#32 New York
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Hello, folks. Welcome to Nate Land.

As always, I'm sitting here, Aaron Weber, Brian Bates. We also have a guest. We have a guy. This guy dropped in town. Yeah. And so we had him in. Giannis Pappas. Thank you. Yeah. You don't know who I am. No one does. Yeah, nobody does. But I'm here to collect my royalties for this podcast. I know. So a lot of what people don't know, if they're in the comedy scene, you probably haven't seen Giannis.

And it's, uh, Giannis, Giannis has his own podcast. Yanni, Yanni long days. Yeah. History. Hyenas. Uh,

You might, there's a good chance, we're trying not to, you might hear beeps during this podcast. Yeah, this is gonna, yeah, we're gonna be tough. They're gonna ask for a little extra pay after this episode. Yeah. This is, we'll be going through it. Me and Giannis started comedy together in New York, and he stopped in, in town, just did Rogan, just did Making the Rounds. Just did Joe Rogan, yeah. So, hashtag that, that'll help. Yeah. And then, you know, those are Republican viewers as well. Yeah, yeah, there is.

Just let me know what I can't say. I will. It's going to be a lot of it. You are eventually, we're going to, the intro will just be, welcome to the land. You won't even hear that you're here. I got big shoes to fill. Nick Novicki was the last guest. So big shoe to fill is part of the joke as well. Yeah. Yeah.

So the Nate Land name. Yeah. Actually, Giannis is the one that came up with Nate Land. Yeah. Because you would say, every time you left New York, you're from New York, from Brooklyn. Yeah. Well, you're just the, you're like a prototypical America. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, like a prototypical wide receiver is 6'3".

not white you know you're just like a prototypical american you can go to like colorado anywhere like five to ten miles outside of any city yeah you're just gonna meet you nate will just be like hey man you kind of look half golf attire half like i just yeah like college football yeah you dress like you work for vanderbilt yeah and you don't have a college degree so you're just yeah yeah

As I always say, Giannis went to American University and I went to the University of America. That's what we did. Yeah. And we used to do a college tour together too. We did. Yeah. Well, we call it a college tour, but it was eight shows that an open mic was set up. Yeah. Sorry, Dan Fregolette, you're not a real comedian. We did. We did a whole tour. You know, it was Dan that set this tour up. He did great at setting this tour up. He did. It was pretty crazy. It was the most money we made at that time.

at that time. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was, you know, it might have been like a couple thousand dollars a show or something. And we were like, this is crazy. And it was right after your first Conan. Yeah. And back then, it still meant something. It wasn't just a good tape for the internet. So I remember you made me laugh the hardest because you were, after he did his first Conan, like, you just feel like you're going to be famous. You know, it's like, especially the era we grew up in, you know, it's like you're on TV. Yeah.

And it did. It did a lot. But Nate had a hung shirt in the back seat, like a pressed iron shirt. Yeah. And he said to Dan Frigley, he goes, yeah, if you want, you could sniff that shirt. Smells like fame. It was real funny. I remember that clearly. And the other funny thing you said when we were walking past a pizza place, it said America's...

like America's choice or like the best pizza in America. And he said, they wouldn't lie to you on the sign, would they? Helix mattress. Helix mattress. So we're going to start as usual. We're going to go through the comments. We got Giannis here for all of it. Put him to use, using all of it. That's what I'm here for. Yeah. I mean, I flew down for this gig. This is the big deal. Yeah. You put me up in the room next to this. So yeah. It's good. Yeah. It's a good room. We'll get you moved here. Yeah.

You're going to move to Nashville? I'm going to move here. Yeah. Into your house. There's enough room in here. God knows that. Yeah. Well, we'd love to have you. I mean, I feel like I'm in J.J. Watt's home or something. Yeah. Well. You know what's funny is you're from here. Yeah. And Nashville's not a town where a lot of people are from. So when the South Asian doctor who lives in one of these houses meets you, at first he doesn't think you're a comic. He just thinks you had a family-owned plumbing business and did real well in the area. They think, yes. When I say I'm from here, they definitely don't. He must have a window business. Yeah.

The Margotzi, yeah. Yeah. We do the plumbing. Yeah. And we're good at it. Yeah. Christina Malberg. My husband and I look forward to your show every single week. We try not to talk about any of the episodes until both of us have had a chance to finish it because we don't want to spoil anything for each other. Wait a second. What was that word? Spoil. Spoil. Spoil? Spoil. Spoil.

How do you say it? I think the way America says it, spoil. Spoil. Yeah. You could call it a spoil. Spoil. Spoil. Yeah. We don't want to spoil anything for each other. Yeah. But we love rehashing it and cracking up all over again. I get so excited when a new episode comes out because I cannot wait to hear the silliness that you guys bring to the table. Love it all. Don't change a thing.

She's going to hate this one with Giannis. Giannis and Nate Opener 1 and 2. Am I allowed to learn their names yet? Can you introduce me? They don't even know my name. Are they allowed to make eye contact? Breakfast and Aaron. Breakfast and Aaron. Nice to meet you guys. If you correct, we introduce when we all can. I don't remember. I'm on Coke. Edit number one. I mean, this is going to be a brutal one. I'm joking. I'm joking. I don't. I meant Coca-Cola. Yeah. Chris Merrigan. Hello, folks. This podcast feels like Brontosaurus.

That's the joke. Do you get it? Because his name starts with a B? Yeah. And so everybody, we all call them just different names. Okay. It's a fun whirlwind. Yeah. This podcast feels like Brontosaurus is an over-prepared substitute teacher with all his research, and Nate and Aaron clearly just wants him to put on a movie. Oh, yeah. Love the podcast. Keep them coming. Goodbye, folks.

I'd say that's fair. That's funny. That's perfect. You do look like a substitute teacher a little bit. You see it, right? Yeah. I don't know if they were talking about his looks, but it's a nice thing he said that. I did a lot of research, and Nate, he's not a fan of...

He does. But you wouldn't think... Nate is not a fan of learning. That was a good joke. Give him a second for a beat. I mean, he's not... If you're a fan of Vanderbilt, you're a fan of a lot of things. Not a fan of learning. Vanderbilt's all about learning. Yeah, comedy has spoiled you. It's spoiled me. It's spoiled you, yeah. Nathan Fox...

There was a comment a few episodes back where a husband convinced his wife that Boy Scout was Nate's father. I think watching Nate read the comments and having Bowflex saying the big words when he's struggling is the very reason why that is believable lie. As a new father, it's inspiring to see Bratwurst still being a loving father to Nate. Forget parenting books. I get all my inspiration from this podcast. Look forward to every Wednesday for this. Thank you, guys.

I'm proud of you, buddy. It's good. You're doing a lot better. Reading? Yeah. I get through it. I get that. It's like Floyd Mayweather trying to get through it. Yeah. It's tough. Yeah. I mean, he's progressed a lot, though. He's doing good. It's tough. Yeah. Chris Langmo. Nate, I think it's about time you hired some non-local help to come on full time.

Love the podcast, but come on. Beefy and Silver Surfer. I know you guys can do better. Nate, killing it as always. I was saying I should get different people than you. Was he calling me beefy? Beefy and Silver Surfer. That's a tough one because I'm the B, but you're the B. Yeah, I'm the B. I think that was pretty obvious. What is Silver Surfer? What does that even mean? I would imagine you have a lot of gray hair, but you don't have gray hair. I have gray hair. You got some shine. Yeah. No.

Yeah, look, I'm definitely, I'll pull that comment aside, think about it. Get some new guys in here, you know what I mean? Well, they said new talent. You know what I mean? You didn't do that. Yeah, you brought a new guy. Need some New York funny in here, don't I? You do. I mean, Nashville's a big city now, though. It's not even really that southern. Yeah. No, it's not. I mean, there's a lot of people from a lot of places. My cul-de-sac is full of, no one's from there. Ohio, New Jersey, Louisiana. You got one from...

China. Yeah. Neighbors of Chinese. They would fly there every week. It's pretty crazy. She would go. You did? They would fly there every week? Yeah. Pretty crazy trip. They fly to China every week? She was flying a lot. And we haven't really talked to them much because they were gone so much. They're gone. But we know her kids. Her kids come over. Her kids would come over after they flew to China? No. No.

They did. Give my daughter seven to ten days, please. There's a play going on. I feel like your fan base would appreciate that one. Yeah. Tim Shockley. You've had it. Huh? I've had it, yeah. You've had COVID. I've had COVID. Yeah. Took him down. Yeah. He has the antibodies. Yeah, no, I have the antibodies. I'm fine. Don't worry about it.

He was a big problem for his family. And y'all, down here, you kind of believe in it. Not a hundred percent. No. Yeah. When did you have it? About yesterday was when symptoms stopped. I think I'm good. I think it was good. I think I'm not a doctor, but no, I'm kidding. He got nervous. He's like, I'm 70. I don't want to die. He's the age bracket that is. I'm 70. Yikes. Kill me. Yeah.

No, I've been good for a long time. It was November, beginning of December. So I did the antibody test. I got Nature Shield, red, white, and blue. Yeah.

Red, white, and blue. I got the natural flag. Good old immune system that was born and bred in the U.S. of A. You know what I mean? Brooklyn, New York. You know what I mean, Brooklyn? You know what I mean, Brooklyn? Yeah. Tim Shockley. Nate, you are right about landlines. They are still a thing. I work in IT, and we use landline phones to test our fax lines. Ask Barley. I'm sure he still uses them since he's like 80. Wow. They go after him. Yeah, that's what he called. God just tagged that. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, the timing of that couldn't have been better. One-two punch right to your old face. We're all three guys in our 40s. Yeah, but you look 70. Yeah. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He's young. How old do you think he is? I almost don't want to hear it. I know. I'm going to go 30. Close. 27.

29. 29. 29. It's a big gig for you, man. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't move out of my mom's house until I was 38. You're doing good. Thank you, man. Yeah. I go back time to time. Yeah. Quarantine. Had to move right back in. You sold that house?

No, I just live in it. Oh, and your parents have the house you grew up in. No, I have a wife and a kid now. I'm still living in my mom's house. Are we even still friends anymore? Have you gotten so big you just don't think I have an income anymore? I never thought you had an income. You had a good run. That's why I'm here today. I want to talk to your producer slash wife about it. I need royalties on Nate Land. Giannis came out hot. 2000s, early 2000s.

SNL? 1980s. 1980s? He did it. Giannis came out real hot. What do you mean? And then it really cooled off. You were doing SNL audition. I mean, out the gate. I was like dinner food left on the table overnight. Came out hot and then got cold. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. I started off auspicious start and then the career really...

cooled down yeah and then uh now it's now it's been in the microwave so now it's doing good it's reheated but it doesn't taste good at all yeah but people eat it yeah uh people do it when nothing else is around people will eat it yeah yeah joyce breckenridge i feel like aaron holds back a lot of his thoughts maybe so nate won't beat up on him

I love you all, but stop being mean to Aaron for being thoughtful. You can be mean to brochure, though. That's just funny. So they just call you every name with a B. Yeah. Apparently. Yeah, it's fun. That's why I wasn't sure if they meant me by beefy. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, you guys get it. Dan Pitts. I want to know, do you hold back?

On eating? No. The theory is he's a secret genius because he went to Notre Dame. He uses a lot of words. Whatever word you just use, auspicious. Auspicious beginning. Yeah. He might know that. I just let it fly. That stuff that he uses, they used it at the dinner table. Yeah. I say that to you, I might as well be saying it to a fish. There's just no chance you're going to know that word. I didn't know. I figured it means that you had a chance at a career early on and then it fell. Is that the...

I don't know the definition. I mean, it's a good guess. It's a good, it's in the ballpark. It's in the ballpark. Yeah. I mean, but you're right. Yeah. It means, yeah, you start off strong and then yeah, it's kind of tapered off. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice way to say it. Yeah. Uh,

Dan Pitts, I need advice from Nate Aaron and Beefcake. It recently snowed here in Minnesota and we drove by a lady in a wheelchair that was shoveling her driveway. My daughters and I went back home to grab the shovels to help. When we drove back, we noticed a suburban in the garage and a kid playing outside when she was shoveling.

I got to thinking maybe she would be insulted if I stopped to help you just because she was in a wheelchair. So we drove by a couple times because I didn't know what to do. My daughter said, this sounds like something they would talk about on the Nate Land podcast. Maybe not. But I do wonder, what would you guys have done? So she has help. Like she likes doing it, maybe. Apparently, because she had kids there just playing and I helped her. I mean, how young are these kids? You know, if it's like a five-year-old, then they can't help her. Maybe she would like to help.

But if they were old enough to be helping... How old before you start shoveling snow as a job? When did y'all shovel? I mean, you grew up in New York. I think I started shoveling around 10, 11. That's like cutting the grass down here. That's what I was going to say. That's what I was going to compare it to. Yeah. You guys don't get... You just get a dusting once in a while. You don't get like a full-blown... No, no. I mean, we definitely get some snow, but it's not like in...

It's not a thing that you worry about. You don't go like, there's a Nor'easter coming in. No. Like Boston, yeah. We probably worry about it more than they do, but we shouldn't. Well, we shut down. Yeah. If we get a dusting, school's out. Yeah, that's funny. I mean, yeah, it's over. Yeah. It's like in LA when it drops below 70, people are putting on like, you know, North Face jackets and hats. Oh, wearing gloves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think they did the right, you know, the...

you do what you do. You drive by a couple of times, see if you think you need it. Probably made her even more worried. I mean, after you drive by a couple of times, it's like, you can't stop. Cause she's like, you the car that's been keep driving back and forth. You got to kind of bella then. So it ended up being, it is what it is. Yeah. If you didn't help right out the gate, then it's, you know, you do, the effort was there to help. And then you contemplated it. There's no harm in asking though. I don't think this woman would have been offended. Yeah. Uh,

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, maybe. Maybe she would. If you ask her why she's in a wheelchair? Yeah. Is that what you're going to ask her? You're going to come out and just route it? What happened? No, ask her if she needs any help. Oh. Right? She's like, why did y'all stop? Oh, we were going to help you, but then we just got curious. Why are you in a wheelchair? I don't know if I even believe you're in a wheelchair. Why are you crippled? Uh...

Yeah.

I was at a loss. I said, well, you can't win them all, guys. And we motored off. I'm so glad that I finally found some other folks that might enjoy that story. That's when a kid. We're talking about eagles. Yeah, that's when a kid gets his first lesson about nature. Yeah. It's just like, yeah. They don't care. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. Yeah.

An eagle can just take your house. Yeah. That's what we talked about. It's a very funny idea that an eagle can. Well, you had an eagle that was living in your living room at some point, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Moved in. Yeah. It was right outside your house. Yeah. And what do you got to do there? You got to contact the service? Yeah. It ended up leaving, but I think you got to call someone and say, I don't know who you call, 1-800-EGLE. Yeah.

It's kind of rare to have an eagle nesting in your backyard. There's like 10 eagles left. Yeah. So you didn't do anything? You didn't tell anyone? It ended up moving. It didn't care for the neighborhood. It wasn't up to its standards. That's when we didn't have enough American flags for its liking. In your house? We put more out since then. Jack Rotten.

Rotten. Ratten. Hey, guys. I'm a 20-year-old college student in Georgia, and I love listening to y'all's podcast every week. Huge fan of Seinfeld in the office as well, so it's even better to get every joke you say. This past week, I went on a date with a girl to impress her. I said I like eight of Nate's jokes as my own. Oh, to impress her, I said like eight of Nate's jokes as my own during dinner, and she was laughing the whole time, thinking I'm coming up with all of it on the spot.

Things are going well so far, but I've worked my way almost all the way through full-time magic, entering Tennessee kid territory. I mean, the kid is a hack. He's using other people's material. Imagine that going on a date and quoting somebody else. Get your own stuff. He's entering Tennessee kid territory. It's going to be risky since it's on Netflix, but it may have to be done. Brick oven pizza and airplane, y'all are awesome as well, and definitely help the literacy rate in the room improve. If your daughter was a guest, she would help.

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, Daddy, let me read that. I think it's a... I like when they... Yeah, no, that's funny. It shows your material travels. Yeah. You know? Yeah. He could do the stand-ups. He could do the stand-ups. Yeah. Comedy Central, Half Hour Presents. No one finds that. I have a CD. No. CD. No, Comedy Central is a great place to put your special if you want to hide it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. You're like, I want to hide it. You're like, give it to Comedy Central. I think you got too many... Yeah, I think... I don't know. Mine aired on the same night of the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. Yeah, that was actually really funny. His special aired opposite the May... I remember that. Atlanta, I remember talking to you about that. You said he didn't even watch it. He said, I didn't even watch my own special. We watched the fight. Yeah. The best... Have we talked about that on this? The...

With the Norm Macdonald one? Supposedly with Norm Macdonald. From what I heard, I don't know, this is just what I heard, but his aired the same night of, what is it? Earth Day. So they tell everybody to turn the TVs off for Earth Day and his special aired that night. That's real funny.

Henry Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Henry Bordeaux. Hello, Nate Aaron and Bowflex. He's got a hard enough time to say it in English. Don't put any French words in here. Don't get fancy on us, Henry. You got a first name Henry getting fancy on the back half.

Bye.

Why was he calling him Memphis? I don't know. Don't they ride on the cups, your name? Yeah, that's just out there. I think you're just Memphis, dude. I think you enjoy when you walk in there and you're Memphis, dude. Like, that's a fun... Yeah, when someone calls me the wrong name, it's the funnest thing. You just become whatever that name... You don't correct anything. Really? Yeah. I used to do to my friends, which is a fun little trick the fans can do. If you want to have some good, wholesome fun, what you do is...

If someone doesn't know the name of it, you tell that person a different name for that person. Like I did that once to Damien Lemon at State of New York. He was like, what's the bartender's name again? And I went, Randy. And his name was not Randy. And he goes, thanks, Randy. And I was like, what? I like that too. His name's not Randy. And he looked at me and I was dying laughing. Yeah, it's a fun little game. Yeah, because they say with such confidence. Confidence because they just learned it and they didn't know it. So now they want to just like say it. Let them know. I always knew you.

Randy. Randy. Come on, Randy. And then they just... Yeah, it's a fun one. It's a fun game, yeah. It's a fun game. It's a fun game. I like always pointing people out if you think they look like someone... Giving someone the wrong number is fun, too. That's a fun one. Yeah. You know what another fun one is, too? If you're walking with somebody and you knock their hand up and you go, excuse me, and then the person turns around and your hand's just up, and you're like, do you know what time it is? Yeah. All right. So since Giannis is here and we've been talking about states, we wanted to...

As a New Yorker, we wanted to have someone in that is from New York. The real deal. The real deal. Born and raised. Tell me I have no culture. Never lived two blocks from his mom's house. That's right. But I'm the one. You've been to Bahrain. You thought it was a person. I've been to Bahrain. Still more culture than you. You've been to Bahrain? I mean, I've never been to Bahrain. What's the farthest you've been? I didn't open for Angela Johnson, so I didn't get to see it.

Yeah. Well, Bahrain was just for the soldiers. Yeah. But you did go to Sweden. You did. I did go to Sweden. Yeah. Yeah. You did good over there. I would go there for five years. I went there straight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And what's good about that is because I was nobody, not like I'm anybody now, but like I was truly had nothing. Yeah. But then you go over there and they're just like, you know, they think you're American. So the internet was big back then, but it wasn't as big as it is now. So I just, yeah.

yeah, I just kind of pretended like I was, you know, I was Chris Rock. I'm like, yeah, I'm one of the best comics in New York. I guess you are. He's American. Don't question. Americans are great. And so like, yeah, sold out shows, kind of at festivals. And then you come back to New York and it's just back at the lantern for eight people.

It was really depressing. The reality. The reality hits you. The reality of being a comic in New York. How was doing shows there though? Would they understand? Totally. They speak English very well. They're very cerebral people. They're not like, they don't, they laugh like cognitively. He knows that word. Yeah.

So it's like everything kind of goes to their mind and then they clap a lot. They're very like. So they don't laugh out loud. They laugh, but it's more of a clap. Yeah. Like you'll have to pause for a clap. Because it sounds like the shows didn't go that good is what you're telling me. Yeah. And you're making them sound like they would. Yeah, it sounded like a political speech. I mean, that's like, yeah. Yeah. Someone has a bad show and you're like, oh, this crowd just doesn't laugh like normal crowds. They're not laughers. Sounds like they appreciate you more.

Yeah, no, I didn't do that good. They said, we appreciate you coming. Yeah. And you're like, wow. They were just too polite to tell me they didn't like me. Yeah. That's probably what it was. Yeah. But no, the countries are clean. It's like, it's crazy. They have the highest quality of life in the summer. Then in the winter, I guess I have to say, unfortunately, they have the highest suicide rate. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But summer. I know you just can't joke about that. No, but summer is great. Summer is great. And then in the winter, it's just bang. It's just too dark. I mean, the sun comes up for 12 minutes. Yeah. Oh, that is bad. It's bad. Yeah, because they're in the north. I don't know. I know he knows how that works, but yeah. But the summer. Yeah, it depends on where you're located. Well, it seems like a weird place to be like, no, summer is...

Well, summer is great only because it's not winter there. It's not even that great. It's like 50 degrees. I mean, they live in the North Pole. Yeah. I mean, like, I don't know how they do it. Beautiful people, though. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful people because they, you know. That's good. Viking blood. Viking blood. Yeah. Everything that was, yeah, the Vikings were brutal and harsh. Yeah. And then now they're just like.

Good looking people. Good looking people who wear long coats and Chuck Taylors. It's funny how that, if their ancestors could see them, they'd be like, really? Yeah, this is what we became. Yeah, we used to cheers and scold. You could walk around and be like, hi, welcome to H&M. I'm like,

They have cheap tops. Just hang out till winter. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Carhartt. Aren't they all wearing Carhartt over there? No, that's Boston. That's Boston. Yeah. That's like Goodwill hunting. Yeah. I know that's. Yeah. I know that's what it's like here. And I'm imagining your dad. Your dad looks like he's a blue collar guy. No? No, not really. No? No. They went to Notre Dame. Are any of y'all the real deal or you just have the accents? Just frauds. Yeah. He's from. I went to MIT actually. Well, he's, he went to Notre Dame. His whole family went to Notre Dame. He's super smart. What are you doing doing comedy? Yeah.

I don't know, man. It's for people like us who have no issues. You went to American. That's a good school. I went to American. I'm smarter than Nate for sure. Yeah. We know that. Yeah. Giannis is super smart. Yeah. I'm so smart. I know you got Vanderbilt underwear on right now. Yeah. Am I right? I wear Vanderbilt all the time. Yeah. I got enough Vanderbilt stuff here. Oh, no. I'll let him know. No. Yeah. Like I walked in, like I said, I thought work for the school or something, but- I'm a big fan. We got a lot of good things happening over at Vanderbilt. Yeah.

I think the game just got postponed tonight for COVID. But the thing about you is like, you're a loyal guy.

Yeah. You're still friends with a lot of the people you were friends with. You got successful. And I warned all our friends. I said, give them a year. You got to give your friends a year to adapt to success. Because then they start saying things like, you got to ride the train, stuff like that. But you're loyal. You're a loyal guy. How would you say loyal? Loyal. You're a loyal guy. I'm a loyal guy. I know him so well. I know the words that he can't say. Yeah.

And Vanderbilt, you were a fan of Vandy when you started comedy. I met you in 2006. Yeah. You know, when you had the Superman joke, you know? Yeah. And you used to shave your own hair to cut your hair. Yeah. You know? And you were living off your wife. Yeah, yeah. You guys used to do a podcast together, right? We did a very unsuccessful podcast together. Yeah. We got in. I always say it was... Our podcast was basically like hearing about Google and then just getting and selling our stock real early. I mean, it was...

We were in early. We were in early. Podcasts were... But the thing is, we did nothing right. No. We were recording off of Mac, and we bought... You guys would know. We bought like a... What was it? Snowball. Snowball mic, which they're not great. Yeah. And a Yeti snowball. There's a snowball mic. I remember going to buy it. It was 100 bucks. We each put in 50. Which was a lot for us. Which was a lot. And we bought it, and we're like, we're going to start this podcast. Yeah. Hooked it all up. First 10 episodes. First 10 episodes.

first 10 episodes the mic we didn't connect it we didn't yeah so it was more than 10 episodes we did like two years thinking that we were recording out of the snowball we we had it plugged in just the webcam and it was just the webcam mic yeah that was recording yeah and we were like we were like we're doing great we got like seven eight listeners it was like one of your super fans and my dad would listen to it and we're like we're building we're building we're building

Yeah. It was, yeah. Chris Laker. Yeah, Chris Laker. And they, yeah, it was so funny to realize, though, that we were never recording. I mean, it's just the audio, we're like, it just didn't sound good. You never thought, this mic isn't that great. You just had nothing to compare it to, or what? I mean, dude, podcasts were so new that it wasn't like you had all this stuff. Now it's like everything's so, you can do them on your phone, and it's professional, and then you just couldn't.

It was like 2008, 2009. So it was like, I don't even think the iPhone was out yet. Right? When did the iPhone come out? 2007. We talked about it yesterday. So it had just come out, but we could not afford the iPhone. When you saw the iPhone come out and you could swipe, how did you react to that news? Because Aaron gasped.

Aaron said he remembers watching it on TV and he goes, he just dropped that. No, not, not, he sees it. He just sees them talk about it on TV. I watched the keynote live. I remember watching it and they swiped up and he, I'd never been blown away by a new technology like that. I gasped. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was blown away by it, but I didn't make a noise. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, spaceship going to the moon. He's, he's, well, whether they go into the, when they go into Mars, are you a new, a noisemaker? Not really, man. I was, that was just such a special moment for me. I was like, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. That's funny. Some guys are noisemakers. You know, they sit in a chair. Yeah. There's just always, Oh, I make those noises. Yeah. Yeah. I make all those. Yeah. Yeah.

So when I moved to New York, so we talk about New York, and I moved to New York in 2004, October of 2004. Started a comedy, Boston Comedy Club, which is always funny. These people, that never makes sense. But there was a comedy club called Boston Comedy Club. And when we were getting started, and that's where me and Giannis would have met, New York Comedy Club. We met at New York Comedy Club. New York Comedy Club. We used to do shows in those side rooms. There was this side room, and it was a dump. Yeah. And there was a...

a pipe by the stage. Do you remember? Yeah. That had the heat in it. Yeah. So it was like, and like, you know, when you're working on jokes or you're just not, not a good comic, which is what I was, you just lean on stuff for support. And like, there was about 10 times I leaned on that pipe and just burnt my hand. That's New York heating. Yeah. It's always, it's all this gas. Yeah. You live in an apartment. It's like,

The heat is just like... You always hear like... It sounds like tea, like you're cooking tea. It's like you're cooking tea and your landlord controls the heat. So it's like you have the window open more in the winter because the heater is so hot than you do in the summer. Yeah, yeah. I do remember that. You would always have to... Just to balance it out because it would get so hot. And...

doing New York and that room was, it was a side room. And so you would stand on stage and you would face forward and you would just see the wall. There could maybe be one table in front of you and then everybody had to sit to the side. So you always have to, you'd have to turn a lot. You did comedy like you were crossing a highway. Just like looking this way, looking that way. You'd have to tell a joke and you'd have to like let it like breathe all the way across. He did a lot of faces and stuff. Yeah.

He's real animated. Yeah, he used to make fun of me. He would say, here's Giannis' act. He'd take the microphone and bang it against his head. Remember that? Yeah. Because I do. I was a physical comedian. Yeah. Yeah. Where Nate would just make him kill him with just like his mouth. I would have to like really lead into it. It's with words. And then he would, yeah, be like, ah, what am I, a cowboy? And he makes a microphone like a lasso. And then he rides in and sits on the stool. Yeah.

He needs everything on the stage. I'd call volunteers up. I need everything but jokes. When I didn't have jokes, I would use everything that I had at my disposal. So we started in New York. You were born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Yeah, I was about to... Remember that Brattleboro show we would do every year? In Brattleboro, Vermont? That was back at the beginning when...

You didn't have many credits. So you just inflate, like there's a paragraph describing who you are. Like, yeah, he does. He's a regular New York comedy club. It is like eight lines of stuff that you're like, that shouldn't be in your bio. But I just want it to look big. You want it to look good. Yeah.

That was a fun little gig. We'd go up there. It was a nice little town. Yeah, Brattleboro. That was the only gig I kind of had that I booked. Yeah. Because they brought me up. They saw you and then I think you brought me. Yeah. And then so we'd always go up and we would drive up. That was the...

When you started in New York, it was all about going to Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey. Like that's where you would go and make any kind of money. Any money, yeah. Like $300 maybe. I've driven, yeah. I mean, when I started, I remember driving to like Cincinnati, Columbus for like $150, which sold Joel. It was like $150. And I remember you started making a little money and it was like you drove somewhere for like $500. Yeah. And then that's when you start saying like,

Is the money enough that I would drive somewhere to get and have someone hand me $500? And if it's too little, I won't do it. But if the money is like, yeah, I'll drive two hours for someone to hand me $1,000, then you do the gig. Yeah.

yeah that's how you would that's how you would know to do it or not yeah if it was just would you drive in but you know at the beginning you're like 100 miles for 100 bucks you're like absolutely i'll do that and then it just gets more and more and you know what the funny thing is like those days are over now because we have families and stuff but those were the best yeah i mean it was just the best

time did you realize it then in the moment no you i think you realize it looking back it's like you know when you look back at like playing sports and stuff at the time and you're like oh man hanging with the team and the boss was like the best and then yeah at the time you're having fun

And when you look back, maybe it's just like, cause you don't have any money and it's just innocence. And like, man, just off stage, the fun we would have, how hard we would laugh. And like, you know, we had a good time. You're in your world. So you're in your group. So it's you against the audience in a way. Like it's, these people were coming in and you're trying to put on a good show. Um,

And there's those New York days at the beginning. I mean, I wouldn't trade that stuff in. That's what made me even the comic and made him the comic that he said that we are is because of that. That's why I think New York comics are the best. They are. Because we had a hang every single night. So it was, you know, four or five years.

I was there for almost nine, but so you almost nine, but towards the end, you start traveling a little bit. So you're not around each other as much. You're, you're kind of going in and doing spots and doing a show and you're leaving. So you're not getting to hang. Um,

But that beginning four or five years, you're around each other. I mean, more than you're around your family. You're every night for eight hours and it's just jokes and it's just making each other laugh. And that's why I think your comics, I think without a doubt, without a doubt are the best. And then when you do those first road gigs, like it's amazing because you're working, you're grinding in the city every night. And then it's like, I got a gig.

And so you'd go with your friend or whatever, and it's like you're on the road. You're a young comic on the road, and it was just fun. You felt like you were doing something. And performing in front of an audience that you're going to a comedy club that they want to be there. What made New York Comics so good is we performed in front of people that didn't want to be in the room they were in. Oh, yeah. And that was most of them. It was like tricking them into coming in. Oh, we got a free show down there. I mean, you're just...

People were just talking me in off the street. Did you bark a lot? No, I didn't bark a lot. I didn't. I didn't. I was from New York. So the way I really came up was I did like black rooms, like kind of have their own circuit down there. Like, you know, black rooms always like have their own self-produced shows. So I do a lot of those. And then I would start my own rooms.

And then I just kind of got in at sort of the B and C clubs. And that's where me and Nate met, like on the nights where if you were newer, you could get up. Like this guy, Dustin Chafin, he's a good friend of mine still. Dustin Chafin really hooked us both up, got us in. I started doing sets with Donnell. Donnell took me on the road to Chappelle's. Donnell Rawlings. Donnell Rawlings, another comedian. That was early on. And then, yeah, we would drive and do any gig. Soul Joel would have a lot of gigs in Jersey and like.

You would find someone that would produce a lot of gigs. And so then he would have like... Sol Joe would have me, him, Soder, Vecchione. A lot of us would do a lot of his gigs. I remember doing Sol Joe gigs. What was it? Sol Joe? Sol Joe. By the way, Sol Joe's cooking right now. Yeah. He's the only club like in the Northeast. Outdoor shows, right? He's getting like Seinfeld to do it. It went from like... He did? No, I'm just saying like...

all the good comics are doing it now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it's like nothing else going on. And he just knew how to run shows. I mean, he just knew how to do it, but I mean, but we were around him when he was starting out too. So the, some of those first shows now he's cooking. Now he's actually, no, he can, he makes him doing really good shows. He's got his own club. He's got his own club in Royersford, PA. Oh,

That's where Big J got attacked on stage. By a fan. That's what happens when you go to the Legion of Skanks. They love you so much, they hate you. I remember doing one Soul Joe gig when no one was there. You still got to go up. Let's just not do it. To get the money, you got to do something. You're doing a show for one guy. That was at the beginning. He was still figuring out his...

Yeah, he was like us starting out. Yeah, he was like us starting out. He quit his job in like sales and is like, this is what I want to do. For you, like you would not have become the monster you are without New York. No. And what was always really impressive about Nate is, yeah, in New York, you really had to grab him because in New York, they're going like,

They look at you, if it's a free show, first of all, forget it. They can just walk out. But it's like, they're looking at you going like, hey man, I could be here. I could be doing a million things. It's not that special. And you were like an understated comic. So like you, being in New York, you had to, like if you're making people laugh, if someone who just stands there and like Nate does and makes people crack up, that's a dude who's really funny because you got to really perform to get these guys. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm.

And you would do it. Yeah. And you learn, I had to learn how to do it. Yeah. And I think you got better and better and better because, and only out of necessity, because if you're in another place, you wouldn't have had to do that. You have no, you have no choice. Yeah. You're in another place where people want to be there. I mean, that's, that's what New York teaches you. And that's why, that's why, I mean, the comics that are in New York that people don't even know who they are, are better than most famous comedians. I mean, they're, they're just so good. Cause they're just constantly like almost having to talk your way onto a show and you're having to convince this audience that,

I mean, I remember people that wouldn't speak English. Yeah. You'd have a lot of people that... I remember going to Broadway Comedy Club and...

and we would do those shows. I mean, I would do those shows. It'd be midnight. It'd be midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. We'd be on. Those were like first club shows. Those were the first. That room ended up becoming, Dustin ran that upstairs. It would start at midnight, and that room was great. It was great. It was great. And so we would all just hang out in the hallway, the crowd. I mean, it started off not that many people in the crowd to then be in these packed shows. Yeah.

And you would go on stage and you would just, I mean, it was just, it became a thing. And it was just a kind of a smaller room that could come nice and packed. One of my favorite rooms in the city. It's actually, it was actually like a perfect comedy room. Yeah. We got left alone up there. Yeah.

You know, so it was like Dustin, we'd all just run it. I mean, we'd help Dustin run it. But you just got left alone. You were just up there in your own little world. They come in with a ticket. You get paid a drink ticket. No money. Just a drink ticket. You get one drink ticket. You get yourself a Coke or water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some sort of juice. Yeah. Yeah.

And you would just be there. Keep it rolling. No edit job there. Yeah. We would do, but it was just such a, yeah. I mean, I can't say enough that, I definitely say, because when people ask what kind of comic I am, or where I, I always say I'm a New York comic. You are a New York comic. Because that's where it was. Now you're rolling, now you kind of go and, you know, I got Zany's here in Nashville and that's my home club. And they're lucky to have you. That's what I tell them every day. You tell them every day.

I'm Nate Bargatze. There we go. I forget.

Not even that, right? No. What do you think cursing is? I don't know. I forgot I was doing a children's network. That's – I mean that's the problem with New York, dude. Like y'all – I would hear stuff on the subway. Come on. That word I just said, that's like the marijuana of curses. No, it's not that bad. How hard is it – People think it's bad, but you can smoke it. How hard is it to not – how hard is it just to not? I mean what do y'all do growing up? I mean I have been so good here. We've been going for maybe 20 minutes. Yeah. I'm doing a church show. I'm doing good. It's not that bad.

If this was the only complaint that one show, I would get my money. You'll hand me an envelope after the show. I could have been doing this in a pulpit. I know. Is there not enough? Is there not enough shows cursing for you? Is there not enough? Don't you guys forgive? Huh? Not you. I'm also Christian. We do. Yeah.

you're not gonna be in the main gates but you're gonna be up there you're gonna have to talk you're gonna talk me in i'm like we will always talk through a fence yeah that was that was some of the jokes we used to you yeah you they would just go yeah i would just say something he was like well at least i'm not going to hell so yeah they're uh

New York has that, though. I remember riding on the subway, and you would see the language in New York. It would blow me away just to see. I mean, kids my daughter's age. And, I mean, it's like listening to...

Construction workers. I mean, they're just like, rah, rah. And you're like, what? And the parents talk like that? Yeah. Cursing was not even a- Not even a thing. Not even a thing. No. Like even my in-laws now, they're from Long Island, which is like its own country. And yeah, we just curse. Yeah. We do curse. You just, yeah. There's no like- But there's no power behind it, right? No. It's just fine. It's words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But-

but I appreciate no cussing. I appreciate it. Yeah. No one listened to this. No one, I'm not getting offended by the cursing. It just, it's, we just can do it. No, I've hung out with you. Sorry. No. Yeah. They're, but it's, it's the idea of like, we, I would have grown up and you would have never used that language. You never curse. You don't curse. I don't curse. And you don't curse in your act. You don't curse in life. And yeah, it's, you're committed, you know, it's good. Well,

I always think if a young comic's listening to this, if you want to practice not cursing, you got to practice in your regular life. You should. You got to get it out there. And it is good not to curse because it gives you a wider appeal, which is good. Yeah. Well, it's true. Well, the idea of it too now is –

That's all so many people do that I took it as a comic. It's like, this makes me sound different. If I don't curse, I choose different words to use where I would have, where you would curse. And so that to me, I think is your rhythms and all this stuff and these different words you choose. It makes it,

it just makes you sound different. Yeah. And you stick out. Like that's not, it's even more about that. Just you sound different. And so if you were in a field of everybody that we're all making jokes about only so many topics. So you got to sound, you got to have something that makes you sound different. And then that, that was a way to do that. I think it's impressive too. As a comic, I just think it's impressive to not curse because I think it's a little harder to be honest with you. And there's only a few guys who can do it. You know, it's like Gaffigan, you Seinfeld. Yeah.

Ryan Hamilton. Ryan Hamilton. Regan. Regan. Maybe Sebastian doesn't curse. I don't think he curses. He does a little bit. He'll do like one or two, but he could go without him. He could go without him. He does very little cursing. Nobody else. I think if you barely do it, you should do it without him. Who? Sinbad. And by the way, Sinbad is hysterical. Sinbad's great. Sinbad is maybe the most underrated comic. He's my father-in-law's favorite comic. Yeah. And he's a Sicilian guy from Long Island. Yeah. So there you go. Jim Brewer might be pretty clean.

Jim Rourke's clean now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty interesting. I mean, it's just, yeah, in New York, no one was starting like, but we would do, that was the hard part is we would do all these uncensored shows. Yeah. And you, but so you'd have to just do them. Yeah. That's how we started too. It was called the uncensored show. So you'd have like 10 new comics who were not that great just going. And then Nate would come up and be like, hey y'all. Harkins. Yeah. Yeah.

You from Tennessee? I have a friend who lives in Kentucky. How does that joke go? Florida. I'm from Tennessee. I've got a cousin who lives in Florida. Are we just naming states now? We have a compass. A lot of compass material. One early joke you had that I always thought was good was the

your friends would just tell you, yeah, man, just park it there. And you're like, is it legal? They're like, yeah, yeah. They don't, you know, cause your friends don't care if you get a ticket. Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. And then you'd be like, just pull it over there. You're like, there's a car on fire over there. No, you're good right there. They don't care. They just went out of the car. Yeah. So they don't care what happens to your car. Yeah. That was a very New York joke of like people getting your car. You guys don't have to pull into spots here, right? Yeah. Yeah. No.

No, New York, I could park. Yeah, you're a very talented driver. Yeah. A lot of people don't know, you drive with two feet. You know that? I drive, yeah. You drive with two feet. Really? Like Walter White's kid, man. Yeah, yeah. I was...

Miss Woods, the teacher at my high school. And she would drive me home and she always drove with two feet left for the brake, right for the gas. And so I've always done that. You learned it from Miss Woods? I just saw her doing it. And then so it always stuck with me. And then I just kind of started doing it. It makes sense. Once you get used to it, I know how to brake with my left foot. It's because you don't know how to brake with your left foot, but I do. Now I will switch back and forth, but I can drive with both feet. But in New York, you were only driving that way.

Yeah. Only recently did you go back to the warm floor. Well, it's like I'll still do it and it just kind of flows. I do both. But I could park. I mean, my best parallel parking was I parked touching bumpers of both cars. Yeah. I got into a spot and I was touching...

both cars. You're a smooth driver. Really, you're a smooth, you're a good driver. And you used to drive professionally, like not professionally, but like. I delivered FedEx when I first moved to New York. So I would deliver in, Manhattan was easy for FedEx because it's all grid. So it was easy to just go up and back and forth. And you get a lot of tickets there because you couldn't really park. So you just had to double park and run in and try to drop the package off real fast. But the hard part

hard places to deliver was Queens. And when you, cause you go to Queens and the streets were just, there's no grid. And so I'm in, this is back yet have, I did a map. So you had to actually use a map and,

And I remember delivering, we had a big snowstorm once I got caught out in that and had to, I mean, I went sliding down MLK Boulevard, I believe. And I was just sliding down the hill and I had to get it turned. And I remember some guy was going to help me move, but he wanted me to give him money to help him. And I mean, I was like, I don't have any money. Like I was 20, you know, five years old, no money. And I was like, I don't. And then he's like, and then he left me.

And then I finally got it. Like where I just... I got it where I could just slide all the way back down the hill. And then I drove back to the... We were all so poor back then that like it was impressive that Nate had a house. He had like a... And it wasn't a house, but he had like a living room. And like you were like... You had like a grown up living space. Oh, Laura. When Laura moved there. Yeah. And then we were...

Yeah, because she worked. She worked. So we just had an apartment. But I think our apartment was like $1,200 a month. Yeah. Which was a lot to us. Which was insane. Yeah. I mean, we all... I lived in like a rent-controlled apartment with Jesse. We were all living... I don't know how... Rent-controlled is huge in New York. Huge. We were talking about New York. Rent-controlled is... That's what you wanted. There was people that lived in the village, in the West Village.

and people would try to get them out and they would just keep passing it to their family, right? Yeah. There's a loophole in the law. So it's like, because the market keeps going up, New York real estate is so expensive. They would do, they would carve out these apartments, uh,

that like uh you were not subject to the market so they would be capped yeah in order to keep new york for new yorkers which you'll probably see in nashville soon people like we need some locals here yeah they need to be able to afford this place i mean people be paying like 500 bucks a month for a place that they could sell for four million dollars really but they can't sell they can't sell because wow and then they don't ever leave they do that to make it affordable for low for people who grew up yeah yeah yeah pretty great they should start doing that here so how did you get yours

My rent control? Yeah. Yeah. It was through a friend who grew up, my neighborhood, Park Slope, got really gentrified. So my buddy who grew up- When you grew up in Park Slope, Park Slope was- Well, Park Slope, where I lived, was always kind of good. Yeah. It was kind of good. And then like, New York's the type of place you go one block. Yeah. You walk one block.

And you're in a totally different world So it was like We used to like not go below 6th Avenue Which is three blocks from my house And then you're just like So it wasn't like you had to get in a car And go to the bad side of town It was like The bad side of town was like You could see it You know It's like the I guess Israelis and Palestinians Like they don't like each other But they're that close You're just going like I can't go over there My mom said I can't cross this street You could really just go to the edge of the street And that's what it was

But then it got really gentrified. It became like, I mean, all of New York did. It just exploded. So he lived down on Fifth Avenue and Park Slope, which was like,

of a lot cheaper and he had his family had a rent control apartment so he was one of my roommates and then he left and me and jesse stayed there and so we would just write the check by money order so the landlord just thought he was still there yeah and then he sort of found out slowly like after we were there eight years yeah then he found out that he wasn't there because he had him and his wife at the time bought a house in like north carolina so the landlord would come and like knock on our door and we would just hide

yeah we just wouldn't answer the door not making noise we just how often would you have to do that uh we probably did about 10 times yeah yeah yeah we just pretended not to i mean imagine just living in your living in an apartment and you have to act like you don't live in that apartment like just the anxiety of that yeah it was it was anxious yeah it's adorable and it was always more anxious if i was alone it's funner to go through with someone like hiding from an authority figure i guess i don't know so because i mean how much was your apartment

My apartment, the apartment was $900 with a three bedroom. Yeah, Park Slope. Yeah, and it was like a, you remember how small it was? I remember, yeah. It was a good apartment. It was a New York apartment where you would think two bedrooms and then a living room and a kitchen. We painted the living room. We did everything. And it was $900. So my rent was $300, which in New York is, I mean-

$1,000 is unheard of. $1,200, that's an affordable... Park Slope, I don't think you could get... You couldn't rent a bedroom off of someone's apartment for $900. No, you could not. You could not rent a bedroom for less than $1,500. We had a whole apartment. It was a tiny apartment and very old, but

It was 300 bucks I paid. Yeah. Wow. So that's how I was able to do comedy. You have to figure out a way to do comedy. You can't work some sort of job or have a wife with a job or live off a girlfriend or sell... Yeah. Sell candy. Sell candy. Yeah. It's a joke. Don't break the law, guys. Don't break the law. It's not good. Yeah. What's some New York...

Well, I had a question. Since the show is supposed to be about the whole state of New York, didn't- Hit me, Beefcake. The New York City- Hit me, Brewster. Do you look at the rest of the state very differently? Yeah. New York is Colin Quinn's book, which I recommend. It's a really good book he just wrote about all the states, talking about states. Yeah. His first line about New York is the best one I've ever heard, Colin Quinn. He said, New York-

the quiet state with a big mouth. I mean, is that like, so New York City is like New York State's big mouth. And then the rest of New York

is quiet, bucolic, and beautiful. Yeah. Tennessee. It's every other state. It's like Tennessee. Yeah. And then New York City just- That's how America is. Yeah. It's Nate Land. You go at 5, 10 miles. Everywhere's Nate Land. Yeah. They're just like, who's your favorite comic? And they all got that accent for some reason. Yeah. You could be in Maine. They're like, what's up, buddy? What's going on? I'm going to Nate Bargatze concert bringing my kids, my grandkids, their grandkids, my grandma, the great grandma. Everybody's

welcome. My pastor, my priest, my teacher's going. Yeah. All right. So the state, the nickname's Empire State? Yeah.

Do you know the state bird? The state bird. Now, that's a good question. Let me just give me a second here. Is it a pigeon there? Is it a pigeon? I would figure it would be a pigeon or a squirrel or something. New York City is the pigeon and for the state, it's the bluebird. The bluebird. Bluebird. Pigeon. That's y'all just, I mean, y'all just really went with it. I mean, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. They're like rats with rings. Yeah. Y'all don't care for them. No, we don't care for them. Is that why you have to have all your windows? You got to have

Well you know New York is A rough place There was a little while where there was somebody Harming the pigeons I'll say harming Really? Yeah the guy had to get caught

And he was just doing, I mean, what did he get? Yeah. He was like a, he was like a, uh, he was a serial harmer of pigeons. Yeah. I'm doing good producer. Yeah. I'm doing good. The producer is, you could say serial killer. It's the other words that we don't. Oh yeah. He was a serial killer of pigeons. Yeah. Killing pigeons. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just, and it was his new story. Yeah. They had to find out, like find them. Yeah. Yeah. He was like, you know, did people, were people cheering him on? Yeah.

Probably something we're secretly sharing about. Just let him have at it. Yeah. He was like the son of Sam of killing pigeons. He was sitting in his living room talking to a dog. I'll get them all. With son of Sam, you were in New York when that went down. I was like a one-year-old baby. Yeah, that was the summer of... That was a crazy summer in New York because it was a blackout, meaning the electricity went down. It was a hot summer. You don't think we don't know what blackout means? No.

Is that what you think? Well, y'all got generators. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it goes down. We go to the back. We're okay, babe. Yeah, we had a full blackout. And then there was this roaming serial killer who was killing women in cars. Yeah. Yeah. Son of Sam. That's why we need comedy, guys. Yeah, a lot of dogs on that route. Empire State. Why do they call it the Empire State? Does it have anything to do with Jay-Z?

It does not. George Washington called it that. Oh, good old G-Dog. Oh, because he saw the Empire State Building and he thought, oh. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, makes sense. He goes, oh, yeah, just called that. Five U.S. presidents have been born in New York. Right. Martin Van Buren. What is it?

those are tough those are tough yeah those are and i only slipped twice yeah but those are the ones yeah because you can just go silent on them yeah they go silent on them and it'll be fun for the audience yeah not even that bad i said darn yeah i said darn and i didn't we don't put up with anything yeah i don't put up with anything and we even can't say darn it yeah what do you do when you stub your toe

I mean, there's plenty of words, man. There's a lot of words. Jiminy crickets. You know? Yeah. You just say what everybody else on earth says. Yeah. You're not original. I'm not original. And that's a big problem. It is. That's where we're at, where we're at. Actually, I got some original ones if you want to hear them. Yeah. I bet you do. I got some goodies. Yeah. I bet we do. Sorry. That'll be for the Patreon. Listen. No, we don't. Let Bacon speak. Go ahead, Bacon. Do you know who the five presidents are from New York? I don't know, bookhead.

Could you name one? Five presidents from New York. Trump. Teddy Roosevelt. Yep. Hillary Clinton. She won that election. This is born in New York. I'm joking. Born in New York. Trump. Is he born in New York? Trump, right? Yeah. Trump's born in Queens. Oh, Trump. Teddy Roosevelt. Yeah. All right. That's five. I don't know the three. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Miller Fillmore. Yeah.

And Martin Van Buren. There's a gang in New York, the Van Buren boys. Thank you, Brooklyn Bates. Why not, right? They love it. I mean, they're going crazy at home. They're throwing towels, calling them bacon. New York City has more spoken languages than any city in the world. Yeah. Over 800. And that's just Nate's old neighborhood. That's how diverse Giannis is. New York is a universe crammed into a city. I mean, there's countries you don't even know were countries until you meet somebody and they're like, I'm from Bolivia. You're like, what's

You speak any other languages? Can you hang? A little bit of Greek. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's where his family's from. Yeah. Great. Are there a lot of Greek speakers in the wild like in New York? Greek speakers in the wild? A story. A story. These guys got to... I mean, he hit one zinger and then you hit with a very funny way of saying something. Are they Greek? And you just... You're too much of a headliner. Yeah. I mean, give these guys some credit. What was the one he hit before? It was funny. Yeah. Yeah.

You didn't even remember. You should have wrote it down. He said it's the only funny thing you've ever said. Yeah. And then what did he say? He just said, are there any Greek speakers in the wild? Funny way of saying it. Yeah. We're highlighted. Yeah. We're making it louder. Yeah. You told me like when they say something funny, like confetti comes out or something like that. Yeah. I know. Yeah. It's still up there. Yeah. Yeah.

We're waiting to pull it. Yeah. That's funny, man. I like that. Yeah. Aaron, congratulations. Thanks, man. Appreciate it, guys. If I wasn't here, it would just go. We'd probably be talking. And there's Astoria. Astoria is all- Astoria's for the Greeks, yeah. That's all Greek, right? Astoria's for the Greeks. You have them here. Whatever diner you have in Nashville is owned by a Greek. Most of the restaurants you'll probably see in Nashville, there's a lot of Greeks down here, right? What's the Greek diner in Astoria where all the money's on the ground?

Well, the money isn't great because at weddings, they throw it at you. Dancers, we're the original make it rain. Yes. The Greeks are the original. Yeah. We throw the money if you're dancing at you. Yeah. At a wedding. At a wedding. Yeah. Did we do that at your wedding? We did. Yeah. It happened at my wedding. Yeah. You were upstairs rudely playing video games and watching the game while the wedding was going on. We were watching the UFC fight. Yeah. You were watching the UFC fight. He got married at a castle. Giannis comes from... Where was your... Giannis married into old money. Yeah. Where was your wife, by the way? Why didn't she come to the...

I forget. Yeah. It would have been nice to have, because she would have kept you downstairs. She would have loved it. That's what comics do. They come to your wedding, and then they go upstairs like they're on the road, like they're doing a gig, and they play video games. We watched UFC fight. Yeah, like Dan Soder brought his video game console. It's like, grow up. You're 47. You have a roommate who's got gray hair. You can't have a roommate with gray hair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Am I making fun of the old people now? Sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're old. Exactly. I'm allowed to say it. You are. Yeah. The Woodstock Music Festival was actually held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York. Yes. Woodstock would not allow it.

What? I thought it happened, though. It happened, but the city of Woodstock would not allow the Woodstock Music Festival. Oh, I didn't know that's why it was called that. Yeah. I didn't know it was an illegal happening. Yep. So Woodstock said no, so they moved it to Bethel. Yeah.

Lake Placid, New York. I've been to Lake Placid. Host the Winter Olympics twice. Yeah, I've been to Lake Placid. Great movie. Great documentary about Lake Placid. Alligator movie. Wow. So the Olympics were twice at Lake Placid? Yeah. Winter Olympics. Winter Olympics, yep. Nobody cares about the Winter Olympics. Yeah. Except for like Finland and Russia. Yeah. And Canadians. So I met a... There's a chiropractor here that did bobsledding. Just call him a fake doctor. Yeah.

There's a fake doctor here. Chiropractor. You're against chiropractors. They're just not real doctors. A lot of people do get mad at them. Yeah, because it's not a real thing. It's like they just massage you. You may have a chiropractor fan out there. I support the hustle. I support all hustles.

Yeah. Like if you can claim to do like talk to whomever and you can make a buck, that's a great show. Yeah. That is a great, I know a lot of actual comedians who you are 10 times more entertaining than. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nobody should ever ruin those. Yeah. You know what I mean? Just like it's funner to be like. Yeah.

There's like a housewife in Long Island That hears people Who can hear What's her name? The Long Island Medium I'm from Long Island I hear like Do you have like a dog? Does anyone have a dog? Which starts with a B Everyone's like no it's not a B So let me get this right You can talk

to dead relatives, but you got a bad connection? What are you talking through? It's a tough connection. You got T-Mobile? Yeah. I mean, how do you have that great power? They're far away, dude. Yeah, they're far away. I guess that's what it is. Like, I hear a faint... It's like, you don't even get better service. Yeah. Don't we have one here? The Music City Medium? The Music City Medium. Yeah, I don't know. Do we? Yeah. I mean, those dudes crush.

Yeah. John Edward, remember how he would crush? Yeah. Yeah. So the chiropractor, so he won a, I think they won a, I want to say silver medal in the bobsled. But I asked him about it. I was like, how is it, you know, because obviously we're in America. You're not like, you know who the bobsledders are. But he was. He was like Russia and all those places. I mean, that is the Super Bowl to them. I mean, they lose it. And they go so fast. And I was like, can you ever, I mean, there's other like tournaments and stuff that they play in. It'll be just, I mean.

thousands and thousands of people with these things and i was like can you hear them like cheering you know because you're moving so fast he's like you hear like uh he's like you go through it you hear like like that's how like oh as you pass them yeah just like as i just seen like that's all you hear you just because it's just so loud yeah and you got your helmet on and just yeah did we do good i don't know yeah i don't know the crowd yeah

I heard something. But they lose it. It's a great sport where you get to watch the sport for a split second. I mean, just a split second. And it's all guys that are like sprinters because he was a sprinter. And so the ones that can't make it in the actual competition, but they're very fast, they tend to be like, hey, why don't you come do this? Because you're fast and you can run. That's funny. Was that with the Jamaican bobsled team? Weren't they sprinters? Yeah. And look how good they did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

movie about it cool running yeah yeah john candy he was in that yeah i've seen cool runnings i didn't know he was the all right i've seen a john candy movie yeah question all-time greats is john candy in it yeah we've talked i i'm a big john candy fan i think john candy's uh unbelievable all-time great what all comedic actors comedic actor like if you put him in that like john he wouldn't know john belushi or yeah i like him more than john belushi yeah wow wow yeah

Will Ferrell? More than Will Ferrell? Uh, uh, Gene Wilder. Some good ones. I mean, yeah, this is, I don't know. This is when you guys watched movies. So yeah, you're three years younger than me. So I love what you act like. You're in your forties and your, and your face says 55. Yeah. Your hair has said different since your thirties. Yeah. My hair is great. Yeah. That's why I shaved it. Yeah. You were, you were, you and Anderson Cooper looked 50 at 25. Yeah. Uh,

I'm a big John Candy fan. I think he's very underrated. That's the thing. That's what I brought up because some people, like it came up recently somewhere and like half the people were, yes, half the people were like, eh. Well, the one he's compared is John Candy or Chris Farley.

Chris Farley. Come on, dude. Chris, who's funny. Well, it was, it's Chris Farley. The was so funny. Yeah. And then I would almost think you could put Chris Farley and Will Ferrell more together than John Candy. And the fact that if John Candy would have given you way, if he was been alive, still you, the roles he could have given you were, would have been crazy. He was a very, very good actor and he's just so funny. I agree. But Chris Farley died very early. Yeah. But I mean, Chris Farley, I think would have, uh,

I think it was good, and it was just this compact life. Where John Candy, if he would have still been here, he probably would have won an Oscar. He was great. He was funny, man. He was that kind of guy. He was funny. He was funny. There's a couple classics, Plane Trains, Automobiles. Yeah, that's my favorite. His role in Vacation was very funny when he played the- The park worker? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The-

How do you say it? Adirondack Park? Adirondacks, yeah. It's the largest national park in the United States. Wow. Over 6 million acres. It's larger than Yellowstone, Glacier, Everglades, and Grand Canyon combined. Dude. Wow. For real? Yeah. That's crazy. According to the internet. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it takes up... It looked like a third of New York State was... Bigger than Yellowstone? So would y'all go to upstate New York a lot? I live upstate.

Not now you do, but I'm saying growing up. I went to camp up there. Camp's a big deal in New York, right? Yeah, because you get out of the city, so your parents send you to camp for like four or eight weeks. And you're just gone. You're just gone. Four or eight weeks. That's a giant thing. The one below it. Look how, well, the state of New York up there. Look how big. Man. Man. Yo, most people don't know that.

I thought Yellowstone was great. I mean, that's like a third of the state. Yeah. Wild. I would, so like camp, did y'all go to camp? We never had camps. You go to camps? They were like a couple weeks at most. Yeah, I mean, New York, their kids hated, their parents hated their kids.

Yeah. I mean, the whole summer. I mean, four to eight weeks. Well, you've got to let them see some grass every now and then. I know, but four to eight? Would your parents come visit you? Yeah, it would be parents' day. It'd be like one parents' day, but we loved it. It was like a time away. It was like the best. Yeah. After like the first or two days of like homesickness, because you're a kid. Yeah. I would always get homesickness because, you know, I'm a weak person. Yeah. But then after that, it's like the greatest. Yeah, the greatest. Greatest. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You do everything for the first time there. Read your first book. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So then. Get the crew laughing again, Nate. I'm crushing. Yeah. And then you would do. Yeah. Because we. I mean, I've seen up there where those camps are. I always find that interesting because I don't.

Don't... Going to camps for that long, to me, every New Yorker has camp stories. Like, it's such a common thing. I mean, it'd be packed. I mean, it just... Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, like...

I think maybe the Jewish people in New York kind of started that kind of a summer retreat, like as they would go to the Catskills where comedy really started. Yeah. The Catskills is in New York. That would have been a good fact to pull up because we're all comedians, but comedy really started. It's on here. I just thought maybe you let me get to it. You don't put it. I'm sorry. You never put it past. What is the Catskills fact? Bananas. I don't know. I made that up. You don't have it? You missed it? It's a comedy episode. Yeah.

But yeah, the Catskills. So they would go, there was a train that would take them out of New York City and they would go to these resorts in the Catskills for the summer and comedians would do shows and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. You would crush back then. Yeah. You met your first Jewish person when you moved to New York.

I moved with a Jewish person. Yeah. But that was Chicago. But he was the first Jewish person. I mean, I believe so. Like he was, you know, no one ever. New York was the first time I ever moved where people really asked like, where are you from? Where's your family from? Where's your name from? Yeah. That was, no one ever asked that here. Well, my buddy, Chris DiStefano, who we do the podcast History Hyenas together, History Hyenas. Yeah.

He was from a neighborhood in Queens that was so working class. He didn't meet his first Jewish person until he was 23. And that's in New York. That's in New York. That's crazy. That's in New York where it's like, that's crazy. Very blue collar. Just Queens. Just Queens. He grew up in Queens, around the border of Brooklyn. With Queens and Brooklyn, they would have mixed. Yeah.

you didn't no back then you didn't move around there was no internet you knew your neighborhood and like he even says he wants he thinks the world should go back to that like it was better before the internet when like you knew the people in your neighborhood and like you didn't worry about like what was going on yeah yeah would y'all go to manhattan a lot

I would go to Manhattan. Yeah. Going to Manhattan was like a big deal. You had to have like some reason to go to Manhattan. There's some people who didn't go to Manhattan ever. Yeah. They'd just be in Brooklyn and just never. Just be in Brooklyn. Yeah. Never go. And they think, have you ever been there? You're like, no. You got to think how- Maybe school. You'd go on a school trip. You'd never go.

Like maybe a school trip to the museum. School trip, you take a subway. Yeah, you take a subway to the museum. Maybe that. You got to imagine how big and dense New York City is. Long Island alone, which is behind New York City, has 9 million people in Long Island. Yeah. 9 million. Yeah. Nashville's what? 1, 2, 3, 4 million? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, just Nashville itself is like 600,000, but the greater Nashville area is like 1 million. 1 million. So Long Island on its own has 9 million. You're talking about the New York metropolitan area? You're talking 20, 25, 30 million people who probably live like- Well, there's 19 million people in all of New York State. Wow.

But then you add Jersey. You got to add Jersey and Connecticut. That's why I call it the New York area. Yeah. Because people live in like Stanford, Connecticut and they live in Jersey. And still go to New York. That's why they live there. Do you remember riding the subway for the first time? Alone? When I was... My mother was a human rights lawyer. Yeah. So she was always big into like the moral thing. Yeah. So like...

I remember, yeah. You just diminished all her work. Yeah, I did. She wrote a seminal human rights for children book. But when you're a young kid, it's like if someone was yelling at their kid on the subway. I remember when I was little, my mom was a little woman. And there was this big woman yelling at her kid and jerking the kid around.

And, you know, the subway in like the 80s was a dangerous place. But my mom just went over and yelled at the woman. And I was like a little kid going like, what's... There's nothing more mortifying. Yeah. And scary. Yeah. But my mom would just like yell. She didn't care. And the woman was about a hundred times... And then the woman recoiled. She didn't... I don't know. My mother would get like fiery. Yeah. And like it was wild. What... That was my first memory of the subway. Yeah. And then...

But riding the subway was nuts. I mean, it was just- Nuts back then. Yeah. Nuts, man. And then, yeah, Times Square was nuts. Nuts. Would you ever go to Times Square when it was that bad? No, I was young. Well, yeah. I mean, when I grew up, you didn't go to Times Square. When I grew up, this is a true story. You would have mugger money on you, which is what they called. You would carry money on you.

in case you got mugged so they wouldn't hurt you. Like your parents would give you them. Everyone had mugger money. It was a thing in New York. You had mugger money. That's insane. The windows in your car, you would say, no radio. It's already been taken because they would just break in. Someone broke into my dad's car. True story. He had an Audi 5000. 80s, I guess. Close to 90. Maybe 88, something. Somebody broke into my dad's car outside of our house during the day

While our door was open and we were getting ready to get in it. Yeah That is a true story. So our door was open. We were putting on our jackets Yeah, so within like a couple of minutes someone had broken into the car and God got so mad My dad punched the hood of the car and broke his hand Yeah, because it was like the 18th time someone had so then eventually he had to just park it in a garage and he parked it in the garage Yeah, and there was a time

In New York, where a lot of people did that, if you had like a semi-nice car, you wouldn't park it on the street. You just couldn't. Couldn't do it. They would take your radio. Your sneakers, you always tell me that, Ninja. I got, well, yeah. I mean, I got my sneakers taken. I got my Timberland boots taken off my feet. And I got my Christmas money stolen. Yeah. We'd carry around bus passes. So if you were a student, you would have a bus pass so you could ride the subway or the train. So you'd always have like a bus pass folder. All the kids had it.

And so I had like 80 bucks of Christmas money. I used to work at my dad's office. I'd make a little money. So that was my Christmas money. I was going to buy gifts or whatever. And so I just got jumped by like 15 kids and they just like, and then they took the money, everything. And then the one kid was like, yo man, what size do you wear? And I was like, oh no. And I told the truth. I didn't want to tell a lie because I'm an honest person.

So you don't want to lie in that situation because that's the same. So I told him my size and I just walked home in the freezing cold and it was wet with just socks. You just walk home and it's a 15 minute walk.

yeah so you just walk and you're stepping in slush yeah are your parents just like my yeah they get mad at you ever like no no like it was they got it it was like a there was a time in new york where that was just it happened a lot it would happen you know and you have mugger money yeah mugger money i mean they broke into cars and took things in the trunk they took my dad's briefcase he had like a very important work related thing in there it happened all the time if you had a hat on in new york

You couldn't keep the hat. Yeah. You wouldn't keep a hat. The hat would get stoned. Yeah. It would just be gone. It'd just be gone. What would happen in New York, and this is no exaggeration. You can ask anyone who grew up in the era that I grew up. This is what it was. This is no exaggeration for effect. You would turn a street corner, and there would just be like 20 kids, and you would just go-

You know, you just knew. There we go. It was like, you know, you've watched Game of Thrones when Queen Cersei walked through. Shame. Shame. You're just going through and something's going to happen. Yeah. So if someone called you something, you got your hat taken and that was it. Yeah.

that was a good day. You're like, these are nice kids. Yeah. They come from good families. You take a beating. A lot of times you just take a quick beating and you run. Yeah, you just took a quick beating and that's just what happened. And just go about your day. You go about your day. It was so normal, it's weird to think about. Yeah, it is crazy. It's weird to think about how normal it was. Yeah, it sounds awful.

It was horrific when I left. And that's why when I talk, you know, it's funny because you talk to these New Yorkers and they're like, man, New York's changed, you know? And I'm like, yeah, it's great now. What are you talking about? It's like, it's not the way it was, you know? I'm like, what? The way it was was horrific if you were there. There was nothing great about it. So when did it start to feel different? Mid-90s it started. Giuliani was a mayor. He was a very tough mayor. It's a tough town, I think, in my opinion. It requires, New York requires a tough mayor.

perhaps leaning right yeah kind of mayor just kind of does it's a money town it's a town where people come to live their dreams a very tough competitive town and this is nine million people on a small island you need like order you know and yeah so it started changing the 90s but it wasn't just him it was like things got so bad they only get better from there everything's cyclical and then the the boom came you know wall street started booming the tech boom came the clinton era everybody started having money and just things just kind of picked up what about the mafia

The mafia was massive in New York. Yeah. My dad, my granddad, you know, like a Greek, he owned a diner down on the docks in Red Hook, which is where the docks still are. And so he had- And it's crazy to think these areas now are so expensive to live in. Red Hook is expensive. Park Slope is-

Do you still have your parents' house? I mean, like, yeah. When you ever sell your family home, I mean, it's whatever you want. My dad bought it for $28,000 from an Irish family that didn't have a gas stove like the Murphys. Your home now. Yeah. And now it's like... Yeah, it's in millions. Millions. Millions. $28,000. $28,000. 1959. 1959. $28,000. Yeah. And now you could sell it for millions. So the mafia was just part of life. Yeah. And it's interesting hearing my dad tell it because...

they didn't look at it like it was all crime. It was like, you gotta think back then, cops were paid off. It took a while for cops to get there. Everything was cash. There was no credit cards. So robbery happened all the time. So the mafia was a way for you not to get robbed. So my grandfather, Albert Anastasia, the famous gangster Albert Anastasia, his brother would run Red Hook Docks. That was his area. They would have areas.

And so my grandfather would pay. What year is this? We're talking about like, this is the 30s, 40s. So my grandfather would go. My father remembers. He would go sit in Albert Anastasia's brother's car, hand him an envelope. And that was like protection money. Yeah. It was like saying like- You can't come there and mess with it. Nobody's going to mess with it. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. I wonder how much they paid him. Like-

You just pay them like whatever a week. It was like a business. Yeah. So it was like they didn't charge you enough so you'd go broke. Yeah. You know? And it's almost like you had to do it because what are you going to do? If you don't do it, they might be the problem that you have. Right. And so if you don't want any other problems, you're like, I just want to be a nice restaurant. People can come in and eat. It's kind of choose in between two evils. Yeah. So it's like you choose the lesser. Yeah. The lesser by a lot. A lot of people look at it as a good thing.

Because they ran the neighborhoods and the neighborhoods, they didn't allow any bad stuff to happen. Yeah. Yeah. It was like almost a better- Nobody would come in and mess with that neighborhood. Yeah. And when did all that stuff start going away? Giuliani was a big one who put them all away. He ended the mob. Now the Russian mob is big and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, the Cosa Nostra was kind of like it had its era. And then, yeah, Giuliani in New York really broke them up and-

I don't know, you know, when there was less cash, I think a lot of it had to do with just there being so much cash. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, now it's starting getting credit cards. That's why a lot of stores don't even do cash. Because like it's, you know, if you have like a staff closing up, what's there to rob? You gonna rob the lettuce or the chicken? If there's no cash, nothing to steal. Do you know how New York or any of these boroughs got their names? I don't.

So the Dutch settled New York. They called it New Amsterdam. Oh, that's right. And then... Brooklyn is also like a Dutch name. They're almost all... Yeah, they're almost all Dutch names. But then a few years later, the English took over the Dutch and they changed it to New York after the Duke of York.

What do you think? Do you think growing up in New York, do you, like, did y'all think about the rest of America ever? Never. Never. We didn't even think about, I didn't even know Canada. When I found out there was a country up there, I was like, what? Yeah. That's wild. I mean, y'all just think you're the world. We do think we're the world. Because so many people are from different places there. So, I mean, you didn't, Tennessee never crossed your mind. Such a big city. It feels like your universe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And like, yeah, you never, you know, someone talked about going to California. You're like, I don't even know what that is. It seems so foreign. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even understand. I remember when we got two major league sports teams here, the Titans and the Predators, and it just was the greatest thing ever. You have two of every major sports team. Everything. It's crazy. It's so crazy. Yeah. I mean, the population, it just can support anything. We could probably do a third or fourth. Yeah. Yeah. And where was the first city you went to outside of California?

Her state. Probably DC. Yeah. Because my brother went to school there. Yeah. So probably DC. Yeah. Yeah.

But then do you remember going even farther, like middle of the country? I didn't leave. We would go to Greece a few times. Yeah. So that was Greece and DC because my brother went to school there. Other than that, I went nowhere. Yeah. We wouldn't even go to Long Island. We wouldn't even go to Queens. Is this your first time to the South? No, I've been to the South. This is the first time to Nashville. First time in Nashville. Yeah. First time in Nashville. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a way as a comic, just admitting you haven't been booked by Zanies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you're a comic. You haven't been somewhere. The other comics are like, I guess he hasn't worked that club. Yeah. Yeah. Well, comedy is really what made you start going to different places. Right. And like seeing all the different things. Right. That's what I always found it. We would always talk about that. Like we would always joke and make fun of each other, but they're saying like I wasn't cultured, but it's a very weird, different kind of thing. Technically you're, he's not cultured either, even though I'm not cultured in the fact that I

don't know you know so many people from so many different places there's so many different countries and we're i mean like just these whole other worlds you're around like you're these way these people grow up and you're and i was never around that but i have traveled more and i've been in more different situations and different lived in different cities yeah and it's uh but yeah it's there i mean you could i mean guys are not leaving their blocks they're not leaving no no you know families you're and so you're you're i mean your grandfather

To your dad, to you, y'all are in Brooklyn. Yes. I mean, it's kind of insane that you don't live where you do. I guess when your brother moved to D.C., it was kind of crazy. He moved, yeah. He moved away. That was a big deal. Big deal, yeah. Yeah. Why are you going to D.C.? He went to school there. Yeah. No, I'm just saying, like, there's your family thought. Yeah.

Yeah, well, when my dad went to Ithaca, he played football, and my dad went to Ithaca to go to college. My grandfather, who was an immigrant from Greece, was like, why are you doing that? Yeah. Why are you leaving? Where would you go to college in Brooklyn? Just Brooklyn? Brooklyn College, Hunter College, there's a bunch. But yeah, it was like, that generation's like, I have the restaurant for you. Take over this business. Traveling was like a...

Is there a different personality of Brooklyn and Queens in New York? So like Sam Morrill, very funny Canadian. Manhattan Kid. Manhattan Kid y'all did not put up with. They're different. You think like a Manhattan, you're rich, which isn't always the case. But Sam Morrill is just a good old...

New York City doesn't celebrate Christmas. Yeah. Does it? No. No, yeah. Yeah, you've been off stage for a little while. I'm trying to say in the cleanest way possible that he's Jewish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't pick up on it. He's got that hat, but it's a lot smaller. It's a lot smaller, yeah. Let's just say his December is quite busy. Yeah. Yeah, he eats Chinese food one more day a week than you maybe. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I mean? Yeah.

So, yeah, but Sam was in Manhattan. I remember Sam going on the road for the first time was like him leaving Manhattan, no license. When did you get your license? Yeah, 20s. Yeah. Wow. No driving. It's an impediment to have a car. Yeah. Because of parking and like traffic. And they're stealing it and they're breaking into it. They're breaking in and stealing into it too. One less thing to not get broken into. Exactly. Is a good thing. Exactly. And the train is so efficient. Yeah.

You can get pretty much anywhere within a couple blocks with the train. The G-Line came and that was- The G-Line took, yeah. That was to go to Queens. G-Line was terrible. G-Line was terrible, but G-Line would take all the gentrifying, the white kids who gentrified Williamsburg home. So Colin, it's like, it used to be a bad train line and now Colin Quinn had a great joke where he called it, it looked like a ski lift. It was so white, he was like, it's a ski lift. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it was Willis McGahee, when he got drafted by the Bills, he thought that was New York City, he said. He just thought Buffalo, New York. And he got there and he's like, where's all the buildings? He really thought he was going to New York City until he arrived in Buffalo. Well, it shows you everybody that lives in your town, you don't really pay attention to anything else. I remember going to New York. I mean, obviously you hear about New York. And I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty. And so, I mean, I would go look at it a lot.

I would just always, and I would always remember every time I saw it, I was like, I can't believe I'm looking at the Statue of Liberty. And I thought that for nine years. I always looked, I looked at it before I left. I just always would go to it and go, I can't believe I'm seeing the Statue of Liberty. That's so crazy with my own eyes. I'm looking at it. Where you would have, I mean. It was just like, I don't even think I went to the Statue of Liberty till like last year. Yeah. It was just a thing that was there. Yeah.

It's part of what you grew up. It's crazy. It's like, yeah, that's where we all came from. Well, most of us. Not most of us, but like anyone who lived in New York and their parents or grandparents came through there. Your grandparents came through there at some point. I think we skipped it. I think we missed it. We went a different route. You went a different route, but you have some Italian in you. Yeah, we have some. But we went... I tried to look it up when I went and I couldn't. I couldn't find my name. But we could have been spelled under a different name. Yeah. But we think they came...

We do think they came through a different way. Some people did come through. I think the Carolinas. It says 40% of Americans can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island. Insane. 40%. That's insane. Almost half of the country. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. We were already here. I mean, that's what you like to tell yourself. And I applaud your patriotism. But at some point, you had an ancestor who was going, we're going to be the Tamela. Yeah. We live as we were already here. Yeah.

When did you come? Your grandparents? Grandparents. Yeah. Grandparents. And then my mother came. Yeah. My mother was born in Greece. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm a Greek. Greek Orthodox? Greek Orthodox, how I grew up, which is Christian. Yeah. You celebrate Easter every day? We do celebrate Easter. We talked about the calendar. Yeah. We have a different calendar. Yeah. It's all Roman Empire stuff. Your Easter's about to come up. Our Easter changes every year, and I make the joke always that it always comes after your Easter. Yeah, it's like seven days later. Yeah, I always say, because yours is like a dress rehearsal for Jesus. It's just like trying out his stuff, and then...

He does the real show for the real people. Yeah. Yeah. The real Greeks. Yeah. It's Mr. Panos joke. Yeah. It's Mr. Panos. Yeah. Like, yeah, my comedy, the last thing to get popular of me was me. Yeah. Yeah. This is, I was, Nate had a funny joke. His Jonas has never made it as a himself. Yeah. Straight white comedian. Yeah.

He's only made it as other... Yeah, an old Greek man. An old Greek man. A trans Puerto Rican woman. Trans Puerto Rican. I saw you at Caroline's when Marisa was...

and you were just selling out every show. - I did, yeah. I was earlier, I was like the first of our crew to have any sort of that type of ticket selling success. - Yeah, you're the first of the crew where we knew what you made and it was like, it was nuts. And we couldn't believe it. It was crazy. I mean, he was getting recognized everywhere. His videos would go viral. And I was with him with Morrisa when he came up, Morrisa.

that's crazy. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Uh, if, and you, you did it, we did a show for a radio, some show for some guys doing some radio thing. Which you convinced me to do. And I was like, this sounds stupid. You're like, trust me, it's going to be great. Yeah. It's going to be good. I don't know why you wanted to do it. We were just, cause it was doing it. We were performing live, but it was going out on the radio. And, uh, and then I told you to do Maurice. I was like, and I told those guys, I go, he does this very funny Maurice character. This is like perfect. No, that's not how it happened. I thought that's where it was. No, I'll tell you exactly how it happened. Um,

there's a lot of success for you between now and then. You forgot it. Yes. Because you just have so many sold out shows in your head. Yeah. There's a lot going on. No. Yeah. So what happened was, and then you'll go, oh yeah. So we had to come up with a few characters to pretend to be call-ins.

So me and Nate went to this diner on Broadway and we sat down. And that's when, so we were thinking of characters. And one of the characters we thought of was like two Southern guys who always just say, get off my property, which I thought was hilarious. And that was your idea. So it was fake radio call-ins. So we'd call in as these characters. And so it was two guys going like, just everything was get off my property because Southern guys are all about their property.

So get off of it. And we want you off of it. We want you off. We love our property and I don't want you off. We were like, yeah, it was like, if you want to talk, you could talk that over there. You say whatever you want over there. It's not my property. It's not my property. You come over here, you're on property. Different story. This is my property. Yeah. And I want you off of it. I want you off of it.

And then we were sitting there and I used to do this Rosie Perez impersonation. So this was before I created the character. So I just started thinking of characters and I was thinking, nobody's ever done a trans character. It's kind of like a new thing. So I just said a line. I riffed a line to Nate. I was like, my name is Marisa. I just riffed it. And he laughed. And he never laughs. You know him, right? He barely laughs. I'm not around comedy a lot, but go ahead. Yeah.

Part of it's 'cause he's funny, you know? So if he was, and I was like not connected to why it was funny, but I saw him laugh. 'Cause I was thinking of stuff. I was like more in my head, but for some reason he was cracking up. And I was like, oh, and then I just riffed like another line about socks on her feet and he laughed again. And it was like, and then I started working it out on stage.

And then one show I was hosting in New York Comedy Club and I was waiting for Sherrod Small. He was running late. And they told me to stretch. And I was like, let me just try to keep going with this character, not do joke. So I started doing the character on stage and I just sort of, it really came to life that night. I think I did like 30 minutes or 20 minutes as her. And I built her whole story, what her deal was, what the goals were. And then we shot it after that. But it was sitting with Nate and because of that show, that was it. It was a big, big deal. I mean, it was because he was- That's where I created her, in that diner. Yeah.

So I remember the diner. I thought we did it on that radio episode too. Do you remember it now? No, yeah, yeah. No, I always remember the diner. I thought we also, it was something, but maybe we were doing that radio show and then we, or we were doing that show and then we went to that diner. That's what it was. I could walk you to that diner. It's by Union Square, right? Exactly. It's a famous New York diner. Yeah, I could go to that diner. And every time, I went in that diner once with David Tell. We ate late one night and I would go sit and I was like, I could show you the booth. I definitely remember it because it was,

because it was the first thing that we saw as a comedian. You were the first thing that kind of took off. We had fans.

So none of us had fans. And none of us had people that even knew us. And so Giannis was the first one to go like, oh, you're selling out. I mean, we go to Caroline's. It was crazy. It was a sold out weekend. He's making a ton of money. He's doing these characters. Mr. Panos. He had the Panos fan, all the Greek fans. Because Panos took off too. Panos was earlier, but there's only like one million Greeks in the country. So if I was Indian, it would be odd. Oh, God.

But there's only like one million Greeks and Greeks are like very, like when they come out with their grandparents, parents, Greeks like, whenever I do, did a show with Nate, my family would like Nate more than they'd like me. So,

But it was, so Panos was smaller. And then I did a video with Panos called the Greek financial crisis that took off with the financial crowd. Yeah. So I was doing like weird finance gigs. Yeah. I'd like go to Canada, Graham K opened for me for work. It was like this big hedge fund guy's birthday, gave me a bunch of money. And like, it was his birthday. So it was like, I did a bunch of those.

and then I do a lot of Greek shows too. That's where I met my wife at a Greek show. But Marisa was another story. It was like, it connected. Like it was just, people loved it. And that was like where you're going. Like that's when you started to go like the internet's this thing that kind of, I shot that video in my living room for nothing. Didn't you have like J-Lo and you had, J-Lo, uh,

Pitbull, Mark Anthony, it made its rounds. Beyonce's dancers, it was making its rounds amongst, Joe Button came to a show once. It was out there. It was really only big in New York.

Miami and New York were the biggest. San Fran, LA. It was a few places. It wasn't like a mainstream thing. But nowadays, that's what you want. You want a little niche that comes out. But it was very fun to see because it was very fun to be a part of it as just of our friend. Me and Giannis are one of my closest friends. And then to get to see that and see that rise, it was the first sign of any success I saw with San Fran.

Someone I knew. We were around Schumer and Aziz. You'd see people blow up. And we were friends with all of them. But it was the first like, well, this is my dude. And now he's sold out of this club. And these people are losing it. We were doing the podcast during that. Yeah. We were still doing the podcast. That was 2011. Beginning of the very beginning of 2011. A long time ago.

Yeah, and then you quit the podcast. Then I quit the podcast, which was the best thing that ever happened to you. So don't worry about it. Tied up with me. I think of him every day. So what happened to Marisa? Did they just run its course? It kind of ran its course. Like, I always knew. The thing about it, like, I was 35. Like, I got back into comedy, like, around 20, like, 2005, 2006 when I met Nate. It's really when I started, to be honest. Like, I started 2000 and did it for, like,

I don't ever count you starting the first time. You kind of did it, but you did... I didn't. You were doing more sketch stuff. And I just stopped. Like for a while, I was like dealing with other stuff. So I didn't really start till 2005, 2006. When I met you is when I really started. Yes. So I was like in my late 20s or something like that. And then, yeah. Then so that...

You know, I didn't have, make any money until I was in my mid thirties. Yeah. So, and so I was older. So I knew I was like, this is going to run its course. Let's just juice it. First year we sold 10,000 tickets in New York city in a year. So it was like, I just kept doing shows. Cause I knew it was like,

lightning in a bottle it was like you know there's a character yeah get as much as you so we just like booked shows like and yeah i did the thing i went different i was like i want a full door deal people like that's not the way it works i'm like i'm putting the full audience in there so give me an off night i don't care about a weekend give me a tuesday i want 100 of the door i know you make your money on drinks and part of that's because i worked in the club business so i knew you know before i worked in nightclubs i did the door i did lists and whatever

So I just got 100% of the door. And I just like, we just kept adding shows. And then we go to Jersey, add shows. And so, yeah, it ran its course. Everything does. Everything has its, you know, everything. Yeah. Comes back down. Comes back down. Yeah. Yeah.

Here's a fun fact about Manhattan. You know how much it was bought for from the Native Americans? Very cheap. $24. Wow. That's like two for 20 at Applebee's. When was that? I mean, this is the 1600s, but they traded goods that are worth $24 US dollars. Yeah. And you know what's funny is the Indians probably thought they were getting a good deal because they don't even know what money is. They're like, yeah, we'll give them this paper and we'll give them the island. You want to guess how much that is now?

$24. $24 and $1,600. $1,609 was what it was. That was $1,600. A couple hundred thousand dollars? No. $2 million? No. $50 bucks? $1,500 bucks. Oh, yeah? Wow. So basically, we'd be getting it for $1,500 you get in Manhattan. Yeah. That'd be good rent now in Manhattan. I'll be honest with you. Right now, I don't know if it'd be worth it. Yeah.

Just the headache alone. That's funny. That's funny. New York City was the capital of the U.S. Yep. Remember that? I do know that, yeah. Do you remember it? I didn't remember it. It was the 1700s. George Washington was sworn in there. Yep. Down by Wall Street. Yep. Wow.

New York City. Yep. Was there a lot of finance guys? Like a lot of you around all that? Like you were in Brooklyn? Yeah. Yeah. My friends became- That's all they- That's what you- Would that be what a lot of people wanted to become? That's a lot. A lot of guys in Brooklyn, all the- Like the guy they made the movie with- Jordan Belfort? Yeah. I mean, all those guys. You know, Queens guys, Long Island guys. The Wolf of Wall Street? Yeah. They all become like these cheesy business guys who are like, you know, move money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, my-

My best friend growing up became like a chop shop broker. Yeah. Stocks, you know. Yeah. Where do you work? Yeah, we're with Simpson, you know, Thomas and Panucci. Yeah. And our office is in a strip mall in Long Island. Yeah. Yeah. We said, listen, I got a good deal. It's a company. It's called, you know, it's called, you know, CBDF, you know. What is it? It's what we do. So, you know, we're doing the creams at the athletes, you know, it's just like, it's a vitamin company. Get in on it. And it's like, there's no company in your mind. Yeah. Yeah.

There's all that going on. Yeah, there's all that going on. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's all that going on.

That's all still going on. That's still going on. New York comes with a little criminality. Yeah. It just comes with it. It's part of the business. Yeah. It is what it is. It is what it is. I almost respect that. It's like the idea you're like, yeah. Yeah. Even the clubs. I mean, let's be honest. I'll just say it now because we're all getting independent. It's just true. It's like, yeah, come down. You can even hear the voice going, yeah, come perform my club. $25 on Tuesday. Yeah. But then magically on Saturday, we can afford $75. It's the same crowd. Yeah.

Same amount of people in there. But, you know, it's a $25 set. It's a Tuesday. It's a different day. And you're going, it might make sense. You're going, wait a second. That does not make any sense. Yeah, how we would get paid. But the tickets are cheaper on Tuesdays.

They don't make their money. So that's how we would get paid in comedy is 25 bucks for Sunday to Thursday. You would get 25 bucks a set. So everybody would do 10, 15 minutes depending on the club. And you could do as many sets as you can get to and all over the city. And you'd be 25 bucks. And the weekend you'd get 75 bucks. To host you'd get 125. Yeah. And that money never... You'd get 100, 125 or 150. And that money never went up. So it's like that money's got to go up. You got to adjust it for inflation. So every year not only were comedians...

not making more. They were making less technically. Well, that was a big Ted Alexandria when I first moved there as Ted. Well, it was because of him that it got raised from like $5 to $25. Yeah, I think it was like 20, yeah, maybe 50 for the weekend and maybe 15 or something for during the week. But Ted...

A very funny comic. And Ted did... Ted, they kind of did a protest, a strike. Him and Russ Maneef. Yeah. And because they weren't paying the people enough and it was getting more expensive for cabs and for... And you'd have to do cabs or trains to get all these spots. And these clubs were charging more money. Well, just by inflation, you got to increase people's pay. It's like the, you know, the worth of what money is. So if you're not increasing it, then you're actually getting a pay decrease. Yeah. So...

yeah i mean it's one of those things when you're a comic that i don't know if that era will be there after this i think it might be there i don't know it's interesting because things are changing so much where like clubs need the comedians in there like if you have a fan base now or like a podcast or a digital presence or you're selling out through uh you know streaming services like you and stuff it's like they need you in there it's like all like it's gonna get a little more fairer i think you know it's like yeah i get it you got expenses and stuff like that but you can do those on those nights yeah where it's like new comics but like

you know, I'm not going to go in and do a set. You know what I mean? Like take my name off the thing or whatever. Yeah. You can't. Yeah. Like doing a real set is like, if you go do, if you're actually selling tickets, cause that's when you, when you, and on the road, like we have that as Zany's where we pop in a lot on this new material night, no one's advertised and we don't know if we're coming as much, but a lot of local comics do that. It would be unfair. It would be unfair if you were coming through on a, on a new material night and like,

I'm not going to say Zanis, but any club was like Nate Bargat. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's not fair. Yes. That's not fair. Well, yeah, because then you actually have your show that like we have a Ryman show that hopefully you're going to, I bet it's going to be October now, but it's been rescheduled for a year and a half because of COVID. And so you have all those tickets. And so people, I just hope people hold on and we'll be there in October, but like that's the Ryman's the, yeah, that's the things that you start selling. So you have to do, you do have to be careful that you can't, your name can't be a

And that's the, you hope people stop by. And that was big with New York, when Chappelle was stopping by. All these people unannounced, Chris Rock, I mean, they pop in. All the time. And New York has made its kind of

the clubs are kind of known to that. A, you're seeing great comedians that will probably be something someday, but you also are about like, who's going to stop by. And there was a moment in New York. I mean, when we were there at the end, I mean, it was, you know, Louis CK, Chappelle, like, I mean, it was, uh, someone was almost always there. Yeah.

The Rock, Seinfeld. I mean, it was... Gaffigan. You got to give Gaffigan... Gaffigan's just so humble about it. But I mean, with Gaffigan... No, Gaffigan's stopping. He would just come in and... I mean, the guy does arenas, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Gaffigan... Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, though, because people... Pound for Pound, one of the probably highest selling tickets. Oh, for sure. Selling the most tickets that any comedian, and the most places. He did Russia. Yes, for sure. Gaffigan went to Russia. Guy performed for the Pope. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Gaffigan's...

You know, I mean, Kevin Hart sells a lot of tickets, but I don't think the, I always say the wealth of tickets to Gaffigan sells as far as,

you know, the Africans are going to cities you've never heard of and doing their maybe arena where they, uh, he can do whatever they do, the fairground they have there and he'll sell it out and go into these, I mean, these tiny cities and these markets and it's everywhere. It's every market, every, you know, and then be able to go to Russia and go to Mexico and do all these, anywhere in Canada, Sweden, it doesn't matter. Russia was crazy. And he sold out Russia. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, man. He's a great comic. Yeah. Yeah.

I found this. New York State has 18,000 cattle. They're the third leading producers of dairy products in the U.S. How do you feel about that? It's great. Yeah. You know? It's Nate land, baby. How many? How many cattle? 18,000. I see it's so low. I know. Is it? 18,000? Yeah. And they're doing, and that's more than most? Third leading producer of dairy products. Yeah.

Yeah, 18,000 doesn't seem like a lot. I want to get 18 million. Yeah. You know what it is? It's like, yeah, it's not a lot. But milk is on the decline because of almond milk and all this other stuff. Milk is really... Struggling. Struggling. Yeah. Did you ever see a cow? Yeah, I've seen cows. Bronx Zoo? Yeah.

Bronx Zoo. Yeah. I went to the Bronx Zoo and there was a bull there. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Yeah, I think maybe the first cow says Bronx Zoo. Yeah. Yeah, you would see no animals. What animals would y'all get running through there? Pigeons, rats, and cats, and dogs. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. You would, I mean, no coyotes or...

No. You see something sneak in? No. Yeah. Not even a bluebird? No. Once in a while you see a weird bird, you know? Yeah. It's not a pigeon. Yeah. You've seen it as you're on the ground and they're plummeting you as you take your sneakers and you're looking up. It's a bluebird. It's a bluebird. Bang, bang. You just get hit and you wake up. Yeah. Yeah.

The New York Post was established by Alexander Hamilton in 1803. Yeah, it's changed just a little bit. It's the longest running newspaper in the U.S. Longest running newspaper. Yeah, still going. Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn. We claim him, but yeah. Lived there until he was five. Really? Until he was five. And how much of y'all write on that? New York's claim on it. Oh, yeah. You know New Yorkers are, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He's one of us. He's one of us. He's born here. That's how he became great. Yeah. New Yorkers like to think that like, yeah, the geography is what made somebody great. And then they think you're very proud people. Very proud. Very proud. But a city that smells like dung. We're pretty. Yeah. Can I say dung? Yeah.

I don't know. We'll see. That one's on the fence, actually. We're going to debate it. But it's cool because I stumped you guys. Because Dung technically kind of a curse, maybe. Yeah, maybe. We're in the other room. We debate what you said. We might cut you out of this whole thing. I'm going to just talk to this light behind me. New York does have... You have a very... Your attitude is... People know real New Yorkers.

Because it's always like, I like, you're there. You're New York. You're Brooklyn. You're New York. It's not outside. You're not, you know, because I mean, I don't like even the people that try to say, someone says they're from Buffalo and they go and they tell someone from New York, you're like, come on, you know what you're doing. I meant New York, New York. If someone was from Queens, do you still have that? Yeah, they're New Yorkers. They're New Yorkers. They're New Yorkers. It's got to be one of the boroughs. It's got to be one of the boroughs. Staten Island? Staten Island for sure. I mean, you can't get even, that's like the most New York. Yeah. New York is an odd,

But Manhattan, you would look- No. Yeah, a little bit. You look down like, yeah, but- You're not blue collar. You're not us. You didn't go through it. Yeah, a little bit. But Manhattan wasn't always like it was when you were there. Manhattan had a lot of neighborhoods and stuff. But New York, even the business side, we kind of like that. Everyone likes the thing about New York. And New York is a tough, honest town. It really is. All these cities are great and stuff, but-

You could never imagine another city being the spot where people go to make it. Yeah. Because everyone's too nice. Like, hey, man, it was great. You know? It's like, no. New York's just like so cutthroat. It's like... Yeah. You got to be good. Yeah. You got to be good. You got to be good. That's why... But that's the...

The idea of moving there and making people laugh was so big of a deal because you go there and it's tough. It's the hardest place to make people laugh. There's so many... Like you said, there's so many shows they can go to. There's Broadway. You're next to Broadway. I mean, there's...

Phantom of the Opera professionally is just two blocks away. We can go to that. And we're in this room watching you. You better be worth it. And it's pretty crazy. The great thing about being a comic too, and it's important to say now because everyone is so divided on these teams and stuff.

Being a comic, we're like the ones who know the most about how similar people are. Oh, yeah. Just like everywhere you go. And like they're yelling at each other because they don't know each other. They don't see each other. They don't get that. They don't have that privilege that we have to just go to all these. We've gone from Elks Lodges to big theaters to small towns to different cities to different countries. And at the end of the day-

underneath it all it's just like dudes and yeah dudettes have you ever heard of an elk's lodge yeah i've done a show because the comedy yeah wouldn't have heard it before right i don't remember an elk lodge going up but yeah we did uh elk's lodges yeah we went into uh it's like a moose lodge right it's the same kind yeah vandy uh vandy ford a game i watched uh and the elk's lodge i listened to it at vandy lost and then uh i listened to it in my car and i remember i was hosting

And so I would kind of just go back to my car. I had Sirius. Just had to get Sirius. And I had my dad's old car, and it came with Sirius.

And so I had it. So I'd go back and listen to the car. And I remember walking back to the Elks Lodge and we're done. I'm like, let me go back and listen to the end of this game. And I remember just looking down and I saw a room below and I was like, what's going on down there? And there's a TV and the game's on and the TV. So I was like, I could have been down here watching the whole game and sitting down in this car in the woods listening to this Van D. Florida game. You know, it gives comedy, I think, the advantage over music a little bit as far as bringing people together. Like music, everyone has a different taste. Everyone's like, I don't like that.

But comedy, people have a certain taste. But in the room, no matter where you are, rich, poor, ethnicity, it's like you're laughing or you're not. And a good comic will make the people laugh. Puts a lot of people... I feel like you get to know people. When you see people laugh, it shows that person's personality and what they can handle. Music, you can sit and just nod. And someone could be like, oh, I hated it. And you're like, oh, you were smiling. It's like, I can show any reaction.

But making someone laugh, you could just, I mean, you could sit someone in a room and show them, you know, playing trains and automobiles, just see what they laugh at. You can get a gauge on what kind of person that is. Any kind of comedy. It's very hard to make someone laugh. Comedy's the only thing that if you had a live show and there was like black dudes over here who listened to strictly hip hop and then you got like people who strictly listen to country music and are from like rural Tennessee, like, you know, and then...

inner cities of Chicago, and all in the same audience. And then Nate Bargatze. It's the only thing where you would get those people to all like the same thing. Yeah. You know, we have some tourists from Norway in there and you throw some California hippies there and a couple of radical feminist San Francisco people. And like, if you want to, like a comedian, a comedy show is the only thing that would

- Bring those people together. - Bring the humanity out of everyone. - I think New York City might be the only thing to bring those people together. - New York City, yeah. - We don't have those shows here. - No, but comedy can do it. A good comic can make everyone have a good time. Whereas a band or a movie or something, they can't do that. 'Cause comedy, that laughter is like, we're human. It's like saying, I know what you're saying, I recognize it, and the laugh is underneath all that bull. - Yeah, what comedy, do you remember the first comedy show you went to?

Live one? Yeah, in New York. First one I went to was in DC and I was in college and it was Chris Rock working on stuff. That was before I knew, like a guy would just come and sit on a stool and kind of phone it in when he doesn't care. The improv? I saw him and the improv in DC and I saw him doing the material that ended up becoming Bring the Pain. He was kind of bombing with it, which is interesting. I didn't know it now as a comic. I know, oh, that's what he was doing. He was dropping by, just kind of hearing it, working it out.

Yeah. That was cool. It became that big of a special. That's crazy. That big of a special. That big of a special. Yeah, he was sitting on a stool just going through it, bombing. I remember going to New York. I bought a ticket at Broadway Comedy Club, which was the improv, which we were. And I went and bought it. I remember buying a ticket to that. Right when I first kind of moved there, it was like, let me go just see a show. And you said, I went in with everybody and sat in the crowd and watched that. And that was the first...

That was the first, like, in New York. Like, getting just, like... It was a Saturday night just watching whatever comics that go up. It was just a showcase? Yeah, just a showcase show. Do you remember anybody who was on it? I don't always. I want to say Ben Bailey or Gur Barnes. I remember seeing them. And I don't really remember. I remember going to the comic strip and seeing...

I'm blanking on his name, but he just died, actually. J.J. Romero? No. Oh, Vic Henley, unfortunately. Vic Henley, I know. Rest in peace, yeah. Yeah. Great guy. So I remember seeing Vic Henley, and it was a great guy from the South, and I remember watching him at the comic strip, and he was running the host. And I remember he ran on stage and said, I don't even know. He goes, I just ran down here. They told me I was in my apartment, and they're like, this comic's not showing up, so I got to come do a set. And I remember just being like, what?

Like, that's so crazy. This guy's on stage now doing jokes and he was at home and they just needed him to come. And you don't, you know, it was his job. It was his job. And, uh, and I, but at the time you're, it was just blown away by that, by that, that could happen. I remember, I remember just being like, I want to do that. I want to, I want to just be called and have it to go up and figure it out. And it was crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Yeah. New York. That was New York. That was great. We did it. That was great. We did it. I think that was a little different than, you know, usually we read a lot of facts. We got the real deal here. The real deal. Yeah. You're the real deal from Tennessee as well. Yeah. Yeah. You know?

We're the real deals. That's why we like each other. That's why we like each other. We're the real deals. We're a great example of it. Like, you know, two different people. We'd like you to be where you're from and be happy about it. I cuss. You don't cuss. Yeah. So we're different, but we're the same. We're comics. We're people. Be proud of where you're from. Yeah. And there's nobody prouder than where you're from than you are. I mean, you got Vanderbilt underwear on right now. Yeah. I love it. Anchor down.

Do you still have to have, did I ask that question already? Do you still have to have a piece of Vanderbilt clothing on you at all times? No, not at all times. I kind of took it as I've done so much Vandy stuff that I think I'm associated with him a little bit, and I like that. But I have it, I'm always around it. I always still do the anchor down, like on every special or tonight show, I always throw up the Vandy. Did you guys know that for a while he had a superstition that he had to have? Yeah, yeah. Some sort of Vandy. You used to have a wrist band on him, right?

I didn't know it was a policy. Yes, it was a policy. It was a policy for Rob. When you get older and... I used to wear basketball shorts. Yeah, like when we would share a hotel room on the road or whatever, he would have to get undressed twice. He would take his pants off and then there'd be like basketball shorts underneath. I'd go to bed and have to just peel off, warm up clothes. I think that's a big New York thing. Y'all used to wear double basketball shorts. No, no. You're a little...

Yeah. We used to do that, play a little ball in Brooklyn. We played a little ball. Played a little ball. I didn't have jeans on over and spend my day in the shorts. He called them his mugger jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. That was a goodie. Breakfast served late today. All right.

All right. As always, Giannis Pappas, Gianni Longday's own podcast, which I'm a big fan of, and that's what you do. Imagine if you're going to go listen to it, it's going to be some language. There might be a couple languages you might enjoy. Longday's podcast and then History Hyenas. Yes. Go check those out. Giannis, one of my long friends in comedy. Yeah. We've been friends for a long time. 16, 17 years. Yeah. We met in 2005 or 6? Five. Five, I think. Five.

So that's 16 years. 16 years. Yeah. Yeah. Still going. There's a teenager going through puberty. Loyal. I don't let go. No, you're loyal. You're loyal. You're loyal. You're from Mount Julia. You come in, you come in. Yeah. You're not spoiled. You're loyal. Yeah. I'm from Brooklyn. I'm from Brooklyn. All right. As always, thank you guys for listening and we will see you next week. See you.

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 comment. Nate Land is produced by me, Nate Bargetti, 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.