The Compound and Friends - Fake Business with Tim Dillon

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Welcome to a special episode of The Compound & Friends, a podcast featuring your favorite financial and investing commentators. Tim Dillon is one of the hottest comedians in America right now, with a podcast that reaches over a million listeners each week, and sold out theater and club dates across the country. In this episode, Tim joins Josh Brown and Michael Batnick to discuss his experience working in the mortgage business, the creator economy, his views on crypto, and what's wrong with Long Island. Obviously nothing on this channel should be considered as personalized financial advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. See our disclosures here: https://ritholtzwealth.com/disclosures/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Compound and Friends. All opinions expressed by me, Michael Batnick, and our castmates are solely our own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Ritholtz Wealth Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be the opinion of Ritholtz Wealth Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. Clients of Ritholtz Wealth Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. You're from Island Park.

Island Park. You grew up at Jordan Lobster. Jordan's Lobster. My dad's really good friends with Steve Jordan. We used to go there a lot. I like a place called South Shore Fish, which is another fish spot in Island Park. You could eat there?

Yeah. South Shore Fish is called Artie's. That's like the best. Are you a pescatarian? No. You look like one. A pescatarian. Yeah, I'm a pescatarian.

I do eat a lot of fish, though. The majority of what I eat, I think I eat a lot of fish. I think Island Park is like three square blocks. Small. It's like one. A pescatarian. Yeah, I'm a pescatarian. I do eat a lot of fish, though. The majority of what I eat, I think I eat a lot of fish. I think Island Park is like three square blocks. Small. It's like tiny. Small. I listened to the conference call for Facebook, and this analyst, he's a good guy. You're getting beaten up.

Oh, dude. This guy, Mark Mahaney, comes on the, you know the part on the conference call where the analysts are like allowed to ask questions? Right. comes on the, you know, the part on the conference call where the analysts are like allowed to ask questions. So he goes, this is in the midst of the stock down 25%, like in free fall. His question is, what kind of progress are you guys making on ESG? Like how many women do you have on your board or whatever?

And I start hysterically laughing on the train. This is a company that's literally overturning governments. Right. But socially, they're doing it sustainably. They're sustainably fermenting coups. And like you think about like all of the things that they're trying to do. Right.

Which is get you addicted to this dopamine hit. Yeah. And just keep plugging into it. This dystopian nightmare they're ushering in. But are you ESG? But are you ESG? Yeah. That's what it comes down to are you esg so you guys have a wealth management company yeah and you deal with clients yeah is it would it be considered like a hedge fund or would it is not really a hedge fund no we're doing the opposite we're like financial planning first which is basically helping people figure out what they want to do with their money.

Yeah. When, what are the tax ramifications, how much they want to leave. I met with a dude at Goldman who – a friend. She's like a sort of comedian. You know her, Haley Sachs. Oh, not at Goldman. Mrs. Dow Jones. Yeah.

No, she's not. But her dad is. Okay, yeah. Her dad's like a big wealth management guy called Matt. I love Haley. And we had a breakfast at the Mark and he was talking to me about, you know, and I make a real good amount of money, but I think like, you know,

those guys, like to them, it's like, you know, he's like, yeah, he's like, usually it's like 10 million to just kind of get in. I'm like, oh no, this is not. They're doing like sovereign wealth. Yeah, I was like, I appreciate it. this is not. Because they're doing sovereign wealth. Yeah, I was like, I appreciate it. Thanks for the eggs, Benedict.

But I'm like, we're not there. So what's funny about Haley Sachs' dad working at Goldman Sachs, names are spelled differently. But it's hilarious. It didn't hurt him. I don't know his name. Haley, if you're listening, I love you. Let's say it's Henry Sachs of Goldman Sachs.

Yeah. It doesn't hurt. Yeah. Okay. He was a nice guy, but. Yeah. So basically wealth management is like making sure that people are invested in such a way that it actually correlates to the life they want to live.

Right. Versus a hedge fund is like the S&P is going to go up 10%. I'm going to try to do 15. Gotcha. For regular people. Or it's going to go down 10 and I'm going to try to do 15. Gotcha. For regular people. Or it's going to go down 10 and we're going to try and be down 9. Right.

Or we're going to try to make money on the way down and the way up, which doesn't really work. But that's the hedge fund. That's the hedge fund biz. We're more like regular people. What are they actually trying to pay for in the future?

Right. How much will it cost them? So your thing is like, it's like if you don't have any balls, get in. Basically. You know? If you just have no...

Well, so that depends on the client. I like gambling. Yeah. I like a good gamble. Well, I did that for 10 years. I did. Okay. You and I,

I was telling somebody here, you and I have a very similar origin. I'm a little bit older than you, but I started in the Long Island brokerage firms. Wow. Which was catering to gamblers, basically. That's right. You would cold call business owners. All day. You would make 500 phone calls. 50 people would speak to you. And of those 50, 10 of them would actually let you speak.

Five of them would be qualified to actually invest with you. But they weren't really looking for investments. They were looking for what's the next stock that's going to go up, you know, 50%. Did you start when like Stratton Oakmont was? I was right after all of that. Wow. Okay. So I worked for guys that worked there. Okay. But they were trying to clean up their act. But the thing is the business is just not that good of a business if you're doing it the right way, which only took me, I'm smart. So it only took me 10 years to figure that out. Cold calling business owners is tough. Well, now you can't do it. But back then, people were excited to hear from workers.

Now you can't do it at all. Who answers the phone? Right. That's a good point. When was the last time your phone rang, you didn't know the number, and you were like, Well, before TD Ameritrade, hey. I always answer because I like to have fun, but. Before TD Ameritrade, like, that's how people bought stocks.

That's right. They were sold. Picture this. Like like i started when i was in college i started uh i started working for a guy i think he's making 100 grand a month he his job before this was a bouncer right so my dad plays golf with his dad i don't know what to do with my summer after freshman year. So he's like, go work for this guy's son. He's making six figures a month. So the assumption is like, all right, so this has to be legit, right? How could you make that much money? And they're all wearing suits, like dressed to the nines.

And the office is on 3rd Avenue, like top floor, and everything looks, it looks like you would picture Goldman Sachs would look. But the difference is, well, a lot of differences. But so they say, all right, here's a stack of business owners on index cards. Spend the whole day calling them, find somebody that wants to talk to me.

So, you know what? So, so you do that. And then this guy calls that person back the next day. And that person's excited because it's a guy that owns like an industrial facility in Indiana. Right. Somebody from wall street is calling. Right. It's, it's exciting. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. And now obviously it sounds ridiculous in today's context, but that was a business. My, when I started mortgages, the guy that owned the

company told me, brought me in his office and he goes, listen, he was 24. He was probably making a hundred grand a month. And he said, I was a ecstasy dealer. My lawyer told me, I can't get you out of this if you get caught again. Okay. He goes, you got to do something else. So he goes, I do this now. And that was the beginning of my career. And I was just like sitting there. It was like a motivational speech, oligarchy or whatever. And he goes, I knew that I couldn't sell ecstasy anymore because I would go to jail for a very long time. Yeah. So now I sell mortgage. There was a place right by the Atlantic Beach Bridge.

There was a parking lot where there was mortgage brokers and there was a bunch of idiots driving Porsches in like 2005. That was every parking lot in Long Island. Yeah. So it's funny that you say that. Long Island has the same archetype, like this young man. Yeah. In his 20s. Fit, like us.

Lightly educated. Lightly educated is a great term. Lightly educated, meaning like maybe a little bit of Nassau community. Little college. Little bit, but not too much. Not too much. And then what happens is their older brother or the guy down the street

or the person that their dad plays golf with their son, whatever, brings them into like, hey, what are you doing right now? Oh, I'm just bartending. I don't really know yet. Right.

Tell you what, put on a suit, come interview. So in the 90s, that's stock brokerage. That's the shit that I learned. That's right. After the dot-com bubble blew up in 2000,

interest rates went to 1%, wherever they dropped them to, and all of a sudden there's a mortgage boom. That same young man, his younger brother, is a mortgage broker. Goes to the same office building in Woodbury or the Jericho Quadrangle or whatever. Yeah, the Huntington quadrangle. The Huntington.

All right. Goes to the same building. The broker's cars are all gone, but it's all mortgage broker's cars. Same cars. It's Porsches. Yeah. The same aggressive Long Island attitude, tactics, call the whole country. What do you mean we only talk to people a mile away?

Right. I'm doing mortgages in Hawaii. F**k you. Right. That whole thing, the mortgage bubble blows up bursts 2007-8 you have a financial crisis

in the wake of that what does everyone need small business loans it's the same person it's the same guys what are they doing now that's what they're doing still small business loans

it's so sick they're doing high interest it's like legal loan sharks wow it's worse than loan sharks why because at least like a loan shark will break your legs. Not literally

put your whole life out of business. So now what they're doing is like call up a guy who owns a diner and basically like all of his personal assets get securitized. You make him a loan that you know he can't pay back. But he'll pay the juice for two years trying.

Wow. It's like an 18% loan. Like basically a credit card loan You make him a loan that you know he can't pay back, but he'll pay the juice for two years trying. It's like an 18% loan, like basically a credit card loan. And then after two years, it's like, all right, sorry, things didn't work out. But it's a cold calling mill. So they're always finding new desperate people. There's something about Long Island that just for whatever reason, and it shares a lot of similarities with Orange County, California, which is the southern county in California, south of LA. It's deeply conservative. It's where subprime mortgages started. They started in Irvine, California, with a company called Countrywide, which became the biggest lender of that.

Blue chip mortgage lender. Yeah, blue chip mortgage lender. And they started in Irvine, California. And Irvine is very similar to Long Island where it's a lot of nondescript office buildings on the side of a highway. And there's just a lot of young dudes that are willing to put on a tie and try to better themselves in whatever way they can. So the sick thing is that my parents were like proud of me.

Yeah. And so I have a job where I wear a shirt and tie. That's right. After like not knowing what the hell I wanted to do. Right. And I actually can read. So like I have a leg up on a lot of the other people. Oh, yeah.

So then they're like grooming me to like be a manager. Right. Which if you don't own the firm, basically the manager doesn't actually have any power, but he's somebody that could be pointed to when things go wrong. Right. So I'm being groomed for that. Get a little maybe paid on volume bonus. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you're like the most trustworthy pirate on the pirate ship. Yeah. Basically. So, but people in your real life, they're like, what do you do? Oh, I do stocks. Like I do. Right. I do investments. So, oh, wow. It's a what do you do? Oh, I do stocks. Like I do investments.

So, oh, wow. It's a big deal. It's not oh, wow. It's a big deal to have a business card and hand it to people that says loan specialist, loan consultant, terms that are blatantly fake that have no- Were you a loan consultant? I was a lot of things. I was a loan specialist, a loan consultant? I was a lot of things. I was a loan specialist, a loan consultant.

We would say I'm an expert in residential finance. Yeah, we'd run the gamut of things that I was. I was an account executive for a little while there. That's the first thing that you started. A few months I was an account executive, but then I moved pretty quickly up to specialist. I think what all these people share in common is Nassau community college. We all went, I went to Nassau. I met the guy that got me into mortgages was my debate partner

on the, I was on the debate team at Nassau community college. He had like a little debate team and I was on the debate team and I was really good at it. And he goes, Hey, you should do mortgages. he had a range rover and i said i want a range rover and he goes yeah i'm a mortgage guy he goes you're really good at talking you should do this yeah so i just came in and so when you were doing this at the height of the mortgage bubble too like people wanted to talk to you i started in 2000 part-time, 2004 or 5. Perfect. And I was in school. I dropped out of school. And then I rode the wave.

I did well. I never made insane, crazy money. But I rode the wave up until, I mean, I was there for the entire disintegration of that sector of the economy. And I watched it kind of. And that was a better education than college, in my opinion. Yeah. Seeing guys go from making $50,000 a month to delivering pizza.

Yeah. That was a crazy mind. If I can say that. But even on the way, even on the way up, like I knew guys that were laying carpet. Right. And then a year later,

they're literally making six figures. Crazy. Doing mortgages. And it's like, do you figures. It's crazy. Doing mortgages. Right. What do you even know about mortgages? I don't know anything about mortgages. I know how to get people to sign paperwork. That's right.

And that went on for like not six months. People wanted to sign it. I mean, that's the other thing. Like, yes, there was predatory lending. And yes, people were dealt with dishonestly. But there was also a lot of dishonest people right that wanted money like i talked about it on my show i said you know the idea of a victim in that because everybody's like there were so many victims and you go yeah but historically

look at what the term victim has meant right the catholic inquisition all these crazy things where you were persecuted or murdered in this time history, being a victim meant someone lent you too much money. Yeah. That's probably one of the better ways to be a victim. I think there's like two kinds though. There are people who just – somebody looks and sounds professional and they assume that they're getting advice. Like even from a mortgage. Yes, true.

Like, oh, well, this person thinks I should buy this million dollar house. Right. Based on. I can do it. So that's real. That's real. What about the people making 30 grand that are completely financially illiterate, like getting like totally abused?

Yeah, that is unfortunate. But I would argue that that wasn't the reason for the crash. I really don't believe that. I don't believe that subprime. Subprime was a very small part of the market. believe that. I don't believe that subprime, subprime was a very small part of the market. What people speculating with actual, some financial literacy and pretty decent credit, who are able to leverage four or five homes and then just let three of them go,

seem to be, you know, subprime was a small part of the market. And yes, that's horrible. If you have no financial literacy. But the bigger problem was adjustable rate mortgages. Most people would have been okay if in two or three years that rate was consistent. A lot of them would have been okay. But nobody would have sold that consistent rate product to those people. Right. There's no money in it. And that is sad that there are people that had no idea that got bamboozled. But it's just my opinion.

idea that got bamboozled. But it's just my opinion. Not so much my opinion, but like the vast majority of people that I dealt with knew they shouldn't kind of have the money. Right. And they were like, it's a very American thing. We'll figure it out later. Totally. It seems higher way we run our society.

Like down the road, we'll figure it out. We'll move in a tenant. Your side business that makes zero0 will start making money. We'll figure out how to cover, you know, like we got a backyard pool coming. You'll teach swimming lessons, whatever it was. Yes. And the thing is that everybody is doing that same thing. Right.

So you're surrounded by people. You're at a bar. It's 2006. You're in someone's backyard at a barbecue whatever there's five guys there that you went to high school with you know they're idiots they're flipping houses right how how are you doing how do you have the money yeah to have three homes that you're fixing up and selling because tim's lending the money yeah tim what are you doing it yeah it's my fault well you know what's a great and this is funny, people laugh.

There's a show, obviously, that everybody knows now called The Real Housewives Franchise. And in the first incarnation of it, it was in Orange County. And the first season of it, everyone in the show is connected to a failing real estate empire. Some subprime, one guy runs a title company yeah one woman's a realtor right and and none of them are bright and when i say not bright i'm being quite you know nice about it right i'm being kind of generous you look at these people you go how are they how do they have amex how do they have that house how do they yeah and then you start to realize that like they're they were just riding this wave and then season two was all the bankruptcies right and season three is all the divorces and you go it's such an interesting charting of don't you think that same thing is

is going to happen uh mostly on the west coast with technology sure like are all of these people who go work for a company six months later later the company IPOs for $9 billion. Right. Then the stock gets killed. It goes – it's worth $3 billion. All of these people had all this wealth on paper. Right. It's not that they're not hardworking people or good – there's nothing to do with that.

They're in a wave that they don't control. Well, yeah. I mean when you look at Justin Bieber paying a million dollars for a photo of an ape, you go, how sustainable is that? It can't be. That's not a sustainable. I mean, it's crazy when you think about it. I think the technology behind it's really interesting, transformative. People like myself that are creators that have, we make a living independently. I love the idea of more people being able to do that. Yeah. But you know, when you look at the sustainability of it and you go, how many people are in it for the ape and how many people are in it to get rich? Well, the thing is to pump and dump, but Justin Bieber can take a million dollars. He can do it.

He can do it. He can do it once a week. That's right. A lot more. So the story here is a lot more people can do it than you think. Very few people are taking $30,000 or in the case of a board ape, $300,000. Right. And buying Ethereum and then buying an ape. Like Bieber's doing that. The celebrities are doing that. But the reason why this is more sustainable than you think is because it's all crypto money. So there's a site where you could like literally see how many people have more than 100 ETH in their wallet.

Sure. Guess how many people? I'll tell you. How many? 42,000 have more than 100 ETH. So it's poker chips. Right. It's not dollars.

Right. And board, it's 100 ETH. I've got 300. What's the difference? But here's the thing though. ETH is now cut in half from the tie. But that doesn't matter though. No, it has to matter.

Because if we're saying it's the poker chip and instantly we devalue the poker chip by half. Dude, wrong. And that's less money for apes. Wrong. Actually, in the crypto meltdown right now, the NFTs are not budging. I know the denominator is Ethereum is going down, but the prices for board apes and all this other shit, they're not budging. Is it the non-liquid market? I don't think there's real ape price discovery.

Isn't it weird that- Oh, it's weird. Isn't it weird that it's not changing at all? Because there's not enough people transacting. Wouldn't you think it would change? Like your house. Yeah. You don't know what your house is worth today.

No. You know what you paid for it. You know what other houses in the neighborhood have recently sold for. Right. You don't know what your house is worth until you sell it. That's right.

You have a good idea. The zestimate is bullshit. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. You say Bored Apes, like how liquid are they? How many Bored Apes were sold today? I'll tell you. I'll tell you. So you've got a sale 38 minutes ago, 43 minutes ago, two hours, whatever. So it's fairly illiquid. But each one is different though. It's fairly illiquid. It's not the same one.

Hold on. But here's where it could be like unsustainable. If some asshole is like, right now the floor is 99. If somebody's like, I need to sell yesterday. I need to sell immediately. I've got this loan shark that I need to pay off. I'm going to put the floor, I'm going to list it for 90th and undercut the floor by 90th. And then that's how like, maybe this thing could like fall apart is people undercut the floor and just start getting scared. You don't think it could fall apart just eventually people saying we're bored. Totally could.

I think eventually people are going to go okay, I've made a lot of money doing it or they go, this scam has kind of run its course. Let me cash out. Or they make 80 versions of the same thing. But people don't want 80 versions. Next week it's pregnant kangaroos and a week later it's like, right? Yeah, but that's a straw

man because nobody wants that. People want board apes right now. So you can't just come up with something new and displace this. You can lose interest. I was going to buy an ape. I was going to buy an ape for $290,000. I was going to get an ape. Why are you laughing?

You just told me a sustainable one. Did you see how this guy just came alive? 15 minutes into the podcast. The guy just flipped. You just went into the world. If Ben just flipped. You just went into the greatest thing in the world. Tell your story. If Ben acted like this, you would cut the mic immediately. My business manager is a very desperate man.

And he races like NFT horses. And he's in big trouble. Oh, Zed Run. That's sustainable. Yeah. Right. Well, that's what he does. And everything I want to do, he always talks me. He goes, well, I don't know about this. I doned run, that's sustainable. Yeah. Right. Well, that's what he does. And everything I want to do, he always, like, talks

me. He goes, well, I don't know about this. I don't know about that. I want to buy this house in Calabasas. I don't know. Is it really in Calabasas? But if I say I want anything with crypto, he moves the money to Coinbase immediately. So I'm like, I want to board Ape. He's like, not a bad idea. I'm like, it's

probably a bad idea. So he's, like, red-pilled. He's red- pilled he's red he's on twitter all day and i get it because i'm half red pilled yeah but i'm half i don't know i'm three quarters i watch peter schiff at night to come down you know what i mean because it's important for me peter schiff has uploaded on youtube maybe 700 times in the past three years. And the title of every single upload is Meltdown Coming. Psycho. You know, and I just watch him to come down and-

To not pull the trigger on the ape. Yeah, because- Because you might need that $290,000. He makes some good points about the fact that, you know, 80% of people that hold Bitcoin or whatever have never sold it. And, you know, the idea that he's met people that have $100 million in Ethereum and won't sell it. And these are regular people. They turn $20,000 into $100 million, which is impossible to do really anywhere else.

And they're not pulling their money out because it's this religiosity, right? And then Schiff is like, you got to pull at least half out. Like, what are you doing? But the guy's like, well, I don't want to miss the billion. So there is a religious. Oh, totally. You know, Peter Schiff trolls his son on Twitter. You know about that?

No, I love that. I love that. Actually, I endorse that. Is Schiff's son a crypto guy? Maniac. In a good way. I mean, I term him a dear man. Yeah, total laser eyed psycho.

Interesting. So I think, I think, though, the more time you spend on Twitter, the more likely it is that you're going to have a very strong opinion about this whole crypto ecosystem, either strongly anti or strongly obsessed. I don't, like, I don't think you can be on Twitter six, seven hours a day, like a lot of financial people are, um, and not have a very strong opinion. This is, this is,. Hold on. This is gold. This is from September, 2020. Peter Schiff tweeted,

against my advice, my son, and he tagged his son, just bought even more Bitcoin. Whose advice do you want to follow? A 57-year-old experienced investor, business owner, who's been an investment professional for over 30 years or an 18-year-old college freshman

who's never even had a job? What a dick. What a dick. But wait, he put a poll up. 80% said the kid. Oh, that's great. That's great. 80% said the kid.

That's great. Cell phone. And since then, obviously, Bitcoin mooned, well, not anymore, and gold did what did. Well, so I wanted to ask you, so you must get pitched every day to be involved in these projects because one thing that all these projects have in common is

they need celebrity buy-in to be heard above the noise. So like how many people are coming to you and being like, hey, we'll give you these coins, just talk about them. A good amount. But I've always said I won't do an NFT until I'm very sure of like the value proposition. Like I won't sell something until I'm sure that it's worth it for people.

You're delivering something in exchange. Yeah. I want to know exactly. Let's say you sold an NFT. The thing is, this is what I personally hate about it. We sold one NFT for five ETH back in the day, put it up, sold one. The guy wanted to own it. And I said to them, I said, we're doing this as a joke.

You can buy it. You know, it's a bit. And he own it. And I said to them, I said, we're doing this as a joke. Yeah. You can buy it. You know, it's a bit. And he bought it. And it's, hopefully it does worth money. Maybe nobody will ever buy it from you. So you just want to have to want to own it. Yeah. I was like, this is what it is, but I'm not going to issue a coin or a card or anything

until I'm like kind of. So, so Kings of Leon did this, one of the first bands to do an NFT. It made perfect sense to me. You're a huge fan of theirs. You'll buy whatever they say. Right. And then you buy it and they're entitling you first row seats for one show a year. Great.

That makes perfect sense to me. It's a fan club. And why shouldn't entertainers do that? Why not? Okay. The problem is if you do too much of that and you start issuing things and getting people to buy shit from you then they fucking own you right and then they're like yo i bought your thing why aren't we having lunch i love freedom right i love freedom i hate over committing myself you hate

responsibility i hate responsibility yeah what do we do what do we? What are we giving ourselves obligations? Yeah. In my world, in the creative world, if you overcommit, you strain your creativity because you have to keep pumping out garbage. I would rather put myself in a position where I was free to do what I wanted to do

as opposed to issuing a token that entitles you to something that I may not want to do. Or you want to do it now, but you don't want to do it forever. I may not want to do it in six months. Maybe we shouldn't pitch Tim our idea. Yes. All right.

So forget it. Never mind. What was your idea? I'm on the same page as you. And also, you have millions of fans at this point. We turn the cameras off. We turn it back on in five minutes. I'm like, you know, my thinking's evolved.

I don't know if you talk about how many listeners you have. We do. Okay. How many listeners on a weekly basis? About a million. And then the Patreon is like the super fans? About 40,000. Okay.

More than 40,000. So you're like a full-blown phenomenon at this point. Well, I don't know about that. I would say you are. It's a big show. Yeah. So now everybody wants you to be involved in their shit and i think you're hilarious taking meetings and the

sub stack meeting was hilarious well i i'll take a meeting with anybody yeah i like meetings yeah i like conference rooms i like lunches i like the process you like the pitch too i love the pitch i love the process i like to see you sweat. I remember doing that. Yes. I have the leverage because I have enough money to live and I don't care. Yes. And that's what's fun.

So now a lot of the things people are coming to you with though, it's time consuming shit. And you can't be funny and you can't be you. And you can't like, you need like hours to think of like, what's the next thing I want to do. If you're obligated all day and being pulled into meetings about things and how can you be yourself? Like you get to a point where you just can't be yourself and please everybody at the same time. Yeah. You got to safeguard, I think your time. Right. And that's harder and harder to do as we do more and more stuff. And I am interested, right?

I am interested. Like, if there is a good way to do a project that benefits people, I'm all ears, but it can't just be let's figure it out later. It can't just be let's pump something they're 50 000 plus people yeah and then later on we'll figure out what it is i want to figure out exactly what it would be we've always tried like you know i've wanted to do experiences for a long time that were non-traditional for people right like uh we do this thing on my show called fake business uh where we have our hoodies our merch it's all fake business because so much of what goes on is fake business.

It's the funniest thing I've ever heard. We wanted to do a fake business convention, right? Oh, my God. Rent out a hotel, get a bunch of comics, get real trainers, sales trainers and shit, comics, fake things, have people not know what was going on, get tickets to events, seminars, funny stuff. Yeah. We wanted to do it, and I still do. If I could find a way to issue an NFT where it pays for partially or allows you access to something like that.

Yes. That's a really good idea. We've always thought about like what would be – we thought about four-walling a restaurant on Long Island for two days, taking over the menu, the chef having it being like this weird comedy dining experience where the menu would be insane. We'd hire lunatics to work there. It would be a really funny like going out in a Long Island restaurant. What's the reason not to do it? Everybody's got Trump hats.

You're screaming. Well, it's been COVID so far. But like our idea was to basically like, let's take over a restaurant and give people a Long Island dining experience turned up to 11. Like the depressed waitress complaining about diabetes. Family style Italian.

Family style Italian. Conspiracy, QAnon, crazy people. People complaining about the neighborhood changing. Like this experience that we've all had. Can you smoke at the table? Yeah, probably. crazy people, people complaining about the neighborhood changing. This experience that we've all had. Can you smoke at the table? Yeah, probably. Or maybe the waitress will be smoking when she approaches your table. We wanted to do crazy shit. I still

do. I still do. I'm still excited by the... When I was a comedian in New York, we rented a tour bus and we took... I sold tickets to it. It was this massive show at the New York, we rented a tour bus and we took, I sold tickets to it. It was this massive show at the New York comedy festival. People bought tickets and I took them on this crazy tour of New York and said

all the stuff that you couldn't say if you were a real tour guide, you know, because I was a tour guide in New York and I, I would say those things and I would get reprimanded every now and then. Do you, do you remember Tony and Tina's wedding? Yeah, exactly. Like, let's do that.

It's a dinner. You'll actually get food. Yes. But everyone in the restaurant, you don't know if they're real people or they're all of a sudden going to spontaneously set themselves on fire. So that's the type of stuff that my interest in NFT stuff is because I do have those ideas and I want to figure out an avenue to those ideas.

But dumb question, why can't you just sell a ticket for that? You can, but I think that there's probably a better, more efficient way to fund something like that, to pay people, like the whole thing's in operation right yeah so the idea is like if people bought nfts and then that money was used to to create this event everybody loved the idea of it you could then sell your nft to potentially a bigger fan who goes no no i really want to go. Whatever it is. You know what the problem is? You know what the problem is?

I think you have to do this in Austin or California and bring Long Island to them. Because if you do this on Long Island, no matter how crazy the people you stack the room with, people won't get that. It's a performance. I don't think we'll do it on Long Island. Yeah. I think we would absolutely do it somewhere else. We should export Long Island to Alabama. To would absolutely do it somewhere else. We should export

Long Island to Alabama. To other places, yeah. Oh my god. That's the idea. So my interest in that arena is like maybe there is a way to do it. You know, I could see comics funding a special going, I have the capital where I'll fund my own special.

But I could see a comic going, okay, I have X amount of fans. They all buy this NFT. I use that money'll fund my own special. But I can see a comic going, okay, I have X amount of fans. They all buy this NFT. I use that money to fund my special taping. That NFT comes with tickets to the special. Things like that, I think, are really good. Your fans don't want a ticket stub.

They want a digital representation of the fact that they're your fan and they went to your event. By the way, I think with the NFT, it would come with more than just a ticket stub. You would get things with it. They'd get your alarm code to your house. There'd be an alarm code to my home.

There would be Joe Rogan's phone number. Right. There would be, but there'd be merch, maybe merch specific to the event. It also helps amplify what you're trying to do. Nobody's taking a screenshot of their ticket and tweeting it. Absolutely. With the NFT, everyone's like, oh, me too.

No, the marketing is built in. All of that is built in. They market for you. Yeah. So that's why I am spending time with people trying to figure out how to do it. You should totally buy a board of you. You should totally buy a board of you. You're one of the big—

Listen, don't make me move the market. Bieber thinks he can move the market. I may get a gutter cat. So when you look at the daily ups and downs of the stock market, how close attention do you pay to what people are investing in or what companies are saying? I pay a decent amount of attention, but I'm not by any means any type of expert on anything.

I look at it to know where things are going so I can talk about it. I'm interested in culture and society at large. I like characters. So, Cathie Wood's funny. Yes. And Gary Vee are funny. Yes. I like big personalities.

And then the entrance point into this stuff. Both of those two people should be on your show. I agree. My entrance point into, like, I love real estate, but my entrance point into real estate was these big realtors, people like Dolly Lenz in New York, these big personalities that would, you know, have these crazy articles written about them

in the New York Observer and you'd read about them. And then from that, you would take an interest in the things they were selling. I feel a similar way about, like I know more now about crypto and about Tesla and about all that stuff. From the personalities. Because I think Cathie Wood is very, she's very funny,

very mild mannered kind of Connecticut mom. But then she's like this really forward-thinking, balls-to-the-wall investor that will just risk it all. And there's something about that I respect. But she looks like a woman you'd see leaving church. You know what I mean? Getting into a Toyota Camry. In real life, one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm sure she's lovely. I'm sure she's lovely. She's a fascinating character. People like her,

I listen to them. I like Peter Schiff. I like that he lives in Puerto Rico because he feels that he's too taxed here. I like that he has been, I think there's a great quote where it's, Peter Schiff has predicted nine out of the last two recessions. Like, I love that every day is doom and gloom no matter what. I love the commitment. Peter and I have the polar opposite investment beliefs, but

the one thing I do respect about him is I think he actually lives what he says. Like, moving to Puerto Rico. He believes his own bullshit. I really think he and I think I believe what I, what I think, but I think he really believes that disaster is lurking around every corner all the time. And it's just a matter of minutes.

So the personalities to me are, are fun. Yeah. And then from there I get into the more of the, cause I don't love, I love making money, but I don't, I don't love the multiplying of money. Like I wouldn't be funny if i cared that much about that's how you cease to be funny yeah you just can't care that much about it but then i will look at these characters in that world and i go this is great you must love kramer i like kramer but i got bored with kramer you get bored with people and and the reason i got bored well here's my favorite story about Kramer Kramer on your show would be amazing

I worked at a company called Accredited Home Lenders they were a subprime mortgage bank according to Jim Kramer with a good portfolio that was not going to be in trouble and literally we were all watching Jim Kramer in my Long Island office in Westbury

on f***ing corporate drive and we're watching Jim kramer and he's going a credit home lender is going to be okay he's going to be okay because he goes their balance sheet is great it's good company they're video and he does this whole thing and we're all like we go out we'll smoke a cigarette we're like this is going to be okay the next day we get an email that says all the brokers are like yeah we're gonna be like it's gonna be okay the next day we get an email saying the company has ceased U.S. operations. Nobody's perfect.

Literally not 24 hours after Jim Cramer goes, they're good. Yeah. So right after that, immediately I was just like, oh, I get it. Well, listen. I think part of it is like you're kind of like the Long Island medium, right? You know, like she's pretending to talk to dead people. A lot of these guys are pretending to have a clue. It's entertainment.

It's ESPN for stocks. It's not easy. So here's what's weird about finance. When you watch the NFL pre-show and Terry Bradshaw, and they're all like picking the games. They're like, oh, I'm going with Mahomes. I see the Chiefs. And they go down and everybody says what they think is going to happen.

That's it. Nobody calls them after and is like, I f***ing lost my bet because of you. I lost a three-team parlay because, but for some reason, when somebody is talking about stocks or maybe real estate, it's like, oh, this person just gave me advice. Well, also, but the stakes are much higher with stocks because people are betting at 500 bucks on the game, maybe.

Right. With stocks, it's like their retirement money. Right. But this idea that you sat in front of a TV or you listened to a podcast and somebody told you what to do with your money that you've never met before. Well, it goes back to the idea that you can't listen to a podcast and then be trusted to make a decision about your health, right? decision about your health right it's this idea this infantilizing of people where their children who are easily led by whoever comes on tv or the internet it's kind of true well but it is kind of here's the deal how much are you going to destroy society by instituting rules to protect those people truly because you will destroy society if you go around and you try to structure

society with the idea that people have absolutely no common sense or you know a self-agency then you're going to restrict everyone you have to have a balance there's yeah there's this there's this like famous thing on wall street that people bring up every once in a while. Apple is the most valuable company in the world. It's worth $3 trillion. In 1981, I guess, or whenever the IPO was supposed to be, the securities regulators in the state of Massachusetts forbid their people that live there from being in the IPO. We will not let Massachusetts residents buy the IPO of Apple. It was called Apple computer Corp or whatever at the time.

And just this idea that like, not that people couldn't have bought it the next day when it was publicly traded, but just this idea of like, you have to have rules and you have to have a modicum of protection. Right. And when big money's at stake, you probably need more protection when health is at stake. But like,

where do you where does it stop well this is why it's complicated it's because it's health and yeah and so i don't think it's right but i understand i understand why people are upset even if i don't agree with why they're upset people are going to be upset um for a myriad of reasons all the time and if you make policy based on how people feel you're going to be changing policy constantly and you're going to be getting, I think, a kind of, it's going to seem like you don't have any values. You're going to seem like you are being led by the dictates.

The loudest voice. Yeah. You can't you know you can't govern a city based on twitter yeah you can't govern a city you can't institute a policy about the police because it's trending on twitter yeah you know what i mean you can't as a politician want to get more retweets and favorites than protect people from crime but that's the game that's the game right now that's the game. That's the game right now. That's the problem. Yeah, but in the real world, the search itself.

And if you saw the turnout of New Yorkers for the two dead NYPD officers, the turnout was unbelievable. Bigger than any stupid holiday parade. That's right. Right? Well, because people are realizing that this is not the course of action to take. But it was such a persuasive marketing campaign on social media. Defund the cops, this, that, and the other thing.

None of it accomplishes the goal of a more equitable and just society. None of it gets there. But a politician can get retweets. But a politician can get retweets. They can get clout, for lack a politician can get retweets. They can get clout, for lack of a better word. They can become a favorite. People will start writing articles about them.

They will go viral. They will build a personal brand off of slogans on Twitter. The policies are quite murderous. I mean, they harm the people that they purport to help and politicians don't care. Well, this is the problem with the internet. It's like you're pandering to the mob and the mob could unite faster than ever before. And the mob is 4,000 people.

The mob is not even the mob. The mob is a tiny fraction of people that have appointed themselves to be guardians of the public interest. That's what the mob is there. If you look at the sheer numbers of, you know, Twitter, I forget what it is, but it's 90% of content is, you know, generated by 10% of the users. The vast majority of people, even on the app, don't care enough to generate that content right this is a small amount of content so when you see sarandos and people like that they're smart enough to realize

this is the minority of a minority of a minority i know trans people that didn't care at all i know some of them that love chapelle special i know some of them that said i had no issue with the trans stuff but i i didn't think it was that funny. And then I know obviously because I'm plugged into the world, know people who are very upset about it. But it's not everybody, but the problem is the way it's presented

is that it is. Well, I mean, we could do this. I know you've got other places to be. The media is laser focused on everything that happens on Twitter. So those 4,000 people in and of themselves may not be that many people. But then the amplification because like what is the media doing with the news? Mostly like things that start on Twitter.

Well, it's like the media is like anybody else, right? They shipped a bunch of jobs in the 90s, manufacturing jobs out of the country. And, you know, the media is also losing work right the media is losing eyeballs they're losing revenue streams every day like a lot of people that made money in the traditional media landscape are struggling they're struggling to do it now right you know and that's why you should join subs yeah that's why i will join you should. Yeah, that's why I will join Substack. You should be part of that revolution. In fairness to him, the CEO of Substack, he got back to me and said, we do have a money offer. What, after your podcast?

It's not to buy you, but we do have an interesting thing. So I'm going to talk to him again. Right. To buy our show, it costs a lot of money. Is this real business or fake business? No, this is, well, we'll see. It's on him. I didn't know they wanted to host podcast.

They want to do video with you. Yeah, they want to do it all. They want me to leave YouTube and Patreon. We have friends on Substack that fucking love it, by the way. Great. Yeah. Congrats. Yeah.

I'm happy for them. Yeah, yeah. Give me money. Right. Or get the fuck out of here. You're going to go see Alec Baldwin later? We're going to go see Alec Baldwin, reach out. Okay.

I'm doing his podcast at two. Okay. As a Long Island guy, it's a highlight. Are you doing shows right now? Not a ton. I'm popping in to do a 10-minute set here and there. I saw you. A quick Omicron set.

Where was the venue that I saw Tim at? I'm drawing a blank. On the upper side. The Beacon Theater? I was supposed to be there, but I had a Crohn's attack that night. Oh, well, I apologize. Yeah. It's mostly your fault.

Yeah. So I was looking forward to that. And then you, did you sell out the Paramount? Three nights. Unbelievable. Three Paramount shows. All right. And then we did Camp AC and Red Bank.

That's amazing. Yeah, it's great. Long Island came out. We do, and by the way, never the greatest audience. No. They were good. Why? Are they on their phones? What are they doing? Well, you just, they're great. Long Island came out. We do. And by the way, never the greatest audience. No. They were good. Why? Are they on their phones?

What are they doing? Well, you just, they're great. Like, we had a great, it was fun. But then you go to like a Denver or anywhere else and you go, oh, f*** them. They suck. Because they're just never going to be as good. The enthusiasm. They're never going to, they're enthusiastic.

They're not attentive. Okay. They're not paying attention to the words. So like. They're not attentive. Okay. They're not paying attention to the words. So like. They like being there. Like what's good about me is I'm loud and I'm like boisterous. So we have a great time. They get it.

But like I work hard. Like the results are similar to other shows. But the amount of work you have to do as a comedian. Yes. Is much higher there than it would be in even Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. They're humans. There's something about Long Island specifically. Yeah, it's in the water.

There's some of the worst comedy audiences in America. So go catch Tim on Long Island. Yeah, timdillacomedy.com if you want to see. I have tours. I'm going to be in Nashville and Philly and Baltimore and Denver shooting a special so timdilloncomedy.com if you have any interest and the podcast is are you doing Monday what are you doing now we're all over the place

but we're trying to hit you know we're probably going back to Saturdays you're getting one a week it's Tim Dillon show on YouTube you're getting one a week on YouTube one a week on Patreon but up until the special taping which is going to be March, things are going to be a little scrambled.

You're still going to get one a week. But it may be on a Monday, it may be on a Tuesday. Then when the special is taped, it's free. Stop complaining, it's free. The special will be probably on YouTube. And it's Spotify. And it's free. People need to let you put it up when you have time to put it up.

Well, the reality is we love having a regular day where as soon as the special is shot, we're going back to four or five months having a regular day. I won't be on the road and then we'll bank episodes and, you know, but you get it within a day, within 24 to 48 hours. It's very good.

So just enjoy it and shut up. Tim, you're the man. Thanks so much for coming through. Thank you for having me. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Awesome, man. Alright. it shut up timmy the man thanks so much thank you for having me thank you brother i appreciate it awesome man all right are you worried about uh in terms of the uh crypto how where do you think about it i think it's the same trade