The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - South Beach Sessions - Neal Brennan: "I'm The Kevin Durant of Comedy"

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Neal Brennan has never been afraid to share his thoughts on any topic... including his unfiltered opinions on Dan. Dan Le Batard always looks forward to getting together with his friend, Neal Brennan, the multi-hyphenate comedian, writer, director, producer, and podcast host ("Blocks with Neal Brennan")... even though he's a little scared of the advice Neal shares on how to be creative in an ever-changing industry, maintaining the highest work ethic and standards even after all this time, and oh yeah, not annoying everyone in the process. They also talk about why Kevin Durant is an all-time (misunderstood) great, Dave Chappelle's continued influence, and the comedy greats of today. Watch, listen, and subscribe to "Blocks with Neal Brennan". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Draft Kings Network. They're rolling right now. We're rolling. Right now. Everything is live. I love it. We're on right now. So the reason I wanted to do this with you, my good friend, who I love, is because you're

really wise about making good things. You know how to make things well. I think as great a comedian as you are, you might be a better producer. I don't know how you. I mean, I don't. Yeah, thank you. it's just a different thing. It's just like I'm a servant.

When I'm directing, I'm a servant, right? And I have to, it's corporate. And I have a schedule that I have to meet. And I, I, it's storyboard and laid out. So that's like two different, like I say, I have grid brain where I have like, I need to get this portion by 1020. And I need to get it. And I need a single. And I need a insert of the, of the bird.

and I need a and and and all of that is architecture all of that is planning all of that is details all of that is not the creative mind but it is but the creative part is I have eight minutes and I have to get this person whether it's the person I work with yesterday unnamed you keep doing that it's a very big star and the story would be made better by this person's name better but it's it's we're it's a we're not there We're not there yet. We're not there yet. I got to crack you off. They're not there yet in terms of their approach to commercials. Okay. They're not so, so, but I'm, but I have to make them, they have to say something funny. And they have eight minutes and there's a script and it's not that funny and we have

to figure it out and there is like a, what they call in screenwriting a ticking clock. Well that, what you're specifically describing there when I told you. talk about what I think of you as a producer and I've never seen you direct a commercial, though I can imagine it. It's pretty incredible. I think those eight minutes where you can actually get the funniest stuff out of, whatever, athlete X who doesn't want to be there acting, the reason that I say you're a great producer is because you know what good things look like. Like, you have the taste. If you're watching something and you say it's excellent, it's going to be excellent. You know how to make excellent things. Sometimes I know how to try, but, you know,

But if you don't, if it's not, if it's, I've made, I've, that same taste has been applied to duds and the same, and all the ideas come out of the same hole and it's the same spirit and the same, and yeah, we didn't get it. What would you describe when, when the Hollywood reporter calls you a comic whisper, this is the producer I'm talking about, you're helping the best in comedy or the people who have the biggest reputations. They're coming to you for help on, is this funny? And you're acting as a producer.

When in most settings you're in, you're obviously the funniest person there. And whatever the settings are. I have a line. I say, I'm a famous comedian, unless a famous comedian is there. And then I'm a writer. Man, it's just what it's just what happened.

It's literally like, it basically just comes down to charisma, more or less, it's like I've written for Dave, Chris Allen, like the Hall of Fame. And what's the difference? I clearly can write the thing that they can. So it just comes down to life. It comes down to spirit and charisma.

And I am working. That's like an ongoing project. The charisma project, the Neil Brennan, the untitled Neil Bernard and Charisma project. Okay. Well, but you did in, this was blocks. think and I should tell people go to his podcast it's exceptional it's a derivative from his special on Netflix derivative is not a great word it's let's go with inspired by that see guys I'm directing and producing right now sorry I insulted you you seemed that's not you're insulting the

guests get I don't have an earwig I don't he's wearing an earwig I am wearing this here you want theirs no I don't I want to have one here here I want to talk to you I want to you In blocks, I think you were mentioning that you used to wear a watch to remind you to smile on stage so that you could project that you were enjoying what you were doing and giving off charisma and having the robotically forced charisma of John Malaney. Yes. Well, no. No, I'm saying your force so that you can have the charisma that comes naturally to him.

Mlaney's more charismatic in his sleep than I am at full volume. You Apple watch John Malign in an effort to be more. charismatic on stage yes what's what the the halet to me hilarious thing is so I explain the watch and then I'm talking and I go I just suddenly look up and smile that's the poster that's one of the Netflix if you go to blocks on Netflix it's me fake smiling because I got shocked electrocuted I got electrocuted into smiling I'm gonna free I'm so now I'm trying to free myself from from electrocution because you can be wise about

these things and because as I said on blocks which isn't derivative but is talking to comedians and others about the things that block them you have found a way to do interviewing very well very vulnerable with people who give to you at least in part because they respect you and I think I also think it's because they've they've seen me do it they've seen me like I've paid my ante I'm gonna like I'm depressed so they're like yeah he seems okay like he seems like he didn't pay a big price

so it's pretty it's interesting it's probably over saturated now in terms of vulnerability market is is oversaturated but I get maybe I was early to it well three mics was early

was 10 years ago so yeah so I was early I was yeah I was early to that for sure I did research on you and it was a delight to do it because there were actually some things that I did not know about you and I don't know how recent recent this is. How racist? Go ahead. Let's say. I knew you were going to seize on that. I didn't even need the earbe. I seized on it like a white man on a new

continent. That you used to write on an index card, your achievement so that when it feels like you're drowning, you can just remind yourself that you've made decent things. Yes. Literally that's how there are times where I'm I can get that lost. I don't think that's even. I don't think that's even. I unique to people. The thing that the thing in three mics that people bring up the most is depression is like wearing a weighted vest. So I think that's a very relatable thing.

The achievement thing that you know is any any and every single person on earth knows you know you eat ice cream it feels good for a while and then it wears up. You anything good and you're like, I'm never gonna not feel this it's so so it was like literally an index card of like oh yeah that was my

idea and i pitched that joke and that man uh okay and i'd be like a little better how long ago was that you that that card was in your i mean that that card was the in my mind the image is like 2006 so like in where i am uh where i am physically in the world uh looking at that thing but i had it in my pocket all a long time. But I, it's never, that's not, I don't think it's a, it's a, it's a, I think the human experience, the human body is we are subject to chemicals that we don't really even understand. And we can get knocked into a chemical kind of veer, a mood, whatever. We go, it's, I'm in a bad mood, but it's basically just like chemicals, fuck with you.

And it's hard to get out of them, you know, it just is. hard to get out. So having some protocol. My partner Lucy just sent me literally at the bottom of the steps a clip of me. She really gets me. She sent me a love letter. A real love letter. I mean, that's when you want to talk love language, clips of you. My love language is clips of me. of me saying to Hassan, I hate that I have to re-pronance his name, Hassan Monage, he told me how to say it the first time, guys, and it was Hassan. And of me saying, like, if you don't, it's a thought I had on drugs, which is if you're not happy with this life, spin the wheel of eight billion outcomes.

What do you think, you think you're going to beat it? Good, spin the wheel. No, no, no, no, go. Good. Spin the wheel. So I was complaining on my girlfriend's basically semi-clips saying spin the wheel. Yeah, because your life, in some ways, you've gotten almost. I mean, that's the thing is you put a caveat on it in some ways.

It's like, like what the, it's, you're talking about, you want to talk about the narcissism of small differences. Like the narcissism of like, yeah, but. And I'm, I do it and I see how stupid it. is. Oh no, but what I was going to say, though, while you have come by just about all of the things that you've ever wanted, I've always, as your friend also sort of wanted to hold you because happiness hasn't always been one of those things, right? And I'm holdable. If I spin the wheel and happy comes up, but you can't have all of the things that the genie bottle opens so that you could have exactly the life you wanted. And also, I've gotten significantly,

happier and I don't look happy like Kevin Neillan did my did blocks the plot the podcast the other day derivative the Netflix special and he uh stolen um he uh was like be happy and I was like dude I had just had a great time I just don't my face doesn't exactly oh no but I'm not I'm not I'm not measuring this happening for the for the people who don't know the entire history of the story, which you've told on stage in these vulnerabilities, like you've gone to have your brain tapped in China because you thought there was something wrong with you when really you came from an imprinting environment that sounds like it was pretty horrible. Yeah.

Even that, yes, but thankfully due to the shocking and the Iowask and the DMT and the MDMA, I've gotten that 95% out of my body. So even when I hear about like tough childhood, I'm like, I mean, the good thing about aging is it just becomes like a hazy dream where you're like, oh yeah. I don't even, you just go, oh. It's so far in the Chappelle show so long ago. I mean, that's again. And yeah, I mean, you want to talk about that's one thing like childhood. And I mean, these are not even like different.

Like I was a different person. I wasn't, but it's like so long ago now that you can barely, it's, it's like, it becomes like, uh, uh, uh, the thing like I don't identify as that for sure, but I don't even, I remember it. I remember it. I know what happened, but I don't. If you, there are not, there are, there are, there are full days where I don't think about it. Do you, do you, I'm guessing the work you. done, whether it's DMT, ayahuasca, or anything else, you probably have gotten the vibrations,

energies of the trauma out of your body. Like, you've probably excised them with the work you've done. Yeah, I used to yell at a therapist. It's in my body. This is in my body. I can keep talking about this. Therapy just becomes, after a while, like a bit of an incantation. Like, and then my father, like, it becomes like a Catholic mass, where it's just like,

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Here are the stories I've told about why I am how I am. Yeah. And so I have it, I think it's out of my body. It's one of those, it's, again, it's hard to say, like, it was in your button, but, but it sure feels like I can't, I can't even summon it. I can't even summon the negative feeling around it, which is awesome. That means you've healed yourself, really, right?

Like, yes. My worry is, though, because it's so saturated, it just becomes like white noise of like just what we used to call psychobabble or New Age or influencer trauma, TikTok. It's really been cheapened. And there's so much so many hucksters that you. Hold on a second. But let's talk about the work you've actually done because while you pushaw the idea of being so dead. desperate that you would go to China to have your brain tapped because you're like, get this out of me. This isn't, like I've done all the work.

China, please. Help me. I've done all the work. I'm smart enough. I know myself. No, this is something that I don't know about. There's something in me. You now go through an assortment of things, DMT to alter your brain chemistry.

Yeah. Iow to kill the ego. Not even. Same. I think it was brain chemistry with that as well. Okay. Well, you found God in there, though. Yeah.

So you go from atheist and critical clinical thinker to ayahuasca has broken me open. No, there's all sorts of things I don't know. I just felt them. Yeah. Yeah. And that's another advantage. You know what I mean? Another like how could you possibly feel sorry for yourself?

Trust me, I still do. No, no, but how could you possibly the amount. I'm not a big like privilege and all. that stuff, but like you want to talk about lucky to even have the opportunity to do this stuff. It's like, you know, that's not common. And the other thing with all these treatments, even antidepressants, they don't know why it works or how it works. So it's just try it, try it, try it. And I think I have the, I'm ambitious about a lot of things, but mental health is one of them.

And so I was like, no, it's not good enough. I'm going to go a step further. I'm going to make this episode solid as a producer. I'm producing and directing my own mental health. Generally, I'm like, no, this is not. We've got to do another one.

And literally like, da, da, da, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, like whatever. Right. Yeah. And I've been like that for 25 years. Okay, but then that's self-love, though. That is taking care of yourself. It's finding the things that you need

to be right in the world while also trying to be easier on yourself. Yeah, but it's also like, fuck, it's, I'm competitive with it. I think it's, I think it's wrong that, that anyone feels like this. So I'm like, no, I like just want to keep, I'm a Karen for my own mental level. I'm just like, no, no, no, no, we're not, I'm not doing this. So, okay, so you're sitting there somewhere. So self-love is true, but it's a bit like,

I'm competitive and I'm ambitious. So it's like I'm not gonna, I don't wanna, I get mad that I feel shitty still after having done stuff. Okay, so this is the most evolved version of you I've known. But when I read the quote and I don't know when this was from, you're saying you don't know whether right now this is all supposed to be a solo journey or whether this is invest in relationships and also, you know, invest in others. How old is that quote? I don't know what the quote is but yeah I don't yeah well I'm assuming

it's before I met my partner so it's three years ago before three years ago and now I'm very involved and it's really great it's really great it's like it's as it's as good here's the thing It's, I think my life as a solo person was great. And I didn't, that's another thing. I didn't want to, I'm competitive with that. Like, I'm not going to be like, where, where is she? I'm not going to play that game. Like, it's silly.

So if I, if I brought someone into my life, it was going to be an improvement. And which people don't like where I'm like, no, can you improve this? Then come on in. But if not, I'm not going to, I don't feel the need to have kids. I don't feel a need to. I'm not especially lonely. I'm not especially boreable, meaning like I'm not,

I can fill it up. So my time and attention. Yeah, if someone's going to come into your life, they have to make it better than it already is. Yeah. Yeah, and it's already, I'm already competitive in that regard,

like, in terms of like, no, I want to, I want my life to be good. I'm going to go places. I'm going to try stuff. I'm going to, you know. So, so yeah, she's made it better. And it's awesome.

Because it's not a solo journey. We've decided this because you had great conviction in your atheism and then ayahuasca changed your worldview. You've had great conviction about, you know, I'm self-sustaining and I'm solo. I've tried plenty. I have plenty to love. And you've had, you've had, you know, you've lived big inside of single life. Yeah. And now you've arrived.

Sounds slutty, doesn't it? Go ahead. And now you live with somebody who gives you the feeling that's bigger than what you've ever had. Yeah, an improvement on solo life. And it's, and that's been like a process of like, you know, adjustment in terms of asking for what I want within it, you know, which is a, which is a, that's kind of its own challenge of like, because you're supposed to just do and want what they want. Sorry. That's not the way that one.

Sorry. That's not exactly. That's not exactly. I'm a pain in the ass, pain in the ass. So it's like I'm gonna. Karen produced, whatever that as well. Like I'm just like, mm, no. I don't.

And the willingness to to say something is, a huge difference. And I don't think most people do it. The way that you do creativity, because these are two different, these are different skill sets, what you're talking about. It's needed from the producer and the director versus the thing that you love the most, which is the being the comic, right? But that being the comic is a lot of that too. Being the comic is like, and that's what I've been doing in the last six months is like watching my sets, which I've never done before. And I naturally am more charismatic from watching it and like going, you got to do more.

You got to beat, you know what I mean? So that is producing and then the writing part. But it's all adjustments. It's all kind of the same thing, which is just making adjustments. Why did you not watch yourself before? Because there weren't just bringing a camera. It was just kind of a pain. And it's more, and the truth is because it's embarrassing.

It's just embarrassing. It's just like, ugh. Really? Yeah. You're so good at it, though. All you see is mistakes? Yeah. I mean, yeah.

That's the funny thing. I mean, I've directed specials for people who said, don't cut to the left side of my face because they'd never watch themselves. Kat Williams told me he's never watched one of his specials. Like, I don't know if it's true, but like, I know people that don't watch their specials and don't watch themselves. on stage. But because of that?

Because I think, well, I don't know what there, I don't think cat would be embarrassed. I think it, I don't know why. Again, I don't know if it's true and if it's, if he, if it's, I don't know the reasoning, but I know it's, it's, all of this is, is self-selecting, stand up. It's like, how hard do you want to work? I was talking to Ali Wong the other day about Nikki Glazer and like, Nikki's just a really, she's so funny. also like a great producer and like she's got for the for the things the TV stuff six eight writers

and honing and picking and you know one of them I was texting or like just so it's all kind of that and it's just a matter how much you want to even the Mark Twain thing for Dave it's like I was good because and I got off and Keenan Thompson was like how'd you do that I was like I was like I I practiced. I'm not as charismatic as Sarah, John Stewart, Keenan, Jay, Jost, Dave, Chris, you know, Eddie. It's not even... You killed it.

You had the best speech at the Mark Twain Award with an enormous amount of pressure for, you know, a complicated relationship that you've had over with Chappelle. Sure. And you crushed it. And you crushed it. But I did it by preparation. Well, but I don't think that I don't, I talk a lot about the craft here with people. And the producers get mad at me because I'm so fascinated by it.

A variety of different things, but I can make comedians less funny. Give me the earwark. I'm talking about, I'm talking to them about the craft of it. I don't think people have any earthly idea when you get on stage and are that funny in a special. How much obsessive, compulsive has been poured of you carrying into that as the most thing. And what it means for Neil Brennan to make his dreams come. true again and again because he's so gratefully to get to be like killer funny with sharp edges there's i don't even think it's from a place of gratitude by the way it's from a place of just like

competition no competitions i wasn't i didn't know who was on the show but it just i want to be better i just want to be better i don't want to bomb i don't want a bomb i don't think that people know though how obsessive compulsive you caring about something is i agree but that's the same thing Allie was saying about Nikki is like And the other thing was Dealing with the commercial thing yesterday They were like, so you're going to go do standup? I'm like, I don't like doing anything else.

I have no I there's no other I'm not like and then I'll Guard I don't have there's no I have no interest besides Besides stand up and my and my partner

Besides being great at that though you're talking about see this is the thing right it'd be so easy for you to get fat so many guys your age aren't trying anymore it's hard to stay funny it's hard to age gracefully in comedy and you're a beast because you care about it like that you care about it the most obsessively because i have i cannot i will die it's like it's the thing that i don't think journalists understand about kevin durant he doesn't give a fuck about anything but basketball. He doesn't even know.

He doesn't think about anything else. Like Twitter, but that's all basketball. It's all anger at people for not understanding basketball. And he does not, if he plays video games, I promise you it's 2K. He's watching basketball. He doesn't have any other. Most of these guys are not interesting people. because they don't care about anything but basketball.

And if you talk to basketball players, they talk about Kevin Durant like they're not in the NBA. They talk on him like, yeah, I talked to Brunson about it. He was just like, yeah, even at our level where you're like, who, whew, because he doesn't care about anything. And that's the thing with all these, with Jack and all these. guys that had all these other inches like, yo man,

Shaq, you might have gotten injured, you might have gotten injured if you played more, but if you were, if you stayed 290 or three, I don't know what the good weight was and didn't wrap or act or you would have scored, you would have 40, 20, 10.

I have said the people in my crew get mad at me when I say Shaq underachieved. He, by winning four championships. And if you had to just, you see him in person, first of all, the first thing. instinct is to run because he's so big.

Blake one, Blake driven one time. My dog, a pit bull, saw Blake in a parking lot and backed up. I've never seen a, he was like, yo,

when did they start making people this big? I've never, this is a scale. So, so yeah, so if you've never seen your pit bull. A pit bull backed up to Blake in like a nice brunch outfit, not even tough looking.

So it comes down to I don't care about anything else. I care about Lucy and I care about this. But I realized in the last six months, I don't care about houses. I don't care about cars. I don't care about clearly don't care about clothes. I don't care about anything

because nothing will be as rewarding as that. Nothing will be as rewarding as a joke work. Nothing. nothing. No, no. Sorry. So, and a lot of it is like, I've always been very funny. All the people I'm talking about have always been very funny. And then you get a thing where you're like, and you get to go, forget it. Forget it. It's unbelievable. So, and it's, it's great to be great at something. It feels so much better than like struggling at a thing that you don't care about as much. You describe it the way that an addict would describe a drug, right? That's, again, from the people who brought you derivative. How about I started telling Lucy and anybody that would listen. I just think of it as like bonsai.

I'm just like I have a place in New York now, a corporate department. It's not nice. I don't even see it. I see the computer. See the couch. I see the bed. I see the bed. I get choked up.

No, I see the bed and I just, I watch my things. Like, I guess like a crazy. I just think it's like, I don't know. I don't want to do anything else. I'll watch a documentary. I'll do other stuff, but it's all in service of that for the most part. And but it's also in service of you, you don't love it any less now than you ever have, right? Like it's, it, when you were a doorman, when you're, when you're a doorman and this is all starting out.

Yeah. what did it look like? Did it look like this? Literally the same. But yeah, it's the same. It's the same. Doing the commercial the other day is the same. It's hey, say this.

It's the identical thing that I used to do to Chappelle in 1992 on a commercial. And then I go and I say it to myself, hey, say this. It's just all like, hey, say this. That's the whole. That's it. That's my. whole life it's like literally anything good is from hey say this what was going on when you i didn't know until doing the research that you were early roommates with j more i was james i was we were early

roommates one of the early roommates and so this what was life like then he said someday i'm gonna own the lakers he would say he would wake i'd wake up in the middle of the night he'd be on my chest be like you listen to me someday i'm gonna own what do you mean um and uh and uh No, so, yeah, we were, we were roommates and he was, Jay's a, Jay's a, he's just a funny dude. But you're, so you're making $200 a week, something like that? 220, 235. Okay, but this is your post-door man, right? No, I'm still dormant.

Okay, you're dormant, but you're performing. No, no, no, I didn't perform. I performed once in 2000, no, I'm sorry, 1992, then I performed once again in 19,000. 1997. Then I performed. Then I started a little bit in 2002 through four, then stopped till 2007. And everyone's coming through there, right? Like everybody who would then become the biggest comedians. Yeah, Louis C. Marend, Dave, John Stewart, Ramano, Sarah Silverman. And you and Jay Moore are trying to get in? No, Jay's a, Jay's, you know, he's just, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a. convenient. Okay. And and what was your life like then? I was the

doorman Jay I think I was I sub let Jay's place because he went he got a sitcom called Camp Wilder with um Jerry O'Connell and Hillary Swank so he was gone so I sublet his place. And then he came back and we lived together for a couple months. Uh so what did the struggle look like is where I was getting it? It was uh it was I look like a ragamuffin. Um, And, but I was very excited to not, to just be like in the, I dropped at NYU film school and I was like, I'm doing this. Because I realized like, I can write a movie. I'm not going to be able to, I'm not going to, they're not going to let me direct a movie at 21 out of college. And then you have to pay for it.

It just all seemed like once I got in school, I was like, this is a bad system. I would have assumed that that was more like comedians. I like hanging out with them and film students. Yeah. And then I'd go. Yeah, and then during that they were, the students were dickheads and the comedians were, were, um, you know, great comedians. Funny. Like, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's more fun. It's more fun over there. Atel. My brother Kevin, Ramano, like, you know, the people I just named. So, and Dave's the only guy. My age, Jay's a little older than us, but like, but yeah. So it was just like, oh, I like this. There's something about film that also though, it stirs in there, right?

or it did once upon the time. That's why I direct commercials because I like, I mean, I, you know, I directed Shepeldron. Like, I love, I like, I love,

the direction is awesome. So, so that's all, you know, yeah. So I like doing that as like, the commercial I directed yesterday was, the DP director photography was,

it's a guy to be Anish Kaminsky who did a saving private Ryan and Schindler's list. So like, like, just talking to him. all day but it's like awesome. The reason I ask the question is because you say this is the one thing I love. Comedy is the one

thing I love. But if an alternate Neil had liked film students more and had just chosen the path of traditional learning of film, I'm going to be a director. I am going to be a director and only a director. That's what I'm going to chase. You may love that the same way, no, if that's what you

had become that kind of great at the way you are at comedy. Yeah, but I think maybe there was but it's so much just getting movies made just going and schmoozing and script and eh it's just not it's so slow

and there's so many things mitigating factors that are not the quality of the material that I just find it kind of deadening in the times that I was like a screenwriter director it's just like

whenever I was doing it I was like I should just do stand-up that's generally what led to it because you'd go to meetings and they kind of like talk down to you and be like they're like I'm pretty sure I'm funny so that's why literally one of the reasons to do stand-up how many shows a year are you doing I mean right now in New York I'm doing three spots a night so so that's 20 a week you figure that out that's what's that well but I felt like the one night that's a thousand I think the one night that Valerie and I came out to dinner with you out here I really did feel like

it was something out of slow motion walking reservoir dogs or swingers, whatever the scenes are. Yeah. Or no, Goodfellas, like walking through a kitchen. The way that you got from dinner to on the stage to do your set was done with such surgical precision in like 20 minutes of walking through and getting in and out that it made me think that, oh, he's doing that 200 times. He's doing that. A thousand, I think I just did the math.

21 times a week. 52. I think that's a thousand. So you're doing how many? Like, I'm doing three spots a night. It's at the seller. So like that's 20. I mean, when I'm in New York.

So that's a thousand spots. And it's, you think I'd be better. But, but yeah, it's a thousand spots. A thousand ninety two. So it's just sharp. It's just to sharpen it. Earberg Johnson over here.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. You could have done the math as. Yeah. Yeah, that's your scoop. A.K. Scoop's here.

I tried to help you. No, you didn't help me. You were searching around. You were searching around. You were searching around. I could have done the two times. I could have done one 1060. I could have got there.

That's crazy. Well, yeah, but I don't have. Jan, I don't have anything else to do. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care about anything else. But that's what greatness takes. Yes.

And again, it sounds like it's a sacer. sacrifice if I can bring my very good friend Kevin Durant up again with who I met who I've never met it's uh It's they he does not care about anything else we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna put on the episode Neil Brennan I'm the Kevin Durant of common I mean people would love that I mean there are similarities by the way but anyhow I just don't think people understand the amount same build says the earpiece the earpiece Well I what's known in the business is says, I'm going to clear the mic, Pippin face, Scotty Pippen face, long nose, gaunt, sad, bin Ladenish eyes. Do a, do it side by side by side, would you?

Yes, please, let's do it. Let's go, me, Pippin, Bin Laden. While we're here and we're talking NBA, Rinaldo Balkman, throw him up. He was the bin Laden, most bin Laden looking motherfucker in the history of the league. don't tell me I don't understand the NBA don't you tell me for one second you love the NBA you not only understand the NBA you love the NBA

I don't I it's getting the point where there's a point where you just there's a point in my life where I stopped caring about the MTV real world and it's getting that way with the NBA where I'm like where I'm like yeah okay you used to love

She Gil Gisade back when you cared about the silly things I can't care about Shay Gil Giselle whatever SGA I'm not going to say it. Again, these new kids. I like Victor Webanyama as a guy.

I like him as a, I like him as a citizen of the world. I like him as like, I don't know if he's bullshit deep or actually deep. He's trying to be deep at 22. He's trying to be about the right things. That seems obvious. Yeah. So, you know, going to play chess, that old stunt. How do you think your dog would behave around him?

I mean, my dog would euthanize himself. he had i have my dog carry a cyanide capsule in his cheek in case he runs you're so right about shack like it's not just that like robin and brookelopez if they wandered out of the wilderness you're literally like what what barkley's bigger than i think like when you see him are like how could anyone think they could guard that now well but the barkley thing that's funny is that he's smaller than the rest of them but his ass is where my shoulders are like like that's yeah that's a really unusual body type yeah similarly one time Trevor Noah has a very high butt and I said he is there are two friends of his from Africa who wrote for the Daily Channel and I was like Trevor's got a high

butt right and they go he's from a high butt tribe it's like guys I'm I don't think I can say that but but I don't understand it but I'm going to take it make a word for it. What a great honor for Trevor Noah to make. What a great way to get canceled. Talking about Trevor Noah's buck. You assigned it all to him. Now, you put it all on him and his family. You got into the eugenic stuff. I was just talking about how great the NBA is. I did not do any of that. I did not do any of the Jimmy the Greek. He made you his last guest. Trevor. He did it on purpose and he did it on purpose. Well, I wish I'd, we try. I don't like winging it. So it wasn't a great segment. But, but I, Trevor's a great. great guy and a good he's a good uh we support each other nicely the honor of that is what i was going to ask you about as a friend as oh yeah i just wish i'd been better and then they that whatever

it was too long a segment and whatever it had a lot of problems but but as a friend i'm sitting here i appreciate it and it's not something either one of us think about at all you saw what i just did though right i'm pointing out to you what a loving thing what an act of genuine and generosity and all you're noticing is, I failed, didn't go the way I wanted to. It wasn't that good. No, it's not like, that's nice. I'm not talking about the honor of the relationship is what I was asking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The idea that he would make you a last guest, look, nobody has any earthly understanding how hard it was for him to be following that at the daily show and all of that. With that butt, no less. And all of it. For him to make you the last guest is it's an act of both love and honor because you're sitting here talking about the failure.

in it. I'm talking about the beauty in it. No, yeah. Trevor is a good, Trevor, I, Trevor will come to my funeral and I will go to his funeral. That's, that's kind of my new metric. Like, will this person come to my funeral? And will I go to theirs? Will I drop what I'm doing and go to theirs?

And Trevor, Trevor Nella, congratulations. I'm coming to your funeral. That's the highest honor you can get. isn't it? That's my daily show, final guest. Higher than Trevor Noah's butt. That's the highest honor. Higher than, to quote Quincy Jones, higher than giraffe pussy. That's Quincy Jones. Said it to his daughter. God bless. How would you make what we did here today better? Because I want to find the quote that I read poorly to you.

I felt like I didn't do Charlie Rose very well on reading to you. Are you want notes? Yes, I'd like some notes. I do. want notes right now i have a note i have a note this a this an overall note this an overall let me get my files out my labitart files i um i here's the the only thing that i think i'm that thing that makes me any good at interviewing is i'm gossipy not gossipy like you know kiki i mean gossipy like i'm willing to ask a slightly um uncomfortable question.

And I'm nosy. Oh, but I didn't want to do that to you because we're friends because I know. No, no, but I don't, but it's still, we're still, there's still, people still have to take their time. So like, ask me about Dave. Okay. No, people still got to take the time. So it's got there's got to be something.

There's got to be a point. No, but you have all the stories. But Neil, I'm not here. I don't want to use you that transactionally. I don't, again, I don't. It's got to be what would, do you? you want to know. That's got to be the impetus for any relationship. I think as

a journalist I think the difference between new media and old media is old media is more, there are more parameters. They're more like I have rules, rules, rules. Yeah, rules. Rules, rules, right? Unwritten.

Not even unwritten and written. Well, written, legally written, but I'm saying the the difference is like that the new media is like they don't really care about losing their credentials, losing the respect of the subject. Okay, but Neil, I could sit here and ask, I could throw you 10 lobs on interesting

celebrity things you could say and all of them would be unfair to do to you. Like to things that I know that people would like to gossip about. It would not be fair. Well, you, again, to be like sitting here. I think the thing, whenever I, occasionally every couple months I'll accidentally look at comments. you want to talk about addiction but um and it's always like let the guest talk and let and it's like you they don't understand what an interview is which is like i have things i want to know

and if the person's veering off into something i don't want to know i think it's well i think it's within my interest of power whatever to go like yeah but or like it's your show and re guide them But your barometer, it's interesting that you say that because what you're saying is that while I'm in it, I have a barometer for how it is to make this better as we're going. Because what's interesting to me is what's going to be interesting. My barometer is good there. Yeah. Yes and no. Like, yes, mostly, but I'm wrong all the time.

But there are times where I'm like, somebody will be talking. I'm like, oh, this is so interesting. So interesting. I don't think you'd be wrong there very often. I think you'd have a good antenna for what is interesting or what's not. interesting to others. I'm not even talking about. There's just stuff I'm more interested in that other people are, but like it's probably

you with process stuff where you want to know. But do you have a problem? Why are you interested in process other than like do you are you a hard, are you diligent? This is a looser form format and I'm not the way that you are obsessive, compulsive about anything but writing, right? I don't go back and reexamine these things on what it is I could have done. you write anymore?

I've, I got locked up there. It's a long story and I'm doing some of the stuff, you know, vibration work, some of the stuff to get out of me where my blocks are on writing because it's the most fulfilling thing I do, but it's also the hardest. I don't mean it in a way of like, I just mean like it's not. I'm super self-conscious about the fact that I'm not writing because I think it's the thing that I do best, but it's also the hardest for me to do because it's a suffering and I've chosen some things in life that no longer feel like suffering. So I should have just said no.

I should have said, do you write right now? No is what I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about like does Cornheiser and Will Bond? I mean like no no no all of the thing of like. No, all of us given to the cotton candy. Yeah. The vanities. All of us did. I could argue about what's cotton candy and what's like I thought the writing was more noble. I, yeah, I, I, I, I'm with you, but if no one's, it's like smaller audience and like, look at the wordsmith. It's like it's a bit medieval times. So I do want though this to get better. And the way that I originally imagined this, because I can talk to you for hours and I think it would be interesting for hours because you're interesting.

We're going to eat after this. You have, you're just interesting. You're an interesting person. Behind the Patreon. We're going to eat. We are. Very healthy. We're going to eat.

We're going to eat. Well, for you. guy goes to a vegan place, so there's nothing but fried food. It's fine. This is an outright betrayal. People are going to show up. You realize how much people are.

People were counting on you for your health tips. And I hear I've exposed you. You have in an act of betrayal. But when I'm asking you for notes and legitimately, and you're saying, well, make it more interesting to others by asking me getting gossip out of me? I can tell you, my biggest note, anytime I watch. the YouTube. You talk in paragraphs.

Talk in a sentence. You talk like a guy who had a column. You talk like a guy who got paid by the word. So ask questions more quickly? Yeah. It's the, it's you're literally like, it's too much,

it's too much like what we call in directing shoe leather. It's like too much, I got it stuff like, and then you get a lot of walk, and then you're going to come over here and just like, what are you what are you trying to get in get in late leave early that's the directing thing so i didn't realize though that you were giving me notes yeah yeah i don't know one knows until it's too late

i thought you were giving me notes on what we'd just done and so that's why i'm saying why would i go gossip with you no no oh yeah i get that but i'm saying my overall note is shorten your questions it's a good note yeah thank you got a thumbs up i don't know if you saw it from your producers. But by the way, I feel like this at lunch or dinner is like you

talk like a like someone's it's your covering your ass in the in conversation of like furthermore and having said that and despite

so you're saying I'm saying your word shit Like, it's not even good thoughts. It's not even... It's fine, but it's more about you than me. It's more about you wanting to be... It's a mistake I make in stand-up, and me and Dave used to make fun of each other in sketches.

If a sketch didn't work, we'd look at each other and go, very smart sketch. No laughs, but, man, really smart. It's solving for the wrong thing, which is I'm trying to show that I'm smart. smart instead of just like being smart

or just it's the same thing with like writing versus video if no one's reading who were you who were you doing this for it's I used to me and

I used to talk with Mike Sher about it like I don't want to beat nobly bomb I'm not trying to bomb nobly and like man we went down with that fucking wordy ass fucking premise heavy ship

you know what I mean so like or Chabelle used to say if I pitch a sketch you go the fuck am I going to do in this like yeah and then it's a

satire how am I going to get a laugh how am I going to say something or do something that gets a laugh quickly so so that would be my it's not even a knock

but if we were doing you open yourself up to a note session I requested I invited you I invited you here for it. This is normally $40 an hour when I work

with the grades. No, so I would just say shortened, shorten your, just it's a paragraph. I got it. I got it. You don't have to repeat it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes. Yes, I've lived it. Yes, I do know what

you're talking about. You're inside. But I thought, I legitimately thought that in this venue, my questions were shorter. They were, and I also cut you off when they weren't. You're welcome. Well, it's because we're in your bedroom. I mean, this is your home stadium. Man, you want to talk about a home field advantage.

You did the intimate interview with comedians here before I did. I'm coming in here and just picking up your leftovers. By the way, I'm still trying to get a kickback for you guys using it because Pablo uses the studio too. I'm still waiting for my kickback. Really? A kickback. You need a kickback. I don't, I mean, who needs a kickback?

A kickback because you like it. Tribute. Can we pour some money in? into you have no idea the amount of arguments I've had with the people who own the studio about this money that you're asking for can we do something back here I'm an eighth grader if tell me you're an eighth grade without tell me you're in you're an eighth grade by this back this this uh I mean I've sent them sketches I've sent them AI renderings of possibility so the answer to your question when you say are you meticulous I can imagine all of the ways that you would think

about a thousand things here about how to make any of this. better and I've thought of none of them because you're a producer, a director and you're and you take great pride and whatever it is that you're making, that it has your attention to detail. It's, look, this would be my 90th name drop on this. Eddie Murphy told Chris Rock, if you don't move on stage, people don't even need to look at you. It's a visual medium. It's not radio.

It's literally, and I don't say that like, it's not right. I mean it like because I didn't think about radio No one's even thinking about it but I'm saying It's not just audio So it's like But the guys who the guys The guys it is and I'm like I'm telling you Just make it better

They're like what about Astroturf cubes You fucking idiot Give me something else And it's been three years and they haven't Which just really speaks to my level of influence Can we roll my brother's art through here or something Even if it was just you wouldn't care I'd someone whenever I'm in

I just stay out of the wide shot and when I do I have them put a super of the word blocks over it and it doesn't work but it's not it's it could be worse uh who would you say you've learned the most from because you're yet for those who do not know you've worked with almost everyone and they've all it seems like to me knighted you as one of the greats as because you care about it this way and because they speak the language of knowing what it is to care about something that way almost every comedian who's any good would say, yeah, he's a comedian's comedian. He does it correctly. Without, even people who might not like you wouldn't say he doesn't know how to do that

craft. Where have you learned the most? I didn't learn anything from what it is. You just taught me as a note. But, admitting you have a problem. Well, walk me through why you asked it that way. To praise you in it. So, why? So that people would have, if they don't know who you already are, they would know a little bit more about who you actually are. And, you would know a little bit more about who you actually are. Yeah, but I think that's a known thing. If people still don't know, it's like, then I don't deserve to be known.

Like, if you still don't know, like, if you're still not aware, then shame on me. But the, uh, learn the, I mean, it's the thing about learn, no one's ever teaching, right? No one's ever going to like, although Chappelle would have fucking, like, tips about performing. I was literally thinking about it today, like sociologically, like, if you think he's a great comedian. He's actually sociologically better than he is a comedian, which is hard to

we'll say impossible. But it's I've learned the most from Dave in that it's the thing I would say is Chappelle's thing is like, I'm just going to chain myself to the tree of quality.

I'm chaining myself. Like you're going to have to chop the if you, you think I'm putting out bullshit. We would just, it was like we're not going to do the show if it's not going to be good. So that's the biggest thing. He was doing it more from, I actually don't even know why. Like he just is like, no, it has to be the thing that I, in my head.

And with me, it's like, it has to be the thing in my head, but also I have to work really hard. He can have it be the thing in his head. and it's like no planning, no anything. Just like, ah, yeah, I'll show up. Like Black Bush, the sketch we did in the second season, I like didn't support him on it because I just thought it was like not enough of a premise. But he's like, no, I'll just do shit George Bush did. And I'm like, and then we do it.

And I'm like, oh, I was so wrong because he's so naturally funny. So I've learned the most from him in like in, in, uh, but it's always. all like the way you learn from a parent or something it's just it's not taught it's just like it's uh... osmosis what have you learned from chris rock um a lot but i don't really know exactly how what to say but chris that eddie story is like i mean you know right there it's like so that's like that's why he paces that's why i've told people you got to move more on stage. If you don't, if you're not moving on stage, I need to move the camera to make it more dynamic because otherwise it's just radio. But that's Chris has got 70 of those and I can't

remember any of them. But, um, but yeah, just observations on race and gender and just like endlessly. Seinfeld. Jerry's a Jerry, I would say I've, uh, he's the guy I called with the bonsai observation. I was like, hey, I agree. I come around to your philosophies. And he was like, and he called me. He's like, tell me about the philosophies. And I was like, I don't.

And he was like, mm-hmm. Just like, yeah. Like, it doesn't, he doesn't care about anything else. He watches every frame of comedians and cars. People are like, oh, I might go into the edit. Okay, there's a billionaire who's doing a show on crackle. at one point comedians and cars

was on Crackle and he's watching every frame of a thing he lived and is editing because to have him say it there are things that only we can do

that we know that we need to it's just not that's so he's a he's a worker you know what I mean like and Chris is a worker too like Chris is a real like

ghosts to sound check goes Dave doesn't that's a great example of like Dave's like yeah he's like sound check just turn me up loud you know whereas Chris is like has to I'm the same I'm like Chris in that like I got to worry about what's the edge of the stage I don't want to well that's the link between you and these two guys who are legitimate friends I would imagine is because they speak exactly the same language there that you're speaking you're speaking of Chappelle as if like you

don't even understand how does somebody just walk in smoking a cigarette and not care about the sound Yeah, because he's so gifted, it doesn't matter. I don't know, I'll just yell. He's like that, literally that gifted. That he's just like, and I'm like, I'm coming from an approach of like, I'm not, I'm a little gifted, but I have to get, I really have to like, oil and, you know, pump the. You think of yourself as a grinder. Yeah.

I know I am. I just, that's, I, it's, that's, that's, that's,

that's, that's, that's, to, to get 20 seconds of material. The last six months has been dreadful.

Fucking eating shit half the time. So, so like, yeah, but like now I'm, I have enough jokes and I'm like, okay. Letterman?

Letterman, I don't know all that well, but, uh, he's really gifted and really, an incredible broadcaster and and is

I think he's he likes showbiz more than he led on that's my observation about him is like he really he likes knowing and

Kevin Nealon said he saw him a couple on a vacation and he was like you know what joke ears I like like an old joke that he by the way it wasn't even Kevin's joke

but like he's like I like that joke and I like though so like Letterman's a is more he's it's it's invisible but he's really john stewart's i you probably were going to bring him up but john's got the maybe the best computer the computer is like a like lit up machine and then he's just such a good broadcaster that it's like you don't see it you don't see him working at all and people underestimate that

one. Costis is like that. Costas is like that. Dan Patrick is like that. Yeah. Where you don't have any earthly idea how hard it is to look like you do television that easily. Oh yeah. Yeah. There are guys that are that are that are Trevor similar. Whereas Trevor could synthesize you know so much. But it's only because the prep on the front end that's not seen is what gets like we're not talking about anybody who's prenaturally gifted. You mentioned Chappelle, but none of of these, all of these others are working at it. Yeah, but they're guys that Trevor is really like, I mean, he would get there at 9.30, the show's at 6.

And it's like, there's no show at 9.30. So that, and he would do it so, it would, you know, it's amazing. Has there been somebody whose work ethic has awed you? Has there anybody in, uh, that you have looked at and been even taken aback because they're even further than you are off of Kevin Durant. I remember on Chris, on Rock's movie Top 5, I worked a little bit on it. And he said Scott Ruden, the producer, he's like, you know, he go, Scott Ruhn would be on set for 12 hours. And then Rock's like, you know he goes to a theater to watch Dailies at the end of the day?

And I literally go, I don't want it that bad. And Rock's like, yeah, I don't want it that bad. So like that's, but again, Scott Ruden, singular focus. Which is what anything, you know, any of these guys, any of these women get, Nikki, like, Nikki, I would think is pretty, doesn't care, which she's doing the, doing the, doing the, the Golden Gloves, like, there's no, there's no, I, and I'd heard the monologue was great three weeks before it came out.

Like, you're like, Nikki's monologous, right? Like, because she's doing it at the clubs. Like, practicing, practicing, practicing, practicing. And all those people are so used to just like, I'm pretty. They don't understand like, that's, she's, this is not an accident. Nothing's an accident. Like, in terms of anything excellent. Not in, certainly not at the top of comedy where you reside.

Top of anything. But there's not, but specifically how competitive. it is where you reside in comedy, there's no one who's just going to get on stage and be good enough to make it up there. Like that's not a thing that can exist. All of it requires a remarkable honing that no one has any idea about. Like other than, like you guys all speak the same language, but people watching. But it's like anything, it's all the jokes I did on the crazy good special. Like just they don't care. It's all psychopath. I mean, it's psychopaths, I mean, it's, Psychopaths implies that they're harming people.

Sometimes they are, but like mostly they're just maybe a bad partner, husband, wife, whatever. But Tiger Woods doesn't have a lot of interest outside of golf other than Navy SEAL stuff and prostitutes. Yeah, that's an excellent note. Blocks is the name of the podcast. It's exceptional. And it needs work on the background. He's right about that. But he gets under the hood.

He gets in there good. And he's a great interviewer. Thank you, Neil. Thank you, buddy. How do you feel? I love you. Great. Do you feel chastened by my note?

No, I asked for it. I welcome. They are urging me, and this has been a bit of a struggle. I want this thing to grow the way that I grow. It has been a bit of a struggle to be vulnerable here. I'm asking all of the questions. It's an excellent way to deflect intimacy. If I'm asking all the questions,

we tell everybody who comes in here, make it a conversation, we want to go back and forth, but I'm pretty good at just, like, drowning somebody in questions so that it doesn't actually get back into the soft spaces with me. But I also, yeah, I think the lengthy question

is the same thing. It's a defense mechanism to like, hey, it's, I'd say whenever there's a, every review of any movie, TV, stand-up, whatever, There's always a paragraph that I call the I Ain't No Bitch paragraph where it's like, don't get me wrong. It's not. This is not Paul Thomas Anderson.

This is no Magnolia. Don't get me wrong. Brennan's had better. Don't get me. I ain't no bitch. So that's the, the, you doing the, I ain't no bitch set up question. I'm not dumb. I know.

Listen to how historically aware I am. It's funny, though, that you would be so delicate in offering me the note. It's unnecessarily delicate because... I'm not going to bum rush people. But I'm saying, like, you would think that I would be sensitive to your criticism? Yeah. Everybody's sensitive to criticism. It's like, people go, like, I loved criticism.

But I'm asking for it, though. I'm request... I brought you here under the premise. of help me make this be better at this. I scoped it out. But I invited you here under the premise of help me be better at this. You're a good producer. You're a good collaborator.

But again, people think it's like I love, it's, do I look fat in the stress? It's like, they're not looking for real constructive. I'm scared to look at how I look at the side here. How do I, do I look fat in this shirt? The shirt, the bottom of that shirt is not doing you any favors. That's not helping. And also your feet position. In the airpiece.

Stay out of the water. I mean, you should, don't be in this. This is a terrible angle. Don't be in this. Why did you do this to me? This interrogation room ass background. This interrogation ass room at a beehive. I'm wearing yellow.

I will never wear yellow again. Yellow is not bad, but this, this squat. Yeah, and you're skinny though. You're skinny and look next to me. And then this is separated. This thing split open. I look like a yellow Shrek. This is embarrassing.

It's on you. Guys, the podcast is called the South Beast. Blocks is the name of his podcast. It's exceptional. He interviews comedians better than I do and thinks I'm going to be sensitive. But man, do I give a long setup in a question? I like to do one 90 second. Furthermore, I ain't no bitch.

Here's coming up.