#10 Stand-Up Comedy
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What's up, everybody? This is Nate Bargetze. We're here at the Nateland podcast once again. The show's still happening, still going on. I'm sitting with the young Aaron Weber, the wise Brian Bates, the wiser, the wisiest of wisest.

You guys have been awesome as always. We love you all. You've been very nice. Still, we're keeping it rolling. You're making it seem, you know, it's like it was a good choice to start this podcast. This is how I started my comedy career. When you try to decide, are you, you know, you always get asked, how did you know that you're supposed to do it? And I got like CMT Comedy Stage very early, five years in or something. Like five years in, I had a TV credit. So it was like, oh, all right, I'm choosing. All right, I'm clearly supposed to be doing

doing this thing and i feel like this podcast is like that where it's like we're what eight episodes in and you know we're getting a lot of people watching a lot of the nice comments like people enjoy it this is 10 i think right 10 episodes in we're 10 episodes in yeah

So it's, you know, it's a good thing. Cause then we get all these people listening and, you know, if we wrote out, if we never grown past what we have now, we did it. We did it. And we don't want anybody else. So if you're new to this, get out of here. We already got our people. Uh, all right. As usual, we're going to start with the comments that, uh, like to read through all you guys' comments. Uh,

Uh, and as usual, if you don't like this fast forwarded, uh, or I think some people only read the comments to be honest. Yeah. My wife's more of a fan of the comments than the whole show. It's a fun part of the podcast, dude. I enjoy doing it every week. I enjoy doing it too. And then, uh, so yeah, it's good. And, uh, my wife's never listened past the comments. So, and she's a producer on the podcast. We just gave her something. She doesn't even know what it is. I don't either, but we're figuring it out. Uh,

All right, first comment, MooreJ881. All I can say is thank you. My wife and I are police officers in Kansas City, and in today's climate, it is very difficult to unplug from the news and find something unbiased and generally funny. This is a great way for us to disconnect from reality and just laugh for a while. We really look forward to every Wednesday. Thank you. And that's it. That'd almost be the bio of the show. Honestly, I might put that as the bio of the show.

It's that's what you want it to be. That's what this is about. That's awesome. It's if you're here for you thinking you got to make, you know, I don't there's enough. Right. And go listen to those. That's go go. If you want to get riled up, go get riled up. Sometimes you got to get riled up. That's good. And sometimes I mean, it gets the police off. I mean, it's got to be in pure insanity.

and you know, just wants to go home. It's like watching old Seinfeld episodes. Yeah, it's very nice. I think we had the old Seinfeld episode of podcast. Yep. Uh, it's what a comment. No, it's the opposite. No, actually they say it's the opposite. Uh, Peter bridge. When Bruce told the story about the woman, I like how it's now just, I mean, it's,

It's not even, I can't even find one that calls me by my real name. Yeah. I looked and it's what's so it's just how quickly it goes in. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like where it's an obvious, we're making fun of a joke. When Bruce told the story about the woman label, I mean, it's just like, not like a breeze. When Bruce told the story about the woman labeling him as worried, it quite literally made me pee. Those chicks just totally nailed it. He still gives off the worried vibe. No offense, Bryce. Uh,

Yeah. Worried is, I mean, that's unbelievable. That'd be the name of your album. Worried. It's the name of my life. Yeah. You really should. Your next album should be Worried. My next album. It's just you being, well, you're going to have to do one now. The people are going to want to hear it. Yeah. You know, everybody go buy his first album. It's still out there. But Worried is a great name for it. I thought about that story all week. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Fruits to Nate.

Sounds like some of these are like you're in jail. Like it's a prison. First to Nate, 1-0-0-7 to the stand. Did you? This podcast could go up for 500 episodes, and each one would have a moment where Nate references a Seinfeld episode. I would actually love to see an episode of Nate Land devoted to the topic of Seinfeld. Yes, we do want to do that for sure. And we should have almost done it last time. And that's when John came in.

he's an enormous Seinfeld fan. And so we wanted to have him at me. He's 22 and a big Seinfeld fan and is obsessed with it as we are, knows everything. And so we should have done a Seinfeld episode. We were, you know, it gets worried that you don't think who's going to want to listen to a two hour, an hour and a half Seinfeld episode. Like,

we do, we like it, but if somebody doesn't like Seinfeld, they're out, you know? Uh, so we will do a Seinfeld episode and maybe we'll do it as an, just an extra one. And that way people that want it can have it. And then the other people are not forced into, uh, or might make those people listen to it. Just force them down. Uh,

Non-linear car. Here I am counting Seinfeld references. Then they proceeded to talk about Seinfeld for 30 minutes. Best episode yet. Gold, Jerry, gold. Yeah, he gets it. He gets it. Ace here. Bilbo's PBS pick is underrated. That's a pretty good choice for one channel. Thank you. Bilbo. I don't know if I should thank them or be insulted. Bilbo's, I mean, that's a crazy name.

Aaron pointed out someone called me breakfast. Breakfast is unbelievable. Breakfast is as good as worried. I don't think it's on here, but it was in the comments. I mean, breakfast is unreal. That's amazing. That's the best one I've heard. Just to call him, I don't know, is breakfast coming up? It's got the same amount of syllables as Brian. It's got the BR. Yeah. It's perfect. And it's so ridiculous. Man.

Yeah, breakfast is good. Seriously, how did Arrested Development not get mentioned? There's so many great episodes and storylines. I agree. Even though I was more of the first run of the Arrested Development, I didn't really give it much of a chance on that second run. I was also late to it.

I was very late to Rest of Development and then I watched it later and loved it. But I haven't really given the Netflix stuff a chance. Yeah, we should, you know, we learned like last week, the television episode, it was just kind of, you know, sometimes when we're choosing this stuff, it can get very broad.

It can be too broad, which is not good. And so sometimes when like last week, you felt like we were reading a lot. I was reading, you know, a lot of information, which is all stuff that's kind of interesting. But it's like, you know, we're trying to figure out the rhythm of this and the you know, and we're going to slowly keep getting better and better at it. But last week you did feel we should have just done TV episodes. And so we will. We'll make it up.

Make people watch it again. But Arrested Development is great. It's great. It's an amazing show. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable show. Tanya Kovarik. I waited for an hour and 50 minutes for someone to mention Game of Thrones and y'all just passed on it like it was nothing. Sigh. You should try it again. Best show hands down.

Has any of us watched Game of Thrones? I've never seen it. Oh, yeah. I was a huge fan. Oh, yeah. You got in late, though, right? I started late, but I caught up. And that last season, I was in... Tell everybody what happened. I was in Amsterdam when one of the big final episodes happened. Oh, yeah. And I found a way to watch it there. They don't allow Game of Thrones? Well, there was like... The hotel you're at did not have free HBO? It did not. Really? In Amsterdam? No. Yeah.

But yeah, it's a great show. How'd you watch it? I had to go through, like even online, it somehow was blocking it, but I forgot how. Somehow I found a way to watch it on my laptop. Is the show worth watching now, even as disappointed as people are at that last season? I think so. Okay. Maybe I'll go watch it one day. I know nothing about it. Yeah, we haven't watched it. I watched the first, I'm not a fantasy fan.

I'm not sci-fi. I'm not fantasy. You know, I mean, I like Star Wars, but I'm not, I was never obsessed with Star Wars. I'm not, you know, I'm not even a big superhero. I like them. I'll go to all of them, but I've just, it's not my thing. And I try to watch Game of Thrones. I watched that first season. I just don't care. Like, I got done with it. I mean, I need to give it another go. The other one, The Wire. Never a big fan of that. Yeah, I think you mentioned that last week. Oh, all right.

Already in reruns. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even listen to last week's episode, guys. It wasn't that good. We checked out.

Jessica Van De Poot. Van De Poot. When Aaron talks about how it's frustrating when you have a show you really like and just don't know anyone else that watches it, that's me and this podcast. You guys are really crushing it, though, and I love every second of it. Thank you, Jessica. She's like, you watch Nate Land? They're like, what are you talking about? When they mention, yeah, I mean, Nate Land's got to be like, what? Do you watch what?

Yeah. I can't think of something that I've heard about or I've watched that no one else. I watched Episodes. Is that what it's called? The Ricky Gervais show? No, I did watch Episodes. That was great. Ricky Gervais had it. That was a great show. That was Extras, right? Extras. Oh, Extras. Episodes is the Showtime with Matt LeBlanc. Oh, yeah. And I've watched all of those, and it's great. You know another show great? Rob Schneider's show.

Rob Schneider's show on, uh, Netflix. It's about him. It's his wife, Jamie Lissow's in it. I've never even heard of it. It's good. Yeah, it's good. His real wife. It's his real wife. Yeah. And, uh, I forget what it's called. I like, but it's, it's great. And I think the new season came out. It was, it was one that I was like, Oh, let me see this. And you know, I've, I've kind of interacted with Rob. I don't really know him. Uh,

But I was like, yeah, let me check this out. And then I just kind of went through it. I enjoyed it. I thought it was very, you know. Episodes like that with Matt LeBlanc, that was a big show, but I loved that. And then, yeah, Ricky Gervais' Extra is awesome. The end of Extra is great. It's got a very, very sweet, sweet moment to it. One of my favorite sweet moments. And I'll be honest with you, I don't really remember it, but I just remember it being one of my favorite moments.

Trent Stewart, growing up in a pastor's home, we had some interesting things happen. Once during service, a lady asked my dad and the entire church to pray for Marlena because she is in the hospital in a coma. We were worried sick. Come to find out it was Marlena on days of our lives.

She put word in parentheses. That's got to be, I mean, just 80s probably, right? Days of our lives? Well, just where someone would ask that. Oh, yeah, maybe. Like, I don't think it's going to happen now. Yeah. But it's when, like, life was a little more innocent. And so, like, even in a smaller town, it's 80s. But in a smaller town, it might as well be the 50s too. Like, they're just very, like, sweet old ladies that are. So is she implying that the woman thought Marlena was a real person?

They told her to pray for it. It's a TV girl. So yeah, I mean, I'm sure she did. Or something. She was just still worried. We were worried. Chris Evans. It's the Chris Evans. Probably. Isn't that a famous guy? Captain America. Yeah, Captain America. So this is from Captain America.

Embarrassing as a kid, I used to think that the audience laugh track in sitcoms was the laughter of other people at home watching at the same time. That's awesome. We had one of those giant late, early...

giant late 80s early 90s entertainment centers in our living room four foot tall speakers and i would sit next up next to one of the speakers and laugh as loud as i could anytime the laugh track played just hoping that the other people watching would hear my laugh over everyone else's i regrettably believed that until i was probably around 10 years old and i had friends over and tried to get them to yell stuff in the speakers thinking other kids at home would talk back my friends

finally broke the news to me that I'm stupid. Love the show. I look forward to every Wednesday now knowing I get to hear Nate ragging on Bryson worried Bates any chance he gets. That's an unbelievable story. That is so funny, dude. Oh, man. So did he think shows without laugh tracks just nobody was watching them? Yeah. And I mean, getting them to talk, I mean, and to go, how much you got to build up to get brave enough to go,

I'm going to tell my friends to yell into the speaker. Like, you know, the conflict is at first you're like, is that true? You probably second guess it. Then you assume it. And then you do have to cross a line that you're willing to bring people into your insane question. And I guess his parents just hadn't broke the news to him. I was going to say his family knew this was happening and let it go on. Oh, I hope they did. I hope they did. That's unbelievable. That's great. Robert.

Fun fact about the Marine biologist ending. The episode was supposed to end on George walking to the ocean to help the beach well, but the live audience didn't give it much of a reception. So Larry David wrote George's final. The sea was angry that day. My friends monologue with him pulling the golf ball out of the bull hole on the spot. Jason Alexander memorized it in 10 minutes. They filmed it and got the biggest laugh in series history. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. Great scene.

Such a gigantic scene. And for it to be, yeah, just to be like last minute. I feel like that's how stuff works, man. You know, the longest, I would say the longest laugh recorded I always heard ever on TV was Jack Benny. He was known for, comedian, known for being very cheap. And so, you know, and he was on like Tonight Show or Ed Sullivan Show whenever he was doing it. And he did,

He said, your money or your life? And he just looked at the camera. Like he said, a guy went to Rob and said, money or your life? And the whole country knows like, well, he's so cheap. Yeah. And that was like, it was like maybe a full minute or something. Wow. I'll have to look it up. Where it was the live audience just lost their mind. Didn't even say anything. Just a look to the camera? Just a look. Yeah. Because I mean, everybody, that's, you know. They got it. Yeah, they got it.

Zach is nobody. I just saw that West Wing is reuniting for some kind of special. Aaron is about to have a wreck any moment now. Are you going to watch the new... Are you going to watch the special? Would you watch it in the car? If I have a road trip coming up, I'll have to, I guess. That's dangerous, Aaron. You won't...

I know, but say you're at home. Do you go sit in the car and watch it, even if you don't drive somewhere? I used to do that with music. If I got an album that came out, my favorite place to listen to music is in the car. So I would go out in my driveway and sit in the car. I've never done that with shows, though. Like when you lived at home with your parents, or now? Always. Always. I've never listened to an album like that.

What's your, you don't like listening to music in the car or we've talked about this. Yeah. I mean, I listen, I like listening to music, but I've never thought a new album came out. I got to go. You go sit there for the full like hour. Sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. And you're just like listening to the song. I like being alone. Yeah. And,

And I like having surround sound. Yeah. Get the AC going. It's a good time in there. Yeah, yeah. I like that. I'm just talking about that album thing. Have you ever listened to an album full? Like just to hear. I haven't gone to the car just to listen to it. But you've listened, you've sat and been like in one sitting. A few, a handful of people will have albums where I got to listen to the whole thing. Yeah. And just for the, just to see like, how was it? Is it good? I like this, I like that. I just need to, I want to consume it as quickly as I can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I think a lot of people do that. I think that's a big deal. I mean, I'm just saying I just never, it was never my bag, you know, cup of tea. Is that how you say it? Bag? Nevermind bag? I don't think I've heard that. Cup of tea I've heard. Nevermind bag of tricks, man. I don't know, man. Holden Lano Henry.

How could you not mention the threat level midnight episode of the, are the nap episode, worst Seinfeld, the office podcast I've ever heard. That's, that is fair. Wow. You know, we didn't get into the, again, we should have got into more of the episodes. I think we will do, we could do an office episode. We could do, might do a Seinfeld and office episode and compare those two. Cause we, those are our two favorite shows. And then, so we will do, we will, we can, uh, you know, we should have probably broke down more episodes to be honest. Now looking back, I'm not a midnight's terrible. I,

Well, I agree. I was going to say, we did talk about it. We talked about jumping the shark. You thought the third little minute of that episode was terrible. I was not a fan of that episode. That's one of the worst with Steve Carell. I skip it every time I rewatch it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is stupid. Yeah. But it was like almost leading up. You think that's jumping the shark though? Cause that's, it's, it's, they've talked, he's written this script forever. So they're like, well, everybody's going to want to watch this movie.

And he made it like the idea of the, the idea of the episode is actually brilliant. Like you could see when they finally, they probably thought of that. He's a script writer. He's writing threat level midnight. And they thought we're going to see when we put it out.

and this is going to be a gigantic episode because who's not going to, a character on TV has written a movie. You're going to eventually want to see what he wrote. And so in the, in like in the idea stage of it, I bet it was like, yeah, dude, this is going to be enormous. And, uh, I think,

that that was a point where the office was on the backside. And maybe if they throw that in season four, you're like, this is unbelievable. But that's what jumping the shark is. Throwing something in when it's on the backside to see if it can save it. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it's...

I thought when it goes from good to bad, like it just is like, yeah. But to your point, yeah. It took advantage. I don't think of it as trying to save it. I think of it as you're taking advantage of your audience and now you're like, we can do something insane. Yeah. So let's try something insane and then that, you lose everybody. Yeah. Which is probably about when you start losing people to begin with. Okay.

I'll give that episode credit. They bring in characters that hadn't been on the show in years. Right. Roy comes back. And a few others. So either they shot that, they were smart enough to shot that way back or they just brought them back. Yeah. Probably brought them back. Yeah. They would just bring them back, right? Maybe, but their hairstyles and their weight. Oh, they made them look like that. And all that. They did a good job with that. That makes sense. Yeah.

Caleb Elliott, with every intro, Nate does he sounds. That wasn't me. Everybody. So don't, you know. With every intro, Nate, does he sounds like he is not sure what podcast he's on and who is on the podcast with him? Okay. Maybe. I could see that. I mean, I read these words. I look at words. I don't know what these words are about to be.

So I could see it. Does that sound right? With every intro Nate does, he sounds like he is not sure what podcast he's on. Okay. A comma really would have changed the game there. Yeah. And that's mid-sentence. Right. So what are you guys doing later? I was listening to this podcast. With every intro Nate does, he sounds like he is not... I still can't get it out. With every intro Nate does, he sounds like he is not sure what podcast he is on and who is on the podcast with him. Explanation point.

With him. Caleb Elliott's a very funny comedian. He opens for Sinbad. Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think I met him. I don't know. I haven't met him, but I've seen him open for Sinbad. That's funny. All right. Check Caleb Elliott out. Jesse Matheson. They should make an Aaron Webber Secret Genius t-shirt. I think you're Jesse Matheson. Your uncle.

Are you a secret genius? No, dude. Have you ever had your IQ tasted? Tasted. Tasted. IQ tasted. Have you ever walked into just a glass door? Or no, you always see it. Is that what being a genius is? Yeah. Being able to see glass? Yeah. You always see it. We have a very low level of genius. Yeah.

Yeah, well, by that metric, yeah, I'm a genius for sure. You've never walked into a glass door? I've walked in all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Because in my mind, I'm a lot smaller than I am. And I forget that sometimes. So I'll clip the side of doorways all the time, dude. I think that's genius, though, because a genius does dumb stuff like that. That's how you know. Okay. Because I'm really good at it.

because all I got is to be aware of my surroundings. So my wife's uncle, we went to go, you know, this was whenever it was five, six, seven years ago. We all go eat with her family and we go to this restaurant and he's like six, seven or six, eight huge. And we get done. We're all sitting there eating. They go to leave. It was like a Sunday, like after church, like, you know, it was like that kind of vibe. Like,

It's hot outside. Everybody's wearing nice clothes, and we're eating. And then they go to leave, and he's an older, older guy. And, I mean, walks out the door. And it's a door. And, I mean, look, I get it. It's a door with just glass. Like, it doesn't make sense that the glass is there. And, man, he just...

just popped it dude with his head and just was like and you heard it I saw the whole thing and it was I mean you just laughed so much like it's I mean you felt so bad because he blessed his heart like but he and the forehead where his forehead was they couldn't even reach to clean it because it was too tall he's 6'8 like they had to get I mean no one could everybody

It's still there. They're going to get a ladder. Dude, I mean, when you watch someone walk through glass, it's so funny because there's no hesitation. You can really tell when it's a true accident because there's no bracing for it. That video of that one... There's one video, girl. She does it like three times. It's glass...

And so there's a door and she just keeps like one, two, and she keeps making these turns. And then he then does it again. I mean, it's, it's, it's remarkable, dude. It's such a weird feeling because one, you kind of hurt yourself and your brain is so shocked with what just happened. Yeah. The air just stopped me. Yeah. It's just a weird thing. Yeah. Well, I mean, you walk, there's no, there's no stop. I mean, that's, what's crazy. Just how confident it is. Yeah.

Chris Thomas, I swear if Nate calls Nelson Nelson, Nelson Ray, means one more time I'm going to scream 80s rock lyrics. We've got a lot of people hung up on some weird stuff on this podcast. People get mad at one thing and then it's a wrap. But you know what? I get it. I'm like that too. What do you say? It's Nielsen. I just say to Chris, we've got to pick our battles here. And Nelson. I think this is more of an accent issue than a

a reading issue. Oh, Aaron, you're being so nice. Because you kind of say it, you sound, when you just said it just now, it kind of sounded like Nelson. Nielsen. Yeah. Nielsen.

I was talking about Nelson. My buddy Nelson, he does his ratings. This is the first time I'm hearing about this Nelson. Nate knows a guy. I know a guy named Nelson. I thought that this was. The Nelson ratings. They go, well, they're doing pretty good. He watched the whole episode last night. And they're like, wow. I would always be in every conversation. Every conversation they had. How the Nelson ratings was like, pretty good. He stayed up until 10 p.m. last night.

And they're like, God, did he watch the Nelson ratings? You're saying people are watching it. Nelson's watching it. You're watching the whole thing. Just have no idea that, that they were not talking about my buddy Nelson. I thought I can't, but you know, what about the Nelson ratings? I'm like, you know, Nelson too. He is guy. He knows everybody. It amazes me every time I was in Pittsburgh and the guy brought something goes, I've been doing the reading about the Nelson ratings. I was like, this is before the internet. Uh,

Nick A, speaking of TV shows and how timing programming has changed so much with streaming in the Netflix world, I have kids that are six and eight. For the first time, we watched a show as a family, Disney's Mandalorian. Mandalorian. Mandalorian. My kids were so completely confused at the fact that we had to wait until next week to be able to watch the next episode. We literally had to explain the process to them because they thought we were holding out and making them wait until next week. And because it was bedtime, we weren't letting them watch one more episode.

So like, cause they were watching it cause that's what they did with that show. Yep. They do it. That's good. One a week. Yeah. I'm a, I think it's, I think you should have to wait. I do too. I think that that's very underrated in the fact of you excited to, it's, you know, just jamming through them. I don't think, you know, I think with Netflix, I,

Like Narcos. I love Narcos. But all the guys on Narcos, that show's probably so watched. And if they spread it out week by week, I think it's talked about like it's The Sopranos. But because everybody watches it on their own time, no one really talks about it. And it's this amazing show that we all love. But none of those guys are super famous. Like if you saw them on the street, I mean, you might not even realize it at first.

But if they aired it every other week and it was a must-watch TV thing, then those people would be super famous because people would talk about it. But you can't talk about Narcos. Now you can't talk about anything because you're like, do you watch Narcos? You're like, I haven't seen it yet. All right. You got to find the guy that does. And then that guy gets done. He's like, I want to talk about Narcos. And you're like, I don't care, man. Yeah, like Ozark's got one more season and I'm looking forward to it. But...

By the time I get up that morning, somebody's already going to watch the finale. Yeah. And they'll be tweeting about it. Yeah. Yeah. I build on Ozark. I need to probably give it a go. I'm surprised you said that about Narcos. To me, Narcos is a show, like we were talking about, that no one else watches except us. Oh, I think Narcos is the most amazing show. But I like that stuff. But do you think a lot of people watch it? Yeah. Oh, you do? I do. I do. How they're making more, I think they are. I love cartel stuff. Yeah, I do too. Yeah.

We should do a cartel episode. I love cartel stuff. Darko's is amazing. But they did... I need to watch Ozark. Ozark I just bailed on. It was like I watched it... I think I watched it too much... Too close to Breaking Bad. I felt like it was trying to be Breaking Bad. And then I just was like, I can't do this again. And I needed a break. I didn't love the beginning of the thing. I mean, I'm not ruining this because I haven't seen it. But it was like they're into money laundering.

And then they moved to the Ozarks and get into more money laundering. Like that's like, that was like, all right. Like, is that what I got to believe? Like you gotta, they're like, all right, we're safe now. We're in the Ozarks. How you doing, sir? What do you do for a living? Oh, you're a money launderer. A gigantic one. That's a big problem. Yeah. Well, we are too. That's funny that we met here.

Sarah Thomason. It's weird that it's a radio show they put on TV. He said on his podcast episode that is being shown on YouTube. I think maybe, was it John that said it's weird to think about when they went from a radio show and just started airing it on television? Yeah. So she's pointing out that John's an idiot. I agree with that. I think we even addressed the irony at the time. I remember. Yeah, okay. Of saying it's all come full circle. Yes. Yeah. We never let John ever...

on this show every now and then. He'll be on the side, fill out the office episode when we finally give him a proper episode to come on. He's been talking to a 20-year-old kid about, like, you know when TVs were invented? Like, it felt, I didn't, oh, I do love asking him, like, so what do you, do you remember this? Do you remember that? You know, it's because it's like your first time feeling old. Yeah. I mean, that's, we can ask you that. You're young too. You're 28? Yeah. It's crazy, man. It's crazy how young you are.

You got your whole future ahead of you. Don't blow it, Aaron. Don't blow it. Thanks. It's not a bright future. Oh, you can hear in there. Two more. Taylor Smith. I love how Brady is like when your mom makes you take your little brother with you and hang out with your friends. But at the same time, Nate acts like there is 20 years between them. Great stuff. You guys are the best.

P.S. This has bothered me since the second episode. It's pronounced syncope, meaning to faint. Like goats. The fainting goats. Syncope. My neighbor texted me that too, Felix. P.S. P.S. I wonder how that guy that fainted from laughing is doing. How is that guy doing? I checked him. He died. Yeah? Yeah. I killed him. There's a trial coming up. I took a turn. I thought he did. You should have not...

giving that up uh now he uh he's fine i think yeah he never he did he did he i mean it was that it was uh it's like when you're larynx or something it collapses because you're laughing so hard it makes you faint huh it's very well thank you um chris johnson i'm pretty sure nate scratches his forehead as a signal to stop talking about a certain subject that's funny i don't do i i've never noticed that now i'm gonna notice it anytime i'm talking

I'll be talking about it. Yeah. I don't think I would ever do that. I think I would just say, hey, this is stupid. I have not noticed that. Yeah. I would just go, this is dumb and we need to move on. John Slater, it's unbelievable. How many times Nate says unbelievable per episode? I do say unbelievable a lot.

I've always said it, you know, it's a good word. Yeah. I think everybody says words the same. I think even every, I always get, I say like a lot, you know, like I went to the store, you know, I, and I've even tried to work on it. I tried to make myself think about it. I do it in my regular conversation to try to not say like in regular life, cause I'm trying to not make it be into my act. But,

What people have to realize too in your act is about rhythm. It's about conversation. You say like, most people say like when they're doing normal conversations. So I've seen someone say, well, you think you're a professional speaker. You would not say like, I'm not a professional speaker in the sense that I'm not presenting. I'm not selling you something. I'm not,

That person shouldn't say like, I'm a person that's supposed to talk to where you think you mean you were just talking. That's my job as a comic is to be like, Oh, this is my buddy just talking. Well, your buddy says like, and that's what I've got to be. So it's like, that's where that stuff says. And unbelievable. I do say it a lot. I do am conscious that I try not to overly do it, but you know, unbelievable. That guy said that. Yeah. Yeah.

I was seeing my neighbors, my neighbor Dwayne was, saw him walking this morning and I was like, you listening to the podcast? I mean, I like yelled at him like, yeah. And he's like, I am, I am. Crime episode. He's a little behind. I go, we've done 50 more, Dwayne. And then, all right. So this episode, we get asked a lot about comedy, about, you know,

stand-up comedy so we're just going to do it we're going to dive into stand-up comedy uh we're going to do a stand-up comedy episode and this is going to be that episode and we're going to start it off this video last week we didn't do a video either i forgot all we had we had one of aaron's videos and we forgot to play that we forgot i don't think it was good and so we i think we did aaron a favor yeah you know that's what a lot of people said yeah okay uh

They, no, we just kind of forgot because we had a guest. It was a new thing. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. Holly was losing it, the dog.

My wife is gone again. That messes everything up and she's not here. So this week we got a video and the video is a little sketch video I shot during COVID with my neighbors. And I'm eager to see what it is trying to do stand-up comedy during COVID times. It's a little fun little just sketch video that we've never put out. And this is the premiere of

doing it. We shot it with my daughter, Harper, the other kids and with this group we've all quarantined together. We are a cul-de-sac that's quarantined together. Blair, Carter and Reese and then Jack and Cole and so all the kids in our little neighborhood and they did a wonderful job so here's the video. My wife and I we've been married for 13 years and we have a seven-year-old daughter so it's getting pretty serious.

That's it. Give it to me. I don't even know how you got it. So my daughter was two years old. We took her to Disney World and we told our friends and they were like, "I don't know why you're taking her to Disney World. I mean, she's not going to remember it. You're just going to waste your money." All right. All right. Okay. Where are you going? You know what? We're better without them. I'll tell you that. This is better. I can tell you what, next quarantine, I'm going to make sure I have a barber in my circle. You guys watching Tiger King?

Couple of you? Nobody? Okay. Put your hands down. This is not a back and forth. I mean a gun misses. Tigers rarely miss. I won the Boston Comedy Festival and the New York Comedy Festival in the same year. I don't think, yeah, none of you did that, did ya? I am sorry. I raised my voice and that wasn't good enough. He was looking for his elderly wife and saw me with no shirt on.

and said, "Olivia, I mean, I don't even know who you fitted more, me or Olivia." How are y'all not getting this, all right? These are good jokes. - You hurt my dad's feelings. Please laugh even if it's fake. - Thank you, thank you. Try not to gain too much weight during this quarantine, you know?

I don't work out, you know, I've never worked out. My muscles are as loose as a goose. What I have been doing is I just tell people I used to weigh 300 pounds. I've never weighed 300 pounds, but I look pretty amazing for a guy that used to weigh 300 pounds. All right, now we're cooking. Jack and Cole wish they could see this, I bet. What are y'all doing? Are you at a different show? That guy sells insurance. I'm a professional comedian. Come here.

There it is. Pretty not bad, right? So the idea was the Tonight Show was trying to look for stuff and they talked to me about trying to shoot something. And then I came up with this idea. I guess they were like, no.

That's very funny. Not having it. It's a very, it's a funny kids are great. Kids do great. Uh, doing comedy during the COVID times. Uh, got a couple of golf sets back in my golf clubs. Uh, but there, but it's, yeah, the kids were, the kids did great and we did it and it was hot. Uh,

Bates edited that together. Put the music. If you don't like it, you know where to complain about. YouTube will flag it. Yeah, but he edited it together. I mean, it's a fun, it's a very cute, fun video. And if you're listening at home, you can go. We'll post it on the socials so you can go find it.

So yeah, that's stand-up comedy. All right, everybody. This is Bell on this episode. And that's how you do stand-up comedy. Also, we're going to do it. We're going to have Bates take the lead. I think it's a lot for, you know, I think people can handle me reading the comments. And I think past that, it gets a bit much, you know? So I get it, guys. I'm dumb. Is that what y'all wanted to me to say it?

So Bates, take it away. All right. So today we're talking about stand-up comedy. That sounds like you're doing a project. That sounded just like a student, did it not? Okay. Today, stand-up comedy. Yeah. All right. You want to take it back? I don't know. I think I bring flavor into it. But go ahead. Read it. All right. Three words in and I'm already struggling.

All right. First, we'll do a brief history of stand-up comedy. There's a podcast called The History of Stand-Up. If you haven't listened to that, I would recommend it. Most of my information here came from Wikipedia. Okay.

But basically, 1930s. I mean, stand-up comedy has been around to some degree since court jesters. 1800s. Yeah, I do. But you know, you'd probably be like, don't count them as stand-up comics. That's like nowadays. Yeah. Like, I'm an impromptu. Like, we're not doing the same thing. Yeah. They're like guitar comics back then. Court jesters. Like, you know, what would be their competitor? Like a juggler? Like, if you're a court jester and the juggler's like, oh, like, we hang out, we do the same thing. And you're like, all right, dude, take it easy. Yeah.

They're a prop comic. Yeah. So for modern stand-up comedy, like 1930s to the 50s kind of got a start. Some of the big names, Mobs Mabley, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Burns, Fred Allen, Milton Berle, and Frank Fay. And they got their start in either Vaudeville or on the Chitlin Circuit. That was Vaudeville was up. Chitlin Circuit was southern, right? No, I think that's black comics. Okay. The Chitlin Circuit is? Yeah.

So that's just black rooms. And then vaudeville is Jewish. Or is it New York? We're already in trouble. I've never heard of vaudeville being a Jewish thing. I thought it was New York. Yeah, I think it is. And then I think it was all Jewish people were from New York? Is that fair to say? Like the Hamptons?

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, like, I think that back then it was, I think all those guys are Jewish. Okay. And all of them are Jewish. Mom's maybe he's not. Well, that's arguable. Okay. I don't know what that means. No, but Jack Benny was bought, like, it was, I think they used to go travel up there. I think it was like a big, the rich people of New York would go and travel to those vaudevilles and they would stay. The Catskills.

Cat skills is what I was thinking about when I said the Hamptons. Yeah. Yes. Maybe I'm thinking of cat skills. Yeah. That's exactly what I'm thinking about. All right. Sorry. But from the 30s to the 50s, the nightclub circuit was owned and operated by the mafia. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Mafia is not that bad of a thing. Take away the... The murders? The drugs, just them selling drugs. I think they're... Oh yeah, the murders you're fine with. The murders, they're killing each other. It's a good, I think it's a good joke. Worked today, still worked in the 80s, still relevant now. Nightclubs and resorts became the breeding ground for a new type of stand-up comedian, specifically Lenny Bruce.

Acts such as Alan King, Danny Thomas, Martin and Lewis, Don Rickles, and Joan Rivers flourished in these venues. It's amazing. They were doing it way back then. Yeah. So the 30s and the 50s. Yeah. I mean, look how many there's, yeah, what is their standups? I mean, there's like six, you know, there's just nobody.

And those, those were, I mean, there's gotta be obviously more than that. These are the famous ones. I'm sure there was like, you know, I mean, Cosby used to go like get a commie seller in New York. Cosby would go and perform at the, I want to say it's ha or, or why or something, whatever's next to,

the comedy cellar and it's, they do music down there now. And I know Cosby used to go down there. Carlin used to go down there and they, they would, they, they didn't have the comedy cellar. They didn't have clubs. So they would do all that kind of stuff. And, but I was going on then, I mean, just bounce around doing comedy.

Then the 60s rolled around. Woody Allen, Chili Berman, Phyllis Diller were big. Some black American comedians, Bill Cosby, you just mentioned. Flip Wilson, Dick Gregory became stars while Red Fox tested the boundaries of uncensored racial humor. Bud Friedman opened the Improv in New York City in 1963, Improv Comedy Club.

And this is pretty crazy. Bob Newhart's debut album, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart, reached number one in the Billboard album charts in 1960 and remained at the top for 14 weeks. It won Album of the Year, the 1961 Grammy Awards, where Newhart was named Best New Artist. It was the first comedy album to win Album of the Year and the only time a comedian had won Best New Artist. That's unbelievable. I mean, back then, it was such a big deal with albums. But yeah, yeah.

To come out and be a comedian and to do that is nuts. And nowadays, I mean, it's impossible. Yeah. I mean, he beat every musician. It didn't have its own category at the time? Comedy? Yeah.

It may have, and the way this is written, it acts like it's happened since then, but I couldn't find anybody except Bob Newhart that got Alvin Lear. He's competing against people like Ray Charles. It's pretty crazy. Comedy doesn't really get its own thing. Comedy is the only thing in awards that it's not a part of something.

Should they be nominated for an Oscar? Could they be? It would be great. I think all that stuff would be, but we just don't get to do it. Specials are shot beautifully now, and they're done. Comics don't get it. Not saying we would... It feels weird, because we could think that we don't want it either. Because a comic is not about...

You do want it. Every comic does want it. They're going to say, but the idea is like, they don't like Seinfeld when he won that one, HBO gave him an award and he was like, no one wants this award. It's like, we want to be in the back of the room and make fun of it. But he obviously wants, you do want that. You want the accolades of being that good. It's also easy to say that when you're already Seinfeld. Yeah. I mean, that's when you get to that level and you're like, I don't, I don't need any of this stuff. Like this doesn't do many favors. Yeah.

He only takes it if he feels like he owes it to them to go take it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's unreal, though. Yeah. I'm a big, you know, we talked about the New Art Show last week. Yeah, that's, oh, what was it? Oh, my mom wanted me to say something about last week. The Who Shot JR. Yeah. Not the, the episode that JR got shot, the one before that.

uh, March like 21st, like 1980. Okay. And, my parents were, everybody came over to my house and we're all going to watch it. I was one, I guess about to be one March 25th was my birth. Okay. It was my birthday. So I was going to be one. My family came down, we're going to celebrate my first birthday, you know, and I had a seizure seizure. And, uh, yeah, I forget what it's a seizure that babies have or something. And then, uh,

So we had to go to the hospital. My parents just had to go to the hospital. My mom didn't get to see it. They didn't have VCR to record. They didn't have any of that stuff. So she just never saw. She didn't see the episode where he got shot. Did they know it was coming? The seizure? The seizure? No. Did they know that something terrible was going to happen to him for them to all be gathered around? Well, my birthday was...

Oh, that's why they were there. Yeah. I mean, like we were going to be celebrating my birthday and it was, it's a big show. Yeah. So it wasn't like they were watching cause they knew something was, they were just watching. I mean, yeah, maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but I think it was just a big show. And my birthday was, we're celebrating my first birthday. I'll come down. We're watched Dallas. We're, you know, it was a thing. It was like a, you know, and then I had a seizure and they went to the hospital. So my mom never saw it. She's still mad about it. Yeah. She brought it up. Did you talk about the seizure?

And I go, no, I'm trying to move on past that. That's interesting. I had one when I was one and five. Yeah. During, I can't think of it. During Bob Newhart. Yeah.

During the MASH finale? Yeah, the MASH finale. It's only finales. And one time Seinfeld. Yeah. All right. In the 70s, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin were some of the... Starts rocking. Yeah. Some of the comics who got their start or became big stars of the 70s. The Comedy Store opened in LA in 1972. Hollywood Improv opened in 1974.

There's a lot of good documentary stuff about the Sibneys. Yeah, there's some great documentaries, great books. There's a great book about that in comedy. You know, yeah, I've talked to a lot of guys that started in that kind of era. A lot of people like my dad. They had the big strike where they weren't getting paid. We had a strike in New York when I moved, or almost a strike, where they wanted comics to get paid.

uh, with Ted, Ted Alexandro, uh, put it together. I just moved to New York as like 2004 or five. I was handing out flyers at Boston comedy club and they would have meetings and they wanted the pay to go up. So to do spots in New York city, you would, uh, am I jumping ahead? Should I be telling this later? No, it's fine.

So to do make money in New York City, how they all make money is you do spots. And so when you do shows in New York City, it's not like on the road. So if you live in Kansas City at the Kansas City Improv, there you go watch a headliner, an opener, and then an emcee. But in New York City or in L.A., you see people do spots.

And so New York city was where I was. Uh, and how they do it is you're doing like six comics around the show. So you go to a show and you're going to see six comics and the, I forget, I don't know what they were getting paid then. I wasn't getting paid cause I was handing out flyers. I was a new comic, but they wanted to pay to go up. And so they got it up, whatever it was. I don't know what, whatever it was, but to, I think some of it's up even more now since I've left, but they got it up during the week. It's $25 a spot.

So Monday to Sunday to Thursday, maybe Sunday to Thursday is $25 a spot. And that's why you'd go do four or five spots. So you can make a couple hundred bucks that night. Uh, and then if you hosted, you got $75 a spot Sunday to Thursday because that person couldn't run around and do more shows to get money. Hmm.

And then the weekend was $75 a spot. It's not hosting. So then you could go and make $75 a spot. And then host would get $125, I believe, to stay on the show. And then the host would just typically, if you did three shows a night, he would just stay there that whole night. And so it'd be a matter of do you want to host and stay or do you want to go run around? And that's how New York comics make all their money. That's how.

You eventually get in. And I mean, you would make money. I mean, you can make, I don't know, $1,000 a week maybe. Really? Well, I mean, $25 a spot. If you're doing... I mean, I would go out in the real peak of it. I'm doing two shows every night. I mean, I did nine years I did a show every night. Every night for nine years. But at those times, I'm not getting paid. And then when I start getting paid, I mean, I'm easily doing two a night. I would do... You know, you would just be like, where are you at? Like, oh, I'm at St. of New York and I'm going to run down to...

the stand or I'm going to run down to the car or run over to comic strip. You try to stay uptown too. Like, so you try to stay, if you, if you, if you could do stand up, New York was like 80 something 90th, 89th in Amsterdam, or it was upper West side. And the comic strip was upper East side. So you would try to, if you could, you just like, well, I'm going to stay up there.

And if I could run back between the two. And so you would just stay in New York. And then sometimes it was the best nights were when it was nice and it was like nice outside and you had a break, you could just walk over. So like you would just, you know, I have an hour and you're like, I'm going to just walk over and you have a comic with you and you're just like, oh, let's walk. And you walk over, you go into the comic strip, you do the show and then you got to go back and

But I mean, yeah, so you make, do two a night, 25, 50 bucks. What is that? 54 days is 200 bucks. And then on the weekend, if you do five shows, it's 75, whatever that would be. You know, I mean, is that, that's probably about a thousand, right? Something like that. It's getting on up there. So,

That's how you make, yeah, that's how the comics in New York would make their money. They run around and do this. It's a lot. The problem is it's a lot of work. You're working for that money. I mean, you're doing shows. The most shows I ever did was seven in one night. And so all these sets too are 15 minutes long. So the most I ever did was seven. And it was, that seven, I just remember it was too much.

By the time you got to the last one, you don't even know if you've said the same joke.

you're like, have I already said this joke? Because you're doing the same set. So like, you know, I mean, I think most people listening to this podcast will understand no comedy, but you're doing the same set majority of the times. And that's how you fix the set and make it become really good. And you got to do it over and over and over and over again. And so you would be doing that in New York. And I remember, I mean, you just would do, but mostly five. Like if I go back now, like if I'm doing a Tonight Show and I go back, I like to run like,

I don't have to do as much as I used to, but I'll do, I still do probably three one night to the next night. And then I'll do this night show the next day. And so that's what I'll end up doing. And I'll just do, and what I want to do when I do it, usually the first couple of sets, I'll do full sets, 15 minutes, and I'll just open with my tonight show set. That's five minutes. So I opened with it and I'll do 10 minutes.

But the last day, I like to do just five. I don't want to do 15. I want to do my five. I want to pop in and be able to do it so I can truly time it and know what the set is at, what time it is at. And that's how I do. That's what I do tonight shows. I used to always go do it in a bad room too. I would go to a room that's tough.

not a really not a comedy club I might find a little bar and then go do somewhere with the audience not going to be great because I knew if I could if I could do the set during that I could do it at this I wouldn't be nervous at this night show because in my head I'm like well I've already I did this where no one laughed and everybody hated me

So I'll go, now I'm fine. Now I've, it's just putting that set through the mud, you know? Right. So this is a set, you've already, you obviously already have confidence in the jokes, so you're not going to lose confidence if it's a bad room. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, all right. But I really, the timing is what I'm looking at. I'm looking at, you know, I'm looking at the timing of,

doing this without big laughs. Yeah. I'm not worried about like, you're not going to bomb. No one's going to boo me or anything. Yeah. But if they don't laugh how I think they're going to laugh, that's the only really, you know, so I got to get, I got to get my time. Like if I can do it where the audience is not laughing, then I know that timing and I've said it, I can get through these jokes without, I'm not relying on that time. It's not going to mess me up. I've already said it without them laughing. Cause if you get in front of a tonight show crowd and,

Some of them can be overcrowd. They can be overexcited where they clap too much and they're applauded. You have to stop. I mean, sometimes in a night show, you have to kind of talk to stay on top of them. Like, if I feel like they're about to clap and they're going to kind of stop your momentum and the joke is still, like, I'm in the middle. It's not like that's the end of that joke. I'm in the middle of that joke. And you got to kind of be like, and then I went to the store. So I went to the store the other day. You got to kind of do that.

And that's how you kind of keep them at bay. Like, that's how you kind of be like, no, no, no, no, I'm not done without saying, no, I'm not done. And that happens a lot. And you just got to kind of stay on top of them. You're controlling them. Yeah. You're just controlling the response because you're like, I can't really, we can't get out of it. If we all clap and we get out of this, it's going to feel weird for me to get back into it, but I have to get back into it. So you try to kind of, you're trying to like,

Keep everything, the rhythm of it's really great. Because, I mean, you know, they're just, they like the joke. And the TV crowd is going to be, they're a little more hurrah than a normal crowd. But, I mean, I always say, when you do a Tonight Show set, I don't, it's not like you go have the greatest show.

You feel like the reaction is the greatest you've ever been a part of. I never think it is. I think you, I think you can do your end up getting bigger laughs at a comedy club the night before, but because the comedy club is built for that. And it's at a, when you do a tonight show, I mean, tonight shows actually a really good setup for late night shows that you walk out and you stand. There's a little four leaf clover, right? Where the thing is, they ask you if you want to hold a mic, if you, whatever you want to do.

And Fallon does a great, great job telling them what's going to happen. He does an awesome, I mean, you know, I've seen a lot. Telling the comic? No, the audience. Oh, the audience. So, you know, all I've ever done is Conan. I did Late Night with Conan. Conan when he was at TBS. I did Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. And then Fallon when he was at Tonight Show. So those were all in different studios.

And Conan was a late night with Conan was a good setup. When you went to TBS, not a good setup. It was, you're very far. The audience is set up where you walk out and there's some people kind of right in front of you. And then think of like a, like a kidney bean. Like that's what the seats kind of shaped like that. It kind of goes that way. So the person, uh,

someone's really far away from you. Like a lot of people are really far away from you. So the audience is not kind of on you. So you just got to get, that's a kind of a weird setup and it can throw people off where you're kind of like, what is this? But you got to face the camera, right? So you can't turn and kind of. You can look at the crowd. You try not to look at the camera too much. I mean, you know, I think people have decided, you know, is like, what do you want to do? Do you want to talk to, here's the problem. Like if you're watching on YouTube, like if you can, what I always think about,

When I'm performing and what I've noticed, the audience is going to be, they're a little bit above,

So they're above the camera. So when you're talking, if I'm looking like this into the camera and I'm like, hey, hey, and I'm talking to the jokes. And I know if you're listening to this, you might, this might not make sense, but I'll try to explain it. But you're talking, I'm looking right at the camera. My eyeline is the camera is side to side. You see this. If I look at the crowd, now you're seeing the whites of my eyes. And so I've have done it.

But then you realize, oh, that doesn't look good. Like, it's just like, and if you saw a comic being like, so what's going on? You know, the person at home is getting a much different experience than the people there. So I've learned to not really try to do that. I don't look past too high up. You're just trying to kind of stay level. So, and the audience thinks you're looking at them. And then, you know, and then they don't. So it's an interesting thing.

But so, yeah, the Tonight Show does very... So what Fallon does that's so good, and the guy that books Conan, JP, is unbelievable. He's awesome. The two best bookers...

And really the ones that I've dealt with. So there's JP, then Michael Cox, who books The Tonight Show. And he's the real deal. I've dealt with a lot of bookers. Tonight Show, they went through a lot of bookers at one point when they were just trying to find bookers. The guys at The Stand, Comedy Club The Stand, but they're great. They booked it at one point. And it was like, I don't think they realized they owned The Stand at a comedy club in New York. And they're like, you can't.

Like you're like, how is this going to work out? Like you're, it's a huge conflict of interest. And then they eventually found out, but I was a lot of, when a new booker came on, I was a lot of their first, they would always book me not to say anything, but I had a good relationship with Fallon. I'm clean. I'm not trying to push any envelope. I'm not trying to get on there and say something crazy. I'm kind of minding my own business. So I was a lot of like when this night show needed someone, it was like,

Fountain likes you. Let's have you on. And then they get to, you know, they're doing it. But the guy that books tonight, so now is amazing. And he's really good because they, you got to send them your set. They got to look at the set. I mean, it's much different. When I first started, it was, you got to have this stuff on tape. You have to, my first Conan, I mean, I feel like I'm just keeping rambling.

Anyway, so let me say the Tonight Show. So what Fallon does is he goes, and before he brings you out in front of the crowd, like you talked to him backstage, it's a wonderful, everybody that works there is wonderful. Every time I go back, I see it. The Roots are amazing. They always come and say something very nice. But before Fallon brings you out, he goes and stands where you're going to stand, and he talks to the crowd that's there. Because you need that crowd to be great, because that's your reaction. Yeah.

And so he's like, we got a great stand-up comedian. He's going to be coming out. He's so funny. It's great. You're going to love it. He's going to stand right here and you're going to enjoy it. And so that's so important because now they know where you're going to come. They know where to look. They know, like he's setting you up very nicely. And then he brings you out and you always wave at the band. I always heard that was like kind of a thing.

with some of these late night shows, some people come out, not comics, but it could be anybody, the celebrities, and they don't acknowledge the band. And it's not, it looks bad. Like, you know, people, it's just kind of, and, you know, so you're like, oh, do you do it? Do you not acknowledge them? Do you acknowledge them? And I always heard you got to acknowledge them because you look crazy. I've never thought about that. Me either. I'm going to notice it every time now. Yeah, I think everyone will. Will they, do they wave at the band or do they not? Yeah.

You've got to give a fair that some people could be nervous and they're not thinking, you know, they're going to walk out and be like, oh, yeah, it was a blur. I didn't even notice the audience. But, you know. How nervous were you when you first did it? When I first did it, the first one I did, Conan. So how I got Conan was.

The first one was I was in New York, Eastville Comedy Club, and they were doing auditions. And they would come and just watch comics. They'd do a showcase. We're going to watch comics. And so I go. My managers went and got them, my old managers. And they went and got them. And I got the audition. I did it. The set went good. And I was on the next week.

so it was very quick. And this was with late night with Conan O'Brien right before he left. And then the second time I did it, he was about to leave and go take over the tonight show. Uh,

And it was like, I want to say it's like February. I did it in September. And then they were doing other auditions at Eastville. And I wanted to do it in February. And I told my managers, my older managers, I was like, hey, I want to do it again. And they were like, it's too soon. You can't do it. And I was like, I think I can do it. And they're like, no, they're never going to. There's no reason to even go try. And I knew Mulaney, who I started with. John Mulaney was a

We kind of started at the same time. But I remember John Mulaney, he was an unbelievable comic, but he just did it. He just did them like kind of close. And I said, well, John Mulaney did them twice. I was like, I mean, they're doing that. Like, I think I could do it twice. And they were like, no, it's crazy. So I went and called, I went and I knew obviously the booker of the club and I told him, hey, I want to do it again. They were like, yeah, they would love to see you. Like, I'm a clean comedian. Like they're going to, you know, I can at least have a shot. And I just did it.

So I went and did it. And I did not tell those managers. I was like, I'm not going to tell them. I wanted to just get on Conan and them see me on Conan. And so...

I didn't tell them. And then they call me because it's the Steinbergs, these managers. And I love them. They made it. I think I would almost... I mean, I would tell them this story. I might have told them this story. They were known. They were New York managers. They're two brothers. And they're actually awesome. I still talk to Evan. He's in Arizona now. But they're...

so they, they, I, they, they get the Conan people call my managers that day and say, Hey, Nate's got to be there at the club, whatever. And so then they call me and they go, so you got to be at the club for the Conan audition. So you're doing it. And I was like, yeah, y'all told me I couldn't do it. And I just asked the club and they're letting me do it. And then, uh, so I went down, I went down to Conan and I did it. And, uh, it was, the set went great and I did it the next week and I did it again. And, uh,

That one I did with... Were they mad? No, no. They were happy. They don't care. It's like they're like, whatever, you did it. Good for you. But you were hoping they just turned on the TV that night and saw you back on it again? Oh, yeah. That was what I was going for. And if I would have known... I didn't know that they would have called and said, here, tell Nate what time we're coming. But...

or I would have stopped that. I would have been like, don't tell them. I was really trying to. And then I just, but I didn't know that they called your manager. I didn't think about it because I was new to all this kind of, but yeah, I was hoping that I could just show them. I would have loved it just to have been like, to see me on. It would have been very funny. But that was when I did those, I was nervous. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was

She's been a guest twice when I've been on Conan and then another one on Tonight Show. Never talked to her. Really? Great. Did I ever tell this story on? One story I saw backstage at Tonight Show, Val Kilmer was on the Tonight Show. And he's just walking around. Dude, he's in his own world, man. He's great. And so you don't always talk to all the guests. I'm trying to think if anybody I've ever really...

You know, Vince Vaughn I talked to once, which I was doing the Nashville Fest. He used to be a part of that. And he was cool. Aaron Paul, when I was on here, he was just like, hey, what's up? And that was about it. Trying to thank anybody. None of them I really – you kind of try to stay out of the way. You kind of not try to, like, you know. I mean, I always talk to Fallon a lot, but you just kind of, you know, I don't really – Patton Oswalt was on the show. Obviously, I knew Patton, and so it was kind of –

but I, yeah, most you don't, it's just, I don't really mess with anything. And so, uh, Val Coomer is on the show and he just keeps like walking. He just kind of walks around into every room. And, uh, and then, so it was like, I mean, I think I talked to him for a second, but not much. Uh, he enjoyed those sharpest there. He just walks into her. I just see him walk into, uh,

her green room and she's sitting there and she's like, Hey Val. And he's like, I'm getting married in two months. You're going to come. And then walks off. And that's it. She had no idea that he's getting married. And like, he just was like, you're invited to the wedding. And then leaves no more, no more information, no more anything. And just, that was, I think the only time they talked was that. And he was, cause she left right after and, you know, and he, but he was just like a kind of guy like, like that. Yeah.

And then he, and then he ended up like following me and like, I think listened to me and tweeted, tweeted at me a few times. Uh, it was, it was very nice. I'm not, I really didn't talk to him that much at the time show, but besides that, I just remember him inviting her to his wedding and she was like, okay. Like, and then he just kind of kept going and just kind of keep walking down, you know, that's great. All right. Let's get in some of these questions. Um,

So I'm not going to, these are questions from fans and listeners. I don't have their names because a lot of them are asking the same question. But first one was, who's the first comedian you remember seeing perform live? I mean, on TV, I want to say it was Sinbad. You know, I think maybe Seinfeld at the end of a Seinfeld episode when it was on. I think Sinbad even before then.

I remember Jim Brewer was the first live one. Did they say live? Yeah. Jim Brewer was the first live one. It was at Zaney's in Nashville. I was in high school. I have on my...

What I was going to do in 10 years, when you write your senior year, where are you going to be in 10 years? And I said, I'm going to be playing in the NBA. I was always saying I was going to still make the NBA. I love basketball. And I technically did because I played for the Nashville Baptist Association. Church ball. And then it was hard to be performing at Zany's, albeit Zany's Performing.

I kind of put that, I think, as a joke. I had no concept of really being like, I'm going to start doing comedy. But I remember I went and watched Jim Brewer. I just remember how good he did. I mean, he walked off stage. I gave him a high five. I mean, I was like, this guy is amazing. It was unbelievable how hard we laughed.

And I remember seeing the openers. I thought everybody was just probably rich on that show. And then you start emceeing and you're like, oh, that guy was poor as like I was a senior in high school and I've made more money than he did. I mean, he was making nothing like ten dollars maybe or something stupid.

so yeah jim brew is the first one and i gotta work with him i don't you know i've only i've been around him a few times but we never talked a ton but i'm still a gigantic jim brewer fan and jim brew is very very funny very unbelievable comedian a little underrated in the fact that he doesn't get the clout that i think he deserves he's up there with that with all the tops and he's an awesome awesome comment i remember going to zany's i

When I was in college, so this is early 90s, and I don't remember his name, but he's the guy from the movie Major League that's Bob Uecker's sidekick.

The color commentator that never comments. Have you guys seen Major League? Yeah. Yeah, I can't put a face to that. Yeah. That's his chick. He never says anything, Harley. Okay. But Bob, he's Bob, Bob Bucher. He's a stand-up comic. He was very funny. And we got to meet, he stood by the door after the show selling merch. Yeah. And I was blown away that I got to meet this guy. Yeah. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Yeah. What was yours? I saw Brian Regan. Yeah. In college. It was the first live show I ever saw. Yeah. At Notre Dame? Yeah. Yeah.

I saw Brian Regan open for Jerry Seinfeld once. Really? At TPAC? At TPAC, yeah. Yeah, I was there. Was it 2003? Yeah. It's a decent show. I was there. Yeah. I didn't know who Brian Regan was. I didn't know who Brian Regan was either. And I flew back. That's when I started comedy. I moved to Chicago. And then we came back. Was it September 11th or around 12th? Because I remember it was 2002. 2002.

It was early 2000. It was 2002 because I flew back on September 11th, 2002. So it was a year after. I remember flying back one year on the one year anniversary of 9-11. Oh, wow. And back to Nashville. And I moved. We moved to Chicago, me and Michael Clay, who I'm wearing his daughter's softball hat this week, Moxie. She's in a real legit travel softball. Like it's like real deal. They're good.

all that travel kid stuff. I think it gets crazy, you know, it gets super serious anyway. So me and Michael moved in Chicago and I came back to see Seinfeld and it was Brian Regan opening. I believe Brian Regan opened for him. It's funny. I remember the opener being super funny, but you have no concept of what's happening. Like now, since I'm in this world,

I understand it so much. And like, you're like, how do these people not know? Like there's people that come to shows and they don't know that there's an opener. Yeah. Still, still. And, but like, I think I could have been that person. I mean, if you're not going to a live show, I think standup comedy is a lot more mainstream now than it was then. I mean, it's, I mean, I think standup comedy is becoming very mainstream. Yeah. And, uh,

People are listening to it a little more, consuming it like music. But then, yeah, I didn't think about it. And a lot of stuff was I just never thought stuff through. I was the same way. I had friends. I have friends now. I'll say, who are your favorite comics? And they'll name some people. And I think those comics are terrible. You don't know. But I was the same way before. Name the comics. I got it. Me. Yeah, somewhere in the room.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you mentioned you, you, how cool it was that you got to meet that comic. Yeah. That was the thing that blew me away when I started doing standup is how accessible all of like the best comics in the world are. I was like four months into comedy and I met Ralphie May. Yeah. I was like, that's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's like picking up a guitar and then you meet,

Eric Clapton in a couple months. It's insane. Yeah. So that's always been... Well, comparing Ralphie Mel to Eric Clapton is a little... I'm just... Rest in peace, Ralphie. Ralphie was a wonderful guy. This kind of... Okay, go ahead. No, no, I was just saying that. I was going to say, so that kind of takes away the next question, which comedians have influenced your career? Influenced my career? Some weird ones that are not going to be probably normal, but mine...

I mean, the beginning, Big Jay Oakerson and Kurt Metzger, they're very dirty guys, but two very close friends of mine. And we just moved to New York. That's the great thing about New York is when you go move in, you just kind of hang out with guys. It's not like you're hanging out with... Me and you are probably the closest act that our acts are clean and whatever. I mean, probably all of us.

are kind of the closest I've, where we're like, you would think, oh yeah, I could see those comics hanging out. Usually the, it's, the acts are pretty different. And I think it's really New York. The acts were very different. And so you're hanging out with guys that are filthy and like, because it's like, those are just your friends. And so, I mean, Big J, Kurt Metzger, uh,

they, they were huge influences on me because they were just right above me. And, uh, just how funny they were. That was the first time I moved and I saw these guys, no one,

Knew who these guys were. And we're all basically kind of still starting. And I was blown. I was like, God, dude, these guys are so funny. Like it was unbelievable. Just being like, you've been doing comedy four years and you're just like, dude, like it's nuts. And you're seeing these guys and that's being at Boston. Dustin Chafin, the guy I served with, he would run it and like it was, and he's a comic too, but it would, we would all be there and just all beat him. Like I wouldn't take it.

that time away, like with being at Boston comedy club, it was amazing to get to watch all these people, Bill Burr, Patrice. So Burr Burr's probably the biggest, as far as not saying act wise, you know, I don't think people affect you as far as the way you do your act. They affect you in the way that you, how you get excited and how you like kind of go across what I need to do to get, how you approach comedy, how you approach comedy.

and uh so like seeing like i mean david tell you know it was a big deal watching how funny he was but like burr was a big deal because burr i saw burr you know i think i've talked about this before but like burr's paths to me was i watched him i remember the philly rant before it happened i remember him telling us about it uh like right when it kind of blew up on youtube and he's like god it was they tell us about the show i

I remember watching Burr's HBO one night stand. I mean, I knew Burr, Burr doing his first Letterman when he, I was almost handing him a flyer. Uh, cause I did crap. HBO crashing is what I, how I started Pete Holmes. And so, and then he almost handed him a flyer and,

you know, and he's like, he's doing Letterman for the first time. And I mean, I remember that. And then, so I got to watch him. I remember going to watch him at Caroline's headline is 30 people there to then, uh, then the Caroline's being mad. If you asked, if you could go watch him, cause you know how busy we are this weekend, Bill Burr's here. Like, and now that is, uh,

I mean, just like, yeah, seeing Bird to Town Hall, that's great. Me and Soder went to Town Hall to watch Bird when he first did Town Hall. And, you know, it was like kind of like kind of knowing him at that point. I think he would always be like, yeah, Nate, you know, you would know me. And I'd always still introduce myself to him. He's the biggest to me just because I've watched all his success and just seeing it was like.

God, there's a path. There's a way to do it. That guy's doing it. That guy is unbelievable. Dude doing town hall with me and Soder and sitting in the fifth row and watching him at town hall. So then I performed at town hall last year. It was pretty wild. I mean, it was, I think, 10 years to the almost weekend.

I was here watching Burr. Then I was doing two shows. Wow. I remember someone yelled at him. I remember all this stuff. I remember how big that place was. Then you're there. Burr is a huge, huge influence for me. Gaffigan, too.

Seinfeld. Seinfeld. Seinfeld's the big... I mean, Seinfeld's the biggest. Seinfeld, I moved from Chicago to New York because I watched Comedian. I'm obsessed with Seinfeld. Seinfeld's the biggest deal to me. I watched... I had his... The last time I'm going to tell you, I had it memorized. So everything about that guy... I don't do my comedy as much like him. I mean, some is observational, but I'm...

The way I tell stories, I talk a little looser than him. He's very more, you know, he could write his out word for word kind of. But everything that guy's done, Seinfeld's obviously number one. But all that stuff changes. When you move to New York, it gets, once you're in it, like whatever your heroes are,

I mean, they're just so far up there that you're not going to... I mean, I'm not meeting Seinfeld. I'm not hanging out with him. But Burr, I was getting to kind of get to know. I mean, not like we were best friends, but I could go talk to him. I could ask that guy a question. And so getting to sit and watch from a distance him, Burr was the biggest. But Seinfeld, still never met him. And I mean...

That's it. He's the last. He's the last one. He's the last of your guys that you... Last ones that I want to meet? I mean, almost anybody. I mean, I would love to meet like Tiger and Michael Jordan. Yeah. But... Among comedians. Yeah, comedians, he's it. Yeah. There's no one else. Rock... Cosby? Do you ever meet him? Never met Cosby. So, I mean, but that's gone now. I can go visit him. You know where he's at. Actually, it might be pretty easy to meet him now. Oh.

I just need Seinfeld to go to jail and then I'll get him. That's funny. Yeah, he's... Yeah, no one... I'm trying to think of anybody else. Yeah. Chappelle, I've been around Chappelle. Chappelle would come into the Boston Comedy Club all the time when we first started. Have I told these Chappelle stories? No, I haven't heard them.

So Chappelle would always come in and when we'd be handing out these flyers, Chappelle's show is on the air when this is all going. Like this is when he's doing the Chappelle show. It's the peak of the Chappelle show. It's huge, right? It's enormous. I mean, when I was doing all these is not much. And then he left and was just gone. So I saw him up to then he left and then was gone.

And so Chappelle would always come in. We'd have Boston Comedy Club. So the idea of it was the comedy club would just be open and it would run from, I don't know, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. And it would just... Everybody can pop in and go on. Really, you would have some guys booked. So the actual show would be like 8 to 10. And then it would just run on and anybody can go and just jump on whenever they want. Dustin really... It was really run like a very...

Great place. And so people would come down and go up. And so you would see them come on whenever they want. So you see Burr, Patrice, you see all these guys.

And then Chappelle would always kind of stop by after he taped the show. He loved Boston Comedy Club. I think he started there. Neil Brennan worked the door there. And so they they they was a big deal, you know, that club. So Chappelle would always come down. I remember I remember having makeup on like behind his ear, like he would because he'd come straight from there just to do stand up. And I mean, he'd be in front of.

six people. I mean, no one's, sometimes he'd be on, no one's in there. And then we would walk outside and be like, Hey, Chappelle's on stage and you can go watch for free, not even charge tickets. And I mean, it would then be a hundred. We could get it to a hundred people within 15 minutes by just saying Chappelle's on stage. And so we'd go out there and we would say it. I remember telling someone, I told them Chappelle's on stage. Dave Chappelle's on stage. If you guys want to watch. And they were like, we don't believe you.

And I was like, well, I'm at a comedy club. It's not insane for me to say Dave Chappelle's on stage. And I was like, there's three stairs that led up to it and then a glass door. And I was like, go look. If he's not on those, if he's not on stage, then turn around. I'm not going to make you stay. And they go, no, we don't believe you. And I was like, just look. If he's not there, then don't go. What do you think is going to happen?

And then they just left. They never did it. And I think about those people a lot. I hope they could ever hear it. They missed a great issue. They could have saw Dave Chappelle for free, and they just did it. I remember him coming up and being on the phone once. He would always park up front. You couldn't park in front of the club, but he could. And then Patrice O'Neill also would park, and I would sit in Patrice's car.

and if he and so if a cop came i would just drive it around until he got off stage uh but chapelle parks as he walks in he's like on the phone with like a customer service and because i just hear him he just goes david chapelle and like you know it was like such a weird thing to hear like you know he's like talking to yeah you know i don't know like his dentist all like or something like

or whatever. No one does that with their dentist office, but whoever he's talking to, his insurance company. And it was just such a, it always like stuck with me because it was like a weird, you know, he's the most famous person on earth at that point. And just being like David Chappelle. In fact, he said David. It's crazy. Well, he's giving his name to something. Maybe he's buying a plane ticket or something. Yeah. Yeah.

so it was like such a crazy thing. But then I remember, yeah, like him just being on stage and him going on really late. He hosted a show one night where he just was like, Oh, there's other comics on it. I want to go. The coolest moment I saw at the comedy. So he would do the comedy seller and he would go on very, very late and did do long, long sets.

He was kind of starting to talk for three or four hours and would just bump all the other comics. And I mean, it was cool, but then some comics, it would start to get annoying. I wasn't to the point of, he wasn't bumping me because I was such a new comic.

But the guys that were working were like, every night, dude, you're doing four hours. We all need to get on stage. And the comics would get paid, but they just wouldn't perform. And so it was a mix of cool, but then becoming not cool, whatever.

And so, and he was not being a jerk about it. It's like, that's the deal, man. He got that famous. He gets to do that. That's the best. That's what you're, that's what you're trying to do. I want to walk in and they go, you get to go up next. That's my goal. I mean, I got bumped by everybody. I mean, I got bumped. Lucy K bumped me one night. Uh, I was at, I was, I was running my tonight show set. Actually, this wasn't even too, this was in loose chaos to the SNL. And, uh,

I was running my Tonight Show set, and then Louie had to come in to run his SNL monologue. So Louie went on first, and then I went on after. And so he bumped my Tonight Show is not as big as hosting SNL. I remember Seinfeld coming in. I remember Seinfeld bumping Gaffigan.

because your biggest fear when you'd be like, sometimes you'd be running the show at Boston. And I was like, what do I do when, you know, what if Chris Rock and Chappelle walk in together? Who do I say is going up? Who do you go? All right, Rock, you're first, Chappelle, you're at. Like, I was terrified of like, who, like. That ever happened? Do you ever get that dilemma? No, but I learned it's, if it's,

Never to that level. You would get it with, you'd get it with like the Bill Burr or Patrice O'Neill walk in together or something like that kind of level.

But I learned that you just let them kind of decide. So who wants to go first? And you just throw it to them and they could be like, I don't know, you go. Because you don't want to be ranking, but I thought you had to rank it. Because you would get to that level of you could have someone sitting in the back room or the back row and he doesn't get to go on yet because it's like a guy that has no credits and you're like, well, this guy walked in with two TV credits. So he gets to technically go before you.

So you would get to do that. What was I talking about before that? Oh, the Chappelle thing. Yeah. So when he bumped. So the coolest thing I saw was Chappelle's on stage doing a long set, right? And he kind of bumps everybody. And then David Tell. David Tell is, I think, the funniest pound for pound, the funniest comedian that's ever lived. I would go pay to watch David Tell. He's the only comic I would go pay to go watch right now. I would pay.

and I could go watch every show. I think he's unbelievable and super funny and just doing jokes. Like it's fun jokes, not this big thing. It's not a whole, it's not weighing you down. It's not like you got to go watch it. And it's like, great point. Like ball, it's just straight up jokes. You're going to laugh the entire time. And, uh,

So Attell walks downstairs and Dave Chappelle sees Attell. And Attell's very respected in New York. He's respected everywhere. But Attell's the guy in New York. And Chappelle's on stage and he looks and sees Dave Attell just kind of in the back. And Chappelle goes, oh, what's up, Dave? He's like, did you go on yet? And Attell goes, no. And Chappelle goes, all right, good night, everybody. Dave Attell. And walked off. Because he was like, I'll bump everybody, but I can't. Even though Chappelle's more famous than Attell. Yeah.

You can't bump a tail. That's so cool. And so you don't like, that's, that's like the highest sign of respect ever is he just immediately got off stage and just was like, all right, I saw you get bumped once by, no, he didn't. That is true.

what? Do you know this story? Comic and great. I come back to Nashville. This is not that long ago. Nate's done multiple tonight show sets and maybe eight, like eight years ago. Has it been that long? I think so. But you were still, you, I've already done. Yeah, I've done Conan tonight. I mean, you're headlining clubs. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not a nobody at this

I don't think I did. I haven't done Netflix. That's it. Okay. But yeah, but you're doing great. We go to Spanky's, a bar here in Nashville. Open mic bar. Open mic. Tuesday night. You can smoke it. You can still smoke cigarettes in it. Right. Yeah.

And we're on the, we sign up on the list. We wait. We're like 20 and number 20 and 21 or whatever. Not getting, not getting moved up at all. No one's told me a favor being like, yeah, he gets to, he gets to go up whenever he wants to go up. So we just sit there every one and we wait.

I mean, I should wait, but he shouldn't. So Nate's waiting. And a little bit before it's time, Nate's turn. The host comes up and says, hey, no, he didn't. He's just dropped in and he's going to go up before you. So we're going to have to bump you. He got bumped. I mean, I got bumped. We got a spike. He goes by, no, he didn't.

Wow. What's funny is I was texting with Mark Maron, who I'm friends with. I'm not trying to just say I'm doing this stuff. I've been in comedy for 17 years, so those are my friends. But it's funny, too, to be like, I'm texting with Maron. And I texted him. I said, I just got bumped by a guy called No He Didn't. And Maron loved it. Who was white, by the way. Yeah. No, stop. Yeah. White comic by name No He Didn't. Yeah. I guess that's where the...

That's what the name means. But, I mean, you're talking about the greatest comedians in the world. That's the difference. Like, you've been doing comedy 17 years. I've been doing it about 13. 17 and a half. Not that big a difference in...

in time wise but I've spent my entire 13 years in Nashville whereas you went Chicago New York for nine and then LA yeah so that's that's Brian was excited for no he didn't he was like I was I've done your length of comedy now not here uh-huh yeah yeah you're exactly right I was I got it because I knew who no he didn't was star studded evening yeah he walked over and goes look I know it's insane but

But you don't know really who he is. He's actually a pretty big deal. Yeah. He's big on the spanky scene. Open mic. Wow. And then, yeah. I think now I get to go up.

Well, that's because Spanky's closed. Yeah, that's really... No, he didn't is not on the circuit as much as he used to be. Was it no, he didn't or Noah, he didn't? No, he didn't. Yeah, I think it was a play on words. But it was Noah? Yeah, but he didn't want his mom to come see him. Now, when you hear that, you're like, so he's 22? He's 50. Yeah. Oh, okay. He's 50 years old. Yeah. And he doesn't want his elderly mom

Because he can be a little raunchy to see the advertisement that he is performing, which it's an open mic that is unadvertised. It wasn't like, no, he didn't, was on the flyer. And they're like, who's this Nate Bargetzi guy? No, he didn't. That's what I'm waiting for. It's great. I got bumped. One time I remember when I was running a Conan set. So the deal was...

when you needed to run a set for late night, you could just go to comedy club and go, Hey, I just need five minutes. I got to run. I'm doing the Letterman tomorrow. And then every comedy club is like, yeah, obviously. And then they get to go up. That's the deal. That's the, that's the, that's the thing that you love about getting these late night sets is you get to go walk around and do that. So when I was first doing Conan in New York, uh,

I did that. I was the second time, I think. And I was like, all right, I'm going to go do like seven sets. I'm starting super early at like 5 PM at some open mic. And I go into the open mic. I was like, I'm doing Conan. Do you think I can go on? And the guy's like, he's like, yeah, you can go on at the end. You can just sign it, sign up last. And I was like,

I was like, but I know, but I'm taping Conan O'Brien tomorrow. Like, so can I just... I'm trying to do a bunch of shows tonight. Can I try to go up? And the guy's like, yeah, at the end, at 28, we're at eight. And then I just had to leave and he wouldn't let me go up. And... Because it's like that guy's world. It was like... I mean, I might as well have just been like, I'm doing...

I'm doing stand-up comedy on the moon. And he'd be like, all right, man, whatever. Just do that back of the line. Like it didn't register. Like nothing really meant to him. I always liked it. I liked being told no, though. I thought it was very funny. Bill Burr had that at HAW. He talked about it on his podcast. There's a comedy club, I think called HAW in Times Square, where they go and they hand out these fires and they lie.

They're telling you like Jerry Seinfeld's on the show. Dan Cook. They just always say, like Bill Burr. And they, and people are like, Whoa. And then they go in and it's like some weird room upstairs and whatever. So they would always, they say, I mean, they honestly say Burr is on the show and Burr was in like New York this before the pandemic and went up there and was like, can I get on? And they were like, I mean, who are, you know, who are you? And he's like, I mean, I'm Bill Burr. And the guy I just don't think knew him is like,

I'm a pretty book tonight. And he's like, you know, like, and burst sort of the garden. You're using his name as like, and he's like, all right. And then he just didn't, I don't think got up. And he's like, it's crazy. How do you not know? He's the guy. He's the main guy now. Yeah. Yeah. Let's read some of these other questions. All right. So have you ever, did you ever consider quitting?

Was there ever a time where you were like, I don't know. We had one conversation. I could even drive you to the spot where it's at. It was we're driving by our house where Laura said, how long would you do this? You know, if it wasn't going, I just said, I was like, well, forever. That, yeah, I never, I never really hit a spot where I thought I had to quit. Yeah. I never, you know, there was never a moment.

You know, there's definitely frustrating times. I mean, there's been plenty of frustrating times. Look, I always say people, as a comic, you either make it at 20 or 40. Yeah. I don't think anybody makes it in the middle. You get a long road ahead of you, Aaron. Bates still got some time. Also, never at 50. So he has a two-year window. But I honestly think if you really look at everybody's success, 20 to 40, that's a lot.

that's when people make it. They either come out of the gate, get grabbed up, you're famous, or you have to wait till you're 40 and you're Burr, Louie, you know, you're these guys that have been around for a long time. And so, but I never hit that spot right away, but there's definitely, I mean, it was a long road. I mean,

You know, this Netflix stuff, you got to think this is my first hour Netflix special. That just happened two years ago. The first, and that's the Netflix specials and the standups, the half hour. Those are the things that pushed me to the next level to where I was selling, being able to start selling out some theaters and start doing some bigger shows.

uh but it's been a great it's been 17 years the tonight shows all added up it's being around i was around that's that's what you got to do you got to be around you got to be popping up you always want i remember at comedy clubs you wanted to be the guy you want to first you start headlining and you know i mean you got to realize people no one has a bunch of people comics when you first start headlining you can be at 1500 dollars

1200 usually for the weekend. That guy gets from, for Thursday to Sunday, 1200. And a lot of times, you know what? There's like either comedy condo that they could stay in or sometimes they have to pay for their own travel, their flight for sure. Uh, so I mean, you're making no money like doing this, but I mean, it's a lot of money at that time. You're like, I don't think it's $1,200. That's crazy for a gig. Uh,

And so you're doing those shows and you're, you're, you're a guy and you're, you're just a guy there that weekend. No one's coming to see you. And then you eventually want to be the guy where they're like, when someone calls the comedy club and they're like, Oh, this guy's there. And they're like, Oh, you know what? I think I've heard of that guy. Cause you know, many times if you caught a comedy club, you're like, no, I remember that he's the guy. Remember we were watching it at like, you want to, they don't really know you, but they do. They're like, I've seen you're at least in the atmosphere. And,

And that's what you're trying to eventually get to that. So then you get to where you're selling out the whole weekend to then theaters. And now people are there to see you. And so, but look, that's still, I still got a long way to go. You know? Yeah. It's been a, I mean, it's been, it's a long, it's a long grind. It's a waiting game. What's some like milestones in your career where you're like, you know what, this is, this is a next step. This is where I should be going. This is huge. I bought a watch for most of them. So I've always done that.

And the watch gets better. I would say, I mean, first one was that CMT was big, but Conan getting the late night. That year, 2008 was my first big year. I did Conan, Live at Gotham on Comedy Central and Montreal Comedy Festival, New Faces. And so that was a huge year for me. That was the first like, wow. Like it was like you thought,

I mean, I thought I made it. Yeah. And what's funny is like, no one realizes too, like when you get to that point, you didn't go back to like your, I had like a day job. Like, you know, you just do that stuff and then you go, you're not making any money. I mean, you made maybe, honestly, maybe $2,000 like out of those two TV things. And then the, the doing the just for laughs, Montreal cost me money. I had to pay for the, some like all the, like I didn't get any money there. Uh,

So 2008 was the first good, good thing. And then I think when I did the hour of the Comedy Central special was a big deal. And I bought like a watch, like a thousand dollar watch or something. It was like crazy. Like that, you know, but it was like insane to buy something like, you know, that. And that was like, I bought it for that moment. Like to be like, yeah, I like to wear it.

on what I'm doing. And then it's also like, watch is a good thing that sits and like, it's a reminder of like, that was my full-time magic. That was my comedy special. So that was, that was a big, a big career moment for me. I mean, doing all those tonight shows were big, but then I would say, you know, the standups and then the last special where, you know, those are the big kind of leaps where, you know, you, you, you did stuff. I think this podcast is setting me back to be honest, but yeah,

So this is the downfall to my... Jump the shark? Yeah. I remember when you did Bonnaroo. That was like a big thing. Yeah. So the cool events I've done, I mean, like we have a lot of them are in here. But yeah, I mean, the cool stuff is like Bonnaroo was gigantic. Being able to do Bonnaroo and being in that group because you're trying to get to be like, I'm cool. I did Bonnaroo 2010. Eminem was the headliner the year I did it. They misspelled my name.

All the stuff I have from it, my name's misspelled.

and maybe some of it's not because someone, they caught it, but half of it is. Uh, so Bonnaroo was big, you know, I mean the cool, like opening for Chris Rock, you know, when I, when Fallon, when I, when Fallon saw me, when I did the, the late night show. So when I, the first time I met Fallon, Fallon was at the con, at the stand. I was performing. I haven't told this story right on it. So the first, how I met Fallon is, I feel like we're just dragging on. Is it, is this all good? I think it's very interesting. Yeah.

So the first time, how I met Fallon, how I got into the relationship with him, we were, I was funny. I just moved to New York 2012. I mean, moved to LA. So I talked about that quote, anytime you start feeling comfortable, it's time to make a change. That was about when I read the quote. That's when I moved to LA. I was feeling comfortable in New York and I wanted to change it up and put myself in a different scene.

So I moved to LA. So then I came back to New York cause I was doing, you'd always do new year's Eve shows in New York. And so there was going to be the last year I go to do new year's Eve shows. And usually you'd perform at like Caroline's. Caroline's was awesome to perform at new year's Eve cause you'd get to perform. And then right before the ball drops, I mean, honestly, two minutes before that ball drops, we just walk out on Times Square and watch the ball drop and then go back downstairs. So if it was freezing outside, we'd,

You would just be like, hey, it's dropping in 40 seconds. And you go, okay. And you walk out. Oh, there it goes. So I've watched the ball drop. And everybody else in Times Square is just stuck out there. They've been out there for 12 hours. Yeah, at least. But if you ever, a little fun thing, if you ever want to go see the ball drop,

I think they still obviously go do it where they, but go to Caroline's. You get to watch a comedy show, go to the late show and you get to watch the comedy show. And then they walk you upstairs. I'd make sure, call them, make sure that I'm pretty sure they do. It wasn't just a comic thing, but then you can walk up and that way you're not stuck in that whole, that whole nonsense where you're waiting, you know? So anyway, so I go back for New Year's Eve and I was going to be doing a show on the 30th somewhere. I

December 30th, I was going to be doing a show in Massachusetts, and there was a massive snowstorm. So the show gets canceled. I shouldn't even be there. So now I'm there. I used to do a podcast with Giannis Papas and Chris Laker. It could be better. And it's funny to talk about it now. So this 2012, we're doing this podcast. And I go, I'm like, look, we need to record a final episode. I was like, we never recorded a final episode. We just stopped doing it.

And so I was like, so we're going to go to the stand. I'm not doing this show now. We're going to do this final episode. So we go and we're going to record this final episode. We all come down there. No one's, I'm doing that show later on. We're down in the showroom. So we get done doing it.

And Fallon just walks in and the show's not started. And I was like, Hey, what's up, man? I'm on stage. Like never met him, never met him. And I'm on stage talking in the microphone and, uh, just talking to Laker and Giannis like this, where we're all making fun of each other. And then, uh, Fallon walks in. I just remember like looking up and I was like,

what's up man you know like that's crazy and like you know like and then seeing Laker and we're all like you know and he's like hey uh he like lived in the neighborhood at the time or something and he's like I just wanted to I heard about this club I wanted to come check it out and I'm like

Yeah, it's cool, man. And so we just, we sat in the back and like he had a beer and like, you know, I think we just had a beer and talked and he knew Nashville Zanies, he knew Dorfman and Zanies. And so that's almost from Nashville. I just moved to LA and

you know, we just kind of talked until the show started and he was like, I'm gonna watch some of the show. And he's hosting late night with the found, you know, and, uh, he's a comic and he didn't want to go up or anything. So everybody kind of goes up now. Cause founds are the guy Giannis gets, uh, like everybody wants to go up now. And so, and he stayed. And then, so I went on and we all know he's there. So obviously since we know he's there, we are bringing it. Like it's not, you know, it's, I mean, I am doing my best of my best.

Old, none of it matters. I'm not trying a new joke. I am trying to murder. And so I get off stage and we just see him leave. I didn't talk to him. He just leaves. And I was like, all right. And I knew, I know he watched me. Like, you know, we're asking like, did he watch me? And we're like, yeah. And then it's so funny. The guy after Anthony Zenhauser,

it's comic buddy Anthony, but we always made, uh, I would always make fun of him. It's pretty mean, but he performed, you know, as if Fallon was in the crowd was hard out and Fallon just gone. I know, but he had no idea. It's just so funny. I mean, I've done, I've been in those situations too. You don't know. And I mean, but it's just so funny to be like, how was it? It's like he left. Uh, uh,

So he, we, uh, we get, he gets, so Fallon gets done. He leaves. Don't hear from him. Whatever. I moved to LA, uh, met Fallon. I was like, that's cool. I do Conan in LA and get done doing Conan next day.

Fallon called my agent at the time, manager at the time. And then, uh, was like, he wanted me to ask me to do the late night. He's like, you want to do, uh, we want to offer you a date for late night. And it was the first time I ever got the date before they saw the set. Wow. So I remember that like being like, I've never been, I could always get on these sits. I mean, I was always going to get approved with being clean. I've maybe, I can't say Walmart or Starbucks or something, but, uh,

I was the first one I ever got the offer just being like, hey, just do a set and we'll give you here's the date we want you to do and then just send us your set when you're ready, which is where I'm at now with the time. So it's very I'm still in now. I never get over it. I never it never is past. You know, I think about it every time that it's insane that I can get a date.

I mean, I can almost tell them when I want to do it, but I can get a date without doing it. It blows me away because how much you have to go through to get a late night set to do all of this stuff. And it's it's I mean, I none of it's ever lost on me. And I truly, truly think about it every single time. And it means the and it mean it's it's that would be a milestone and a huge achievement.

for me to be able to do this without having to jump through the, I mean, that's, and I, and I think about it every, every, every time I do it. That's awesome. So he, uh, they asked me to set, I just did Conan and there's a rule that you can't, you gotta be three months. You can't do a, another late night. It's not a rule because of your managers.

Yeah. Yes, exactly. That's what they call me. And they go, told you there is a rule. No, but they, they don't want you to do another show, have done another show. Okay. And I think it might be six months, but maybe it was three at the time on a different network. And it's not, it's not a, uh, like a,

Viacom or like some NBC rule. It's just the, you're like, you just did a late night set. We're not going to have you cause you just did it. Like I never did Kimmel. I was supposed, I got asked to do Kimmel and the day I got asked to do Kimball or that they wanted me to do Kimball, I did Conan. And so then that relationship kind of just went away and I never did. So now I'm a, I'm a tonight show guy. So like I, that you do switch over into like, I'm just doing a tonight show. I'm not doing anybody else. Like I just do him. Why would I go anywhere else? Uh,

And that's once I started doing with Fountain, like this moment, it was like when I was kind of like, I asked one time about doing Conan. I was like, oh, Conan wants me to do something. And they were like, you know, I think they gave me another set. They were like, just do another one with us. And then I was like, okay. Like it's a cool, Ray Romano had that with Letterman. When Leno was going to be done with the Tonight Show and Ray was going to go on Letterman, he went to the,

He wanted to go. Leno's like one of his last shows. And so he asked the guy to produce. And Ray Romano, everybody loves Raymond. If people don't know, Dave Letterman produced Everybody Loves Raymond. I didn't know that. Yeah. So that's how they got together. Ray did the show. Dave Letterman made that sitcom. And then they got on it. So he always could only do Letterman because it's like, that's the deal. And he would want to. I mean...

But when J. Leonard was retiring, Everybody Loves Raymond's been off the air a few years. He asked the producer, he's like, hey, you think Dave Letterman will care if I go do Tonight Show? I mean, I'm friends with J. It's his final show, dude, care if I go? And the producer went to Ray and said, you can do whatever you want.

You know, but I will tell you that it will break his heart. And so the producer said that. So it's not like, I don't know. Right. The producer said, my opinion is that you can do whatever you want, but it will break his heart. And then Ray's like, I mean, I can't. You know, I can't do that. So there's a mix of, you know, we have that where you're like, you should be loyal to your guys. So anyway, so Ray, I get asked to do that show. I go...

Fallon also, first day they call and ask me to do a late show with Fallon. The next day they call and they say they want to talk to me about producing a sitcom. So this was my first time ever being in that world.

And so he wanted to do like Letterman, uh, where it's like, we make like an air bell of dreaming. Obviously mine have never gone. This was eight years ago. We did it twice. They never went anywhere. But the night when they, they, he was going to come watch me before I fly to New York. I'm performing at Gotham comedy club. And, uh, he was going to come watch me perform. They're like, let me watch him again. I've only seen him once. Let me make sure this guy is good. Uh, so, uh,

I remember going to the comedy club. It was like a comedy juice. If you ever go do shows in New York or LA, if you watch shows, they do these shows, comedy juice. And they're notoriously known as amazing shows. And they're both at the Improv and then I think still Gotham. And so I was doing that show. And I remember going in there and they're like, when do you want to go out? Because Fallon was coming down to watch. So it was like, everybody's kind of like, everybody's like tense. Everybody's like, you know. And so...

They're like, ask me to go up. I went up. I think the host won first comic than me because we didn't want to... I figured I can't make him stay the whole time. Yeah. That's a good spot. And it's a good spot on a show. Host goes up, have one comic go up, and then I get to go up. And I was going to do like 15 minutes. And I went up, and that was probably the...

one of the bigger shows of my career as far as not a special or something, but as far as who's, what's, what's kind of at stake. And, uh, so I went up and did the set and I remember, I always say it was like the set went so good. It was as if the audience knew how important it was for me. It went unbelievable. And I mean, I murdered, like it was just, I mean, just unreal.

And then, so then we went and hung out after. And then, you know, that's where that relationship began. There's been a lot of rambling. That's all right. That's not rambling at all. Let me ask you, I mean, you're very new into comedy for what, four or five years? Yeah. What's the, like a milestone that you feel like you've had? First time hosting at a club. Yep. First time featuring at a club. Yep. And then first time headlining. I remember all those. Oh, yeah. And I felt that that was a significant step. They are. You know. They are. They're gigantic. Yeah. Yeah.

You got to do the Grand Ole Opry? Yeah. Doing the Opry, yeah, that was cool. That probably didn't even register at the time how cool of a rare of a thing that was. But looking back, yeah, for sure. Yeah. How about you? The first time, no, he didn't, knew my name. I remember that was a big thing. I bet you y'all should have opened with y'all's stories.

they should have done y'all's first. This is not, I'm not trying to make, it's funny to be like, I mean, I'm like, and that's what I'm at. You're like, Brian, Aaron, go ahead. You're like, well, MC did a club. What are milestones? Yeah. I mean, like we should have done them in a reverse order. I know. I know. We go through yours, Bates. I'd love to hear them. Uh, when channel five, you said that very sarcastically. Yeah. Go through yours, Bates. I'd love to go through them. We got time. It'll be real quick. Uh, go ahead.

That was very mean. Sorry. No, I mean, I don't... Speed through them. You're right. I don't want to go through them after yours because it does sound ridiculous. I'm joking. I'm not talking about mine. It was just very... I can't see the comedy of it. I just went on this long thing. Yeah. And then you just throw Aaron. You're like, Aaron, go ahead. What's yours, Aaron?

And he's like, I mean, I emceed, featured, and hosted. Well, you probably remember those same moments too, right? Those are huge moments. I'm not saying... Those are big... Those are moments to have. Those are gigantic moments. I remember my first emceeing was at Zany's in Chicago. Yeah. Piano on stage. First time featuring, I think it was for Angela Johnson, on the road. I remember doing those...

was the first time getting to do... The first time really going to clubs on the road and then headlining. One was Montreal and I went back to the... I think the place...

Maybe it's Comedy Works, but it's not that Comedy Works, but it's in Montreal. And the guy, Dan Shacky opened for me, and I barely had enough time to do headlining. I bombed super hard, and it was real, and the audience could tell. It was like sad. And I just went, and I was like, I shouldn't be headlining. I don't have enough time. I can't talk for this long. And I mean, I've seen that guy.

I want to say JB or something like that. I've seen him recently, and he still talks about it. I was like, dude, I bombed so hard that first week. And he's like, I know. It was real bad. And I mean, it was uncomfortable. Just Shaq, he would destroy. And I just couldn't. I just didn't have enough time. It was almost like it was too soon. But yours quitting working was a big deal.

Yeah, that's true. When I got to the point where I- Day job status, when your day jobs get to go away, that's a gigantic deal in comedy. Yeah. When I quit my job and could go full time, that was obviously a big, we were talking about that downstairs before the show, because the next day you and I went on the road to Louisville and did shows together. Yeah.

And, yeah, that was a big one for sure. I mean, I remember the same things. Hosting, first time at Zany's, featuring, first time at Zany's, headlining, all that. I remember I did a show with Henry Cho. And then afterwards, we went out to eat, like, a group of us. And I was like, man, this is a big deal. Like, you know. Yeah. You know, hanging out with this legendary comedian. Right. And I just remember thinking, wow, this is –

I'm doing it. Yeah. I'm doing it. When you feel like you're in it, you're, you know, when I was at the cellar, when you're hanging out, when I got passed to that back and I got passed at the club, which past means you were accepted and you can perform there. And I got to sit at that back table and you're allowed to sit back there. Sitting at that table for the first time, a big moment of it. Huge. Yeah. I mean, getting to go there. I mean, it's funny to get to go there now too. And like now when I go, I mean, they, I get in,

go... I mean, I let them know. I always say I'm coming. I'm definitely not Burr or Chappelle. I can't walk in and I go next. You wouldn't do a three-hour set there? No, I'm not...

But I would text them before I come that week, and I'm like, hey, I'm coming in town, and I usually can get spots. I mean, the seller's the best. I mean, you know. And so it's being able to get to that table. I mean, you would not sit at it. I mean, it's an enormous, enormous deal that I took very seriously. I would never...

I would never want to sit at it like before. It was like, nah, I can't. Like, you know, because you wanted, that was, it was what you wanted. I had moved, when I left New York, my thing was I wanted to get passed at every club. And the comic strip was the last one. First one I auditioned for too. First one I auditioned for and the last one I got passed at. And I got passed at it, honestly, maybe six months to a year before I left.

Part of it, I kind of was getting on stage, so I didn't always go try. But it was at the end, I was like, well, I want to be able to say I've played every club. And I was past that every club. And that was the last one. Let's get to a topic that I can hang with you on, bombing. Yeah. Let's talk about...

Some of our best bombing moments, either us or friends. Yeah. Like what's a good one for you? Uh, it goes, how, what is it? What are we at? I think we're at about a minute 45. Yeah. I mean, hour 45, excuse me. All right. What, how many, this might be a two parter. Okay. We could do a two parter on this. What are we at?

Well, as far as questions? We've got a lot more questions. Yeah. A lot more. Yeah. I think it's, yeah, I want to try this. We're going to try a two-parter. We can do the bombing. We're going to end on this bombing stories, and then I think we're going to roll into, I want to try a two-parter. Okay. I don't want to do two and a half hours. You want to save the bombing? Should we? Why don't we save the bombing? Let's save the bombing. Okay.

Yeah, because we got a good run. Yeah, this will be a, I think, bombing we can talk about for a while. Bombing's great because I love bombing. Yeah. And there's been a bunch of them. So what's, where do you think comedy's headed now? Or what's some, like, next steps you think? So, yeah, I think, I'm pretty excited about this two-parter. Yeah. Yeah.

And then if people want to get questions in. This is going to be the Who Shot JR. Yeah. That's right. I have a seizure later today. Yeah. Which I've been seeing stuff in the corners of my eye. It could be hunking up. I looked that up. Could be what? Sometimes when you turn. You see floaters? I'll see either two lines or like some flashes. I've read some of those migraines. Yeah. But my head doesn't hurt. I'm sure everybody will tell me what it is next week. It'll be in the comments.

I don't know. I see a red dot. They're like, no, it's Brian's nose every time he looks at it. You know, everybody told us they were like, someone there like, how did you not bring it up? I never noticed. Did you not like when your nose was red that one time? So your friends are just telling you like, how in the world did you not talk about that? Why would I bring that up about a friend on a podcast? Thank you, Aaron. I don't know. So he doesn't get trashed in front of everybody. I never noticed that stuff.

Yeah. You're around me a lot, so I think it's just the norm. Yeah. I was like, I didn't, I mean, Abigail, my sister was like, how do you not? It was so distracting. She was like, I can't believe that you didn't. And I was like, well, I don't know. So I, yeah, I didn't, it never crossed my mind. Anyway, I don't know where to say. Well, I'm talking about where comedy's headed or what's. Okay, where comedy's headed.

I think, as I said, I think comedy is becoming a lot more mainstream. When I first started, when I was in New York City, starting for the first time, the system, how you came up through that

to New York was to go to the comedy clubs. You would do the comedy clubs and you would want to get past the comedy seller, you know, Gotham, Stan, all the ones I've named, Caroline's comic strip, Rod Dangerfield. Uh, and you want to go and you stand, you want to go do all of them and you'd want to be past all those clubs and you could go do other shows, but there wasn't a ton of other shows. Um,

There was a show called Rafifi, and that was a big kind of alternative show. I remember Zach Galifianakis was there. I have an email from John Mulaney. John Mulaney used to book that show, and Nick Kroll hosted it. And so that was the only alternative show that you could do outside of comic book. It's in Crashing, I'm pretty sure. Rafifi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that's the only show that you would do.

That was outside of comedy clubs. And then those shows started popping up, those alt shows, kind of whatever, where you didn't have to do comedy clubs. So after I was in New York for four or five, six years, then people were able to do shows where you're like, oh, I don't even have to go to a comedy club. I mean, there's bars everywhere doing shows and everybody's running shows. And so then that just started spreading it out. So I think comedy, I think stand-up, and I don't know, maybe the audience, it'd be interesting to hear what some audience members think

what they think. Like, how...

Like, just be like, how super aware are you of comedy, of stand-up comedy, to how not aware? You know what I mean? Like, do you know that there's openers? Do you know that there's any... I would actually be very curious to see what some audience thinks of that stuff. How much do they know, you know... How much are they tracking? How many comics do they know outside of me? If you know me, do you know Mike Rabiglia, Gaffigan? Right. Do you know Bird? Do you know...

Dan Soder? Do you know? Like, you know, I got a mix of people that are going to know me that, you know, like a lot of people that can know Seinfeld and Gaffigan are not going to know. They won't know me. Like they might, you know, those are your massive guys. That's your Walmart. They know who they are. Right. Versus, you know, if you get to know, if you know me, a lot of times it's like you will know a lot of comics because you're, that means you're in the comedy is the fact that you're not, you're, you know,

What's your word? Zeitgeist. Is that the word? Zeitgeist. Yeah. Uh, you're not, isn't that, is that the proper way to use it? I kind of forgot how you use it. It's in your peripheral. It's, it's yes. Things, you know? Yes. So I think now standup is starting to become, uh, with Netflix and people are wanting to watch it. I mean, most people didn't watch comedy at all. And I think now they're watching comedy. I think they're now checking it out and it's,

It's very more attainable. You got these podcasts, a lot more people talking, a lot more. So I would think that, I mean, I think comedy is in another boom right now. I mean, this pandemic kind of crushed it, but I think comedy is in a pretty big boom. I think it's a gigantic upswing. It's a good thing. I remember it being down. It's funny, I remember like 2008 when the bank stuff happened and the economy was bad. I remember comedy being great.

Which is very funny to think. I remember people needed to laugh. And so I remember shows being really good there in 2008 because people just wanted to, they needed a break. And I mean, I think you're probably into that stuff now where it's like the world is heavy. It's deep. It's a lot of stuff. And so you, people need to breaks and they need to be like, you know, that's why, again, that's why friends and Seinfeld and all that's why those shows are getting just devoured. Yeah. Because people are like, I need it.

a separate i mean escape it is seeping into every form of entertainment i watch yeah has this nonsense of just the world falling apart yeah not that's not nonsense but you know the world so it's like everybody's like well i need to say it and all this and so i think comedy now is like that old stuff's getting looked up quick you know because people need stuff they need to be

You know, so I think comedy is in a great place. I mean, would you agree? Would you? Yeah. Yeah. I hope so. And I think you're right. I think, uh, I think the world needs comedy now more than ever. And the people are kind of seeking it out. Yeah. Yeah. Stand up. I think it's better than it's obviously ever been. Do you think stand up ever gets like music? Does it ever get,

In what way? No. I mean... Oh, you mean as big as music? I don't. Yeah, it just can't. No. Because it's not passive entertainment. It's active entertainment. There's no background comedy. It's just impossible. Yeah. I have a lot of people say they listen to my comedy to sleep at night. So I've got very passive comedy. So you want to save these world records? They're kind of fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's go. Let's...

Yeah, because we're going to be able to do another hour and a half on this. So let's just save it. We've done a long one. And I want to do a part two. We're going to do comedy part two. Obviously, this is our Forte. Will Forte. Met him once. Met him after the show once. He saw me at, where was it? What's the other alt show? The big awesome show that was in New York. Knitting Factory? No. Before that. Man, to get on it was huge. We'll find out in part two. Oh, okay. Whiplash. Whiplash.

And Will Forte was, if you did Whiplash, it was unbelievable. And it was just a huge deal to get to do it. And I remember we did, I did a show with Bob Odenkirk, who was there.

and then uh louis uh louis ck i know i mentioned i know people you know whatever but this is like then louis was doing and i mean there's the first time louis talked to me like he was very nice to me watched my set and then like was like you should try this i was doing a side show again i was like running it and he's like you trying this and try it this way like actually talked to me about the structure jokes and that's awesome and uh

But yeah, Wilford Tate was at their show once and I wasn't thinking. And then I got done. He came up and was like, man, that was an awesome set. I was like, I appreciate it, man. I patted on the back and just kind of kept walking. And then two blocks later, someone's like, hey, you know that was Wilford Tate? And I was like, was it? I was like, should I go talk to him again? And they're like, it's over now. Oh, you didn't know who it was? No, I didn't. I mean, it was... Yeah, I didn't think about it. Wilford Tate is like...

regular guy. Like, yeah. Yeah. It looks like a regular guy. It's not like it's, it's, and you're just in the mindset of like, I appreciate it. Thanks man. Thank you. Yeah. You're walking through the crowd. Like everybody's going great job. Great job. Thank you. Thank you. He's like, Hey, great. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming out, dude. I go, thanks for coming out, dude. Make sure you tip the waitstaff and stuff, you know? Uh, and then just leave. And someone's like, that's full for taste. Like, was it like, uh, never thought to him. Never hadn't spoke to him since then. Him and Jerry Seinfeld. Uh, uh,

All right. So yeah, part two, that's fun. I'm excited about part two. Yeah. So yeah, if you have any comedy questions that we did not answer, this is what's great. You need to send them in now. You can, so maybe we will be able to get to them and we have a lot more stuff to talk about. But again, as always, thank you guys for listening.

Always remember, none of this is lost on us. We truly appreciate it. All the ratings, all the stuff that you're helping us get as we move up in this podcast world. And since live comedy's dead, comedy's since it's dead. So, you know, we love you all. Thank you very much. And we'll see you next week.

Thanks, everybody, for listening to the Nate Land podcast. Be sure to subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, you know, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And please remember to leave us a rating or a comment. Nate Land is produced by me, Nate Bargetzi, and my wife, Laura, on the All Things Comedy Network. Recording and editing for the show is done by Genovation Consulting in partnership with Center Street Media. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to catch us next week on the Nate Land podcast.