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November 9, 2024 16 mins

Guest host Richard Syrett and standup comedian Sam Tripoli discuss blending his comedy with his interest in conspiracy theories, how Santa Claus and professional wrestlers opened his eyes to conspiracy theories, and if he thinks that comedy can help bring divided people back together.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Here's a Highlight. From Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sam Tripley is a fearless comedian and podcast team Powerhouse.
He's been a headlining comic for over thirty years. He's
released six comedy albums. His latest comedy special is Why
Is Everybody Getting Quiet? Sam has appeared on Comedy Central,
The Late Late Show, The Comedy Store on Showtime, and
Mysteries to Code It on CW. He's a true og.

(00:28):
Sam has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience and
The Ice House Chronicles podcasts. Sam's podcast Empire includes Tinfoil Hat, Conspiracy,
Social Club, and Broken Simulation, all consistently ranking in Apple's
Top two hundred comedy podcasts. Sam also hosts Punch Drunk, Sports,
Cash Daddies, The Union of the Unwanted, and Zero with

(00:50):
Sam Tripley, offering everything from conspiracy theories to sports and
financial advice. On stage, Sam is a whorldwind, relentlessly questioning
authority and finding humor in life's strangest corners. His comedy's
raw and unfiltered, and often the voice in your head
that you're too afraid to say out loud. As Sam
puts it. I'm the little voice in your head, but funnier.

(01:12):
Sam's career started with a dare in Las Vegas, where
he became a key figure in the comedy scene, co
founding the Mutiny Improv Troupe and hosting a weekly show
on the strip. For Sam, comedy isn't just a job,
It's a calling, Sam TRIPLEI welcome to Coast to coast, Am,
How are you?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Honor and a privilege. Good to be back with you, Richard.
You make me sound good. Dude, you make me sound good.
I might need you to call my mom once in
a while and tell what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
All right, how are you?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Brothers, I'm terrific. Thank you. I'm such a square.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I got to ask you, what does it mean to
be an og of the Joe Rogan experience?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well, well, I'm one of the original guts from way
back to the day. I was actually one of the
I used to go to his house when he did it,
way way way back in the day. He used to
do in this side room. I was actually one of
the original podcasts on a podcast network called death Squad
and which I think changed the game. I think Desk

(02:13):
Squad was in the Nexus the nucleus or the movement
of the content creators away from Hollywood and legacy media,
and it's never been the same since. And I've been
blessed to be a part of it. And here I
am on your show. If I could give a quick

(02:34):
shout out to one of my favorite comics working today,
Dustin Yarbro. He's on listening. He's a conspiracy comic. He
he crushes it on stage, and you know, just he
texts me that he's listening. So I want to give
him a shout out. So here, let me look good
in front of my friends, Richard, I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
All right.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I don't want to get political, because you know, here
I am a Canadian interloper speaking to a primarily American audience,
but I am I am sure is to get your
thoughts on the ascendancy of the podcast during this election cycle,
the power and influence circumventing the legacy media, particularly you

(03:13):
know with Joe Rogan and others. I mean, I'm not
sure anything is ever going to be the same after
this election cycle again with the podcast.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
What are your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, you know, when I started a Tim Faull hat podcast,
I had a t shirt which said the Revolution will
be podcast and it turned out to be true. I mean,
the game changers the you know, my good friend Phil Vaughn,
my good friend Joe Rogan, one of my favorite people,
Tim Dillon. They are the new media and people listen

(03:45):
to them and it changed the game. You know, people want. Really,
the future is authenticity in my humble opinion, and we're
entering a wonderful, wonderful time riture. I don't know if
you saw Trump's big I know we're not getting a
politic I'm totally fine with that. But you know Trump's
big video we put out today talking about free speech.

(04:07):
I mean it was, I mean that is That is
the greatest New Rockney speech I've heard from a politician
in a very long time. So I believe the future
is great and I'm excited.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
Man.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
We live in a time where the masses can exchange
ideas and to me that that's a beautiful thing and
it's a wonderful time to be alive.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
It is exciting, It is exciting.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
I remember you telling me a story about how your
whole world view changed. I'm not sure how old you were.
You saw two professional wrestlers who were supposedly bitter adversaries
in the ring, and then you saw them hanging out
drinking beers, and that just changed everything.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Tell me more about that.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, everyone always asked me when did I
become a conspiracy theorist? What was the first conspiracy? And,
like I told you before, or one of the first
conspiracy to me is Santa Claus. That's a giant blackmailing
scheme to get kids to pay attention to the parents.
And then the second one is is when Hacksaw Jim
Duggan and the the the one of the most amazing wrestlers,

(05:16):
one of the nice people you ever met, the Iron
Sheet got busted in a pickup truck together drunk, and
my world shattered. I'm like, oh, it's all a theater
and it's so funny because later on in my life, Richard,
the next time I felt that was when Bill Clinton

(05:37):
went to the the the hanging up Trent Lott's picture
in the Library of Congress. He's getting his portrait put up,
and they all showed up. So it was Trent Law,
Newke Gingrich, and Oral Hatch and they're smiling. With all
of them. Was Bill Clinton, and I remember going dude,

(05:58):
you're supposed to hate this guy. You got girls first,
I hate each other, and I go, ah, dude, it's
the Iron Chic and half saw Jim Duggan. It was
all a show. And you know, even you know, we
can get into my thoughts on Trump, but you know,
when I saw Trump at the Catholic event and you know,
and he's just padding. No, I forgot who the Democrat

(06:19):
was on the back. I just say, oh, there it
is Matt's theater again. It's all theater again. And that's
why I just kind of I find it interesting. But yeah,
one of the big wake up moments for me. My
father raised me very paranoid. He said, never believe anything
in what your year and half what you see. And
now it's almost do you believe anything what you see?

(06:40):
And so my dad raised me that way and it
turned out to be right. It's a real blessing.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Is comedy and conspiracy. I mean, are there is it
a natural sort of convergence when you're on stage, and
because I think one of the things that comedians do
is they tell us the truth and and that that's
what you know, Conspiracy theories are sort of trying to
do as well, talk to me about that convergence of

(07:10):
the blending of comedy with conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Uh. You know, it's very interesting to me because you know,
we're the we're the gestures. You know, there was a
time in the in the past when the gesture it
was the only person could be honest with the king,
and even that would get him in trouble. So the
whole key to this what I do, and you know
we have some interesting moments on stage, is get him

(07:34):
laugh and slip them the truth. You know, it's a
weird blend right now to it's a it's an interesting
time in comedy. You know, I think everything else is extreme.
And you know, the the cancel culture, the the shadow
in the cave that is cancel culture, meaning everybody thinks
it's everywhere all the time, has done a little damage
to comedy. Uh, in terms of mad people scare to

(07:57):
talk the truth. Me, I'm not there. I always stay
in the pocket, dude. And you know, I've said this forever,
mostly to myself because no one listens to me. But
I never change. People come to me. You know, I've
always I've always been the conspiracy guy for the last
you know, my podcast is almost eight years eight years old.
That's a long time for a show. And you know,

(08:19):
I was doing conspiracies before that. So now I'm seeing
everybody do conspiracies on stage and I love it. It means,
you know, my work is happening here. And you know,
it's always fun when you hear friends like Joe Rogan,
you know, talking about stuff either I talked on my
podcasts or things I tweeted before, and you get to see,
you know, he's out there talking to a much bigger group.
It's like a real blessing. I've always said this, man,

(08:42):
a paranoid population is the best population. You want a
paranoid population. You want a paranoid population that ask questions,
that puts the politician's feed to the fire. You know,
we got to be support but there at the same time,
we have to really be on the lookout for them
pulling some stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's like I saw the saying today, expect the worst,
hope for the best, and that's kind of how I
live my life. I always I'm gonna treat Donald Trump's
presidency like my favorite football team, the the Las Vegas Raiders.
I'm gonna treat them like every new season, every new season.
I believe the Raiders are gonna win the Super Bowl.

(09:23):
Three weeks in the train goes off the tracks. So
that's all I'm gonna do with with uh, with Trump's
new next four years, I'm gonna have hope it's all
gonna work out. I'm gonna give it them all this
positive energy, and but I won't be surprised if the
trains go off the tracks. I always want to be positive.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, I can relate. I'm a Toronto May Beliefs fan.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Oh yeah, through it. You guys are going through it.
You guys need to win a cup.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Come on, yeah, just one more before I die.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
As we say, you know, speaking of comedy and conspiracy
and truth bombs and so forth, isn't it amazing now
the all of these old George Carlin clips on social
media and how they have so much currency again, yeah,
on him.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
And Bill Hicks is very much like that. You watch
anything they do, it's like, oh wow, that is totally
you know, that would totally fit in today. The only
difference between what Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor went through
was comedy is a little different right now because of
social media, because there's so much there's so there's so

(10:32):
with with Twitter and everything, there's there's a lot of
like doom scrolling going on. So when people go to
comedy clubs, they sometimes want to have a little break.
They want a little break from uh, from the news
all the time. When when Carlin was roaming, you know,
you get your news one hour at night, then you
read the newspaper and that was kind of done with it.

(10:53):
Now it's like people are just saturating in the news
all the time. So you have to walk a fine line.
People are there to be entered, so again, you gotta
get them laughing, slip them the truth. That's how I operate.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
It's a very stude observation.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Do you have to tailor your act differently depending on
what part of the country you're playing? So, for example,
are there certain regions of the country that are and
either more hungry for the conspiracy stuff other people just
want to laugh, Like you know, whether you're playing in
I don't know, Iowa versus Chicago, La versus I don't

(11:29):
know Tucson.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Great question, dude, great question, And the answer is it's changed.
Like it used to be you could go for in LA.
That has changed. Now you have to kind of dumb
it down, you know, not to scare that they're scared.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
In La.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
It used to be you could drop the hammers here.
Then you go on the road, go to Middle America,
and you'd have to dumb it down a little bit.
Now it's like totally slipped. Now you go these red states,
you can just totally drop hammers. Now when because of
Tim Foulhattan, I have a I'm blessed, have a little
bit of a following. You know, they come to hear
what I have to say, so I can go a
little farther with people than most comedians. But like I'm

(12:12):
telling you, La, dude, you get into some wars with
these crowds. Like last night at the comedy store, they
like they were in on something and then the bottom
just dropped out, and I'm out there just trying to
press them, like and this whole thing about leaving the
country and going on like love making bands and just
all the ridiculous baby stuff's going on. I'm talking about.

(12:34):
They're getting quiet, They're not happy. You know. It's like
the whole city of Los Angeles is in like mourning.
Kamala Harris and I just don't get it because you know,
La was these used to be the outlaws. This is
where the outlaws came to create art because it was
the only thing they could do, you know, whether it
was mainstream or alternative entertainment. This is where you came.

(12:56):
And now that's all dead, dude. It's it's like the
cancel call culture, the me too movement just h everything
just kind of destroyed what was happening in La. Now
you got your places like Austin and you know, Tampa
is great. There's these other cities. There are a lot
of fun. Man in La. It's like it's it's it
can be. You can catch the wrong crowd and they

(13:17):
just stare at you. And it used to suck because
La is where all the rock and roll was. It's
not like that anymore. These big cities are just it's changed,
like the wolf virus has rotten it. You go on
the road, you go to Dallas, you go Austin, you
go you know, Florida. There's so many great places to go.
Kansas City is a fire comedy market. There's so many

(13:42):
great markets out there. It used to be La was
the place you want to be in New York's this
place you want to be not like that anymore, not
like that anymore.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Things are so divisive.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Now, do you still feel a responsibility as a comedian
to try and to bring people together, maybe to heal
that rift.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
This is a great, great, great question.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
You're crushing this interview, Richard, You're crushing it. Okay. One
thing I want to say is like you're talking about
the busiesusness and people that get along. Uh you know,
I had guested on and she brought up this point
about how the New Tower of Babel is basically the Internet,
but more specifically algorithms like these algorithms are digging us

(14:29):
into a place where we live in alternative realities and
we don't live in the same world, and therefore it's
hard for us to talk to each other. My data
points in your data points to be totally different. It's
probably more like because we're both kind of in the
conspiracy world. But like my girlfriend, I love her the pieces,
she's a shell shock of what happened in the election.

(14:52):
I'm not shell shocked at all. But her data points
and my data points are totally different. So it's like, uh,
we we it's dividing conquer man, and that is the
conspiracy rate there now. In terms of bringing people together,
all I do I do, and I have a weird
way of doing it. You know, there are some great
comics who just go up there, like my buddy Dust

(15:13):
and listen, guy's a crusher. I watch him. I wish
I could do the comedy does. I'm just not wired
that way. But my whole way of bringing people together
is saying the stuff that nobody wants comics to say,
because they have these like weird views in life, these
woke views. And I like to say it and then
point out that the walls aren't bleeding, their world doesn't

(15:35):
shatter that we can talk about each other, we can
laugh about each other. You know. I had a buddy
of mine who's got a really big YouTube channel, and
he's leaving LA because it's too woke to go to Austin.
And I go, yeah, man, it's like it's great out there.
You know, they're kind of letting it go. And then
he starts talking about how like he doesn't want to,
he doesn't want to, you know, conservatives to take over comedy.

(15:57):
I go, you mean back when you can make fun
of people in the eighties, in the early nineties, in
the seventies, But what are you talking about? So so
for me, man, it's like I come from a place
of love. I have no hate in my heart. I
love everybody and I love I love the You know,
if you hear from Toronto, you know this, Like, diversity

(16:20):
is beautiful, It makes a it makes for a wonderful
world to live in. But they've weaponized it and they
turn us all against each other, and I think that's dying.
So I don't try to bring people better together through
a Kumba Yas situation. There's a lot of great comics
to do that. That's not my style.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
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