The Commercial Break - TCB Spring Break Replay!

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Ep909: As the gang head out for Spring Break (or as Astrid calls it....Bryan's Spring Training) we reply a a few episodes loves by fans!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Miss Magic Maggie here from the House of Bliss in San Diego. So this is a public service announcement. I used to use tanning beds because I felt inadequate because I'm a Native American with white skin due to my druid ancestors. But when I was in the tanning bed, I spraged my legs so that I wouldn't have lines. And now I've got two moles on my hoo-hoo on each side. and so I would not suggest using tanning beds, be blissful, and that's magic. On this episode of the commercial break.

I was just kind of a mess. And when you leave the house at 17 fucking years old, you don't know anything. No, you think you do that. Oh, I did. Oh, yes, I did. I got this. Yeah, I got this.

I got this mattress I'm going to take to my story. Stripper's house, my stripper girlfriend's townhouse, and we're going to live there. Little did I know they were running a little side business out of the house. It was called escorting. People were sneaking in it out of the back door. They were. They were opening the sliding glass door at like three in the morning. The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

The 30 of the morning! 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 Haudley. Best to you, Chris. Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Happy to have you back in studio here with us. Day number two. How you feeling?

It's great. Yes. Feels like a warm, snugly blanket. It does kind of. Yeah. I just got back into our cavernous cave here. It is very... The tree of trust. As you might. You're in the little nest with the birds and the tree of trust. Yeah. And again, thanks to... Tina for hopping in. Absolutely. She did a great job.

Fantastic. It was wonderful to sit and have a conversation with her. I actually was responding to some text messages because people were like, love the episodes with Tina. Who is Tina? I don't think I ever explained to those who are new to the show who Tina was. So there must have been four of those messages. Who is Tina? And how did she get there?

Yeah. Tina is. She's a little birdie. She's another little birdie to fly. around the show. That's right. That's true. I have been friends with Tina for over 30 years. I have known Tina. She's a family friend. She's a good dear friend of mine. A little story about Tina that I probably should have told when she was here, but we'll tell it when she's not. When I was living, did I ever tell you

this story about how one night I thought I was getting cocaine and we got crystal meth and then we thought we were crystal meth dealers? So we were. Okay, Tina may or may not have been around me at that time. And I was living in an apartment with a dude who had a job in construction and he was sober. Like hardcore sober had been an alcoholic and a drug addict for many, many years. And his rules of these houses, this house was insane. How did he get hooked up with him? I was traveling around couches because I was a real fucking shithead.

I mean, I wanted to be the next Eddie Vedder. But that's not gainful employment wanting to be the next Eddie Vedder. That doesn't pay ver. well. Do you know what I'm saying? Especially not when you have a voice like I do. So I was just like couch hopping and some, eventually I said to one of my friends, a guy who was also in a, listen to this story. This is crazy. Okay, here we go. Brian, story time with Brian. I was at a house where everyone was, it was the weed house. Everyone was smoking weed. It was like a real white man didn't, like the white men who didn't think they were.

white. The Bob Barley? Yes. White Bob Marley? Well, more like drug dealers, hardcore, one too many, you know, Snoop dog albums, notorious B-I-G hang on the wall. You know what I'm saying? Like, and they were dealing, you know, $10 bags of weed out of the window at the shitty apartment complex. But we all were friends with them, Tina included. And so we would always go to this house. There was always weed around. There was always like drugs, alcohol, all this shit. It was like a den of iniquities. And the crazy shit, I could spend a whole episode. just talking about this house. But let me get here. In the afternoon, I was couch surfing somewhere. I probably didn't have a place to stay that night. The guys told me, ah, come crash on our couch.

It was a house full of people, as it always was, of weird people in and out of the house, you know, hold your wallet really tight, like that kind of scene. The land of the misfit toys. The land of the misfit white people. I mean, that's what it was, right? So I'd never forget. We're watching TV. They're passing around this joint. I'm hitting it. And I start, to get, I go super para, like super para. I remember those days. I'm just in my head. It's all spinning around. I can't breathe. My heart's racing too fast. I'm dead. I'm dying. I can't think. Am I thinking? Am I breathing? Should I think about breathing? Yes, I can't move. And I freaked out. And I called the one person, the one person that I thought could help me. And that is a guy from high

school who went to AA, who started, who like got sober in high school. He didn't even have enough time to become a drug addict or an alcoholic, but he went straight. He knits it in the bud. Do not pass go. And still to this day, I believe the guy is sober. Good for him. But, and he was a friend in grade school. He was a friend in high school. So I know his, I have his phone number in my little black book because back then you didn't have a phone. You had a black book. I opened it up. I call him and I mumble, jumble, jumble my way through a conversation. And an hour later, he is picking me with his AA sponsor, and we are headed to a waffle house where the AA sponsor is buying me buying me something to eat and asking me a series of questions. Here's some of the questions.

Do you believe that alcohol and drugs is negatively affecting your life or your relationships? And I'm eating like I've never eaten before, and I'm like, uh-huh, definitely, definitely. Can I have more, can I have more waffles? Yes. More syrup. Do you owe any drug dealers, any money? Uh, probably. Yep, definitely. As a matter of fact, I think I still owe the people at that house money. Okay, we're going to figure that out. We're going to figure that out for you. Are you willing to submit to a higher power? Uh-huh, definitely, definitely. Can I have some more syrup with these waffles and some coffee and a high sea orange juice, please? Anything you say? And these guys are so serious. They're just like staring me down and I'm like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. 24 hours later, I am in a halfway house. Okay. A halfway house. for people who have problems with drugs and alcohol. Yeah.

This was probably, certainly the lowest point in my young life at that point. I didn't know how I got there. I didn't know why I got there. I don't really... You had like a room? I had a room with two other guys. Okay. In a shitty apartment complex on Beaufort Highway.

Okay. Oh, wow. Where it's an immigrant community. Anybody's been to Atlanta knows Beaufort Highway, right? Fantastic food. Fantastic food. probably not the first choice of apartment complexes. No.

And we are in the worst of the worst. And I am now in an apartment complex. And the whole building is this organization that is really just ripping people off. But I'll explain that in a second. So I signed my life away. I'm willing to work. All my money is going to go to these people. These people are going to provide food and shelter and all this other stuff.

And I'm like, okay, what, you know, whatever. At that time, you got to understand that I just wanted some kind of stability. Right? I'm probably 19 years old at the time. And I did not have the ability to get an apartment on my own. I don't think I had a vehicle at the time. No, I didn't have a vehicle at the time. Didn't have a vehicle at the time. I just wanted some stability. And I felt like this was a way to get some stability. And then I'll, you know, I could still have my friendships. This was not that. This became like a whole fucking thing. It was like basically I was like encompassed in a cocoon of really old men who had very serious. problems with drugs and alcohol, and I was like a young kid in this apartment complex. It was crazy, crazy. Okay. It lasted about two weeks. I flew the coop. I'm sure.

I flew the coop, and I had a friend, and he said, come live with this guy. He needs a roommate, right? And it's $50 a week. You can live with them. It was in Cobb County, which is a much different. Were you working at the Tritoria? I was not yet working at the Tertoria. That would come about two years later.

But so what I do is I go and I, live with him. And then one night, as I've told the story before, we thought we were getting some the girlfriend of this guy. Here were the rules of the house. You can only use this half of the refrigerator. If you touch anything in my side of the refrigerator, I'll break your fucking face. If I hear you after 7 o'clock at night, I'll break your fucking face. If you turn on the TV after 9 o'clock at night, I'll break your fucking face. If you come in that door and bring friends that I don't know, I'm going to break your fucking face. You cannot be in the living room when I'm watching TV or I'll break your fucking face.

This guy was the meanest son of a bitch I had ever met my entire life. And he was sober for many years. But he had learned nothing, but he was sober, right? He had learned the opposite of whatever sober people. Right. So I live with him. Okay. Tina is around me at this time.

and I are spending a lot of time together. You know, sometimes he knew Tina because here's how it goes. I think it was Tina who actually introduced me to this guy because she knew his girlfriend. His girlfriend was the one that was selling us drugs on the side. And he had no idea that his girlfriend was a drug addict, right? Oh, no. Whatever. So one night Tina and I are doing whatever we're doing in the room, quiet as mice,

probably three o'clock in the morning, you know, whispering to each other. And you think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding. whispering to each other. And we're looking through the creative loafing. And in the creative loafing in the back, it's musicians wanted, right? And there's one. You know, rock band needs singer, you know, send tapes to this address or call this phone number.

So the next, so Tina circles it and she says, call this phone number. So the next day, the first thing I do is I call that phone number. and they say, yeah, come on and drop your shit off, drop your tapes off at this address. So two days later, at like 8 o'clock at night, 9 o'clock at night. Did you have the 33 tapes? I had the tapes in my bag. I had all of my lyric books, which are embarrassingly embarrassing. You found those a lot back.

Well, Chelsea found them. My best friend's wife found them in the back of her car. That's right. And you were going to do the AI stuff to something. some of it. Yeah, we did some of it. And I'll do more of it. It's bad. It's just bad. It's all bad. Teenage angst. So I go to the front door of this office building. Like it's an office complex. You know, the offices that kind of look like houses, you know, like two-story houses, right brick, the whole nine yards. Where you might see a doctor's office or a small lawyer's officer, an accountant, or whatever. Okay, so we go to one of these in Buckhead. Tina drives me there. And she waits in the car and I go up to the front door and I knock on the door and the guy.

and the guy, one of the guys from the band answers the door. And he's like, hey, what's up? And I'm like, yeah, I'm Brian. I talked to one of you guys on the phone and, you know, and he's like, cool. You're like early. We're still up here practicing with another guy. So just drop your tapes off and, you know, we'll get back to you. And I'm like, yeah, actually, I kind of drove all the way out here.

So can I just like maybe like? Hang out? And he's like, I go, can I maybe get like some of your music so I could put something to it? And he goes, uh, yeah, okay. come upstairs, sit in this room, and then when we're done, we'll talk to you. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I do that. But I'd never say another word to Tina. And when I, what happens is, they get done with auditioning another guy. I go in. I spend the next two hours talking and auditioning for them, just right into it. They play music. I start singing. Yeah. I grab my lyric book.

I start singing. By the end of that two hours, I'm in the band. I'm in the band. Do you want to live with us? And I have a place to live. Sweet. When I come outside, like four hours later, Tina is still sitting there. There is no communicato because there's no way to communicate. There are no cell phones. There's nothing. I never thought that she would just sit there and wait for me.

Well, she probably, I mean, if it would have been me, I would have thought, well, he's making headway. This is great. This is it. Yeah. She thought, I'm going to ride his coattails all the way to fame and fortune. And she still thinks that to this day. That's Tina. Tina is still waiting outside of the commercial break for all of this.

She is a great friend. And she is a great friend. And she was wonderful when she was here. But Tina and I go so far back. She is intertwined in so much of my history in my misspent youth. I mean, honestly. I was just a shithead. I was just like, I don't know about a shithead. I was lost. I didn't have any direction. The parental situation was pretty bad. Not because they were bad people, but because they just. We're also in shitty situations of themselves. And so I was... I mean, four boys is a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. And I was the first of the boys. And so, you know, what they say about firsts is that you bang your head on every wall, right?

Every rule is more strict for you. Everything you... That's so true. They're trying to figure out how to parent with the first one. Yeah. So that the ones behind them get the benefit of some experience. So I feel bad for my first because I know he's getting the worst version of parenting. We're trying everything and seeing what's things.

You know, being firm and being nice and being empathetic and not giving a shit and all this other stuff. And that was my parent, that definitely happened with me. But then in combination with some things that were going on at the house that were not having anything to do with being good or bad parents, just sickness, illness, mental illness. And so I was just kind of a mess. And when you leave the house at 17 fucking years old, you don't know anything. No, you think you do that. Oh, I did. Oh, yes, I did.

I got this. Yeah, I got this. I got this mattress I'm going to take to my stripper's house, my stripper girlfriend's townhouse, and we're going to live there. Little did I know they were running a little side business out of the house. It was called escorting. People were sneaking in and out of the back door. They were. They were opening the sliding glass door at like three in the morning.

I had a mattress that I took. took from my dad's house. I took a mattress. I took anything I could fit in a backpack and I took the only clothes that I had, which was an orange 33 shirt. The 33 is kind of always stuck with an orange shirt that had black 33 lettering on. It was like an old baseball jersey or something. And my green bell bottom pants and my blue Doc Martins and anything I could fit in a bag. Your wallet and your chain. That's it. And a mattress. And I took the mattress and we put it on top of a Ford Taurus and we held it down for 17 months. Oh God, the Ford Taurus is. My family had one

Everyone had a Ford Taurus. You didn't live in the 90s or early 2000. You didn't have a Ford Taurus. And we went and we moved in with two dancers who We didn't know it at the time. We're like four months behind on rents. But they were like, if you pay the rent, it's your place. But then we'll also come in and out of the house and hang out.

It was a nightmare. And they had a third girl. that lived with them down in the bottom of the townhouse. And so you would walk in, it was a three-story. You would walk in, there was a balcony overlooking a big living area, then a bedroom off to the right. Then there was a bedroom in a kitchen on the middle area with a little dinette. And then you could walk up to the third story, and there was a bedroom up there.

So, you know, when my friend took the bedroom upstairs, I took the one next to the kitchen. And then I also happened to be like, I would say dating one of the dancers, but I don't think, I think I would call it dating. I think she would call it, does he have any money available? Can he pay the rent? And he's cute. Yeah, he's cute. That was cute.

That was like a little lost puppy dog. So like the second night we're there. By the way, the second night we're there, there is no electricity because the girls have had the power shut off. That's right. So there's no electricity. And that's a whole different story. There's no electricity. I remember that.

Everything's dark. It's hot because it's like, summertime, it's hot in there, you know, all this, anyway. So it's like 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, whatever time of night. I go in, I lay down on this bed. Can't remember if this girl cat was with me or not. But that's irrelevant to the story because I'm not sleeping very well because of how fucking hot it is. And because it's my first time away from home, right? I'm like, and I don't know what I'm doing. And I realized quickly I made a huge mistake. And my dad, the only reason why he's talking to me is to ask for the mattress back. That's all he cares about. He wants his mess.

mattress back. I mean, come on. And I hear, and then they had those big, like, blinds, like the plastic blinds on the back sliding door. And I hear, and I was like, Dave. And then I hear the door downstead. And then I hear the door downstairs slam. And I'm like, oh, that must be that girl who I did not know all that. Well, I only met once. But she was living downstairs. Why was she living downstairs? I don't know. She's living downstairs because you're 17 and you don't know shit.

You don't know you should sign a lease and there should be only authorized people in your house at any given time. I don't know. I'm thinking like, I guess this is how the real world works. This is what happens. This is how adults live. They just come in and out of each other's houses at any time. And so I go try to go back to sleep and then I hear, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, yeah.

Oh, get a big pop. This goes on for 10 minutes. And then the door opens and closes and then Oh, God. And I'm like, what just happened? Next morning, I wake up or I'm up or whatever. And Dave's, you know, spinning around the kitchen. He was like, do you hear that?

And I go, I hear it. I think I was involved in it. I was so close. I don't know. And he goes, and I was like, what? He goes, I think she's a prostitute. And I'm like, no, she just had a boyfriend over and snuck back or whatever. So then, you know, later on that day, the other girls come over.

The other dancers come over. And I was telling the story. I was like, this crazy, like 3 o'clock in the morning. And she goes, oh, yeah, that was her client. And I go, oh, she's a sex worker. She's a prostitute. And she goes, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how she makes money. That's why she's still living here is because she can pay the rent.

And I was like, oh, okay, all right, okay. Well, high times, yeah. Okay. I have lived an interesting life. Yes, you have. For sure. Yes, yes, you have. And someday my children will learn about this life through this podcast.

Through the podcast, I was going to say, we enjoy hearing about it. And that's why this is the last commercial break episode ever and it's all going away tomorrow. So download now. Download now. All right, I want to talk about our video. Speaking of Chopper Johnson and 33P, yeah, because Chopper Johnson was the band that you joined as part of that last story. That's right.

Chopper Johnson was the band that I joined at that time, and I went and I lived with them. And they were already a regionally successful band, but they had some problems with their lead singer. He also had some drug and alcohol issues himself, so they kicked him out of the band after they had already produced a couple of albums. And I would come to find out that the manager of. Chopper Johnson was the manager, get this, of Rush. Oh, right. That's the Rush connection. Yes, because the bass player, Gary.

Simulence. Similence. Similence. Oh, God, me and Gary. There's always one in the band. There's always one in the band, and it was Gary. Gary. Gary.

We had two Gary's, actually. We had a drummer, Gary, and a bassist Gary. It was Gary and Gary. I like the drummer, Gary, but the bassist Gary, we didn't get along all that well. Let's put it that way. Gary D. I think it was Gary D. actually. But the bassist had also found himself out of a home at some point in his life, lived in Canada, and this guy took him in.

I think about that story now and I wonder how weird that is. I mean, I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Years later, I reflect upon that story. And I go, huh, interesting. Well, you know. Yeah, you get a different perspective on things. Yeah, then you go, cool. I mean, Rush ain't my favorite band,

but the band manager just takes the street kid in at the tender age of 14 and becomes a pseudo-dad to you. How cool is that? And you were what, passed around the band members? Cool. Awesome. There was life on the road, hopping from tour bus to tour bus,

experiencing what? What? What? Oh, I don't know about that. I'm 17 and I don't know. But cool, dude. Now I think about it and I go, oh. Yeah. Epstein. Release the files. All right, let's take a break because when we get back, I want to tell you that we have an extraordinarily talented video editor and it's not just about his video editing skills, Chrissy. this kid might have an actual chance of being a musician coming up in the future and doing something with it.

Video editing the commercial break reels to 12 people might not be. It's a lot in life. Right. I'm excited to hear. I found him online. He did not bring this to our attention. I found it. And then I said, you got to give me some of this because I want to, I'm going to let the audience know.

Just how talented our video editor is. Nice. Let's take a listen when we get back. Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to TCB Podcast.com

and visiting the contact us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library, audio and video, just in case you want to look at Chrissy at TCB Podcast.com. Want your voice to be on an episode of the podcast. the show, leave us a message at 212-4333-3-TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us, and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode. Or you can make fun of us. That'd be fine, too. We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now, I'm going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors, and then we'll

return to this episode of the commercial break. Okay, so a couple of years back, we, we'll We hired a, maybe a year and a half ago, we hired a video editing service named Weplash. And they are super fantastic. Essentially, they became members of our team. Now they do other shows and other stuff. But Yehad and our personal editor, the person who's assigned to our show, his name is Kevin. He's a young kid, right? What's up, Kevin?

He's a young Venezuelan kid, which is just makes it even more great. The synergy is there. and he's young, right? And he's doing such a great job, editing our show and doing our reels. And he's made a difference. He does do a great job, yes. He really has. And so I found just by, and I think maybe he was Astrid who kind of turned me onto his social media.

And then through scrolling through his social media, I found a video of him singing a song. And I thought to myself, wow, that's pretty good. You know, video editing is one thing he does. but maybe he should think about being a talented musician. Because if there's one thing that Brian knows, it's being a talented musician. Navigating the waters of the music industry. And wasting away your life when all that talent is just sitting right inside of you. The commercial, you know, working in radio was just a ploy to get on radio.

Working in podcasting is just a ploy to get you to listen to 30 more 33 penis songs if I could find a way. If Spotify would allow me to upload them. Right. But I thought, I said to Kevin, I go, dude, you're really talented. And he was like, oh, thanks, man. And I was like, have you ever, you know, done anything with this? And he's like, yeah, not really like here and there. I play and I make music for myself.

And I'm trying to, like, get people to listen to it. But, you know, that's hard. It's hard to find an audience. It always is hard to find an audience. Except for some people. Now, give you an example. On Tuesday, coming up this next Tuesday, you're going to hear an interview that I did while Chrissy was gone with a guy named Nacho Redondo or Nacho.

read from a podcast called EDN, Esquela de Nata, which we have talked about many times on this show before. It's a show from Venezuela. There are three Venezuelans living in Mexico City. They are essentially, you know, in respite from their own country. They can't go back. So they're doing this show. They're huge. They're huge. They just did Netflix as a joke. They sell out theaters. They had, I think at one point they had like the most Patreon subscribers of any, you know, Spanish podcast. They're huge. Here's why I say that. Because they really did, like, lightning in a bottle.

They didn't have any problem finding their audience. I asked Nacho, how do you do that? How do you get the... Basically, he said be Venezuelan. Right. So from now on, Chrissy and I are going to be doing duolingo here on the show. Everything's going to be translated. But seriously, listen to that episode, because it will clock in is the longest episode of the commercial break history.

It's almost two hours. It's insane because I tried to let him go after an hour, and he was like, no, let's talking and I was like, hey, I'm into it. Cool. Anyway, so all this Venezuelan stuff coming to head here, I thought I would let you listen to some of Kevin's music. And if you want to watch YouTube.com slash the commercial break, he's going to have to edit his own shit. He is. Now you're going to know what it feels like, Kevin. Watching him, watch us watch him. Yes. That must be nerve-wracking, actually. I had to give my heads up. I'm like, I'm going to listen to your music on the show today. And let's take a listen.

Hold on one second. Because I think if I'm not mistaken, Um, do I? Is this? Did you load it in? No, it's not. I didn't load it in. I'm just wondering. Imagine all farts are. No, that's not right. Oh, no, that's me on 967, The Legend. I thought I had some 33 penis in here. We could do some, we could do some comparison between the two voices. But let's take a listen. It's just a song is like seven minutes long. Would that's all get through it? I'll stop if I need to. You need to take a break. Go to the bathroom. Get some popcorn. I'll be good. Okay. All right. Wait, hold on Oh Hold on Kevin Hold on dude Kevin said he hasn't done anything

And here he is in a room full of people Listening to his music Yeah, he's got a full audience That was a little deceptive I'm already pissed I'm already pissed at his talent Kevin's playing the piano Oh he's playing the piano

Nice Sounds beautiful This is already so much better than anything I have ever recorded it musically. This is good. Well, they're not in the retirement home. Well, that's true. It's not the same vibe as the 12 p.m. house party and East Cob, Georgia. When I look into your eyes, I can see a lower stream.

Well, darn you don't you know what feel they say. Good old November rain. This is November rain. Yeah. See, Brian, this is what you wanted to do. When you were with Astrid's family and the mountains, where you sat down to the piano. This is what you were going for.

I was going for this vibe. You know, beautiful falset, you know, thick false voice coming through with a vibrato. And what came out was, So take me home. just sent me free which is what everybody else who paid a thousand dollars to be in the Swiss Alps

on New Year's wanted to hear they were all here for it he's yeah he swine to be this guy oh

he's even got the motion like he's into it I know fuck this guy man Fuck. I needed this. I needed a little bit of sassy sauce to go along with my gravely voice. If I had a little bit of sassy sauce, if I was a little more Father John Misty and a little less Corey Feldman, then I think I would have it on. You had a little touch of Tomarello in there. Yeah, something. It's anything. Instead of standing there, like, ah. I do you want to leave my

I need some time to I'm never again I should have never agreed to this. Why did I even come up with the idea? What a great job. He's really talented. I mean, he's, and he's into it. That's the thing.

You can feel the passion. Yeah, you can paste over a lot of shit when people feel like you're into it, when people feel like you're being authentic, when you're really enjoying the music. I've said this about music. I've said it about podcasting. I've said it a lot about lovemaking. You can paste over a lot of shortcomings. It works with anything. It does.

I have children, and it proves that it can paste over anything. I this but this reminds me this conversation we were having yesterday is that I feel for guys like this who have some monocum of talent who are going to edit the commercial break for the rest of their lives because there's going to be no play I wonder if this is in Venezuela I bet it I bet it is where he's he's doing this is down in Venezuela yeah you know Kevin Kevin should be practicing his music is what he should be doing he should be practicing music he should be practicing music. He should be practicing music. so that maybe someday he can find a way to piece that together, to piece the love of his music inside of whatever it is that he does. And that's not an easy thing to do when you're a musician and getting increasingly difficult. And then I look at guys like Corey Feldman who are out there on tour with Fred Durst.

And I go, have you heard the new Corey Feldman? No. You haven't heard the new Corey Feldman? I have not sought that out. Okay, well, I mean. But Corey, Corey's got a long history. That's true. He's in the entertainment business.

Yes. Well, I'll let you know now that Corey Feldman, because of his popularity, has over 8,000 streams on Spotify. Whoa. Eight thousand. All right. You want to listen to New Corey Feldman? We'll take a comparison. Comparison.

This is called characters. It's probably going to sue me for this. It's like a little tambourine. It's very beetle-esque. Oh, no. Parable. Zee-Zee-Zee-Zee-Zee. Talk about being not authentic.

Well, that's the thing about Corey. And the difference between, I think, someone like Corey and someone like Kevin. Kevin's there. He's in it. He loves the song. You can tell. They've arranged it completely differently. He is invested in the music. Not worried about what's going on around him. He's invested in the music. And his whole body is with it. Corey Feldman is trying to emulate everybody else. He's trying to be Michael Jackson. He's trying to be the Beatles. He's trying to be some weird version of Bob Dylan. That's what I was using, too. I don't know the image face to no longer face the cast. I don't know why I'm picturing what with like a clown face. He's got a whole AI video that goes along with this, and it's his face morphing into different versions of himself. You're right.

That's so weird that you thought that. It's like yellow submarine. Like, that's what it reminds me of. It's like some advanced yellow submarine video. But then Corey, who I just don't know how to take. I just don't know how to take it. You know, I was talking to Sal Volcano while you were going. Yes.

And Sal is like a Cory Feldman fan, like a champion of Cory Feldman. Okay. Of his music or the movies or all of it? I think he's a fan of the movies. And now he like me is caught in this weird space. You are. Of not knowing whether or not he's pulling the biggest like farcical comedy stunt ever, this years long.

joke essentially this Andy this Kaufmanesque prank on everybody or does he really believe in himself that much because Corey the other day put up on Instagram after years of toil and trouble through the music industry all the non-believers all the people who said nay I finally have a song being considered for a Grammy what and it's as a picture. And the picture says, for your consideration, this song, characters, right? As best song, best editing, best, you know, lighting. I don't know, some bullshit like that. And I'm like, huh, I know what this is, because we have been a victim of this too. You know those Webby Awards that everyone wants? Yes, yes, yes. We got an email one day. You've been nominated. You've been

nominated to be nominated for consideration. Yeah, nominated to be nominated. You've been nominated. You've been nominated to be nominated for consideration. Pay this amount of money. A thousand fucking dollars. And I did pay a thousand dollars because I thought all throughout my marketing career, the Webby Award was like the thing you could win. But I worked for companies or when we owned companies, we didn't think about it for doing that. I thought, and I looked at all the other podcasts who had won.

And I was like, yes, why shouldn't we be in the same name as cereal and the Dax Shepherd show? So clearly we are in the same aloof space as they are. Rarified air. And for your consideration, give me $1,000. And never to be heard from again until the following year when it happened again, right? And I didn't bite the second time. But so I looked it up. Yeah.

And indeed, anyone who is a member of the Recording Academy, which can be anyone who pays their annual membership and is an active musician. Which is a lot. Tens of thousands of people. Can be considered for a Grammy. You have to just submit it. Yeah. And there are hundreds, maybe sometimes thousands, of songs and albums and concerts and lighting guys and engineers that are considered because consideration is not a nomination. Though even chat TCB told me that oftentimes people will put together a slick little PR campaign that makes it seem.

Like they have been nominated, but they've really just been considered, which is not any great accomplishment. So Corey pats himself on the back in this congratulatory post about how he, after years of being denied, he finally is being considered. Now, you had a PR firm that finally got on the ball and decided to pick up the phone and say, hey, do me a solid. Will you whack Corey off for 10 seconds and give him one of those posters that says for your fucking consideration? Yeah, so he can feel special. That's right. Meanwhile, guys like this will probably, you know, I don't know. But it will be a long road for Kevin to get to that point, I would imagine,

because he has to keep, you know, toiling away at this. But Kevin, really talented, brother. And listen, this isn't the only video that I've seen. I've seen other videos of him that, this is the one he had when I said, can I share something? He said, share this. But there are other videos out there. So I'll put a link to his social media if you want to give him a follower,

take a listen to other stuff he's doing. or just follow us on the commercial break and then you can see what else he's doing. He's doing all of our videos for us on social media. And while we're on the subject of Venezuela, tune in to my conversation with Nacho Redundra. You would have enjoyed it. I can't.

I can't wait. Yes. And the only reason why it ended, and I'll tell you like inside baseball, there's two reasons why it ended. The agent, this is funny, actually. Let me tell the story when we get back. I'll tell you the story about Nacho's interview.

And then you can listen to it on Tuesday of next week. Okay. All right, we'll be back. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You just let fly. Let me do something Brian has never done. Be brief. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us. 212-4333-3-TCB. That's 212-4333822. Visit our website, 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. Okay, so I'll tell this story about nacho. So first and foremost, as mentioned, Nacho is Redondo or Nacho Red, is one third of Esquela de Natta, EDN, this fabulously popular podcast, especially amongst Venezuelans.

And the other two guys are named Leo and Chris. Okay, so Leo, Chris, and Nacho. When Chrissy and I first started doing the show, we of course had the help, the love and the support of my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law is... Gustavo. Yes, I've been missing that song. Gustavo. Gustavo.

So, Gustavo, who's long-storied in this podcast. He's even shown up on an episode or two. Yeah, yeah. He told me, he said, you got to listen to this show. You guys, if you could do this, if you could nail this down, this five, you guys will have a hit on your hands, right? Yeah, no problem. Yeah, no problem. We'll just do that, start a Patreon, copy that.

Yeah, just start a Patreon, go on tour. Yeah. Have six videographers and 12. This is an operation. Yeah. Out of Mexico City, where I'm sure the costs are just a little bit less than it is here. But I don't know. I'm not really sure.

That doesn't take away from anything they've done. No, God. But what you also don't understand is that, and what Nacho and I talk a little bit about is that the Venezuelans are a, they're a separated people. They're a disparate people. They're all over the world. And Edian provides them some comfort. It's like being at home.

They're friends when you don't have any. Their familiarity and when you don't, when you're in a new place in a strange land. Chrissy and I were taking a walk on the fucking trail yesterday. Yes. And we were talking about EDN. Yes. And a guy walked by us listening to EDN. I'm not even kidding.

No, he really was. So I say this to say that Gustavo encouraged us from the beginning to get in contact with these guys. Like, hey, you guys could do a cross promo. You got the Venezuelan angle. So I rode these guys a couple different times. Once in Spanish, once in English. But of course, I never got any response. I didn't expect.

They have thousands and thousands of communications probably. I never expected any of that. I didn't really expect them to respond. So when our booking agency said, Nacho would like to come in, I was like, for sure, when can it happen? Well, in the next couple of days, actually, I was like, okay, we'll figure it out. Like, let's do it.

So we get on, the agent sends, as a lot of agents do, a prep. Here's what Not Just What He's done. Here's who he is. You know, just in case you don't know. Here's some stuff you can listen to. Here's some stuff you can watch. And she says, in no uncertain terms. And replies and replies and replies to our agent and to Astrid and to the people who book the show and help the show.

He must be done at the top of the hour. You have one hour. He must be done after one hour. And I always respect a guest's timeline. It's one of the first things I say. We always say, hey, we always say, hey, we got you down for a half an hour, 45 minutes or an hour or whatever. Yes.

Is that still work? Okay, great. What time do you have to go? You know, just to make sure that we're keeping an eye on the clock. So I'm in the conversation. And when he comes on, we talk for a little bit. And then I say, hey, you know, you've got to be done by the top of the hour, right? You got to be out by this time.

And he says, yeah, you know, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Right. You know, hour sounds good. We'll figure it out. Okay. So I immediately get the sense that the agent is giving him an. out just as we do sometimes.

Right. When we may not be, it's okay, we may not be familiar. You start, you walk in the studio and all of a sudden you start coughing. It's crazy. Yeah. It is. It's kind of crazy. But it happens.

I mean, I'm not bothered by it. As we do sometimes, give ourselves a fail safe. Yes. And that fail safe is the time. And things aren't going well. Correct. We can bail and we don't seem rude, right? We can bail and we don't seem rude, right?

We can bail and we don't seem. rude. It's just the time that we had allotted. It happens very, very little that we ever feel like it's time to go. But there have been a few times where the clock has literally saved us. Yes, we have been struggling to the finish life. I've been looking at the clock. Yes, keep looking at the clock. So here comes the top of the hour and I do what I do. I start wrapping up. But Nacho Red is currently doing this and blah, blah, blah, blah, and links in the show notes and blah, blah, and he goes, hey man, hey man, I can keep going. Like, you know, I don't have to go. I can keep going.

Yeah, I'm enjoying the conversation. Like, if you want to go, let's go. And I'm like, I don't have anywhere to be. Let's go. So then we did another 40 minutes. So an hour and 40 minutes total that he and I were talking. Great conversation. We went a lot of different places.

I think this is, I think even people who have no idea who Nacho Red are are going to enjoy this conversation with Notcho. And by the way, everybody was super excited in this house. Oh, my God. People were like flying through the hallway. It was as if the king had showed. I don't know what king of what country, but the king of some country. It really was like mother to read.

I can't explain how reverential the Venezuelans are, not just in this house, but around the world to EDN. In a lot, they've been around, they've been on for nine years. They've been a podcast almost twice as long as we have. They have a thousand episodes. We have the same. How have they been around twice as long as we have? And we have just as many episodes as they do.

We're doing this wrong. We're on the wheel. Yeah, we're on the wheel. That's right. And they get paid extra for some of their episodes. Jesus, Jones. Well, yeah. Another four years, Brian.

Another four years. We're going to be making that EDN money. Netflix is a joke. It's right around the corner. Netflix won't even exist by the time. We're ready for Netflix as a joke. So, okay, so top of the hour comes and goes. And Nacho and I are just chitting and chatting.

However, my bladder is starting to fill up because I often drink coffee before the show and the coffee just runs right through me. It's like beer. It's like once the seal's broken. Yeah, you got to keep going. Yeah, so I'm kind of starting to fiddle in my chair a little bit, you know, but I want to keep going. Like now it's an endurance contest. Like, okay, we're here. Let's just keep on doing it.

And then my phone starts ringing. And it starts ringing. There's only one person who can ring the phone while I'm recording, and that's Aster. That's the only person. But I am assuming that Astrid is calling so excited to hear how the interview went. And she's calling me to get the skinny, to get the lowdown since everybody was, you know, I am nobody when Nacho Red comes up. I just let you know that right now.

I am nobody. Nacho Red gives me instant credibility with all my Venezuelan family members and friends. So Astrid's calling. And then she calls again. And then she calls again. And now we're like 25, 30 minutes past. She calls three times. I can see text messages coming through, but I can't read.

them. And I'm like, oh, stop it, bother me, you know. I'm doing it. I'm going. I've got so much to tell you. Yeah, so much to tell you, but you got to let me finish. And then all of a sudden nacho's wife pops in. Nacho's wife is an extraordinarily famous Mexican actress. She's like really famous. That's so cool. And she pops in because I can see him turn his head. And he goes, hey, hey, honey, come here. I want you to meet Brian. Like, come here, come here. I love it when the interviewees have us meet people that are coming in. Me too. It happened with, um, It's a few different people. Who?

Was it Hannah? Hannah and Dez? I think it happened with Hannah and Dez. And we met somebody else's aunt. We met somebody's aunt. That was the fire, the woman who's married to the firefighter. Oh my gosh, she's one of my favorite. No, I can't think of her.

She just said hi to us on the commercial break. She just commented on one of our reels. It's happened a couple different times where the loved ones or somebody else pops in. Oh, and, God, Reggie. Reggie, Reggie, that's happened. Yes, that has happened also. So I love that. It means they have a level of comfort.

Yeah, it's nice. And they're excited to share what they're doing, whatever. And so, you know, he introduces, and I can't hear her because she's not on the microphone, but I can tell her, you know, she's being polite to me and she can't hear me. But I can tell she's like, you got to go. Yeah. So I get off. So, okay. So I get off the phone.

I love this. So we get off. So he says, okay, man. And I say, okay, man, all right, we got to go. We got to go. All right. So then I check the text messages. You have to get off the phone.

Are you still on with Nacho? You have to get off. He's late. He's got to go. He's got to go somewhere else. And where he had to go was to record EDN. Oh, right. And, like, you know, they have an actual place where they go.

And, you know, there's people waiting for them and stuff like that. The limos outside. I don't know. Something's going on. And I'm like, oh, shit. You know, I didn't know. And so there's this all this hubble of this big thing. Okay.

So, but here's the best part of the story. So anyway, so then I call Astor and I'm like, this is what happened. So, okay, everyone's calmed down now. It was just, you know, we're just having fun and we went too long. And Nacho's Nacho. He can control his own time. He can do what I was going to say. Yeah, he's the star of the interview.

Okay. So during the, at the beginning of the phone call, I say to Nacho, the reason, one of the reasons why you're here is because Gustavo is a huge fan of you. And if you have one second after we get done, can you record him a little? Hey, Gustavo. I mean, what a great brother-in-law. Thank you. What a great brother-in-law. I was thinking of them the whole time. And so I'm like, honestly, because Nacho reminded me of Gustavo. The two of them, they have similar mannerisms. They certainly have similar senses of humor. And now I know why. Because Gustavo has spent about half his life listening to Edien.

So I say at the beginning, I say, if you can. do me one favor and just like say hello to him on the microphone and congratulate him on his engagement and his graduation from from grad school like I certainly would appreciate it. And so we're getting off the phone and we had exchanged phone numbers and he says after he's going, I'll send something to you in a little while, right? And I said, okay, great. Don't worry about it. Whatever. Yeah. That's your. So about two hours later, I get a video from Nacho.

And the video is not just Nacho. It's Leo and Chris. So it's the entirety of EDM, right? And they are all doing salutations, greetings, and busting Gustavo's balls about this whole thing. It's a great video. To the degree where Gustavo didn't know if it was real or not. He thought it was some kind of AI program that I had. And I was like, no, brother, that's real.

And he's like, I still having a hard time believing that they're talking about me. And I'm like, yes, they are. This was like the best. And I'm going to leave the joke to be private between, they made it a joke. And it was really funny. And I'm going to leave that between Gustavo and EDN. But these guys were so great. These guys were so great and gracious.

Because you know that it's not just Nacho that had to take the time. Nacho had to explain to the other guys in the room. why we're talking to some stranger named Gustavo about his graduation and his engagement. Oh, that's so nice. Wow. When I'm sure, and I don't know this for a fact, but I'm sure, they could probably charge, you know, $50 for a meet and greet afterwards. Or on cameo. Yeah, and cameo for something like that.

Man, to be in the lofty, the lofty, like, headspace of Edia. I just have a lot. I have mad respect for these guys. They have done something that very few. podcasts have done. And that has nothing to do with numbers. We've had numbers. We've had almost a hundred million downloads. I mean, we have nothing to complain about. They have done something as far as community is concerned. And we have the best listeners in the world. And those of you who talk to us, I can't tell you how much we love you. And the letters that we get. Yes.

And the people who, you know, buy the merch and listen every time. And all of that said, the immense amount of human beings that are just in love with this show, EDN, is phenomenal. It's a phenomenal success. But I have often said, and I think I need to remember this. We are lucky bastards to be doing what we do and make any money whatsoever, let alone be able to kind of support ourselves, right? Yeah, we just said that on our best friend walk yesterday. That's right, on our best friend Rock. This is a pretty fucking good, we have it pretty fine. Like when I tell people what I do, it's like, yeah, I get to laugh with my best friend every week on a podcast and make a tiny bit of money doing it. It's amazing. It's amazing. And then many people that are sitting in our seats, many podcasters out there would die to have five people fill a room and listen to what they have to say. I know some of them personally. I know podcasters who have been doing this just as long as we have that.

have nowhere near the number of people listening that we do. And they still do it week after week because there's two or three or five, ten people that listen to them. So, you know, if we could probably fill an arena with people that listen to this show on a monthly basis. So I would say that it's, you know, it's a lucky thing that we do. Not buy tickets to the arena. No, no, you wouldn't buy the tickets. If you happen to be in the arena at the time that we, that we, were recording, then that's what I meant. That's right. Bye, that circus.

Somebody was playing at that beach. What was the beach? The beach we were going to play at in Florida. Oh, I can't remember. I was going to say Temecula, but it's not Temecula. Oh, we never said it right. What was it? It was the beach. DeLuca Beach. Miami. Yeah. It was north of Miami. Yeah. But anyways. Someone was playing there? Yeah, I think it might have been like, it was another person I was listening to. And they couldn't say it right either.

Okay, good. Well, that's not just us. Everyone says it wrong because it's just Miami. But then they demanded that we don't say Miami. But then Sam Muriel came in and we were like, ah, yeah, you know, it wasn't the best selling tickets in the world for us. And Sam was like, I sell that place out 50-19 to a year. And I was like, oh, fuck you.

Fuck you, Sam. I saw Sam doing like some commercial for like men's clothing, like stitch fix or something like that. Really? A whole thing. Okay. Was it saying? No. No.

No. No. I know. Jeremy? Piven? No, no, no. I'm thinking of a comedian. That was a clothing thing too, wasn't it?

Ah. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, but it's not the same guy. It's not, excuse me. It was not Sam that was doing it. I'll think of the name of the comedian. It's one of the guys that he travels with.

He's a guy. he does the podcast with. Okay. So, Jeremy Piven. Jeremy Piven. Have we told this story? Well, you have not told the story. Okay.

I'm going to give you a bite and then you're going to have to tune in tomorrow for the next part of this. Jeremy Piven is the only guest we have literally refused to interview with, to do an interview with, even when he was right here on the studio. Yeah, we had to make an emergency call. We had to make an emergency call, and we did. We bailed. We got the fuck out. What's that? What's that?

Let's reconnect. Yeah, let's reconnect. Your agent call my agent. Can't hear you. Can hear you perfectly fine, but I still can't hear you. You look great, but it's kind of fuzzy. It's recording just fine, but something's wrong. Not sure what it is, but I guess all the rumors are true.

Jerk off. I'll tell this story. Probably at my own expense. Probably Bella will kill me. But, you know, it's my story, Bella. I get to tell it, okay? That's true. It happened to us.

It did. You and I looked at each other and we were like, we're out. We're out. See you later. Not going to do this. Not going to do this. I am going to tell this story.

Who fucking cares? That's a pretty funny story. You could show the video, too. Because that was the part that really... I do have the video. Yeah. Well, we're always looking for PR. I bet that would cause...

But will it? PR and content. PR and content. But I think, oh, that would be a story that some people would hang. But is Jeremy Piven is a douchebag? Is that really a story?

I don't know if people would be surprised. Yeah, that's not breaking news. I think he is the character that he plays. I think that's just it. That was our experience. Yeah. Go watch his new mensline commercial And you'll see that he is that person.

That is who he is. And I'll tell the entire story. We'll go all through it tomorrow. Stay tuned. Hold on to your seats, kids. We'll get through it together. Yeah, I think enough time has passed now that we could talk about it. Yeah, it's been like six months since it happened.

Yeah. And I thought we were maybe not doing Jeremy a favor, but we were lending him some grace by saying yes in the first place. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like I didn't see Theo Vaughn bending over backwards to have Jeremy Pivot on. So, not that Theo and the commercial break are anything like each other. Theo has 24 million social media followers.

We have 24 social media followers. But you get the point. I didn't see Jeremy like running all to every comedy podcast in town, as a lot of people do sometimes when they're going on the circuit. I didn't see him doing that. So, but you know, whatever. All right. We'll tell this story tomorrow. 212-433-3-3-3-3-tcb. 212-4-33-38-22. Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas. We take them all. Get involved in the conversation. We would love to hear from you. It would be our honor, be our pleasure, be our joy. It would make our day. That's what I'm trying to save you.

Also, you can get your free sticker at TCB Podcast.com. Go to the contact us button. Drop down menu says I want my free sticker. Give us your address. We'll send you one. Add the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcast on TikTok, and YouTube.com slash bay commercial break for all the episodes on videos, same day they are here on the audio. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now. I think so. I love you. And I love you. Best to you. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, we will say, we do say, and we must say. Goodbye.