The Digression Sessions - Ep. 196 - Brooks Wheelan! (@BrooksWheelan)

Episode Date: August 29, 2016

Hey Digheads, it's a one on one this week with Josh interviewing comedian Brooks Wheelan! Brooks was in DC doing shows with John Oliver over the weekend and he sat down with Josh to talk traveling, break ups, SNL, and first jobs. Really fun talk!   And check out Brooks' great album, "This is cool, right?"   Follow the podcast, Josh Kuderna, and Mike Finazzo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Josh - @JoshKuderna on Twitter and @JoshKuderna on Instagram Mike Finazzo - @TheeMikeFinazzo on Twitter The Pod - @DigSeshPod on Twitter The Pod's Facebook page - Dig Sesh on Facebook Thanks for listening, all! Do the pod a favor and rate and review the pod on iTunes & Stitcher plz!

Welcome to the Digression Sessions podcast everybody, Josh Kaderna here. How the hell are you? Thank you for tuning in. This week I sit down for a one-on-one with comedian Brooks Whelan. He was in town opening for John Oliver at the Kennedy Center, and Brooks was nice enough to sit down and do a pod. And yeah, you may know him from SNL. He was on there for one season, and he notoriously or famously or hilariously tweeted out when he found out he was not coming back to the show. He tweeted out, fired from New York. And, yeah, that kind of got him on the map a little bit. I think most people that don't go back to that show usually take some time to

recuperate and get their lives together. But he smartly put together a stand-up tour right after that, which I think was called Brooks Whelan Falls Back on Stand-Up. And yeah, he's been touring ever since and doing other stuff here and there. And I did a show with him in Baltimore a few months ago, and he said to hit him up. He gave me his phone number, which was nice. I told a Chris Kattan story and we bonded over that. And yeah, when he came back to DC, I hit him up to do a podcast and he was nice enough to do it.

So yeah, without too much rambling, we'll get right to it. But just to plug a couple of things. So me, Josh Coderna. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram, at Josh Coderna. Mike Fonazzo, my co-host, who could not be present for this one, unfortunately. But his Twitter is at the Mike Fonazzo. And he's doing a benefit show in Timonium, Maryland, at Magoobie's Joke House on September 4th at 7 p.m. And that show is to benefit Ellicott City Relief Fund for a flood that happened recently in that area.

And yeah, it was pretty brutal. So if anybody can go out to that, all proceeds go out to that. It's a really good show. Regardless, I'll be doing stand up in Baltimore september 8th at the 13.5 wine bar in beautiful hamden maryland so come out to that i think it's at eight o'clock i think but uh yeah come to that if you're in the area and uh follow the podcast on twitter at dig sesh pod the podcast is at digressionsessions.com we're on itunes and all that stuff so uh find us on our facebook page as well that's always nice so without uh further ado of me rambling and uh

watching my girlfriend get dressed uh because it's a very professional podcast uh yeah that's it for this intro brooks is really great check out his album this is cool right and if he's on tour coming to your town make sure you seeious, hilarious dude and a very nice guy buds last night. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because, all right. Funches and Shane Torres. Yeah, because he's featuring for Ron Funches at the Improv. So we went out last night and drank. Yeah.

And I also, I never drink hard alcohol. Uh-huh. Just mostly beer? Just beer. Yeah. That way I can see where I'm going. But last night, they were like, let's do some shots. And I was like, hmm.

All right. And I think that's why I'm hungover. Yeah. And you're like, that's going to lead to trouble. But whatever. It led to no trouble. Yeah. It led to pizza, which that's why my stomach hurts right now.

Gotcha. Yeah. So just a mix of shots and pizza. Shots and pizza at three in the morning. Yeah. Ridiculous. Yeah, it's a good time sure but uh yeah okay so uh yeah it's sitting in your uh lovely hotel room here in georgetown

dc yeah this is the biggest hotel room i've ever stayed in yeah it's very nice i mean there's a whole sitting area yeah it took me a while to find the bathroom and there's a doorbell what you have a doorbell? Yeah. Really? It's very weird. Wow, so fancy. It's not for me.

It's not. This is not normal. Yeah. It's just because I'm opening for John Oliver. You don't stay to Four Seasons everywhere? No. What? Yeah, no.

It's usually Red Roof Inn lobbies. Because they won't kick you out? No, I just stay in the lobby i'm like yeah no i'm just waiting for somebody and i just sit there like okay that's fine um you but you keep you just changed into your nightclothes you're brushing your teeth in our lobby yeah no he's gonna be here yeah i just want my breath to be fresh when my friend gets here for sure anyway i have uh i have a bunch of blankets and a pillow and uh what's the wi-fi password yeah you don't mind uh come on you know it uh yeah but we did a show uh this past spring in uh in baltimore

and i saw you were going to be down here at the kennedy center with john oliver yeah it's like that's fucking that's fucking great man yeah well this is the second time i've done it i did the kennedy center of the day after the baltimore Oh, okay, yeah. Where I was headlining. Much different room. Different vibe? Well, I mean, it was just, it was probably like 400 seats. Yeah. And John is very popular. Yeah.

Yeah, he's the best. Yeah, he seems like a good dude. His show's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. Like every week you're like it i i love watching but i hate watching it because i'm like what new depressing terrible thing is he gonna tell me it's so informative and done so well but it's so great yeah it's how i get my news

yeah exactly i'm like i i want to be informed but do i like here's a thing you didn't even know about that's happening that's awful it's's great. Yeah, it's really good. It blows me away. Yeah, but so when you did the show in Baltimore in the spring, I think you were towards the end of 28 shows in 30 days or something crazy like that. It was gnarly. That's how I tour is I'll do 25 cityhuh and knock them out in a month that's crazy take three months off okay yeah because it's like i'm not crazy about comedy clubs right kind of because

of the whole not necessarily that i'm against comedy clubs i'm just against free time okay like on that tour i didn't have time to do shots and get pizza right right because it's like on to the next city city the next day yeah and yeah you're not doing a run of like three shows in a row in the same city or whatever yeah yeah and also it's a cooler vibe to do indie vinyas yeah yeah that show in baltimore was so fun uh yeah dude i had a blast i mean you brought out a lot of really good people that was was a great show. That was fun. And Shane Torres, who you brought out, was so funny. He's the funniest. Yeah, that bit

about Guy Fieri was amazing. Oh, yeah. I was hanging with Shane last night. I'm in a much different place in my life than when I was on that tour with Shane. Oh, really? I was going through a real bad breakup. Oh, yeah, you kind of talked about it on stage. I think you were just fried from touring. You cracked me up're like guys i'll level with you this is like show 28 of

30 in like 30 days or something like that and you go and i just fucking hate comedy like i love it but i'm doing it so much i hate it you said you're like if like if i had to do a tour where i got a blow job in 28 cities by 27 i'd be like i don't like blow jobs anymore i'm tired of it boring yeah but does that help with your hour or do you just end up like hating yourself it's the best way to get an hour to yeah because you're just grinding it out every night yeah by the end of it if i need it to i could really turn it back on gotcha and have all the kinks worked out right right which was the goal of that tour and then i ended up not doing an hour and i have all that material it was really

good man you were i don't know what to do yeah i'm doing another these shows with john are good i haven't really been on the road since that tour gotcha i was in the spring yeah and uh these shows with john are really good to you know i'm not doing this i'm only doing 20 in front of him but i'm doing like a different 20 each show that's great to like work on it yeah and then i'm doing a five city little florida tour right after this sure and then i'm gonna showcase my hour at like in LA. Nice. And try to get a special or something. Gotcha. So basically kind of show like Netflix or HBO or Showtime.

Well, I mean, not HBO. Okay. Gotcha. But I would love to do HBO. Who wouldn't? I think I would need a little bit more going on for me. This podcast, I think, is going to put you over the edge, though, Brooks. I appreciate it very, very much.

No problem. But yeah, I mean, it's a goal is just to do an hour special and move on. Gotcha. Yeah, or even are you going to do an album, too? No. No? Well, I mean, I'm sure I'll put out an album. I'll put out a vinyl, but I want it to be...

I already did that. Gotcha gotcha the next logical step is yeah filmed yeah it was a great album too oh thanks dude um so yeah so what you were saying is like you were in a bad spot in in baltimore like that whole tour just like that night well i was going through a real rough i was engaged in that yeah and you kind of talked about it too and the ring and everything yeah no i kind of i steered away i was kind of going through it i steer away from that a little bit now oh that bit or that story yeah just because it's like it just bums everybody out right it's pretty it's pretty like oh are you okay as opposed to like we can laugh at it now yeah like no that's it's a bummer dude yeah yeah yeah it was fresh

it was real fresh yeah i think that's really cool though that to like talk about it on stage did that end up helping you then no no it just made it just every night i'm like reliving it oh boy shit um yeah so uh yeah you can open your water if you want i can i'll filibuster while you open that um but okay yeah so you're feeling like a little fried and uh it's it's been a few months and it looks like like i listened to some other podcasts and some other interviews that you've done, and you said you like to tour a bunch, and then it's like, okay, now I need to go travel and be in nature and be a human being again. I was in Alaska three days ago. Wow. Yeah.

How was that? It was amazing. It was great. Yeah. Yeah. Stupidly, I got back with uh beautiful lady i was once engaged to and it ended again really yeah jesus christ i went to alaska just to get as far away as possible well yeah here you can move that stuff i mean i, I was turning 30. Yeah. And me and this lady had all these birthday plans.

Like, we were going to go do all this stuff. Plans are always trouble. And then she split. And I was like, oh, boy, I'm just going to go to Alaska. I'm going to get as far away as humanly possible, basically. Yeah, yeah. It's just, I was like, I just got to go to Alaska. But that's

what i like doing yeah uh yeah because you've been there before right i've never been to alaska but i love um just like seeing new things gosh i was just in like croatia right yeah yeah your instagram is pretty incredible as far as i was just a photographer really yeah just do that like do comedy you know this way it'll take you to places then you can take pictures of beautiful places I wish I was just a photographer. Really? Yeah, just do that. Like do comedy. You know, this way it'll take you to places. Then you can take pictures of beautiful places like Baltimore. Baltimore was a tough one to get a good Instagram. Tough gram town.

Tough gram town. If you come back and you have more time, you can probably find something decent maybe. No. Maybe like a really handsome rat. I'll just take a photo of the season six of the wire dvd like look what i found yeah this rare gem baltimore yeah i won't believe it yeah i remember the picture you posted i think i think it was from the auto bar your head was on the bar and you're like i'm having a great time that was true yeah i was dying i remember i was just like yeah boy yeah like you see just like a little like fried nose but

you were great man yeah i've i remember what happened two nights earlier i had shot a pilot for abc oh wow and it was it was a very positive experience it was really great and everyone was like this is going to go this is this show will go and i i stupidly believed them and i started looking at um houses in wyoming oh wow i want to just kind of live in wyoming get off the grid a little bit yeah like i'll have my apartment in la but then to have a cabin in wyoming it's pretty amazing like a dark room where i can develop photos yeah and what it's it was not crazy expensive um so i got that in my hat like i was like oh sure we'll go that's a bunch of money i'm gonna have a house in wyoming i mean yeah i found out two days before baltimore that the show didn't go and i was just like fuck oh boy this is rough like you're like oh cool now i'll just keep touring this is fun yeah exactly yeah going

through this breakup that fell apart too but at least i'm in baltimore at least i'm in baltimore jesus christ man uh that was but anyway it was a fun show yeah i do that i'm sounding so depressed right now things are much better yeah well okay let's get into well i think you just woke up too i i did just wake a little little hungover but you're working through it you know what i blame the pizza you think so i had a lot of pizza last okay yeah it can do that yeah my stomach feels weird uh-huh yeah well the alcohol probably didn't help yeah i'm immune to it yeah um how much are you are you drinking is it mostly just like you're saying like on the road it's just easier oh no it's literally i um no i don't know yeah like any comic does yeah which is too much right right because it's like i'm working late i don't have to get up until late like

there's no that's what was nice that's what's nice about having jobs like i drank the least in my life when i was on Saturday Night Live because it was so busy. I was going to say, because you have to, right? That schedule. Yeah, you have to focus. You know, when I was shooting the ABC show, I didn't drink. When I shot, like, a movie, it was like 30 days.

I was like, it's so, I'm such an idiot. When I don't drink, like, four or five days of not drinking, I feel like a superhuman. You know? Yeah. Just wake up. I'm like, whoa. I'm waking up with energy. Yeah.

Holy cow. I feel great. Yeah. I could drink a hundred beers right now. Yeah. You know what would make this better? A little bit of alcohol. Yeah.

Feeling good. It's just such a cut and dry yeah if you don't do it you'll feel great yeah but for some reason we're still like but i enjoy doing it it's still fun yeah i don't know either way it's uh it's just like on the road yeah especially when i'm just in dc for four nights yeah and this is fun yeah it's like yeah you don't have anything else to do and like your your buddies are here why why not yeah yeah and yeah yeah if the the worst case scenario is you ate too much pizza i think that's okay oh yeah no i'm good about just i just like hanging out with friends and dive bars yeah where'd you guys

go do you remember it's called the big hunt oh yeah they that's awesome they do a bunch of really good shows there too really yeah yeah uh underground comedy dc has a ton of shows around here michael che just did like three nights there actually chated three nights at the big hunt that's cool yeah i don't know if he was supposed to like because i think he was at the draft house and then they're like hey maybe like monday through wednesday you could do uh underground comedy a big hunt and uh yeah yeah you should do it if you ever come back it's a really cool room that sounds great what i did it does sound great but i'm saying like

the only other place i've performed here is the kennedy center yeah right which i don't think i could do three nights and sell it out you could do a friday saturday there i don't know i don't think that's how it works yeah i gotta invite you yeah okay i hear you but i have or have your friend john have a great television show yeah but yeah if uh yeah if you ever want to drop through the big hunt i think uh you'd be more than welcome well that sounds great yeah that does sound great that's what i like to do okay yeah i'll uh i'll get you all the info uh after the podcast if you're let's do it right now you want to do it right now let's make his name sean joyce let's throw out some numbers yeah let's see when you're available let's get the flights booked yeah keep the mics running

definitely um yeah so so you're in a better spot now oh my god yeah no it's great like i mean my career i'm happy with it again for the first you know it's waves yeah my career's over right oh my god i'm back on track yeah like it's all over right like getting snl's to be like oh this is insane and then like a year later it's like oh that's over what the fuck happened but that was getting fired off that show was the best thing that ever happened to my stand-up comedy yeah like by far because i it would just like lit it's like this like part of my brain that was like i'm gonna i have to show them i get the world like if you just watch saturday night live and that's all you knew about me you would be like

oh like i must not be that funny right so i was like i need to put out some some fucking great stand-up to prove like no no i am funny it's just a fucking that i just didn't work out there yeah and so i toured for like seven months and put out my first album which i love a lot yeah this is cool right yeah it's called this is cool right yeah and uh and it's different than what i'm doing now it's much more early you know the first seven years of my stand-up kind of mixed into it versus what i'm doing now it's much more like real uh-huh not a lot of personal voices running around yeah uh yeah i i remember like when vine first came out that's where i was introduced to you oh i was like i was like oh this guy's hilarious he just works at some lab and fucks with his friend craig oh yeah divine was great

back in like 2013 yeah exactly yeah now it's like total garbage i don't even look at it lord of the flies where like yeah all the kids it's just run by all of these weirdos yeah and it's all like hey here's a racist thing yeah and like yeah bitches be like and you're like ah yeah i know i loved vine but it was when i was a biomedical engineer yeah and had a lot of free time yeah you had apparently at a job you just didn't give a fuck about no i did not care about it all yeah like i didn't i didn't even know you did stand-up i just thought you were a hilarious dude that worked in a lab and then like kind of caught fire with six second videos yeah i got snl off fine yeah um no i know, I think I did audition with some characters I thought of for Vine.

Oh, really? Really? I think actually only one, which is a character we wrote a sketch about, too. Which one? It was called The Shy Bodybuilder. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

He was really embarrassed to pose. And he's just super ripped. He's like, no, guys. Yeah, he's a bodybuilder. And they're like, you have to pose. And he's just super ripped. He's like, yeah, he's a bodybuilder. And they're like, you have to pose. And he's like,

no, no, like you have to. And then he would do it and be really embarrassed. So did you, uh, did you enjoy Vine? Did it actually like kind of get you any notoriety or anything?

I don't know. I was, I was early on it. Yeah. Um, and it was just i enjoy creating yeah yeah i have the same thing yeah even if you're just making like a six second video or now like a minute long video for instagram if it's like the dumbest idea or like silliest thing at least it's like oh i put this out it's kind of funny yeah i made a vine for the first time i like downloaded it.

I had to re-download it because I just thought of a funny thing. Yeah. And I Vined. And then I looked. I was like, yeah, I hadn't Vined since 2013 or something. Damn.

But it was fine. Getting back in the game. No, I'm back. Get some sponsored content. One every three years. This is cool. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it'll be like a meteor or something like that.

Like, oh, Brooks is going to Vine soon. Brooks is going to Vine sometime. It'll probably have something to do like a meteor or something like that like yeah brooks is gonna vine soon probably have something to do with a knife or something yeah uh yeah there was some uh because i was looking at a few the other day that i used to watch there's one i forget her name but it's this woman and her daughter and she usually gets her daughter to say like goofy shit that's great and uh and yeah i hadn't looked at in a while and then i looked at it yesterday because i wanted to send somebody a vine of theirs. And I was going through it. And they have a bunch of sponsored vines.

Like her caption was like, here's all the stuff you can do with the Comcast X1 Infinity remote. Yeah, no, I know. I have friends who. That's fucking weird, isn't it? It's all that matters. Yeah. What? I just started. i was so anti doing commercials and just like just such like a you know like like i'm not a punk guy but like just diy that's like fuck clubs i'm gonna put on my own shows at the auto bar and stuff like that like yeah

and i just turned 30 and i'm like i don't give a shit anymore yeah i want that house in wyoming yeah however i get it that is literally what it was i was like you know what it was was pepsi hit me up to go to the sasquatch music festival okay and interview a band yeah and then you do lollapalooza and then okay so yeah so i was a little like oh i just i don't like taking money from these huge corporate sponsors yeah um but then i was like what am i talking about i love music festivals yeah went and did it it was so fun yeah it's not like they're asking you to be like a wacky salesman yeah i just got to go hang out and it was so great and they just filmed it and put together like a vlog essentially and then they had me come then do it at lollapalooza and after that i was like oh you guys can own me yeah i'll change my name to pepsi

i don't i don't care i don't know i'm over i'm over uh trying yeah i i mean also too like it's such a like if somebody told you when you first started stand-up like hey like pepsi is gonna pay for you to go to music festivals and hang out essentially you'd be like that's fucking great no i would have been in college and been like fuck pepsi i wanted to do it for mountain dew because i really do love mountain dew really yeah and i i and pepsi's they're fucking sending me all these things they're great um but uh i told my manager because this is gonna sound great this is me being stupid okay this right after snl i was like oh i'll just go be a movie star. Not happening. Well, what to do now? Yeah, exactly.

Be a movie star. But these people hit me up to like, will you wear our shirt? Some brand I'd never heard of. They're like, we'll give you like $20,000. Wow. And I was like, I'll do it for $200,000. Just to be like.

Just upping it. I'm like, I'll do it. But if I'm going to sell out, I really need to be, it's got to be insane i got they were basically just like you can go fuck yourself okay and then my manager was like why did you say no to that you know and i was like i don't i just i want to do stuff i really like and she's like what do you like and i was like mountain dew and leica cameras. She's like, Brooks, you're fired. She's like, so hillbilly juice or a very expensive German camera

that has really no sales. I mean, not sales, but has not really any advertising, especially that you would be involved. Yeah, people are like, oh, the Leica. Yeah, it's got some heat. That idiot over there has a Leica. That guy drinking Mountain Dew. Yeah. Oh, man, if you could get me in a Leica Mountain yeah. It's got some heat. That idiot over there has a Leica. That guy drinking Mountain Dew.

Yeah. Oh, man. If you could get me in a Leica Mountain Dew commercial. Oh, boy. When I'm not drinking Dew, I'm shooting with my Leica. I'm taking pictures of Mountain Dew. Yeah. I bought a Leica camera, my first one, the day before I got fired off SNL.

And it's so expensive. Oh, my God. It was the saddest. Oh, no. I i had to return it and be like i just lost my job i can't i gotta move to la and buy a car did you tell them that when you were returning yeah were they like okay yeah are you they're like they're like shit i didn't have it that long i was like i know yeah like not even a full day basically i i i called and asked the return policy yeah i had for seven i was gonna play with this thing oh nice yeah that's cool so did you get some good

pictures out of it i did and i re-bought it okay which was like i felt cool it took it was about a year and a half later where i re-bought it uh-huh i mean okay my career's back on track yeah i can afford this stupid thing yeah and then it felt good rebuying it yeah yeah it's like a little milestone more than okay i'm back to where i was like emotionally and i feel career-wise yeah because going through that year of snl like from what i hear and it's just a nightmare even if you're still on the show like it's just so hard adjusting to that culture and then like trying to get stuff on is so fucking hard it's just it took it took me a while yeah i started well. And the first four episodes, I got two things on. And then I didn't get anything on for 10 episodes.

That's a long time, right? That is a long time. Yeah. And then in the final, I guess, seven shows, I got like six things to dress or something, which I was like, okay. it took me it was a learning curve i'd never written a sketch right you've been on television yeah and you weren't like a character guy either but if you did characters they're like silly stuff it wasn't like here's

my jesse ventura but i'm saying like yeah it just took me a while and i was like i just i remember thinking like okay if like lauren looks at this as like brooks is figuring it out i'll stay but if he just looks at like stats yeah i'm gonna go oh shit yeah like just numbers on the board as far as like sketches what did he but but like not like no towards the end of the year he was kind of coming into it. Gotcha. But, you know, it's a show where you got to hit the ground running, man. Yeah. I don't fault them for, you know, firing me. I'm not mad at them.

They let me tour. They hired me. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the experience is still really cool. I'm sorry. You probably talked about this a million times.

No, I think I haven't talked about it in a while because I tried to really steer clear of it because I didn't want to be the dude from snl yeah right right um but yeah and also i'm in a place where like when actually traumatic things happen it puts everything in perspective gotcha and like when my engagement ended i was like oh i don't care about saturday night live yeah and then it's just like oh yeah that was this is the thing that does suck this real life thing yeah this real life is falling apart real life thing um really really puts uh that uh sketch show in perspective a little sketch show because that's what it is essentially yeah sketch show yeah it's not it's a big sketch it's a big sketch show but uh yeah like like important things right right i was like oh i can't believe i was tore up about that this is way worse yeah gotcha yeah i when we did that show in baltimore because

i did a bit about chris katan because i didn't have didn't have the best time with him and uh and uh uh didn't have the best time and then uh you went on stage and you're like hey that's my friend and i was like oh he's like doing a bit and then you're like yeah he's my friend that's what you do you do a bunch of coke you do snl and i was like oh yeah well you like kept coming back to it and i was like is this a bit this is a bit he's not really friends with chris katan is he i don't know yeah then afterwards you're like dude it's it's fine yeah it was a bit yeah i was like thank god i think you were talking you were just like this guy did this yeah and i went up and i was like you don't know what it's like yeah uh yeah but it was a bit but i met Ketan and he's been nice. Several people have said that.

But other people, I've gotten like the same story. Sure. That he's a big fan of the cocaine, if you will. No. I mean, I went through like a year where I was. And then I was like, oh, I'm the saddest boy in the world. Was that before after snl uh before okay yeah yeah i've never like my parents were alcoholics and drug addicts and stuff

so like the best thing that could happen isn't it great it really i tell you what puts that hole in your heart you got to get on stage to fill it you know uh uh but i so it like coke was pretty bad for my biological dad so i've just never fucked with it oh yeah no i i'm uh fully just like never again uh-huh it may it's just like i already have enough anxiety right and uh and deal with you know depression and the like the come down the next day is pretty rough right because like all your your synapses and neurons are fried. It just really bummed me out. Gotcha. Yeah.

I was living in a party house in Los Angeles. It was like a mansion with 11 people. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And those guys had a show. It's called Power Violence. Power Violence, yeah. And those weren't the guys I was doing. But I just remember seeing a modern comedian,

that thing that Scott Moran had on YouTube, and they did one on Power Violence. I lived in that house. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. It seems like it'd be easy to party there. It was very easy to party there.

Is that the same time you were working as the... Biomedical engineer. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. And when I got SNL. to party there is at the same time you were working as the uh biomedical engineer yeah yeah of course yeah and when i got snl that's amazing man yeah i was only in that house a year but that was like uh that was a whirlwind yeah seems like it so yeah it was like half comedians and then half just really cool vagabondy people uh-huh i think at one point there was like 13 people living in the house like two like two dogs right two um they got these like uh i don't even they were like rottweilers they got two rottweilers they kept them in the basement uh and i was like oh man somebody should take these dogs for a walk and the guy who wanted

him to go he was like no they're so mean don't go near them i was like oh no wow and they're just in the basement waiting to kill yeah he's like i remember there was like a house meeting where he was like heads up the dogs got me my dogs that are lurking in the basement the dogs are mean now so just watch out they're very mean and worse they have a taste for blood yeah they they want more yes exactly oh man that was funny we would have to like have i've never lived in a place where you have to have house meetings yeah i was gonna say that how gross was this house like it was it couldn't be that clean right i had my own room in my own bathrooms oh that's amazing i had a real safe space gotcha

gotcha yeah bathroom i imagine would be gnarly if it was shared no yeah yeah and the house is still going on i call it saved by the bell the new cast right right the college years yeah i don't know who lives in there anymore i actually wrote and sold a show to ifc about it really yeah that's awesome um and it was it was called blowing it it was about my uh it was about my year yeah moving in that house gotcha just immediately that's a great title devolving right as a human being it was great it was a really great concept i mean if i say so myself but i wanted to make i watched like the entourage movie i haven't i still haven't seen well i'm saying like i watch it as a joke gosh yeah i used to watch the show but i just the movie i couldn't do but i was just

like they're not showing the part where these guys are crying alone yeah they're just like we're on top of the world it's all great no you nobody parties that hard and is that age and does not yeah at some point look in the mirror and go oh fuck what the fuck am i doing yeah that's how blowing it like opened with like me yeah i'm staring in a mirror crying and uh and then i like walked out and was like like you know just like sniffing and like cover my like wiping your eyes my eyes and like my roommates were like were you were you just crying and i'm like no i was doing coke alone in my room and they're all like oh cool good we thought you were a fucking asshole for a second worried about you yeah yeah i was like

that sort of dark humor it was fun it was really fun yeah um yeah i was gonna have john benjamin play a guy who lived on the couch that'd be perfect i mean he was so fun he's we shot this other pilot that was so funny called biker bar for adult swim uh-huh it's so funny that didn't go i've been on a lot of stuff that didn't go that sucks well you're in the game still fine yeah yeah but uh just that guy is the funniest person in the world. So funny. I remember he told a story. I think it was on Conan where he was in France one time or something like that.

And he was at a bar and some guy thought he was Bruce Willis. And so he just ran with it. And he's like, the guy was hitting on me. Or something like that. And then they were leaving the bar and they're both fucking wasted and the guy kissed him and he let him because he's like it's so funny that this guy's gonna be like i made out with bruce willis and then the guy the guy basically insinuated like let's go back to my place and he was like i really had to think about how hard i want to commit to this bit like would i have sex with this guy just so he could be like i had sex

with bruce willis he's like i couldn't commit that hard oh that's so funny he he burned me so hard one time it was so funny yeah he we were shooting the show in brooklyn so i would ride the train out and then we didn't live that far away in manhattan and then he would give me a lift home oh that's cool but uh he one time where i lived on like third and d and we were on like first and a or something like that and i was like you just drop me off here and he's like no no i'll take you all the way home you know and i was yeah i was like well i know it's cool i have my skateboard he goes oh yeah i forgot you're super fucking annoying just dry just i forgot how annoying you were yeah and then did

you skateboard away yeah i was like all right i'll see you later man let's get home yeah you got me yeah yeah i uh i heard too uh i forget what uh interview it was but you were uh talking about like going to snL and having no ideas and you're like, I would just ride my skateboard on Tuesday and you're like, what's a good skateboard sketch? Oh yeah, I would skate to work every day that was fun yeah, I was always trying to skateboard

I was skating around the office all the time it was very fun Kyle Mooney is a good skater and so is Tim Robinson they're both better so is Tim Robinson. They're both better skaters. Oh, really? Tim Robinson.

I think he had, did he have an episode of The Eight or whatever that was on Netflix? Characters. Yeah, characters. God, yeah. It was so funny. His episode was great. The Pointer Brothers. Pointer Brothers.

I mean, that's all just stuff he brought to SNL that they said no to. It's so good, though. It's so funny watching tim's characters i was like yeah well i remember i remember some of those being read at the table and being like no and i'm like this is the funniest things i've ever seen yeah it was that the was that really frustrating for you like did you have ideas that were not i don't know not mainstream but stuff that was like a little bit weirder that they're always like i mean i had a mostly only

weird ideas gotcha uh yeah because that's all i know right right and a lot of stuff i had four different sketches that were going to be the final sketch of the night yeah that were cut for time and that was rough usually those are the best too because they are the weirdest yeah they were the weirdest they were like one was like me and jimmy fallon were playing the people who captured king kong but in the movie king kong they capture him and then he's on Broadway. Yeah. And we were the pitch guys about bringing him to like, we've got your next smash hit. And the guy's like, ooh, what is it? And we're like, we just found a big monkey. Yeah.

And the whole time. What's the plan? Just got to put him on stage. We're going to put up with these. Does he dance? Like, no, we're just going to chain him up. He'll stand there. And the whole time I'm wearing a neck brace, not talking.

Right. And he's like, what's up with your friend here and he's like uh well he belongs to kong he's with him he's kong owns him and then i'm just like he'll murder us all the guy's like what did he say no and then jimmy fallon goes he said he'll murder us all that's great yeah and then it was taryn and taryn was like oh i thought you would cover that up he goes oh yeah probably should have covered that up a lot of funny yeah and then at the end of the sketch kong roars and he's like go see what he wants and i put on lipstick and say i know what he wants oh man see that would have been great yeah i was that was the christmas episode that's probably the that That one and the Shy Bodybuilders one.

Yeah. That was tough not to get on. Damn. And then there was another one where it was me and Kenan Thompson who just played barbecue. It was a barbecue talk show. We were just eating barbecue the whole time. And that got cut?

Did you do that in dress? We were supposed to be on air. That one's on hulu it's called touch of heat oh nice but it's like from dress to air you cut like two minutes from your sketch because you see what doesn't work right right right so i think it would have been great on air but the five minute version on hulu i'm like there's some there's some real duds in there there's some moments that could be cut yeah gotcha yeah i think it was like nine pages address and we cut it to like six for air right so the nine page version is online i'm like i really wish that six page version was on hulu

some of these were not really knocking out of the park yeah we're just trying to figure it out here guys uh but uh but, just stuff like that. But yeah, that all sounds great, man. Yeah, just like phone calls coming in and we're like, oh, come on, Carlos. You know we can't answer the phones right now. Our hands is covered in barbecue sauce. Yeah. Great.

It was very funny. Yeah. And I think Andrew Garfield came in as uh i don't remember what his name was but he had the mesquite madness which is he's just a crazy person gotcha like oh lord he's got mesquite madness just it's all these like something you get from eating too much barbecue or like bad barbecue or something he was uh animal rights activists were back were picketing his his uh barbecue shop but he's like not for anything inside the shop i was just mean to some ducks that's great yeah just like yeah all left turns yeah and to where the crowd is like what is this yeah what is happening is it just

them fucking around about barbecue yeah yeah that's it just kept eating barbecue and all the buttons would get stuck that's great and then it has to be surreal too to be like and then andrew garfield walks in that guy's great he's really cool yeah we're most of the hosts cool every host was cool it was it was just very weird to go from being like a biomedical engineer to like meeting the most famous people in the world right and realizing like they're so chill yeah they're just like hey like oh hi hi drake hey drake was like my favorite really yeah yeah he seems like a nice guy i'm very i guess he was like no he was so nice he was like we should be friends and i was like that's up to you man yeah i'm open yeah i'm available. I will answer a Drake call. I don't know if this goes the other way.

I don't know if you'll answer a Brooks Whelan call. Yeah. But if you want to, I'll trade you some numbers. Sure. I'd love to have it. Yeah. Man, but yeah, I think that you did do the right thing. Like, even your tweet was really funny, too.

The fired from new york oh yeah i remember seeing that i thought of that in like week two i'm ready for this i'm ready when this happens i need that tweet that tweet was in the uh drafts yeah i tweeted um like as soon as before they i got the call like hey you're not coming back because it has to be a shitty thing too because all summer you're like i don't know and it's like the week before basically or a couple weeks before it was weird i was with i was with my girlfriend at the time and we were walking i mean it's just such a fucking burned into my fucking memory yeah like oh my god right it's real somber yeah it was that it was on houston and it was just so somber and

then i tweeted that fired from new york it's saturday night and uh uh that blew the fuck up yeah it's like oh boy but i think that that actually worked to your uh advantage it did it very much did my manager at first was like i don't know man like uh and then like later she was like that was really smart yeah yeah because yeah i remember seeing on like all the blogs it got retweeted a bunch like i don't i don't think anybody's ever taken that angle like normally yeah they're normally like fuck like and then they just kind of go off the grid for a bit i immediately went the next day announced that brookselan falls back on stand-up comedy. Which was really, really smart.

Yeah, I was like, I just got to own this. Yeah, and a great title, too. Yeah. Because, I mean, that's what you were anyway, is a stand-up. And now that you've got your name out there. Exactly. Yeah, and then I talked about SNL a little bit on my album. I don't talk about it right now.

Because I don't want to be the dude who talks about it but i was thinking about in my next hour like talking about like achieving your ultimate goal and like failing trying to make that funny right figure out an angle was that a goal of yours though to be on snl not it goes away it is everybody's when they're little right right you know right but i mean like when you started stand-up it wasn't like i'm gonna do this and then i'm gonna audition well i started doing stand-up because that's how adam sandler got on saturday night live oh i didn't know that he was a stand-up and i was like okay i'll just start stand-up and then i got so into stand-up right right well i mean i knew uh adam sandler was a stand-up and that's how i got on

but i didn't know like that was a goal of of yours well it was when i was like 19 20 21 is that when you started stand-up yeah gotcha and then i was like moved to la and saw how great other people were at characters right and was like oh that's not for me yeah and so i wasn't chasing it at all gotcha and then i got to audition and i was like holy shit yeah and that was just like accidental and i didn't even take it serious i mean i really didn't do you think that works for you though yes it has to like i've noticed that with stand-up or improv or whatever you do like you have to walk a line of caring but not caring too much it's almost if you you lean the other way of not caring it's gonna go way better it just depends on your style too like

if you're a joke writer yeah if you're like a jimmy car very like buttoned down kind of formal be very formal but if you're you're a guy that seems to be like in the moment too and like enjoys riffing and fucking around yeah i was riffing last i riff last night yeah like a bit that i thought of walking on the stage to like i don't know how many people like 2500 people and then just like mumbling about i forget what i was riffing and then i realized like no one knows what i'm talking about because in the back of the kennedy center it's all these yeah it's all these maestros or whatever they're called mm-hmm and I was talking about how like they have so many photos of wizards

back there like people yeah that have like trained their whole lives and went to like music no but I'm saying they're all holding the little stick okay I got you guys look like wizards okay I got you and then and then I realized no one in the in this audit this giant theater knows what i'm talking about these thousands of people yeah i've not seen i've not been in my dressing room our frame of reference a little different i was like okay if you guys were just personally with me you would love that joke did that get a reaction uh i think i don't think i said that i think okay you know what maybe don't do don't open up with stuff no one knows about brooks right let's do written material and that

got a reaction like okay he knows okay he's aware that that what the fuck was that he's aware that what the fuck was that yeah and we just had that experience downstairs where i'm gonna probably do that joke tonight about i had you take a photo with me with a really old lady who didn't know we were taking photos yeah you guys look like a cute couple though that's what i'm saying yeah you guys look good um and i'm gonna riff on that i don't know yeah well the uh the walmart thing yeah i took a photo of a guy one time in walmart who's checking me out who just i was like my brothers have to see how crazy this person looks yeah this guy just put on a walmart jacket does he actually work here i

don't know it was he looked insane yeah and people of walmart used to be one of my favorite blogs yeah and i went to take a photo like acting like i was like texting and then the uh i didn't have my phone on silent photo noise and the guy was just like looked at me and then i just put the phone to my ear and i go hello that's your ringtone hi yeah yeah okay all right well let me call you back let me call you back and the phone starts ringing oh what oh man these iphone that's how it's taking a photo yeah i just updated it this thing is so it's wonky yeah i've got this bit right now where i throw my phone across the stage oh really yeah and i've broken it so many fucking times. That makes sense. I got it fixed yesterday. Uh-huh. And the guy was like, do you want a case? And I'm like, no.

Like, I'm such an idiot. He's like, it's free. No, I don't need it. No, I like the sleekness. Yeah, I do too. Yeah, I don't have a case. I like it. Yeah, but also don't throw it across the stage.

That too. Yeah, yeah. Maybe not use your real phone for that like get a that would then then who am i right yeah carrot top yours let me get my prop phone but you know what i have been doing you have a huge trunk with just one phone in it my favorite thing i have been doing that i really love yeah but it i have to have it set up which is tough is um i've been doing post set press conferences because uh the nba finals i'm like that's bullshit they get to like talk about what went right and wrong yeah yeah what they're gonna do next time i want to do that yeah for your set after my set yeah pull out a table and get a gatorade and sit down that's amazing

open up the floor to questions. Yeah. You come out in a suit. Yeah. And it's like, yeah. And it is so fun. God, that's great. Yeah. It'd be great too, to have a footage of your set too. And then have somebody with like the yellow, like John Madden, like pen circling, like, what was this? What was this face? Well, I talk about the joke, you know, it's very in the mode. I'm like, well, you guys really didn't, you know, slow start, but really got really, you know, got on board with that about the joke. It's very in the mode. I'm like, oh, you guys really didn't. It's a slow start, but really got on board with that Red Lobster joke. Appreciate that. Shouldn't have opened up with that Maestro Wizard thing.

Sometimes you just come out. You're not thinking right. You're excited. Yeah. I think if we just calm down, next show, we're going to be right in the pocket the whole time. I was like, the breakup stuff is pretty fresh. Maybe not time for the crowd to go home, work on that a little bit more. Come back, maybe a little less sad.

Maybe my hands won't shake when I tell it in a month. Yeah, I won't be choking back tears. Yeah. Stuff like that. Maybe I won't go halfway in the middle of it. Yeah. Well, but yeah, we uh kind of wrap up here pretty soon but um but yeah so yeah so things are good though you said yeah man i'm in like

the best place mentally i've been in uh since october really yeah yeah because that's when the split happened and i'm just like i've just finally like agreed like i just i came to terms with it uh-huh okay that's done which is a really nice place to be yeah and then not have to feel like dependent on somebody else and then kind of be like oh like i'm excited just to be me or whatever i bet i'll be dependent on a new i'll i'm like a relationship dude. Yeah. I will quickly just be like... Yeah, I am too.

I need someone around all the time. I can't be alone. Absorb my sadness. No, no, no. Let's go on trips. That's the thing is I just like to go on so many trips. Yeah. And guy friends are like, dude, no, i gotta work i'm like come on just come to

hawaii it'll be fun yeah i went out to uh la recently and did some shows out there and two buddies came with me went to la for four days went to tulum mexico for three and then we went to cuba for four days whoa yeah it was awesome what i'm talking about it was really cool man yeah i call it running away from my problems. Yeah. Especially Cuba, because there's no Wi-Fi. There's no cell service. You're off the fucking map.

Oh, I won't go there. I got to gram, dog. You got... I mean, you can gram. You know, your TBTs will be really fresh. Oh, I don't use any hashtags, my bro. No? No hashtags? No hashtags, unless Papa Pepsi tells me to.

Papa Pepsi. Double B. Yeah. Papa Pepsi's like, hey, will you hashtag that? Last day, I'm like, me to. Papa Pepsi. Double B. Yeah. Papa Pepsi's like, hey, will you hashtag that last day? I'm like, whatever you say, Pepsi. Yes, Papa. Of course. All right.

Well, I mean, you could put them just out on a Thursday. This happened. I don't do throwbacks. I don't do it. I don't do it. No flashback Fridays? I don't follow any rules. Bad boy Brooks Whelan.

No hashtags. Just loves social media, media though just super addicted to instagram oh yeah give me them likes baby oh yeah sweet sweet likes uh what was i gonna say oh i used to work at papa john's in high school and one day when i wasn't working the real papa john like swung in to be like hey what's up how's it going what like let me check out this and i wish i could say it didn't devastate me but you didn't get to meet the papa yeah yeah like at school the next day they're like my friends who work they were like dude papa john came in the store i was like what dude papa john dudes you didn't think to call me that would have been so funny to show up like brooks are you

working no i'm not papa's in the house what's up papa i'm the papa of this place i used to i used to prank call the papa johns i worked at from the bathroom because i would know yeah names right who we'd ordered the pizzas from and we our prank calls were just so dumb yeah i would just be like hello this is like frank henderson i ordered pizza about two hours ago it came just i rarely complain but there was a used condom on it i rarely listen i we ate around it but i feel like a free slice would be nice just one yeah look because it was it look i love safe sex okay but not what you're making the pizzas i get it yeah it was just so like of course there was not

a used condom but he knows all of these things right right right like the exact toppings i mean also they're probably like where's brooks yeah let's do a head count here although sometimes i would just answer the phone i mean and i and I'd be like, hello? And they'd be like, what? Hello? And they're like, is this Papa John's? I go, he doesn't live here. And then I'd hang up. Like if I just didn't want to make pizzas.

That's amazing. He does not live here. Stop calling. That's great. That job didn't last super long. Really? I quit, actually. I was really good at making pizzas and i thought when i went in to quit they would be like we're gonna give you a raise pizza god's leaving yeah and uh i was like i'm gonna quit and they go all right

you're not gonna fight me on this at all 5 15 an hour is not a lot yeah no it's not that was minimum wage in iowa was 515 an hour holy fuck yeah so i would jesus i would work so much and then uh make so little and then buy an xbox game and be like ah i'm out of money now the grind continues yeah i worked at uh i worked at alito's pizza growing up and uh my dad was the manager there and i used to get my friends jobs there all the time and then most of them would fuck it up and i'm like yeah you guys know like my dad is this is it like but i had friends that would like work there that would like shit on the floor in the bathroom

the best part was the bathroom was so close to the kitchen and it's like guys we smell like it's hilarious but the joke is mostly on us like we're smelling the shit one time oh my god i worked at a at a movie theater that like my friend tony was the manager and tony was only a year older than me and i was a senior in high school and he was just like 19 right and we quickly just turned that place we ruined it and it had to become the shitty dollar theater oh wow but there was a guy who worked there we called mr x because he carved x's into the back of his hands. Whoa. Yeah. We're all black, never talked. He sounds chill.

But we just loved talking to Mr. X. Yeah. Super fun. Because he was just like, never talk, and then one word answers. And one day, the movie theater shared a, it was attached to a Joanne Fabrics. Right. And you could get on the roof through the projection area.

Yeah. And one day, there was a giant anarchy symbol sprayed across on top from the roof down over like joann fabrics and we had to have like a meeting where they were like okay someone sprayed an anarchy symbol over on Joanne Fabrics and they work here. Now we can't, we don't know who did it. Everyone's just like, like Mr. X is just like

dead eyed. Like of course he did it. We don't know who did it. We're thinking it's the guy who carves X's on his hands. Who wears all black all the time. He has black fingernails polish on. Also,

as soon as he leaves work, he always has anarchy symbols on his shirts. But we don't know who did it. Can't prove anything. So we're just going to have to

scrub that off. And Mr. X, if you could do that, that'd be great. No, you don't want to? Okay. Deal. Deal. That had to be pretty amazing, though, and uh mr x if you could do that that'd be great no you don't want to okay deal deal uh that that had to be pretty amazing though that your manager is just somebody that's a year older than you oh my god it's gotta be easy to just fuck off and do nothing full mayhem yeah this is the funnest

job i've ever had that's great man um but but stand-up's pretty good everything's good everything's good yeah like i'm like it's just like i'm in a positive place that's great man well yeah i really appreciate you uh taking the time to do this dude yeah oh well thanks for coming over yeah thanks for inviting me to your four seasons hotel yeah it's it's this is very rare i'll slum it over here i guess a little bit with you you just like move in yeah you got room i mean you got a couch right dude is that is that cool that's cool right absolutely man don't leave me alone yeah you want to like talk or hang out let's just like watch tv dude yeah okay that's cool if we cry that that's okay i won't comment on it you don't comment on my crying yeah i know

just be two dudes what did i what did i cry to last it was always on planes i think it was the good dinosaur uh was that the is that the one where it's our man yeah yeah pixar's they make movies i'm on an airplane yeah the movie has the right song to the right images i'm crying i remember i finished the grapes of wrath on an air on a flight to amsterdam one time and it's so shocking at the end yeah i haven't read it i'm not going to spoil it for anybody but it's absolutely the most shocking right thing you could ever imagine i'm getting sad thinking about it i burst out like with a full like oh like just started crying so hard and the woman next to me was like everyone starts it no one finishes it it's so sad oh man yeah how was the rest of that plate

was that good oh that was rough jesus christ yeah uh okay what do you uh what do you want to plug uh for people to uh to check out the the the tweets the instagrams no i don't i don't really care okay uh i'm gonna be i'm touring florida right okay when is that florida in september five days five shows brookswheeling.com broelan.com, which is more of a travel website than a comedy website. Right. Yeah. I'm just leaning hard one way. Yeah.

I mean, they're great pictures, man. But yeah, that's my website. And I don't know. I'll do Big Cunt. Yeah. Is that why they named it that? Big Cunt? I assume so.

They try to have a little bit of a safari theme like on the top floor. Okay. All right. Yeah, exactly. I was like Big Hunt. Mm-hmm. Okay. A little on the nose, huh?

Is Bart Simpson calling Moe? Yeah. I need a Big Hunt. Yeah. Yeah, Brooks, thanks so much for doing the show, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah. The podcast is at DigSushPod.

I'm at Josh C kaderna on twitter and instagram uh my co-host at the mike fanazo on on twitter who could not be here and uh actually i think he did he text the question he's super professional right at the end here oh yeah let's let's see if he texted in a question because he could not be here yeah oh his his question why did you guys schedule this interview when i'm working um the answer is because i didn't want to meet him yeah yeah i i understand i understand so mike get your shit together yeah and uh david kechner take us out digression sessions come on to an end. Thank you. Oh yeah, oh yeah