The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Des Bishop
Episode Date: January 28, 2025Episode #686: He’s our second second and the second Bishop: it’s Des Bishop, gracing us with his presence again. Des, Bryan, and Krissy get intro The Bishop Exchange, corned beef, and American & I...rish politics. Des Bishop is back! Buffalo Des has one million podcasts The Bishop Exchange John, Russell, and Des: the same vintage Cross cultural elements The Feast Of The Seven Fishes Corned beef/boiled ham and cabbage Bryan’s Irish snowstorm Des’s take on Elon Musk West Hampton Susan Lucci Severance & The Severance Podcast Say Nothing/The Troubles/Gerry Adams Hunger (2008) Reggie Watts Special Guest: Des Bishop New Podcast: The Bishop Exchange Podcast: Berner Phone Text us or leave us a voicemail: +1 (212) 433-3TCB Follow Us: IG: @thecommercialbreak TikTok: @tcbpodcast YT: youtube.com/thecommercialbreak www.tcbpodcast.com Executive Producer: Bryan Green Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley Producer: Astrid B. Green Producer & Audio Editor: Christina Archer Christina’s Podcast: Apple Podcasts & Spotify 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
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Hey Spotify, this is Javi. My biggest passion is music, and it's not just sounds and instruments,
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Steve said, nah, kids are like farts. You love to smell your own ones, but other people's
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It's not even like that. Imagine a fart you can't walk away from.
Wherever you go, it's fucking, you're still there.
Parenting, parenting, imagine a fart you can't walk away from.
On this episode of the commercial break.
Dez's next door neighbor is not Howard Stern.
We're just making that clear right now.
Howard is not on that side of the island.
However, Eli Manning is on our side of the canal.
He doesn't live exactly near us, but...
And Anderson Cooper is on our side of the canal.
Look at Anderson.
And Susan Lucci is in my village.
Oh, I like Susan Lucci.
I know.
Just right down there.
Gen X people love Susan Lucci.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
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Oh yeah, cats and kittens, welcome back
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I'm Brian Green.
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Kristin Joy of Fodly.
Best to you, Kristin.
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Wow, I'm gonna get this right one of these days.
Her name is Hodley, not Fodley,
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Here on a TCB Infomercial Tuesday
with our second second, Dez Bishop coming in to join us.
I love me some Dez Bishop. You know, last time
Dez came in, he said, hey, call me anytime. I'd be happy to come back on the show anytime
you guys want me to. And, you know, as I always am, yeah, I thought about it, but then I'm
like, he really didn't mean that. He really didn't mean that. My negative Nancy brain
always goes to, ah, he's just being nice. He's just being polite.
Cause a lot of people have said something very nice like that. Call me anytime. Happy to come
back on the show. But I'm very nervous to ask them back on. But Dez was, I was watching Dez Instagram.
He announced that he's doing yet another podcast. I don't have any podcasts that guy has, but he's
doing another podcast called the Bishop Exchange with another comedian from the UK called John Bishop.
John Bishop, yeah.
Not related.
Not related, even though they look very much alike and they, you know, they don't talk
alike.
John has a much thicker accent.
But anyway, the Bishop Exchange now available on any podcast app that you get your podcast.
It's really funny.
So I told Des, I said, Hey, Des, here's a reason to come in. I felt like it was a good reason to throw some bait
out there and see if he really meant what he said. And he responded right away. He's
like, I'd love to. So he's an island. He'll join us here in a few minutes. But the big
news today, well, a news item today is that the Eagles and the Chiefs will meet themselves in the 355th Super Bowl.
And the Eagles celebrating in Philadelphia,
the only way Philadelphia fans know how
by shooting off guns and running into each other with cars.
I mean, it's just insane.
Those Eagles fans, those Philly fans, they are no joke.
You know, when the Phillies play the Braves, it's always
a ruckus time, right? Because the Philadelphia fans are fans like no other and the Braves
fans are fans like no other. And what I mean by like no other, we're like the people in
LA. We show up at the seventh inning, we leave at the eighth inning. We show up right before
the beer sale, stop, and we leave right after they do. That's it. That's how long we stay
at our Braves games. But those Phillies fans are getting rowdy.
Rowdy!
Shooting guns off in the air.
Some guy shot a gun in the air.
I was just watching a video, shot a gun in the air and the girl was like, oh, you hurt
that, you know, my ear.
Don't, that's a gun.
Don't shoot that in the air.
And he goes, I don't give a fuck.
The Phillies won or the Eagles won.
And I'm like, you don't give a fuck?
Okay.
All right. That's the way it is. So who are we going for? The Chiefs or the Eagles won and I'm like, you don't give a fuck? Okay, all right, that's the way it is.
So who are we going for?
The Chiefs or the Eagles?
The Chiefs, I only know this because I watched
a brief period of the Chiefs game a couple nights ago.
Oh, you did?
Yes, I did.
I watched the whole thing.
I was rooting for the Bills, I have to say.
You were rooting for the Bills?
Why, just anti-Chiefs?
Well, I have a good friend.
Who lives in Buffalo?
Who's from Buffalo and he's really rallied our friend group.
Don't think I've ever met someone from Buffalo.
Oh yeah, I went to their wedding up in Buffalo.
I've been to Buffalo.
Did you like Buffalo?
I liked Buffalo.
Buffalo was nice.
It was?
Yeah, it was.
Really?
Uh-huh.
Okay, all right, listen, I have never been myself,
so I kinda wanna talk shit about Buffalo,
but I know it's up there that it's called.
Upstate New York.
The Buffalo Bills are a storied football team.
Yes, very close to the falls.
Did you go to the falls?
I did.
What'd you think?
Yeah, loved it.
Yeah, you think you can make it over in a barrel?
You think you can make it over in a barrel?
No, and I can't believe that people did that
back in the day.
People do it all the time.
No, not still. And there was a guy like three years ago went over in the barrel? No, and I can't believe that people did that back in the day. People do it all the time. No, not still.
And there was a guy like three years ago went over in the barrel and didn't make it.
They don't allow that unless it's part of, unless it's been allowed.
Right, they don't allow it.
Right, the guy just went, he just did it.
Yeah, but he didn't make it.
So there you go.
So the Chiefs won.
It was a close game.
It was a good game.
It was a good game.
I watched the, that's what I was watching the very end of it.
So now I know from one of the announcers that if the Chiefs win this Super Bowl,
they will be the only three time champs, three Pete champs of the Super Bowl ever.
Listen, that Patrick Mahomes, he's really good at what he does.
He's really good at what he does. He's got swagger, but there's a reason for it.
And so, yeah, their coach is great too. So, and so is that girl that sits up in the stand. What's her
name? Taylor Swift? So is that girl. I didn't see one Taylor Swift siting though. Yeah.
But I was, I was kind of watching the game. Okay. They showed her up in the box. Look
at you doing, does Jeff like the professional football? Yeah. Well, he's, you know, does
all this fantasy stuff, which is over now at the end of the season.
They're over by now.
But yeah, he does all I'm thinking about doing the fantasy team next year myself.
No, just to get into.
Yeah, you're going to go fantasy football.
I'm going to go fantasy football.
When you do fantasy football, please explain to me exactly how it works because I was the
vice president of marketing for a fantasy football company and I could not tell you one inch I could not tell you one
sentence about fantasy football not one I would go to conferences I would speak
in front of people I would market the no clue had never played fantasy sports in
my life didn't start when I worked there never did it afterwards And I was the vice president of marketing for the fantasy football company.
You really were getting into your job.
Well, you see how well the fantasy football company did, currently employed by that
fantasy football company. We marketed it right into the ground. When you hire the guy,
so the guy comes to me and he says, hey, listen, I'm starting this company. I know a couple of tech geeks and they've built this platform and it's really great.
And you know, it's all the rage and fantasy football is going to change the world of fantasy
football. And I was like, great. And he's, he's like, so I want you to be the, the, the
marketing guy. I want you to head the marketing department is a startup company and they just
gotten funded. And I said, that's great, but I got to tell you one thing.
I don't know the first thing about fantasy football, never played it.
And he's like, I don't think that really matters.
I think you could probably market that our company as well as anybody else out there.
And I said, okay, well, if you're going to pay me, sure.
Why not?
And I didn't even ever take the time to get educated.
It was a short lived job, not because I was bad at my job, but because the guy who ran
the company was bad at managing all that money that people gave him. Yeah. Well, you know,
it's takes all kinds. Chrissy takes all kinds. Well, when you get into fantasy football,
let me know, but we're not talking about football today. We're talking about Dez Bishop, his
brand new podcast, the Bishop exchange. He of course is on burner phone with his wife, Hannah.
And you can catch him if you're over on the other side of the pond on tour currently.
In Ireland.
Yep.
Desbishop.net.
You can check out those dates in the UK and in Ireland and then he'll be back here stateside
in the spring.
He is one of my favorite comics.
He is genuinely a nice guy.
And we are so pleased that he has decided,
we are so pleased that he was not full of shit
and he in fact agreed to come back on a second time.
So our good friend,
and we call anybody who comes here twice a good friend,
right? That's right.
So, so far we have two good friends,
Reggie Watts and Des Bishop.
Our good friend, Des Bishop joins us
in the magic, through the magic of tele-podcasting
as soon as we get back from this break.
What do you think, Chrissy?
Let's do it.
All right, we'll be back.
It's a new year and a new me, which
means I'm bringing you the exact same information I always do.
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Welcome back. Well, you look good, agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back.
Well, you look good. Welcome back.
Yes. Thanks for coming back.
Thanks for having me. Thanks.
I've actually been wanting to reach out for a long time, but you know,
the holidays and all that other stuff, but I, every time I see a reel, I'm like, I should,
I should let Dez know he should come back on the show.
And so when you got the new podcast announcement, it was a perfect time to say, let's do this. Oh yeah, that's great. I'm always willing
and able and John, so I'm doing this podcast called the Bishop Exchange with a comedian
called John Bishop. We've been listening. Yeah, we've been listening. Yeah. So I, we're
not related, you know, but, but we have had this weird connection through our name and our friendship for like a really long time.
But he really wants, he's huge in the UK.
And he's bigger than me in Ireland these days too,
to be honest with you.
But he really wants to like expand his American audience.
I was like, well, you're asking the wrong guy.
Yes, tell him to come on.
Ask Chris Rock.
Tell him to come on. Ask Chris Rock.
Tell him to come on, we'll help him.
We'll do an interview with him.
If you want, if that's like, if he needs a little love here in the States with some listeners,
then just give him our email address and we'll put it.
Oh, I will, I will.
Absolutely.
Or both of you can come, whatever, you know, you guys will figure it out.
The congregation.
The congregation.
We will help.
Oh my God, you guys really have been listening.
Jesus.
Yes. Embarrassing me. Well, you, you guys really have been listening. Jesus.
Yes.
Embarrassing me.
Well, you put it out there and we got to listen to it, right?
Have a conversation, join the congregation.
Wow, you guys really did listen.
I can't believe that.
Oh my God.
Would you think we're going to take an opportunity to listen to those silver haired foxes on
the RSS feed?
Come on, man.
I know.
It's funny.
It takes a while to figure out exactly what you want to say though.
You know, I mean, John and I, yeah, I was just happy to have like a
similar age man to bounce off.
Like I love doing the burner phone with Hannah, but like, you know, she's got
that she's got her sense of humor and I got mine and that's great, but it's
also nice to have like a somebody who's's more like you to also have different types
of conversations.
But I still haven't figured out exactly.
I mean, if I had my way, we would just talk about the 90s.
Yeah, that's us.
That's us.
Yeah, we have to rein it in sometimes.
Yeah, I love that. Our biggest group of listeners, according to Spotify Analytics, is females, like 25
to 35, right?
It's like 80% of our Spotify audience.
And this is like a relatively new development.
We were about 50-50 male-female, skewing a little bit older, like at 30 to 45.
But then all of the sudden over the last six months, we've turned into like this younger
female crowd.
And every once in a while I have to remind myself.
At least the people on Spotify.
Yeah, at least the people on Spotify.
I have to remind myself that, you know,
Chrissy and I were just saying this,
they're not gonna remember what totally tubular means.
Totally tubular.
It's just not gonna happen.
Yeah, totally.
I have, well, I have that with Hannah sometimes,
but particularly Hannah's fans.
Like she's got a lot of of fans in their early 20s.
And very rarely, not lately, but sometimes I would open
for her if we were in a cool spot.
And I really had to make sure I was doing bits
that they got, you know?
Yeah, you face a lot of, I mean, Astrid's not,
Astrid doesn't have a million Instagram followers,
my wife, but I see you present
a lot of the same challenges that my relationship does
because there's similar age gap between me and my wife.
And so it's always like, it's fun to have conversations
with my wife and I love talking to her,
but sometimes it's nice also to talk to the 46 year old man
who also went through some of the same things
I went through and then like we connect on that. And that's hard, like, when I say some things to Astrid
sometimes, she's like, what are you even, I wasn't even born. And I'm like, you couldn't
learn from me.
Also, she's from another country.
Yeah, she's from another country.
That's a double.
When you're from Venezuela, it's like, all right, let's get started. Let's not waste
all the good talk here. Let's get started.
Oh, I thought we started.
No, no. Well, we can, actually, you know what? We can, all right, we're just going.
We already started.
All right, Des Bishop back here with us.
Welcome back.
Welcome back, Des.
Oh, thanks.
Thank you for coming on board.
We really appreciate it.
We all woke up last week, Thursday,
to the, I opened up the Hollywood Reporter,
Huffington Post, Daily Beast.
I saw the big news that Des is starting his fifth podcast.
Yeah. It was on the front page. Flashed all over the front page.
Dez is starting his fifth podcast, the Bishop Exchange, with not his brother, John Bishop.
But I swear, when you made this announcement, I ran to Astrid and I go, hey, Astrid, did
you know that Dez has a new podcast with his brother?
Because I could, you guys, not only do you, obviously
you're from across the pond, you have the same last name, but you kind of share a little
bit of a resemblance, you and John Bishop, a little bit, I think.
John. Oh, 100%. Like, we could have absolutely just said we were like first cousins from
the jump and people would have believed it. I do have a brother in comedy, Aidan.
But actually, if you see Aidan next to John, I mean, they're very similar.
We're convinced that there's some crossover genetically, but really, it's just a funny
coincidence that we're quite alike, you know?
Yeah.
But he's from Liverpool.
I mean, I'm from Queens, but living in Ireland.
But anyway, we always had this funny Bond over our name.
And we're like like-minded guys.
Yeah, you're like-minded.
You're of the similar age, and you're running around
the similar.
You're playing in the same playground, essentially.
So tell us a little bit about your boyfriend, John,
because maybe the people over on this side of the pond don't know as much about John as you do.
Yeah.
So the thing about John Bishop is he's one of the biggest comedians in the UK.
And when I say that, I think people don't understand the magnitude of it.
He is 100% an arena comic.
And you know, the UK, small landmass, but you know, 70 million people, not like a small
country. And he's doing these, you know, these, uh, these cities all over the UK and
he's doing multiple nights in arenas.
I mean, he is a, a comparative guy.
I mean, in the two thousands, I guess a comparative guy would be like Chris
Rock or Bill Burr of, of the UK.
Uh, and also in Ireland, like he, he actually, I kind of, I broke out in
Ireland before him, but then he actually, he's a huge in Ireland too.
So he's really like Ireland and the UK, one of, uh, the biggest comics, but
lately he has had an itch to do more stuff in the States to come over to the States.
Yeah.
And he's been recording stuff in the States.
And he's really fascinated by the challenge to him
of leaving essentially stardom to anonymity,
which was part of his motivation for starting the pod,
because he just basically wants to have his.
Crossed over.
Yeah, and he wants to have as much stuff out there
about who he is.
Do you find this is pretty common?
Like we were talking to Russell Howard
a couple of weeks ago.
Oh right, okay.
Good buddy of mine also.
Oh, do you know Russell?
He's great.
Yeah, I can listen.
We all go back actually, we're all the same vintage.
John is older, but only because he started comedy very late.
He didn't start comedy till he was 36.
Russell and I would have started at like a similar age.
So like we go back to like playing football soccer at the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival, me, Russell Howard, John Bishop, Daniel Kitson, John Oliver.
John Oliver.
Like all of us, oh, the flight of the Concords, like Edinburgh 2002, like our football and
like tip rugby matches were like John Oliver, you know, Daniel Kitson, John Bishop, me,
who else?
Oh, guys, other guys you wouldn't know, like Josh Whitcomb and Adam Hills.
Elton John.
Yeah, just like guys that just like became, became huge.
And Russell, like Russell has been huge in the UK for years.
Russell and John are kind of similar in that way, you know?
Yeah.
So, you know, so Russell, we were talking to him, two things I found was interesting.
One is that Russell is such a sensation over in the UK, but he also, I think, you know,
he's got some following here too in the US. So when I was doing
my homework about Russell, I found a website. The second interesting thing, not only is he trying
to make that kind of plant his flag over here, second interesting thing about Russell is that
the UK government, the United Kingdom government has a website tracking the popularity of comics
coming from the UK.
So if you do-
Really?
Yes, absolutely.
And so I'm- go ahead.
Hey, sorry, I'm the producer.
I did my research on your research.
That is incorrect.
What do you mean?
It's not a government website.
It's just called-
It's UK.gov.
It's just called Ugov.
It's not UK.gov.
Okay, great.
Sorry. Well, so there's a website tracking the popularity
of comics over there in the UK.
And I found this to be so extremely interesting
because some of the people that were high
on this list of comics, you know,
I don't know how it gets voted.
I'm sure it's just people voting online,
is like third call actors from Benidorm, the show Benidorm, were like higher than Russell
Howard. And I was busting his balls. I'm like, yeah, but are you more popular than the show
Benidorm? And he was like, oh my God, I can't believe this. There's a website out there.
So now I'm going to do my research on John on that same website and I'm going to see just how
popular they're.
So is this the popularity of UK acts in the States or just the popularity of UK acts in general?
Popularity of anybody that was, I guess the criteria for this particular website was
British-born comics doing the circuit around the UK.
So it's really just about British comics.
And it was just such a funny website.
And then they had all this information as to who they were popular
with. Female, male, what age group they were popular with. It was like, it was a really
interesting website. And at the time, because it says UKgov, right, I thought it
was an actual, like, UK thing. Yeah, but Ugov is a polling, it's a
polling thing, right? Yeah, it's just a polling thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a polling thing.
So where do you and John record the podcast?
Are you guys in the room together?
No, only the first one, because he was in New York,
and I was in New York.
But now I left to Ireland, actually, the next day.
And then he went back to the UK the day after.
So we're just recording remote.
So we're stuck with the remote stuff for now. but we'll try to get together when we can.
Okay.
So the Bishop exchange is the name of the podcast.
Go check it out.
We've listened to the first couple of episodes.
A member of the congregation, but he also wanted the other, the other useful
nature of the word exchange.
Cause we were just looking for like a Bishop name, but he wanted it to be
like cross-cultural, like he wanted that to be part of it.
He wanted that transatlantic bridge.
Yes.
Yeah.
But you know, it can be hard too, cause like, I think it will be harder for us to
truly get the Americans to, to plug in because the British people love chatting
about America, like they love chatting about American politics and it's not that Americans don't like chatting about British politics.
They just don't know.
We don't know.
We don't know.
We're confused.
On one side, you're talking about something everyone has an opinion on.
On the other side, it's like, let's educate America about Britain.
So we'll see, we'll see if we can manage to, to, to bridge, to, to make that
bridge that that's one of the challenges.
Well, I have noticed as a guy who follows your Instagram, I have noticed
that you've been conspicuously absent from the United States for the last
couple of months or you have you purposefully fled over there back to Ireland?
No, I literally, I have actually been in the States until last Tuesday.
So I did not do, I was not one of the only people that said if
Trump gets elected, I'll go.
Cause number one, I didn't say that.
And number two, nobody ever actually goes except for Ellen
DeGeneres, who was, let's face it, she was fleeing like so much stuff.
You know, she's getting hatred.
She's getting hatred from both sides.
So anyway, no, I just, I had this tour planned
for quite a while.
I'm here for seven weeks now, but no, I have been,
I have been in the States.
I just, I went into a little bit of a glut of posting
just cause like I was touring, doing shows on the road,
but I just wasn't like recording them.
You know?
Yeah, it's tough.
It's a job in itself.
It is a job in and of itself.
Do you handle your own Instagram?
I do.
You need a person.
You need a person.
Well, no, it's not so much that, honestly,
it's getting them up on Instagram isn't my problem.
The problem is just getting them recorded.
Like, sometimes I'm proactive.
I had some shows before Christmas where I was proactive.
I got some content, but then after Christmas I got, I was proactive, I got some content.
But then after Christmas, literally,
I was just being a bit lazy with some of my-
What do you guys do for Christmas?
I'm fascinated to know this.
How do you handle the holidays?
Well, hey, number one benefit of having two dead parents
is that you don't have any stress
about where to go for Christmas.
Fair enough.
So it's not a thing.
The main thing is Hannah's half Italian, her mother's side is Italian,
so they do the Christmas Eve, the Seven Fishes or whatever,
which is not actually an Italian thing, it's an Italian-American thing.
What the fuck is the Seven Fishes? I think it might even it's an Italian American thing. But I didn't know any. What the fuck is the seven fishes?
Oh, you don't know what the seven fishes is?
I think it might even be like a New York thing.
Yeah, yeah.
It's seven fishes.
Because they all, I grew up with all these Italians.
Seven types of fish.
So seven different fish on Christmas Eve.
I think it's seven, right?
I think so, yeah.
Yeah, she's Italian, she knows.
So seven different fishes on Christmas Eve,
you just like go and you have.
It's cooked different ways.
How do you even find seven different types of fish?
What do you mean?
You got calamari.
Come on, there's loads of fish.
Oh, okay, if we're adding in squid, then okay.
All right, squid, octopus.
Seafood, basically.
Seafood, seafood.
Okay, got it.
But anyway, I looked it up.
There's no evidence of any history.
It's kind of, it's derivative.
But the thing is that the real history,
which I think gets, it gets forgotten about a bit,
that all the ethnic groups in America,
they have their own culture,
and those cultures are just as valid.
So just because it doesn't actually come from Italy
doesn't mean it's not a unique cultural experience.
So you're having the unique Irish American Christmas. For example,
a lot of people don't know this. Corned beef and cabbage is not a thing in Ireland.
Oh, no.
No, really?
No, it's bacon and cabbage. It's boiled ham and cabbage is the Irish dish. Somehow it became
corned beef and cabbage in America. I have no idea.
That's what they had to work with. Why? And now that's the thing. I was like corned beef and cabbage in America. I have no idea. That's what they had to work with.
Why? And now that's the thing. I was like corned beef and cabbage, but like, no. And
I have to tell you something else.
Uh-oh.
Irish Americans don't make cabbage as well as Irish people. Because I love bacon and
cabbage, but corned beef and cabbage is shy shit.
My dad made this all the time. When we were kids, he made corned beef and cabbage.
As you know, of Irish descent,
of course, of Irish descent, living in Chicago.
That was the thing, corned beef and cabbage everywhere.
I fucking hated that dish.
It was disgusting to me.
But as an adult, I have had other people's corned beef
and cabbage, it's not bad.
Sorry, dad, you made it like shit.
Yeah. Well, yeah, you made it like shit. Yeah.
Well, yeah.
And my grandmother was from Ireland,
like proper strong Irish accent,
but she did adopt the,
we used to have corned beef and cabbage in her house
on St. Patrick's Day.
That was like, that was always the thing.
But we'd march in the parade
and then we'd come home and have corned beef and cabbage
in my grandmother's house.
So is it fucking cold over there? I was thinking about this this morning But we'd march in the parade and then we'd come home and have corn, beef and cabbage in my grandmother's house.
So is it fucking cold over there?
I was thinking about this this morning when I realized you were over in Ireland.
Yeah, I know it's colder where you are. Like we have, um, Oh no, sorry.
You're in Atlanta, right?
Well, actually you had your own.
Oh no, it's cold.
Yeah.
We just had snow.
You, yeah, you had some snow there.
I caught a little bit of that sort of, I caught the first little cold wave in
the South cause I was in North, North, North Carolina and South Carolina.
I was in Charlotte and Greenville.
Yeah.
Both lovely places.
Very disappointing, like absolutely freezing.
Yes.
So, so, so that was a letdown.
But then I was in Minneapolis, which was absolute torture when I was leaving.
But no, here, honestly, Irish winters are like cold,
but like on the mild side of cold
by proper American winter standards.
But we did, I did come back the day before
one of the worst storms Ireland's had in a long time.
So I-
Oh, that's right.
I heard on your podcast, you were talking about-
Yeah, storm Eowyn, they were calling it.
Eowyn.
Eowyn.
Eowyn, it was a weird, E-O, I'd never seen it, E-O-W-A-N.
E-O-W-A-N, Eowyn.
So when you have this storm, did it snow in Dublin?
No snow, just, it was basically, some parts of Ireland basically experienced a hurricane.
We had a show that night and we thought the warning was going to be later, but anyway,
in the end it was a bit hairy.
People started leaving at like 10 o'clock.
I thought, oh, I'm bombing here.
But actually, people started getting warnings
on their phone.
Now, that was an hour and 15 minutes into the show,
so it wasn't an issue.
But I did notice some people walking out,
but I just wasn't paying any attention.
I was just like, ah, they're probably
stressed about the storm.
But then when I got off stage, Stephen Mullin, my opener,
was like, bro, we got to go, bro.
I think we might have to, maybe we have to get a hotel. Because then when I got off stage, Stephen Mullin, my opener, was like, bro, we got to go, bro.
I think we might have to, maybe we have to get a hotel.
Cause I was driving back to town, but we made it back.
But it was actually, it was a little hairy.
I actually hydroplained a little bit twice,
not crazily, but just like enough that like, you're like, oh.
Yes. Everybody's got that friend who freaks out
about the weather, right?
The weather, like Chrissy's my friend who does that.
I'm Astrid's friend who does that.
The only time that I've been to Dublin,
which is just a beautiful city,
the only time that I have been to Dublin
was the worst snowstorm they had experienced in decades.
Oh, that's right.
And the entire city shut down.
It was like a foot of snow.
We got the last plane, we were the last plane to land
at the airport before the airport got shut down
for three days. And we took taxis.
We were all standing waiting for these brave taxi drivers who were going to drive us into
the city and get us to the hotel.
That car was moving from lane to lane without any effort whatsoever.
It was just sliding all over the place.
The poor driver had no idea how to drive in the snow.
Astrid and I were shitting ourselves in the back of this taxi cab ride and we ended up getting stuck at a hotel. Everybody, people were
sleeping on the floor, they were trying to feed them and give them water. This
happened, we were, this went on for like, I don't know, four days we were stuck in
this hotel. Ireland doesn't, Ireland doesn't get a lot of snow so actually
they don't, they don't deal with it well at all. As a dumb American, I just made
the assumption when we were flying in and I was seeing all these alerts,
I just made the assumption, oh, they know what to do with snow.
It's Ireland.
Very rare.
I had no idea.
I mean, we get, you get dustings and,
but like honestly, all you need here is an inch
and like everything shuts down.
Oh, it's like Atlanta.
It's like Atlanta, yeah, everything shuts down.
No, all the way they were talking in the South
about the snow coming, because I did have to cancel. What am I talking about?
I had to cancel a show in Charlotte because of it.
I ended up doing the Saturday, but they shut it down,
even though they ended up really not having any snow that night.
Yeah. But I was,
they basically deal with snow the same way in Atlanta where you are as they do
in Ireland. There's no shut it down. Yeah.
Shut it down. And the only thing that was open were the bars.
And so that's what we did. We walked to the, it's kind of fun though. And it's kind of fun and it's kind of it down. Yeah, shut it down. And the only thing that was open were the bars And so that's what I said we walked to the book. It's kind of fun though
It's kind of fun and it's kind of pretty, you know, it's a pretty city in the snow, you know
Yeah, so let me so I on your Instagram
You're going a little viral right now because you have a hot take not to say a hot take. It's just a take on
Mr. Musk's
wave to the crowd at the inauguration. How,
give me your like just a little dissertation on how you feel about Elon Musk in general.
Well, I mean, like there's something going on with the guy, right? Because he's a little loony.
Well, he's become like insanely obsessed with like the MAGA agenda.
And listen, you want to, you know, you like Trump and you like MAGA.
I think that's fine, but he's the only.
I don't, by the way, I don't agree with the politics.
I, I agree that it's your right to support.
No, no, no, I know.
But I was just, I was just clarifying that,
cause I actually, I got attacked on TikTok.
I had like a very like center's take
about just the way the internet works.
I wasn't even really taking a position,
but I still got attacked.
Of course.
Yes, of course.
For having, for not, I actually got attacked
for basically like not taking a stand.
Anyway, Elon Musk.
How did we know you've taken a stand?
We get it all the time.
I get it all the time.
You can't win for losing.
You just can't win.
But the thing about Elon is he's the only insanely wealthy
billionaire or those high, high billionaire group that's
just gone all in.
A lot of them, obviously, right now, they're pandering.
They're cow-towing.
They're trumping. But he's just made it his whole a lot of them obviously right now. They're pandering their cow town the Trump
Yes, but he's just like it made it his whole personality is tweeting all day
And this is something like not quite right and I I'm sorry, but like I can't get behind
Supporting the AFD in Germany, and I think it's all a bit dangerous and whatever agree, right? I is great. Yeah
So so the rest of the take is that,
so all that aside, that I was already like,
what's going on with this guy?
And just like the misinformation that he puts out,
or just like the simplistic what about-ism
that's just like so not helping the debate,
it's just so indicative of the problem, you know?
And then, I literally think he was trolling.
I think it's not a safe way to troll.
I think it's like really a problematic way to troll
because I think he knew what he was doing.
Of course.
And I think he just kind of thought it would be hilarious
to sort of like do it in a way where he could try to say
that he wasn't.
And it was just like, listen, he owns a platform that thrives on this type of conflict.
So for me, it's like, you're one of the smartest guys in the world.
You're incredibly wealthy, incredibly successful.
It would require the most incredible stupidity to not know that it's just like the one thing
that you don't do unless you
wanted to. Or if you really were that dumb to do it stupidly in that way, that you wouldn't
immediately come out and be like, you know, I got excited and I'm just not great at like
showing love because I didn't come from the hip hop community or something, you know?
But he didn't even do that, which shows me
that he's trolling.
Whether he's, and the whole thing is that
everyone jumps out, you're saying he's a Nazi.
It's like, no, I mean, I'm not really saying he's a Nazi.
I mean, he's showing like fascist tendencies,
or like he's showing like,
to be at least slightly enamored with fascism.
I don't mean fascism like Hitler, Nazis.
I mean, fascism historically, okay?
Because there's been many, you know?
Pinochet, Franco, you know, there's been plenty of Stalin,
and there's, across all sort of parts
of economic belief systems, there has been fascism.
So I'm not saying, oh, he's like Hitler,
even though he happened to do the Hitler salute,
but he has been flirting
With with fascism, but I don't think he's really like a Nazi
But I do think that he was trolling part of me wonders and I agree with you on this. I don't
think
He's uh, you know, I don't think he's a Nazi, right? I don't think that's like I don't believe that about Elon
I believe that he is trying to be
the most retweeted guy that particular day on his own platform and he's trying to
Say to other, you know, the other side of the aisle fuck you we can do we want we're back in power
You know take that essentially and then I can just a kind of excuse making it away
But what concerns
me about Elon in general is that he seems to be losing his mind a little bit. He's tweeting hundreds
of times per day. Yeah, that I agree with you. Yeah. He's at the, he's at the inauguration.
Clearly, he's done something, ketamine X, I'm not sure what it is. His eyes are rolling in the back
of his head. He's swirling around. So I think this guy is just kind of deep in his own, like his own bubble,
and there's nothing to pop it. And now he has come into power with this movement that has no
intention of checking him whatsoever. And so I worry that he gets more delusional and the people
that follow him or encourage this type of like rabble rousing are then the also the people that are in power
so now we're all just kind of losing our minds collectively and there's no way to decipher truth from fiction because everything is excuse-made the way and
Everything is just really you're like you said what about ism defeats all common sense
And I am also kind of a centrist and I think I feel like this kind of behavior is super dangerous
And I don't know like I believe in his right to first free speech and all that other shit
But I was saying on the show like there we shouldn't be licking the balls of billionaires
We should be helping to keep them in check to make sure that they don't get out of control and wield some intense power
check to make sure that they don't get out of control and wield some intense power over our government. The government is now for sale out in the fucking open and Elon is the
one that's buying it. And it drives me up a wall that everyone out there on his own
platform is just excuse making this kind of behavior. And, you know, almost like God worshipping
him. He's really seemed to have lost it down a ketamine hole or something.
Pete Yeah. I mean, he definitely has, yeah, he has some hero worshipping going on because,
you know, you can see by the comments, like, some people are just immediately annoyed. Now,
the one, I guess, like, slightly, I don't know, what put my mind at ease a little bit is
within a couple of days, like, a calmer, more honest analysis of what went down came out.
But just like the fires in LA,
just like all the big stories,
the first two days are everybody jockeying for position
on the biggest take.
And the biggest takes often rely on just fake news.
Trump's favorite term, but he only cares about fake news related to him.
He doesn't care about fake news related to anything else.
But again, I'm not even just singling out Trump there.
I'm singling out everybody.
Everybody's using just quick takes that have not been researched.
So the first two days of all stories I find are like not where the information is.
You calm down. Like even Shane Gillis I saw had like a nuanced take on Elon. He literally said,
because like, you know, Shane doesn't take actually hard political positions.
Yeah, I like Shane's take on a lot of things. And I could see a lot of the,
what do they call it? There's a world, but anyway, the bros fear, you know, the bros fear, that's
fear. I think largely was immediately taken the, cause they, they like the, there's a
trolled them there that they like, which is like, Oh, this will irritate all the woke
people that, that Elon did this. But eventually like even somebody like Shane Gillis is like,
it's hard to defend. Like you gotta like, it's all well and good to be like,
what are you talking about?
Of course I wasn't given the Nazi salute.
But it's like, well then apologize, because it clearly is.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then the other thing I wanna say is that
a lot of Jewish groups came out saying,
he's a big supporter of Israel,
and he's clearly not a Nazi.
And it's like, okay, I'll 100% accept that.
However, you're just making the assumption
that his target of hate isn't a whole new crop of people.
You know?
Just because he's down with the Jews and Israel
doesn't mean that he's not gonna other a bunch of people
and use the fascist handbook,
which is we have an enemy within
and we need to destroy it for the purity of our nation.
That's right.
Vulnerable people become the enemy of populism, right?
That is always been the case throughout time.
That's how you gather power.
That's how you roll in.
That's how you get the snowball rolling.
And it's clear that's what's happening. So while I
support anybody's right to vote for anybody, including Trump, while I may not like him
personally, I support your right to vote for him. I absolutely do. I get concerned when the entire
movement is based on demonizing groups of people. And on the other side also, by the way,
it happens on the other side also.
And I just think that it's like an unhealthy,
dangerous place to be.
And Elon seems to be the guy with the biggest...
And I had a bee in my bonnet, old school term.
I had a bee in my bonnet.
I love that.
I had a bee in my bonnet with Elon anyway.
Yeah, oh yeah.
I had a bee in my bonnet with Elon anyway,
because he literally, I don't know if people
were paying attention, but he was trying to rewrite the history of Hitler, which that
actually, I had my antenna out for him, to be honest, which is why I had a big reaction
to the salute, because he did actually try to say, oh, Hitler was actually a leftist.
And he was trying to say, because it's obviously you know socialism is in the the Nazi title you know he was trying to use that like already like it's just so it's not even
that it's debunked it was just it was never real trying to argue that like Hitler was a socialist
I mean his main enemies were communists and you know like you're looking at the 1930s and trying
to compare the way society breaks down today
and then trying to make it seem like Hitler aligns with today's left.
Like, not a chance.
It was literally rewriting history, trying to sort of like, fob Hitler off on the left.
Like, it's insane.
A lot of people are trying to do this, Tucker Carlson, and a lot of people are bringing
on apologists and saying that, you know, it's, listen, it's, it's such a complicated mess
and, and, um, and I agree with your, your point of view.
I think Ilan is trolling and I think Shane is right.
If it's an, if you're not in fact saluting the Nazis, then do us all a favor and just
say I'm sorry.
I just say I'm sorry.
That's all.
How hard is that?
I was fucking high as shit on ketamine and ayahuasca
and I didn't know what I was doing.
That's that.
But let's play.
They've been flirting.
Trump flirted with them.
You know, he couldn't come out hard in Charlottesburg.
And they'll say, oh, he was misquoted about the both sides.
But he just, he always has a hesitancy
to come out hard against the extreme right. I don't need him to come out hard against Ben Shapiro or even
Charles Kirk for that matter.
I don't need him to come out hard against them, but like people marching,
you got to come out strong.
So this isn't the first time that they've given little, little signals.
Oh, and can I just add? I know please not that political but
Enrico Tario Enrico Tario gets gets out of prison, right? And then he's on these interviews in his Fred Perry like they have a uniform the proud boys
They have a uniform and he's in there on his uniform, you know, and you're just like guys
How can you not see that this
is like fascist behavior?
Of course it is.
Of course it is.
And listen, we could go down the line.
You know, this is not that we don't, we typically are not a political podcast, but we say things,
I like to say things when I think it's just obviously makes sense pragmatically that you
need to check the far, the extremes on both sides of the aisle and you
need to come out and say like Trump I I'm with you I wish he would just check them like just check
them because but he knows that they vote and that's the thing is that he is looking to consolidate
any vote that he can get anywhere I said said this when Trump was running, Trump will say anything to anybody, any day or time,
left or right, liberal or conservative,
if he thinks that's going to get him a vote in the moment,
because memories are short and people forget
and they're willing to overlook
as long as he's talking to you for that moment.
And that's the truth.
Listen, a lot of politicians have done that throughout time.
But what I think makes this different
is that there are a bunch of people around Trump who are,
they're leaning into his worst urges,
and that allows him to lean into his worst urges.
And now we're kind of in this shit show.
And it does look a little fascist to me, for sure.
Now, like, we're laying people off because they're black.
I mean, like, you know, we have to call in if somebody
we think was a DEI hire, did you hear that one?
It's like, it's just, it's fucking insane to me
what's going on.
We can debate the policies about DEI or equal opportunity
or all that, we can debate that all day long.
But that debate should happen in the halls of Congress
or in our city halls or in our
own workplaces. There shouldn't be forced, like, fascism essentially. Like, you have to call your
brother or sister out if you think that they've, you know, been promoted because of some policy
so that we can fire them. Are they doing that? Yes, they are. It's insane. I've got to look that one up.
Yeah, this is insane. So, okay, so let's move away from politics just for a second,
because I will go on.
I could go on all day long,
and I don't want to lean into my worst impulses.
So, let me ask you this.
Last time we saw you, you were, if I'm not mistaken,
you were in the Hamptons?
Yeah, West Hampton, yeah.
And a renovation was going on in one of your apartments?
Was it going on in your apartment downtown?
Yeah, cause that's when we talked to Hannah.
We talked to Hannah and then you were like
hiding in the Hamptons cause you guys were doing
a renovation or something, is that right?
That's probably some excuse we had
for just being in the Hamptons.
We haven't done any renovation. Oh, maybe it was a renovation next door. Maybe it was a renovation next door.
It was like the downtown apartment. Maybe Hannah was saying, I have to go guys.
We're supposed to do a renovation, but we're procrastinating. But there was probably a reason.
Well, actually, because the building's old, so there's always somebody doing work. So
she might've been rushing out because it was about to get loud.
Yeah.
She was very lovely actually.
But we had just bought the house in West Hampton.
That, that was a, when I was talking to you, we just got that place actually.
Yeah.
Hannah was outside playing or doing tennis.
Oh yeah, that's right.
She was, uh, so, so here's, here's my question.
So do you have a place in Ireland also?
Yeah. I, I still have the house that I've had since 2005.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah.
You guys are like mini real estate moguls.
What's going on?
Well, I had a place in Dublin and a place in New York.
And then we met.
And Hannah's done all right.
So she got a place.
So anyway, it sounds bad. Trust me, Hannah's done all right. So she, she got a place. So anyway, you know, it sounds bad.
Trust me, none of them are fancy.
All right.
The West Hampton one is a little fancy.
Yeah.
But, okay, let's be honest.
Yeah.
But that was an ups, that was a-
Good for you guys.
That was, our family, my family always had
like a small little house there.
So we, we, we up-
We upgraded it.
Yeah.
Just a little bit.
We upgraded. So it seems fancier than it is in terms of,
we didn't start from zero.
Well, Chris, he has-
Enjoy the success.
He has three houses across two continents
and we have yet to be invited to either of them,
especially not the West Hampton one, which I hear is-
I know why you're not inviting us to the West Hampton.
I wouldn't invite me to the West Hamptons either.
Yeah.
I keep my shoes on. I know why you're not inviting us to the West Hamptons. I wouldn't invite me to the West Hamptons either.
I keep my shoes on.
Do you enjoy the Hamptons?
Do you enjoy the Hamptons?
You've lived there since, I mean, you've been there
obviously since you were a child.
Is it fun times?
Is it good times over there?
Yeah, so we're in West Hampton, so it's really not
like the Hamptons that people have in their head.
What's the difference for those who don't know?
Geographically, it's just the first one.
Some people in the Hamptons proper don't consider it the Hamptons.
They say you need to be east of the Shinnecock canal.
So you don't get the people that want to be in the Hamptons to be seen.
You don't get the sort of aspirational people, but you do,
you do get some fancy people, but there are people that aren't interested in that nonsense of like, we're in the Hamptons, but, but like you, you're,
you're at the beach and the village is so cute and it has everything that the Hamptons is supposed
to have. It just, it doesn't have the status hungry people, you So, uh, so it's, it's, it's quite nice.
By the way, it's also quite a bit cheaper than that part of the Hampton.
So I do want to point out that I'm not just, I'm not just saying it as if to
make it seem like we're not fancy.
Like it's really not the same, you know?
Dez's next door neighbor is not Howard Stern.
Now we're just making that clear right now.
Howard is, Howard is not on that side of the island.
Howard's East.
Yeah.
But however, Eli Manning is on our side of the canal.
He doesn't live exactly near us,
but an Anderson Cooper is on our side of the canal.
Oh, look at Anderson.
And Susan Lucci is in my village.
Oh, I like Susan Lucci.
Just right down there.
Gen X people love Susan Lucci.
Yeah, exactly.
In fact, the dressing room in the West Hampton Beach Performing Arts Center is called the
Susan Lucci Room.
No way.
I love that.
Look at that.
Yeah.
And my mother was a big All My Children watch.
Of course.
Yeah, that's right.
She was on that show forever.
Oh, and she didn't win for forever.
Forever.
That was the whole thing about Susan Lucci.
She never won a daytime Emmy for anything, did she?
I think she ended up finally.
Which is ridiculous.
Erica, Erica Cain, great character.
Erica Cain.
Great character.
Yes, my stories.
I gotta watch my stories.
My grandmother used to say that too.
We used to have this lady that worked at the radio station
where we worked at and there was a break room.
The break room had a TV. And this is an older black
woman, she was probably in her seventies, she was like in the accounting department,
in like clockwork. She would sit down at noon or 11 or whatever it was. And if you went up there
into the break room, you would see her watching-
Beth Dombkowski Her stories.
Jared Svelte Her stories. And she would say, don't turn my stories, I'm watching my stories.
I always thought that was, that was so cute. What do you watch when you're on the road?
Go ahead.
It's so funny that you asked me that
because I was about to answer that question
without you asking.
That's crazy.
I have a reason though.
Were you gonna say,
what do I watch when I'm on the road?
Yeah.
Well, I'm obsessed with Sevenths right now.
Oh, Sevenths.
I know.
I rewatched the whole first season.
Yeah, but the thing is that I was triggered
because you said, and she was in the break room
and my immediate thought wasn't about like a break room
at work, it was the torture chamber.
Yeah, which they've now changed.
Don't, no spoilers.
Okay, okay, I won't say a word about the new season,
but I have to tell you this.
So we are on the Odyssey Network,
that's our podcast network, so is the Severance podcast.
Which is really good too.
The companion podcast.
So I got a chance to do some reads
and for the Severance podcast,
the Severance is such a good fucking show.
It's so well crafted.
It really is.
If you haven't started season two,
there's only two episodes, you will not be disappointed.
I am obsessed with this show.
And I'm obsessed with all of the, like, you know,
rumors and theories and like I'm online.
There's a whole thing.
There's a whole thing.
There's a whole thing.
Oh yeah, I'm deep, deep in it.
Actually, their podcast that you mentioned
has been so fascinating to me because not only did I sort of,
I rewatched the show along with the podcast, which was great. But beyond that, beyond the show, you learn a lot about like
filmmaking and casting and creativity. Like you learn so much about like the crafts associated
with making a film, you know, like the artists that, that, that make, um, you know, the different things that they use, that get a perfect combination of cast and story and director.
And I think this has the potential,
obviously plenty of shows have disappointed long-term.
But currently it has the potential to go down
as one of the great shows of all time, in my opinion.
It's so fascinating.
If the first two episodes of season two are,
yeah, there's so many moving parts,
but they are so beautifully crafted and acted.
And the, like the, I'm not gonna talk about it
because you haven't watched it yet,
but it is just such a great show.
And I think it deserves all of, the part that-
I've watched everything by the way.
I meant for the listener.
The spoilers were for the listener.
All right, I won't spoil for the listener.
I've watched the latest episode twice already. I know, right? No, I watched them all twice now. I just were for the listener. I won't spoil for the listener. I've watched the latest episode twice already.
I know, right? No, I watched them all twice now.
I just finished it this morning. I just finished the second episode this morning.
I'm just in love with that show.
The part that's a little bit disappointing to me is that, you know,
Severance is getting a big marketing push right now.
Yes.
But because of kind of the, like, the disparate nature of cable and streaming and all this,
I don't think Severance has the kind of audience
that say a Breaking Bad did or stuff like that.
Sure, a lot of things have fractured.
Yeah, so I so encourage everybody to go watch Severance.
I had a friend who was like,
oh, watch Severance, well, I just didn't understand it.
I'm like, you're not supposed to understand.
You're not supposed to understand everything.
I remember watching it for the first time
back three years ago and I was like, whoa, this is depressing. And like, I didn't it for the first time back three years ago, and I was like,
whoa, this is depressing.
And like, I didn't know what to make of it.
But after about the third one was the third episode, you got into it.
Third, fourth episode was when I was like, whoa, I can't wait to see what happens next.
Then when you start to kind of because it's so different.
Yes, it takes three apps.
So different, but it requires it's a complicated story.
And it requires those those first two apps.
Yeah. But the thing is that even in the first two EPs, yes, there's a lot going on and it's
a bit slow and you're trying to figure it out.
But even within those EPs, you're just in this insane world that is just fascinating
on its own.
Yeah.
Just from the concept of it.
It's so visually stimulating.
It is.
And mentally stimulating to try to figure out what's going on. You know in the second episode how the heli is, heli is walking through the glass hallway.
It is absolutely stunning.
It's amazing.
I just absolutely loved it.
Have you watched the show, Say Nothing.
Oh, yeah. You're you're you're this is this is a this is a controversial show.
Is it a that's I wanted to ask you how it was received.
How how did you it's it's received differently in different communities?
Yeah. You know, yeah.
No, I have to tell you that I know Jerry Adams and I have I have interviewed him. What? Yeah. No, I have to tell you that I know Jerry Adams and I have interviewed him.
What? Yeah. So I'm going to go on the record right now and say that it's a bit of a hit job
on Jerry Adams. And I'm not saying that some of the things, like the troubles was very complicated.
Say nothing is about a very complicated time in history. And there's
a lot about what there's... For those of us that don't know, what is it about? Okay, so let me just
give... We need five episodes, man. Give me your take on it. Give me your take first. Here's my take.
As someone who grew up at the end of The Troubles, and as someone who
my family watched a lot of the news about The Troubles, but I was not very educated.
What is The Troubles?
The Troubles is the Irish Protestant Catholic, the UK government against the separatists,
the people who wanted independence, the nationalists.
But in the north of Ireland.
In the north of Ireland.
Right, okay. I've never heard about this. So this is specifically,
this show follows the history of one woman
who was a part of the IRA,
and she became a manager, an executive in the IRA.
And then it becomes also kind of an adjunct story
is about a guy named Jerry Adams,
who claimed he was never in the IRA, but then
became a politician in the government. And some people thought, well, he's just a member
of the IRA. And he kept claiming, no, no, no, I'm not. But apparently, or according
to this movie, it makes Jerry seem as if he was directing a lot of violence during these troubles.
That he was a part of it, that he was directing it,
that he had his hand in it, that he...
And then it, and I'm just like,
we could take five hours to explain this,
but let me explain one important part.
In the troubles, there were something called the missing,
which were people that went missing,
supposedly because they were...
Rats. Informers.
Informers for the UK government against the IRA.
They were in the IRA,
but they were ratting out other IRA members.
They went missing.
And this, some people got caught up
that may have been innocent and they went missing.
So it makes it appear that Jerry Adams
directed these people to be missing, quote unquote, right?
But he has claimed all along that he had nothing to do
with it, not directly.
So did I get that right kind of?
Yeah, sort of, but it's so complicated.
But honestly, really people just need to see it
because what happened to Gene McConville
is like a real tragedy.
Like there's no, like say nothing, what say nothing does well is it shows like
just the tragedy of society breaking down into violence and how really
nobody is safe from that.
And that the morality as we know it in like peacetime, gets extremely complicated, right?
What Say Nothing does terribly is it kind of suggests that certain injustices, of which
there were many throughout Irish history and many throughout the microcosm of Irish history,
which is the Tr the troubles, there were
many injustices.
And in the end, like, why does one injustice get
more attention than another, unless there's a
political motivation behind it, which is in my
opinion is dangerous because if you know the
history, it's better to watch,
so I'll just give this sort of like take for the end of it.
If you know the history, right, ending the Troubles was very complicated and it took
a lot of political will to get the peace process over the line, to sign the Good Friday Agreement
in 1998.
Right?
And part of that Good Friday Agreement was the sense of that we all have to accept that
there has been horrible things that have happened throughout the process and we need to try
to find a way forward.
And then when they took the case against Gerry Adams over the Gene McConville and the missing
because of the Boston tapes, which is its own controversy in itself,
but without even getting into the recordings. The fact that they decided to go after him
for that specifically was so dangerous because it's like, oh, so how come we're not re-litigating
almost all of the past except for this one thing? And this guy happens to be the guy
that's the head of
Sinn Fein and they're getting powerful in the Republic of Ireland.
Cause at that time, Sinn Fein was really starting to get powerful in the
South as well as in the North.
You know, like why is it just, we go after him?
And again, I know Jerry Adams, but I am no great defender.
I've never understood why he keeps denying that he's in the IRA.
I think it's really just a fuck you.
I'm never going to admit it now, But like everybody, everybody knows that he was,
you know, like that it's not, that, that part's not even that controversial because everyone
knows that he was, but he just does that for whatever reason. And that that's fine. Right.
But like why that one was okay to relitigate, but not all the other ones. And that's so dangerous
because you have a situation where like, peace is so delicate
because everyone's pissed off.
Everybody has grievance on every side of the community.
There is grievance.
Yeah.
But now you're going to allow one grievance to surface because you can actually just bring
everybody's grievances back in and then we're back to square one.
So I thought that was a bit irresponsible.
The court case that happens late in the series, Say Nothing.
However, what I will say is that it's an exceptionally good series about the worst part of the Troubles.
And you'd be hard pressed to criticize anything from like the first five or six episodes.
And it's very intense watching the suffering
of Dolores Price and her sister.
And it's very intense watching them have to do things
that in hindsight are fucked up.
And a lot of it's fucked up.
I mean, the bomb is fucked up, you know?
But they don't feel bad about the bomb, you know?
But anyway, it's a great series.
Just the last two episodes are hard to reconcile.
I have a big problem with them,
and I did a bit of research on it.
And the people behind the Boston Tapes, particularly Ed Maloney, he's written a lot of research on it and the people behind the Boston tapes, particularly Ed
Maloney, he's written a lot of different histories of the IRA, but he was very against the peace
process and he was very against Jerry Adams.
Here's the thing, it really makes it seem like there was a divide down the middle of
people that didn't want the peace process, people that didn't.
That's not a fair reflection. It doesn't even mention Martin McGinnis, who's Gerry Adams' partner in all this,
who's like, he was like officially the leader of the Derry Brigade of the IRA. He wasn't hiding
that he was the leader of the IRA. He's not even mentioned in the whole thing. So it's not even
like good history, because to really go at Jerry Adams,
and a lot of people don't like Jerry Adams,
I'm sure there was a lot of people that were delighted
with the way that Jerry Adams was tarnished there.
But like they go after Jerry Adams,
they don't even mention Martin McGuinness
as also part of the peace process part.
Not the Gene McConville part,
but the peace process part.
Like Martin McGuinness is like front and center on all
that. So the last two episodes, yeah, the last two episodes are like a little bit agenda driven,
but honestly, the first six, I would say is one of the better shows about the troubles.
I thought it was some of the best television that I have watched in a long time. So well acted, beautifully scripted,
terribly stressful to watch, but intense, dramatic, interesting, and as I don't, I
mean they make it pretty clear. This is a dramatization of things that really
happened that Jerry Adams has never admitted being in the IRA. They say that
clear, but that kind of, that's a little bit of a scapegoat and I understand
what you're saying, that kind of gives them some creative clear, but that kind of, that's a little bit of a scapegoat. And I understand what you're saying that that kind of gives them some creative
liberties, but it also puts in the mind of the watcher that Jerry Adams is
guilty of shit, right?
And so, yeah, but I mean, Jerry Adams is guilty of shit in the sense that like,
we all like, like, this is the problem because the series makes it, the series
kind of like slowly goes into this like unsolved mystery type series, right?
Yes. But like, that's not what's happening. No.
In the North. Yeah.
The truth is that the North is about like truth and reconciliation. It's not about unsolved
crimes, you know? Right.
So like, it becomes a series about like an unsolved mystery.
I don't disagree with you. In real terms-
It's a story vehicle. That unsolved mystery. I don't disagree with you.
In real terms, that's not what's going on because everybody knows that Jerry Adams denies being
in the IRA.
When they say that he's denying being in the IRA, it makes it seem like he's saying he
wasn't involved in this shit.
We all know he was involved in this shit.
We know.
But I agree with you.
The peace process is hard and so at some point you have to put a pin in it and say,
Okay, we're gonna do our best to move forward. It's the same thing that happens in any war and any, you know,
Conflict is that point in conflicts in your relationship with your wife or your husband at some point you have to say, okay
We did each other dirty on this one. Right? We said some shitty things to each other
Let's kiss and make up and can you give me a hand job?
You know, I mean, listen, that's, that's the way that
that's the way that it all works.
But it was, it's a horrible 30 years for nothing.
You know, like, that's actually, it's an interesting, it's an
interesting sort of loop back to what we were talking about
before is that like people take for granted civil society holding.
People in Ireland, even the North of Ireland, Ireland's had quite a violent
history, but in the 1950s in the North, there was sectarianism.
There was bad shit being done to Catholics.
It wasn't an equal society.
But even amidst the fight for civil rights that actually
was the precursor to the troubles, nobody could have imagined that this would lead to 30 years
of violence, like 30 years of instability and people being moved out of their houses.
Nobody could have imagined that. And nobody could imagine that still to this day, the city is
divided. There's literally a peace wall.
And that's what I think sometimes when people are just so haphazard with antagonistic language,
and then our leaders are haphazard with antagonistic language, it's like it can break down.
It's not as solid as you think it is.
Exactly.
So you got to. Exactly. Yeah.
So you gotta be careful.
Yeah, it just takes a spark, right?
It takes one spark.
The snowball gets rolling downhill and that can come from, people need to be careful with
their words and certainly with their actions, especially when they have a platform.
And I think this, like this conversation has, you know what surprised me?
This conversation has been a lot more interesting than I anticipated. Well, actually, can I just, since we're talking about watching stuff, if you actually want
to watch a movie about the hunger strikes, you know, cause the 12 IRA men, you know,
died.
Yeah.
But it's called hunger.
Michael Fassbender plays Bobby Sands.
He was the first guy to die in a hunger strike.
And it's very good, very intense.
It's hunger.
Just one word, hunger.
Hunger, but it's very intense though.
Okay, I'm ready for it.
This is not like, honey, you wanna watch something fun?
Yeah.
This is a movie about a man starving himself to death
in similarly gory detail as they
did with Dolores Price. Yeah, that Dolores Price, those three episodes were highly intense. It's
her and her sister. They go to jail and they go on a hunger strike for their civil rights. And
it is some of those scenes are some of the most intense watching.
But the overall, the show, I think is well deserved.
The kudos that they are getting is well deserved for the acting and for the story making and
for the cinematography.
It's just really well done.
I'll put it on the list.
Dez and the Bishop Exchange is now available anywhere that you find your...
The congregation.
Join the congregation.
It's available anywhere you find your podcasts.
Dez is currently on tour over there across the pond,
but I assume you're making your way back to the States
for another round of shows.
Oh yeah, right back in March.
I'm back in Long Island, Phoenix, Denver.
I got a lot of shows.
They're all on my website.
I need to add Atlanta.
I need to add Atlanta.
I've been, I was in the punchline before,
but I haven't, I actually didn't sell a lot of tickets, but I feel like I would do add Atlanta. I need to add Atlanta. I've been, I was in the punchline before, but I haven't,
I actually didn't sell a lot of tickets,
but I feel like I'll do better now.
So I have to get back there.
Yes, please.
Dez, if you come to Atlanta,
we will help you sell those tickets.
Oh great, and we can go live.
We can be in the studio together.
Oh, that would be awesome.
That would be better.
So there's a new club here called
the Helium Comedy Club.
Oh yeah, that's a chain.
Yeah, oh, it's a chain?
But they're good.
Yeah, and so they've got some good names
in North of the city.
There's some good names that have been playing up there.
So check it out.
You book the show, we'll help you sell the tickets.
All right, actually I'm overdue.
I've had a lot of people ask me,
so that'll probably come soon.
I'll let you know.
And you're also welcome to come back here.
I hope sooner rather than later.
Uh, Dez is our second second, by the way, you're the second,
the only, the second guest we have asked to come on twice.
Really?
Yes.
Uh, true.
Reggie Watts and you.
And Reggie Watts.
Oh my God, dude, he's my favorite.
I don't think a lot of people understand that the genius of Reggie Watts.
We do.
He is genius.
Last time he came on, the second time he came on, he's like, he had a new
girlfriend. So we ended up spending about 48 minutes of the hour we were on talking about love.
Love.
And to hear Reggie Watts talk about love while he is in love was one of the most fascinating
conversations we've had in a very long time. He is a genius.
Also, he sent us Kratom.
Yeah, he sent us drinks.
So we were all drinking
that while we were talking. I've seen him in three continents. Yeah. I've seen him in Australia,
in Europe and in the United States. Do you guys know each other? I know him, but I got to know
him originally from watching him and just being mesmerized by what he does. You know what we
should do? Des Bishop, Reggie Watson, the commercial break,
all on one and we can all see.
We've done a few things together before
because I do have like a secret little couple
of hip hop skills.
So I, and I'm very open to Reggie's style of like improv
and he's such a great guy.
I couldn't love that guy more creatively.
Well, now my wheels are turning right now. My wheels are turning. I'm going to email you
because I've got an idea, an event that we have coming up and I've got an idea. Maybe Reggie,
Dez and us can be in the studio at the same time. So I'm going to email you, DezBishop.com,
I think it is..net Dezbishop.com?
No,.net.
I lost.com.
.net.
Add Dezbishop on Instagram.
Motherfucker.
Who's sitting on your, who's sitting on your?
I don't even know.
How much do they want?
I don't, I can't even get to that part.
Yeah.
So annoying.
All right, maybe I'll help you find that out.
We'll get the, we'll railroad this guy.
They're called, they're,
Yeah, where they just buy up stuff just to have it. They just buy up stuff just to have it. Okay, desbishop.net. He's on tour across the
pond. He'll be on tour back here in America. Please check out the Bishop Exchange burner phone,
of course, is very popular with the kids I hear. And, uh, tell Hannah we said hello.
Des, we love you. We'll see you very shortly. Yeah, enjoy your tour. Thank you. Thank you.
Did you know that we have a phone number?
Well, we do, and you should call us.
Nobody's going to answer, but you can leave a voicemail for us that we may or may not
play on the show.
And if that's not the vibe, then just send us a text, okay?
Our number is 212-433-3TCB, so get texting and give us something to talk
about, please. We need it.
While you're doing that, you can also follow us on Instagram, at The Commercial Break,
and on TikTok, at TCB Podcast. And as always, check out our website, tcbpodcast.com, for
all of our audio and video content.
Speaking of video, we are also posting full video episodes at youtube.com slash the commercial break. So go watch them, please. Anyway, now let's
hear from our sponsors and get back to the good stuff.
Ah, Des Bishop. What more is there to say? I love him. What more is there to say? We
talked about American politics. We talked about American politics.
We talked about Irish politics. We talked about Irish politics and then American politics.
It was a whole day for-
Severance.
Severance. We talked about Severance. That's one thing we did talk about and the non-existent
renovation that Hannah told us was going on in her apartment. There you go. Now we know.
You've been outed, Hannah. You've been outed.
He was a good deflector for her.
He was what? He had her back on that. You've been outed. He was a good deflector for her. He was what?
He had her back on that.
Oh yeah, he did.
Remember, he was like, yeah, well, there's always construction.
We mean to renovate, but we haven't yet.
We meant to get our story straight before I came on, but I didn't talk to her.
That's got to be interesting. Like, Hannah is very successful at what she does.
As a matter of fact, I think she just sold out three nights at Radio City Music Hall
with Giggly Squad, her runaway podcast hit.
And Dez is famous in his own right and much more famous over across the pond.
Then they separate for long periods of time.
Like he's over there for seven weeks.
That's a long time to be without your wife.
That's a long time to be without your wife. That's a long time to be without your wife. But, you know, part of me thinks that might work just
fine! I'd love to separate from my family for seven weeks. Just the children, not the wife,
just the children. Actually, I think I'd miss them terribly.
You absolutely would.
Yeah, I go out, you know, I go out of town to a conference or whatever for a day or two,
and all of a sudden I'm missing my kids. It's funny in that way about children and family members
is that you think you need a break from them and then you get a break from them and you
really don't want the break from them. Yeah, you're instantaneously missing them. So anyway,
Dez, lovely human being, desbishop.net, that's where you can get tickets and information
about his tour. Also check out the Bishop Exchange with John Bishop and Des Bishop. It's a good podcast. We've listened
to the first couple of episodes. They're just getting started. One of the things that they
do do is you can actually call in live on their show and they will take your questions
right there. More information about that on his social medias. So thanks, Des, for coming
in today. We certainly appreciate it. I'd
love to talk to you.
I think we're going to see him again.
Yes. And I believe we'll see Des for a third time. Maybe.
Hopefully.
He told us he would, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes. After we just talked to American
politics for an hour, he went, oh my gosh.
He's fascinating. I like hearing his point of view.
I agree. A hundred percent. Listen, everybody's got a point of view. I agree a hundred percent listen
Everybody's got a point of view. It's okay to share that point of view every once in a while
I know that the commercial break is often a break from all the regular bullshit
But sometimes the bullshit percolates and you just want to hear what somebody else has to say. That's it
That's all we're doing here. Just facilitating a conversation
Look at you. Look at us. Yeah, look at us
Look at us. We you! Look at us. Yeah, look at us.
Look at us, we're the new Rogan.
No.
No, no, sure.
That won't be happening.
All right, desbishop.net, you know what to do.
Also, we'd love it if you would check out our website.
We have a.com, tcbpodcast.com.
That's where you go to find out more information about the show. All the
audio, all the video, right there from one location. So if you're a URL kind of person,
feel free to dial us up. You can also get your free TCB swag.
Where are you URL kind of dude? Dial it up on the AOL.
There's a song that my son has been listening to
and in this song it's got the noises of dial-up.
Oh wow.
It's like a sound effect.
Baa, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.
And he goes, dad, that's what phones used to sound like,
right?
And I go, that's how you used to connect to the internet.
And he said, with that noise?
And I go, well, that's the noise that would make.
He was very confused about everything.
It is very confusing.
I said, that's the noise of computers talking to each other.
And he was like, like Siri?
And I was like, OK, I'll just put it down.
Forget it.
Never mind.
You'll learn when you're old.
You'll hear it in the history books.
Yeah, it will be.
All right.
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And now every single episode of the commercial break
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So please go follow us, subscribe,
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You know what to do.
212-433-3822.
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