The Dr. John Delony Show - Off the Record with Dusty Slay: Comedy, Marriage and Breaking Addiction

Episode Date: January 31, 2026

On today’s episode, John talks with comedian Dusty Slay about comedy, marriage and breaking addiction.   Where to find Dusty Slay: 🎥 Subscribe to Dusty Slay on YouTube. 📷 Follow Dusty Slay on Instagram. 😂 Find more from Dusty Slay.   Next Steps: ❤️ Get away with your spouse today! 🔥 Reconnect every day. Download the Together app. 📞 Ask John a question! Call 844-693-3291 or send us a message. 📚 Building a Non-Anxious Life 📝 Anxiety Test 📚 Own Your Past, Change Your Future ❓ Questions for Humans Conversation Cards 💭 John’s Free Guided Meditation 🤘🏼 The Dr. John Delony Show Merch   Connect With Our Sponsors: Head to Beam and use code DELONY for an exclusive discount—because better sleep, energy and focus start tonight. Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp. Keep your home safe and under control. Go to Cove Smart and use code DELONY for up to 80% off your first order. Get an exclusive offer with code DELONY at Cozy Earth.   Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Go to Dutch Pet and use code DELONY to get $50 off a year of vet care. Go love your pets! Visit Hallow for a 90-day free trial. Visit Helix Sleep for special offers! Working knives for working people—go to Montana Knife Company to see what’s available now! Explore Poncho Outdoors! Get 25% off your order at Thorne.     Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

But when I quit drinking, I was like, I kind of struggled with it a little bit where I was like, oh, not really fun now. Yeah. But I'm like, oh, why do I have to be fun? I got to go be this other thing so that I can get your approval stranger. That's tougher than just not drinking. Hey, what's going on? It's time for a special episode of the Dr. John Deloney Show. I am your brother John, and I'm glad that you are joined.

joining us on a Saturday morning special episode. All right, so over the last few years, I've got more and more people reaching out asking for more interviews, more conversations with people I find inspiring, who I learn from, who challenge me, or quite honestly, this is me being selfish, people I just love and I want to introduce to you all.

And I also get folks who get frustrated when we take calls off the show and insert conversation. And so what we're trying is once a month, a few times a month, maybe every week. We're going to drop conversations with Deloni. These are interviews. These are conversations I'm having with my friends, with people I look up to, people who inspire me. And I want you to get to know them too.

This week on the inaugural drop is a world-renowned comedian. He's got two Netflix specials, a class act. His name is the great dusty sleigh. He's hilarious, super, super insightful, and this episode is just, it's one I've reflected on over and over and over again since we sat down and talked. So I'm going to leave all of his contact information

in the show notes. You can follow him on social media. You can go check out his latest Netflix special wet heat or you can get his tour schedule. So buckle up, do what you got to do this Saturday morning, and beyond and listen to a conversation with my new friend and all around philosopher and incredible comedian, the great dusty sleigh.

So going back about a year ago, my buddy George Camel, it just always like, dude, dude, I want to stand up, I want to stand up, I want to stand up. And finally, out of an active protest, I call over and say, hey, me and George want to book a night at the lap. And the deeper thing, and this is kind of dramatic, But it's true. My dad and I've always struggled to connect. But growing up, he was an old, like he still is, but he's an old Texas cop. And so we didn't have a lot of connecting points, but he always talked with reverence about Pryor and Steve Martin and Robin Williams and Cosby before, right? And it was like a, these are the, like, this is what artist, right? To a guy that had noticed, like, didn't have an art aesthetic. And so I've always had. this connection like, I wonder if he would like me then, right? My dad, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so anyway, we booked a night and then we added a second one and it wasn't great. It was fine. It was fine.

But then I got obsessed. And so then I start going down, it's right by my house. And so I start going every week as much as I possibly can. And my day job is traveling the country and doing these big corporate events like for mental health and relationship stuff. But I got obsessed with going in these rooms and two things i've figured out one is i did not understand the level of craftsmanship that goes on backstage when you ask somebody hey can you help make this thing better or when you have somebody that's like you would get off set and like dude you had a space if you'd held that space and you're like okay but i've started to look at you professional comics as like craftsmen like as cabinet makers who are like trying to make something amazing and the second thing is and this is just a

compliment to you. There is an ethos that I've now finding, the more I'm around touring comics, that it only exists in a few places, which is the established comics like you and who come in and say, this is how we treat people in these green rooms. And this is how we take care of new people. And this is how we're kind. This is how we hold people accountable. Man, that's, there's, you're like one of the godfathers that hover around this place. And I'm not finding out now that I just happen to be down the street from one of the best places in the country for that. But I just want to say thank you for creating a world where a guy like me can walk in. And there's a room of what I feel when I go there of total support and total like, that wasn't great.

But it's not said like to make me feel better. It's to say like, hey, you can do better than this or here's a thing you like, does that make sense? And so on behalf of all people who get the courage to stand up in front of people and say, who are going like this and they're like make me laugh, like thank you for being a leader in that world because it's it's it's it's it's very impactful for me well i appreciate that yeah i mean comedy is so great right i've always said this like if you live in a town and you just go to an open mic like you're like i want to do comedy you go to an open mic even if you're not good at comedy if you just keep showing up and sitting there and watching the other comics you're eventually

going to make friends and you become part of this community and it's like the open mic community it's really great. I don't want to do open mics anymore. I've done plenty of them. But it's like you come up in this community and then you all become friends because you're like, you're suffering together. You're bombing together. And then you, you know, as long as you like, you know, get somewhat good, you'll get booked on other shows. And I love the comedy community. It's, it's, but you've helped create a pretty special one here in Nashville, which is awesome. Yeah, I mean, I love that too. I mean, I still got other ideas that I, where I was just meeting. with one of the owners of Zanis last night

about a new idea that I have to kind of help make the scene better. That's so cool. And I love it. I love to see, like it's like when you're part of these showcases and then it's like everybody's good, it makes everybody better.

That's it, that's it. Because if the person that goes before you really crushes and then you're next, you're like, well, I want to, you know, I don't want to bomb now. That's right, that's right, I want to do good. And you think about it all day. I had this moment, you just said something powerful

and this is what it's given to me I would say equal to any good counseling I've been to, which is having shared experiences with people who are quasi on your team. No, there is competition. You wanted to like, you did the best tonight. Like, that feels good, right? Yeah. But there's something powerful about trying something and it not working

with people who are pretty much on your team. I had this experience. I did an event in Denver. It was a big corporate event, and it wasn't, I wasn't a new comedy at all. It was all mental health stuff. But on that bill was like me and John Maxwell, Nate showed up to do a set, Dave Ram, like these big icons.

And then there's, it's one of those you walk in the green and you're like, what am I doing here, right? I did, did my hour and it, it wasn't up to what I wanted. I came home and I was already texting when I got off the plane. Like I got to go up at do 10 minutes and get back on the horse, right? Yeah. At Zanis. To say I bombed, dude.

It was a, it was disastrous. You're 10 minutes when you got back? Oh gosh. It was catastrophic. Yeah. And these are things that I know work. So I knew it was me, right? I walk off in this comic named Tina Fremel from New York.

She was backstage. And she put her hands on my shoulders. And she said, now you're one of us. And the whole room started laughing, not at me, but with me. Yeah. And it was like, oh. And I drove home with a huge smile on my face. Because I don't know how describe this other than I failed in front of

people and in front of people who were kind of on my team, and it was freeing. It wasn't the opposite. Does that make sense? Yeah. I was free. I drove home, a smile like my wife's still going to like me. I still got a one bed to sleep in. My kids like me. Like, I'm free now. And bombing, watching my friends bomb that I know can do, like are good at comedy is one of my favorite things. In the world. Because it's so funny to see your friend that's really good go up and bomb. You're like, this is hilarious to me. I don't know why it's happening, but it's funny. We have a mutual friend us the other night was just like, okay, how about this? For this next joke, don't laugh,

just clap if you think it's funny. It was just not going well. And dude, that was the funniest. Anyway, there's something about trying something terrifying and scary in front of people that you know, again, are kind on your team and having it not go well and how freeing that is. Yeah. All of our life is built to not ever let anybody see any scars. And it's like, no, you got them. And it's just, it's, it's, it's purifying away. And you bomb together, you know, it's like, and that's what I was saying like, someone crushes before you, because it's like, if you're all bombing on a show, then you're all just sharing in it.

It's easy to go, well, it's the audience. Of course, dude, yeah. But if someone before you crushes, you go, all right, well, they will laugh. Yeah. You know, and it's like, on my show the other night, what I was saying, it's like, the audience was great, but they were one of those that they really laughed if the joke was funny and if it wasn't they didn't laugh. And you came off and you said, this audience is fair.

Yeah. And that's like, that's cool. That's awesome. I do. I did some shows, you know, sometimes my Zanay shows like this, but Denver Comedy Works, the downtown club is like this where you go and they're almost laughing at every movement that you make on stage. Yes.

Like I did. Which is intoxicating. Yeah. Yeah. I did five shows in Denver, maybe six. And it was my last show of the weekend where they were just like, They were just laughing at my jokes, right? Which is all you're really asking for.

But because they had been giving it up all weekend over any little thing, now that they're just laughing at the punchlines again, I'm like, well, what's happened? I'm no good at this. You don't like me now? What is it? You like the jokes, but not me? So how important is it to be anchored into something, and we'll get into some of the deeper parts of your life? How important is it to be anchored not in that end result?

because I look across this, like, did I get the bonus this year? Is my marriage top notch? And my kid win the Little League thing. This feels like the same thing. If I'm anchored to that outcome, man, this can be a gnarly business that you're a part of. Yeah, I think you just got to have some balance with shows, right? It's like, I like to do corporate gigs. I like, you know, because corporate gigs pay well.

I like that sort of thing. But they're not always the best shows for your ego. Yeah. So I like, you know, I feel like as long as I have, enough good shows, I can handle doing those shows. Yeah. Right, but if I did corporates every night and they were like pretty mediocre, I think it would, it could get to you.

That would a road. Because I have some great corporates. They're not all like that, but I have some I walk in too and I go, all right, and I'm about to crush this. And then you get up there and you're like, oh, you tell your new jokes and you go, well, maybe the new jokes are just not as good. And then I start going back to some classics that always work. and then they're not getting laughs

and you're like, all right. But as long as you have that balance where you're doing enough good shows, you can say to yourself in those moments, you can go, all right, they're not just, they're just not going to be into anything I do so you can relax in that. Where you go, all right, it doesn't matter.

We're just, I'm just making money. I'm going to do my best, but I am just making money here. And maybe they're not laughing because they're sitting by their boss and they don't, like, who knows what the dynamics are, yeah. But it's like I had a show. I did a show in California at a theater

and it was like one of my lowest turnouts at a theater than I had had. But the people that were there were really into it. So I was like, this is a blast. And then I was making jokes about people not being there. I go, oh, every time you do a show, people always go, oh, well, you know, you're in the South and it's college football. And I'm like, yeah, but it's a Friday. And they go, well, high school football, you know.

There's always something. And then they go, somebody yelled out, high school, graduation. I go, yeah, anything, anything you want to pick. But it turns out in that town, they said that actually was the city's high school graduation. So people, you know, and I don't know, if you're a superstar, people skip the graduation. That's right. That's right. But, you know, but there are, it's just as long as there's a balance, right, to where you're like, because to me, as long as the shows are going well and I'm like paying my bills, I'm happy. You have a good life. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me a,

How old when you got married? 35. 35. I'm fascinated by this question. 35, you're making your way. I'll call you successful in this business. Why would you choose to go get married? Well, it's interesting for me because there's a, I believe, I always quote this,

and I don't even know if I've ever heard him say it. But someone told me that Doug Stanhope said, you know, the thing about marriage, he's like, oh, this is going pretty well. Why don't we get the government involved, right? So I kind of felt like you could be biblically married without government married, right? Yeah. And I always felt like, is there really a need for me to get married? Yeah.

You know, but my wife is Canadian, right? And so we started dating, and she moved here on a work visa for entertainment. She was, you know, doing comedy with me. Okay. So we were traveling around doing comedy. And then we got to a place where we were pretty close to her visa expiring. So I always think this is like one of the most unromantic but also one of the most romantic things. Whereas like I had to ask myself, you know, either I can get married or I can let my girlfriend have to go back.

And it's not like she's going back to a third world country. She's going back to Canada. So I'm like, do, you know, do I love her enough to get married? And I'm like, well, yeah, of course I do. Huh. So what was your picture of marriage growing up? Well, my dad has been married four times. And his latest marriage is, you know, 20 years.

Okay, yeah. And I think, you know, his wife is great. Yeah. Now, my dad's great. Sure, of course, of course. And then my mom was married twice and then divorced. So, you know, both of my sister, my older sisters, you know, my, I think, I think my, you know, she's, one of my sisters has been married pretty close to 40 years at this point.

But they're, you know, but as far as my parents go, I just did not see successful marriages growing up. And you've talked a lot about, we don't have to go down the road, but about growing up in a trailer part. Yeah. And all the shenanigans that went along there. Yeah. I mean, you just don't see, you know, I don't know, I just didn't see this whole idea of marriage. And, you know, I don't know, I think about like, I never thought of my childhood is bad or unhappy. But, you know, I would have to, you know, go, you know, summers.

I would spend a week with my mom, then a week with my dad, then a week with my mom. So I missed out on a lot of like summer hangs because my dad lived in a different town, not far away, but far enough away to where kids I went to school would would be like, why don't you come over to my house this weekend? And I'm like, no, I can. I'm at my dad's. Yeah. And then even, you know, in the school year, be one weekend with my mom, one week

and with my dad. So, and then like just these whole idea that. you would choose between your mom and dad. So I'm like, when I decided to have kids, I'm like, I never want my kids to have to go through that. Like, they should never have to choose who they're going to hang out with. You know, Christmas, do I do Christmas? Like, even to this day, as an adult, it still affects my life.

Of course. Where when I go holidays, I go, oh, am I going to spend it with my mom or with my dad? And I've tried to bring them together. They can get along just fine, but it's weird for me. Yeah. I'm fascinated by that because I can look at all of like the nerd stuff about marriage that if you do marriage well or great, everything in your life improves. And if you do it not well or bad, it's like reverse ROI. Like everything in your life gets worse, right?

And so I'm in this weird dilemma where I want to encourage, I got a 15 year old. And one of my wife and I's goals is let's make being married a thing that it wouldn't occur to him not to do. Like, I want to be a part of this thing that looks so fun and rad and whatever. Why would I do that thing, right? And so that's well and good, but I'm looking at a whole generation of people. Like, what is it? The numbers are wild, right? What was it in your head that switched that said, I'm going to do this thing and I want this.

I don't have a good picture of what this look like. I don't have a good lived experience. I'm going to, I want this to look different. And again, there's no throwing shade appearance. Every parent has a thing. But there's some point when you have to say, okay, you and your wife have to be intentional about this thing has to look different. And how do you go out doing that? Well, you know, we didn't, we had taught, when me and my wife first started dating, I was like, like, not for having kids.

Yes. And I even, like, kind of like talk to her about it early on, like, I don't want to have kids. So if you're going into this with me, you have to be on board with that. Right. But then we kind of like together decided that we did want to have kids. And yeah, so it's like, I don't know, I think it's that. I think it's having kids. Like when my daughter was born, it was just like a real life-changing thing. Like, you know, I was with my wife the whole time she was pregnant, obviously. And I knew it was real. But it wasn't really real until the baby actually comes out and you go, whoa, there's a human being in there. And it's on me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, I don't want to mess up my, my kid's life. I don't want my kid to have a hard life. Not that I don't want them to have to deal with things, but, you know, I don't want them to have, the hard thing, I don't want them to be that, you know, their parents are bad or their parents have made their life harder. How is that real, but there is still real stuff that happens. Like,

there's dishes that got to be done and there's people who are tired and there's the flight miss. Like, there's life that happens to all of us. how do you and your wife navigate that without a model, without a picture? Because that's that, that is the, that to me is the secret sauce, right? It's like if, if we can communicate that, that you don't have a good picture of this thing, and it's still worth it, and here's how to do that. And I can get real nerdy and academic about it, but I'm fascinated by people who are like, no, we're going to do this thing, we're doing it right.

But then there's like the brass tax, like, somebody's got to do the laundry. Yeah, well, I think that you can, You can look at things and say, well, I know what I don't want it to be, right? Rather than having a model of what it should be, you can go, well, this is what I don't want it to be. And that informs your next move, right? Yeah. Okay. And so you're like, you know, I don't know.

I went to a public school and I feel like my education was good. I had a good time. But I feel like things are different now. And if it's in my control, I don't want my daughter to have to have to. my kids to have to go to the same kind of school I went to. Yes. Even though, again, my school was great. Yeah.

But it is a different, things are different. Of course, yeah. You know, so I just want to try to get them, you know, like the kind of education that they enjoy, that makes them feel good. Like, my dad always was, like, big on me getting good grades, but my dad would also kind of like make fun of me about reading and stuff. Like, like, you know, my dad would talk about, you know, my dad would talk about, you know, you know, stories about him being cool and not ever doing his homework and stuff,

but wanted me to do my homework, but also didn't want me to be a nerd, you know, so I'm like, you're not really encouraging me the way that you think you are, you know? Yeah. And it's like, and then like, even like, you know, playing guitar, I remember I wanted to take guitar lessons in school. It was a class for guitar. And my dad was like, I remember my dad saying this to me, and I think he's right on a certain level, but way off on another. He goes, you know, he said, you don't have the year for guitar, you know, it's like these people that play guitar, they pick up the guitar, and they can just play. And I go, and now looking back, I'm like,

well, of course there are people, Duane Allman, Jimmy Hendricks probably picked it up and knew how to play right away. But there are other people who just learn to play guitar. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like my dad's saying that to me, implanted it. in my head that I can't play guitar. Therefore, it discouraged me in a way that I never took the time to learn. Now, I can't blame my dad my whole life that I never played guitar. But I think at that young age, it's, so I'm like, well, I don't want to do that to my kids. Okay.

If, you know, if they want to do something, I want to encourage them to do it. Now, I don't, any time my daughter says, I want to do this, I don't want to run right out and buy everything, you know, but it's, it's like. I have that temptation, though. Yeah. I do. Yeah. I want to be like, okay, cool. What, like, what are the nicest of?

And my wife's like, no, no. Yeah. A $30 target guitar is fine. She doesn't need a $1,000 Taylor. Right. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. If she, if she learns to play, yeah, yeah. But that's my thing. Like, you know, I was looking at a $120 guitar, I think, something like that. Well, and I think that is things that I've found myself saying that my wife will cut her eyes. Like, yeah, we're not a math family. and or we're not good at or I'm not good at,

which is me telling my son, you're probably not good at this either, instead of saying, I struggled with this and I didn't put the work in on this. Right. This wasn't a priority for me. It can't be for you. Even that little sentence is a difference of,

I guess I won't touch this thing. Yeah. And going back to, like, there's something about just showing up over time. You'll get better at a thing, right? Yeah. Or even the ROI of like, if you want to play guitar,

well, you're never going to make it as a musician. There's a big gap between, like, I'm never going to have a Netflix special for comedy, but showing up every night makes me have new friends. It lets me have new friends, lets me succeed and fail together, and it makes me better at my day job, which is just articulating things better at a meeting, right?

I mean, you can play guitar and woo a girl at a campfire, and that doesn't mean you have to go with John Mayer, right? There's a gap between that. Right. and yeah and even just challenging your mind to learn a thing learn a new thing helps you in some other level yeah and that's what that's what I'm all about like I want I'd like to homeschool now I know a lot of that's going to fall on my wife so I think that's why she's kind of against it uh you spoken like a great husband yeah what I would like to do but I want I just

feel like that a lot could be you could learn all the academic things in a shorter amount of time than school and but you know I'm not saying better or work but you could learn it all and a shorter amount of time than school, but then you could also spend other time learning other things. That's, yeah. You know, that you were really lit up by, right? Yeah. Yeah, dude.

You know, and I think you could, you know, if you don't, you know, if you have the finances, if your kids struggling in this, you could hire a tutor to teach them. Sure. You know, and I think there are people out there trying to do all that. And it's just like, that's what I want, I just want my kids to like feel like they, can do whatever they want to do and really explore things and learn things about themselves. Yeah.

And not be discouraged because their dad is like, well, yeah. I mean, when you said that, that really hit me when you said, we're not. Of this family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's like, maybe I wasn't, but they can be. One step removed.

So my dad's a policeman. We didn't have any money growing up, none. and there's been some tension in my family now that my life looks different financially. We live in a different neighborhood than I did growing up. And my parents have never said this. I know they're proud of me and all that.

But I feel the tension of, have I forgotten my raisin? Like, oh, why don't you just? Or when the check comes, I guess I'll, you know what I mean? It's like there's just kind of automatic default. How have you handled the balance of growing up where you grew up in the way you grew up again not bad it just was a certain

certain culture and community to the life you have now where you're on TV like you're selling out theaters across the country well I think that it's you're driving a car that starts every time you turn it right yeah yeah

well I think that it's uh it's been slow so you kind of adjust to each level right but I also think it's just important to do still do normal things. Like, because, you know, there's a tendency like, we moved houses and then I have a bigger yard. And then I only had a push more. And I was like, we were getting. And then the people that we bought the house from go, hey, this was our lawn care guy. So I call the guy and he's like, yeah,

we can do it. And then I go, well, I just want to do it for a little while. And then, and then I'm going to start doing it. And then, you know, this guy comes every two weeks and cuts the grass. And you go, that's pretty nice. I don't have to cut the grass. He's like, he's like, he's like, Like a weed dealer. He's like, I just need it this one time. He's like, all right, cool. I'll see you next week. And I'm like, well, I like cutting grass.

But he keeps coming, cutting the grass. And I go, wow, I don't have to cut the grass. And I think that if you allow enough of those things, you become completely out of touch. And then you don't do anything where I'm like, I want to keep doing things. Yes. I don't want to hire people to do everything. Now, I know there is that thing of when you're hiring people to do things, you're helping them have jobs. Sure.

And everybody has jobs. And that's great. But I want to do regular things. Yeah. You know. I've got a small, I'll call it a farm, but a small little, and it's a thing that I will go mow that place. And I'm finding those four hours of driving that zero turn mower and the three hours of weed eating. Like, that's actually almost therapeutic for me.

Yeah. Because there's a part of this that's not real, right? And there's something real about that grass grows and the seasons change. And there's something important about that. doing my own laundry. What I like, because I have some land in McMill and I got a zero turn there and I go cut that and it's nine acres but a lot of it's wood so I'm not cutting nine acres. But, you know, you're riding. I like to do no headphones. Just me listening to the lawnmower, driving along for hours. Yeah, it's meditative. It is so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it.

You think of things or you think of nothing. Yeah. You just watch what you're doing. Yeah. And it's so great. You let your brain off the hook a little bit, huh? Is there, you Is there, and you don't have to get into this if you don't want to, we can't cut this out. Is there tension with family and your success? Actually, my family has been so great. Really? That's awesome. We went to, some family members came to visit me the other day and we went out to eat, and they were talking about going to see Brian Bates show.

And they said, we tried to buy shirts from Brian, and he wouldn't let us pay for anything. and they've been to my shows and I charge them for the shows and I go well Brian's a nice guy and that's why he's not a good business man he's a real Christian guy that's right

I said he's not a good business man and I kind of made that joke and it was funny but you know now I do give them free tickets when they come to shows you know but when it was shirts I mean I was like I always felt weird about charging them for shirts

but I had my bag that was there and there was a good probability I was going to sell out the bag and I'm like it just feels like it's messing up my thing if I give the... Because in my mind it's like you don't have to have this shirt.

There you go, yeah. This shirt's not food. Right. You don't have to have this. And if you want it, well, you know, let's buy it. And I had a guy recently I found out he had bought,

he's a buddy at mine, he bought my book. I went to Amazon and bought it. And I was like, Why'd you do that? And he's like, this is how you know, is, are you the friend that will support your friend? Or are you the friend that when your buddy gets it, then you try to milk it, right? Yeah.

And tickets, that's easy. That's all that stuff's easy. But there's something about those, that hard ass set that's like, oh, you're really in my corner. Because it meant, it meant you got to participate in your body's success by putting 20 bucks down and having somebody mail you that book. Like that was, you get to participate in this instead of, hey man, hey man, hey man, hey man. Yeah, I get that. Yeah, and it's like, my family's great. I mean, they've never, you know, I've had plenty of tensions with my family,

but it's never over anything like that. I used to drink a lot, and I think a lot of my family, well, friends too, thought I was much more fun when I used to drink. And it is true. I was a more fun person, but I don't, I don't know. I just feel like I'm like, I don't have to be fun. You know what I mean? I feel like there's this thing where we feel like we have to be fun.

And I'm like, I don't know why I have to be fun all the time. People invite me out after shows. And I go, I go, you just saw the most fun version of me. It gets way less fun after this. It's funny people come stay in our house. And I've had that exact, like, oh, y'all just go to bed at nine. And I'm like, yeah, I'm exhausting to be around. Like, it's exhausting to be in my skin.

I want to go to bed and read a book. And I think people think there's going to be a discontal. ball at my house. Like when we get home, it really gets kicks off. And I'm like, no, dude, I'm not fun. Yeah. I'm kind of a drag, actually. Well, yeah. And I used to, when I used to drink, I mean, I was all about it. I didn't, I didn't like, I drank a ton, but I didn't drink alone. I wanted to go out. I wanted to go out to the bar and be around people and drink and party and that was fun. But when I quit drinking, I was like, I kind of struggled with it a little bit where I was like, oh, I'm not, not really fun now. But I'm like, oh, why do I have to be fun?

Where is it anywhere that says we need to be fun? Well, it's less even that. Like, there's the fun, there's the, this, whatever it is, this alcohol, this whatever drug, it makes me a tougher version of myself or a sharper version. Like, there's something beneath that, which is the version of myself that is real isn't enough. It's not good enough. Yeah. I got to go be this other thing so that I can get your approval stranger, right?

Or five people who just came to my thing. want to you know what I mean yeah that's tougher than just not drinking like what you just said is a really powerful shift and I'm okay with me how do you get there right that's the nightmare because you talk to you talk to people who struggle with alcohol alcohol's not the problem alcohol works alcohol's awesome it works get you what you want people who cheat on their wives all the time people who like any put any vice down that thing helps the real issue is I don't like being me and my skin and I need to be somebody else so that I can feel okay. Yeah. That's the nightmare. Yeah, I mean, you know, and, you know, two things for me, uh, religion. I guess you could call it religion.

I mean, I'm Christian. I mean, I don't really go to a church, so I don't know if it's religion, you know, uh, it's, but it is, Christianity. It is Jesus. I'm not just a spiritual person. Um, and then, um, you know, comedy. I mean, those two things, when, I quit drinking. It's like when I quit drinking, I was reading my Bible all the time, and I almost stopped doing comedy. I was like, I was just kind of hobbyist anyway. And then I was like, I don't know, maybe I don't even need this. And then I, but I kept doing it.

And then I was like, I found that I really enjoyed it and actually liked it more when I wasn't drinking. Huh. But then finding, you know, confidence in that, you know, I'm good at comedy. It helps. And then you're like, oh, okay, I don't have to be these other things to people. I can just be a comic and know that I'm good at this. And then I get laughs that way, so I don't need to get laughs everywhere I go in my life.

But where does that root grow from? That's tough. Is it all faith? Just the sense that I'm loved by something bigger than me and I'm good? Yeah, I think so. And then it's like, you know, you kind of realize that, you know, while you do need things while you're on earth, it's like they don't really matter.

Huh. It's like I like that I've made money. I like that I have fun things and a car that starts every time. But if I were to be back to a place where I didn't have those things, I think I would be okay. Yeah. And maybe in some ways even happier because you have less things to worry about. Like when I lived in apartments and a storm was coming through, I wasn't worried because I'm like, this is not my apartment. You know what I mean?

If a tree falls, I don't know, who cares? Yeah. But when I first moved into a house, I had this giant tree in my backyard. And the wind would just whip this tree around. And I'm like, that tree's going to crush my house. And then every storm I was worried about this tree crushing my house. Yeah. And then even when there's not a storm, it's always like, I probably need to get that tree removed.

It's just this little voice like, I'm going to get that tree cut down. I don't want to cut that tree down. I love that tree. I wonder how much that tree caught. It costs $5,000. I'm not cutting that tree down. Yeah. It never stops until the next storm, right?

Huh. There's a rooting there that is so powerful. And I hate to throw it all back on religion, which I think is a, that's a root for me, which is, like, none of this matters, right? And when I can open my hands to that and underneath the nothing, this doesn't matter as much as I'm loved whether I fail at my job or I don't have a good year or you're like, you and I are together. We're 100% commission, right? Yeah. We're small business people, basically.

Yeah. Like, if I don't have a good year, I still have intrinsic value and that's okay. And in a weird way, that has freed me to repel off even further down. I don't know. I have found a similar thing. It makes me better. But there's something about comics, too, that it's a daily interaction with failure that I think our whole culture tries to insulate us from. Yeah.

And also, you know, with even like going higher in comedy, like, you know, like, let's say like Hollywood, that sort of thing. Like, it's like, yeah, I go to L.A. and I take meetings. And I'm like, if things happen, great. you know but if they don't happen it's okay i have comedy i still like what and i'm not you know i'm mad at anyone i go take meetings i'm not nervous in the meetings i'm not like oh i really need this i go if this happens great but if it doesn't that's okay my kids love me and my wife likes me most of the time yeah and i can i'm good would probably like it if i didn't get this because i'll be home more.

Yeah. That was a hard thing for me to wrap my... It took me years with my oldest. Like, he doesn't want anything but me. And I think I got to the level where it took me a long time to believe that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Or he's only going to like me if...

Almost like you're like, if I'm cool or if I'm the, like, he doesn't care. He doesn't know any different. He just like, you're my dad. Yeah. Can we shoot each other with the water hose and play with mud? Like, I just want to do whatever you're doing, I want to do that. And that was hard for me. Oh, yeah.

Well, I feel like that, I don't know, I spend too much time thinking about things. But it's like, you know, you look back at like grandfathers, even great-grandfathers. They were like around in World War I. And then, you know, then you have World War II. And then you have like, I don't know, the Great Depression was somewhere in between there or before. So it's like, you have all these like great-grandparents and grandparents growing up in these really hard times. Yeah. and oftentimes probably not that nice to their kids because their lives are hard.

Right. So then the next generation may be a little nicer to their kids, but their lives are still hard to where you get to like kind of the baby boomer generation that takes so much flack from everyone all the time. Yeah. You know, but it's like, you know, who knows what their parents were like? Like I know, like I have relatives that have abusive parents, you know, and then. Of course. And then you go, and then you find out that their parent was like more abusive than them. Yeah.

And then how far does it go back to where it's like each year or each generation, they're like a little less abusive? Right. Yeah. So it's like, it's still abusive. But to the abuser, they're like, well, you should have seen what I was getting. Right. Yeah. Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. with our parents and whatever they had to deal. You know, so I feel like we're all like in a way getting a little better, like maybe softer, but like a little better.

Well, and there is that tension. I remember talking with a veteran, and maybe it was World War II or World War I. When they said this, it never occurred to me. They said, there were no deployments. You didn't, like, good deploy for nine months. You went overseas and fought until that was over. Oh, wow.

Maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe three. Like you came home if you lived when the fighting was done. And to now where I'm like, hey, I need to sit my son down. Like, I'm going to miss three months from now. I'm going to miss this cross-country meet because I have a thing, man. I'm really, I'm letting you down. You know what I mean? He's like, dad, you're good, man.

You know what I mean? And it's this, I don't know. I think there's a, the way I can get you to buy something is if I make you feel guilty. And I think that's a great, it's a great marketing move to get me to, need to buy everything for my kids and to do everything for my kids because I'm not enough whereas yeah

if you just go back three generations or one generation they're gonna be fine yeah they're gonna be fine and in fact listening to my son retell the story without me telling him what I saw

and how he could have moved different him retelling it is awesome too right yeah it's just I don't know I don't know there's a place where I'll ever exhale and say I'm doing this great you know what I mean and that's that's the nightmare

being a parent I guess yeah and who knows I mean, it's like if you're like me, you follow a lot of Instagram channels where everybody's giving advice. And then if you take all the advice and combine it all, you're like, oh, I can't do anything. Nothing. Because I can't. If I eat this, it kills me. If you don't eat that, I'll kill you.

Right. And then if you're doing this workout or if you're on this or if you're running Wi-Fi, I talk about Wi-Fi all the time. People think I'm crazy because I turn off my Wi-Fi at night at home. And people go, oh, what you do some kind of weirdo? and the guy who brought my Wi-Fi box from the company on the pamphlet, it was like, you know, causes reproductive harm or cancers on their own pamphlet. And now I'm crazy for saying it. Right, right, right, right.

Yeah. And I'm like, you know, so you just try to stay away from all these things. And I don't want my kids addicted to the phone the way that I'm addicted to the phone. Yeah, totally. And I didn't even grow up with a phone and I'm addicted to it. No, it's the most public. public cocaine offering ever handed to all of us. That's why

I have to go outside and do things. Yes. Because if I don't, I'm on my phone. I'm like, it's so hard to be off my phone, but if I get outside, I'm cool. I'm hanging. I'm breathing fresh air. I got a sinus thing going on right now from all the fresh air. That's an important thing for folks who want to stop

a thing. I want to stop drinking. I'm going to stop looking at pornography so much. I want to stop being on my phone all the time. I want to stop, whatever. Is stopping something is good, but there's a value and what's the replacement for that? Yeah. And like, cool, stop drinking. Great.

That was filling something. So what are you going to, what positive thing? And maybe it's just going to bed, dude. Maybe it's just getting a small gang. Maybe it's, I didn't stop being on my screen. Are we going to just like turn it off and just sit there and like white knuckle it? Or what positive thing can you do? Well, that's a hard thing for me on the road.

Right? When I'm home, I can find plenty to do to not be on my phone. But when I'm on the road, I'm in a hotel. And I'm like, what am I supposed to be doing? Yeah. What am I supposed to do? I, you know, I smoke cigars sometimes. Yeah.

But is that good? Yeah. You know, and I'm like... I started getting tattoos in every town I went to. That was a terrible idea. Yeah. Right. It was like, I don't want to go to bars.

I mean, that's going to be stupid. I got to do something. Yeah. And yeah, that's always a difficult challenge. What do you do? What do you know? And I bought a... I was going to start carving wood.

I bought a little wood carving. That didn't go any further than me buying the wood carving set. I was going to be whittling in the hotel room. So we live in a culture that has most households are dual households. People are both working. And it's not every household, but almost everyone. And this is, we can extrapolate this out to every family here. But this one's a personal question for me.

I write, part of my life is writing books. And I work for a place that's got its own publishing machine, right? and it can get books out everywhere in the world. My wife, who is Dr. Deloney before me, way smarter. She's an infinitely better writer, also writes. And she has a rule. I can't post about her books. I can't put it out there.

She wants this to be hers. And at the end of every year, when we sit down and say, who sold the most books, like the metric that the world says matters, like there's tension there, right? And you used to be on the road with your wife. If y'all both did comedy, how have y'all navigated? And again, this is, I'm a writer that not everyone listening, very few people listening to writers or comics, but there is the, he works in construction and she's a nurse, or she works at a law firm and he does whatever. There's always that competitive tension.

How have you all navigated that in your house? Well, you know, my wife quit comedy, which was good in a lot of ways because she didn't really like working the road. And so she kind of wanted to quit. But she was an actress before we met. She did stuff in Canada. And she likes that aspect. But when she quit comedy, she was off the road for a couple of years. And that's when we decided to have kids. So it worked out well. for us, but I think there is still a thing. She still have ghosts about that? Well, yeah, a little bit. She'll do Instagram, and she's very good at that. In a lot of ways, she's more driven than me to create. She's always thinking of ideas, but it kind of takes over for her.

Whereas I'm like, I don't know, I feel like I'm pretty good. I'm at a good place with comedy to where I can just write on stage. I just go to the club. I can write on stage, and it just doesn't obsess my mind. I've seen you do that, and I will never understand. in, like walking out with nothing and letting it go. Yeah, I mean. That's such a gutsy move.

Well, it's over time, it's built up that way. I was never like that. I wasn't like that for a long time. It's amazing to watch. But I feel like, you know, when we used to travel together, it was really hard because, you know, my wife would open for me and, you know, if she didn't do well, you know, if she didn't do well, you got to be hard. You know, it'd be hard for her. And then if she did well and then I didn't do well, she would get mad at me and she would go, you got a do better. If I'm going to be opening for you, you got to do better. Do you have marriage advice for

folks who one person's in a season of blessing and one is not? You know, I don't really know. I'm not, I'm not really one for marriage advice too much, but I just think that, you know, when it comes to marriage, it's like you got to like agree on things, you know, and it's like if, you know, one is more successful than the other, then I just feel like you got to rock. that out. You guys got to go, hey, you know, you're making the money. I'm going to support you. And you both got to stay grounded and not think that, you know, it's just you. I always have to come back to if my wife is winning, we're winning. And if, and that's easy to put like stitch into a pillow or put on a hallmark card. The reality that's tough,

or I got to be able to say, I'm jealous that her book is a hundred times better than mine. Yeah. And my wife's very similar. She loves the act of getting up in writing. It's a nightmare for me. It's a thing I have to do. And then I'm a part of a machine. So the thing that I hate the most about my job pays our bills.

Yeah. And the thing that she craves and loves, right, isn't as markedly successful. But it's that if I have a wife that's creative and it is actively involved in a project, our whole house that flows through our home. We're all winning, right? Yeah. Even if that means on certain months, I'm doing more dishes or I'm doing more laundry or I'm taking the kids or doing more bedtimes or whatever and vice versa, right?

Yeah. But that's one way I can make sense of it. Well, you know, I mean, there's like... Once you start competing in your house, I think that's a bad road to go down. Yes, for sure. Because, yeah, I mean, it's all about like, it's all about teamwork. Yeah. Right?

I mean, and I like, you know, I like that my wife's at home. I really enjoy it. I'm all about her doing other things, but I think, you know, my dreams of raising a family and having all, they don't work without my wife, you know, without everything that she does at home, it doesn't work without her. You know, I can't, I can't go make money for our family the way that I want to without her. I don't trust anybody. I don't trust anyone with my kids.

So without my wife, none of that works, you know. So it's like, yeah, I may be, you know, on the poster. I may be on Netflix, I may be on the marquee, but without my wife, none of it works. I'm not able to do it. I'm like the little light bulb in the lighthouse, but man, she's that whole tower that thing, that's the way this is in my house.

None of this happens without that, yeah. Yeah, I mean, and it's like my kids get raised the way that I want them to be raised, and it's like, in the way that she wants them to be raised. And we have beautiful kids, and they're, you know, well-minded, most of the time. I have kids. Yeah.

But it's like it doesn't work without my wife. And it's like that's more important to me than comedy. I mean, comedy is great. I mean, it's provided a good life for me. But it's more important that, you know, we have a good family

and our kids have a good life. What do you tell the 28-year-old man or woman who's listening to this and who has said, and honestly, it's like, it's almost a math problem. Like, A plus B, plus C equals, I don't have kids, financially,

like, sexually, I don't, it's just going to, I can see the algorithm where this blows up everything that is my life. I don't want to do that. On this side of it, what would you tell somebody? Well, you know, it's like people, I feel like people that get married later in life like I did, say, I wish I'd done this 10 years ago. Yeah.

And then people who do it 10 years. That's almost every, yeah, I wish I'd waited. Yeah, they, but. I mean, to me personally, I wish that I had just had, you know, kind of people around me like guy that, I don't think people knew and just intentionally didn't guide me. I think I just didn't have the right people around me. But I wish that there would have been somebody that could really talk to me about drinking and giving me some direction in life and saying, hey, this kind of road that you're on, it doesn't lead anywhere. Because I have a few jokes about drinking that are very funny, but I could have wrote those jokes in drinking for two years. I didn't need to do it for 10. A decade, yeah.

Yeah. And I could have got started on things a lot sooner. I could have had kids at 25 rather than, you know, 39. Yeah. Do you beat yourself up over that decade, or do you give yourself some grace over it? You know, it is what it is, so I don't really beat myself up. But I do wish that I could have got started sooner. Yeah.

And that's what I would say. I mean, it's like people, so many people are like, well, I want to live my life a little bit before, you know, I get locked down or whatever. And I would say that, that is life. This isn't, yeah, the subs, and I'm like the substitute, what wasn't life? Right. And it's like, you know, the men around me. And I don't mean like my dad and I just mean men that I would work with that were older. men were giving me such bad advice.

They might have thought it was good advice, but they would be talking about marriage, and they're like, oh, you're going to get, you know, you'll get married one day, and it'll just be one woman for the rest of your life. So just explore the field. I'm like, well, that's the worst advice you could have given me. Because, you know, it's like there's an ecclesiastes verse. I think it's chapter seven, verse six, or it could be the opposite, but it says, all man's efforts are for his mouth yet his appetite is never satisfied. It's like there's there's no amount of like

sinning that you're going to do that one day you go all right that's good. I did it. I'm satisfied. Now let's get get into a wholesome life. Huh. And see. Yeah. You're just going to have mental scars that then you're like, oh, if I just followed the biblical way and just did. You just did the way that God wanted me to live my life, then I would be on a much better trajectory. Yeah. But I feel like this way, and I watched a guy recently. I wish I knew the video, but it was a YouTube video.

It came out like four or five years ago, but just suddenly popped into everyone's algorithm. But he was just talking about what the 90s did to us. And then he goes through all the movies and what it was teaching us and all the music videos and what it was teaching us. And I love the 90s. But when you look back on that stuff, you go, oh, you were just pre-programmed. Programming me to be a degenerate.

And then when I was out here just, you know, drinking and getting high and people go, what are you doing? And I go, well, this is what I've been programmed to do. You know, and it's like, it's just a waste. I'm not saying it's not fun, but it's a waste. Yeah. I it one of the most revealing moments of my life was I had a group of guys we got together every Monday night and we were like degenerate good guys right not great but and then his name was John he had got he came and announced he was pregnant first one of my kids first one of my bodies

to have a kid they have the kid and within two months he's not hanging out of this anymore and I his wife's one of my greatest friends in the world but i went to gosh he's the worst man he has one kid and he can't even go out anymore months months a couple years later i have my kid my first kid and we were out one night and i said hey it never occurred to me you weren't hanging out with us not because your wife was saying but because you would rather sit on the couch and hold this tiny little lump of a human that he had made and i was like why didn't you tell me and he's smiling he goes because you wouldn't have heard it. There's nothing I could have said

that would have made sense to you other than, oh, I'm done playing video games with these idiots. Yeah. I'm going to be here. You know what I mean? I know exactly what you mean. It's hard to explain it.

I had so many friends that had kids way before me. I mean, one of my best friends, his daughter, my oldest daughter is four years old. His oldest daughter's 17, right? They had them way before me. When I finally had a daughter, I apologized to so many of them.

I have two also. Yeah. I just go, I'm so sorry, guys. I had no idea. It was this thing of, like, we used to say it all the time. Oh, he's whipped. Yeah. His wife just runs his house.

He can't do anything. And then you get married and you have kids and you go, oh, it's not that my wife won't let me do anything. I just respect my wife. I love my wife. I want to hang out with her. Well, yeah, it never occurred to me, this is a couple years ago when I learned the single greatest predictor of a great marriage is, are you all friends? And I remember being like,

oh, I could work on that. And then when there's like a pile of wet towels, if my buddy Todd comes to my house, if you came over and you left five cans of, I guess you're not drinking, so of Sprite on the counter, I wouldn't go into an existential tailspin about what is Dusty trying to tell me? What is he, what is he trying to, I would just pick the cans up. Yeah. And the next time you're We're like, dude, pick your cans up and pass the nachos, right? But for some reason when my wife does that I'm like, what is she, what is she trying to say? It's like, bro, she's my friend. Pick up a cans.

You know, you're all in about your life. And when I realized, like, oh, we could make a friendship to where I'd rather just hang out here. And I can't do the math. I can't tell my buddies, like, who aren't married or whose marriages are struggling, like, I'd rather watch Matlock next to her with my long leg, hairy-legged, 15-year-old son next to me than. Or it's even hard. For me, honestly, to tell 30-year-old me, hey, there's this event, 3,000 people want to pay money to come see you talk, I'd rather go to that soccer game at 9-a-hame with my daughter's soccer game. My 30-year-old me is like, what are you talking about?

We've dreamt about this. And it's like, yeah, but this actually is kind of more awesome. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I go through that all the time. Like, I'll get an offer to go to L.A. and do a thing. And I go, I don't know, guys. I got a lot going. I'm going to, if I do that, then I'm going this weekend, and then I'm in L.A. all week,

and then I'm going next weekend. It'd be nine days. I'm not home with my kids. I don't want to do that. And for 30-girl, Me, I feel like he's just yelling in my head. Like, what are you talking about? I know. You finally get, it's like, yeah, it's just a weird thing.

Yeah. But that thing about your buddy, that's so real for me. Whenever a buddy of mine would get married and have kids, and I'd go, oh, what a loser. Like, it's so sad for you. What are you just home on a Friday night? Yeah. And now I'm like, well, yeah. With my best friend on the planet.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. You didn't want to get kicked out of the bar with me? You want to tell the same football stories again? Yeah. And, like, recreate Chappelle clips over bad nachos. Yeah, you're good.

And I like those things, actually. And I also am not prepared, I wasn't prepared for, there is sometimes, when I'm sitting at a soccer game and I'm like, I wish I was on the road right now. And that's okay too, right? There's sometimes and I'm like, I can't hear the same Wolf Dragon story again. You know what I mean?

I think I'm going to run down and do a set down the street or I'm going to go call my buddy and go. Like there is that too. And that's also a real part of being a parent, right? It's not all, I love it all. I mean, I tell my kids to go play. I go play. What are you doing?

Exactly. I'm not a real life. video game for you. Yeah. Go be bored, yeah. What, we'll wrap up with this. And if, I don't mean to end on a heavy note, but if you could be a fly on the wall at your funeral, what would you want your daughter when she's reading the eulogy she writes about you?

What would you want her to say? Because there's going to be comics in the room, being like, one time, and then there's this. But then she walks up. What would you want her to say about my, Dad, Dusty. Well, yeah, I mean, that is a heavy question. But I, you know, I think I just want her to know that, you know, that I was there for her when she needed me to be there.

And I cared about her and I spent as much time with her as I could. And, yeah, I mean, I think that just being there for someone and just caring about their life. Yeah. And because, you know, it's like, I want to believe. believe that I can just give my kids advice and then they just take it. And then they never have problems because they go, well, my dad lived through this. And now he has the experience. So what he told me matters. So I'll just not make any of my own mistakes because my dad already made them all for me. I'd like to believe that. But I know that's not a reality necessarily. Now,

I think you can take, you know, you can take some advice, but people are still going to make their own mistakes but yeah i mean i'd like uh for her to say that yeah my dad um um made me important in his life that i was important to him and that he was there for me having my yeah my son too for that matter yeah he's fine boys are on her own yeah yeah having that yeah dang i like that having this idea that like my kid knew that's home base yeah yeah yeah Yeah, there's always a door I can walk through. Yeah, you know, there's a John Anderson song called Wish I Could Have Been There. You know, and he's just talking about all these moments that he missed with his kids because he had to work.

And he was a truck driver. He probably didn't have any other options in this song. Yeah. But I always think about that and I'm like, well, I want to be there. Yeah. I can't be there for everything because there's going to be things that I miss. Regardless if I'm a comedian or if I'm, you know, I work at Lowe's. Window washer, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's going to be things that I miss. but, you know, I want to be there for things. But there's something that also, some of the research says about being there is the intensity of the time, not the volume of the time. And so that's like when I do get off the road, when I do get off the air, do I walk home with my phone open, do I walk home and immediately whip my laptop out or put the TV on? Or when I'm with them, am I with them, right? And that's been a powerful shift for me too, which is why I take full laser focus of the time

I do have. Yeah. I mean, I for sure struggle with that. I do try to like, I don't know, I read a thing where it's like if you're on your phone and your kid comes up to you, just immediately respond to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even if you end up going back to the phone, just immediately respond to them. That's right. Make eye contact and say, hey, I'm finishing this. Maybe I read that from you. I'm pretty sure I wrote that. That's cool.

I mean, I do follow you on Instagram and I might have read that from you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, but yeah, but yeah, and I've been trying to. That was a failure, right? I was like, my daughter's like, dad, dad, I'm like, hold on, hold on. And I could have just put it down and been like, I need two seconds to finish this. And then I got you. And that's just a way to treat somebody with dignity, right? Yeah.

And I read that. And, yeah, I mean, I've been exercising that. That's awesome. Where I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's like, because it's like, when I was growing up, my dad would read the paper. My dad would watch TV. My mom would watch TV. It's like, we're all, it's just the technology's changed. That's right.

Right. But the, you know, so it's like there's people are still doing things the same way they always did. But now it's different, but the phone can suck you in. Oh, man, yeah. And I didn't think about that. We're mad about this eye contact, but most of us grew up behind this. Yeah, right. There was, I could even see your torso. Yeah. I mean, I call my dad now and he still has the volume on 110 on the TV. And I'm talking to him and he's watching something. Yeah. What? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, dude, thank you for coming on. And I want to say thank you for just, I get to see you behind closed doors. And thank you for being kind to me. And think you're being hospitable and welcoming. And for being a good coach, like teaching me how all stuff works. And man, I think right now in the times we live in,

there's a reason comedies had such a wild resurgence. And I think it's because real comics are the last truth tellers. but more importantly what people desperately more than anything is can I just be in a crowded room of strangers and have a shared human experience can I have one hour where I can just laugh and it's that there is no greater pharmaceutical need right now in this country than can we put the phones down and go in you literally have to put your phone in a bag and just have a shared moment with strangers and somebody just tell us the truth for a while yeah I'm just you're Thank you for doing that. Well, thank you. It's a, it's a holy, and I don't see that in like the cosmically religious is a holy gift in this current world we live in right now. It is amazing. I mean, like, I don't mean what I do, but I mean this comedy thing.

It's like you, sometimes I, you know, I'll meet people after the shows and it's just like, I'm not going to say it's a wide variety of people, but I have a variety of people. and I have a wide variety of ages. Yes. I do have. And it's pretty awesome to see that just people, like, that's why, that's what I always tell people about my show. I don't necessarily recommend kids to come because I do have some adult subjects. Nothing dirty, but it's adult. I let my kids go.

Yeah. It's good. But it is something that, you know, if you're like in your 20s and you want to bring your parents to the show, you can bring them and laugh together at my comedy. it's going to be fine. You're not going to be embarrassed that you brought your aunt to my show. No. And that's what I think is fun. I've had a lot of people tell me that, that they've been able to bond with this family member or this family member over my comedy. And that's why I don't talk politics because, you know, first of all, probably no one wants to hear it from me. But it also,

it's just another, like ESPN used to be one of my favorite things. But it's, I think it's, I think it's, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so, and I'm like, sports used to be this thing where you're like, you just watch baseball. It doesn't matter what you look like who you are. You just enjoy baseball. But now everything has some social justice angle to it. You can just come in a comedy room and just and just, yeah, just hear me talk about how I make stupid small talk choices. I'll say it's the other night after your show, I went home. My son is an obsessive, uh, Garth Brooks fan. And I called him and my wife in and I was like, have you all listened to this song? I won't, I won't ruin it. because that's a great bit.

People need to see that live. And my wife was like, yeah, it's an awful song. And I was like, I didn't know that. And my son was like, what do you mean? And we just walked through the lyrics together and we're all like, oh gosh. That's awesome, man. It's fantastic.

Well, thank you. I mean, I've been trying to work on that bit for a long time. Years. It was a home run. Yeah, thank you. It was a home run. Years I've been working on that bit. Now I'll put it to the side and then.

No, it's back. It's back. Yeah. And the, I don't get too nerdy. The way you split, it could have been, it could have been this, or it could have been this. That was the entry point. And that was perfect.

That's the new angle that's perfect. It's perfect. It helped it to come alive again. Awesome. Could be this. Well, dude, thanks for being my friend. I'm grateful for you, brother. Thank you.