The Joe Rogan Experience - #1967 - Mike Vecchione

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Mike Vecchione is a stand-up comic and actor. Check out his new special, “The Attractives”, on Youtube.  https://mikevecchione.com/

The Joe Rogan Experience Thank you, man. How long have you been doing it? 23. Nice. Started in October of 2000, did about three and a half years in Philly with DeRosa, Big J, those guys, and then moved to New York at the end of 2003. Nice. Yeah. I was a teacher. I got a master's in special education. I was working with kids who had behavioral problems for about eight years. You seem like a guy who would work with kids with behavioral problems. You're very calm. Yeah, very calming, very calming. But it was very, very challenging, very challenging because

kids would flip, you know, a lot every day at work with something different, you know? Oh, man. I worked in a behavioral school for a while and then went back at night and got my master's because I figured if I'm going to do this i might as well teach and then uh taught in a classroom and in three different public school systems when did you decide to leave to go comedy full-time um i did about i started going to open mics i was in a relationship and uh i thought we were going to get married and it broke up i think a a lot of comics have this story, you know, where it's a, it's like a heartbreak situation. And then I was just on my own kind of out there finishing up my master's. So I started just going to open mics at the Laugh

House, which is not there anymore. It's a comedy club on South Street. And I just started going every Wednesday. And then I started going on Thursdays and a little bit more. And then I wasn't funny at first, you know, at Bomb. I would do okay, bomb, do okay, bomb. But I was like, you know, I'm probably not going to be able to do this, but it's going to help me public speaking wise. It's going to help me somewhere down the line. You know, I got a good vibe for it. So I was like, let me just keep doing it. And at that point, you know, I was, uh, you know, alone and I was going through a tough time. So I was like, I kind of don't care if I fail. I kind of just don't care. I'm going to just fail and just figure it out and just keep coming at it. And because I'm a sensitive guy, so it's like, you know, failure has been tough to take.

So I just kept doing it. I just kind of, it kind of dropped off because I was going through a tough time. I didn't care about failure. So I just kept doing it and doing it and doing it and then at the end of 2003 I was working a job I didn't didn't want to do anymore and I just decided to move to New York and that's when it really like I'm a really I don't know much time you spent in New York I know you're a Boston guy, but I'm a product of the New York City comedy clubs really is what I like to say Just hopping going from just hop and I mean, it's not what I like to say. Just hopping, going from club to club. Just hopping, I mean, it's not so much like that anymore,

but it used to be, I don't know how much time you spent there, but it was like, you would just run from club to club to club to club to make money, and that's how I would do it. You know, and the big club was the Comedy Cellar, still is, but it's like the Boston Comedy Club. I started in New York the last days of the Boston Comedy Club, with Nate and New York the last days of the Boston Comedy Club

with Nate and Dustin Chaffin, a lot of these guys. So I started there, and then what we'd do is I'd go to an open mic first to make sure you got stage time, and then I would go to the Boston, and the Boston,

different comics would run the weeknights. So you would go and hang out and see if you could get on. So then I would do that, and then at the end of the night, you would go to the cellar and just hang out and just hanging out was a big thing back then because you just get your face around, get people to know who you are. And every club had their different, every, uh, city has their different scene. And in New York, we'd end up at the cellar with Patrice, Keith Robinson, Jim Norton, those guys. And you'd hang out and they would just break balls at the table.

Different time, you know. Yeah. Everybody would break balls and then people would get to know you slowly. Isn't it crazy you say 2003 is a different time? Different time. You're talking about the 20s. Yeah. But it was a very different landscape back then.

Yeah. And that's what you had to do. You had to hang and get your face around so people would, oh, you know, maybe Mike would be good to open. Or maybe so-and-so would be good to open for you on the road. You know, and that's how you would get work. Yeah, I moved to New York in 91, I think. 91 or 92. Somewhere around there.

Wow. And I did the clubs. I did Boston. But mostly I did the road because, like because I lived in New Rochelle. I couldn't afford to live in Manhattan because I couldn't afford a parking spot. And I did road gigs so much. I had a car. And my thought was like, I could do these little clubs, but I don't make any money.

Or I could do Long Island and Connecticut and Jersey. And I could make $150, $ 200 bucks for a show and I'd have money and I'd be able to do long sets and I was always a big fan of Hicks and I knew that Hicks he did mostly the road and he did like these real shitholes as good as he was

I always thought that like shitholes made shitty comics but Hicks kind of changed my mind about that like you could do great comedy in front of shitty rooms right and win them over yeah yeah that's really something that's really what it is because if you let the room change you you can become a shitty comic that way but if you go now i'm gonna flip them but on my terms yeah that's a lost art also because if you're big you know you have your own fans and stuff that doesn't come into play but if you're good you're on the road you don't have your own fans it's like you have to like keep just working them

working them working them i was the atlanta punchline and this happened where it was a the crowd you know they didn't know me and there was a drunk woman it's my birthday it's my birthday like making it about her and like younger in comedy i would have just bailed and just tried to score off of her and win and just you know do a penalty kill you know just just play the set out that way and walk away with the victory but I decided you know you know what let me neutralize her I don't want to make it about her she's being selfish you know stay in the pocket because and I hadn't won the other people over yet they were still on the fence about, who is this guy? So it's like, just keep coming, just keep coming, and then working them and bringing them to you

and bringing them to you and neutralize her because she's a distraction and just keep bringing them, bringing them, bringing them. And at the end, it was good. It was a good set, but I got off stage. I was like, oh my God, that was so much work and nobody's going to know about it. No one's going to know what happened here and i walked to the bar and there's a couple of comics at the bar and one

guy looks at me and goes i saw what happened he goes i saw what you did that was great that was masterful i go thank at least one witness i got one witness who saw what it was who knows like what it is and how hard it is to do. It's my birthday. Oh, God. There's so many of them out there. It's really something. You just go to karaoke.

What are you doing? Just go to karaoke. Some lady was fucking up Ron Whiteset the other night in our club. She yelled out, can I get a picture with you? She kept saying that in the middle of his fucking bits. Like he'd be in the middle of the setup. You hear, can I get a picture with you she kept saying that in the middle of his fucking bits like he'd be in the middle of the setup you hear can i get a picture with you oh it's the worst and it's it's really something because the crowd's not on your side and you come too hard at her you know what i mean then they're

gonna be like whoa what is this guy this guy's angry now it's like they kind of don't get the dynamic of what's happening but but just stay in the miss I love you. I don't want you to get kicked out You know just like you know and eventually she just went to the bathroom anyway, and just whatever coke Something I think she was on it before maybe did more coke Yeah, it's funny how you remember those sets like that like one set that you could like that was a breakthrough moment, right? Like one set that you feel like that was a breakthrough moment, right? Right, but it's like the fact that it's like oh, I know it I know it and I doubt anybody else is gonna know it but whatever I know it

Do you ever stop and think like what if you didn't break up with that girl? Like what if you were still in that relationship and you'd never pursued comedy? Yeah all the time And I just but you know what I could have I would have been married I would have had kids, you know Whatever and I just would have lived that life. It was a fork in the road You know what I mean? It was really sex I was teaching at times working at a behavioral school and I was with her and I was like Oh, this is probably how this is gonna play out Yeah

I don't I don't have that in the the thing in me to go out and get spots cuz going out and get spot getting spots is like you have to go out and you have to hustle yeah I was already working hard and in my job and you're trying to get my masters I was on a different path so I didn't have that extra in me to go and try to get you know spots at clubs and stuff so when you say that like you when when in at that moment did you kind of were you weren't in a good place, right? She broke up with me. I was really, really, we were, we dated in college. And then we, she's from Philadelphia.

So I had no ties to Philadelphia. So I moved to Philadelphia to try to find a job, be with her. She was in law school. And so, yeah, that's what it was i hope she watches you on youtube now i mean i think she's got a good life she had a good she was a good person she had her head on her shoulders and she was you it's okay yeah yeah yeah it hurt though man it hurts it's heartbreak like that that causes you to go oh yeah i gotta it it makes you raw you know it makes you raw it makes you go like I'm

gonna go out and take some chances and do what I really want to do figure my life out you know what I mean now if it would have been a thing where I would have been successful right away then it would have been oh my god yeah it's different but it's been 20 I've had wins along the way this is a big win by the way but it's like wins along the way it This is a big win, by the way. But it's like wins along the way. It's like that gradual. I thought I'd moved to New York and it's like, I'll be a star or I'll just get a job. I didn't realize that it was going to be this incremental thing where it's like, get a tonight show. That's good. Last comic standing. That's good. NBC time. You know, it's like this happens, Montreal comedy festival. It's like gradual throughout the years. Yeah. So that becomes your life. You know what I mean?

I describe it to people like making a mountain, one layer of paint at a time. Yeah. That's what it's like. Yeah. Yeah. That really is. Build it, build it, build it out.

Yeah. It's so slow. But you don't think that. I didn't think that at the beginning. I thought, oh, I'll just go and I'll win or I'll fail. Either way. It's like, even if I fail, I'm in in New York I'll figure it out in New York you know but yeah I didn't see this I didn't see that incremental the incremental steps

that it takes and you know as a comic after that like any girl I'd have so protective so protective and I think a lot of comics are that way over my career yeah like I don't nothing comes in the way of this nothing comes in the way it's like, you know, I'm not going to sacrifice any of my time for anything else. I'm in this. Well, because it's so fun when it works.

Yeah. And the idea of making a living off of doing that is so exciting. Yes. That you think, like, I can't let anything get in the way of this. And relationships will get in the way of this. Like, the early days,

I dated girls who were like, you don't have to go up tonight i was like oh i don't yeah like yes i do like you don't know what you're talking about like if you could kill you would know this you would if you know what it feels like to go up there and hit a punch line yeah and have the whole room fall out right that's a wild feeling yeah it really is and not a lot of people ever get to experience that and it is an art It's an art form. It's an art form to be able to do that especially over an hour. Yeah, you know art form It's an art form that sounds like you're just talking so it's kind of underappreciated because everybody can just talk right and most people are funny Sometimes yeah, you see somebody up there. You're like I could kind of do that right and right

You don't really respect it unless someone's just fucking murdering you. Right. It's a funny thing to do with your life. And man, it tests the shit out of you in the beginning. Because in the beginning, it just doesn't. There was many times where I was like, this is never going to happen. Like I'd bomb. Right.

I'd go back home fucking massively depressed in whatever shitty apartment I was in going, what the fuck am I doing? Todd Lynn, who was a comic back in the day passed away since but he used to say it's like dating a really hot girl with really bad breath that's what i'm like god he really described it perfectly because it's sort of but you could brush her teeth baby i love you to death. Your fucking breath is whack. There's something you can do about that, but comedy, it's just like the whims. It's the crowd.

It's who's on before you. It's where you're at in your life. Right, right. That's all true. And it's a process. I learned that from wrestling too. Wrestling, I was good for my area. I learned to wrestle in Ohio

and then which is a great state we had a great program and then I moved to Florida and I finished high school in Florida so I wrestled down there and it's like I was so focused I don't know how you were as a competitor but I was so focused on the win I wanted to get the win I wanted to get it's like yeah yeah yeah it not, and I would psych myself out before matches a lot of times by overthinking it, you know? And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's about the process. It's about the process.

Train hard. And then, but when it's time to compete, then I wish I would have had this back then. It's like, you have to just get yourself up and go out there and just do the things that you train to do. And I was too focused on the, I want to win. I want to feel the victory. It's like, I want to win. It's like, no, no, no.

It's the process. Stick to the process. But I wish I would have had that before I went out and competed. Like, go out there and just cut through this guy. I didn't have that attitude. I was tired from cutting weight. And, you know, when you go to these tournaments, when you wrestle, you weigh in, you weigh in and then you would go have breakfast. And then there's a time where you digest and lay around on the mat a little bit and then start slowly drilling and getting ready for the match. And during that time is when you should be getting your mind right to go out there and like take it to them. Take it to them.

And the guys who were successful did that. And I couldn't see it back then. But looking back and having perspective on it, it's like, I wish I was that. So now I keep that in mind in stand-up, you know, because a lot of stand-up is that. You know, being mentally prepared to go up. Yes. You know? Yeah. I always tell comics, like, don't go up.

Don't just go cold. Right. Warm your mind up. Right. I pace around. I breathe deep. I stretch out. Go over my notes. Like, maybe you don't need to do that, but you should. It's just good for the head. Just get your mind right.

What do you think about before you go up? I mean, you're working these arenas now, these gigantic venues. So what do you think about before you go up? Well, arenas, one of the things that I do is i have index cards so i write out before i'll get there early and i'll write out like uh just bullet points of all the sets or all the bits and i'll put them on cards right like this is on this subject this is on that subject and i'll lay them out on a coffee table and writing that out just like cements it all in my head solidifies it all in my head and then it's just about getting fired up. By the time I'm getting to an arena though,

my set is rock solid. That means I've done the clubs, I developed the hour, and then I went to theaters and I started feeling it. Oh, that's a great way to do it. Yeah. By the time,

you can't just go up in front of 16,000 people not knowing whether or not it's going to go well. Yeah. You have to be fucking, you have to be tuned in and ready to go. And you got to go out there with a lot of energy because, you know, these people like they got fucking babysitters. Yeah. They bought the tickets a long time in advance.

It's a big deal for them. You can't, you got to treat it like it's very important. Right. Yeah. Right. And just opening for Nate, Nate Bargatze, my friend who put my special on. Um,

yeah, you got, it's theater is a different, especially than the New York city clubs because it's intimate in New York. Right. And, and on the road even, but it's like those theaters,

it's like, it can be overwhelming and there's a lot of space to fill. It feels like, you know, with the low ceilings, it's like a different, it's a different vibe. Yeah. It's a different vibe with more people. It's like a different. It's a yeah vibe. Yeah, it's a different vibe with more people It's a different vibe with the bigger bigger area

Like you said with the high ceilings and it's just it's also you're not connected to them your it's a show you're up there Yeah, you know one of the things that I really like is the round when you do arenas in the round because believe it or not It's kind of intimate because even though there's like 16,000 people you're you're there's people all around right and you're looking at them and they're looking at the other people on the other side too so it's this like big circle of people right it's it's oddly intimate you know it's as weird as that sounds that's really something that's really something i know when i go i was very uh connected to my jokes. I'm like, this is all about these jokes. It's all about these jokes. I'd fine tune them and everything. But then I started to realize it's, it is, the preparation is about your jokes, but it's also about two things. One, going up and having a good time. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I mean like have fun with it. You did all the preparation now go up and be playful with them

Go up and be playful and be loose I have to tell myself that cuz I'm connected to that gum Just like let's go to the jokes and the other thing I started doing before I would go up is What you said love the crowd love them like Love them because they have hard lives. They're going through divorce, bankruptcy, all kinds of like problems. And they, they came out to get a break from that. And like in my joke writing, I would forget that. I was like, this is about the joke. It's about me. It's like, no, no, no, no. Connect with them because they maybe need a break in their life, you know,

and be playful and, you know, love them before you go up that always helps even if the set goes bad and you have that mindset going up it's much easier it's much easier to deal with isn't it interesting that stand-up is such a big thing in terms of like how many people go to see it and how many people love it and you know how many shows there are on the country at any given time. It's a huge art form in terms of how many people pay for it. But very few people share how they do it, and no one teaches it. No one can teach you how to do your way, because your way is different than Nate's way. Nate's way is different than Ari Shaffir's way.

Everybody's got their own style and their own thing. And you kind of got to teach yourself. And all these things you're saying, like knowing how to just go out and love those people, have a good time, be playful. You got to learn that on your own. Yeah, but that's my thing because I'm connected to the jokes.

Like if you're a guy with a ton of charisma and no act, like you have a different set of struggles. You know what I mean mean so it's like yeah that my thing is like don't be too connected be loose with the jokes and as i've had more experience it's easier you know obviously you get your stage presence down it's a long brutal process and it's funny that the mindset of a competitor like your mindset of that can kind of get in the way sometimes because you think because you get so focused on You know like we're saying like the jokes the joke and you got to realize like no

This is like this is a fun thing that you're you're doing like you can't get too right and so bad, right? That's absolutely true and the guide but the guys I've seen the top-level wrestlers that I've seen the discipline I came from The guys who are super super good kale Sanderson that guy It's like when he wrestles. I just watched I went down a rabbit hole was watching his NCAA finals matches. He just looks Fluid mm-hmm, you know what I mean? So it's like I'm thinking that intense intense intense But when a guy at that level goes out and wrestles, he just looks like he's flowing. You know what I mean?

There doesn't seem to be any tension in his body whatsoever. And the guys who are really good, I've found, do that. They just flow. They're efficient. They're efficient. And he was like, and the guys who are really good, offensive machines. Like they'll set something up, set something up, and then just go to another thing. You know what I mean? like water you know yeah i feel like wrestling is one of those things that is one of the most difficult sports to compete in and yet one of the most underappreciated

in terms of like public perception there's no real professional avenue other than like mma or pro wrestling which is like entertainment there's no but it's so hard to do it's kind of interesting how many sports become really popular and In terms of like being something that people pay to see but wrestling never did that right it never connected We know I could see that I could see why though I could see it just because if you don't if you to the untrained eye It just looks like two guys just and if especially if the two guys are at the high at a high high level it's very like strategic what they're doing and there's not sometimes there could be not much action because they're just trying to get position and the other guy's so good at staying in position

it's like it can be like a standoff that way so i understand why it's not entertaining to the eye. I kind of do, but I kind of feel like it could have been, it feels like, I mean, how's baseball popular? I do not. I'm not a baseball guy. I don't get it.

I appreciate it. If people play it, I appreciate it. If you love it. But for me, yeah, I, I just do not understand why that's entertaining.

Yeah. And yet it's the big American pastime, right? It's, it's, it's a funny thing. Like wrestling is way more exciting. Well, I root for all the wrest American pastime, right? It's it's it's a funny thing like wrestling is way more exciting Well, I root for all the wrestlers in the MMA. Oh, yeah, FC. It's like it's like because it's like

Entertainment I root for all the stand-ups if I'm if a stand-up guy is going against an improv guy for a job I'm rooting stand-up. Oh, yeah, yeah, you got a route for the discipline that you came from. Oh for sure Yeah, and wrestling is the most important discipline for MMA, I think. You think? Yeah, I think it's the foundation. Because the wrestler can dictate where the fight takes place. You know, if the wrestler chooses to stand, he can stand. If the wrestler wants to get back up, he can get back up.

Right. And the wrestler knows how to take the guy down. Whereas, like, even though every fight starts standing up, and it's a big advantage for the striker while they're standing up, but the wrestler knows how to strike. The striker has to think about two different things simultaneously. Has to think, maybe this guy's going to shoot, and what if this guy punches me?

What if this guy kicks me? So there's so many more options that the wrestler has, and there's that threat of the takedown that looms large, that paralyzes guys with anticipation. It's the most important foundation. It's everything in MMA. If you can't wrestle, good luck. Unless you can land a wild shot like you know Jorge Masvidal and Ben Askren unless you get that wild shot off right away and knock the guy out, it's a long night against the best one of the best wrestlers. Right and that wild shot are

you gonna be able to do that every time? Most likely no. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at like overall success rate, wrestlers have a huge percentage of wins in MMA.

And the really good guys like Bo Nickel, like right away you see him dominating guys with like all this experience. Right. Because his skill set, that one skill

that he has wrestling, he's so much better than everybody else. Yeah. That it's just a massive massive advantage and the training like i i took taekwondo when i was young and it's like forms and you know punches and kicks and forms but when i started wrestling in eighth grade eighth grade wrestling practice was so intense that i thought that the coach was punishing

the football players on the i I thought, are we being punished for like two months? I had to check it on my friends. Like, no, no, no, this is just what it is. Yeah. And it's, uh, so I wrestled one year in high school and I couldn't believe how hard it was. I, I would remember going home and my legs were so sore after running stadium stairs that I could barely walk. And I was like, this is fucking horrible. And I didn't want to go to class. And I was so tired from wrestling that I was like, Jesus Christ, how does anybody do this?

Yeah, it was nuts. And then the cutting weight also, which I'm sure you had to make weight for competition. And we didn't know anything back then. It's just like, go eat pasta and just eat less. There was no science behind any of it. And you weighed in the day of the match too, which is terrible. Terrible. One of the best things about the UFC is that they cut weight the day before.

I hate cutting weight, period. Right. My opinion on cutting weight for fighting is that it's sanctioned cheating. Like you're not really 170 pounds. Right. You're 200 pounds. Yeah. But you dry yourself out the week of and then 24 hours in, you're losing 12, 13 pounds,

and then you rehydrate like crazy. Like, what is this stupid thing that they're doing 24 hours before a cage fight? You're literally almost dying. Well, some guys are just naturally close to their weight. I wrestle with guys like that who are just like 3 or 4 pounds above the weight because they have very low body fat. I wasn't like that. I was like a bulky guy and husky.

And it's like, that means, yeah, you got to cut a lot of weight to get that muscle mass that the other guys might have naturally. Yeah. To make the optimal weight, you know, body weight for competing. Right. Because if you wrestle at a high, people just go wrestle at a higher weight. It's like, then you're wrestling guys who've cut down from a higher weight and they're going to just be stronger yeah it's a big advantage if you could do it right like this weekend uh is uh israel adesanya versus alex pejeda and pejeda who beat adesanya in the last

fight is fucking huge for 185 like i stand next to him like how the fuck is this guy wow 15 pounds lighter than me that doesn't even make any sense. It's fucking huge. But when he gets into the cage on fight day, he's 225. It's in boxing, too. I'm a huge boxing fan. Me, too. And I go see, I live by the garden. I go see Lomachenko anytime he's at the garden.

Oh, yeah. I go see him fight. He's unreal. But it's like, he's going to fight Devin Haney. That's a great fight. But he's like, it's a great fight. I'm so happy it's happening at 135. But Haney, I think, cuts down from 150, 160, something like that.

He's walking around. Loma's tiny. Loma's a smaller guy. Yeah, he's much smaller than those guys. You saw that in the Tiafema Lopez fight. Lopez is big. Huge. He's scary.

It's just that power is just such a big advantage for a big guy who cuts a lot of weight to write 35, right? But Loma won't go down. He won't go down to 130. He's like now I want the challenge I think he wants a channel a lot of these Ukraine the Eastern Bloc guys like they want They want the smoke man. They wants the challenge they do but I was a little Disappointed in his perceptions of uh the lopez fight after he lost like he thought he won that fight i was like that's crazy i mean he made it you could see halfway through the fight his corner must have been telling him you're in trouble yeah because he he picked up the pace um like halfway through that fight it was too late

he made adjustments and he had a big 11th round. Yeah. I remember the 11th. He was really putting it on him. And I was like, Oh man, maybe Loma was going to take this. Yeah. And then the 12th Lopez came out strong. Right, right,

right. That kid has such a hard jab too. It's such a dangerous jab to get through. He came out at the beginning of the fight and established it. You know what I mean? I remember that. And it's like, wow.

And Loma takes him two, three rounds of download. What the guy's doing. He doesn't, he's a slower starter because he just kind of like is measuring him. And almost to the point, you're like, what's happening? You know what I mean? If you're like unskilled, like I'm just a fan. But it's like he does that for two or three rounds.

And then he's just like, oh, I figured it out. And then picks it up and picks the guy apart. It's too bad that he's so small. Because if he was larger in like a natural 135 or a natural 140 or something like that, there's so many big fights for him and it would be really exciting to see.

Yeah. But to see a guy like that really should be fighting 130. Yes. Going up against these guys that are cutting down from 150, 155, it's just a big advantage.

But there's a lot of guys at 135 who are very, very tough. You know, the Tank-Ryan fight. Oh, yeah. That's a big fight. Can't wait to see very tough, you know the tank Ryan fight. Oh, yeah That's can't wait to see that. That's so happy that got made. Yeah, me too. I'm really interested like I'm a giant Gervonta fan. Yeah, that guy's so unusual. Yeah his style so unusual and it's like a patient. Yes Yeah, the Leo Santa Cruz fight was really something for me because Leo Santa Cruz is a technician

He's great Mexican style like but he's also a technician. Mm-hmm, and the fight was very close Before tank stopped him. Yeah, but he has that power that can end it But he finds these openings and sees him anybody doesn't go after him right away. He waits for the right time He's so patient right like when you watch the early rounds of his fights He's like at a world champions that are competing today at the highest level. He probably has the lowest punch count in the early rounds. Yeah.

Because he just waits. But he also knows he's got that nuclear option that if he can fucking crack you, most likely he's going to take you out. He's got massive confidence in that. But the thing is, can you rely on that? You know what I mean? Right. Because at the end, you know that Pitbull Cruz fight

It's like that was very close a very close Pitbull Cruz a tough guy Mexican just staying in the pocket with him You know what I mean? So it's like It's like a Deontay Wilder thing where it's like you're just waiting on that one punch But it's like you can't lose every round up to that either. Right? Right. I mean, right? Yeah, it's it's interesting, right? Like you don't know whether someone's ever going to be able to figure that out

or whether or not he's just going to keep cracking people. Yeah. You know, so it's part of the fun of watching it. I've talked to a lot of, like, real boxing purists.

It's like, you can't rely on that style. Right. He's got to be busier. When he gets to the best guys, it's not going to work out. Like, well, we'll see. Yeah.

We'll see because there's so many good guys. Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney. Shakur Stevenson was a 130. I'd like to see him and Lomachenko. Yes. Even the guy that Lomachenko just beat, Ortiz, which was a sparring partner years ago. Yeah.

He looked great. I was at that fight. Yeah. He looked unreal. Yeah, he looked unreal. But for Lomachenko, that was a great adjustment after the Lopez fight too, right? Yeah. I mean, he really looked like he's coming.

Yeah. And he apparently had some shoulder injury too. Yes, he was hurt. Yeah. I think, he really looked like he's coming. He apparently had some shoulder surgery too. Yes, he was hurt. I think he got hurt halfway through the Tiafemo fight, to be honest. I think he hurt a hand or a shoulder. He wasn't himself. Yeah, well.

Not that Tiafemo fought unbelievably. Yeah, yeah. And then you see what Kambosis did to Tiafemo. Yeah. And then you see what Devin Haney did to Kambosis, two fights in a row To Australia, I mean I think that's a lot you deserve a lot of credit fuck. Yeah. Oh, he's so good. Yeah, he's so good there's him and and

Lomachenko is gonna be very it's a great fight very very interesting very technical fight mm-hmm. Yeah, there's so many good fighters now It's a really good time for boxing and finally they're making the Terrence Crawford Errol Spence fight for June 17th Right, but I'm following that like crazy, but it's like they try to do that before so I don't get too excited I don't know until they actually make what's going on with that I mean we're like when when Terrence decided to fight that other dude for his last fight and everybody's like what the fuck like what I thought you were gonna fight Errol Spence yeah now it's all falling apart. You know,

luckily they made it though. So, if it's signed and ready to go for June. But it's not signed yet, is it? I don't know. I mean,

they're announcing it, they're talking about it. They're announcing it. They're announcing they have plans for it. They do weird shit with boxing like that. Like,

like Usyk and Tyson Fury. I thought it was a done deal. Like, look, it's happening. And now, you know, it gets to this point

where Tyson Fury's like, I want 70%. I'm the fucking a done deal. Like, look, it's happening. And now, you know, it gets to this point where Tyson Fury was like, I want 70%. I'm the fucking Gypsy King. I want 70%. And Usyk's like, okay, 70%. And it still fell apart. He offered him 70-30. Yeah, and he took it. I didn't think that Usyk, no one thought Usyk was going to take that.

He goes, nah, I'll take it. Yeah. He wants a win. He wants the fight. He wants the legacy. Unreal. I mean, yeah, Tyson is more of a draw. Yeah.

So I understand that. But Usyk has three belts. Yeah, but Tyson's more of a draw. Yeah. Like, if you can do 70-30 and you'll still make a shit ton of money, I mean, that's a fucking big fight. I mean, that's a worldwide, gigantic, you know, $200 million fight. So he'll make 30% of that.

Fine. Yeah, but I think the sticking point was the rematch clause Tyson wanted 50-50 on the rematch clause So you lose the fight and then the rematch clause is 50-50. You don't have any belts. I would take it It's I think it's still worth it because the name it's like what brings asses in seats, right? It's the name if they have the rematch and Usyk instead decides to fight you know, whether it's Wilder or whoever, it's not going to be as big a fight. Anthony Joshua, it's not going to be as big a fight. The big fight is Tyson Fury.

I think that's reasonable. 70-30, if you could beat me, 50-50. I think it's reasonable. Yeah, but after the 70-30, you're going, alright, you're pushing me. But he's the Gypsy King. No, I know he's a huge draw.

I know he's a huge draw. He's the biggest fucking draw in heavyweight boxing. And he might be the best heavyweight ever. He's a fucking freak of nature. Yeah. I mean, he really is. And he's such a personality. Yeah, he sings that song after the...

He sings after the... I'm like, this is pretty good. The song is pretty good. Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. It's unbelievable. Yeah, he's after the, I'm like, this is pretty good. The song is pretty good. Bye bye Miss American Pie. It's unbelievable. Yeah, he's like an entertainer. That's what Pacquiao,

Pacquiao used to fight, he used to go out and do karaoke after the fights. Yeah. It's like, it's bananas. You know,

Manny Pacquiao's like a professional level pool player. Is he really? Yeah, like really good. Like he could, like if he decided to stop fighting

and never box again, he can compete as a professional pool player. That's nuts yeah he's really good man i've watched him play i'd watch um him and may mayweather do like one-on-one basketball right they both like play basketball you know like in this time so competitive so competitive and yeah mayweather's unbelievable i mean watching him fight and some people don't get it they just like i had a friend and he was like he's boring no knockouts i go but he's a top level guy multiple time world champion and he's dismantling

other multiple time world champions and not getting hit yeah is there anything there yeah i don't know i go it's just he's boring i don't like him i go okay maybe is it possible that you don't know what you're watching yeah maybe is it is it could it be that I don't know I like knockouts I go then you should watch Butterbean and he goes yeah I like Butterbean I go good watch Butterbean ends up being like a five-year-old argument good I will I go. You should. I will. Good. Good. It ends up being that. You know what I mean? But for him to just have that run is dismantling guys.

You're always going to have casuals like that. Yeah. In every sport. In MMA, that's a big thing. People only knock out. They boo and fights go to the ground. Right. Okay.

But is there a thing in MMA where it's like, they calling stalemates faster you mean getting people back up yeah like if the guy's on top and he's not making progress or the guy on bottom isn't getting a wrist or working towards you know submission will they stop them and stand them up faster I think that's better for the sport in wrestling they'll hit guys with

stalling quick to keep the action moving I know that's not a thing in MMA but you know it does help the optics of it. In pride, they would give them a yellow card, and it would take 10% of your purse. So if you got a yellow card in pride, that meant you weren't trying to win or you were stalling. And if the referee pulled that yellow card out, people were fucking freaking out. If you're getting paid a million dollars, $100,000 is now gone for that yellow card. You're like, fuck.

Right. And that's a big deal. Yeah. Is it a warning first? They give a warning before they put the yellow card? I think it was up to the referee's discretion and pride. I don't remember exactly how they did it, but when they did it, it was a big fucking deal,

and the crowd would cheer, and then the guy would adjust accordingly. Because if you got two yellow cards, you're fucked. Yeah. I mean mean i don't even know if they gave two yellow cards i don't remember that ever happening i'm sure it did but i don't remember it ever happening in a fight but in mma the the controversy is about whether or not you should stand someone up because you have five minutes and if someone takes someone down and they're on top of them it's up to the person who's on the bottom to get back up yeah like that that's your on top of them, it's up to the person who's on the bottom to get back up. Yeah.

Like that's your job. Right. And the guy on top, it's up to him to hold you down. I don't believe in stand-ups. It might be more entertaining for the audience. Right, right. But I'm a purist in terms of like I think you should control your own destiny in there. And if a guy can hold you down and just punch you in the face while you're on the –

even if it's boring. Right. He's doing what if it's boring. Right. He's doing what he wants to do. Right. And you can't do anything about that. Yeah. That means he's winning. And I think that any interference of that is against the purity of the sport.

That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, I do understand that it could be boring if a guy can hold a guy down and control him. It's boring, but is the guy on top initiating action? I think that's the key. Is he initiating action? Is he trying to win the fight? Is he advancing his position? In wrestling, it's advancing your position. But punching

in the face is advancing. It's a way of advancing your position in terms of winning the fight. Yeah, but it's open to interpretation. Say if he's in side control and he's only occasionally hammer fisting the guy, but the guy's in no danger stopped there's a there's an argument that that's stalling but i don't buy that argument because it's only a five minute round and for a grappler it's really hard to take someone down like you're dealing with kicks and knees and punches and you're trying to

find the opening and then you level change you get the shot maybe you switch from a double to a single you know you run the pipe you get the guy on the ground. All that took a minute and a half. Right, right, right. And if you're holding the guy down and then the referee comes like, keep moving, action, you know, like advance your position. And then they stand him back up. But what the fuck is that? Right, right.

That guy couldn't get up. If it was no one here to stop that, if this was just a fight out in a field somewhere that guy on top Controls the fight he does what the fuck he wants to do and if that guy gets tired Eventually he'll move to mount and just start beating the fuck out of him But it's important that his skill set is expressed his skill set is his ability to control the guy right and if you're on the bottom And you can't get back up. I don't care if it's boring tough shit Yeah, your job is to get back up And if you can't get back up that guy wins right even if he wins a boring-ass fight

We just takes you down and gives you noogies for five rounds. Yeah tough shit You gotta figure out how to not get taken down or get back up or submit them off your back or? Find some kind of scramble or you can get on top right and if you can't do that then you lose Because that's what the fight's all about. And, of course, in terms of the people that go to pay, they are going to pay more to see the exciting people. The Conor McGregors. Right, right. The John Joneses.

The people that stop people and finish people. Yeah. And they're the big draws. Yeah. But if you can Ben Askren your way to a career, and Ben did it for a long time. Yeah. He just took guys down and fucking noogied them into a coma. Yeah. Like, tough shit. That's my feeling. Right. noogied them into a coma. Like, tough shit.

That's my feeling. I don't like stand-ups. I'd hate them. Especially, like, sometimes they'll stand someone up from a dominant position. Like, someone will get to side control and the referee will stand them up. And I'm just going, what the fuck are you doing? Wow. It's so hard to get there.

You're only giving a guy five minutes to work. And you've got to think it probably took a minute or so to get the guy down. Not just a minute or so, but it is a lot of energy. A lot of energy. You're a lot of energy to take a guy down. And then if you get taken out of that and stood back up again, now you're tired, and this guy, his striking is probably a strong suit. Right, right, right. And now you're in his realm, and you expended all this energy energy and it's taken away from you by a bad referee.

I fucking hate it. I think it's dumb. I think it should be eliminated. I really do. I don't like it at all. I don't think there's ever a time that they should stand people up. I don't think there's ever a time they should separate someone if they got someone pressed up against the cage and they're kneeing them in the body and elbowing them. Sometimes referees will decide there's not enough action and they separate them.

I hate that too. I don't believe in any of it. I don't think you should do anything to make it more exciting for the casuals. Nothing. Zero. Yeah, because the best guys are always going to be exciting. It's just like everybody's like, we want blood all the time. You don't always get blood.

Action movies aren't always action. Sometimes the hero and the woman kiss. Yeah, that's right. But why dana like stacks the cards yeah in case you have a if you have a uh a fight that's not as exciting well they they're very i mean it's obviously they're different than me because they're promoters and they're selling a product i'm a martial artist and so what i want to see is someone compete to the full ability Like the full extent of their abilities and something that gets in the way that is stand-ups. I don't like it But but I'm not it's not like a universal opinion like right. I don't agree with me

A lot of people don't agree with me right because they're casuals Understanding the technical even fans the technical aspect of what you just said. Yeah, but even I understand that Yeah, even hardcore is like a lot of hardcore fans don't agree with me. They say no no technical aspect of what you just said. I understand that. There's a lot of hardcore fans that don't agree with me. They say, no, no, no, you can't just hold a guy down. You've got to advance position. Okay, why? Tell me why. Because the guy wants to win

and if he could just win by taking guys down and if the audience boos and he doesn't get popular because of it, okay. So what? Willie Pepp won fights without throwing a punch. He won a whole round right without throwing a punch just moving and dancing it was so masterful yeah people had to agree it's like what do you want them to do just a turo gatti and fucking just stand right in front of them and just throw bombs like mickey ward yes yeah sometimes it's unreal yeah but then you saw what happened when agati for it fought Floyd. Yeah. Yeah, I guess she didn't work

No against a master not at all. Yeah, not at all. It was great Diego Corrales versus Julio Luis Oh my god, that fight was crazy I mean, I love the Gotti Ward fights, but that fight for me is the greatest fight in history That I've seen in the modern era because he came back I just it was the first ten right there just you expected Diego because of his reach to keep him on the outside and he didn't. He just stood in a phone booth with them and they just traded. And it was as the round, like, you're like, oh my God, this, can this continue?

Right. They're just in a phone booth and, and just at a high, high skill level working on the inside, both of them and just trading brutal shots and nobody taking a high, high skill level, working on the inside, both of them, and just trading brutal shots and nobody taking a step backwards. Yeah. And it was unreal. And then the 10th round where he gets knocked down

and Goosen, he spits the mouthpiece out, Goosen puts it back in, and then he stops, I mean, it was just... Insane. I think they play that... I'm sorry. I think they play that at corporate retreats. They play round 10 of that.

They should play the whole fight. But they play round 10 of that fight in corporate retreats to be like, just never give up. You never give up. Sometimes you should give up. That round 10, I mean, it's almost like watching a Rocky movie. Yeah, there it is. It's emotional to watch.

Oh, my God. It was an incredible fight. Yeah. It was an incredible fight. And he was in real trouble multiple times in that fight. And when he got dropped, I mean, there was several times where it looked like the end. Look at that left hook. Oh, my God. I mean. Did you see the where it looked like the end. Look at that left hook. Oh, my God.

I mean. Did you see the Caleb Plant-Benevitas fight last weekend? Yes. Fucking A, man. And you know what? And that's a good stoppage. That's a good stoppage, too. He looked like he was out on his feet.

But you could make an argument that Corrales could have got stopped earlier than that. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things. It's very subjective. Yeah. Referees have stopped fights for way less Well the fury Deontay Wilder fight mm-hmm where he's down and you know, he he opens his eyes, you know the famous He opens his eyes and gets back up Jack Jack Reese Jack Reese is the ref

I think and Deontay's camp was complaining that he wasn't counting whatever but it's like Jack Reese is great He's a great ref. He always gives the guy the op He's like I'm gonna count to take gives the opportunity for the guy to get up. Just you never thought Fury was getting up. No way. His eyes were closed on the ground. He's laying on his back with his arms above his head like he's just flatlined. It's unbelievable.

And then he rises and wins the rest of the round, which is crazy. And that win for the rest of the round made the blueprint for the second fight because he realized like Wilder has a hard time when people put him on his heels. Right. When people back him up. And so then he came out the second fight just backing him up and stopped him. Yeah. Yeah, look at that.

Yeah. I mean, look at this. His arms are flailed to the side. Yeah. His eyes are rolled back. And he looks like he's done. Yeah. He really does.

He looks at the referee. The referee's counting. He goes, okay, he really does. And he looks at the referee, the referee's counting. He goes, okay, back to work. Right. And I was watching at home. I remember screaming, oh, my God. I was by myself screaming, oh, my God. And then he got back up.

I was like, wait, no way. No way. And he's like, I'm fine. Let's go. And the referee says, okay. Walk to here. That's great. Look at this fucking shot, too.

Jesus. My God. And the right hand before it, too. So he cracks him with the right hand. Boom! And nobody punches harder than Deontay Wilder. He's unreal. He's got the touch of God in his hands.

I mean, those two punches are unbelievable. And look, Wilder's 100% convinced as he walks off that it's over. Yeah. And he makes the throat cut thing. He does a little dance. And then you see the look in his eyes when Tyson gets up. He's like, oh, shit. How?

Look at this. He does the throat cut thing. I mean, nobody on earth other than Tyson Fury is getting up there. Which is so crazy. Deontay Wilder's the greatest knockout artist in the history of the heavyweight division. There's no one that's had one-punch knockouts like that guy. The Luis Ortiz fight just catches him on the forehead and flatlines him. And was losing every round.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, and then you see Deontay's like, I can't believe this motherfucker is still up. And then there's also like an emotional thing that happened. Look at the wildest of Deontay. To be able to survive that first of all I mean I have a huge respect for mental toughness and the mental toughness it took it takes to get up and then and then You know the guy who just did that to you is waiting on the other side

Yeah of the ring to come and do it again, and then he moves forward He survives the initial barrage and then he starts moving forward then he dings Deontay and you see Deontay got rocked in one important time and he starts pushing him back I'm like oh my god he won the rest of the round like he literally made it like a 9-9 round yes it's which is crazy I love that yeah but I love the fortitude that it takes in that moment to compose your first of all the mental toughness to get up, and then the fortitude. All of these intangibles, like I'm a boxing guy, but it's all of these underlying things which makes me love the sport.

The composure that it takes. It's just really unbelievable. That's why I love the sport so much. Well, you're not a casual. Look at him. He's dancing. He's great. He thought it was... Now, walk through and look at his face when he sees Tyson get up. They start counting him.

He's like, this fight is fucking over. I don't know if they're going to show it here, but there's a look where you see Deontay's face. Right there, he's like, oh, shit. I don't believe this. Let me start breathing differently. Let me start breathing differently because I got to go finish the job here. And then he gets up and Deontay, I'm sure, thought he was going to put him away. He puts everybody away.

Right. But they're talking now about Deontay versus, I think they're talking about Andy Ruiz. That's a great one, too. That's a great one. But they might be also talking about Deontay and Usyk because I think Usyk is open now. I just hope they put that fight together. Just figure it out, boys. That's the fight. Yeah. The fight's Tyson Fury and Usyk is open now. I just hope they put that fight together. Just figure it out, boys. That's the fight.

The fight's Tyson Fury and Usyk. It's the undisputed World Heavyweight Championship. Deontay Wilder training as promoter cancels another Vegas date. Okay. So Andy Ruiz Jr. potentially is now canceled. See, that's the thing that boxing does. It drives me nuts.

They set these fights up. They get your dick hard, and then they pull them away from you like fucking Lucy with this football. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. But I think the thing is, like the Crawford Spence date, it's like we're floating the date of June 17th. It's like, all right, because that gets everybody's hopes up for it.

And then they go, well, now we got to negotiate. We got to come to the table. And it's like, yeah, how's that going to go? It then they go well now we got to negotiate we got to come to the table and it's like yeah how's that gonna go it didn't go well last time and as a result terrence i think just got frustrated with the negotiations like i'm just gonna fight some you don't think i'm i'll walk away i'll go fight somebody else he's saying he's april fools because they reported on april 1st is that what they're saying i was trying to figure it out too but this is the best i could get was that he last he said is it's April Fool's. Yeah, what does that mean?

So they announced April 22nd during Javante Davis. Oh, so it will be announced. So they're hoping it will be announced. If Crawford isn't playing around, it will disappoint many fans who want to see him fight Spence. Yeah, that's the big fight at Walterweight. That's a big fight. Right.

But I think if they don't make the fight, then they have to fight, like they have to fight the number one contender then. There's Virgil Ortiz at 147. There's Boots Ennis, who's a guy in Philly who's unreal. Boots Ennis is amazing. Okay, so you got to fight that. Yeah. Why are the mandatories not being forced is my question.

I think it's just money. They're just trying to make the biggest fights possible. Well, the problem is that you have these individual promoters and you have these there's too many IBF WBC these sanctioning organizations And it's like you have to force you have to force these fights Yeah, you can't I understand the ticket sales and all that stuff is important But if you want to maintain your integrity as a sport, you have to you have to force these fights Yeah, and it should not be sitting there right as a number one contender for five years. Right. Exactly. Good point. Yeah.

And also the world needs to know how good Boots Ennis is. Yes. When you watch that guy fight and switch stances. Unbelievable. He's such an artist in there. He's so exciting. Yeah. And hopefully people will catch on.

But you do run the risk of a guy like that not being recognized because he's in this sort of weird situation where other people are getting shots and he doesn't right but it's a weird situation because i think teddy atlas has said this on multiple occasions it's structured badly the sport is structured badly whereas like in and ufc it's dana making the decisions yeah and you need that you need a guy at the top going now this this is going to happen yeah and if you don't want it to happen or if a guy's having personal problems like Jon Jones or whatever that was like okay I mean you're still a legend and you will get the shot when you're ready to come back but the show goes on Tom Brady you know gets hurt rips his knee football doesn't stop right you know yeah there's a great advantage of the UFC has in being the promoter

and so it's the organization's the sanctioning body and it's also the promoter right but it does take away leverage from the fighters like you can't say I want 70 30 you can't say right like the way that boxing is there's too many promoters there's too many world titles right but the opposite is the UFC where it's like there's really only one title that means something. There's Bellator titles and one FC titles, but what everybody wants to be is the UFC champion of the world. That's what everybody wants to be. Everybody. Nobody says, I'd rather be the Bellator champion. No disrespect to Bellator. But the reality is that's not the same. And the real reality is there's fighters in bellator that are world championship ufc caliber fighters and they might not ever get their due and they might lose

their competitive prime competing against other people in an organization where less people are going to watch and maybe even more importantly less people are going respect right, you know, so it's it's but in boxing, you know You can't fight once a year No You can't fight once every 18 months and expect me to still be interested in what you're doing right like you have to fight more You have to fight like three to Canelo's credit and it three four times a year Yeah, I understand these camps are like 12 weeks now and that's brutal It's brutal the preparation but you

know three four times a year i mean if you're fighting every two years it's like it holds up the division yep and it's you know it's less competition it does and there's so many big fights the canelo thing is very interesting right because he loses to be vol and then he comes back and beats triple g and looks pretty good but then he had to get wrist surgery right and you know then you see what benavidez did to plant like benavidez beat the fuck out of caleb plant yeah and how tough is caleb caleb plant is so tough and he's a very very skilled guy damn he's so skilled guy he was an olympian you know he's an olympian so very skilled guy and for david to do that it was really impressive really impressive he's a murderous puncher man but caleb has a fucking chin on him, man.

Holy shit. He stayed in it and refused to get knocked out and really tried to win the fight. And he got battered. I mean, he got fucking battered. I'm super impressed with Benavidez. That was a big test for him. And Caleb in the beginning was very slick. But Benavidez just kept pressing and putting it on him.

And then towards the latter half of the fight, that's traditionally been a problem with Caleb that he starts to fade in the later rounds. It's so much energy to keep a guy like that off you, I think. You got to have power to keep a guy like that off you. Because that guy, Benavidez, and many guys like to have a suffocating style. You can hit him. And that does something to you mentally, I think, where you hit a guy twice, you hit him with your best stuff, and he just walks. He's walking through it. Yeah.

Walking forward, walking you down. It's like, all right, I guess this is going to be, I'm going to have to move. It's a tremendous amount of energy. I feel like, I wonder if Caleb could do something about his strength and conditioning that takes it to another level. Because I feel like if he could maintain the kind of pace that he has in the early rounds of the Canelo fight, the early rounds of the Benavidez fight, if he can do that,

like, man, it's going to be really hard for people to fuck with him. Yeah. But he has a mark, there's a noticeable slowing down that happens. And I wonder if that's psychological. I don't know how you would mimic that pressure.

Like, I've never been in a fight camp before, so I don't know how you would mimic that pressure like i've never been in a fight camp before so i don't know how you would mimic that pressure in sparring i think it would have to be in strength and conditioning i think you would have to all out dedicate yourself to taking your vo2 max to a completely new level yeah and you would have to like really dedicate yourself in that regard to just absolutely annihilating your boundaries and pushing your strength and conditioning to the point where you can get like there was this guy bj penn who's one of the greatest mma fighters of all time and there's one point in time where bj penn he started training with marv marinovich and uh marv Marinovich was a fucking, and the Marinovich is like, they had a style of

training where they believe that you already have the skill and what's more important than anything is cardio. And so they would do just ruthless plyometrics. That was the entire camp for whatever amount of weeks that you're doing it. Most of your time was dedicated to strength and conditioning. Right. And it was very systematic and it was very scientific. They were checking your resting heart rate, your heart rate variability.

Right. Monitoring your recovery and making sure you're getting the right nutrients and rest and rehydration and all that stuff. But the most important thing was the gas tank. Right. Because you already know how to fight. Yeah. And what happens in fights, you still know how to fight, but your gas tank starts to fail. And so when BJ Penn was at his prime in like the, if you look at, there's a bunch of different fights,

like Diego Sanchez, Sean Shirk, where he was just destroying these guys. He had a limitless gas tank Yeah, and he had this incredible skill set that he already had right and there's a good argument for that that like at a certain Level what's most important is cardio, right? So there's like several schools of thought when it comes to that right? But even with the plyometric and strength like you can't you have to mimic that in Sparring yes, you have to mimic that in training so that you can utilize it Well, they did all that too. I mean it wasn't like you only did strength and conditioning but strength and conditioning was primary

But what's that look like? Is that is that like a shark bait type situation? We called it in wrestling shark bait one guy in the middle and they just keep sending you fresh guys. Yeah You know, they certainly did that. But honestly, most of it was work like plyos, box jumps, all these different things where you just had your ability to work. It was all about your cardio, all about your ability to constantly work. And you already had efficiency in your striking and your grappling, all these different things. And so you would do drills for those things. So you keep all your weapons sharp.

But the primary focus was strength and conditioning. And I'm always intrigued by that because it's the most brutal way to do it. It's so hard to stay motivated because sparring is fun. If you're in there sparring, you know, there's something exciting about it. There is nothing fun about box jumps. There's nothing fun about box jumps. There's nothing fun about running hills. Box jumps and running hills till fail.

Till fail is the key there. Because everybody thinks, you know, it's like no, no, no, no. It's like the goal is to throw up. Yeah. The goal is to break your body. And then have it like right there where it's broken and then recover. And then get yourself right back there again and recover.

And now all of a sudden your threshold bumps up a little more. Right. And so now you can go an extra round. Now you can go an extra minute. Now you can go an extra minute 30. Now you're really pushing it and now you're seeing these things that used to kill you. Now you can get through them. Right.

And at the end you're recovering quicker. And that's the idea. can get through them and you're at the end you're recovering quicker and that that's the idea and i wonder if a guy like caleb plant if if you could get him to an insane level of cardio where he could compete at that that pace that he does in the early fight because in the early part of the fight that guy's slick yes he's so very skilled guy and he's moving nice and but then he starts standing in front of benavides and then Benavidez is he's so accurate and he gets his punches around your guard and up the front and uppercuts and jabs yeah I'm just I love his style he throws punches and bunches too he's not

throwing one punch no yeah smothers you yeah stays on you and he's a brutal puncher too and at the end of the fight like he didn't even have a scratch on him no he didn't it's crazy Caleb looked like he'd been through a meat grinder. Yeah, it's really something. So I think that's the fight at 168. Yeah, I think so too. Is Benavidez, Canelo. But everybody's calling for that Bivol Canelo rematch and I just don't see it. I think we saw it. You know with some of these fights, it's like I think we saw it. We don't need a trilogy. I think we saw it. Yeah, you know with some of these fights. It's like I think we saw it. We don't need a trilogy Yeah, I think we saw it maybe you know, but when you got a champion like Canelo

He thinks he could do it better and he thinks he's like, okay I understand what he did and maybe he knew coming into that fight because he had he did have a risk problem that he had In the Triple G fight too. So he probably had that that problem already, right? Who knows but I think for for bival the big fight is better be if arthur better be if is a fucking monster i saw him fight at the garden joe smith and everybody was all it was a pro joe smith i was rooting for joe smith you know new york guy long island union all the union guys out yeah but the atmosphere he's just like joe yeah let's go joe and then better be uh comes in the ring and uh the fight starts and it's just like, Joe, yeah, let's go, Joe. And then Betterbeav comes in the ring, and

the fight starts, and it's just no disrespect to Joe Smith. He's unbelievable. But it looked like just a man fighting a small child. It was just brutal, man. Betterbeav is an intelligent animal. He gets no headlines. I know.

What is he, like, 19-0 at 19 knockouts? He's the only, I don't know, I think it's 19. He's the only boxer at a world championship level that stopped every single one of his opponents in every fight he's ever been in. And he's super skillful, but he fights like a fucking destroyer. Just moves straight towards you. That Russian style. Yeah, 19 and 0 with 19 knockouts.

Fucking crazy. The Anthony Yard0 with 19 knockouts. Yeah. Fucking crazy. The Anthony Yard fight, like, holy fuck, man. I think Anthony Yard was happy just to go that far into the fight. Like, he considers that a win. That's crazy. Probably. That's how good he is. Because Better Beavis is so tough.

Nobody knows who he is. No. If it wasn't for people talking about him in YouTube clips, like, he gets zero press. He gets zero press, and he like, they ask him about have you seen this guy fight? What about this guy? He's like I'm not really a boxing fan. That's what he said. That's what he said. He goes, I'm not really a boxing fan.

I just like to focus on my family. That's crazy. And that accent is like, bro, you're like, I'm just kind of focused on my family. Boxing is my job. It's funny when you hear him talk. A lot of those guys have that mentality where it's like, boxing is my job. And I guess he kind of, it's how it keeps him sane because his work rate is fucking preposterous. I mean, you ever see that guy train? Holy shit, man.

He's a monster. He's a monster. And then when you hear him talk, he's so like respectful and low key. It's weird watching that demon come out when he gets inside the ring. Yeah. It just looks like he doesn't, and a lot of these Russians have that which is it looks like it's just workmanlike Mm-hmm. They don't have like the emotion that we do here in the West. They just it looks like they're just in there and Regardless of what you throw at them. It's just workmanlike what they're gonna do. Mm-hmm. It's pretty crazy

Well, it's you know, they're coming from a hard world. Yeah. Yeah. That is a fucking hard world. That's, there's something about those European or Eastern block, like from Soviet Union, former Soviet Union guys and from Russia and Dagestan. They're so tough. So tough. And there's something to be said for like,

I mean, it's just like kids from the ghetto in the United States. Right. Those are the best fighters. Yeah. People would just come from the heart like mike tyson yeah from brownsville right those are the people from bedford stye those are the people that are just the fucking monsters and then with the training with the training also just it hones that you know i think there should be something that would help boxing is um you ever what you know you watch showtime has all access now um hbo used to have 24 7 the um documentary series i think that should be for every fight it would make boxing

far more popular because these guys have these guys have uh such impressive stories and to tell that story it's like there's documentaries about everything now about nonsense it's like they should have a documentary for each fight because you want to see their journey like where they came from there's it's just it's it's really something to see a kid who has nothing born into extreme poverty become a world like giovante davis yeah coming from poverty like his story to being a world champion it's like it's story. It is, and it's great for everyone because it gives you fuel. Like for a person who's coming up in life, even if you're not a fighter,

you see what someone's gone through and you see the success of that hard work has created. Right. And it can be a roadmap for your own life. It really can be. It translates. Oh man, for sure. And that's what Goggins,

Goggins is my favorite, he's my favorite guy He's my favorite guy man. I watch all this stuff I put on there's a thing on now YouTube called Goggins motivation, so I'll be stretching and it's just him talking Yeah, it's just he's unreal man. No he's unreal and that's that guy you want to talk about mental toughness That guy's destroyed knees. Yeah, and he runs thousands of miles. It's just like every day he's running 15, 20 miles. Right. Every day. Right. Destroyed knees.

But he's taken his life where he came from, which is a terrible, terrible situation and transformed himself. That's what I love about him. Yeah. And he's able to articulate it. Yeah. You know, and he does it very well.

And he also talks about mental toughness in a way that I've never heard anybody talk about mental toughness you know when i was growing up maybe it's the same for you it's like you gotta be mentally tough you gotta be mentally tough you gotta suck it up suck it up and it's like you're processing that but he breaks down what does that actually mean in the suck which is what he called you know what i mean like it's that conversation that you're having with yourself that we all have with ourselves when we're suffering Well, what Dave does is he doesn't in silence like there's no one around he's doing it No one's forced him to do it and he does it because he wants to learn about himself, right? And the way I've had conversations with him about it where he goes I'm getting that deep knowledge

When I'm suffering when I'm out there running those miles I get that deep knowledge I'm downloading information like the'm out there running those miles, I get that deep knowledge. I'm downloading information. Like the way he's thinking about it, like his fucking heart is pounding. His knees are aching. Yeah. He doesn't want to keep going, but he's like finding his own threshold, finding his own limitations. And then knowing that he can push through that because he's done it before. I mean, he's almost died like multiple times.

Yeah. Rabdo and doing those 200 mile races and pissing fucking diet Coke out of his dick. So that's what it looks like. Your body's breaking down. Your kidneys are breaking down. And the guy goes to the hospital. He ran, I think it was the Moab 240. They had to take him out of the race because he got rhabdo. So he goes to the hospital, recovers, goes back to the spot where they had to pull him and finishes the race god i love that god i love that he's like i'm you're not beating me that's so great he's like i'm going to complete this fucking race even if it's two weeks later yeah

yeah drop me off at the spot where i stopped amazing yeah it's inspiring it's very it's also him also talking about shutting out the noise because Because it's just, that's the society we live in now. There's a lot of noise around. There's a lot of things that can addict you. And I think you have to be more disciplined now than ever. You know what I mean? For the kids coming up too, it's like, all this stuff wasn't around when we were coming up. You know what I mean?

It's like social media and all this other stuff that's just not good for you. And he talks about going silent and just quieting your mind and focusing You know the other hand for fighters the good aspect of the digital world that we live in now is you have access to like? Marvin Hagler versus Tommy Hearns, you know, you could watch Vito Anna Fermo fight I can watch all these people from bygone days Where you could see their technique and their movement and what they did and you can watch all these people from bygone days where you could see their technique and their movement and what they did and you can get inspiration from that instantaneously off your phone yes i mean i do love that fuck it's incredible and that's why people are so good

today in everything right in everything in comedy you're seeing these comedians i'm watching these fucking door guys that we have hired at the mothershiphip, and these fucking guys are like three years in, and they're like, I just watch comedy on YouTube. I'm constantly watching comedy. And you're watching them on stage like, these guys are kind of advanced. For three years in, I was fucking terrible. I was terrible three years in. And these guys are doing really well.

They have good structure. Their jokes are written well. Good stage presence. They have an understanding of it that's a next level because they've seen the Rodney Dangerfields, the Eddie Murphy, the Chris Rock. They've seen all these people, and they get a sense of what it's all about, whereas those guys had to get it from being in the clubs, only from being in the clubs. These guys, before they even step into a club, have an education in stand-up comedy. And that's the beautiful thing about the digital world.

Yeah. It's just, this thing requires discipline. Yes, it does. It requires a lot of fucking discipline. And if you don't have that, you're going to get sucked in. Right. You know, and I see it. I see it with my own kids.

We have to take their phones away when we eat dinner. Like, come on, put the phone over here. That's great. On the counter. We're all going to sit down and have a meal together. We take it away from them on Sundays. Yeah. No phones. We're all hanging out. Let's great. On the counter. We're all going to sit down and have a meal together. We take it away from them on Sundays. No phones. We're all hanging out.

Let's just do it this way. But if you leave them a phone, I'm just going to put it on my chair. Okay. And then you see them checking TikTok. Get out of there. Yeah. Get out of there, you little fuck. Stop looking at that.

You'd be surprised how many families don't have those rules. Yeah. You got to have those rules. You got to have the rules. And they have to see it with you. That's what's important. They have see the parents right can leave it alone if the parents are hanging out with them they're not paying attention yeah that's a problem right right you know and it's easy to do and it's easy you know with

me I would make excuses like I gotta work I gotta answer these emails I gotta do this which is true but still not yeah don't do it yeah and you know we all have problems. These are the most addictive things in terms of attention that anybody's ever experienced in history. Yeah. Absolutely. Because you're, you know, you're, you're doing your job, whatever.

It's a, it's a little vacation, you know, to go and scroll and take your mind off everything. But it just, you're right. Well, you said you nailed it. It's like, it sucks you in. It sucks you in. And, and there, but there's so much good information out there That's really true on how to improve your life. Yeah, like it's right there Oh and then references on books you can read and all kinds of other stuff where you can like oh no

Let me get focused here and there's also plenty of people talking about the dangers of addiction to social media Where you really can get an understanding of it's not like it just sneaking up on you, right? Everybody kind of knows what's happening while it's happening and then it's up to you either you you know set up like Like a screen time thing, you know, you only have an hour on this app and after a while it just shuts you out Or you just decide like I'm going to get things done Hey, you know and if I'm gonna look at social media for ten minutes Yeah, the fuck it is. That's my little reward right? Just don't get sucked in right? I do it in the morning It's fucking there's a real problem in the morning for me because I take a shit when I wake up right so I take a

Shit, I got that phone and next thing you know I'm like it doesn't take 20 minutes to take a shit stupid Like what are you doing in here? You're just? Pretending to be going to the bathroom while you're scrolling through social media. Isn't that something that you have to have that truthful conversation with yourself? Still to this day. Yeah. Yeah. And it's good that you can call yourself out on that.

I was like lying to myself in there. I was lying to myself. Yeah. I lie to myself every morning. Oh my God. Just going to check it real quick. But don't you do a cold plunge? Yeah.

Yeah, man. Do that thing first. Yeah. That cold That cold plunge, you're not thinking about anything else. Yeah, I do the cold plunge, but I usually have to go to the bathroom first. That's the problem. I don't go to the bathroom without my phone. So sometimes I'll wake up at like eight o'clock and it's 8.40 before I get in the water. Why did it take so long? Well, because I had to say hi to the dog. I had to get up. Plus you're not rushing to get to that water. Yeah. Like, why did it take so long? Well, because I had to say hi to the dog. Yeah. Yeah. I had to get up. Plus you're not rushing to get to that water either. No, no.

I do it every day, but I don't want to do it every day. So every day, like as I'm walking towards, there's all this self-talk where my brain's like, come on, you don't have to do this. And then there's the other part of me is going, shut the fuck up. Just get in there. And I always do it but that talk it's never like i'm looking forward to it it's a smooth walk there there's no mental hiccups this is that's happened zero fucking time i love that every fucking time i've gone

walk toward that thing pick up the lid i'm like oh my god are you really doing this i set the timer on and my foot hits the water i'm'm like, okay, we're in. But once I'm in, it's fine. Once I'm in, it's fine. But there's always that moment like 30 seconds in where your body's like, let's get the fuck out of here. And you're like, hey, shut up, pussy. We're in here. I love that.

We're in here for three minutes no matter what happens. So just fucking deal with it. And then when I get out, I'm always happier. But it's just that fucking yeah talk that you have to have in your brain while you get up there like i know i'm not gonna listen i know that right inner bitch is not going to win that's power though man but that motherfucker is so persistent i love it though every day he's like come on we don't have to do this that's the power man overcoming it not listening to it like now we're gonna do this

Yeah, we're gonna do this and I think that lends you power to other parts of your life. Oh, it definitely does It's really great. I do cold showers, you know, I don't have a plunge but I do cold showers and it's never it's never pleasant I'll call showers in the East Coast I do the steam and then I'll just no matter why I put it on and just do that do the Wim Hof I do the steam, and then I'll just, no matter what, I'll put it on and just do the Wim Hof, do the breathing in the cold. The problem with Texas is the water never really gets cold enough. No. It does in the winter. It gets pretty cold.

I've taken some cold showers in the winter. I'm like, ooh, it's pretty cold. But it's not enough. It's just the water. The cold shower here is mildly unpleasant. Yeah. I want brutal. I know.

I want brutal. And it's like getting through that at the beginning of the day, first of all, it raises up your dopamine. Like Andrew Huberman and Susanna Soberg have put out all these scientific papers and podcasts and have all these discussions about the benefits for your dopamine increases. 200%. It lasts for hours. Norepinephrine. All these like real tangible benefits But the resilience like having the ability to say to that inner bitch fuck you

Every if you watched me you would think oh my god. This guy's so stoic He's a soldier. He just walks in that thing every day, but you don't know what's going on in my head in my head I'm like come on pussy. I love it. Let's go have a coffee. That's so great That's like Goggins looking at his shoes for four hours. Exactly. Looking at his shoes for four hours. Like, you going to run today? Sometimes I stare at those motherfuckers for a half hour before I put them on.

But he just lets you know. You're never going to win that battle. You always win. But you're never going to not have that inner conversation where the comfort. Everybody wants that comfort. Yeah. It's just being the boss. have that inner conversation where the comfort you're you everybody wants that comfort yeah it's just being the boss you know my friend john joseph always says is when it's time to tell your mind

tells your body who the fuck's the boss yeah yeah that's really what it is it's a it's a philosophy it's a mental philosophy that you have to have and you have to implement yeah yeah but if you have the philosophy that's the first that's that's. As long as you adhere to it. As long as you adhere to it. But boy, it's so easy to not do it. Like today I got some stem cell shot in my knee and I can't do the cold plunge for 72 hours. So for 72 hours I get to be a bitch. But the problem is, in my head, I know three days from now that fucking cold plunge is like, hey pussy, remember me? It's even colder now.

That's great. I'm feeling that too when I'm in a warm climate like this and then go back to New York and hit those cold showers there. I'm going to feel it. It's going to be a wake up. Yeah. If you get to a point where you got a yard and you can get a cold plunge, I can't recommend it enough. It's so, and a sauna.

If you have the two of them, because they both test you in a different way. Sauna's 20 minutes, you know, and at 189 degrees9 degrees which is what i that's my sweet spot when i get to like 15 minutes and i check my watch i'm like fuck those last five minutes are rough they're rough but i think it does elevate your mood and it really does fight depression 100 it really does fight depression yeah 100 it's kind of crazy that like struggle fights depression yeah it really does fight depression yeah 100 it's kind of crazy that like struggle fights depression yeah it really does if you don't have any physical struggle in your life and you're just dealing with the anxiety of existence like what i that's what i find when i get hurt when i get

injured and i have to take a few days off right i'm like boy do i rely on that for my mood yeah and to just overcome adversity and just deal with all the bullshit of pressure of life right but adversity is necessary and that thing that's the thing's been kind of overrun today in society the society that we live in now people don't recognize that i don't think all of my friends who don't do anything physical they're the ones who struggle the most mentally right i i have so many friends that have like so many like weird mental problems anxiety problems especially comics that don't do anything physically but the ones that do something physically they have such an advantage right

because you're calmer it's like you're taking a drug that allows you to deal with the bullshit right mind-body connection's huge yeah yeah it It is real and unfortunately a lot of smart people don't recognize that because they're so concentrated on the mind Right they think of the body and concentrating on the body being frivolous right, but it's not it's actually the mind That you're strengthening by concentrating on the body right because it's your will which is a part of your mind You everyone thinks your mind is just calculus and learning how to write and learning learning language no no no no the mind is also will it's also dedication it's also discipline and that is your mind and the mental strength you get from physical activities applies to mental pursuits yeah to intellectual pursuits. Yeah Absolutely, I could feel it. I could feel my mood change when I do those right things, you know, yeah green juice in the morning

That's another big thing Nutribullet. Oh, yeah Celery mm-hmm cucumber Though one of the things that I found that I didn't know when I used to drink a lot of kale shakes is you get a High level of oxalates from that stuff from non-cooked vegetables and some people not everyone but some people develop like kidney stones and and things along those lines yeah oxalates can be a problem like you're when you're you know grinding up kale and spinach and eating it raw you're you're taking an exorbitant amount of oxalates. I just love those raw vegetables.

And that lemon just, like, kicks you, too, man. It just sets the tone to eat better for the rest of the day, too. Sure. I generally just take athletic greens. And most of my diet is just meat. It's like the majority of my diet is meat and fruit. I would say, like, occasionally I'll have a piece of bread. Occasionally I'll have a dessert occasionally I allow myself to little treats but yeah the vast bulk probably like 90% of what I

eat is just wild game meat ribeye steaks great and fruit that's it what about olive oil I love yeah it's great too because you gotta be say I made that mistake on like a keto diet too not satiating myself enough with enough fats yeah you know what I mean so they make that mistake on like a keto diet too, not satiating myself enough with enough fats. You know what I mean? So they make that mistake and then you stray off it and people go, well, if you start eating about the keto diet, you start eating carbs again, you gain the weight right back. It's like, go figure. Well, the keto diet is a weird one because it seems very culty to me. All the people that are into keto, it's like there's something about it.

It just becomes, there's great benefits to it. There's great benefits to elevating your ketones, for mental clarity, for your energy levels through the day. And, you know, I've had Dom D'Augustino on the podcast, who's a scientist out of Florida, who's a very interesting guy because he's super fit, like really, like very strong, very athletic, and adheres to a keto diet, which is unusual for a scientist to be like that jacked and that dedicated to working out, but also very, very like educated in the pros and benefits and the studies that show that there's real benefits to just living off of fats, and that's probably what most of our ancestors did back in the day before agriculture and grains and things like that. But cutting sugars is huge. It is.

It really is. It slows you down. And I used to get ferociously hungry. And I was like, is it because I'm lifting too much? It's like, no, no, no, no. It's your sugars. Your sugars are too high. We've got to cut.

We're all addicted to sugar. Yeah. I'm sure you've seen those pictures of like people from the 1960s on the beach versus like 2020 on the beach. And it's like, what the fuck happened? Yeah. Sugar happened. Right. Corn syrup happened.

Yeah. Processed carbohydrates. That's what happened. The high fructose corn syrup is the worst, man. Kills you. It's in everything. Yeah. It's so nuts how many things have corn in it.

Have you ever seen that documentary King Corn? No. Great fucking documentary. But the documentary goes over like all the different things that have corn in them. Yeah. And that it's because corn is subsidized because corn is a cheap substitute for things. And you can add it to stuff for corn sweetener. It's just in everything.

And your body doesn't do anything with it. Your body's like, what is this yeah that's why you shit out corn like you look at corn in the toilet that's because your body's like I just fuck is this yeah you know you don't find like watermelon in there right watermelon just gets absorbed by your body your body knows what to do with it right normal your body with corn is like the fuck is this thing you know yeah feeling good every day is that is the goal you know feel good every day And you'll be able to do great things if you gotta feel your body. Yeah, you just gotta take care of your body And that's something that unfortunately with comics was with coffee

Yeah, I'll take some thing about comics is a lot of us are fucking impulsive and you're spending nights the clubs drinking and partying and hanging out with a bunch of other assholes and everybody's having fun and it's just yeah it's easy to just and also you're a creative you know you're a creative type and creative types you know tend to be by nature less disciplined and more indulgent yeah so if you could just keep the discipline yeah you know yeah they're not mutually exclusive people want to think that creativity and and discipline like they fight against each other but they don't they just it's just impulsive people and they tend to fuck things off and not do them it's also like why you got into comedy in the

first place because you didn't want a job you didn't want to grind yeah so you figured out like well i fucking i'm not being a garbage man that sucks I'm gonna go to open mic night and you figure out how to make a star. Yeah I'm special special. Yeah, that's the weirdest thing right and then there's the other thing That's that's the thing that happens when you get famous like you have to fight that demon now I'm sure and you know sure that's a whole nother the whole nother thing Yeah, and a lot of people crack there's a lot of Chris Tucker's out there in the world. I got really famous and then just like ah Yeah, Martin Lawrence cracked a lot of people crack and some of them It's like legit mental health issues and some of them. It's just the overwhelming pressure of fame

And you know and maintaining focus and discipline and also you got everybody around you that's kissing your ass That's a big thing. Yeah, you start believing it. Yeah. Yeah. That's another big thing. You have a lot of people not telling you the truth and, um, and calling yourself out on stuff. Are you ready for that? I think so now. I mean, I'm, I'm older now. I'm a 50. Yeah. That helps. Yeah. That definitely helps. Back in the day, maybe not, you know, I was always pretty disciplined, but, um, yeah. Yeah. I would not want to get famous at like 18, 19 years old like some of these kids are. Depends how you're raised too, you know what I mean? If you're raised with that discipline.

Like my father never let me get too out of control. Well, that's good. It was very much like, you think this is all free where we live here? We live in here for free? What do you think this is? You know what I mean? A hotel? Do you think your mother just cooks and does your laundry and it's all for free i love that it's like that italian

um you know what i mean they push it yeah and make sure that you appreciate where you're coming from immigrant mentality yeah i had a lot of that growing up yeah that's good for you that is good for you but still some people succumb to that fucking demon yeah demon of fame yeah yeah look at elvis yeah everybody everybody cracks yeah it's it's really interesting like when you think about people like elvis or michael jackson when they got famous like that there had been no roadmap right there was no one that famous before them right so it's like all of a sudden you're elvis presley yeah did you see the movie i didn't see it it's fucking good i didn't see it but it's fucking good. I didn't see it. It's really good. It's like television, because there was no television.

So television changed the game and made these guys international stars. And they weren't used to that. Yeah. I mean, they're doing all these late night talk shows. Right. And they're performing in front of millions of people. No one's ever, like before Elvis came along, no one had ever been really that famous. I don't think there was anybody like that before him.

Right. And then this guy's got to figure it out. Yeah. And he's got people handing him pills. Right. And he's banging all these broads. Right. And it's like, good luck.

Yeah. Good luck sorting that out. My favorite Elvis is Elvis on pills doing karate. Those are my favorite Elvis's I fucking love those videos Have you seen those videos? No, I've seen him do karate like to a montage songs But I've never seen like him actually just a long stretch of it

I've seen him in a karate outfit doing it Well, he would wear a karate outfit with one of those big collared shirts on under the gi That's great in case he had to perform I don't even know why he was doing it well he would wear a karate outfit with one of those big collared shirts on under the great in case he had to perform i don't even know why he was doing it if he didn't want to be anywhere without his collared shirt and so you know he's clearly high as fuck and he's doing like kind of fake karate it's got look at him he's all pilled up sweating like a pig and this was like look sunglasses on elvis like, look, sunglasses on. Elvis, why do you have sunglasses on? Like, what the fuck is going on?

And he was training under a legitimate karate guy in Ed Parker. Like, Ed Parker was the fucking man. I mean, he was an absolute, legit karate guy. And that's who Elvis got his black belt from. Was it a real black belt? I don't know No You see like these Demonstrations

Look at this Look at this Watch this Back that up a little bit This is what I'm gonna do man I'm just gonna put a gun on my back I'm gonna turn him on like this Look at this

I'm gonna turn on him real quick I mean it's the dumbest shit of all time And then I'm gonna Get him right in the face Cause he's not even gonna notice He's coming down my elbow And I'm going to trip him here. Like, this is so bad. This is so dumb.

By the way, that guy shot you five times already. He shot you five times in the back. Your liver has four holes in it. You're dead. It's so dumb. I'll hit him in the hand. I'm going to grab him by the face. Yeah.

What are you going to do? I mean, and if you listen to him talk back then yeah he's like clearly intoxicated right he's just fucked up on downers just doing karate feeling like a champ now the other side of it is gary coleman gary coleman who uh that's great gary coleman loses everything becomes a security guard yeah and then um like he's working as a security guard protecting like on a set where Pamela Anderson and a bunch of TMZ guys come in and Gary Coleman launches on there's video of it where he launches onto the car and is like yeah you're not going anywhere I actually love that I love like a person

especially a famous person he's not doing a menial job but is doing it to their best of their ability I love that there's not doing a menial job, but is doing it to the best of their ability. I love that. There's not a lot of people that become famous and then do a regular job. Yeah. People do get really interested in those people when they do do that. Like, look, he's like one of us again. Yeah.

Look. Yeah. But everybody loves to shame that guy. Everybody loves to shame him, but I actually, I love that. Isn't that fucked? Isn't that fucked? Because if you just saw a security guy, you'd be like, hey, man, what's up? How you doing? I'm going building four.

All right, take it easy. It's normal. But if you're like, hey, you're that fucking guy. You're a fucking loser. Look at you now. Nobody thinks that about a regular security guy. See, a regular security guy is just a guy. But a regular security guy who's on like Falcon Crest, like, oh, look at you, loser.

Right. It's weird. Yeah. That's the problem with fame. Like, you don't want to be a has-been. Yeah. A has-been is worse than it never was. Right.

Right. Which is very strange. Yeah. You know, like at least the guy fucking made it for a little while. No, I love it. Look, he's got pictures. Yeah. And I love the mental focus of the fact that you're doing this job now to the best of your

ability. I actually love that a lot any menial job anybody doing any on quote unquote menial job there's not much money there's no reason really to excel but i love there's people who go and above and beyond in those jobs and i actually love that yeah there's well there's a stoic discipline to that that's very admirable to someone who just does the job to the best of their ability and says how you do one thing is how you do everything. Right.

And if you could instill that in a kid, that's a fucking, that's a tremendous benefit to have that. Bro, I gotta piss. Yeah. We'll be right back, folks. You don't get a mugshot because he's the president? Is that what it is? He was the president? I think there's just too much going on.

Ticket service people, everything going, looking at him. There's some pictures that I think they're AI generated of him standing in the street, walking down the street with a giant crowd of people behind him with American flags. I'm like, that's got to be fake. Is that fake? There was only like,

he was barely seen walking in and out of a building, I think like officially So I don't know what the AI picture you saw was it was like him on the street in public And there's a throng of fans behind him. He's walking on the center street. I'm like that looks fake You can't tell anymore now. It's well you saw the fake images of Trump being arrested. Do you see those? Mm-hmm. There's like all these fake images of them like grabbing him He's screaming and it's like they can this fake images of him in the orange jumpsuit Wow Ai can do such insane things now you can do our jokes

Yeah, see that yeah, it's like you could just put in a comic Yeah, and then just can write a joke in Nate Bargatze style talking about going to a baseball game Yeah, and it'll do it. I mean, that's eventually going to get better. It'll get so good that shitty comics can have chat GPT write their premises, write their material, which is, I guess, I mean, am I against that? I don't know if i'm against that i kind of am because i don't think you get like a really unique creative style like a jim gaffigan a weird like very specific style unless you learn how to do that in front of crowds over and over and over again for years yeah you know and that guy like you know he's writing he's performing he's trying it he's fucking around he's doing all these

different things yeah like david tell yeah every morning that motherfucker gets up with a pack of cigarettes and a fucking newspaper and a cup of coffee and he's just like writing things down going over stuff and fucking with it in his head like yeah the idea that chat gpt could do that for him i don't like it i don't like it either at all where's that leave us but if i was an open micer and uh i needed some premises which are that's the one thing that drives me fucking crazy when people steal premises it's it is so hard to come up with a premise it is fruit that you've like climbed to the top of a tree and risk your life to grab that apple right and someone goes oh i'll take that apple and then i'll write my own thing on that out. Okay, you motherfucker

You saw that guy grab that apple. Yeah, that's his Apple right and you know people go Well, I could write a joke on the subject to a yeah. Yeah, sorta, but you're just you're on the subject is completely Derivative right his yes a great thing about a tell oh yeah, you'll get a text from him in the morning Yeah, if a joke about a clown on a tricycle who's on meth it's like dave uh not only do i not have that i've never well he thinks when things come to him too easy like because i've i've had that happen to me too my god have i heard this before because my memory is really good and also really bad like it's really good but sometimes it sucks it's like it's so inconsistent sometimes right because like if something's important to me i can remember

everything about it but if it's something like i kind of remember is our am i remembering that wrong right we did it yesterday like there's this video that i had that i was like oh that's that bob seska video and then i'm watching like no it's not no no no no no no no that was different and then we corrected it i'm like oh no no that's his was different i can't even find the have you found that bob seska video i found a few i mean there's there's become a lot of videos on that topic on that topic yeah well mckenna made it so it's the stoned ape theory it's a theory that uh when chimpanzees ate mushrooms right or or lower primates ate mushrooms it advanced their intelligence and that's how they became human.

It's a very interesting theory because it's scientific. It really is, believe it or not. Like there's actual scientists that believe like this guy, Dennis McKenna, who believes that that is probably how human beings evolved. That's really funny. It's really crazy. That's really something. Yeah.

But there was a video about it and I couldn't remember. I saw the video and I had conflated them in my head and I had it this other video That Bob Seska did a long time ago about aliens Fucking with monkeys and turning them into people and I had to fuck them up and I realized while I was watching like no no No, this is not it so like my memory is really good and also sucks right so when I when I come up with a bit Too easy it comes to me. I'm like, God damn it, have I heard that before? Yeah.

And then you got to Google it or figure it out. But Google's nice though, because you can Google that joke on something and then it's like, oh, look, Mitch Hedberg had a joke on that. Like, oh, okay. That's where it came from. Yeah. Well, with TikTok now, it's kind of crazy because it just seems like everything is just fair game.

I'm not even on TikTok, but I'm on TikTok. Yeah. I don't have TikTok. You know, my thought was that's Chinese spyware. I don't want to get my fucking passwords. And all of a sudden, my email gets compromised. And there's a balloon over your house. Yeah.

Just for the weather. What was the deal with those fucking balloons? Did they ever figure out whose balloons those were? That had to have been them timing our response. I thought of something yesterday. That's a response time thing. That's not actually a weather balloon thing. Maybe, but I had heard also that those balloons were flying around when Trump was president.

They didn't tell him about it because they didn't want Trump going crazy and shooting nukes at the fucking balloons. They'd bomb blow off a balloon. They nuked a balloon yeah I mean it's great fucking wild man with the TikTok being from China which it is yeah

the last I don't know how many I was thinking back how many iPhones I bought they come directly from China they're shipped from China oh yeah TikTok's already on them no no no

but the phone itself shipped right from there so like why how do we know that they're not yeah intercepting? Well, this is one you have to think of. According to Gavin DeBecker, who's a security expert, like a legitimate genius,

he told me that there was an original Pegasus application that was invented by the Israelis. And it was a spy program, and it required you to click a link. And this is how MBS got Jeff Bezos. Remember when Jeff Bezos had some dick pics get leaked? I don't remember that. Well, what happened was, allegedly, someone sent him a link on WhatsApp. He clicked on that WhatsApp link, and then it downloaded this spyware onto his phone that he wasn't aware of. But apparently now, with Pegasus 2, all they need is your phone number. So all these security companies, I'm sure the NSA, anybody else, they just need your, I got a conversation with a friend of mine about this last night.

He's like, how do you handle that? I go, I assume that the government or someone is listening to everything I say. Yeah. Every email. So I just don't say anything that stupid. I mean, if you go through. That's good to live by Just in general But

If they wanted to go through My meme collection Yeah You know the things that I Like you know I have a A chat with Shane Gillis

Mark Norman And Ari Shaffir Yeah Like protect our parks We have a group chat And it's the most Fucking ridiculous shit It's constant chaos

Yeah It's like You can take any one of those things It looks horrible Yeah You pull it out Right But it's not for you Yeah it's for us it's four comics talking shit to each other having fun that's great but that's just part of the program yeah luckily i have the ability to explain that like i've said did you did you do a thing with greta thornburg getting fucked in a

gangbang like i didn't make it somebody said it it to me. Yeah. And I thought it was funny. Right. I'm sorry if I think inappropriate things are funny. Right. But, you know, but that's, you have to make that assumption.

Like, kids don't understand that. Like, and I'm so glad there was no phones around when I was 15. There'd be a thousand pictures of my dick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd be sending them to everybody.

I think everybody would have. I think everybody would have back in the day. Chinese weather balloon that flew over U.S. gathered intelligence from military sites. Oh. I found this reported two days ago. This is an Irish site, Independent Ireland,

and another site called The Times. I don't know where it was from. Interesting. It was ad block, but there is reporting that, and I don't know. Yeah. And they just basically explained it by saying it was a weather balloon. I mean, that's a pretty bad lie.

Don't we have satellites? Why do you have a balloon? It's a weather balloon. It just is what it is. Yeah. I mean, I think it's also probably a fuck you. Just fly a balloon over the fucking country. I think so, too.

Yeah. It was a push. It was a push to see fucking country. We can do this. I think so too. Yeah. There's gotta be a lot of that. It was a push. It was a push to see our response time on it, I think. I guess. It's a fucking...

To see what we would do. It's a weird world. It's a weird world. Same thing. Chinese spy balloon captured sensitive military info after all. US officials say

Beijing obtained US military intelligence from a spy balloon that was shot down in early February. I've had Mike Baker on multiple times. The Fox guy, yeah. Yeah, he's a former CIA operative. And he essentially said that one of the things that China's been doing by the way they gather intelligence is they sell cell phone towers at a very low rate and They install them all around these sensitive areas

So like if you go to where these military sites are in the was it Wyoming is that where it was was explaining to us They're Idaho like in the yeah, and all these areas where these this sensitive intelligence is going on It's like China has all these cell phone towers set up there, and it's their equipment that they put in. And we already know that that's the reason why they banned Huawei from the United States. And Mike talked about that as well, that Huawei was using, whether it's routers or all their different types of equipment that they were selling, had third-party access. So could like steal data and they could steal intellectual property so they could we know that's like one of the things china does they they

anytime the united states has an idea they just copy that make it better right and they constantly do that and huawei was genius at it huawei before they banned them had the fucking best phones you could get and i was about to buy a hu phone, like, right before they got rid of them because they had these crazy cameras. And that's a Chinese company? Mm-hmm. Huawei? Yeah.

They just push stuff to the edge, make the best shit available, and then steal all the data. You know? Yeah. I mean, I don't understand technology at all. I'm barely able to function on my phone. Probably better that way. Yeah.

I mean, it's a rabbit hole that if you go down to... I got my Instagram jacked, and it's like I fell into a phishing scam or whatever. And I got it taken from me. How'd they get you? They said, do we have intellectual property something? They said, do we have intellectual property something? You're using something, clips or something that, you know, it's my clip, but it was from like TV. And it's like this intellectual property issue.

And it's like, click here to figure it out or to clean it up. And I clicked on it and the guy was like, he texted me. He's like, we got you. Yeah, he's like, we got you. So what'd he say to you? Send me $5,000 and I'll give you your account back. Wow. So did you? No, I said, but your sister says she's having a good time with me. I didn't respond because I didn't know, you know, whatever. But I was like in a panic then because I was like, do they have other, I don't know, I don't know stuff. So it's like, do they have my account info, all my, all my information? Right.

I don't know if it's just Instagram. I don't know what's connected to what. Credit card. Yeah. It's like I start panic. I start flipping out. You know what I mean? So I call my friend is a tech guy, Ben Rosenfeld, shout out to Ben.

And he like, uh, he's also a comic. And he helped me try to figure it out. But there is no recourse. Like there's no recourse for it. It's like you can file a complaint, but it's just basically gone. You can start a new account. Oh, wow. Yeah.

So your account's gone? No, I didn't have to do that. I had another friend help me to get it back. He has an account with a company, and the company helped me get it back, fortunately. But, I mean, as an individual, as a private citizen trying to get that back, it's like deaf ears, man. They don't care. Well, there's just too many of them, I think. I think it's happening at scale. It's like you're dealing with someone, a company say Instagram how many people do they let's guess how many people are on Instagram I didn't what do you think well there's 350 million

people in the country right but in the world there's oh yeah yeah billions how many people do you think two billion we think I three billion I'll say two let's say what do you think how many people you think are on it's probably one one billion but daily active user would be less too let's find out how many accounts are on instagram let's google that how many individual accounts are on instagram i'm saying two billion what do you think jamie you say one you say like two three yeah facebook's the most and it's not that it's not over 2 billion yet. Oh, it isn't? Pretty sure. I thought it was. Facebook's worldwide.

Facebook changes elections in places. That's crazy. I had Zuckerberg on and you can tell having a conversation with that guy. Dang, I'm off. Instagram is 2.35 billion active users. Wow, that's you. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, I's you. Wow, that's crazy. That's a lot of people, man.

Yeah, I guess it would be hard for them to field complaints or whatever. Meanwhile, that's fourth amongst the biggest social media networks globally. So it's number one. Facebook's number one. 2.9 billion. YouTube is 2.9. I don't really consider YouTube social media that much. Right. Because maybe it is. I guess it is. But I don't really consider YouTube social media not that much. Right.

Because maybe it is. I guess it is. But I don't use it that way. I use it for entertainment. Yeah. If I'm watching YouTube, I'm watching stuff like fights or- Clips, yeah. WhatsApp is 2 billion.

Well, WhatsApp is a communication app. I don't think that's social media. Instagram, 2.35. TikTok. TikTok's only 1 billion? That's interesting. I would have thought it was way more. I think it is. I think TikTok's only 1 billion? That's interesting. I would have thought it was way more. I think it is.

I think it's on the rise, though. Isn't TikTok like a thing? And then Instagram Reels is competing with it, right? Where's Twitter? Where's Twitter at? I feel like Twitter's never been in the top 10. Really? But it's not even in the top 10.

Oh, it's way down there. 397 million. Wow. Look at all these ones that are fucking way more. Like Pinterest? Pinterest is 475 million? Reddit. Look at Reddit.

430 million. I'm not on Reddit at all. Reddit's chaos. Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know guys who go on Reddit and they read about themselves and they go down a dark road. They get their feelings hurt bad. Oh, there's a bunch of intelligent vipers on Reddit.

Facebook runs the top five, three of the top five, which is a little strange because they've split them all up and there could just be one app. Well, you know. Facebook Messenger could just be Facebook Messenger. Yeah, that's true. One of the things that they asked ChatGPT, like, do you think that Facebook is a monopoly and should it be broken up? I mean, absolutely. They said yes. Yeah.

What did Zuckerberg say? Well, I didn't ask him about that. No. But for him, it was interesting because he's a very nice guy yeah and you know people think of him as like a robot and i think i think he's not that at all he's a guy who created this thing a long ass time ago with no anticipation of what it was going to become and then it became this fucking worldwide monster right this thing that's that's just, it's so big. Yeah. And, you know, he's a pretty interesting guy. And very forthcoming.

He was explaining, like, about how the FBI contacted him about the Hunter Biden laptop. Yeah. And explained it on the podcast. It created a firestorm of controversy. I'm sure. Because he was just kind of casually explaining, well, the FBI told told us that there was gonna be some disinformation coming out of Russia No, we were told that this and that and so we limited its reach and and then just was fucking giant news Like that this is I mean this guy just created a fucking dating site for college kids, right?

You know right some out of years, but he was instrumental in growing it though, too You know what I mean? And with that comes like bad stuff, obviously you know not just the good the good parts of it and also i mean more most recently take a he took a big blunder with that whole meta thing where they thought that everybody was going to put on headsets and and delve into the metaverse oh yeah and that shit didn't work at all no why it's too weird yeah i love that's yeah, that's close to I mean that's that will mess I mean you want to talk about social media fucking with your mind like that meta stuff like in a Alternate reality. We'll just live in You're basically getting closer to just being in a pod. Mm-hmm, you know what I mean and having that on yes

You know as your reality it's going to happen. Yeah, it's going to happen It's just like look when I was a kid in the 1980s and 90s, there was times, but there was times back then where people thought virtual reality was going to be the future, but the technology wasn't available. It didn't really work. going to live in virtual reality and that was the matrix that was like all these different things but it was like science fictiony enough that it was so far ahead yeah and then the technology was kind of clunky so it never really took off but then when oculus came around and what were the other ones it was there was another big one other than oculus vive that's right the hcc vive that they were they were so good you're like oh maybe maybe we're close. And there's some fun fucking games you can play on that. Apparently there's an Alien, like Alien 1, the movie game, that is fucking terrifying. And you play it, and you're on the Nostromo, that spaceship, and the fucking alien's in the spaceship.

And you're going down dark corridors, and rain's dripping, and another thing just jumps out at you. It's fucking terrifying, apparently. But that, for whatever reason, they thought that was just going to just sweep the whole country and everyone was going to. And it was a virtual reality mask that you put on? The Oculus is. Yeah, the Oculus. It's very light. The new one is very light.

Like the old ones, we had the HTC Vive at the studio and it had to be attached to a backpack. And it was like a cable that came above you, and we had the cable suspended from the ceiling, so we had like a sectioned off area where you could play in it. And then it got better, and Carmack, John Carmack got involved, and they made even better versions of it, and then it became something you just sit on your head. And then when that happened, I was like, oh boy, we're getting close now now because now it just sits in your head and you have these two controllers in your hand. But it's still just people are not that interested in it, which is interesting. That's good, I think. I think it's a good thing not to be on it. I think it's going to be the future.

It's going to be something that's so wonderful and so exciting that you can't get out of it. It's going to be weird how it morphs with your mind. It's going to eventually morph with your mind, right? So it'll be like part of you, kind of. That's where we kind of morph into the robot world, I guess. That's happening. It's going to happen. It's just a matter of like, what is it, 10 years?

Is it 20 years? Whatever it is. But technology is going to reach a point where it's so... Look, no one ever would have thought that you would have a thing in your pocket where you couldn't stop looking at it. Right. I'm still amazed by it. I'm in New York and I'm watching people and I'm watching people just walk down the street with it on and they're not conscious of anything else that is going on and they're just walking

down the street. New York's fucking dangerous. It's dangerous. There's cars that could hit you. It's like all of it. They're just walking down the street. It's dangerous as cars could hit you It's like oh, they're just walking down the street just immersed in it Actually, if you're on the subway and you're not on it if you're just staring forward Like you're the weird one mm-hmm. You're the weird one. Yeah, everybody else like what's this guy doing? You get on a subway with a book like what do you do the fuck is this guy throwback you're reading a book?

Yeah, real book yeah it's not even a kindle yeah it's unreal it's unreal yeah it's uh i had a books on my phone now so i'm reading it on my phone that's amazing to me i think yeah i have all that that information just a library oh yeah the library app you could just download books from the library on your phone and read them and return them yeah it's that's fantastic. Well, I have most of the books that I consume, I consume audio books. I get on the way to work, coming home from work, in the sauna. That's where I do most of my listening to books. And I probably have 200, 300 books on this little tiny phone.

It's unreal. And they're all hours long. Yeah. Like it's a terabyte of data on that phone. So there's so much room. And also it just stores in the cloud anyway. Right. So if there's no room, it's in the long. Yeah. Like it's a terabyte of data on that phone. So there's so much room. And also it just stores in the cloud anyway. Right. So if there's no room, it's in the cloud.

Right. Then you download it and it's fucking, there's never been a time that you could have more access to information, but there's also never been a time where you're more distracted. Yeah. That's the, that's the rub. Yeah. That's the rub. But if you're focused on the information, man, it's like, it's college.

It's basically a college in your pocket yeah it's unbelievable and and uh people listening might be like what do you you know because people grew up with this but we didn't right like i knew a time where this didn't exist at all like me and my brother had a room together it was both of us no tv allowed in the room dinner together at a certain time, unless you're working or you're at a sports practice, you're having dinner. My father's playing music while we have dinner. We're talking about our day. And when we go to sleep, it's like a room, no television, because he didn't want us in our room

watching television on our own. You want to watch television, you're out with the family. Right. You know, it's that kind of thing. So I guess, you know, it's a different world. Yes. And it's that kind of thing so i guess you know it's a different world yes and it's been a gradual thing but it's still very very different like i don't have kids so i don't know how that would be but i guess i mean like what you do what you implement with your children it sounds like the right thing they get mad at you yeah put your phone down yeah

they get mad because that little dopamine rushes And it's not even a big rush. That's what's weird. It's like this little drip of dopamine. Yeah. Blip. Yeah. But you're like, there's this pull. Like, well, is anybody texting me?

Anybody? What's going on? He's like, I see some people on the podcast. They can't help it. They reach for their phone. Yeah, that's the thing. They just check their text messages. And this is your podcast. And it's giant.

There's millions of people watching. Yes. And someone just look at their phone. It's like, whoa. It's nuts. There's millions of people watching. Someone just look at their phone. It's like, it's nuts, but they can't help it. They just get so sucked in. I've done it to,

uh, to the point where it's like when I first get up, I don't, I make sure I don't look at it and, uh, do other things first. And then I set time aside and I mentally prepare myself. I go,

okay, now I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to do as much as I want for 15 minutes. Check everything. Make sure everything's up. Check the comments. And now that the special is out,

like respond to people as much as I can. And then after that window is over, not again. Yeah. Now the trick is YouTube because I like to watch stuff on YouTube, but it's like I don't wanna get addicted to scrolling on YouTube either So that's that's the difference there, but I'm definitely addicted to watching stuff on YouTube. Yeah

Yeah, when I have breakfast I fucking I got this little it's pretty cool this little kickstand thing that sticks up with your phone So that's great. I think this is called a coo case or something like that I forget what it's called, but it's like bam so I just sit there It's great, and I'll watch stuff while I'm meeting right you know and I think I'm not addicted that way Oh, I'm just being a dream, but that's YouTube you're watching you're watching substance there instead of mindlessly scrolling Which is what I was doing and it just that creates so many bad like emotions and stuff It's like I don't want I don't want to feel that way and that't that weird that mindlessly scrolling creates bad emotions? Like, what is that?

Why does it do that? Is it just you feel like you're wasting time? You're wasting time. You're seeing a bunch of different things. Like, you know, the energy coming from the thing. I'm a big energy guy, too. It's like the energy coming from it is, it hits. Even when you're looking at your, I tried that for a while, looking at my own stuff.

I'll just look at my own stuff. I won't look at everybody's stuff. But then you start getting like how many likes does this have how many it's like you end up Yeah, you end up swimming in your own narcissism. So it's like no stop that now. Yes But if I'm my point is I'm navigating this at 50 when my mind has already been developed What chance to kids have developing through this time period? It's a different world but i think they're going to be fine i really do i think there's going to be a transitionary period where we lose a lot of kids they don't they don't know what the fuck they're doing and they get lost in

it but there's going to be enough kids that recognize like okay this is just the new reality of life and if you want to be successful just like you when you were young, you had focus and dedication. You realize there's a lot of people out there that don't do that. And I can learn from them what not to do. There's kids that are doing that now too. And I have friends that very much limit their kids' access to social media. They don't allow them on things. They don't allow them to have a phone.

I don't think that's the way to do it because this is a reality. And I think that if you give the kids the tools and the understanding to handle that, this is a new level of adversity that they have to deal with that we didn't have to deal with. But it's the way I look at it, it's like cold weather. Like if you grew up in a place with cold weather, you developed an understanding of what the fuck that means like you got to shovel snow you got to deal with it and you i think they have a new level of adversity right because of the pressures of social media and because of like the shit talking that especially with girls right girls are fucking mean to each other yeah good they reputation disrupt yes in the comments and shit on each other and group chats and it's it gets real nasty and you developed a level of Resilience from being able to handle that and after a while you get okay with it and you have to understand what that is

But you have to understand what that is. Yeah, and it's you're right You're like going in with that mindset is the important thing it is if you're just caught off guard with it Yeah, then it can crush you and it has it's driven people to suicide it definitely has done that and there's also a thing the FOMO aspect and the Comparison and this is apparently very bad with girls as well because there's a lot of people that are using Filters and they're changing the body right and these girls see these people and they look perfect and then they see themselves in the mirror And they have zits. Yeah shit, maybe they're a little overweight and they get massively and then they see themselves in the mirror and they have zits and they look like shit and maybe they're a little overweight and they get massively depressed.

Right. And then they think, well, the only way, for me, I have to be like that person. Right. So I have to do

what they're doing and be completely focused on my looks and some people just, unfortunately, through a genetic roll of the dice, they don't have good features. Right.

They don't look good. They don't have a good body. Right. And then they just feel fucking depressed because they're comparing themselves to this thing. See, like, if you are a comic and you want to be a great comic and you're kind of

funny and you're figuring out, you can see like Chris Rock and you go, maybe I could get to that spot. Maybe I can get there. But if you're a girl and you're born with an unfortunate appearance and you compare yourself to some bombshell who's like doing squats with her giant ass in front. You're like, I can't be that person. It's not attainable.

Right. That's very, very depressing. Very difficult. Very hard. Very difficult to deal with. Because the pressures of that, it's like that is one of the most important things on social media is to be attractive yeah it's a it's a currency in and of itself you know there's people that i i see on instagram that are like they have 45 million fucking followers right all they're doing is squats and yeah

looking pretty and there's also a thing with placing undue value on that. Like 45 million, I'm a winner. Right. You have less, you're not. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That kind of thing. And there's also something to be said for just being bored. Just let yourself be bored.

Yeah. Let yourself be uncomfortable. Let yourself, you know, just sit in a void once in a while and not be bored be be unhappy. It's okay to be unhappy It's okay to be uncomfortable and I think that gets lost a lot because of this instant gratification I think for comics being bored is very important because that's where some of the ideas come from Yeah, you know and the people that don't like Goggins when he runs. Yeah, he don't listen to shit. That's that's that's crazy Yeah, he listens to his uh breath maybe he listens to his inner demons yeah his conversations with the fucking room in hell that

he has in the back of his head and he tells those demons who the fuck the boss is yeah yeah that's um you know i mean i don't but the guy who wrote game of thrones is uh you know that guy's from staten island so it's like you know the of imagination, the detail that he must have had in imagining this world. If he would have had a phone, maybe that doesn't happen. Sure. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe.

It's possible. But, I mean, it's also possible. Or if he was a hot guy. Right. You know what I mean? Like if he was a hot guy and had the option of all these women and going to the beach and lifting and all that stuff. Like maybe he doesn't write that, but you know.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not reading Mario Lopez's book. You know what I'm saying? He's too hot. He's too hot. He's too hot. Good looking guy.

Yeah. Fucking great body. Yeah. Looking fancy. Just a winner all the way through in his life. Yeah. Yeah. What is that guy? And supposed to be a pretty good boxer. Yeah. Fucking great body. Yeah. Looking fancy. Just winner all the way through in his life. Yeah. Yeah. What is that guy?

And supposed to be a pretty good boxer. Yeah. He's a very good boxer. Yeah. He's done jujitsu now too. Competed in tournaments. Yeah. He's a good blue belt in jujitsu.

Really? Yeah. And abs, like when he was on Saved by the Bell, like I remember he was like a wrestler on Saved by the Bell. Saved by the Bell fan, by the way. And he just was shredded then. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And shredded all the way, always. I'm sure he works hard. Oh, yeah. But physically gifted. Right, but he's not going to write a Game of Thrones. Right. Maybe he will. What the fuck do I know?

But the odds are that that's not going to happen. One of my favorite authors is the guy who wrote Conan Robert E Howard yeah And Robert E Howard was a recluse a shut-in live with his mother committed suicide in his early 30s But the fucking books that he wrote like those fantasy novels of Conan that were fucking amazing when I was a kid And this is a guy who was you know kind of a shut-in and kind of a you know Very depressed right and he wrote about this conqueror who was kind of a shut-in and very depressed, and he wrote about this conqueror,

it was like this perfect man who just destroyed things and fought off dragons and demons, and it was amazing work, but if he was some beautiful hot man, probably that wouldn't have gotten written. That's the thing about creativity It's like it's this very strange Yeah, sort of force that you have to figure out how to tune in right and if you're tuned into other stuff

You're not gonna give it the time that it deserves Yeah, but the fact that he couldn't be that hot popular guy it forced It forced his mind mine is just so powerful yeah and it forced you go to another place yeah well the the ability to write fiction is so fascinating because you and it's so engaging when someone writes a good book and you're into this character and these fucking scenarios and it's like all fake all invented in this person's mind but it's your fucking heart is pounding your hands it's not like a movie because there's no filter on it it's just

their thoughts it's their them constructing it yeah so there's not not these other people putting their hands into it yeah that's why it's raw yeah that's a big one right it's not there's not a bunch of jackoffs fucking with the stew. Yeah. Adding their own ingredients. Because they want to be part of it. Have you ever worked on a television show where that- No, I was fortunate enough for Attell to bring me into his, like, Dave's Old Porn. Oh, you were there with that?

Dave's Old Porn, yeah. I fucking never did an episode. Did I do an episode of that? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I think I did. I think I did. I think I did. Maybe when he was out.

That's how many fucking things I've done. I don't even remember what I've done. That's pretty great. I did do it. Isn't that hilarious? Like I was about to say, I don't know, fucking, I wish I did that. I thought you did. Meanwhile, I did do it.

Yeah. But Dave, like that was a fun thing for him because he's kind of a pervert. So for him to watch porn with the old porn stars and sit there and joke around. Yeah, the classic porn. There's something about those watching things, like Mystery Science Theater, like that kind of thing, watching and mocking. Yeah, there it is. Oh, that's great. Hilarious.

Did you, if you don't remember doing it, you probably won't remember if that was in New York or L.A. I believe it was in L.A. It was in L.A.? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was in L.A. Because I was on set when he was shooting the ones in New York. Oh, okay. I think me and Kurt Metzger worked with Dave on it.

Oh, really? Metzger's the best. He's great. I love that dude. He's great and he's so funny. Yeah, he's great on Jimmy Dore show I don't know if you ever seen him on the Jimmy Dore show Jimmy Dore has a YouTube channel like a political thing and Kurt is like his sidekick

Oh really? And so Kurt is always like chiming in about things But what's interesting is like, you know, I've been friends with Kurt for a long time and now like whenever I talk to Kurt He's always fucking scaring the shit out of me because he's so well read about what's going on in the world. Like, you know, Kurt Metzger was the first person that contacted me about this restrict bill, which is like what they're using to say they need to stop things like TikTok. And then you go into what the restrict bill is. You're like, oh, my God, this has nothing to do with TikTok. They want the ability to lock down anything that's on social media and stop people from spreading information that's dangerous to whatever narrative they're

trying to push. Right, right, right. And we went over it in depth yesterday, and it's fucking terrifying. The ambiguity, the way that they're able to frame what they're able to target is like, holy shit. It'll come down to keywords, I'm sure. Just keywords. they're able to target it's like it'll come down to key words i'm sure but he's key words metzger is so involved in that world now because he's on jimmy's show that he's always like looking at

corruption and this and that and what's happening in ukraine and what's it's a funny it's a comedy it's a comedy right it is a it's well it's a political show where in the political social show where they're like jimmy dore is a comic and Mert Metzger is a great comic. And the two of them together, they just talk shit and laugh about how fucking crazy modern day politics and influence and insider trading and all the shit that's going on. And Sam Bank from Freed and FDX and where the money was coming from and how they were all doing it and how they got away with it. And he scares the shit out of me every time I talk to him. When get a text from kurt i'm like oh jesus christ i'm gonna get fucking panicked now and i just start reading his stuff have you heard about this have you seen this i'm like no don't do this to me i know kurt on coffee yeah is the best but uh no it was really

a good time because we we sit and watch the think of jokes you know all the jokes about uh this old porn and it was great so i was very fortunate to be brought into that and then uh that was early because we'd sit and watch the, think of jokes, you know, all the jokes about this old porn, and it was great. So I was very fortunate to be brought into that. And then comedy- That was early on. That was a long time ago. It was a long time ago now.

And because I would do spots late at the comedy cellar, and that's when Dave would be there. And so I would, you know, do my set and then watch his set, and then we would hang out talk jokes and stuff afterwards So I was very fortunate in that way because he's an all-time great Oh, he's one of my favorite people too. He really is I don't see him that much anymore cuz I don't put in late at the cellar but just

Really great times man really great time. He's a wonderful guy Yeah, and he's so sweet to everybody. Like, when he does clubs, he brings candy for the waitresses and stuff. He's just so nice, man. Like, and all that guy cares about is stand-up comedy. Yeah. Is stand-up comedy. Yeah.

You know, he came here and, like, he takes care of his mom in New York. Right. And all he cares about is just getting up and doing jokes. Yeah. And his attitude was like, I want to go on early. These young guys, let them have their spots. I don't want to interrupt. I don't want to get in the way.

I just kind of come in and just work on my new stuff. And so he'll get up at 1 o'clock in the morning. So it's like 1 o'clock in the morning in the cellar. There's 14 people there. And it's David Tells on stage. One of the best comics that's ever lived. It's unreal. And he's there because that's when he wants to go up.

Right. Like he can go up at 9 p.m. He can do whatever he wants. Hot crowd. Yes. And just murder every night with old material. Yeah. He does not.

Nope. No, he's a fucking real pro. He likes to go on late and it's just, it's unbelievable. Yeah. And it's really a great example for up and coming comics. Yeah. You get to see how that guy does it. Yeah.

Because he just like, when you think you're pretty good. Right. think you're and you you know he's going up to a tired crowd i had a thing i was opening for him at the wilbur oh no boston and uh for some reason they didn't have a liquor license or something so it was at the wilbur yeah yeah it didn't for for some reason while when we were there oh okay so it was a two-man show. I was going up, and then I was bringing him up. And there's no liquor, so I was like, oh, this is probably going to be pretty tough. So I go up and do 20, and I'm murdering, I'm killing really hard, and I bring him up.

And then I'm sitting on the side of the stage, kind of feeling good about myself. I go, you know what? Time is coming. I got it. I'm doing pretty good for myself. The way that I slayed that cold crowd was pretty awesome. I think I'm on pretty good for myself the way that I slayed that cold crowd was pretty awesome

I think I'm on my way and then I started just listening to him and the laughs he was getting and I was getting laughs But he was just getting you know the depth of the laughter Every joke was hitting harder and harder and his setups were hitting and then the punchlines obviously hitting and then two tags on the end Hitting it's like the guy does comedy the way that pacquiao used to fight he would like hit you and then turn two more times turn you and then two or three more times and then get out and you're like the guy's just like on the ground by that point so he's doing that and he i'm just listening and it's like i'm at the cellar late so know the material, but he's doing material I haven't heard before. And he's murdering at a level that's just crazy.

And at the end of it, it's like, none of those people in that crowd even remembered who I was. It's like, that's how good he is. Yeah, they leave the show going, oh my God, David Tell is the best. That first guy was okay. First guy was pretty funny. I don't even think they remembered there was a baby. Yeah, it's like that's how hard he hits Yeah He went up at the improv one night and it was the improv in Hollywood and it was a pretty late show and I had gone On earlier in the night and then I saw David the bar Mike. What's up? What's going on? When you going up?

He's like gonna and the crowd was kind of tired, and a couple people went up. And, you know, like when you have a late show, like a 10 p.m. show, when it gets like 11, 30, 12 o'clock, people are checking their watch. They got to be up at 7, and they start thinking about leaving. Right. And then I was like, wow, this crowd's getting, it's kind of done. Night's done. Right.

And a tell went up, and it was like he plugged the audience back into the electricity Yeah, and just fucking murdered effortless murder Right and just tag after tag and I remember sitting in the back going my god This guy's a treasure a treasure is the right word for him national treasure national treasure national treasure And I don't think enough people understand it like he should be in arenas yeah Dave Vettel should be selling out Madison Square Garden

anytime he wants to instantly right and he's doing clubs and he loves it and he's happy right he's like a real club comic

he likes doing all the sets he likes doing four shows in a weekend he likes it yeah he's amazing and he's not a fame guy either no

like he's not a fame guy like he'll talk to me he'll talk to like he's he's not a fame guy at all we's not a fame guy like he'll talk to me He talked like he's he's not a fame guy at all. We were at the cellar, you know the cellar It's like Chris Rock will come there like he's not there all the time But it's not you know, if you see Chris Rock there, you know, it's not crazy Yeah, it's not uncommon Chappelle the same way if you see him there. It's not crazy Seinfeld once in a while but the same way. If you see him there, it's not crazy. Seinfeld once in a while. But Adam Sandler

was there one time. And it's like they sit at the back table and you just feel the energy when there's somebody like a Chappelle or a Chris Rock back. The energy kind of changed. Like people perk up that the people who are there eating, everybody notices the comics start, their antennas go up. And I understand, you know, the energy. So Adam Sandler happens to be back there and he's never there. And Dave walks with his you know goes to the bar to get his coffee or whatever hood up and Adam Sandler goes Dave Dave Dave Dave and Dave's just in his own world a tell a tell and finally he comes up to me hey Dave because hey what's up Adam and then he goes

how you doing man doing pretty good how are you good and then he goes outside and smokes he just cuts out and goes outside

everybody's like angling to see if they can talk to Adam Sandler and Adam Sandler's like screaming Dave's name until he gets his attention how are you

pretty good good man okay and then he goes out and smokes on the porch isn't it great it's great. It's classic. He's a real comics comic. Like the best version of a comics comic. Like a master of his craft who doesn't get the appreciation that he deserves and who is universally respected by his peers. That's Dave.

Yeah, absolutely. He is. He's one of the greats of all time in my mind. Me too. It's so important to have guys like that around. Yeah. And the guys in New York are so fortunate. And unfortunately, also, he has a lot of babies, like what Patrice would call babies. Yeah.

Someone who copies your style. You'll hear guys talking like this. They have a setup and a punchline. I know. It sounds like Dave. Yeah, you gotta stop listening to him i did that for a while too it's like i he's like you gotta stop listening to him you gotta stop after a while it's hard because you want to go because he'll turn you if you're watching him it's like he'll turn you you when you're watching another comic you'll go what's his angle on this right what's his angle on this i'm curious to see what his angle is on even chris

rock some of the greats you know but with a tell you go down, if you go down with that mindset, like, I wonder what his angle is on this. After three jokes, you just become a fan because you're gut laughing. You're gut laughing like the rest of the people in the crowd. You know what I mean? So it's just, it's that he turns you into a comedy fan. And then the problem is you go on thinking about his acts, and then you compare your own material. You're like, oh, my God, I hate my jokes now. Oh, my God. That's the biggest thing. It's like his throwaway stuff is better than your main stuff.

Well, that's one of the best things about those showcase-style clubs is that you do work with these killers, and you have to sort of reevaluate your material yeah if you know you're going to go on after shane gillis like shane was in town this week and shane right now is in my mind for my money he's got 15 minutes that could fuck with anybody's 15 minutes that's ever lived he's a goddamn assassin yeah he goes on state he was going on stage as a mothership and i watched some of these comics that I had to follow him going, oh, fuck. Because he's just throwing heaters. Yeah. It's like 99 mile an hour fastball after 99 mile an hour fastball, and he's so likable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's such a good guy, and he's so funny. Yeah, he really is. And his facial expressions are so great. Yeah. And he's just, he's got his, like, when he got canceled, that whole SNL thing. Right. And he got kicked off of SNL, devastated.

But he emerged like a fucking phoenix from the ashes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's way better than he was back then. Right. He's like one of the best, top ten comics on planet Earth without doubt right now. He's fantastic. And he came out of that pressure. Yeah. And now he's the and he came out of that pressure yeah

and now he's the one who like freaks people out yeah when they know that shane's going up he's gonna do that trump impression when he does trump at the debates like the fucking show is over and it's not just that it's very punched up all the way through it's like that new york style and he came out of philly yeah and uh it's great it great to see his success. It's punched up and it's also like, it's so smart. Like he's got a bit about George Washington. Because Shane has a deep knowledge of history. He really reads a lot about history, knows a lot about history. So he can incorporate that and there's like layers to his comedy because of his understanding of things.

So he's setting things up and he's doing it in a fun way where even the setups are funny. Yeah, yeah. It's so nice to see. That's a discipline in and of itself, to get a laugh on the way to the punchline. Yeah, and to structure it that way and to reevaluate and go,

okay, maybe there's probably a funnier way to get into this. Let me figure out the right way. It's nice to see the funniest guys win. Mm-hmm. It really is. Well, don't you think that in stand-up, there is a meritocracy in stand-up that's undeniable?

There's guys who get more popular than maybe the, like, the Attell guys, and so you go, well, maybe there's not a meritocracy, but for us it is. Like, the best guys are always the best guys. If you're sitting around with a group of comics and you just watch the show, you're like, oh, my God, this guy fucking killed right like holy shit that was good like that meritocracy like that

exists in stand-up like if you if you're not funny if it doesn't work nobody cares about you right and that's just how it is there's not no no cult of personality that can carry you over there's no you can't dress in a way that's going to get people to like you more right you know like boy you see his outfit? Nobody gives a fuck about your outfit. Attell wears the same goddamn outfit every night. I know. He probably has like three versions of that black button-up shirt, three versions of that baseball hat, the same goddamn jeans.

Right, right. It doesn't matter. It doesn't. He's so nondescript. Yeah. It's almost like he wants to blend in. Right. He wants to blend in and wants to just be the vehicle for the material right but to your point

There's a there's a skill set at play We all know the skill set and other hardcore comedy fans know the skill yes and the waitresses Yeah, cuz they see it every night. Oh yeah, so they know smoke and mirrors yeah, and they know what's real Do you know Eleanor Kerrigan? Yes, so Eleanor was a waitress at the Comedy Store for like I don't know, maybe 10 years before she ever did stand up. And we were always, I would go to Eleanor when someone would say, oh, this guy's really funny.

And I'd go to, have you seen him? And she'd go, he's a fucking hack. I go, really? And she goes, yeah, it's all tricks and bullshit and smoke and mirrors. I'm like, whoa. She'd have like a fucking tray of drinks. He sucks. They know.

And then you would watch me. Oh my God, she's got like a fucking tray of drinks yeah he sucks they know and then you would watch me oh my god she's right like so she was a comedy fan right from being there right and like doing and then eventually we all knew she was hilarious it just took time for her to have the courage to go on stage right now she's a headliner killing all over the country it's amazing but yeah knowing her as an open micer and knowing her as a waitress before she was an open miker, she was one of the people that I would go to if I would ask her like, hey, how did this person do? How was this person?

And she would tell you in a way that like she wasn't jealous because she wasn't a comic, but she was like deeply embedded in the comedy world. Because you can kill without a skill set. Yes. You can kill without a skill set. Yes. You can kill without a skill set. Personality. Right, right, right. And goofiness. Yes. Yeah, you can.

And some people, that's like their whole, and some people are great at it. Right. And that's their whole career. Right. You know, but there's something about the well-crafted act to me, it's like, I will watch that every time. Me too. Yeah. If I'm leaving and then I find out someone really good is going on stage, I's like, I will watch that every time. Me too. Yeah. If I'm leaving and

then I find out someone really good is going on stage, I'm like, I'm gonna stick around. Yeah. I need to see that. And if you, that's the real education that a guy gets if you're in New York. Like if you are, you know, you're on these shows with Greer Barnes, you're on these shows with Dave Attell, you're on these shows where these, you get to watch all these fucking killers over and over and over again. And as a comic, you know it's real. And you're like, God, I'm blown away by this. Greer Barnes is another one. I've known Greer forever.

I did shows with him in the 90s. So great. And such a pleasant guy to see. Every time I see him, it's like a hug. He's just a fantastic guy. And he's in the back. If he's listening, he'll just laugh. You'll hear him laughing in the back. He's such to he'll just got laugh you'll hear him laughing in the back

Yeah, such a supportive guy. Yeah, Colin Quinn is another guy Okay, now that I'm not doing at the so late anymore. I'm more early. So I'll see Colin Quinn more He's just I mean, he's another guy. He's brilliant man. I remember I did tough crowd and when I did tough crowd Colin would do stand-up in front of the audience And when I did Tough Crowd, Colin would do stand-up in front of the audience. I love that. And when I'd say, like, he fucking murdered so hard. And then the show would go on.

And I wanted to say, you know, this show is great. But it's not as good as the stand-up. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's almost like people don't know. Yeah. Like, he's just the host of the stand-up. And he's kind of the ringleader. And so he's wrangling all these cats and getting all these comics to kind of stay on topic of all the different things they're talking about on Tough Crowd. But I'm like, my God, the best thing is the warm up.

And Colin's famous. Yeah. He's famous. He's just, you know what I mean? But I don't think that people appreciate him at the level that they need to appreciate him. It's like a tell. It's like, yeah. Yeah.

It's the same kind of thing. Like we appreciate him. Yeah. Like if we know that Colin's going on stage, everyone's going to watch him. It's like a tell. It's like, yeah. Yeah, it's the same kind of thing. Like, we appreciate him. Yeah. Like, if we know that Colin's going on stage, everyone's going to watch him. But I think for the average person, but it's also, that's why they're so good, because they don't have this desire for fame. They just have desire to do great work. Right.

And they're not thinking about promoting. They're not thinking. Right, right, right. Like, is Colin even on social media? I don't think I've ever seen a post of his. I think he's on Twitter. I don't know if he's on Instagram. I don't think I've ever even saw a thing that he put up yeah but he's universally respected amongst comedians it's just like he's a purist yeah he's only and he does his one-man

shows like red state blue state brilliantific. Super prolific, man. Always working and writing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hitching. Yeah. That's one of the real beautiful things about these communities, like a community. And that's what I'm trying to establish here in Austin. Right. And that's why I put together that club. And that's why I set it up so there's open mic night two nights a week. That's awesome. Every Sunday, every Monday.

That's really great. And it's like all the people that work there, like the doorman and all the, those are all comics. And they auditioned as comics to get that job. That's great. So they had to do sets in front of Adam Egan. They do these sets. People evaluate their sets.

And then you have the ability to do these door guy showcases where you're going in front of fucking packed houses. And it's amazing. It's good that there's a ladder Yeah in place you know because I went through that in the in the city as far as like and 2008 I did live at Gotham you know me and Nate did it the same year live at Gotham then 2010 I did a Comedy Central half-hour. I don't know if they even still have that anymore But a Gotham set is eight minutes half hours 22 minutes, then you work your way up to an hour

You know what I mean? It's like there's a ladder to climb with your skill set. Unfortunately, it doesn't really exist anymore. Well, one of the things we want to establish here is we want to have a real clear path to becoming a professional. And that if you put together like a real set and then you start doing guest sets on the big shows in the big room. And then maybe a guy like David Lucas or a guy like Brian Simpson will take you on the road. Right. Say, hey, you want to open for me in Seattle?

And then you go with him. Right. It flies you out and then you get to see what it's like to be in a new state and a new crowd and that. And then you'll have a clear path to being a professional. And the more professionals there are, the better it is for everybody. The more guys make it, the more more professionals there are the better it is for everybody yeah the more guys make it the more girls make it the more it is it's just better for comedy yeah all around and it's better that it's nice that you're doing it according to the

skill set because some guys develop like i think shane developed fast he developed very quickly not that he didn't put in the work but some guys are like that some guys run a 4-2-40 you know what i mean right so it's like if you're developing fast like Tommy John again was a guy like that I think he did a Comedy Central half-hour like three years into comedy, but he just he had it. He was very good I don't know him. Yeah, he's a writer now, but I was not doing stand-up anymore I think he's kind of dabbling but he was writing on like network shows. That's a supremely talented person. That's a trap Writing on a network show. Yeah, there's a Supremely talented person. That's a trap. Writing on a network show?

Yeah, there's a lot of guys who are really funny guys. Do you know Owen Smith? Yes. Owen Smith's one of the best comics alive. Yeah. And I would see Owen at the store and I'd be like, Jesus Christ, how is this guy not world famous? Right. I didn't understand.

He has the personality, the charisma, the timing, the material, the writing, everything, everything. But he works in Hollywood and he's always writing. And so he's always writing on these sitcoms and he exists in that world. And it's a steady paycheck. He's got a family. Right. And you get trapped.

Yeah. And I've seen guys get sucked into that and they don't get the career that they deserve. It wouldn't be a trap for a less talented person. Right. Right. But for him. Right. It's like he should be like.

Right. There's some guys that are really good writers, but they're just not comfortable performing and they don't like it and it gives them anxiety and they would rather just write. Right. They're more introverted. Yeah. But they're really talented. For them, that's great.

But there's guys that are talented performers that get that gig, and then they get that steady paycheck every week. And then you get in that system where, oh, there's a new show. We want you to be a co-executive this or that. Right, right, right. And then, you know, you go, well, the wife wants a pool. That's right. The next thing you know, you're trapped. That's right.

And then you see these other guys that started even after you, and they're doing arenas. And you're like, oh, my God, if I had stayed on the path, I would be doing arenas. Right. Like, in my even after you and they're doing arenas and you're like Oh my god If I had stayed on the path I would be doing arenas right like in my mind Owen Smith should be doing arenas like 100% when I see him at the store my Jesus that guy's good. Yeah, but he's on that Network path right on that sitcom. I think he's a showrunner now, which is great. That's great I mean, that's that's really good money in but but it's that stability world as a comic I want the world to know right well

I want to want the world to know how good that guy right but it's the stability versus the you know rolling the dice It's just gesture that just because you're that good doesn't mean you're gonna get that kind of exposure Maybe eventually it'll happen. It's but you have more like you might have to walk through fire You're gonna walk through fire. Yeah, no matter what if you don't have a draw, but you do have the skill set you're walking through fire I don't give a fuck cuz you're gonna do a half-filled show in Columbus Ohio where they have to paper the room because no one knows who you are yet and even if you're a fucking killer it takes Years and years. Yeah, which is the problem, right? It's like it kind of takes like ten years of that grind on the road before the word gets out. Right. Or a few years at least.

And that's hard to do when you're used to those steady checks. And it's really hard to do if you have people relying on you. Yeah, yeah. That's the hard one. Yeah, because then you have to explain it to them. You're not going to. Yeah. You're just going to take that job and you're going to hope that something magic happens

and it allows you to like leapfrog everything and then just go straight into big theaters and arenas. But it doesn't happen it really doesn't yeah because you're just not focused on i get it yeah and that's one of the things that i tell these young comics today i'm like the best thing that you could do is concentrate on yourself meaning that work on your act and instead of like hoping to get hired to do something, create your own thing, create a podcast. Right. And that's the most freedom you're ever going to have. Yeah.

And it's the best. And you can make it whatever you want. Yeah. You know, it doesn't have to be, you know, and then it's, it's a lot of trial and error.

For sure. You know, and it grows, it grows over time. And, but even that, like I know comics that like want to start a podcast now and then they're like, Oh,

only two, 2000 people are downloading my shit. Like, yeah, next week it'll be 2 100 right and that's how it goes or sometimes you need to end the podcast and shift to something you know shift to something else like another idea maybe i think but i think with podcasts the most important thing is consistency yeah and a lot of guys they start out and they do it for a little while and then they lose focus and they stop doing and i'm gonna restart my podcast like when people say that that's the feeling that I used to get when people stop fighting and then they would they would take like three years off and come back to the gym again I'm thinking about taking some fights

like okay right yeah you're lost yeah you gotta stay on the path right because like we're talking about you're building a mountain out of layers of paint. Right. And you take, you know, a few years off or whatever you're taking off, those fucking,

those layers don't stay at the level they were at before. They deteriorate. Yeah. And now you have to rebuild. And that's a daunting process. I think, but that's probably the case

with anything that's hard to do. Right. I think that's true. Yeah. I think that's true. But I think it's wonderful that you're creating an environment

where people can work hard, raise their level, and then they get to another level. Yeah. And they're working their way up. Also.

That's very important as far as motivation goes. They're getting to see killers. Yeah. They're getting to see these people like Big Jay Oakerson was there last night.

Big Jay is one of the funniest people. Oh, he was amazing. Ari Shafir was there last night. Ari is wonderful. So they Oh, he was amazing. Ari Shaffir was there last night. Ari's wonderful. So they're getting to see these people that they've seen on television, they've seen on YouTube, and it's exciting to see them in real life. And if that person comes up to them and goes, hey man, I love that bit, like, ooh, when

you're a young person coming up and someone tells you that your thing is good, like, oh, it's so exciting. But it's a very unselfish thing for you to do because you could be doing whatever you wanted now and to, and to put your focus back on that by pulling other people up. It's also selfish. It's also selfish because it helps me. It's, it's, I wouldn't say it's selfish, but it's not like I don't benefit from it. I benefit from it by having that environment where I can work out.

And I know that if like, if you put together a gym filled with killers, you could say like, oh, well, that's great that you did that for those guys. Yeah, but it's for me too. Right. Because I want, that's what you need. I always tell comics, like, you can't be the funniest guy in Poughkeepsie, New York. Right. Because, like, there's no one else there.

And so it's hard to develop, like, a real act. Like, if you want to learn jujitsu and you're only training with white belts, you're only going to get so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to be around killers. Right. You got to be around killers. And that's the thing with comedy. And I think it's probably the thing with music.

It's probably with everything else. You get inspired by the excellence of other people around you and it raises your own personal expectations. That's absolutely true. Yeah. I know that just from wrestling. You're wrestling in a tough, tough... Sure. You become much, much tougher.

Yeah, I mean, you came out of Ohio. I mean, fucking animals come out of Ohio. Jesus Christ, there's a long history of killer wrestlers that come out of Ohio. But you are as tough as you're... And especially for a guy like me, athletically, I wasn't the most athletic guy. So it really depended on the program and the room.

If I was in a good program, I was tough. But when the program fell off, I wasn't as good, wasn't as effective. Of course. It's hard to push yourself. It's hard to push yourself to the level that a great room will push you by yourself. Almost impossible. That level of competition. And it's the same in stand-up.

Guys coming out of New York, it's the same in standup. You know, guys coming out of New York, you know, like it's like guys are good. Mark Norman, Shane, you know, these guys, Sam Morell, these guys, Chris D. Yeah. These guys have all been on your show. It's like these guys came up through that club system. It's also the camaraderie. Dan Soder was my roommate for 10 years. I love Dan.

Love him. But it's also the camaraderie. Like no one understands comics like comics do. So it's like, that's a place where you can be yourself. No matter what, you're around these people. When I'm around comics, it's not like, oh, there's that Joe Rogan guy, the podcast guy. It's like, no, these are my friends. It's normal. I know you guys. I've known everybody for 20 years. You can hang out. It's more comfortable. It's like they're your peers. That's your group.

That's the other thing people don't realize, like how long we've known each other, a lot of us. Like, I've known guys in New York, like I've known them for like 20, since I've been there, 20 years. And it's like somebody new comes into the situation and it's all good. But I don't know if they realize how long we've been in that scene together. In a long time. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. It's a fucking long way. It's not something that's going to happen quickly.

And everybody in this world wants things to happen quickly. They want to be a millionaire by the time they're 25. They want to do this and that. I have all these expectations and aspirations, which is great. It's great to be ambitious. But if They want to do this and that. I have all these expectations and aspirations, which is great. It's great to be ambitious, but if you want to do that with comedy, if you want to write material

and you want your act to develop, that is a fucking grind. You are running through rose bushes naked for years. And there's nothing other than that that's going to get you there. That's right. And it's a process. Yeah. And it's like, that's the thing. get you there. That's right as a process Yeah, and it's like that's the thing you gotta fall in love with the process

Yeah And but that's also what what helps being around fun people because even if it's like a brutal bloody process He's still hanging out with the guys and talk shit and laugh and all kinds of personal shit happens along the way, too and it's like you rely on these people for support or your friends or your peers and like picking you up and uh trying to turn it into a bit or trying to turn it into something you know fantastic yeah it's a fun gig man it's a fun way to make a living and it's a fun way to get through life we were talking about last night where we just did a show and afterwards we're all sitting around relaxing and having fun, smoking pot. And I was like, could you imagine living your whole life and never killing?

Yeah. We went through that with the pandemic where comedy was stopped. And I was like, I guess maybe I'll never do comedy again. Right. I'll tell you a story. It's a crazy story where Ron White had kind of resigned himself to retirement. And he's like, I think I'm done. I fucking did it all.

You know, blue collar tour. I got a jet. I'm going to fucking sell my boat. He's like, I'm just going to fucking relax. I got money in the bank. I'm going to play golf. Right. And then we did a show in November of 2020

at the Vulcan Gas Company down the street on 6th Street. And Tony Hinchcliffe had the show. He put it up, and he put Ron White up and I was already talking about putting together a comedy club. I was trying to find a spot and then I was actually telling everybody I think I found the spot

and I wound up not using that place and getting another place but Ron goes on stage and he hadn't been on stage in like a long time, like eight months or something like that. Went on stage and fucking murdered. Wow on stage in like a long time like eight months or something like that went on stage and fucking murdered wow murdered and then he comes off stage and he grabs me by the shoulders he goes whatever the fuck we have to do to keep doing that we're gonna do it that's great he goes get your fucking club open let's go and i was like god damn that's great

it was like he had electricity coming yeah yeah because that just goes show you, it doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter. That feeling, that feeling is what's important to us. There's nothing like it. It's also, you understand more than anybody how hard it is to put all that stuff together and to figure out a way to say it in a way that's going to get the laughs and resonate. That's really it. There's nothing like when you're sitting there and you're turning the bit,

however you're doing it, writing it out. I do notes on my phone, but you're like kind of saying it in your head. And then you're like that moment where you're like, I think I got something here. I think I really got something here. And then the satisfaction of taking that and trying it on stage and then getting the,

you're like, okay, I got it. I got a punchline. And it's like, now I'm going to keep coming. I don't know what your process is. Mine is I just keep coming at it. Just keep coming. Keep coming. Every morning, jokes.

Keep throwing jokes at it. Keep asking questions about it. And then when you have it, it's just, there's no feeling like it. Even fame, whatever. It's like money. It's like there's no feeling like having that bit and just having it murder like all the way through from beginning to end having a new tagline yeah that just yeah just something that simple yeah it's the best i really love it it's the best i really

love it do you write in front of a computer do you write on a notebook do you just write on your phone how do you do it i used to do journaling you know if i was like let me let me, you know, because coming up with premises, it's like, there's so many funny things that happen to us every day, or potentially funny things. It's like, just journaling makes you conscious of it, because there's so many things that slip by. Like on the way here, I had a knuckle, brass knuckles, but they're wood. I worked hilarities in Cleveland, and the owner, Nick Costas, he gives me a gift every time I do it. I don't know if he does it for everybody but the time before he gave me a baseball

bat and this time it was wooden brass knuckles. He's a great guy. It's a fantastic club. So he gives me these wooden brass knuckles and I'm going through security at Fort Lauderdale Airport to come here and they flag my bag and they bring it over and the guy goes, what's this

i immediately go nick costas hilarity i immediately give up his name and snitch i'll wear a wire i'll wear a wire i am a snitch for wooden brass knuckles yeah i don't know how though no they're not brass they're wooden and i don't know what um how it hijack a plane it's like take this to yemen or this guy gets a splinter you know so it's like uh but they were like and i was rushed so he's like do you want to check your bag or do you want you could just give it up i'm like i'll just give it you know i'll just give it up but it's like a brass like for them to take that i think they're wouldn't he gave him to me wouldn't because so they would get through security you know but for them to do it, but like my point is that journaling like I never would have thought twice about that But it's like journaling brings that out so sometimes I'll do that if I feel like nothing is happening

but then I'll take bits on my phone and I'll just like I went to jury duty and I'll just there's I'm like there's so many funny things here about jury duty, trying to get out of it, the way they threaten you in New York anyway. They go, you have to serve, or you're going to go to jail for a year. It's like, well, they're going to have to pick a jury for my trial.

Is it really the case you go to jail for a year? They say it's a year or a $60,000 fine or something like that. It's like, I don't know, maybe $60,000 was too high, but it's like a year in prison and a fine or both they the point is they threaten you hard to make sure that you go to jury duty oh my god it's like i don't know if this is how much faith i have in the justice system with you're threatening me a private citizen for a year to come to jury duty anyway so um you end up going and it's like as comics we're in this conundrum because it's like,

it could be a three week trial. It's like, yeah, I cannot serve for three weeks. I have road dates. Money is at stake. Flights are booked. Yeah. Like all of this stuff matters to me. Like I need this money.

So, you know, but they just don't care. There's nobody to call. There's nobody to complain to. So it's like you come and you check in and you just hope that you're not called into the thing so we're sitting there and we're just waiting so but that's like there's so many funny with emotions and feelings that come through there and like how do i get out of this right it's like i a felony a felony if you have a felony you can't serve it's like i could sucker punch the bailiff i I mean, it's like, that's a felony. He's supposed he's a cop. He's like, and you know,

it's like, and then you start punching that up and crafting it and then going in there. And what really happened is I went in there and they go, you know, we have a jury pool outside. We need to take them first. So instead of holding here, we'll see you guys tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have to fly out the next day. So I go to the bailiff. I go, Hey, I can see you guys tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have to fly out the next day. So I go to the bailiff. I go, hey, I can't come back tomorrow. I'm sorry. I have to fly out.

I cannot come back tomorrow. He goes, wait here. He goes, he gets a piece of paper and he goes, give this to holding downstairs. They might reissue you another date. They might cut you. So I go, all right. So I go down there. I give it to her.

She's like, give me a minute. Just sitting there waiting. And she comes back. She's like, see you in four years you're done you're cut oh i was like oh thank god but that whole thing like the tension of of that like that's i'll put that on my phone and i'll just keep coming keep coming at it yeah that's good that's a good way to do everybody has their own way you know right? Right. What's your way? I write in front of a computer. I sit down and I write. I write about subjects and it's a lot of wasted time. There's a lot of it that's fucking useless, but I have to find out where the jokes are. Right. So I'll write on a subject and I'll just start expanding on that subject and then I'll come up with one funny thing and then I'll take that

and I'll copy it and paste it into a new file yeah and then I'll write with that thing that like one paragraph that I think is funny and then I'll expand upon it and then I'll come back to it the next day and I'll smoke some weed and drink a cup of coffee and stare at it some more and then I'll write I write like basically an essay and then in that essay I'll find the funny stuff and extract it. It's not an efficient process because it doesn't come out looking like stand up. It's like basically

I'm farming premises. Right. And I'm doing it through just time and like forcing myself to sit in front of it. And so I do a lot of it at night which is kind of hard because I'm tired. And it's like, sometimes I'll like literally see myself like nodding out in front of the

computer while I'm writing. But if it's just one fucking line, like I have one line in one of my new jokes that came from that and it fucking murders. It's one line that's like a new bit. And this one line like defines that bit. And it came out of the middle of the night. It was like 2 o'clock in the morning and I'm just sitting there writing like, oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, oh, there it is. There it is. That's what I was looking for. I'm panning for gold. I love that. And then I'll find that and I'll copy and paste it and then I put them all on my phone. So then if you look at my phone, I go into like i have a material folder and it's all like stuff that i've written over the last few months that's great and it's like i go over those bits

and then i know which ones are in the act right now and then the ones that aren't in the act when i'm trying to add new stuff then i'll take that okay let's talk about this boom and then i'll put that up on the computer and then i'll start writing and then when I want something to be really memorized like the note the little post-it notes or the little index cards that's when I write down physically with my hand because that's what really commits it to memory writing something down it commits things to memory far better than any other way I think that's true so do you take a note card up with the new material on it or you're just developing, you know the beats in the bit?

Yeah, I don't bring notes on stage. I lay out those notes on the coffee table if I'm doing an arena or even a theater sometimes I'll do it. If I do it at a comedy club, I just have the notes on my phone because it's more casual. But when I do actual physical physical writing we're trying to come up with new ideas I can type way faster than I can write right and I don't have to look at my

fingers so I could just look at the screen and in the process of writing like if I'm sitting there I get into like a trance where I'm only thinking about the ideas right but it's hard because you get distracted you want to surf the web. Right, right, right. You want to look at YouTube videos. Right. You just got to like make, I'll like say, okay, you're not doing jack shit until you have 900 words.

That's great. And after you have 900 words, then you can fuck off and do whatever you want. Or not, depending on if you're hot, if you got something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You want to keep that. I mean, but I might get something one out of 10 times. So it's like nine times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's to keep that. I mean, I might get something one out of ten times. So it's like nine times.

It's a trudge. Right. But I know that if I do that ten times, then I'll have a bit that I didn't have before. But if I don't do it, that bit doesn't exist. Right. That's like the Steven Pressfield, the guy who wrote The War of Art. He talks about that like summoning the muse. And then if you are a professional and you sit down and you just do the work those ideas will

come to you but if you don't if you don't sit there and summon that muse they're not coming and i know it's a weird painful goofy uncomfortable process to just sit there and not have anything to say it's messy yeah the whole thing is messy but yeah that's the way to do it for me for me i also take notes like if something hits me during the day that I think is funny, even if it's not a joke, just something peculiar. I'll write it down in just general notes. But then I'll have topics like jury duty, working on this thing on the electric chair now,

and it's just like use that as a topic. It's like I got a couple of jokes that are working there. It's like why not keep coming at it it keep coming at it until it's a until it's a solid bit well it's the thing that we're talking about before it's like the process of getting good as a comic it's a long process and the more you can do like listening to sets watching sets you know watching other people perform writing the more you put in this overall time and hours that's going to manifest itself in in better performances and better material and better sets it's just there's no other way to do

it and like you know when i talked to shane about his act like i'm like dude your fucking material so good right yeah it's so exciting he goes it's all i care about he goes it's all really great yeah but that's that's why it's so good it's he cares so much. It's all he cares about, which is why it's so hot. Right. And that's the fucking thing, man. It's just how much attention and energy are you putting into it? Even if you're not going to sit down and write the way that you do, and you don't feel like it, maybe you traveled that day,

maybe something else happened. It's like just check in on them. Just check in on the jokes. Just see how they are. It's like maybe you have a cup of coffee and, just check in on the jokes. Just see how they are. It's like, maybe you have a cup of coffee and you're burned out. You did it, whatever. It's like, maybe just have a cup of coffee and check in. Just commit it to memory.

Commit it to thought. Get those ideas bouncing around in your head. It's a fucking process, man. And that's what I wonder. I wonder if ChatGPT is going to bypass that process. People are not going to need that anymore. I mean, hopefully I'm gone by that time. I hope to be out.

I don't know, man. I hope to be out. I don't know if we will be. I don't know if we will be. But I'm excited to have you at the show tonight. We're going to have a good time. There's two shows tonight, and then there's also two shows in the little room, too. We run four shows a night.

I can't wait to see it, man. It's exciting, my friend. So tell everybody about your special. How can't wait to see it, man. It's exciting, my friend. So tell everybody about your special. How can they get it? There it is. It's called Mike Vecchione, The Attractives,

and it was produced by Nate Bargatze, my friend, who gave me the opportunity to put it on his platform, the Nate Land platform. Where did you film it? In Nashville.

Oh, were you at Zany's? Nashville Zany's, yeah. Oh, that's great. They turned it in. It looks like a theater. Zany's people are just fantastic. Oh, that's fucking great They turned it in. It looks like a theater. Zany's people are just fantastic. Oh, that's fucking great. And 800-pound gorilla.

These guys did a great job. That's fucking awesome. Really looks good. Zany's is a great club. It's a really good place. That place is, the laughter soaked into the walls at that place. Yeah, it's unbelievable.

So you can find it on YouTube, Mike Vecchione, The Attractives. Can I plug my social media? Yeah, yeah, yeah. At Comic Mike V on all social media platforms, at Comic. Can I plug my social media? Yeah, yeah, yeah. At ComicMikeV on all social media platforms, at ComicMikeV. All right. Well, thanks, brother.

Thank you so much for having me, man. My pleasure. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate what you're doing. Very, very funny guy. Thank you, buddy. It's fun to see. And we're going to have fun tonight.

All right. Thanks, buddy. All right. Bye, everybody. Thank you.