The Digression Sessions - Ep. 128 - John F. O'Donnell! (@TheRealJFOD)

Episode Date: August 18, 2014

Hola DigHeads! On this week’s episode, Josh sits down in the park with comedian, fellow podcaster, and political correspondent for Redacted Tonight, John F. O’Donnell! His albums are available here – LiveFromOutterSpace.com !!! John and Josh discuss a number of topics including the terrifying Disney drone propaganda for kids known as “Shutterbugs,” what it’s like to have politics on the mind all the time, killer robots (for real), the balance of comedy and politics, starting out in stand up, 50 first jokes, his hand in the start of great club in NY called The Creek & The Cave, and more! Check out more Redacted Tonight clips here - bit.ly/RedactedTonight Thanks for listening! If you can swing it please drop our asses a few bones via the “Donate” button on DigressionSessions.com! Also please subscribe to Digression Sessions on Stitcher and iTunes. And check out our podcast network, Thunder Grunt! 

Thunder Grunt Podcast Network. Welcome to the Digression Sessions Podcast. Hey everybody, I'm Josh Kaderna. And I'm Mike Moran. And you're listening to the Digression Sessions Podcast. A Baltimore-based comedy talk show hosted by two young handsome stand-up comedians slash improvisers join us every week as we journey through the world of comedy and the bizarreness of existence as we interview local and non-local comedians writers musicians

and anyone else we find creative and interesting yes who's the guest this week john f o donnell is the guest on this week's program stand-up comedian and now political correspondent for the political talk show redacted tonight which is a it's like as as john describes it it's like a more radical version of the daily show uh very political and news-focused, but also comedic, and with a lot of satire going on. And I know John would appreciate it if you checked it out. Redacted Tonight is available on YouTube

and Hulu, and also RT America, if you get that channel in your cable package. You can follow John on Twitter as well. He is TheRealJFOD, so follow him there. Website is livefromouterspace.com, where he has albums available for download, for donation, for very cheap or for free if you're nasty.

And yeah, this was a really fun episode. I met John one time when I did stand-up in New York. He hosts a show with Ben Kronberg and Eric Bergstrom, two other very funny comedians. And yeah, so I met John there and then I found out he moved to DC to start doing this show, Redacted Tonight. And I was like, hey man, you should do the podcast sometime. And he was all about it. And it was really cool because I had first heard of John on Pete Holmes' podcast, You Made It Weird. And I even brought this up to John. So I listened to him on one of my favorite podcasts sitting in my cubicle last year, cut to we're meeting in a park in DC and he's doing my podcast. So it was really cool. A lot of political talk in

this one because that is John's life now is all a lot of politics. So we talked a good amount of politics and I was trying to keep up as much as possible i'm not too knowledgeable on politics because as we discussed that stuff can be very depressing but uh we had a fun conversation nonetheless and then kind of talk some comedy at the end and uh yeah this was a lot of fun so please uh please check john out please check out redacted tonight i know we would appreciate it it's's good. It's funny stuff, man. Funny stuff. And kind of heartbreaking, but funny at the same time. So yeah, check that out. And John's going to be doing shows in New York and DC. So please get into his stuff. As far as plugs, if I could do some plugs, your host here, hi, Josh Kaderna. I got some things going on here. You can follow me on Twitter

and Instagram. I am at Better Robot Josh on both of those social media platforms. I got some things going on here. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I am at BetterRobotJosh on both of those social media platforms. I got a show this week, August 21st. It's a Thursday. I'll be in the green room of the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse. It's the bar up front doing stand-up up there. I'll be hosting a lovely show there. So please come on out to that. Be doing some open mics throughout the week.

Hopefully I'll see you. My co-host for this program who uh was not uh present for this episode mr mike moran the lovely and talented mike moran uh he's doing a show on august 30th at zissamos here in baltimore so go check that out you can follow him on twitter at michael moran 10 and go check out thundergrunt.com our network with the the home of a bunch of great podcasts. So, yeah. All right. That's it, guys.

I think we're done the plugs, done the little backstory. And let's get into it. Let's talk to John F. O'Donnell. John F. O'Donnell. We love you. Do you want to hear my levels? Check one, two? Yeah. Check one, check two. Yes.

All right. Between the 12 and the six, we're good. Yeah, yeah. This is the first Mobile Digression Sessions podcast. I'm sitting across from John F. O'Donnell at a chess table out in the park in D.C. We're about to engage in verbal chess. I'll sacrifice a couple pawns, but I'm feeling good about it. Oh, really? My first move, you know?

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, we're in Columbia Heights, D.C., right? Yeah. That's where we are? Yeah. Wait, this is happening right now? This is it. Oh, cool.

I'll do an intro later. Oh, cool, cool. There will where we are? Yeah. Wait, this is happening right now? This is it. Oh, cool. I'll do an intro later. Oh, cool, cool. There'll have been some bumper music. I'll have given you a- I didn't know if I had to defend myself against your pawn metaphor thing. I was supposed to be like, yeah, well, maybe you'll sacrifice some pawns, but before you know it, I'll have your fucking queen or something. But I didn't want to be such a dick up front, but i feel like it got confrontational i don't even

know we were starting is that um yeah i have like this third of an apple left that we were talking about before we started do i eat it before and you said i could because you're really nice but then i was like no i don't want to be a dick again and then just have to wait wait and make you wait until i finish my apple so now i'm just gonna stare at my apple yeah well it's good pod talk let's talk some apple what kind of apple we looking at right here uh it's probably like what like a gala yeah it's a nice gala get some water in the honest tea bottle yeah yeah yeah uh so yeah john john f o'donnell super funny comedian uh let's see a news now? News contributor?

Is that what you would call it? Contributor to the news? News programs? I don't know It's a comedy news show Like I would say It's serious though I mean it definitely is comedy But you guys tackle some serious stuff

But I would say that I'm Like a political correspondent But like for a comedy news show. Right. Right. Yeah. For Redacted Tonight. I'm not like a news guy, but I do work at a news channel.

Right. Well, you kind of have to be a news guy now, right? Like staying up on a lot of stuff. I do. It's fucking horrifying. Well, yeah, I heard you and Lee discussing stuff. And there's one thing, I forget who it was, when you guys were talking about ISIS. And you're like, I hadn't even heard of ISIS.

Like, I feel like there's so much stuff that you have to be aware of. Well, they came out of nowhere, didn't they? Yeah. Like, no one heard of them ever, and then suddenly it's like, ISIS makes Al-Qaeda look like teddy bears. They've been every place always. It's like, how? How?

How are these tens of thousands of maniacs amongst the maniacs just, like, chilling on the dl and then and they're running shit and even al-qaeda is like guys yeah i know but you know what though that like like fuck that though because you'll see things like they'll always like like this dude from the guardian glenn greenwald the guy that's really like kind of helped with a lot of the edward snowden documents he really he published this article just showing headlines and quotes throughout the past number of decades where it's just like everyone gets compared to the worst person.

Saddam Hussein, worse than Hitler. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. Al-Qaeda, worse than Saddam Hussein. ISIS, worse than Al-Qaeda. It's just constantly drudging up, just getting the American people somehow, convincing the American people that are always war-weary to somehow be like, well, they're so evil,

we got to do it. I didn't think it could get worse. Yeah. All right. Let's do it. Let's do it. We have to. Yeah.

So it's just, I think that's kind of part of it. Obviously, these people are fucked um these islamists that want a very specific particular type of islam that is really regressive and terrible for a lot of people right i mean what what do we do do we just forever intervene and bomb and just make more p and give people a reason to continue to become radicalized forever because we have interests in the region? Or do we fucking, you know, maybe separate ourselves from the area? And yeah, it's going to be a bloodbath either way.

But who the fuck do we think we are for imposing Western democracy? Yeah, and beyond that... See, I'm not really into politics. You know what I mean, dude? I don't really want to get into politics.'m not really into politics you know what i mean dude i don't really want to get into politics uh-huh but i am now you know you have to be it's your job i know i know i know i know did you hear all that right there josh like i know these see i like even like six months ago before the show like i would know these things or to an extent but now and i would

and it's on here it was on your periphery it's on my periphery right which is where i liked it but now it's fucking at the edges now it's front and center and it's the sort of thing where i i'm not okay like i'm i'm proud to be doing the work i'm doing i'm happy to you know talk about these stories both ones that are you know in the news and ones that should be and and try to make comedy out of them so they're digestible so we can spread some awareness about what's actually going on because a lot of our media is just news theater and the mainstream media is kind of a fucking joke. Yeah, it's like wrestling now.

Yeah, it is. With the graphics and everything, too. It's like, John Boehner said, and it's usually nothing. He's like, I don't like Obama. The graphics are crazy. in the situation room you know the room where you go for the situations of the news you know so it's fucking terrible and uh so i'm proud that i'm in a position and i and i if i put in the work i know that i can try my best to make it funny because of how long I've been doing the experience I have doing comedy and stuff like that right but um yeah but uh but it is uh it's it's just it's an adjustment it's definitely like a psychological adjustment it's a social adjustment it's um it's like I'm trying

to figure out Josh like a perspective to have on it to not get angry and bummed out and depressed and, you know, and I, cause you know what it is? I don't want to be an angry person, man. I've been an angry person at times in my life. I've been very angry person. And I think, I feel like in a lot of ways it took me a long time to, uh, to get over that. And I have, and I kind of reconciled to myself, even like times in my life I've been very immersed politically at least in my own sort of like keeping on top of everything or at least how I've like kind of defined myself and stuff like that and I went away with from that for a number of years without guilt but

just like with like figuring if I can be kind and compassionate to people in my circles, I could probably do just as much good as having my finger on the pulse of this shitstorm that's going to continue to turn because there's some really fucked up, really greedy, really powerful people that are just

really messing up the world, which so many versions of the world can exist. I think that's what frustrates me too, is I am forever this idealistic person, and I'm always somehow hopeful. And when you are fully immersed in the day-to-day of what's going on in the world, in the news, and then on top of that, the things that aren't being covered, which are so important,

it's like that becomes becomes that becomes your reality i mean you can totally shape your reality in so many ways that you want i guess that can be good and bad it can be bad in the respect that let's say someone just in a very privileged part of the world like here shapes a very kind of insular uh you know uh privileged world for themselves right now it's without having awareness about what's going on in the world or helping or anything like that. Like that kind of, that kind of sucks. I mean, it's understandable, but it kind of sucks. But, but being immersed every day with this stuff, I've just had to try to make some sort of kind of, I'm trying to figure

out how to look at it, how to balance it. Cause it is, I mean, if you are taking that stuff in on a, on a daily basis and most of the stuff you guys are taking on is the most fucked up stuff going on it's like jesus christ how does this stuff go on every day and then how do you solve it which basically it all comes down to money it's no it's never like an easy fix and that's what pisses me off that's what pisses me off too i'm sorry to cut you off no no no is that it's hard to yeah it's hard to solve the problems. And I don't like just complaining about stuff or listing the problems without trying to push forth solutions. Right. And so I want us, and I think we do it a bit unredacted tonight.

We try to put forth some solutions, but I'd like us to do it more and try to figure it out. But it was funny because i was complaining about that and and lee is like he's like oh john so you didn't uh you didn't come up with solutions to the israeli palestinian conflict yet come on you've been you've been working on your piece all week for it how could you not have any solutions it's monday morning it's friday what's going on man you haven't solved it yet yeah uh it was crazy we did do i look back at the things like we've had 11 episodes so far yeah i look back at the the things that have been covered so far it's crazy that i've made

comedy out of this stuff like i am proud of it but it is just uh but you know you know i guess anything creatively and stuff that you're going to be proud of it's not going to be necessarily come super easy to do no you know so i think that yeah i have an opportunity to do. No. You know? So I think that, yeah, I have an opportunity to do this. I'm going to continue to just work my ass off to do the best that I possibly can

at it. I'm really, I mean, I don't think, I mean, I'm just explaining, I don't want to say that I'm complaining.

I'm just explaining the situation because, I mean, I've been doing comedy so long and honestly, just to have,

just having a steady gig in comedy really just means a a lot to me and the fact that it's one where I feel like I'm challenged creatively for what I'm doing is cool it's just uh it's just yeah just being immersed in the world of uh of politics again can be really draining because it's such a shit storm yeah and it's it's always gonna go there's never gonna be a week where nothing terrible happens pretty much you know what i mean like it's not you know is there crazy like everything bad is happening there's you know the past month has been seems like it's been particularly rough with uh you know with the israel and palestine stuff the isis stuff and then like you know the ukraine stuff it's like it's like it's nuts you know like stuff

going on in ferguson right now ferguson stuff africa stuff and then it was like oh and now ebola is showing up you know i remember when that happened let's just sprinkle some ebola and then ebola goes on top of the whole fucking thing and i'm like all right guys yeah i mean you know but that you know what though the thing about? Think about that. So that's like a version of reality, right? Yes. But you can still be a good person and not pay attention to any of that fucking reality and volunteer in some local organization or something like that. Yeah.

Help people in your circles that are in need and stuff like that. Be kind to people. Be positive. Right. You know, have a consistent, cultivated, you know, Buddhist Dharma meditation,

which has really gone by the wayside since I've moved to D.C. from New York. And, and, you know, be fucking happy

and also feel creative to write a fucking interesting stand-up in a way that's relevant. It's not too much. As well. It's not too much. All right.

And now, I mean, this calibration of life with the politics, the shitheads. For those listening at home, John's now standing in the middle of the street. I'm not. I'm not.

I'm not. But you know what I mean, man? Yeah. So, but I'm happy to be doing this. I know what you mean, though. Like, what you were saying, too, is that you can take in enough of that stuff when it wasn't your job that you can be aware of it and not willfully ignore it. i know this is messed up like politically or whatever's going on and

then still in your day-to-day life like i'm gonna smile at a stranger i'm gonna be my best to just be a nice person and do nice things and try to create that change like as local as possible and now you're trying to solve the israeli baltstein conflict or at least comment on it and try to have that was hard we made a new take on it yeah i mean we did it we do because we want to like we're really focused on on uh on talking shit about american corporations and american advertising american government and stuff like that that's what we're about so with the conflict like that and and about the american media and so a conflict like that yeah the perspective we did was we talked about it from the perspective of the American media and biased coverage. And it's crazy.

It's like, I mean, it's so interesting. There's so many people that are like, say, even very liberal, progressive, open-minded people in so many ways like uh jewish people jewish americans when it comes it comes to israel it's almost like they're down for whatever yep and it's really fucking scary and i mean i'm jewish i mean my mother's jewish i had a bar mitzvah you know right on yeah and i i care about israel but i also care about palestine i just care about people and you want to look at it objectively too yeah right yeah yeah and um and so yeah and that's fine and i mean it's yeah and there's there's two sides to every story sure um and there's a lot of interesting history there that complicates things a lot right um especially what happened in like the 1967 war because that was when israel was attacked

by a bunch of surrounding uh arab countries uh you know fought them off to the point where they enaxed more land. So it's like historically, when has a country ever been invaded, defended themselves, gotten land, and given it back to the invaders? Right, right. You know what I mean? But then at the same time, there were a lot of people displaced off that land, and there were people displaced well before that when the israeli state was created and regardless currently the palestinian people are living in like an apartheid state it's like an open-air fucking prison according to the united

nations that's true so it's like so basically you know i can look at it from both sides but when we did this piece like i got some some flack for it for sure um yeah uh but uh it was just about pro-israel bias so basically what happened was there was this there was this journalist on msnbc and she uh called them out she was an msnbc contributor and uh her name is ruler jabril uh and she uh she called out the mainstream media including msnbc for pro-israel bias coverage. She got in a big fight with them. And so her title, when she came on that first time saying it, it said MSNBC contributor. And then the next time she came on, it said Palestinian journalist.

Whoa. Yeah, they changed her lower third, right? I love that. Yeah, the little chyrons that pop up, not associated with her. Not endorsing what she says. It's pretty crazy, right? They did that. So we did a piece where it's like every time I mentioned anything that wasn't, you know,

towing the mainstream media line about like the narrative, my title kept changing and getting worse and worse and worse. And so we got out some interesting information, figured out how to make it funny. Palatable. Yeah, exactly. And then it was, you know, me being like upset and being like you know like my mom's not gonna let me come to like hanukkah at one point i got to like one point i got it got kind of intense well it was like well then it was like it was like palestinian

spokesperson then it was uh i think it was then it was like senior jew hater and then it was like no longer invited to hanukkah and shit like that. A couple others, yeah. There's going to be two seats open at Passover, one for you and Elijah. That's actually really funny. Yeah, the step side of my family is Jewish. So I've spun a dreidel or two. Oh, cool. Went and searched for that Afi Komen.

You're proliferally connected to the tribe. Yeah, of course, of course. I worked with Bobby Slayton this weekend. I was hosting, do you know him? Yeah. The Pitbull of comedy. Yeah, I know who he Yeah, of course. Of course. I worked with Bobby Slayton this weekend. I was hosting. Do you know him? Yeah. The Pitbull of comedy. Yeah, I know who he is.

He's a very intense guy. He goes, what's your name? I go, Josh. And we're like nose to nose almost because I think he's hard of hearing

and he's just an intense dude. He goes, are you Jewish? And now he's like, well, fuck you then. I was like, okay. I wonder where he stands on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I think he just hates everybody. I don't think it matters. Bobby Slayton, man. The pit bull. The pit bull. I asked him if I could have that name. He said no. So I'll stick with Josh Kaderna or Labradoodle.

That's cool. Yeah, sorry to derail you there. No, that's fine. You wanted to name drop Bobby Slayton. You did it. You nailed it. I did there. No, that's fine. You wanted to name drop Bobby Slade. You did it. You nailed it. I did it. Guys, I'm working.

I'm sorry. It's just fresh on my mind. I'm sorry. I'm just kidding. John, get me. Nailing me in the park here. What did I say? What was I going to say?

I completely derailed you. I don't care. We were just good. See, it's funny, though. It's like, you know, this is what I think about all the time now. So I talk about politics. And then it's like, it's a thing. It's like in New York, I've been living happily for the past ten fucking years.

Now I'm in Washington, D.C. Whatever's going on in this fucking town makes no fucking sense. He's now standing on a Prius, for those listening at home. He has stopped traffic. You know, people don't talk about politics all the time josh not just talk about stuff not in this city not in new york they don't we just talk about stuff and it's fun and interesting somehow uh and it's great and out here everything's about politics talk about politics all the time uh-huh so you don't have the mix is what you're saying

i do have the mix when i go i have the mix the comedians here are cool thank goodness for comedians any place yeah goodness for the dc comedians yeah nice people funny people right well you're a kinship with them of course oh really that's awesome are you a kinship with all comedians that's cool don't you yeah yeah just a sense of community no well it is really nice too like i mean almost what we're doing now like you know that nothing's really out of bounds like you can buzz balls a little bit or joke about like the worst stuff and you know you're not really going to offend somebody oh of course not you know it's all in good fun i would never be malicious towards you joshua there's a gun on the table no no i know that i know that um so so yeah so what's your schedule

like now because yeah you were in new york you said for 10 years and you're still up there but you come down to dc like are you splitting your time in the week no i live here oh okay and i i spend i go some weekends back to new york right uh two or one weekends of the month okay and that's just for your show up there with ben eric yeah yeah chromeberg eric uh bergstrom yeah yeah i do a show with them it's every friday in brooklyn live from outer space at cobra club yeah and uh and that's fucking fun as hell but um but uh yeah and i go up there just for to that for that to see people do a couple other spots and hang out my family's in too, so try to see them. Right on.

Yeah, but no, but I live here, man. I live in Washington, D.C. It's interesting. I mean, there are – it's like there's the whole political world, and then there's the whole – there is a whole other scene. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That I'm sort of finding some people. It seems pretty cool and interesting.

But, I mean, during the week, it's like, yeah, I work like a... I mean, it's interesting. It's like an office job. Like a 9 to 5 almost? It's like a 10.30 to 7. Those are good hours. Yeah. Sleep a little bit.

Sleep a little bit. Not too bad. You know, you're 10.30 to 7. It's one of those 10.30 to 7s. Yeah. A little bit, a little bit, not too bad. You know, you're 10, 30 to seven. It's one of those 10, 30 to seven. Yeah.

I know what you're talking about, but I'll be honest. We do. We end up right now because it's such a skeleton crew. It's like, um, essentially just four people working on an entire show, which is pretty ridiculous right now.

Wow. Including you and, uh, Lee and yeah. And the other, the other people like, and our, like our line producer,

we kind of have, we borrow somebody from another show right now until we're getting our full-time one right but uh so it's pretty crazy so a lot of times um me and leo work uh pretty late yeah you know uh so definitely on tuesday and wednesday definitely on wednesday like we're talking like i don't know 11 midnight shit like that so it's like basically we just do our best all week to tackle these really difficult topics and to make them funny. And I mean, yeah, I mean, we're covering stuff, man. You know, it's like covered the NSA, the prison industrial complex. I covered the NSA, the prison industrial complex. I covered the Koch brothers.

I covered these autonomous killer robots that are being developed. That's actually true. What? 20 Nobel Peace Prize laureates came together to release a joint statement calling for the preemptive ban of autonomous killer robots devoid of human oversight. That'll be the next generation of weapons that are being developed by certain countries in the next 10 to 20 years. I swear to God, I didn't make this up.

No, no, I thought you were going to say they created these robots. I thought that was going to be the twist. No, they're working on them. They're getting close. But they're actively working on them. Right, right. But not the Nobel Peace people. No, no, no. Killer robots. I wouldn't even know where to put that in my brain.

That's like a really long con. All right. Establish trust. Win a peace prize. Use those resources to make killer robots. Plan summer retreat. Discuss robots. No, that's real.

Yeah, look it up. So then there's something called the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, right? Yeah. And it was created by very, like, very legit people, like people that, you know, like, lobby and present to the UN Human Rights Council and the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Right. Another organization, right? The UN Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Convention on Convention. That's what it's called. It's a really stupid name. Convention on Convention Crime Weapons. Convention on Convention. That's what it's called. It's a really stupid name. Convention on Convention Crime. Yeah, right? But so anyway, like, they're the people that, like, lobbied the UN to even put it, like, as a directive on their sort of agenda to talk about. Right.

Because there's, like, not much coverage of this going on, which is super, super weird. But they're basically saying, like, okay, we want a preemptive ban. But if you're not going to go as far as a preemptive ban, you at least have to try to put together some, you know, legal framework for, you know, human rights and stuff like that. In regards to killer robots. I know it sounds insane. Yeah, it sounds like a sci-fi movie.

I know. I know. It's like you're making Terminator 2. Like, don't make Terminator 2. We've all seen Terminator 2. We've all seen Terminator 2. We've all seen the fucking movie. No Skynet, okay? But this is crazy.

So it's like we did a piece about this. There was a death segment between me and Lee. I think the angle I had was that like I was, I can't remember. It was one of the earlier episodes. But I was like all for it for some self-serving reason. Because we always have me kind of come up with this angle where it's like, like one time I was against the solar roadway technology, which is pretty amazing, in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline

because it turns out I had ex-girlfriends who live along the route where the pipeline would be. So if there were any spills, it would destroy their lives. Right, right, right. So that was like the conceit to make it funny, right? Yeah. But anyway, with these killer robots thing, I think it was that I was all for them for some reason. Right. Like I wanted the robot wars to happen.

I don't know what exactly what it was, but, um, but, but it worked out and it was pretty funny piece. And so this is what's so crazy. There's so little, um, coverage of this particular issue. The, the official, like, you you know people like the campaign to stop killer robots people like the u.n people found out about the video and like tweeted out about the video and followed us all on twitter and everything like that nice yeah it was crazy i think that's one of the biggest accomplishments i've ever had in my comedy career of 15 years

right the official campaign to stop killer robots like you know u.n associated group right you know like the video what a weird thing can we also talk about how there's no coverage of his to the point where like this comedy show that right now is like a fringe cult comedy show was the only thing fucking covering it and then like new york times came out with an article but it didn't go anywhere as in depth i swear to god to me and lee's four and a half minute fucking comedy piece about it so it's crazy four and a half minutes you covered more than the new york times yeah i mean they didn't go they didn't yeah they didn't go into i mean because that's the thing it's like i'll

that's what i'll do like the topic i'm working on like leo make fun of me he's like dude you get like fucking hyper knowledgeable about this fucking thing yeah you know it's gonna last like three minutes yeah yeah and i'm like well if i'm gonna do this i don't want to be a fucking idiot like that is the thing too like you're commenting on stuff that so many other people have opinions about too like if you're not well versed in it somebody is gonna call you out especially when even if you are they're gonna call you out yeah exactly people love to like hate shit right even if you have covered all the bases or they're not even gonna watch your piece they just know your angle on it like oh well fuck you then oh probably yeah yeah that's unfortunate yeah but uh yeah no it would be nice it would be nice like the way that i described the

show i think i came up with something sort of clever when people are what's the show like i go like well if you think edward snowden's a hero you'll love our show if you think he's a traitor you'll hate our show but we want you to watch it even more just to get even more mad no or just to maybe have them see a different britain i don't want to get people mad just have them get another perspective on things to maybe uh you know i don't know uh-huh be more humanist right try to reach them yeah maybe not value life just because it happens to be born in one part of the earth more than being born in another part of the earth huh is there any intrinsic extra value to life being born in one part of the earth and other part of the earth joshua uh i'm gonna say yeah i'm having a great

time right this part this part right here is pretty good yeah got a got a starbucks recording a podcast i'd say yeah i'd say i'm i'm pleased and lucky to be born in america i'm not necessarily proud of america but i'm definitely happy to be born here yeah no i mean just but then it sucks the idea the idea that it's quite possible that our quality of life comes off the backs of a lot of people that we're never going to see or meet. Oh, yeah. Like, everything just comes from slave labor. I mean, basically, like, even looking at, you know, stuff that you think is good. Like, oh, Amazon.

It's so easy to use. And my stuff arrives. They're like, oh, it's just run by migrant workers that aren't paid anything and have no rights. Oh, okay. Yeah, Amazon's super dicey. Yeah, I mean, everything. Amazon's really bad. It's actually really funny you do that. I just talked about Amazon and something. paid anything and have no rights oh okay yeah amazon's super dicey yeah i mean everything amazon's really bad it's actually really funny to do that we just i just talked about amazon and something yeah it's really depressing you know that he uh jeff bezos the ceo that he like

he has like a 600 million dollar deal with the cia he's setting up their computing yeah computing system that's the thing too yeah like their whole network runs on the Amazon backbone. What? What? And that's actually really scary because Amazon has so much data on everybody.

Everything. I just don't like the idea of them brushing shoulders with the CIA. Yeah. Who are kind of obsessed with information.

And also, the CIA is supposed to just be... Oh. That was freaky. The CIA is supposed to... Some guy on his bike it's not in there like their charter to be a domestic entity it's supposed to just be foreign you know so it's fucking weird no it's so insane yeah when you learn stuff like that and then why are they so upset why is everybody why is the government and these you know intelligent agencies why are they

so obsessed with all of our information? Why do they want it all, everything? So they can watch us, you know? They're probably watching us right now, having a great time. Like, I wish John would eat that fucking apple. Fuck you. Fuck you. And some lady just looked out her window at the wrong time.

What are those boys doing? Fuck you. I was giving a middle finger to this guy, you guys. There's some Amazon drones hanging out over here, which is insane, too. They want to deliver stuff by drones. Yeah, yeah, domestic drones. I did a thing about that. We did a whole thing about drones.

Oh, good. I'll put it on our page. But that was crazy. Yeah, the drones thing is nuts. The FAA, the Federal Aviation Association, estimates there's going to be 30,000 unmanned drones in our skies, whether they be personal use, law enforcement, or commercial, by the end of the decade. What? You know, like six years.

What the fuck? Yeah, yeah. 30,000? That's what they said. Because right now what's happening is the FAA is figuring out the legislation for how to figure out with all of the things just flying around. What the fuck? It's going to be so fucked. How to just regulate machines in the sky.

Yeah. Okay. Everybody. All of you guys. You have to post this thing. Okay. This was the crazy thing. And we couldn't even get it on air because it's Disney.

And Disney is so litigious about everything, like nuts. We couldn't even show a still picture of it, which really pissed me off because I really wanted it. There's this clip online. It'll freak you out.

They have a show called Oso the Explorer on like Disney Junior or something. Sounds like a Dora the Explorer kind of rip off. I don't know. Yes. But it's Oso the Explorer, O-S of ripoff i don't know yes yeah but it's also the explorer oso

it's i don't know he's some he's some animal explorer right but anyway one of the uh i forget if he's a i don't know what he is okay i got you i got you he's a fucking bear or something i don't know what he's but uh but uh but uh but uh he uh okay there's one character called Shutterbug, right? Yeah. That's a ladybug that has a camera in front of its face that opens up. What? And it flies around the kids. And when you see it from its point of view, it has a kind of target sensory thing around the kid. And then shoots the information up to the satellite.

And there's a music video for it called Shutterbug no And it's literally like it's like it's talking about how great it is when the shutterbug is around So it's it's like it's like shutter. This is literally what it is. You're right. It's literally what it is I'm not making this just like yeah shutterbug time shutterbug time shutterbug time shutterbug time it's like yeah shudder bug time shudder bug time shudder bug time shudder bug time it's like that right wow and then there's another clip where it shows like the mother has the kid in the car but didn't put the seat belt on properly oh no shudder bug shows up but uh let everybody know that it's okay so basically yeah it's basically it's normalizing drones right and that it's okay. So basically, yeah. It's basically normalizing drones. Right. It's normalizing surveillance drones for children through Disney being associated. I can't.

It seems like it's like, dude, you have to be working with the NSA. You have to be. This is crazy. This is crazy. Am I fucking losing my mind here? No, it's true. It's not like they're probably developing their own drones that look like fucking ladybugs. So when they get old enough, they're just like, oh, hey, Shutterbug.

Well, there's already all that nano drone technology that already exists. Right, right. It's really freaky. But anyway, so you've got to see this. The Shutterbug, just put in like Shutterbugs, also the Explorer OSO. Yeah, and I really – you should – if you post this, like post the link to that. Yeah, no, I'll put it on the page. It's just like, oh, hey, Shutterbug, you want to scan my retina?

Go for it. Please do. Yeah, yeah, totally. No, totally. And then it's like, shoot it up to the satellite, yeah. There's nothing. Give it up. Give your information up, yeah.

It's okay when Shutterbug's here. Yeah, it was horrifying. I don't value privacy. Give your information up. Yeah. Wow. It's okay when Shutterbug's here. Yeah. It was horrifying. I don't value privacy. Thank you, Shutterbug. Wow. Yeah. So I feel like you were always kind of interested in this stuff.

I was. Yeah, I was. So your stand-up was a little bit political, but not all political. I think it was more like, I don't know. It's more been social. Right. It's still socially. Mm-hmm. It's not like, I don't know, it's more been social. Right. It's still socially, it's not like,

I wouldn't say it's just sort of like whatever. I mean, I really appreciate all different schools of comedy. I wouldn't say it's like observational. It was kind of, a lot of it was honestly very personal too. There's a personal element of it. Right.

And then there was sort of a kind of more social element than more just political. Okay. And it's interesting because I'm trying to, and maybe it's just the adjustment period or how much creativity that I'm putting out on the show,

but I'm trying to figure out how to write stand-up. I haven't really been able to write too much. The only stuff I wrote would just be going back to New York and just talking about how much I hate D.C. for a while for the adjustment period. But I don't want to do that. I mean, I'm just trying to think about what to write now. And then I'm thinking about politics all the time,

but do I want to write political stand-up? And that being said, would I even be able to write it in a funny way? It's really hard. I think there's a reason there's so few. And it's kind of sad, but I think there's a reason there's so few political comedians these days. There really are, especially stand-ups. You can fucking probably count them on one hand, if that.

And it's sort of, it's not, it's actually not like where it's at with comedy. Right. It's not like en vogue. It's not like what all like the, you know, our friends or the comedians or the people that are like, you know, like the really hot comics right now. Yeah, nobody's doing it. I mean, like the really hot comics right now. Yeah. Nobody's doing it. I mean,

nobody does it. Nobody says a goddamn word. It's exhausting material too. I mean, for the audience and for the comedian, like exactly what you can, it's hard to, you're right.

It's hard to come across as not, uh, self-righteous, not angry and make it funny because it's so fucking miserable. And you know, and then the only way to do it is like you know and then people that do it in the way that we're good and then people that do it in the way yeah people that do it in the way that we're it's just like oh just slam the republicans like you know or fox news or something

it's like fuck you that's fucking easy yeah and everybody does that too and that's not really the point either like yeah like this is what it is like i don't want to be a barack obama apologist like i don't think he's doing a good job as a president i don't like him i don't like the two-party system you know the democrats and the republicans disgust me yeah and i want them to be um ubiquitously displaced obviously we're super far away from that happening oh yeah but uh i feel like it's always going to go to a two-party system though maybe i don't know because i don't even yeah that's what i think i don't even i don't think it's i mean i'm not naive enough to think that i just you know that is not

i like i almost want to create like a sub-nation within the nation a what within the nation a nation within a nation okay like a convention on a convention yeah like a convention on conventional weapons sort of thing uh-oh um and uh man and uh no thank you and uh yeah i think i probably think two people recording on microphones want to be interrupted to talk about something so yeah i want your business card please yeah yeah uh sorry what were you talking about? Nation within a nation. Yeah, nation within a nation. Sounds like... Fuck, maybe I should have embraced that. We could have had a couple moments of crazy.

I could have just been more organic. But I was trying to talk about my nation within a nation idea. You can't get... Hey, man, I'm trying to talk about... I don't want your business card. Okay, nation within a nation. I mean, it's insane, you know? But this is what it is.

It's basically like you know how there's all these different types of digital currencies cryptocurrencies there's bitcoin there's also some i don't know a crypto coin i know i love that i love that i said that and guys you guys can see this but josh literally closed his eyes and like like nodded his head up and down as though like this is about to just become a technical draining conversation bracing for the wave what do you not want to talk about no no i'm not trying to i'm not going to get into like This is about to just become a technical draining conversation. I'm bracing for the wave. Do you not want to talk about it? No, no.

I'm not going to get into the specifics of the algorithm, bro. No, no, no, no. What? We talked about it too much? No, no, no, no, no, no. What was your apprehension there? It's just I don't understand enough of it. You know what I mean?

Okay. No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to be like. That's just my interview style to roll my eyes. No, no. When my guest talks. So, John, where'd you grow up? Heard of it.

Great. Great. I don't know too much about that. Whatever. Did I mention I work with Bobby Slayton? That's the funniest name. Bobby Slayton. You know, that comedian that comedians know that pitbull

yeah i'm sorry tell me all about bit i don't want to tell you all yes you do no because you know why i was obsessed with it a couple months ago and now i'm kind of tired of it but basically i'm not going to explain to you how it works we can talk about that later um i'm not going to podcast after the podcast yeah yeah okay the bonus Okay. The bonus podcast, you guys. Which you can buy with Bitcoins online. Yeah, you can. You can. If you can get any, they've been co-opted by rich people.

It's ridiculous. But anyway, cryptocurrency, that's just the same term for digital currency. Oh, okay. They're interchangeable terms. Got it. Because cryptography means passwords and code and stuff like that, right? Yeah. So cryptocurrency is currency based on these uncrackable passwords and code and stuff like that, right? So cryptocurrency is currency based on these, you know, these uncrackable passwords and codes and stuff, right?

But anyway, so Bitcoin is one of them, but then there's a bunch of alts, alternatives, which are just other ones. So now there's probably like a thousand different cryptocurrencies. Most have no value. Yeah, I mean, what's the backbone of that or the support for those? The backbone of it is consensus of community. Okay, same guess that that fucking money is that dollars sorry the government's trying to silence us right now they set out their agents of distraction oh yeah what their purple

conversion van that was honking that's what it turned out to be guys yep yep they always get you with the purple fucking rape conversion vans you think they'd be a little more conspicuous, but no. They just don't give a fuck. You mean inconspicuous? Yeah, that's what I meant, John. You piece of shit. Just kidding. Can you imagine?

Interview over. He used it wrong. Oh, man. But anyway, so what Bitcoin has done is sort of legitimized the idea of these currencies because so many places will take them, accept them. The money is currently traded and stuff like that, which is absurd. It totally corrupted the open source idealistic message of this cryptocurrency that was created by the kind of like digital computer open source community. Yeah.

So that sucks but it has had the effect of of legitimizing it as a possible alternative to the fiat currency meaning our dollars that aren't backed by anything besides faith in america right um but uh so i like the idea of a cryptocurrency somehow coming into existence that is not only based on like monetary value but is also based on social value so it's sort of there's an aligned sort of ethics and take on the world okay in order to opt in to this community of currency for example yeah hit me the reason i think this could work is the segment that i just did this past week, and this was incredibly heartening and exciting. And you know how I was saying I like the idea of being able to present solutions as much as problems on the show? Uh-huh.

On Redacted Tonight. I keep saying the name because I'm kind of convinced nobody knows about the show. Wait, what show? Yeah, the show that I'm on. It's really working my ass off on Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp. Political comedy show, like a radicalized version of The Daily Show. I mean, doesn't anybody want to watch it? He's taking his shirt off at this point.

I don't know why, but he's getting hot. So anyway, there's a new thing. They've been around for about four years. There's currently like 1,000 of them in 30 countries across 60 different industries okay called uh b corps or benefit corporations okay and it's a type of corporation that can be set up where in the charter uh in addition to or as equal as it is like to make a profit it also is to have uh environmental ethics and uh and and social ethics and try to make the world a better place and be kind of fair and equitable with workers rights and everything like that right right and it's the sort of thing

where it's uh it's pretty amazing like basically one of the big problems is with a lot of corporations multinational corporations regardless of the origin say american corporation um they're pretty much legally beholden to their shareholders to maximize as much money as they possibly can regardless of uh any humans human rights issues a lot of people think it's actually a law it's not technically a law but it is de facto is my latest understanding is not technically a law but it de facto is because if you're not doing it, you're getting fucking fired. Right. Oh, yeah.

And they're going to hire people that are going to do it. Yeah. But this type, so they're completely beholden to the shareholders compared to being beholden to the stakeholders of a company, meaning everybody that has something to do with the company, the workers, you know. From the bottom up. Yeah.

Gotcha. Exactly. So these type of corporations that are being created now and 27 states have passed legislation 23 or 27 have passed legislation that now allows for for uh corporations to you know start or businesses to start in those states and be a benefit corporation interesting and there's a lot of people that are wanting to do it. Like some bigger companies have done it. Like Patagonia is very much on the forefront of it.

Uh, Ben and Jerry's is one of them. Um, and then some up and coming ones. There's this one called, uh, they're called Warby Parker and they, uh,

they're this eyeglass company and for every pair of glasses that they sell, they give away a pair to people in need. They've given away over a million pairs of glasses. Yeah. And they've partnered with this thing called Vision Spring that teaches people in poor countries to open their own eye exam businesses. Wow. Interesting. They teach people to give you eye exams.

That's cool. Because they said an absurdly large amount of people that need glasses don't have access to it, which is crazy because the technology is like 800 years old. The number that I think I heard him say in a video I watched about it, like the owner of the company, I think he said 1 billion. That sounds insane. 1 billion. 1 billion what?

1 billion people don't have access to eyeglasses that need them. Wow. Well, yeah, that might make sense. I mean, between like India, China, Africa, like even here in this country, I guess,

but I guess, but that sounds crazy. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. So, but basically it's a sort of thing where now, like there's a lot of people like investors or people would be like, Oh, well,

why would anyone invest in this if it's not going to maximize profit? Or like, you know what? There's people now that have money for investment that want to be investing in something that's, um, not just, you know, raping people and raping the world and fucking demolishing everything. They want to diversify. They don't want to end the rape. Just a little less in the portfolio.

Right. Maybe. So that's pretty heartening. Yeah. No, that's great. I mean, it's big corporations. It's crazy that that doesn't happen more often. It's like, how much money do you really need?

Like, when you find out people are making, like, billion-dollar profits a quarter, why can't some of that go towards something that's beneficial for everybody? I think people should be allowed to acquire as much money as they want. I don't like the idea of them not being allowed to, but they should have some sort of sense of what life is actually about and not want to right so what you're why how much of a psychopath do you want you want all the money is that is that your end game that's what i mean your end game is all the money and then for and no money for nobody else you want all yours you get all the money yep and then everybody else just

is really just like suffering that's what you want all and you know what's crazy is we fucking look up to people like this yeah we look up to these people people might have gotten a good portion of the money yeah it's like you're the people that have all the money i mean fuck you i don't want to hang out with you you know psychopath yeah seriously so with these corporations that you're talking about they would be like the money or what they're worth essentially is tied to their moral responsibilities and things as well well yeah they're it's yeah i mean they have to well what this is okay actually it's of course everything's fucking complicated before these benefit corporations became a thing that people can make in the state in every in these different

states like the 23 or 27 states that have passed it, 14 states have legislation pending. So, you know, Delaware passed it, which is a big deal because Delaware is, I kind of, um, one of the,

one of the biggest places for, uh, corporate investment and people. Yeah. Aren't all like the, uh, credit card companies based out of Delaware and stuff like that. Like they have headquarters there.

And I think, I think some do. I know that I think actually South Dakota is where that is. oh really okay they have really deregulated things or something okay or maybe it's north dakota i don't know what's i don't know but uh but you might be right as well i don't know but uh but yeah you fucking it god you just have to stop being so you know conspicuous about everything whatever i'm taking your queen we are on a chessboard but uh but uh so anyway there's there's this thing called before these states started passing these laws this this this uh non-profit started called b lab that would do this thing called um b corp certification so that's how

there's all these ones over around the world that have this thing. And it's very legit. It's very respected people in the business community. And basically, in order to get B Corp certification, the company had to get a minimum score on a number of different things,

kind of with every aspect, looking at every aspect of their business. So these B Corporations have to have a lot of transparency with their earnings and everything too. And also they have to be making a positive impact for the world and minimizing any sort of environmental degradation, having strong workers' rights, doing everything as fair trade and everything as possible.

It's pretty fucking amazing. And actually been trying to actively help the environment, right? Yeah. If possible. And so then, from these businesses happening and becoming created, these people from B-Lab that have the, you know, that have been doing the B-C the B Corp certification, they, uh, started drafting with legislators, um, you know, uh, you know, laws and stuff and,

and, and bills to pass in the state level. So, so these, uh, so this can, this can happen on the set on the state level. So there's two separate types of things, you know, but they both have a pretty stringent, um, regulations for what you have to do. And just the fact that companies want to do this is, is wonderful. So maybe, I mean, maybe this, I mean, maybe there is going to be, maybe if just in a long view of history, there's always going to be these regressive people that want to just pillage away. And then at least some people that are in business now actually do really care about what they're doing yeah i feel like you know so maybe there's always going to be

the the mix you know what i mean there's always it's depending on what's what you're looking into too as well like talking about what you're doing on a daily basis taking in like all right what's the most screwed up stuff but then sometimes there's the good stories too you're like oh we're actually making a change or kind of moving in the right direction so i think there's it's nice to see that it was nice so yeah you know so um yeah but i'll tell you it is then it's weird it's like i really wanted to talk about that to get awareness about it yeah and we did the piece but then it's like from a comedic point of view when it's a positive thing that's also kind of tough to then figure out how to present it in a comedic way right i mean the way i explained it

to you it was like we just talked about it yeah but even like there like that aspect of explaining the difference between the two the you know the benefit corporation and b corp certification i can't explain like parse that in the fucking comedy thing. I mean, it's like... Yeah. Yeah. Just another drone. Another conspicuous drone. Yeah, we're talking about B Corps. Hey, you don't want to know. All right. All right, man.

The government doesn't want to hear about B Corps. You know, the government that's passing the laws to allow B Corps to exist. Yeah. It doesn't want to know about them. That's right. I need more of my Starbucks just to fuel up because i'm getting exhausted yeah yeah uh but uh what were you saying before that that was an absurd helicopter that was

very low there was an absurd orange humongous it looked like um like the uh coast guard or something like that what was with that i've never heard a helicopter fly by here. Really? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're trying to ruin us, John. We don't care. We're out in the open. Podcasting in the open.

I really don't care. Nah. I don't think so. This life is not a dress rehearsal, motherfuckers. Imagine that. Somebody about to shoot up and kill him. That's what he says. Right before he shot up the mall,

he's saying life is not a dress rehearsal, motherfuck motherfucker what was that why i understand that's why in that context i don't understand that sentiment in that context instead of the opening night i don't even know like it's not a dress rehearsal i don't know what they're fuckers oh everybody at the cinnabon is down the cinnababon. All right. So obviously, yeah. Has this been good podcasting? I think so. I think it's really interesting. We talked about a bunch of stuff I wasn't aware of.

Yeah. I mean, I'm a smart guy. No, I mean. Yeah. But listen, I was in New York. Now I'm in D.C. Yeah. I'm a comedian.

I'm on a show. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Doing things. Oh, God. It's hard to meet people down here. I don't know. It's not hard to meet people, but it's like.

You mean or just people in general? No, no, no. It's been fine with ladies, but it's like. Of course. Of course it has. Of course. But the fucking, like 14th Street. I live like on 14th Street.

Yeah. 14th Street, guys, is kind of like An area people chill at Most of the places fucking suck There's just one Like rad fucking like You know Rock venue You know called the Black Cat

And I just go there And I'll go there during the week If there's a music show upstairs There's a bunch of people But sometimes during the week It'll be very low key downstairs Which I'm fine with But I'm just like shocked Cause it's It's like, there's a bunch of people. But sometimes during the week, it'll be very low-key downstairs, which I'm fine with, but I'm just, like, shocked. Because it's like there'll be a lot of people out

at all these other shitty places in the surrounding area. And it really is sort of a metaphor for that area and who's there and what's going on. I mean, this town was built for yuppies, and I'm fucking visiting. I am a fucking tourist, man. In this yuppie country. In their fucking pleated, khaki,

fucking black pants, girls with high heels, working at the fucking State Department, yuppie, bullshit establishment, have not been kicked in the teeth by life whatsoever. So they have no empathy for what's actually going on in the world. And they're super fucking smart, which is really difficult to deal with. Hyper educated.

John's just staring at two girls sitting across from us. And he's making eye contact. And they're responding to it, guys. They love it. They have so much self-hate that this turns them on. Someone just giving them the business pulling their business cards out making contacts i met a girl who does research works for a company that does research for uh defense contractors and or and she she works north african division focuses on li on Libya to find out information in order to let the defense company know what the best weapons would be to cultivate, to sell.

Oh, my God. How are these like real? These are real jobs. Yeah. Real people. I mean, that's their report. Yeah. So this is the best way to be evil.

OK, great. Thank you. Thank you for the evil report. Yeah, I work for the government, but I work for Social Security. So it's nothing nefarious. I think that's good. That's not bad, right, John? Yeah, sure.

I mean, this is what it is. I don't want to also, I don't want to, it's weird. I do and I don't. I don't want to judge and dismiss people based on their job. Like people don't define themselves by their job. But then at the same time, it's just a very frustrating state of affairs where it's like there's so many types of work to be done that are like fucked up for the world and then by then by extension for the person doing them you can't just do that and just completely be unscathed you know more in a

psychic way um so it's the sort of thing i just feel so bad there's so many jobs that people seem to have to go into like a lot of like like smarts and talents and energy and passion gets co-opted and thrust into this these fucked up worlds like when i was in new york i would focus on it being on like you know it's like the advertising world yeah wall street finance world yeah but here it's the fucking political world and it's just it's just fucking crazy and i i guess you really i guess people just just justify it or reconcile it you will reconcile it all the fucking time paychecks though paychecks yeah you gotta make a living gotta make a living but is there anything like oh i'm developing a tool that

you know that's perfectly fitted to cut off uh you know of infants toes it's a it's an infant toe uh clipper cutter offer. You know, it's like the thing where you chop off the fucking front of the cigar, but it's a smaller one for the toes of children who smile too much. That's my job. But hey, I got to make a living. I got my own kids to feed. I mean, they don't have any toes, of course, but I still got to feed them so they justify.

Right. What is up with that? There's something wrong there. There's something missing there. I don't think so. I so i don't think so john i like cutting off kids toes especially the ones that don't like the shutterbug all right the good people at disney are trying very hard to get them to like you know what i'm saying it's unfortunate no i like the idea of then like being like hey look look at all these b corps why don't you go work for one of those or something yeah yeah no you're right i yeah i'm with you no when i when i first uh got out of college i was uh i

was a history major and i graduated december 2008 and it's like right when the economy was going down so like good luck that was the worst time to graduate yeah so it was fucked so and i was a history major so like have fun and then uh their, uh, their headquarters is based out just outside of Baltimore, actually. So they did a job fair and I was like, I'd like a job. And they're like, okay. And that's, I tell you, it's been good. I mean, I don't like the work, but I mean, the money is good. I understand how people get stuck in that system. You know, like you go in people's offices and they have plaques on the wall that say, uh, like to 30 years of service and your heart just hurts and you're like, Oh, 30 years, you know, and they're all looking forward to retirement and stuff.

It's like, but what did you do? You know? And I'm like in my mid twenties now, like approaching 30 and it's like, what? Like, I, I want to make that jump of getting away from the cubicle, but I do understand how it keeps you there. It's just enough money and like health insurance and all that stuff. And it's not like grueling work at all. Like you go to the office and you can be mentally exhausted, but it's a, it's a tough balance I think for most people, you know? Yeah. And then responsibility happens. I mean,

people can justify doing any sort of job once they have kids. Oh, that too. Yeah. But it is, it's, but it's's unfortunate i mean yeah you know and then another part of it that i think contributes to it as well which is really fucked is the debt that people have out of college that's the thing too and then especially out of you know out of even on undergrad too and then you know any professional degrees yeah like that people out of law school let's say you go out and i've actually taught i talked to i talked to this lawyer in D.C. She was telling me I was just talking to her at a bar.

She's like, yeah. She goes, people, even people that want to. Sometimes it happens. People that want to do something, you know, positive and to do some sort of kind of altruistic humanitarian law, helpful law, civil rights law, immigration law. Mm hmm. She's like, the money's not there. You're saddled with you know two hundred thousand

dollars of debt or more more yeah and uh you know what and maybe you want to have a fucking life you want to have a family you want to have a kid you want to have credit you want to be able to buy a house all the american dream shit um and uh so you work as some fucking you know you work corporate law or something yeah yeah so did you ever get trapped in that like when did you start doing stand-up did you go to college i did yeah i went to uh the uh university of michigan ann arbor okay yeah it was great experience uh-huh but i started doing comedy when I was in college okay and then I was did you start with stand up? yep and uh but I mean I had a bunch of jobs

you know over the years in New York uh huh let's see so what would be I'd say the most corporate one I worked for Kaplan the test prep corporation okay I don't know Princeton Review Kaplan oh yeah yeah yeah okay I got you this don't know. Princeton Review, Kaplan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I got you. This is crazy. I was a grad school advisor was my title. Really? It was basically and I would do outbound sales, right? The toughest kind. So I wouldn't be cold calling because that would be weird if you're just like, hey, want to go to law school? And the guy's like, I'm a plumber. Great!

How'd you know? You set the drones over. over hey Jake from the Bronx wanna be a plumber wanna be a lawyer but anyway plumber lawyer plumber lawyer lawyers need

plumber lawyers need plumbers plumbers need lawyers why not do both work for us work for yourself but anyway diversify

so no it would be like basically I would call up people who would say taking a practice test with us or taking like a free class or whatever or signed up and website.

Yeah. Like follow up with them. Right. To try to get them to sign up for like, you know, the LSAT, the GMAT, the MCAT or the GRE for like, you know, law school, business school, medical school, all the different places, right? Or general grad school. Uh-huh. And yeah, it was like, it was fucking weird but i was absurdly good at it at selling it yeah i mean yeah you got the you got the gift of gab so you

could just talk to me you didn't even go to grad school yourself did you no that's the thing that was so funny was like i'm convincing some of like the brightest kids out of uh undergrad to do something to get a class you know what i? I'm like... You gotta do it. I'd get them all the time because I'd be like... This is how I would do it. Let's say it was like Chris or something. I'd be like... He'd be like, hello. I'd be like, Chris, how's it going? It's John. How are you?

Oh, God. I hate that. So they have to be like, do I know you? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris, how's it going? It's John. What's going on? What's up, man? Hey, how are you? Hell of a game last night, huh?

Anyway, listen. Maybe I'd be like, hey, it's John from, I go, it's John from Kaplan. How's it going, man? How you been? How you been? Like, we've been talking all the time. Right. Since the last time I've talked to you.

Yeah, yeah. It's the worst. Because we have a rapport. It's the worst. It's the worst. And he'd be like, I'd be like, oh, so when are you taking the LSAT? Wait, what would he say?

Like, when are you taking the LSAT? And he'd be like, three years, maybe. I'd be like, all right, cool. Well, you know what? Let me know when you're going to take it closer. I'll see you later.

Bye. But if he's like, I don't know, a few months. I'm like, oh, cool. So let's say somebody's into it. This is what I would do. He'd be like, so what's the difference? He's like, don't know a few months I'm like oh cool so let's say somebody's into it this is what I would do he'd be like

so what's the difference this is what it would be if anybody would be like oh I might be going with the Princeton Review or something I'm like oh but you know

I told you about the three pronged higher score guarantee they really don't offer that sort of thing I told you about the three pronged and then I'd be like

this is what I would say and people I work with would laugh I'd be like listen you could go with the Princeton Review if you want to opt out of happiness. I mean, that's completely an option for you. Hey, Chris, happiness is not for everybody.

All right? That's your path, man. You go for it. If you don't want to be fulfilled. Wow. But that was a terrible job, yeah. Yeah, just the hard sell. Yeah, but I would also, I would be like the silly hard sell.

Yeah, of course, of course. They'd be like the silly hard sell you know yeah yeah of course of course it would be like they'd know they'd be like oh my god but all right but uh all right i'll sign up so that so i was i was a chocolate fountain operator that's so i guess i haven't worked in a corporate corporate corporate job but that being said right before this job i was like living in brooklyn in this neighborhood bushwick working for this it was like it was Brooklyn in this neighborhood, Bushwick, working for this. It was like it was as independent as it could be for real estate, but it's still a real estate company working for Nookland. This great real estate company in Brooklyn where a lot of comedians work out, actually, because it's a good job for comedians. Well, now more are. There's only a couple there when I was there.

Well, you make your own hours. You work as much or as little as you like. There's money to be made. I mean, you definitely have to work to make money. Yeah. But you do like a deal or two, you got your rent. And comedians aren't making a ton of money. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good call. Yeah. So flexible hours, you sleep in a little bit. Yeah. I mean, it's a good- Go out at night. Yeah.

And this company, the way it works is, you know, you kind of, you work as much as little as you like. It's cool. Yeah. And it's like an independent company started by my friend, Harley. He's a great dude. and my friend joseph it's like harley is like this like like like dude who's like into metal used to run like a used to own like a skateboarding label uh-huh and like joseph is this like really cool like 27 year old hasidic jewish dude and they teamed up and they

have this like awesome company oh nice yeah that's great that's great so what did you go to school for uh i ended up with a general studies degree but i pursued like screenwriting and playwriting stuff like that they got rid of the major when i was studying abroad because it was like a small major that's fucked up it doesn't matter but uh right i was kind of busy but then uh i studied abroad in ireland at tr Dublin for a year. My junior year. It was a great experience. Yeah. Ireland, cool. Yeah.

Yeah, it was great. But then, yeah, I went back and just still took all the courses that I would have been for that degree, but just ended up with a general studies degree. Gotcha. Gotcha. But I mean, I just been, I always knew I was just going to do comedy. So I was just doing comedy. Just, you know. Yeah. Whatever sort of day job i needed to get right just to pay the bills all

sorts of weird jobs so i guess i never had like a corporate corporate corporate gig but i mean this but that being said i mean i had a commercial agent i still do actually in new york i happen never to book anything but uh but uh but i uh can't wait to see you like a disney commercial or something but i auditioned for a bunch of stuff for a bunch of advertising things corporations and i felt kind of torn about it but i i and i talk about it on stage um how i shit on advertising but then go out on auditions for it right but uh but i'd at least be honest about it right but uh fuck you target unless you'll have me. But I looked at it like, okay, this advertising beast is going to continue to turn.

If I can extract money out of it, not just for self-serving purposes, but so I can continue to do comedy that I hope is relevant for people to hear. Effective of change or something. I guess. I mean, I don't want to sound too like... Yeah, I know what you mean. Not like, I'm changing minds. If they allow me to be an independent, artistic person, I'll still be able to afford to do stand-up.

Mm-hmm. You know, I'll do it. Absolutely. But it's nice to, like now, I have the privilege of having a job. The content, I believe in the content we're doing. Yeah. So that's where i'm at

now steady gig which is good steady gig can't complain right uh-huh how often are you uh getting up in the uh in dc as far as depends on the week sometimes sometimes two or three times a week sometimes uh maybe like one i'm thinking about maybe trying to balance it so I can maybe gear up and start performing a bit more. Uh-huh. You know? Yeah. Because I was used to performing a handful of times a week or more. Right.

Yeah, but I'll figure it out, you know? Uh-huh. I mean, there are a lot more spots in New York and easier to get to. Yeah, but there are spots in D.C., but sometimes if it's just working so late during the week on the show, it's just like too much. Totally. But yeah, but I still got stuff going on. And me and Lee are trying to figure out. We haven't really thought about it too much yet.

But I think it would be really fun to do a monthly Redacted Tonight live show. Oh. Where we like do like a stand-up show, maybe, you know, some other segment or something. And then like air an episode. You know what I mean? Because the show's air Friday at 8 and then rerun the an episode you know what i mean because the show's air friday at 8 and rerun at 11 30 but it goes on youtube by 10 p.m that night oh that's good so then maybe we could like show like the youtube feed after the show or something after the stand-up show

that could be kind of cool yeah yeah get like a night it's a good way to get more eyeballs on it too yeah yeah yeah uh yeah another good way is doing your awesome podcast i'm kind of taking that as a dig but i appreciate it no it wasn't at all no i swear to god it wasn't at all okay no i was saying doing your awesome podcast oh people listen to it and like it oh thank you man i swear to god i wouldn't that's me that's just me being that's your shit i'm saying that's on you because that's not what i meant at all i'm sensitive let's just end this comedian who's sensitive i never heard of that isn of that. Isn't that wild? Isn't that wild?

Anything else? Are we good? Yeah. I mean, we've done about an hour. Oh, really? Yeah. It's an hour? Yeah.

Oh, okay. I flew by, right? Yeah. I didn't think about it. But, yeah. But, dude, if we're good, we're good. It's up to you. Well, can we talk about just stand-up?

I mean, because we talked a lot about politics and that kind of thing and other stuff going on but um no i just want to know how like did so you started in michigan and then did you go back home in new jersey after you got out of school and then you ended up in new york uh kind of yeah it's not bad okay so it's not bad yeah so I started when I was in, yeah, I started in college in Ann Arbor, which was cool. Yeah. Because at the time, Ann Arbor scene was feeling, was pretty rad. It was like this like mini renaissance there. There were some great comedians all happened to be there at the same time starting out.

Right. Who have since, and this is years ago now, we've since, we've moved to New York or LA and people are doing cool things. Like this dude, Jesse Popp, who's a hilarious dude who's writing for Conan for a while. He's got a half-hour special. Brent Sullivan's done some TV stuff on Comedy Central. Megan Ganz is a writer for a bunch of different shows now

for Modern Family. Yeah, she works for The Onion. How did you know that back in the day? She worked for the Onion a long time ago. I think I just remember seeing her name or something there. Well, she worked for Community, too, for a little bit. So, yeah, I followed Dan Harmon and his stuff. Oh, cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, and then... I like comedy. Yeah, Vince Averill, really funny. A couple other people. Uh-huh. And Juwan. So, we kind of had this thing going on where it was pretty cool because we kind of got

to develop in Ann Arbor initially, get our legs there, which is a really unique, open-minded bohemian town and a great college town as well. Okay. A lot of cool people there. Like a lot of locals are really cool. So you can kind of do more unique comedy than potentially having to develop, like, a Midwest act on the road that could potentially be a little more hacky. Oh, okay. A lot more hacky.

Okay. So, yeah, you can mess around a little bit more. So, yeah, it kind of prepared us a little better to move to the coast to kind of cultivate more of an original comedy voice. And it was just fun. And there was a great club there, still is there, called the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase run by this great guy, Roger Feeney, who books it. You know, he books it. And it's just a great independent club.

Cool. Great comedy audiences. so i started there got my legs then move and and then you know got in with one booking agency and was like an mc at some clubs in michigan and ohio and stuff like you ever mc for bobby slayton i have not i've not i've not worked with the uh the pit bull of comedy okay cool i'm just asking out of the blue no reason holy shit no reason oh. Are you going to be a comedian when you get brought up on stage for your credits? And be like, this next comedian is Bobby Slayton. No. No, no, no, no, no.

He wasn't a pleasant human being. Anyway. I couldn't imagine. Yeah, of course. Of course. Sorry, man. No, that's fine. So that was funny.

So I was there. And then I moved to New York. So then I worked the road like a year after college, like working some kind of pretty shitty comedy clubs, but emceeing. Yeah, like Comedy Zones and that type of deal? It was like the Connections. Okay. Okay. And this terrible club called Chaplains that closed in Clinton Township right outside of

Detroit. But there was a great club. Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle is a great club. So you're emceeing out on the road and stuff and featuring? Yeah. It was emceeing. Okay. And then I moved back to the East Coast.

Yeah. And then initially when I was trying to get my legs, like I was living with my uncle and my grandmother. They live in this town called Bayonne just out the jersey city just out the hoboken right on the other side of the hudson river very close to the city so i would be driving in i would be like uh i would just be like driving in working grinding doing comedy like barking outside this place called the boston comedy club and that was actually like uh pete holmes and nate bargazzi had just moved to the city okay so we were all in like

the shit together like right barking and handing out flyers for a stage oh god what's that yeah what's the it's the boston comedy club is not there anymore it was around the block from the comedy sellers yeah great underdog club for years did barry cats okay right right um and uh yeah so i was there towards like the tail end of that place, like handing out flyers, you know, on the fucking dead of winter for like stage time at like one in the morning. But what was really cool, well, what was interesting was like this was the time, this was like 2004 or something, when like Chappelle was going through his stuff with Chappelle's show and everything like that. And it was like, kind of like, uh, you know, kind of going out, you know, it was all this stuff with like, you know,

he got that huge contract and then they wouldn't let him do what he was going to do. And he was pissed about that. And there was a lot of pressure around it. And then, you know, the rumor mills came out about all, whatever they wanted to fucking slam him. Right.

One of the fucking best comedians ever. And, um, so he wouldn't, uh uh he wouldn't be working any other clubs in new york except for the boston comedy club at this time so he would like pop in wow and it was crazy so it was so fucking exciting you get to see him and he would do like fucking two hours or something like that and um and this is what's actually is kind of funny was that like the barkers in the winters he'd be barking all night for your spot, but then if he showed up,

you know that you're getting bumped. So you're doing four hours or something of having to have flyers. Freezing your balls off. And honestly, I never got upset about it. I really didn't. I was like, this is just cool to see. Fuck it. But some of the other barkers, they would be like, oh, Chappelle, again.

It's just so funny. It goes from like the first two or four times or five. Like, holy shit. And then you're like, oh, I wanted to work out this fucking thing. We get it, Dave. You're going to sit there and fucking smoke a pack of cigarettes on stage. Because that's what he does. He smokes on stage in New York.

Yeah. He just, like, earned it. Right. Like, no, he gets a pass. He's above the law. Yeah, right. He just talks. Yeah yeah right well he just talks yeah he just talks but yeah i saw him actually maybe i don't know six months ago he

showed up in brooklyn at the knitting factory uh-huh hannibal show yeah it's like 45 minutes damn so funny he was so great yeah just so purely funny it's so dope so anyway so like i yeah and then i just grinded in new york and it turned out for me that i started finding sort of more uh uh more love in the uh alt scene than the club scene right and so i primarily developed in like the alt rooms in new york okay not that i've and i performed at the clubs and i like the clubs and i like the alt rooms i mean i i'm i'm uh i mean i never i guess i never pictured that like the predominantly kind of uh places i performed throughout my career wouldn't be comedy clubs i never saw that i knew knew really realized that that could be the way it is like when i was uh growing up or wanting to do

comedy but it's cool and uh the shows have been great the new york scene like you know it's you know i had my legs from doing comedy for like three and a half years in in uh in ann arbor before moving to new york but definitely got broken down and built back up a number of times i think that happens to everybody i think it does too think it does too, you know? And it's a grind, you know? Yeah, like being in the Baltimore and D.C. scene, like you have friends that move up to New York or they're doing shows up there. Like when they move, as much as they're established here, once you go to New York, it's like back of the line.

You know what I mean? To a large degree. Yeah, I mean, it's not. No, it is. You have some footing, but it's just. And fucking rightly so. Yeah, no, I mean, it's one of the foremost spots for comedy. I mean, i mean improv stand-up in general but like i'll have friends come back and they just have the thousand yard stare like hey how's new york they're like it's hard i know man you know like

even here and like you were saying probably in michigan you're afforded like longer spots like you could probably mess around on stage for 10 15 minute spots and stuff and then new york yeah new york is tough yeah right and then new york once you get there it's like three minutes to start and that type of thing before you get established yeah it's weird when i was doing mics in new york open mics when i when i first moved there uh-huh they were all generally they were all at least five minutes this whole like four minute three minute two and a half minute two minute thing i feel like that's more recent that's gotta be fucking tough yeah there's just so many comedians i guess yeah exactly but uh but yeah so so yeah so i and

then i would you know i would just like with other comics we like produce our own shows you know in different places in different neighborhoods and right you know i did so i i mean i i kind of i kind, like, went through it all. I did, like, you know, I had a show in the West Village at the Village Lancer, and then I did a show, a bunch of different shows in a place in the East Village. I did a show at the Parkside Lounge. You know, then I started doing a bunch of stuff in Brooklyn.

Uh-huh. You know, I mean, it's a lot of disappointments. I mean, I've auditioned for a lot of things that i've never gotten i've like uh the audition process i've auditioned for like yeah i've auditioned for montreal like five times and never gotten it just a little can be heartbreaking but it's all this you know but it's like there's things outside of your control you can't sweat and get bitter about i mean i've auditioned for for tv spots yeah i haven't gotten anything like a lot of my friends um you know have uh have been doing some great things like some of my people i started with some of my best friends are you know have

gotten famous and things like that which i think is great and i'm proud of them but until i got this uh this gig it was like i was just this i was this comedian who's releasing my own content my own albums that people yeah you have those on your website for free and stuff right yeah live from outer space.com people can download that stuff if they want and i just like and it was like amassing this small cult following and i was trying to just be as funny as i could waiting for something to break and so and this kind of came out of nowhere and it is well suited for me in a lot in a lot of ways like i can i can figure out how to present this dense stuff in a in a funny way i just didn't necessarily see myself being thrust into this political scene yeah i don't know if you can hear

that we got some uh beastie boys playing taste of new york for me right here some beastie boys just started playing in the background i don't know if we're picking that up but but yeah so i uh no i yeah at that i know you know i've gotten i've performed around the country in a lot of different cities and i've uh right formed in europe and uh i was in berlin in march yeah I listened to a podcast you did with, what was the guy's name? George. Oh, you listened to that? Yeah.

Cool. That was really interesting. Yeah. Wasn't that interesting? Yeah. Really. Because that was the thing, too. That's the only episode of my podcast that I've put up because right before I got this,

I was gearing up to delve into the podcast realm and do podcasts and stuff. Yeah. And then I got this job. Right. By the way, but I'm so glad I got that that interview with george camerer because there's actually a really rad um english speaking like expat driven english speaking stand-up scene in berlin right now right holy shit it's really fun that's awesome people were cool i hear berlin's amazing berlin is really is amazing it really is it feels it feels like there's a lot more freedom there. Interesting.

But yeah, so, I mean, I've been grinding away in New York for a long time. Yeah. And from that festival, started that show, 50 First Jokes. Oh, you started that. I've heard of that. Yeah, which is like 50 comics all on one show in the first week of the year, telling the very first new joke they've written for the new year. And so we've done it for like eight years in New York.

Wow. Three or four in L.A. Two in Austin. One in New Orleans. And this year we're going to be doing it in Ann Arbor. That's awesome. Nice. Yeah, so I'm one of the co-founders and hosts.

I've been like the host of that. I'm the sole remaining original founder of the show. So I have different co-producers in the different scenes. Cool. I generally go and do the New York, host the New York and LA one. Yeah. This year, maybe I'll just host the New York one. Have somebody else.

I don't know. But yeah, that. And then me and my buddy, Timmy. This is what we want to talk about, right? A little history. Yeah. I want to talk about everything. Me and my buddy, Timmy Williams. I was like, no. I don't and my buddy Timmy. This is what we want to talk about, right? A little history. Yeah, I want to talk about everything. Me and my buddy Timmy Williams. I was like, no.

I don't know. No Timmy talk. He's one of the members of the Whitest Kids You Know, that sketch group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're great guys, and they're super funny. And so me and him, we wanted to start a show together, like a stand-up show back in 2007. And we were looking for venues or places, and we found this bar that had this Mexican restaurant upstairs,

and downstairs is a bar. And then they had this black box theater on the side that they were trying to do theater at and stuff like that, but it wasn't working out. We asked the owners if we could start comedy there and do a show there and they were like yeah okay and we did a wednesday show there called the kingdom of heaven um yeah and it would it would and it was great that's a great name yeah and the name of that place is the creek in the cave no shit yeah so we started the first show there wow yeah that's awesome i didn't know that, a lot of people don't know that.

Damn. Yeah, so you got your fingers in a lot of pies here, John F. O'Donnell. A lot of pie on your fingers here. Yeah, right? And it's so cool to have been a part of that for how that place is built. Obviously, a gazillion people have gone into building it to what it is, and I'm so thrilled that I got to be part of that. That's crazy

well yeah man i mean thank you for talking to me this is this has been a lot of fun i'm uh i'm excited to see you i always like i've only seen you i think out maybe once or twice here in dc but it's always nice running into you when i did the show in new york you're super nice to me so that was cool man i appreciate i appreciate that because yeah i mean it is tough like yeah just going to new york you're like, everybody's, like, so established. I mean, not, like, established maybe comedically, but as far as, like, in the comedy community. You know what I mean? Like, everybody kind of knows everybody.

Then you're like, hey, I'm from out of town. Yeah. I mean, it just takes time. Yeah. I mean, a way to do it. I mean, honestly, a good way to do it is to. Tons of people have been staring at us by the way well you know we're two people on microphones in the park and handsome as hell and handsome let's focus

on that but uh yeah we both got our shaggy style yep yep i call this uh is he gonna i call this one suspension of adulthood. I'm a young man. I'm a man boy for life. I think the way to do New York is stay in your smaller market town until you get some chops, but not too much chops because you don't want to get too much of an ego before you go to New York because you're going to have to suck it the fuck up as well you fucking should. And but but in the meantime, you know, visit here and there. And when you visit, get hooked up with book shows, you know, you can do your job at. So when you

move, you've already been established people's minds of somebody that does book shows. Yeah. And not someone that's just stuck grinding an open mic mic hell so that's i think the way to do it and you're living in queens hating your life right yeah and uh and uh yeah that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing yeah no that makes sense get a get up there first show your face around have be established a little bit a little bit have a friend vouch for you for spots yeah yeah yeah but if they don't don't take it personally yep yep and uh and also do what you you know push yourself and do what you're ready to do but don't get blinded by arrogance and put yourself in a position where you push for something that you're not ready to do yeah yeah yeah yeah because uh it's a marathon does that happen to you where it's like no no uh no i don't think i don't i don't hear in there a little bit i don't know oh no i was just giving

some good advice and i'm saying that i like i don't know maybe when i first moved to new york i was hungry or pushy with people for spots but yeah but uh i don't know. Nothing tragic. Yeah. No, no, no. But yeah. All right. So that's it. I think this is the end of the podcast. We kind of rolled to the finish line.

We kind of rolled across it, but we made it. All right. We made it. Is there anything else you want to talk about? No, I'm good, man. This was really fun. I appreciate it. I think we should do this again, maybe.

You know? Cool. Now and again, we'll come to the park. You'd have me on your podcast again? Absolutely. Hell yeah. You'd come here to this park and we could do this again? Yeah.

All right, I'm in. Anytime, man. I'm in. Anytime. I'm in. No, now that I got this mobile thing, I'm really excited to just take this wherever. Did you just ask me to co-host your podcast today? I'm just kidding.

Anytime. Every week. We're going to do it weekly. Oh, you mean like a podcast, Josh? Like I'm your co-host of your podcast? No. I didn't mean that. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But if you could take over for me when I can't make it, that would be great.

No, but seriously, this was really fun. I appreciate it. Good, man. And it was nice for me to get to talk about some stuff and vent out what's going on with me. Yeah. I haven't been able to do that, so thank you. No, of course, man. Thank you for, yeah, I actually first heard you on the Pete Holmes podcast.

Oh, cool. And when I got hooked up with Ben with that show, and then I saw your name on there, I was like, how do I know that name? And I was like, oh, yeah. There you go. So this is pretty cool to go from listening to you in my cubicle on a podcast to being on my podcast in the park. You know what I mean? Yeah. See, that's something cool about comedians.

That's something cool about the comedy community. We're all, like, there's this extended dysfunctional family element to it. It's a special subculture. Yeah. There's a kinship. Right. And that's real. And we're all more or less, to an extent, accessible to each other.

Yeah. Compared relative to other industries. Yeah, and I think that's a thing, too. Yeah, when people come around and then you realize, you're like, oh, they're just people. You know what I mean? Like, they're not as inaccessible or unaccessible uh as you might think i made yourself unconscious you really did i made yourself unconscious i'm asleep i'm asleep um i'm asleep at the mic uh but no i think that's like one of the you know one of the really cooler things like seeing ben and then when he was a last

comic standing as like the fuck you rosanne guy or whatever and then like like oh no i did shows with him we talked about whatever and just shot the shit and like you know it's it's very cool to run into these run into comedians that are like no no like i'll talk to you i'll hang out you know what i mean it's it's great to learn from uh from each other too so if there's anything i could help you with no but john thank you for doing the show man uh what do you what do you want to plug besides redacted tonight uh well i guess i'll plug redacted tonight a little bit more yeah go for it please please the show's uh redacted tonight with lee camp he's a great uh uh comedian activist very vocal on occupy wall

street some for some reason they've given us a show it's amazing it's a very kind of radicalized comedy a new show a lot of information uh hopefully a lot of uh comedy we do uh also we do these fake commercials where we directly like mock the brand using their logos and everything like that which we can get away with doing because uh we're not sponsored by that stuff right um so we're taking advantage of that it's pretty crazy that's great actually um and uh yeah so the way to way to watch it is uh honestly the easiest thing to do is just type redacted tonight into youtube or go to hulu and watch Redacted Tonight. If you get RT America, it's that

television news channel. It's every Friday at 8 reruns at 1130 Eastern Time. If you want to hear my stand-up, if you go to livefromouterspace.com, you can download about three hours of content.

That's crazy. For free, too, right? Yeah, you can take it for free. content um that's crazy and uh for free too right yeah you can take it for free it is pay what you want donate right if you want but honestly if you can afford to great if not it would just be great if you listen to it because i think you'll like it and uh on twitter oh yeah my twitter is at the real jfod uh jfod that's my nickname so at the real jfod yeah follow me there um i'm all maxed out on facebook son but uh i mean you can follow him but you can't follow you on facebook but uh yeah follow me on twitter hell yeah it would be awesome and the redacted twitter is at redacted tonight so thank you for letting me plug all that stuff i know it was a lot thank you no no i i'm about to plug all of our stuff too so that's how it goes you're like hey follow me on twitter

follow me on instagram like you know what i mean we do this because we enjoy providing entertainment but also connecting connecting is actually important for us getting feedback even if it's just in terms of uh you know like a view count on YouTube, a download, you know, a follower. Comment, anything. For some reason that fuels us. So just do it for us. Yeah, please do. Listen to the man.

So go to digressionsessions.com. That has all of my live upcoming dates, too, as far as, like, improv and stand-up. I'm also on Twitter. I'm at Better robot josh currently and uh instagram and all that stuff um yeah thank you all for listening i really appreciate john thanks again man and uh man thank you for having me let's do this soon let's go let's let's walk around uh dc a little bit okay and uh it didn't rain on us so that's good it's getting a little dark right now uh thank you to everybody who's listening and uh yeah we'll see you guys next week bye bye