The Digression Sessions - Ep. 187 - Mike Finazzo (@TheeMikeFinazzo)

Episode Date: May 23, 2016

Sorry for the hiatus! But, the Dig Sesh is back! Josh sits down w/ his old buddy, Mike Finazzo! Finazzo is a comedian and filmmaker. His latest film, Wits End, will be appearing in the first annual BUMP Festival this week at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore! Check it out here - http://thesenatortheatre.com/movies/events/ Follow your boys, Mike Moran & Josh Kuderna, on Facebook, 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 Thanks for listening, all! Do us a favor and rate and review us on iTunes & Stitcher plz!

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 hey everybody mike finazzo's the guest this week right mike i i is wait is this before or after this is before this is before yeah yes i am the guest this week now i'm looking forward to this conversation that we have not already had yes yes now let's transition seamlessly into our conversation that we have not had it will be deep yes i i got nothing just end on yes

entourage sucks okay all right guys let's cut to a conversation already in progress of me and mike Panazzo. The same people that are currently talking. Yeah, I think so. Holy shit. All right. Transition time. Just opened in Harbor. Of course, there's a Warby Parker in Harbor East.

It makes sense. Yeah. It was funny to basically... Of course there's a Warby Parker in Harbor East. Like, it makes sense. Yeah. It was funny to basically do stand-up there. Yeah, yeah. So, like, catch me at the South Moon Under next Friday. I'll be in the Whole Foods Express Lane doing a Type 5. Yeah, I just did a set at REI, so... Oh, yeah?

That was... Get some good gear? Yeah, crunch some granola i uh did a type 20 one extra letter yeah that's how white i am yeah and busy i totate granola so the mike finazzo story yeah illness is not holding either one of us back right i don't think so we're on fire we are just uh we're coming out hot and i think we're gonna be able to maintain this speed uh you know what but you're so handsome i think this is the worst both of us have looked at a really long time i feel terrible

i'm really glad this is an audio podcast because you look how i feel and i think vice versa yeah big time um big time oh yeah i haven't showered i haven't eaten i woke up just feeling like shit like shit i was gonna try to do those dishes before he came over it didn't happen i my goal was to get up at like 10 and go to the gym and come over and i woke up at 11 40 and came straight here this water that you gave me is my first bit of sustenance today jesus so this is prime time yeah podcast time for both of us this is how you pot it up i think this is yeah this is the stars have aligned for this absolutely um mike finazzo my good buddy my good friend comedian filmmaker sick person nirvana shirt wearing in 2016 mike finazzo how are you buddy i'm good man yeah besides being ill yeah besides being a little sick i wore this shirt

last night at the improv and someone pointed out that craig robinson wore the same shirt like two weeks ago oh really and they're like so you and craig roberts are big nirvana fans and i'm just like where we shop at target yeah yeah they do have like all the band t-shirts and stuff like that too they're relatively cheap and it's a good fit too yeah i like their shirts target they make a good product which brings me to this week's sponsor walmart way better than target oh my gosh roll back in there everybody uh no so yeah you got a lot of stuff going on fella and uh we we talk here and there but we haven't hung out in a while yeah so we needed to make a podcast yeah it's like why not record the conversation for others we couldn't just pick up the phone nope no way no way what's the point if others aren't gonna hear it that's true you know it's like that

movie into the wild happiness is only meaningful when recorded on a podcast yeah i remember that line wow but i remember when he was in the magic bus by himself just podcast recording a bill burr-esque podcast just like about how hungry he was yeah with these fucking deer they just won't come through where are these fucking deer fucking fucking the river's flooding again ah mother of course if it was bill burr he'd be like i should have brought a map why don't i have a map i'm a fucking idiot i re-watched his uh philadelphia like quote-unquote meltdown yeah the other day so good that's one of those ones i watch like once a year yeah what i think of it and yeah it's the rocky line always kills me yeah um which i've seen like recycled so many times

yeah yeah that philadelphia they have a monument to a fictional character right right yeah um and the line about hitting the the baby in the audience oh yeah like throw the mics there like a spear yeah it's beautiful man it's some stupid baby which is so weird because i wonder how because i haven't like heard him talk about it in a while i wonder how he feels about that now uh i heard him on uh actually burt kreischer's podcast a while ago uh yeah he talked about a while ago and then burt did sort of like a best of and he put that in there and uh i think he the only thing he regrets is he didn't mention the 76ers and he like would have brought them up he's like he i think the line he would have said uh um all you have is alan iverson and the team i don't know who the fuck they're they're a bunch of nobodies like everybody here or something like that is what he

wanted to say yeah because i um because like that show was an ona show yeah yeah and um i taught was talking to bonnie mcfarland once about that and she was the first person he saw when he got off stage oh wow and she was like that was amazing like it was great and he was the first person he saw when he got off stage oh wow and she was like that was amazing like it was great and he was like pissed no he hated it yeah yeah for those that don't know yeah bill burr was doing an outdoor show at like a amphitheater uh pavilion style venue and uh people were like tailgating at this show for like a comedy show like bill was saying him and robert kelly drove it was somewhere in new jersey so they drove down from new york and they knew they were in trouble when

they saw guys in like jets jerseys like throwing a football there's a barbecue that's like they're fucking tailgating for a comedy show and so they're getting wasted at like 11 in the morning so by the time bill went up i don't know it's like almost dark so everybody's just been drunk as shit not paying attention and booing people and he just fucking let him have it i think he told like one joke it was like you know what fuck it fuck you people yeah uh yeah because he was pissed they booed dom irera right yeah and one person actually got booed like off stage and like didn't he didn't say who it was but they're from philadelphia apparently uh because i heard the one of the another on a show is burbiglia got booed off the stage and that was like a big thing

which i think this is how good mike burbiglia's publicity department is because like every evidence of this has been removed from the interesting yeah yeah because bill says that uh so uh who was hosting bonnie McFarlane's husband. Rich. Rich Voss. Yeah, Rich Voss is hosting. And he was doing okay. And then he brings up somebody, and apparently they were from Philadelphia, too, or something like that.

Oh, yeah, yeah, the show was in Philly, that's right. Right, right. And then, like. I'm glad it was in Philly, because he was just, like, ranting about Philly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in New Jersey. Yeah, I think it was in New Jersey, but no, they drove. Yeah,illy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In New Jersey. Yeah, I think it was in New Jersey. But no, they drove. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, but that became his thing when he went town to town. He's like, what are you, from Philly? And then he just goes on the same rant. All of America hates Philadelphia. Let them have it, Bill. Yeah. Yeah, so the first person got booed off stage and then uh they didn't really say anything about

it they're just like okay thanks good night and like went off stage and then um bill was saying that rich basically gave the power to the crowd because rich went back out and he was trying to do a couple bits and then uh trying to get the crowd back and they started to boo a little bit or just be like and he goes he goes don't boo me i'll bring back the other guy which makes it gives them the power of like we determine who's good and who's going to be up here and so bill so by the time bill went up like that stuff had been going on dime a rare got booed but dom said uh i think he said uh why would you think i'm gonna leave i'm not gonna leave yeah and they're like oh okay

he just kept doing his act and so when bill went up he did a bit that he didn't know they were playing on the radio as a promo oh so they already heard they already heard it they're like boo and he's like we don't fuck you all right but he didn't know like right right yeah so and just fucking went in on him but he said he was terrified afterwards that that was going to be his career right every gig that he would go to they'd be like have a meltdown it's the meltdown guy well i think he overcame it he's done fine yeah what's he been up to i haven't seen him do much well that's like the berbiglia thing with so which i think is like shitty of owen a because i feel like they set him up for that like he's the wrong comedian and i love him yeah i think he's great yeah but that's not conducive to his style especially what

like a decade ago or i think it was this is like right as sleepwalk with me like the one man show came out yeah so it's like one man show guy should not be on the fucking o and a it's called like the virus tour right and it's like they there were like big name comics because they talked about this on the show like they're big name comics that like they wanted that like we're just like i'm not doing that show like yeah just because of like the reputation it had well bill even said tracy morgan like cut his set short by like 10 minutes because he could kind of feel that it was weird and was like okay thank you god bless good night but with the verbiglia thing he was like getting booed uh-huh and it ended up becoming this big thing on the show because he ended up going on with vos and they ended up getting into

like a fight oh i heard that but i didn't know that was related to all that too yeah so i think like it was one of those things like verbiglia said something about vos and then vos made fun of him for getting booed. And it turned into this huge thing. Wow. And so when I ended up opening for Rich years later, he tells me about this whole thing. Because I guess I was either too young

or just not in the stand-up to really know about. Right, right. I didn't even know. And it was sort of like MySpace era time. Exactly, yeah. It wasn't as prevalent. We're not in the YouTube era where anybody can look up an

o and a clip yeah yeah so like vos like i'm opening for him in baltimore at bagoobies and he tells me about this whole thing he's like listen to the fight between me and mike for biglia on youtube okay and i i did and it was fast like it's it's two different shows it's just hours and i'm just being vicious well burr has one with berbiglia too he does yeah from a different show but yeah yeah so i listened to it and then like months later i work with rich again and one of the first things he says to me he goes did you listen to the clip of me and berbiglia and he's like who won the fight so he's like pretty proud of that yes and he goes who won and i was just like well you but like if i was opening for berbiglia right now i'd tell him that he

yeah but he would he would be less aggressive more passive aggressive i also don't think he would bring up a fight he had i don't i don't think so yeah did you think i won or yeah i mean it's okay if you didn't but yeah like you're talking about you're working with berbiglia like so what was it like to have your new movie at south by southwest yeah yeah yeah did you hear the youtube fight between me and Rich Voss? No, go on. Tell me about it. Tell me about it.

I was just like, what I should have said was nothing. Nothing. All right. That's a lot of hot inside baseball talk to start off the pod. Your show, it's comedy fans. People get it. Yeah, look up those clips. Definitely just Google or go to YouTube and look up Bill Burr, Philadelphia Meltdown.

Worth it. Another thing to look up, Bump Fest. Bump Fest. Huh? Baltimore Underground Motion Picture Festival. Whoa! Tell me all about it. Well, hold on to your dicks, listeners.

Okay. You are putting this up like today right yeah yeah tomorrow yeah yeah um so yeah bump fest otherwise would you tell them not to hold on to their dicks well it's more of just like i don't know if i it's happening tomorrow so i'm like are we talking about this in the past hold on to your dicks and get a time machine because i'm like am i promoting or am i acting like this thing was amazing that I don't know? Let's do both. Yeah.

Okay. We'll do two different versions. No, it should be up on Monday, what, the 23rd? Yeah, it's March the 23rd. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, pretty cool.

So, a few local filmmakers and I got together and we put together this three-day movie festival with the Senator theater that's just going to showcase uh the world famous it's amazing it really and like i feel like when we talk about like local stuff and say like historic or like world famous like yeah it sounds so like trite but it's like the senator really is like it's a landmark no yeah i mean maybe not like world famous but as far as like a baltimore landmark, it's pretty big. I mean, there's been premieres there and stuff, and there's, like, really cool, like, outside on, like, the sidewalk, there's the impressions of, like, movies that have premiered there, and, like, people have, like, signed in the concrete and shit. There was a list of, it was, like, the 20, the top 20, like, movie landmarks to visit in the world, and the Senator's one of them. Oh, I'll be damned.

Okay. So, it really is, like, when they say world famous, say world famous like yeah it's a lot of cool stuff like interesting and john waters is premiered every movie's made there barry levinson has like whenever they do like reunions for like diner or whatever and it's awesome yeah it's a really cool theater they do like really good revival series that's actually the first theater i saw jaws oh really i'd never seen it before until uh the big screen yeah they run that all the time i think they do like wizard of oz like every sunday yeah they'll do like a bunch of classics and stuff but it's really cool it's just like this beautiful old school theater

like the main theater and then i love when uh the curtain opens at the beginning of the movie it's like this whole like ornate kind of thing going on it's awesome yeah so i was telling you via text so yesterday we tested the movie just to make sure like the file and your wits and uh-huh storing josh boom boom kaderna thank you i love that nickname yeah uh it's gonna stick oh it should i got it tattooed on my knuckles for a reason um yeah it's this movie we made that you're in uh jason weems he's been on the show right yeah a bunch of times yeah he's the best and he was even a guest on this podcast this this faux podcast in the movie oh yeah so that's like another bet we're recording a podcast where we filmed the

movie yeah pretty much nothing has changed where we filmed two bump fest movies yeah well we i didn't work on the other one i played a asshole unaware podcaster in two movies in this festival it was a real stretch for me a real stretch you do you definitely play a type yeah and i can't wait till you get famous enough where they get people to play the josh kadurna type and you're getting beaten out by like andy samberg for the josh gadurna role andy samberg gets braces samberg but uh which i was so worried about the like filming the podcast scene because i think we actually filmed hours before driven did uh i don't remember it was it was during the summer it was pretty close yeah but it was and neither one of us knew the other one and i didn't think

it would be a big deal. And then I watched it, watched both movies. It's like they really could. You're playing yourself podcasting, and it couldn't be more different. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even we shot it in the same exact place. It couldn't look different. Yeah, yeah.

And you actually, we joke around about you playing yourself, but you're playing such a weird character. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It really is like Bizarro Josh Kudernick. joke around about you playing yourself but you're playing such a weird character yeah yeah yeah it really is like bizarro josh yeah just asking the worst podcast questions which the bad podcast in the movie is still better than most local comedy podcasts i had a lot of fun um it was great and uh yeah we actually used because you you recorded the scene like we're recording this. Yeah. And we used the audio from your recording in the movie.

Nice. So, like, it really does feel like it's just you're listening to just, like, a podcast. Yeah. No, it's all the same shit. So, there wasn't much of a setup as far as real life versus the film. Right. It's not like, bring in the set of the podcast. Right.

Yeah, we took 12 hours to make over yeah we had to break it down it's such a waste sometimes well that's like so marin they do his show yeah and they filmed the garage but they built a set for his garage because they couldn't fit the cameras in his actual garage weird so yeah like that must be weird to like rebuild it to look exactly the same yeah but yeah and yeah. And then it's like, no, let's make it shittier. Right. You have to build something from nothing and make it shitty. Right.

Yeah. Are we sure his show is good, by the way? Considering I dropped off two seasons ago. Same. No, I'm not sure. Same. Same, yeah. Okay.

Okay. All right. Yeah, and I love him. Me too. I think he's brilliant. Me too. And I think actually like the first season, I don't want this to turn a review into a review shitting on Marin.

I was just curious what you thought. I just like that you phrased it like a Bill Simmons question. Are we sure? Are we sure? Are we sure that he's good? Yeah, I'm adopting his sports lingo for nerd shit. Are we sure that Marc Marin's IFC show is good? Similarly, I just texted somebody the other day and just said cameron crowe are we sure that he's good are we sure um which is such a dick

thing to say too are we sure yeah we because it's giving credit that someone thought he was good in the first place and then just completely doubting and shitting on that exactly um but uh yeah i think like the first season's actually pretty good because he's just doing stories like from his book in his life and then when they made it into like a fictionalized show i think it just became a different show and yeah like now he's he's fallen off the wagon as yeah pills and shit like that but yeah let's get back speaking of addiction people are gonna be addicted to this bump fest whoa three days of solid films yes three days of uh local films and i think like the one thing that we tried to do with like this movie festival that i really like

is uh it's a lot of different kinds of movies so like i think like at least like first like some people i know that like don't make movies like my family and stuff like they hear film festival and they think of like like this pretentious air about it right like i think like there's a really specific kind of movie that people think play they think it's all black and white in french artsy fartsy everybody has a beret exactly um so it's like i really like the idea of like this festival that we put together it's not only local movies but it's like a ton of different genres that i don't think would typically play at film festivals yeah exactly well that was kind of the impetus too of like bump exactly so like kind of

not getting into other festivals and saying like fuck it we'll just do it our own exactly yeah it's kind of like uh like the comedians of comedy approach to making a film festival so like night one we have driven to succeed which you're in um which is people in that yeah a ton of people and it's also like this is a thunder grunt podcast right yeah yeah it's uh all those guys involved with it and yeah i actually like like rex anderson who's like a big part of thunder grunt and our friend like worked on every movie in the festival yeah i mean such a amazing audio engineer and just super talented musicians yeah he did the sound on wits end and uh did a great

job he did the sound on i think all but one like every movie but one short in the festival he's a good guy he's great talented young man so yeah so first night it's uh driven to succeed with a ton of thunder grunt people which is kind of like a broad throwback comedy. Yeah, it's almost sort of like 80s kind of. Is farce correct? I don't know. Yeah, I think that's. It's like a throwback to those John Landis movies from the 80s. Yeah, yeah.

So there's that. There's My Boring Zombie Apocalypse by Kevin Perkins, which is kind of like a horror comedy, I guess, or like sci-fi comedy. And that has comedians. I know Mike Stork does a set yeah he's shirtless if you ever want to see mike stork in a mask doing stand-up shirtless yes um that's the film yeah so i haven't seen the movie yet but i hear it's great um it has that's like played one or two times publicly and right kevin's a really talented guy so i've heard great things um and then night two um wits end is kind of you know the feature of the night hell yeah um

our movie's like a little dramedy if you like movies like uh away we go inside lewin davis that's for you uh-huh um real summer blockbuster type yes i really i need to broaden i don't think so i don't know i have a very specific thing i'm doing you know that heartwarming tale inside lewin davis yes yeah well that's like the thing it's like if you thought inside lewin davis was too dark for your taste buds let's do the lo-fi version yeah yes um but uh no i love our movie and so far we've been really lucky like all the reviews and just feedback has been like so fucking positive like um you've seen the movie a few times and um yeah people seem to really respond to it and yeah i had a blast when it was at uh the creative alliance yeah we did a little friends and family it was cool to watch

yeah with uh with a real audience like it was like friends and family but there were definitely some people that like had never yeah there were some people just from creative alliance who just came and yeah like that was what was cool about that is like we had like so many different kinds of people there like there are people that just like subscribe to creative alliance stuff yeah they're just members of right art gallery so they get to go for free or right and it was just like these like older women were like saying like how they responded to the movie and stuff and i'm just like which is which is awesome but it's like when i'm making it i'm not thinking of like hitting that demographic or whatever it's just like i'm just making our little movie and yeah just something you like right and right the fact that like you know we

have like so many different kinds of people really liking it's just really really cool and yeah um so we have that um joey malinsky who's in wit's end your scene partner yeah yeah he uh he made a short called master plan which uh just won i think he won best director at a dc film festival oh yeah yeah yeah that's a really good too, based on a true story about a guy that was involved in, like, I don't know, like all kinds of criminal shootings. Yeah, yeah. He was pretty young and then kind of. Baltimore City youth kind of got involved with, you know, some crime and wrong people. Yeah.

And just kind of like how he's come back from that. He's done some amazing stuff. And I watched Joey's short, and it's wonderful. Joey's really good. Yeah, he's such a talented guy. Yeah. But, you know, in front of and behind the camera and so we're gonna show his short Bob Rose made a short with our friend John Bennett which is gonna play on Tuesday so it's those two

shorts and then wits and nice and then Wednesday kind of closing out the festival is the premiere of a camp killer uh by sean jones which is kind of a horror movie kind of a comedy um it's like this hybrid where he describes it as um um uh my dinner with andre beats a slasher movie okay so it's kind of like this talky dialogue driven movie that has the background of like a slasher flick yeah and i actually just read a review of uh his movie like he gave a preview copy to somebody from like joe blow.com and they raved about the movie i really loved it so cool so so what is the plan for tickets can you buy like a full pass or do you have to get individual tickets for each night both it's probably by the time this airs

you won't be able to buy tickets online probably okay so you have to go to the door okay so just go to the senator yeah um it's 15 if for if for some reason you can still buy tickets it's mission ticks.com just look up bump fest it is cheaper if you do it that way cool um or you can buy the three-day pass nice which is 25 for three days so you save a bunch of money not bad man no i think that that's so fucking cool because i remember you telling me about it like kind of bummed you didn't get into certain festivals and you know like i just want to see it on a screen right yeah so you putting all that together and the follow-through to like get it up at one of your favorite theaters is really fucking cool yeah that was cool and like so yeah like kevin had the connection to senator

and it was just like that work it all kind of just like came together really quickly and it's great it really started with uh putting up a facebook status who wants to do a film festival and just like kind of kind of cobbling your friends together you kind of have similar ideas and yeah as silly as that is like it started with a facebook post that's gonna be the new thing yeah but it actually it works absolutely yeah like people are like i'd like to have my movie on a screen as well right right so yeah it really came out of just like a bunch of like independent filmmakers just wanting to show their movies and yeah um yeah and i think as far as like like the big one it's like we didn't get into the maryland film festival which really sucked but then like this came out better like yeah i got you know

i get like yesterday when we did our test i watched 15 minutes of my movie in theater one at the senator by myself like i wouldn't have had that moment if i uh yeah if i did mff that's fucking exciting man yeah so it's pretty cool nice so what is the what's the plan for wit so you could try to get into other festivals it's going to be online yeah so we um still waiting to hear back from we applied to seven festivals didn't get into maryland so i'm still waiting to hear back from six uh-huh and um like the notification dates are like middle of summer okay um but like still we have a bunch of like pop-up screenings that we're doing like one in new york and cool um we have uh we did we're doing another local film festival in columbia the you're right sneeze almost sneezed um but uh i

just hate columbia yeah like spazzled. We're doing the Columbia Film Festival in June and doing a screening in New York. But if you go to witsandfilm.com. Oh. Witsandfilm.com, Michael? Yep, that's what I said. Wow. Yeah, I went all out.

No.net. That's just the worst yes and improv of trying to like plug your website website like no again michael that website is you're like yeah that's what i said why are you repeating that yeah um i said it clearly the first time yeah when you repeat it i was like i don't know what to redo with that information but uh yeah there's a bunch of little screenings that we're doing so just check that out and uh by the end of the year it'll be online so fucking a man yeah man and then working on another film working on another movie um i hopefully will film that by

the end of the year as well um i've been so wrapped up at finishing this movie that it's it's really hard to like start working on the next one and it's also been a really quick turnaround with wit's end like i started writing it a year ago and like already we've had a few screenings and yeah so and like i edited the movie myself and um so like yeah it's just really time consuming so it's hard to work on the next thing while you're finishing that before it's kind of out for public consumption on the internet there's always time to kind of refine and stuff like absolutely so it's it's kind of never ending in that way because you're like oh we watch the screening i'm going to trim a

couple minutes or like the audio is a little not at its best right right or like formats and things like that have been changing yeah like when we did the creative alliance screening it's like my wife's like so it's done that's great i'm like oh i gotta go home and finish it like um and it's all like little stuff it's like fuck yeah i thought we were rid of this thing yeah but no yeah just like one of those things to where like i get why stanley kubrick re-edited like all of his movies years after they came out and stuff yeah especially now with everything being digital like it's you have so much access to refine stuff and make stuff better. Right. The movie's done now.

Because I would drive myself crazy if I keep refinishing the movie. And then it's not really changing anything beyond what people would know. You would notice, like, oh, I cut 15 seconds out of this. They're like, great. Right. Yeah. Honestly, besides one thing, I don't think most people would know the difference between the Creative Alliance screening

and this version of the movie. It's 45 seconds shorter. The sound mix is better. Right, right, right. It's more polished. Yeah. But yeah, as far as the bones of the movie, we're not playing jazz with it

years after it comes out. Just take a whirl and try something different. Yeah, cut it up like Pulp Fiction. Right, right. Exactly. But yeah, so now that that's done, I'm working on this new movie. It's called Bored in the USA.

And I think we'll see some familiar faces. And that's about Bruce Springsteen just having a lazy Sunday. Yeah, it's a day in the life of a summer off tour with Bruce Springsteen. The boss. He's just putting together a to-do list. He's like, I'll probably do laundry. In the morning, he goes shopping.

In the afternoon, he yells at his kids. And then he plays guitar by himself in his room after he yells at his kids because he feels bad. A solitary tear rolls down his cheek. And he's just like, Have you ever been bored in the USA? Credits. It sounds like you got a good film on your hands. I'm not going to say summer blockbuster right off the bat but uh look out

avatar look out star wars 7 so it's gonna be bored in the usa colon avatar 2 is the full title already is an avatar 2 is it yeah it's coming out well i mean the title's different enough that's true i thought about calling wits end uh wits end civil war just to get people to see it that'd be good um but yeah like i even thought about like just adding a scene after the credits where we just have one of our friends dress up as like samuel jack with an eye patch yes yeah that would be fun to cut the trailer like that though it's like this summer yeah one comedian well we watched uh the movie of the saturday yesterday like it sounded really loud and i was just like man look at this listen

to those speakers and the guy's like it's not gonna be like this like these are geared for wits that are for uh civil war like our movie at the mix of a summer blockbuster right right right yeah it's like sad music playing while jason's but uh but yeah i mean we need to we need to retool this son of a bitch into a marvel marvel money dog yes all right so you're staying busy with the wits and all that stuff and then you stopped didn't really stop but just kind of chilled on stand-up for a little bit i haven't been doing as much stand-up and i'm enjoying semi-retirement yeah but i think well i mean you were the guy who is like going at it harder than anybody i know basically i was hashtag grinding you were hashtag scribing you were hashtag grind you were hashtag blessed and you were out there man you were all the hashtags i was all the hashtags and then i

think you got burnt out a little bit and then uh actually taking some space away from stand-up like how many weeks did you take off uh well i would like even during the movie like i'd pop up randomly like if i got offered a weekend or something like i did like i remember well one of the things with wits end was all the movie all the money we spent on the movies money i made from stand up so when i would run out of money i would be i'd ask chip at the comedy factory do you need a feature this weekend and then that would go into the budget papa's got to make a movie yes um so like there would be like stuff like that but like there was at one point where it's like i took a solid like two months off completely which is

like crazy to be going from 10 times a week yeah i was gonna say you well pretty much every night yeah like i think like multiple spots a night yeah like the year before i did it was like 370 sets that year nuts man and so to go from that to like just not doing it was just really weird yeah and it's it's not something i don't think people understand like it's not something you can just dip your toe in you know like i hear like professionals like like ari shafir i think was saying like when he took two weeks off and then he came back and he was like am i even a good comedian like like it's just one of those things through through repetition you get better and you can't just be like i'll just go up once every couple weeks. Right, yeah. And yeah, I'm jealous of like I do have like or we have like one or two friends that like Larry Noto is like somebody who won't do stand up for six months.

And then as soon as he's on stage, his timing's perfect. Like his jokes are crisp. Well, do you think it's a thing like you experienced of not having a pressure with it anymore? Like it became not precious. Like it was just like, okay, like I'm just kind of doing this for fun now and maybe that's how larry kind of maybe i don't know like i knew i think that like with him though it's like he actually has like jokes like he's like um like his are like perfectly concealed structured bits no and then like a super funny guy but it's also like you know if you're not like doing it all the time you're like it's gotta go perfect right right oh here's this fun thing

that i do i know well from speaking from experience like that's how i feel now about it like it's definitely less precious and you and i've talked about that like right where it's like i think i'm in some ways i'm a better stand up now because it is looser and yeah um but you're almost involved so much that like you don't really have perspective yeah it gives you distance for absolutely yeah and it definitely makes those older bits fresher because you know you're you're remembering like the meaning of the bit and you know the feel of the bed is yeah you're actually just going through the motions versus reciting it like and then he said yeah which is one of my biggest problems in stand-up i think

when i'm at my worst because like i tell a lot of stories and stuff like it's just i'm i'm doing my pre-rehearsed one-man show and you're talking at the audience versus two apps yeah yeah absolutely that's a really great way yeah so i yeah i had that once and i was like what the fuck i remember yeah ramin was telling me he's like yeah you're kind of just talking like at them yeah it's like no you need to be in the moment it's a conversation yeah like uh like the the show ragtime that i host every other week in arlington you know it's just a bar show but it's a cool bar show but i have to like set up the room like i go straight from work to there set up the room set up the mic set up the lights and everything like that and then i have to go host and be like yeah yeah and uh the beginning of my set was kind of meh and then i have to go host and be like yeah yeah and uh

the beginning of my set was kind of meh and uh i was like what was going on up there he's like you're still kind of like i just got off work mode right right like you were asking the crowd for energy but you weren't giving them any and i was like oh okay that makes sense yeah yeah because like if you go up there and you're like all right uh what the fuck um you guys suck like what you haven't done anything i'm sure it's also weird to like run straight from work and you're setting up the speakers and people see this guy with the stoned face just like setting up speakers and putting a show together you're putting the curtain up and then all of a sudden you're like what's up you didn't see me sweating when i was lifting

that speaker above my head i'm a funny guy oh boy have you ever noticed that uh pants or something okay all right you may recognize me as the roadie from five minutes ago the guy that was tacking the curtain to the wall that's me baby i'm also funny so yeah no there's definitely if you get some space from it versus like stand-up was kind of becoming like it's still something you want to do and like i feel like you need to perform and it feels better but versus something where you're like coming at it from like fuck you i'm kind of owed this like i work so hard like give it to me versus like oh i'm excited to be here too which i and i've definitely had that attitude where it's like and i think it's

hard not to like when you're like i've known the most positive people that have been around this every night for years and they have that fuck you i'm come on man like that attitude but the crowd doesn't have that perspective exactly their first comedy show and you're like god damn it um but yeah so that has been nice that like after not really doing for i've had four weekends and comedy clubs that were yeah honestly like as good and as fun as i've had like that's great um yeah and now i won't do anything for months because i did all the local comedy club like you literally just right yeah that is the rotation of like oh see in three months right right or whatever but yeah but i mean you just featured for burt kreischer last night at the dc improv and all weekend which is a nice feather in the

cap man that's fucking great and the fact that he requested you to be yeah i worked with him in at the comedy factory then he asked for me at the improv which is fucking great man yeah especially with the comic you like and yeah yeah it's he couldn't be a better dude and to have like somebody like you respect that much you know kind of just go out of their way to you know vouch for you and the question is pretty amazing yeah it's insane it's such a good feeling like when uh somebody like because i still see myself as like separate from all that stuff of like the bigger names and just when somebody's like hey pretty good yeah it means gosh I was kicking my foot in the ground. Jeez, oh, shucks.

You like me? Oh. No, but there is something about just something, and I don't even feel necessarily about famous comedians or whatever. Oh, just people you respect. Yeah, just like it means a lot to like, even if you're at an open mic and it's a local comic you respect, it's like I've had some of the like the best feelings that you know

oh totally you know when andy klein or randolph terrence give me a tag or tell me like a bit like it's the best oh yeah yeah yeah i mean i remember the first time ramin was asking me to uh like host at the the draft house in the front room i was like okay are you sure yeah yeah but it's funny now like looking like i know how he sees it he's like it's just a show it's nothing like but to me it was like whoa this is big oh it's the biggest deal i yeah i remember and the thing is like it's not that like i started standing up six years ago like i just hit six years yeah and like i don't feel that far removed from thinking getting three minutes at topaz was the biggest thing in the world yeah and also that

three minutes is like an eternity too like oh my god you're like what am i gonna do for the other minute yeah like as soon as you grab the mic you're like uh hey how's everybody doing how much time do i have right right two minutes and 50 seconds oh my god oh my god uh but uh no man i i'm i'm so happy for you man like it's it it's kind of cool to, like, take, like, go from being, like, frustrated about stuff. You know, it's not like you were, like, a Debbie Downer, but it was definitely like. Oh, I've heard what you said about me on other podcasts. You're like that Debbie Downer Fanazo. You listen to the Debbie Downer Fanazo podcast hour?

Yes, I do. Do you want to be a guest on it? I was trying to get you. I'm thinking about going over there to promote BumpFest because it has the most listeners. Yeah, people fucking love that show. It's crazy. It's bigger than the Bill Simmons podcast.

It really is. Debbie Downer Fonazo podcast. Are we sure that it's good? Yeah, very sure. Yes. It's probably the best. No, man. I just remember there were times, I think,

just because if you're working full-time and then you're doing stand-up essentially full-time and then you know like little bits little stuff is just grinding on you more yeah hashtag grinding in a bad way on your soul of being like like you know i went to this show where enough people it sucked this sucked yeah it's out and then to take some space and then you're not really doing stand-up they're like hey do you want a weekend you're like sure yeah yeah it's cool that it like it took the pressure off of it and made it less precious in a way and they're like yeah it made it fun again exactly yeah and yeah and especially like i don't want to sound like we've had this conversation off the podcast

but like for me, like when I first started doing standup, like I didn't really have like goals. It was just like, I just wanted to be a good comedian. So then when you start not getting stuff, you go from not expecting anything to just be disappointed by everything, just being disappointed by everything.

And then, so like for me, it's just kind of like to like take a step back from it and then work on something else. I'm really passionate about with the movie stuff to like to like take a step back from it and then work on something else i'm really passionate about with the movie stuff yeah to like have like cool opportunities come up with stand-up it's just like that's actually been like really just gratifying and just more fun yeah and uh yeah i don't know how much i'm gonna do it in the future like how much you know i'm like really like looking at like outcomes or like goals with stand up but yeah it's just been it's just been a real like pleasure the last like two months i guess and kind of doing

all these shows fuck yeah man no i'm excited for you like i i think it's been great to like breathe new life into your comedy career yeah um but it's it's it's cool to watch man it's exciting it's inspiring i uh but to go back to the like kind of burnt out aspects i did a show with brooks wheelan last weekend and uh it was auto bar yeah at auto bar and uh he um he was on a tour and uh i think baltimore was like 28 of 30 cities he was doing and uh he was really cool really nice and like the crowd was great i uh not to be umar but i cried no i had i had a good set and uh and brooks was really nice but it was just funny to see him on stage like before the show it's like he looks a little haggard not like

bad but like burnt out and uh while he was on stage he was trying new stuff and i think something didn't go well or something like that and he was like ah fucking i don't care but while he was on stage he was trying new stuff and i think something didn't go well or something like that and he was like ah fucking i don't care but like he was having a great time the crowd was on his side the whole time it wasn't like fuck this right right right he goes he was just like rubbing his forehead he's like um guys i'm just um i'm on 28 of 30 cities and uh you know i love comedy i love fucking doing it but i don't want to do it in 30 cities it's like i love fucking blowjobs but if i had to do a tour of blowjobs by by the 28th time i'd be like a blowjob again i mean i don't agree with him there

but i i got what he was saying which is still just funny enough to like it's just weird because it's something like you aspire to it's like oh i'd like to have what he has and even he's burnt out by the whole right right i mean and uh yeah and i've even like i've worked with like people even like working with like burt like the first weekend i worked with him it's like he was definitely tired and like yeah it's it is like like we keep saying grind but it is and like i think we have an episode name hashtag hashtag grind yeah uh underscore keepscribing uh but uh but but no and then like this weekend he was like so happy to be where he was and it's like i really do think like it's just like any other job like it's a week-to-week thing and it's it really is like

i think we forget like not just like comedians but performers are people and it's a week-to-week thing and yeah it really is like i think we forget like not just like comedians but performers are people and it's like yeah this is you know one of a million stops for them and sometimes you're going to be more in love with it than anything you've ever been in love with and then sometimes you're just trying to get through it and yeah i get that exactly no i mean yeah at the end of the day it's a job so you can't be like oh they weren't very talkative it's like yeah because they are doing this all the fucking right right you're to them like or to you you're like it's this guy but to them they're like it's another fucking guy like right get out of here yeah get out of my green room okay tom arnold no um tom arnold the saint hey hey i loved

him on this podcast we uh we direct messaged for a while it was fun really yeah that's he was nice when i worked with him yeah he could not have been nicer but yeah when the whole thing went down with uh with uh with joe he messaged me and was like here's what happened and like sent me like really yeah yeah oh really yeah me and tom arnold direct message for like an hour and it was just like a ton of stuff like it was great i just like yeah i just like that like his like knowledge of like press in baltimore's like i need to do damage control i was just on the digression sessions podcast yeah he direct messaged uh the podcast um but i i think uh the baltimore sun reached out was like comment

and he's like no i'm not gonna comment and, comment? And he was like, no, I'm not going to comment. So I think he was still kind of frustrated about it, but he didn't want it to be like, we're going to do an interview with the Baltimore Sun about it. So I think he was just like, here's what happened. Like laid it all out. Which just that sentence in itself is fucking ridiculous. The Sun wrote an article about it. I know, I know.

Like they paid a writer to write an article about how Tom Arnold barely talked to his opener, which like happens at every comedy club across the country. I know. But then it did happen again at the Draft House. So it seems like. Well, yeah. I mean, the thing is. We're kind of speaking in circles here a little bit. Yeah, yeah.

But there was a dust up when Tom Arnold came to town. He was great on the podcast. Could not have been. Yeah, I listened to it. It was a great show. when tom arnold came to town he was great on the podcast could not yeah it was a great show at the club uh thanks man but uh at the club he was uh one at his private time in the another comedian did not like that but that's the thing like i and i guess i just like see it differently like i worked with him it was like two weeks later like right after that draft house and like it wasn't that dissimilar of an experience like i wasn't in the green room most of the weekend but like i never felt like i was kicked out of it like yeah i knocked on the door once and grabbed a water and he was cool with that

yeah like he was totally nice and like really like complimentary all weekend and um so yeah it's one of those things like i guess it's just like different perspectives of this stuff yeah um like i i thought he was pleasant to be around yeah he was cool to us so you know but i didn't work with him at the club so i can't speak it's one of those things like what would you like read an article about like tom arnold was a dick and i was like oh but he liked my my joke about working with people with mental disabilities so i think he's a great guy yeah he invited us to his hotel room and talked to us for an hour so he's an angel yeah forever i don't care uh but yeah brooks wheelan uh it was was so nice like uh it was pretty cool like after the show it was like like a little like movie kind of moment he was at one end of the bar and i was

at the other and he gave me like the little like come here thing like i was like oh boy then he date rapes you mr wheelan yeah and uh he entered me and uh no but he was just like you're really good man how long you been doing it like just you know like unprovoked and i was like wow that's awesome and he gave me his phone number and uh yeah it was cool he put his uh name in my phone as brooks parentheses hopefully chiller than chris katan wheelan that's funny because i did the katan bit and uh uh for those that don't know i talk about um the time that i worked with chris katan another snl alum and what a co-ketty was and then brooks wheelan was on snl for one year and got fired so when he he went up right after me and he's like that shit about katan's not cool it's not fucking cool all right that's what happens

you get fired from snl you do a lot of coke you do a lot of coke you know somebody else worked with chris katan right now they're like you know what he wasn't that bad of a guy oh i know yeah yeah wes martin's told me that he was like oh he was nice i'm like well i've heard i was kidding i've heard four other people say he's an ass oh really west martin's said he was great i've had like he's like one of those names that like on the road and stuff like i've heard horror stories nightmare like before and after your shit oh yeah yeah yeah somebody yeah there's a bunch of uh yeah john moses a new york comedian told me about a show that his friend did with him like it was like a showcase show in la and uh i think it was when katan was like first trying to get into stand-up so he would kind of host like a showcase night so he could do time up front in between and it was called katan

and friends and of course chris chris katan was the worst host right like forgot people's names so the one comedian went up he's like man this show uh it should be called chris katan and people he could give a fuck about but also uh i know shane tells the story of when he worked with him in pennsylvania have you heard that story i haven't shane gillis shane gillis yeah super funny comedian who's in uh the philly area now i don't think you would mind us telling the story, especially deep into the pod. They checked out once they bought their Bumpfest tickets. Yeah, that's all it was.

Give me that sweet, sweet, sweet Bumpfest info. Say mission ticks, you prick. What, the infomercial for an underground film festival's over? Ah, bow. Fuck you, Tom. I'm going to put back on the Debbie Downer FNAF hour uh so shane was working

with katan and katan asked him if he could get him some coke and shane was like i think i know a guy or my friend or something like that so he puts these two in touch and katan buys all of this guy's coke all of it and later that night three in the morning Catan calls that dude is like hey do you have any more she's like Christ no man you did all of the coke in Harrisburg there's none of it and you did it all in one night so I you know I I don't want to be like a Chelsea Handler like talking out of school and stuff like that and like shitting on people but he was legitimately an asshole yeah you said that story my first thought was that so

katan and then my second thought was that so gillis oh shane gillis um yeah but no it was uh man but it's it's been great like stuff like that of like having like we were saying like just comedians being like oh you're pretty good well i mean that's the thing too is like i think that like brooks wheelan's like somebody's like really well known and like i think that we forget too it's like you know at the end of the day it's like these people are just comics and yeah they're just people it's just talking like you know we would talk in the back of a showroom and yeah like i remember like when i worked with like dennis miller and stuff it's like we're just like talking about shitty comedy clubs yeah it's just like it's like even that that dude just performed for 2 000 people like

at the end of the day it's like he's just another comic did he call you babe he was like yeah babe and then he tried to tried to get me to convert to being a republican really yeah no we didn't talk politics at all here's the thing about fiscal policy in the baltimore comedy factory mike it's like fuck the democrats and adam carolla babe i think they get along don't they him and adam they're pretty tight i heard they didn't because they had a show for a short period of time and it ended badly oh it did yeah i think like that's why like it abruptly stopped oh i listened to it a couple times it was a nightmare it was mostly just them getting ad revenue they would talk they would talk for like two minutes and then be like and that's why you

gotta use stamped.com babe yeah okay well it was weird because i remember i listened to like one episode it's like i listen i liked listening to dennis miller talk about comedy yeah that was interesting right but then what he would talk about how great adam carolla is at stand up and how and all he was of like him just starting as a headliner yeah let's not encourage the kids to do that yeah it's like also no not really yeah not really like and i like carolla like fine like i used to worship him as a 12 year old but yeah i don't listen to him anymore love line just ended too do you know that i didn't know that yeah they did the final show a couple weeks ago oh wow yeah why did it was just nobody listening or no i think uh i think dr drew has 20 jobs yeah i think he got a little too busy and then i think he's just getting older

and uh because he had pancreatic cancer last year before but now they brought adam back for the final episode oh right on yeah i actually like i listened to drew's podcast oh i like that a lot i like it too i think drew's great i listened to uh it's an older one but the one with him and doug stanhope was amazing oh i haven't heard that because it's partially no yeah it's partially doug like telling dr drew that what he's saying is bullshit, but then also saying he's a really nice guy and really smart. Yeah. Yeah. I think Doug Stanhope's a sweetheart,

man. I think so. Dude, I actually told Bert Kreischer this over the weekend. Yeah. One of the hardest times I've laughed listening to a podcast recently was Stanhope was just on Bert's pocket or maybe it was vice versa. Yeah.

Well, they did a swap. Okay. It was the same show. So yeah, but Bert went to Doug Stanhope's compound in brisby arizona and proceeded to get like going like a short bender and then do a podcast but i love the story so stanhope talks about how he had just broken up with his girlfriend and like wanted like the local cops like just stopped by his house it was just

like hey dog you know i heard you and bingo broke up and i just wanted to make sure you're okay and burt like does that thing where he just like starts laughing so hard his voice gets really high and he's just like so you're telling me that innocent black people are getting shot and they're just cops stopping by your house to see if you're okay and it made me laugh so fucking hard yeah he's such a genuine guy like when he gets excited it gets me excited he's like no it is like infectious oh yeah that's why he does two hours on stage like and doesn't have a lull at any point right right his energy is just like so contagious and yeah i love that guy so um oh yeah man that's so cool you got that weekend um yeah but as we're uh wrapping wrapping up here because i gotta go to my daddy's today my dad

my dad uh let's see what did i want to talk about oh uh people doing two hours i worked with um ralphie may recently i heard i was there like the week after or two weeks after and I heard stories. Yes. So Ralphie May, for those that don't know, is 400 pounds and shorter than me, maybe. Maybe as tall as me. Maybe. I picture him like even if he's skinny, being a big guy. I don't think so. I think we're about the same height.

Interesting. He's definitely not like six feet or anything he's probably i mean maybe like five seven to five ten i'd have to give him but um yeah 400 pounds so he uh showed up late like okay so he does two hours basically every show yeah and uh yeah hour and a half to two hours and um he was having back spasms that weekend and so he showed up late to one of the shows and it's just a two-man show so it's just me and ralphie right right and uh so he was late thursday but he showed up like earlier than we thought and so uh andrew is like yeah just go do 15 I was like, okay. So I'm trying to plan my set, have an arc to it,

and kind of like big finish at the end. And literally it's the first night of five shows. And I'm like, all right, that's been my set. Are you guys ready for your headliner? And they're like, woo. And Andrew, the owner of Magoobies, walks into the crowd like basically like three or four rows out and gives me the stretch oh boy yeah yeah which is not very functional like you know like if you get that in

the middle of your set you can call a couple audibles right okay i know what we're gonna do here but i just had to tell the crowd i was like all right i just got the stretch sign like you can't be like are you ready for the headliner yeah Yeah. Well, wait five to ten more minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because here comes some more of me, this guy. I had a similar thing happen at McGuby's where I was featuring for Nick DiPaolo. Yeah. And it was, they wanted me to work clean because he's really dirty. Okay.

And so, which is like fine. Yeah. But like, so I think it was like a show where i was doing 20 minutes and i noticed i didn't get a light and i'm just like i just keep going yeah which like because it happens sometimes people are it's the early show something people are running late or whatever yeah so i'm in the middle of a bit and literally the hostess from mcgoobies walks on stage hands me a note and walks off the other side of the stage what and in the middle of like me telling a bit so we get derailed like any bit yeah yeah and uh

all momentum is killed yeah so the so the the note just says to palo not here stretch and to palo not yeah so and so of course i have to acknowledge the random person and it was so it was just like a mess in terms like i'm supposed to do 20 minutes and it's like i headline itself so i've already doing shorter versions of bits right right and i'm working clean so it's like i'm already throwing out some bits yeah so it was kind of like a feature obstacle course totally so it's like all right so i have no idea how long i'm gonna do i can't work dirty i've already cut some bits in half yeah and then like maybe even just a little bit of crowd work would be fun but right dude be dirty that was the other thing too is depolar

specifically asked me not to do crowd work because some headliners hate right yeah exactly um so yeah like that so i kind of had like the same thing happen. I had to do like another 15 minutes. Wow. And it felt like working out. Like what's the awkwardness of getting through the curl running stage? Yeah. I mean, you must have talked about that, right? That must have been.

I did. But it was one of those things like it was like so weird. Like the timing of it. Like it's. Gotcha. It wasn't even like it was like she waited till the end of a joke. Like it just kind of like derailed momentum for a second. Yeah yeah like if you were coming off of a laugh and then something weird happens you just go what the hell is that would get a good reaction it's funny you brought up shane

shane was hosting and he was like i tried to like talk them into just like letting me do it and i would have gone to the corner of the stage and handed you a note right and it would have been like really like pretty conspicuous walking yeah middle literally and not making eye contact with the audience like hand off the most awkward hand off what the fuck man yeah so yeah it's funny that happened to you there yeah yeah it happened again to the same exact thing but the second time they were kicking people out that were drunk but uh but it's just so funny to be like all right that's my time stretch yeah yeah like okay that really is like from a sitcom about stand-up comedy yeah and i just told the audience too i was like i just got i just got the stretch line how long andrew he's like 10 minutes and i was like 10 minutes just like

milking it so then it was fun to like fuck with the crowd i would do one bit and be like all right eight minutes to go here we go you turned into bill burr yeah exactly seven minutes seven minutes why is he so mad uh but uh so that's all to say like so the nights would be really long like a typical comedy show with multiple people and it should be an hour and a half yeah you know maybe a little more but like the sweet spot's like an hour and a half crowd gets it gets just enough maybe wanting more you know but they're not exhausted ralphie's doing an hour and a half to two hours on his own so we're with long shows so and if you're doing that the first show it's gonna bump the second show because they gotta clean out the room and reset it cold and rainy people are standing outside yeah i remember the first night on thursday he was an hour 15 into his set and he goes so this weather's not too good i'm like

don't talk about the weather an hour and 15 into your set on a thursday night like let's go yeah but uh he crushes the whole time right he does great he does well he was kind of i mean he's uh yeah he murders but i mean like he was just in a bad spot he's having a rough year like his wife he had a good joke about he's like uh i had a rough year y'all my wife left me says the kids don't want to see me my dog died indians are mad at me i'm not living a country song i'm living a country album y'all but it is true like he did you hear about the indian yeah they were offended by yeah so somebody took one of his bits and cut it up and basically cut

off the punch line like it'd be like doing a joke about irish people and be like irish people sure love to drink huh anyway yeah that's offensive it's like no there's like that's building up to something but uh yeah so the first night thursday he gets up to the mic and he goes that's the first thing he goes he goes i shouldn't be here it was like strong opener yeah then he tagged it with i'm in a lot of pain that's like oh my god but then he did two hours yeah i killed but he uh it smokes a ton of pot like constantly like vaping hash oil oh i had one of his edibles last week how much well so the whole thing was like 70 milligrams and i had a 16th okay i was high as fuck i was gonna get into that

so so the edibles so i get some from dc now and i'll get like a little gummy that's maybe not even like a half an inch it's just like it looks like a little like lego that's exactly what this yeah yeah that one's like a little more flat but the ones that i get like a lego those are 10 milligrams right and if i have half of that i'm high as fuck yeah so now what what ralphie's taking is 70 milligrams which doesn't affect him at all yeah which is like a nuclear amount of fucking pot yeah like and it's also indica which is like the body high right in the couch or whatever so uh oh i know yeah yeah yeah trying to tell the lister as well but yeah i know you know but um so but also he's sponsored by an edible company which i think is funny yeah so it's like athletes are sponsored by like nike and under armor comedian sponsored by edible company he's the brace harper exactly yeah when i want to get

fucked up i reach for a green hornet hi i'm ralphie may yeah so so 70 milligrams in this tiny tiny thing and uh he gave me one and i was like wow it's so cool it's so nice and uh his road manager this guy ben uh had a little bit of a southern draw and he goes uh careful with that man i ate one of those once lasted four days he's just like holy shit oh my god but ralphie just eats it like candy goes on stage and is vaping after that but so ben said he's like just take a little bit right before bed man that's what i do i just just break off a little piece and then just go to bed and i was like okay cool so friday night i get home it's late as fuck because ralphie went late and uh i'm in a good mood shows went well i'm like i'm sleeping on saturday i'm gonna go to brunch um you might go on a little date or something

and uh yeah i make the mistake of just biting into this thing uh and i after i bite it i look and i'm like oh i just ate like half of that and i was like fuck that's way too much way way too much so it's like all right i just gotta go to bed i'm just gonna sleep through this didn't work i was so high i woke up at like three in the morning and i was like holy fuck i'm high like my skin was vibrating high like i was tripping basically i had to like talk myself down and all i could hear was his road manager just like four days and four days so i was like i ate half yeah it's gonna be two days i have shit to do i can't fucking exist like this it was insane i was so high i couldn't go to sleep it was oh it was terrible so with my experience with it andrew was like

you don't really smoke here i'm a guy i just rarely do it yeah and then he goes well i tell you what late show you're gonna take it right before you go up and it seems like it takes 45 minutes to kick in yeah it'll be fine yeah and then he gave me this like right before i went up right and 15 minutes into my set i got high as shit oh boy and i was like feeling it i told the audience i'm like i just ate an edible it's gonna be okay like i was like i was calming these like unknowing people there and they're just like looking at me like you're an idiot we're fine and i told it to be okay and i told a story about the other time i ate pot brownies and like that killed oh nice but then during like the end of my set i'm wrapping up a fight breaks out

in the lobby whoa because two people were this is stupid at a comedy club where there's signs everywhere people are complaining that there's a two-item bit and they're just like yelling yeah and i'm like trying to do a bet and all of a sudden i just went and i saw a video of this completely earnest oh like security footage no i saw i was filming my set oh okay and so i've watched i was just like do you guys hear that like it was like so earnest it's saying it i was like that's really i can't be the only one yeah i was like that's really happening right that's really happening and so like afterwards andrew's like you're not really high and i'm like i'm i'm really high and then he goes well i guess it took 45 minutes to kick it with me

but i have a tolerance that outweigh you by 50 pounds yeah and if you haven't eaten anything like yeah there's some variables there for sure so like i left my goobies at like one o'clock in the morning and i didn't i honestly don't remember this at all i texted andrew thank you for teaching me what love is and then like two minutes later also if five guys was open at two o'clock it would make a lot of money that's how high you're like you want mood uh munchies and you're like what's going on yeah how come five guys isn't open well i think i like passed it now i'm just like that's bullshit man that's and not even bullshit like it's affecting me. It's like that's just a bad

business model like they should be open yourself. Yeah, man. Come on Jesus Christ and I sat in a 711 a 711 parking lot. Yeah eating like a they have these like peanut butter balls and a jar and I just like ate like the whole like I was the stereotype

of someone who'd never been high before right right right just eating everything yeah well you big pothead oh but that was all hypothetical yeah allegedly yeah as someone who works for the government yeah right yeah it's someone who works yeah it's all comedy we're all just joking around bits none of that's real nothing i don't even have a wife i've been talking about her on stage for years yeah exactly there's not even a wits end movie yeah what if there was but seriously come to ball fest yeah tuesday at the senator uh no man this has been great i'm glad we got to fucking catch up um so uh yeah so where so let's just send people to the senator uh monday tuesday

wednesday but if they want to see your film, go there Tuesday, 8 o'clock. Yeah. Whitsend, especially if you like this podcast and like comedy, there's been a ton of people that you'll be familiar with in the movie. And it's really, really great. And I'm so proud of Jason Weems, who's incredible in the movie. And come out to the Senator Tuesday, the 24th at 7 o'clock. And check out WhitsendFil.com for like videos and also just

dates and screening if you can't make it out on Tuesday fuck yeah man no I really am fucking proud of you man oh thanks buddy you're killing I'm proud of you as well you're doing great things I try I try yeah so yeah check that out follow Mike on Twitter at that Mike

Fonazzo it's actually the Mike Fonazzo the Mike Fonazzo wow i honestly i tweeted at kevin smith and i realized his name was that kevin smith and i felt weird about it oh boy so i changed it more like at that fucking guy come on what are you doing over there pal what are you doing over there uh so yeah follow me i'm at josh kadna on Twitter and Instagram. The podcast is at Dig Sesh Pod. Digressionsessions.com slash calendar for upcoming dates. I'm doing a show in Annapolis at the Metropolitan Theater. Or theater.

Kitchen and lounge and bar. It's a really cool venue. It's like three stories. And the middle section is a performance area. It's really cool. But yeah, Jason Weems will be headlining that show. And I'll be there with Umar Khan. That's on the murders he's gonna the murderer he's gonna crush uh on 6 17 in annapolis at the metropolitan uh lounge so come to that and then i'm also doing artscape this year which is

sometime in july so yeah come to that and then i'll be going out to la for a little bit i'm excited when's that uh i'm gonna go that uh july 29th through august 1st and august 1st i'm gonna do hot tub out there with kurt and kristin it's gonna be crazy awesome i'm already nervous about it it's like three months away oh boy uh but yeah i'm really looking forward to that yeah we're gonna do i'm gonna go out to la for four days then go to tulum mexico for three and then go to havana cuba for three oh yeah so my buddies mike and scott are coming with me so we're gonna do like this whole like that scott mackler good kid good kid michael normyle good kid don't know him i'm sure he's great you guys

probably met at some point probably yeah i just have scott he's a big sports fan yeah help move a piano into this house that's true one of the most miserable experiences in my life so many of my friends have helped move that fucking piano and i and it's never been worth it any time and i play it now and again no i play it pretty much most days actually um but anyway but yeah so uh yeah we're gonna do this whole like bro down throw down that's awesome it's gonna be fucking fun and i thought you were going to cuba because you needed health care well that too yeah that too i've also got some investments i'd like to get in on the ground floor now that it's open down there baby nice sneaking in some cigars. Allegedly.

Allegedly. Anyway, Mike, I love you, buddy. Love you too, buddy. Thanks for coming over. And everybody, we appreciate you for tuning in. I know it's been a bit of a delay in between episodes, but it was worth it. Yeah, we're back. We're back, baby.

And David Koechner, take us out. Dick Russian Sessions, coming to an end. Thank you. Oh, yeah.