The Digression Sessions - Ep. 266 - Doug Powell & Clark Kline! / 72 Hour Film Fest!

Episode Date: September 10, 2018

Note: the Josh's mic is messed up on this one, but it's still listenable I hope.. Hola Digheads, on this week's episode, Josh and Umar sit down with Doug Powell and Clark Kline to talk about the thirteenth year of the 72 Film Fest! For 13 years, 72 Film Fest has been the place for east coast filmmakers & screen artists to challenge themselves for a weekend of guerilla filmmaking, and screen/celebrate their work in front of a large audience. Almost 450 short films have been made by dozens of teams and hundreds of artists over the first 12 years. Check out the site to register or to view the films! Follow the podcast and Josh Kuderna and Umar Khan, 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, & Spotify plz!

Tage Network. That's a Gotti. Welcome to the Digression Sessions, everybody. I don't feel that way. Harold. Al joining us. Woo! He brought a new friend, and they are promoting the Frederick 72 film.

What's your last name? Clark Klein. Clark Klein. Clark Klein. I like that. It rolls together. So yeah, the 72 hour film fest in Frederick. When is that happening? October 4th is when the teams will be getting their movies and making the movies that weekend.

October 12th and 13th is when we show them all. Nice. And Doug, you've been a part of it for a long time, right? You and Mike Johnson have been hosting for what? Mike's been hosting since what, the beginning? Yeah, very first year, 2006. And then I came to Frederick 2009, and that was about the time that I think everybody had gotten tired of Mike Johnson. I'm kidding. tired of mike johnson um no uh so yeah i moved there in 2009 and i was still doing stand-up was

still before i moved here to baltimore um and met you finally yeah you had a show at a cafe or something right nice and then you guys that's how you guys met or you guys go further back that's how we met yeah yeah yeah we met down. I think Becca introduced us. It was a local yokel who said, you do a thing. I know another guy. Doesn't he? Nice. Y'all should do that thing.

Hell yeah. Yeah, so I've been working with them ever since. And it's been fun, man. Every year we find new ways to, Clark and the team come up with themes every season, right? So like every year it's based on some theme. One year was like fairy tales. Everybody's got three days to make a film based on some.

Oh, that's awesome. And then you're given criteria. It's not just the basic theme. It's like. Each team gets something, yeah. So like for fairy tales, each team got a fairy tale, and we're supposed to update that. And we did like first lines of.

A modern version of it. Yeah. One year was like first lines of books. So then they had to like take that and then make a new story around it. One year was like first lines of books, so then they had to take that and then make a new story around it. This year is Fears and Superstitions, so they'll get a fear or a superstition. And then make a film based around that.

I saw the trailer with you and Mike. Doing the psycho scene? Yeah, we just walk down there and just scream at each other. Yeah, it's fun every year. The production side of it's a lot of fun every year. I mean, Clark and I were talking about this earlier but um you have there's the uh the 48 right the two-day film fest yeah that's pretty uh where is that is that here that's national that's a it's a bunch of places yeah they do it in baltimore in dc too is it the same organization

that does them everywhere that's kind of an umbrella organization just you gotta glue it bro glue it in the mouth i think they're kind of uh umbrella organization? You gotta glue it, bro. Glue it in the mouth. I think they're kind of franchised. I think they're different organizers in different cities. Kind of like Moth Storytelling or that Mortified series where people read from the journals. They go from city to city doing it. Right.

48's like that, but the 72, Film Fest in Frederick, is its own thing that exists only in that city. It's tricky to think about how it can grow outside of that without it's, you know, we were saying it's local coffee versus Starbucks.

It's like when you start to franchise something, there's an element of it that can't be maintained. Yeah, you guys, your Film Festival has never kicked out black people for not making a film. Not yet. Our sponsor this week is Starbucks. Black

gentlemen. Our sponsor this week is black gentlemen. Yeah, so what we try to do on the production side, we have this really beautiful theater in downtown Frederick called the Weinberg Center. Yeah. And the Friday night, there are two nights of the festival.

Friday night, if you hand in a film on time, it shows. Nice. So you get this chance to see your film on the big screen. And it's cool. And there's this electric energy on Friday. Yeah, it's an amazing amount of energy because, for instance, last year we had 52 teams. So that's 52 teams of filmmakers and actors and writers.

52 films. Yeah. 52 film shows. Editors. Which is a really long night. I mean, they're like, what, five, four minutes? Five to seven minutes. So, man, 52 films, five minutes.

How long is that? It's a marathon. It's hours. Last year was the longest we went. We went from like 6.30 to, I think we got out of there 12.30. And is it random like when what gets shown? Or do you guys like pick like your favorites to show the hot prime time? We know the awards by then.

So we definitely don't want to put all the awards in one particular one. Keep it a secret because at the end of the night, we announce who moves on to Saturday. Got it. And then Saturday is like the Oscars of Frederick. And it's a lot of fun. And then on the production side, what we do is we will shoot our own shorts, the production team, myself and Michael.

And then on Saturday, we will show our shorts kind of broken up in between the winning films as like a narrative that kind of stitches everything together based on the theme. That's awesome. It's a lot of fun, man. I was just telling Clark, every year it's my favorite thing to like, I've been, you know, dadding.

I got a little baby and that takes all my time. I work and I dad. Nice. And then when this comes around, it's like, okay, great. I get to do something creative. I get to play with Michael, which is always fun. Nice. how many shorts do you guys make

well you mean over the years yeah no no no for each festival like each year we'll shoot like we'll have a complete story

and then yeah it's usually I think it's usually around 15-20 minutes oh and then you just chop it chop it up

yeah on YouTube right most of them are yeah I remember watching the ones the first year where you co-hosted with Mike and you guys had Oh, and they just chop it up. On YouTube, right? Most of them are, yeah. I remember watching the ones the first year where you co-hosted with Mike. And you guys had the whole, oh, there's a new sheriff in town.

Yeah, and we still play with that. And we still play with the concept of Mike's an improviser and I have done stand-up. So we always play with that, the differences between those two types of people. Stand-ups are intellectual types that think things through, and improvisers are just people that nobody can stand to be around. But we bring that into it, you know, and it's always fun to play that game.

Yeah. Yeah, I like the one, the parody you did of Heath. Yes, yes. You go sitting down, and you're like, look. You're up there doing your yes and Yes. Yes. You go sitting down and you're like, look, you're up there doing your yes ands. Yeah. I'll tell you,

Michael Johnson's such a funny person and you do your two-man show. Michael's so funny. I love working with him because I feel like in the majority of my life,

I'm not the straight man. I'm the loud guy. And in most casual, civilian conversations where I'm not hanging out with just stand-up comedians, I'm not the straight man. Right. But when I'm the loud guy and in most like casual civilian conversations where I'm not hanging out with just stand up comedians I'm not the straight man but when I'm with Michael you have no choice but to play straight man cause he's gonna take it

he's just really really good at improv and he's just so fucking funny and he my favorite thing is to push the scene until it breaks like somebody starts laughing somebody on the film crew or something. Yeah, our takes are really long. Well, you guys will just let us go.

This year was really scripted. We want to play with horror films this year. Nice. Because it's the 13th season. And it's Saturday night, Saturday the 13th. So we're doing Fears and Superstitions, the launch party where everybody comes and shows up to get their criteria. And then that whole weekend, they spend the weekendth. Oh. So we're doing Fears and Superstitions, the launch party where everybody comes and shows up to get their criteria,

and then that whole weekend, they spend the weekend making the film. It's a costume party this year, costume mandatory. Wow. So we're really playing it up. So we wanted to shoot like a horror-esque thriller type thing of our own.

Hitchcockian. Hitchcock. A nod to Hitchcock. You guys even set up a couple shots that mirrored some of Hitchcock's work. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Which we haven't actually shot yet. Did it in black and white.

Did it at an old mansion that a friend of mine's working on. Oh, nice. A lot of opportunity. Cool. But typically, the way it works is it'll be like, you guys will just get Michael and I in a scenario

and then you're like, all right, monkeys, go. And then we'll break and you guys will just get Michael and I in a scenario and then you're like all right monkeys go and then we'll break and we'll you guys will put something I'm always impressed with like ah that's what you did with it yeah um yeah I'm sure you see yeah we're like I wonder where it's gonna go this year but this year was really scripted and there were only a couple moments where Mike and I were really allowed to like you know know, play at the end of a scene. But it was fun. Nice. And if you're like,

you know, most of our people live in, I think Baltimore, but you know, Frederick's a cool place. Make a weekend out of it. Well, if you are Baltimore, you know,

go get some good dinner. Yeah. Come hang out in my house. Come hang out. Frederick's dope, you know. Smoke some weed with me on my porch. Yeah.

Yeah. Come on. Come on. What's so great? What's so great about Baltimore? Ugliest people in the country. Worst drivers in the country. Yeah. No, we got those two titles.

I saw that. Those are titles. You can look at them however you want. They're one of those things. You won those things. Yeah. What? That was Chicago, maybe. Nice. Were that was chicago maybe no no we're not you know who beats us i think i think chicago and new orleans beats us new orleans is fucking nuts oh yeah how could it not be i didn't know that yeah no even before

katrina sure no no i mean well katrina came because you know wiping. God, you know. Let us not forget. Clark, what do you think about gay people? Well, there's a... Isn't Hurricane hitting North Carolina? South Carolina, yeah. Actually, that's where my girlfriend is vacationing with her family. And this fucking pissed me off. I was like, i saw someone posted uh

actually her buddy tim heckle's wife yeah they live down there and she posted like hey fyi guys just left meeting with the community people and um and like god like local government people and they might issue a sunday night they're gonna determine if we need to evacuate or not no shit and my girlfriend's in charleston south carolina so i sent her the screenshot and she's like oh i wish you didn't show me that i'm like what the fuck yeah way to ruin my good time yeah i was like maybe watch the fucking weather oh it pissed me off i wish you didn't care about me yeah yeah oh fucking asshole i thought i was being like like you know i'm like i think it's like a cute move like or not just like a thoughtful jet move to being like, you know, I'm like, I think it's like a cute move. Just like a thoughtful move to be like, hey, you're there.

This is a thing that's happening. Why don't you? That's like telling her. Now I need to make a decision. That'll be my fault if I don't make it. That's right. It's going to ruin my fucking night. Yeah.

It's going to ruin my night. And she was like, yeah. Her room's just flooding. Yeah. I'm glad we stay. Yeah. It's a good vacation. Yahtzee

yeah yeah so i don't know why yeah because you just like nothing's gonna, and now I'm worried about it. I'm like, all right, dude. You should be. Yeah, whatever. Kind of a cool way to die, right? In a hurricane with your family? That sounds terrible.

If I was with my family, that's when I'd die. I'd be so pissed. How are you probably going to die? Like old? I know how I'm going to know. I'm going to die driving to D.C. to do sets because I'm on my phone all the time. You don't want to be driving to D.C. Yeah, I'm going to text him, like, this is fucking dumb.

I'm barely getting paid. And then, boom, that's it. That's how I die. All right. He died doing what he hated. Yeah, right? I like your post on Instagram where you're like, the whole trip down, you're like, fuck comedy. Fuck comedy.

Fuck comedy. And then after the show, you're like, yeah, comedy. It's true. Because that's what it is. You're summing it up. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole time.

It is. And that's what's so hard about comedy is the whole thing sucks. But it's like having to drive to Baltimore to get heroin. It's like that whole drive sucks, but when you're laying on that dirty-ass mattress, you're high as fuck. You're like, okay. You finally caught god you're like okay you finally glad i did it yeah you caught it but also what and i what i was seeing yesterday with the show was like uh you know like where like now i'm one of the ones who's like the cunt on the show because like everyone's excited to be there i feel like they i feel like they knew that going in

oh no no no just need a cunt no like i used to be so excited to be there and like and now that like that i'm decent at it and when i get paid i just like don't want to do it yeah and uh so like everyone else like backstage is like they're like talking having fun and i'm like literally falling asleep i'm like i gotta get a coffee and i went up got it i'm just sitting in the back drinking a coffee and just like and they're all like talking having fun i'm just like oh my god that's what it should be and they're talking about open mics that you didn't know yeah no existed and it's all new comics too yeah yeah but that's natural like the old man that's natural yeah I know.

But it's cool to see that because you have to remind yourself, like, this is cool. You get paid to do something that you always wanted to get paid to do. And now you're in a VFW. Yeah, man. You got the sound in your voice of a seasoned professional. That disappointment in the back of your throat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're like, that dream of like making it is gone you're just like vfw's rest of my life that's it yeah let me just get through this this is it yeah i've done

it what the fuck am i yeah yeah is that why you were like i'm done with yeah that's a crazy thing you walked because you you know you're one of the dudes you're one of my favorite comics yeah i remember seeing you at wind up space and thinking it's like who is this revelation yeah i remember because like i had been doing stand-up a couple years and doug you came back into town and like you just fucking murdered this fucking show we were on together and uh and at this point i was still like struggling like i didn't really know how to do it that well and uh but then my friend was at golden west or something and you and jim meyer another local comic were at golden west and uh and she was like dude i just overheard these two people talking about you and this guy like doug said you were funny and i was like oh my god

you went in the bathroom and rubbed one yeah oh you gave me so much like steam under my wings yeah it was well i am the steam beneath your wings. Is steam the word? What's the word? Wind. There's like a bird that's burning to death. You are the steam. His feathers are coming off.

Or her feathers. Or her feathers. They're steam. Yeah, wind. I didn't grow up here. Alright. Yeah, yeah, wind. I didn't grow up here. All right. Yeah, you did. No, I did grow up here. Yeah, but the grandparents aren't from here.

The Pakistani version is the steam. Translation. Christ. Steam, wind. Yeah, and then you walked away from it, and I thought that was, like, insane at the time. I mean, I still think about it. Like, you know, I love, you know, Clark and I talked about this

on the way up and the question always comes up of like, you know, do you plan on doing something again? I don't know, man. It's a battle in my psyche because in order to be good at life you really gotta be selective about the things you focus on.

Yeah. And with stand-up you can't really just be like i'm gonna do it every couple months man you just gotta live it because you know what it is to be good at it so if you go to an open mic and you eat it you're gonna be like i fucking suck i'm terrible at this i gotta commit to that and then your time is being vested somewhere else rather than being a dad or being, you know. And that's the thing, man. It's like, you know, just being married. Yeah. Being married. Being a human, but being married and having a family.

I know people that do it that don't, that do like, they travel or they're comedians or whatever, but I just don't understand how they do it because it takes every bit of your energy to like be successful at that and not have a jaded, distant relationship and not have a child that isn't close to you. I was just in North Carolina

with a guy that is on the road 40 weeks a year. And him and his wife, they work it out, but still, he's like, dude, it's a grind. Does he have kids? No, they don't have kids. Oh, thank God. So yeah, but they have a really good relationship and seem to understand, but it's really hard but it's really hard to set a deadline for yourself or some people have to set

a deadline for themselves you know it's like well let me push it and if you're i mean if you're gonna jump into a frying pan you're gonna want to have a yeah a lot of steam in the frying pan you're gonna want to have a stopwatch guys like you know but the thing is is what happens is like a lot of people get into it it's the only skill set they develop that's right and you just get stuck on the road because the only way you know how to make money dude honestly that's what scared me out of it too honestly yeah it like a big reason that i jumped out of stand-up was because i really really wanted to explore i didn't know how to fucking do anything it really was that like i i the first time i ever went to whole foods

was back in like 2007 and uh and i was like sweet this place is great you know i'm really into this whole you know food type shit and uh it was so fucking expensive and it really slapped me in the face yeah that i don't know how to do i don't know how to grow you know and that's what got me into farming yeah and then i wanted to own an old i wanted to own my own house and work on it and that's what got me into electrical work because i was like i don't know i'm fucking worthless i'm a worthless human and if in and i don't want to be i don't want to put myself in a position where i can't make a living of my choosing because if i if you push something too far and it doesn't work out you you really are trying to you're at the mercy of what comes your way yeah that's the thing with

comedy too you could be hot and crushing it for two years like conan jimmy fallon maybe you're in a couple movies that doesn't last that's right and then you're what 45 and you're like hey kids i'm still funny and they're like nah on to the next that's right because if you're doing comedy they're not like hey, you've been doing comedy for 10 years. That's right, man. I am now the general manager of comedy. They should do that.

I would be the general manager. Regional supervisor. Yeah, exactly. That was how the joke's coming. Right. So it's like, yeah, you could be crushing, and then it just falls out, and then you're 40 or whatever, and it's like too late to start over, really. You come into the club, Umar, you've been doing those same jokes for the last five years.

Come on, buddy. You're on probation, buddy. Let's pick up the pace yeah we got that yeah that's every comic though yeah yeah but you know i also see i also see friends that still do it yeah and they strain you can see the struggle dude of like them not knowing how to you have to make peace with that sever of like the time when you realize that it's not exactly gonna go the way you want it to or maybe it will go you have these choices

to make and how long do you hang on to it how long do you push it when do you shift those are complicated things that you don't really think about when you

first get into comedy or any form of art but you can't think about when you get into anything, like, I don't know why I just pointed at you like that, Clark. But filmmaking,

like Clark's been, you don't. Like you can't think about, because one, you're so inexperienced to know any of these fears and anxiety. You're ignorant of it.

You don't even know to think about it. You just have to be so dumb and so excited to try on this new thing. Like filmmaking, way harder to make it than comedy.

Oh yeah. Right? And much more of, way harder to make it than comedy. Oh yeah. Right? And much more of a financial, to make a film, you can get up with a, and do stand up all the time for free.

Yeah, I feel like the financial burden and just the fact that you're dealing with multiple chefs, like you know, the director in many senses is trying to just

make together all the different Clark has been working on a film with a friend of ours who's also a teammate on the Film Fest for the past five years.

A feature-length silent black and white 3D film. 3D! It's pretty remarkable and the footage that I've seen is amazing. It's finally coming to this head for us. We're still very much crunching this final

week, but we're sending it out to Sundance next week so that's wow what's it called it's called later cool later it's based on the Greek myth later on the Swan which is like basically the myth in this one it's like if you go to a lot of like museums and such are all over Europe there's always like a depiction of this man Dolly did it. A lot of different people have done it. It's Zeus in the form of a swan impregnates. Zeus was fucking everybody.

Zeus was a real freak. He was like, I bet that girl will fuck a swan. But Greeks, they were so liberated with their fucking. But also, Zeus was just boy crushing. He's like, yo, it's so easy for me to fuck. I bet I can fuck as a swan. Hell yeah. That's right. He's like, I'm tired of fucking with this big-ass Zeus dick.

I wanna fuck with a swan dick. But that swan had a big-ass Zeus swan dick. Yeah, dude. You know it did. Swans are scary. It's so... Yeah, they can attack pretty good. I'm coming down on something so swans fucking suck in conclusion swans i had to run from one one day when i was young

it was a swan i was in uh saint mary's or like uh by like the bay or whatever and uh oh boy they were well to be fair we were being c, and we were throwing bread at them. Yeah. And they had their kids with them. It was so – yeah. Yeah, yeah. These dudes are throwing bread at me. I freak out, and then he does a podcast talking about how he fucking ate swans. Yeah.

Anyway, thanks for turning into the AllSwan podcast. Do you like bread? Yeah. It's crusty. What the fuck? anyway thanks for turning into the uh all swan podcast i'm not desperate but i will take your bread but like with filmmaking like did you did you go to school for it no i kind of fell into it um i was i was writing i wanted to get into like novels and stuff which you have written some novels yeah oh wow and then um i saw an ad for a local guy that was trying to get a writer for uh some screenplay i found that talk to that on craigslist or like it was on craigslist yeah was it craigslist so weird and then uh met him and then wrote his first feature then did my own co-directed my own feature and then i think the year after that's when i started the film fest because the film fest is in the 13, is in year 13 right now. Wow. So that's sort of,

that taps me out creatively, so I haven't had time to do much else except produce this thing with Sam. But yeah, it takes a lot of time and energy. And the first ones that we did, we did on a super low budget. I mean,

I think the first one we did, we only paid the sound person. The second one. Yeah. For the Fest? No, this was the very, very first movie. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then the second one yeah for the best no this was the very very first movie

oh okay yeah yeah and then the second one we yeah exactly you're gonna sick by the end of the movie and things and um but this one we tried to pay day rates you know there was things that we had for look we had to pay for locations and all sorts of other things so we definitely had a had a budget but it took forever because we had to raise money yeah spend money raising a film sucks yeah yeah it's it's so tedious you don't you don't realize until you're sitting at a shoot and you just bore it out of your fucking mind i always wonder how it feels for actors it sucks it is a bummer i've done it once and uh it was a lot of sitting but but acting is just so hard. And I was just like, I'll never do this.

Really? Yeah. It's a fucking skill. It is a skill, yeah, for sure. If you don't think it's a skill. Watch amateur films. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or just you record yourself saying some lines and realize how much of an idiot you sound like.

Dude, I had four lines. It was 18 takes, and it was all my fault. It was fucking awful. It's wind beneath the wind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. Okay, all right, I got it, I got it. Action.

Steep. God damn it. Cut. What the fuck? And I even told the guy, my parents are a drunk here. It's a Pakistani translation issue. No, and I even told him, I was like, dude, do you want me to like, are you sure? I'm not, I don't know how to, I'm not a good actor.

He's like, you'll be fine. I was like, do you want me to read to you first? And he's like, no. No, you're brown. You're brown. We need brown. He's a buddy and he's been in film forever and he comes to my shows and i was like that's a different thing up there you know it's a form of acting sure and uh it was right and then

i watched it i went to the like a screening and still thought i looked terrible and i did terrible it's like oh it's so hard up as a form of acting but you're mostly the character you're playing you're mostly an asshole yeah and yourself exaggerated version of yourself yeah yeah but when you when you get into like an acting scenario you have to portray a different character with a different mindset and a different set of i'm it's so hard yeah i don't know how it's it's like but also like uh like method acting. Yeah. Is that necessary? No, but it just shows how absolutely fucking insane human beings are.

Yeah. And actors are in particular. I mean, if that's your way, that's, I think people just do that to get fucking attention. I do too. Look at him. Oh, he's in character. It's like, could you imagine just, does that make you a good actor? Yeah. I think that makes you a bad actor.

Because somebody... Makes you a bad person. I don't... At that point, you're not acting. Exactly. You're living. You're a liver. Right, good point.

I forgot what actor it was, but they asked him about something like, are you like a method actor? He's like, no, I'm... An actor. I'm an actor. I'm an adult. I play pretend.

And it's like, I don't... If you need to do that, then maybe you're not a good actor. I don't know. Who knows? I think that it also comes for people who, method acting comes for people who, and I'm probably going to piss off a bunch of method actors,

but that can afford to do. He's going to come out of retirement. He is. He's back on the front door. He actually has a place in Baltimore now. Yeah. It just is like for people who can afford to do it. Yeah, it's a luxury.

It's a luxury. Yeah. Like being a vegan. It's a luxury. Yeah. We're here to say being a vegan is wrong. It's not wrong. It's just a luxury.

No, I'm kidding. Also, going from stand-up to acting and watching yourself on oh yeah really frustrating because if you're having like a set you're not thrilled with you can call an audible at the moment kind of riff yeah yeah it's on the screen you're like but yeah but also the way he wanted me to the director who he wrote directed everything the way he wanted me to say the lines i who he wrote, directed everything, the way he wanted me to say the lines, I didn't think that's how it was natural. I was like, no one would talk like that to their girlfriend at dinner. They wouldn't take these dramatic pauses.

Can you do the lines? I don't remember it. Come on. I literally cannot remember it, but it's me yelling at my girlfriend. You did 18 takes? Yeah. And you don't remember the four lines? This was two years ago.

No, I don't. I remember my entire remember the four lines? This was two years ago. No, I don't. Dude, I remember my entire lines from films I did five or six years ago. I don't met people I met last night, so... Let's marry the two. Do one of your films. At the same time. But it was something like,

if you think that I am going... And I was like, no one taught... There's no need for these dramatic... If I was yelling at my girlfriend at dinner, I'd just be like, if you think that I am going, and I was like, no one taught, like, there's no need for like these dramatic, if I was yelling at my girlfriend at dinner, I'd just be like, dude, what the fuck is wrong with you? Get the fuck out of my face. Maybe that's not the character the director sees. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. And that's the frustrating part. The director's like, no one calls their girlfriend dude. This guy does. What's happening? Yeah, and I'm just but you know that's what he wants and I'm just like

oh that's not was that Mike's film yeah no it was my buddy Josh Slates he's a really cool dude he

I don't know what he's doing with it but we it's a beautiful it's a beautiful movie and so we'll see what he does with it. All right. Not just making good stuff, too.

That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, he reached out to me recently just to say, hey, I haven't heard from him in a bit, so that was sweet of the old feller. Dude, yeah, if he's filming something, you should get in there. I should.

You're right. Is he in town still? Yeah. Yeah, he lives in Baltimore County. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, he's scared of coming to the city ever since the riots, but yeah. Yeah, man, white people, right? Yeah, he's scared to come to the city ever since the riots. But yeah.

Yeah, man. White people, right? Yeah. He's a Blue Lives guy. So no, I'm kidding. Y'all. It's not. I don't know.

I hate Blue Lives. Wait, but so, since you didn't go, like film was never like a thing in your head you had since you were young. No, it definitely was. It was something

that I watched tons of movies and really loved it. But I never really thought of going to film school. It was something that I watched tons of movies and really loved it, but I never really thought of going to film school. I was more like I wanted to write. Oh, okay, write for film. More like I was writing books. Oh, okay. And then I, I don't know, I got the bug.

When I first wrote that screenplay and got on set and the very first thing I did, I was assistant director on set. I had to learn all of the scheduling and everything else and just learned all of that. Cool. I did hear that AIDS director on side to learn all of nice yeah and everything else and just learned all of that cool I did hear that AIDS makes you a better writer so I'm glad you got that bug yeah

I waited too long I didn't want to step on your fucking pair nah it's it was bad but do it still I'll be your aide. Woo! All right.

We're doing it. We're doing it. Well, just because I was going to say, like, it's just even, like, with stand-up, like, in film, my friends who went into film, you see, like, the dream get lowered and lowered. Like, I'm going to be in movies in Hollywood. Like, maybe I'll just, like, be in some, like, low-budget indie films. Oh, okay. with like maybe i'll just like be in some like uh low budget indie films uh okay maybe i'm just gonna end up like uh um like shooting and editing uh orientation videos for the local company right and that sounds like life yeah and that's life that's like that's life that's just like college

kids are like i'm gonna be a senator and change the world and it's like uh you're just gonna like work at the Baltimore Sun. That's right. Yeah, we see a lot of the teams that come through 72. And some of them will leave. They'll go to Hollywood for whatever reason. Yeah. Whatever reason.

Probably be a waiter, right? I heard the waiter jobs are great out there. If there's a filmmaker in Maryland, went to Hollywood to be a waiter. Here's my headshot. Yeah, a lot of them come back. A lot of them go out there and then they end up working like gang editors and stuff

because there's gigs out there. It's hard, I think, just to be your own, just to crack in and be your own filmmaker. Yeah, totally. I mean, really, unless you're really going to dedicate that for that first own filmmaker. Yeah, totally. I mean, really, unless you're really going to dedicate that for that first film,

which is incredibly difficult. The barrier of entry is really low as far as technology now. I mean, anybody can do it. I know. It's still the money. Yeah. You can do all that stuff,

but it's really fucking hard. And that makes it challenging for those of us who do comedy, for example. I just couldn't get the feeling out of my head that fucking everybody's doing this. Everybody's doing this. It feels worse now. It's terrible.

I don't want to turn me off to it. It bums me out seeing people that are really good being like, hey, check out my 15-minute special on Netflix. People that have been in the game a long time are doing that. Some people that have been doing comedy a couple years are doing that and then some people that have been doing probably like a couple years right yeah again there's no guarantee sure but i think that just shows like when you attempt something like that and like in show business and i like just the attempt makes me way less critical like yeah people like are so quick to shit on things like but it's like dude dude, if you know someone's name,

think about how much work and bullshit they went through for you to know that that person exists to make that comedy special, that movie, that fucking book. And you can just shit on it instantly after it comes out. It's soul crushing. It's fucking nuts. It's pretty hilarious, actually. It's so funny

because it's just like, you're so dumb. Yeah, like, the Hobbit movies cost like $200 million. It sucked. Yeah.

All right. Forever. And now, because of Twitter and stuff, you can just say it to their face and they see it all the time.

God. Yep. Like, dude, after you put out a movie you've worked on for five years, Clark, just turn off the comments. God damn. Because people are just like, this is

gay. It's like, what do you do? You don't even have a partner. You live at home alone and you have two followers on Twitter. Go fuck fuck yourself it's funny to see how many people will speak up in anonymous situations versus like a live audience like hecklers are few and far between if you're killing it because that's true people in real life are

fucking pussies yeah they should be because you don't rate right to to say the things that you're saying yeah yeah when you're behind this little anonymous wall people are like just hardcore usually backpedal so quick if somebody does respond they're like oh i'm just a big fan saying yeah yeah when you're behind this little anonymous wall people are like just hardcore yeah nobody's ever said that to me the the first movie that's right i saw uh i was listening to a podcast and they had the comic and uh the this um a guy who uh reviewed his he reviews albums, he trashed it. Oof. And he completely walked back to everything he said. All of it?

Yeah. And he apologized. Yeah. I feel like critics, for the most part, kind of suck. Yeah. It's like, what do you do? Critics right now are- What the fuck do you bring to the table?

Critics right now, they're trying to shape the narrative of what what people like yeah critics can make it seem like things are way more well received than they are sure yeah you know like it's so weird it's like who the fuck said that because no one i know thinks that this is the greatest movie ever made or the greatest special ever made i just hate seeing people that don't have any experience with anything you're talking about you're talking about donald trump yeah that's the best of everything he's the man he's the man hey don't we're maga over here all right no all right all right i support everything he does yeah it's a great wall really good wall did you see him on the uh the other night uh when he did that speech and uh where was it like montana Yeah. Not only did they switch the people,

but he went on a two and a half minute diatribe about if he gets impeached. Oh, yeah. He's like, yeah, it's scary. It's really weird having a president that does rallies all the time. Yeah, right. It's him blowing off steam. Yeah, because it's how he feels good.

He's like a stand-up. Yeah. He is. That's right. He's always a stand-up. Yeah, he is. That's right. He's always working on his new five. He has no five. No!

It's always been. He's always bringing out his greatest hits of Hillary. Somebody should produce a Donald Trump best of. Oh my God. I mean,

that guy is funny as fuck. He is really funny. Might as well just be a comedian up there smoking a cigarette. He's like, my fucking bitch wife. This is bothering me as well. But yeah, the impeachment thing is really weird too. He is really funny. Might as well just be like a comedian up there smoking a cigarette. He's like, my fucking bitch wife. Yeah, right.

This is bothering me as well. But yeah, the impeachment thing is really weird too. He's like, yeah, the stock market will crash. Yeah,

I need you people to defend. And he's like, it might happen, it might not. Hopefully it won't. We'll see. And it's just like, why as a sitting president

are you saying this? It's inciting hysteria. Yeah, it's insane. And then he's like, you know what? And this is what's gonna happen. Yeah. You know? And both sides you know what? Like, cause, and this is what's going to happen. Yeah.

You know, and both sides get a Democrat. They're going to, the Republicans impeach them. And then they get it. When a Republican comes in there, they get impeached and just going to keep going. Yeah.

And it's like, who the fuck believes that? I don't know, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. bad about me, it's fake. Right. The news is fake. You're right about that. Man, I never thought of it that way before. Yeah.

Man. I thought it was interesting he got a big laugh when he said, but you know, if this does happen, it's all your fault. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I think he was going for the laugh. I think he was trying to be cutesy, like, hey, you better go out and vote. You know? Sure.

It's, and then. it's and then it's scary yeah he's like i didn't think it would work but people like it drain the swamp but like this dude stuff sucked yeah i like this last album i want him to like pull out a notebook and like you know like some like uh some comics like if a joke works or like i'm gonna give that a check he's taking a sip of his water while looking down at the book don't want to yeah he's like hillary's a cunt oh you guys didn't like that one let's cross that off okay yeah trying to bring those jobs back. Yeah, sure, absolutely.

Yeah, and he's still talking about the election. It's like, bro, it was two years ago. He's like, we won by a huge margin. We won! Shut up! Like, oh, man. Anyway. Anywho. He's our president.

You think you could do his job, Doug? Who would want to be the president? You have to be a psycho to want to be a president of something. You have to be more of a psycho than anyone who wants to be in show business. Yeah, to be the president of the United States, you have to be a crazy person. He realized it sucks, too, because he's like, this isn't fun. He had fun being like, man, fuck Hillary, fuck Obama. And then they're like, all right, now you're in charge.

He's like, I don't want to be in charge. That's dumb. Damn, dude. Bang hookers in a building with my name on it. Are you out of your fucking mind? Yeah. The president of anything. No, I don't want to be in charge. It's all ultimately your responsibility.

I never want to be in charge of people ever. Yeah. God. Like Obama said, too, you're also getting problems that are the worst problems. Yeah. He's like, by the time it gets to my desk. Oh, it's big. Nobody else can figure it out. They're like, now it's your turn yeah he's like by the time it gets to my desk oh it's it's great that sucks man sounds like a nightmare yeah yeah yeah it takes a really bad president

to make you realize that like i guess they do do some stuff yeah you know i guess they have some influence because for them everyone's like it's just a figurehead. They don't do anything. They go hold your baby jerk you off and go to like you know it's just like

what? I don't know. Presidents don't jerk people off. They jerk babies off. They jerk babies off. Your parents aren't from here.

That's why Obama Obama was so great with babies. He was jerking off babies. Can you make a baby cum? Just a little bit. If you can make a baby cum

You're good Yeah dude That'd be good You gotta get them In the head space That's the thing If you're gonna cum You gotta be like

Thinking of something Right To get a baby To think of something sexual That's why it's two terms dude That's right Eight motherfucking years Jerking off babies

Jimmy Carter Couldn't do it It would be cool If some For some reason Babies did like there was some sort of natural instinct to ejaculate no but like uh just like like a baby's just hard while he's getting breastfed i'm really excited to hear this i can't wait to hear this in a courtroom. Why am I getting fired?

42 minutes into the podcast. Well, I think that in the making of human beings, that was probably on the edit table. I was like, look, they can't come factory set with the whole sex drive. All these little

baby boys have boners. Let's slowly work it in there. Dads are are gonna be so pissed yeah oh my god what are you saying is there's proof there's god is that what you're saying always there's always proof that there's god unfortunately and i don't know what it means but there's always proof yeah absolutely uh all right so when is the uh when is the festival again it's october 4th october 4th is the launch party nice cafe 611 in downtown frederick nice um downtown for so cool it's pretty cool it's all right it's expensive yeah my property value has gone up really you own i own that's what's up yeah you clark what you own?

Yeah, I have a townhouse in Middletown. Nice. What the fuck is Middletown? I don't know. It's like 10 minutes out. Okay. That's pretty nice. Every state's got like five Middletowns.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have a family? Yeah. Nice. Oh, you guess. We don't have to go into it. Oh, you have a fiance. Clark's made the cutoff sign.

Nah, nah, nah. Sorry, Clark. You have to know I live in Middletown. Yeah. Sorry, Clark. You have them know that I live in Middletown. Yeah. No, behind me now. What's your address? You dress like a movie guy.

The hat, the jacket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He lives it. Yeah, you got it. What do I dress like? Do you have like a gig? What's your money maker? My day job is I work

at the bookstore in town. Okay. I manage the internet side of Wonderbook. Okay. I don't know what Wonderbook is. It sounds cool. Wonderbook's cool. Warehouse.

It's a big-ass book warehouse. Yeah, 4 million books we ship all over the world. Oh, my God. And Amazon's not encroaching on your... Well, I mean, we sell on Amazon. Oh, nice. We're one of those people that sell on the marketplace. God, Amazon.

What a... Did you see how much money... They're the first company to like be worth a trillion dollars damn i think that was apple apple sorry yeah amazon's number two yeah amazon's i did blow it blew it fuck the one thing that trump tweeted i agreed with because apple complained about trump's new tax reforms he's like hey we're gonna have to raise prices on our products if you do this and he's like a simple solution why don't you move your factories to the united states and i was like fuck i agree with that no doubt yeah see this. And he's like, simple solution. Why don't you move your factories to the United States? And I was like,

fuck, I agree with that. Yeah, see, that's why he's president. I know, he did, because the dude knows how to run a business, I'm telling you. He sure does. He's never been bankrupt. Not once. Not once. Well, maybe once.

Not twice. He's been bankrupt like nine times, right? Seriously, like four or five times, maybe once. Yeah. God. Not twice. Nope. Not twice. He's been bankrupt like nine times, right? It's seriously like four or five times, I think. How does that work? How do you maintain that level of wealth and getting, like, if you're bankrupt, how do we just not take everything from you? It's all because it's in corporations and shit. So, theoretically, you find, like, some rich Russian oligarchs that would give you a ton

of cash. Oh, okay. And then you're good. In theory. No one would actually be able to pull that sort of thing off except somebody who's really, really wealthy. Right. Yeah, that's true.

There was a documentary, too. I think the banks consider him too big to fail, essentially. Really? So they'll give him anything. Yeah, so they didn't want to go after him because if they go after them, it's like they have to basically, they lose tons as much as he loses.

Wow, because they're invested in him too. Damn. There's a documentary thing on Netflix that sort of explains why they didn't actually go after him during the big one, which was the Atlantic City. Yeah, yeah.

The casino? His dad propped him up there too, right? I think so, yeah. The banks didn't move when they they should have moved but they didn't yeah cost them as much so yeah his casino was gonna go down and then uh his dad came in and uh he got like millions of dollars in chips yeah and just never used those chips so he put millions of dollars into the casino so this is a way where it's like alone but it's under the under the table wow yeah yeah that's

it's just you know i was thinking about this like uh just like when you get older and you learn more you just become so disheartened like that's true because i got into like politics because i was like i grew up like listening to like bands like no effects and anti-flag and i'm like yeah man they're fucking righteous fucking dudes who like stand on principles and then you realize like they're all fucking asshole yeah like sellout they're making money off they're making money off all this bullshit in like uh like uh no effects they're always coined as like they always talk about diy not selling out do-it-yourself punk mentality and then i watched i watched a documentary on like the his record label and it's like he got a loan from his dad to start the record label i'm like

fuck you yeah yeah yeah you know like fuck you dad give me that check it took me a long time to learn because i think you know you i'm from i was born in a trailer. Yeah. Okay, all right. I don't know what podcast you think you're on, but you don't have to brag. I'm not from money. So, you know, it took me a long time to learn about money. I didn't have anybody in my life that was like, son, this is what money is. This is how it works. This is how you use it. This is how you leverage it.

This is how you invest. I had to learn all that shit. It took me forever to learn that shit. And it also took me a long time to learn because I'd spend a lot of time being like well how do they make their money that person's got so much fucking money in their young yeah and it took me a long time to learn a lot of people are just given money and are just they just inherit a lot of money and because that's just something that's not even a thing in my culture that's most people most people uh will die in the income bracket they're born in yeah that's just a fact of life you know and like i just remember like uh like for i mean there are definitely people who you know like and it's fine that you get like it's it's fine if you get inherit well i'm not saying you're a bad person or means anything it's not you don't have it but portraying it as. As if you didn't.

Yeah. Like, pull yourself up from your bootstraps mentality. That's the cunty part. Yeah. And, like, I don't know. Like, I have friends or dated people who, like, you know, like, my ex-girlfriend used to just, like, give me shit about money all the time. And it's like, wait a minute.

Like, your grandma died. That's how you have money. Interesting. And your dad set you up with the his his your dad pays for you to see his financial advisor yeah since you were 18 so like how do you not see that big help and and like uh like if like if your family had has been established in america for generations you're good like your wealth like you're established well then wealth gets passed down.

Not my family. My family has been established in the United States for a long time and they just continue to make the same mistakes. But if your family was already wealthy,

established 1814, still poor. Right here in this trade. Always poor. But if your family was still wealthy to begin, you know what I mean?

That wealth would carry through the generations unless someone really fucked up. That's right. But that's the thing, like, when my parents die,

there's not really that much for them to give us except for, like, just one townhome and that's it. Sure.

Which is still great. It'll help us a lot. More than most. That's the only way I'll buy a fucking house, probably. So I'm waiting. Yeah, and you hear stats, too, that the income,

the average income throughout the world is like seven grand or something, or maybe less. Yeah, it's pretty high. There was a statistic that... Need to move. The world's top 200 most richest people uh have uh more wealth than the poorest like four billion people yeah that's why people give that's unbelievable bernie sanders all

that shit but it's he's making a point he's like the top one percent of the top one percent yeah that's what it is and then but and then with the the then that's where the phony part comes in. People always think like, oh, well, they worked for it. And it's like, they were just given that shit. And it's not wrong, but figure out a way to redistribute this shit a little fairly. It's not going to happen without a fight. It'll never happen. It would take a revolution to get people to come up off there.

That's what Trump was talking about the other day. Yeah, see, Trump is scared of people like... This white guy's got to vote, man. People like Doug, they're going to... That blue street comes through, he's going to start killing people. The blue street.

No, that's not me. I'm just saying. The Democrats are sweeping. Oh, okay. Remember he said it's going to be violence in the streets. Oh, the blue wave. I'm just saying,

it's like the whole talk of wealth distribution is absurd to me because it's like the whole talk of wealth distribution is is absurd to me because it's like who who will enforce that yeah there's no way to do it just like you like wealthy people can be like all right it's through i think it's through tax reform yeah but it's not but it wouldn't be funny how many motherfucking loopholes yes did rich people already know how to do that scenario there is upheaval. And then somebody with a pitchfork is like, now I run the treasury. You're going to know what to do.

That's true. And that's the thing is people are like, well, all these rich people are running everything. And it's like, wow, they're probably the people who should be. People with lots of money know how to deal with lots of money. If you gave me a fucking massive budget, just oh my god let's buy some blow yeah we got all these elites in congress let's shoot some films people that know what they're doing like yeah right exactly yeah he's a life uh life politician it's like well i mean yeah he's educated gross like yeah he should be in there also uh speaking socialism like trump just

doesn't understand that either right they want to take away your Medicare and fund socialism. It's like, that's what Medicare is. They want to fund public schools. The thing is they can exist together, and they have existed together for the longest time. Capitalism and socialism in our country live together. That's pretty much what we have.

That's right. It is. Yeah, like your taxes go to roads and schools and the FDA and literally social security. And you don't need to. You don't need to fucking dump the whole thing on its head. You just have to continue to work to make things more accessible for people. Man, I hope Congress listens to us because we are solving the world's problems. We just did.

We just did. We just fucking solved shit. Yeah. Next. Oh, I'd like to call attention to the digressions. These boys are making a lot of sense. Don said that we need to balance it out. They're talking about coming to terms with one another somewhere along the middle.

And somehow they still have time to put on a 72 hour film festival these boys are impressive yeah i mean who know everything's so complicated it's so fucking complicated everyone thinks they know it's that's the other thing you know like every time i hear like joe rogan i'm like you don't know shit dude well none of us do i mean we know what we know president bro we know what we know yeah and we we mostly know what we know based on our opinions so our views draw us toward the things we're interested in then we know what we think we know about those things and it's typically from other people telling us what they think they know yeah and then we're all walking around being like i know and we all recycle ideas and we hear shit yeah it's all like well you know yeah anything

you try to pass it off as your idea it's so fucking lame you think that that person was smarter than you too so you're just like i overheard a smart person i was we were watching listen to the npr yeah we might have been having some good times earlier me and my roommates and we were watching movies and uh oh i know what that means yeah and uh fucking and i was like and uh we're bible yeah we were reading passages yeah we were lit on fucking corinthians The Bible. Yeah. The Bible. Reading passages. Yeah. We were lit on fucking Corinthians, dude. Lit. And I was just thinking, like, we were watching YouTube videos on, like, how to make, like,

knives and shit. All right. Well, if the government wasn't listening before, they're definitely listening to a podcast about Dude, these people... You know the kind of knife you would make would suck. A knife that you would be able to create. Dude, these people make knives out of like insane... And they're so sharp. This guy will make a knife out of a vegetable.

It's unbelievable. That's some prison shit. Do you think the NSA is listening to everything? Do you think there are like one person that's on our podcast? I hope so. They are giggling. They're chuckling, whoever they are. You sound like the brown guy. He's watching YouTube videos on how to run a bed.

But then it got me thinking. Four keywords. Because my roommate, Evan, who's been walking around, he's really into doomsday prepping. Oh, that's cool. So he has a bag. Go bag. He has a fucking shotgun under his bed

and like well he'll run through he'll run through scenarios he's like dude if something goes wrong we're gonna throw that beanbag down the steps so people can't get into that door we're gonna barricade this door you think a beanbag's gonna keep zombies or not zombies just like

when the world goes to shit it doesn't matter if they're actually zombies or not. When shit hits the fan, they will act like zombies. Yeah, and here's the thing. The world now is, for us, I'm speaking, is great. Like, we're going to go eat tacos after this. We're doing a podcast, and I'm barely happy. I struggle to be happy all the time.

What the fuck? And most people, you can't handle a world in which like people make jokes with the word retarded it yeah like can you live in a world where can you live in a world that people with disabilities are gonna be the first ones to be eaten and killed you know there's gonna be nobody's like in the apocalypse happening like we need to build a center for children with autism you know i feel like you would have to acquire a taste for handicapped people like sure i don't know i'm not condoning i'm just saying that's what would happen do that you fake it so like it's tainted i don't eat that but that's what would happen so like i would kill myself i wouldn't want to live

in a world like that i would automatically kill myself has that same take on it which is cool because i'll get to eat her. There you go. So we were watching these videos. We were having good times. And we were watching some video where this guy cut out almost like a vert ramp shape. And he was dropping these two balls. He's like, no matter what, I can drop the ball on this one side from a higher up angle than this side.

And they will always meet in the middle. I'm like does he know that that's so smart like i was like if i dude i was like if we lived in a doomsday and let's say we were like some of the few people to survive we could never recreate any of this technology that's so true yeah you're like i don't know how a computer chip works of course how the fuck can a computer like hold like. It blows my mind. That's how fucking dumb we are. Yeah, it's true. We're so dumb. It's true, and we all live with the idea that we're a lot smarter than we are

because of accessibility to information. The only reason the accessibility exists is because somebody was smart enough. Because someone is so smart. If you think about the history of human society or human civilization, it has all been pushed forward by these few. Small group. Or individuals.

These few geniuses. Look at Da Vinci and Tesla. These people who come along and for whatever reason, they are dialed in and in tune with something much greater than a human being is typically tuned into. And they bring us all with them. We go off the context, but we're all pretty stupid. Dude, I could be on the Galapagos Island, stare at finches every fucking day, and never come up with a theory of evolution.

Sure. You know what I mean? I would come up with a theory of getting stoned on Galapagos. I'd be riding these fucking huge tortoises into the sea, motherfucker. Writing in calligraphy like... I wonder what they taste like. I'm like, the ones with the round beaks taste better than the ones with the pointy beaks. Yeah, that shit blows my mind that you can be that smart.

And then I was just like, God, we are so dumb. Yeah, we're dumb. And we have them, like, we're so opinionated. Yeah, it's true. The worst thing about it, too, is that the majority of us are offloading our intelligence onto the internet. Yeah. We're not, like, our memories are sort of changing. Yeah.

We need to record. There's never any need to record. We can just Google it. Yeah. And so if something does happen, I mean. Yeah. I don't know. Those pathways just aren't there.

Yeah. They're gone. Phone numbers. How do you get't know. Those pathways just aren't there. Yeah, they've gone. Phone numbers, how to get anywhere. You just put it in your phone. Yeah, you're not really retaining information. And that's what... I mean, I think he's a crazy person, but Elon Musk on Joe Rogan, that's what...

Oh, dude, he smokes weed. Yeah. He's a crazy person. Make no mistake. Tesla was a crazy person. Yeah, yeah, they're all crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was just saying, like,

well, if you think about it, we kind of already are infused with technology. Of course. He was like, you take your phone away. You are way less smarter now. That's right. You know? That's right.

We're addicted. Yeah. Hardcore to our phones. Like, if I leave the house and I'm in my car and I'm like, you forgot my phone in the house. You'll shit your pants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. i've been making a conscious effort to to look at it less and it's it's great and then you you look at everyone else and then everybody's just yeah it's yeah and you it's just like wow like dude me when we were traveling my

girl we went to puerto rico and we were seeing like we're in the i'm rubbing it in i know right it was like my first real vacay i've never- I'm just fucking Puerto Rico trying to look at my phone list. And I know, and that's the thing. You sound like a cunt for just trying to be better. And yeah, like we're in the rainforest. We got to go snorkeling, look at the coral reef. And everyone is just sitting on the beach

taking pictures right and it's like guys how often do you get to go snorkeling and look at tropical fish you know well they just want to make sure that everybody back home knows

that they had an opportunity to go sit on the beach that's the sickness is everyone wants what's because what's a picture of you on the beach besides just letting everyone else know

like my life is cool I'm doing cool things. And I know that's why I was posting that stuff. So I stopped. It's normal to want that. It's normal to want people to pay attention to you or think that you're special. That's a really normal thing. It's the whole dopamine talent.

It'd be so funny to make that your caption for all your pictures. Like, my life is cool and better than you. Yeah. Whatever. You know what? I'm going to start doing that. Hashtag my life is cool and better yeah whatever you know what i'm gonna start doing that because hashtag my life is cool it's so much for trying to stay off your phone you just got a new little uh bit of excitement no anytime like i made a i only post uh comedy related stuff that's it that's it's only a tool to further sure i want to trick people

into thinking my comedy career is better than it is like most people you gotta do that's all social media is yeah nobody's posting the shitty stuff. Yeah. We've all become the reality stars we hated. And just like with reality stars, we like watching our peers go through shale and fail.

That's when we take screenshots. We're like, look at this dumb fuck. What are we doing? It's fucking nuts and yeah humans are disgusting it's good this really good we're just in a big digital fighting it out and this this comic bridget she brought up such an amazing point that i would have never as a man realized yeah because um we were me and martin this guy martin amini who's a a local kid comic we were just kind of sitting sitting talking just about how we've pulled back from the scene

because there's just so much shit talking and there's so much drama. And it's always the people like that. I mean, without being the people we're just talking about, like, look at this asshole. It's usually the people that aren't doing well are always talking shit. It's like most of the people that are focusing on their crafts and are good. Yeah. But it was funny because Bridget, she said shit it's like yeah most of the people that are focusing on their crafts and are good yeah but but it was funny because bridget she said she's like you know it's so interesting because i've heard so many male comics say that um you know like when you get away when you kind of step back get away from the drama and you stop you learn to like not be jealous and you

and you learn to not talk shit about other people and kind of just appreciate what you have, your own thing going on, like, life is better that way. And it's like, that's like a lesson all girls learn in middle school. Sure. You know what I mean? And it's like, it takes you guys, you're a 30-year-old man,

and you just said that out loud. And I was like, holy shit, you're so right. Like, I never went through that until... So is she suggesting that girls don't engage in drama? No. And that's what I said. I was like, you guys still fucking do that shit. It sounds like they just had a shit of your friends earlier.

Yeah, that's true. They thought girls had been cool since day one. That's right. It's just now they're starting to piss me off. Yeah. But, yeah, I thought that was the intro because it does seem like a thing you should learn early. And I guess you do. You just get caught up in it.

It's either you get caught up and you go with it, or I think it just is such a fucking waste of time and energy. If you're trying to be a ninja, you don't have time to worry about what some other ninja is doing. It's not important. It doesn't factor into my training. Get a coffee. Dude, Jeff sucks.

Does Ninja Star work? Well, no, I always try to think about everything I do like that in terms of Kung Fu mastery. I mean, everything is a form of mastery. And that worrying or paying attention to what other people are, how other people are going about their mastery, unless it's something that you see in them that you're like i need to adopt that technique or or approach because that really is cool and it works otherwise you're just wasting your fucking time

like i don't have time to what a waste of energy oh fuck this guy or who cares who gives a shit yeah but it comes from like a sense of entitlement and thinking like you should be getting stuff right you know if you should be getting stuff. Right. If you should be getting stuff, then you'll get stuff. Yeah. But I think that's where experience and maybe a little bit of age comes in. Right. Once you start getting stuff, you're like, oh, I was an idiot for thinking I deserve stuff back.

Correct. And I think that way. I cringe sometimes at the thoughts I've had or the things I've asked for when i was like oh my god no right to ask for that or thinking that somebody got yeah yeah or thinking that somebody got something and then it's like it was either me or him it's like no it wasn't yeah like yeah i'm getting something doesn't take anything away yeah yeah or you see someone get something and then you realize like that person was probably like got it because four other people couldn't do it, you know? Mm-hmm.

And so it's just, it's all, you gotta just be happy with what you got. Yeah. Just focus on yourself, because the more energy that you put into those other things detracts from surpluses of energy that you could be redirecting into your craft. And that's what makes you better. It's just that little extra. But if you're worried about what other people are doing, you're wasting your fucking time. It's self-destructive.

I remember seeing you actually kind of go through that too when you were on your way out of stand-up. Maybe not even consciously realizing it. But it's so cool to see you doing stuff like this. It's like the film festival where you're like, I'm happy as a dad, I'm happy as a husband and then like i still have my creative outlet because you it's i still struggle though i mean because i i still have stuff to say you know i still i still write i

still like pen ideas and perspectives in the thought that you know maybe i'll tape another special or i'll or i'll do you know totally you could and I may um but I struggle with it because it's hard it's hard to find it's hard to find the time and then when you do then you're like I was saying to you I don't want to be back in it I don't want to go I don't really want to go do open mics I don't want to do I don't want to test it out I just want to. Test it out. I just want to be able to, if I were to do something, go say it. But that wouldn't be the case. I would obviously practice before I got up.

But then you're just like. But I think I kind of know already. Speaking of mastery and stuff. To an extent. But you got to get out there. No doubt. But like. Even if you're really good at shooting a basketball.

Yes. You don't want to not shoot a basketball for five years and then go be like, I'm going to go win this three point contest real quick. Agreed. Because you're not going to win it. Yeah, but I don't think you would embarrass yourself. I know. I don't want to not shoot a basketball for five years and then go be like, I'm going to go win this three-point contest real quick. You're not going to win it. I don't think you would embarrass yourself. I don't think so. Towards the end, you're doing longer stories.

You kind of knew how that worked. You could be funny within that. Some of your bits were 20 minutes long. Correct. I like that. I don't know. I've thought about other forms of creative output, tried short films and whatnot.

I don't know. Stand-up is kind of, I like it. It reminds me a lot of, I draw a lot of correlations between, like kung fu makes a lot of sense with stand-up because it's you against you. It's not you against your opponent. Your opponent's yourself.

And you have to overcome all these things to get really past yourself and then your opponent is invisible and it's the same thing as like

it is I see hip hop's the same way like being an MC reminds me a lot of being a stand up comic because what you're doing a true MC

in my opinion is you know they're up there and they're giving their perspective they've got a thought or an idea on something and they're they're giving their perspective they've got a thought or an idea on something and they're trying to look at it from a way that nobody's ever or trying to send a message and comedy is the same way yeah you know you're up there it's just you

and the microphone and you're you're trying to convey information and you know your outcome is humor but uh i don't know it's like soccer too all you get the thing about stand-up that's cool is all you need the microphone you don't need a lot you know with film it's like soccer too the thing about stand up that's cool is all you need is a microphone you don't need a lot you know with film it's hard you need a crew you need the time you need scheduling

and you know donuts you gotta have donuts lots of donuts and pizza pizza yeah man pizza right and the filmmakers too I mean there's like

this competitive nature I mean there's a lot of teams that support each other but there's a lot of teams that sort of rip each other down and we had to make these rules to stop heckling movies and things like that wow people take it seriously the film I mean the first movie that support each other but there's a lot of teams that sort of rip each other down and we had to make these rules to stop heckling movies.

Wow. People take it seriously, the film. Yeah. I mean, the first movie that I put out, I think, I'm trying to remember

what it said on the IMDb but the review was something like Klein and McAdams should call it quits or something like that. See, that is just a shitty fucking

Three days after we premiere, that's what we get. Fuck that person, dude. Come on, guys. God, that fills me with rage. Okay, that is just a shitty fucking... Three days after we premiere, that's what we get. Fuck that person, dude. Come on, guys. God, that fills me with rage. Okay, what I... Yeah, it's just so annoying. All right, look.

When I wrote that, when I wrote that, I wasn't in the best... Yeah. Yeah, I hear you, though. And then it's just, you're just kind of like, okay, I get obsessive over it

because it's like, washing hats. Who's washing hats or whatever? Yeah. I went down this path of trying to bite out who it is you know

line ought to hang it up but just like I would never do that to somebody else that completed something even if I hated it yeah because it's like

come on it's a success even if you don't like it that person didn't set out like I'm going to make a real piece of shit yeah you're trying to make

something good and they went through the process of putting themselves out there, being vulnerable, being, you know, and working on something. And a lot of people...

They can't appreciate it. They don't do critics bother. Yeah, right. Yeah. And now they're all just like these, like, ah, God, like pitchfork.

You know they're these fucking like 20-some-year-old nerds. No real perspective. Yeah, no real perspective. They just, they majored in writing and they're getting paid like 30 grand with no benefits to write these shitty fucking articles and they hate their lives and it's just like it's infuriating that you hear that pitchfork

yeah i'm coming after you oh yeah i'm fucking i've been listening to a lot of m&ms kamikaze do you can i ask you guys a question and uh this is gonna make me sound stupid so i texted my wrap up yeah i texted because i don't know shit about hip-hop and i don't listen to that much at all and uh everyone is talking about like eminem and he got dissed by this rapper so i put on the album and i really liked it yeah i thought he's really has he has punch lines to that guy he's so good he's an incredible writer he's hilarious like ninjas like he's a ninja so i texted my buddy chris allen he's a black comic and uh we talk a lot and uh and i was like hey man uh i don't really like listen to

that much hip-hop uh is is eminem is he actually considered one of the greatest of all time definitely and he said yes and then he made fun of me he's like dude you don't listen to hip-hop you don't watch sports and you suck at comedy what are you good at he's making his own comic yeah yeah yeah but uh but then i texted my brother and he was like well yeah he is one of the greatest but he's washed up he's considered corny now and he has never evolved and no one likes the kind of music, the kind of rap he does. Is that true? Not to me. I think it's true in the eyes of people who have adopted contemporary trap and new versions of hip-hop.

I'm not crazy about them. I'm an old-school hip-hop head. So trap is more like the vibe is fun but everybody is interchangeable absolutely and you can say that about hip hop you can say that about old school hip hop people can be kind of sure but that's the you know

I think go ahead please trap like everybody's auto tuned as well so you don't really know somebody's specific voice it all kind of sounds like a robot and then it's also the same cadence of like yeah and that'sinem mocks that right in the new album it's like you're wearing a fucking shirt what about people like so then my brother was like well people fuck with people like j cole and kendrick like they consider them like

the greats right now kendrick's amazing and rahil and he was just like if like like kendrick has substance he has style and he and it's like it's a that's what that's the kind of sound that is considered great rap today today right and is it but does that take away from i think it's silly to for that to take away from what eminem, right? It shouldn't. I don't think so. Then I asked him, and I was like, well, if you like his old records, are they only good in the context of the times they were written, or do they

hold, do they stand the test of time? Meaning they're not just good for a rap album in 2003, but it's just a good rap album. Yeah. Do people say that? Yeah, I think his first three albums are regarded as really oh okay because some people are like even saying how like they're only good for like nostalgia purposes yeah yeah but he's still definitely one of the best ever but i think

what happened was like around like album five yeah he definitely had some bombs yeah it's just like each album kind of still sounded the same really and then he got caught in a thing i think of chasing trends a little bit of having like yeah beyonce on his album and stuff like that and a lot of his cadences are very it's just very m&m wow okay but i mean i guess to sit and split hairs about exactly a person who's had the career he's had as to whether or not they're you know what i I mean? It's like, to question whether one of his best or worst decisions was working with Beyonce, you know what I mean?

It says a lot about the caliber of his art and his work. And as an MC, I would never want, the last person I would ever challenge would be Eminem, ever. But that guy's diss track, you listen to Machine Gun Kelly's diss track you listen machine gun kelly's diss track no it's good i'll put it on it's so good it's pretty good yeah it's also funny too it keeps

giving props the whole time too yeah well that's what he's saying he's like i can see yeah you're the greatest of all time like and it's like you made all this money why are you still angry and and it's like and and then he and then that's a good point and he's like and and then he, and then. That's a good point. That is a wonderful point. And he's like, and he's just saying things like, you know, like, it's like, you attack everyone. You're the, but then you get made fun of and you act like a bitch. That's right, yeah. Yeah, and he got this young rapper blackballed. Who did Eminem? Yeah.

Really? That's what this guy's claiming, yeah. Well, maybe he's a little bitch. His daughter, right? Yeah, but Eminem talked about, like, Hil Hillary Duff and shit when she was underage. So I don't know. For him to not see why someone would say that. Right.

Yeah. The Machine Gun Kelly song is also funny, too, because he's like, I said that like six years ago. What the fuck? Like, what? That's hilarious. Yeah, he destroyed him, I thought. I want to hear it.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll put it on. Yeah, that's good. Fuck that guy, Eminem. Yeah, I like him. I think he's hilarious yeah he destroyed him i thought i want to hear it yeah yeah we'll put it on yeah that's good that guy yeah yeah i like him i think he's hilarious and uh and then people are just like but if people are talking shit about him and he talks shit back why is that a problem i don't i don't know drama yeah exactly it's just drama i thought that was what drove sales isn't it yeah and i think that's what he made it because it's kind of creating because he attacks like everybody in that song yeah it was actually like 15 different people yeah um but chris d'alia had a really good take on it he's like at the end of the day you're still rhyming you know like that's what you're yeah because he's like man

you know what let Hit record. Shoes blues. It's just rhyming words. You're writing poetry to each other. That's great. Yeah, that's true. About how you got pissed off. Yeah. I'm so mad at this motherfucker. I'm about to write a poem right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A, B, A, C, A, B. Wait till this motherfucker hears this poem. Smashing with iambic contaminant, motherfucker. This stands all right here, motherfucker. Boom. All right, let's wrap it up here. After our hip hop discussion.

Hell yeah. So yes, you guys got the best this year. October 4th. October 4th is the launch party. You come out. You can register. Where do you register on? Online, 72fest.com.

Register, get a team together, or come to the festival without a team and get paired with people while you're there. People do that too. You know, they come. They're like, I'm an actress or I'm an actor or I do this or that, and have people jump on their teams last minute.

So the launch party is October 4th, Cafe 611. You get your criteria. Yeah, DJ 2 Techs will be spinning. DJ 2 Techs will be spinning there. So we've got Frederick's finest DJ will be spinning there. Fuck yeah. Everybody gets set free that night, usually around 9 p.m., and then they have that weekend.

So around Frederick, it's cool because you just see film crews all weekend, all over the city making films. It's pretty cool. That's right. And so then the next weekend, the 12th is a Friday. Yep. And the 13th is Saturday. Those are the two nights.

Friday, all the films are shown, and then Saturday night is the awards ceremony and all the – That's awesome. It's a blast, yeah. 13 years. God, that's nuts. I've never done anything for 13 years. Right.

That's cool. You've been jacking off for longer, isn't it? Dude, you're right. I, that's nuts. I've never done anything for 13 years. Right. That's cool. You've been jacking off for longer, isn't it? Dude, you're right. I love your positive spin. Yeah, yeah. You've been jacking off for a long time. I've been jacking off a long time. I can look at you.

You've been jacking off since early M&M. We'll do our plugs. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Let's see. I'll be at the Colony Club in D.C. on the 25th and then I have Speechless on the 27th at the D.C. Draft House.

And then you and I are going to be on Ross Benoit. I had to cancel. I got booked. I got booked. Sorry. I told him. I'll be there with Ross doing his live podcast at the D.C. Draft House.

Cool. Alright. September 14th Yeah, I'll be there with Ross doing his live podcast at the DC Draft House. And, yeah, I think we do stand-up in the Draft House. Cool. All right. September 14th and 15th, I'm featuring for Bob Kelly at the Draft House DC. Early Late Show, September 20th, I'm doing a big improv show. September 27th, I'm doing Overtievers in DC. I think it's like one of the best shows in DC. Come see me.

September 28th, I'm headlining Dragon Hobbs Brewery in DC. I think it's one of the best shows in DC. Come see me. September 28th, I'm headlining Dragon Hobbs Brewery in Virginia. September 29th, I'll be at the Big Theater again. October 26th and 7th, I'm featuring for Dina Hesham at the DC Comedy Loft. Early and late shows. Come get your dick sucked. There you go. Find us on Facebook and Twitter

and Instagram. Thank you for doing the show. Thanks for having us, y'all. Thank you. David Beckner, take us out. Dick Russian Sessions, coming to an end. Thank you.