EP20 Tom Stewart: Tragedy, Comedy, and Paranormal Stories

Comedian and podcaster Tom Stewart joins us to share his incredible journey from a 20-year stint in broadcasting to finding his true calling in stand-up comedy. Tom opens up about his experiences in comedy competitions like Last Comic Standing and performing alongside luminaries such as Jim Florentine and Mark Norman. With a million downloads of his podcast, "My Paranormal Story," Tom's storytelling magic is undeniable, blending humor and eeriness into a must-listen experience. We also reminisce about our quirky past working at McCoy Stadium, and Tom's unexpected adventure at a hip-hop radio station despite his rock music roots.

Venture backstage with us to a Hot 106 concert for a memorable encounter with LL Cool J, where we share some humorous near-miss moments and personal stories. As we navigate through past traditions like "New Food Friday," we touch on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how these experiences left a lasting impression. The conversation takes a poignant turn as we reflect on surviving the Station Nightclub fire, grappling with survivor guilt, and how Tom has found healing through his work with the Station Nightclub Fire Foundation.

Our spooky journey doesn't end there—Tom invites us into the world of paranormal investigations with chilling tales from Belcourt Castle and his eerie experiences on Cemetery Street. We explore the comedy world through Tom's eyes, where he embraces his passion for comedy while supporting charitable causes with Funny for Funds. From performing with icons to navigating the comedy circuit's demands, Tom's story is one of resilience, humor, and camaraderie, painting a vivid picture of his multifaceted career.

Millie & J - We miss you.❤️

To listen to Tom's podcast, My Paranormal Story:  https://open.spotify.com/show/10B7wHKiLHVnHEFAbPL7KT?si=9dd83bd05ff34c61

For shows:  https://tomstewartcomedy.weebly.com/

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Episode Transcript

Scott (00:00):
The next guest is comedian podcaster Tom Stewart.
After spending the better partof 20 years in broadcasting on
radio and TV, tom easilytransitioned into the next phase
of his career as a stand-upcomic in 2010.
Since that time, tom has been afinalist in numerous national
comedy competitions, includingthe Last Comic Standing, the
Boston Comedy Festival and theBurbank Comedy Festival.
Along the way, tom has alsoappeared at top comedy clubs in

(00:22):
Mohegan Sun Casino, catch aRising Star and Stand Up New
York, while appearing withNational Acts' Jim Florentine,
dom Herrera, mark Norman andBoston's own Joe List.
In 2018, tom started hispodcast, my Paranormal Story,
featuring stories from his oldghost hunting days, and this
summer, my Paranormal Story justhit one million downloads, and
that's insane for an indiepodcast.

(00:43):
So congratulations, tom Stewart.
Welcome to Carney Saves theWorld.
Thank you, thank you, hey.

Tom (00:48):
Scott, it's very good to see you, hear you.

Scott (00:51):
Another 30 years it's been, I've been busy.

Tom (00:53):
How about you?
Yeah, 30 years, yeah, now,first of all, are you okay
Because you were in NorthCarolina where I hear they had a
hurricane.
Are you?
Were you in that area?
You're not Western, are you?

Scott (01:02):
No, no, I'm on the other side of the state, we're in
Wilmington, so we avoided that,but it's an absolute tragedy.
I don't know if you've been toAsheville.
Asheville is an absolutelygorgeous, or was a gorgeous,
city.
I haven't Awesome people.
My wife and I went there forvacation the year COVID hit.
We were actually driving homefrom Asheville and we heard on
the radio that someone inSeattle had this crazy flu and

(01:23):
that was literally the beginningof COVID.
Asheville is beautiful.
It's very hilly, like extremehills, like thinking to
ourselves we're like this mustsuck in the wintertime because
they do get snow.
We don't get snow on our side,but they do get snow in the West
and I mean I can't imaginethose hills.
They're so steep, people mustslide down them on their ass all
the time ass all the time.

Tom (01:40):
But yeah, it's a beautiful area and, as we speak, florida
is about to get hit.
Man yeah.

Scott (01:45):
It's crazy.
I was really bummed out when wemoved down here because I was
like I'm going to miss the snow,and I really don't miss the
snow.

Tom (01:53):
I thought I was going to, but I'll ship you some if you
want.

Scott (01:54):
this winter I don't like it either, so we've been here
eight years almost and we've hadlike four hurricanes and one we
had to go to the middle part ofthe state.
It was pretty crazy.
So you, my friend, are out ofcontrol.
You are world famous podcaster,world famous comedian, all
kinds of good stuff happeningfor you.

Tom (02:10):
So you and I I can barely walk down the street.
It's so, it's so much, it'sjust world famous.
I'm like in the top 10, in likeSlovakia or something which is
true.

Scott (02:22):
So weird so I wanted to start off.
So which is true?
So weird, so why don't we startoff?
So, when we worked together atMcCoy Stadium, another McCoy
Stadium alumni in Pawtucket,rhode Island, that's right.

Tom (02:32):
And when we were working together.
You were a big, hot DJ in town.
Well, I don't know if I'd saythat, but yeah, when you know,
growing up that's what I wantedto do.
I wanted to be a radio DJ.
So you know, I was juststarting to get some DJing jobs
here and there.
Like I can remember working allnight at McCoy Stadium for a
game, setting up for a game andeverything, and then leaving,
going home and sleeping for anhour or two and then going to do

(02:54):
the midnight to 5 am shift atthe local radio station.
Like it was insane, but that'swhat I wanted to do, yeah, yeah.

Scott (03:00):
And that's where you got to start out and kind of cut
your teeth Right.
You start out and kind of cutyour teeth right you start out
in the shitty shit.

Tom (03:05):
Back then, yeah.
In radio.
Back then, yeah.
Now they don't even have thatshift anymore.
Now it's all computers andvoice tracking and all that
stuff.
There's never a live DJ at aradio station anymore.

Scott (03:14):
One of the funnier not really funny things, but like
you were known, you know,anybody that knows you knows
you're a huge rock fan.
Oh sure, huge rock and roll fan.
You've been forever right, forsure, I think it was.
I'm not sure what point was.
When we were in college, like21, 22, you ended up DJing on
the like the hip hop station.

Tom (03:31):
Kix 106.
Yeah, that's where I wasstarting out was the hip hop
station.
Yep, yep, it was Kix 106 andthen it became Hot 106 and I was
DJ Tom the Bomb.
Yep, that was my on air nameand I still go by that.
Sometimes there are stillpeople who call me that.
I'm still known for it because,you know, I guess it sticks, I
don't know.
Yeah, and that's what I wasworking hip hop.

(03:52):
So I was, like you know, awhite guy working on a hip hop
station.
I got to meet all the famousrappers of the day, um, hip hop
artists and everything.
Uh, what a trip.
Yeah, what a trip trip.
It was fun, though I had ablast doing, met a lot of great
people to hear you on the radio.

Scott (04:06):
And you know, like you know, if you know tom, you know
he's big rock fan well, I didsecretly like that music though
too.

Tom (04:11):
You know I did like my rap music and hip-hop and everything
.
Yeah, um.
But what's funny is I've workedat I don't know 15 16 different
radio stations over the yearsreally, and very few of them had
any kind of rock music.
They, they were alwayssomething else.
For some reason I never got inat the rock stations.
I've done Top 40 and I've doneclassic stuff and you know hot,
ac and hip hop, and I've doneall that, but I never got into

(04:35):
like.
I always wanted to work at94HJY, the rock station we grew
up listening to.
I got to work in the studionext door to it for a while at
WSNE, but I never got to work inthe studio next door to it for
a while at WS&E, but I never gotto work at the rock station,
which is funny because I wassuch a rock fan.
Did you ever put a glassagainst the wall and just listen
in?

Scott (04:57):
Occasionally I'd sneak in , you know, to listen to a Van
Halen song, but then you knowthey'd kick me out.
You know, back to your studio.
So one of the fun things aboutfollowing you on social media is
you have a, like you do, ashout out for celebrity
birthdays.
Oh yeah, folks, anybody outthere find Tom Stewart comedian
on Facebook.
Just follow him.
He's got these great storiesabout celebrities.

Tom (05:14):
Yeah, they're like.
Anytime I see a celebrity'sbirthday and it's a celebrity
that I have some sort of a storyabout.
Maybe I met them or maybesomething happened involving
them, I just tell the storybecause, you know, working in
radio all those years and thenworking in comedy, and I've been
around a lot of differentcelebrities over the years, and
so there's lots of silly storiesto tell.
So I, you know, I tell some ofthose stories.

(05:35):
I treat social media almostlike a morning radio station.
I have like benchmarks and bitsthat I do regularly and then I
do them for a year and then Imove on and I do something
different.
So that's what I've been stuckon this year is doing these
celebrity stories.

Scott (05:47):
What's your favorite celebrity story of all of them?
You've got a lot of them.
Some of them are great, likethere's a Will Smith one and a
Hogan.

Tom (05:54):
I don't think I told my LL Cool J one because I think I
started doing it right after hisbirthday, so I think his
birthday is like in thebeginning of the year.
So I was working for Hot 106and we had a big concert.
It was like every year we'd dothis big concert at the Dunkin'
Donuts Center called Hot Night,and I forget which one this was.

(06:15):
But LL Cool J was the headlinerand I was super psyched because
I'm a big fan of LL Cool J.
I'm backstage before the showhas started and I see LL Cool J
standing outside his dressingroom, just kind of standing
there, just kind of taking itall in, getting ready, you know.
And so I approach him and Itell him you know, LL, I work
for the radio station.
I'm a very big fan, I'm veryexcited to see you perform
tonight and I would love it if Icould get a picture with you.
And he goes come see me afterthe show.

(06:36):
You know we'll get a pictureand I'm like all rightid, actual
picture.
You know, whole show goes on,he crushes it, he kills it,
Unbelievable live performer.
I go backstage, I go to hisdressing room and it's just full
of people like all kinds ofpeople listeners and radio and
industry record people,Everybody's trying to get five

(06:57):
minutes with LL and I'm justkind of like standing off to the
side.
I'm like you know, I don't, Idon't want to push and shove my
way through all these people andyou know he's not even going to
remember me anyway.
So then finally, at one pointLL Cool J says to his manager
all right, that's enough, I wantthe room, you know.
And so the manager's like allright, everybody, thank you very

(07:21):
much.
Everybody has to leave L, thatguy can stay.
I promised him a picture andpoints to me.
So everybody was gone and it wasjust me and him just chilling
for like a good half hour in hisdressing room talking, just
shooting the shit with LL Cool J, and he couldn't have been the
nicer guy, like just talkingabout his family, and he's
asking me about my life, Like itmatters.

(07:42):
You know what I mean.
And he was not to be cliche,but he was so cool, Like he
really was just the coolest guy.
He was offering me something toeat, Cause he had like this
huge spread of food andeverything and and I got my
picture with him and uh, it wasprobably one of my favorite
moments of of being in a radioand meeting someone famous.
It's so cool yeah.

Scott (07:58):
Yeah, it's so funny.
You say that it's purecoincidence.
I also have an LL Cool Jpicture story.
Oh good, it's not as good asyours, but basically I was out
in LA with some friends for work.

Tom (08:09):
Why did you do air quotes when you said work?
I don't know why you did thatyeah.

Scott (08:15):
Business.
So we go out for drinks onenight and grab one drink here,
one drink here, and we ended upgoing to just a hotel bar.
And as we're walking into thishotel and it's like one of the
trendier ones in LA there's thisguy and he's walking out in a
full LA Clippers sweatsuit, likevelour sweatsuit thing, with a
Kangol this is before theClippers were even remotely good

(08:36):
and he comes out.
She's like hello, can we take apicture together?
He's like yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he does a little cool J liplick thing, you know that
smooth thing you always do andshe hands me the camera and she
puts her arm around him andwaits for the picture to be
taken.
And now I've got to take it.
My claim to fame with him was Iwas like who the fuck am I,
herb Ritz?
And he laughed hysterically.

(08:58):
And I was like all right, Istill got it.
But I took picture and then hejust walked off and I never got
a picture with him and I waskind of pissed off you were one
step away from getting a picturewith ella, and only he could
pull off that outfit.
Man, I only could oh yeah, itwas ridiculous.
So that they bring his cararound and he gets in a gold
1996 toyota camry and we werelike what is that?

(09:18):
So just like hunk of shit.
And the mater d guy comes overand he was like that's his
getawayaway car and he put it inquotations.
Oh yeah, I was like really Likehe drives like a shitty car.
He doesn't get caught bypaparazzi and stuff, but it was
pretty wild.
Your story is much better,though, but also do the
celebrity birthdays One of yourother things that you used to do
that you no longer do, whichupsets me to no end.

(09:40):
I think you know where we'regoing.
I do.
You used to do a segment onInstagram called New Food Friday
.
Yeah, and you no longer do that.

Tom (09:48):
I did that for a few years.
That bit lasted for a few years.
Well, you know what ruined thatbit was COVID.
Everything got shut down sothere was no new foods.
I couldn't really go shoppingand so it kind of no one could
taste them.
Yeah, no one could taste itanyway.
Yeah, you know, when everythingshut down, it kind of ruined.
You know they weren't making 15different Twinkies anymore,
yeah.
So then I just kind of said,well, you know what, I've done

(10:09):
this bit for a long time.
It was starting to get to bemore of a chore than fun anyways
, and I tend to do that tomyself.
I come up with these ideas andthen I do them, and then I get
obsessed with doing them so wellbecause I'm my own worst critic
that I end up just making itnot fun anymore for myself and I
ruin it.
But but, that was fun for awhile.

(10:30):
And people still bring it upall the time.
There are a lot of people stillsend me pictures of something
they see on a shelf Like Tom,have you tried the new Oreo
Coca-Cola?
And I'm like no, I don't dothat anymore, I'm not trying all
this crap, no more.

Scott (10:41):
So I would get home from work on Friday and I'd start
scrolling through Instagram andyou had a page for it
specifically and it was alsolike tied to your regular page,
Yep, and the theme music wasjust it got me going.
I forget the song now, but itjust got me so excited.
I was like this is the weekend,Like I'd go and grab a beer,
sit down, crack a beer at likefive o'clock in the afternoon
and I was like this is theweekend and that was like the

(11:01):
beginning of my weekend 60seconds of me eating or drinking
something stupid.

Tom (11:06):
Well, the theme song was just some independent band who
put their song up available foryou know, license, free use, and
I just thought the song soundedgood for the intro and I stuck
with it for a while.
But you're making me wish Istill did it.
Now, there you go, because Ihave so many other friends who
guilt me about it too.
Yeah, I have so many otherfriends who guilt me about it

(11:26):
too.
I have one friend who his twokids.
They used to watch it togetherevery Friday faithfully.
His two kids loved it.
They looked forward to it.
They thought I was a rock star.
They were like, wanted to meetme and all this other stuff my
daughter would watch with me.
So I ended up meeting them andactually doing an episode with
them to just to make their day.
But that whole idea like I wassaying, I use social media like
it's a morning show, like aradio morning show that started
on my morning show when I usedto have my own radio morning

(11:48):
show.
I used to just talk about goofythings and one of the goofy
things I used to talk about wasall these weird foods when they
would come out and I startedcalling it New Food Friday.
And then I was like, well, weshould be eating these things,
not just talking about them.
So I started forcing myco-hosts to eat these things
with me every week or drink them, whatever it was.
And everybody at first was likethat's dumb, because they don't

(12:08):
even get to see it.
It's radio.
And I'm like, yeah, but we'llpaint the picture.
That's what you do on radio.
You know you paint the picture,so you know if it's a potato
chip, you're going to hear mecrunch it.
If it's a soda theater of themind.
And it was like the biggest bitI did on my whole morning show
for three years was that NewFood Friday every Friday.
It was stressful because thepressure was on to find

(12:30):
something every Friday.
After that, oh God, yeah.
And then I started doing itwith people who would come in
the studio.
I'd have guests in the studio,I'd make them do it.
And then, when I stopped doingthat morning show, I was like
I'm going to keep doing this,I'm just going to do it on video
and put it on Instagram andFacebook.
And uh, yeah, it was popular,but it wasn't popular enough to
really keep doing it, althoughtoday it would probably be

(12:50):
pretty big on, uh like Tik TOK,cause this was before Tik TOK
was around.
Oh yeah, you know, and it wouldprobably be.
A lot of people are doing itnow, though I see a lot of like,
and I wasn't the one who cameup with it either.
I'm sure there were peopledoing it before me.

Scott (13:02):
Not as good as you, though, tom.

Tom (13:05):
But I see a lot of people doing it.
Now, every time there's a newfood, I see a bunch of people
doing it on video.
So it's like, well, I did itMoving on.

Scott (13:11):
It wasn't anything like if you didn't like it, you
didn't like it.
You know you were eating likesnake eyes or anything like that
.

Tom (13:25):
You weren't eating.
Like disgusting, yeah, likeOreos always got some new weird
flavor, or Twinkies has got anew flavor, or there's a new
flavor of Mountain Dew orsomething.
And that was what I was trying,you know it wasn't like oh,
you're going to eat a beetle, no, no, this isn't.
You know Joe Rogan's show.
This is real food.
I'm not going to go eat a bulltesticle or something.
I'm actually eating stuff youcan buy off the shelf, although
that would be pretty good too,although those are pretty good
if you cook them right.

Scott (13:46):
So I've heard, and that was in quotes.
We're going to keep needlingyou on New Food Friday and hope
to get that back, or at leastjust one.
I mean you did do that one.

Tom (13:54):
Yeah, I did do a special one recently.
What was it for, though?
I can't remember now.
Oh, I got to do this one onvideo, so I actually did one for
that.
It was so good, which was likein the springtime, I think, but
I haven't done it other thanthat they're still up there,

(14:15):
though, if people want to lookat them.
The Instagram is still there.
There's, you know, there'shundreds of them up.

Scott (14:19):
Is it just?

Tom (14:20):
like New Food Friday.
Yeah, new Food Friday IG orsomething.
I think it was Something likethat.
Yeah, I'll put it in the shownotes so everybody can follow.

Scott (14:28):
I've known you forever as being a massive, massive rock
fan, huge Van Halen fan, Yep,you have the unique distinction
of being one of the station firesurvivors, and so for any of
the folks they're not familiarwith the station fire, that was
God how long 20 years ago, 21.

Tom (14:46):
It was 2003.
So what, 21 years ago?

Scott (14:48):
21 years ago.
Okay, I don't know, tom, you,you obviously can speak to it
more, but if you could just kindof briefly tell that story, if
you don't mind.

Tom (14:55):
I mean it's um well, I mean , I've told it a million times
so I don't mind, this will bethe serious part of the podcast.
So I mean, like you said, Ilove rock.
All my life I've been going toconcerts.
I love concerts.
I mean I go to dozens.
I mean not as much nowadays butin my younger days dozens and
dozens of concerts yearly.
And in 2003, the band GreatWhite was coming to town.

(15:15):
They were going to play a smallbar in West Walworth and they
were one of those bands that Ireally liked a lot back in the
day, but I never went to seethem live.
Of all the bands I've seen, Inever got to see them and it was
always because something weirdhappened.
Tried to see them in the pastand I got a flat tire once and
another time my date cut herknee and we ended up going to

(15:35):
the show later and missed GreatWhite because they were the over
.
So now this was like oh, thisis my chance to finally see
Great White.
I mean, it wasn't the originalband, it was just the lead
singer in a new band, but it wasstill going to sound like Great
White.
So literally like at the lastminute, like, I think, a day or
two before the show, called up afriend.
I was like, hey, you want to gosee the show?
And he's like, yeah, why not?
What the hell?
And I went to StrawberryRecords yes, this tells you how

(15:58):
long ago it was.
I actually bought five ticketsbecause there were a couple of
people that we knew that wantedto come to.
The night of the show was anight right after a huge
snowstorm.
It was still like a foot ofsnow on the ground, like a real
February snowstorm, you know, inNew England.
So we all met at my friend'shouse and we had a couple of
drinks and then, you know, wetook a couple of separate cars
and went to the show.

(16:19):
It was basically starting offjust like any other night.
You know what I mean?
It was a crowded, dark rock bar.
So there's a stage but there'sno like seating or anything like
that.
Everybody just kind of standswherever they can.
You know, it's one of thoseplaces where they took all the
tables and chairs out and theypushed the pool tables against
the walls so that they cansqueeze as many people in as
possible, and it was kind ofcrowded.
I didn't think it wasovercrowded.

(16:40):
I'd been in more crowdedsituations than that one that
night.
I'd been in more crowdedsituations than that one that
night.
But I'm a claustrophobic personas it is, which is strange
because I go to so many concertsbut I always try to find a
place away from the crowd when Igo to a show, even before that
happened.
And so that night I kind ofjust gravitated towards the back
of the room where there was asecond bar and there was less

(17:02):
lines waiting, so we were ableto get our beers quicker and we
were just out of the fray of allthe traffic and all the people
just kind of packed in and I waslike you know, it's great white
, I don't need to be in thefront row.
I mean, I'm in a bar, I can seethem fine from the back.
You know what I mean.
I don't need to be up front,and so that probably is what
saved my life, because I wasn'tstuck in the middle where
everybody was.
You know, everything was goingfine.

(17:24):
I actually was talking to DrMetal from 94HTY.
He was a DJ at 94HTY.
I'm sure you know who he is andyou know him and I have worked
a lot of places, same placestogether and stuff, and I just
happened to see him and we were.
I bought him a beer and we werechatting and all of a sudden
he's like no-transcript.

(18:32):
That's what started the fire.
And as I stood there watchingthe show start, I see the
sparkles go off and then I seethis weird glow above the stage
and I just remember thinking tomyself that's weird, I've never
seen that effect before.
And then I started seeingflames coming from the wall
behind the drummer and I'm like,oh, a fire started.
And that's when I was like Ijust kind of stood there and was

(18:54):
watching, cause I'm thinkingsomebody's going to come out
with a fire extinguisher and putthat out and we're all going to
have a good laugh, the bandwill joke about it, or something
.
But then it just started gettingbigger and bigger and bigger
really fast, and people startedrunning everywhere and panicking
.
And that's when myclaustrophobia kicked in.
I was like shit, I need to getout of here before I get tramped
.
So I started making my waytowards the front door where we

(19:14):
went in, because this was myfirst time in the place, so my
natural instinct was to go outthe way I came in.
That's where everybody tried togo out and there wasn't enough
room.
It was like a small hallway bigenough for like two people side
by side and there was like 400people trying to filter through
it.
So that's where a lot of peoplegot stuck and passed away in
the fire.
But for me, somewhere, somehow,I took a few steps towards that

(19:37):
door and behind me I heard avoice that said no, tom, this
way.
And when I turned I saw a sidedoor that was open and I kind of
remembered that that door wasthere because I remember before
this all happened, the bar backkept going out that door to go
dump out barrels of bottles andstuff into the dumpster and
every time he would we'd alllike shiver because it was

(19:58):
freezing cold outside.
But I heard that voice no, tom,this way.
So I turned and I went that wayand I went out that door and
got out the side.
I ended up even with that door.
There was a bunch of us pushingall at the same time.
I ended up falling forward, butI fell forward enough to land
in a big snow bank and I got upand the first thing I did was
try to look for my friends,because I was there with four
other people and I got acrossthe street and I found two of my

(20:21):
friends and they said one of myfriends and they said one of my
friends he's going to look forsomebody.
He got out and he's going tolook for somebody.
And my other friend.
They said he got out, we sawhim but we don't know where he
went.
And I said okay.
So now my instinct was to goback to that door that I got out
of and try and help more peoplefind that door, because at this
point it's pitch black, there'sno lighting in the building,

(20:43):
the lights had gone out and thesmoke that was in the building
was so thick and black.
It was like a tidal wave ofdarkness that just came at you
and it was right behind me.
When I got out and I went tothat side door and I saw inside
how dark it was and I can justhear people screaming and glass
breaking and just alarms aregoing off.
So I'm like people need helpfinding this doorway.

(21:05):
So I got on my knees andstarted pounding on the floor
and screaming come to my voice,come to my voice, if you can
hear me, come this way.
And there was another guy nextto me in the doorway doing the
same thing.
So the two of us together keptscreaming into the door and we'd
reach into the darkness and ifwe felt somebody we'd grab them,
grab a sleeve, grab a belt,whatever and pull them and
literally just throw them intothe snow.

(21:25):
Yeah, and we did that, you know.
However, you know it seems likean hour, but it was like two
seconds or something.
You know, we helped three orfour people get out that way and
then I was like I turned to theguy and I said we got to get
out of here.
I could feel the heat comingfrom the fire.
It reminded me the pizza ovensat McCoy stadium when you got
too close to one and you couldjust feel that heat coming out
of it, especially when you openthe door.
Yeah, it kind of felt like that.

(21:46):
It just was a blast of heatcoming at.
I was like we got to get, we gotto go.
We can't stay in this doorway.
It's like a thickness, yeah.
And when I turned and looked atthe guy, I realized it was my
friend.
It was my friend who I waslooking for, the one who had
gotten out and they didn't knowwhere he went.
He had gone to the same door asme to help people out, and so
that was basically how I got out.
Dr Metal, who I mentioned, hedidn't make it out, and there

(22:09):
were a couple of people that Iwas acquaintances with who
didn't get out, and I had someclose friends who got hurt but
made it out, and I had someclose friends who got hurt but
made it out and uh, you knoweverybody's got a crazy story
from that night.
That was my story.
That was how I got out.
It was some voice that I heard.
Um, it wasn't any of my friendsvoice, because I asked them all
and none of them said that.

(22:31):
They said it and the one friendwho was in the doorway with me
at the end he had gotten outafter me, so it wasn't him.
So to this day I don't knowwhose voice it was.
You know, some people say itwas a guardian angel, some kind
of paranormal thing, maybe.
You know some people say, oh,maybe there was another.
And you specifically heard Tomno-transcript other, and they

(23:08):
couldn't get out.
Yeah, they were all stuck, youcouldn't go back, but you can go
forward.
You had the weight of all thepeople on top of you holding you
down and, um, devastating, andyou know, and, uh, you know, we
stood there for like the rest ofthe night just watching the
whole thing happen.
Just the whole place went up inflames in like minutes it seems
.
And you know there were, youknow, fire trucks everywhere and

(23:29):
I remember there was a longline of ambulances, all, just
one by one, on the street, alltaking a turn, coming down,
taking as many injured people asthey can, turning around and
going back down the street, andthen the next one and all going
to different friend.
That blue tarp means that thoseare people.
Those are people who can't besaved, and they're covering it

(24:01):
from, you know, the media andyou know, because by then there
were news cameras everywhere andyou know this was like 1130 at
night.
You know this was after the 11o'clock news, so most people
didn't know about it until thenext morning.

Scott (24:11):
Yeah, so it was a hundred people died.

Tom (24:12):
A hundred, even 100, even 100 even died, Not all that
night Only, like 92 or 91, maybe89 died instantly that night.
The rest ended up dying lateron in the hospital.
You know days and weeks later.
Injuries, you know, because alot of people suffered really
bad injuries and we're nottalking just burns either.
It was a lot of serious burnsbut some people were blind
because of some, people wentdeaf because of it.

(24:34):
Yeah, you know just lots ofdifferent.
You know physical injuries,broken bones and stuff.
You know people were jumpingthrough glass plate windows,
getting thrown through windows,stuff like that.
So it was devastating.
I mean it was only a couple ofyears after 9-11 had happened,
you know, and it was kind oflike our little 9-11, because
everybody in Rhode Island knewsomebody who was there, or they

(24:56):
were supposed to be there thatnight and they didn't go for
some reason.
Like that was what I alwaysheard from everybody.
If everybody who told me theywere going to go had gone,
there'd have been 6,000 peoplethere.
Yeah, you know, it's just soweird how so many people were
going to go and you know, anddidn't and they're lucky.

Scott (25:11):
So I was in Boston when it happened.
But you know, as a RhodeIslander, you hear the news, you
see the news and I talked to mymother about it and it
dominated the Rhode Island newsfor months.
Yeah, oh yeah, casualties andeverything.
So you talk about this in yourpodcast.
We'll get into that in a second.
You mentioned, you know, thesurvivor guilt.
I can't even imagine thataspect of it, just knowing that
you could have been closer.

Tom (25:41):
You could have been more constrained or trapped in there.
And how did you deal with that?
Survival guilt is more of a whydid I live?
And those people didn't Likewhat reason?
You know what I mean.
Is it just luck?
Is there a bigger meaningbehind it?
Do I owe it to these people tolive my life in a great way?
Now you know what I mean.
Like it was.
It's just.
All those things go through yourhead.
You know like, wow, you knowthey're never going to have a
chance to go on a vacation now.
They're never going to have achance to do this or do that.
And you just beat yourself up.
Every time you don't takeadvantage of a situation or you
don't do something for yourself,you beat yourself up like, oh,

(26:04):
those people never even got thechance.
And here I am turning it down.
Yeah, so you go through that.
So you know it was a lot of.
You know did the Irish thingand self-contained, you know.
But over the years I'vediscovered that I do suffer from
depression, adhd, ptsd.

(26:25):
I've got all the letters.
Uh, so I I have to do certainthings in my life to uh, to deal
with those.
But the fire is a lot to do withthe PTSD, you know, and the
survival guilt from it.
But I was able to also put myenergy into helping people too.
You know a lot of the peoplewho, not only people who were
injured in the fire but a lot ofthe families who were affected

(26:45):
by people who were lost in thefire.
So with my ability working inradio I was able to do a lot of
stuff to raise money and raiseawareness to make sure people
didn't forget it.
You know, on the one yearanniversary, two year
anniversary.
And then I got involved withthe Station Nightclub Fire
Foundation who basically werethere to raise money to help

(27:06):
these people because it wasn'tconsidered a national disaster,
so we didn't get any kind ofnational funding or anything.
All these people who wereaffected by that fire had to
rely on charities and localpeople.
So they started a foundationand I helped them out a lot.
They actually let me perform ona couple of comedy benefit
shows and you know.
So I was able to kind of giveback as best as I could.

Scott (27:26):
Yeah, that's, that's great.
I can't even imagine what youwent through, but yeah, I
remember hearing it when Istarted listening to your
podcast, my paranormal story.
You've got two episodes on itand they're fantastic.
I suggest everybody go downloadit and check those episodes out
and check the other ones outtoo.
But I will say I personallyfind your podcast scary as shit.

Tom (27:48):
Well, that's good.
That's the point.
Yeah, thank you.

Scott (27:52):
Yeah, I don't do well with ghosts and shit, so if
anybody's out there that likesscary shit, go listen to this,
because it's pretty scary.
I actually was doing moreresearch in the car today
driving and I was listening tomore and felt like someone in
the back seat.
I was like this is bullshit.
I got to turn this off.
It's a little spooky.

Tom (28:06):
It's spooky.
Yeah, for those who don't know,my podcast is every episode is
just me telling a spooky storyof something that I experienced
in my life.
It's based on paranormal thingsbecause I was a paranormal
investigator for a while, butI've also had a lot of personal
experiences with paranormalevents.
So every episode I decided totell a story.
Because I started the podcast,because I kept finding myself

(28:28):
telling people stories andpeople would be like Tom tell
them the story you told me andTom tell them this story.
And so I was like why don't Ijust make this a podcast and
I'll just tell stories?
Like you know, most peoplethink a podcast is like this
people interviewing each other,talking.
And I said I'm just going to dolike an old timey radio type
podcast where it's a story thatI'm telling.
I'm just narrating a story withsome spooky music, maybe a few

(28:50):
sound effects to give you a jumpscare or two.
And that's what I've been doingand I love doing it because I
love the paranormal.
It's a big thing of mine.
Since I was a little kid I'veloved it.
You know, I was 15 years old,sneaking into cemeteries at
night and stuff.
I mean it's then when I becamea paranormal investigator, I got
to really see some wild shit,yeah, so I just tell a different
story on there and, yeah, someof them are spookier than others

(29:11):
.
Yeah, it's kind of like Iwanted it to feel like you're
sitting around the campfiretelling each other spooky
stories.
That's what I wanted the feelto be.
And I have a friend who saysthat he can't listen in the car
anymore because he's missed hisexit too many times, because
he's so enthralled by the storythat he's not even focused on
the road.

Scott (29:29):
I haven't missed anything , but I've almost drove off the
side of the road because itscared the shit out of me.
I'm like that's just notnecessary anymore.

Tom (29:34):
Like I gotta.

Scott (29:35):
I gotta go back to call her daddy.

Tom (29:37):
Yeah, uh, well, that's a little scary too.
Um, I keep it family friendly,which was one of my things.
I wanted to make sure of it.
So there are a lot of peoplewho listen to it with their kids
, which I absolutely love,because I get lots of emails
from people who listen and Ilove the feedback.
But I also wanted it to be alittle bit educational too.
Because I'm so into theparanormal and because I was
researching it for so long, Ikind of wanted to also just let

(30:00):
people understand it a littlebit better, because when you
watch these TV shows like GhostHunters or Ghost Adventures,
they don't necessarily explainit as much, they just want you
to have the thrill, and so Ikind of wanted it to be a little
bit educational too and kind oftell you what's happening and
why, or why we believe it'shappening, things like that.
So it's a little bit of aparanormal education too.

Scott (30:20):
Yeah Well, one kind of hit home.
I just listened to the oneabout your pet.
Yeah, oh, the one pets died.

Tom (30:25):
Yeah, yep, which we both just went through.
What was your cat's name?
My cat's name was Jay Jay.

Scott (30:31):
Just the letter J.
We lost our little 15 year oldMillie.
Brutal, absolutely brutal.

Tom (30:35):
It's so, so tough.
We're still grieving here inthe house.

Scott (30:37):
Yeah, it's absolutely crazy.
My wife pulled her bowls outtoday and I was like, well,
that's where her food went, yeah.

Tom (30:46):
It's those little, every little step.
It's like, yeah, it hurts, yeah, because we're doing the same
thing here with the cat andwe've got another cat too and
that cat was a little bityounger.
So that cat's only known thatother cat, her own life and
that's it.
And now it's gone and she lookslost.
Sometimes she's being veryvocal all of a sudden, and now
all of a sudden she's the alpha,because he was always the alpha

(31:07):
over her and now she's the onlyone.
We're going through that change.
But my episode on the podcast isabout the paranormal stuff that
can happen when you lose a pet,because you start noticing
things that are happening thatthe pet would do.
And that's what I do.
I tell two stories on thisepisode one about losing my cat
when I was younger and then oneabout losing my dog and the dog

(31:29):
it was about how I kept hearingall the noises that he used to
make and then about the cat.
The cat one was about a crisisapparition kind of a story where
I feel like the cat came to saygoodbye to me before he died.
But there's no way he couldhave, but for some reason I felt
like he did.
Yeah, and so we're goingthrough that a little bit of
that right now with our cat thatwe just lost, because we're

(31:49):
hearing strange noises.
The wife and I are both hearingit.
At first I was hearing it andshe was like, stop it, you're
going to spook me.
And then she's like, oh, Iheard it too.
I think they stay with us.
That was the whole premise ofthat episode is that even when
our pets are gone, they're stillwith us and I think they, in my
heart and soul, I think theystick around to make sure we're
going to be okay.
And once we start moving on andstart feeling okay with our

(32:13):
lives again, I think that's whenthey kind of fade off and go to
rest, you know.
So when they pass away, you'regoing to notice things.
You're going to hear the noisesyour dog used to make.
I don't know what noises shemade she made out a squeaky toy
or something or you're going tohear signs that they're still
there and you're going to feeltheir presence for a while.

Scott (32:28):
Well, she used to fart a lot.
She's an old dog.
She farted a lot.

Tom (32:32):
Yep Dogs do that.

Scott (32:33):
Yeah, and now my daughter now has taken up that mantle
already.
So, oh, okay.

Tom (32:36):
Well, I was going to say you can't blame the dog for the
farts anymore.
So now, yeah, I know.

Scott (32:45):
Now you're going to blame your daughter.
It's her, it's all her.
But yeah, definitely everybody.
Check out my paranormal storyfrom Tom's.
It's creepy as hell but familyfriendly, like.
It's not like blood and gutsgory, it's just.

Tom (32:54):
No, no, yeah, no, the kids can listen to it.
You know, absolutely, the kidscan listen to it.
You know, I think actuallyadults get more spooked than
kids, because a lot of mysituations are adulthood
situations, so the kids may noteven associate with it yet.
Yeah, so it might be somethinglike that, but there definitely
are some stories that happen inmy childhood too that you know,
might give scare, but there'snothing wrong with that.

(33:14):
You know, everybody loves agood scare.

Scott (33:16):
Keeping their toes.
Yeah, you just hit 1 milliondownloads.
That number is insane, that'scrazy.
Congratulations.

Tom (33:22):
Yeah, that's insane.
Yeah, I couldn't thank you.
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
I saw it coming up and I waslike I can't believe.
Like when I started this podcast, I was like a few of my friends
are going to listen, you oflisteners or anything, yeah, and
I, and I just watched it slowlybuild like every episode, a few
more and a few more, and andthen I'm getting lots of emails
from people saying how much theylike it and they can't wait for

(33:44):
the next episode.
And there, and so many peopleemail me telling me about their
paranormal stories, really, likethey were just so happy to tell
somebody their story thatwouldn't make fun of them or
mock them or something.
And and I reply to every singleone of them and I and I put
that call out on every episodeIf you have a story and you want
to tell it to me, please do,and I'll give you my opinion.

(34:05):
If you want it, I'll tell youwhat I think is happening, or
I'll just be there to listen.
And I get so many of thoseemails and I love it.
Um, I feel like the podcastmight even be therapeutic for
some people in that way, whichis a positive thing, but a
million downloads.
I never expected that.
And that's nuts Like a hundreddifferent countries.
I was like this is insane, butI love it.
I love that it's reached thatmany people.
Yeah, congrats.

(34:25):
It actually is paying for itself, which is good, because
podcasts aren't free.
You know that, yes, so at first, before I was able to get any
advertising, I was just askingmy listeners hey, if you want to
make a donation, you know thispodcast is free.
You didn't have to pay for it.
So if you really like it, youwant to help me out, support me?
I got a Venmo link on mywebsite and, sure enough, money
was coming in.
I was like wow.

(34:53):
I was like people really dolike this to the point where
they're willing to go on theircomputer and go.
And then I was able to startadvertising, which helps a lot
because podcasting you have topay for the server that your
podcast is on and you have topay for your audio editing
software.
And then if you're going tohave a website, which I have you
have to have a website server.
So you know it can cost youlike up to a hundred dollars a
month just to have a decentpodcast oh yeah, you know, um.

Scott (35:15):
So I didn't believe.
I'm not gonna lie here.
I was not a ghost storybeliever.
I did not believe in ghostsuntil I went to go visit my
cousin in Phoenix.
And we went to have you everheard of the Hotel San Carlos?
That sounds familiar.
It's supposedly a haunted hotel.
So we go down there and mycousin and I we want to go out
and drink beers.
My cousin's wife and my wife.
They're like let's go dosomething fun and then let's go

(35:37):
get scared at a hotel.
And I'm like I really don'twant to do this, like I just
want to go drink some beers inPhoenix.
Like hang out, we negotiate,redo that first and then go
drink beers.
So we go to the hotel and theygive you a guided tour in one
floor that the major spookinesshappens on I think it's like the
sixth floor or something.
But they take you all over thehotel and they take us
downstairs into the cellar wherethere's a lot of storage and

(35:59):
they said take a bunch ofpictures.
You're going to see orbs.
I'm like all right, whatever.
So I started taking picturesand I had an app on my phone
that took photo bursts.
So I just kept hitting that andjust taking photo bursts.
So take, you know, 20 pictureshere, 20 pictures there, and I
just kept doing that and thenthey're like all right, let's go

(36:22):
upstairs.
So I never got a chance to lookat my pictures.
We go upstairs and we're in thefoyer by the elevator and I'm
kind of bouncing and leaningagainst a wall but I'm not on
the door.
So, like I know, the door isbehind me.
One of the rooms was rightbehind me, but I'm off the side
of the door, on the kind of onthe on the frame.
My cousin is on the other sideof the door, so if someone opens
the door they could comethrough between us and they're
talking.
And all of a sudden I feltsomething hit me in the leg and
my left leg moved to bottom ofmy leg, moved my shoe, moved

(36:45):
across the floor.
So what the hell was that?
And it felt like that, like apencil eraser, like on the end
of a pencil, like somebody stuckthat right in my calf, and I've
saved the shit out of me.
I turned around and I looked atmy cousin.
I was like you, jackass, andhe's like what.
And I looked at him and he wasso far away that he actually
could not have reached me thereor like touch me or done
anything, and I was like, oh myGod, oh my gosh and I'm a

(37:07):
believer, it scared the shit outof me.
I was get on the plane cominghome and my wife and I are
looking at the pictures and Ilook at the burst pictures and
none of them came out.
They all were black or brownand like tan, nothing you could
see, like it started out as apicture and I just pointed the

(37:28):
camera and then just took 20shots directly and all of a
sudden here's the wall and thennothing Black, black, black,
black, black, blue, blue, blue,green, green, green, brown,
brown, brown.
Oh, interesting, like 20pictures.
It was so freaky and I showedher and she was like holy shit.

Tom (37:43):
I was like I believe, I believe that used to happen all
the time on investigationsCameras don't operate right,
Video, all kinds of weird stufflike that happens when a yeah.
Now orbs?
I don't believe orbs areanything paranormal, but your
phone, camera, whatevermalfunctioning, that definitely
can be.

Scott (38:00):
And I'd used the app a hundred times on other stuff
before at night, during the day,like you know, all sorts of
different lighting and I had noproblems with it.
This one time, in this dungeonof this hotel, it just
completely shit.
The bed scared the hell out ofme and then I got pinpricked in
the back of my calf by a ghostand that was it.
I'm done.

Tom (38:19):
It is October we should be telling some spooky stories.
So that reminds me of BelcourtCastle, which is in Newport,
rhode Island.
Okay, famously haunted place.
It's been on TV shows and stuff.
And I was with a group calledRise Up Paranormal.
I was a paranormal investigatorwith them for several years and
the owner of Belcourt Castlereached out to one of the
members.
She basically said would youguys like to host some ghost

(38:44):
tours during the summer?
You know, we'll pay you alittle something whatever.
And we were like, ok, you know,that sounds like it'd be pretty
cool.
I mean, any chance you get tospend some time in a haunted
mansion in Newport is kind ofcool, you know, especially when
you're a paranormal investigator.
Yeah, so we basically told herwe'll do it and just donate some
money to our group so that wehave money to buy equipment and
things, you know.
So we're not trying to makemoney off of this, but our thing

(39:07):
was we want to have the placeto ourselves for like a full
weekend, like a Friday and aSaturday night.
Nobody else allowed in, just usinvestigating the place.
Let us just get a real feel forthe place, you know.
And so she agreed to that andwe had the whole place to
ourselves and we had so manyreally interesting experiences.
And then every weekend for thesummer there'd be groups of
people who would come in and wewould take them on little

(39:28):
investigations.
You know, we would break offinto small groups and
investigate a room, and for anhour or so, and then we'd come
back, regroup and then we wouldhead off into other rooms, and
every weekend that would happen.
Sometimes they'd be paranormalgroups, sometimes they'd just be
regular tourists who wanted tosee a haunted mansion.
Every weekend, when thesepeople would go to these
different rooms in the mansion,afterwards we would have them

(39:51):
fill out a little questionnaireDid you feel anything?
Did you hear anything?
Did you experience anything,whatever you know, just to get a
little rundown of what theywere experiencing.
And there was one room in themansion called the music room.
This was the room where theoriginal family from the mansion
, their kids, used to learn howto play music in this room.
So the room still had like asmall organ, a harp, a lot of

(40:12):
different weird instruments init, and we would bring a group
of people in there and we woulddo an EVP session where we try
to record a ghost talking.
So the room would be dark andwe'd all kind of sit in a circle
.
We'd have a little audiorecorder with us but we always
kept an infrared video camera inthe room filming the whole time
.
And every week, week after week,a woman would be in the room

(40:36):
just any random woman with longhair, and her hair would get
pulled Weekend after weekend, adifferent woman every weekend.
They'd go in that room, boom,someone pulls their hair, and
half the time they would turnand slap their boyfriend or
husband thinking it was themplaying a trick on them.
And it's not.
Something in that room keptpulling on girls' hair in that
room all the time.
Really, something in that roomkept pulling on girls' hair in
that room all the time and wehad to dismiss it as not a

(40:59):
coincidence because it wasliterally happening week after
week.
They would write it down that ithappened.
We would see them reacting onthe camera footage from it.
You know one of us would be inthe room with them and hear them
reacting to something and wewould never tell them about it.
We would just see if it's goingto happen again.
And it would happen week afterweek.
That kept happening.
Other things like that too.
There were a lot of differentparanormal groups from around

(41:21):
New England would come to takethis tour and a lot of them kept
catching EVPs, electronic voicephenomena, recordings,
basically of a ghost's voice,and a lot of them caught the
same.
It sounds like the same exactvoice in the same room, but
different people, differentweekends catching the audio of
the same voice of a ghost.
Yeah creepy and the evidence wewere catching was undeniable.

(41:43):
Yeah, you know, it's one thingto go into a place and something
spooky happens, that's fine.
But to go a whole summer, longweekend after weekend, totally
different people having all thesame experiences of paranormal
things in the same places thatthe people the week before had,
it's just you know.
It can't be explained away.

Scott (42:00):
Yeah, it's so weird.
Like I said, I didn't want tobelieve until I got poked and
that physically my leg moved andit was.
I didn't do it and I'm like Goddamn, that's the craziest thing
that's ever happened to me.
Like this is real shit, like Idon't know why or how, but it's
just real stuff.

Tom (42:16):
I don't know why or how, but it's just real stuff.
Yeah yeah, I was always a bigbeliever, and that was basically
.
Stories like that are what wasthe reason why I started the
podcast.
Because it's like I want totell these spooky stories to
people.
I'll tell you the one.
If you want to do one morespooky story, yeah yeah, the one
that I always ended up havingto tell people.
I'm not going to sleep tonightanyway, so Okay, all right, and
this is on the podcast too.

(42:36):
The Belcourt Castle stories areon there, but also this story.
I was in my thirties and I wasliving in a house in Providence
on Cemetery Street this is areal street in Providence, by
the way, and there is a cemeteryacross the street.
The cemetery was literallyacross the street from our house
and I was living there withthree roommates.
Now I had been to that house abunch of times previous from

(42:57):
moving in, because I was friendswith one of the guys who lived
there, so I used to come overand visit all the time and he
had a bunch of differentroommates.
Two of his roommates were theseyoung girls who lived upstairs
and they used to always talkabout the ghost upstairs and all
the spooky things that werehappening.
And this is before I was ever aparanormal investigator.
And then cut to.
A year or so later one of theroommates moved out and I needed

(43:18):
a place to live, so I moved inand I moved into one of the
bedrooms upstairs and now it wasme in one of the bedrooms and
another guy in the other bedroom.
Then there was another guy wholived on the main floor, in the
bedroom on that floor and thenone of the girls was still a
roommate.
She stayed.
She had been in the bedroom.
I was in no-transcript.

(43:57):
Things started happening andthey started getting weirder and
weirder.
Everything started to escalate.
The first things that I wasnoticing things were being moved
in my bedroom, and one of thethings that got moved was Roger
Clemens still have the baseball.
And so that baseball, I had itin a protective case.
You know one of those squareplastic cases that you put an

(44:25):
autographed baseball in and Iwould keep it on my bureau on
the back end of the bureau,right up against the wall.
And more than once I would comehome from work and the baseball
was moved to the front edge ofmy bureau and it's like what's
that doing there?
Like it didn't roll, cause it'sin a square cube, you know,
yeah, and I used to be like whowas in my room?
And my room is really nobodywas in your room and I'd be like
that's really weird.
And I'm type of person whereI'm a little bit OCD.

(44:47):
I always close things.
If I go into a cabinet, I closeit.
If I go into a closet, I closeit behind me.
And one morning I got up to goshower, to go to drawer or
something, got some clothes,went and took a shower, came
back to my room, closet doorswide open, and every drawer on
my bureau is pulled open, whoa,which I didn't do because I

(45:07):
didn't need to go into everydrawer.
You know, I went into probablyone to get some underwear or
something, yeah, so that wasweird.
And then there was one morningwhere my alarm didn't go off and
I was late for work.
Now I had a digital alarm clockon my bureau that had a battery
in it as a backup in case youlose power.
I remember it didn't go off.
And I also had my cell phonewith its alarm set and that

(45:30):
didn't go off either, becausethat was my backup backup.
So none of my alarm situationswent off, which was strange.
But all three of my roommatesnone of their alarms went off
either.
All four of us slept throughour alarm clocks because none of
them went off and they all hadthe same situation.
Cell phone or battery backupand everything like that
Couldn't have been a power issue.
My cell phone still had life toit.

(45:51):
So that was weird, that none ofour alarms worked.
One day Then I started noticingmore things happening in my room
.
I started having weird dreams.
My girlfriend at the time shehated sleeping over because she
kept having weird dreams and shekept seeing weird shadows in my
bedroom.
And then one day I'm sitting inmy bedroom at my computer desk

(46:13):
and off to my right from thecomputer desk I had this, um,
this big standup mirror.
It's like a big oval on twolegs I think they call it a
shovel mirror or something andyou know, you can kind of adjust
it up and down.
I'm sitting on my computer it'slike two in the morning I'm
playing video games or something.
All of a sudden, to my right,out of the corner of my eye, I
see the mirror moving and it'sjust kind of going horizontal in

(46:33):
front of my eyes, tippingforward Just slowly Like
somebody's.
Like somebody's moving itforward, yeah.
And I'm just sitting therewatching it and I'm thinking to
myself you know, if this is ahorror movie, I'm going to put
that mirror back up and I'mgoing to see something in the
reflection standing behind me.
Don't put it back up, don't doit.
It's going to be a skeleton or,you know, an old nun or
something scary.
Don't do it, but I'm like I gotto do it.

(46:54):
So I in the mirror.

Scott (47:07):
God, that could suck.

Tom (47:07):
But at that point I was like all right, maybe there is
something happening up here.
I'm having more dreams.
I kept having dreams of peoplereally close to me dying, me
witnessing close friends, familydying in front of me.
And then I was having dreamsthat I was dead and I would wake
up laying on my back with myarms across my chest, like I'm
in a coffin.
I'd wake up literally crying.

(47:27):
I'd have tears all over my faceand then the big one happened
One night I go to bed and I feelsomething sit down on my bed,
on my mattress.
I dismissed it at first becausemy roommate, who now lives in
the basement she had a cat wholived in the house with us and
the cat still thought theupstairs bedroom was his bedroom
.
So he would come in the bedrooma lot and sometimes would sleep

(47:48):
in my bed, which I love animals, so I didn't mind.
So at first, I think in my headI just thought, oh, the cat
just got on the bed with me.
But then, whatever it was thatsat on my bed, I felt it
straddle me and sit on my chestand then, when I opened my eyes,
I could see what looked like anold man in like this black top
hat kind of a thing, had like ascruffy white beard kind of

(48:09):
similar to yours.
Wasn't me, I promise you,wasn't you, okay, chest sitter?
And he was swinging at me likehe was trying to punch me in the
face, like he was trying to hitme.
And so naturally I panicked andI jumped up out of the bed,
flew out of the bed, turned onthe lights really quick and
there was nothing there.
There was no old guy there,there was no cat there.
Holy shit, there was nothingthere.
And I was like, wow, that'scrazy.

(48:30):
So I talked to my roommate inthe basement about it and I
asked her.
I said, hey, it was an old guy.
He had this sleeping and Iwould all of a sudden wake up,
open my eyes and his face wouldbe right in front of my face
Like he's very angry.
Oh man.
So that was when I startedstudying paranormal.
I was like I need to know moreabout what's going on here.

(48:52):
I started reading books andwatching documentaries and
that's when the TV show ghosthunters started coming on.
Yeah, I have all this knowledgenow.
I have all this paranormalexperience.
And here are people from my ownstate of Rhode Island on TV
helping people who havehauntings with the experience
and knowledge that they have.
I was like I need to do this andso I reached tough guy, you
know, whatever work on cars,stuff like that Never the type
that would say anything about aghost, you know.

(49:13):
And one day I sit down in theliving room with him and I'm
like telling him about the ghostthat sat on my chest and tried
to attack me and all of a suddenhis face just went blank and he

(49:34):
looked at me.
He was like holy shit.
He's like years ago that was mybedroom.
He goes and I swear to God, thesame thing happened to me.
He's like I thought I was justdrunk and was dreaming it.
He goes, but I've, literally hegoes.
It felt like a guy jumped on meand was trying to beat me up.
He goes and I was likeno-transcript.

(50:06):
And he introduces me.
He's like, oh, tom, tom, thisis Dwayne.
Dwayne, this is Tom.
And he goes.
Dwayne used to live in thehouse he lives and the first
thing he says to me is have youseen the old man?
Yet?
Just like that Yep Didn't evenhave to bring it up or anything,
he just knew about the old manand I was like wow, so that's

(50:29):
the creepiest house I've everheard.
That house is what really.
I had had experiences beforethat, but that was the house
that like really made meinvested in that.
There's something else going onaround.
We need that address.
Yeah, I still know where thehouse is.
It's funny about, you know, sixmonths later or something, I
moved out, I ended up with a jobin Connecticut or something.
I moved, and all my roommatesfrom the time they had all moved

(50:51):
on to other things, so none ofus were living in the house
anymore and I was a year or twointo being a paranormal
investigator now.
So I was like, oh, I would loveto go back to that house with
all the equipment and knowledgeI have now and really, like, try
and figure it out.
I don't want to just go knockon these people's doors and say,
hey, you got a ghost.
So I wrote them a letter, Ityped up a letter, printed it

(51:11):
out and mailed it to them withmy email address in it and it
just said, hey, I used to livein the house that you're living
in now and we used to have theseexperiences with a ghost and I
told him about the old guy andstuff like that.
I was like I've since become aparanormal investigator because
of it and I'm very invested inthis, and if you have a
situation where you need to talkto someone or if you'd like to
have somebody come into thehouse to help you with it, I'd
be happy to do it.

(51:31):
Here's my email address and myphone number.
Feel free to reach out A few.
And they said thank you verymuch.
We are believers in that typeof stuff, but luckily so far
we've been fortunate.
Nothing's happened in the house.
But if something does, we'llreach out and let you know, and
I never heard from them again.
Because, they're dead.
That was the story aboutCemetery Street.

(51:53):
You can find that on thepodcast too.
I think that was my firstepisode.

Scott (51:57):
I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight.
This is miserable.

Tom (51:57):
I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight.
This is miserable.
Hey, it's spooky season.
Baby, this is my time of year,good Lord.

Scott (52:04):
It's good to shit out of me.
We haven't even talked aboutyour comedy career yet, so we
were kind of like ships in thenight in the comedy scenes.
Yeah, I don't know how wemissed each other.
When did you stop?
I stopped in 06.

Tom (52:14):
Okay, see, I started doing comedy, people were like telling
me, hey, did you know ScottCarney's a comedian?
And I'm like, yeah, and it'slike how did I not know that?
You know, because it was likemutual friends from McCoy
Stadium.
I guess some of them had goneto see you perform.
And when they came to see meperform, you know, because I
remember doing my very firstshow in 2010, february 2010.

(52:35):
Yeah, like a bunch of them cameto my first show, which was
cool.
Where was your first show?
Catch a Rising Star at TwinRivers, oh nice, I used to do a
lot of shows there.

Scott (52:43):
That was a good club.
That was before my time.
Yeah, I started right out ofcollege, I started in 96.
And I had a blast.
I burnt myself out.
I mean it's such a tough job?
Yeah, it is, it's grueling, Igive you all the credit.
And between that and then I wasacting and doing some other
stuff and I was like I justdidn't have time for myself and
I was just burning out.
So I took a little time off,but thinking about getting back

(53:03):
into it, it's been a while, butI really do love it.

Tom (53:06):
It's become more of a job now for me because it's kind of
what I do, like I don't have anine to five job, I don't have a
real job.
I have a lot of side hustles,but comedy is my main source of
income.
Now I do a lot of fundraiserswith a company called Funny for
Funds.
You've probably seen me postabout those.
Yeah, absolutely.
Which is great because Funny forFunds is a company that a
couple of comedy friends of minestarted, where we basically get

(53:26):
to book comedy shows for peoplewho are trying to raise money
for an important cause Could bea youth sports league, it could
be for cancer awareness orwhatever Anything someone's
trying to do a fundraiser for.
Instead of doing a car wash orstanding outside the supermarket
or something, you book a comedyshow with us and we help you
raise thousands of dollars.
So I get to help people withtheir cause for fundraising, but

(53:47):
also make them laugh too.
I'm able to make a living doingit.
So it's so awesome to be ableto do that.
And then, plus, as you know,doing comedy in New England is
probably the best place to do it, because there's so many places
that are drivable that you cango do comedy literally every
weekend.
Yeah, I don't really put asmuch effort into it as I should,
but I still easily do 75 showsa year.

(54:08):
Yeah, and you won't be able todo that anywhere else.
You can't because you know, oneweekend I'll be in Hartford,
another weekend I'll be in NewHampshire, another weekend I'll
be in, you know, somewhere inBoston or Worcester or
Providence.
There's so many places close byto do comedy, you know.
So I've been doing it.
You know I'm going into my 15thyear now.
Awesome, and I still love it.
I mean, I always want to docomedy, yeah, even when I was
back in McCoy State and writingmy little top 10 lists and

(54:30):
trying to do.
You know creative things.
I was always trying to becreative and stand up with
something.
I always wanted to try and doand I just it.
I wish I had started younger.
You know what I mean.
Who knows where I'd be today?
You know what I mean, becauseit's hard to be a guy in his 50s
trying to make it in comedy.
That's just not what they'relooking for in the world of
comedy.
So I don't expect to have aNetflix special or anything

(54:51):
anytime soon.

Scott (54:52):
Yeah, you never know, you never know.

Tom (54:54):
What was your first like?
How did you get into it?
Did you just jump up at an opennight, Mike?

Scott (54:59):
Oh no.
So I took a class in college.
I kept telling my girlfriendI'm going to do stand-up one day
and she's like, yeah, sure,whatever Graduated.
And I'm like I'll show her We'dbroken up after we graduated.
I'm like I'll show her, andremember the old Phoenix New
Paper in Providence in Boston,phoenix, yep, oh yeah, there was
a listing for comedy classesand I took it with Frank
O'Donnell.
Okay, I took it with him and atthe end, me and there was 10 or

(55:22):
11 of us and I was the only onethat took a booker's number.
He said I've got a booker thatyou guys can use.
Just give him a call, tell himyou finished my class, you want
to get on stage.
I was like, all right, great.
And it was John Parada.
Yep, johnny P, god I love thatguy.
He's one of the greatest humanbeings in the world.
I got to get him on the show.
Such a nice guy.
Oh, you definitely should.
He runs a comedy factory inRhode Island.

(55:43):
It's all over New England andhe just books all these shows in
every single venue possible.

Tom (55:48):
He booked shows everywhere you can go to the ATM and
there'll be a comedy show thathe's booking.
He does them everywhere.

Scott (55:54):
It doesn't matter Absolutely.
Men's Bathroom of Dunkin'Donuts.

Tom (55:57):
You know.
So our story is similar.
I took Frank O'Donnell's class,you did too.
All right, yeah, I did.
Yep, the way that happened wasI dabbled in comedy before that.
I was writing comedy bits formorning shows for different
radio stations around thecountry, and I had secretly
written like five minutes ofmaterial to do an open mic.
One night I was just going togo up and do it and I kept going

(56:17):
to open mics and chickening out.
I just couldn't bring myself doit.

Scott (56:21):
Yeah.

Tom (56:21):
And then, uh, frank Santos not junior, but the old, the old
guy who's passed away since.
Frank Santos, he's a comedyhypnotist.
He used to come on the radiomorning show all the time to
promote his shows.
And he started saying you know,if you want to come and tell a
couple of jokes, just to getyour feet wet, come introduce me

(56:53):
at the comedy connection.
So I did that for him a coupleof times and I, oh, that's class
, wow.
And she had no intentions ofbeing a comedian, she just did
it as a bucket list thing.
You know, she took the class,she did one show and then she
never did comedy again.
But she told me you need totake that class.
Like she was adamant You're waytoo funny, you should be around
those people.
He'll show you what the nextstep is.

(57:17):
Like I will pay for it.
If I pay for it, you don't go,you're wasting my money.
And eventually she talked meinto it.
I didn't make her pay.
I ended up taking the class withFrank and I literally haven't
stopped since.
From there I went to the Sundaynight open mic that John Parata
was running and John saw me andhe was like hey brother, he's
like I, like your voice on stage.

(57:37):
He's like why don't you come dosome shows for me?
And he was the first one to payme 50 bucks to host a show at
you know some bar in NorthProvidence or something.
Yeah, I've been working withthem nonstop.
I love them to death.
Yeah, so great.
I caught on at Catch a RisingStar almost like a house comic.
There, like every weekend, Iwas hosting shows for national
guys meeting comics out of NewYork.
A couple of them kind of took meunder their wing and worked

(57:58):
with me with my jokes and mystage presence you know, and
from there I just startedbooking my own shows, my own
rooms, networking, and for awhile there I was, you know,
four nights a week.
You know how it goes.
Five nights a week.
I was always performing, I wasdoing contests, I started doing
festivals and I'm starting toget hungry again.

(58:18):
Now I I'm looking at some ofthese younger comics moving up
the ranks and I'm like you knowwhat?
I need to get back on the ball,like I've gotten comfortable at
this plateau that I'm at andI'm like I know I can do better
than this.
I don't expect to be the nextbig thing, but I know I could do
better than this, and so it'slike I'm kind of getting hungry
again.
I've got new material because Irecently got married, so
there's plenty of material there.
Tons tons right and you know howit is.

(58:40):
I've got reams and reams ofnotebooks of jokes that I've
never even tried yet, yeah.
So I'm trying to get back onthe ball, but you know it's time
consuming when you've got lifeand you've got a million things
going on.
To try to get stage time, totry to sit down and actually
write jokes and perfect them andrewrite them and work them out.
It's such a fun experience.
It's such a fun experiencegoing through, uh, the whole
comedy thing.

(59:00):
people laugh, yeah the ultimatething come up with this idea for
a joke, you finally put it alltogether and then finally it's
working.
And you know, night after nightyou tell those jokes and people
are laughing.

Scott (59:08):
Yeah, it's great it truly is one of the coolest feelings
in the world to be standingthere by yourself up there and
have 10 to 1000 people justgoing nuts over what you just
said and what you just did yougo inducing, but not Well, not
just that.

Tom (59:20):
It's good if you're somebody like me who doesn't
like being around people,because you can just be on the
stage away from all the people.
I mean, a lot of people don'tbelieve it, but I'm actually a
bit of an introvert, like Idon't go anywhere unless I'm
supposed to be somewhere.
I don't just go and hang out.
I don't go visit people, Idon't.
I really became introverted asI got older and it's the best
job for an introvert because youcan just go in, go on stage,

(59:43):
tell your jokes and leave andyou don't have to be part of
like the crowd.
And you know, I mean you wantto say hi to people.
You know you don't have toworry about there being other
people involved, it's just you,it's you, it's your jokes in
your performance and that's it.
There's no one to blame,there's no one to worry about.
You don't have to carry anyoneelse, just it's all you.

Scott (01:00:01):
Yeah, so I was looking at your bio.
You were with Mark Norman andshow list was list still in
Boston when you were.

Tom (01:00:07):
I think I think they were both in New York.
Oh OK, but I got to be on ashow with them at Foxwoods.
I opened for the.
It was the two of them.
They were actually both on theshow and I was the opener at
Foxwoods back when comics was atFoxwoods, back when comics was
at Foxwoods.
It's at Mohegan Sun now, Ithink, unless I got it backwards
.
But no, I think it was Foxwoodsand yeah, I got to.
They weren't really likehousehold names yet but they
were definitely up and coming.

(01:00:27):
So I mean, I knew who they werebut I didn't like they're a lot
more famous now than they wereback then.
So yeah, so I got to open forthem too, because the crowd
sucked.
It was just one of those crowdswhere you could just tell they
weren't there.
Yeah, for the comedians theywere just there to be there.
They just didn't seem to give ashit this crowd, and so it was.

(01:00:47):
It happened to all like allthree of us just not really
bombed, but just like just couldtell that they just weren't
playing along, and so we alljust kind of like phoned it in.
You know, I remember joe listwas like halfway through his set
.
He's like what guys, I'm noteven going to give you my A
material because you don'tdeserve it.
And I just remember off to theside laughing.

Scott (01:01:05):
So he was just starting out.
He'd been maybe doing it acouple of years when I stopped.
But you know, I'd taken sometime off and I moved down here
and hopped back on social mediaand I saw him and I'm like holy
shit, he blew up.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
So I reached out to him a fewtimes.
We've talked through messengerand stuff trying to get him on
the show.
But there's no way, like I Ilike begged him one time.

(01:01:25):
I was like, come on, man, youhook a brother up.
That was after like his secondtime on two rogans.
It's gonna be tough, yeah, andI mean absolutely.

Tom (01:01:31):
He's probably super busy anyways, but not only that, but
if he does your podcast, theneverybody's gonna be bugging him
.
Oh god, every comedian he onceworked with as a podcast is
going to want him.

Scott (01:01:40):
Every single one of us clowns.
But yeah, he's such a good guy.
I'm super happy for him.
I'm just out there crushing itand he's doing great.

Tom (01:01:48):
I mean, I only worked with him that one time, so I can't
say that I know him.
I'll use him as a stage credit.
Absolutely I do.
Why am I doing that?

Scott (01:02:06):
I think I've hosted open mics that he's been on.
I'm like, yeah, I brought thiskid up.

Tom (01:02:07):
Yeah, exactly, tom, this has been awesome and I'm so
happy to reconnect with you andhear all about all the crazy
stuff that there's been going onover the last 30 years with you
.
Same here, and it was.
We were off air reminiscing forlike a good hour before we even
started the podcast.
It was good to catch up.

Scott (01:02:14):
The crazy antics at McCoy Stadium over kids and I can't
believe it was that long ago.

Tom (01:02:18):
How are we this old, Like we weren't just at McCoy Stadium
a few years ago working there,Like that's so weird to me how
time flew by.

Scott (01:02:26):
So what are all the social handles and all that kind
of fun stuff that folks can getin touch with you and catch up
on your stuff?

Tom (01:02:32):
Social media.
Just look for Tom Stewart,you're bound to find me.
For my websites, the podcast ismyparanormalstorycom, for the
website, and then it's called myParanormal Story.
Anywhere you listen to podcasts, you're going to find it.
And then my comedy website istomstuartcomedycom.
I keep things pretty simplewhen it comes to naming things.

Scott (01:02:49):
And once again, what is that Instagram page for the New
Food Friday?

Tom (01:02:54):
Oh, I think that's newfoodfridayig Excellent.
It might have like anunderscore or something
somewhere in there, but therecan't be too many of them, so
you're probably fine.

Scott (01:03:03):
Everybody go like immediately stop what you're
doing.
Well, don't stop now, but, likewhen you're done with the
podcast, then go right toInstagram, look it up.
You're going to be amazed bythe music.
You're going to be amazed bythe tasting.

Tom (01:03:19):
There's all sorts of fun stuff that were tasted.
It's I'm about to get Because Ihaven't used it in so long.
I don't even think it's on myphone.

Scott (01:03:25):
It'll be a million.

Tom (01:03:26):
It'll be a million.

Scott (01:03:28):
Awesome.
Tom, thank you so much forbeing on.
I'm so happy to catch up withyou and again wish you all the
best with everything, and I'msuper happy about all your 1
million.
Holy shit, that's crazy.
Um, your stand is killing itand it's just, uh, it's great to
see you and great to see that,uh, you're just doing great, so,
um, really happy for you.

Tom (01:03:45):
Thank you for all that and thank you for inviting me to do
this.
This was so much fun.
I was.
I was excited when I saw you ata podcast.
I was like that's cool.
You know I want to be on it.
I know We've got to pack thiskid up and we've got to get up
there soon at some point.

Scott (01:04:03):
Yeah, come up.
All right, Tom.
Thank you so much, man Dude,this has been a blast.
Thank you, Awesome.
I've had such a great time andcontinued success.
Guys, everybody go out andcheck out the podcast and Tom
Stewart comedy and comedian hispages and go check out his shows
because he's great All right,take care, man, you too Are you
dying, you okay, professionalWrong pipe.
Don't drink water during.

(01:04:26):
Okay, I'm good, I'm good, sorry.

Tom (01:04:28):
Yeah, see, that's what it is.
The ghost went right to yourchest, jesus Christ, all right,
sorry.

Scott (01:04:32):
Get this man some oxygen.
I'm good, we only have oneepilogue at the end of every
episode, but in this particularinstance, in this particular
episode, we have two, the secondone's coming up right after
this.
I just want to preface it bysaying these are clips that were
taken from Tom and I ourrecording and just didn't make

(01:04:53):
sense from where they came from.
Just take a listen.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Thanks for listening.