The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan - S2 Ep18: Gary Owen in Conversation

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

There's also episodes on the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/jdfmccannDon’t sleep on @ultrapouches. New customers get 15% Off with code CATAMARAN at takeultra.com!#UltraPouches #ad

When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel, right in one spot, and turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify.

Start your free trial today. Hello and welcome to the James Donald Forbes-McCand-Katamaran. plan. Huge guest on the podcast this week, Gary Owen, huge for me. I've been trying to, I wanted a hookah, I wanted a connection with Gary Owen for the longest time as a fellow white guy trying to reach a urban audience. I always thought it would be good to have Gary Owen on the pod, but I was never in a position to do it. And this is the nice thing, one of the many nice things about having come back to Adelaide is that, I wouldn't say, I was the only show in town for podcasts to do when people are. but oh it's certainly a lesser crowded landscape than being in Austin, Texas, New York City or California. So Gary Owens on the podcast, isn't that exciting? I went to go and see his show. He let me come. He let me bring a big...

He let me walk through with a big entourage. And then afterwards we went down and we had a conversation. I took him for as long as I could. He was very good to give me his time. I wish I'd been more organized and had it at another place, but we did it here. And anyway, here's a commercial, and then here's Gary Owen. Ever woken up and immediately needed a nicotine pouch and or a cup of coffee just to feel like a human? How many pouches, cups of coffee and or energy drinks did you need per day to stop yourself from crashing or even from feeling nicotine withdrawal?

Perhaps you would like to try ultra pouches. These pouches are completely nicotine-free and caffeine-free. And you're probably thinking, well, if they don't have nicotine or caffeine in them, what exactly is in them? That's a great question. Did you know it was possible to feel this energized and focused without any nicotine or caffeine? Calm, steady, flow state focus, enhanced memory, smooth energy, mood balance, all with zero nicotine and zero caffeine.

Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch delivering instant focus in mental clarity without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use the code. To get 15% off at take ultra.com. That's take ultra.com for 15% off with code catamaran. And after you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please show support for our show and tell them our show sent you. Gary Owen, thank you for coming on the show.

Thank you. And what a wonderful show I was here at the Norwood Town Hall. You got every black person in Adelaide out to the show tonight. This is your hometown, right? This is my hometown. This is where I'm from. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting.

That's interesting. Why? I just never met anybody from Adelaide. I'm trying to think of one person you might know from Adelaide globally, and there is nobody. Well, the one thing I, Australia, I think people forget. I didn't realize this. I did Dr. Phil with Adam Ray. Adam Ray?

Yeah. At the state theater in Sydney a couple days ago. Yes. And then he put up an AI picture of Me, Hem, and it was Chris Hemsworth, Thor. Yeah. Russell Crow, Gladiator, then Hugh Jackman Wolverine. I said, you know, Australians got these damn superheroes and these iconic characters on lock. We can pretend to do the accent, so you will get Australian actors.

Mugger Robbie, beautiful. We have flesh. We have beautiful bodies, and we can pretend to the accent. But in terms of great thinkers, no, there's no Australian director. You could, we made Mad Max. That's the one movie that we made that came out of here. Which one? Mad Max.

Yeah, that's it. And even then, for all those people, you know, we've also. got, kind of got Mel Gibson. We're very proud to have Mel Gibson. Yeah. But obviously some trouble there. Yeah, I think it's behind them. Is it? I see him on so many Netflix movies now, like out of left field.

Some of them are, some of them are not that great. There's a couple. I was like, whoa, that was good. But, you're from Ohio. I did your whole, I did a big, I did a big deep dive. Did you? Yes. America's a funny serviceman.

And then you, this is what I didn't understand is you went to San Jose to start doing company. No, San Diego. Excuse me. San Diego, where Wikipedia says you developed, you've got a big black fan base from San Diego. From San Diego. But I've been to San Diego, and that's not what I would immediately. I mean, I think there are three times as many Asian people as there are black people in San Diego.

Well, there is, here's the thing. There's a huge black population, but you got to go to that side of town, southeast. A lot of people don't go to southeast. You're going to go as far away from La Jolla as possible. Possible. Okay. So that's when I first started. I was doing two different worlds.

So I would do the La Jolla Comedy Store, but the only night was Sunday was open mic. So whether I would get up or not, I would go on Sunday nights, because you'd have to call in at like four. Sure. And then at seven, you find out if you're on the list and the show starts at eight.

So you literally had an hour notice, like, you got on the show. So whether I got on or not, my Sunday nights for about a year was hanging out at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. Yeah. And then one day a week isn't a lot, and you're only getting up every other week. It's not a lot of stage time. Yeah. I was in the Navy, and a couple of the black guys, I was telling me, man, I'm trying to be a comedian.

They're the ones that told me all these spots I can go to, but you've got to go to the hoods, basically, right? Yeah. But I could get up three, four times a week. So I would start doing all the black rooms because it's like, oh, I can get on stage. Where the opportunity is. You're going to take that. Because I found this when I went to America, the extent to which people won't do it. it. White people will not. There are black comedians who play the white rooms.

There are very limited, and mostly from Philadelphia, guys who will play black rooms. Big Jay Ocason would play black rooms. Shane is a couple guys, but overwhelmingly it's a segregated comedy scene. I was astonished by this. I think it's more, where it started, I think, was one, where are the stages at? If they're in a black neighborhood, a lot of white guys don't want to go to that part of town and two the Apollo and Def Jam was good and bad as far as like the mentality

for white comedians. How did you how did you get you've been on the you've been on the Apollo stage? You did I mean how? They did showtime at the Apollo but how? What do you mean? How is that allowed? I'm not allowed to do that oh I just I think they asked me. They're not asking

how I get to the point. I went to the Apollo to look at it and to stand in the lobby because James Brown lived the Apollo volumes one and three are the finest recordings. I think anyone's ever done of any kind. I got to stand in the lobby and they were very kind to me, and then they did ask me to leave. And I'm told that usually when white people perform at the Apollo,

they're asked to pay an additional fee as a form of reparation. Oh, I've never heard that. There were two white ladies who did a podcast there. Oh, I've never heard that. They had all their fans come up from, you know, mid-city all the way. I don't know what they came from downtown Manhattan, the way up to Harlem and then they had to pay an extra fee. I'm not saying you're wrong.

They didn't ask me to do that. That's all I'm saying. You can't. This is, I don't know anyone else who has a black audience in America, who is a white person. Yeah. Other than you. Well, it's crazy because it's definitely changed the last couple of years with social media. And, you know, like, let's say like Nate Jackson and Matt Rife, really TikTok and took

them over the top. Yes. For me, I already had a pretty strong fan base. Yeah. But Facebook. Facebook took me to a whole new stratosphere because it's a little older crowd on Facebook. Sure. But they have money and they pay ticket.

They'll pay, right? Yeah. I think TikTok is a little younger. Sure. So, and Instagram. Great platforms to get your stuff out, but I don't know. If you want to make money and move tickets. You want to move tickets?

For my age group? Yeah. Facebook was one and it was a lot of the military jokes that went viral for me. for me. I said that tonight, this was a younger, you have a younger crowd in Australia. I'm not saying exclusively.

Yeah. I'm just saying I had the audience. Yeah. But then it just got that much bigger with Facebook. Yes. You know? I only know one person

who does Facebook, but maybe I'm leaving that. Yeah, you got to, well, you look at like, you know country Wayne is? I do not know country Wayne. He's literally getting a billion views a month. Okay.

A billion. His name's country one. Country Wayne. He's making, like he's making seven figures on Facebook a year well over seven figures because he's doing these little sketch shows only on Facebook he said I figured out the algorithms I figured out like the code yeah he goes and he's just he knows the audience and he's one that said it's an older audience you're going after the the aunts and the uncles you're not going after the nieces

and the nephews and they have better attention spans sure and they can follow a storyline So he's got his own little soap opera going on. I had not even considered. I didn't remember people were on Facebook. Yeah. I only went on it recently to follow Australian politics. I get more monetization. Yeah.

And I get the most views and I have the most follow. Like I got like five and a half million on Facebook. So this is going to Facebook. This is going directly to Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. It's the only place this will live is Facebook. Yeah.

You know, for me, I'll if you give me like you got the perfect joke yes what platform like Facebook before all of them this is allowed you to move to you're in Houston now and you're out of the comedy scene you have the social media thing you don't need to be plugged into one of the like three or four big comedy cities in America no I but I did that I did that I started in San Diego okay and that's not a huge comedy scene but it's close enough to L.A

yes and I was doing both worlds I was doing mainstream in the black world So the mainstream, I would say, like, my class was like Bobby Lee. Okay. Was with me coming up open mic in. And then when I did the black rooms, it'd be like Nick Cannon. Okay. Was doing the black side of town. Yeah.

Same city. Same time frame. But I was going back and forth. You know what I mean? But there's just no one else who does it. I got to do one, I was in America for three years. And I got to do one weekend of black rooms one time where by accident they booked me to open for Finesse Mitchell.

Finesse. It was great. He was a lovely guy and he corrected me on some things that I needed to change in my act. Really? If I, yes. He said, if you are performing for black folks, we've had a conversation. He got together with the other openers. And he said, we've had a conversation.

Here are some ways we'd like you to phrase things differently. Oh, thank you. But this was at the, where's T? Where's T? T's gone. This was at the Pittsburgh Improv. And it was, and they told me beforehand, they said, do not change your act at all for black people.

and I've never had worse advice in my life. I know what they were trying to say. They were trying to say, do not pander. They were trying to say, but actually, you can be silly about gay things with a white crowd. I had trans material at the time that was working quite well with the white audience in Pittsburgh. The second, I said the word trans.

I felt the entire black order. Something shifted in the room. Really? We would prefer that you didn't speak about that. I could tell. You're getting away with it, I'm sure, but the pivot. I wouldn't think that. Because I always say black irons especially have no skeletons in the closet.

There's no skeletons. If you're stupid, you're stupid. Sure. You know? If you're attractive, you're attractive. If you're ugly, you're ugly. It's more direct. You're going to call it out.

Yeah. It's a little more direct. So I'm shocked. I would always tell people, yeah, definitely don't pander. I've seen people do that. And it just comes across as wrong. but I often think like the awkwardness

cracks me up just as much as anything else Have a white person performing for black people or a... A white person going in front of Black people doing his material. Yes. And I love it when black people's like, oh, we're about to go along this ride with you. You know what I mean?

I've seen it happen. I saw Sebastian destroy one night. As Sebastian. at the comedy store Never seen anything like it He did a Ray Charles on him So I didn't know he was

But I kind of knew he was This is probably 2000 Let's say right 26 years ago They had a fat Tuesdays Was the biggest night In LA for black comedy And black comedians

Called fat Tuesday Called P-HAT Tuesday So Guy Tories So Guy Tories started it And you got to realize Late 90s Wasn't cell phones like that Wasn't social media

So it wasn't uncommon for Denzel to show up or Shaq to show up or Kobe to show up or Will Smith to show up. It was, actually it was common Prince to show up at Tuesday nights at the Comedy Store because they weren't worried about there was no influencers. They were stars and nobody had their phones out, right? Yeah. I was really tripping. So it wasn't common. So Sebastian goes up one night and he said, hey, when I go up, turn the lights off and put the space. spotlight on me. So he did the

same thing they did in Ray before Ray came out. Because when I saw the movie Ray, I go, wait a minute. Sebastian did that shit at the comedy store. And he did the joke about Orange Jaina. We got orange china at the house. Yeah. And he goes he goes, we got water in the hose.

I'm not drinking out of the hose. And I literally saw the audience go, what the, who is this motherfucker? And then they were with them. Yeah. Totally destroyed. So it was awkward at first. Sure. But then when he got him, he got them.

The embarrassing default is to hammer up being sort of become more autistic. I know as many white people do this and talk about it, that they will become extremely white, a caricature of white. They'll start doing a version of the Dave Chappelle white voice as themselves. No. No, I feel comfortable being myself up there. But I did, there was something about the gay stuff that was different with a black audience. It could have been that night, though.

There was a multiple nights? I did three nights. Maybe the joke wasn't that good. Maybe it was a, you tell me, it was a great joke about being at a medieval fair. It was really strong. There's a lot of trans people at the medieval fair. It's got nothing. Well, here's the thing.

Black people have no idea what the medieval fair is. It's not true. I went to the medieval fair. It's astonishingly black. It's much higher than 13% black at the medieval fair. It must be the black people that aren't going to comedy shows in. Oh, yes. I don't think these people are going anywhere other than the medieval fair in their computer.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the big tour. No, look, I intend to return to trans people at the medieval fare as quickly as possible. Okay. I've never been.

So I don't know. You've never been to the medieval fair? Mm-mm. Never been. I'm just, I'm snatching as much time from you as I can. At some point, I know you'll stand up and you'll head out of the door. But I'm very, I feel very blessed as the booker. The stairs at me down.

By the way, that AAA pass, meaningless. Security at this venue has been very lax. I got so many people in. They did. Nobody was checking. And I had it in my backpack. I got jewelry and money in it. I was like, oh, I just going to let people back here in front of it.

I mean, how long are you away now? You'll be away from home for two weeks on the road. I flew out on June 8th. That's when I left home. Got the New Zealand on June 10th. Because that flight, you lose a day. It's horrible. So I left at night, and I got here first of the morning on the 10th.

But even I lost the day. I won't be back in Houston until July 12th. will be the when I come home because I'm in London on the 10th and 11th at the life from here to London I go from here to Berlin oh no that's silly 30 hours 55 minutes so we got the layer in Dubai

did you do this? Have you done this to him? No he's only doing the Australian run Europe because they added it on and I was like you know I was so excited because I haven't been sure but now I'm looking at it going I probably should have broke that up a little bit I went home for a week okay per week how many gigs in You're doing every night? No. You'll get time to see the Parthenon.

You'll get time to... So we got... Okay, so we got two days in Germany, one show, two days. We got three days in Amsterdam, one show. Yeah. Not Amsterdam, Netherlands, Uterick. And then we got two days in Denmark. I mean, you have to be doing this for the love

because your American audience, you have guaranteed great money. And if you're breaking Europe for the first time... I'm in Australia for the first time. I'm told everybody takes a haircut up when they go out. For us to go to America, it's wonderful. That's where all the money is.

And when we're at home, we struggle. But you do a big flight overseas, and you have to be making less money than you would had you gone to, I don't know, Alpharetta. Oh, without question. It's definitely a financial hit. Yeah. But it's also like the big picture. Like, I want to come over here and experience it.

Yeah. I want to see how I can translate and challenge myself. And like, I'm doing okay financially so I can afford to take the hit. I'm not saying you're not. No, no, I'm saying I couldn't have. did this probably 10 years ago I couldn't did this for this amount of time five weeks that's a long time

five weeks is a long I did six weeks in America just now we had a baby and I went out and I did six weeks yeah and I was having panic attacks by week four of being I mean maybe other people are you on road dogs were you on big shows or were you doing clubs it was just me doing clubs I would

do I don't know I got to I did Albuquerque I did Phoenix she was grinding like this stand up live and stuff like that I think I did Santa Blive. I did, no, I didn't get to do the Tempe Improv. What did I do? I got to do the American Comedy Company.

That's in San Diego, right? In San Diego, that was the third stop. And there was a lovely white staff. And I'm told the man who runs that venue is not allowed to talk to the public anymore. And then I got, I mean, you'll know all this place. No, really? Never been there. Where did I go next?

I did Seattle. I did Emerald City. And I came down to do hilarities in Portland, a wonderful city. Oh, was it? Helium in Portland? Sorry, it was. I take it back. Hilarities is Cleveland.

I've done. done hilarities in Cleveland before is beautiful. Everyone talks shit on Cleveland. It was fantastic. Cleveland is a great comedy talent. Detroit for the first time. Detroit's got to be excellent. Everyone told me to be people committing suicide and richness and violence.

No, honestly, I find, for me, if you asked me to, the best states for comedy, for me. Okay. California, Texas. Yeah. Ohio. Absolutely. Florida. I was waiting to see if you'd say Florida.

I said those are the four best states for me. Florida is magical. Well, even people don't realize during COVID. Yeah. Right? Texas, Ohio, and Florida opened up for everybody else. And they kept comics employed more than anybody else. Because you had like, every one of those states have like five major cities with five A-list comedy clubs.

It's weird. Everybody sleeps on Ohio. But you got, you got to realize. You got Cleveland. Yes. Cincinnati. Yeah. Columbus.

Yeah. Toledo. Right. So hold on. Cincinnati and then you got Dayton. You got Youngstown. Youngtown's got a club? No, you got a club.

You've got... I'm talking about like legitimate, funny bones. Yeah. Or improvs. You got Dayton. Yes. You got Cincinnati. Yes.

You got Toledo. Yeah. You got Cleveland. Yeah. You got Columbus. That's five weeks of work. Yeah. In the middle of COVID.

You could just stay in Ohio and do five weeks of work. What's up? Texas. Yep. Dallas. Yep. Houston, Austin, San Antonio. You got four big rooms there.

Come on. Now you got Lubbock. But they don't have a comedy. I'm talking about comedy clubs because you're allowed to do theaters. They have a club. They have a club. It doesn't look like a real good club. Not during COVID.

Okay. Where you could do a weekend. El Paso doesn't have a club? They do. They got a comic strip. You're right. They do. And then, you know, Florida, without saying, you got Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville.

I just did Naples. Naples, off the hook. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's lovely. But I did have the worst man in the audience that I've ever. I've had some, I've had some awkward nights. I lost it.

I was going crazy with this man. It's better now that they moved it. It used to be in Marco Island, right? Okay. Which is about 20 minutes from Naples. When they moved it, right? Captain Brian moved to stop. Now it's way better.

Back in the day, comments just say everything's great about the gig except the gig. That part of town's great. Yeah. Daytime's great. The food's great. But the club, it was old. No, this felt modern.

This felt very nice. It was only like one man who kept telling me that I was a liberal. I don't know what gave him that. That's the thing. That was the problem I was going to say. When I say old and white, I mean old white judgmental and my way or no way comes of politics. I had just finished doing four minutes of a Vietnamese accent and then he told me that I was a progressive.

So I didn't understand where he was coming from. I was doing my strongest Vietnamese accent for a good long chunk as a part of the show. I had a guy. He stood up and told me I was a Biden guy and that Trump was going to, Stephen Colbert is off the air now. We don't want politics here. Okay, I can top that story. Okay. Not the story top you.

No, please. So probably 2018? So Trump got in 2016, right? Yes. 2018, 17, I went there. A guy got really upset. And I don't do political jokes, right? I did a joke on Donald Trump, but it wasn't about his policy.

It was like a goofy joke on him, right? Sure. This guy start going off. Like, there's more of us than there are you. I was like this. What are you talking about? He got mad. They made him leave, right?

On the way out, he said, you goddamn N-word lover. Okay. So I was like, oh. And then he sent me a message that night on Facebook. He was upset. Cussing me out, call me the N-word, monkey lover, shit like that, right?

So I screenshot it. I did a post about on social media. Long short, the guy got fired from his job and then he got kicked out and ended up like he had to move

and then his son was threatened to me on Facebook it was like a whole thing the news interviewed me this is more intentional my experience well that's what happened

when I screen that's right when I screenshot yeah I said hey you idiot you got your job yeah on your Facebook page

now everybody knows where you work I didn't realize black people were going to go to his job they turned up at his job trying to find him I go

Oh, I know that was going to happen. So anyways, the next night when I showed up, the police officer there, I'm sorry, one police officer there. Yeah. And then the owner of the, let's say, an auto body shop, I don't know. He came to apologize, shake my hand. Sorry, that is not representation of our company, blah, blah. And I just didn't think nothing of it.

I was having fun with it. Like, hey, dumbass, you got your job on your Facebook. Is he going to show up with a knife at the end of this story? No, no, he got fired. All right, great. Then they found out he had to move and his son messaged me like, you got my dad fired, your piece of chat. And then he started calling me racial names.

I go, okay, you clearly didn't know learn from your father. But you did not docks the son. No, I didn't say anything about the son. I just left it alone at that point. Well, you know, he has a heavy cross to bear given that. That's his dad. Yeah, I get it. Yeah.

That's, uh, that's terrified. I would be terrified that that man would come and seek vengeance against me. No, I think it's all right There's a woman who also sometimes it can go the other way There's a woman in Australia who got done with an Aboriginal joke Joshua you following the Aboriginal Instagram lady Who did the thing about the petrol sniffing and lost her job

And then started the GoFundMe What's her name? Someone's Spencer Lisa Yes He knew he knew about the story This is a big story in Australia She did a racist sketch online She lost her job

She said Aboriginal's getting handsouts and sniffing petrol, it was not a well-done sketch. Okay. There's a way to do some of those jokes in a more funny way, but she wasn't doing them. She got fired. She put up a Go-FundMe, and she's now been given, I think, $50,000 for having lost her job.

That's the thing. She's done very well out of it. When you dig in on somebody and whatever that is, like with her with the Aboriginal people, right? You're going to get that many more that, like, that's how I really feel. and I'm going to back this person now. Yeah.

When you don't tow the line, when you're like, I'm on this side of the fence, live here going to hate you? Yes. But there are a lot of people are going to love you too. Something that a political lobbyist once told me, they said the advice they give people when they go into politics is do what you really believe because you will be able to make money out of it. And it doesn't matter what side you're on.

If you're on the left, you're on the right, it doesn't matter. You will be able to be corrupt for what you believe. I mean, think about the stand-up world. Think about the stand-up world. Lately, the big thing. was the Kevin Hart roast, right? Which I was at, and I got drunk accidentally, and did full sleep. But it was a great time.

Okay. Okay. Well, we all know that Tony Hedgcliffe got the heat on that, right? Yes, he did. And I said, well, here's the thing people aren't realizing. Every comic, every entertainer, everybody that keeps commenting on it, you're just making them bigger. Absolutely. Because his fan base is so dug in, they're like, oh, you're coming after our guy?

Yeah. Oh, no. If you want to really get them, don't say shit. Don't bring it up. Well, this is why Chelsea seems to have started up again. She, uh, I didn't. She became a fit. You don't have to, you don't have to wait in unless you want somebody.

No, I don't mind. I think we get in this business as comedians. Like I said, I don't have to agree with everything you say. Sure. I don't have to like your joke. I don't have to think you're funny, but I'm going to fucking go to bat for you to say what you want to say on stage. Yeah. We, we more than any,

group are offensive proof. A real tried and true comedian, we don't get offended. How can you get in America? In America? Sure. You did that in America and you did a beautiful job and you came out the other side of whatever this cancel culture thing was. In Australia, we, it was unbearable. Nobody was doing a good job. What do you mean? I mean, there was like, the industry was so captured that there, and we don't have, we only have five clubs here. So we don't, if you're not like on the radio or on television in Australia. We don't have this. What kept, I think, America going is you can't, you had this thing tonight and I won't,

I mean, you're going to record it at some point, so I won't say at all, but it's like, you can't cancel me. You had the thing about the Thai massage pile, and you're like, I'll just turn up that night and I'll talk about it. If people still want to see you, you can keep doing it. Australia is five cities. So if they do want to cancel you, gee, I hope you can move a lot of tickets on five specific dates without any other. But my thing is, my comedians getting offended, right? you can't tell me if you're a comedian you haven't told a joke that could offend somebody or some group. Yes.

That's why we got in this business or what I want to get out of this business. And when I think most comics are like, no, I want the dark shit. Yeah. I want the, I can't be just said that. That is uncomfortable. I get, there's some places I won't go. Like, I won't say some of the shit Tony Hedgecoo says. Because you do, you do got to do some of the repercussions.

I won't say some of the shit back in the, Paul Mooney would say, right? But I still watch them in cringe, but I still like, okay, they're going for it. Yes. They're going for it, you know? I'm going to forget her last name, but Cheryl, what was her last name? Underwood. She was wonderful.

She's been the same, she's been that way for 30 years. She had the best set of the night, and she, everything seemed to roll off her like it was, she was like so professional. I knew. I knew. I knew when I saw it. When I saw the lineup, I go, You know, because every rose, there's quote unquote, a breakout. Yes.

Right? It was, um, it was Nikki Glazer for the Tom Brady one. I go, as soon as I saw it, I go, yeah. Oh, it's Cheryl. 100%. Yeah. And it wasn't just like, you had Naim, you had Big J. Right.

Their delivery is a little more monotone. Right? Little more. I know Cheryl. Cheryl's in your face. Yeah. And she's almost a preacher when she gets going and when she brings you into her fucking world, she can bring you there for a few minutes.

And I was like, oh, 10, 15 minutes. That's her sweet spot on a show like this. I go, she's going to fucking ring the house down. And when she said, you know, you ain't going to get out of. You in Englewood, motherfucker. I was like this. Yep.

I was reading the room like, yep. I saw this one coming. It was really magic. It was very strange because those things can't, people can get into a, I mean, at some point the William sisters are coming out and the Rock is asking to be suckled upon. At that point, there was free wine coming out to the tables. and I haven't watched that on the television. So I was zoning in and out.

Also, it was very odd watching it because I was at the least famous, famous people table. And so it was me and the chair fillers. And they were all trying to get on the screen. And they were very much overreacting to everything that was happening at all times. Oh, yeah, I can see that. And I was just eating their canapes that were, they'd been put out, I think, very early in the morning.

They were very dry. My experience of the roast was not everywhere. But she, everything lit up and was wonderful. And I will say as well, she went off script because I could see the teleprompter the whole time. and she was she was just in the it was ages before she was saying anything

that was written down and then there were other people like Chelsea Handler who every word was written down but she seemed very natural and it was like a real gift that she could read it all yeah and this is not a knock on her personally but I just I disagree with how afterwards she

decided she want to be offended by everything I say this because I don't know if anyone said this and I think I've said this I everyone else the the the the teleprompter was working normally. I watched Tony Hinchcliff do his, and he just did his jokes from start to finish. Someone on the teleprompter was fucking with him.

Somebody was moving it away from what he should have been saying. I think there was someone who had a political problem with Tony Hinchcliff who was on purpose. I haven't heard him complaining about it. Somebody should take a start. I don't know if I was the only one who could see the teleprompter. Interesting. They were purposefully moving it away from the jokes he was meant to say. And it was, I think, only because he'd been running that sit-in at the

the comedy store at the mothership, night after night after night. He knew what all the jokes were, and he just barreled through it. There was other, unless a poltergeist got in that machine while he was talking, somebody was actively trying to fuck with him. I wonder. I wonder. I hope an investigation, and he's been a real gentleman about it. I see this.

Everybody got on him, and I will say, if I was going to critique that roast, right? Sure. My only critique would have been, you did a George Floyd joke on the Tom Brady. Brady roast. So I was like, at that point, I think it's kind of like been there, done that. Yeah. You know, two years later, I don't think for me, I'd be like this. I've already moved on from it.

It's old news, so to speak, in the joke world, right? It was like, I'll put it like this. I had a comedian. The caveat started flying. Well, I was about to say some other stuff. I go, I don't know, I can do that play on words. You saw me catch it myself. I'll put it like this.

I had a comedian over for me in D.C. one time. And it was like probably 2,000. five right he goes yeah when that is a black comic he goes he goes yeah man I knew when that white bitch hit that other white bitch with that crowbar he was like that couldn't be no black girl and the whole crowd's looking like what are you talking about he goes oh come all man the figure skater nancy care again I go whoa whoa whoa bro that shit after 12 years ago that's how I felt yeah about the George Floyd bit it wasn't the bit it was like well he already said that it's a bit he did that yeah at the uh

Tom Brady roast. If you're going to ask me your critique, that was what I said. I said, oh, he said that at the Tom Brady roast. Yes. He did the George Floyd thing. He did. That was my thing. You know, there haven't been as many brutal police deaths in recent years because

racial harmony has returned to the United States. Yeah, it has. And so there's no one new to mention. The country's going to be okay. I didn't know that when I went there. When I went there the first time, I saw the media and I went there. You was thinking it's chaos? Well, also, I was in L.A.

in LA I did go This is my weird I flew I flew to LA I had a 12 hour stopover before I flew on to Pittsburgh And I just wanted to hang I had my suitcase I didn't know you couldn't walk around in L.A

So I had my big Trundall suitcase And I went to Venice Beach It was the scariest place It was 10 a.m. It was just schizophrenic shouting into the ocean And then I went to the library I wanted to I just

I thought I'll just hunk it down in a library Right library is good I can read, I can use the internet, because I didn't have money at this time. So I thought I'll use their internet and I'll recharge everything. And the library that is closest to LAX is in Inglewood. So I didn't know, but I went to Inglewood and I walked around with my big Trundle suitcase through the streets of England. And it was very, it was the most confronting. I've been here my whole life.

So a lot of, again, a lot of Chinese people and white people and some Aboriginal people. But never before have I been the only white guy. Yeah. Within 10 blocks, you know. And then I got to go, and then you cross a road, and it goes from 100% black to 100% Hispanic. There's no blur. Do you know what I'm saying?

It's not like a melting pot. People say that. Well, there was a rumor, and I don't know it was true. And it's 100% different. It's funny you say that because there's a rumor, and I have nothing to substantiated, but whoever told me, I believed them. They said, Philip Seymour Huffman.

Yeah. Used to go to the Starbucks in Inglewood because he could read his script. in peace. No one knew who he was. And they didn't know who he was. And he'd sit in the corner. They'd go, it wasn't uncommon.

Yeah. To see him in Starbucks reading. I believe it. Scripts in the back of there because he goes, nobody's going to bother him. I may I just say, it is one of the greatest libraries I've ever been to is the Inglewood Public Library. Really? The chess section, I don't know if someone there was trying to breed in you, Bobby Fisher, but there are shelves and shelves of excellent chess books. The restrooms were clean and orange for some reason.

It was a one Never been Never been in the Inglewood Library Not they have a lot of people It was basically empty But it was beautiful And but it was like a real I understood that point

In a way that I hadn't Because in Australia there is Everything sort of blends together But closer to being one culture And in the United States This is what I'm saying It's really You just say

They put me on They asked me to do it I went to those rooms I got the stage time It is It's hugely weird It's hugely weird And good

And I When I got to perform for black audiences. I loved it. And even now I go, I'd like a black audience. I'd love one. That was the best audience I ever performed to. There were people doing this. There were people standing up. It was great.

So when you're on? What is my road back to that? When you're on the road with Shane, right? Yes. How many black people were in the room? There's a percentage. But I would say the more Hispanic people really come along. And I would say, yes. I think they're the best audiences.

As far as like, support. support support. Well, they've stood by Morrissey Bizarre for a long time. I've realized since I started this tour in January, right? All the, my best numbers. I just want to say, Shane does have black people who come to the show. I can't let that. I have no doubt.

But I would say more white people than black people. I've seen a social media post. Yeah. I don't think it's Photoshopped. But I've noticed that my strongest markets, are the one you would think and it's true heavy Hispanic population

So so We started this tour in January And it went to middle of May Yeah And then we have dates this summer But I came here I'm going to Europe And then I come back

And I do like Vegas And some casinos right We'll pick back up in August But So January through May Yeah My top markets By a landslide

Yeah San Diego Of course Long Beach Okay Houston Yeah Those are definitely the top three

And the ones The ones that shocked me That sold out like in advance El Paso Midland Midland Texas I was like What the fuck goes

Yeah yeah yeah Yeah they got a beautiful Welltheest postcode In the United States I believe Yeah But they got a Home of Barbara Bush They got a beautiful

Theater Or the other Bush Yeah One of my favorite theaters And they came out In droves Buller Bush El Paso shocked me

Yeah Set out in advance So yeah Those Did you ever play Albuquerque It's on I think it's on the fall run I had a better time playing

Albuquerque than I They begged me not to go to the downtown They said you will die They said it is a war zone Stay the fuck away from there They were very very open about it I fought for El Paso I fought for Alpaccaque

I would like to do El Paso Oh Phoenix I forgot Phoenix Is on tour Have you done the drive? through, you've done the drive across there, the Southwest Drive. What do you mean? You've like driven through Arizona.

I was shocked because Arizona is like the most beautiful state in the Union and Phoenix is the ugliest place in the state of Arizona. That's Scottsdale. I didn't make it to Scottsdale. It was beautiful. That's the Beverly Hills of Arizona. I'm not saying there aren't nice places there, but it's flat desert and you go slightly north and Sedona and the Alpine region and then the Grand Canyon's just over there.

The first rogue gig ever at a comic club Was at the comic strip in El Paso Okay I was still in the Navy I took a week's leave I drove from San Diego to El Paso Basically took a day And I'll never forget

I got paid $500 I was there Wednesday through Sunday So was that Wednesday Thursday one show Yeah Friday 2 Saturday 2 Sunday 1 So what we do Four or five seven shows Okay seven shows of five days

You got 500 dollars per show? No, no. $5 a month for the week. It was opening for somebody. They put us up at a condo. So there's three comics in a condo, right? But I'll never forget.

I drove there in my S-10 pickup. This is how I survived that week. I go, okay. Arby's had $2 beef and cheddar. That was lunch every day. I got a box of cocoa puffs and a gallon of milks. That was breakfast all week. One bowl cereal.

And then you eat dinner at the comedy club, and you take something to go back to the room. So all week I probably spent $20 on food and then gas to get back. I remember I got back to St. Diego, I probably, if I made $500, I still had $400 left. I was like this. Oh, this is easy. This is the best job ever because I was still getting paid in the Navy.

And I was like, what do you guys want, dude? I don't want a story one up here. Go ahead. I love broke gigs. I went to Brisbane. I had to fly out to Brisbane. So I bought tickets to and from Brisbane. That was all the money I had, but they gave me a weekend.

It was huge for me. But I had zero money. and I was in debt on my Uber. I didn't realize that I was in debt on my Uber at that time, but I spent the weekend there. They had a jar full of coins for the comedians. I spent that, there was like $12 in small change in a jar. That's what I used to eat.

They didn't give me money for food at the clubs. But then on the last day, it was a Sunday morning. I remember I went to a church because I thought they would have sandwiches and biscuits afterwards and I could eat that. But then I had to make it back to the airport. and the airport was, as I later found out, about a two and a half hour walk away. But I could not, I couldn't get an Uber because I thought I could, I thought if you had no money,

you could still go into debt to Uber and they would charge you later, but I was wrong. No. I was so, my bank account was back like $150. So, like, even if I was going to ask someone to transfer me money, I would have needed $150 to get to zero before they could give me. So I walked to the airport, which I'd never done before. for. How far is that? It was like a two and a half three hour walk. I did not have the shoes for it. I don't know if you've ever

walked to an airport through a major metropolitan city. You're not meant to do it. I was walking by the side of the freeway after a week of gigs because they didn't, they don't pay you in a check here. They go transfer you the money afterwards. I was going, can you give me the cash? I need the money now. They said no. So I had the ticket back, but I had to make it

on foot. I remember I had these fucking moccasins that I was wearing because I thought they were cool. The bottom was falling out of them. It was like a We would say 40 degree day. What's that? What's 40 degrees? It was like 100 degrees.

40 degrees Celsius. No, it was a very, very hot day. So I just remember walking through a military base. There was a military base you had to walk through to get there. And it was just rows of cars with guns on the back of them. And so I'm passing in and out of, I was eating two minute noodles. It just hit me now. Like, it's tougher to probably make it in Australia because, like you said, you only got five cities.

Five big, yeah, five real cities. To do stand up. Yes. There aren't, there are road. dogs here, but they suffer. Who's the biggest comedian come out of Australia? Come out of Australia or in Australia? Either.

Who's the biggest comedian? Jim Jeffries is the biggest one. My manager used to manage him. Not anymore. They were cool, but they left on good terms. But when I first got up, she'd been on a manager for 21 years. Who else? Yeah, it's not.

She had Jim Jeffries when I first got with her. He, but within Australia, there are people who sell huge numbers who just For whatever reason, they don't make it out. Carl Barron never made it out. You wouldn't know Carl Barron. He's just being in Australia? He's being in Australia. There are some people.

Will Anderson was huge in Australia, and he would go to America. But I think he went to like hipster rooms in L.A. People here, they don't, there's something dirty about being a club act. There's something low. You want me to wrap it up. You're throwing the finger. I understand. I understand.

Yeah, we got wrap it up. We got to wrap it up. You've been so generous with your time, Gary Owen. I appreciate it. Talk about getting kicked off quick. They're looking at me and their point. I got to go, man. Is there anything you'd like to say to the people of Australia very quickly?

All right, fine. You big cunt. Let's go. Thank you. I appreciate this. I appreciate it, man.