BOBBYCAST - Comedian Mark Normand on Hating Crowd Work, Being a New Dad, Going Viral & Why He Still Loves the Grind

Comedian Mark Normand sits down with Bobby for a wide-ranging conversation about life on the road, becoming a new dad, and why he still approaches comedy like he has something to prove. Mark explains why he doesn’t want to rely on crowd work, how he tests new material even when it means having a rough set, and what he thinks about the constant pressure to feed social media with clips. He also shares the comedians who influenced him most, what criticism still gets under his skin, why he prefers smaller rooms to arenas, and how becoming a dad has changed the way he spends his time at home. Plus, Mark gets into his writing process, going viral, making his own movie, and why he’s still happiest just working out jokes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Then you go to the audition, you show up, everybody
looks just like you. They're all hotter versions of you.
They're all ripped and taller than me and full head
of hair and all this. And then you're like, I'm
not getting it.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Today, we're joined by my favorite current comedian, Mark Norman,
one of the most prolific and talked about standups working
right now from New Orleans. Originally, moved to New York,
and built his career from the very bottom all the
way up, which we talked about. I mean, super sharp,
super observational. He's got a ton of comedy specials. He's

(00:39):
got one on Netflix that just came out a couple
of months ago that's really good. Jerry Seinfeld's called him
the best young up-and-coming comic. We do talk about that
a little bit. And he's also huge in podcasting. Tuesdays
with Stories is one of them, and We Might Be Drunk. So,
He's all over the place. He's super funny. And his
special that I'm talking about soup to nuts is up

(01:02):
now on Netflix. So if you're watching this on Netflix,
as soon as you're done with this, go over and
watch soup to nuts. And I'm just going to say this.
He says stuff. He said he's about to say stuff.
And I'm not saying that you'll be offended, but he's
a comedian and he's going to say stuff. That's all

(01:22):
I want to say. So if you'll, Like to hear stuff, listen,
but if you are easily offended, maybe he's going to
say stuff. That's all I'm going to say. Here he is,
Mark Norman.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I did a benefit show, like a fundraiser, and John
Daly was the big star. I was the comedy. And
he has this RTD he sells, like a drink, like
a canned drink. And I was like, I would love
to try one. He's like, well, good luck because I
got to get drunk to get through this. And I
was like, all right. So he was just putting them back,
putting them back. He goes on stage to do some

(01:57):
award intro. So I find one. I grab it. I go, oh, great.
He's going to bring me up. I'll have this for
the stage. He brings me up. Mike Normal. He says
my name wrong. He's hammered. And he brings me up.
I go, hey, thank you. And I'm holding the drink.
And he goes, oh, dude, thank you so much. And
he just took it out of my hand and chugged it.
I was like, that was my drink, but that's John Daly.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Did he play music at that event? Because he has
one song he plays everywhere.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
He did not, but he did karaoke.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
He comes out and does Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Uh-huh.
Because it's like three chords. Like. With a guitar. Okay. Yeah,
he comes pretty much at every event. I'll occasionally get
a text. I wonder what my last John Daly text is. Whoa,
you text with him? There's only five of us from
Arkansas that got out. That's incredible. This is not even
a flex. But John Daly, his last text is probably something,

(02:46):
how do we pay more for our football program?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's what it is because we're both Arkansas guys. Nice. Yeah,
that's it.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Those glasses and that sweater do not read football. You played?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Not at a high level. I work for the NFL.
Does that count? No. Yeah, but I'm saying I'm a
big Arkansas fan.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
But you played in high school. Yeah, but that's weird
to say. No, I'm not weird. Did you play high
school sports?

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I did not, no. I was a skateboarder. I couldn't
do the structure. I couldn't do the practices.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I was driving down this road yesterday morning because, aside
from this show on Netflix, I do a morning radio
show every day. It's five hours and It was in
the morning. There's not a lot of traffic, so I'm
able to look around a little bit, and I saw
your name on the sign.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
And I literally texted. I was like, because I'm a
massive fan. Oh, wow. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Jeez, you're the one.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And I was like, oh. Marks of town Any chance
he can come up And they were like Yeah I
would love to So thanks for coming in Because I
am Thanks I am a massive fan.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Hey I said to the club Everybody at the club
They're like What are you doing tomorrow I said I'm
doing Bobby Bones They said Oh we love Bobby Bobby's
the man Radio legend High school football They know.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah. It's often high school football, then radio legend. I
appreciate that. Are you bomb-proof at this point? No.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
God, no. No, I'm like a Middle Easterner. I can
bomb at any moment. I bombed, kind of had a
struggle last night.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
But is a struggle different than a bomb? Of course,
of course.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I mean, I did an hour for Netflix. It came out,
I don't know, in April or something. So it's all
new material. So I'm working it out. So there's going
to be some lulls.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
If you're working new material and- Well, do you start
with new material if you're working new material or will
you play some hits just to get in the mix?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I go all in, raw dog. I don't do any
old stuff. Because you start relying on it and then
you have a cushion. I think it's way harder and
it's way uglier. But if you go in with all new,
you have to build that muscle back up. You have nothing,
no jumping off point.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
How much will you have, I don't want to say
finished because it's not finished until you actually record it,
but how much will you have done at the very beginning?
How much of that makes it to the end?

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Ooh, that's a good question. Not much. Maybe, like, I
have about 45 minutes right now of clunky, half-baked stuff.
Maybe 30% of it will make it to the end. 35.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Do you have any stuff that you start with that
you for sure believe in?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
A premise or a joke? Both. Both.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
I have a couple jokes that I'm like, this is
making it to the end. This is a great joke.
And then I have some, I'm like, this will never last.
But I need it to get by.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
That's the water.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's the weird water. There's a lot of sodium in
this son of a bitch.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, it's literally salt water. What? Is that good? Oh,
did you not know that? That's what that is.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Why am I drinking salt water? Is that bad? No.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I don't need all that sodium. I mean, it says
stay salty on the can. Ah.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I didn't even notice that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I
got to start reading that. I thought it was a beer. Oh, no.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Stay salty. I thought salt was bad for you. We
just put them in there because nobody else will drink them.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Ah, shit.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
All right. I thought this was a tall boy.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
So you get into town yesterday. You did two shows.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
How many shows have you done with the new material?

Speaker 1 (06:17):
A lot.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
A lot.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
I go just jump right in the pool. So I
go all in. So I've been doing the road. every
weekend since the special came out.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So do you feel good now, just generally with the hour?

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I feel better. It's not where I want it to be.
And I can tell some of the audience is like, hey,
we're going to go see this guy. We loved his special.
Then they see you and they're like, yeah, there's some
stuff there. So I don't know if the audience knows.
They just think like, hey, funny guys. He'll go be funny.
It'll be a good show. I don't think they understand
that you have to start from scratch and work your

(06:47):
way up. It's an uphill battle. And they're part of
the process. But they just want to see a good show.
Which I think is fair. They're paying money, they're getting
a babysitter, and then I'm up there like, is this anything?
How about that?

Speaker 2 (06:59):
So I feel kind of guilty, but that's the only
way to do stand-up. Do you ever take notes up early?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I take notes up early all the time, and late.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
So you'll walk up with paper?

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Oh, yeah. And I show them the paper. I try
to keep it very, what's the word, transparent.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
How long do you do that?

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Until it's just locked in and second nature.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Do you ever, because we live in a memorabilia world now.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Do you ever sign it?

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Oh, no, I need them. I need to see them.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
But you don't need it every show. Let's say you
finish the show. It's like a set list with an artist, right?
It's really cool to get a set list with an artist.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Let's say there was a Mark Norman joke that you
were working on and you signed it. I have like
a memorabilia company even that I work with.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Like, I think there's some real money there.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Interesting. Well, I got a stack this high of joke notes.
So if you want them, I can sell them for
a nickel each. We'd make a fortune.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Have you felt you becoming gen pop famous?

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Gen pop famous. No, I don't know. That actually scares
me a little. Like I hang out with– I was
with Shane Gillis last week and you just can't go
anywhere with the guy. And that's so cool and great
for him. He sold out the fucking Eagle Stadium. But
that worries me. I like being a little under the radar.
I don't want to be the blackout guy. I want
to pee in a bush and come back to the

(08:23):
bar and not be– not have TMZ shooting my dick. So–
You want to be able to sell tickets. I want
to be like a Brian Regan or like a good
kind of, what's that, like a Dr. Dog. You know
that band?

Speaker 2 (08:38):
No.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Exactly. But they can play everywhere. They sell out. I
know Dogstar. Dogstar is Keanu.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
That's right, on the bass.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
But you're starting to cross over, though, to that.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I know.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
You have to feel it a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
I do. I get recognized a lot, and it's very nice.
And I love the fans, and I appreciate it, but
I'm scared of that. That moment when you're out with
my kid at a park and somebody's like, fuck you,
you suck. And my kid's going to be like, what
was that?

Speaker 2 (09:06):
How old is your kid?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Almost two.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
How's that going?

Speaker 1 (09:09):
I'm loving every minute of it. Oh, shit, I just
realized I left him in a Waymo. But no, good kid, cute,
and it gets better every month.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
We have a five-month-old first baby. Oh, congrats.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
So when you say I love every minute of it,
that feels, some of the minutes are hard.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Oh, it's hell on earth. Don't get me wrong. You
just said that. Well, you're in the thick of it.
It's only going to get easier and easier. And then
before you know it, is it a girl?

Speaker 2 (09:37):
It is a girl.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Before you know it, she's walking. Then she starts saying
like two words, like a car will go by and
she'll go, car, car. And you're like, car. Oh, your
heart melts. And then I do the road. So I
come home with the suitcase. I'm hungover.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
I'm gay.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
And I walk in and the kid's like, da-da. Oh,
my God. There's nothing better.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
When do the weeds stop? Like, I'm in the middle
of it right now. When does that start to be
not as intense? intense?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Probably about nine months. So, but it's going to eat it.
They're going to sleep better. They're going to eat better.
And it just keeps, it keeps, uh, progress is good.
It just keeps going up.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Can you be present when you're at home?

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's where I, that's where I lock in. So you
don't have to like fight with the phone or?

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Oh, the phone is tough. Yeah, the phone is ruining
my life. It's actually kind of bad because, you know,
we're on the road. We're alone. So I'm on a
flight for six hours. So I look at the phone
for six hours and then you go, all right, put
the phone down, you psycho. What are you doing? Then
you go, well, I'm going to stare at the back
of the seat. Give me the phone again. And then
our work is on our phone. I'm getting texts from
my manager, my agent, the wife, friends, podcast partners, you know,

(10:45):
and all these producers. So you got to keep keep
it on you.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Who's funny to you right now?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Oh, geez. That you've heard of?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
No. It doesn't matter. I was asked this, and I'd
probably wait until the end. You're my favorite comedian right now, period. Whoa!
Come on! I'm not just saying that because you're here.
I was doing an interview recently about that, like who
I think's funny now, and it wasn't just comedians, but
I think you're my favorite comedian now. I know you're
my favorite comedian now.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Jeez, this is unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
So I'm a massive fan. I actually saved that for
the end so I don't look like.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I'm uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Me too. So... Hashtag. Who is it for you? Who's funny?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Oh, man. I think John Mulaney's very funny. I think
there's a couple people that no one's heard of that
I think are great. So I don't know if I
should shout them out or if it's going to be.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Shout them out.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, there's a guy... Zoltan, who's very funny. He's out
of San Diego. There's a guy, Kyle Kinane is very funny.
This guy, Sean Murphy. I mean, Carmen Lynch, Jordan Fisher.
A lot of funny cats out there. But Jeff Asmus.

(11:56):
But if we're talking about people we know, let's see.
Who have you heard of that I think is really great?
I feel like comedy's in a weird place with the
whole clip culture thing. People are putting out too much shit,
me included. So that waters it down a little bit.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Do you feel the need in clip culture every night
to do something somewhat different that you're never going to
do again so you can use that as a clip?

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Not really. I don't want the clips to push my
comedy a certain way because that's really bad. I've heard
guys like, If you talk about horoscopes, it goes viral.
You got to do a horoscope bit. I'm like, I'm
not going to write a bit about horoscopes just for
the virality. But I will write like I use as
an exercise like, all right, Fauci's in the news. Let
me write a Fauci joke that no an angle no

(12:42):
one's hit. Or let me write a let me write
a joke about the WNBA or these cocaine guys at
the fraternity at Penn State. You know, so I try
to get one of those out. But that's also a
good exercise.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Because if it's so current, you can post it and
it's also not going to last until you get to
the special because it won't be relevant.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Exactly. So you're not burning material, but you're also getting
some hits and you're staying relevant.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
What was the first joke of yours that went viral?
So much so that it felt exciting, but weird.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I had a joke about getting yelled at by a
trans person. You know, we've all gotten a million views here,
a million views there. This one hit like, you know,
30 million or some crazy number. And it was about
a trans person who yelled at me. And she was like,
you're not funny. And I said, well, you look like

(13:34):
a man. And she was like, that's a horrible thing
to say. And I'm like, but you insulted me. So
I'm just insulting you. And we went, I can't remember
the bit, but it just hit. And I was really,
I didn't make fun of trans people. So I was
really proud. I constructed it so nobody was really hurt.
And it just blew up. And it was right during,
you know, when all the trans stuff was kind of

(13:55):
new and you weren't really allowed to poke at it.
And so I think it clicked. I'll send you the
link later. Richard link later.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
And we're back on the Bobby cast.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Do you have no phones at shows? Put them in
a bag? I wish.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's too expensive, so I feel bad asking.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
People can record your shows now?

Speaker 1 (14:29):
I get it all the time. I get the security
on it, but does that come out of your paycheck?
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Oh, that's so frustrating.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
The yonder bag?

Speaker 2 (14:40):
That you have to watch to see if people are
using their phones during a show.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Will you point them out like Def Leppard used to
do with chicks back in the day? Like, will you?

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, I'm like, quit filming me. Now there's a million
videos out there of me going like, hey, turn that off.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Were you doing the show where the person passed out
and had a seizure? Yes.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
That was me. Tampa, Florida.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
You're on stage. What happens?

Speaker 1 (15:06):
I'm on stage and I'm cooking. And I was about
40 minutes in into an hour set. And a guy
just goes and then falls out of his chair. And
I was like, oh, we got another drunk guy because
it was so far away. And then somebody's like, whoa,
hold on. This is serious. And then the owner came
in and the manager came in and they had to
drag the guy out. Took a crazy edible.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Oh, that's what happened to him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
He took an edible and he was in the lobby like,
I'm good. I'm good. I just I've never had a
seizure like you've never had one. That's even weirder. So
they're like, you can't go back in there. You're too
messed up. So they put him in an Uber. But
you had to stop the show. I had to stop
the show and riff on it. And in my mind,
I'm like, is this guy dying? Is it a heart attack?
I didn't know what it was. So you don't want
to make fun of him, but you also want to
keep it funny. So it was a real tightrope.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Is it hard to get a crowd back?

Speaker 1 (15:52):
It was, yeah. But I made the funny part about
how the joke was so bad that a guy had
a seizure. So I kept referencing that back. That was
the angle.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
You grew up in New Orleans?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah. Boy, you really transitioned, huh? You're like Elliot Page. Yeah, yeah.
I grew up in New Orleans, born and raised on
the playground is where I got molested. But yeah, yeah.
New Orleans, fun town to grow up in or fun
town to visit. I think it's a weird place to
grow up. I always say growing up in New Orleans
is like having Charlie Sheen for a dad. It's fun

(16:25):
on paper when you're 11, you're like, I could use
a hug and a vegetable.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Were you in the city?

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, in the city. Treme. You've been to the French Quarter.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
I've been to New Orleans a lot, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
I grew up right outside of the French Quarter on
Esplanade Avenue. It was dicey.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
As in crime?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Crime. We were the white family, so that was weird.
There's a lot of racial tension. I know we do
a lot of stuff about white supremacy. Well, you're the
white guy in the black neighborhood. It was bad. It
was somebody spray painted kill whitey on our fence at
one point. I mean, it got hairy.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Were you a funny kid?

Speaker 1 (17:03):
I think so. I was just a goofball like everybody
other kid. All my friends were funny growing up.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Were you funnier to the point where people told you
you should do something funny?

Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, no.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Or even perform in some way?

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, I did plays and stuff. I did school plays.
I was Aladdin in the school play. That was pretty big.
I got the titular role. But goofing off, big comedy fan.
I still have a couple lines I remember from being
in fifth grade, sixth grade. At one point, a teacher
was doing a, teaching us about, like, expressions. And she goes,

(17:40):
all right, if you're in a glass house, you shouldn't.
And I went, shower.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Killed.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Killed. Still remember it.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
That was the one. That's how you knew.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
That was the moment. Someone said they saw you walking
down the street here.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh, I was on the phone. Okay, so you didn't
walk here. No, no, I took an Uber. I'm staying
right on Broadway, so.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
God, someone assumed you walked from the comedy club, to
which I said, I don't think he stays at the
comedy club.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
No, there is a condo there, but.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
There's a condo at the comedy club?

Speaker 1 (18:10):
There is, at Zaney's, yeah, across the street.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Do they let people, the people that are performing stay there?

Speaker 1 (18:15):
The openers are there all weekend.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Does that happen at a lot of clubs, where they
have somewhere to stay?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, I'd say about 50% have a condo.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Do you like staying in that place, or is it disgusting? Oh, no, you.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
You grow out of that. I mean, that's like some...
It's the dorm of... Yeah, exactly. That's some early on shit.
But when you start selling a couple of tickets that
put you in a nice hotel and then the hotel
gets nicer, the more tickets you sell.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
When you first started telling jokes, were you the host
or did you start trying to do it by yourself?
I did the whole.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
I barked. You didn't know about barking?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Standing outside.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Standing outside. Hey, we got a comedy show here. Then
they give you a couple minutes, depending on how many
people you bring in. Then I did check spots. You
know about check spots?

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Do not. What?

Speaker 1 (19:00):
You're a comedian. Bad.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay. C minus at my highest.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
All right.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
All right.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
This is a hell of a review. Ah, bad.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So the check spot is at a comedy club. They
do take about 10 minutes to pass the checks out
and all the people have to fill out their shit.
You know, we got the Mai Tai. That's great. It's $ 11, whatever.
So then you have to go on stage and perform
while they're filling out the checks just so there's not
dead air. And it's the worst gig on the planet.
Because they're not even listening. They're just like, who's got

(19:30):
a card? Are we going to split this? Whatever. And
then you're up there like, so Uber's weird. What's up
with Lyft? What's the difference between a couch and a sofa?

Speaker 2 (19:39):
What's after checks then?

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Then another guy goes on or gal.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
No, no, like what's the next step?

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Oh, sorry. um i'm an idiot after checks is showcasing
and this is how new york is so then you
do 15 minutes in a lineup of like five people
and then usually go first if you're the new guy
there's a host then you then somebody else but uh
then then you go on the road and host Then

(20:06):
you go on the road and feature. Then you go
on the road and headline.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
So feature would be like in music, there's like the
main support. Is that the feature?

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Support. The middle. Middle act, we call them.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Is that a big jump to go from the feature
to the main? Huge.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Huge. Because you've got to bring people in as the headliner.
You can headline and they paper the room, which means
the funny bone or whatever club, the improv, will give
everybody free tickets just so they get in and buy
food and drinks and And then they put up a
guy who's new and they give him like $ 1, 000 and
you do the weekend.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Is there resentment? and I'll use my situation. I am
not a real comedian. I told a bunch of jokes
for a few years and toured a lot, but I
started in theaters. Wow. But I don't say that as
a flex. I say that as I was very fortunate
to do that because I had people that liked me already.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Right, right.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
And I have friends that are really good at being
funny and have had to work their way up and
pay their dues. There were no dues for me to pay.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
I just started doing theaters- A guy like you that's
done it all but is also the best at it,
is there resentment towards people that do that?

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well, I don't know. How'd you go out there the
first time? Did you just struggle? Yeah. Was it awkward?

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah. Wow. But the benefit was for me, I knew
all those people were there for me. Yeah. So I
got like five to seven minutes free.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
It didn't matter what I said. For five to seven minutes,
I knew they were there for me. It did not matter. Also,
I got to do some kitschy things. I would grab
my guitar. I would write funny songs.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So the new stuff- which was all new at first,
if it wasn't working, I just got my guitar and
play songs that I know were funny. Right. And so
I had different crutches I could lean on.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Until I had enough material that I felt good about
where I didn't, then I just wouldn't take a guitar
on stage at all. Once I got to that confident point,
but I got to cheat. Like I opened for me
for a while. I had a comedy music duo and
we were selling out theaters. So I would go up
and do 10 minutes. And then when it sucked, it
would get to a point where it sucked. I'd be like,
all right, that's it for me. We'll be back out
in a second. I could end whenever I wanted.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
But the cool thing is you're aware of this cheat
code or whatever.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
It was all fraud. It all felt fraudulent. I thought
I ended up being C minus C, maybe C at
my best. But it felt like I didn't come up
the right way.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well, I don't know if there's a right way, and
I like that you're aware of it. There are guys
who have this opportunity like you, and then they're like,
but I'm great. Look how great I am. I'm killing it.
I'm like, but if I put you in Oklahoma in
a club, you'd eat shit. So you are aware, and
you acknowledge it, and I think that goes a long way.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's why I didn't do clubs. Wow. Because I knew
it would be terrible.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Clubs are tough. They yell at you. They heckle. They're
on their phones. It's a struggle. It's a struggle.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
The closest thing that I'll get to that now is
playing the Grand Ole Opry because they didn't come to
see me.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Oh, right.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
But they're also, a lot of them are old too.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
So any pop culture reference does not work. It's mostly,
I just talk about Gunsmoke for 45 minutes. But they're
not there to see me. So if I can win them,
that's the closest thing that I get to going into
a club where people aren't coming for me.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
So if I finish a show like that and it
feels good, That feels like that's the closest I ever
had to get to that.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Well, are you kind of itching to do a club?
Let me see if I can go do it.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Okay. I appreciate that as well.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, none. Because I see people that can really do it.
I feel like a junior college pitcher, and then I
watch Roger Clemens. I see Roger Clemens throw you, and
I'm like, oh, yeah, no, no, I don't have that.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
If you come to the small town and watch me
and play my little junior college game, I'm going to
strike out seven. It's going to be a pretty– but
as soon as it's time, I know where I stand.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I think the problem we
have is like a Stormy Daniels coming in and doing stand-up.
And taking up a club weekend and she's up there like,
so let me tell you about blowing Trump, which look,
I'd like to hear that too. But don't call yourself
a comedian. That's what we get annoyed. You know, these
actors who come in and try to act like they're

(24:11):
a comic in the 10 minutes.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I have trouble even using the word. And I toured
for three years consistently, did theaters, did a special that
was bought by CMT. Still, if someone asks me, it's
almost a bad word to come out of my mouth.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
I tell jokes.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, see, this is great. You're very self-aware.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
And some of them are funny, but I don't go comedian.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
All right. Well, what you're doing is what we call
a bringer show, where you see a very green comic
go up and bring 10 people, and then they do
their set, and they kill with those 10 people in
the club.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
But I would do it like 3,000. Yeah, that's a
good bringer.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
That's a good bringer, right? That's a damn good bringer. Yeah.
But did you see how your set got better over
three years?

Speaker 2 (24:59):
By far. How cool is that? And totally did a
whole second one. I developed a whole second. But I
got to do it again when it's all your own
people that are coming for you. And this is really
cool to talk to somebody who's great at it. So
what I could tell was I would go out and
I had the first seven to 10 minutes for free.
It did not matter what I did. And there got
to be a point where I didn't want to put

(25:19):
anything that I was trying to make better early because
they were going to laugh at it anyway.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Right.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
So I would put it as something that I felt
like maybe wasn't there, that I was chasing. Maybe my
cadence wasn't right. Maybe my words weren't right. I'd put
it in the middle because there's a point where I
had to earn it back from them because they just
spent 80, 90 bucks a ticket.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
And they're not going to give it to me for
free the whole night. So there was a point where
I could feel if I didn't hit, they didn't hit
with me. And that's when I would try the new
stuff because that's the only true reaction I could get.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
100%.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
So nothing new or unproven went early.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Only easy stuff went early.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
I love it. I respect it. You treated the art
with some respect. Oh, fully.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's the hard– dancing was hard. Dancing? I won Dancing
with the Stars.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Holy shit. Yeah. I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Stand-up was harder, but that was– it was an acute illness, dancing-wise.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Because I don't know how to dance, but it was
much quicker. It was in a much more packed three months.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
It's a physical thing, whereas Stan was more mental.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, but I hadn't done either one of them. Wow.
I played high school football, so I had a little
athletic ability.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
I heard, I heard.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
I don't know if you heard when you got down.
It's kind of what people share.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Well, that's incredible that you took on that feat, because
I wouldn't do it. It's too much. It's too, I
can't dance at all. I got no rhythm. Same. Really?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
I've never danced at all. I got out there and
I told jokes. On the tour though, I literally, that's
all I did because I can't dance.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, same.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
I won because people like me and I tried and
I got better. But when we did the tour, they
contractually obligated you to do a certain amount of shows
on the tour. And so I think I had four shows.
And I went and I said, hey, can I just
tell jokes in the middle of the show? Because I
don't want to dance.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
But you have to dance.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
They didn't make me dance.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Come on. How the hell did you win without dancing?

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Well, on the show I won. On the tour, I
just told jokes.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Got it, got it. Because on the tour, who cares?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
It's everybody, all the great dancers. So on the tour,
it turned into like a seven-minute comedy show for me.
That was my fill.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
And you killed?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I did B +. All right.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well, see, that's not your crowd. And you still did
B +.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
A lot of dancing jokes, though, because I knew what
the crowd wanted.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Hey, that's what they want. I think that's something. That's impressive.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
I'm aware of my limitations.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I know. But just the fact that you took that on,
that's what life's all about, is going for it. You're
probably a whole different, better person for doing that. Yeah,
maybe not.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Brutal, brutal fan base.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh, really?

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Brutal.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Well, they don't want to see you.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
They do not want to see me.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
They want to see, you know.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Social media is awful to me from that fan base.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Oh, really?

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, it was bad.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Damn.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Do you go into your comments?

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Oh, yeah, and it's a mistake every time.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Do you ever not go into your comments because you
know it's a mistake every time?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I mean, I'm not reading every one, but I'll just
pop open. I'm eating breakfast. I'm like, oh, let me
check how this YouTube clip's doing. Jesus Christ. Holy God.
You know, I didn't know my face did that. Oh,
I get a lot of ears. You know, like to me,
if I get a comment that surface like you got
weird ears, you know, you move like a robot. You're autistic.

(28:33):
I'm like, this is nothing. But when they hit on
something where you're like, I do do that. Oh, I
thought I was hiding that shit.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I didn't know I did that.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
That's when it hurts.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
What would those type things be?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Oh, you know, like I can tell he's got no
confidence in this joke or his old stuff was better
or he's losing it. This clip sucks. The fact that
he posted this shows that he just needs content and
he doesn't really care anymore. And I'm like, damn, I
did need content. So I did throw that up. My
old joke about that was better. You know, whatever.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Do you feel you have to get better every time
you put a special out?

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Definitely. Definitely.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
At least the same, but it should be better. But
you also don't know until it's consumed.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
So, well, you know, it's better. And this is what
I have trouble with. I have to now, I go
to a lot of therapy. I have to, before anything
goes out, it could be even like, I did a
TV show on Nat Geo and we did the whole season.
And I thought, do I like the show or not?
I need to have a conversation with myself before I
put it out, because if it gets eaten up, I
need to at least know I liked it before it
went out. Right. Like I have to like, put a

(29:40):
marker in it. Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
And... That's good. You want quality work out there.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
But regardless of what the feedback was, I was going
to remember how I felt about it before. And I
wonder if you're doing a large, a body of work,
can you like something... More than before, but then it's
not received as well.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
100%.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
That happens a lot.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Can you, though, be happy with it even if it's
not received as well?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm bummed. I'm disappointed. But I'm like, hey,
I did my part. I like what it is. And
that's what it's going to be. Like, you know, you
got to think like Idiocracy. Great movie. Mike Judge. Bombed
in the theater. Made no money. Failure commercially. Everybody talks
about that movie now. Oh, we're living in a democracy. Oh,

(30:27):
you got to go see this movie. He nailed it.
He was ahead of his time. So it's not always
about how it's received right then. I know I sound
like I'm making excuses, but I think things can be
good and still not received well.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
The Bobbycast. We'll be right back. The Bobbycast.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
This is the Bobbycast. Were you ever neurotic in your
art just hoping you could pay the bills so you
had to remain at a, like you had to be good?

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah. Well, the bills is always a factor. It's
this tough balance because we have this content monster that
just consumes and he's never satiated and he just needs
more and more content. But also you want to keep
the quality up. So you got to weigh that.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Because they don't go together.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Not usually, no.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
You can't constantly put out, and I deal with this too,
a whole lot of content that is great. Like if
you put out a whole lot, it's obviously not going
to be all the great because there's only so much great. Yeah.
Just speaking of a little bit of great, a lot
of medium, a little bit of bad, like you can't
put out a lot of great. I know. I know.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
I mean, songwriters struggle with that, I think, because they're like,
this isn't a hit. What the hell? But I'm like, well,
the whole record can't be hits. It's 20 songs on
this thing. I think that's how it is for comedy.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Do you sing?

Speaker 3 (31:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
With this voice? Are you kidding?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
No music at all?

Speaker 1 (31:58):
No, no. I shouldn't even be speaking. My wife likes
dirty talk in the bedroom. I'm like, I can't do
it with this voice. It just won't work.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
What music do you like?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
I'm a big boomer queef. I like the old stuff.
I like the singer-songwriter stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Boomer queef? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
I like, you know, Van Morrison and Jackson Brown and
all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
How did all that become your favorite? Did your parents
have that around the house?

Speaker 1 (32:23):
I think I used to listen to oldies growing up. And,
you know, you say, oh, the Beatles. I like these guys.
Then you start branching out and you're like, hey, now
I'm listening to the Allman Brothers and Warren Zevon.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
We had Cool 95, the radio station, but that was oldies.
And so that's how I know all the oldies is
by listening to Cool 95 and then playing all the stuff.
But now oldies are like Foo Fighters.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
I know. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Classic rock. It's like coming up. Classic rock. Zeppelin and
the Chili Peppers.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
It's like crazy. But I say Nick at night has
friends and Fresh Prince. I'm like, holy shit. It's all
flying by.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
What about acting?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
I wrote a movie with my buddy. We're shooting it
in a month and I can't act. So I'm taking classes.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
What do they do in those classes?

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I haven't started yet, but I got like an acting
coach and he's going to read lines with me and
be like, no, you got to do it like this.
You got to do that. You got to, I hear
you got to let go and I can't let go.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Have you auditioned for anything?

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Millions of auditions. Never got one thing. My agent still
pushes this shit on me. And he's like, this was,
this is the one here it is. And I do
the audition and people are horrified.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
What kind of roles do you often go for?

Speaker 1 (33:33):
I go for like small comedic roles, like the wacky
janitor or the silly nurse or And none. And never
gotten one. I'll dress like a nurse. I'll wear blackface.
I'll do whatever they want and cannot get a role.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
What about a callback? Have you gotten that far?

Speaker 1 (33:50):
I've gotten a callback like a handful of times in
20 years. And that's very exciting. They got you on
the hook. Then you go to the audition. You show up.
Everybody looks just like you. They're all hotter versions of you.
They're all ripped and taller than me and full head
of hair and all this shit. And then you're like,
I'm not getting it.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
So the movie you wrote, why?

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Why?

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Well, we feel like, hey, like me and my buddy Sam,
we started a whiskey together. We kind of do like
a why not us. And he's got more self-worth and
self-esteem than I do. And I'm lucky he takes me along.
He's like, Kevin Hart's got a tequila. Why can't we
have a whiskey? I'm like, well, Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart.
Who the hell are we? And he's like, well, we drink.
He doesn't. I was like, that's a good point. So

(34:33):
we started a whiskey. And then we said, ah, there's
not a lot of great comedy movies out right now.
We're joke guys. Why don't we make a movie? And
I was like, oh, yeah. I never assumed I could
make a movie. He's very good at doing things. So
we wrote it together. We wrote it over Zoom, like
in 10 Zooms. Wrote the whole thing, rewrote it, rewrote it.
Me and this guy, we got a guy named Noah

(34:55):
Garden Schwartz who's written on a ton of TV. He
knows how to make a movie arc and a structure,
which we didn't know. And we put it all together
and we sold it.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Why aren't there comedies now?

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Two reasons. One, no DVDs. DVDs, that's where comedy lived.
You know, like, oh, you got to watch Office Space.
So you got to watch Half-Baked. You'd all pass around DVDs.
Not that many people were going to see Half-Baked in
the theater. But it had a double life as a
DVD and you could make a fortune. Those are gone.
And then two, I mean, think about something about Mary.

(35:32):
Amazing movie. So funny. The opening scenes are, you know,
with fucking headphones on going Franks and beads. And, you know,
he zips his balls up at one point. There's a
million jokes about Matt Dillon having a. And the main character,
a female, gets jizz in her hair. That's the big

(35:54):
takeaway of the movie is the hair jizz. That just–
that doesn't fly now. Everyone's so– you got to think
these execs in Hollywood. They're wearing suits. They're in a boardroom.
All they talk about is diversity. It's a bunch of
white people in the room. Then they go, well– Why
take a risk in offending some people? I'm going to

(36:16):
lose my job because they're not actually talented. They're just
marketing people or finance bros who work in entertainment. I
don't know why we go through them for selling shit
and ideas and comedic advice. It's insane. So we said,
fuck it. We're going to write it ourselves.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
But somebody bought it.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
An independent financier bought it because he believed in us.
But he's not like a Hollywood guy. So then his
goal would be a weird word. Is it to release
it independently?

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah. Like shoot it for as cheap as possible, release
it independently, and hope it catches?

Speaker 1 (36:52):
That's the plan.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Do you have a budget?

Speaker 1 (36:55):
We do. About three mil.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Isn't it crazy? That's a small budget.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
It is. But when you think about all the factors,
the equipment, the talent, the directors, the locations— The film,
the editing, you know, costumes, all that shit.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
But then the pressure is on you as well because
you have to act.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, yeah. But I'm pretty much myself in the movie,
which helps.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
I don't know. I played myself once in that show Nashville.
I played four different characters in that show, which is weird.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Wow, how did that work?

Speaker 2 (37:24):
The continuity is just terrible through seasons. I started as
an extra and then my career was getting a little
bigger as that show was getting bigger. So then they
brought me on as a different role. I played four
different people, weirdly. But I played myself. And I'm not
an actor. But it was oddly the hardest because even
though I'm playing– your body just feels weird because you're
playing yourself. But you wonder, would I even do– everything

(37:46):
about it felt odd.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you. And then you're like,
what do I do with my hands normally? You know,
all that shit. So I'm totally with you. I'm in
my head the whole shoot. So the fact that you
did Nashville, that's a huge accomplishment. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Not really that big of an accomplishment.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Wow, it's a TV show.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
I was reporter number one for the first season. I
literally sat there with a book and yelled something from
the back.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Well, you had speaking role.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, fair enough. Okay. And I was listed as reporter
number one. All right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
By the way, this drink is making me thirsty, which
I've never had with a drink before. I need a
water to go with my.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
With your water?

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
You need water for your water?

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, this is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
When you're on the road, what do you do all
day before a show if you're in a city that
you don't live in?

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Good question. So I usually get lunch with the opener.
Then I try to work out, which is embarrassing. I'll
do a couple push-ups and jerk off. And then I
try to write. You got to get the writing in.
And then the show. But I like to take it easy.
All these people are like, we're in St. Louis. We've
got to go to see the Arch. We've got to
go to this restaurant. They've got a museum for boogers.

(38:54):
And I'm like, get out of here. I'm writing. I
want to take it slow on a– show day.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
What is your writing process? Do you have a notes
app on your phone or your laptop? Are you handwritten
on a piece of paper?

Speaker 1 (39:06):
All handwritten, folded pieces of paper from years. And I
don't have it on me now, but I have a
stack of notes. And on the top of the stack
is the current jokes I'm working on. So I'll take
that stack, take the top paper off, put it down
on the table, got the notebook next to it. And
I kind of I transcribe. I go, all right, first joke,

(39:28):
coffee table books. What's funny about that? That's just a
bullet point. And then I'll take that, I'll walk around
in my hotel room, talk it out, talk it out.
If I come up with a funny line, I write
that down in the notebook. So it's just kind of
taking an idea and then fleshing it out on a notebook.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
I have songwriter friends and sometimes we'll hear Old songs
they wrote a long time ago or even old concepts
they had on their phone they forgot about. Does that
ever happen with jokes where you'll see a joke that
maybe you started or just completely forgot about? You're like, man,
this is good. I can use this now.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
It does happen, and that's a great feeling. Because you
become a better writer. Also, you've got to get away
from a joke sometimes to see it clearly. It's like
when you say a word over and over, the word
loses that meaning. Sometimes you stare at a joke, and
you're like, I don't even know where I thought this
was funny. But then six months go by, you find
that joke, and you go, oh, I see where to
go with this. But you need a little time. Couldn't

(40:21):
do it in the moment.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Do you like to see people's faces when you perform?
Not really.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Not really.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Do you have them shut the lights off or is
it just whatever it is it is? In a theater,
I go lights off.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I want to look at that just vast darkness because
it just feels like you're alone almost, ironically, and you
just hear the laughter. So you're kind of just going off.
It's like surfing. I'm just going off the waves they're
giving back to me. If I can see them, you
start going, wow, she's hot. Damn, that guy's fat as shit.
Holy hell, she hates me. This guy hasn't laughed once.

(40:52):
It's too many factors going on in my head. I
want to worry about the jokes. What about the guy
that doesn't laugh? That'll fuck with you. I call him
out usually, which I shouldn't do. At one point I
was kind of struggling last night. I was killing with
like half the room, but this one guy in the
front was doing this shit. Like trying not to laugh.
And at one point I cracked him and he went like.

(41:15):
And I was like, hey, you blinked. You queefed. Finally,
you moved. And he was like, well, what do you mean?
I'm enjoying the show. I'm like, well, tell your face.
I mean, it'd be like banging a girl. And after
she was like, that was great. I'm like, you were silent.
You didn't make a moan or nothing.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
What about crowd work?

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Crowd work is not for me. I like the material.
To me, it's all about a point of view. And like,
what if Mitch Hedberg did a bunch of crowd work?
I want to know Mitch Hedberg's thoughts on bananas, you know? So...
I think it's a good tool in the tool belt,
but people rely on it too much. Your act should
be a written piece, an hour piece of great jokes

(41:56):
and angles and ideas and premises. And if you do
crowd work, it's just, oh, this guy's a dentist. Get
out of here. Come on.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (42:08):
A cavity search? You know, canine. Watch out. Molars. Who
gives a fuck?

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Are the comedians that do a lot of crowd work
looked at differently than the ones who don't within the group?

Speaker 1 (42:23):
I think so, yeah. I think– well, we all came
up watching Chris– I love Chris Rock. And no one's
ever like, hey, you heard that Chris Rock crowd work bit. No,
you go, hey, how about the bit about the police
or the N-words versus black people? That's the stuff that
makes you. And so a crowd work, I'm like, you
can have a great moment. Don't get me wrong. There's
some great crowd work out there. There's brilliant people at it. But–

(42:45):
It's like a potato chip. I want the steak.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Who's your favorite ever?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Chris Rock in the 90s is up there for me.
That run he had was unbelievable, and that's kind of
what got me into comedy and got me into stand-up.
I always loved Seinfeld growing up. I'd watch it with
my family. But Chris Rock in that– 1994 to 2005
was probably my favorite stand-up of all time. But then

(43:12):
Louis had Chewed Up, and Bill Burr came around, and
there's Brian Regan, there's Jim Gaffigan, there's Dave Attell. He's hilarious.
So it's harder for me to pick a favorite ever,
but those are my favorites probably.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Is there a special, though, specifically that you think of
and go, man, that one hit me? At the right
time in the right way.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah, bigger and blacker and bring the pain. But then Norm,
I'd probably say Norm is my favorite because no one
is as funny as Norm all the time.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Hitler's dog?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Hitler's dog is great. Me doing stand-up is great. Hitler.
Norm is funny on podcasts. He's funny on stage. He's
funny on a TV show. He's funny in a movie.
He's funny in an interview. He's never not funny.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I loved Hitler's dog because it just starts and then
it just ends. And he never moves. It is Norm
just being Norm. There's no bell. There's not a single whistle.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Straight ahead. It's almost like a single camera shot.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
It's.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
He almost seems enlightened. You know, he was on a
different level.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Like later in my life. I'm not about to die.
But later in my life of because obviously there's a
time in our life when things hit us. Music hit
us different because we're growing as people. Yeah. But that
was like a later. Like, I think that's my favorite late.
Am I life special? Because there was nothing to it
except everything to it at the same time.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Right, right. Hear, hear. And he's so effortless. And that's
really hard to do.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
And brave.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Brave. Very brave. He had balls, which we're kind of
losing now. Now comedy feels more conformative. We're all conforming.
What are we allowed to say? What are we allowed
to not say? What topics can I go into? Because
people always talk about, well, you can't say anything anymore.
That's not true. I joke about everything. But I will

(44:59):
say the most pushback you get is when you tell
the truth. The truth is what bothers people now more
than offending or more than a zinger. It's when you
tap into something that's true, that's when people get mad now,
which is scary.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
I love George Carlin. I still get a lot of
stuff that comes across my feed now because you talk
about people– Way ahead of the time. Way ahead.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
And balls.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
30 years ahead. Yeah. And so his stuff will come
through now. And it feels like it could be done today.
And if it were done today, it would still be elite. 100%.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And you know what's crazy about him is the right
and the left both embrace him. Which is funny because
he has all these jokes where he's like, the pussification
of America. Get the hell out of here. Stop policing
the language. All these people policing language. And that's very
left-wing shit. But then he also has like, abortion should
be legal. What are you doing? Enough with the wars.
Too many wars. So then the right hates that. So

(45:56):
he's just keeping it real and both sides still like him.
That's a good sign.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
And we're back on the Bobbycast.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
As someone who has been and is very successful, and
so you have a lot of friends that have been
in the industry even generations before you, does anybody ever
talk about experiences with Andy Kaufman?

Speaker 1 (46:30):
No, I'm a big fan. He died pretty young, but
Seinfeld met him a few times and said he was amazing.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
I didn't know if there were any older guys that
would tell stories. There's a couple guys that I know
that had met him briefly.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Really?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
But, again, every instance I've ever heard of has been brief. Yeah. Like,
there's no one that said, yeah, we used to have
dinner every Thursday night. No.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Well, he was a weirdo. He was a recluse, and
he had a bunch of, like, he had that alter ego.
How crazy is that? He had Tony Clifton. So, Andy
Kaufman's a vegetarian who didn't drink and didn't smoke. Then
he had an alter ego, which comics have a lot.
That's kind of normal. But the alter ego would eat
a steak, smoke cigars, and drink whiskey. So, you're like, whoa.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
That might be more than alter ego. That's like you
having some kind of schizophrenic thing going. That's a mental thing.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
My wife, for my birthday last year, bought me a
note he wrote himself, and it was basically a big
you can do it.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
And it's one of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten
because I like bravery in art.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Same.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
It almost doesn't matter what you're doing. It doesn't matter
even if it's good sometimes because sometimes you go out
and fail, and if it's brave– Like we just learned
something from that. I love bravery in art. And some
of the stuff that he does is pretty stupid, but
it all led to things though that were transcendent. Yes.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Well, he– it's almost like he had no fear of
being vulnerable. Like that Mighty Mouse thing he does. I
can't believe you could sit through– for him to sit there.
I know. It's insane. And that's on SNL, by the way.
He does that on SNL, which is like the biggest
comedy show at the time. And he stands there. That
is such a brilliant bit too. Like talk about understanding

(48:19):
the instincts of comedy. Like the fact that he knew
that would hit, genius.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
That's genius level shit right there.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
The fact that he would just stand there as the
record played and do nothing. I know. And do nothing.
And then.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Like, again, we go back to it's so simple, but
it's not. I mean, that's so brave to do.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
So brave.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
You know, and he has very famous things that everybody
knows about where he would go and read and tell
everybody left. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He would set up a
tent on a stage and just go to sleep in it.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Right. Now, see, that's... next-level shit where the crowd there
is like, this sucks. But later, we talk about it.
We're talking about it 50 years later, and we're laughing.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Do you like Awkward?

Speaker 1 (49:04):
Not really. I'm too weak. I am Awkward, but I'm
not great with sitting in it and all that, and
I'm trying to get better at it.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
I had a joke-ish that I used to do. I
like Awkward. I like to hear how people feel it
doesn't have to be funny and so but I would
do this joke where I don't do impressions I don't
at all but I have a couple that I could
do okay and then my final impression was my I
did an impression of my biological father and I would

(49:35):
just walk off the stage for two minutes.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Whoa.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Cause he let, obviously the joke is, I didn't have
a dad.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
And so, but I would just stay off the stage
and people don't know if the show's over. Wow. They
don't know if to laugh. They don't know. It was
my favorite moment.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
And it never was the same ever.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Because, but it was so awkward. Like it, Like that
excited me.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah, that was like one of the more exciting moments
because I never knew. Sometimes I would get booed. And
that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
By my own people. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
And the longer I stayed off stage, the more intense
it was on my stomach.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
And were you standing?

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I was off the stage completely.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
So they couldn't see you? No, I was gone. Okay. No, yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
And this is like the impression of my biological father.
And I just walk off. Yeah. And stay off. And
the staying off is what was, I don't even want
to say funny because it's not funny. It's, hopefully it
made people feel a certain way, even if it was
angry or sad. Right. Like to me, like that's what's
exciting about being on stage.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
A hundred percent. Yeah. Going for, because you're trying to
elicit emotion of some kind and comics want laughs, but
it's cool to get other stuff too.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Louie talks about, I'll do a joke and I'll just
sit in it and the audience will not laugh. Then
just sitting in it gets a laugh. Then they'll come back.
Then they'll laugh again. And I'm like, wow, that's crazy.
I could never do that.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
I like family guy when they beat a joke and
they fall. I love it. He's like falls down. They'll
do that for a minute and a half. And the
Conway Twitty. You ever see the episode where they keep
going back to Conway Twitty, the country singer? No. And
ladies and gentlemen, Conway Twitty. And it continues to cut
back to Conway Twitty over and over. And it is
nonstop throughout the entire episode. Yeah, I think I like that.

(51:24):
I like the feeling of, am I making people uncomfortable,
but not in a negative way?

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
And they're wondering what's next. But I'm not great at
writing jokes. Are you great at writing jokes?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Writing jokes is so fucking hard. You get why comics...
quit and go to movies and TV and all this
stuff because it is a full-time, it's really a blue-collar job.
You got to go back to the well and try
it again, tweak it, try it again in front of people,
tweak it, try it again, and then it hurts, it's embarrassing,
it's humiliating, bombing like that. So it's such a long

(52:01):
process to get a joke to work. Every now and
then you get lucky, one works immediately or after two
or three tries, but Sometimes I'll have jokes six months
and I'm like, it's not there yet. And then sometimes
you're in the shower, you're like, I got it. I
got it. And then you do it on stage and
it works. And that whole thing lasted nine seconds. So
now you have nine seconds of new stuff in your act. Woohoo.

(52:22):
Now it's going to take me a year to write,
you know. Comedy is like reading Dostoevsky one paragraph at
a time. You'll eventually finish it, but it's going to
take a long fucking time.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Who was it inside of your industry that came to
you and said, hey, I think you're good, and it
was cool that they told you that they thought you
were good?

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, that goes a long way when you're a young
comic because you got nothing. You got nothing to hold
on to. But I had the Seinfeld shout out, and
that was insane. But, yeah, I've just had older comics.
Like one time this lady, I think it was Jessica Kearson.
You know who that is? She's a funny comic out
of New York, really a killer act. And she's like,

(53:05):
I was bombing it at open mic. She's like, what
you're doing is, it didn't work. But she's like, you're
going to be something. I can see something in you.
And I was like, ah. And just that alone held
me going for a while. But that was nice for her.
Because comics are so competitive and bitter, too, that if
anyone reaches out a life raft, it's huge. So she

(53:27):
said something nice.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Do you ever play a room too big that– It's
awesome because you're getting paid, but you realize it's a
little too big because the timing isn't exactly right. Meaning
the laughs are coming in. I'll set it up better
then because I have artist friends that when they play stadiums,
it's totally different because the crowd, they're hearing the crowd
later than they're used to because of the distance from stage.

(53:51):
They're putting mics to hear the crowd. They're having to...
If they're out on the catwalk thing, they can't listen
to the band. They got to watch flickers for the rhythm.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Whoa.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
So you ever play a room that's so weird where
the laughs are coming in at different times that it
ruins maybe your cadence? Oh, completely.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Yeah. You ever done an arena?

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Have I? No.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Well, I've only opened for people. I can't sell that much,
but I've opened for people in an arena and it's like...
You get a big wave over here, but you're kind
of bombing over there. Then this group's still coming in,
and then there's people behind you in the round, and
that is tough. That is very– and you have to– because,
you know, comedy is all about adjusting. Like, all right,
that laugh's really long, so I got to wait. Or

(54:30):
that laugh was short, so I got to throw something
else back out there. And this is like, I don't
know where to go. You're just like in a sea
of darkness, and you hear some titters over here, and
then one big like, ah! And you're like, I'm doing
well with that guy, you know, but then you got
to rotate. So, yeah, that the arena is very awkward.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Is it still exciting to do the shows?

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Oh, completely, especially with I got all new material. So,
like for me, every show is like that that walk
off stage dad joke you have, you know, like it's exciting.
Like I got to I'm going to see what gets
to work, what doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
I get to.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Rely on some shit that I know is cooking, but
then also try this new and tweak it and fix it.
And so, yeah, it's exciting. It's exhausting. You know, I
got three shows on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. But it's... You get
a lot done. It's like you said, after 30 or
three years, the whole act is different. I can do
three shows in the whole act. Not the whole act,
but a lot of the act is different.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Are you exhausted by the third show?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
I'm exhausted, but I drink throughout... And that keeps me going.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Do you drink before?

Speaker 1 (55:40):
No, never. That'll really fuck up your timing.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Had you before and that's how you learned?

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah. You're slurring up there. You're off. Somebody says something.
You're like, hold on. You're just not as sharp. You know,
you can't. It doesn't rattle up quicker.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Do you edit your own special? Yeah. How hard is that?

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Hell. Hell on earth because you hate yourself. You see
every ooh and ah and come on and like and
all these dumb things. every movement. You see your fat face,
your double chin, your gay hand movements. The whole thing sucks.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Man, that sounds fun.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, it's hell.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
You really sell it.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
You got to do it though because if you don't
edit it, somebody else is going to just butcher you.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Is part of the editing process hard because you've lived
in it so much that maybe you still don't know
what's good and what's not because you've been in it
or are you just going by the reaction of the crowd?

Speaker 1 (56:36):
I think you go by the reaction and you go
by how it felt. Was it natural? Did it seem real?
I don't know. You've done the act so many times
that you know how it's supposed to go, I think.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Can you go out at the end of a tour,
just go out, put it in autopilot, and let it roll?
I can.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
You shouldn't do that, but I can do that.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
How many times do you tape a special act?

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I did three this last Netflix.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Same clothes?

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Same clothes.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
You got it, of course. Do you try to walk
to the same parts of the stage at the same time?

Speaker 1 (57:11):
No, no, no. I have the same kind of like,
you know, you have an act out where you do
this and you do that. And so you try to
keep those the same, but you've done it so many
times by that point that you're locked in.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Final question. Do you have a concept or joke that
you've always thought would work and just never, it hasn't yet?

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, yeah. I got a million of those, but I
had this joke idea about, There's something funny that there's
mothers against drunk driving, but no dads. Like dads don't
give a shit, you know? And these moms got together
and the dads are like, I'll be drinking. I'll be
over here drinking and driving. You guys figure that out
with the kid. We got a dead son, whatever. But

(57:50):
I can't join because I like to drink and drive.
But it never worked. But that's just a raw, loose idea.
There's not really a twist there yet. Do you try to–
I feel weird going up there and just saying that
with no real attempt at a punchline.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Do you ever go up without a full end to
just see where it takes you?

Speaker 1 (58:11):
I have done that, but it's 99% bad.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
What about going up in general with nothing? Have you
done that ever?

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Yeah, that is really bad. Yeah, it's bad. You know,
you have these fantasies, like, it's all going to come
to me.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
I'm a genius.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
I'm in the moment. But you start sweating. You get
the mouth dry. And you're fucked.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Well, I really appreciate you coming by. I know you're
working last night. This was a treat. All weekend. And
so I'm just looking at tour dates. Like, you're up
until January of next year, huh? Oh, yeah. You're going hard.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Well, my wife's pregnant. We're giving birth. Or she's giving
birth in Christmas time. So I'm just trying to burn
it till then. Well, if she gives birth... Christmas time,
but you have shows in January. I'm going to cancel those, probably.
I thought they were... They're not off the site yet,
but those are done. I'm divorcing her. No, no, no. Yeah,

(59:06):
those will be gone.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Well, most of these are sold out, but Mumbo Jumbo...
comedy tour yes yes it's happening and you can get
again I want to do strong promo we were talking
about before you came in but I mean most of
them are sold out so congratulations.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Hey I appreciate it just check out my pod Tuesday
Stories we might be drunk and check out the latest
special I didn't know you guys shot that in New
York yeah yeah New York guy all the way Both
of them shoot in the city.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Why New York, not L.A.? I just love New York.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
I'm from New Orleans, so New York I visited. I
went to film school there because I thought I was
going to be Woody Allen, but my daughter's ugly. So
I didn't go that route, but I just fell in
love with the city, and I was doing stand-up sets
at night while I was in film school. So I
was like, this is where I want to live. This
is awesome. So I just started doing stand-up and moved

(59:56):
back to New Orleans, got my shit, and went back
to New York.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Well, I really appreciate the time. Seriously, I'm a massive fan.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Hey, it's an honor and a pleasure. Nice to meet you, Bob.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Got burped on, farted on, got the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Mark Norman. Thanks, Mark. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Thanks for listening to a BobbyCast production.