The Doug Stanhope Podcast - Ep.#334: So You Thought You Were Gonna Be On SNL

Episode Date: October 3, 2019

Doug talks with comedian Shane Gillis recently fired from SNL. Then he talks to another comedian friend who was also certain he would be on SNL with a far more tragic turn.Recorded Sept. 2019 with Dou...g Stanhope (@DougStanhope), Olivia Grace (@OliviaDoesBits), Shane Gillis (@ShaneMGillis), Sonny and Ggreg Chaille (@gregchaille). Produced and Edited by Chaille.Remaining 2019 Tour Dates are on the website. Never miss a new date or announcement by signing up for the Doug Stanhope Mailing List at https://www.dougstanhope.com/Support the podcast through our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/stanhopepodcast. New subscribers will automatically have access to a Bonus episode every month plus access to all past BONUS episodes. Any level of support is appreciated. Thanks in again as your subscription helps keep this podcast going. Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/stanhopepodcast) - (https://www.patreon.com/stanhopepodcast).Fall 2019 Tour Dates are on the way so join the Doug Stanhope Mailing List at https://www.dougstanhope.com/This episode is sponsored by 'POPOV VODKA PRESENTS' VHS TAPE - Merch Page - www.DougStanhope.com/store (http://www.dougstanhope.com/store) - http://www.dougstanhope.com/store/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?v=oIPRYcY_Xs8&redir_token=THAI8ouIQDtnov1_-Z9N9CsULH98MTU1OTM3MjkwMEAxNTU5Mjg2NTAw&event=video_description&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dougstanhope.com%2Fstore%2F)LINKS -National Alliance on Mental Health - https://www.nami.org (https://www.nami.org/)HomeStretch Foundation - https://www.homestretchfoundation.org/We like what they are doing over at http://www.FIRRP.org (http://www.firrp.org/) - Check it outSupport the Innocence Project - http://www.innocenceproject.org (http://www.innocenceproject.org/)Closing song, “The Stanhope Rag”, written and performed by Scotty Conant for Doug Stanhope and used with permission – Available on Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/scottyconantSupport the show: http://www.Patreon.com/stanhopepodcast

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the doug stanhope podcast harrisburg pennsylvania what do you think of the show doug well i had no idea i went way short really i thought i went long but the show went long because we had, well, Tony Viagra, if you listened to the last podcast, Tony Viagra. It seemed funny at the time to get Tony Viagra, who did
Starting point is 00:00:35 exactly what I thought he would do, which is a Neil Hamburger without any kind of self awareness. Do you ever eat stinky pussy? It was fucking awful. And it was way more awful when the tide turned where Shane Gillis, who is with us now,
Starting point is 00:01:01 who you know from getting fired from Saturdayurday night live which should be a blessing was coming to do a set and i'm like all right to have this guy doing stinky pussy jokes is not gonna fare well other than the fact that if anyone saw the show and wanted to find something offensive, it's an old guy wearing micro... What do you call those? Like bottle cap? Yeah, fake. It looked like a bottle.
Starting point is 00:01:33 He was doing the aging character. Very scary. He was doing bits about what if so-and-so was gay from the... You should have heard the stuff he was working out on me backstage. Yeah, he hit us with a... He just started running bits
Starting point is 00:01:48 when we were just talking to us. I thought he was so sweet. He was sweet. He was real, like, just very warm and like... I don't know. I thought he was adorable. Tell me about Agra Rules.
Starting point is 00:01:58 He was adorable. Yeah, he's very accommodating. A very good soldier, is what he explained, that he was willing to do anything to help out on the show, which, that's great. Yeah, well, my entire attitude turned when fucking Shane Gillis is on the show. All right, we got to fucking, we got to police the room.
Starting point is 00:02:20 We don't need fucking Twitter narcs with cameras. But yeah, Shane Gillisis who you know from getting fired from saturday night live did a fucking set and it was strong it was beautiful thanks yeah you were fantastic thanks guys that's uh yeah when when all that shit came out i looked you up on twitter and i went oh fuck he follows, he follows me. Yeah, man. Yeah. And it's when it came out, someone had some bipartisan news source said you came out and they quoted some of your bits. And I go, oh, this is accurate because it's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:59 That helped a lot. Somebody came into and just recorded a set of mine and then quoted it. And that helped. Because before that, anybody that had ever heard of me had only seen a two-minute clip of my podcast. So they were like, oh, this guy sucks. Like, he's not funny. And then when they actually transcribed some of my stand-up, people were like, all right, that's pretty funny. That's good.
Starting point is 00:03:21 So that helped a lot. And I could read it hearing how you would say it yeah i i told you that i i read two reviews of dave chappelle's netflix thing where i go wow that's it just seems and i watched it i go oh now i see how they fucking misquoted you which they always do uh but no that article helped because that was the one thing that like really hurt like i i didn't care about the like if they're calling me a racist or something like that's fine because i know i'm not like i know who i am i'm okay with that but reading like other comics or anybody coming out and being like he's just not funny that's what bothered me so
Starting point is 00:04:00 that like having that come out that article was nice you know i was about to say i don't know that i know any racists in comedy 30 years in almost i don't know any actual racists but and then i come i come up with a couple names yeah but they're still funny yeah yeah of course well and they're not pushing a racist agenda. It's green room funny, like we always talk about. It's you with a bunch of comics talking, you know, shop. Saying stuff you're not supposed to say, obviously. That a reporter would write about differently than everyone's opinion in the room.
Starting point is 00:04:41 Well, that's the thing that's interesting about the green room thing is that it is done with the context of we know we're not supposed to say this and that's why we're saying it right now. You know what I mean? Like that's always a layer of like when you're talking to comics. Literally, that was the entire point of the podcast that we have.
Starting point is 00:04:55 It's like everybody that's listening knows us. They know that we know what we're saying is wrong. That's why it's funny. But when you take it out of context and put it on the news, it's like, oh my God. You were telling me some quote that they pulled where you were doing it
Starting point is 00:05:10 in an old-timey accent. Oh, yeah. That was the quote. I mean, the quote. I was using an old-timey accent. I was like, meh. I didn't do it strong enough, I guess. But that's what I was like,
Starting point is 00:05:20 meh, that's a fucking thing. I was like, that's, I mean, that's what it was. And then they posted it. Can you please not say that? Yeah, was like, man, let the fucking jinx live there. Like, that's, I mean, that's what it was. And then they posted it. Can you please not say that? Yeah, I know. My bad. Trigger.
Starting point is 00:05:30 I don't want you guys to get canceled from Harrisburg. But, yeah, so that's what happened. I was on the train going to do shows, and I got a call from my agent that was like, did you say let the fucking live there yeah yeah yeah it's a word i was like i would never say that i genuinely was on the phone like no that's wrong there's no way i fucking said that and they played it back for you well no and then i was like hold on let me listen to this clip and i was like well that's how i said it yeah i said it but not like that so you know that's that happens
Starting point is 00:06:06 i have so much shit in podcasts actual specials twitter feeds myspace like if you went through my history and took it out of context but the only reason they fucked with you is because saturday night live decided to take a chance on this you don't seem like a character guy no no not really i don't think were you confused why they said hey shane gillis uh yeah like throughout the process i was like i said earlier the when you showed up i go oh he looks like greg gutfeld from fox five whatever except you don't have the horrific hatchet wound between the top of your nose and your forehead that makes him impossible to watch he is a nice guy but he's uh terrible to look at oh thanks no you're not no you don't have the hatchet wound oh thanks yeah it's so weird because i like i i've said this on this podcast before but i deleted my
Starting point is 00:07:15 entire twitter because i went back and found like really racist tweets that were like i was like oof there's no there's not even a funny context for this it's just terrible you know what i mean it's just new but it's not racist and that you're like oh no we're the superior race yeah well i mean it wasn't attempted like being abrasive and like oh well this is like trolly it's like i guess so i i wouldn't even know i had like a bad Trayvon Martin joke that just was like, oh, man. What was it? I don't even remember. Say it on a podcast.
Starting point is 00:07:49 I really don't. Say it on a podcast. What was it? You should do that. They can't cancel Olivia Grace. She's working for me. Oh, God. Yeah, it was just some kind of.
Starting point is 00:08:01 But it was like just, I really don't remember. It was something about like. Saturday Night Live. Yeah. was just some kind of but it was like just i really don't remember it was something about like saturday night live yeah and this will be a theme in this podcast or this and the next one if we make it one or two but you were excited to be on saturday night live which the which I've tweeted the joke that the biggest crime that the Trump administration has committed is making Saturday Night Live relevant again. Because CNN people who don't have any idea of what comedy is go, oh, well, Saturday Night Live has Alec Baldwin. It's fucking shit. Saturday Night Live is garbage and I know you're a youngster. You're 31 years old so no one can blame you
Starting point is 00:08:49 for thinking that it would be cool to be on that. You were saying something. I don't want to. Do you not want to talk about it? Tell me the process. Tell me the process of how you got even. What was the process of how you got even like talking everyone how what was the process of
Starting point is 00:09:06 saturday night live approaching you to be like what what did you ever do that saturday night live was interested in you because you're a funny comic and that's not really saturday night lives thing um yeah i think they just saw me do stand-up. But you don't do characters, and you don't do a great fucking Dick Cheney. I was trying to find a reference of anyone current. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what to say.
Starting point is 00:09:35 They liked what they saw on stand-up. And then did they say, well, you could do that? Can you tell us anything about the audition process? Yeah, I mean, it's the same as... I think everybody knows the process. You just go audition on the stage in front of the writers and shit. First of all, everyone knows the process.
Starting point is 00:10:00 You are stuck in a fucking group of comedians that all audition for saturday night live that's true my group are people who audition like they they try to work on lines to get probation so so no one no one knows the audition process so uh you go in and uh audition on the stage. Characters? On the main stage. You can do characters or... I just did five minutes of stand-up. Just five minutes of stand-up.
Starting point is 00:10:30 That's it? Mm-hmm. That's weird. Now, they had seen me do stand-up before a couple times. But yeah, that's how you audition. They just go to... You don't have to put on a powdered wig and be fucking Thomas Jefferson. That's what I would assume. i just went into stand-up
Starting point is 00:10:47 that's it but someone had vetted you that they'd seen you a couple times not too well but uh yeah they'd see so though i think what i think what i would imagine the audition process is is just kind of to see if you fucking freak out in front of the camera yeah if you can stand there and be normal in front of the camera i think that's what the audition process is because in five minutes you can't decide whether or not someone's a star or not you know five minutes prepared material five minutes of prepared material almost any middle in the country could do that but in front of a camera in front of an empty room then it gets kind of how much uh did you do a lot of road work as a comic before this uh yeah yeah i i mean i just started headlining on the road but yeah but you were i just saw you recently
Starting point is 00:11:39 in tucson dan soda opening for soda i've been opening for Soder and Big J for a while. You're always on the bonfire. Always on the bonfire. I opened for Voss for a while. I want to drop that in. When I was trying to take a downer on my night off last night, I was looking up. I was trying to find clips
Starting point is 00:11:59 of what you said. And then now there's so many fucking things. I know, I know, I know. And Vice.com had one and the the beginning was he says even more racist things and i'm going through it and i click on a link but it's an hour and 35 minute podcast i have to listen to when he says chink perhaps and out of context but then it closes the last paragraph of that vice.com and they're well
Starting point is 00:12:26 respected in any community nowhere uh it closes with you saying hey all right we gotta chop this out we sound like a bunch of white guys being racist right now you're the voice of reason in the entire story but the headline is how you said even more racist shit well that's yeah that's like the hardest part of this is like because you're so you're never going to be able to get your side of the fucking story out so it's just a headline and then that's it you know nobody even reads the story nobody even reads the whole story they literally look at the headline like all right great and then go about their lives and then they uh create an opinion that they can talk about at a water cooler of course that's that's it and uh you're 31 years old and you're immediately from complete obscurity of course into in the shit
Starting point is 00:13:18 store yeah i think i'm like uh one of the first people to ever do that but you're also i don't have a body of work to fall back i don't have like a special to be like hey guys look i am funny it's just this guy sucks and that's it you know what i mean well roseanne barr had a fucking strong history of defending everybody of a a weaker class that sure probably comes off wrong too but yeah she defends and then she wrote one fucking thing on ambient yeah yeah i i also have if you if you do roseanne any justice i shouldn't i probably shouldn't go on a podcast and defend Roseanne right away. I don't know if it's the best look. But, you know, I don't, whatever. With hers, I was like, all right.
Starting point is 00:14:12 The best part, my favorite thing, and I almost tweeted it when I was getting in trouble, but I don't think anybody would have got the reference, really. It was just when Roseanne has that one clip of her being like, I thought the bitch was white. It's like, yes, it's so fucking we know roseanne so and now we know you like all right yeah you you put together a cohesive fucking argument but they only take out of course sound bites and but yeah you yeah that's it what what were some of your best sketches you were gonna to write for Saturday? Hey, in those four days,
Starting point is 00:14:46 I had some good ones lined up. Tell us one. Maybe they can use you on Fridays. Maybe it's an old reference. Yeah, no, he actually, that was one of his shit talking things right away is I was more of a mad TV
Starting point is 00:15:00 guy anyway. Yeah. And then somebody wrote an article about that. Oh, did they literally wrote an article about that. Oh, did they? Somebody literally wrote an article about that. Did they? I'm sure they mentioned Michael Richards.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Oh, no, that's Friday. Sorry, sorry. They wrote in on the MadTV comment, which literally was nothing behind it other than just me talking shit, was that I was like pointing to MadTV as a better product because it was more racist. Because characters... You give it two thumbs up
Starting point is 00:15:27 like miss swan that's what it was like what the fuck are you guys doing man if you if you just do stand-up comedy you just perform for the audience that likes you to be fair to be fair that's easy for you to say because you've been doing it yeah i know i'm fucking lucky you're living at it you know but then again you got you get like man show you got all that other stuff that built this audience when you were telling me about your story i only have a small story where when i got the man show i got protested in madison wisconsin by a feminist group because it's a big, you know, whatever you call that fucking politically correct fucking feminist college. And when you came here tonight, I'm like, oh, can he sneak in?
Starting point is 00:16:17 And I didn't realize no one knows what you look like. Yeah, no one knows who I am. Yeah, you're fucking hanging around. I got protested. I look like every single one of your fans. just a big pasty fat white guy that's like yeah i get protested and i i went out and i took pictures with the fan the people that were protesting me awesome and they're like why you want pictures with us and i go well i'm the guy on your sign and they had no idea oh man that's wild but that's a fun that's
Starting point is 00:16:48 a fun way to deal with it but this was not national this was 12 people in madison he's getting a shit storm but still no one knows what you look like and you look like every other day i do one thing that's funny is i've because i still poor, so I still have to like take the subway and shit in New York. So like I get on the subway and I like look around and I can see, it's so funny when people recognize me. What is that like? They're like, oh my God, it's me. Are you worried about it ever?
Starting point is 00:17:18 Yeah. The only thing I'm worried about is somebody taking a picture like while I'm on the subway of me just being like a fat, sad guy on a train. This is what became of him. He was riding high. He's living the big life of Saturday Night Live without a paycheck. And look at him now. Headphones and a train.
Starting point is 00:17:39 Never worked a day on the set. on the set I think a point that you made that's really interesting Doug was about how like the whole comedy civil war and how people are trying to force what you say and do into two camps right now that's one of the things I saw
Starting point is 00:17:56 in articles I read about you oh he says he didn't vote for Trump which was a bit you were already doing I'm not going to burn the a bit you were already doing. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm not going to burn the bit, but you are already doing a bit. They're trying to force anyone who's not. Let's just break that down into the camps. They've made them.
Starting point is 00:18:16 Anyone who's not snowflake is Trump alt right. Yeah. Including that fucking story about the bonfire. This alt right comedy podcast network but they're not fucking alt-right really uh they did that about uh gas gas digital like legion of skanks and all that and uh yeah i mean it's two jewish guys in a puerto rican i don't understand yeah well just the idea that because it's not straight up like... Now, they do say fucked up things.
Starting point is 00:18:49 That's the whole point is they say fucked up things. But that's... I mean... But that's... I know for a fact none of them would vote for Donald Trump. I've been quoting a Dice bit on stage about the fucking Japanese in the late 80s. Yeah, that was... How's it go?
Starting point is 00:19:06 Put it in context. Dice Clay had this bit about yeah, the fucking Japanese, didn't we drop two bombs on these people a few years ago? What was in those bombs? Fertilizer? Yeah, that's funny. And it was funny
Starting point is 00:19:22 then because it was wrong. I did not think that that was funny. I have an absolute shame. and it was funny then because it was wrong i think that that was funny but the point was that they would enjoy that they were buying up all sorts of property and their economy was flourishing it was not stoking 1941 pearl harbor animosity where people are curb stomping japanese they had the power. So it was punching up. But if you said that, but it was still kind of racist if you want to call that racist rather than talking about race.
Starting point is 00:19:54 The context of society at the time is relevant to what's being said on stage. Yeah. Like you've said comedy has a very short shelf life because of that. Right. And now they're just trying to find fucking marks of what you did wrong what do you guys think though about like is there any
Starting point is 00:20:14 validity to some of the stuff like that's being said like is there any validity to like the idea of being more conscientious about how certain things incite violence. I think that's what I just said was, yeah, you're not. Yeah, I don't think I've ever said anything that was to incite violence or anything. No, well, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just wondering if you think that there is any kind of like. I've actually opened the bit with this should incite violence.
Starting point is 00:20:44 I've honestly never heard any stand-up that I thought was doing that. I've never heard any comedy that I thought was possibly dog whistling or any of that. Okay. There's even like death metal music that is alt-right white. There's no comedy that is racist. Well, I guess probably in small genres. I think that there is. There is.
Starting point is 00:21:12 There has to be. Because there is, like, I feel like there is, like, some, I don't know. I'm not saying that anybody has done anything. Olivia, calm down. You're not, don't panic. But I'm just saying, like, I don't know. Like, I try to be conscientious of it because I've been told by, like, friends of mine that, like, certain words actually really bother them, like, personally. And so I'm like, okay, well, I won't say that around you because it's affected your life in a way that hasn't affected my life.
Starting point is 00:21:38 And I was wondering what you guys think about that in terms of comedy. Well, I'm going to side on the uh tony viagra place i'm an old guy so i think nothing should bother you because i've been drunk for 40 years and i have no emotions so i think you should toughen up on some level but there is i don't even want to burn bits now this is where i don't want i don't want you to burn bits i don't want me to burn bits um to answer that i don't know like i i don't use certain words on stage sometimes because i don't know who's in the audience in that case like i but like a i don't know i if i had a good bit around a word a fucking eddie mur. That's what I was thinking too. Like if I had a reason to say it.
Starting point is 00:22:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Justifies. Of course. Now the podcast or any podcast that I'm talking on, I usually know the audience. So then I'm like, all right, these guys aren't going to get hurt by this word. Here it is. Now on stage, if I don't know the audience, I'm kind of like like this needs to be really good if i'm gonna say it yeah while on a podcast i can just kind of
Starting point is 00:22:49 fucking bullshit right especially because you do like you know you're you know the comics you're talking to you know the audience that you're speaking to when when louis ck got bootlegged and they released 48 minutes of it initially and the shit storm was he made fun of parkland survivors and he didn't well what hurt me is i was actually working on a bit that i'm still doing i'm like fuck louis ck stepping on my dick he shunned i'm gonna keep working on that it's a different angle but uh what i tweeted and I wanted to use tonight, but I so fucking angry. I saw one guy filming you and I went into the fucking audience and I put your fucking phone in your fucking pocket. I was shaking when I saw you backstage.
Starting point is 00:23:41 I didn't know what was up. I saw you backstage, too. I didn't know what was up. You would just come off hot from chastising someone, and then you told me what happened, but you were getting ready to go on. I tweeted this, and it's a fucking salient point. All right, he made fun of Parkland survivors and their families are going to hear.
Starting point is 00:24:02 and their families are going to hear. Well, and I tweeted, if Bob at the office says that Wendy in accounting has a face like a wombat, and you go up and tell Wendy that he said that where she would have not known otherwise, who hurt Wendy's feelings? You, you fucking narcs. You fucking want to be part of the problem and not part of the solution and you're fucking splitting comics in half yeah i
Starting point is 00:24:33 don't know if it's the best thing for me to say but that is kind of how i felt about what happened with that podcast my podcast clip that got out and someone that's why in the first statement i mean i was like anybody who's actually offended yeah i would definitely apologize yeah produce the body habeas corpus habeas corpus habeas corpus produce the fucking person that went oh no well yeah oh my god that's that's so interesting because i feel like i've been doing a bit about my sister who's special needs and i feel bad about it sometimes but this guy came up to me tonight and was like I have a daughter who's special needs she died when she was six and I
Starting point is 00:25:10 like that bit because I could not stop thinking about her teeth whenever she would smile yeah that's so nice and it meant the fucking world to me I was like alright cool well like my sister wouldn't like that bit I lost a brother over a similar argument where he didn't understand what i was
Starting point is 00:25:26 saying i was do you remember the burn victim in elkhart yes yeah no i had a burn victim joke too and you were like hey your burn victim friend is here and i was like oh my god the same guy i'm talking about i just turned out to be a different burn victim but like yeah people in chinatown weren't listening to your podcast yeah Yeah, they all look like you. And he did. I made a point to make sure he got in front of Olivia. And he was laughing still about her big closer bit about, well. You never know.
Starting point is 00:25:56 I think it was the sutures still had like straight across. But yeah. Yeah. But to your point, though, about like it's like a kill the messenger type of situation like if my sister would never watch my stand-up unless someone showed it to her so yeah and that's how i felt like when people were like what about uh like and i i understood like when when people like people are offended and i was like yeah if i if it was like an asian kid that gets online looks on a website that's like new snl cast member uses racial slurs against asians it's like yeah maybe that does hurt
Starting point is 00:26:32 his feelings and i i never wanted that i would that's i knew that kid wasn't fucking listening to what i was saying on the podcast and like also that's not the contact all that but like yeah i knew my audience when i was talking it's to play devil's advocate sure and i don't it's pretty easy to play devil's advocate i didn't really say that well no no i mean i just want to play devil's advocate because the only reason i'm asking is because i i i try to be conscientious like to the point of almost being like obsessive about it like the other day when we went to that indian restaurant and uh on the outside it's just a gray building it looks like an office building and then you walk in and there's like gold pillars and orange flowers every it's beautiful we walked in
Starting point is 00:27:16 and i went this is bananas and they did not serve us and i was like was that because i said their restaurants bananas ol Olivia Grace is really self everything's her fault there's no way they did that this is all about Olivia Grace being she thought we were gonna murder her for the first six months we knew her
Starting point is 00:27:38 walks into literally restaurant we're not gonna give him a cocktail but my point is though is like I don't think Indian people are as sensitive as white people. I'm sure they didn't care that you said that was bananas. And no one in Chinatown was listening to your podcast. Someone who is defending them. No one's really offended ever.
Starting point is 00:27:56 But I had a point. My point was, do you ever think, though, and this is, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but do you think since you know your audience that you're playing to, do you ever worry about how they might interpret it uh yeah for sure like i mean my whole podcast is us like joking around about like oh we love alex jones and uh trump trump's the fucking man like it's joking but then i'll get like dms of people that are like hell yeah i love like something like
Starting point is 00:28:25 that and you're allowed to like trump obviously that's he's the you're that's a political party but like when people are like yeah i'll get i'll get dms from people even through this whole thing i'll get dms from people that are like very racist against asian people in a tweet to me or a text to me and i'm like that's not what the fuck i'm saying like stop because that's my fucking life sir it's my life my last my last special that is not out yet i had to say i have to say i'm not racist i'm not saying this because i'm afraid you're offended i'm saying this because i'm afraid you're racist and you think i'm your friend we're not friends yeah you're reading it wrong and it's sad that you have to do that but it's almost like they're pushing comics into two camps
Starting point is 00:29:13 and no we're a third camp and we always will be yeah when we're talking about that's nice but when we were talking about green rooms i I say that about green rooms I knew. But I haven't really been in a fucking comedy cellar or comedy store green room around what might be happening there where you have to worry. It was always us against the fucking audience. Until you want to go on Saturday Night Live. Chasing that fucking artistic list dick no comment i don't but that's like but when you're like when you're young and you're a comic and you don't have the following that you have you're not even young yet you're 23 you haven't even been young but what i'm saying is though is like when you don't have the following that you have. You're not even young yet. You're 23. You haven't even been young.
Starting point is 00:30:05 But what I'm saying is, though, is when you don't have your following and you are not coming up in the 80s and 90s, you can't really tour a lot and make a living like you could. If SNL asked you to host, you would say no? No, I would definitely say no. I would be terrified of like any kind of no i wouldn't do fucking tonight show or any of that okay yeah i mean i'm sure they have because it would suck
Starting point is 00:30:32 yeah like i did that early that's why exactly i goof on you about being young and wanting to be on saturday night live i would say yes but i would have no idea what to do there. Of course. And I would know that I'm going to suck. And I did things where I sucked because it wasn't my thing, but I thought that's what I'm supposed to want. Oh, interesting. Okay, because that was kind of what I was asking. It's because when you're like young and starting out,
Starting point is 00:30:59 am I talking too much? No, it's funny how excited you get. Okay. Well, because it's so cool to hear you say that yeah well because you don't read yeah you gotta fucking well no but i do read i know no my book it's in my book i i hate because you're like half my fucking conversations with olivia grace or it's in my book yes that's what i want to do i fucking and. And if Doug can do it, I can do it. And yet now, but hearing you say it in person makes me feel so tickled. Yeah, you're supposed to do certain things.
Starting point is 00:31:31 You're supposed to want certain things like Saturday Night Live. I think it was Mad TV. I remember I had to write sketches when I first it was like 95 96 when i moved to la and oh they write some sketches was it with that guy i wasn't even an audition was it with that old guy no no that was a no no no no this was just a write sketches like so i wrote three sketches one was very racist now that i remember it it was. It was back in the day of the, if you, 35 cents for a cup of, what you spend for a cup of coffee would feed this little starving kid. In wherever. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:32:20 In where? Well, whatever. Ethiopia. I don't know who was starving. It was always Somalia or ethiopia or whatever the point was the the sketch was about when he gets fat from the residuals of being and how he shows up all fat because he's been on that commercial for so so long and they're like you're gonna lose weight we can't use you anymore i go that's a funny fucking but yeah i was but i yeah to build an audience now uh now you can just do podcasts and that's a bit and and
Starting point is 00:32:55 stand up you can have a very i mean the andrew schultz do you know him at all uh he's a younger guy he's he's selling out everywhere he's in australia right now doing a tour he's like all you have to do is take clips put them on instagram and i mean that's it he i don't even he's no industry you have to be funny yeah do it and then put a clip so of course of course that does i i have to say that for people that listen to me that send me, don't put your first open mic on YouTube. There was actually, it's funny. There was a guy here tonight that I started with that. Oh, yeah, I'm from here.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Did we say that? There's a guy that I started with that was in the audience. He had posted, I think it was like last last year he posted a clip of my first open mic set and he put he just fucking put it on youtube without asking me and i'm nice oh no i am someone found that and i thought it was like two in the morning i was like hammered like on a couch youtubing searching for myself and uh i found it and i was like what the fuck is it and it was we're gonna find yours and you're gonna find ours because someone did that to me it was three months into fucking stand-up comedy with my flowing mullet oh and i had this accent where i talked
Starting point is 00:34:18 like a new yorker out of the side of my mouth you were killing and do you have a was that the santa hat one no no no no no carlos murphy's right is that what it was mine was mine was horrendous and i was like nervous and like yeah oh my god i was devastated he posted it i was wearing like khaki shorts and like a button down and like a fitted hat. I was just such a fucking. Like a dad. Oh my God. It was devastating. Did you red flag it on YouTube?
Starting point is 00:34:55 No. Well, also he didn't have his name on there. Yeah. So I had to fucking ask all the guys I started with. It's like, who the fuck is this? Who is this? Because it could only be like 10 people. And then I finally found him.
Starting point is 00:35:09 And I was like, fucking delete that right now, dude. Don't post a video of me without fucking telling me. And I thought it was nice. He thought it was a nice thing. He was like, I thought it was funny. He was like, you're doing well now. I wanted to be able to see. You're 20 years short of thinking it's hilarious.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was young then. I sucked, but look at how thin I was. It'd be nice to have, it actually goes back to what we're talking about with the whole thing with me. It'd be nice if I did have a special or something so that we could all look back at that old YouTube clip
Starting point is 00:35:42 and be like, oh, that's great. Now that's all I fucking have. Yeah. Wow. Don't post that. You clip and be like, oh, that's great. Now that's all I fucking have. Yeah. Wow. So like, don't post that. You're open mic. Don't post that. Right.
Starting point is 00:35:49 Well, yeah. No, that's what you're saying about your old stuff coming up is like, well, you also have a huge body of work that's clearly beyond that. Well, you know who you are. You know you're not a racist you know what you do and that's why you can capitalize on this because you know what you weren't going to get on saturday night live that much you're going to be one of those people from saturday night live that goes on stern fucking 10 years later and talks about what a fucking internal shit show i hate that expression
Starting point is 00:36:25 but shit show fucking daggers in the back where stand-up comedy as far as i know is still pretty much at least the people i know even the fucking with the whole me too thing yeah the people i know come and go this is out of control but i write for a tv show so i can never say it on twitter this is out of control and no one can produce the body of who's actually offended they're trying to create schisms and i say david cross david cross some guy i talk shit about you in a book, and some guy was at the merch booth, and you signed his Bible or my book, something I signed. It was your book. And he said, yeah, he hates my guts. No, I thought you hated my guts.
Starting point is 00:37:18 So I hated your guts. I hate people I think hate me. So, yeah, fucking Let's stop fucking pretending To be partisan They're partisan We're a fucking union We are a legion We are anonymous
Starting point is 00:37:34 You'd be surprised man I think the landscape's changed a little bit In comedy The younger people are very very Like the people I came up with Even the people i came up even the people i came up with in philly just literally when this thing happened to fucking quotes against me people i was friends with but that's the fucking problem and that's that's we talked about this this is a bit i i used to do before me too was really a thing and i go i gotta fucking bring that back
Starting point is 00:38:06 people who make their bones out of being a victim because oh i'm not gonna burn it not not burning it all right but put it on the stage like that's a very like there are people especially now like so i think when you were coming up and all that it wasn't as... Victimhood wasn't as much of a currency as it is now. And so now, within comedy, there are comics that, I wouldn't say rely on it, but almost entirely rely on it. Yeah, I would say. All right. You know what? Let's finish this podcast.
Starting point is 00:38:42 You can save, because your story is yet to be told. And like I told you, save it for Rogan. We say on our podcast, save it for the podcast. With you, I said save it for Rogan, because your story is yet to be done. Thanks, man. And you're not the only one who wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. At Shane Gillis. You're not using Twitter yet.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Yeah, at Shane M. Gillis. Shane M. Gillis. Spell Gillis. G-I-L-L-I-S. It's like Dobie with a Shane and an M. the second part of this podcast which was going to be the uh entirety of the podcast till uh till things worked out where it uh became a theme we're in a undisclosed location out by a highway somewhere out in public with. With my good friend, Sonny. That's what we're going to call you for this.
Starting point is 00:39:50 Sonny. Also, stand-up comedian. Dabble in it. You had a brief hiccup in your career. We'll get to. But also, you suffered tremendously from mental illness you suffered worse in the past uh and i guess we've known each other for over a year now by it by a bit and uh now we've wanted to do this podcast for that entire time
Starting point is 00:40:22 uh let's start with the mental illness. What's your most current diagnosis? Because I know they fluctuate. Well, I'm a schizoaffective disorder with bipolar features. So I have a thought pattern that tends to stray. And with medicine and insight, I'm able to maintain myself here. How young were you? That's exactly Bingo's diagnosis, too.
Starting point is 00:40:51 So there's levels of everything. But, yeah, when do you remember starting to deal with it? Well, I was originally diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I got in trouble the first time, but I didn't really have any insight into the mental illness part because I was in denial. How old were you? I was 37. Before you had any kind of noticeable? Yeah, so I was late in life.
Starting point is 00:41:20 I probably had it much sooner now that I look back on it in college. I probably had it much sooner now that I look back on it in college. I've always been a creative type person. I don't want to say strategic thinker, but I like to think a different way. I like to dream a lot. When you say the first time you got in trouble, that's... Sure, I made a thread on facebook uh which got me in trouble because i thought uh people were after me um and uh i ended up going to jail for that and serving time um i got out of that uh just by making a threat yeah yep you did time yes all right was it a credible threat yeah it was uh to make a long story short it you know
Starting point is 00:42:08 i thought there was a conspiracy going on and that's part of the mental illness commonplace for the game yes and uh what happened was uh it was in the midst of thanking a lot of people on facebook and then the dark thought came over and it became where I thought it was real. So I posted a thread on Facebook and then was subsequently arrested for it. Now, when did you start doing open mics? When did you start doing comedy? Well, I got divorced, and I decided to take a comedy club course. And I went into it just trying to get better at public speaking because I was terrible at sales.
Starting point is 00:42:52 I was primarily a corporate America guy. Went into it with open arms. Learned that very quickly the people that were there kind of were like-minded thinkers and kind of same struggles that I had. You know, I was 30. In the comedy class. Yeah. I was 30-something years old when I first started. I ended up going through it, having pretty good, I mean, it's a very, the crowds that you get when you first start out are very supportive.
Starting point is 00:43:21 So it kind of gave me a little bit of a delusion that I might be good at this. So this predates the... Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, just for timeline, you said... I mean, we've got a lot here that already got unpacked. You were diagnosed at 37, but you were married before that? Yeah, I was married before that. Hold on.
Starting point is 00:43:42 And then also, where does the comedy start in there? The comedy started after I got divorced and was looking for something of substance in my life. And I'd always been a comedy fan and thought I'd be good at it. Well, you're a dreamer. Yeah, I'm a dreamer. And you don't blame the paranoid delusions for why you thought you were good? No. Doug's looking for an excuse for himself.
Starting point is 00:44:10 Wait a minute. I think, in general, most comedians are delusional until you get to a certain point where you know you're able to perform the craft with some level of expertise. But when you're a new edit like me, um you know the sky's the limit um you get punished a lot don't get me wrong uh it's a lot of open mics and dirt bars and just seedy places that you actually try to perform your craft and a lot of times they're not there to see you perform comedy so it kind of builds you up and gives you a toughness about yourself but you you got into it not because you were a huge comedy fan, but for public speaking? Yeah, for public speaking. Were you a big comedy fan?
Starting point is 00:44:50 I was. I was a big Rodney Dangerfield fan. It was one of my first shows. I got to see him at the MGM in Las Vegas. And I went with a friend after a bad breakup, which just seems to be the theme of my story, after breakups getting into comedy but uh i got to see him and the people that were sitting next to us were foreign and you know how rodney is he's one liner one liner one liner and just continues to just
Starting point is 00:45:16 destroy your brain and we were laughing so hard but the foreign couple next to us didn't get it and they weren't laughing so we kept laughing even harder that they're not laughing uh and i remember that experience that happens a lot at my shows they must have papered the room the only difference is the people not laughing at my shows get every word but i was able to see rodney when he came out uh he played craps with his uh young wife and a son at the time and he's in flip-flops and white linen suit, just casual wear. And it was just really cool to see him outside of the comedy. He is similar to what he was on stage, except he was very much more laid back, obviously playing craps. But that was my first experience.
Starting point is 00:46:00 And then I got to see Dave Chappelle in Florida when I was living there at some point. Small club? Yeah. No, it was actually, he was, this was probably in 2005, 2007. So it was, he was in a Ruth Eckert Hall or something of that nature. Yeah. Tampa? St. Pete, I think.
Starting point is 00:46:20 Oh, no, Eckert is the Eckert drugs. So that's, yeah, that's where Rick is. So I got to see that. Obviously, I got to see Doug early on when I was starting my comedy. And you were a big influence on how I approached it. And another big influence, I would surmise it to say, is the Legion of Skanks podcast. You know, I was a corporate America guy. Legion of Skanks podcast. You know, I was a corporate America guy and being able to listen to that type of comedy on a podcast and coming from a corporate world where you're you have to say the right things and do the right things.
Starting point is 00:47:05 It was interesting to see that type of humor. But, you know, specifically, when did your obsession with Saturday Night Live start? Sure. Well, I moved to New York to get better at comedy. I had no inclination of anything of that nature, of wanting to be on the show or anything of that nature. Still not diagnosed. Still not diagnosed. I was in a comedy club, and a guy approached me who I think is, am I allowed to say his name? Yeah, sure. I think it was Colin Jost, but it might have been a delusion. And he was asking me when I would be available or if I was going to be around in September.
Starting point is 00:47:33 And I guess that's when they do auditions. But I was drunk at the time, so I don't remember much about it. And it could be a delusion to this day. So I don't remember much about it, and it could be a delusion to this day. But then the thought process got into me that what if kind of scenario. Did I blow it because I was drunk? Because I remember being at the club in New York and walking outside and seeing Tracy Morgan try to park his Porsche. And he's sitting there yelling at the staff that he wants his Porsche in a certain spot. And I remember being so drunk that I was like, Tracy Morgan, I can't believe it.
Starting point is 00:48:06 And I just remember going to all the comics because I listen to a lot of podcasts. So you feel you have some buy-in to the comedians that you listen to and a lot of them work. We get it. Yeah. You'll see that tonight. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:21 Yep. But so this festered in your head as you start to become unglued when your mental illness starts to take a grasp. Yes. To the point where you were sure that Lorne Michaels wanted you on Saturday Night Live. Yeah. Another incident happened when I was at the club. I was actually on my way to open mic, and I got a call from another comedian to be at the club
Starting point is 00:48:49 because Ari Shafir was doing a show. And I remember walking into the club, and I thought Lorne Michaels was there, and I thought he bumped me in the back. And, you know, when you're mentally ill and you're thinking all these things that are going through your brain, you're looking for any small grasps of making something true. That's part of the illness.
Starting point is 00:49:09 That's a little bit of insight in how. Yeah, that's a human illness. Yes. People want to believe shit and they will. Yeah. It's part of sales. It's part of everything. Were you obsessed?
Starting point is 00:49:22 I mean, you were obviously, you were having these tendencies to obsess at the time, probably not full-blown until you got diagnosed. But as those things warmed up and you started feeling that kind of energy and stuff, I did. Because you were focused, was Saturday Night Live like the focus? No. Is that why you thought you may have seen Lorne Michaels? After the original meeting which i thought
Starting point is 00:49:46 was colin jost uh it kind of spurred into my brain that uh maybe i am doing something different in comedy that may somebody may want that or have that need for that show uh because i'm i'm a character when i'm on stage obviously i'm new at, so that's the first thing you do is you develop a character. My particular character tends to inflect into the microphone and I kind of shout my... I've seen early stand-up of yours
Starting point is 00:50:15 and you sound like a wrestler trying to do one-liners. Yes. Very bombastic one-liners. Yes. May or may not make any sense. Mankind out he's doing he's doing the circuit mcfoley yes so do you move back home yeah what at some point is uh i went on facebook and i was thanking everybody because i thought i had made it to saturday night live and i was thanking everybody personally that were in my life because it's a big experience for a young comic.
Starting point is 00:50:46 Obviously, you're getting exposure on a network TV show regardless of what people think about it and the polarization it has on comics. To me, it felt very real. Well, this was also back in a time where Saturday Night Live was a wastebasket show before. A what? A wastebasket show.
Starting point is 00:51:04 What does that mean? It was reinvented with trump like no one watched saturday night live back it wasn't polarizing is what i'm saying back when he thought he was going to be on it oh okay that was that was pre-trump era i didn't know what that meant i just made it up so you made the this is where you made the threat yeah you were in new york or it back i was in new york were in New York or back home? Yeah, I was in New York. And then I moved back. That's when I was arrested.
Starting point is 00:51:29 And I ended up going to jail for that and serving my time. I'm still on probation for it. How much time? It's a five-year probation. But, I mean, how much time did you serve? I did seven months. Wow, that had to be a really strong threat. Yeah, they didn't.
Starting point is 00:51:50 It was, you know, they're taking a new stance on this because of the things that are going on in our country. And they did make an example out of me. And, you know, I'm appreciative to the fact that at that point I wish my mental illness had gotten caught earlier. But it was still a bit undiagnosed. And I didn't really know what was going on. You just seemed like a dick. Yeah. It's a fine line between mentally ill and just a dick. Correct.
Starting point is 00:52:08 I mean, now, it's interesting. Do you harbor, I mean, I think you answered it a little bit there, but I want to be more specific. You don't harbor any animosity for going to jail for what you did online? No, I do not. And that's important. Yeah, it is extremely important because, you know, at that point, I thought something was happening was real. And I needed that check. Unfortunately, it leads into the next story.
Starting point is 00:52:34 But I wish things had been done differently to catch my mental illness at that point. Well, yeah, this is where things took a turn. You're still convinced that you're going to be on saturday night live obviously you get out of jail yeah uh i did i sort of let that go at that point and what happened was my brain started thinking uh the delusional part about maybe people are after me because of uh different reasons or because I posted a thread on Facebook. And what happened was I started thinking very dark. There were things that are happening in my life that in the past that didn't make sense.
Starting point is 00:53:25 And I was trying to make sense of them being mentally ill. What happened was I eventually hurt my mother, which was the summary of it all. What was your relationship with your mother at that time? It was a great relationship uh she had supported me through thick and thin through my divorce uh through some tough times in my life she uh supported me in my comedy uh she was one of the very first people to show up to my first show uh at the local club uh and uh there were a lot of things that she did for me that I'll never be able to thank her for
Starting point is 00:54:05 because I ended up murdering her, and that's not something that I take very lightly. Which obviously, that's as serious a break as you can have. Do you remember what your thinking was at the time? I don't because what happens is you kind of block out. What happened was the day of the event, I was watching football and then the delusion started. And I thought that she was hurting other members of my family. And it got to be so real that I decided that something had to be done about it. And that's when I hurt my mother. And you had still not been diagnosed?
Starting point is 00:54:48 I still hadn't been diagnosed. I was diagnosed bipolar disorder. After that or before? Before that. Before that. Was that after coming out of jail? Okay, so jail was where you actually got diagnosed? Yes, I was diagnosed in jail.
Starting point is 00:55:04 Yes. Yeah, was this a matter of uh your meds being uh misprescribed or are you just not taking them uh well the day of the event uh i didn't take them because i thought people were tampering with them you have to understand with mental illness it's a multi-level kind of thing where it's just not one scenario it's multiple layers you know i thought the mob was after me, the government. You name it, it came across my mind. And it got to a point where it became a psychotic break is what happened with me.
Starting point is 00:55:34 So, you murder your mother. And then you immediately go to New York City? Yeah. you immediately go to New York City? Yeah, I ended up taking her dog with me because I didn't want the dog to get hurt or be neglected. And I thought people were helping me through this problem, mainly the government that were trying to help me through this situation. And I fled to New York. I drove all the way from where I lived to directly to New York and to Rockefeller Center. And you not only thought you were going to be on Saturday Night Live, you got on the set there. I did. I went to the front desk and I asked for Pete Davidson and they had my name already in
Starting point is 00:56:22 the system because I had been there before thinking I was a cast member and to get the audition, I'd been there multiple times. So you were red flagged? Probably at some point. That's why they have your name, not because you had a meeting with Pete Davidson. Wait, you had your name on the list that it was okay for you to get in? Yes. Oh, so you weren't red flagged. You were accidentally okayed. I was accidentally okayed.
Starting point is 00:56:46 I wasn't there to hurt anybody. I want to say that very clearly. I was there because I needed help. And I thought that person was helping me, mainly Pete Davidson. I got all the way up to the set, and it was Alec Baldwin. In the words of whatever that guy sang,
Starting point is 00:57:02 you can't even run your own life. I'll be damned if you'll run mine. Pete Davidson's going to help you out. You're really fucked if you're going to Pete Davidson. This might have been pre-Ariana Grande. He seemed a little more together before all that. Yeah, I end up getting up there to the set. People were walking by me.
Starting point is 00:57:23 I was sitting down waiting for him to come out and i think he eventually saw me and was like i don't know his like the the hallway of his dressing i think i saw a picture you because you were text texting pictures to your your surviving family yes that uh of you on the set uh so yeah you were pretty much walking around free range, free balling around Saturday Night Live. I was. I've got to ask you. When you're walking around, did you have any strategy to how to blend in? Were you wearing all black, like a grip or something?
Starting point is 00:57:56 I was wearing all black, but I had my blue glasses on, and it was my signature stage look. Similar to what Jack Nicholson would wear or Hedberg Hedberg yep interesting so I end up yeah I think he saw me and then security grabbed me and said that I shouldn't be there and I ended up getting escorted out and then I went into the Plaza Hotel I checked into the Plaza Hotel. Not a sponsor. Yes, not a sponsor. Yeah. Went back to Saturday Night Live the second day, Monday, and got back into the set.
Starting point is 00:58:35 And that's where I walked through the doors and played air guitar. Just stupid shit that mentally bleeds you. What song? I was playing probably Prince or something of that nature so uh even though i don't want to glamorize what i did uh because it was wrong uh but i was mentally ill at the time and i don't mind sharing with you what's going on because i think it's important that people hear this story that can maybe relate in some capacity to what I'm going through mentally, whether, you know, regardless if it's Saturday Night Live or the government or the mafia.
Starting point is 00:59:11 And this story does have positive elements. It does. And I end up getting arrested a couple days later on Park Avenue. First, I do want to name drop. avenue first i i do want to name drop you did uh stop by the uh skanks legion of skanks or bonfire podcast you were in the audience for a while when i was in new york city doing comedy i would go to the creek in the cave when they were doing their podcast there and i spent i was religiously there every episode and uh i supported those guys uh, you know, listening to them kind of engaged me comedy-wise that I could do this possibly and not be a mainstream act,
Starting point is 00:59:54 that I could possibly do things. You know, I work blue. You know, Dave O'Tell is a huge influence on me. Dangerfield, obviously. You, obviously, are a huge influence um how long were you free uh roaming new york city let's see i was there for seven months the first time and then nine months the second time um i did no no no after after the mother incident oh after the month there's only a couple three days yeah and then i was picked up and arrested but you and at that
Starting point is 01:00:24 time you were at the plaza. Yeah. Actually, I got kicked out of the plaza because my credit card expired. He didn't get kicked out of Saturday Night Live walking around, but he gets kicked out of the hotel. He paid to get in. No credit, no service. No. And then they arrested me.
Starting point is 01:00:38 I was booked into the tombs, which is a horrible, horrible jail. Is that Rikers Island? It's the one in the city. It's the second jail they talk about on Law & Order all the time. Yeah. The tombs in Rikers. I just remember being there, and I was mentally ill, and they stuff you in with 60 other guys into a small room,
Starting point is 01:00:57 and definitely a horrible experience. I don't recommend it for anybody. That's why it's important if you do have a mental illness or you know somebody that has a mental illness, get them some type of help if you can. Early. Early. And even getting them arrested. Which is easier said than done because people don't want to admit that's a problem. I have a question about that because that's fascinating to me is that you go all this way.
Starting point is 01:01:22 You've noticed there's some energy going on in your head about things, you're fixated, you're easily distracted, like you said. And then what triggers them doing some kind of a psyche valve on you? Is it in jail? Someone, some kind person goes, hold on a second before... Well, I was extremely lucky. The attorney that I ended up getting for my mother's incident is a big mental health advocate, and she noticed the warning signs right off the bat when I was relocated back to the state where I was in.
Starting point is 01:01:57 And they did a psych evaluation of me and rendered me that I wasn't in my right mind at that point. To fast forward the story, I was made competent for court, and I took a not guilty by reason of insanity plea, which saved my life. I owe my life to that lady. I don't want to mention her name, but she saved my life. I also have to say that my extended family saved my life. I also have to say that my extended family saved my life because they had to agree to that type of that type of verdict. It's not easily. It's a very small percentage that actually get that verdict. And the only reason I'm here today is because of that incident.
Starting point is 01:02:49 incident and uh not only did you get lucky in that you got that you know that sentence but you landed in a facility that does have adequate mental health care yes which is very rare yes i think this whole thing is like like half of a one percent i mean even probably less than that it's so crazy that like, if that gal hadn't shown up that day to take the case, you would've got some frumpy guy that was, you know, all messed up and just pushed you through the mill. Yes.
Starting point is 01:03:15 Uh, they did a thorough background check. I mean, obviously I'm not a bad person. Uh, I went through a difficult time. Uh, there was a lot of stress on me.
Starting point is 01:03:23 I wouldn't be remiss to say that I did cash out my 401K to move to New York to pursue comedy, which is not very wise to do. I had my place rented out. I had a mortgage. I had expenses. And, you know, New York is not a cheap place to live. But it's where I thought I needed to be in order to get better at comedy, which I did get better at comedy, which might be relative to say,
Starting point is 01:03:47 but I don't want to be bragging or anything of that nature, but I thought I did well, considering the skill sets that I have early on in comedy. I'm still a 10-minute act. I don't have more. This is one of the things I want to bring up. I don't have... This is one of the things I want to bring up. It's been a year since I first came out to visit you in the home, whatever you call it, in the facility.
Starting point is 01:04:14 It's like you have to stay there, right? Yeah, I have to stay there. Is it outpatient? You can take a job or something? Yeah, it's a gradual release process when you get that verdict. You go to one facility before they clear you and then once you're rendered stable you move to the next phase which is the other facility uh but what they've done for me is short of an incredible what they've resources the classes the insight uh the medication uh the ability to do things that I like.
Starting point is 01:04:50 Not only their treatment, listening to their patients, they let Sonny start an open mic night in the facility. Really? He gives me updates. Yeah, I get text messages. And I named it the Bingo Open Mic because if you've read Bingo's book, she didn't have a very good stay at a mental health facility. And I wanted to do something that would be therapeutic. And it's not just comedy.
Starting point is 01:05:13 It's any talent you have. Yeah, we did all open arts. We did have gangster rap on there, which we had to quickly shut down just because of the language. But the therapeutic aspect of it is you don't often see people laughing in a mental health facility. Not when they're supposed to be. Right. Correct. But we were able to bring that into internally. And I don't know if we'd be able to play the audio at some point on one of the podcasts but we were able to probably not okay yeah probably not uh hip of violation stream probably but uh i i remember i was at thanksgiving where i said yeah you're
Starting point is 01:06:01 watching football and he goes no they have j they have Jason versus Freddy on the main TV. I'm like, but the bad language in gangster rap gets shit canned. Yes. Yeah, the murder movies. Oh, yeah. But they... Freddy just hurt his mother.
Starting point is 01:06:22 Just hurt six chicks with an ax. They've been very good to me and uh i don't know how i'll be able to pay them back except to be able to bring my message to other people that are possibly mentally ill or maybe even do an open mic at another facility where people need you have to understand you can get institutionalized very quickly in these facilities. And like for me to be outside right now in the open and to be able to go to the show tonight, these are privileges that I've been able to gain through action and through going through the system. You've been very clear with me the whole time we've known each other that uh that's your biggest focal point is trying to be able to help other people yes suffer with the same thing yes and uh i wouldn't be remiss to say how important you are to my recovery uh i know that um you have a different style comedy and i
Starting point is 01:07:21 appreciate that style but i don't think people uh know the true doug stanhope that i do oh i'm gonna have to have you stop right there you're not gonna mess up this brand because you have to all of a sudden be honest sure but the emails that i sent you the phone calls the text uh when you're inside uh my family uh mainly my dad and my stepmom have been extremely supportive of me uh but you just knowing you and being attached to comedy in some way uh has helped me recover uh and i know that bingo obviously suffers from the same mental illness and you have some insight on what we go through because you've seen her go through the system just as well as me. Yeah, and I want to close this
Starting point is 01:08:12 because you don't know what the beginning of this podcast was, and I want to tell you about it, but we're going to save that for the Patreon because I really want to get your take sure from your point of view uh but and i don't want to i i know that you still have some small struggles here and again with this so i don't want to spark anything because it wouldn't happen ever correct but hypothetically if they did want you on saturday Live, have you ever said anything racist that might stop you? No.
Starting point is 01:08:51 All right. Well, that's so you thought you were going to be on Saturday Night Live. And we're going to continue this. We're going to loosen our ties and not take ourselves too seriously on the Patreon follow-up to this podcast with our friend Sonny. Subscribe at patreon.com slash stanhopepodcast. That's patreon.com slash stanhopepodcast. And just kick in a buck, and you'll get the bonus stuff.
Starting point is 01:09:20 But you'll get all the past ones as well as we're going to finish up this one on Patreon. And I'm a Patreon subscriber, and I appreciate what you all do and bringing the voice to the people all right well let's uh let's move on have some fun then we'll hit a show and get you back to the home before uh you're late for check-in yeah i gotta be checking all right bingo take us out of this okay bye-bye now. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់� Thank you.

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