Drennon Davis - Nick Stargu - Andrew Orolfo

Rick welcomes Drennon Davis - Nick Stargu - Andrew Orolfo to the show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Rick Tittle. Please join me for the
Comedy All Stars Podcast powered by the Eight Side Network.
In each episode, you'll hear from great comedians, from the
biggest names to those just breaking out. They'll talk about
how they got started, what's coming up next for them,
and everything in between, their specials, their albums, their films,

(00:21):
their TV roles. Get ready to laugh and cry and
hear it all. It's the Comedy All Stars Podcast with
Rick Tittle, powered by the Eighth Side. All right, thanks
you to that. Welcome back to the show, Rick Titta,
with you, nationally syndicated out of San Francisco and around
the world on the American Forces Radio Network. Well, one
of the most innovative, as they sat England we were

(00:43):
talking about earlier innovative comedians out there is my next guest,
Brennan Davis. He's back at the Punchline, world famous Punchline
down here on Battery Street show tonight at seven thirty,
show tomorrow at seven thirty as well, and once again
his feature act right before him, the highly talented Nick

(01:03):
stargu is also with us. Gentlemen, welcome back to the show.
Let's start with you, Drennan and unlike the show. Well
you'll go second, obviously, but when people say innovative, oh
my gosh, and he's got the cats, and do you
feel like I can't just do normal setup? People are

(01:24):
expecting something bizarre?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, pretty much. I mean I kind of prefer it.
You know, I get bored really easy ADHD baby, So
it's nice to have that expectation. It kind of it's
nice for me because I'm a little all over the place.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
That was Nick.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Actually we both were the ADHD crew, So it's nice
for them to expect that we're weird, because I mean,
that's too short. Why be normal?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Absolutely? Nick Stargo's also was and Nick's. We know that
you've had tens of millions of views and downloads from
your song and you're producing. I wanted to ask you
about producing an album with Susie Esmond. How many times
did she shred you foul mouth? Or is that not

(02:08):
the real her that we see on curb?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Oh she's the sweetest.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
That was a production I did for Audible. She's such
a really really.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Just the nicest person.

Speaker 5 (02:19):
And I did want her to ask me, but she didn't.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So you know what's funny too, I'm not ha. How
funny Drennan is that. The other day I saw some
video where a cat jumped on some Twitch player's keyboard
and she kind of just gently threw him on the ground,
and everyone's like, oh, animal cruelty, and I'm like, no,
it's not so for you. Do you ever get like,

(02:44):
how are those cats being treated? What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, you know, in the beginning, there was a little
bit of that questioning, but then as the fan base
kind of started getting bigger and bigger, I have, like,
you know, like a million bodyguards now, so I don't
really need to stick up for myself anymore. I feel
like they all go my back. So it's kind of
nice in that way. But yeah, I hear you. There's
a lot of that, just like I don't know, I

(03:08):
don't know what they're doing. They need to choose their
battles a little bit better. I mean, if if a
cat's on a counter or whatever, it's fine. People just
really need to get live.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Nick. You know, sometimes in college football, these guys are
also track stars, and sometimes they say, you know, I'm
just a track runner that plays football or vice versa.
So for you, would you say, musician who does comedy
comedian who does music or you can't label you?

Speaker 5 (03:37):
Yeah, I get the question a lot, and it's really
hard to label.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
To love those things so much.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
I started off as a musician and then kind of
started getting into comedy after that.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
That's always been a silly goose. Yeah, I think he's
a silly musician. I think that's probably how I would
describe him.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
I like silly goose. That's good, you know, Drennan. Over
the years, as I've been interview comedians, a lot of times,
they have their guy that they take on the road,
like Big j Ocreson as Mike Fanoya. I could give
you a bunch of other examples. What was it about
you and Nick where you said that that's my guy.

(04:15):
I don't want anybody else opening for me.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I mean we just got a real similar with Brains
and we met here in San Francisco. We were roommates
and we just started like playing music pretty much every day,
and I think the amount of songs we came up
within like the Holover scenario the weekend, we had like
an hour already, so we were just like, this makes
a lot of sense. But yeah, I mean that's kind
of how it is that we're both just weirdos who

(04:41):
play music and do a lot of weird voices, and
you don't find that too often, so it was it
was kind of an immediate.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
So for Nick, do you go somewhere and there people
say where's Drennan and you say, we're not married?

Speaker 5 (04:56):
That definitely used to happen back when we look in
San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, uh yeah. And Nicks getting married, so that's
going to help things a lot.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
I'm getting married in three weeks actually, so so watch out, Drennin.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Do I even ask who your best man is going
to be?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
But do you have a best man?

Speaker 5 (05:16):
There's there's it's just the best man in a native
honor and it was going to be Nick Tartiff.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Right, yeah, yeah, okay, So what what would it? What
would be Nick? Just as in aside, now, what would
be your ultimate bachelor party?

Speaker 5 (05:30):
Well, we actually did an ultimate bachelor party and it
was to go to the Vintage Synth Museum during the
same time. Then we got we went to a halfy
hour and then we went to see twenty eight years
later and there was a bunch of dudes and one lady.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
You know, I offered to take him to a strip
club last night because we're in North Beach and we're
both nerds, never been to one, and uh yeah, he's
still I have to talk to my lady first.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
You know, I remember years ago there was this movie
called Second Skin about people who just they live online
playing video games. And I don't mean like, you know,
eight hours a day, I mean basically all day long.
And one of them had the temerity to meet a
girl and get engaged. And they were all at the
strip club and this is a documentary and they mic

(06:18):
them up, and while the strippers were like doing their dances,
one leaned over the other and said, you know, we
could totally be online right now. Did you have, like
we could totally be performing right now, not at a
strip And by the way, my studios are right here
on Broadway and I've been working here since in this
area since eighty nine. Yeah, you don't want to go

(06:40):
to these dirty ass Broadway strip clubs, no way.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
They don't look that great jump up clown room in La. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Let me throw this in because apparently I'm not interviewing me,
I'm talking about myself. But I mean, one more quick story.
When I was sixteen years old. In the early eighties,
my friends and I were like, oh, let's drug because
we were on the Oakland side, Like, let's start the
San Francisco and go to a strip club. We're so stupid,
we're sixteen, We're holding beers. We walk in and I

(07:10):
saw the girl who was stripping was simultaneously crying her
eyes out.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
WHOA.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
That ruined Not that I was going to be an officionado,
but that ruined stripping for me forever.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
That's why we don't want to go to strip club.
It seems so sad.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, right, and we can get boners for free.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
It's the name of your pod, Boners for free. Right.
Tell us a little bit more about the roguelike tavern,
because it seems like you guys are doing a free
show down there by once a month.

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Yeah, it's a monthly show on burd Bank. It's a
musical comedy showcase. So every month we have a different
you know, musical comedy guests. These last month we had
Trennan Davis. It's the feature headliner. Oh okay, it's just
a super fun, weirdo, you know, musical comedy show. So
if you're find yourself in Burbank, come on down every
third Thursday.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
And uh so uh Drennan, this show of course leading
into because people are gonna they've believe me, I'm downtown.
They've already left for the weekend.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Bringing in crowds tonight and tomorrow. Are you gonna gear
any Fourth of July jokes or you don't do the
stuff like that?

Speaker 5 (08:28):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I got some. Yeah, I definitely got a little
bit of matilla on that. A couple of videos as well. Yeah,
I mean it's been a while since I've been here,
so it's not gonna be specifically San Francisco Fourth of
July humor, but we do have some San Francisco songs. Yeah,
we can actually even play it one if you want.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, I got I got less than a minute, go.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Ahead, Okay, well we can do that like the first verse. Okay,
this is a spaghetti Western song. He was a rebel
in the town where the girls were guys in gowns.

(09:10):
He munch to the beats of his own drums circle.
He never tried lsd any, scared of minorrreadies. He was
the only Republican in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Ah, you gotta hear the rest of that tonight at
seven thirty at the punch line four four four Battery Street.
Get on down here and if you can't catch tonight
tomorrow seven thirty Nick stargu and the headliner Drennan Davis. Gentlemen,
have a great time when you're in town. Thanks coming
by again.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thank you all right, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Come on back.

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Speaker 1 (10:47):
You're listening to the Comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick Tittle,
powered by eight Side Network. Welcome back to the show.
Ck total with you coast to coast and around the
world on the American Forces Radio Network. Now, if you're
in town here in San Francisco, you happen to hear
me right now. You're not leaving for the fourth of July,
or you're in town, because we know what a tourist

(11:08):
destination this is. Saturday night. Get to the Punchline down
here on Battery Street because you'll see the headliner, Andrew Rolfo.
He has a show at seven and a show at
nine fifteen, and he's nice enough to join us right now. Andrew,
how cool is that to headline the world famous Punchline.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
It's so cool, it's so great. It's where I started,
so coming back to headline is so fun, so exciting.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Now I'm from the other side of the Bay from Richmond, girl,
donn oclock, I'm not when I am anyway raised, you know, Catholic,
Catholic schools, Slesian High. I went to a Catholic college,
so obviously been around Filipinos my whole life. And I
know you're Panoi and the one thing that I love, well,

(12:01):
there are a lot of things I love about Philippines Filipinos,
but the food, the c sig, the monk salon, the
hollow hollow, the I mean, just the lumpia. I mean
it is damn good.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
Andrew Brother, you named it all. Good job.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
I remember when Addison Russell was drafted by the A's
and all my Filipino friends were over the moon because
he was half Filipino. And I interviewed him at a
ball and Stockton and all we talked about was his
grandma and his teas and all the great food. And
then he ended up beating his wife. And now none
of my friends want to talk about him anymore.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Ok Yeah, well we don't. We don't claim that then
we did, but now we don't.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Okay, Now are you an East Bay guy? Originally?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
I am Miami, an East Big guy whereabouts conquered so
are you conquered High Dala sal What are you doing?
I actually went to Northgate.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Won't it created? Yeah, that's the school with no windows, right,
there were no walls.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
No, it's it's it's no, it's there's a lot of walls.
I mean it's a building. You know, it's got to
be enclosed. Uh No, there's a there's a it's like
there's a lot of windows about of big windows. But
I guess, like the rumor a long time ago was,

(13:27):
I didn't. I don't know if it's true. It used
to be supposed to be a prison, so that's why
people think it's like that. But I don't. I don't
think that's true. I mean it, I mean when I
was there, it kind of felt like it. But no,
I don't think that. I don't think that's true. I
think it's or maybe it is. I don't know. I
never really looked it up.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
I think I'm not good. I think they're thinking as
Santa Rita, that's what they're thinking, or Julie so as
a Panoy coming up. And I've I've had these gentlemen
in my studio with me, Joey Joe Cooy, Rex Navarette, guys, yea,
and those are just Filipino guys. But other than that,

(14:07):
it doesn't have to be ethnic. Who are some of
your like role models on the way up?

Speaker 4 (14:14):
On the way up, I listened to a lot of
maybe Nate Bargat, see Hannibal Burrs, Dave Chappelle obviously, But
my my favorite people coming up were just like the
people around me. That's who like motivated me to do
better because it was coming up, There's a big group

(14:36):
of us and it was just well friendly competition, you know,
And what really motive motivated me to do better was
just seeing my friends do better. And those are the
people I actually like look up to, my friends and
the people around me.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
The first two guys you named are clean too, which
is interesting. And I remember one time Ars Barker told
me because he came out through the punchline and he
was at like a mic on Sunday and no one laughed,
and he said, screw this, and as he was leaving,
somebody grabbed him and said, this crowd sucks. Keep writing.
So was there somebody that told you when things didn't

(15:11):
look good to keep going? And then contrasting, did anybody
ever say, dude, hang it up?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Uh yeah, if you there's a few people like family
friends who told me to do. But if you go
to my uh that that kept going. But if you
actually go to my like Instagram and TikTok, you'll see
a lot of people saying stop. So yeah, there's a
lot of them. More of those then keep going.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. Every once in a while, I'll get somebody who
will tell me I've never heard of you, so you
should stop, and I'm like, well, you've heard of me
enough to contact me, so I guess you have heard
of me. Now.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
A lot of the comments I get book them very
personal and just how I look, And that's actually kind
of funny. A lot of people don't like the way
it dress, is what I've been learning online.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Really, what do you I haven't seen a lot of
your sartorial splendor. What are you dressing? Like?

Speaker 5 (16:10):
I saw?

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I do wear a lot of like work where for
like car heart stuff. What hey, And let me defend myself.
I do. I do know how to work on my car.
I know how to change a lot of things on
my car. I get my hands dirty, okay, But I
get the most fun comment I've forgotten was everybody want

(16:35):
to wear a car Heart until they have to do
car Heart things and that hurts that that hurt a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Well, what's weird about car Like? When I was a
kid in the seventies and eighties, the car Heart was
called Ben Davis with a monkey on it, you know,
and a lot of my cholo friends would wear it,
you know, and then Carhart was like, you know, yeah,
I get your hands dirty. But now car Heart is
selling for like big bucks. It's like designer am I
what the hell happened?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, it came cool.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
I don't know, all right, so on the way up
as well getting jfl if people don't know, just for laughs.
The Montreal Comedy Festival not as big as it used
to be, but just a few years ago. I mean,
this is what comedians tell me. I mean, it's sort

(17:27):
of like, you don't want to do a late night
with Fallon, You'd rather do a podcast. It's weird how
things kind of switch around sometimes. But my point is
when you did it, it was still huge and it
could really break you. So what was it like in there?
Because I know comedians who tried for years and I'll say, oh,
you're so close, try again next year, right, But.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
It was it was such a it was a great experience.
I think like it was a goal of mine for
a while to do that. So I just watched a
lot of what they liked, and I did my research
and I kind of tailored a set to to it
but still be true to what I do. And I

(18:15):
think it just it just worked out.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I did it.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
I created a set that I thought they would like,
and I auditioned once, didn't get it, auditioned the second time,
and I got it, and it was great. Montreal a
little weird, but fun. Fun.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
The signs are in French.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
What is going on here? I don't know if there's
anyone from Montreal listenings, but something all worked rude to
me out there, and I'm never going to forget that.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Okay, that's messed up, and not even Presian. One last
question for you, And I always liked telling the story
that Ryan Hamilton told me. And he was from like,
you know, Rexburg, Idaho, and he you know, worked and
one time he like drove to a bar in Montana,
like six hours there and back in the snow. He

(19:06):
got there, no one paid attention to him, no one laughed.
And then the lady that ran the place said hey,
lean in, and then she head butted him in the
face and laughed, and he said he drove home with
an ice pack on his forehead. He had twenty five
dollars from the appearance, and he thought, I guess if
I don't quit right now, I'll never quit. So what

(19:28):
was your moment where it was a disaster but you
were like, oh, hell no, I'm gonna keep going.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
Ah. Man, there's so many of them. I mean, I
still want to quit every day. No, I'm kidding, I
don't know. I've never in my life of doing this,
have I ever been like, oh, I want to I
want to quit. But I have gotten like a few.

(20:01):
It wasn't necessarily on stage, but someone that I know
was like, hey, maybe maybe go finish college. And I
was like, I'll show you. I'm gonna do that. I'm
not gonna I'm not going back to school. I'm going
to finish this. And that was I think that was
one of my my like moments. They were like, you

(20:23):
should finish college, and I was like, no, no, I'm
going to do this.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
You know, I did finish college and I've been working
over thirty years and no one ever asked me if
I even went or graduated. So you made the right choice.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
Yeah, And when people people see me, they're like, oh,
he definitely didn't go to college.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, Everybody check him out in person. He's got
two sets on Saturday, one at seven and one in
nine to fifteen at the world famous punchline for for
a Battery Street. Go down and check it out as
Andrew rolfo. You can go to and Drew aofol dot com.
That's O R O l F. Oh Andrew, thanks for

(21:06):
repping the East Bay. Congratulations and let's have you in
studio here sometime.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
I'm on Broadway, of course I'd love to also. Yeah,
come out on Saturday if you're not hungover from Friday.
And I have two pretty special guests coming by on
both shows.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
All Right, is it a secret or can you tell us?

Speaker 4 (21:27):
No, it's a secret, but it is. It is.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
It is crazy, all right, Bill Burrn, Chris Rock.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
Everybody, he said it not me, all.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Right, Thanks Andrew, thank you, thanks for listening in to
the Comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick Tittle on the
eight Side Network.