The Digression Sessions - Ep. 169 - Ben O'Brien! (@BenfOBrien & @WhamCityComedy)

Episode Date: November 2, 2015

Hola, Digheads! We're back w/ comedian, Ben O'Brien! Ben just got back from touring as a guru and cult leader named "Earth Universe," while opening for his buddy Dan Deacon. Ben's been on the show a number of times, but it's always fun to talk to him. We talk stress, touring, mad cow, their Adult Swim videos, and the future of Wham City Comedy. Follow your boys, Mike & Josh, on Twitter and Instagram.  Josh - @JoshKuderna on Twitter and @JoshKuderna on Instagram Mike - @MikeMoranWould on Twitter The Pod - @DigSeshPod on Twitter The Pod's Facebook page - Dig Sesh on Facebook For live stand up and improv dates, check out - DigressionSessions.com/Calendar  

Welcome to the Digression Sessions Podcast. Hey, everybody. I'm Josh Koderna. 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 ben o'brien ben o'brien is the guest on this week's program hello everybody the digression sessions is back after a couple weeks off josh kaderni here with this quick intro that you're probably skipping over but if you're not thank you for listening and apologies for the delay in episodes but we are back with uh with a dear friend of the podcast he's been on a few times and uh every time i love talking to this guy ben o'brien who is a uh a comedian he's a he does a lot he's a very talented guy and he's a part of wham city which is uh which is uh i guess like a comedy group i don't know i don't know what you call it. It's tough to pigeonhole these guys, but they do a lot of funny stuff from live shows here in Baltimore to

tours all over the country to stuff on Adult Swim. They're very funny, and they've had a few shorts on Adult Swim at 4 a.m. in the morning with crazy stuff like unedited footage of a bear. Their next one is going to be on Adult Swim the week of November 30th at 4 a.m. So make sure you check that out. And the unedited footage of a bear was pretty fucking nuts. Look that up on YouTube or go to whamcitycomedy.com and look at that. And the latest video, Ben says, is a little crazy even for them. So if it's crazy to him and the Nutty Nut Boys, it's got to be goddamn crazy. Them Nutty Nut Boys and Wham City. More importantly, you can follow Ben on Twitter and join his cult. You can find him at Ben F. O'Brien and Wham City Comedies on Twitter as well.

And if you want to see the boys performing live tomorrow, November 3rd, if you're listening on Monday when this comes out, they'll be at the Metro Gallery performing with Everything is Terrible. And the doors open at 7 p.m. So go check that out in Baltimore on Charles Street. And enjoy that. And, yeah, this was a fun episode with Ben. And I think we talked about everything from mad cow disease and how we don't understand that at all.

And to stress, to performing, and all kinds of stuff. And, of course, eating eating raw chicken which i'm kind of obsessed with and uh ben did that for a long time which seems good seems crazy to me but hey he's a nutty nut boy and uh he's super funny so whenever william city or ben is doing something in a town near you or on a tv near you you goddamn well better check it out. You understand, you son of a bitch? Anyway, so yeah, I don't want to ramble too much, but if we can plug some stuff for Mike and I, we'll be performing this week as well. On Friday the 6th, Ben, as well as Mike, will be performing at the Mercury Theater right up the street from the Metro Gallery. And this is the improv stand-up mash-up show that we do the first Friday of every month. And that's at 8 p.m.

And so that's where we have three stand-ups go up. And each stand-up is paired with an improv troupe. And the stand-up does their act. And then the improv troupe uses that as inspiration for scenes. And it's always a good time and uh ben will be there so go to big big go to big improv.org for uh tickets and uh all that stuff and then on the 7th at the mercury theater mike moran will be there as well headlining a stand-up show at 8 p.m and so if you want to see Mike do a longer set, check that out, and Mike Moran also

has some writings on the internet that you can read. He's in Brightest Young Things. If you go to brightestyoungthings.com or check out the Skeptical Inquirer, Moran has articles on both of those websites, so he's crushing it. Follow him on Twitter at Mike Moran Wood. And me, Josh Kaderna, this week on the 5th. Wednesday, I will be at Ragtime in Arlington hosting a show there. It's a free show. Come to that, 8 p.m. Thursday, I will be doing comedy in D.C. at the Sud House. Come check that out. Bunch of really funny DC comics. And on Saturday, I will be in Leesburg, Virginia, hosting a show at the Tally Ho Theater with Ramin Mastafavi and David Twight. Both really, really funny guys. Two of my favorites. So excited for that. So a bunch of opportunities to see us live this week. Come out and do that uh thank you guys for listening as

always we really appreciate it so uh yeah follow me on twitter too i'm at josh katerna also on instagram of the same name and uh yeah i think that's it i think we're gonna get into it i i love talking to that ben o'brien so uh yeah let's uh let's get into it and of course uh hit us up on twitter as well we're at digsashpot i think i've covered it now i think i'm really gonna end it this time so say hi say if you like the episode okay only positive feedback all right let's get into it let's talk to ben o'brien check check so we don't do headphones anymore no well now there's no more sound effects sometimes there's sound effects but today we just had to rush this we only uh we only get headphones if

there's sound effects yeah you gotta hear that oh yeah so the headphones are always just for our enjoyment pretty much right yeah and it kind of gets everybody more in podcast mindset. Oh, totally. Right. But this is a little more... This is bare bones. Yeah. It's raw.

It's a little more absurd because it just feels like we're all like... Look, we did the super polished orchestral keyboard-y album. Now we're going back to the basics and doing a raw punk rock one. This does feel, we're unplugged. Yeah, we talked to Rick Rubin. We're trying to get back to our roots. Yeah, absolutely. That church choir was a little too much.

Yeah. I liked it, but anyway, you got to experiment. Yeah. And if there's a guy that knows about experimenting, it's Ben O'Brien. That's right. You like to experiment, Ben? Do you? Yeah. Yeah, of. You like to experiment, Ben? Do you? Yeah.

Yeah, of course I love to experiment. Good. We have an ulterior motive for bringing you down here. Okay. Josh, you want to try meth? Yeah, dude. Okay, cool. Of course.

And gay sex. We'll get to the meth and gay sex segment at the end of the show. All right. Does meth make gay sex more fun? Only one way to find out. It's called experimenting, Ben, and you said you were down for it. I just didn't know if it was like you always have cheese with wine or something like that. Yeah, I wouldn't want to ruin the gay sex by being on meth,

and then the gay sex in the future may not be as good. I may only associate gay sex with meth. Okay. That's why we experiment. You got to figure out the right mix. I understand. And if there's a guy that knows about the right mix, it's Ben Ober. I've seen you do that the whole podcast.

Welcome to me. Hey, man. Thanks for coming back and doing the podcast. Hey, no problem. Thank you guys for coming here and doing my podcast. Oh. This is your podcast? Yeah. doing the podcast hey no problem thank you guys for uh coming here and doing my podcast oh this is your podcast yeah i have a series of uh i have a podcast series that's just other people's just

re-release other people's podcasts yes absolutely do you do an intro in the beginning or well i usually let them do an intro okay so the intro to your podcast is gonna have our music and everything else yeah yeah yeah it's actually it's nicely produced do you release this under your own name or do you just find your podcast under other people's podcasts yeah i mean the part of the finding it is the is like the journey but i haven't fully i haven't quite released it yet but right oh okay um i'm still i'm still recording episodes we'll have you back on to let us know when your podcast comes out. That would be great. Are you always the interview?

Are you always on your own podcast or do other people do it for you sometimes? No, no, no. Okay. Like sometimes you don't let Pete Holmes sit in for you. Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I act like it's like I wasn't in that. Like I was sick for that one. Because you want to allow other people.

Yeah, so like Louis C.K. took my place. That's nice of you. Right. Filling in. There's a comedian that did that uh i think it's nate oh god i fucked up his name yesterday the guy i was telling you about who did the whole mixtape thing or the mashup but it was just a mashup with the bare naked ladies every time i i have i know something vaguely about what you're saying yeah i think I've seen or heard this, whatever you're talking about. The Barenaked Ladies. I definitely know the Barenaked Ladies. Nate Felder, I think.

It's not Nathan Fielder. I'm fucking up his name. No, it's something. I'll get in the intro. But he did a thing, too, where he recorded himself on top of WTF episodes. Mark Maron would ask a question and be like, yeah, so how was Vancouver? And he'll be like,

yeah, man, what's up with that? Like he's just the second interviewer. That's awesome. I think he did it for like three episodes. He's like, yeah, I had to quit WTF. Nobody was acting

like I was there. It was really fucked up. Sometimes I'll have, when I fall asleep listening to a podcast, like I'll dream that I'm in that situation where like no one's listening to me and they just keep talking to me.

It's like the reverse Garfield without Garfield. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's like putting someone else, an extra person in there. Sure. Makes it lonely. I'm picturing just the Garfield that somebody's ignoring. There's one Garfield getting all the love in that scenario.

I just thought up an inspirational quote. You can't feel left out if you're not even there. Wow. That's oddly depressing, too. There's like no upside to that at all. At the end, is it suicide? Yeah. Period.

It's one of those inspirational posters. Let's put an end to this whole mess. All right. Well, Ben, thank you for coming back. Sure. I just have to say you're a dear, dear friend of the podcast at this point. You've been on a lot. Three?

This is my third. Including the live episode? Oh, no. I guess. Then fourth? Fourth. Really? Yeah. When was the- I was on two in the bedroom

You were in the early days The beginning stages where we talked about Raw meat Before Josh was even on the podcast Back when it was me and Terry When you guys were beneath me When I was lowering myself to be on your podcast It was Mike Moran and Terry Gross

Doing dig sesh Mike and Terry Gross. Yes. Doing dig sesh. Mike and Terry digging it up is what we used to call it. Digging it up. But so you're back. I'm here. How is it feeling? This feels the best.

Does it? Best ever. The best ever. I like the bare bones style. Yeah. We just get right into it. Those are my favorite kind of bones. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

They've been bleached and boiled. Just so bare. Yeah. Beautifully white. Bright white bones. Hell yeah. The best. Now, you've been up to some things since you've been on the podcast.

That's true. Probably been eating some raw chicken. Actually, I haven't. I mean, a lot of cooked chicken. Really? A lot of cooked chicken. What? A lot of cooked chicken. What was the change? For those that don't know.

Well, I think when we had talked about it in the first place, it wasn't something I was really. It was already retrospective. It was already kind of, yeah, me talking about something I used to do. Okay. I'm still a fan of it. If anyone were to do it, I'd be like. You're still fanatical about eating raw meat. I would be the guy that gives someone the pointers.

If they were like, hey, I'm going to start eating raw, I'd be like, talk to me. I know what I'm talking about. Right, I've been there. But I don't really, myself, dabble anymore. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Why? Dabble in the dark arts.

Why is that? I don't know. You just do something for eight years. It's like such a lifestyle. I just try different things. And I started eating a different way and didn't feel any worse. So I was like, why don't I just cook chicken? Well, there's got to be more flavor when you cook it too, right?

Well, it depends on how you make it. It's intensive to really what's the most intensive thing about eating raw is just you have to make elaborate meals for every meal of the day. Yeah. It seems like a pain in the ass. Yeah. And when you cook, it's like you can make a bunch at once and have leftovers, which is harder when it's raw. And that's kind of more – it's just like it became – I think I just got really into making like soups and stocks and like cooking chicken and vegetables and these kinds of things. Well, actually, it kind of sounds counterintuitive because I feel like raw should be way easier.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it would be easier if I just like, you know, grab an animal. Do a bunch of special things to it, right? Yeah. It's got to be like really. Yeah. You got to soak the chicken in lemon juice. I mean, this is if you want it to taste good and not like wet dog.

Sure. You got to soak the chicken in lemon juice and you got to like cut up, you know, what do you want to do? Do you soak the wet dog in lemon juice as well? That's so expensive. What's that? Do you soak the wet dog in lemon juice as well? Yeah, absolutely. The wet dog definitely plays a part in there still for me.

This is educational too. I like this. Let me ask you this. Do you pour yourself a tall glass of lemon chicken juice afterward when you're done basting? Yeah, you don't want anything to go to waste, dude.

Okay. Oh, yeah. You use the whole buffalo. I am reminded of the recent KFC commercial in which the colonel announces that if he could, he would put chicken in the lemonade. Okay. Did he really say that yeah all right absolutely what's stopping him nothing he could do that he could do that all day does it huh then does it does it i do it you heard

him say it oh yeah uh so uh we we did a show the other night at umbc for the kids that's right that was the first time i've seen you in a while. You were touring and you were a bit of a guru. Yeah. How did that work out? How was that, fella? It was awesome. I toured with Dan Deacon for six weeks and was opening up for him at music shows. shows i do about a 15 to 20 minute set where i come out as you know dressed kind of new agey

kind of as this yeah no we actually i spent the longer the thing i spent the most time on was probably the costume which i have to give a lot of uh the credit to my girlfriend jesse it was a good it was really great with costuming and stuff she had a bunch of the jewelry and stuff so i was wearing you know like a bunch of necklaces and rings. Yeah, didn't you have basically like a necklace around your forehead, basically? Yeah, yeah. I have a key around my head because I'm trying to unlock your mind. Right.

Of course. And then I had a choker. The choker, I actually think, is what kind of holds it all together. If you take the choker away, you really feel like you're missing something. Yeah, the choker makes a man. It's the keys that makes the guru. Yeah, absolutely. Which is how I feel every time I look at an eighth grader now. Right. Because I was like, where's that choker away, you really feel like you're missing something. Yeah, the choker makes a man. It's the keys to the guru. Yeah, absolutely. Which is how I feel every time I look at an eighth grader now.

Right. Because I was like, where's that choker? Where's that choker? There's something missing. All eighth graders should be. You might not want to say that to them out loud. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Let's move along.

So I was on the tour. And so I'd come out and I'd do a presentation on my cult and why people should join it, how I became enlightened, blah, blah, blah, blah. It went great. It was very fun and kind of like exciting to have to do like a live performance at a music show where people aren't expecting it. Yeah.

So there has to be this kind of like initial element that's just an intention-getting thing. So I'd start with this intro video that would go into, that would kind of introduce me, essentially. And then it would go into the song Shine by Collective Soul. And I would always come out through the crowd

and like touch people's foreheads. And you look fucking crazy too. And I look kind of, you know. I mean, although at those kinds of shows, I don't quite, I don't stand out all the time as much as you'd think were there any audience members who you didn't think were in on the joke you thought you were serious well in san francis there's a part where i'm i'm i do this whole bit about uh appropriation and how great appropriation is to appropriate other cultures and stuff and it's obviously very facetious. And while I'm doing it, I'm wearing an Indian headdress.

And so one night... You're like jumping around in an Indian headdress. Yeah, yeah. That's not offensive at all. So there's two answers to this question. The first one is there's one time when I was in San Francisco and there's a line that I have where I'm like, if you want to twerk, twerk.

If you want to wear a bindi, wear a bindi. I'm encouraging people. And as I say, if you want to wear a bindi, wear a bindi, I look at a white woman who's wearing a bindi. Like, a bindi. And I just was like, you want to wear a bindi? I was just like, because I didn't want to like a like a offend the person but then i was like uh she laughed she thought it was funny a bindi is a uh a hindu oh the third eye thing

yeah i think i don't really know anything about it but the the women wear it i believe yes um on their forehead yeah um and uh and then in chicago i actually got booed it was my first time ever getting booed. By one person? It was the biggest show of the tour. Multiple people. It had to be like 1,000 people in the crowd. Jesus Christ.

It was the most beautiful theater I've ever been in. We were recording. And you know those nights where you're like, okay, I'm on and I'm recording. It's awesome. I just got to slam. Just keep going. Just take what I'm doing and keep going. And I got to the Indian headdress part, which generally goes fine.

Whereas people understand at that point that I'm making fun of the types of people who do things like that. Right. Now, where is that in your set time-wise? Like how far are you? That's probably about halfway exactly. Okay. So you're feeling good. You're like, we're about to halfway. Yeah, yeah. I get there and then it's not the whole crowd or anything most of the

crowd is still having a good time but there's like five or six which is loud enough like right near the front yeah who just see that like they're not paying attention to what i'm saying right they're not paying attention to the content they just see the indian headdress and they just start booing. Um, and then there's people yelling at them. So it just kind of starts to create this commotion. Yeah. And I'm like trying to keep it in. Like I keep it together fine,

but you know, if I'm watching, if I watch the video of that, I can see that in that moment I'm like my, I'm like in my mind, like thinking, do I, do I say something about the booing?

Right. Do I just keep going? And usually 95% of the time, my decision is to just, you know, Do I say something about the booing? Do I just keep going? And usually 95% of the time my decision is to just drive through it. But it seems like two of you say – After that, then I was off. So then it just wasn't quite as true. Yeah, I get like that too. It's hard for me to bounce back.

But it sucks too if you say something. It feels like it just kind of feeds into it even more. Totally. Then other people would be shouting too and it would just be yeah that's how it felt it felt like if i was going to give them anything it would have just it's like most of the people didn't even know it was happening yes so i just had to kind of yeah just grin and bear it yeah but as a performer you always kind of hone in on like the people that are not of course into it of course do you know what that

is i've heard it's like an old neurosis yeah problem no but it's like a primal thing in our in our minds that like basically we're looking for predators all the time absolutely so when you're looking when you're looking at an audience that everybody's like oh we're all into it and there's just one person not even if like you know not if they're like mean mugging you but if they're just like not even having a good time you're like like, what's this fucking person? Not even just, they're not having a good time. They're just not laughing as hard as other people. Yes.

Or they might even have a smile and you're like, what's your fucking problem? Yeah. That's what you say to them. What's your fucking problem? Hey, grandma, you cunt.

That's what I say. My headdress offends you. I've, I've thought about that before because, because of how like weirdly quickly you can find them and while you're talking, while you're doing all the other stuff in your mind, you're just like immediately you're like this here, like you can, you can read their energy. I've kind of feel like that's just a depressed people thing.

Like we just focus on like, you know, like no matter how many people come to my birthday party, I, I focus on like the four that didn't, you know? Yeah. Like I feel like that's just like a pessimistic yeah i think i mean it's pessimistic i also think it's it's people who are seeking validation right you know i mean there's definitely comedians that go up there and they're like we're talking about everyone loved it and you're like well yeah it's me rarely is that ever true anyway but yeah i think it's definitely better to be in the camp of people

who are like why did those two out of 100 people, what was their... I don't know. I'm pretty sick of being that guy. I'd love to have a giant ego. I would like to moonlight as someone who's completely unaware of themselves. It's true. Do you have an alter ego? At night when you're like, whoa, look at Betty.

She has all that confidence. My alter ego is a sociopath. After doing stand-up, doing a character like after doing months of stand-up doing a character on stage is so much it's like so freeing really because of that because you don't care about the people laughing as much like you're you're you're so much that character and the humor comes out of you just being that character that right that it's like you're so much that character and the humor comes out of you just being that character that it's like you're not trying to be yourself and find your energy. You're just kind of bringing

energy to a different character. So I found that that was so liberating. And if they don't like it, it's like, oh, they didn't like the character. They still love me. There's a mediator between me and them. They'll be like, Earth Universe sucks. Still my dick getting sucked be like, Earth Universe sucks. Still my dick getting sucked. That was the name of your character,

was Earth Universe? Earth Universe. Yeah, that's what I thought, because on Twitter, I love your Twitter bio, because you are still Earth Universe on Twitter. Yeah. It says, I'm Earth Universe.

I became enlightened while reading a bottle of Dr. Bronner's on the toilet. It's true. Now I travel the world convincing teenagers to join my cult yeah specifically teenagers yeah yeah yeah the most you gotta get him young well you had a whole mailing list right like I'd like signing up for shit right yeah I've got like 600 people my call I mean at the show you could sign up for my cult.

And then on the internet, you could. So I have like half from the shows and half from the internet. Hey, that's pretty good. And then I was, and I did this stupid, which is what I always do, where I like try to bite off more than I can chew. But I had this thing where if you signed up

and gave me your address, I would mail you a free cult membership card. That was my next question. And I did it for like a few hundred people, but I don't know if i don't i mean i always think stamps are like 32 cents but they're 50 cents essentially yeah they're 49 cents so every so 100 people signing up 50 not counting the cards and the envelopes so that if for some reason in my mind i was like yeah it's like free to mail it gives a shit right um so then that kind of quickly became like uh prohibitive well it's

free if you reverse the addresses oh that's true but here's what the other stupid thing i do is i give everyone so i have to have a spreadsheet where i give everyone a special cult name and then i address the envelope to their cult name and sometimes they bounce back like i'll get i'll get mail that comes back and it says undeliverable and it'll say like to sauron like at their address and it's like oh i guess sauron wasn't there like voldemort i'll name sauron i can't reach you in the universe anymore oh no so it's i could picture you had like a cubicle like trying to add shit up to like oh did i email Soran yet? God, this is why I have to keep track of exactly

Someone on the tour actually because some people would come up and be like I'm one of your members Like I'm in your call like like in like, you know kind of get along getting on the joke But someone came up to me and was like you never gave me a name and I was like, yes I did and they were like no you didn't I was like what's your name and a name. And I was like, yes, I did. And they were like, no, you didn't. I was like, what's your name? And then I showed them my spreadsheet, and I was like, here's your name. I told them. Ooh, look at you.

And that felt good. Yeah. You better did. You're on top of shit. So it was worth it. Yeah. I impressed one person. One person.

I think it's worth it, you know? Because in that moment, you would have felt like a real shithead. Oh, yeah, dude. I always wish I had a spreadsheet that had the that like showed that i knew something yeah or why they're wrong yeah i was prepared yeah look at this hmm you guys into spreadsheets uh love them they're all right do you really love them no i don't i actually don't even really know what a spreadsheet is honestly wow like an excel spreadsheet like what what makes it different than another document well it's not it's not like a written document you got you got a yeah i realize it's not a paper

yeah yeah it's got cells yeah right so each cell can have a value and then you can take a one cell and have it you know mathematically interact with the other cells. In many forms. Really? Yeah. I thought it was just like a way to organize documents or something. No, no. No, no, no. This is surprising me.

You can add. No. Mike is like this with adult stuff. It's weird. It's weird. There's some stuff he just doesn't understand. He's outside of that realm. What else? Well, I told him that I had to get my shirts dry cleaned.

And he was like, what did that cost? She's like, $50. It's like that one i get it was like seven dollars for seven shirts like okay well who cares all right yeah i still do not have the have you ever bleached your laundry ever like like you're on purpose or accidentally he wears too much black on purpose one time i think i tried to do that with my sheets. I don't know if it made a difference or not. Okay. I'm just wondering.

Because there's certain things that I just don't do. There's certain things that never became a part of my life that my mom did religiously. Yeah. I was just like, you don't... As soon as I found out, you could just wash everything together. Yeah. And the only problem with not bleaching your whites is that after six months, they look like a little bit less white yeah i don't own any white hell no i think i was gonna say you wear too much black yeah i don't think i have a single like purely white article

of clothing and most whites uh are better no uh most whites are they're they're undershirts anyway so it's like who gives a fuck like the shirts that i'm wearing now who gives a fuck? Like the shirts that I'm wearing now. Who gives a fuck? When people wear white pants, I'm like, what are you trying to prove? What are you doing? That you don't pee yourself at all? Ever? Good job. No stains.

Right. You never sit in a little dookie. Never. Yeah. You sit in some dookie, Ben? Everybody sits in dookie. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, they found out that there was like human feces in like hot dogs or something. There's definitely feces everywhere there's human feces in hot dogs 30 human feces this this is how i think they said one out of seven hot dogs is human feces yeah if you go through like packages you'll find one that's usually just a pure turd yeah yeah you gotta make you gotta get that dirt out that's where that clear packaging really gets you. You're like, wait a minute. I can see. These hot dogs are 30% feces.

No. What it said was that there is human DNA in them, which essentially... That's pretty bad, too. No. What does that even mean? It essentially means that somebody touched a hot dog. Yeah, that's nothing.

Yeah, they're trying to make it seem like there's organs, like human organs in hot dogs. Even if there were, I wouldn't be all that upset if somebody started making food out of dead bodies, like dead human bodies. I'd almost feel better than eating animals what like you're embracing soylent green right now i mean i don't want anybody to be killed but i like i wouldn't care if people ate me when i died you can't do that we right we're not allowed to you can't eat your own species right you can't you're not supposed to eat their brains right or you get mad cow disease what the fuck do these rules it's just brain i don't know that's that does sound like some sort of horror movie

yeah it's like anything else except the brain i don't know you have to invite them in before you or else you'll have all their memories mixed with your memory but i do think that that's what causes mad cow is them eating not just the flesh but the but the brain really cows eating brains of other cows wow i think that's where the disease is located. I don't know. It sounds weird. Because think about it. When you get mad cow disease, you're all like you're right.

So it's a brain disease. Yeah. So we think that kind of supports what we're saying. Well, I don't think you only get brain diseases from eating brains. Somebody ate some bad brains over there. Are these brains stale? God damn it. I'm dyslexic because I ate a dyslexic boy's brains.

So you're suffering from depression. Exactly when did you eat human brains? I don't know if it works like that. I'm an idiot too, so I have no idea. And I don't think you guys do either. Let's turn this into a science podcast. Where three idiots who know nothing about science talk about the headlines they read on facebook that their friends

share right every conversation just ends with like i mean maybe a new study shows that uh this awesome new diet pill that's very controversial uh-huh is a miracle all the hollywood stars are using it uh-huh so yeah you know maybe yeah i like fat i like the ads where they show the uh the scientist or whatever ad it is it's like scientists hate this guy because he figured out it's like do they they really hate him yeah so i just just hated when somebody like it has a comes up with a new interview i think scientists probably have a pretty big shit list you think so oh yeah yeah it's competitive like uh you know creationist right i think uh up until recently scientists were probably pretty resentful at like uh you know the priestly types that ran the world you know

but now it's kind of reversed i think i i mean i think that it would to not to speak for all of scientists because of course i'm a scientist, but I don't know all scientists. Sure. The creationists specifically are always trying to mess with, they're trying to recreate their own science. That is true. They're kind of trying to fuck with scientists in general. That is true. I don't think they care as much about priests because that's kind of their own, okay, that's religion.

Within the world of skepticism and science stuff, creationists and people like that's kind of their own okay that's religion within the world of like skepticism and science stuff i mean like creationists and people like that are kind of like laughable these days i don't think they're like so much but they do they do get they get shit done yeah they do like they get creationists have you ever taught in like high schools and stuff yeah i mean yeah i think they get resentful science is just a theory so is this why can't you teach both it's like well they not really. You can't equate those two things. Yeah, well, one's based on cause and effect. The other is based on mythology. Yeah.

You can't like. Exactly. But yeah, I think scientists get pissed at things like that. But for the most part, I think they mostly see like the whole Pentecostal evangelical world is like kind of a joke. They probably just hate other scientists. Or here's the other thing i think i would hate as a scientist when people don't on the media and people who don't understand how to interpret studies correct like oh yeah just did it's like you know hot dogs

human fingers you know hot dogs got poop and those fingers were dipped in shit i think you know that i'm more resentful at the way the media tricks people into thinking certain things are science. You know what I mean? Example. Like when somebody's like, here's eight pictures of a man biting a dog. And then everybody believes that man biting dogs is a big problem. Oh, I see. Oh, that's more prevalent than it really is.

Yeah, yeah. Like certain things are epic. Mike's got back problems. That old man sound you made right into the mic. Yeah, Mike, we played some music last night. You got a little bit of a hangover

from rocking out? A little too hard? No, I pretty much feel this terrible all the time. Oh, okay, good. Good. I'm a broken, broken man. Yeah, what's wrong with your back?

Ben's a scientist. He could. Yeah. What's wrong with your back? Ben's a scientist. He could help you. What's going on? Well, I think it probably stems from emotional issues. Okay. So, you know. Have you thought about fixing this? I like a smart scientist.

I love this. Have you ever thought about just like feeling good? Like nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. That's always the cure. Like what's wrong? You know what I do when I get depressed? I just smile good? Like nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. That's always the cure. Like what's wrong? You know what I do when I get depressed? I just smile.

I say it's okay. I always want to be like, why didn't someone tell Robin Williams that? But it's like when you're feeling bad, have you ever just thought about just getting up and going for a walk? Yeah, that is a good point. Yeah, I should try that. Or maybe eating healthier. Yeah. Smiling more.

Get some sleep too. You owe itiling more. Get some sleep, too. You owe it to yourself, you know? Right? Just go easy on yourself. Yeah, take it easy. I think you're your biggest enemy. Oh, my God. That's really profound.

Because normally somebody else would be your enemy. It's somebody else. But what you're saying is the enemy might lie within. Exactly. Here's the deal. You got to be your own cheerleader. You know? Yeah. You understand? You're right. I had a therapist tell me that once. Really? Yeah. exactly here's the deal you got to be your own cheerleader you know yeah you understand you're right yeah i had a therapist tell me that once really yeah that's like okay i'm never gonna

see you again i think my problem is i'm my biggest cheerleader oh really i don't know i think i have a weird like inferior suppressing like the term egomaniac with inferiority complex totally applies to me i think oh. Oh. Hmm. Like I either think I'm like the shit or I think I'm a piece of shit. Yeah. See what I did with the word play there. Yeah. I mean, I'll isolate.

Sometimes I think I'm in between. I'll isolate between those where I'm like, what I'm doing is awesome. And then I'll be like, I don't know anything. I've never done anything. I'm terrible at everything I do. Yeah. Everything I've done until now I've gotten away with somehow. And they're all going to find out who I really am.

Yeah. I'm a fraud. It's imposter syndrome. I actually like myself for the most part these days. But I do definitely go from highs to lows like that. Yeah, I got that. I got a little bit of that. Yeah, I think we all do.

But I try to be reasonable enough to balance them out. But as far as mood, I definitely go up and down throughout the day on my penis. Until I ejaculate. Buddy. Whoa. And I apologize. No, that's fine. The show's changed.

That's fine. It's more. Ejaculation isn't necessarily sexual. That's why it doesn't bother me. Really? Yeah. Again, that's just a science thing? Yeah.

Ejaculation isn't the same as orgasm. So you can like ejaculate oil from a. No, no. I mean. No, it doesn't have to be sexualized. You know, you can ejaculate just like... It's anatomical. Yeah, it's just a matter of fact.

You're telling me you can ejaculate without an orgasm? You can. Yeah, I mean it's possible. You can? Have you been? Yeah. I do think every now and then I'll weirdly like, when I'm masturbating, just like ejaculate

and like nothing else happens. And I'm like, what wait what yeah i've had i've had to get it done yeah like where i like come but like i don't orgasm like i don't know if it happens too quickly or something it's like wait what the fuck happened it just sneaks up on you huh sometimes yes okay now is that a result of the pills? Probably. Okay. Got it. Got it. Interesting. All right.

So what were we talking about? Do you get depressed, Ben? As a creative person, do you ride that roller coaster? You know, because I think you would be the first if you did. I wouldn't say I really – I've been depressed before in my life. I wouldn't say that I get depressed. Like it's not a problem for me. My problem is,

is anxiety being high, strong, you know, being nervous, but, but it's, I can be anxious and like, and that will, if I'm,

if I have anxiety that is around for days and days and days, I'll kind of get depressed from that. Gotcha. Like, it'll just make me feel like, what's the fucking point of living if you're always fucking nervous all the time. Yeah. But inherently, no, I but inherently no i don't like get i don't get taken by depression and stuff like i'm generally like pretty happy even if when i'm super anxious

sometimes it doesn't necessarily relate to how i'm feeling uh it's just kind of that i mean that's the definition of a disorder i guess interesting. Interesting. So what makes you anxious? Is it a certain thing or is it just kind of like innate? It changes a lot because I actually do a lot of like work on myself and like I'm always kind of working with it. So and it depends on like what I'm doing in my life, what my routines are, what the context is. But for a while, I had just straight up generalized anxiety disorder where it was like all the time yeah i think i had that honestly from morning till night just feeling doom and fear and just like afraid and just like kind of like constantly like i have to i have to do this i have to do that i have to like do everything you do like makes your heart pound and your back tense and

it's you have this sense that there's some sort of problem that you can't quite grasp. But if you just keep doing everything, you'll finally be safe or something. I need to keep moving. Yeah, exactly. And then I've kind of gotten to the point now where I am just a little bit high strung. I'm just generally aware I can wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. Or I'll find myself anxious throughout the day, like little things. But I've,

I've been doing a lot of like meditation and, um, exercise and, just better kinds of habits and stuff to kind of help with that. And to get myself out of that, everything, something, there's this problem,

there's a problem I need to find and figure it out. Right. Kind of mentality. Does it cure it for you? like i find those types of things help but they don't like help all that much i think um nothing that i do helps like nothing there's no fix right away everything is like this constant piecemealing and like repetition where it's like i find from the meditation sometimes it won't help right away but a couple hours later all of a sudden i'll just feel relaxed yeah i really need to be meditating i think um i feel a lot better when i it doesn't take that

much time i do it right when i wake up and uh and then i do it once again in the later in the day but the one that i where i wake up is when i know i can always do and then I do it once again in the later in the day but the one that I where I wake up is when I know I can always do and then it just kind of it stops some of the constant thinking which anxiety is a cumulative issue you work yourself up into it I think it's just like and it can be from trauma or whatever else but part of it is this rep like constant stream of thinking that makes you anxious so you think more, so you're more anxious so you think more, so you're more anxious so you think more.

It just feeds on it. Yeah, and so part of it is just disrupting the flow of that. And that can be like keeping yourself moving, meditating, whatever. There's so many different kinds of ways and I've done so many of them. It doesn't fuck with your back at all you don't get back problems oh no i have had a back it's funny you guys are asking me these questions because i have had a back problem for the past three and a half years and i think was largely not just kind of structural issues from of my

body but also just like anxiety and stress and just like going through seriously stressful parts of my life so what is that like you're super tense and it like puts extra strain on your spine yeah yeah when when you're nervous you know you might uh always be holding your your neck i'm like stuck in that position i feel or i found out i was always holding my stomach or you know but but basically i worked up an issue and for a while i thought it was something to do with my bones but it it's apparently a muscular issue which is great news and so i've been just doing like a really serious meditation actually helped probably more than anything has sure because you're calmer and then you can kind of release yeah you relax and i've

been working on like posture and alignment do you find it hard to breathe though like i found like if i lay in the bathtub uh like i can kind of let all let go of all the tension and shit but then i like can't fucking breathe like that's how huh like my body like there's just like it's like somebody like slammed down my anxiety button and like my back is just stuck like this you know and like when i try to like let it all go like i can and i'm like oh i kind of feel human again. But I can't fucking breathe. It's so weird. One of the things that I did, well, one of the main symptoms now,

when I know I'm starting to have anxiety, is I can't breathe very well. I can't breathe evenly. I'll hold my breath, and then I'll breathe in. I'll need to take a really deep breath. It's just kind of not. And so one of the things I did was was i went back and i just started with breath and i was just like okay i'm just gonna make sure i'm breathing throughout the day and breathing throughout the day and then um and that helps but it still comes back yeah because like when you get

in that panicky mode it's like hard to breathe you know like in normal life and you're like that all the time that feeling makes you feel panicky when you can't right so it's it's also about just training yourself not to react to the symptoms too, I think. I mean, for me. There's so many things to it. I wish there was one. Yeah. Not to like just panic about panic either. Like, oh no, I'm panicking.

That's a really hard thing to train yourself out of is also not hating yourself because you have anxiety and being like, oh God, I'm like- I'm less than. Yeah. I'm such an idiot. Yeah. Why do I feel- I'm less than.

Yeah. I'm less than. You're better than me. I'm not good enough. I'm not everything. Yeah. Just in general. Less than. Are you a- less than. You're better than me. I'm not good enough. Everyone and everything. Just in general, less than. You're like a pretty happy guy. For the most part, but I get anxiety too.

It's weird. Some stuff I can be fine with, like performing and being on stage and be fine. But then other times when you go to the grocery store, I'll have my earbuds in, and then I have to talk to the person at the register, and I get nervous. think it's more like i can't listen to my podcast for four seconds no i'm not but it's not like instead of getting nervous try being just mean to the person yeah try getting upset and then taking that out on okay i think that's actually like kind of how i dealt with it in certain parts of my life like not not so much being mean but like being like cocky you know like i'm too good to like care about these people yeah i think that a lot of those things

are just our way of not having to experience what we're actually yeah yeah like in high school in high school i don't suck right right what yeah like in high school i just like act like i don't care about these assholes you know yeah that's why i'm not talking to any of them of course i don't have an anxiety problem. Everything's just so upsetting. Cut to Mike in the tub. I can't breathe. This is terrible.

Holding himself in the tub. Yeah. That was kind of my meditative ritual for a while, getting in the bathtub. Sounds nice, actually. It was weird because it was so strange because it's like, okay, I'm me again, but breathe and like so i'm like gasping for air and i'm forcing myself to do it anyway you know and then i like get out and i'm like lightheaded and shit it's so weird yeah well i'm a uh i have narrow nasal passages so i'm a mouth breather so i gotta deal with that i thought i was just a mouth breather because i was dumb but the doctor said narrow nasal passage. It is weird how it just makes you seem dumb when you have your mouth open.

Yeah. Somebody could give a TED Talk and you're like, wow, that guy's really smart. And then backstage you're just like mouth agape like a fucking idiot. Look at him. I think you have to add breathing sounds to that to make it really deep. But from the back of the throat. Yeah.

I remember in high school somebody was like, oh, there's Josh with his mouth open again at like a party. And somebody was like oh there's josh with his mouth open again at like a party and i was like oh my god and to this day it's still like yeah i remember somebody said i like walk funny or something in like third grade or something like that and to this day like i i think i'm conscious of the way i walk it's one of those things too where you're just like has everybody noticed too like oh my god yeah i've been exposed this whole time all of a sudden everyone uh that's not you has this club that they're in yeah that they all share the same opinions they've talked

about it numerous they didn't have to talk about it that much they're just like yeah that's that's what it's like yeah or like what i'm doing it to like elbow each other like yeah yeah they're just they just give a knowing look to everyone else they're like yeah roll their eyes no big deal but it's new information to me. And I don't like it. I don't like it. I hate that club. Yeah.

Thank you. I mean, I like it when we're meeting about you. Oh. I thought you meant that specific club. Fuck. No, no, no. The club that where I don't get it. Another session of the Weird Stuff Josh Dubs Club.

Is that in order? Today we're going to discuss that thing with his eyes. What is going on with that? The worst scenario of that club would be like this. They would present and be like, you know what? We've decided we just don't really care about Josh that much. We all don't like him that much.

He's okay, but we're kind of lukewarm on him. I think we're going to disband. That would suck. You want that club. You kind of do want the club now that I'm thinking about it. Hate. Yeah, that would suck. Indifference is the greatest social weapon. You want people talking. You kind of do want the club now that I'm thinking about it. Yeah. There's no...

Hate is better than indifference. Yeah. There's no bad club. Right? You know what I mean? Right. Because you want people to hate you?

Uh-huh. I don't actually know if that's true. Well, I mean... Except for the turkey club my wife makes. Stay away from that. Yeah.

Book clubs? How do you feel about those? Fight clubs? How do I feel about those specifically how do i feel about oprah's book club i guess it's good okay i don't see i don't see why i should not like it follow up i mean kkk with the kkk yeah the ku klux club i believe they're called the ku klux club the uh what about the kuook lux kuderta kuderta kuderta clucks club i think is what it should be excuse me um i'm i guess i'm kind of against that club i mean to tell you the truth to be honest better than indifference i'll take that because of their holocaust i would come out for sure if

i would come out straight up against that okay all right well hey to each his own yeah i don't agree with it but that's fine i'd be like the bernie sanders and that club is All right. Well, hey, to each his own. I don't agree with it, but that's fine. I'd be like the Bernie Sanders, and that club is like class warfare. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. You're the old guy who's rallying against us. Totally.

Well, I don't like it, but you're welcome to do that. Hey, it's America. This is America. I don't have to like it. You know? Great. So, Ben, shift in gears here.

Sure, let's shift. What's next for you in the Wham City Nutty Nut Boys? Oh, have we called them that before? Yeah, wasn't it? I think I said it at the live show. I think you did, yeah. The Nutty Nut. I love that name.

So, me and the Nutty Nuts, now we're um finishing up our well technically our fourth video for adult swim but it's our third like your fourth airing video yeah so we just we've just um edited it so it's basically done i think we've got like a week left okay well let's circle back because i didn't know you had so many i knew about uh what was the one with the bear what was that called the unedited footage of a bear unedited footage of a bear is our is our sophomore slammer and then our our freshman uh video was live forever as you are now okay with alan resnick okay i don't think we had a web video that was just it wasn't like a big um it wasn't like a big production. It was a smaller video. It was Robbie just giving a graduation speech. It's called commencement speech.

And that was online. And now this is our junior year video. We joke because we get to make one a year. It's about how quickly we can make them. Right. And how long is this one? This is another quarter hour. Okay. Adult swim traditionally is quarter hour okay that's adult

swim traditionally is quarter hour stuff yeah they now have expanded to half an hour length yeah um but so 25 minutes 20 well technically 22 okay in your fucking face no quarter of an hour i was thinking about a quarter hour it's technically 11 right um but yeah so this one's a quarter hour it's going to be another 4 a.m jammer uh-huh that's the time to get in there we do we do like that time we talk about the kind of like all the perks and the and the uh negatives to to that time slot like obviously you know yeah we people don't care as much about that time slot but that's also why we get to do kind of interesting fun things with that time slot. Pretty much whatever the fuck you want, right?

Not exactly whatever the fuck we want, because they still have to pay for it. Oh, okay. So we have to convince them that it's a good idea. So no Holocaust denial. No Holocaust denying. No nudity. No nudity. No Kaderna Clucks Club.

Yeah. No monkeys on a crucifix. Yeah. So this one I think is pretty out there. This one's so out there that sometimes I'm like, is this too out there? For you to say that, it must be fucking bananas. What makes it so out there?

It's only shot on security cameras. So it's a found footage. Well, we shot it. But yeah, it's in the style of a found footage like horror movie. Wham Witch Project would you call it? Yeah,

yeah. Witch City? It's essentially the Wham Witch Project. Yeah, Wham Witch. Would you like a Wham Witch? I thought you were trying

to get a slogan together or something. Witch City? Witch City? Witch City. We built this city. Yeah, so. We built Wham City web city but of course so like with unended footage of a bear um we really got mike with that this is the most mike has ever snorted references to rock and roll songs from the 70s you know how you're when you're like fucking miserable and

stressed out you have like half an hour a day where everything's just funny? All of a sudden, you just get euphoric for a little while. Yeah. This is your mind right now. Because it's the sunny side of fuck it. Yes. True. When you have that release and you're like, yeah, whatever.

I smell episode title. The sunny side of fuck it. I like that. I'm down. I'll work on that. No, I feel like that's the spot i would like to be at most of my life where you just don't care because i mean it's kind of like with stand-up i've realized that like i was i did uh you did hell yes fest right yeah how what was your experience

like that down there uh to me it was like uh like the hogwarts of comedy Okay. It was like every comic came down to just perform for all the comics. And everyone was just like talking about comedy and it was just a big comedy. Yeah. Did you have fun? I did. I had a great time.

That was one of my favorite like little comedy trips ever because it was just Stav and I and Stavs. Oh, yeah. So, so fun. And we did a few shows on the way down and back. Oh, that's cool. And then, yeah, I mean, the shows actually didn't go well.

Right. Because. I didn't mean to say right, like, of course. But I mean. Our show, we had. That's implied. We, both Stav and I kind of went back to back at this one show. And it was just a long show.

And people really weren't, like, paying attention. The crowd was good. Yeah, audience fatigue. And it turned it turned in that way where it's like it's not that we couldn't have gotten something out of them but it was just more like that feeling where everyone who's there's like two people sitting near to the stage that you can hear you know what i mean and then anyone everyone else is in the back talking and so it kind of it kind of just switched in that way.

And so we were disappointed in our show itself. But we also met a ton of awesome people and had a really great time. Yeah, that's cool. So it was cool. And the shows are, like I said, they're in front of other comedians. That's a different vibe. It's a little bit more nerve-wracking in certain ways. Yeah,'s that's a different vibe like it's a little bit more nerve-wracking in certain ways yeah and it's it's a different metric too because if you get like a

ha out of a comedian you're like oh that would have been great with a real audience that would have been like an actual laugh absolutely everyone's looking you and analyzing and thinking about themselves and like you know i mean and also certain things like there's certain certain jokes where you're like you're in your mind you're kind of like i know what i'm doing here but but an audience doesn't won't really like get like won't really see this as like yeah it's like 97 of my jokes exactly but yeah it's like you do in front of comedians they know what you're doing it's like magicians watching other magicians exactly yeah bro yeah we know i know you're oh yeah you're breathing through his mouth you're right off

the cuff aren't you yeah oh i bet you just came up with that line. You know what I mean? That kind of thing. You're right. So contrived. Right, right. With the taglines that you do where you're like, oh, and this thing that I just thought of. They're like, no, you didn't, bro.

No, you didn't. Exactly. Yeah, I had fun. Yeah, it was a lot of other comedians. And then one show that I did, I got something that normally gets a reaction. I'd say, it's not the punchline, but it like leads up to part of the story. I say black don't crack in it as just like facetiously and like, but in front of the audience got zero.

In fact, it was like uncomfortable because it was just mostly white people in the, in fact, it was all white people. And normally like in Baltimore and DC and Virginia, you usually the audiences are pretty mixed, which is like a fun element of performing and uh when i said that it almost got like like it was like a too cool for school kind

of thing like yeah really and i just wanted to be like all right you guys are so progressive and liberal and whatever how come there's only white people here like where are your black friends like you know like you're the tip of the spear of progressivism in new orleans yeah what are we doing what are we doing but of course i didn't say that i was just like uh-huh okay moving on like you can't again you can't do you can't really do anything with that yeah yeah so i just kind of moved on but i think but the the whole point of what i was getting to initially is that that fuck it kind of vibe really works for stand-up where you have to kind of walk the line of uh caring but not caring too much you know what i mean and if and like i feel like in new orleans i just had too much of a vibe of like yeah you like me right because it's

other comedians i had the same kind of issue where like yeah i was just self-conscious about yes the jokes that I like. Like I was saying, where it's like I'm supposed to be off the cuff. Yeah. Yeah, the whole thing just feels so stupid. Or anything. It just feels so contrived. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and so, yeah, I kind of had a bit of that, too.

I had fun, too, but it was my first time doing a festival, too, so I think I put a pressure on myself, too. I don't think it's like any other festival. Yeah, really? I mean, when I was there. Yeah, because I basically. Your year is different. There was, like, other festival. Yeah, really? I mean, when I was there. Your year is different. There was, like, bigger names. Yeah, but I...

My year was mostly, like, people that were called kind of the same level with a few people who were... Yeah, mostly it was, like, people that, like... I think there was some... I mean, like, New York, a lot of people from Austin and stuff like that, like, did some shows with this guy, Jake Head, who was really funny. I know Jake. Yeah, and he's... I met him in Atlanta. Yeah, and he's going to be in D.C. tonight.

So it seems to be, like, everybody's kind of about at the same level of, like, the shows. I know Jake. Yeah, and he's going to be in DC tonight. So it seems to be like everybody's kind of about at the same level. Yeah, yeah. It's all those people who are kind of like, it's like the pot's just starting to boil with them, but not quite ready to cook anything. You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh.

I get you. I get you. Not quite ready to throw the spaghetti in. Oh, I know what you mean. Yeah, I know what you mean. Leave that garlic bread. Wait, you rolling out, Mike? Yeah, I got to go meet my family to eat. Oh, okay time okay but uh feel free to keep going okay well mike okay anything to plug

uh i don't know that show on the 7th at the mercury theater oh yeah and the 6th too and the 6th and the mashup show which ben will be a part of on. Will you be there for the mashup show? I might. Okay. I may be there. And let's see. What else do we get here? I'll be hosting at Cellar Door tomorrow, but I'm sure this won't be out by then. No, this is going to be out on Monday, November 2nd. I got a few things, but they're kind of far away. So just read my latest article in Brightest Young Things, D.C.

I wrote about D.C. and Baltimore's most mysterious individuals for Halloween. Also, I'm in the latest issue of The Skeptical Inquirer. Oh, nice. In which both Dig Sesh and Thunder Grunt get a plug. Oh, that's very cool. And Wham City. No, not really. Mike Moran is associated with those people in Wham City.

All right. Well, have a good dinner, Mike. Thanks, guys. Good to see you. See you, dude. Bye-bye. Well, I guess we can just wrap up. Mike's gone.

Mike doesn't listen to these, right? No. So we can talk about Mike. It's wide open these last 10 minutes all right good good oh okay i don't think he's fucking right about it i don't think he actually heard this yeah he's a fucking idiot anyway who cares who gives a shit i don't care man so uh ben o'brien uh we will wrap up soon but uh i wanted to know um so you're doing yeah so the wham city stuff i want to get back to that because we got we got a lot of irons in the fire yeah we got to wrap this up we got to tie up all these loose ends but uh so what do you want to do with stand-up is that

is that your focus um that's like another kind of hard question because thank you it's it performing and especially as our group performing is like what we kind of like, not necessarily enjoy more, but it's something that we just also love to do. And it's kind of, but the video stuff is like, we have some sort of, you know, foothold into something there more than we do with the performing. So the performing has been hard where i our tours it's like hard for me to i want to book a tour where we're at a like it'll slightly just higher level so we're not just so scraping it together and coming back and feeling like um you know like oh that like wasn't it was just barely worth it you know so far the tours have basically just been worth it for the just getting ourselves our chops up and and getting new ideas and getting

us performing together which is hugely valuable especially to our video stuff because a lot of our video stuff um is derivative of our of our performances right um and so it's immensely valuable but just in terms of being an older person and wanting a lifestyle that's a little bit more sustainable. So we're trying to look into certain people to tour with. And we have a manager now, which has been really helpful. Oh, that has to be huge, especially as far as booking and stuff goes, too. Well, she more helps us with video stuff. Oh, okay.

She's in LA. She has a lot of contacts with TV and she has a lot of contacts uh with like tv and video gotchas that's me being completely outside of that realm no because there's different managers for sure there's like a tour manager or whatever there are managers and agents that would help you book things and help you or managers that would help you get agents to book things like that right um so that's been good and then and and super invaluable but again it's like it's it's the all the there's so many perks to being in baltimore and there's so many um things that make it harder and we're just at it we're at a certain crossroad we're always at a crossroads but we're at a certain

crossroads now that's like uh do we just kind of double down on the video and and how do we want to like going into the next few years like how do we want to kind of prepare like plan our tours and what are you going to direct your energy at basically exactly like what and it's part of me thinks like oh we should just stick with the video stuff and perform like as much as we can on the side but but mostly stick with video but then but then the part of me that like i i enjoy the performing is enjoyable like in the moment you know like film and and stuff is like a lot of just work like today i was just i spent four hours just transcribing our video what does that mean like it just means so so there's a script for the

shooting script and then once you've edited it all together and put it all together you have to create a transcript which is which is essentially just actually what you did so it represents what the actual video is gotcha and it's not that easy with this one because almost all of the lines and all of the cuts are were improvised so the shooting script is is so much different than the right it's not just going in and like tweaking the shooting script so anyway it's not super exciting but that's my point is that i spent you know hours and hours just transcribing. But that's the thing too. And then editing too is just a nightmare too, I'm sure. That shit just takes forever.

Editing takes a long time. It's not my favorite part of the process, but luckily Alan and Robbie are way more into editing than me. Oh, that's good. And better at it. But so I do a lot of the production, like the emails and spreadsheets and that kind of stuff. You love spreadsheets. I do love spreadsheets. I know a lot about spreadsheet formulas if you ever need to, if you have any questions.

You like to round stuff? That's right. Yeah. I love rounding them up and down. That's cool, man. That's fucking cool. Why not? Direct your energy there.

Sounds like you're really into spreadsheets. Could use a little energy. Ben quits Wham City to do spreadsheets. I'm just going to start my own spreadsheet group. I like that. Where we go and just show off our spreadsheets using a projector. So yeah, so I constantly think about myself. Like stand-up, I love because I love.

I'm so inspired by just performance. The immediacy of it I love it for that and just like the artistic process of comedy is is is awesome and that that like attempt to capture that energy on stage inspires me like the just all the kinds of contradictions in stand-up you know where if you, you have to, you have to kind of develop these impossible mindsets where it's like you, you want,

you want to want to be there, but you also don't care if they laugh, but you want to, you have to want them to laugh, but you also have to not care. That's what I'm talking about. That line of like giving a shit, not giving a shit.

And that, and, and when someone does that right, when someone, and also gets that energy of that off-the-cuff kind of vulnerable, pure energy that you can come at a crowd with, that's when your comedy and your jokes

really turn the corner and become like, oh, wow, okay, now you're starting to transcend what a written joke can do on a page. Yes. And you're really starting to just embody this persona, this character that's funny and gives your jokes a certain kind of life

that no one could plan for. You just have to kind of create it in the moment. Yeah. That kind of stuff is what, I love that concept and it inspires me. But it's like I'm not going to go into doing stand-up really thinking like, oh, I'm going to make it doing stand-up in Baltimore.

Yeah. I'm doing it, I do it more because in the tour like really brought me to another level as a performer just from having being able to do 20 minutes every night and that character being all energy yeah and being able to try i you know being able to try stuff with him that i wouldn't try i'll be kind of afraid to just try with stand-up or not even know to try. But yeah, that whole character too is all ego too for the most part. He's all id. Yeah.

Yeah, you're just, yeah, or id, whatever. Whatever it is. Either way, he was very confident. Both ego and id. He was very confident. So you can probably take some of it. You're still using those muscles, you know what I mean? Totally.

You had that stuff going, so it's something that can maybe seep into. What I wanted to do with him was be able, with that character, was be able to just be 100% comfortable. Right. And just find those funny things that you do when you're comfortable in front of someone. Like there's something that's inherently funny about being comfortable. Yeah. Being super comfortable.

Yeah. And so like I would try to like lean on stuff a lot while I was talking to people and that would get a laugh you know and it's just like just like look really comfortable in my my your body energy the way you speak that all changes and shifts so that's the kind of stuff i love i think i'll always do it do stand up but i also don't know like what to do with jokes anymore these days like really i don't know you never get that where sometimes you write like 10 minutes in a day or 20 minutes in a day and then like that becomes a good maybe five minutes down the road oh yeah yeah yeah and then for a while you're just like wait how the fuck do i write jokes yeah i think it's because you get used to like your good jokes

and then you're like these all suck but you're like oh wait they all my jokes used to suck well the thing well the thing that i get in is if you're not writing and then you try to do old jokes that work that you liked at one point and then you're like all right well let me i'm just gonna do it like it's a showcase show or something like that and you're like all right well i'm just gonna do i'm gonna do three new and then like seven old and then the the old seven don't do as well and you're like did those jokes suck and i don't think they suck as much as that your energy that you put into them back in the day was so much more pure versus now

the audience can see that you don't fucking care about that oh yeah you have to want and then you're like so wait do those jokes suck do i suck what was that it's like no you have to like work on new shit and most of the stuff that i've been doing like i'll try to write some stuff but it's like i feel like i'm kind of working towards more like stories kind of so trying to work those out as opposed to like i don't know maybe it is i need to work on it more just like one topic like okay what bothers me what do i really like or something like that and just write a bunch of stuff but then you have to go up and then try to figure out the funny parts and then it's like okay like five minutes of this is gonna suck

and in a four minute set you know what i mean and then try to pare that down to like a minute and a half maybe yeah so that's that's kind of what i'm working on now more is like writing just trying to be like okay even if it sucks or just go up and this sucks maybe there's like a kernel of something in there that I can turn into something. Stories are crucial. It's like a good way to get a few minutes out of one thing. Yeah, but then it's also tough too

because if they don't like your story and you're like a minute in, you're like, guys, there's like two more minutes to the story. Yeah, yeah. You're like, well, you can't just bail. And then we all had shoes. You got to backload it.

Yeah. No, the idea is to have jokes within it and stuff. Totally. But that's, you know, and then like getting into like hosting and stuff too. And those are like a whole different set of muscles as a stand-up too. Because you have to be like, hey, what's up, guys? Yeah, yeah. You have to – you have another job besides making people laugh.

You have to like bring – you have to keep the energy somewhere energy somewhere yeah somebody told me it's like hosting a party so what you do is you're not like you're you're not like the coolest person there it's just like hey how's everybody doing how you guys doing and then like comparing like the acts to like people it's like do you guys know ben you're gonna love ben ben say hi to everybody yeah and then you like come up and crush with anecdotes and i'm like okay i'm gonna go get the uh pizza yeah yeah so uh yeah so hosting is uh it's fun because it's also you can do well but for the most part it's just kind of like thankless because there's so many times people have thought that i'm like an employee of the club like if you're hosting like yeah yeah where's the bathroom where's this or this isn't at my table

and i'm like i don't work you're not respect you you're you can be very well liked by the audience but not really respected yeah you have kind of like well why aren't you the headline yeah exactly exactly like why the headliner doesn't tell me about comment cards those who can do those who can't host i think that's what they say that is yeah that's what they say so um no that's what they say. I'm sure that's what they say. Yeah, that's what they say. So, no, that's exciting, man. It's cool. Like, it sounds like it's a good problem to have because all the stuff that you have is all good stuff. Yeah. But it's just a pressure, too, of, like, where.

We're also in a place where we, for the past few years, we don't know what the next, like, six months of our life is going to look like. So, I think part of my issue is I'm just grasping for some sort of like normalcy like some sort of routine stability yeah yeah like knowing but then also knowing is terrifying so it's just it's this constant tension yeah so you're just like this is what i do now we have to make a decision we've got to do this you know what i mean or we've got to just do this and it's like well let's just keep all the balls in the air still you know yeah why not i mean i mean like i don't think performing is gonna ever stop because it's it's not you know and that's why i know that it's a good thing because it's not something that like i think if if someone was like you'll never get anywhere with it it'll never do anything i think i'd still do it yeah of course you know because it's just it's

like enjoyable and yeah and there's so many opportunities around here like it's not like you have to choose like like you're saying like editing all day and then be like well that's the end of my day i can't go to an open mic or do whatever and that's the thing is that there's a grind to it that when you really like want to develop this stuff you've got to commit to those five minutes working for those five minutes that hour long you sit in a you know drive to dc sit for a while oh yeah, suck, drive back feeling bad about yourself. Think about how much you suck for an hour. And then be like, oh, I'll just do this tomorrow. I'm going to go to work and then I'll just do that tomorrow.

And I respect that, but I wish it was a little bit easier to incorporate into your life. What, stand up? Like that grind? That grind, yeah. Oh, it's fucking hard because you don't make any money either. I don't know how people without day jobs, I guess you have to just accept that you're going to scrape by maybe. I mean at our level or above, you know what I mean,

where it's like they're out there doing their thing, but they're not exactly pulling in a lot of dough. There's also been this thing where that kind of freaks me out or almost makes me mad about it. I feel bad for everybody or the people doing it like because there's no matter how good you are to a degree there's still an aspect of like lottery that goes along yeah yeah yeah like and it's so often that the best comedians that i'll see someone i'll be like this is like one of the best things i've ever seen that they're like not really that well known no or they've been doing it for years and years and no they're kind of like people you know people

respect them and so this but they're still not really making it yeah and there is and then it's like you know and no nothing against any of these people for for real like but like you know amy schumer or some other people that kind of like aziz ansari who like shoot up to the top like and it's usually because they got some great opportunity and not like Bill Burr for example who who or Brian Regan who actually got there because they are just good at comedy yeah so that that lottery aspect of it is fine but it makes me feel like like sad for all I just imagine the sea of people with these dreams yeah and just realizing that like no matter what like it's just it comes down to so much luck yeah you know and then you see yourself staring back at you in that sea and you're like oh no and it makes me i guess it's

like also goes back to when i was a kid and like i'd see adults playing the lottery like really thinking like this is my week and it's like oh no i hate that it's that feeling of like but it's also even worse because it's almost like some people don't realize they're playing like a rigged lottery oh yeah yeah somebody has a joke i don't know who said it but uh the joke is uh what has eight balls and rapes poor people the lottery and i like that but yeah it's such a waste but i mean with stand-up the thing is what's different than like the lottery is you're not just like well well, I'm going to go buy a ticket. It's like you invest hours and hours in your whole life. And then there's a chance you could be the funniest dude.

And then nothing happens. I think that's why, for me, it's really important that I know that I'm doing it for other reasons. So when I get to that point where I am a failure yeah um i the inevitable yeah i'm at least yeah i i won't feel that way because i'm like oh no i got all of this other stuff out of it it was never like yeah it was never like make it or break it it was always yeah just and that'll probably make you a better stand-up too that i hope so desperation i hope so i think it's all i do think it's all about energy man yeah that's my new age belief hey earth universe i'm with you i i do kind of feel that

there is something to say okay like what you were saying about um kind of breaking your routine or whatever goes on in your brain it really is so much as like to say like okay this sucks but i'm not gonna let it continue you know what i mean it's new agey and as weird as that sounds you really do have to do that so it's like okay i'm gonna i'm gonna get up i'm gonna exercise and then i'm gonna try to at least move this in a positive direction versus let it just kind of ruin my fucking day totally and you know so yeah that's uh well i'm glad for you man seems like things are things are going well yeah i mean yeah things are things are cool things are cool yeah got a good energy things are great um yeah it's just things are great okay all right all right we'll just stop it there yeah i think that's a good note to go out on

cool um what do you want what do you want to promote um november 3rd at the metro gallery um at i think 7 p.m is doors is everything is terrible okay um they're a in william city comedy are performing together um being opened by brett davis from new york city who does the macaulay culkin show which is a great show you host that show and then this guy micah bruski from also from new york city nice are also on the show um it's gonna be an amazing night everything is terrible is this like really amazing found footage group from um la and chicago and they basically take like old vhs tapes and re-edit them and make them into these really exciting weird kind of long montages and they also uh are the i don't know if you've heard about this because it got around a little

bit not just recently but they collected like over 10 000 jerry mcguire's what from like fans and other things like it became this hs copies or yeah vhs copies it became this like um it was one i think i don't know if this was a part of it but this is an aspect of it which is that jerry mcguire was one of the last uh movies released on vhs okay and anyway so but if you go to like any thrift store you can generally find jerry mcguire vhs's right but so they started and that was a part of it and so they started having people like bring them and it just became this big funny joke to always have these jerrys and so what they're going to do with them is um build a pyramid in the desert

what for them to always be okay and so they're they're just such a fun kind of interesting group of people and i really respect their like career trajectory because they really just built an entirely new like yeah thing and they tour all the time and they just really push it and they and they're really successful so that's great um come out and see them and they're super uh super fun it'll be a great show good okay so november 3rd metro gallery here in baltimore on charles street um yeah and then all the wham city stuff when's the next video gonna premiere november 30th oh november is a busy month at 4 a.m for that whole week oh you're gonna get the new our new our new joint wham city joint and uh yeah okay thank you to everybody

for listening sorry we took a couple weeks off you get busy with things that's how things go you understand Ben and but yeah hopefully we'll be a little more regular and yeah we're going to try to keep it every Monday I have shows coming up I think I promoted those in the

beginning on the 5th I will be at the 4. On the 5th, I will be at Ragtime in Arlington hosting a comedy show there. And then on the 7th, I will be at a theater in Leesburg that I'm blanking on. Hopefully, I will fix this in the beginning, in the intro, and I'll say what theater that is. But all of our live dates are at digressionsessions.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at what theater that is. But all of our live dates are at digressionsessions.com slash calendar. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Josh Koderna.

The podcast is at dig slash pod. And Mike is at Mike Moran Wood. And I think that's it. All right, Ben. Thanks for coming by, man. Thank you for having me. David Koechner, take us out. Digressions Sessions coming to an end. Thank you. you