do you have any trouble with followers? And ones that you wanna discuss discuss. Like people being mean?

People just being like stalkers, weirdos, people being mean. I'm not sure there are people being mean. I'm sure you have people that come out of the woodwork and just say stupid shit. I can imagine his name is Bob. He's 52. Do you read the comments?

I always like Bob. Do you read the comments? I guess so, no. Yeah, it kind of depends on where I'm at. I tried not to do my DMs because every time I do, I'm. Yeah, it kind of depends on where I'm at. I try not to do my DMs, because every time I do, I'm doing it for validation, and then it feels empty. So I'm like, let's just not do it, unless I'm asking for feedback on something.

Like when we were pitching the shows, I was like, where should we go? I will read those DMs, or if I'm talking about something that's really important to me that I'm going through, I went off work control and I posted a lot about that just to kind of see what other people are doing for these symptoms or whatever. But besides that, I try to see,

like within the first like hour or two of posting, I can kind of tell from the comments whether or not something is relatable oritting. Relatable. Yeah. Or whether some people are just like, oh, it's a fine video. Like they're just like, oh, this is funny, because it's supposed to be funny. It's funny, because it's supposed to be funny,

and because you put it up there, and because I like you. Yes. Yeah. But I can tell you, there's like, people will like quote certain things, or I'll take note of what they're relating to, and where they're at. Like sometimes a lot of the characters that I do, quote unquote, I'm using air quotes,

a lot of the characters that I do are, like you can either be, they can be perceived as, you can either relate to them or you can hate them. And it's, I always find it so curious how many people, like the ratio of people who hate this person versus the ratio of people who are this person or who feel like this is a very relatable thing versus like they hate when this thing happens. And I think that's just like a fascinating human psyche thing.

It is, yeah. And moving forward, I try to make it even more ambiguous because the more people, because if I make it seem like it's more relatable, then the people who hate the person aren't going to get anything from it or whatever. So I don't really have issues with followers. I don't think I'm like, I don't think I'm like famous enough. I like, you see like famous people get it all the time. I'm like, I wish I had that. I know. I'm like, feel free to like start hate campaigns. I wish I had one stalker, because if I had one stalker, just one, then yeah. Just one guy at my door.

That would be your validation, Brian. You really solidify that. We have weird people that are contacting us, but I go, does this qualify as like fame or does this just qualify as like a couple of the girls that I dated in high school that were, you know what I'm saying? It's just math at that point, but there's going to be at least a few.

It doesn't matter. I could be anybody and they would be that crazy, right? Are they crazy about Brian and Chrissy? Are they just crazy in general? I'm waiting for that TCB stalker. That's what I want. Oh, there you go. But here's what's interesting is that, you know, we get pitched a lot of people, hey, come on, you know, come on the show, come on the show, come on the show. One of the things that we do, that Astrid often will do, is you go to someone's social media

and you see who follows them. Like, who of our guests or the people that we enjoy follow them? And you have a lot of people, famous people, that follow you. Yes, that's correct. Who? Name them. I don't know, Astrid, who are they?

Hannah Barner? Oh, we love Hannah. Yeah, we love Hannah, too. Hannah was one of our first interviews. Oh, really? Yeah, I think she would never agree to do it a second time, Astrid, who are they? Hannah Barner? Oh, we love Hannah. Yeah, we love Hannah. Hannah was one of our first interviews. Oh, really? Yeah, I think she would never agree to do it a second time. But, I mean. Oh, she was great.

She was great. She loves her husband. Her husband, Des. Des. Yeah, has been on our show a couple times, too. Gianmarco Sorosy, I think, follows you, too, if I'm not mistaken. Heather McMahon, maybe, fathers you.

She goes, no, no, no. Oh, no? Oh, I'm sorry. You can talk, feel free. Go ahead. I'll say, I'll repeat what you're saying. If what you're saying makes me look good, I'll repeat it. Yeah.

I noticed the same thing with quite a lot of my friends. Yeah. So there you go. That's so nice. Well, I think it's a compliment. And then you say, well, this person is interesting to the people that we know and the people we've had on the show.

So they're interesting to us, right? They must let's be interesting to us and they weren't wrong Oh, that's I gotta watch who I follow then I guess it is funny Like how that becomes a little bit of a like a stamp of approval Yes, like this person. Yes, we don't have a ton of followers But the followers but some of the people that follow us I think feel feel good to me like the people who come on our show and we like, and we have a good time with, they say, it's like a, it's, I don't wanna say,

it is some sort of validation, but then it's also like a little bit of social credit. Like, hey, I liked you, I'm gonna follow you and see what you're up to, you know, down the road. Now, question about your, one of your social media posts. I am one of the guys who does that whole Theo Von Bro pose. Oh, you pop out the two fingers, the single finger? I don't know what I do, but I do something stupid

with my hands, I put them in my pocket. Yeah, right. Why do we do that? Because you're insecure about what to do with your hands. Because I'm insecure in general about taking photographs. I think that's what it is. But girls do like, we'll do a squat, or we'll do like your hands. Yeah. Because I'm insecure in general about taking photographs. I think that's what it is. I mean, but we, but girls do like, we'll do a squat or we'll do like a hands on hand.

Yeah. No one can take a photo without thinking about it. Yeah, you have to do something with your hands. Otherwise they're just sitting, they're just. Yes, yes. Limp and sitting there. I think from the age of, let's say 18 to maybe 26 or 27, I think there might be three known photographs

of me. I avoided at all cost any photograph. And that's not even a joke. I do have some on, like, I have some disposable cameras that I haven't gotten, you know, taken to the film place yet, but, and I'm sure there's some photographs in there, but I didn't, I think I missed that generation of people who had phones direct, you know, cameras directly in their hands at all times, where a lot of the people I know are so used to taking photographs all the time, the selfies and all that. So I feel very uncomfortable when someone, even after all the photographs that have been taken for the commercial break, I still feel uncomfortable about it. It doesn't make me feel great.

Are you uncomfortable about the photo or are you, when you're taking the photo, thinking about how this is going to be perceived? Because I jump immediately to, okay, if my worst enemy saw this, would they have something to actually make fun of? Yeah. It's very subconscious.

Yeah. But I feel like that's what permeates whenever you're doing anything. It also feels so, like taking a photo of yourself, having someone take a photo of you. It feels so weird. It feels so self-indulgent. Yes. It's literally how we tell time.

It's been since the dawn of eras, we've been, you know, taking note of the things that we do in some way, shape, or form. This is our versus our society's version of just like chronicling. Yeah. But we are so ashamed of it. I know. It's so weird. Yeah, you're right about that. Like people are putting like pictures of themselves on, you know, the caves and the caveman's and it's a way of denoting that

moment in time, our age, our moment, our history. We're essentially, and now we can chronicle every moment of our lives. And I once heard a Buddhist monk say, there's no yesterday, there's no tomorrow. It's this, and that's it. You get one day, right? That's it. Forget about that, forget about this, it's all this. Sounds nice in theory, but we're human.

Like I'm not a Buddhist monk, I'm a dude, right? For them, there's only today. Yeah, for them, there's only today because they've been... Yeah. Run down and grab some grains of rice and hand it to your neighbor. But for me, I gotta take fucking photographs for the podcast. It just makes me feel so uncomfortable. But that was an absolutely relatable post, because I see every one of the guys on my Instagram,

I see them all making that stupid same fucking pose. And I'm like, she's so right about that. Guys don't know what to do with themselves when it comes to a photograph. We just don't. Nobody does. But I think it's, I think we're better about this, but I think, especially when I was growing up

and I'm sure when you guys were, like, it is, it does feel, taking a photo feels vain. It feels vapid. It shouldn't, again, we have to, like it really cements like a time, but it just feels vapid. It shouldn't. Again, we have to. It really cements a time, but it just feels vapid no matter what. But I think for some reason, women in society were almost given permission to feel a little more... Jared Ranere Self-conscious?

Lauren Henry No, no, no. To feel a little bit more vain. Jared Ranere Oh, to feel a little bit more vain. Yeah. Lauren Henry Yeah, I think we're given, and I think for men, they're given less rope to feel that vanity. And so I think that probably compounds when you're taking a photo and you're like, all right, how do I make this seem like the most casual? I don't give a shit, I'm just gonna do this thing

with my hands as opposed to making it look like I care by posing or I think women get away with it. We all have the same insecurities. Sometimes I wish I could tap into my, a little bit of my gay and like pop out a hip. You know what I'm saying? Type in your gay pop out a hip. And just get, if I could tap into a little bit more

of my gay, then I think I'd be better. Just practice. If we could all tap into a little bit more of our gay. I think we'd be happier. Listen, um, what, so now where are you going to go with the show? What's the next? You're here in Atlanta coming up, right?

Yes, we're coming to Atlanta. City Winery. I think this will come out before, when will this come out? In a couple weeks. Okay, great. Yeah. September for the City Winery, I think? Yes, so we're doing September, City Winery.

Congratulations, that's a great venue. That's a great venue. It's right down the street from where I live. I just saw it yesterday. Yeah. And it's a great venue. That's a great venue. It's right down the street from where I live. I just saw it yesterday, and it's a gorgeous venue. I'm a little scared to fill it up. It's big. It's big.

We'll come see you. There's a ton of people in that area. That's a great new area with tons of stuff. If it's at the City Winery, some people are just going to show up because it's the City Winery. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, we'll come for sure. Okay. I love that. But yeah, so we're doing another show in Nashville,

Atlanta, and then Chicago, well, to Chicago and then Atlanta, Austin, LA, and then hoping to do maybe one or two other shows like later in the year. Fantastic, congratulations. It's a tiny tour, but. Yeah, no, but those are some big markets though. This is where it starts. This is the test.

The burner phones of the world and all that stuff they started somewhere too in these small venues just doing that. And look now, I don't know, Madison Square Garden, where is she playing? I'm not even sure. Hannah is truly amazing. But this is how it all starts. And if you can prove that you can fill some seats, then the promoter goes to the next level, right? Yes.

And that's it. And you have the social media following to fill some of these places. There's no doubt about it. I mean, that's the scary part about the promoters though. You know, they come to you. I don't know if you're working with a promoter. I'm assuming... My manager does it all. Okay. So anyway, the promoter comes to you and he says, hey, listen, here's five venues, go see if you can sell tickets. And if you can sell tickets, then we'll be happy to give you a check and, you know, you move on to the next one or whatever your deal is.

But that's the scary part about it is you look at the numbers on your podcast or on your social media and you go, oh, yeah, I could definitely do that. But can I do that in one city on that particular night? Yeah, it's a different question altogether, right? And will people even want to, like, do people see me in a way that they're like, I want to see what she has to say in person? Right. Or are they like, no, she stays in my little square and she feels safe there.

And I'm hoping, I'm hoping that that's not the case. Yeah, I can see. I want to at least see what it is. Right, right. Exactly. That's not the case. I'm hoping people will be like, I want to at least see what it is. Right, right, exactly. And I think this show, I didn't want to do like sketches from the internet in my live show. I think that's smart, yeah.

And that's great for them. And I think it's a great like one-to-one. People know exactly what they're getting. This is not any characters I've done on line. It's not anything really familiar to that. It's the same sense of humor as me. And it's supposed to be relatable, hopefully. But I wanted to give something that was more

and different in my brain, more and different than what people have seen before, so that I have the thing that I do online, I have who I am in this little box, and then I have this other thing that I have in front of you, and I'm giving in two separate ways. I think that's a great strategy. To an audience.

I think that's the smartest strategy because if you're doing the same thing you're doing online, the next time they come into town, they're gonna go, I can just look at her social media. Right, what's the reason? What's the reason to get out? For free, yeah. But if you show range, right?

I'm sure as an actor, it's always about range, range. If you show range and they say, oh, I got something completely unexpected, which was the same thing we ran into we're doing our live shows. Do we give them what they're used to, which is an hour of the commercial break, brand new, or do we give them something completely different or mix the two together? And so, it may make it familiar enough that it gets, that they know who they're know what they're doing, but then I think it's a very smart idea to do something different. Because then you have legs and you can run with it the next time people will go, I didn't get what I expected and I liked it and so now I'm going to go to the next one.

So okay. Yes, that's so smart, so great. This is our first live in-person interview with someone that we don't know. Let's put it that way. And I think you have been wonderful. I think you get an A plus. Guys, this was lovely. I think you'll get an invite back.

This is lovely. I'm glad this all worked out that you got to come to the studio. I am so happy that this worked out and that we could do this. And I would love to come back. And thank you for having me. Well, thank you and good luck to you.

We're excited to see you again in September. You guys have to come. Yes, we'll come in May. You promise? Yes, 100%. It's right down the street from me too. Okay, good. Courtney Michelle, I will put all of her links

in the show notes, all the appropriate links down in her show notes. You can find her on social media. You can catch her live if you're in one of the lucky towns that gets to see her show. Thank you very much, Courtney. We appreciate it. Thank you guys so much. Rachel here. While Brian takes his old man bladder to the little boy's room, let's talk turkey. TCB needs your help. If you love the show, do us all a favor and share. Sharing is caring. And we know you care, don't you?

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You know, that sounds more dangerous than it actually is. Find us on Insta at the commercial break. On the web at tcbpodcast.com and all the episodes on video are available the same day at youtube.com slash the commercial break. I'm gonna go help Brian get back up the stairs while you listen to the sponsors and then we'll all meet back here and get back to this episode of the Commercial Break. I'll take a raise now, bitches. Bye.

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I think that went surprisingly well, Chrissy. I cannot believe how well that went. well, Chrissy. I cannot believe how well that went. I don't think I creeped her out once. I kept the cringe factor down to a one. You did a wonderful job in person, Brian. Thank you. Astrid watching.

Yeah, Astrid was without Astrid. Her nose would have happened. Courtney Michelle was absolutely delightful. Lovely. And I do have to say, I really enjoyed recording here, actually. All the people at A Odyssey that made it great. And this is a fantastic facility. It's a professional studio. Yeah. I just said to Asa and I said,

this is like, this is so much better than our studio at home, which she designed. So I'll be in the dog house paying many husband points for that later on tonight. I'm sure I'll be doing a honeydew list very long tonight. Anyway, Courtney and Michelle, she was wonderful. You know what I've noticed? I don't know why I do this, but I tend to go deep on a lot of our guests. You do. Why do I do that? Isn't this a comedy show? I was quoting Ram Dass. And the Buddhist monk.

I know. Buddhist monk, Ram Dass. I'm not even sure what to cry because I see that gets a little clicks on social media. That's what I'm doing. I want to be important, but I don't want to talk about politics because fuck politics because we're all fucked and no one seems to care about it. Anyway, Gordie Michelle is absolutely lovely. You can find her on social media. You can catch her live in Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Atlanta. I think she said Miami, LA somewhere. Anyway, all that information is down in the show notes. We certainly would appreciate it if you would go and follow her and then check out her live show. I think we should go. We're going, we

have a long list of shows to come to this fall with our guests, but we should try and make it to at least some of them. Some people we just tell them we're going to go to their show and hope that they give us free tickets. And then other people, we're going to go to their show. And I think Courtney might be one of them. What do you think? I love that venue she's performing at too.

Oh, the City Winery is lovely. Lovely. I wish I drank still because don't they sell wine there at the winery? Okay. All right. There you go. That's the gig 2 1 2 4 3 3 3 t cb 2 1 2 4 3 3 3822 questions comments concerns content ideas. We take them all right there. So many of you writing in about Polly couch cushions. Oh my God. We'll get back to them.

What a character. What a character. We'll get back to them. But if you have any comments or concerns or questions about this interview with Courtney and Michelle, let us know. We'll pass the message along to nobody. There you go. TCBpodcast.com.

All the audio, all the video right there from one location and your free TCB sticker available only to you and 30,000 other people who are on a coupon site. Add the commercial break on Instagram, youtube.com slash the commercial break. For all the videos the same day, they air here on the audio. Okay, Chrissy, I guess that's all I can do for today.

I think so. I'll tell you that I love you. And I love you. Best to 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! I gotta get some cocaine! Gotta be crazy!