Greg Warren (comedian)

Episode Transcript
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Chuck Shute (00:00):
All right, comedian Greg Warren is here. And you may

(00:03):
remember him from Episode 38 onmy show way back before we even
had video and we went over a lotof his backstory in that episode
he went to West Point he was acollege wrestler, a salesman for
Procter and Gamble and finally acomedian. And he now has a new
special out titled The salesman,directed by Nate Barr Ghazi and
it's totally free on YouTube.
Very funny stuff. We're going totalk about the special selling

(00:26):
peanut butter offending peopleopening from Mitch Hedberg and
so much more stay tuned.
I'm just trying to check out allthese pictures on your wall

(00:48):
here. Is that Warren Moon,

Greg Warren (00:50):
that is Warren Moon Warren Sapp.

Yes, Warren Sapp

Warren Hart at Warren G. Harding. The
president.

Oh, because now I'm getting near Greg Warren.
Although Warren's

okay Warren Ziva.
John, Lesley Ann Warren. WarrenBeatty.
Warren Haynes Chief Justice EarlWarren, and the movie poster
from Warren Piece.

Wow, that's that's pretty good. I want to I
probably would have neverfigured that out. And she told
it to me like that.

Oh, in the corner there. Smokey Warren that's the
Eastern king of Western swing.

Check. Oh, okay.
Yeah, that's I'm gonna have togoogle that one. I'm not a music
guy

like yourself.
Should should know that. Butyeah,

I do like music.
Yeah. Warren Zevon. I know thatone he passed away, though,
didn't he?

Yeah, recently, I think and then, you know, Warren
Haynes was the Allman Brothers.

Is he still around?

I don't think so.

We're losing. It seems like every day. In fact,
today a celebrity died. JerrySpringer dies Jerry Springer,

man, but Lesley Ann Warren is still with us. So
which one is she was in themovie Pure country. She was
nominated for an Academy Awardfor something. Okay. Warren G
Harding. Sad to say he's hepassed away quite a while ago.
Check.

Yeah. Warren Moon.
I know him because he's, he'sfrom Seattle.

I was he really?
Yeah,

he went to U DUB and then he was the he was the
Seahawks like play by play guyfor analysts wherever you call
one of the guys the real

Yeah, look. Yeah.
Big fan of him.

He was good. So this exciting, new special.
How's it how's the reactionbeen? It's already out. Usually.
Like, before they come out andyours is ready for people to
watch right now.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they can go it's it's it's out
came out. It's been out for alittle less than a week. And as
good of a start as I could havehoped for. Yeah, it's, it's
people watched it a lot. It'son. It's on YouTube. It's on
Nate land, YouTube, which is myfriend Nate Barghouti, really
funny comedian doing reallywell, and Nate directed it and

(02:57):
produced it and put it on hisYouTube channel. So

yeah, how does that work? Why is it that you have
YouTube channel? I can'tremember I

do. But I have put zero effort into it. I mean, I
put a lot of effort into likeInstagram, like, you know, I got
followers and a bunch of clipswith a bunch of views, but I
never really did much on myYouTube channel. And Nate's he's
really trying to sort ofcultivate like, a channel for
comedy that's, you know, familyfriendly, something you watch

(03:26):
with your, your kids and stuff.
It's, I hesitate to say thatbecause a lot of people
immediately like, oh, it's gonnabe lame, and I swear, it's not
there's definite edge to it. Butyeah, so Nate's just got the
idea and he produced three onehour specials with different
comics for Yeah, for hischannel. So it's so far so good,

(03:46):
man. He's Yeah, love fans.

Yeah, I watched yours last night. And then I
started it was the other onestarted to play.

I've Oh, Mike Vecchio? Yeah,

that one was good.
The first joke I was like, oh,okay, I'm kind of hooked. And
he's awesome. Is this becauseyours like starts out there's no
intro? And actually, there's notmuch of an outro either, it
starts abruptly is that onpurpose? So that the next one
starts and you don't like haveto like wait or something? There
was no I

mean, I think on this one, I mean, I'm not
exactly sure all the reasonsthat was Nate was kind of hands
off during the editing process,but he we went we had like, you
know, music and me walking tothe stage and and, you know,
welcome Greg Warren and not mesaying thank you. Thank you. And
Nate. It's sort of late in thegame was like, Man, I think this

(04:32):
is better. He goes, I reallylike your opening joke. I think
it's better if we get right toit. Just start with boom,
opening joke. And I was like, Idon't know, man. And then I
watched I was like, Yeah, that'sexactly what I want. And I kind
of like it because, you know,there's probably more people
know who Nate is than they knowme. So there's probably some
people that don't know me. I'vepretty good amount of fans that

(04:54):
have been really supportive, butsome people probably don't know
me and they're like, alright,let's give this three minute See
if we like it and this Joe I getright to the action on this one
there's there you know, there'sit goes pretty fast pretty
early.

Well, yeah. And so that does make sense with
YouTube though because like yeahif they're watching the neighbor
Ghazi thing or the other theother guy the mic guy or
something else Keown, yeahcookie on. He's hilarious, but
or just whatever. Like sometimesalgorithm just picks a video so
they could just pick that video.
Instead of having an intro andpeople go, Oh, I don't know this
guy and then turn it off. Likeit gets right to the joke. And
then they might you might hookthem immediately.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping it. Yeah, I'm hoping
they give it you know, give it10 minutes. And I think they'll,
they'll there'll be and ifthey're not after that, you
know, give it another 10minutes? No, it was good. Yeah.

Some of the stuff I heard of you kind of been honing
this material for a while.

Yeah, I think you heard it because it none of it
has ever been released. Live.
You saw me in Phoenix, and thatwas kind of I, I had gotten at
that point. I was like, Okay,I'm ready to do a special now
let's spend a six monthspolishing it. So when I saw you
a little while ago in Phoenix, Iwas getting close. Maybe not

(06:04):
quite that far down the line.
But I was like, I know what thebeats are now I just got to
polish it. And, you know, makeit a little funnier. Yeah, you.
You definitely saw a lot of thatin Phoenix. I've been working on
this for a while.

Yeah, no, it was good stuff. Especially like,
yeah, the like, I remember thelike, because I remember the
jokes because I rememberlaughing. I was like, Oh, this
insurance card joke. I was like,yeah, yeah. So tell me tell me
the story about or telling myaudience because I already know
the story a bit about how youwere, you didn't do caffeine for
like three months before this.
And then and then on the day ofthe special, then you have like
Starbucks. That's a reallyinteresting strategy. So then it

(06:42):
really affected you. Yeah, I

mean, I mean, I feel sort of silly. Talking to
you about this, because I knowwho you interview. It's like all
the like, insane rock stars. Andall these guests. It's so and
I'm here talking about how Ireally use caffeine to get me
going. Like, these guys arelike, yeah, man, we did a pile

(07:06):
of cocaine. I'm talking about,you know, mostly music. But I
mean, I, I have trouble sleepingsometimes. And I was like,
Alright, I'm gonna get off ofcaffeine. Almost all the time. I
have trouble sleeping the nightbefore a big performance. And I
used to worry about it. BecauseI was like, Man, I feel
horrible. I got no sleep lastnight. And I'm not going to be

(07:30):
able to concentrate and I'mgoing to perform poorly. But
over the years, I've learnedactually, I'm pretty good. Even
when I feel bad. Sometimes Iperform better, you know, you
sort of just let it go. And justdon't try too hard. But I was
like, Okay, I'm probably notgoing to sleep the night before.
And I didn't man and I was offcaffeine for like three months.

(07:50):
And I knew that day I was gonna,I was gonna I was gonna have
caffeine and it was gonna giveyou a little jolt because I've
done it before. I was off of itat one point for more like
medical reasons. And I had a bigaudition for something. And I
was like, Man, I'm drinkingcaffeine. I was like, This is
amazing. I feel like Superman.
Do you ever get off of caffeinefor three months and then get on
it. It's the first few days arepretty crazy. So I waited till

(08:12):
like kinda when we were goingdown to do, you know, blocking
and wardrobe and makeup andstuff. And my buddy Tim was with
me who opened for the specialTim Convy. And Tim and I, we go
down and there's a Starbucks ina target, like right by the
hotel and by the venue. So Iwalk into the target. I'm like,

(08:35):
Dude, I gotta get some I go getme a venti Emperor's cloud tea.
Okay, which they put two teabags in there. And as I get me
two extra tea bags, because Iwant to do this again. I'm going
to have it now to wake up. Andthen in between we taped to
shows us again between the firstand the second show. I'm going
again. All right, and, and I'mgonna get I'm gonna get more
caffeine. So I go do my stuff.

(08:58):
And I come back and Tim hands methis tea. I'm like, Thanks,
dude. Uh, where's the where'sthe other two tea bags? He's
like, they're in there. What areyou talking about? Because
they're in the tea. I thoughtyou wanted me to tea. Like, I
had, like it's, I don't know.
1620 hours tea with for tea bagsand hair. Which if you haven't

(09:19):
had caffeine for a long time.
It's like jet fuel at thatpoint. So yeah, I felt great,
man. So you

feel great. So you don't get see I'm kind of like a
nervous person though. I feellike the caffeine could have an
effect on me where I get reallynervous. Like it would
essentially

Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I was so tired at that point
that I was like, I don't care ifI'm nervous. I'd rather be
nervous than She'll miss. Okay.
Yeah, so it worked out man.

Ya know it when I look back when I heard that
story after watching thisspecial night when I think back
ago, he wasn't really highenergy.

Yeah, was probably maybe I was too amped up now
that I thought it was great. Itwas awesome.

I like you had a joke about a restaurant where
the seats are uncomfortable thatI was like, oh yes, somebody's
bringing this up. That is such apet peeve of mine. Oh, yeah.
Like sports bars like acomfortable seat. I don't know
if you go to sports bars everbut yeah, I do man of course
party like you're gonna watchlike usually like maybe at least
a half of a game a couple hours.
And yeah, when you get thoselike metal See, I don't know

(10:25):
that. There's like this newtrend, where all the trendy
places have these like, justmetal seats with no back on it.
I think that's what you're gonna

see. Ya know, back man. Yeah, when I walk in there
and like, we're not eating here.
You know, I came to have a mealand that strengthen my core. You
know, like, I want to relax. Idon't like I don't like any of
the high top tables either. Youknow, I like if for some reason
I don't like a high top table.

See, I like the high tops. If there's a comfy
seat, there's a cheap, you havelong legs. So I like being able
to stretch my legs. I

don't care for man.
You put me in a high top. I feellike I'm a child at a high
chair. And guess what? I'm gonnaI'm gonna throw my vegetables on
the floor in the restaurant likeI did when I was a child. Yeah,
yeah. I'll tell you anotherchair on a like Chuck. I don't
like the you go to a coffeeshop. And they have the chair
with the the slatted seat, youknow, it's like, like a piece of

(11:21):
wood and then a space. And thena piece of wood and then a space
instead of one giant piece ofone. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it feels
like at any given point half ofyou is falling through the
chair. And I think when theythey were like, Hey, we have
enough wood to make 20 Goodchairs. Or 40 Cheap chairs.

(11:42):
Let's make 60 Really cheapchairs I think is what's going
on there. Yeah, and

that's funny though, because too because
sometimes those coffee shopsthey have the really ill ever
seen the ones with a reallyelaborate chairs like the like
the velvety like really don'teat much. It's much

too much. Those give me that Starbucks has got
good, man. They get there.
They're utilitarian. They'resturdy. Although the coffee shop
I've been going to to writelately as they got a couple of
rockers. They got some ricketytables, you know, that are back
and forth. jokes don't come outall that well on those.

Now. That's bad too. Yeah. You mentioned you
mentioned peanut butter a lot.
JIF Peanut Butter in the specialDid you sponsorship from them or
anything?

Nah, man. I mean, that was my old employer. Chuck
I worked for Jeff. Yeah, it wasProcter and Gamble,

if you like would have reached out to them and
said, Hey, I'm gonna I did abunch

of smokers owns Jeff now they don't own Procter
and Gamble doesn't own them. Andthis guy I know an old friend of
mine that I worked with atProcter and Gamble and what the
college with is like the numbertwo guy at Smuckers he's the
Chief Operating Officer JohnBrazi. So I you know, he's a
good friend, and I was like,Hey, dude, I just distinct just
came out. It's, it's like a 20minute commercial for you guys

(13:03):
in the middle of my special.
And, you know, and he watchedit. He's like, Dude, it's
awesome. Anyway, so he then hetexted me on Sunday. He's like,
Hey, man, you're not gonnabelieve who watched this
special. I was like who he goes.
Mark Smucker. The CEO ofSmuckers watched my watch my
special man so you know, it'sroyalty is watching this stuff

(13:26):
now, Chuck, but they

didn't give you a kickback for it can give you get
some free peanut butter oranything? Or,

you know, Chuck, I can't believe you even asked me
something like that, man. Youknow, I'm not some sort of
corporate shill. Okay. I'm anartist. I like to I'm
independent. I'm not going to goout here. And you know, I'll
take a couple of T shirts. Soyeah. Like a hoodie, like a GIF
hoodie. Or maybe even a littleproduct? I'll I wouldn't mind
you know, mine. A two pack of 40ounce to pack a club pack with

(13:54):
Jeff. I don't mind that. Youknow, what

if they even better than all this? What if they just
shared the special on theirTwitter? I bet their Twitter has
a big following.

Yeah, man. I was actually hoping for that. You
know, I'm gonna look right nowand see if they've done that
man. Yeah,

they should have or you should have tagged him or
something. I mean, you mentionedI mean, you sell the peanut
butter in the special. I feellike you're still selling it
like

they have not done yet. But hold on. Let me see.
And Jeff has said anything.
Well, they would have tagged youI would assume, right? You don't
know these guys, man. Really?
Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I was just thinking thatwas watching was like, Man, he's
really like given them I don't

know, man. Kudos like they should give and share.
Here you go. First of all, Jeffhas less followers than I do.

They do. That's yeah, that's really bad. To
their

last week. There last week was like in 22, man.
Wow. Okay, so I don't know. Letme let me take a look at there.
What else should we look atInstagram? Maybe? Maybe? They're
maybe they're they've gottenwith the times. Hold on.

Maybe Yeah, I don't know. That's where you think
like a billion dollarcorporation would buy followers
or something bots or they'd havesome

Jeff brands do a pretty good with Instagram.
Okay. Yeah, Jeff brands up theygot 100,000 followers. Okay. You
should at least

like post a clip. I don't know if he posted a clip
up where he mentioned their nameand tag them and maybe they'd
share it. I mean, I feel like,

Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah,

I don't know. Yeah.
It was interesting. I heard youtalking about when you worked
there for when it was Procterand Gamble, or whatever. And
like, like, all you talked aboutwas, and this is like, this hit
home for me, because it was likewhen you talked about what you
were doing for lunch every day,and when will you retire? And I
was like, Oh my God, that soundslike when I worked in education,
it was the same thing every day.

Where did you say that? Wonder where you heard
that? Because I don't say thatthat often. But that is exactly
what it was. That's when I knewI had to quit because I was
like, I'm 33 years old. And allI was talking about was like,
Yeah, where you guys want to goto lunch? You know? And that's
all I look forward to. That'sall I thought about was lunch.
Yes. And then, you know, in theafternoon be like, hey, what's
our retirement is all stockbased. So that what's the stock

(16:10):
at man? You know, you thinkit'll split a couple more times
when you guys think you'll beable to retire? I'm like, Dude,
I'm 33 I'm not. I did in 30years, I can retire. Well, I'm
gonna spend my life talkingabout one show in retirement. So
yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

And I think like, I remember for me, I remember just
being around some some peoplethat that were retired, and
they're like, in their 60s, andI'm going, is this I'm really
waiting for this. Like, whycan't I leave? Now? Why can I do
what I want to do? Now? I don'thave to wait till I'm in my 60s
Like, right, right. Same thoughtthat you're just sitting around
waiting? And then life's gonnabe great. I'm like, No, that's

(16:46):
not how it should be.

Yeah, yeah, that's kind of and I don't mean it.
Like I actually did enjoyworking there. I mean, there's
it was pretty cool place towork. But yeah, I I quickly got
pretty passionate about comedy.
I mean, I was not that good fora while. And so I was like,
Yeah, I love this. But, I mean,it doesn't work. And then I
started getting pretty good.

(17:10):
Towards the end. And I was like,I think and I did this. I did a
gig with Kevin Pollak is uh, oh,yeah. Yeah, really cool, dude.
And he was, yeah, impressions,great actor. He had a great
comic he was, had just done the,you know, a few good men within
the last several years at thetime. And I got to work with

(17:30):
him. And at the end of the week,he was really cool to me. He's
like, Hey, man, you know, you'reyou could do this for a living,
you know, you could you could dothis full time, you know, if you
tried it, and at that point, Idid go back to work. But I think
on some level, I knew, like, I'mnot long for the consumer
products. World. I'm gonna I'mgonna go try this. Yeah, when

(17:51):
you're

opening for a guy who's in the Oscar winning
movie, I mean, yeah, that'slike, and he's telling you not
just the open forum, but he'stelling you you can do this like
you got he was

really cool about it, man. He was he was a great
guy. Yeah, really cool.

Yeah. When you wouldn't know when you did
sales. Was there fun in in like,making a big sale? Like, like,
cuz I feel like we're kind ofboth still in sales. Like you
selling the comedy me sellingthe podcast? Yeah, you sales
techniques or tips that youlearned? Oh, God.

I mean, most of them. Were not. I mean, one of
the things that I liked theolder guys would do, they would
they would do this thing whereif the buyer said no. They'd
say, Okay. What's your mainobjection? Like to what you
know? And then they would tellhim, they go, hey, what if I
could show you a way to handlethat? Would you still be

(18:42):
interested? You know, here's thetrick with that one, Chuck. You
need to be able to show themaway. Like, what if I could show
you

show me? Show me how you'd fix it? And then then
you freeze?

Yeah, show me. What if I could show you how to
maintain 30% margin and be theprice leader the market? Would
you be interested? Yeah, show meaway. I'm saying what if, like,
what? That would be pretty cool,wouldn't it? You know, like I
I'm a I'm a peanut buttersalesman. I'm not a magician

(19:19):
here. Okay. Yeah, so that was,yeah, I mean, there. I'm trying
to get the other salestechniques. The assumptive
close, you know, like, don't askthem if they want it. Ask them
when they want it.

I think that's what my gym did to me. I think they
were just Okay, so you're readyto sign up, but I was like, oh,
like, I guess I guess I'm yeah,you

fell for it? Yeah.
Did they do we'd be like, Hey,these are the new is the new
GIF. reduce fat. Would you likethis delivered on Monday or
Friday? Maybe like, I don't wantthat crap on Monday or Friday. I
don't like you You don't likeyour company? I think I'm gonna
get rid of the whole productline. You want me to do that on

(20:04):
Monday or Friday? Yeah, yeah, Imean, I I guess I'm sort of I
don't know if I'm, I think Ihave like a maybe a little bit
better business sense, but Ijust don't. I don't think I'm
particularly persuasive.

You don't so you don't try to sell your stuff to
like people or to friends orwhatever or tried to.

Now I mean, I mean, I think with comedy that, you
know, if you're out there reallytrying, it's like, people are
gonna knock on this guy,obviously. It's terrible. Yes.
Did like, trick me intowatching. I mean, I you know, I
talk

to people. It's not a lot of marketing, just because
there's so much stuff in thecomedy market. I mean, seems
like every day is got a newspecial. So how do you don't
have to stand out? And

I hope it's just the jokes, man. I honestly, I
hope it's just like, not thatthere's not a ton of great
comics out there. But I hopewhat I'm doing, you know, is a
little different. And I'vedeveloped a style and I hope
they like it. I mean, I don'tthink there's a lot of guys
doing peanut butter material outthere. Chuck. Top five peanut

(21:18):
butter comics working today.
Really?

Well. Yeah. And also, like you said, I mean,
your stuff is relatively cleanand for families, and I feel
like that is definitely there'shuge market for that for sure.

Yeah, I hope so.
Yeah. I, and I'm not it's funnypeople like, oh, man, that's the
that's the, you know, thehighest form of comedy. Like,
it's not, like there's guys thatare really dirty that I think
are some of the funniest peopleI've ever seen. They're
geniuses. It's just not mystyle. It's not really what I
do, but I enjoy all differentkinds of comments.

Oh, yeah, me too.
Who's your favorite like dirtycomedian right now? Um

I it's funny you say dirty because I like I mean,
I guess David tell is is notlike clean it but he's, it's not
like it's not offensive. It'sjust silly when it you know,
it's like kind of it's sillywhen he but yeah, he's he's
certainly not clean. And thatguy's a he is a genius. You

(22:19):
know, there's there's, if yousay like, that's not the highest
form of comedy. You're crazy.
That guy's he's incredibly good.

Yeah, he is really good. This doesn't seem like
there's a lot of like, like, Iremember in the 80s when it was
like Dice Clay came out. And itwas like, really risque. Yeah,
not a lot of people like thatright now. Although like Dave
Chappelle is considered super,like edgy material that he's
doing. It's not necessarily it'sdirty, but just like the
material is politicallyuncorrect it?

Sure Sure. Sure.
Yeah. And I like a littleprofanity here and there. When
it's appropriately used. I don'tbut I you know, I don't do it
really anymore. But not for along time. But I enjoy some of
it. Yeah. Especially if you'redoing like a character if you're
talking about somebody, andthere's dialogue between you and
the character and the characterwould speak like that sometimes
that I enjoy that one that

it can be more powerful when you do drop a
swear word, because said itevery 30 seconds, and it's like
it doesn't kind of loses themeaning. Yeah, I did. Sorry. Go
on.

I don't really you know, I haven't done the last
several things that I put out,there's really nothing on there.
And I would say 95% of time youcome to see me at a show you're
not going to hear any anythingbut every now and then I don't
really show off throwing innothing. Every a little bit just
a little bit and I sometimes Iregret it. Sometimes it's when I

(23:46):
forget. And somebody in theaudience does something and I
lose my concentration a little.
Oh, does

that happen a lot like you? You call? Are you
pretty good at crowd? I can'tremember like if you did crowd
work at that one.

I think I'm pretty good at it. I don't I don't do
it that often. You know, there'sguys that you know, taking it to
an entirely different art formlike Harlan Williams or Ian bag
or Bob zany or something JimmyPardo like those. It's a whole
different thing. But I yeah, Ido it. And I think I used to be
like, I'm not doing any of it.
Because it's I'm a purist andI'd rather work on new material.
And then I'm like, No, I thinksome level of spontaneity is is

(24:21):
good for a show. My friend MikeBirbiglia sort of convinced me
of that he was like, guy that Istarted with, and Mike's really,
really funny and he had, helikes to incorporate just a
little bit of, you know, alittle bit of spontaneity, a
little crowd work into the show.
So now I'm, you know, I do thatevery now Especially now, when

(24:44):
I'm like learning. I don't haveI have to start over you know, I
just put this thing out. I needto write another hour. And
sometimes you can find a fewavenues with the crowd. It's
like, okay, I got this premise.
It's three quarters there. Letme do it. And then sort of let
it breathe a little bit and seeif the crowd takes me in a
specific different direction.

(25:07):
Sorry. Yeah, no,

because I think sometimes that's those are the
best clips that I see online islike when people are being
spontaneous, because I felt likethat, to me, that is the hardest
kind of comedy to do. Becauseyou have to think immediately
you have to think of the joke assomebody saying it within a
second or two, you can't youknow, if you could sit down and
write, I mean, you could takehours, that's a little different

(25:29):
than be able to think within asecond or two.

I disagree. Like I yeah, I would say. Now, there's
guys that do it. And there'sguys that have taken it to
another level. And it's likethey made an art form out of it.
But for the most part, I thinkany comic that's been working
for 10 years can do crowd workand do it pretty well. It's a
skill is less than an art. NowDavid, tell it like David tell

(25:55):
at the comedy cellar at 1230. Atnight, it's an art. I mean, he
It's incredible what he does,but I think for the most part,
it's just like, man, it'severybody can do it. I'd rather
hear what it what did you sitdown? What what did you think of
that nobody else thought of,because if you took all the
crowd work and lined it upagainst each other, you'd be
like, Hey, man, there's somestuff that's pretty amazing. But
it's also like, I see a patternhere where it's a lot people are

(26:17):
talking about a lot of the samethings. So yeah, I tend to I
liked I think it's I like tohave a little bit of in the
show, but I think the my thepure joy that I get from
watching comedy is like a guythought of something for a long
time. And twist it in a way thatI would have never thought you
could twist it.

Okay, yeah, that's a good point. Because I wonder,
too, I mean, obviously,comedians have like, lines kind
of set up for like a heckler orsomething that they

read is garbage.
Like that's just old school.
There are guys that truly, youknow, they'll say something, the
crowd will say something andthey'll, you know, when I'm in
the zone, I think for a minuteor a minute, I think for about
two seconds, then I say whateveris off top my head. And
sometimes it's I'm like, wow,that that was actually that was
pretty good. You know. And Iwatched a lot of guys that do
that. And I think it's cool. Butagain, to me, the thing that's

(27:10):
really hard to do is like let'sthink of something that nobody's
thought of before and try to tryto make it funny. Ya know?
Located. Yeah.

Isn't it amazing?
If they think of that thing onthe spot? Yes, that happens
sometimes. Like do you everwatch? I don't know if you're
familiar with Faheem.

fan. I know who he is. But I haven't seen a lot of
his stuff, man.

Oh my god, you gotta watch his channel. He has
he does these weekly shows now.
It's called for him works onstuff. Oh, yeah. New Material
every week. And it's allphenomenal. But wow. One where I
feel like he was making up thejoke. Like he thought of it as
it was in the moment. Like hewas like talking about teaching
or something. And he was talkingabout how when they would bring
in the the old TVs remember backin the day? And yeah, yeah, this

(27:53):
whole bit and it felt like hejust thought of that on the
spot. I could maybe it wasmaterial he had done before. But

I fell never know.
You know, I bet you some of itis I mean, you know, you'll
never know because good karmacan make you think, Well, like I
just thought of that like, butsometimes it is, you know, just
true. Like I just thought of it.
Yeah, that's I know, that seemedlike that I would want to hear
about because I've never heardanybody talking about those OLED

(28:22):
TVs? That's

Oh, it was Yeah, I have to find that he does so
much new material, like how muchmaterial? Do you try out? Do you
try out new material every week?

Man. Maybe I don't know. But I should. I don't know
if I do it every week. But Igotta tell you like it. Unless
there's some people that arelike next level geniuses. But I
would say if you're on average,if you're cranking out a new 20
to 30 minutes every year thatthat's good that you know, that

(28:53):
means when you when you at theend of the year you have 20 or
30 minutes, it's like okay, thisis really good material. It's
solid. It'll work on a specialor an album. And I'll keep it
you're way ahead of the game.
Your way I'm now there's guysthat can put an hour out a year
and that's what it's hard. It'sreally really hard. Yeah, it's
it's real hard.

Yeah, cuz it seems like the new wave is these guys
that are I mean, maybe maybe I'mjust seeing the clips but so
like Mark Normand I feel like Iwatched his stuff he's watching
great man clips all the time andit's like it seems like it's
mostly new stuff it's crazy

yeah, I yeah, I mean marks a friend and one of
the best guys out there andreally good at crowd work too.
But marks a joke i i guaranteemarks not putting it out. You
know he's not putting out anhour every six months. I bet you
it's every he may be a guy thatevery year or every couple years
which is insane. Joe list isstarting to do like a big bunch

(29:51):
of material but yeah, to put outstuff that I think is like it's
worthy of a special there ifyou're doing a new special every
year Louis had it for a whileand people were like, This is
insane. And he even I think hassaid I probably should have
waited on some of it you know,and but most guys to have an
hour of really really goodmaterial every It's nuts. It's

(30:13):
almost impossible but Begley,I'll put it out every two, three
years, maybe something likethat. And he's, he's a
workhorse, man.

So yeah, cuz you're, you're the salesman is
2023 And then the last 120 20Okay, so it's three years. So
three years is kind of your goalfor

three is Yeah, three or four. And I think I'm
getting, you know, I think I'm,hopefully I'm getting better. So
I should be able to do three iswhen I sort of have been able to
I put it out when it's aboutready. And I can tell about six
months ahead. I'm like, Okay, Ithink I can figure this out. Oh,
yeah. But, um, yeah, I don'tknow, I had a lot of time to sit

(30:50):
around and during the pandemicand think that's true. Yeah.

And then I like I think, because the other ones
you did were more albums. Andthe last two have been video and
they're like, professionalproduced.

Yeah, yeah, we Yeah, I really liked the way
they shot this. Yeah. Yeah.

That's cool. Well, you talked I mean, we talked
about how you're, you're moreclean and not offensive, but
it's funny that you actually didoffend somebody with your nurse
practitioner joke. Somebody whowas a nurse practitioner. Yeah.
Yeah. crazy to me. Yeah.

I got a I got a message from somebody. The
response has been overwhelminglypositive. But you know, you'll
get a couple and I got one thatshe started with. You are
despicable. I've been a fan fora long time. And I'm a nurse
practitioner crazy. She's a fan.
Not she's not anymore. She's notChuck. anymore. Yeah, she's
she's resigned from the GregWarren fan club. But she's,

(31:41):
she's now out to No, I don't Iand I always try to play it's,
you know, like, kinda like,straight with those. We I just
respond. Hey, you know, I, thelast thing I wanted to do is
make somebody feel bad withcomedy, and I don't. But if you
can't see that I'm kidding. Onthis, like, it's a joke. You
know, it's a joke. And usually,maybe not as much in this album

(32:07):
on this special, but usually theperson has taken most of the
hits in the specialist me like,I'm pretty self deprecating. So
yeah, I'm kidding. And I would Ibet most nurse practitioners are
like, that's, that's funny. Youknow, why live? And the most
people that people will laugh atthe most aren't nurses?

I would think so.
Yeah. I mean, if somebody's ajoke, well, podcasters I'd
probably think it's funny. Like,I would probably get it.

Yeah, man. It's like, okay, because it's, I
mean, usually you're findingsome something that's sort of
true, and you're twisting itaround and that exact Exactly.
That's a joke. Maybe what a jokeis, yeah, unless she maybe she's
not cheating, like jokes. Ormaybe she was in a bad mood that
day. Yeah. Maybe it's somebodythat I've dated in the past. And

(32:53):
she hates me.

I was interesting to her you talked about? Did you
say that you forgot a line inthe special on one of the jokes
like it like, like one like acouple of words or something
could make a difference in howthe audience perceives.

I mean, I know we did two shows, and most of it is
from I think the second show,but we saw them peppered in a
little bit from, you know, thefirst show, and one of my
buddies, Chris Conde came up tome after the show, the first
show, he's like, Hey, that oneit was it was the nurse stuff.
He goes, Hey, you messed up aline there. And I was like, I
did you say you said this. I'mlike, oh, yeah, that that wrecks

(33:30):
the joke. So I had to rememberto fix that in the second show.
And I did fix that in the secondshow. But then there was this
line of this peanut butter joke.
And I think the the punch linewas like, type two peanut, goo
choo choo, or something likethat. And I just flub that on
the first show. I just did. AndI was like, Ah, screw it. I'll

(33:52):
get on the second show. Youknow, they still laugh. But I
was like, I wouldn't besomething I want to put out. So
the second show, you know, it'stowards the end, I just did an
hour and it was great.
Everything worked. And I'mkilling. And I just kind of I
was a little bit slap happy.
Maybe the caffeine wore off. ButI was like, towards that end. I
was like, I'm a little goofyhere. And I just kind of I

(34:13):
flubbed it again. And, and thenat that point, I didn't have
another show. So I'm like, Hey,guys, I hate to do this. But I
did say that joke over.

Okay. And you actually did that in this? Like,
I

mean, I'm letting you guys behind the curtain
here, which I probably shouldn'tdo. But yeah, I was like, I need
to say this joke over. Okay. Andyou guys, you know, you need to
pretend like you just heard itfor the first time. Well, this
is one joke. This is one. Yeah.
So I say it. And I mess it upagain. I mess it up again. And
at this point they're loving it,you know, because the audience

(34:49):
was it. And then I think like onthe fifth time I got it and they
gave me like a standing ovationon the job. And I'm like, well,
that's not gonna work eitherbecause nobody's getting the
joke wasn't that good? Like,they're not gonna believe that
people gave me a stand up astanding ovation on type two
peanut goo choo choo. Like that.

(35:09):
You know, like that's.

That is funny.
Yeah, that's hilarious. So yeah,I mean, I don't know, I kind of
want to rewatch it.

Yeah, man, you know, again, I'm letting people
behind the curtain here at Chuckand I hope it doesn't, you know,
people are like, Ah, this guy'sa fraud. You know? No,

I mean, that's part of the entertainment business
like whatever.

Yeah, it was. I mean, I think it happens on most
comedy specials. There's someguys. Yeah, I think Rory Scovel
did one that was purely likeimprov new material. That guy's
you know, he's unbelievableperformer and really good at
innovation. And, um, yeah, hedidn't want to, and it was, it
was pretty cool. But yeah, Ithink that was a fun moment. And

(35:54):
then I think like, you know, youwear the same shirt on both
shows, because you might cut insomething from both shows. I
think I got done with the show.
And Nate was that theirdirector, and he came on stage
and I was like, Hey, he came onstage. And then I got I went
offstage to the bathroom, and Igo the bathroom, I come back.
And Nate's like, Man, you'vebeen gone for 45 seconds, and

(36:17):
you have water all over yourshirt. We can't have that and it
doesn't look the same. So here'sus just ripping on me to the
crowd. They're like this idiotlike schmooze guy is 45 seconds.
And he's getting looks like, youknow, a complete slob.

continuity errors?

That's what they call continuity. Yeah,

yeah. Well, what about all the

shave the mustache for the second show? And

like all the arms and the arms and the likes? How
do you get rid of those? Like,do you have to practice? I don't

I mean, honestly, if you watch Sema, and you're
just picking this special apart,Chuck, it's gonna be nothing
after you get done with it.

No, but I just meant in general, not even when
I looked at

it is a little bit I have somewhat of a deliberate
delivery style, like I just didthere. Like, like, I do say,
like, and I do say, um, I do,just asking because I do the
same, probably more than I wouldcare. But I was I also think
it's part of how I talk. Andrather than get rid of them all,
if you get rid of it all, nowyou have this robot and people

(37:24):
don't want to watch robots doit. That being said, there's
probably three or four that Iwish I could go back and take
out but I'm like, couple justlike I did there. And I don't
want to do this, you know, I waslike, Look, this is who I am.
It's every night in the clubwhen I say that. So let's not
completely make it somethingthat it hasn't been for the last
three years. That's the nicething about stand up comedy. You

(37:46):
go out every night and you trythese things. And you the
audience will vote yes or no.
And if they keep votingyesterday, okay, this is
probably a pretty funny thing. Ishould put this in. So yeah, I
think every now and then itbecomes a little bit of an
affectation, which I do not carefor in myself. But some of it is
just the way that I speak.

(38:06):
Right? No, I

think it's more natural because I I made that
decision a long time ago. Like,do I edit my podcast to edit out
all the hums and ahhs of like,No. And it's like, dude, that
would take so long. And thenit's like you said, I feel like
it's robotic. If you do that

much. Yeah, yeah.
Then you have some AI special orwhatever. Yeah. I don't think
so. It took me a while to learnthat it really did. Somebody
told me like, human beings makemistakes. Nobody wants to watch
a robot, they want to watch ahuman being exactly the only
time it seems too polished.

Right? The only time I sometimes do is if I'm
trying to do a clip of thepodcast and it's too long. So
I'll try to take some of thepauses and stuff. Squeeze it
into a minute. So it'll fit.

Yeah, I've done some of that. I tend to like to
start. I got a couple of buddiesthat are writers, one in
particular, and the writers kindof like, a lot of clips for me,
because I was not in on the clipworld until about six months
ago. Oh, yeah, that's huge.
Yeah. And I had some that havegone crazy. And I, it's cool on
what I learned with a clip,start, like, you can start in

(39:12):
the middle of the joke. A lot oftimes, don't take the audience
for idiots. A lot of times youstart in the middle. And if you
start at the right place in themiddle, they'll they'll
contextually be like okay, Iknow what happened before this.
I know what happened beforethis.

Well, especially if you have a good thumbnail or
title or whatever. And if youhave a caption so that because a
lot of people are on their phoneand they have the sound off. So
yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a bigone. It's kind of nice, though.
So then when you finish aspecial now you can start new
stuff because you get sick ofdoing the same jokes because
it's kind of like, you know,musicians I interview I'm always
like, they gotta be sick ofplaying that song. They've been

(39:50):
playing for like 30 or 40 years.
Yeah. So now you don't have todo that as comedian like once
you retire a special like,you're pretty much done with
that material right?

To an extent, I mean, I think, like, if you come
see me this weekend in Iowa,you'll see, I don't know 1015
brand new minutes, you'll seemaybe some stuff that didn't
make it into the special thatyou know that I shot, but you
never saw some stuff that gottaken out, you'll see something

(40:24):
that wasn't this, I think I'llstill do the peanut butter stuff
because it's a, there's somejokes that I didn't do the
special people like talkingabout it, even if they've seen
some of the jokes. And thenyou'll see some, like sort of an
assortment of old bits thatsometimes they want to hear or
sometimes they just haven't beenaround to watch me. I wish I
could tell you hey, man, Ialready have a new hour. I
don't. But I can if you watchthis special I did in Dayton.

(40:48):
And there was a guy that was inthe front row. And he he had
just watched it on his phone 10minutes before he sat down.
Because I go, Hey, has anybodyjust see this special? Because
it just came out? He's like Ihave I'm like, Okay, I don't
know about sketches. And I waslike, okay, and I hadn't thought
about it. And I was like, Okay,I know what I'm gonna do. I'm
gonna do some stuff that'sspecial, but only like the

(41:09):
peanut butter material. So yeah,I think it's, I'm kind of
looking forward to it right now.
I need to get back to work. Andit's different every time. I
don't like my dad this morningwas like, well, what's the next
one going to be about? I'm like,I have no idea. I know. I mean,
ask me in a year I can. I'll tryto think of as many funny
things, as I say and see whichones the funniest or do three or

(41:33):
four of them sort of linkedtogether. And then you're like,
Okay, I think this is what thetheme is. But for right now,
it's just any funny thought I'veever had and not done on stage.
I'm going to use.

Yeah, that's good.
No, it's cool. How yours havelike a theme like the sales. It
was all about the sales job inthe peanut butter. That was like
the huge. It was all connectedmostly to that.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Thanks, man. Yeah. Yeah, you're

talking about like your friendship, like I was.
It's crazy how these all thesecomedians that you're friends
with, like So Nate burger. Ididn't know you guys. How do you
know Nate Markazi. Like he'shuge.

Nate, we did a we did a thing together for country
music television. Like, when wasit that was maybe 2006 or seven
or something like that. And hewas young back then. And he but
he was you could tell this guy'sreally good. So we did. That's

(42:31):
where I met him. And then Imoved to New York, in 2012. And
I was there for four years. AndNate was living there for a good
part of that. And I you know,I'd see him around and we do
some stuff together. Yeah,really good guy. really
generous. You know, that's, thisis kind of really cool. What
he's doing. Yeah, well, they

it seems like everyone says that about you.
Like that's what Nikki Glaserwas saying, like, every time you
guys go do something you alwaysbuy her like Starbucks, or food
or whatever. And,

yeah, it's funny. I mean, I, you know, Nikki's like
famous and rich now, but I stillthink of as like my younger
sister, because she's, we wentto the same high school and
Nick, Nicky went to high schoolwith my brother. I have a
brother that's 18 years youngerthan me and Nikki Oh, wow. Him
were in high school at the sametime. So, you know, and I saw
when she first started doingcomedy in St. Louis at the open

(43:18):
mic nights, so yeah, that wasYeah, I don't know. I I had guys
that were pretty good to me. Ithink that's just part of
Stanhope family, especially theroad. Yeah, you know, you get in
LA New York, it's a littledifferent. I don't know how that
all works out. But I know, I'velived in both places. And
there's a really cool community,put on the road. It's back when
I started, like, you go out. Andusually there's an opener who's

(43:41):
lives there. And he's local, andso on. And then there's a
feature actor came in from outof town, he's making about 500
bucks for the week. And if he'slucky, they give him a hotel
room too. And he's got to drivethere on his own. And then
there's a headliner. And as aheadliner, you know, you're
making some money, and you'redoing fine. And a lot of times

(44:02):
the, you know, the headliner wascool to me. You know, I always
feel like you should try to Idon't always do this, but I feel
like you should take the featureact out to lunch, at least, you
know, and, yeah, just and thensome guys were generous with
their time they, you know, theybuy your lunch or, you know, I
remember specific guys justencouraging me early on just

(44:25):
getting Billy bardell Who'sreally doing well here. Billy's
an actor now. I mean, he's acomic too, but he's, you know,
he was Mike and Molly, he was myokay. Yeah, that's why parts
abishola He's got another sitcomthat he's doing great on. But
Billy I remember working withhim in Dayton, Ohio. And I was
just kind of getting started andhe was like, Hey, man, what

(44:45):
you're doing is right. He goes,what you're doing the style that
goes just keep doing what you'redoing. It's good. This is gonna
pay off for you. And he's beencool to me, Larry. The Cable Guy
was cool to me. My whole careerthe he was always nice to me.
Yeah, I saw

that you open for him with Nik Hoff who I had on
the show.

Yeah, yeah, Larry's Yeah. Yeah. You know always been
cool. Everybody. Jeff Foxworthyis a nice guy. Kathleen Madigan
was really really good to me.
Ron White was good to me. Yeah,there's there's a ton of them.

Yeah. Jamie Kaler.
He did my show. He's an actortoo. Oh, yeah. I know, Jamie,
you know him.

From we lived in LA around the same time. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, we? Yeah, we used todo shows together in LA.

And then David, Kepner you're you're friends
with him, too?

I don't know.
David. Yeah. I don't know. I'mfrom the same state.

follows you though.
Does he?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, I don't know him. He'svery funny guy, man. Yeah, I

was like, really close to I thought I was gonna
get him on. Oh, yeah. It waslike him and Pauly Shore. I was
like talking to the people. Andthen they're like, maybe not. I
was like, Yeah, you have some ofthose. Like, you probably had
some of those kind of closecalls in your career where you
almost got an acting gig orcomedy gig or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Didn't get any of them. No, you had
like, I made me out as I was sopositive that I had booked the
Letterman was it was like a, youknow, I did Seth Meyers? I did.
Ferguson was really good to me.
He I think I did it like fourtimes. Yeah. But I was, you
know, I was a big Dave fan. Andevery comedian is to some

(46:24):
degree, and I was living in NewYork. And we did a showcase at
Caroline's and I mean, nobodyhad a good setup. Except for me.
I mean, and it was just thenight that I killed. And it was
good stuff. And, you know,there's managers coming up the
actors. Hey, do you have amanager? You know, like, you
know, when you had a good setthat night, and I call my agent,
I was like, Hey, man, I, we'regoing to we're going to get

(46:44):
Letterman out of this. And itjust didn't happen. I don't know
why just it just didn't happen.
So I've learned not to get too,too low or too high. Just kind
of trying to make it about thejokes. No, that's great. What
about sad, this is a big momentfor me with this special. It's
I'm probably more proud of itthan anything I've done. And

(47:09):
every it's great because we'reon the internet right now. So
everybody can go watch for freeby just going to YouTube finding
the salesman. I'm sure Chuckwill have a link to it. But yes,
every little bit helps man ifyou watch it and share it or
comment or tell your friendabout it. Every little bit helps
on this stuff. It's I love it.
And I want everybody to see it.

(47:29):
If you like comedy, I thinkyou'll like it.

No, we liked it. We watched it a thumbs up to it.
And I commented I camera what Isaid like kick ass or funny or
something. But yeah, I think Ialways tell my that's great.

Chuck swear, swear in the comments on my clean
comedy special.

No, I don't think I saw her. I think I said Yeah,
yeah, but no, I tell mylisteners to support the guests.
And I think that I think theyare they're trained to do that.
So ya know, especially peoplethat like comedy. What about Joe
Rogan follows you if you'venever done?

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, I was just because I was looking at your
Instagram. I was like, and he'sgot a lot of connections.
Because I just,

I It's funny because I Joe and I worked
together. This is when I wasstill selling peanut butter and
Cincinnati. Wow, Joe was likeme, I think he was still on
what's that great sitcom, NewsRadio, video. And, and I was
like, just an opener. And Joecame through Cincinnati and he

(48:30):
was great, man. He was reallyreally nice to me. Really nice
to me, man. Very encouraging andwas like, just a cool dude. And
he was on his way at that point.
Obviously, he was on a sitcom.
But he was nobody knew he wouldgo on to be like, the kingmaker
in comedy. So Joe was he was hewas really cool. Yeah. And
funny, dude. Always. I alwaysliked him.

Yeah, I love his podcasts. Like, I think I like
his I like his podcast, morethan his comedy is good, too.
But like, his podcast, some ofthose discussions he has are
just fascinating to me. Like hehas really interesting people on
and just yeah, he Yeah, it'sweird how

he it's amazing how a guy that's a stand up comic is
turned into like the world'sgreatest listener, you know? I
mean, like, yeah, he really was,yeah, he really draw stuff out
of people. And you know, he's,he's a great interviewer. And I,
you know, that part of itprobably isn't an accident. He's
had so many different roles. Hewas that he was great. And that

(49:22):
sitcom, and that sitcom waslike, one of the best of all
time, then he does Fear Factor,I think was this thing. And then
and then he kind of would sortof came up with the MMA, and
part of that is, um, you know, Iwrestled when I was in, in
college, so yeah, we talkedabout that lesson. Yeah. So a
lot of the guys I know know,Joe, I still am a big wrestling

(49:44):
fan and I'm not a giant MMA fan.
I don't dislike it. I just, I'mmore about wrestling, but I know
a lot of the Missouri wrestlersthat went on to be do well on
the MMA, and they know, Joe, soI you know, I kind of feel
connected to him through thatway. Yeah, you should

try to get on the show to promote the special
that'd be huge.

Yeah, I mean, you know, trust me, man. We're
always always working on thatstuff, man.

What do you see? I think it's cool that you're,
you're obviously you havesuccess, but you're not at this
like giant level like it's gonnabe weird being like it's real
cool, Chuck. It's

real cool. I'm glad you liked it. Do you think
that's better? Because yeah, I'mgonna get exactly it's so much
better man. No, I think I havethe shot for mediocrity my whole
career Chuck. Yeah. Not at thatlevel

of like the Joe Rogan. I feel like it's just
you're just like waiting to belike Louie CK. Like, you're just
waiting to get cancelled. I'lltake a shot at it. You know, I
didn't give it. You know, Idon't. Okay, well, no, I think
he's a good example. He's a guythat got more famous later in
his career. Like, he's, what washe in his 40s or 50s? When he

(50:56):
really got big?

Probably 40s. Yeah, I bet you Louis and I are
similar ages. Yeah. Yeah, he wascalling me to the little
interaction. I have a Louis.
Yeah.

Yeah, I got he was.
It just sucks to see those guys.
Like try to get people almostfeel like they're trying to
cancel them or whatever. Like,

yeah, and I don't I mean, I

think when you're on the top, yeah.

I mean, I really try not to speak much about
this. But um, why? Cuz I don'tknow. Controversial. Yeah, I
don't like talking aboutanything all that controversial
in my act or publicly. And fromwhat I can see, Louis did some
stuff he shouldn't do, but Idon't think I don't think he
should have been kicked out ofshowbusiness, either. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like the audience sort
of decides it, too, in a waybecause like, I mean, if
there's, if there's an audiencefor him, then then he's gonna
eventually come back becausepeople are gonna want it. But I
guess comedy club owners couldsay, No, we don't want you here.
And

he's doing fine.
Now he's selling. I mean, Louisis doing just fine. But yeah, I
again, I don't know. And none ofus will ever know what happened.
I think he's even. I don't know,I this just from an I don't I
didn't like didn't obsess overit. But I was like, yeah, it
looks like that was not right.
And that was not right. And thatone. I don't know if it's all

(52:17):
the way in. Yeah, I think he didsome stuff he shouldn't have
done. I don't know. I don't knowwhat the punishment should be
for that. But

that's the thing.
It's like the punishment. Yeah.
It's like, because we all makemistakes. And then it's like,
okay, so then should they justnever be a comedian ever?
Because that's what he does.
That's what he's good at. Idon't know. Yeah. I

mean, I don't think that Cosby should ever be a
comedian. You know, you know, I

might be in prison.
I

don't yet. Know Exactly. That's where it's all
sort of gets lumped together.
And I kind of hate talking aboutit. But I also don't want to be
gutless and say, you know, Ican't talk about anything. So
yeah, I think it seems likewhatever. If Cosby did with what
they say did and it seems likethere's a lot of evidence that
he did, and yeah, that's, that'sreally, really bad. I don't see.

(53:04):
And I don't I wasn't in thesituation. Louis did some stuff
that you know, hurt some people.
But I also I don't think it wasanything at all close to what,
you know, Weinstein or, or, youknow, these miserable people

(53:25):
did.

Now those people are like monsters of scary. But
it's interesting. Like, I don'tknow, you, you follow John
Mulaney. And he just had aspecial too. And he did a joke
about Robin Williams. And howpeople have this misconception
that all comedians are dealingwith depression and darkness.
And he's like, it's bullshit.
It's, he's like, yeah, some ofus are fucked up. But you know,
I don't if you saw that joke, orthat specially No, I

didn't see it.
Yeah, yeah, it is. What

is your thought on that? Just that all comedians
deal with darkness? Because youdon't seem like a kind of guy
that gets depressed very oftenor anything like that?

Yeah, I mean, I think I do. But I also think
like, I've had a prettyfortunate set of circumstances
in my life. Yeah, I also get

mixed up with the drugs and stuff, right, that I
know it's gonna

you know, and I have friends that ton of my
friends have gotten, you know,had substance abuse problems. So
yeah, I think I, you know, Icertainly have dealt with the
different levels of depression,but really, I think, I think I
think I'm way more fortunatethan most I had great parents. I

(54:36):
had a lot of as given a lot, alot of great stuff. But yeah,
it's I think it's but and thething is, I think everybody has
those thing. You know, if youget older, you're old enough. I
think everybody's dealt withsomething. And yeah, I do
probably comedy does require youto be pretty introspective. And

(54:56):
so maybe there's a little bitmore of that and I I do think
that, you know, also probablyless today, but back in the day,
like the freedom of it and thelifestyle was perfect if you
wanted to be an alcoholic ordrug,

you know, like it was free drinks on the road and
drinks late nights

and a lot, you know a lot of drugs around especially
at from what I understand in the80s and 90s. And at that point,
man, just get some material, get45 minutes together, the common
clubs were booming, and just youcan go out and work and work for
a long time and get paid prettywell. And then somebody started
figuring out, oh, I need to selltickets to like, I need to I

(55:40):
need I need to be a guy that notonly am I just the guy behind
the microphone, I'm the guy thatyou know, other people really,
really want to go see. And to dothat. I don't think there's some
guys that you know, so myfavorite comedians dealt with
substance use right up to theend, and they put out some of
the most amazing stuff you'llever see. You know how like
Mitch Hedberg. I opened forMitch.

Yeah. Oh, tell me this story. I love Mitch.

All I can tell you is he's one of the sweetest guys
you'll ever meet man. Veryfunny. mean to, you know, but
really cool, man. He was like,he did like, tipped me back
then. And the club which mostheadliners don't do that his
wife was like, hey, Mitch wantedto have this and she gave me
some money and

why? I didn't even know that was the thing.

That man it's basically it's rarely is a
thing. But you know, just thatwas just some random feature.
And Mitch, after the week, Mitchwas like, or Mitch, his wife,
Mitch didn't want to do it. Soshe was like, Hey, hold on a
second. I'm like, what she'slike, Hey, here, this is for
you. And this for you. It's fromMitch. I'm like, Yeah, that's
amazing. And he, you know, hewas interested in like, I think,

(56:47):
man, I think I worked with him.
I don't know. a month, twomonths, three months before he
died. And back in that time, Iwas really trying to get a
Comedy Central special, a halfhour special. And I remember
Mitch was like, Hey, man, Ithink this is gonna be the year
you're gonna get to ComedyCentral special. Are you like he
like he cared enough to beinterested in that. It was
pretty neat. And he was youknow, at that time he was

(57:09):
blowing up, man. I mean, he onetime I saw him by a shot for the
everyone in the crowd. It waslike a 300 seat Comedy Club.
There's 300 people there. AndMitch is on stage. He's like,
hey, I want to buy everybody ashot. And I'm like profitless,
then the waitstaff was like kindof laughing and the managers

(57:29):
like, Haha, and I was like, Hey,he he's doing this. Like, I
know. You think he's kidding.
He's doing this like, no, no, Iwant to buy like, he bought
everybody in the audience a shot

was the same thing.
Or I don't Yeah, I don't know,man. I Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's
crazy. Yeah. His character likethat kind of stone. If you watch
his early stuff, he doesn'treally do the stoner kind of
voice as much. Oh, really? Yeah.
So I wondered like is but isthat how we talked off the
stage? Like he that's just how

I didn't notice a giant difference? I don't I
don't think I noticed a giantdifference. Um, and Mitch, on
and off stage. I think there'sman, there's probably some guys
that are exactly who they areonstage often. But it's rare. I
think everybody, every comedianhas some slightly heightened
version or some people that youknow, are not my favorite comics

(58:21):
are like a cartoon version ofthemselves. But everybody has
some slightly affected versionof themselves. On stage. Yeah.
And you're probably a littledifferent than you are, you
know, just walking around andwhen you're

in good mood when I'm on a path, because I'm like,
somebody's bad mood, you know,like, it's like, oh, that's the
same guy that does.

Yeah, yeah. But Mitch, I don't think Mitch was
that different than his act?
Yeah, he was genuine. You know,his mind. I'll tell you a story
that I heard about Mitch. LinMitch, his wife told it to my
friend Henry Phillips. Mitchwas, uh, he was this was towards
the end and he was like, he justcarried cash. I guess he just

(59:05):
had cash. And they went intolike a Red Roof Inn. And the
retrofitting goes like, hey, Ineed a credit card missus, I
don't have a credit card. I gotcash and you had like, a lot of
cash, which was made, you know,he was making a bunch of money
at the end. And the guy's like,why I can't take that credit
card. Mitch said. Knowing this.

(59:29):
The credit card is representingthis, he said and this is one of
the most genius things I've everheard. He goes, that will be
like if you hired a FrankSinatra impersonator. And Frank
Sinatra showed up and you'relike, No, man, I hired the Frank
Sinatra impersonator.

Like, oh, my god man. Joke is one of his routine.

He did that joke man. And I sort of be I
shouldn't be saying Mitch islike story that somebody should
be making some money. Theyshould be on a documentary
somewhere. It should be Lynntelling the story about me. But
yeah, that is one of thegreatest things. I was like,
That's how his mind worked. Itwas like something that all of
us see. And Mitch sees a littledifferently. And

Chuck Shute (01:00:16):
yeah, it was so great about his comedy. Yeah, it
was just like it was stuff thatyou you could relate to, but
like you hadn't like thought ofit as a joke. It's so yeah, it
was brilliant. I

Greg Warren (01:00:26):
mean, yeah, I was.
I think my first album was withComedy Central records. And the
guy that ran at the time was guynamed Jack Vaughn. And Jackie,
really cool guy. And he, youknow, that back then was CDs.
You just had all these, you'd goin and he was like, yeah, he
goes, what comedians you like,and we're up in Comedy Central.

(01:00:46):
He's like, Yeah, I got, he gaveme a bunch of CDs, you know? And
I was like, well, Mitch, youknow, and I gave, I think I
can't remember what I gave theMitch CD to my mom, and my mom,
like, had to pull the car overat one point. She was laughing
so hard. She told me she likeshe couldn't believe she loved
it. You know, my mom lovedMitch. which always makes me

(01:01:06):
feel good.

That's funny. That reminds me like one time it
wasn't my grandpa's house. And Iwas like going through his
record collection because I wasreally into music at the time.
And I was like, I don't knowthis stuff. And then he had a
Jeff Foxworthy tape and I waslike, Foxworthy, and I asked
him, I was like, Hey, grandpa,can we listen to this? He goes,
Yeah, sure. He put it on. I'venever heard my grandpa laugh so
hard. This is awesome. Yeah, mygrandfather laughing so hard.

(01:01:33):
And I thought it was funny too,because he was all

mad at me. And when I first heard actually, I still
remember as it my cousin augishouse, and I remember them
playing that. And I was like,this is not this is great. And
then yeah, I my dad, I think thefirst time I saw him laugh like
that was he went through the TVshow taxi. With Danny DeVito.
Yeah. He just thought that wasthe funniest thing in the world,

(01:01:57):
man. I remember, just see himjust cracking up the whole time.

Have you ever heard the story of how Danny DeVito
got that job? Oh, yeah. So thisis what I when I was in college,
I took these acting classes, andmy acting teacher told the
story. So I think it's true. Idon't know. But he said that.
Danny DeVito just came in to theaudition. And he started like,
yelling at people and tellingpeople what to do and stuff and
like acting like the characterand then everyone's like, what
was wrong this guy, but that washe was like doing the character.

(01:02:23):
Really? Yeah. And that's how hegot the job.

That's amazing.
That's so cool. Yeah. Right isyeah, those stories like they
work out, you know, one out ofevery 500 times and then you see
me go in there and be like, Hey,man, what are you doing? Get on
here? Should you try like on aship? Do you have a lot of
positions? La in New York, I dida handful here and there. I
remember one time my friendJimmy Dore, who's a comic Iraqi

party loves Jimmy Dore. You're friends with Jimmy
Dore? Totally.

I mean, we YEAH.
Jimmy was great comic you know,he's. So Jimmy and I lived in LA
and I had some hosting audition.
And, you know, they would writecopy for the host. But they'd
have comics. And so I and Jimmysay, Hey, man, what they really
like, it's just write your owncopy for like, these jokes is
some writer and they don't putmuch into it. Just write your

(01:03:14):
own jokes. Make them funny. Andyou know, you'll be better than
that, you know, so, so I walk inthere. And they're like, Okay,
and then I start doing I startdoing to do my jokes. And this
guy's like, he lets me go forlike 30 seconds. Hey, man. He
goes, What are you doing? I gotI put my own jokes in there.
He's like, Yeah, man. Don't dothat, man. Don't do that. Just

(01:03:37):
do the stuff that's on the page.
Thanks a lot, Jimmy. Thank you.
Yeah. So it's gonna be withfucking with you know, he wasn't
he was just the thought thatwas. I mean, a lot of cases.
They do want that. But I justhappened to be the one guy that
did it. And I called up to melike, Hey, man, did you say oh,
man, I'm sorry. I use it worksfor me. Okay, it works for

(01:03:58):
Danny. DeVito. But yeah. Get outof here, man. Don't do that.
Yeah,

that's funny. That reminds me of the I won't spoil
the joke. But your joke aboutNikki Glaser that you did in the
special about that. That'spretty cool. Yeah. Did you do
that kind of shit with comediansa lot. You fuck with them?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

I think we all do.
Yeah, but you help them too. Soit's all

in good, fun Big Show. I think. You know, I think
I've helped my fair share. Well,they

seem to be kind to you and Nate's having you on his
podcast and Nikki on herpodcast. Yeah, man. Yeah, it's
like it pays off later. It'slike pay it forward.

I hope so. Yeah.
You know, I don't know I'm nosaint. I hope I'm sure there's
some guys like Yeah, that guywas not friendly at all. Yeah, I
don't know man everybody do roadgets the after a while and
sometimes just you know, I hopeI've never been bad anybody but
sometimes you're just like,you're exhausted. You did radio
and you flew in. You're like andyou just beat and you're like, I

(01:04:57):
don't know. I'm I just gotta getthrough these shows and you're
like in the greenroom, the guywas like, Hey, man, what's gonna
be like? Yeah, what's up man?
Like You I look back. I'm like,Man, I should have just been
cruel, been nicer to the staffand nicer to the, you know, the
other comic and been interestedin what they were doing. And I'm
sure there's some times when Ihave not, I've not been, I'm

(01:05:18):
going to do better Chuck, I wantto do better.

Well, that's tough.
Because I talk to musicians,it's the same thing. Because,
you know, like musicians, theydon't, they don't make anything
off record sales anymore. Sonow, every band has to do like a
meet and greet. And I'm always,like, you like doing the meet
and greets. And like, I mean,they always say like, oh, yeah,
love me. I don't buy this shit.
Like, I think 80% of them wouldrather just be in the greenroom

(01:05:41):
and relax after a show and nothave because they didn't have to
do that back in the day.

Sure. I mean, you know, I've done some, and I've,
you know, and I think I don'tsell stuff anymore. I used to,
like, sell stuff after the showor whatever. And I don't do that
anymore. You don't? Yeah, Ijust, I kind of just grew out of
it. And I let my opening acts dothat. That's how I can get them
some money is I try to selltheir stuff. But yeah, you got

(01:06:05):
to you got to, I think everyeverybody in all of life would
rather just just sit on thecouch and watch TV, you know,
like, like, so. If the questionis, hey, do you want to go out
there and meet all these peopleand talk to him? You know,
you're like, I don't know. But,but you need to, you know, and
chances are you enjoy it. A lotof times I do enjoy it. You

(01:06:26):
know, I really like, you know, Ilike talking to people after the
show, isn't that?

I mean, does that give you a thrill or I mean,
obviously, probably still doingthe standup itself. And hearing
the reactions and the laughterThat's like the biggest Hi, but
does it also give you a highwhen someone's like, hey, that
joke. Really? Yeah.

I love it all. I love it all. And what you you
got to stop yourself from doingwhich I've done at times, or?
Like a couple of times out here,hold on. Sorry. Yeah, I can't
see. I can't hear you. You canhear me. Okay, good. Yeah. Yes.
So I feel like I'm talking tolike Martians or something.

(01:07:07):
Yeah, you can take it forgranted. What you don't want to
do is like, yeah, people tellyou great things, but you hear
it, you know, a lot. And youstart to not realize that
everyone is it's all special,and you need to treat it that
way. And like I said, Man, I'mgoing to do better, Chuck.
Thanks.

All right. Well, no, I think you do go that was I
was trying to I am like aMartian cheese. Okay. Yeah.
We'll get out of here because Idon't know. I'm having technical
difficulties. I don't know howto fix it. Oh,

man. This is a good look for you.

It's an improvement. Yeah. Last time you
were here to charity. WoundedWarriors. Covenant House.
Children are national. You wantto promote those again, as well?

Oh, yeah, man. Did I'd say some of those. Yeah, I
always

end with a charity.
You promoted those last time. Soyeah, wounded warriors.

That's a good one.
Yeah, I'm back. I'm back. Yeah,wounded warriors. You just
remind me, I think my I think mycredit card numbers messed up at
Covenant House. So maybe I'm notgiving them any money right now.
Which I should. Oh, a children'sInternational. Yeah, that's,
yeah. Okay. We talked about thelast time. That's interesting.
Yeah. Because, like some guy outof Denver, I was in Denver at

(01:08:11):
Denver comedy works. And Iworked there forever. And I was
walking. And I was like, thingshave been going really well. And
I was like, man, things aregoing well. And this guy, you
know, those guys that are out inthe streets, we're like, Hey,
you want it? Can we talk to youabout children's International?
I gotta pay it back things. Weregoing too well, for me right
now. So I was like, Okay. And Iwas like, that was 15 years ago,
probably. And I've been youknow, every month since then. Am

(01:08:33):
I God? Every month since thensomething comes out of my
account for children'sinternational just because so if
you're a charity work, andyou're out there trying to set
aside people up. Sometimes itworks. Yeah.

Well, that's what you were telling me last time
how? See, again, this goes toyou being a good person, because
you were saying how like, whenpeople ask you for charity, you
think about like, Okay, how hardis it for me to like, have to
sell a comedy album and stufflike, yeah, you try to have
empathy for those who do that.
And I think and you did for me,because I was like, Hey, can you
do my podcast? I had, like, youknow, I don't know, like 30
podcasts or something? And yousaid Yeah, so that was really

(01:09:08):
nice. Yeah, I think

it's you know, I think you do have to do that
because you got you gottarealize man to make it even for
like somebody who watchesspecial who doesn't know me for
this thing to be huge. It's gotto be a lot of people that don't
know me. There's people thatknow me that like me, and I'm
grateful for them. But there'sgot to be a lot of people that
like, alright, I'll give thisguy a shot so you can't go broke
but every now and then you gottalike or somebody will send me
their stand up and I don't knowat all but you Hey, man, would

(01:09:32):
you watch this guy man? The lastthing I want to do this watch,
stand up and then be like, Yeah,well, a lot of people don't want
to watch your stand up either.
So do it. Oh, sometimes it'sgood. Sometimes it's not but

like younger comedians will send Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. No, I

don't have new hearts not sending me his stuff
being like, can you check thisout? I was

just thinking, because you said that you
hadn't. You hadn't watched a lotof for him stuff. I was like,
Dude, I kind of want to send youthis but if you get a lot of
stuff I mean I don't know, send

him in. I'll check it out. Yeah, I mean, I It's
funny I watch a lot just byosmosis because you're in the
club. So I don't watch it onlinebecause it's like I get it every
night. But I do I enjoylistening to it a lot. Sirius
radio does a really, really goodjob of curating comedy. You
know? Yeah, they like, it's notlike, where they just put
everything up that they get.
It's like, no, they getsubmissions. They're like, I

(01:10:22):
like this. I don't like this.
This is going on this isn't soyou know, there's like six or so
channels on there where youlisten, it's I'm like men's this
is this is good stuff. And I'venever heard of this guy. And
there's something like dustyslay fantastic comedian. That
guy's awesome. I have no ideawho he was and just heard him
10 710 years ago on SiriusRadio.

(01:10:45):
I'm like, Yeah, who's this guy?
Wait a man. Okay, well, thisguy's good. This guy's legit.
Yeah, you're like this guy'sthis guy's really good. Leanne
Morgan who'sblown up now. I first heard her
on Sirius radio. And I rememberjust reaching out being like,
Hey, I heard your stuff. I don'tknow who you are. But you're
really good. And I've beenfriends with her for a long
time.

That's really cool.
Yeah, cuz that's how I foundyou, too, I think is from Sirius
because Yeah. You don't thinkyou'd posted a lot of Instagram
clips. That's how I find I feellike that's how a lot of find a
lot of comedians now isInstagram clips. Are you? Yeah,

I'm way into it now. Like, we're all in on that.
But yeah, up until about sixmonths ago, I posted nothing.

Is was serious.
Because last time we talked Ithink you were saying serious
was pretty good. income for you.
Is it still

good? Yeah, the royalties and series are
extremely generous. Yeah.

That's crazy. And you said you think they pay
musicians to for playing thesongs? Yeah, positive they do.
That's awesome. Yeah. It's it'stough for musicians and even
comedians. I feel like it's,it's tough to get to make money
and a lot of those avenues interms of like, say like comedy
album sales, you're probably notshit. Yeah, a lot of money off

(01:11:52):
of that.

But nobody buys comedy albums. It's so funny.
Every comedian will be like, Ihad the number one iTunes album
this week, and I think I've doneit or I've said I got the number
two album this week. It's like,given you sold six copies.

Congratulations.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, it'sthat's it's kind of that's
what's cool about seeing theother ways that the you can make
money but like I said, with thebands of the meet and greets, I
feel like I kind of feel bad forthem. Because I'm like, I don't
think they want to do this, butit's probably a huge part of
their income. Yeah, yeah. Verycool. Well, everyone can see the
special I'll put the link in theshow notes along. Thanks. Great

(01:12:27):
talk again, man. Yeah, you too.
Yeah. Stay in touch. And yeah,let me know if you, I guess
reach out again and a couple ofyears. I'm going fuzzy again,
when when you have special? Iwill absolutely man. Okay, cool.
See you later. All right. Mythanks again to the very funny
Greg Warren. Check out a specialthe sales minutes on YouTube.
Follow him on Facebook, Twitter,Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.

(01:12:51):
He's got a lot of good stuff,funny clips. Some of those clips
on Tik Tok are like one in like3.6 million or something. So
check out his website in theshow notes for more information.
And also remember liking,sharing, commenting on episodes
and social media, and YouTubehelps out the guest and the
show. And of course, make sureyou subscribe wherever you watch
or listen, preferably YouTube,but show is everywhere. And if

(01:13:14):
you're on iTunes or Spotify, ifyou can give us a five star
rating and review we reallyappreciate that. Thanks so much
for listening. Have a great dayand shoot for the moon.

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