The Digression Sessions - Ep. 244 - REED bmore (@ReedBmoreArtist)

Episode Date: February 19, 2018

Hola Digheads, on this week's episode, Josh and Umar sit down with street artist and designer, REED Bmore! Reed Bmore, a Baltimore street artist who operates in the medium of wire, has works hanging all around Baltimore. He designs and paints skateboards as well. We discuss how Reed got started, his focus now, and how and why to stay motivated. We also discuss Umar's successful special taping the night before! Follow the podcast and Josh Kuderna, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Josh - @JoshKuderna on Twitter and @JoshKuderna on Instagram 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 Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Laughable, Stitcher plz!

Tage Network. That's a Gotti. Alright, well hey everybody. We're just going to start. Welcome to the Digression Sessions. Josh Coderna here. No Umar yet sitting in my kitchen, but I am joined by a guest, a street artist, as the kids say,

a cool guy, as the kids say. Cool guy. The coolest guy. Reed Beemore, right? Is that just the Instagram handle, or is that like the alias? Alias. I like both of them,

just so when I do go into different cities, like they at least know where it's coming from. Right, right. That is, yeah. I think that's tight. Yeah, but Reed is just, you know, is an alia. Yeah. One of mine.

One of the many. Yeah. A.K.A. Young Reed, Lil Reed. Lil Reed. Lil Reed Smith. Yeah. So, yeah, man. Or is it okay if I call you Jay? Okay, cool. Just read. Just read me more. Read me more. Okay. Don't want it. Don't want to reveal too much. So yeah, so I first knew about your stuff just from driving around Baltimore. I'd

see like in random intersections, there'd be like the street light and then just like a weird wiry thing hanging from it and at first you're like oh that's kind of cool like a happy accident like some wire got caught on this wire and then it's like oh no that's like a design that's like a cool little guy and then in hamden my neighborhood like right on uh falls like where you come off the the exit there's like a cool little like cloud guy that's hanging there yeah yeah and i was like i love that shit man i like like a take on like so it's not just like random like spray paint everywhere or like that angry kevin guy who seems to be around a lot but it's nice to be like oh there's a little like cloud hanging from the street light like that's cool so and that's also too like nice that it's like a mix of like...

It's street art, but at the same time, you're also not vying for a ton of space. It's not like you're covering up somebody else's wire. Yeah. You know what I mean? You don't have to spray paint over anything. Until there is someone else then. Right.

Then I might have to do something. Right. Like Reed's more or something like that. Umar is here actually so i'm gonna let him in all right of course read you feel the dead air all right and we are back hey what's up how's it going dude pretty good how are you pretty loose start on this one oh yeah all right i'm gonna it's like yeah it'll probably be here like 105. You know how these street artists are, you know?

Probably loosey-goosey with the rules. Yeah. I didn't have shit to do today. No, there you go. It was the real scene. Perfect. Perfect. And I was in the neighborhood.

Ah, right on. But yeah, so yeah, we were talking, yeah, street artists. Mostly what I know you for is just kind of like the wire art. Is that what you call it? Yeah installations uh-huh you know for the most part wire straight art wire graffiti and yeah i don't know it depends on the context to be honest gotcha gotcha when did you like first get into it when did you have that idea rather well i mean i've always had the idea for for just like a few years even before because i because i used to do design work and i kind of like put down like actual artwork for a while because there's a huge difference you know right right and just like after i just kept getting like stuffy and working in a sterile

space i just kind of wanted to go out there and uh do something with something i already knew how to do and graffiti and street art or like graffiti and street art and like all those mediums you initially would go towards like spray painting and i just kind of i just didn't want to do that right right so that's why i think it's cool yeah it's you've carved out your own kind of niche as far as street art goes yeah and uh like i was saying you don't have to compete for space either it's not exactly get your fucking wire hanging out of here this is my shit read be more in this motherfucker um but that's cool so have you gotten a good reaction out of people because i i always see it i'm like oh these are cool then i point

them out to people like oh that is that's fun yeah that's cool i mean i've never really gotten a negative reaction yeah no one hangs something next to your stuff and just writes sucks like out of a wire hanger. Umar's joining us at the table. I'm here. Umar is coming off of a hot night last night. He recorded his album at the Creative Alliance. Yeah. Live taping and the album sold out. It was good. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. You feeling you feeling good feel good it feels a weird feeling i don't remember like any of it really like i wasn't i i only i uh it just was weird i was so in your head in the moment in my head and uh it was cool man thanks like just kind of surreal right it was very very surreal it was insane yeah yeah i was backstage with you last

night yeah getting you loose you know as i do and uh very nervous and uh yeah you're like i did not think i was gonna be this nervous yeah i was so nervous yeah i uh yeah but it was cool it was like insane uh it was nice man it was i don't know i don't really know what to say it was so cool and it feels weird that it's over right yeah look forward to it for so long. And you're planning and think every day for three months. Yeah. You have something to think about for it.

Yeah. It was so funny. Thanks, man. Yeah, dude. Thank you. So to have like... So initially when Umar booked it, he was like, I mean, that's a lot of tickets. I don't think I'm going to sell those tickets.

And I'm just stressing about it. And then he sold out like weeks before. 10 days before. 10 days before. and then he sold out like weeks before days before and then he's like i had a dream that no one showed up like bro you sold the tickets it's over yeah but it was like weird because like you know it happens before like every gin and jokes or people will like text me or send me like hey uh i can't make it and i was getting a couple of those and i was like fuck yeah just like just don't send those texts but the facebook event says that they're going yeah exactly right right right yeah i remember uh when wham city used to do their

open mic um ben o'brien hosted it yeah and uh he's like he's like i'm seeing some empty seats out there but um facebook uh facebook page said that we were gonna have at least 60 people and i don't see 60 people so we're just going to do a roll call. So he went to the Facebook event page, and just went through every person that said they were attending. That's awesome. That's cool. Yeah, some people didn't get in.

I felt really bad, but it's also like, what are you going to do? Yeah, it was funny. There was somebody there like, oh, Umar, so-and-so is at the counter. They say that you have tickets for them. You're like, they can buy uh so and so is at the uh counter they say that you have tickets for them you're like they can buy tickets yeah i forget it was a misunderstanding gotcha yeah yeah because we gave away i mean i gave away uh a couple of comps but you know let's try to make some uh well just trying to break even yeah it was a intense but yeah man you should feel fucking proud it's good it's fucking

good it's all around yeah there's a couple of hiccups but for the most part it was really good i had some new lines i just riff that worked yeah which is great felt good yeah it's weird yeah we were doing some uh last minute uh edits in the back here like all right what i say school shooter what should i say yeah i reference disease i'm sorry what should i say we're gonna do some audibles at the uh last minute current events fucking up some punchlines you know yeah so yeah the uh shooter became serial killer and aziz became kumail nanjiani which is fine yeah yeah then we we set it up so uh people like you know got the reference got the reference because i set it up so people got the reference

because I set it up Kumail early in the set and then put it later because a lot of people don't know who he is. But it was cool, and I could see my parents the whole time, and they were laughing. Yeah, no, your parents were dying because me and Karen were basically on the opposite side of them, so I could see them the whole time. And they were really cute after the show.

Umar was selling T-shirts that he got made, and we were by the merch table and his parents like came passing by and i could i heard umar's mom go i want to buy my son's t-shirt and i was like yeah get it she's an african what is this here oh anyway thanks for being here yeah yeah sorry man no thanks no no congrats that's awesome man honestly a sold out show that's fucking awesome yeah it was really cool yeah and the pressure of cameras and all that stuff but it was great that was the hardest part yeah is uh i was in my head about like oh like look cool you know like stan like like why are you like and then like i was sweating like crazy but i had makeup

on i didn't know if i could just wipe my fucking i thought i thought about that it wasn't like distracting i could see like that it was that you were like had like a little bit of a sheen on your forehead but it wasn't a lot it's a bummer that's just i think it's unavoidable i don't know there are some comics who can do specials where they don't sweat yeah or they pause they do like cannibal is like we got to take a minute. Or I think the director more so is like, you look like you just got out of the shower. We got to pat you down, dude. Hannibal, one of his specials, like, in the movie.

The one in Minnesota. Dude, he just, like, there's spots on his shirt. Like, he should do shirt changes, too, because, god, dude. Also, I feel like that would fuck up your continuity, too, for people that record two shows in one night. You have a big under-titty sweat mark in one shot, and then it's gone in the next. Yeah, we almost fucked up continuity last night because we did the shoot,

and then they wanted to do just a walk-in scene, but afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, hey, I want to sell these shirts. Can someone just have a shirt around? And they and they're like yeah we'll throw it up on the on the stool and we were like no don't do that because then it would fuck up everything right right right i was scared like the lights were gonna turn off like the battery because

all those lights on the setup were battery powered oh my god i mean there were new batteries but we're just like god it would just suck so much dick if they turned off yeah yeah absolutely or if that thing just fell on me that was the scariest yeah it was uh six pallets you had behind you like wood pallets damn yeah anyway it looked cool but you look really cool and i got to see the opening shot that they shot of you and it looks badass it's crazy so it makes umar just look like a real dude like it should you know how like on specials the guy like walks in and they're like whoa holy shit and there's the shot of him like walking behind and then on stage no hologram yeah so we had to yeah we had to shoot uh we like i'm a part of the team now i was on the god mic so i was on the team

um so they had to shoot that after umar performed so he's like he was done it was like yeah all right good night and then i have to come on the mic like behind the stage i'm like stay in your seats please we need to shoot additional material and it was a while because like i didn't know where they were they didn't know where i was yeah and uh josh cone i think he was really like just like dude we gotta get these fucking people out of here yeah yeah yeah well sherwin the director he was really just like, dude, we got to get these fucking people out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, Sherwin, the director, he was in my ear. He's like, so I already went up to the God mic, and I'm like, that was great.

Give it up for Omar Khan. Did you guys have a good time? Like, yeah. Like, all right, just a reminder, just stay seated. They just have to shoot a couple things, and Sherwin is in my ear. He's like, so what we're going to do is we're going to have the dolly come around,

and then I'm like, do I? Should I be saying what? And then I was like, it'll just be a minute. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was good, man.

It was, uh, so crazy. It's a weird feeling. So now what are you going to do now that you don't have any material after this? That's, that's what my always thing is like after I'm done setting up for like a big thing. I know. That's so much time to kill. And just like, what the fuck am I going to do with my life? Well, that's what feels weird.

It's like, I don't have any new jokes. You spend like three months, you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, like those jokes you've been doing, I've been doing for years. Yeah. Some of them are, yeah. And some of them are like at least four or five. Four years old.

Yeah. Yeah. And now I'm just like, I don't know what the fuck to do. So we'll see. Yeah. I i gotta write new shit yeah do you feel that way after you do like a big installation or like art show do you have a feeling at the end of it of like oh i that was everything i could do i suck like i mean that's that's how i okay like like oh that was the pinnacle of my talent no it's just like there's

been so many things like that kind of where i've just like dug myself out and try to find platforms to keep climbing just like after a while you just think it's like all bullshit yeah and you just got to do it because you just love doing it yeah yeah it sucks you know what i mean like yeah you know no that's how that's how it is with stand-up too it's like you're working on a new bit and you're like this sucks i hate myself this is terrible and then eventually it just starts to kind of click you just and you're like okay it's just a part of it doesn't suck that much do you work constantly or you just kind of take it casually i take well i used to work constantly yeah and then like you know i got like a nine to five and i'm kind of doing casually and yeah i mean you

have to understand like what i do i mean it gets kind of boring sometimes just constantly doing it uh-huh you know but like in that like i always feel some solace by returning back to it because it's something that like i never lose you know yeah yeah so i i guess like in that whole like aspect like i mean just pacing myself like really just not to burn myself out you know because there's been times where i just like don't do shit for like a month yeah half does that feel good or uh i mean like no it doesn't it never does like but there's like that weird anxiety that you always get about returning to your work and it's just like having to start something and not knowing how to like finish it but like you just have to like fucking boom you just have to go you know what i mean you just have to do it sorry my dog is a motivational speaker he's like the gary v of dogs working at one world no okay so funny thing is i used to yeah uh i actually interviewed chris hudson

for one of the people who did that yeah now he's like the oldest person they're working on one of the oldest people that's so funny how long ago was that that was like a year and a half ago but yeah that story i used to serve um this man over here uh coffee yeah between the hours of like nine and ten o'clock yeah when reed first got here it's like oh yeah so you know umar because you mentioned you're like oh i've met him a couple times and he's like yeah i used to serve him coffee. Like, that sounds about right. Yeah, yeah, because I used to write my, I was in grad school. It was my last year, and I used to go write my reports and, like, my final, like, portfolio there. I wrote almost my whole portfolio at One World.

How was the service? It was great. I could say it was shitty. No, honestly, like, you guys were nice. It's funny you bring that up, too, because every week we kind of bitch about hipster service. It's like, look, I know you're cool. I know you're busy, but come on. Give me a menu.

Let's go. So every week we talk about local business. And this past Saturday, we did a show together at Atomic. Atomic Books. I spent like a couple minutes just shitting on a local business's business. A local business's. Local businesses service. And everyone was behind it. Everyone

was in support. Even the people in the locals. Yeah, exactly. I'm not that guy. Umar was on stage and he was like, yeah, me and Josh, we both fucking hate. I'm like, hey, come on now. It's a love-h yeah so you got the nine to five now what's that yeah i make skateboards now for a living holy shit that's a pretty cool nine

to five i was about to relate i was like yeah i work for the government i have a cubicle we both have a nine to five yeah but you probably get paid way more than i do yeah that's true that's true take that hippie yeah i know yeah i'm gonna take a shower after this no that's fucking that's awesome though that you can call it nine to five like is still having an artistic outlet too yeah that's you get you get burnt out though like creatively you definitely get burnt out but sure do you design them or construct them um it's a little bit of both we run an r&d department so like we have someone who actually does r&d like research and development so like we actually have someone in there making like or pressing the pieces of ply together and cutting out the ply awesome what is

it what for a specific company or yeah what company is it uh boston longboards over in port covington nice or city garage if you ever heard City Garage. It's like right next to Sagamore. Gotcha, gotcha. Awesome. Just been doing that for about a year and a half. Dropped One World after I got that job. Hell yeah. How could that feel?

I hate the service industry. Really? It's cool. I think everybody should work in the service industry for at least one year, though. So they don't have to be a dick. Exactly. Yeah.

Exactly. I never worked in the service industry, but I'm never a dick to servers. I think it's really easy to be a dick. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. I never worked in the service industry, but I'm never a dick to servers. I think it's really easy to be nice on both and each end. It should be. But yeah, there's so many people that I see do shit like snap at people. Oh my God. Does that happen?

I worked down in Fells and that shit happened all the time. Yeah. That's more bro-centric. I imagine what happened there. I feel like the people who go to One one world it's more hippie dippy liberal progress you know so they're yeah maybe but there's also maybe those well yeah they they like snap like through their their eyes oh yeah piercing eyes like oh okay but they'll never say they're too scared they won't say anything that's the best but you'll feel it yeah just kind of a

smug smug look of like i really need my soy latte we could has anyone like uh went crazy on you at one world besides chris hudson no he's just crazy yeah reads like some guy uh kicked a hacky sack at me to get my attention man there's just one there's these one people and i swear to god because like i always i always see them downtown in the inner harbor always doing like the like the abortion protests and shit holding up the signs and shit that's awesome and then we go to one world and they're the people who bring their kids in get a tea and they sit at a table for three hours and use our internet and i'm just like and they and they are snappy like yeah you know with the eyes and i'm right that was one of the people i mean like there

was definitely reasons like you have your regulars who you love which keeps you in there and then yeah you have the fucks that really you just want them to kind of yeah go die yeah yeah and they think like the world revolves around them and oh my god you want yeah you definitely believe it but man those people and then i had someone I worked, it was a vegan restaurant. I had someone order, like, an omelet three times because it had cheese. And then at the very end, they found out that it had eggs in it. An omelet had eggs in it? Yeah, because they were going for, like, that tofu, like, whatever shit.

You know what I mean? And they didn't know how words worked. Well, because, yeah, it's a vegetarian restaurant. So they ordered, like, a tofu scramble or tofu omelet. Gotcha. Yeah, three times. And then I was like, fuck this. Fuck this.

I think that's fair. Like, really? I'm not. The kitchen's pissed off at me now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you grow up around Baltimore? I moved here about 10 years ago. I grew up in Annapolis.

Oh, right on. I grew up on Kent Island, so I spent a lot of time in Annapolis. Nice. You don't want to stay in Annapolis? No, it's a trap. Everything's a trap. Baltimore's a trap. Baltimore is a trap.

I do think that. Every place is... If you hold on to it long enough, it becomes a trap. Yeah. No matter how good it is, right? No matter how good it is. You're like, wow, I don't know. I've been in paradise 10 years. I should probably move it is, right? No matter how good it is. You're like, wow, I don't know. I've been in paradise 10 years.

I should probably move to Texas, huh? I need to go to a shittier place to get context about how all right this place is. How all right it is. There are places that are shittier. You never wanted to move to New York or anything and do art there? No.

No. It's just like all my... You know a lot of people who've tried that it's not even like i know a lot of yeah and i do know it was a lot of it was a lot of things like yeah new york and the hype but it's just people want to move up there because they think that automatically moving up there you know what i mean oh yeah they have it's like definitely the opportunities definitely all that other stuff right comics do the same thing yeah like and a lot of times people move there before they're ready oh yeah and then you're just like dude if you're not crushing it in baltimore yeah you know or your

own small town like why do you fuck with you in new york yeah you have to crush it in your own city first before you could like look like bring that around yeah but even then then there can be the trap to you wait too long as well so I'm in that one yeah well yeah I just don't want yeah we're both comfortable yeah we're too that's and that's the worst place is the

worst right is like you know like it's just because then you just think about like the sacrifices you have to give up to pursue something like that it's just like I mean I think about like the sacrifices you have to give up to pursue something like that it's just like i mean i don't want to live in a shitty place and fucking eat shitty yeah exactly yeah definitely yeah it's like no i i like having a house that's nice yeah like a yard and like just greenery and there's not people everywhere around you yeah but i mean once you pay off this spot like i mean you live in a good area i the way i find it it's like cheap enough that

and you know i'm pretty good with travel so yeah go in and out like wherever i want always come back to ballmark right two first at autobar or something right like you gotta come back years from now it's still gonna be the same bartender yeah so it's like yeah oh my god that would be really fun if we 20 years from now go to two first it's tecla or someone who uh the bartender with a red hair oh i know megan oh yeah and it's yeah yeah megan yeah yeah yeah yeah i hope she doesn't take offense to that no are you friends with her oh yeah no okay okay i think there's just as like a name drop she probably like they probably won't stay like right right she's listening to this podcast like what god yeah but i'm just picturing like season four of the wire did you get to that we are on the last episode

of season three but you see so in season four you get to see the kids become the adult characters right and i feel like that's always going to be auto bar like there's gonna be the young tattooed redhead who like takes over and it's the new do you know like nolan straws yeah yeah i know nolan i've worked with nolan on a few things oh yeah why he's so good he uh well post-topography like hired my friend and i were like me on a few jobs to just do murals around the city awesome so. God damn, dude. Yeah, so they'll do designs, and they don't have a painter. Are they still up? So the one murals that we have done were for the Maryland Film Festival. Nice.

And we covered up all the windows to the what is now Parkway Theater with all the abandoned things and how to paint that entire thing. Wow. God damn, dude. And then now that they redesigned it like all that stuff is gone and just like a bunch of random like sign painting uh things around in balmore awesome yeah so let's uh let's get into your uh your past so what did you start with uh like well i've always done like wire sculpture oh really like did you but you didn't start with like painting or anything or drawing i mean yeah like drawing you know always i mean i was like the poster kid

in elementary school you know you just always had notebook drawings sketchbook or just like you know you go into groups and then everybody's just like because you're smart and then i want you because you could draw good oh my god you know and it's just like one of those things where I was like, fuck it. I'm already in my niche. So I'm just going to keep continuing with this until something happens. You sound like the most astute eight-year-old ever. You're just like, you know what? Fuck it.

I found my niche, you know. I mean, recesses. There's no growing from here. Yeah, recesses in an hour. Everything's a trap. What's our group name? Purple Parrots. Yeah. I don't know. You hated the change

from wire coat hangers to plastic. God damn it. What the fuck? I can't work with this medium. I'm taking a nap. Are your parents cool with your... Yeah, they're super supportive. Nice. And they've always been that way? Yeah. I mean, I used to do graffiti and get in trouble as a kid,

so now they're happier that I'm doing, like... Really? Like in Annapolis? Yeah, like in Annapolis. So it's not really, like, that much clout being in, you know... Yeah, but that's cool, man. Blue collar. But, yeah, so, I mean, I started off there and then kind of got picked up, and then, I don't know,

like, after that, like, just before college, I always just kind of did graffiti, and then I didn't really find an outlet, and then I was like, fuck, there's there's like no money in this shit yeah yeah i i ended up going into architecture and design so now i do did you think about just fake signing stuff like banksy contact reed be more for sale i was literally thinking about that this morning i was like how you know people who forge things get a lot of money. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

People who what? Forge. Forge things or get a lot of money. Totally. It's a whole market. So, like, okay, so how old were you when you were graffitiing? I was 17. Glue that thing to your lip.

Yeah, you got to put. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was 17. No, that's good. Yeah. 17. What made you get into it? Were there certain artists that you liked or it's just the vibe in general?

I guess just, like, the vibe. I was always into, like, skateboarding. Like, I've been skateboarding since i was like 11 yeah and like it's just like all the you know the culture and kind of like the demographic of kids who were growing up like they generally like introduced to me to like hip-hop and like heavy metal and punk and like yeah graffiti art and like all these like kind of right you know skateboarding yeah it like it's so cool like it melds together like so that's like how i discovered a lot of the punk music that i listened to is through like skate videos like the first time i heard modest mouse was uh in an alien workshop video oh yeah that's crazy oh yeah alien workshop yeah all that that that was like the the orange cassette tape dude yeah what was that called uh photosynthesis do you remember that

one no i don't god that's one of the we watched that skate video a million times yeah it was a vhs tape yeah it's got to be like what is that like 95 no no no no i would say 99 99 2000 yeah because i uh it was when habitat because like because didn't Alien Workshop and Habitat kind of melt? Melt. That was when Enjoy was big. Yeah. Or just coming up. And I would get CSS Mac.

What is it? Yeah, well, yeah. I never bought anything from it. I was like, oh, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I was so bad. I mean, I could ride really well, but that was it. But my brother was like so, like, yeah.

And it was so fun. That was like the coolest. Yeah. When I discovered music and like even like clothing styles. Oh, yeah. And then. Absolutely. My older cousin had all he had like the toy machine world industries, alien workshop,

all that stuff. It was like someone to wear that stuff, too. Yeah. No, I remember like PacSun in the mall. Dude, I like... I shopped at PacSun for probably way too long. Oh my God, me too. Run to PacSun, run across to Zoomy's

and then go get something over at Hot Topic. Yeah. Hopefully Journeys has some tight shoes, you know. When I was young, I used to get nervous going into those stores because I was just like, damn, I'm a poser, man. And like, you know, like I felt so dumb going into those stores because I was just like, damn, I'm a poser, man. And like,

you know, like I felt so dumb going into Hot Topic. I remember the first shirt I ever bought was an MXPX shirt. Hell yeah. Yeah, I feel... No, because like, I mean, I had a friend who worked at Zoomy's and definitely in the day it was still considered like a poser thing, but it's just like... How old are you? I'm 26. I just turned 26. Oh yeah, we're like around

the ish. I'm twenty nine. Yeah, yeah. So I'm thirty one. I have a Prius grown now. I have a house mortgages for a one came off the Dow Jones is my neighbor. No, yeah, no, but I mean even like a local skate shop back in the day, Pure, like shout outs to Pure.

It was just like I used to go there, but they just didn't have any like the shirt sizes or like anything. Same, and it was way... I hate the shirt size. I still rocked a large. It was like, nah, it's cool. It was cool. Oh, dude, yeah. We wore huge clothes back then.

But then also like you wanted to support local business, I guess, because my local skate shop was Rascals in Ellicott City. Okay. And it was just way too overpriced. You're like, let's go to Paxon. What a quaint name for skateboarding. I know. We're some rascals, huh?

Aren't we? They open up a skate park in Columbia. Nice. And it's just funny because Columbia is so rich. You know, like so rich, Columbia is so rich. You know, like, so rich. Columbia is so white. And then you go to this skate park and, like, I don't know. There's just, like, all this teen angst and stuff.

I'm like, what the fuck are you guys angry about? I think that's anywhere, though. I know, for sure. Because Kent Island had that, too, where it's like, we're building a half pipe. Go to half pipe. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, Kent Island's quaint as shit. You know, it's next to a pizza hut. Like, not too bad. Yeah. Nice. And then you went to school in Baltimore City?

Yeah, I went to MICA. Cool. For four years. That makes sense. What's your favorite program? Environmental design.

So, I'm not accredited doing architecture, but I know how to design most things. Cool. Glue that thing, dude. You gotta glue that to your lip.

Sorry, there you go. God damn it. Sorry. We're going to design a fucking... No, I was kidding. Here, just put a muzzle around my face. Do you have duct tape? Yeah. I was born in the wire art. Damn it.

I was going to jump to that. Same time. My band impression sucks. Damn. And then... Yeah. So, no. i just had a question you said you got picked up you said you were doing graffiti and then got like picked yeah yeah so i was um graffitiing on uh the naval yard ronald community college hell yeah take that yeah double a double c yeah any asshole could come yeah is what we called it yeah or 13th grade but uh yeah yeah you should call it high school with ashtrays yeah

yeah high school with ashtrays pretty much with everything's a smoking zone yeah but yeah i was just skateboarding and like spray painting the back a lot and then security picked me up and yeah it was like a whole thing oh okay to go to like court no i didn't have to go i didn't have to go to court but we settled in there i had to clean it off and do all this dumb shit oh really yeah wow yeah but i sucked back in the day so i wasn't really yeah do you remember what it was oh man you got caught putting on it was ironic he spray painted i will never clean this and then uh just imagine the super s i wrote you think you're being so edgy? Yeah. Yeah. He spelled Stussy with the S.

The three lines and then the triangle. Yeah. I don't think I ever made one correctly. I don't know if I know how to make it. There's several ways. We should do digression sessions, but all the S's are that super S. That would be a tight logo. And add some cool flames.

Yeah. I like that. Some Trogdor flames. Yeah. Trogdor. Yeah. Is that what you said? Yeah.

Oh, that was so good. Anyway, so you got picked up and then you're. Yeah. And then I just kind of like, I stopped doing like outside art for the most part. And then, I mean, but I always kept like a black book. So I was always like tagging in a book or just like okay in a garage like spray painting like pieces of wood or some shit um and like occasionally like a friend would be like yeah fuck it like paint my wall i don't

care yeah and i would just go over to their house and like do some graffiti on their walls that's awesome it was fun very cool yeah uh yeah. So, then you were doing that. And then is that where, like, the doing, like, the wires came in? Or is that kind of part of Micah and that kind of just, like, bled out into actually doing it in the city? Well, I mean, for me, like, I always, like, go back and forth. Mm-hmm. You know, because it's like we were going back to, like, how after you're done doing something really big, you just don't feel empty and kind of shitty. So I got down.

Word, word, word. We're irrelatable. So I bounce back and forth between doing wire and I get bored of that and concentrate on skateboarding. And like I said, I'm kind of like a jack of all trades. So whatever I just kind of find appealing, I'll just try to do it to keep my mind off of not feeling shitty or just yeah it's nice exactly yeah you still have some output in an outlet where you're like okay i can still create and still kind of feel good about myself and not get burnt out on the the other thing like that's why it's nice to play music now and again

where i'm like well yeah i didn't write any jokes but i play guitar for three hours could be worse i could watch tv for three hours write music on be worse. I could have watched TV for three hours. And I write music on guitar, too. Yeah, nice. So I still do the whole music thing and piano. Shit, yeah. But then that gets boring, and then I pick up design commissions for people to do, I don't know, process sketches or things. Because right now I'm working with a furniture company to do some other thing. Reeded you are crushing it yeah you're all over the place what are you like the

coolest guy ever you're like got a nine to five i make skateboards people call me bueller yeah when i get bored i design furniture you know play guitar yeah and it's a lot of and and it's not even like i i get like the whole gist of those things, but I learned just enough to shittily put it together in my own sense. Yeah. And then feel proud about whatever I am in the last frame and just let it collect dust for the next few years. Right.

But yeah, no, I always go back to the whole wire thing and it's just because, you you know you just don't want to fall off like that's like the whole thing with like graffiti is like being uh seen yeah being seen yeah and it's like very relevant yeah yeah relevant like which is like really important yeah um i had that with comedy too like sharing pictures from a show like i did that last night i'm doing stuff pay attention yeah it totally helps like you uh yeah liz mealy like kind of told me that she's like like dude why don't you have an instagram account and like yeah just kind of always posting your show dates always posting like i don't know just posting pictures of the shows that help it makes people think uh i don't know like sometimes people come up to me like, and they're like, Oh man, it looks like you're crushing it. Uh,

social media. And you're like, no, no, really? Yeah. It's a lie. It took me all 10 minutes to post these on my couch.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Finding the perfect filter. No,

that shit happens like all the time. Like, you know, and it's like, I, sometimes I have like that anxiety of posting. Cause it's like, I don't want to be like an egotistical.

Right. I know. And post all my shit. But now you have to do that. Like, quote, unquote, being an artist, you have to put yourself out there. And I feel like a car salesman where I'm just like, yeah, you guys like my product? It's so funny because, like, you know, I think, well,

I'll speak for, like, comics. I think it's not a secret that comics, you know, compared to the average person are more narcissistic, self-centered. And they love that gratification from, like, the laughs or the likes. I mean, I would disagree with that. I'm just a genius. And I think people deserve to hear what I say. At the same time, like what you're saying, Reid, I do feel like, God, man, how much of a piece of shit am I?

Oh, it's a constant battle in my head of being like i'm the coolest dude i'm the fucking worst gross i'm gross and i think though you have to it's like it's a ab it's a it's an atypical because for you it's your career for me it's a you know it would be nice if it was but as of now it's a part-time yeah career a job hobby whatever you want to call it so it's more so a hobby for me too oh okay but i kind of just look at it it's it's part of the game and yeah you just got to do it yeah gross but if people judge you too hard for it fuck them they don't really know what

what exactly and what it's about and i think just uh quote-unquote regular people too when they see that stuff they're like, oh, he's putting himself out there. Yeah. He is doing well because otherwise

if you don't put that stuff out there people aren't going to think of you either for future shit. Nobody's going to book you on a show like, do you even perform? Yeah. I just don't post about it.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's like this weird thing where you're just kind of balancing out where you want the humbleness to carry on through like your image being you know uh thrown over like viewed uh being something is like

you know like very community-based and it's it's difficult because that's not how like you know advertising works sometimes you have to force people to actually give a shit yeah you know and you have to appear that you give a shit too yeah exactly but it like half and half it makes you feel shitty because like yeah a you're posting about things that like you know you don't really do and then when people yeah and then when people come over and they congratulate you it feel it makes you feel like half worse because like yeah oh you're you're doing so good right now i was like you don't see me behind the curtain literally with cheesy tater tots and i'm just sitting on the couch all right i told you i ate that for breakfast and confidence it does make you feel like a fraud a little bit yeah you're lying to people i have like a huge uh

imposter syndrome for a while. Though I feel that with my day job too, you know. Does everybody just feel that though? I think healthy people do, yeah. Right. I think, dude, this is an insane, one of like the first findings in social psych research was that depressed people have a more realistic view

of themselves and their abilities than people who aren't depressed. Isn't that horrible? That makes sense. It makes sense. And then I was doing some more research, actually for a joke that I have about relationships, about how your relationship,

you're happier in it if you think it's better than your friends. And that's a real thing. And that just happens with like it's kind of like, what do they call it? I forgot what they call it. It's like something illusion where you have, if you convince yourself you're doing better than other people, it does make you happier. Yeah. And the average person does that. Well, yeah. It's all about just tricking your brain. no we're happy i'm doing so great yeah but but it's

interesting like depressed people cannot do that yeah well yeah i mean that's the flip side of ignorance is bliss so if you're if yeah you're not depressed you're like i don't know i don't know shit i just know it's great but i'm not gonna think about it too hard the crazy thing about that means that living in reality and seeing reality for what it is is a bummer it is uh detrimental to your mental health yeah isn't that fucking crazy it's so sad we have to trick ourselves into being happy. Yeah. Wow. It's difficult. Do we just kill ourselves now and end the podcast?

All right. So this is the last show? Yeah. This is it. Yeah. Exactly. Play this at our respective funerals, please. No, guys.

I read research articles for literally a one line of a joke. Putting in that work. Putting in that work. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. but i mean for okay so for me i think like i've kind of accepted that where it's like shit is of course it's going to be a bummer if you're actually really thinking about it but the only way that i really kind of

get out of that is to make something like you know like the show at atomic books that went well it's like i can float on that high for a while you know or like writing a song or something like that and then you're proud of this thing you started and finished whether it's a set yeah there's a song yeah like uh you know like a piece that you've done and hung up and so yeah and then you ride that high and then you like slowly yeah it tap tapers off. It's so... What's the word? It's so brief, you know? Yeah.

And then you keep... But how do people who don't do anything... That's what I want. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't know how people don't have hobbies. Do you know what... Yeah.

People like... My coworkers are like, man, how do you... I just go home and... Watch TV? Watch TV and I go to bed. I'm like, yeah, that's it. And then I go and work. Yeah. 90 hours a week. They feel lame. I'm like, dude, how do you, like, I just go home and watch TV and I go to bed and then I go and work. They feel lame. I'm like, dude, that

sounds fucking awesome. That sounds great. I'm feeling like you have to do something. Yeah, right. We all sound like pieces of shit. Totally, totally. I mean, we are so driven. Look at us.

Us two be like, God, I wish it was the other way around you know but i just have such drive and i'm dedicated to the game i guess i don't know why can't people just oh man you know but it is true like if i do that shit for too long like i definitely love being lazy i think that's part of why i work so hard too because i enjoy being lazy so i'm like oh man nothing like making some cheesy tater tots and watching some TV but if I do that if I if I do that too long I'm like I'm real piece of shit mm-hmm do you like being lazy yeah I do I mean you know couch potato yeah the beer and uh-huh joint yeah hell yeah do this guy my afternoon.

That's the day you get back and then, I don't know. And then you get to that low point where you're just like, no, I have to do something. Yeah. Just sit on it for two weeks until you actually feel way shitty. And then you're like, yeah, I just got to do this now. That's how I am with everything now. Hopefully. Everything is the last minute. The coffee kicks in and you're like, all right, now's the time.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to ask you about the, cause the art community in Baltimore is interesting. I feel like you're, uh, I guess there's like multiple criticisms people could make of it. One is it's very insular and it play, know for the most part and this could just be my ignorance of not knowing the other scenes because comedy is the same way you know there's scenes like i don't fucking know about yeah yeah uh but i think like one thing it's just so insular and it appeals to like so much of like what i see or know it appeals to like a certain demographic oh yeah

obviously and then um it just feels like outsiders uh you know whether it's like black people who live in the city or if it's county people they just feel weird going to these events and spaces and uh like art galleries yeah that was a criticism somebody wrote i think of of like dude like you guys like need if I think if you need the art community to expand beyond what it is, beyond just your friends, you need to try to be more inclusive, you know? Like, I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah. I think it's definitely providing opportunity outside of what you would normally see. Because, like, a lot of people who run galleries, they're just trying to get people in there. Yeah, make money. And it's difficult because the demographic of which they work with are people

who they went to college with. And you and me being both brown people, kind of being from the outside. Umar's brown too, I don't know. Yes, yes. Thank you, Josh. He was looking at Josh the whole time. Yeah, Josh.

Making extreme eye contact the whole time. It was preach you know you know you know exactly what's going on you get it you get it but uh it's just it's one of those things where you constantly always feel like you're working against a circle that you don't necessarily even want to be a part of in the first place to be trapped in you know and um it's it goes along a lot of things in terms of like uh class demographic and race demographic that's here in the city and it's just like at this weird cusp there which is like the water's not tipping over to where like we could definitely change the way that people see the scene but nobody really knows like how that works yeah create like and there are like amazing people who are going out there and like doing um you know

running these events are very like homogenous like across the map uh-huh um but i think that that's just been the scene forever you know and it might be everywhere because i don't know about yeah and i think like the solution to that is just for people to not really rely on a scene and just to go ahead and do it and kind of let the work speak for itself and attract who it's going to attract yeah and attract that it's going to attract who it's going to attract but i feel like it's that power that people need to take themselves in order to feel comfortable in the situation that they're in because you know people could say, I don't like this place because of this

and that place because of that. You could say that all the time, but if you actually put yourself in that situation and try to change it yourself. It's so hard. Yeah, it's so hard, but those are kind of the cumulative steps that you need to take.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's hard. It is really hard. Big those are kind of like the cumulative steps that you need to take. Yeah. Oh, I get what you're saying. You know, it's hard. It's hard. It is really hard because- But bigger payoff in the long run, though. But you can't fault people for just doing what they want to do, and they can't help that it falls into this scene, and it appeals to these people. Right.

I mean, we're in Hamden right now, so it's like- Yeah, no, totally. Dude, my crowd last night was 97% white. In a Latino community. Yeah. In Highland Town. Right. So, you know, I don't know.

I grew up where I grew up. It shaped my humor. And I can't really change that to attract different audiences. You can perform in different spaces and different places. And I think that's been a criticism of the comedy scene or any scene it's like we perform mostly we put on shows and white spaces and uh yeah yeah but like i don't know how to even branch out of that i don't i don't even know if it would if what i do would work in like a west baltimore community you know what i mean so i don't know the humor is very

different it is it is um you know with upbringing and stuff but that's a cool thing about you i work in west baltimore when i drive home i see your shit everywhere yeah yeah so like you you're everywhere i love that yeah how many pieces do you have around the city well i mean i i used to have a lot of pieces but right now i probably have like four really four or five does the city take them down or do you take them down uh the city usually takes them down really um or the winds i've gotten better at like designing like how to put them up there so that doesn't happen as often anymore but yeah yeah no when the city wants them down like they'll go in three one one

and go ahead and take them down damn because yeah i was i was telling you before before umar got here those are cool things to see around the city. I like that it's a specific Baltimore thing, which is cool. And it's a nice way. It is street art, but it's not like you're competing for graffiti space or anything. Just in the Hamdens or whatever,

the Fells, the Station North. It's like who would have thought driving home on Calhoun Street, I fucking see a wire hang. Right? I think you have one over somewhere around there. And it was just like, what the hell? That's crazy.

When did you do that? How did you do that? I would never be in that neighborhood past dark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, it's just like, if you're out there and you have something to do and you're not just hanging out and you feel like you have a purpose, you're a lot more confident in doing it.

Plus, it helps when there's nobody out there at 4 o'clock in the morning. Oh, okay. That's cool. So, it's like a private space for me to really work and do whatever I need to do. Now, are they constructed at home and then you just hang them or do you kind of so like the difference in the context between like the graffiti and street art is like the street or i'll actually i'll go home and like make them and like or you know i'll drive around find like a specific yeah space that i want them in yeah and go home and like make it for that space or i'll just carry wire in my pocket like i just came back from skiing and stuff like that uh i just made a bunch of signatures and kind of

put them in random spots and that's like the difference between like street art and graffiti right the trade-off is like expanding your name as a post like making a point right right right right which is like i have to give credit to like angry kevin because even though he's you know a little shit and no like no no who is this you know no things like taken, but yeah, just the writing style and just what everybody has been saying around. It's just like, you can't take away from the fact that he is everywhere.

And that is the point of graffiti. I don't know who that is. It's, he has the, it's the Hey Arnold head and he just literally writes angry Kevin on it. Are you allowed to do that? Like just take a, well,

it's graffiti. Oh, right. So you can do whatever you want yeah but it is so the graffiti is just getting your name out whereas street art is so like yeah graffiti has like undertones of like self-marketing oh and um in style you know so like there's graffiti and then there's bombing which is like what angry kevin does but i have seen like angry kevin pieces yeah you know yeah and it's just kind of like the balance between

both of those yeah and i think part of uh like the the bombing part too is that you're like what is this on a nature trail what are you doing out here like you'll see it like on a random like sidewalk or like through the woods there's like a trail through the woods a lot of it is like what the fuck did he get that up yeah exactly right yeah like my i was driving down in chouts to like my friend again like he put up a piece like right on charles and what is it charles and howard street okay and he climbed like a sign from a tree and it's like 30 feet in the air and i'm looking up there i'm like i could see how he fucking got it up there right but my arms would fall off or i'd get hit by a car and it's just like yeah i mean you see some random shit too for like exit signs on 83 they're tagged and i'm like what are you doing

what that's but you get it you know i mean like you never forget like that piece yeah which is the reason why half and half people do those that crazy shit so when you're driving around do you i mean this is like a it's a funny question in a way because every time every like when someone asks you like how do you write a joke yeah or or uh like what inspired like what i don't know just like life like what inspires anything like you fear of being a piece of shit yeah like they're like like what yeah what makes you wonder where do you get your ideas from it's just living life that's where everyone gets ideas um but when you see like a specific block do you make the piece for that block or do you have a

piece already and you think it'd be cool there you know it's like a half and half thing okay so i consider my street art like site specific pieces yeah whereas like if i just make general pieces that could be hung up anywhere uh-huh it would be considered my own like bombing or tagging okay you know like that cloud piece like it doesn't have any necessarily context okay yeah it just looks looks dope you know and that's why i put it there but then there's some pieces where it's like a response to like, you know, like events when the whole like uprising happened. Like I just littered North Avenue with a bunch of like positive artwork. Yeah.

That went around. Yeah. For instance, my friend like Nether, Shouts to Nether. He's a muralist. Nether, get out of here.

Yeah. Yeah. We pasted an entire bus station because there was an event where a police was like openly beating someone to a pulp and then like the next day it kind of got like forgot right but there was like a phone video like eight bit type yeah yeah um shot on a potato yeah so so it's like one of those things where you have to consider consider building your brand so you could have the platform to get these messages out there. Yeah. You know, which is important because no one's going to give a shit unless they know that you're not really working hard to kind of forward a message.

Yeah. You know, so it's like that's why you could everybody kind of sees or oversees like bombing and graffiti. Right. you could, everybody kind of sees or overseas like bombing and graffiti is not tailored to a message other than just like doing it a lot, which is very powerful in itself to kind of cater or garner attention towards a specific site. Right. You know,

he needs a little bit more juice to kind of forward that. No, that's really cool. Using your superpowers for good too. Like to, you know, not just hang stuff to hang it just because you're doing it but be like oh no i want to put some positivity on the

street because i think those things are true like when you see something like that yeah that's whimsical i like that look at that look at yeah for sure fucking amen yeah i don't you know the closest we get to do of doing that it's like have a benefit comedy show where we still just talk about ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this money's not going to us. Or you write like a woke joke or something stupid. Yeah. Hey guys, come out on Friday to woke jokes.

But it's funny because like I originally started I'll tell you I started doing this wire stuff because I mean through college I was doing like large scale wire things and i did like a few projects but didn't know what to do with these because like you make a bunch of shit and it's just like in your house right yeah so again like my friend kept pushing me like you need to think of like a way and put this out there and it was probably not until like my senior year

i had like a huge falling out with like my ex-girlfriend oh no it was like was her huge domestic yeah anyways and um angry girlfriend that's what she tags as right and italga's head instead of you know i was just that's all it was and um it got to the point where i built up a lot of my things around a certain individual. And then like once that shit like tears down, then like your whole world kind of falls. And I was like in a designer and architecture school trying to get a job. And it's like the entire time I don't have any work technically because

literally all of my stuff is digital stuff. So it's, so it was like not having the proof in the pudding that i actually do something yeah plus like all the shitty work and like my loss of identity and all this right and then it's nice to have something tactile too and look at it and be like i made this so then uh ultimately i just started hanging my shit around wherever she was going yeah your first wire art was like call me sheila it was just massive your dick no yeah and it was just like all that stuff um and it was just kind of like fill some time

yeah that i had yeah yeah when this happened i also was sharing a studio at the copycat so i had all this space initially to fuck around. Sure. Yeah, yeah, no. So it was like, it originally came out as Spite. Gotcha. And then, I don't know, I kind of turned it around once the message started getting out there

and like, I got like two articles in the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. Oh, holy shit. Did your girlfriend ever call you out on it? Like, dude, fucking stop. Yeah. I just like ignored her, to be honest. It was just one of those things where I was just like,

you're just going to sit there and do it. I don't give a fuck. We're in the same neighborhood, but I'm going to refuse to just keep following the same line yeah yeah well it was weird when you hung up uh the version of uh the baltimore sun right in front of her house though worth with your article hey what's up yeah just blown up like 50 by 50 miss me now, Sheila? Yeah. Yeah, no. No, I think, and it was weird because like, yeah, I started picking up and my art actually started catching on and there was a point where she gave me a call and she's like, oh, I'm really proud of you.

Oh. Like blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, yeah, thanks. Oh, I had a text from oh my ex yeah uh two days ago yeah and you yeah there was like that kind of text and it's nice it's nice it's really nice it is nice but then it's like there's a little bit of fuck off in there right it's kind of like it didn't end that great why like i don't know i don't know yeah i don't yeah and it's like okay cool uh continue with my life now yeah exactly yeah like you wish all the best but it's like man there's a reason yeah i'm here

yeah now shit did not end coolly either it's like it was difficult because like after the transition and after i got that call and i was like okay so i won now like oh my god what am i gonna like what am i gonna healthy way to read like what am i gonna do with like my art so it's like half and half it was like a transition i don't know break up for war yeah being like a spite oh they are that's my emo album actually break up for war break up for war yeah it's pretty metal too oh thanks man thanks man yeah uh we're playing at woke jokes on friday come on catch throw yeah next friday dad jokes yeah exactly um but yeah it started turning from like being spiteful to actually having people like come over

and being like oh like i love your work like it's really speaking to me in different ways other than like i had no idea that you had a problem and now you're just trying to like sort your own shit out but i like your stuff but it's never connected to like any negativity because yeah ultimately visual art is just kind of a person's reflection onto it so they'll see whatever they'll they want to see in context of their own shit exactly so interesting i think jokes are the same way in a way because like that's how like some people can get so offended at one joke but other people don't it's because what bill burr uh has said it's like whatever leaves my mouth gets cut with your experiences and your values and your world

views totally like you can't ever help how someone 100% interprets what you're saying and what you're putting out, which is fucking scary. It sucks because I guess the difference between, like, do you have a very specific idea of what you're saying? Mm. I try to keep it light, but, you know, and then I sometimes i sometimes suggest like

really heavy overtones but i think what it is is just the magic of my stuff and the reason why people don't shit on it as much i guess like comedy is because they arrive at it themselves right i was gonna say which is probably works like to your benefit a lot too they're like what a powerful piece i can't believe you said so your benefit a lot, too. They're like, what a powerful piece. I can't believe you said so much about the economy with wire. And you're like, yes, that was my intent. Thank you for adding to the story. What does that make you mad?

Because it makes me mad when people, oftentimes, the only time people misinterpret jokes, I think, is when they're offended. Yeah. They're mad. And sometimes they don't hear certain keywords either. Like, how could you say that? It's like, no, I was saying the opposite, actually. Or it's like being sarcastic. How the fuck can you think that from what I said?

Yeah. And then I'm just so mad that they missed the point. And I feel like that happens with art way more. Like, way. Because, you know, I'm stupid. I go into museums and I love looking at shit. And I never could tell you, like, oh, this person's expressing this or whatever. But I think their reactions are going to be more positive.

You know what I mean? Whatever they read into it, they're going to be like, oh, yeah. Yeah, you always leave feeling great. Even if you're like in looking at like art that's in response to like horrific shit. You're still like, like god this is powerful or like oh this looks cool it's making like if and then if it's like like just whatever art that's like yeah like not you know there's not it's not so deep or what it's still like you feel good looking at something pretty you just walk away like no that was cool and i feel like a better

person for it yeah meanwhile you leave a comedy show and he's like i just heard a bunch of dick jokes yeah yeah yeah i hope that guy's okay i think that the most important part to realize about any type of art form is it's like it's very ego driven yeah and once you and once you get that about everybody yeah um you kind of have like a more rounded uh you know just more rounded insight to like how people will react right and like from what i've gotten because like it's not like i go there try to be like i want a person to feel this but yeah they're feeling and that's like the that's the important part to kind of like project is like they're arriving at something themselves.

They're feeling it themselves. And like it's inconspicuous place where it's almost like kind of a secret to yourself. Right. You know, like a lot of people, they'll just, they'll see my stuff and they won't forget it.

You know, because it's just like that one thing that they feel they could keep to themselves. So it's like, I feel like if it's the power of anything, it's kind of the power of one's own selfishness. Yeah. And just recognizing that

and playing off of the imagery of how that'll affect. It's kind of hard because, yeah, you have to have a procession of words to make a point for other words for people. Right, right. And it's like they're only going to react if they have an extremely positive reaction or an extremely negative reaction yeah exactly and you're going to get like that spectrum all the fucking time but um again like i'll go to the first point you just got to do it because like you just love doing it and fuck everything else because yeah you're never gonna

be liked is what i'm gonna say universally yeah yeah if you have any expectations you're just you should just douse them now because you're just gonna be sad yeah and you just you just gotta go ahead and just do it yeah a lot of people have like this weird thing like i mean i feel i haven't been set and people have said this that i'm like the only street artist in balmore but it can't it shouldn't be that way yeah i mean like as easy as it would you it would be for you to like go and throw a poster up i mean that's like street yeah putting a poster in front of somewhere else that you wouldn't normally do it that's saying a message yeah yeah and um it's just crossing these kind of innate boundaries that society has put onto us to just do whatever the fuck you want to do for doing it.

Yeah. And I think that's like the tagging the graffiti thing in me. It's just that's what gets me off the couch to go do shit. Right. Right. Because otherwise it'd just be like a stoner. Yeah. Just not doing anything.

Yeah, it is funny. If you're a stoner, it's like, it's like what a detriment to society then you hang up a cloud i'm like he's a real artist i like the guy like i'm not letting society put me in a box yeah and then like but is it like on the way to go break the law you stop at every red light every stop sign I'm on your left. There's a crosswalk law for a reason. Get in there. Come on.

He's like, fuck the law, dude. Yeah. Rock and roll. I know it's weird because like I've gotten to the point where I've, I've installed in front of the police and they don't do shit. So it's like residual taking the poison out of a snake.

And oh, does that bother you? And you're like, come on, say something. Oh, initially it did. and they don't do shit. So it's like residual taking the poison out of a snake. Oh, does that bother you? You're like, come on, say something. Oh, initially it did because... You're hanging from a street pole. You're like, I'm not supposed to be here. Yeah, and the guy's just like, huh. Probably like if you're in, especially like West Baltimore, and you're just hanging street art.

They have bigger fish to fry. Yeah, but it's also like yeah like this is nice yeah it is it is nice and it's like that pisses me off but it also pisses me off when people have like get that shit off of there oh yeah but i mean again i don't really care because i just won't take it off right now do you get in trouble with the city if they know i mean if they know who you are i was gonna say if there's multiple baltimore sun articles like yeah do they like come to your door with a wire like i think you left this in uh west baltimore no i it's like a weird gray area for me yeah i feel like uh if they were going to pinpoint anything yeah uh it would just be littering like i'm littering a lot

because it's not damaging anything like at least i design like my pieces do not damage like any of the electrical lines or like shocked by an electrical line or any of that right right oh so they would call it littering technically yeah yeah interesting you know like if it falls off and just on the street yeah yeah um but like because like people consider stickering vandalism and that's like an account to graffitiing right like normally what the city will do is they won't go they won't go after you like they'll know who you are and they'll just send like one of those people with the white like cars and like the fucking state like maryland thing yeah just go and take a photo of it and then they'll just register everything oh shit so like when angry kevin got caught he got caught with like something something ridiculous like over like

100 counts of vandalism sure yeah which for the city it's like oh my god so yeah that's crazy yeah so for the city it's like 250 for each one of those accounts or some shit did he have to pay all that i think he opted out and did uh and just did community service is like the last thing that i heard dang because he's he was a minor right i mean angry kevin became broke kevin after that yeah um community service right so that's normally how it goes that's why a lot of the street artists in the city now like kind of moved over to legal artwork you know like i mean gaia and like and you know like shouts like justin netherkitt to like do all

this art yeah and when they found it was like so many so much red tape and it's a lot easier to transition but then as you get older you have to start thinking about looking at what you your skill set at you know you're like fuck i'm getting older i need to make money i gotta save up for the future so yeah it makes it's a progression, I think, with anything. And it's probably nice to get more eyeballs on it, too, like in a legitimate fashion. I mean, like you said, like Nolan and all them quit Double Dagger so they could start a graphic design firm.

Yeah. Like that's what you got to do sometimes. They're crushing. Just got a Time Magazine cover. Yeah. And I completed that maze. Yeah. Damn.

That's awesome. Yeah out to brennan and nolan and all them yeah and like alex fine like i mean he's in school like yeah that's crazy yeah and uh he's super talented yeah i think um yeah and that's when you're young you know it's like do you remember like every fucking punk band got called to sell out like you couldn't do anything without being called to sell out oh yeah my dad calls me a sellout at school your dad yeah yeah i don't know you're hanging so he's like boom yeah get the shit off there like i don't know if that term do kids use that term like i don't know i don't think is there selling out now because like you have to be on tv you have to like like it like i don't know like i don't i don't think is there selling out now because like you have to be on tv you have to

like like it like i don't know like i just it's just the same people who don't do service industry jobs and like complain about the service industry yeah are the same people who are you know doing exactly that they're they're not making anything but yet they're complaining about the people that are making stuff yeah almost and it's like they don't realize they're complaining about the people that are making stuff. Almost. And it's like they don't realize that that's how life goes and you have to live. You have to sell out. And then all the people who are... But is it... Yeah.

What is... It's not... It's just a stupid term. I think what it is now is if you're going against your principles. Yeah. That's the reason why we don't post every single day so we don't feel like those egotistical yeah but like if you had a whole bit like making fun of like i don't know like mountain dew or something and then you did like a new commercial yeah they'd be like that's a bit of a sellout right right yeah

but i think it was like if you do if you take any money and if you're in commercial you know what i mean like any but now i don't think that's a thing that exists anymore. Or at least I don't know. Yeah, because now everybody's struggling. Yeah, because the market became so fractured with the internet. And in a way, it's good. But the audience is so split. And you have to do a lot of stuff for free for a while, too.

Especially if you're operating that way. It's like, yeah, nobody's paying you to post on your instagram or your facebook and stuff it's like you're doing that to get your name out there so eventually somebody be like hey would you endorse our product yeah yeah yeah so like i think like with like street artists like i mean i'm sure you're just like i can't fuck around for the rest of my life i have to fucking you know yeah it's tough half and half because i have like my whole gallery practice um i actually i just did a piece of you guys like get out to dci yeah we're down there a lot yeah yeah so i have a piece in the botanical garden that's going to be there forever oh yeah they're

installing it um october after cool where's the botanical garden is that in the arboretum it's like in the mall oh yeah oh really on the mall i think it's it's right by uh the library of congress or something yeah it's like right across from there and the smithsonian west wing fucking a man it's awesome dang so what is uh what's the piece it's just a bunch of bees really yeah it's gonna be in the pollination garden but it's weird because it's like yeah that's really cool thank you It's not a traditional gallery setting. And to go back about the whole gallery scene, it's like I don't... I've always had this stipulation with the gallery scene. Everybody has that thing.

But that's why I was saying you just got to go do your own thing to make sure that you have your own platform to not kind of latch on to something else. Because then that's when you know with going downhill when you don't have complete control of your own life almost. Or like having that feeling that like, I'm doing this for a collective

and not myself type of situation. So I started, and I continue doing street art. And whenever someone like asked me like for a commission or like doing a gallery show, I mean, I'm gonna try to do a gallery show like eventually, but it just it it sucks because i feel like i put it out there

only a certain amount of people are going to see it and then one person's gonna buy it and all that time is spent for one person to see it yeah you know but then you post pictures from the gallery and you see your friends and they're like yo looks like you're killing it in the gallery game. Yeah. But sometimes I was thinking about that today. Like last night was so fun. Yeah. To perform to like 200 people who are there just to see you. Yeah. It was insane.

It was awesome, man. It was so fucking fun. That's crazy. Yeah. And it's that one show made up for so many of those shows I did just for money or just because i i needed to like work on jokes and you hated doing it you hated being there the shitty open mics and you're just like all that afford like gave you the the the access to do a like to do that the kind of show i did last night you know and it's just like it felt so good you know yeah and i'm sure that's

probably how like a gallery show would feel too it's like the years of work have culminated into this yeah yeah and it might give you access to other shit yeah it does but i feel like from what i personally from what i've done like a lot of the things that i've gone through is just through simple networking with friends you You know what I mean? I've had like one like real gallery show that I kind of like let the public in. All the other ones are just kind of like organization things. Right, right,

right. I recently had one over at friend school, but I wouldn't really consider that like my solo show just because, you know, it was something that I didn't really have hands on and right in doing or like selling or pricing or anything. Yeah. And,

um, it's tough because you don't want to sell out you want to market yourself mindfully so like you could set yourself up for the long run and you want to keep working on art and you also don't want to burn yourself

out on art and you also want to make on art and you also don't want to burn yourself out on art and you also want to make a message and you also the message doesn't even have to be like positive or like negative sometimes you just want to say fuck it and write a name like a hundred times but I think like the only thing that I've really gotten from this like you know this interview

is just kind of just do what and it's simple it's simple and I'm going to sound like a dad of just do what and it's it's simple it's simple and i'm gonna sound like a dad here just do what fucking makes you happy because yeah and if you just keep doing that and have no expectations um then then like you're setting yourself up you know i mean like the best part is like you're doing the 200 shows but like don't let the next show that you set up where there's like 150 people show, you know, like stop you from doing that because like,

or enjoying it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm enjoying myself right now.

Yeah. And it's like interviews. Like when I keep doing things like that, like you don't expect anything to like really happen to it, but you just really have what I've learned. You just really have to take enjoyment out of just doing it. Yeah. Yeah.

So anyways, this, this podcast has been brought to you by nike yeah yeah just do it yeah just do it by it we mean uh use chinese children to make your shoes so you can sell them uh and make the greatest amount of profit you can the digression sessions brought to you by chinese children and their tears and their tears they're delicious tears you know how like cigarettes they uh they have to like put awful shit on the labels i think in like europe here too do they oh no it's canada but here you have to say that it like yeah in like europe and

like canada they'll put like pictures and shit yeah yeah i've seen shit like that like dead lungs and shit yeah yeah they put baby like this is what happens when you smoke if you're pregnant yeah i thought it was just like a baby that was like smoking but i think it'd be cool like anything that's made in a like a sweatshop yeah like you they'll they'll put like pictures of the kids who are making it or like or this was made by like a six-year-old in China that makes 25 cents a month. I think that'd be cool. That's a pretty good sales point.

Yeah. Nobody would buy anything. I want to know how much would a fucking iPhone cost. That's what's so crazy. It's like, well, you know, if they made iPhones in the US, it'd cost a million dollars. Yeah. Why would they cost that much?

What is it? Fucking do something. Yeah, it's like, oh, you don't want Taiwanesewanese girls making your shoes well pay 50 grand a pair you're like what one who's gonna be making them yeah right yeah um cool yeah it's uh yeah it's like there has to be a better way than like having people putting like suicide nets around a building that makes our iphones right i know like it's so wouldn't you feel better paying wouldn't you feel better paying a little more knowing that no one tried to kill themselves making your phone yes i wouldn't give a fuck i remember in high school we had a teacher

he was uh he was our economics teacher and uh and i think he was like a libertarian which are like the most annoying people to me yeah and do what you want yeah and uh he said something like when cut like come to me when you get a real job and you see how much taxes they take out of your paycheck i bet you'll swing more conservative yeah so i posted something in our high school group i was like hey do you guys remember who the econ teacher was because i have a real job and i still don't give a fuck about taxes you know like because if it's helping people and i'm doing well like yeah dude a lot of money comes out and i don't make that much money but i make enough where i can live comfortably yeah and it's so it's i don't know i don't have that feeling i had the

opposite reaction oh really damn i should be a republican huh yeah my uncle who's a millionaire and a muslim from pakistan he's a he's a republican hardcore sure voted trump sure of course money dude yeah yeah it's like oh i think a lot of people did vote for him just for that reason they're like oh no give me that tax break for sure yeah dude i didn't see any increase in my paycheck what how does that work didn't you not really no because they got like they get a hundred dollars extra now who i still make shit yeah i'd uh i don't know i don't exactly the same i was so i don't know has it kicked in already yeah kicked in uh this it was uh the second pay period in this year in january yeah i believe i'd have to take a look at it because i got a little bit of

a raise anyway so i don't have to take a look at that yeah i don't have to take a look at that but oh thank you but yeah i mean most of it just goes to to millionaires and billionaires and stuff anyway so that's why it's it's so ridiculous like a couple news stories go out they're like well walmart workers get an extra 10 cents so i think you know it's working for the economy like okay it's amazing yeah yeah exactly oh man well amazing. Yeah, exactly. Oh, man. Cool. Good times. I'm glad we ended on tax talk.

Hey, that was our... Should we... Tax corner? I want to give a shout out to a local business that has really stepped up their game, Common Ground, guys. I know. You know, it's... Oh.

I have a Common Ground coffee right now. There it is. Yeah. I feel like the food has been better yeah they really they have revamped it like they've made a effort yeah i would say also their their coffee is delicious coffee i love the coffee good people who work there are so nice solid sandwiches they have sandwiches named after the streets in hamden that's fun yeah that is fun and the hickory sandwich bring grandpappy little bring grandpappy out. Yep, exactly. So shout out to Common Ground, guys.

Yeah, look at that. Shout out to caffeine. Ending on a positive note. There you go. I like that. But Reed, man, thank you so much for coming over. Yeah, thank you for letting me spiel. Yeah, of course.

Yeah, sorry I wasn't prepared when you showed up early. I was like, you know, this street artist guy, he's not going to be here on time. He's probably doing something wild out in those streets. I don't know. Yeah. No, I got coffee. Yeah, you got coffee. He's high designing a skateboard that can function as a couch or something. I don't know. He does

it all. Keep the ideas rolling. Do you guys remember when we were young? I can't remember what company. It was a skateboard company. They released a backpack that also turned into a chair. What? I was like, man, I want that so bad. And then Muska. What was his name?

Chad Muska. Chad Muska had a backpack with speakers in it. Yes. And then he had that shoe with the hidden pouch that zips so you could hide your dime bag. I had that shoe and I didn't smoke weed at all in sixth grade. You hide so much things in there. I'm going to put my house key in here so I don't forget it.

Who wants putting fruit snacks in there? Save those for later. I was chubby back then. There you go. Cool. Do you have anything you need to want people to keep a lookout for, pay attention to, come to?

A website, anything people can check out? I mean, my handle is readbmoreart. Yes. Cool. That's what it is yeah uh and just balmore stop being so sad and moody damn don't stop being all about like just being trapped in your own self just go out yeah do smell some roses go say hi to your neighbor go sweep there don't go take out their trash i don don't know. Just be better. I like that.

I don't know. That's a positive message. Be present in the community. Yeah. Don't drink too much coffee like I do. Yeah. That's tough. I like coffee.

I'm going to go get some more. Yeah, I think I am too. Where are you going to go get coffee? Probably Common Ground. Can I come with you? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Reed, do you want some more coffee?

God, no. I think I'm good. All right. Honestly. Do you have plugs, Josh? Yeah. So this week, I'm at the DC Draft House Wednesday through Friday, all for separate shows. I'll be there Tuesday, or no, Wednesday for Black Card Revoked. That's a very fun show.

Great show. Thursday, I'm doing Speechless, and that's like the live PowerPoint show, hosting that. Then Friday, we're at Beer Baron, me and you, Umar. 8 o'clock for a benefit. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. So it's a benefit show that Dominic Rivera. Is it Riviera or Rivera?

Riviera. Riviera. I don't know. Dominic is putting it on. And then after that, I'll be back at the draft house for attack of the comics on friday so uh follow me on the gram i'm at josh kaderna and uh facebook and twitter and all that stuff and i'll post uh dates and times for all the stuff yeah so like josh said 23rd

Beer Baron. 24th, I'm at a place called El Golfo. I don't know. I'm headlining that. Nice. March 1st, Gin and Jokes, SNL's Drew Michael headlines. March 3rd, Beer Baron, two shows. It's a benefit show for something.

Hell yeah. Clearly doing it for the benefit part, not the money part. Def not. I'm at Nottingham's in Columbia. The 10th, I'm in Hagerstown at a golf course. Yeah. And then 15th, I'm at Joe's Squared.

Hey now. On a roll. What's the 15th? Open mic? No. It's this guy Clayton Fletcher from New York. I booked a night for him there. Nice. Hell yeah. Shit's coming together.

Well, Reed, yeah, thanks so much for coming by, man. Thank you. This is a beautiful house. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I appreciate you saying that. I didn't pay you to say that, so I appreciate that. But I got to say, the biggest thing I'm looking for

out of this podcast is if I see you on the streets and be like, hey, what's up, man? And I'll do the Balmore thing and just kind of ignore you. Tight, tight. Tight.

Thanks for that. We totally didn't just have three drinks last night and have an amazing time and now I'm just going to give you a shot. No, no. I'm going to come up to you. I'm going to hug you.

I'm going to go, hey, hey, buddy. Make it intimate. Look at me, okay? We're friends now. You understand? Make it intimate and make people around, okay? We're friends now. You understand? Make it intimate and make people around us feel very confused. That's all we're trying to do here.

I think that's the goal of the podcast. Same with you. Hell yeah. Let's do it. All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. And David Koechner, take us out. Take Russian Sessions.

Come on to an end. Thank you. Oh yeah, oh yeah