The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Shanalysis

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

JuJu has some reporting to do on gambling in college sports before we get to everyone's favorite game: AGAINST! THE! SPREAD! Then, friend of the show Neal Brennan is here to discuss his new special AND podcast as he takes us through what he's learned in and around his own suffering, why it's impossible for athletes to be mentally healthy, the state of modern comedy, and why the sun is the enemy of a specific group of people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Don LeBattor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. We are a strange show that sometimes has the news and forgets to report it, as we did on skip schumacher and more recently in this one was my error and good lord was it a flop i think it would have been a pretty big story if i had announced like i'd known that tyson was going to fight jake paul but i thought everyone here knew it was common information i come in and i asked does everyone know this and

they look up on the internet they're like nope it can't be real and i'm like i'm pretty sure it's it's all done and then we don't report it. We did some reporting here. Juju Gotti has finally phoned somebody who can give us an answer to the question and I might be talking totally out of my eyes here because I don't know what I'm talking about. I think and assume that more people are going to be betting on the men that if the women are going to be grabbed by gambling or if the newcomers are going to be grabbed by gambling because they're interested in the iowa phenomenon it's not going to

happen upon arrival that it's going to be happening here over the next few years when of course the gambling industry also comes with the same sort of fervor to women's sports that does to to men. But I don't have any information. So we called DraftKings and what did they tell you, Juju? They said, and they said they couldn't get into too many specifics at all because, you know what I mean, illegal battles and whatnot. But they said,

Iowa versus South Carolina was the most bet women's event in DKSB, DraftKings Sports Book, history across any sport. The women's tournament had 3.8 times more handle and 3.5 times more bets than 2023. Yukon versus Purdue, however, was the most bet basketball game of all time on DraftKings Sportsbook.

Wow, wow. I have to think that's people like you, and they were breezing through the tournament. Why not bet them in the final? No, no, but my, no, no. That's not just random gamblers. That is that everything you saw with the ratings, look, I think this was fairly obvious.

This ratings explosion that you just saw, not just in women's basketball, the men were getting monster numbers too, is absolutely fueled by, I don't care who's playing, I don't know anybody, they're just people running up and down the court with my money. I can bet a noon game, I can bet a midnight game, just give me action. It's not because UCon uh... an obvious betting favorite it's because the culmination of all the gambling that just went on culminates with of course of more people are watching a more people are betting it's going to be a gambling explosion to around because this is made for

television entertainment all of it man at this point sports is a contrivance that just exists for the action fantasy leagues come to life everybody wants more stimuli with their actions so i don't want to just one what watch one game no give me i want to bet the first half the second half parlay over here when i prop bets i want to have action all over the place so i care in the third quarter whether my guy gets three three pointers like that's what we're doing with gambling and making all of it interactive and so of course

if you can go to your television at any time or day or night and become los vegas because you have money on what's happening on your television of course gambling's going to catch fire all over the country and viewing habits are going to skyrocket and the streaming services are going gonna want to get involved because everybody wants to be around the action why are you making a face Billy? Did you say gambling?

You know what time it is. Glad you're right to it. Great words but though Dan, great words. Dan, it's that time again. It's time for Against the Spread. Against the Spread is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Stugats, before we get to that,

my theory would be that the reason Yukon Purdue is the most gambled on game of all time is because for now, what has been normalized is the betting in mass on men's sports. That's what most of us have been doing around here for a long time, and I'm guessing a predominantly male gambling audience, a largely male gambling audience has also been betting on the men for a long time, and this is the year that it's exploded on the women's side. I'm just speaking for myself, Dan,

and applying my own sensibilities. I didn't really, I don't think I bet UConn once until the championship game, because they were steamrolling everyone, and I was like, hey, I don't want to miss out on this. But you're always speaking for yourself and always thinking that it speaks for America, and I don't want to miss out on this. You're always speaking for yourself and always thinking that it speaks for America and I don't think you speak for everybody when the numbers are that disparate. 18 million are watching

the women, 14 million are watching the men, but a lot more money is coming in on the men than the women even though you've got 4 million fewer people watching. I'm telling you the part of the purity that Lucy has around the sport it still exists over with the women where it hasn't been contaminated by all the things yet And I'm just saying that I didn't want to bet against Caitlin Clark because I didn't want to be the person that bet against Caitlin Clark and lost I did want to bet on you calm because I didn't want to be the guy who didn't bet on you Lucy I would say that your expertise in this sport would suggest to Stuugats that South Carolina was a bigger favorite not numerically but a more obvious choice in that game than even UConn was given how overwhelming South Carolina was for the

last three seasons? I wouldn't necessarily agree with that just because Iowa had beat the South Carolina team before so like betting wise it's always tough to bet against Katelyn Clark but but. You know what I'm saying? Homer. Take the Marlins today. Plus one and a half. Against the Yankees. Against the spread.

You're buying a run, you're buying, you wanna win? Well that's the spread, plus one and a half. Yeah, so the Yankees have to score two runs, or win by two runs to beat the Marlins. They have to score two runs. Yeah, you know what I'm thinking? Because you look at this and you think, Billy, the Marlins right now are one and 11.

Ryan Weathers has struggled a bit. Who's he pitching against? Marcus Strohman, he's been incredible so far. What does he have? Like a zero ERA, like a.8 whip? I go, yeah, how do you know that? You're looking this up or something? I'm talking to an incredible baseball fan right now who knows all this information right off the top of their head

Why would you take the Marlins plus one and a half over the Yankees with these odds? You know why Dan because baseball that's why I'm gonna take the Marlins plus one and a half over the Yankees today again against the spread. It's a terrible analysis and I'm not even saying that he won't win the bet, but in terms of shitty analysis there's rarely anything worse than DraftKings could be sponsoring than why did you bet it that way? Oh, you know, cuz baseball. Shenalysis. It is. That's shit analysis. Shenalysis from Billy Gill. Baseball. Shenalysis. It is, that's shit analysis, shenalysis, from Billy Gill.

Baseball. Bet on baseball to be baseball. Why? There's no logic. The Yankees are overwhelming. They've kicked the shit out of the Marlins. The Marlins are losing to everyone. They lost to the Pirates. They lost at home.

They got swept. They lost to the Angels. They've lost two straight to the Yankees, but not today. Why do I bet them? Because. They're due. Baseball. No, not they're due.

You get it. That's different stupidity No, he doesn't get it. No, he does not that's a different gambling stupidity. They're do is part of baseball totally different Not part of baseball you bet baseball. Do we have any other bets that are smarter than that one? Yes I'm headed to the association Side note next week. Let's get some new music for against the spread. I feel like this music has ran its course. I'm gonna put that on the poll. Put this on the poll. Do you like the Against the Spread music? Neither here nor there. I'm gonna take the Dallas Mavericks. They're coming into the 305 tonight. Minus three. I see that look in Luca Donk's eyes and I don't see the same look across the heat organization

You feel me now even? This is waiting for one second now Nicole Iovic has stepped up and shown that he's a rookie that can be depended on in In spite of Terry Rozier dealing with injury in spite of BAM sometimes turning into Idris lately. In spite of Jimmy Butler putting up subpar efforts. I think that his last, the double overtime win in Atlanta last night brought them together. But I just think that the Dallas Mavericks are hotter right now because they're getting exceptional play

from PJ Washington. They're getting exceptional play from the Bigs. They're getting exceptional play from Daniel Gafferty these days, along with the superstar Kyrie Irvin and Luca Donk. So I'm gonna take the Dallas Mavericks against the Spreds. Against the Heat tonight minus three. Alright, I don't mind the segment, but again, Billy going, I'm betting because it's baseball. And Juju saying, I see it in their eyes, they were brought together.

Yeah. They were brought together. Yeah They were brought together I said Daniel Gaffer's name in there As pretty as you want it to be yeah, I know nothing about golf But SVP told me Cory Connors is a name to watch so Cory Connors plucked red plus six thousand what? What's odds to win a yeah that analysis is cuz SVP said so yeah That's good analysis right. I mean. I just don't think trappings is gonna renew our contract Oh, well, they got a lot of money, but hopefully they will with this one. I've got the Orlando Magic beating the Milwaukee Bucks.

I'm taking the Orlando Magic minus one. A little bit of a pick them. Guess why, Dano? Basketball. No, Yanis. Oh. Oh, man. Avoided serious injury.

Chris Millerton, however, has been stepping up lately. He's been coming out for his injury as well, but he's taking more of the reins. And look, spoiler alert, Patrick Beverly, he's gonna be a major piece on his team come playoff time. Keaton Five. I'm worried about our future with DraftKings. I think everyone did great.

Against the spread. The Dan LeBattard Show with Stu Gotz is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's time for a self check-in. How's your social battery doing right now? Is it drained or is it bursting with energy? Similar to how a battery stores energy before eventually running out, individuals with a social battery may feel a need to recharge or

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Find your social sweet spot with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash D-L-B today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D-L-B. Don LeBattard. Well, Charlie sent, Charlie had this, Charlie as far as I know, so just Charlie's title in my phone. Are you gonna say anything?

Stugats! Uh, how familiar were you at the time with Chewbacca? Like, how, your upbringing had how much Chewbacca in it? This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugats! This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats. I admire this person for a lot of different reasons, but I will say Stugats at the very top of what we're doing here. As your content options get harder, as it becomes harder to discern where you should spend your money, I will more and more trust people to direct me to a place because of their sensibilities where they're so discerning that all they

Do is make good things and Neil Brennan is one of those people wherever he's making things He will not put his name on anything that isn't pros pros stuff You're staying with the safe stuff is what you're saying like for me. It's us the low. It's not safe stuff No I'm saying I trust certain people to have such a high standard in to make such good choices that if they're doing blocks is a podcast series or if they're doing a stand-up special i'm going to seek them out because they're discerning as taste makers this is a comedian's comedian he is a pros pro he just did his third special for netflix crazy

good and he made it look easy it flew by it was much different than his previous two specials which had a lot of depth a lot of range he was kind of changing the former trying to change the form here he just went back to his roots and it's just funny all funny easy to listen to and so thank you neil for being on with us take me through what it is that your process is as you're trying to live up to the expectations of people now expect me to make amazing things people now expect me to be somebody who tops myself with the last thing I did.

Well I would like to address to God's first. Stu gots I have always considered myself the still own of comedy and I still know what I mean. Frank still alone. So although I've shot up the Frank Stallone because his song is one of the greatest songs of the 80's and I can't remember the name of it but I'm a correct.

You're right Frank from over Frank from Frank Stallone has a bonafide hit in the 80's that was a jam that we would all enjoy singing. Yes, it's an incredible song. Whatever that genre is, it's one of the best ones from it. Whatever, but I'm not going to throw away this huge opportunity to talk about myself by talking about Frank Stallone. What was my process? I don't, well, I just, with the process with any one of these hours is I just write a bunch of jokes and then I look at them and kind of interrogate what I'm getting at.

And with this, it was, I was getting at, well, I wasn't sad. So I wasn't gonna pretend I'm sad. And at the beginning of the show, I do a disclaimer because I had done the show in Washington, DC, basically as is, and a guy DM me afterward, and it's great whenever a guy DMs you, it's very exciting. A guy DM me afterward and was like,

I kept waiting for you to show up. Basically was saying like you weren't sad enough. So I put a caveat at the beginning of the Netflix and I did it on the road as well and it actually kind of made the show better because it didn't, people didn't weren't waiting for me to sort of pull the carpet and be like I'm depressed or my dad was mean or whatever. So this was just arranging the thoughts I had and about the subjects I was writing about or concerned about in a way that was fairly,

that just flowed smoothly and getting the transitions right and getting the setups right. Well, but you're great at all that, right? The sculpting art of stand-up you have perfected, even other stand-ups would say, yes, he's just very gifted at how it is the delivery of these things has to be. But I want to explain something to the audience. The new podcast he's got, Blocks with Neil Brennan, based on his on his netflix comedy special blocks it's available wherever you get your podcast it's exceptional but people have come to expect a dark vulnerability from your comedy i don't know if they've come to expect

you to be more vulnerable than any other comics in sort of exploring the depths of your unhappiness and making the funny around it you had different expectations with this one I didn't realize that you're so attuned to your audience wanting you to be deep dark guy that you disappoint them when you're happy. Well, yeah, whatever you get known for, it's like they want, if I was gonna make sketches now,

people would go, they better be like the Chappelle ones. You know what I mean? They want you to do the thing that they know you for. So David Spade said it 30 years ago, you spend the first part of your career trying to get known for something and then the second part trying to get away from it. So with this, it was like,

I sort of thought people might be upset if I wasn't upset. And then someone just said it early. So I kind of got it out of the way and was able to address it. But ultimately I think people just want a comedian to be funny. Like I just looked on Netflix and I'm number five, number five on the top 10, which is like,

I'm really thrilled by and a little surprised, but I'm also not surprised in that people would prefer just a funny comedian rather than a funny and contemplative or introspective comedian. And I'm not saying like I regret doing what I did. I'm just saying that's people's preferences. They want they want sugary drinks Oh, but this is this is why I want to know this is why I want to talk about your career and business evolution because you're doing something very specific with blocks where if people want to explore rummage around in the bin of Feelings with great comedians you're interviewing them in a way that is super unusual But what you're telling me is that you have to craft your business around what consumers are telling you they want in 2024. You'd be great

on politics. You'd be great divisive. You are great on those things. But it's probably better to just make them laugh because they need to feel a good time. I don't, yeah, it's not even that like craven in terms of like, I need money. How do I get it? It's more just like, I don't know, this is what I was writing about and I wasn't gonna pretend to be sad. I didn't set out to just do a sort of,

you know, whatever the style is, observational, cutting, funny, I mean, they always, I always start out trying to be funny and then it ends up sometimes being funny plus something else. This was just funny. Let me explain to the people, incidentally, if you have not seen the special, you were great great on sports this is one of the things that I love when the comedians come over and use their surgical skills on the stupidity that surround us every day you were talking about mental health you were talking about our greatest athletes and you were explaining that none of them are mentally healthy they're all out of their minds. All of them. All of them.

You know what I call an athlete with good mental health? An assistant coach is what I call them. Because they're not, I'd rather watch, I'd rather watch reruns of old 90 Chicago Bulls games over new Steph Curry games. He's not crazy enough. He's great, but he's too kind. LeBron said on that podcast with JJ last week, in order to be great, you have to hurt your loved ones.

That's LeBron James said it. I literally was like, thank you. I'm glad we all came to the same conclusion. You, you're not going to, you know, it's a sociopathy and, and, uh, and a need for status is the greatest economic driver in world history. It just is like we, you know, sports and I don't know if you guys ever explore this, you know, the origin of sports was to train soldiers between wars. That's how it started in ancient Greece. So we're looking at guys who were like, you know, they're soldiers but for like, you know

For Steve Ballmer, you know, whatever they're soldiers now, but they're they're soldiers and they're they're doing war exercises basically, that's why it it it Appeals to a primal thing in us and a primal thing in them. I don't want to watch healthy people You know, it's it's with art too. I mean, it's like, I don't want to watch healthy people. I want to watch a bunch of maniacs. A bunch of maniacs. When I heard Ohtani, or whatever, was gambling, I'm like.

I think you got it. Yes, you got it. Yeah, I think when I heard Ohtani was gambling, I was like, of course he's gambling What do you think that's? Maniacs don't come in from Japan. The guy's a maniac. You can't hit and pitch without gambling It's a rule. Put it on the pole please at Levitard show. Can you hit and pitch without gambling? Michael Jordan Tom Brady crazy, crazy, crazier,

who's crazy is? Yeah, Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps, Kyrie Irving. Every gymnast who's ever done a flip off of a four foot beam. It's not normal behavior. Figure skaters, they all look, the last Olympics I just just called the FBI like, are you missing some girls?

It looks like they're in dire straits. They have to spin around, become a hologram of themselves. Stop, act like they didn't just travel through time and then go to that little booth and sit with their kidnappers. It's crazy behavior. And land on razor blades on ice with a great deal of pressure on them.

Yes! Like, go, hey, you guys should go into the parking lot and just toss each other in the air. See how it is. They're tossing each other. They're ice skating and Tossing each other. What are you shut it down with razor blades on their feet? I think we yes I need some help tossing Dan and Gymnastics gymnastics is even crazier Like it's I said gymnastics sounds like jackass stunts

that they let them practice in advance. Like I'm Johnny Knoxville, this is the balance beam. Bering, bering, bering, bering, bering, bering. Like what are you doing? You're charging, you're hitting a trampoline and then using a table to flip over? How is this legal? It's such a good question. Stugatz, if I told you that somebody in

some land, if I didn't tell you anything about gymnastics, and I just told you a dictator had 11-year-olds who were doing all sorts of routines, jumping off of tables for his entertainment, 11-year-olds, and training them vigorously and making them unhappy and then sending them to their abductors, you would tell me that is evil and should be illegal. And crazy. Yeah, by the way, by the way, Stugats, whatever size they are when they start doing gymnastics, they don't get any bigger. They start at the Italian granny height and they stay there. Don LeBretard.

You are very comfortable talking about how you met your wife, how much you love her, how important she is to you, and that's the reason that I asked the question. I've always admired that about you, that you have no problems whatsoever professing your love. Well, the thing is, I got a new wife now. Me and Bianca didn't make it.

So I moved on, we moved on. it was for the better both of us still gots things Just got a little awkward there. So let me be the first on this show to congratulate you on the new wife Vance Congratulations on on on feeling whole feeling complete, you know Let's talk tailgating. Yeah Don Don't be, don't, don't feel awkward, buddy. You know, I don't, I mean, it's much too late for that. I appreciate you soothing me in this regard, but I already feel terribly awkward. And then my teammate comes to my defense with not a question, but just a healthy congratulations. And the further pointing out of that awkwardness because he's always good for me in those spots. I'm also thinking of divorce, Vince, after many, many years, 18 years with a partner

who does things like that to you. This is the Don LeBattar Show with the Stugats. I thought that you did a great bit, not a good bit, a great bit on the sun in the middle of your special and I just was wondering given the recent eclipse whether or not you had any... Yes, it was exciting. It was fun to see the eclipse. It was fun to see the sun get pushed around a little bit. Um, you know, as a white person, I live in, in, uh, I, you know, what's funny about the eclipse. I wanted to try to time some epiphany as it came over, like I'm gay or something, but, uh, but it was just the same dumb, like I got it. I need that burrito or whatever. Why am I not number four on Netflix?

Yes. The, did you, you remember, you guys are old enough to remember, remember when sunblock began? I think, I think Sturgats and I are old enough to remember when it is that you went from one- There was no sunblock. Then there was suntan oil.

And then the next week they were like, hey, that was lube for cancer. Block your whole skin. And I tried to, you know who does not care about white people's ailments with the sun? My black friends do not care care I try to tell them I'll be like you know we get skin cancer 30 times thanks for cutting the black guy we get skin cancer 30 times more we get skin cancer 30 times more than black

people and all my black friends are like yeah Neil I'm having a hard time finding my passion for this what I've come to realize, fellas, is that if you really think about it, the son is basically the cops for white people. Following us around everywhere we go, messing with us because of the color of our skin, killing our cousins for no reason, and then when I tell my black friends

that the son killed my cousin, they're like, well, what was he wearing? So you can see why I'm upset by the whole thing He has a number of wonderful Observations in you will acknowledge that this special is breezier for you Like it was just so easy to watch you make me think with your other stuff and that's not to say that this doesn't make Me think either but I was just enjoying that you seemed really relaxed, confident and comfortable in your skin as somebody who's gotten exceptional at

the mechanics of this. It takes, it's like, you kind of develop different stuff at different paces. Like I can always write jokes, but it's taken a while to figure out how to be on stage, how to be in public, how to be, and it's just getting easier from just reps probably, but also just my own feelings about myself

and my own feelings about my consciousness or whatever. So, so it's just, yeah, and it's also like, I've been funny for a long time. So it's just a matter of getting it to a place where people can, it, you know, it's all the people that, all the, all the, all like the, the icons, you probably didn't hear of them till they were 10 or 15 years into their career.

People heard of me from not very many years into my career. So they may have, they may have been judging me based on, it was a real judgment. I just hadn't been doing it that long. So now I've been doing it over 15 years and you kind of just get like, you kind of wear it better. You kind of just like, yeah, I'm all right. I will figure that I got it, you know, and it's it's it's gratifying because it's it's it's nice to be good at something I Will tell the audience without revealing too much because you've been very honest about this Neil that you've been to hell and back with With trying to get outside of your head that you had. Yeah tapping done for you

You've just been trying to get outside of the prison. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, yeah. You were trying to- Tapping, I guess. You were trying to alter- You can't just have someone tap. No, you were trying to mechanically, was it in China? You were trying to alter your- I went to China, yeah.

One time I went to China, yeah. To get your brain chemistry altered so that you could figure out what was wrong with you, correct? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's yeah That's basically right. I just wanted to feel better Yeah, and and you've gotten to feeling better and I know you talked about this with Pablo Torre Ayahuasca helped you you went from atheist to feeling like you killed the ego and find God and now you come to a comfortable confident place where you can talk about your greatest and now you come to a comfortable confident place where you can talk about your greatest vulnerabilities on blocks with Neil Brennan where you're

forcing other comedians To talk out loud about the stuff I've assumed you've talked about in private, but nobody gets to see this part of your world Neil on how it is that creators create or where it really comes from it's one thing to say it comes from pain It's another thing to hear your friends and experts really reveal themselves to you because you're trying to get at the craft of how mental illness, mental health, mental strength form a comedy act. Yeah. And I don't, I mean, I, I, I'm, I, I make fun of the commodification of all this mental health stuff, especially on social media and women making trauma TikToks

and with music and subtitles and captions and fun graphics and quick cuts. And it's not really like, it's just not, I don't think it's helpful. But so yeah, I like talking about this stuff Generally because I think it's interesting, but I don't want to get Bogged down by I don't want people to get bogged down by it And I think I think there's also there's a thing called post-traumatic growth that I don't think people talk about enough like you can Go through difficult stuff and come out the other side better.

You know? And so, so yeah, I like talking about it. And I've, I've had a long process in dealing with my own. And so I am a bit of like the, the drug addict who gets clean and it's like, don't do drugs like me. But, but yeah yeah it's it's it's yeah the pie I like to the podcast because I like talking to people about

this stuff because because the otherwise it's just another podcast where everybody's telling stories about the time they shit their pants you know well but the thing that I wanted to ruminate with you about is no disrespect no disrespect taken yeah disrespect. None taken. It's a comedy, the comedy space is in an unusual, I don't know if you've ever seen this in your life, the place where comedy presently resides and you have seen- 15 people doing arenas, that kind of thing?

Yes, not only that, but 15 people doing arenas and many of them birthed by the Joe Rogan empire of this free space between mainstream and where people are scared they can't speak freely there's this superhighway of an economy around the burke chrysors of the world and i i mean this is no disparagement to burke chrysor but the rogan comedians right now are getting the stuff that cat williams looks at as a veteran of the grind and says those guys aren't funny at or will say you know rogans not as funny as the comedians comedian you get along with all of these people but can

you take us inside the inner workings of the economy as you view it and you try to evolve the second part of your career as someone who demands like you demand the respect of other comedians you want other comedians to say neil brennan is great at this because you are and you have that respect and some of those comedians look down on the guys that are filling out arenas because they haven't done the grind the same way exactly the same way as the as the best of the best as the atels or the mark marins or or the others who look down on them because they're like you know that's comedy but that's not the way we did it.

Yeah. I mean, I think the, the, I don't get too caught up with the sour grapes thing of like people being more popular than me because I think people, it's like some people are the idea that comedy is going to watch a person do a monologue is not exactly right. Comedy is standup comedy. I mean, like comedy, standup comedy is going to watch a person, a cool person who seems fun and silly,

be fun and silly. And, and there are people like who people that like Chappelle who's, who's bugs bunny, right? And he's bugs bunny, but he can write jokes like Malcolm X pretty good combination. Uh, or Chris is the same. It's like Chris talks like a chainsaw, can write jokes, uh jokes like James Baldwin. Really nice combination. And then there's guys like Burt, who is literally the life of the party.

He's an incredibly lovable, fun guy. And that's a big part of being a comedian. It's just, people just want to be around you. You know what I mean? Like they just want to be around you. And if you can't, and Burt's, I think Burt's an underrated joke writer because I think he is a good joke writer.

So I don't get too caught up with, or now it's like Schultz or Shane Gillis or guys like that. They are very good joke writers. And there is a element of danger to it that I think audiences think is fun. It's like a bit like, you know, like heavy metal. Like, you know, it's like we're dealing with the devil and death and it's like, no, you're not.

We're all just, you know, it's still like a, it's still cost 3.70, you know, whatever. It's just that we're at a show, we're at Universal City Walk. What are we talking about? So, there is this element of like, they're out to get me and all this stuff in an arena. It's like, no, they could have found you if they were out to get you.

So, but it is fun for the audience. It's just fun. It's like transgressive. You feel like you're a little bad and it's a little naughty. So I don't get too caught up in it because it's not, by the way, it's not a choice for me. I don't, I'm being as fun as I possibly can be. This is, Neil, what I was just going to say to you is the reason one of the many reasons

I love how high you've climbed in comedy is because of how much work you've had to do to get over the degree of difficulty Of like I'm not the life of the party who everybody wants to be around I've been a depressed asshole for a long time that will disembowel you with my comedy and surprise them You may this may shock your audience. I've never been offered cocaine. Ever. In my life, I'm a comedian and a commercial director. Do you have any idea how narcy your energy has to be

to never be offered cocaine? But I think you and the other comedians like yourself, your fans are, we understand you and we know that you don't wanna be talked to. We're not loud like Burt Christchurch fans because like during the pandemic, you went how near feel with Bianca. That got me through a lot of times

because I could listen to a brother reflect on stuff I've never heard about, but with a comedic take on it and as well as you touched on depression. And I was depressed as hell during the pandemic. So you and Bianca and little Keith, your dog, like, bro, it really got me through stuff. So we're not as loud as Burt Crusher and Shane Gillis fans, but we are out here, brother, and we love you.

Thank you, Juju. I'm sorry I referred to you as the black guy earlier. Um. Um. Um. I feel bad about that, Daniel. But if I had said, if I had just guessed that your name was Juju, would have been a little racist.

So, so thank you. No, yeah, I hear you and I'm not trying to abandon like, oh, these old depressed people like me. Like, in some ways I'm trying to be like a like a way forward. Like hey you don't you can get out of whatever you're you're in if you don't want to be in it. You can there's like but progress can be made. Just go to China. Yeah well this is the thing people will not understand the actual self-help of this. Neil, I don't believe, and I don't think I betray any confidences when I say this,

that I don't think I have someone I care about who has been more trapped inside his own head than you for about as long as I've known you, right? It seemed like a real prison to me because I'm like, God, I just want happiness for this person and he's just fighting himself and he's trying to figure out, you have gone to such lengths to correct this about yourself. Literally China, yes. And so. And then on Iowaska, I was thrust into outer space,

the universe died, I did DMT, I traveled to before the Big Bang, not easy. And, but I have a new 53 minute special. You went crazy for a while, correct? There was a period of time over the last few years where you, inside of yourself, would say, I am going

crazy. I would not wish this experience on anyone. Yes, there was a two day period where I literally had to thought, I wouldn't wish this on Hitler. And I don't like Hitler that much so I yeah like it was a little touch and go but I'm better for it like that's the funny part is like that's the the awful part about some of these processes I've been through is like the more gruesome the the experience in the moment the the long-term health benefits are commensurate with so it's like whoo

you know so but but yeah but but but I but it can be conquered not easy but can be done again I will tell everybody listening his third Netflix special crazy good it premiered yesterday, it is now streaming. It is Crazy Good, and if you don't want the heavy subject matter, it feels good. It's breezy and it's just very easy to watch. Blocks is a deeper dive. It's his other podcast, or is one of the many places you can find him.

Blocks is available wherever you get your podcasts. Neil, thank you, sir. Thanks for having me, man. Juju, thanks for the support. Thanks for the support. Thanks for the support.