This Past Weekend - E429 Dave Portnoy
Episode Date: February 7, 2023Dave Portnoy is an entrepreneur, media personality and the creator of Barstool Sports, one of the biggest publications for sports and pop culture content in the world. Dave Portnoy joins Theo Von o...n This Past Weekend to talk about his humble beginnings in Boston, taking risks, getting arrested at a Patriots game, how to handle controversy, and what it took to turn a small newspaper into one of the biggest media companies in America. ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com Podcastville mugs and prints available now at https://theovon.pixels.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://www.amazon.com/stores/CELSIUS/ShopNow/page/95D581F4-E14E-4B01-91E7-6E2CA58A3C29 BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/theo and get on your way to being your best self. Save 10% off your first month. Babbel: Go to https://babbel.com/theo to get 55% off your subscription. Babbel – Language for Life. ShipStation: Get a 60-day free trial at https://www.shipstation.com/theo. Thanks to ShipStation for sponsoring the show! DraftKings: Download the app NOW, use code THEO, new customers bet FIVE DOLLARS on UFC 284 and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS IN BONUS BETS INSTANTLY! This Saturday at DraftKings Sportsbook with code THEO. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. Gambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI/NJ/NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Void in ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply.  $200 in Bonus Bets: Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 bet. Promo code req. $200 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. Bonus bets must be wagered 1x and stake is not included in any returns or winnings. Promotional offer period ends 2/12/23 at 11:59 PM ET. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/mmaterms ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Producer: Ben https://www.instagram.com/benbeckermusic/ Producer: Alex https://www.instagram.com/mralexlagos/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Today's guest is the founder of Barstool and Barstool Sports.
He's a, I mean, he's a media legend.
He's kind of a revolutionary in a way.
He's kind of a dang Paul Revere for a lot of people.
He has a unique ability.
He makes you feel like anything is possible.
And I'm grateful to have him here today.
Today's guest is Dave Portnoy.
Yeah, we hired a guy strictly because he's a big fan of Barstool and Barstool and Barstool.
I mean, I hired a guy strictly because he's blind, but it was like, yeah, it was like
in the, like he interviewed, you know, it was a, it was wallpaper.
I mean, he was so boring, but he knew me is like, I have one thing that may sway you
like in my favor.
It's like, what?
He's like, well, I'm legally blind.
I'm like, well, like, can I make fun of you for it?
Like, is it open game?
He's like, yeah.
So we hired him.
Oh, wow.
He's still like, sort, he's still with us in a way.
Yeah.
Like to the point we thought he was faking it because like he knew that would get me.
So one day we just, and a bunch of people thought I was faking it.
So we called him up.
I'm like, I'm just going to like toss my wallet to him and see if he reacts, smacked him right
in the face.
It's the only time I felt bad and he was literally, literally blind, but he'd sit as
computer.
Like what you were saying with this huge magnifying glass, you tell him to do something and it
took him four hours.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was kind of a gimmick, but not the most productive guy to ever come down the street.
Yeah.
We interviewed a blind woman one time and it was pretty fascinating.
She said she remit like the E like she almost feels like a computer sometimes, like how
like she would remember the way she would walk to school and stuff like that.
So she lost her sight.
Yeah.
She had some sight when she was young and it wasn't a lot and then she lost it completely.
Yeah.
And so then she had to like, she said, she started to feel like a computer and the only
animal she didn't like, she said was a snake.
She said a snake doesn't give any feedback.
She's like, it just feels like, just like a piece of Satan, I guess.
Maybe it was born to be blind and I don't like snakes either.
Yeah.
That's the age old question.
Like would you rather, would you rather like, if you were blind, would you rather have been
able to see or never been able to see?
I think I would like to, if I'm going to be blind, I'm going all in.
I'm saying never.
I'm going to be blind because then you don't know what you're missing.
Yeah.
And then you can yell stuff.
You could use like, I don't want to say slurs, but you could probably say things that are
other people are going to be like, oh, he shouldn't say anything like, oh, he's blind.
You know?
He's blind.
Dave Portnoy, thanks for coming in, man.
Yep.
We don't know each other that great.
You know?
Definitely not.
Yeah.
Definitely not.
I feel like maybe we're...
I mean, we just met recently, really, for the first time, I think it was the, you know,
when was the first time we met was at the LSU tailgate, I think.
Yeah.
And then we saw each other a couple of times after that.
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
We're kind of like just sort of getting to know each other.
And you are...
You grew up in New York.
Wrong.
See, we don't know each other that well, Boston.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
But does Boston always have such a chip on their shoulder about New York?
It's almost like...it almost seems like there's more like...it seemed like New York, but with
more like kind of spousal abuse, kind of a little bit, locate, you know?
Yeah, I don't know.
I'd have to look up the stats on that one.
There's definitely animosity.
I don't know if it stems from like spousal abuse, but it's the...you know, New York...so
I grew up in Boston and everybody in New York is always like Boston is a little town.
Yeah.
Basically, it's not a city, it's a town.
You know, you...as a Boston guy, you kind of take offense to that.
And then we moved to New York, and New York, it is compared to Boston.
It's a small little city, but it's so close to the sports rivalry.
Reminds me, I was in Milwaukee, right?
And I did a pizza review, which I do, and I thought I was in Milwaukee, it's actually
in Racine.
Oh, yeah.
The Racine Bells from League of Legends.
Yeah.
League of Legends.
They're on their own.
I was actually...I didn't realize it until after, and I was mad.
I didn't know that.
I would have worked it in.
But Racine people were very upset that I was calling it Milwaukee, like, you're in Racine,
you're not Milwaukee.
It's kind of that vibe, Boston, you know?
Yeah.
Like, when you were growing up, what kind of school did you go to?
Like, what was it like when you were growing up?
Like...
Traditionalized, middle class, went to all public, like, Swamp Scott, just...the town
I grew up was called Swamp Scott, so I just went to the normal high school, normal middle
school, normal everything.
Like, my friends that I grew up with are still, like, really my best friends.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
And what was it like at your house?
Like, was your dad pretty cool, or what was he like?
No, he's definitely...I went to...cool is not the word.
Like, I would ever describe my dad as, he's like...my parents, I like the Seinfelds.
That's a better way to, like, Morty, you know, Morty, and he takes, by the way, great offense
to that.
Oh, he loves it?
No, he...if you're like, you're like Morty Seinfeld, when Morty Seinfeld does something
weird on site, he's like, no, I'm not.
What are you talking about?
But he is exactly like them.
They're kind of maybe the traditional, like, overprotective, like, Jewish, like, family,
parents, kind of, that's what they are.
Is it fun?
So you've been Jewish your whole life?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Is it fun being Jewish?
Like, what is it like?
Like...
No, I won't say it's fun.
It's nothing.
Like, I wasn't overly religious.
Right.
So, but it...no.
I wouldn't say it's fun.
You had a battle, you know?
I always, like, Jews, you know, there's more...everyone celebrates Christmas, like, far fewer do Hanukkah.
So, like, in the early days of our school, we had this guy, Kevin Clancy, gets the big
ass tree, you know, it's like, well, if we're gonna do a big ass tree, I'm gonna get a big
ass manure.
We had the biggest manure, like, ever made.
It had to be, like, put together in the office, just so we weren't getting, like, short-shifted
on it.
But, yeah, no, I don't really give a fuck.
I'm not overly religious.
I mean, you know, I'll stick up for Jews if we're getting, like, if Kanye is, like,
you know, Hitler wasn't that bad of a dude, I'll be able to hold on there, like, he kind
of was.
Like, I don't...like, well, he did rail...he did the highway system.
I'm like, yeah, but...
But he used it wrong.
Yeah, he killed a lot of us, too.
So I don't know that one plus one equals two or whatever, so.
But I'm not overly...but, like, shit like that, I will get involved, like, when people
are defending him, it's like, the guys out here, like, basically pro-Hitler, how can
anyone defend them?
So that shit I'll speak up on, but I'm not, you know, I'm not overly, like, a lot of the
holidays I don't follow and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's always one of, like, probably half of my closest friends are Jewish, especially
once you get to, like, LA or New York, you meet a lot more Jewish people.
They didn't have, like, a lot of Jewish people when I was growing up.
So...
We're running the media.
Yeah.
That's what they say.
I mean, yeah, I don't...I mean, there's so many Jewish people that work in the media.
I don't know.
I have no idea, you know?
It's like, I don't know who's...I don't know who's...if somebody's really running something.
I don't know.
No, well, I mean, it's like anything.
You can look.
I run Barstool Sports.
That's a media company.
I work my ass for it.
I mean, whatever.
I don't know if it's bad people or scumbags in every race, religion, creed, whatever.
Oh, yeah.
Jews get a bad rap, but a lot of people get bad rap.
So what do you know?
Yeah, I was just wondering, what is it like?
Like, does it feel...I wonder if it feels different being Jewish?
Does it feel like...
Like, do I wake up?
I'm like, damn, I'm a Jew.
No, I...
Or like, yeah, I guess...I don't know.
I guess I don't even know what I'm asking.
I guess I just...I guess sometimes wonder what it feels like.
Yeah, I guess like...
The thing about it, though, which I've always said, so...
Because Jewish people are very determined.
Jewish people like to create value in things.
Yeah, well, I think it's kind of like a family thing.
Like, they're very, very education, very hardworking, and put a premium on that, and then it shows.
But the thing about being Jewish, which I have always pointed out, we're getting deep,
but it's like, people say, you'll hear this a lot, like, what are you?
And someone will be like, I'm Italian, I'm fucking, you know, Russian, I'm Jewish.
Yeah.
But Jewish, like, if I wanted to change being Jewish, tomorrow I could.
It's not like a blood thing.
Jewish is a religion that you choose.
If someone wants to be Catholic, they can choose it in a second.
You can't change being, like, Italian.
That's what you are.
Like, if you're born from there.
So Jewish, it's kind of one of those things.
Over time, I think it's probably out of prejudice.
People make it sound like it's your blood.
It's fucking not your blood.
It's your religion that somewhere along the way somebody chose to believe.
But you can change it.
Like, I'm Russian.
My family is from Russia.
Oh, you are?
I could see that a little bit now.
Yeah.
And we don't, in my family, to be honest, we don't talk.
Like, I don't even know that much about the history.
I'm sure bad shit happened.
Like, most people don't leave their country just because.
Damn, you're Russian?
Yeah.
Yeah, Russian.
Dang.
Yep.
Wow, man.
That's great, man.
I don't know.
I knew this one Russian girl and she was so sexy, man.
And God, she invited me over one time and, like, she was sick or something.
I brought her some soup and she, like, was so aggressively trying to fuck that.
Well, she didn't feel well?
Yeah.
And so that, I was like, oh, what do you do here?
You know?
Like.
See, I'm such a hyperchondriac.
I would, I'd be like, not like you got to get healthy.
Well, that's kind of how I was.
I was so scared.
There's like, you know, I kept trying to lead her back to the soup and she kept coming for
me.
And, uh, and I got so scared because she was sick, but she was so like aggressive and
determined.
It's wild.
Yeah.
It was interesting, man.
And she actually went to jail.
I remember she hit me up like years later to come testify for her in something and I couldn't
make it.
All right.
I just wanted to sleep in honestly.
Yeah.
That's tough.
Like if you're being asked to testify and you're like, sorry, you must not have really
been that close with her to skip the, you know, skip the trial or whatever she was going
down for.
She's like, I need somebody to show up.
Yeah.
I guess, I guess my question is like, does it feel, do you feel a lot of pressure being
Jewish to be successful?
No.
No.
That's interesting.
No.
I don't feel pressure to be successful at all, but no, nothing to do with, if anything,
like I feel like there, no, there's a lot of successful Jews.
Yeah.
My parents weren't like, Hey, you're Jewish, you better be successful.
No.
Oh, maybe that's what it is.
Maybe I thought a lot of friends of my, a lot of my Jewish friends are successful, you
know?
And so it's like, um, yeah, I guess I've wondered, do I feel like that there's a pressure and
then all my Jewish friends are always saying that their moms are always driving them nuts.
So I guess I started to do that.
I started to put those things together.
I love my mother.
She's coming to the Super Bowl with me just to like probably get away from my dad for
a couple of days.
Well, like my mother's the type of woman.
And again, this is a typical, I do it like I go home, I'll go back to wherever I'm going
and you know, I open my like suitcase and they'll be like, geez, it's hidden in there
and like all sorts of gadgets.
Like she's just overprotective.
Like she doesn't, anything I say, I don't want that.
I don't do this.
I don't do it.
Like she's always, you know, if I could walk around a giant bubble, like that's what they
do.
Like my grandma, I remember one time I was looking at colleges and there was a plane crash.
We were driving.
Yeah.
And she called worried.
She's like, the plane crashed.
You're right.
Like we weren't, we weren't flying.
She's like, well, the plane could have landed on you.
Like that's the type of like thing, you know, just a little bit overly protective.
Okay.
Interesting.
But no pressure.
No pressure on that.
Yeah, I originally want to be like a gym teacher.
Like that was what I graduated actually college with and they would have been fine with it.
They've been supportive.
No pressure at all.
They're just, I think the Jewish thing from my, it's just most, it's just super intense
on like education, like do good in school.
Like if you, if you were fucking off on school, my parents would be like, what are you doing?
Right.
And I did fuck off a little bit at school, but that, they'd be in your grill about that.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah, cause I'm just curious, you know, I'm just curious.
And so do you like, did in high school, were you like kind of like a funny guy?
Were you like kind of like the guy who was like the student council leader?
Like what kind of like, what was some of your vibe in high school?
So yeah, I, I, I play sports hung out with like, or your Riz actually, which I learned
what it means from you and your TikTok.
I didn't know.
Yeah.
I didn't know that either.
Yeah.
You put those fucking kids up on game.
Fuck them.
Yeah, right.
Um, so this should give you a insight into like, I, and this is again, my parents being
like, you got to get your resume right for like going to college.
So I was the vice president of my class and that was like calculated because I didn't
want to do the work.
So I was like, I'm not going to run for president because then you got to do shit.
Vice president kind of skate, but put it on the resume.
So that's what I did.
And then I played sports.
So I was just, again, I'd say I ran in like the, the popular crowd by his friends with
a buddy.
Yeah.
A little bit funny.
Yeah.
You know, I couldn't get by and look.
So if you don't go looks, you go funny.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Trust me, dude.
I feel you.
I'm, I'm like an eight.
I've always been kind of like an eight and you got a fucking, you got an eight.
You got to come up with some jokes.
Yeah.
Like on looks.
I think out of a 10.
Yeah.
That's a fucking super high score.
I don't think you think it's that high.
Yeah.
Eight.
Eight.
So who's a 10?
Like, what's Matthew McConaughey?
I think he was a 10.
I think he's coming down a touch.
All right.
Let, let, let's, let's go somebody who's, I mean, look, the kid you work with, Josh
Richards.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, the guy is, yeah, I mean, he's an attractive woman on him.
I mean, he's.
Yeah.
No, he's a good looking guy.
He's like, he's the fucking, um, I'm sorry.
He's actually turned 21 yesterday, but he's like the, uh, Calvin Klein's model.
Is he?
Yeah.
He's doing Calvin Klein's like.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
So.
I'd put tits on him phone.
I know that.
I know he's a good looking kid.
He always is when I walked in with that original TikTok crew, he's, he's definitely a good
looking guy.
Smart kid too.
He looks like a mannequin.
There's a good picture of you guys together right there impersonating each other.
Yeah.
That was like the first time we met.
So we, that's when we watched this thing.
Where did you guys meet at, dude?
So do you know, you probably do know this guy, know this guy because he knows fucking everybody.
Do you know Michael Gruen?
Michael Gruen.
Nobody's.
Bruin.
Bruin.
No.
I feel like this dude knows everybody.
So there he is.
No, but he looks like kind of like a.
So basically I was on Twitter one day and Dixie DeMello, yeah, she broke up with her
boyfriend at the time.
You may not.
These were, these are huge.
Yeah.
I know she is.
Yeah.
So she was like the original kind of it girl on TikTok.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it broke into Twitter.
Okay.
And they broke up.
They broke up with people.
Gruen, who is Josh, uh, Richard's manager reached out, he's like, Hey, he'll explain
it to you.
Want to do a Instagram live with him.
So like, sure, we did it.
And I was surprised.
We kind of like had some chemistry, like, who is this kid, Snapchat reached out after
we did that.
Like, would you guys do a show on Snapchat?
I had no interest because I wasn't like Snapchat just wasn't where I want to be.
TikTok, I knew was something.
It's like, I'm sure you view the world at times like, all right, I got to get my name.
Like who are these kids on TikTok?
Right.
I mean, Barstool had been around for a while, but nobody knew us on TikTok cause a younger
demo.
So to me, partnering with him who was big on TikTok is like, all right, that's going
to get me, Barstool, maybe this new audience and that's where it came from.
He wanted to get maybe a little more credible with like an older crowd who had been around.
I want to get the TikTok crowd to know who we were and that's where it came from.
It's great.
Yeah.
I came on that show.
So Michael Gruen is his manager.
He was.
He was.
Okay.
Yeah.
He was connected people.
Yeah.
You know, I still hear from once.
He's a clue.
Yeah.
When I first met him, no joke to Gruen, the first thing I said to him was he was the most
obnoxious human I ever met.
Is he really?
He grew on me, but he can come across as sandpaper when you meet him, but I do like him now.
He's growing on people, huh?
Yeah.
Well played.
Oh, wow.
And yeah, I would like to maybe meet that guy, but then yeah, it's interesting if people
kind of get on to your nerves, you know, I had this dude that used to kind of, would
always kind of bite the air a little bit.
He had a little bit of a, just a little hitch in him, you know, like, uh, like Val Kilmer,
like Iceman.
Like that.
Like he was eating a berry off a tree or something, you know, and he would do that just every
now and then.
And like, you can deal with it for a while, but after about that fiftieth berry, you got
to fucking shut him down or you got to leave the room.
Do you know the part I'm talking about with Iceman and Top Gun?
Uh-uh.
I was like, uh, that's right, Iceman.
I am dangerous.
I just bite the air.
Oh, he does that?
Yeah.
He bites the air.
Yeah.
Classic.
Um, so in high school, so yeah, I could, I could see that, man.
I could see you.
Did you feel like you had kind of like that?
So obviously you knew that you could kind of relate to everybody then a little bit?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because sometimes as you get a little, you start to learn just some of your skills,
you're like, oh, I kind of can fit in wherever.
Yeah.
I was pretty good at that.
Did you have a lady in high school or no?
No, no, I was, uh, no, uh, no, I wasn't.
I wasn't good looking.
I didn't really do great with the girls at all in high school.
What about like for dances or anything?
Did you ask a lady out ever?
Like, do you remember like the first date you ever went on or anything like that?
First date?
No, I don't.
I mean, I remember obviously going to like proms.
I know who I went to proms with and shit like that.
But no, I didn't really, uh, I had very little, if any, success in high school.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was a blue eye, your handsome guy.
Yeah.
I don't know.
No.
Well, first of all, I went through it.
Like there's a whole fat day of stage.
Not that wasn't in high school, but I mean, I, I'm getting back to it because I'm getting
old.
But yeah, no, it's the truth.
I tell you, you always hear like, you know, good looking people be like, no, I didn't do
anything.
Like I was ugly and like high school.
No, I, I was like, I'm not like, though, I don't believe the good people like John
Hamm.
Like, oh, I have it rough.
My dick's too big.
You know, like, no, that, I really didn't do well in high school.
Yeah.
I used to wear like an 80 gauge underpants just to hold them up.
Yeah.
Like that kind of shit.
Yeah.
I hate that.
Um, yeah.
Do you remember like even just like, what about your first kiss in high school?
It had to have happened, huh?
Yeah.
I, I'm trying to think, who did I kiss first?
Uh, I don't even know if I remember it.
Couldn't have been anything.
What do you mean, dude?
You were a document tour of, no, I don't know.
It couldn't have been that memorable.
I'm honestly trying to think I don't, I don't know if that's like sad or what, but I, I
honestly can't remember.
Wow.
Yeah.
Some people I remember locked us in this room and they had this girl and she had like
a chip tooth.
She had that kind of, that Lloyd Christmas on her, you know, or at least the Christmas
coming.
Your first kiss.
It was like, were you playing like spinning the ball locked in a room or you just locked
in the room?
No, some disang, like kind of pervy older kids are like, you better get in there and
fucking kiss.
You know what I'm saying?
We're going to jerk off out here.
And we're like, Jesus Christ.
All right.
It took a turn.
And so, uh, but she had that Lloyd Christmas or at least she had the Lloyd.
She had like that Lloyd Christmas Eve.
It was like a less of a chip, but she had that thing.
And I remember God, she was also, she was like the first girl I ever remember really
like seeing with my eyes and she was, her name was Chrissy and she was beautiful.
I thought and just bite the teeth.
Yeah.
And so we had to sit next to each other and just kiss.
Um, what about the first time you had sex?
You remember it?
That I do.
Yeah.
We were talking.
That's a little different than like a kiss.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It wasn't great.
You know?
Oh yeah.
Dude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When did it happen?
College freshman.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Big Dave getting out there, dude.
Upgrading from, it was a girlfriend.
Yeah.
Okay.
Was it at a party or was it like kind of a, uh, no, it was actually at, so it, it was
at my house.
It was actually summer going into college.
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, dude.
I, I love, like, I love thinking about like those kind of like just like times when we're
young and stuff like, yeah, there was nothing like that time getting ready for college.
And then I almost feel like that was a time you feel like you had to like, you had to
get sex active.
If you were going into college.
It was a college and you don't really know what you expect.
Yeah.
No, I mean.
It was like a romantic thing.
Did y'all go to.
No, it was romantic.
It was definitely romantic.
She was my girlfriend.
So it was romantic.
That's cool.
That's cool, man.
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Yeah, dude, I ended up, the first time I ever hooked up was actually behind a bowling alley
in our town.
Yeah, mine was, sounds more romantic than that.
Yeah.
Potentially.
Yeah.
Oh, it was.
Mine, people were throwing rocks at us, dude.
And it was like, yeah, it was like trying to fuck on the Gaza Strip or something.
People were fucking, it was like, it was hard.
So were people like watching if they're throwing rocks at you?
I wouldn't say they were watching, but they were checking in a lot.
Yeah.
You know?
No, mine was not like that.
Mine was probably pretty traditional.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude.
I remember one time I got so nervous, some girl and I tried to have sex and I just couldn't,
I just like, I remember just, I ended up ejaculating and, and then she left and she was embarrassed.
She climbed out of my window in my room too.
I remember she was afraid to even like leave through the living room, I think.
Oh, it was fucking embarrassing.
Because why?
I think.
Why did she go through the window?
I think she was maybe just, I don't know.
I think it was just, the whole thing was a lot for everybody.
I think everybody was kind of, didn't know their way around the world right after it.
It was just, it was like, we planned on it, we were excited and then I just, and so then
you're sitting there with all, and you literally have your shame is right there like in a liquid.
Yeah.
You know, it's like, Hey, here's it.
You're talking if you, if you bust, you're not fast.
Oh yeah.
I mean, I ejaculated immediately into my hand.
We're guys.
Yeah.
That's scientifically means you're like a good, right?
Yeah.
After the better.
That's, that's how we're programmed.
That's true.
If we were like in the jungle days or something, we would be.
Do it.
Move on.
On to the next.
That's how it goes.
That's efficiency.
I'd be Elon bust.
Yeah.
I'd be fucking.
It's true.
Yeah.
But yeah, I think at that point, everybody was so just confused.
People weren't even using the doorway anymore.
Like it was just that kind of thing, you know?
Actually, if you pull up, look up a bowling alley, bowling in St. Tammany Parish.
This place looks like it's the fucking bowling capital of the world.
A lot of bowling alleys in a very short area.
Yeah.
If you look on that one, Tiffany Lane's at 3.4 stars.
Just click on that one.
If you, oh man, there's a review somewhere and somebody wrote, so you can go to the first
review on there.
Oh, it's closed down.
Yeah.
Somebody sent me the other day.
It says like, sometimes there's like, oh, there you go.
This was like the top question on there.
I'm here because of, oh, Theo Vaughn became a man behind this building.
It was just a crazy thing.
One of my friends said, hey, I'm looking for a place to bowl locally and this came up.
And the top thing says that Theo Vaughn became.
So it's like a known fact.
This is where you lost your Virginia.
Picking up splits.
In America's.
Love it.
Interesting, man.
Yeah.
I was just kind of wondering like what maybe you were like when you were younger, you know.
Yeah.
It's like I said, traditional.
I don't very, very forgettable, probably a lot of, a lot of people like me, normal, normal
grown, played sports, ran with like the, the part of the crowd in school, but just one
of the guys.
Yeah.
You love sports now.
It seems to be like something you really love.
Do you really, really love it?
Do you love just the gambling?
Do you love sports?
Yeah.
So I always love sports.
I love gambling.
Right.
And obviously it's what we do now.
So that worked out.
Like before I started Barstool, I was trying.
I want to get into that industry.
Right.
Yeah.
I flew out to Vegas, tried to do all the stuff.
So it's worked out perfectly for me.
I'm probably like one of the few guys who's made money through gambling.
Most people get wiped out.
So yeah.
No, I'm a big sports fan and obviously it's been a core part of what we do.
So it makes me like I'm not, maybe I'm not getting arrested and going to jail.
If we're not doing Barstool, I'm not like that crazy if I was just sitting around as
a normal fan.
Okay.
But I love sports.
Yeah.
Boston sports guy through and through.
Yeah.
Do you think that they should have legal gambling like everywhere?
Because I know you guys work with, your gambling site is understates.
Barstool Sports.
So it's Barstool Sportsbook.
Okay.
Barstool Sportsbook.
Yeah.
And they even have bars like, I was in Baton Rouge and they have like a Barstool Sportsbook
bar.
In the casino.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because so we were bought by a company called Penn and they have LaBerge.
We also have like standalone.
So we're actually getting one here in Nashville.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
They'll be a Barstool Sports bar.
It's where like the old Joe's Crab Shack used to be.
Oh, nice.
So it's a good spot.
So I think it will eventually go most states, but it, so gambling became legal to bet on
sports outside of Vegas, maybe two years ago, two and a half, something like that.
They repealed some federal law and now it's up to the state.
So they just decide state by state.
So I think we're live in like maybe 11 or 12 states.
And do you lobby for that somehow or are you just, that's just let the world do that?
Our parent company lobbies for it and all the different companies that are involved
in it lobby for it.
And then there's people lobby against it.
So I have nothing to do with it.
But yeah, there's a lot of politics and going around it with that.
Do you get more joy out of making like a big wager on one thing or hitting like a crazy
parlay?
You know?
I don't do as much as parlay.
So like betting on one thing, winning it.
I mean, I've bet my whole life.
So it's just, but yeah, no, it's, I love it.
I love gambling.
Yeah.
You like to gamble.
Like, do you feel like that that's just like a thing you like to do just with sports or
even like kind of with everything, like you kind of like to go kind of like the alternate
route a little bit?
Yeah.
It's I definitely even barstool.
Like I think being an entrepreneur kind of is like gambling different, different respect.
But I saw our barstool with nothing really and everything we made, we put back into it
for the most part work.
But you know, we did concert.
I thought we're going out of business at one point because that put all our money into
like a concert tour and it kind of who was it, like third eye blind or something?
No, believe it or not.
So we did this thing.
We had never left downtown Boston ever and and I was like, all right, we got to see if
we're big outside of Boston and we had liquor sponsors at the time and they were like, well,
you know, we can't sponsor you if you're going to colleges and we're like, well, what
if we make it a music tour?
Could you?
They said, yeah.
So we had this kid Sam Adams.
It kind of blew up and he's got some big songs.
We did it.
We did six, six stops and it went really well, bigger than we ever thought.
And I looked at it.
So we originally thought we're going like frats and we go to UMass and the actual school
calls are like, hey, we're getting all these requests for tickets.
What is this?
So we went from the frat to the actual like Mullen Center, which is the gymnasium sold
out in a second.
My brain's going to the business side, it's like, hey, if I can recreate this with like
big talent, I may be onto something.
So we had a music tour is headlined by Mike Posner.
Do you remember like cooler than me at the time?
I saw Mike two weeks ago.
Yeah.
So that song just came out.
He was the headliner.
It was him, Wale, I had Mac Miller for 1500 bucks.
That's how much we were paying him to play.
So he was the third guy coming up on it and nobody fucking.
Well, people bought tickets, same amount as the first time we went around.
It turned out our crowd, they weren't coming necessarily for who we're booking.
They're coming because Barstool was on it.
We got fucking wiped out.
I actually hated Posner.
He didn't promote the shit.
He didn't promote it all, not his fault, his agent's fault.
So that was a disaster.
And then we moved from that because it was kind of like, all right, if people are coming
for Barstool, not the talent doesn't really matter and we went into EDM.
So you lost your butt on that?
Smoked.
Because you had to pay the act so much?
Pay the act and I rented the buildings.
So we were going.
I was paying like.
Yeah.
The big on that building.
Like a hundred grand or something a night and we weren't doing it.
I thought I was going to have to pay the full thing.
We had to cancel a lot of the shows.
So that was a disaster and then we came up with something called the blackout tour, which
essentially was a DJ playing EDM music.
This is at the infancy of EDM and it exploded.
Like to the point we had, I bought all our own production.
You could go to an EDM show.
It looked like ours.
We had a full crew doing it.
I thought.
And were you into it?
Were you like doing the pills and everything?
Were you like partying?
No, we had, I would, we did three shows a week throughout the country.
Like we had a whole crew driving around, setting up the lights, renting venues.
I thought, I thought I was going to become so rich that I'd be like Bezos and retire.
We were clearing like 250 grand a show.
It was nuts and we weren't paying for talent.
So we're charging 50 bucks a ticket, selling out literally.
And it was just like an EDM party show.
So this crew, so you guys were just in Boston and this crew is now traveling doing shows
for you.
Correct.
Like, have you ever heard of there's a festival like bamboozle?
It's a big festival in New Jersey.
So the Bonnaroo bamboozle is like one of those type things.
And we were on a call with Live Nation, I'll never forget this call, like we want you to
close the last music they had was Bon Jovi, like we want you to come on after Bon Jovi
and close it.
Like we'll pay you 250 grand just to show up.
And before we could say anything, like we know it's not a lot of money, it's cheap,
but you'll introduce your music to so many new people.
And I was like, wait, wait, we don't have music.
We're talking about, there's no one to, like, what do you mean you have no music?
The only thing they saw was our ticket sales in their system.
Whenever we put tickets, they were gone in 10 seconds.
So we like did that, turned into a phone thing, but that was because of the barstool
name again.
Correct.
So you're still like, we're just selling EDM.
Yeah, dude, because where I'm from, if somebody showed up with damn two laser lights and a
fucking flood beam, dude, people would pay $50 and get out there.
They went nuts for it.
They went and it was like we had Avicii like playing our thing for like no money.
It was before the DJ thing took off.
Okay.
So you did actually have talent coming to this.
Yeah, we rotate, but we won't pay a lot.
We paid maybe two grand for Avicii.
It was before the DJ boom.
Then the DJ boom started happening and a couple of things happened.
We had our name and we're always sort of controversial, but if somebody OD'd at EDM Vegas, we would
be mentioned.
It'd be like barstool blackout or part of this and people would be calling me.
Just went through the roof and news crews were following like our production around
just looking for controversy.
So the whole thing as quick as it came, it disappeared.
So because of insurance, really?
Insurance, EDM, it went from there'd be one EDM show at a college a month to there were
three a week and we were playing Avicii's music and Avicii was going to be there tomorrow.
So a whole host of factors.
And I was investing.
This is the gambling part.
Every cent I made, I'm like, let's get the next biggest laser.
Let's get this.
Let's get that.
So we put it all back in.
At the end of the day, we're probably net even.
We didn't make money.
We didn't lose money.
Wow.
When it comes to the business sense, was that a tough thing to realize?
Even just as my own business and world has grown, it's tough sometimes to realize, especially
if you don't come from a lot, to reinvest in stuff.
Is that always, I mean, obviously in that instance, it kind of evened out.
But is that like been a tough thing for you to realize or is that like, what?
No, for me, that's been like, that's just something I think that's in my blood that
goes back to the gambling.
Like I've made money.
I don't think I need money.
Like I didn't have any for a long time.
Not that I was like living like I could eat, but no, I just have a risk taker of personality.
So I never, I'm always like pushing things into the middle.
Now I'm at a different stage in my life.
So when I risk it all now, I've been doing this for 20 years, be like, if I thought
there was a huge opportunity, I'm going to put everything back, probably not.
But at that point, we're still pushing.
Yeah.
That's so cool, man, because you kind of became like this guy who's like, I'll fucking put
it on the table right now, you know, even throughout like the pandemic and stuff, like
the way you were like kind of, you know, you were championing, like keeping small businesses
open and what are we doing here?
Not afraid to interview Trump or to talk about, you know, conservative like views or even
look at them, you know, when, when a lot of the world was like mainstream media was like
kind of shunning them.
Do you get, is that kind of a little bit of the high?
Cause I'm just wondering like, cause gambling is kind of a high, but there's a little bit
of high and fucking gambling with yourself as well.
Yeah.
That's always, you know, we never look for fights with that stuff.
I'm pretty, I'm pretty much a free speaker.
I have had to tone it down, uh, which is I got a lot of haters out there and I always
say that probably the number one benefit they have that they don't realize is that pen,
the gambling kind of bought us because we are regulated.
So it's, it's the first time since I've been doing barstool, people can sort of get at
me through a side door, like I don't care what you fucking say about me.
I really don't.
And I have thick skin and if you're going to come at me, I'll come at you.
Like I've done things that not, like I've staked out fucking a New York times reporter,
like who was, I know digging through my fucking past and life and trying to like really write
a nasty hit piece about me.
It's like, if you want to fucking talk to me, let's fucking talk.
And I wait, I did like a 48 hours.
Like I literally parked my car with my camera guy outside the house for like six hours and
just waited for them to come out, ran out and like confronted them.
Um, I like doing that.
I like.
I just, it's like I'm a confrontational person by nature.
So that, that part of me has always been there.
I have had to tone it down a little bit because I don't barstool so much bigger than just
me now and what I do does affect other people.
Um, and I see it like I go on Fox news, I'll go and talk to Carlson and he knows I'm not
overly like political, but every time I go on there, that affects how people view the
whole company and some people may have different views, whatever.
So that, that I do sort of pay attention to, it still doesn't affect necessarily what I
do.
Like people are mad within our company that I interviewed Trump, right?
But you know, you're going to make decisions you think are right at the time.
Yeah.
Dude, it was a fun, that interview was so funny man when he was like, you're like, you ever
just rattle off a tweet and then just kind of, he's like, I still think I'm the only
guy who's ever gotten him to say like, yeah, I regret something.
He was, he's like, yeah, I do regret it.
I don't know that he's ever been like, I regret something in his life except for that.
Yeah.
It was so good.
But he's like, yeah, you know, you just write it and go to sleep.
And then you wake up and you're like, what the fuck did I write?
He's like, yeah, I've done that.
I've done that.
He was, listen, people have such strong opinions about him.
I think right off the bat, he kind of realized I wasn't like out to be like, gotcha.
So he was, he was good with me.
He was down to earth.
He was, he was not like his guard wasn't up.
It was surreal experience.
Oh, yeah.
I can only imagine.
Watching, watching that interview and watching you sit there, I'm like, God, dude, that
would be so like, first of all, Dave's doing this, you know, like he's actually going and
like, you know, whereas everybody else was just like making fun of Trump or not even
giving him a chance.
I mean, mainstream media did not, I mean, he didn't help himself at certain points,
but they didn't help him out of the gate or give him a chance, but you're right there.
It's sort of, there's definitely a similarity with him and how it's like, if you come at
him, he'll be a dick 10 times harder back to you.
When you're president, that can cause like issues like, I have so many things that people
still bring up with me and they'll bring up quotes or whatever, and somebody who came
after me and I'm being like so sarcastic and an asshole back to them, and then they take
what it is.
So I see it, but you're right, he's, you know, he's the, he was the president.
So like, I'm not the president.
So I can do a lot of things, I'm not trying to be presidential.
And I think some people are like, well, you should be, and he, he's a totally different
cat.
Oh, I remember when he was running, I thought right at the beginning, I was like, he's going
to win.
I was like, he just sounds like he just, it seemed like it's not a part of a bigger plan,
you know?
But then I wonder once he got an office, did, is it just too convoluted in there or was
he just kind of overshooting his own mark or did, you know, that's what I kind of wonder,
because in the beginning, he was kind of like, even though he wasn't really like this came
from nothing kind of guy, he was kind of talking to a lot of people that I think felt under
represented or, you know, people who want some tradition in the country, you know.
And it's like he was dismissed by so many people.
And I think that almost made him more popular with the people he was resigning like any way
you look at, he won the election.
So there's a large, large, large portion of the country he was speaking to and people
are so dismissive.
If you weren't on his side, if you like Trump, you're like a racist asshole idiot.
Yeah.
Like so crazy.
So you're saying like more than half the country are those people now, I'm sure there's definitely
a subsection within his demo that do fit that description, but certainly not everybody.
And you just paint everybody with one brush and actually made them more popular doing
that.
Oh, for sure.
But he's intentionally divisive, which, you know, I want people to get along.
So that's where I kind of lose it.
Like, and it's not just him.
It's both sides.
It's like, you need somebody who at least honestly wants to bring people together.
And that, I don't know who that's going to fucking be.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
You do.
And it's not Biden because he's so dismissive of the people who do like Trump.
It's like, they're just, everything's now, it is.
So that sucks.
It is.
It takes away almost half the dating pool.
I think for a lot of people too.
I think about that sometimes.
It does.
You know, like it used to be, you know, every, it used to be, it didn't matter so much.
If someone like you'd have husbands and wives at a different political, it was just kind
of whatever.
Yeah.
No, it's toxic now.
It's gotten weird.
Would you ever run for like a governor or something?
Fuck no.
I ran for mayor of Boston.
Oh, you did.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
I tried to, they fucking blackballed me.
So, I'm always Boston shit.
They did.
They did.
This is, I'm telling, I was doing that black.
People get blackballed, all kind of stuff.
I was doing the blackout tour they told you about.
Okay.
So we rented these venues.
House of Blues is a venue of Boston, like 3,000 people.
We sold it out, I think seven straight days in like 30 seconds.
We were doing it.
So there's a ton of schools in Boston.
So like, hey, Monday, it's a BU Barcel blackout, Tuesday, BC, Wednesday, Northeastern.
So all the kids at each school would buy it, sold out instantly.
The police were so fucking, like, bat, they were breathless.
Have you ever heard of kids getting breathless in line, going down the line?
If we sold 3,000 tickets, like 20 kids got into the show.
Everyone else too drunk, this, that.
I was like, this is fucking bullshit.
So, I'm like, I'm going to run for mayor, so they can't do this shit to me anymore.
And you had to basically get, what was it, like 12,000 signatures to get on the ballot.
Now, there's two parts of the signatures.
You had to be able to read the signature and the person had to be a registered voter.
I hired a full blown agency that you have professional people get it, like get the signatures.
We had like 20,000, they just ruled 10,000 of them didn't count.
There's no way to appeal.
There's no nothing.
So I didn't make it onto the ballot.
But yeah, I was like trying to do it.
That's wild.
But other than that, no.
Who needs that?
I don't, who would ever, I've used this quote, like the movie Gladiator, when Maximus, it's
the king or wants Maximus to be the leader of Rome.
He's like, no thanks, dude.
Who wants that headache?
And he's like, that's exactly why you have to do it.
Who would, who in their right mind would want to be in politics?
Well, like the person who want politics should be somebody who's not doing it for ego, who
truly cares about like the well-being of the people, not doing it to money, get rich.
None of the politicians do that.
Because why would you?
Like I never understood that with Trump.
Like you're this rich dude, nobody really hates you.
Like people actually kind of loved you on the apprentice.
Like you have no ill will, he's gonna go down as one of the most hated dudes who ever lived.
Like why?
He just, I guess ego.
Like, yeah, maybe that's ego.
I mean, I could see it.
If somebody could say you get to be president, everybody wants to be, you know, or a little
bit.
For you?
I mean, maybe for like, you know, a couple hours, I don't know if I would do a full term.
You know, like I think I'd want to be in the office and like walk down and see like the
long curtains.
Well, that's ego.
Yeah, that's ego.
Yeah, that's it, which is cool.
But the amount of hate and the like, I get so much hate and it's all political.
Like people who don't like me always, if you don't like Dave Porter, I can go to your Twitter
and within three, you have something political on your timeline.
And it's like, who needs that?
Now, I don't know how isolated like these guys are.
Like when I went and visited Trump, you know, everyone's so pro-Trump, it's like he maybe
doesn't even, the hate doesn't get to him on a level.
I don't know.
But no, I won't never run.
Yeah.
But do you think 10 years from now, you're like, I am not fucking around you.
No fucking way.
Wow.
No.
I would, I mean, I guess part of me would like to see you have, but then also, I sometimes
feel like politics is just this like, it's this, this shell company for actual real leaders,
which is a lot of it is in the tech world these days.
Yeah.
And even if you look at like, you mentioned the Barstool Fund, which we gave away 50 million
basically.
Wow.
Like the government couldn't do that.
They move so fucking slow.
Oh, it's horrible.
They actually want to get stuff done, it's way easier to do it the way I did it, which
is we just set it up 24 hours later, the money's going in, and the second the money
comes in, the money's going out, they did, the government basically did nothing for like
small business.
They're still talking about now and so much fraud with the PPP and shit like that.
So I don't know.
It's hard.
Yeah.
And if you really want to get stuff done, you can get stuff done not within, you know,
the government.
Well, it's almost becoming more like that, I think, in America these days.
It's like, there's all the, like, you know, there's a few kinds, there's less companies,
there's less mom and pop places, there's just a few larger companies.
What sucks.
Oh, totally, man.
It's ridiculous.
I wish we had never done so much globalization.
I don't know a lot about that kind of stuff, but it's like, you know, the kid down the
street, it used to be their dad worked at the factory in the town and they were proud of
like, if their dad's factory made tables, they were proud of the table they had in their
house.
My dad made this, you know, and there was like a sense of like, you were doing something
now, your table comes from China, you have no idea, the dad's doing pills, the kid is
in the other room, you know, cooking pills.
And then there's a guy in China making a table is to get shipped off.
He never sees it.
They're just like, I mean, it's kind of a very small example, but no, that was as small
as we look for like generational and that was what is so sad about it.
Like nobody's helping these people.
It really was crazy.
It's like, Hey, you can't have customers, right?
But we're not going to give you the money.
So like, what do they think is going to happen?
Like that, that to me was always the wildest part.
Yeah.
And again, I mean, you've built up your career over the time.
The Barstool was the same.
I always looked at like, I worked my dick off to get where I was.
And then if something that's so far out of control and it's just vanishes like that and
nobody's there to like, that is what the government in my mind, that's what it's fucking for.
Like that is what we're paying taxes on this shit.
It was nowhere to be found.
If you want to keep shit closed, fine, but you better figure out how to take care of
the people who need things to be open or let people make their own decisions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree.
I mean, I go to a lot of like recovery meetings and stuff and they closed all those recovery
rooms, right?
Right.
That's crazy.
Bro, I had no joke.
I had five, maybe six friends that overdosed and died during the pandemic, right?
Died like, and it was, and people were like, well, it's not cause, but they need those
rooms.
Like they just fucking shut it down.
Like, what do you think people, I'd rather have COVID than, you know, overdose.
And to me, all that was always my point.
It's like, you let, let people decide.
Right.
Like if you were, you know, like my parents or whoever, like scared of COVID, you do
have the option of staying inside, like nobody's coming into your house.
You can, you can live your life pretty safely.
I get it.
I mean, it was crazy fucking.
It's like a horror movie.
Who knows?
Yeah.
Funerals over zoom.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, what the fuck is going on?
It's crazy.
It's crazy time.
Yeah.
Crazy time.
And then I talked to my friends in Mexico and they're like, yeah, nobody's doing shit
down here, dude.
We're fucking partying.
We're shooting each other.
We're fucking having a blast, you know?
We're drinking.
We're shooting each other.
I mean, not, you know, not shoot, you know, or you probably grazing each other, but there's
a lot of violence down there.
Um, today's episode is brought to you by better help.
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restrictions apply void in Ohio see show notes for details you've had some like dude you've
done a really good job of like hiring like really neat talent like guys like Caleb big
cat who's your you know if you hired him or he was a partner no no we hired him okay yep
you know Glenny balls Wow was there Caleb big cat and Glenny balls and put in getting
put in that category is pretty fucking high level for their better guys I don't know and
big Freddie or whatever who's the guy that's like the tank yeah that yeah yeah wait listen
we've hired a bet the under on him huh he's a big dude he'll surprise you that's like
you don't think he'll fit in an airplane seat and he can't so he'll he'll shock you we
had Jenna marbles do you know her yeah yeah she came from us really yeah dude I was in
love with her dude yeah hired her of a tanning salon oh I could see that McAfee Pat McAfee
was us really yeah we've had we have a pretty good like roster how do you pick talent like
do you like now obviously people end up usually speaking mostly of people's successes right
do you feel like you've had a good eye for it or do you feel like you've had just as
many hits and misses what do you think no we definitely have a good eye for it we have
misses for sure I think though the biggest thing we have an eye for it and we don't control
people at all so you know we hire somebody and there's like you do you and and hopefully
they find out where like Caleb use an example like we saw him he was running up and down
the sidelines of North Carolina he was like because they wouldn't because he never started
yet and he wasn't even uniform his title was like I think the professor of morale or director
of morale so he had his blonde hair he'd wear like a ex North Carolina professional football
player was now in the league their number and we saw him on TV like who the fuck is
this kid we had him on one of our shows like oh he's got a weird brain that's what we say
like we look for weird brains yeah guys and we hired him and it's like yeah do whatever
you want and you know he kind of he was always talented and funny bounced around kind of trying
to find his niche and then he the Sunday conversation which is now his kind of trademark thing and
is great that took a couple years for him to like fit that exact perfect role and we
just let people sort of do that so I think it's the combo we have a good eye for talent
but more so we we are so free and letting and I don't know if that's just we're lazy
or whatever but we never tell people right what to do it's like you're hired we'll give
you the resources do whatever you want and we've had a lot of hits because of it like
PMT which is big cat yeah dude like that was all his idea I mean totally like I thought
podcasts when when I first heard about podcasts a guy Kevin Clancy has been with us forever
oh yeah yeah like that's a stupid idea podcast you'll never make money doing that but they
fucking did it and obviously they were smarter than me right our daddy that came from us yeah
yeah Alice Cooper so yeah we've had a lot of a lot a lot of big big successful people
that really were I mean McAfee played in the NFL but no one knew him on the media side
a lot of big people that million dollars worth of game is a huge like urban podcast with
us right now so yeah we've had a lot of big successes was there someone that you can you
turn the heat on I broke out my scarf game for that I want I want to become a scarf
guy yeah really yeah oh that's a move yeah like yeah it is this is the first time kind
of debuting going with it but yeah it's good I took I was taken off in the car I'm like
you know what I'm gonna try and maybe get into the scarf phase of my life there is something
nice it feels like it almost you feel a little bit regal or you feel like at least they'll
let you in a department store and I'm starting to like fat it kind of like you say that on
a video the other day you were saying how like yeah I'm sorry I put on weight it comes
at the age so it's like I I've been eating doing the pizza thing forever my shoulders
all fuck so yeah I think it's just you know life yeah was there a was there a higher or
a fire something because I wanted to say this yeah Caleb whenever I got to know Caleb one
thing he raves about is that he loves working for you yeah he he's he's been great I think
I mean he genuinely like you know what I'm saying like some people say my job but he
has I mean he absolutely loves it I think it's two things for him that probably he likes
working for us me is the freedom which I just said and I always do what I say so I have
the back of the talent as much as I can always but like if I say something it's it's bond
I actually think in his contract he has something like when Penn bought us he's like if there's
a disagreement between Penn and me or something like Dave gets to make the final decision
he just so he just trusts that he is good to work for somebody where you you know you
can trust like they have your best interest and I do and some people may not like what
I say or do but I'm pretty straightforward and the track record is like there like 20
years I've been pretty consistently straightforward honest truthful yeah is there a hire or a
departure that you regret or that you like somebody that you let go or anything or did
you have any no I mean we hired Mike Rappaport this is a big fucking I don't like that guy
right now he doesn't like me he doesn't like me that was at the ball I literally if I throw
a punch I've never been a fight my life never thrown a punch in anger I threw a punch right
now with my left arm it would dislocate that's how fucked up my shoulders are he got me so
mad I sent him a contract to fight him like that's how fucking that ended terribly the
McAfee thing with us didn't end great but like I don't really have regrets he was always
going to be like a huge star on his own he's so good at so many things so no not not too
much yeah I mean we've become to a degree and I always had a Saturday Night Live model
like we bring unknown talent and try to make him stars and we'll keep them as long as we
can keep them but really you know if we can't hopefully they go become big somewhere else
and it adds more credibility for us right because then people like oh this is a place
where I can get a start and build my name and either stay with Barthel or not we've been
pretty good at that like we got a girl now Brianna chicken fry she's fucking exploding
like yeah she's she's becoming big so yeah we yeah she's cute I saw on your thing is
she is that Native American what is chicken fry that was just she likes chicken fries
like you know like the I think it was Burger King right chicken fries chicken fries yeah
so oh it's not a last name no no that was her when we hired her she already had like
Brianna chicken fries was her tiktok user handle oh okay I think she liked chicken fries you
have a native night what's up she likes eating late at night probably yeah yeah yeah oh I
was wondering yeah I thought maybe she was like Cherokee I imagine that'd be like your
Native American name chicken fry I'll be fucking fire yeah yeah I almost knocked up this Native
American girl one time so I met this girl in a motel right so how does that work like
is there like a just two motels have like motel bars or like you just start walking
around oh no no this girl we met on social media right and this probably yesterday I might
have even been oh it was an intentional meetup yeah so she drove I think like 10 or 11 hours
too and she drove from like she was a red flag oh yeah yeah it was and she was a Native
American and so she drove in and she and we ended up making love or whatever I don't remember
exactly what happened but then on the drive home I guess she got kind of bored and she
starts saying well if I'm pregnant I'm gonna keep this child although to her defense you
probably do have a lot of time to think on a 10 hour drive that's a good point that's
actually what if things go through your mind yeah I should have given her at least five
hours to be hypothetically pregnant yeah yeah yeah like a 10 hour drive you're you're you're
thinking a lot of shit yeah yeah especially when you're just driving back to the res or
whatever and as you just get back there there's a bunch of free gasoline from the government
and you're like what the fuck am I gonna do with this family you know if I have a family
but anyway she got intense and god that made me so nervous did you um because you got into
a relationship you're you are I was married I'm in a relationship now okay in a relationship
now and was it did you were you looking for a relationship or did it just kind of happen
which one does my current girlfriend current girlfriend no no um so like my ex-wife basically
I met when I started Barcel right about the same time and I'm still like best friends
or she's the best uh and then I was single for a while probably uh living a crazier
lifestyle yeah like it was a totally different time because Barcel was nothing and they're
to it obviously like being well known fame money brings more women and opportunities
in your life so I've seen you fucking on Twitter a little at some point I had seen something
you know yeah I didn't watch all of it there's some stuff out there that you know I'm good
for you man you know I get embarrassed like if I'm had I even walk out of the room backwards
because I don't want women seeing my butt and stuff no I was a big video guy like that that
probably and back in time is like who the fuck whatever want to watch me fuck so yeah
but so I don't know five years single and then just met her uh Sylvanas her name it
was pretty organic yeah and do you is it kind of less stressful because I've start to find
that like like as you start you don't want to just like hook up with strangers it gets
a little bit like scary kind of like you know it's like I don't want a child like a even
a possible child somewhere yeah I know I was pretty free and loose uh I would never like
in hindsight I was probably a fucking idiot because there's a lot of a lot of post shit
that I've dealt with that a lot of people know about me I mean I you know hit pieces
were written about me about my sexual activity sex they've I've had it all which I never
would have guessed for like fucking me like doubt if if someone back in high school is
like wait till you fucking see what this guy's gonna turn out to be like I would have never
fucking guessed it uh so yeah I was probably playing uh fast and loose is how I would describe
it but whatever it's um it's been a wild ride I'll say that yeah it's been exciting man
I think it seems like it's really been exciting do you feel like a pressure like I feel a
pressure as I get older to try and stay like younger and stuff does that feel hard for
you does it no no I I feel like it's been a fairly natural thing like I so I probably
crammed so much into that five years of being single like go I never went to clubs really
ever and then I started going out a lot and you know I went from the guy who's like with
his buddies if you're trying to save up to go out once I how the fuck am I gonna afford
this table only fucking losers would pay for that table all our girls are there but it's
like I can't fucking afford this to you know you're getting opportunity like I remember
I was just saying on the way over like Super Bowl is coming up and I'm getting every invite
in the book like hey come to this party you have a table here hit table there and I sent
it to this guy Paul Gazz who's who's been employee basically number one worked out my
kitchen table we went to a Super Bowl party and we had to pay 25 grand for a table for
us that's like do we have it credit card can we do it and they fucking put us in a satellite
room we weren't even in the room where the fucking party was happening and we were watching
the party on a TV and I know I sent him the link I'm like man times have changed we're
getting but so I did that phase I mean I was doing drugs I was going out all the time it
was just like a very different phase in my life now I really don't like being in clubs
at all like I still vona my girlfriend still loves it but I've toned it I've gone heard
me like listen I can't I don't want to be there like it's not where I want to be I don't
feel comfortable I actually do feel old in those situations yeah the first time my life
I look around like damn a fucking old guy in here so that part of my life I think is
pretty much in the rear of you like Super Bowl yeah I'll go out but I mean I was going
out fuck four or five days a week pretty pretty heavy pretty heavy and will you party and
could you party pretty hard or not yeah I was I never I never used to but yeah we are doing
drugs to cocaine I'm not a coke guy people always think I'm a coke guy I'm pretty honest
about I think it's the hair probably this looks like a hair oh the hair it looks like
I'll find a gram in it son yeah like a wall like a wet hair maybe now especially since
you live in Florida maybe that adds to it like you think like oh this guy yeah no I
was I was doing a lot at all would be like I do a lot just to even wake up work I guess
he's the best drug there is like you know I never get like depressed on it but no I was
never big on coke but like for me to be out I don't know how people I mean what you Miami
doesn't fucking close oh yeah Miami's insane man so you're there even the trees man you'll
walk by two trees will be it literally like is like you walk out of 11 and there's a fucking
line at 9 a.m. it's just I don't even know what people do how you work and what are you
doing and people will start going out it's like hey you won't go out 11 it's like sure
you're gonna be the only fucker in the club like nobody's out yet so it's a super late
city and yeah I was I was definitely partying I was definitely partying dude a friend of
mine got all coked up one night fell off of his balcony right landed on another balcony
right and T.I. the rapper came out and found him T.I. is a big T.I. is a big big Miami
guy yeah yeah there's all sorts of shit I remember I was like who was it ah who's the
Miami guy is always I was at 11 there's another rapper who was always in Miami whatever whoever
this guy he's a big rapper I and the camera guy came up I moved out of the way he's like
hey this guy ruins the story not knowing him I'll probably think of it put Miami rapper
look up Google Miami rapper is he was he thick guy no he's a little guy okay oh it might
be y'all what's his name who has that same beat over and over again but he's from Atlanta
that guy he wears the the green gloves in that one video ludicrous no no no Pitbull
Sean Kingston no no he's a little skinny guy oh oh he's been around forever but he's like
still super popular Nelly this is gonna bother the fuck out of me not Nelly who play guess
that rapper see I almost it was similar I'll be schmurder no no feel like it was keep going
down he's Hulk Hogan no not a rapper Jason Derulo I did pizza review him though he seems
like a nice guy he was he ate pizza with no no cheese though which is why you know who
told me the earth was flat two black guys at a pizza parlor the earth was flat first time
ever heard it that's Kyrie uh yeah it might have been who the fuck am I thinking of cat
Dahlia lives in Miami he actually just he I want to say it was with a T too but I can't
remember trick daddy no I like that song though take it to the house my who whatever the story
is fucking ruined yeah it's ruined forget the fucking dude I did on with the Paris Fashion
Week last week right and which is crazy yeah which is crazy right so this guy comb the lane
he's like a fashion guy right he makes fashion so he had comedians come and be in his fashion
show Andrew Schultz went a couple of other guys and it's the fashion finally was at
like 11 p.m. and Kodak black is sitting in there with a baby in the front row he you
all-time name drops I was credited in Kodak black getting pardoned by Trump were you really
yes he credited you Trump mentioned with some convoluted like Kodak black actually reached
out to me like during the barstool fun I think he donated and then Trump when he part of
me is like Kodak black donated to like Dave Portland the barstool fun he's like a good
guy yeah a little blurb I was like what the fuck world am I in like Kodak black Trump
crazy yeah everything's crazy now does it excite you or does it scare you like how everything
the lines are so blurred everything feels so crazy the news you can't trust the news anymore
so there's conspiracy theories people are always like there's all these conspiracy
theories but it's like a lot of it is because you can't rely on the news so I'm gonna try
and get whatever they think the news is yeah no I the whole thing yeah that which I agree
I don't trust the fucking news like everybody has an angle yeah I've said that but I don't
even know where you go if you want like a non-spin take on yeah where the fuck do you
go I don't know so yeah that that is just a way of life but I don't know I find it crazy
everyone's just got an agenda yeah everybody every there's nobody who doesn't have an agenda
I know it's getting weird huh yeah big time I just wonder kind of how does that end you
know or do we evolve out of it you know like everything's gotten so like me you know I don't
know it's an interesting it definitely feels like an interesting time to be alive you got
to go and do Joe Rogan experience that was your first time right yeah it was my first
time well were you pretty nervous tell me about that yeah I I didn't know what to expect
I really didn't because I was a huge podcast guy and people always I always got like hey
you should go on Rogan yeah I'm not like ever somebody really necessarily I did ask to go
on Rogan once and that was when all the fucking negative shit was happening I want to say my
case but I didn't know what to expect his studio was sick it was easy like and and I met the
producer Jamie before he's like I know all the bar stool shit I have no idea what he's
gonna talk about he may talk about all that none of it smoked a cigar I'm not a cigar
I got like fucking weirdly high from smoke it's hard isn't it yeah it's like I am not
a cigar guy in his studio it's like trippy right it's like with the little the lights
and it went by quick my main thing honestly because I know he goes so long it's like if
I go two hours that probably means he fucking didn't like me and like I'm out so once it
ended I'm like how long was it but it was cool and it's so big you know you don't even
realize I mean I know how big he is because we're sorting the business but even still
like after we did it so many people just walking on the street like oh listen to Rogan show
the phone his reach is just crazy he's probably the most influential you know guy in media
there is I think so I think it's been like that for a while yeah you know I think and
especially people didn't realize that until he got that big contract that almost kind
of I mean it was amazing for him and and he deserves it but when they put out that article
that he made like a hundred million a year something yeah and I think it was twice that
but that's when everybody like that's when people started attacking and that's when you
saw these hit pieces it's like it's just it's so dangerous kind of like I don't know the
media is just so scary it's like they can shape anything any way they want and I he's
definitely perceived as a threat because he's he uses escape velocity whatever but you can't
control right if you can't control how somebody thinks and you really can't hurt them that
that is a threat I think the attacks come when and why they came because what's the point
really of going after him when he's a solo guy you don't give a fuck when you have Spotify
there's a thought I can get to him now right because spotting now spot if I like pin yeah
it's like Spotify backed him up but I mean he did have to delete it episodes and maybe
say things that ordinarily if it was by himself maybe would have maybe he wouldn't have but
I think that is that's the switch it's like aha he kind of has to answer to somebody now
whether he actually does or he doesn't but somebody sign in his checks right for nobody
is so what's the point of going at what is that going to do because you may just actually
ignite more because he doesn't give a fuck his audience is his audience yeah that would
be to me the gif difference and why it happened when he did that yeah um yeah I remember when
I first went in dude I was nervous I got a tweet a tweet a dm from him in the middle
like and just like 11pm or something but I was going a bit early so it was like middle
of the night but um and it was like hey do you want to call my show and I remember being
like oh my god I was excited too when I got it yeah because if you people always hit me
up like hey can you have me get on earth and it's like there's no real way to get on like
Joe like will literally hit people up that's exactly how he does it it was mine so the
New York Times wrote basically a hit piece on me and they were working on it for a year
I knew about it they dug through my entire fucking past like so trashed with that fucking
ragged trash every single person that I was a friends with in my network they were reaching
I was having girls call me like I didn't even know or send me dms being like what is this
about um a year long they really found nothing and it turned into just like again like I'm
a scumbag gambling hit piece the point of the story the reporter wrote in the article
like we reached out today for comment he didn't reach back and I posted my exchanges with
this woman and they went back I think seven months where I'm like hey I know you're digging
into my past I will sit down meet with you we both get to record you can ask me anything
I'll answer anything you want I'm right here she kept responding I'm eager to meet soon
soon this went on for months of her being like I'm eager to meet with you I'll talk to you
soon ghost for like I don't know five six article she writes a whole article she like
you have 48 hours to respond to a million bullet points and like fuck that it's like
I gave you the opportunity and I posted the exchange Rogan saw that and he's like the
New York Times it's the worst and that that prompted it and actually I have my phone so
I she never is the reporter never responded I wrote her name is Emily steel this lady
who wrote the article on me this is Friday January 13th I just tweeted a thank you for
the hit piece you wrote on me it's what landed me on Rogan and introduced a brand new audience
to me thank you for being a hater it actually made my brand stronger than ever thank you
so just center that little fuck for you yeah they fucking do that shit man they do that
shit they sneak around people call somebody call your old employer it's crazy and it's
like I've always said hey I'm here like I'm I'm saying I'll sit down you can ask me fucking
anything and record it as long as I can too if you're trying to do a fair and what's crazy
like I grew up in a in my brain like the New York Times is like legit yeah that is what
I thought of the New York Times so I always look at that unless you're in this fucking
world and you're like part of it like even my dad who's a liberal hates fucking Trump
that type of guy like he still has a hard time be like yeah the New York Times is biased
like he almost has it because he's seen it but it it it is scary because if you're not
in it you just believe like most normal people aren't gonna do the back research no on a
hit piece they're gonna go that's true so that that part of it is fucking scary well
to even like even headlines and anything yeah if somebody writes like Larry's gay and you
see that as the headline be like damn dude right because Larry's gay you hear Larry's
gay yeah Larry's fucking gay they didn't even know who they didn't even look at if who it
is if it's Lawrence or who it is yeah no that is nobody it's just like and then it's
like and there's never any apology that's the weirdest thing you're like your ear there's
never any like recuperate or any so business insider who I fucking hate wrote a hit piece
on me and it was vicious basically made me sound like a rapist and like within 24 hours
I had all the receipts like oh it thank God of like well here's all the proof that this
is totally fucking bullshit I was I guess naive at the time like oh they're gonna retract
it say apology they said they wrote another article and my lawyer was like well they can
now say it's news it's like well it's only news because they fucking wrote it but it
becomes new it's like what what kind of fucked up game is this it's news now it's crazy it's
fucking crazy I went all the way fucking sue their asses and it just the judge came back
to like there's no way being bad at your job isn't an excuse to like so it's almost like
Johnny Depp Johnny Depp when he sued he originally sued the newspaper and lost because the newspaper
can always be like well we didn't know that she wasn't telling truth or we didn't look
at any of the other evidence you have to sue the actual like he sued Amber Heard so it
the whole thing's fucked I know huh makes me really jaded yeah dude this shit makes everybody
mad I think because you start to feel like there's no way to win against this thing and
whatever this thing is but it starts to feel like there's something that you can't you
know the only way I look at it people fucking hate me are always gonna hate me I could cure
cancer they'd be like why didn't you do it faster yeah now the flip side the people like
me and love me are always gonna love me and and I've said before what's great now I tell
the truth but my crowd is so kind of like in my corner it and I wasn't but if I wasn't
telling the truth they'd probably still believe me it's like it's almost that they're on my
side right people aren't aren't now I good for the people like me I do tell the truth
and it's always honest but it's so hard to convince once people have their minds set
up or made up it's hard to get them off that point they don't they just ignore like facts
yeah it's great yeah people want to be blind to facts that's kind of bizarre but then sometimes
I wonder how much do I fall into the same trap even myself you know it's like I sometimes
wonder that um we saw this thing like BuzzFeed was it started to use like AI to generate
articles do you see that yeah stock went up like a bazillion percent because of it but
do you like because you have like real you know employees with alcoholism and whatever
else yeah yeah we got the real deal you guys got the fucking guy you know he's right there
you know some guy who's you know gonna overdose or his wife's gonna leave him because he's
writing another article for you it's like yeah but you got real people we got real people
yeah you got real people with fucking asthma you know like fucking real motherfuckers does
this kind of shit scare you or do you think this is cheap or do you think anything about
it it's a business I mean I I feel like BuzzFeed has always been the lowest common denominator
for talent so it doesn't surprise me nothing will ever for our business we look for weird
talented people there's no AI or anything like that who can you know replace well maybe
I think Glennie Balls but no this isn't our world it doesn't scare me it doesn't surprise
me yeah because it says BuzzFeed is using AI to write its articles after firing a hundred
and eighty employees yeah they're talking about their like listicles and shit right so they're
just aggregating I feel bad for the people who got fired too but I wouldn't say those
people were like the pinnacle of like talent you know right um so if you know Thoreau is
no Walt yeah you're coming up with like you know that I don't know the ten things you
should fucking be doing when you like come home after your grocery I don't know what
the fuck yeah yeah ten things you do when your cat dies yeah right yeah so they're just
aggregating it again I do feel bad for the employees uh but this isn't I wouldn't view
BuzzFeed as like my world necessarily we really are looking for like talented people yeah or
weirdos yeah me and Caleb wanted to try and do a show you know it would be fun I like
spending time with him the bigger I would say the bigger threat if you want to call
it to my world our world is the evolution of like techno like let's take you for example
there's probably a world back when we started where you wouldn't have nearly the vehicles
to get your name out there without like coming to us you know or or somebody or a tiktoker
like tiktok doesn't exist so if you're a talented person how do you get your content
out there is far fewer places um so that that's the harder thing because you know we really
have to find the talent early early early because once someone's pretty established
on social media or through their platforms they don't need us at all so that that's the
harder thing with do you have somebody looking for that kind of thing yeah we're always looking
for talent really always now when you say always looking but you have like so like an employee
that's actively kind of no we don't right I guess not we're we're always willing to hire
talent if we find it right right but it it is hard you got to get them super early and
our value prop on that early is basically will be like gasoline will accelerate you sign
you know a generally like a two three year contract and if you're good being in our network
should really like give you maybe a way to cut the line so to speak to get your name
out there then you can reevaluate you want to stay with us you want to do on your own
that type of thing yeah um what do you think anything about like this gp this gp chat thing
that thing that can make all its own articles and stuff it can write papers you know is
that what's the difference between that and the list of cool shit chat gbt can be like
hey will you write me a um a paper you know it's a dave portnoy writes a paper on uh young
men trying to meet each other in the 17th century right at night yep and you put that
information in there and then it'll do like a three page paper that would be in your voice
sounds like a good fucking way to like get through school yeah i just wonder how weird
that's going to get if every you know like at the same questions i mean at the same questions
i guess what kind it's like well they're sourcing the information from somewhere you know so
whose facts like how do you know where you're getting the information from what's real what's
not what's biased that doesn't change that part of it yeah i don't know yeah i guess in
the end i in the end i think you're still gonna have to have real talent will prevail i think
even with stuff like this hopefully most people are gonna see through like oh this is just another
bullshit article yeah and it's not anything that even a human wrote i feel like you can see that
stuff pretty easily on the internet and if you're falling for that shit then you you or something
is wrong with you and yeah i don't know what what these things will be used for exactly but i i know
in our world at least a lot of what people like is because they are attached to the personality
oh yeah like if you switch the names on who like you i it changes how people perceive it because
if it's the ovawn wrote or did something people know you and they view it through that lens and
that affects their enjoyment or lack thereof yeah you know yeah like when frank left the
jags game early that shit broke my i was like what is even going on but i found myself enveloped
in his life i want to know what's going on why is he leaving early i didn't know i was leaving
early either i blew my it's like it this is the best game he flew all the way you're talking to
bills bills dolphins yeah bills dolphin sorry yeah when he left it when frank left the bills
dolphins game early i just the attitude of barstool and full display he i think i was mad at first
because like why'd we fucking send him there yeah if you can't stay and by the way you're never
gonna make a six is six p.m flight the game is long but like the game's a one you're gonna be
sitting in traffic there's no chance so it was doomed from the beginning so like this went through
like 10 different things at barstool like people booked it's like in what world you can't it's a
one o'clock game you're never gonna make six so yeah yeah he's in that park a lot with his luggage
like what is even going on and i think he really thought he had to leave it's like what are you
talking like of course you'll stay stay the night flies crazy um tom brady just retired yeah yeah
did you feel anything about that so he's he's do you know tom i very loosely all right but i have
like a long history with him because of where i grew up like of course you know i uh the good
the bad the ugly like so he first of all he went to the same school as me michigan so he's the same
year okay oh really he remembered from college yeah yeah so went to college with him then he comes to
the pats and i'm a i'm in boston and in the patriots rise uh really coincided with the
barstool rise so we're so closely linked together everything since i've been involved with like
the cops twice with brady once in a negative fashion once in well cops involve is never good
but one anti brady i guess you could say and one pro like so he way back in the day uh
he he basically gizelle was on the beach with their little kid ben he was an infant ben brady
god wow uh and he was naked who was tom was no ben the kid with gizelle on a beach myself
beach might be naked too if i was with her yeah well keep in mind the kid's an infant her son
oh okay so it's his son tiny little hill like the gerber baby oh wow huge dick huge dick no way
for a little baby and you saw it how far away were you no it was a fucking paparazzi photo
it was on the internet and i mean you can see that wand on him uh yeah and i made a joke that
going deep this was the height of the paint manning tom brady like rivalry so i i wrote a
blog in this one blog i said check out the howitzer on brady's baby and i wrote a census
blog i go paint manning could never have a kid with this big of a hog or something like this
world war three broke out dave's a pedophile he's sexualizing kids the kid was an infant police
knocked on my door in boston came in they're like we're gonna make your life real fucking horrible
if you don't take this down like people are saying i should be beaten to death it was oh it's like
mystic river it was crazy so that was way early and then fast forward the patriots exploded we
end up going to jail defending brady for when he got suspended by the nfl handcuffed ourselves to
each other at nfl headquarters i've been dragged out of the super bowl and handcuffs um bob crafty
owner of the team when brady came back with tampa bay called me up he's like i want you to be my
guest for when brady comes back so it's been the full circle and i have met him i think a couple
times um but i like so if i saw him i'd be like hey tommy i hey dav how's it going good to see you
but i don't know him like on a real personal level but yeah it's uh their success and everything
that happened to patriots i don't think barstool probably is the same if that doesn't happen it
put us in the headlines in a lot of different ways so it's just a weird magical ride it really
has been it's been nuts it's really fascinating man congratulations just on getting to have that
experience because life you know to have the ups and downs to have all of it you know to really
have so many experiences football is so big in this country and the super bowl is so big
and we became barstool the face of like the patriot fan like there's a game they can probably pull
if you pull up like uh gadel clown towel so gadel the commissioner in a league like the first time
he came back to uh gelette after all the controversy we printed like 70 000 of these towels with his
face and a nose and we we got we're like we need volunteers to hand these things out it was a big
fucking thing like if you you could if you on the images for it oh yeah you'll see like the whole
fucking stadium basically oh like go to the bottom right we had the shirts so yeah like wow there you
are yeah so like the whole fucking stadium gadel in there it just it was a wild time and and we
became people just they hated us because people hated the pagers like but that was your thing you
did it barstools in here they're like this infection it's like this yeah it's almost like this like
this plague but it's not a negative plague it's like this disruptor yeah and the pagers were the
most talked about hated loved whatever team for like two decades oh yeah and we're just right in
the middle of it i remember tony colin's brother didn't he was at tony colin yeah you're going way
back yeah yeah running back yeah i i i got to meet him one time he went to ecu he was a cool cat man
yeah i like tony colin but i think he played in their super bowl game that would have been 85
and they lost the bears man yeah yeah wow yeah yeah yep that was when the pagers they were very good
that steve grogan was like my guy he was like i loved him yeah that i mean the pagers are for the
most part terrible franchise up till the brady air they had two super walls um and the second one being
the parcels but like if you like tech mobile that you have played like oh yeah like they're the worst
team in tech mobile very sad i can't even remember they had a lot of i think one of the running back
was white i think even could have uh yeah craig james po half of the pony express yeah i mean yeah
them in the cults are the two worst teams in it yeah that was a lot um what do you got for the
super bowl man where you landing that with it i don't know i'm back and forth uh i think right now
i you gotta see if the chiefs get healthy their wide receivers are so banged up but if they get back
i i i think they get a pretty good shot i bet it'll be a good game i think we're heading out there
so we have a bar in scott stale which is cool so oh nice yeah we'll be doing like live radio
there all week so we'll be there the whole time oh wow yeah i'm trying to see if i'm gonna get over
there i i expect to see yeah i think we'll probably figure hopefully i'll figure something out um yeah
i feel like the eagles it just feels like there's some kind of weird destiny thing going on there
i'm gonna just tearing people up i can't tell i mean it's the game they beat san fran no quarterback
like anybody could be i mean i've never seen an f l team they literally couldn't throw a forward
pass so you're not gonna win many games that way i think the giants suck eagles with another one team
best team the whole time in the nfc but i don't know how good they are right yeah that division
there was no there was someone's disparity in the league this year between like good team there's like
so many bad and i thought the afc was overall better but i think the eagles are very good yeah
i'm gonna be a very good game yeah yeah i think it's gonna be exciting um what did you have you
seen this power slap and stuff yes it's crazy wouldn't even be crazy because it's because people are
getting like well their faces are getting like deformed and shit yeah one guy's wife couldn't
recognize him you know so that's crazy yeah i saw the clip of the woman doing like the somersault
after yeah now i see it's nuts it's nuts but i mean people love that shit it does remind me of
early ufc yeah like early ufc because if you go google it a lot of hate out there online like
this the worst thing that's ever fucking happened um you know obvious a lot of people have opinions
on daniel white his incident oh that was crazy that that happened right when the league started
i almost feel like i wonder if that was planned it's like unbelievable um because his wife's
at least a lot or she's probably ban him wait i don't know i didn't get it's hard to see i don't
know about that uh i don't know what what qualification would be but so if you google it there's a lot
hate right but it's entertaining it's scary to watch but people are getting hurt one guy bought
a van right if you see that the guy left the place and bought a van for no reason like and he didn't
even there was no re like something so they're saying his brain got you know like his wires got
crossed and something's like you had to buy a van yeah imagine just going first of all imagine
buying a van yeah that's kind of cool yeah kind of but if you don't even need a van you're
saying hey i'm getting a van like you fucking come home from losing the fight with a van it's a pick
a van yeah listen it's entertaining i like i really do think it's early i used to watch
like the early early ufc's no weight class that was like ancient rome yeah and you had to fight like
you fight you win you fight again it's like tournament and people are like horrified like
what the fuck is this it reminds me a lot because there's definitely something about it and i know
what that says about the human psyche is like yeah i want to watch like this is fucking interesting
like slap them harder so uh it's an interesting thing i think dan is pretty confident it's going
to be successful and numbers are big so we'll see yeah it's hard to deny those clips when you see
them it's like you want to stay on it but you don't want to it's like that and the people like
attacking cvs workers those are the two clips from like do i want to keep watching this like
shit like that like you just now that i'm sure they'll have to just like ufc that's why i say it
if it continues and grows they'll have to put some regulations which you already said
but there's something there there's undeniable something there human psyche it's like yeah
i want to watch somebody get slapped so silly they do a somersault or fate it's i don't know
what it says about humans but like you said people fucking used to go to the coliseum in
roam to watch fucking gladiator so yeah there's something inherent to it yeah um with all the
success with barstool you guys have crushed it so much and and and your journey through it
do you think that there'd be a do you ever start to have ideas of like there's something else you
want to do down the line i know you guys are you have a watch company now yes yep yep brick watch
brick watch right i saw you tag uh you did crucified so the the number one thing i've been
crucified of for in my life for doing watches because i they're they're not cheap they're 2400
bucks okay and people it's nice looking thank you it is i saw eric olson had one out no isn't
reg olson then yeah he had it on um but there's a community to watch people who take their watches
so fucking seriously that i did i was i built mine was like built for people like me who i'm not
going to spend like 10 grand on rolex but i thought i want a watch that's clean looks good
i spent a lot of time like coming up with the design of it it's more of a fashion watch
people went under the hood they it was we'll see what happens with it but whenever i post it
like watch snobs they come for my throat really crazy like time not he's like fucking yeah yeah
yes time not a bunch of fucking second monkeys out there yeah no they're they're like i could buy
this watch for this fucking has this movement and does this and fucking sucks my dick and
you know doesn't do that they're crazy watch people and they thought they're like you're
doing it as a scam it's like what the fuck you talking about doing as a skim why like no i'm not
and it's like by the way i'm at the point and maybe rightly or wrongly where i can get investors
for every people like oh he's a smart business guy so if i'm like i'm doing something people knew
i was doing this they were like begging to throw money as like no because honestly if it doesn't
work i don't want you to be able to be like in my grill like if i'll lose my own money and i don't
have to worry about a phone call from anybody being like kind of nice huh yeah so i it's my own money
that i either will lose or make but yeah it's been a wild experience i've done a the people it's
slowed down a little bit but right launch it people coming for the throw but to answer a question
beyond that and that was just something i thought would work right it's like i i just kind of that
entrepreneurial spirit i spent a year or so year and a half developing it beyond that one misconception
i think people always had about me is like i'm ultra driven like to do shit like i think i have two
more years with barcel guaranteed um and then i could disappear to a beach who fucking knows like i
don't i don't know i i don't have that inherent need i don't think to work hmm people don't believe
me about that they think i'm an ego maniac like i'll have to be in the headlines i don't we'll see i
mean always an instigator i just don't know if that'll kind of disappear and i hope it doesn't
you know it's fun to watch you instigate through the world i think yeah you know it's been really
entertained i mean it's been entertaining um you know i've long been a fan and then i got to meet
you and you seem like a very i you just seemed a lot more even down to earth than i expected man
and i know that's a weird it's not a compliment to give someone but i think you look at someone's
life and it looks so busy and insane and then you meet them and they seem uh you know it's
interesting to find that somebody that seems kind of down to earth um so like i'm sure with like in
your work like there's a lot of decisions to be made right have you always been a good decision
maker do you have like a process when it comes to that because you probably have to make decisions
pretty quick yeah no i just go with my gut like uh i always view it late sort of family feud style
like you know if you watch the family feud you got the head guy at the table right oh yeah and then
everyone shouts the answers at him yeah you hear a good answer you're like all right i'll go with
that guy but even if they have the right answer but in my gut i'm like no i get the right answer
i'll go with mine i may get the x but it that's kind of how it is it's all gut-based yeah yeah
there's no it i look at this i follow my gut since i started it we've been wildly successful
a lot of a lot of breaks that i could never dreamed of and i didn't start parcel really to
like be here i just didn't want to hate my job waking up in the morning but uh why would i stop
following my gut it's got us this far so do you have a mentor that you reach out to if there's
things that like you're unsure about occasionally there's a couple guys uh there's there's a dude
micropoli um who i met through horse racing he started like um vitamin water he started um body
armor so he sold both for like billions he's a crazy guy but down earth nice so sometimes
like business questions i'll ask him erica nardini our ceo we have like the best relationship so i'll
run shit by her um you know my family but those are those are kind of it we met a guy who sells
they do like horse you know the horse uh does sex with other horses yeah yeah breeding and their
horse was like a champion it won like uh it won the dam you know i don't know what it is the
kentucky derby no i think it was like brick stone or brick town or something i don't know what it's
called but uh yeah maybe kentucky derby i can't remember but that or the brick stone or the brick
stone so they're wondering so but people will pay and he said like yeah like all through the week
there's just lines of like people bringing in their horse and the horse has sex with it and then
and they'd make like 30 000 every time the horse pumps and it's just out there pumping all all fall
yeah that's crazy yeah what that has to do with oh rapoli i mentioned the horse guy yeah breeding
that's where all the money is god yeah and they have to have it like natural you can't like artificial
is inseminated it has to they actually have to fuck that's part of the rules yeah yeah because
you get to be right there he said yeah and it's like if it doesn't take or it doesn't work you
still fucking spend the money yeah yeah boy that's a lot for a blast yeah put it out to stud that's
basically what that's called the male they put out the stud they bring the females boom bang bang
you're a busy guy and so like obviously your life's super busy do you have like a day-to-day
routine a ritual that you do every morning this might be a bad question i don't know if i've
even asked yeah no it it i've definitely taken the foot off the gas a little bit like the early
days i much more do uh no not not as much anymore i mean i have my schedule like the bff podcast
which is like a tuesday we'll have college depending on sport like sport shows to do
my pizza review is every single day so i gotta make sure those are in i'm gonna start day trading
again probably in march that'll be like at the beginning of the stock market the end of it
but i've definitely taken the gas the foot off the pedal a little bit i mean 20 years
a long fucking time to be doing something yeah would you ever come up with like a
investing arm through barstool do you think yeah i theoretically because at some point a lot some
of your fans will start to get older yeah and they'll have money they want to invest yeah so well
in other things yeah yeah potentially i don't know maybe i mean it might be interesting you
know yeah especially if you are doing it or you get involved with people that do it well yeah i'm
sure a lot of your supporters would want to have the same or do the same um we done yeah i think
we covered a lot of stuff man all right dude thanks so much for hanging out dude yeah no it's uh it was
fun i'm glad i got to do it yeah i appreciate it man yeah for sure um i want to come back on bff
sometime open invite praise brother all right all right thanks dave cool now i'm just floating on
the breeze and i feel i'm falling like these leaves i must be cornerstone
oh but when i reach that ground i'll share this peace of mind i found i can feel it
in my bones but it's gonna take
ladies and gentlemen i'm jonathan kite and welcome to kite club a podcast where i'll be
sharing thoughts on things like current events stand-up stories and seven ways to pleasure
your partner the answer may shock you sometimes i'll interview my friends sometimes i won't
and as always i'll be joined by the voices in my head you have three new voice messages
a lot of people are talking about kite club i've been talking about kite club for so long
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