Episode 78: Comedian/Podcaster-A.J. Martinez

Albuquerque comedian and podcaster, A.J. Martinez joins Curt on this episode to talk comedy. It's a fun episode, give it a listen!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in. In the Rye Podcast episode seventy eight,
I guess today is going to bea comedian and podcaster AJ Martinez,
very funny dude before we talked tohim. Talk about my tour dates real
quick. You can go to FunnyFunny Fletcher dot com get tickets for most
of these. Some of them aren'ton there yet, but here's the date.

(00:24):
It's May twenty fifth, Albuquerque atthe Urban Oasis. June seventh and
eighth, they'll be at the Dallas, Texas Hyenas with Punky Johnson. June
fourteenth and fifteenth, they'll be atthe Fort Worth Hyenas with Matthew brew Sard
Joy sixth, They'll be headlining aBerna Leo Ca Sadez Comedy Club, headline

(00:44):
in the early show and also performingat the late show. July twenty first,
I'll be in Clive, Iowa withmy paddle Alex Hooper at the place
called Miss Kitties. I'll be openingfor Alex Joly twenty fifth, be headlining
and Mason City, Iowa at Bricks. July twenty sixth, headline in the
Britt Bar and Grill in Brits Iowa. July twenty seventh, I'll be in

(01:07):
my hometown, Champi's on Maine andClarion, Iowa. Then August third,
just added this one Montrose, Colorado. I'll be at the Canyon Creek.
That'll be with AJ. And thenOctober twenty one through the twenty sixth that'll
be at the Comedy Cave in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. So if you're

(01:29):
in any of those areas, comecheck out a show. Tickets Funny Fletcher
dot com. Click on my scheduleand you'll find the links there. Let's
go talk to AJ. Everybody.It's a fun, fun episode. His

(01:51):
name is a really funny guy.This is his podcast in Rise. AJ
Martinez is many. What's that buddy? How's going man? It's going well.
Uh. We did a show atTurtle Mountain last night. We have

(02:13):
about ten people. Yeah, itwas probably the smallest crowd I've ever done
for Turtle. Yeah. I thinkme too. Yeah. I wish I
hadn't walked those Well, I'm kindof glad I walked those two people.
Actually, they weren't kind of havefun. You know, here's the thing.
Anybody that doesn't like to be acknowledgedfor being bald is a kind of

(02:35):
a fucking weirdo. Yeah, likeit's just a thing. I thought.
Yeah, I thought he'd the atleast snicker, you know, And I
made for him a little bit,but nothing he pulled out. Yeah.
So they yeah, they got tosee me and Eddie for free, and
then they took off, and Idon't know what they were expecting. I
wonder if maybe the maybe the seatingwas full in the restaurant and they're like,

(02:59):
oh, let's go check up thecomedy show. I know, I
don't know what it was. I'venever it never fails, but there's always
someone that will never even crack asmile. Yeah, it's like those It's
like that that meme where the guy'ssitting there with a coffee and he's like,
change my mind, except for yeahI met a comedy show, make
me laugh. Yeah, and thenhe's just trying his best to just be

(03:22):
a total asshole. Yeah. Andit sucks, you know, because everyone
else I think was having a goodtime and everything, but like you know,
when I was performing, like Ijust kept looking at them and like
watching them and fucking laugh at something. Yeah, man, like nothing to
any one of us said maybe youat least nothing a little bit. No.
I was actually kind of like,I mean, I was very happy

(03:44):
that they weren't sticking around, butI was like, I wonder what I
could do that would make them laugh, and then YE kind of realized probably
nothing. Yeah. Yeah, that'sone of the things about comedy man is
like trying to write material that willmake everybody laugh. That's so hard,
you know. Yeah, and thenif you try to play it the middle
too much, it's like everybody thinksyou're an idiot or a hack. Yeah.

(04:10):
Yeah, I think that's one thingI learned, like, you know,
performing at Laughs as much as Idid figuring out the crowds there,
like figuring out material to write fora comedy club crowd. Yeah, you
know, I think that helped mea lot. No, I hate.
I mean, I think it's awesomethat we have like clubs now, yeah,

(04:31):
because it's like, oh that works, but then it also peels you
away from being really weird because thatshit's not gonna work for sure, like
a club. Yeah, Like Istarted, Like when I started, it
was like right after Laughs closed,so you could do anything you wanted because

(04:54):
there was no one there was likeno quality control. At all. So
it's like, yeah, whatever youwant to do. And then every now
and then you'd find a little groupof people that like really liked your stuff
and something felt really free to doa bunch of stuff like that, but
it didn't really like help the longgame for like for sure, you know,
actually playing for a group that's like, you know, people that would

(05:17):
actually pay for tickets. Yeah,it's a very different crowd than the yah
I've got. I've got a decentamount of jokes that I don't tell at
certain comedy clubs and stuff, justbecause I don't feel comfortable telling those jokes
there. But there are some clubswhere I do feel comfortable and I know
the crowd enough where I can usuallyget away with some of those cool but

(05:38):
yeah, I usually save jokes likethat for like open mics and stuff,
because I know comics will laugh.But but yeah, it's funny because I
could tell when you're going into somethingthat is like I don't know, I
could just tell when you switch agear and you're like, I'm just gonna
be weird. Yeah, I lovethat shit, And I think sometimes it's

(05:59):
weird with comedy because they would rathermost comics would rather just make their comedian
friends laugh because they just want toimpress them. Yeah, and they'd rather
lose everyone else, yeah, andthen do well there. But it's like,
but at what cost? Yeah?I mean that's good for like a
comic who is is not going todo anything with comedy really, like like

(06:23):
just be a scene comic or whatever, you know, where they just make
their comic friends laugh and don't reallygive a shit. But uh, yeah,
I don't know. I mean it'sit is good to make other comics
laugh, but validating, yeah,yeah, especially if they've seen your stuff
a bunch of times. You know. Yeah, I think about that way

(06:45):
too much, probably, like ifI'm on a show with like you or
Eddie or something, guys I've beendoing shows with for years. Is like,
man, I want to do somenew stuff for these guys, but
ultimately it doesn't matter what the fuckyou guys think, you know, right.
I think that was the first thingI said on stage last night with
is there anyone here that doesn't knowall of my stuff? Yeah? Because
I would like to do my routine. Yeah. I thought you did great

(07:08):
man for like the size of thecrowd, and like, I don't know,
you're just so much fun to watchFor me, I love it because
you give it. You're all like, no matter what size the crowd is,
you know you you know you don'tyou don't lose your energy like like
a lot of times I will dothat, like if it's like a low
energy crowd. I mean I don'thave a lot of energy anyway, but

(07:31):
I could kind of feel the crowd'senergy. Oh yeah, you know,
I don't put forth my best effortssometimes. I remember the day that changed
for me. Yeah, I rememberseeing a comedian. Yeah, she was
on like MTV. We don't havetalk about her, but she was.
She was a big she had apretty big name. And we were at

(07:51):
like the Guild, and the Guildis like notoriously small, like even for
like a little independent theater, reallysmall. And I went up and the
crowd was really dead and it wasreally late, and she was the headliner
and she I don't know how youcan destroy it with four people, but
she did the closest you could doin that she it was like there could

(08:16):
have been like a thousand people there, and I was like, that's just
so cool because I liked it.I had a good time. I was
there with my brother. We talkedabout it for like an hour, and
I was like, man, youjust kind of have to just do that,
And so I try. Sometimes ifyou can tell they're just not having
fun, there's nothing you can do. It's so yeah, it's so hard

(08:37):
to get into it, you know, Yeah, because well what I try
to do is I try to scanfor like a few people that are digging
it, and then if they're intoit, it's like okay, I can
even like just kind of watch themor you know, like oh that guy.
Yeah, when I'm doing like abit that I know, oh,

(09:00):
takes a lot of like energy,so like, uh, but if it's
just kind of firing off like somesome quick jokes, I'll just do them
like normal speed. But there's somewhere you they kind of don't work unless
you're excited. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I thought last night's show
was pretty fun though, other thanthose two people who weren't laughing. Yeah,

(09:22):
I was excited to see I hadnever seen Isabelle very good. Yeah,
I was. Yeah, Yeah,she got clever stuff. That's what
I liked about it, because likethere was some stuff where uh, it's
like all right, and like yousaid, the crowd's not like rolling or
anything, but like, yeah,not that she's there was just not a

(09:45):
people. Yeah, but she could. She still had the joke there,
which was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Overall is a great show. You
know, the comics were awesome,and you know, the people who did
enjoyed the show, you know,they laughed. And my friend Nate was
there. He was the one thatkind of pushed me into doing stand up,
like because I always I always saidI was going to do it,

(10:09):
you know, yeah, and thenI'd always talk about it, and Nate
was the guy who's like, dude, just shut the fuck up and do
it already. Yeah. As faras barriers to entry, I'd say a
comedian is probably without the If youtalk about it and you haven't done it,
then you probably don't want to doit. Yeah that's cool. No,
I definitely wanted to do it.I just I didn't think I could
do it until I was twenty one, because I wasn't because like, oh,

(10:31):
Thesamiti Club was twenty one and older, you know. Yeah, So
when I turned twenty one, that'swhen I decided I'm going to do it.
And I wish I would have startedearlier, you know, because yeah,
I wanted to. But yeah,once I turned twenty one, I
was like, all right, I'mgiving myself a few months. I'm gonna
write five minutes of stuff. I'mgoing to try it out. I gave

(10:52):
myself The date was August fifth,Like, we're gonna go do it.
If I suck, I'll never doit again. But at least I tried
it. You know what a curseit is, Like, comedy is just
so fucking I always telling my wifeit's the only like hobby people can get
into where they sometimes just wish thatit would get canceled. Yeah, nobody

(11:18):
nobody collects model airplanes and drives tothe hobby store. They're like, Oh,
wouldn't it be great if it burneddown and then I didn't have to
do it. That. I feellike that all the time. Like funny,
when Eddie and I are like drivingto a show, the phone rings
or we get a text, We'relike, oh my god, maybe it
got canceled. Because I think morethan any anything with comedy that the comics

(11:43):
are the coolest part about it,like other comics usually, yeah, the
best part. So like the bestpart about it is, Oh, it
wouldn't be cool if we just justgot to hang out and we didn't have
to worry about the stress of somuch anxiety. If you well, I
think it's all so if you care, it's anxiety. It gives you anxiety.

(12:05):
If you don't care and you haveno self awareness, you're either like
extremely talented and good or you're psychotic. I must be psychotic, because sometimes
I don't care, no we Ithere are some shows where I just I
don't get nervous at all, youknow, I don't know why. It

(12:26):
just uh, I don't know.I usually don't get nervous when I go
on stage a lot of times,unless I'm like doing a new club or
I'm like headlining a club or somethinglike that, and I don't know why
that is. Like if I'm justfeaturing, though, I usually just don't
give a shit. Like I don'tget that nervous. I get a little

(12:48):
nervous, but like like not realbad, but like, you know,
my first open mic, I almostwalked out, like I was so scared.
Oh yeah, and that happened foryears upen for so many years.
Did you freeze? Oh dide hejust froze on a Yeah, I know,

(13:15):
I saw you and then I andthen it went blank. Dude,
it's so funny. You frozen likeyou had a super funny face. Now
you're like smiling like that. It'llbe funny to show you later. Yeah,
that's a South Park episode. Doyou remember when they were having to
go to school and they all wantedto miss school? Yeah, we just
made it. You just make aface and then he just put the picture

(13:39):
in front go outside and playing.Yeah, no, I fucking hate these
things. Do you think that thiswould be nailed by now? The video
thing? Yeah right, I meanthat was the only thing that was supposed
to be in the future that Iremember besides the flying car was a video
phone. We're forced to have it? Yeah, terrible, Yeah, it

(14:01):
doesn't work. Didn't Pee Wee Hermanhave one on Pee Wee's playhouse? It
wasn't. It wasn't a mobile one, but he had he had to go
sit in like a photo booth typeof thing and call someone. I think,
yeah. That, and he hadgiant forks. Yeah yeah, Oh

(14:22):
funny that show who Rob Zombie?Really? Yeah? Was he the male
man? No, he's like oneof the crew members. Oh yeah,
yeah, is that weird? Yeahthat is weird, man. I was

(14:43):
watching I don't want to just totake a dark turn, but I was
watching that. I was watching thatshow Quiet on thet oh, yeah,
where like the Children and see.I grew up on all those like Nickelodeon
shows. It was horrible, man, it's like stay away. Yeah,
yeah, I didn't watch a tonof those. I think I was a

(15:03):
little older. I'm a little olderthan you, so I missed on some
of those. But yeah, fuckingcreepy people, dude. Yeah, there
was like a dude named like Robertthe Pickle or some shit like that.
Yeah name, Yeah, fuck horrible, But like, yeah, they're just

(15:24):
out there. They're just out there, dude. It's it's yeah, I
feel bad for any child out there. It seems like a lot of them
went through shit like that. Youknow. Yeah. Maybe eventually, though
there won't be any child actors anymore, they'll use like AI or something GI.
Yeah, that'll solve the problem.I do feel like that would probably

(15:45):
happen before they got rid of allof the creeps. Yeah. It was
really just like like like if thereare two things that could happen and we're
racing, it would be we'll justlet the robots do it. Yeah,
and then once the robots, oncethey learned to uh to deactivate the squealing
program in the robots, they're donefor. They're gonna experience so much shit.

(16:08):
Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, the documentary is fucked up.
Man. Yeah, did you seeuh what was his name? Was it?
Dan Schneider? Yeah, the guy. Did you see his Uh?
I guess it's like a podcast afterthat or an interview or something like that.
Yeah, he addressed it. HuhYeah what did he have to say?

(16:30):
I don't remember, but you shoulddefinitely watch it. Well, he's
a good burger guy, right,Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, yeah, I mean heso like, yeah, I grew up
in like the nineties. I waslike exactly the right age for that stuff.
Yeah, and that dude was justalways in my living room. Oh

(16:52):
yeah sure, like it was alwayson and yeah it just makes me sad.
Yeah, it's weird. Yeah,I remember him from whatever that sitcom
he was on Head of the Classor something like that. I think,
Oh really, yeah, you arelike an eighties kid. Yeah, like
all the ship that we talked about, it's like right before I was like,

(17:15):
you know, like online to doall that. Yeah. Yeah,
check it all out. Yeah,and Nickelodeon was huge. Man, I
remember, uh, I feel likeNickelodeon started in the early nineties because I
remember watching Uh. I want tosay, hey, Arnold was probably the
first Yeah I watched there or somethinglike that. Yeah. I loved rend

(17:38):
and Stimpy. Oh yeah, RandomStimpy is classic. Man. Yeah.
I remember I was telling my wife, like, so, my dad's not
like a he wasn't like a cartoondude, But for whatever reason, he
thought rend and Stippy was like reallyfunny. Oh yeah, and it wasn't
like a normal cartoon like yeah,so it was like one that we would

(18:00):
always like watch together. It wasactually pretty cool. But then that guy
turned out to be a creep too, the guy, Yeah, I really
yeah, I think something happened withhim and they that's like why it got
canceled and they brought it back andthe animation was all different. Really,
and he was also like a hugeasshole to like all his staff. Really

(18:22):
yeah, I think I guess hejust can't be talented without being a huge
asshole. Maybe that's what Yeah,that's me and my buddy have talked about
that. It seems like assholes makeit further in the entertainment, entertainment world.
And yeah, I tried being anasshole for a couple of days to
see if it'd work, and itstarted to an asshole. Yeah. You
just know, like Beethoven was adick and yeah, like there's no way
they were Yeah, because they weretoo good. Yeah for sure, that's

(18:49):
funny. Nobody, Yeah, allof them. The dude, the dude
who played the liar, Yeah,the Greek guy. What's his name,
I don't know, Yanni, Yeah, that's him. I was think an
ancient Greece. Oh yeah, uhwhat about tiny Tim, like that weirdo

(19:15):
you remember him from a from HeyArnold? No, no, he was
a musician. Oh no, hewas just he was a weird, weird
musician. Okay. Yeah, andthen you look at like shitty entertainers,
You're like, yeah, he's anice guy. I know. Yeah,

(19:37):
you gotta sell your soul to thedevil first. Yeah, that's why Eddie
Stevens is so good a comedy.Yeah, he really is. He did
make some kind of deal with thedevil. I think he did, except
for I think the problem with Eddieis he sold his soul to the devil
for talent, which he has,but the Devil is also punishing him before

(19:57):
he dies because he's constantly going throughhell. Whatever you talk to him,
it's the worst day of his life. Yeah, it is like whatever deal
like Paganini made with the devil,his life was great and then he died,
that he goes to hell. Eddie'sjust experiencing hell right now. Yeah,
Well when he dies, man,he's got it made. Yeah,
it's gonna be just like normal shit. It's funny. I love performing at

(20:22):
Eddie. Yeah, yeah, Iwas so surprised those people weren't laughing at
him. But yeah, there isa comfort in doing shows with like you
Eddie. And I guess the reasonwhy I'm excited about these other people that
are doing the show that we wereon the show last night was like,
oh cool, there's some more peoplethat I'm not having like a heart attack
when we have a show. BecauseAlbuquerque, we're not a huge city.

(20:45):
Yes, so there's not a lotof comedians and every now and then,
man, it's slim pickens for youknow. Yeah, I feel like it
is getting better though. I meanI don't go to like open my or
anything like that, but it seemslike we've got a decent amount of comics
now, a lot of comics anda lot of open mics, dude,

(21:07):
tons of open mics. Yeah,they're still fucking brutal. You know.
I was, uh, I'm tryingto do that show on Wednesday, and
I wanted to kind of just workon my routine, you know, just
kind of get the timing back becauseI hadn't really done it, and uh,
I went to a couple open mics, and I was like, God,

(21:30):
this is just hard to do.I can't believe that I spent like
so many years going all the timeto an open Oh yeah, and hosting
too. You hosted for a while, Oh dude. Yeah, we hosted
an open mic probably from two thousandand seven or eight. Yeah, probably
two thousand and nine to like twentyfourteen or some shit. Yeah, every

(21:52):
every single week. Jesus. Yeah. Man, I did the one.
I did the one that founders withHolly for a while. Now, yeah
they were downstairs. Which one isthat? Yeah? Yeah, that one's
cool. Well yeah, I didenjoy it, but man, sometimes it

(22:12):
just sitting there through the comics canbe pretty rough. Yeah. Man,
I don't know, I mean,I know it's kind of like, you
know, they say there's like hackjokes. There's almost like hack open mic
like jokes, like as a host, oh yeah, and my mine,

(22:33):
and I hear it all the time. It's like, hey, just because
you get five minutes doesn't mean youneed to take all five minutes. You
don't have And and there were twoI think there were two fucking comics on
Thursday. I mean, I don'tknow where they're at, nothing against them
or anything, but they did theirmaterial and then they went, oh look
I still got two minutes left,so what else? What else? Like,

(22:56):
No, that's it, you're done. You didn't you ran out of
shit? Just yeah, stop stopAnd they had some good jokes stop while
they're ahead. Yeah, I don'tmind ever leaving early for sure, you
know, especially on a high note. They're not going to forget that.
They'll be happier with that. Mmhmm. Yeah. It's like anything,

(23:18):
you know, it's like, whatwas the craziest set you ever saw hosting
an open mic? Do you remember? Oh, like the like their material,
uh yeah, or just something crazythat happened maybe well shit, uh,
I think it was only like mythird open mic I ever did this,

(23:40):
dude? Was it was? Itwas that the tavern the tavern,
and the guy ran up and grabbedthe mic from me. Oh wow,
Yeah, I let him have themic because I didn't want to die.
Yeah, And then afterwards, Ithink it was Stephen Hunt was like,

(24:03):
why the fuck did you let himhave the mic? I was like,
I didn't. I didn't know.It was to protect the microphone. And
he so he got it. Hegrabbed it and he started to screaz sounded
like Animal from the Muppets. Hewas just like and uh, that was
pretty weird and horrible. And Iremember it was like it was like my
third time trying comedy. And somebodyfrom work went and he was like,

(24:26):
dude, what the fuck? AndI'm like, I don't know. I
guess this is just how it is. But as far as like other comedians,
a lot of people insulting the crowdat an open mic, yeah,
that I'm responsible for and then havingto go tell the owner. I mean,

(24:47):
we lost an open mic because ofthat, because we were outside at
a patio at a restaurant. Itwasn't a bar, and we had a
comic started telling off some woman talkingshit and it's like, dude, she's
just here to eat. She wasn'teven there for the show, and she
complained to the owner, and that'swhy one of them open Mic is no

(25:08):
more. Yeah, that's one thing. Some of the brewery shows here are
like that, where it's like halfpeople that are there for the show and
then the rest of the people haveno fucking clue there's a comedy going on
until yeah, microphone ambush comedy.Yeah, it's just ambush comedy, just

(25:29):
and I hate it because it doesn'tgive you a good like, it doesn't
give you any kind of reading onit, whether or not they like it.
Yeah, or I mean, youcould be a really good comedian.
And if you just come up tome when I'm having dinner with my family,
just start talking shit, I mightnot laugh. Yeah, you know,

(25:49):
especially I had no idea, andI just don't want my kid to
hear that the F word like fortytimes because I have like a three year
old or something. I'm gonna justleave. And yeah, I mean I
see a lot of that in openI think there's the problem is a lot
of new comics they needed to havelike an open mic experience, but their

(26:14):
first experience is not an open mic. Their first experience with comedy is like
watching it online, yeah, orwatching a video or something. So when
they see shit, they see likea video of Like when I was younger,
it was Bill Hicks just trashing aHeckler. But it's like, well,
yeah, he's a really good comedianand he's been doing it for decades.

(26:37):
Yeah, and she was at oneof his shows and then he shut
her down. He didn't just showup at a bar and just streaming the
Sea word at some girl, youknow, reminding her own business. Yeah,
so it's hard. It's hard,but yeah, I think it's good.
We got enough comic like I thinkwe it's good to have many clubs.

(27:00):
Yeah, it's crazy. We're goingto have three here pretty soon.
Yeah. One's another one we're openingup I think in August. Okay,
Yeah, and I think they're prettyfar spread out where it's gonna be all
right, you know. Yeah,I think so. Even though it's like
we think of it as a smalltown, it really isn't. No,

(27:21):
you know, with the surrounding areas, there's a million people. Yeah,
you know, so you know,Casadas brings in people from Santa Fe.
Yeah, in the West Side andstuff like that. And then yeah,
algadonus and berno Leo and all everyother little town. Yeah, is going
to be over by wind Rock Mall. So you know they'll bring in people
from the East Mountains and stuff likethat. I'm sure. Yeah, So

(27:42):
I don't know. I think Ithink it'd be good. Laughs. Was
like really centralized. It was likeright in the middle. Yeah. But
that was a long time ago too. That was like twenty years ago.
Man, that's crazy. Yeah.Yeah, I did the last show there.
Oh cool. Yeah, yeah,yeah. It was New Year's Eve.
It's pretty cool. Yeah, it'sjust me and Russ and Rust did

(28:04):
the final show there. Turn offthe lights on the way out and take
one last look around, like fuckingfresh, we did. Yeah, yeah,
we were both pretty hammered. Yeah. Also, I remember, right
a lot of people were there thatnight, you know. You know,
Kurt I was part of the lastshow out of Comedy Club, and I

(28:26):
was also part of their first show, which was the same show. Oh
what was that club called? Itwas called the Comedy Vault, the Comedy
Vault, And I remember the headlinerwas like, hey, man, don't
say anything. I don't have tocause any problems. But I fucking didn't
get paid. Jerry roache. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then eventually

(28:48):
it worked out he did get paid, yeah, but not for a while.
Yeah. It's so funny because Igot to hear some of the uh
some of the story about that becausea buddy of mine and I think I
was living in Tulsa at the timethe club opened. Yeah, and uh
so, the the guy who openedit was trying to look for partners in

(29:10):
the club, and he talked toa friend of mine who owns a club,
and uh so my friend flew outto Albuquerque and met with him and
stuff, and you know, hewas on board to join up and stuff.
And then he asked, uh forhis business plan and he's like,
oh, I don't have a businessplan. I'm doing And because that guy
texted me, I think the secondweek on the Friday, okay, he

(29:37):
texted me. He goes that dude'salready out of money. He's like,
oh, that's not going to beopen next week. He was he was
trying to depend on ticket sales tokeep it. Yeah, yeah, I
remember, like I remember that.I remember there was like no money and
then like yeah, I actually thinkthere was two shows. There was the
one I went to, and thenthere was one I did, and that

(29:59):
was you did Want? Yeah,And then the second week I think it
was Joey Medina was there because Ithink they did the second weekend as well.
I maybe I do remember going beforeto check it out. Yeah,
and I remember trying to order adrink and she's like, yeah, we
don't have that. I was like, wait, what about this. We're
like, yeah, we don't gotthat about this. She's like, we

(30:22):
don't have any money for any alcoholright now? What the bucket a drink?
Yeah? So I don't know whatwhat that was. I mean,
it's just who people are, insane. Yeah. That guy in particular,
I remember because he booked me becauseI was going to headline. I was
going to come back for Christmas tovisit my family, and he booked me
like a week in the headline whileI was going to be there, you

(30:45):
know, Oh cool. Yeah.But then I don't remember exactly what happened.
I know Holly worked for him fora bit, like because he did
a show I think at the ConventionCenter. He booked the show there and
Holly was like kind of bartending forhim, and he just treated her like

(31:06):
shit. And then like I'd heardyou treated other women like ship. So
I sent him an email when Isaid he was never a comic, okay,
yeah, because I sent him anemail and I was like, hey
man, I've heard about the wayyou treat women, and it's like way
too many women that I've heard fromfor this to be just a weird coincidence,
you know. So I'm not goingto work with you. I'm canceling

(31:26):
my week. And he got allpissed off about it and like tried to
defend himself and I was like,I'm not going to do the week,
dude, and I'm already I'm canceled. I'm fucking and I knew he wasn't
going to be open anyway, som yeah, no. I mean I

(31:47):
remember we were eating outside and Jerrywas like, why does that fucking sign
on the front of the comedy clubsay opening, there's a show today?
Yeah, and so it's like theycouldn't even get foot traffic. He was
just a total It was just atotal, a total ship show. Yeah,

(32:09):
such a moron. Yeah, itwas a one hundred and eighty degrees
different from the this this other oneopening at Santa Anna. It was fucking
awesome. So that was like,it's like a well oiled machine already.
I don't see how they won't makemoney. Yeah, yeah, it's a
it's a great club. I meanDry Heats a great club too. Dry

(32:31):
Heat is you know outlasted the comedyWaltz. Yeah. Well I have to
go to the new location and haven'tbeen at the news. I haven't either.
I want to check it out.Yeah for a great I'm just so
old for downtown. Dude, Iate downtown. Yeah. It scares the

(32:51):
ship out and be like I justremember well where the Vault was was.
It used to be a bar calledMaloney's and in college's pretty much where I
spent all my paychecks really yeah,and so I was kind of stoked that
it was a club and I waslike, hey, this is cool.
Like I used to go here allthe time, and man, I was

(33:14):
like scared to be there. Yeah, Like I just wanted to get Like
if I had all the money inthe world, I would just have an
uber drop me off like right infront, and then I would just walk
like two feet like like this yeahand go inside. But yeah, man,
downtown has gotten pretty sketchy in Albuquerque. Yeah, sad. Yeah,

(33:34):
it's funny. A lot of peopledon't know this. There was another comedy
club downtown, you know, insideout the building with no roof right now.
Yeah, so I used to bethe Golden West, which was a
terrible bar, but for like abouta month or so, it was a
catcherizing Star comedy club. Oh really, So this was like what like nineteen

(34:00):
ninety five, No, it's twothousand and four. Oh really yeah,
really yeah, because I was workingat Laughs at the time. And so
they at first, I think theystarted in the casino at I want to
say Isleta, So they did.I think they were only there for a
couple of weeks or something like maybea month, and then so they opened

(34:22):
at Golden West, and Golden Westwas like a shitty, shitty bar.
I did comedy there once. Itwas actually a fun show, but just
not a good setup for comedy becauseit's like one of those really long bars,
you know, so it's like notintimate at all. It's like all
the people are like going back likeso it's like just a weird I don't

(34:43):
know, there's not people around you, like you know, yeah, I
don't know. It was like bandsdidn't even like playing there. So yeah,
they had a catch a rising starthere for a little bit and like
it didn't last at all. Ijust remember they had like the final from
Last Comic Standing when they were ontour, they performed there. I don't

(35:05):
remember who it was that year.I feel like it was John Heffron,
a couple guys probably. Well thefirst year is like that was like Kathleen
Madigan and all those people, rightlike the first season. Yeah, like
dat Fan I think was the winner. Ralphie was on there, A really
funny guy from Minnesota, Todd Glassthere. Last one year was he on?

(35:27):
I thought he was the first one. I feel like he was on
one of those earlier ones. Yeah. See, I should have learned my
lesson watching that season when they allsaid, you know, cause like all
the other reality shows were like,hey, here's this chick. She just
graduated high school and she can reallysing. She's gonna be the biggest star
ever and she's eighteen years old.And then Last Comic Standing came out and

(35:49):
they're like, yeah, my name'sKathleen Madigan. I've been doing comedy for
thirty five fucking years and nobody's everheard of me. And she's really good.
Oh she's great. No one hadheard of her. That is the
biggest grind ever to be like oneof the best, and it's like,
well, yeah, yeah, gottacatch a break. Yeah yeah that I

(36:13):
feel like that show did do alot for a lot of people. But
yeah, what a terrible show.It was awful. Did you ever audition
for it? No, I rememberwhen, you know, when everybody kind
of went. I don't remember whenit was, but I remember like,
oh six, Yeah that was beforeI started, that's right. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, which probably isa good thing. Yeah, because I

(36:37):
was delusional enough to think that Iwas going to be on it. Yeah,
I went. The first year Iwent was pretty fun. Well,
most of it was fun. Iprobably told you the story about taking Marcus
Jennings. Yeah. Yeah. Butmy friend Mark actually made it to the

(36:57):
callback show. Coach was awesome.Uh for Mark. Yeah, it's funny
because like, so he did hedid one liners too, and so he
goes in and does his one linersand they liked him. And then I
go in right after him and doone liners and they're like, uh,
they're like your friends with Mark,and I'm like, yeah, we we

(37:19):
drove in together. And they're like, man, we've already got some one
liner comics, like enough one linercomics. He's like, if you would
have gone before Mark, we wouldhave taken you in that Mark, but
no ship. Well, you know, it's funny because like that the format
of that show, you guys allshould have been one liner comics. Oh
yeah, for sure, because theyonly gave them like what was it like

(37:39):
two minutes this week? Yeah,so like you got to have some rapid
fire stuff. Yeah, yeah,you can't start some big speech, yeah,
and then get to what minute too, and you haven't even had to
pay off yet and then they goto a commercial that. Yeah. I'm
glad Mark made it, though,I mean I was I was really hoping
he would make it on the TVbecause one liners were like cleaner than mine,

(38:00):
and like, uh, you know, he was in college I think
at the time when we did it. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, when
he was young. And what's that? What's he doing now? He doesn't
do comedy. He quit comedy along time ago. He was twenty one
when he quit. Yeah, andhe was like featuring, he had an
album out and he was on XMradio and shit, he just you know,

(38:22):
got sick of dealing with people inthe business. And yeah, I
don't fucking blame him one bit,man, but I do miss I miss
writing with him and stuff. Youknow, we always had a good time
and you know it was made funof Eddie Tafoya together, so that was
always awesome. Would you say thatyou probably have been in like maybe ninety

(38:43):
percent of all bars in Albuquerque andAlbuquerque? Yeah, man, I bet
it's pretty close. Yeah, Igot probably. Yeah. I could drive
around town and show you places I'veperformed, like, oh, like they're
they're there. Yeah, I dothe same thing anyway that has alcohol or
did have alcohol. I always goid show there. Yeah. Yeah,

(39:05):
not a mall, there's a there. Used to be a place called Chelsea
Street Pub. Used to have anawesome open mic there. Oh really yeah,
it was awesome. Do you rememberthe fuck is it called Misties?
Yeah? I don't think. Ithink I only did one show there,
okay, and it was a bookshow that was like the most bar bar

(39:28):
I've ever been to. Yeah.And I remember you know those like coin
operated pool tables. Oh yeah,you put like nine quarters in into the
front. Yeah, they'll spit out. I remember seeing this like really old
comic. He was like ninety yearsold. He goes up there, he
starts talking, and somebody turns upthe full table on and all the balls

(39:49):
go everywhere, and uh it justlike he's like, oh yeah, that's
cool, rack them up. I'mjust here talking, no big deal.
And it turned into a pretty goodlittle, uh, I don't know what
you want to call heckling session,was it? Uh? He was a
professional comic, right, yeah,yeah, yeah, it is Jay Wendall
Walker, that's what it is.Yeah, yeah he was. I was

(40:09):
on that show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have My favorite was
when he said the heckler said turnon your hearing aid and then he said,
I don't wear a hearing aid,and then the heckler stopped talking and
the comic goes, it's your turn, idiot, like something. Yeah did

(40:30):
he? He was on the EdSullivan Show. Really, yeah, that's
how fucking old he is. He'sstill alive. How you say his name,
Jay Wendall Walker. Wendall yeah,Wendall Walker. Yeah. Did he
used to come to laughs? Hewas awesome. Yeah, Yeah that's cool.
I'm glad you remembered that, becauseyeah he was. Yeah he was.

(40:52):
He was great man. What hewas? His wife came with him
one time down to laughs and shewas super nice. She like helped bust
tables and ship. Oh really yeah, like in between shows and they're cleaning
up the showroom. Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm glad that's not that's
like a real thing. I didn'tjust uh yeah. Yeah. He was
man for his age. He wasso fast, you know, Yeah,

(41:14):
he was. He had a lotof great one liners and he had the
two pay Yeah. I mean afterCOVID everything, there's like so many new
places and old places that closed.And yeah, what's the place you hated
the most to perform at in Albuquerque, like open mic or anything. Yeah,

(41:43):
probably Retros. I don't know ifyou remember retros. If I know
Retros, it was like I thinkit was like the first place I ever
did comedy real yeah, but uhno, oh there was another place even
where it's called Paparazzi, do youremember, And they had it like on
the dance floor and they never turnedoff all of the like fucking laser shows

(42:06):
and all that shit that was goingall over and he just got up there
and started talking and it was thishuge room. And I think, to
this day, that's the only showthat my brother in law's been I've done
comedy clubs, I've done like somegood ship since then, and and I
think he just enjoys having that burnedinto his memory that I just did a
fucking open mic and pop the Rozzie. I remember doing a uh it was

(42:34):
like a book show there at onetime, and uh, man Adie Tafoya
eight ships so bad, it's sofunny. People are hackling him and he
didn't know how to handle it,and he was like he yeah, I
think he literally yelled, do notfucking heckle me, do not fucking heckle
me. I loved it so sopissed. And it was a majorady black

(43:00):
crowd that night too, because Iremember telling a pretty racist joke and I
was kind of nervous to do it, and they fucking loved it. Yeah,
most people are pretty good about havinga sense of humor if they're like
in on it, Like, Ireally think it's the just don't ambush anybody
in comedy. I really think that'sthe problem. You know. One thing

(43:22):
that was like very satisfying for mewas I, well, I've probably done
comedy like just open mics for awhile. Man before people would like,
hey, we're actually doing the showand they were like at you know,
like the Elk's Lodge or something likeyeah. But that's when I like when

(43:44):
I would do those shows and theneverybody was like really nice to me.
Yeah, and they're like, yeah, we loved it. And I was
like, oh wow, you guysactually like this shit. And it's like
yeah, we actually came out tosee it, you know. That's what
I liked about. That's what Ireally like about Turtle is it's its own
room. Yeah, you know,you have to go seek it out,

(44:05):
and it's a nice room. It'sa you know, it's a nice little
square room. You know. It'sa good setup and reminds me of Howies.
Yeah, like Howes. Yeah,Howies was awesome. I met my
wife at Howie's really yeah, that'show I met her. It was yeah
wow yeah yeah, boy. Ireally bamboozled her into thinking I was somebody.

(44:30):
Yeah dude. That place was theShip the Matt Peterson Comedy Hour.
Yeah yeah, that was like noship man, Like that was it for
me. I was so happy whenI got there because I liked Matt and
that felt like the most because wedidn't have a club or anything else.

(44:52):
That felt like the most like areal show. Yeah it was yeah,
yeah, you know, and that'show Turtle Mountains was, you know,
was too Like that always felt likea real comedy club type crowd to me.
Yeah, I would say all theway up until the day before yesterday
it was like that. Yeah,I like, I literally do not remember

(45:14):
it being that ever, that smallof a crowd. Yeah. You know
what's funny is like my buddy textedme, uh, He's like, hey,
we're gonna come to your show tonight, And I was like, all
right, make sure you get therea little early because yeah, oh yeah,
you know. No, No,I got there and he was already
there, and then he's pretty muchthe only one there, and I'm like,
a yeah, dude, I've definitelyhad people standing room only. Like

(45:36):
I've had someboddies show up and they'relike, I feel kind of bad because
they have to just stand there inthe Yeah. I think it was with
Josh Fournier and some other people Idid the show. I think it was
like back in January or February orsomething, and yeah, dude, you
couldn't sit down. There was noplace to even stand. You were in
somebody's way. So hopefully it'll bounceback. Uh, just with the timing

(46:02):
of like graduations and everything else.So you don't think I had anything to
do with you headlining, you know, I try not to take any responsibility.
That's that's on Eddie. Yeah,yeah, where were you on that
one? Eddie? Yeah? Howabout it. They don't even put it
on their website or anything. Ifeel like they should. I mean,

(46:22):
they have that big ass thing andthat when you walk in the door and
they can get put traffic from that. But yeah, I mean they just
never needed it before. It wascrazy, like I've just never seen it
not packed. Also, another thingI noticed was like almost every time I
go in there, there's people sittingin that waiting room, and last night
there weren't, so I feel youknow, they weren't even busy as they

(46:45):
normally are. Yeah, I think, And it's just comedy is a winter
sport. I feel like, Yeah, you know, I just feel like
it gets darker earlier. People wantto be inside, and it's just something
you'd rather do. Everybody's depressed.Do you want to get But when everybody
was out and it was like anawesome, nice weekend of weather, everybody

(47:08):
just wants to do their own thing. They don't want to be cooped up.
I mean, and it's hard withthat place because it's got those big
old windows and you can see itsdaylight outside. You know, you gotta
get some some curtains. Yeah,who's your who's your favorite comic you've ever
worked with? Like like got toopen for It might be some recency bias,

(47:32):
but probably Sam Comaro, Samuel J. Comaro from America's Got Talent fam.
I just did a show with hima few months ago, But him
and his feature Ralph Guera were likethe coolest people ever met. Nice.
Yeah, and it was the timingwas perfect because the Lobos had just won

(47:57):
the Mountain West or they were inthat game and we were at the cantina
outside of the club watching it andthey all had money, they had money
on it, and he was great. It was just a cool experience.
Uh So Yeah, that's one dudewhere I would like, if if there
was no show, would be like, oh, let's hang out. Yeah

(48:17):
for sure? About nice to meetcomics like that? What's that? What
about you? I Mean? Itore with my buddy Tim Gather a lot,
so he's always you know, he'sone of my best friends, so
working with him is always awesome.Is he kind of the big Is he
like a bigger guy? No,he's tiny. Oh ship, I'm confusing
him with somebody else then, Yeah, he's a pretty little guy. Like

(48:43):
he's a buff dude. He whippedthe ship out of me, but definitely
shorter than me and ways less.I don't know my three all time favorites,
though, I've actually got to workwith her Troy Baxley, Chad Daniels
and Theo Von for sure. Yeah. Yeah, you were just talking about
Troy yesterday. I think. Yeah, oh man, he is one of

(49:06):
the funniest dudes I've ever seen inperson. He uh like just watching him
at laughs when he was on,like there were some times where he just
didn't give a shit. Yeah,which was even funnier sometimes to watch.
See. That's what I hope itgets that way with the clubs that are
showing up now, where you couldactually call it like your homebook base.

(49:29):
Yeah, you can stretch your legsa little bit. That was ye really
cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great because so the first
time I got to work with Troywas in two thousand and three, and
I watched every show we did sevenshows or actually eight shows because we had
a gig in Espanola to start theweek. I just watched him every night.
I was like, this guy isfucking incredible, Like how does nobody

(49:52):
know who this guy is? Right? Right? And then h you know,
I was telling him at the endof the week, like he gave
me a CD and I listen toit like every day for like a month,
and just I had him memorized andlike I could, I could easily
do probably an hour of Troy Bacsey'smaterial. He actually emails me sometimes yeah,

(50:12):
and we'll say, hey, doyou remember this joke? And I'm
like yeah, He goes, doyou remember how I worded it? And
it's like yeah, it's like this, oh shit, well something probably to
end on a high note for you, Kurt. I did the same thing
with you when you recorded your albumat it was like County Line or something,
and I got one of your CDsand I fucking listened to it all
the time. Yes, so like, yeah, there's definitely a chunk of

(50:37):
my brain that can remember. Ohthat's awesome, that's so funny. Yeah,
that's CD. It's so funny.Because so I became friends with the
singer for Bowling for Soup. Hedoes my intro music on here and stuff
nice. But his So I methis wife years ago, like they weren't
married at the time, but shewas the only person that bought that CD.

(50:59):
Yeah. I was performing at Hyenasand Fort Worth. She was the
only person that bought the CD.Yeah, and then we became friends on
like MySpace or something like that.Yeah, she wanted to meet the star.
And then she got married to Jarrett. And then, uh, I've
got his poster right back there tooo. And then yeah, I met
him a few years ago out ofshow. So lucky I had. I.

(51:22):
Yeah, I didn't know how toedit CDs back then, so it's
just like one long track. It'slike forty two minutes long. Yeah.
I mean, the technology keeps changingso fucking fast. I remember when I
first started Brett Hiker was like,you need to get a iMovie for like

(51:42):
Apple or some shit. Yeah,And I actually bought a book on it
because lazy. I never even hardlyused it really, And then the last
time I had to upload a video, it was like the easiest thing in
the world because it's all through yourphone. Now, Yeah, I'm sure
and five years, it's gonna beeven easier than that. I don't even
know, Like I don't it's probablygonna just you're gonna listen to yourself talk

(52:07):
and then say new track, andthen it'll just make a new track for
you or some shit like that,you know. I don't know, but
like it is a weird and thatthat's probably my greatest weakness is is all
of the technology in comedy. Yeah, I'm a you know, I like

(52:27):
to romanticize all of those other comicsthat I used to watch when I was
younger, and they'd always just havelike a notepad, you know, and
they just would like that that's whatit was. You just went, you
did your material, and you left, and now there's this whole other thing
where it's like, well, yeahthat's cool. Yeah, if you're good
to meet comedy, that's a goodstart. But then you also have to

(52:49):
have like an online presence and youhave to use technology. Even like the
booker that I sent all that shitto, it's like, hey, you
gotta have a video. It's gotto have this many uh mega whatever megapixels
I don't even know, like,and it's like and it can't be too
many and it can't be too little, and it's got to be a link.

(53:10):
It don't send me a video,send me a link. And it's
like Jesus, like I I mean, I'm just not I'm older than I
look. I guess. Well,when I started, you had to send
a VHS tape physically go to thepost office and't mail it. Yeah,
dude, could you imagine the hassle? Dude? It sucks. And I

(53:30):
was just doing like this is whenI was first started out, So it
was just like a fifteen minute tape. Yea, I'd waste like this six
hour tape just on this stupid littlefifteen minutes. I was doing well,
yeah, you know, and thenyou know, if the if the booker's
not paid attention, it's like fifteenminutes a curt and all of a sudden,
Conan the barbarians on. Yeah,they're like, oh, where are
we at? Yeah, it's theguy put on the Conan guy, that

(53:51):
guy. I was like, canyou watch this and then send it off
to the book in the next town, Yeah yeah, or could you watch
this and send it back please,because I want to know how alien is
Yeah yeah yeah. And then beforethat, man, I don't know how
it happened. But what a Yeah, yeah, things technology definitely making it

(54:15):
easier for sure. Well, thisis probably too much of a story,
but I got my degree in marketingin like two thousand and eight. I
got a bachelor's degree in marketing management. And this was before Facebook was like
a thing and within this was beforeTwitter existed. My Space was kind of

(54:39):
around. But by the time Igraduated, almost all of my profession or
my education was like obsolete. Likeliterally we were learning on like we were
learning how to send surveys by mail. Yeah. Part of my education in
college was like tracking where to youknow, where to track and send mail

(55:06):
to people to get surveys on likeproducts they use like chlorox and shit.
And now it's like all that shit'sfree. Yeah yeah, and you know,
and or it's all it's a surveybefore you click a video. It's
like how often do you use thisproduct that product? And it's all automated
and there's no need for somebody likeme. They just pay Google to do
it. Uh huh. So yeah, I felt like that. I remember

(55:29):
taking a journalism class because I wasthinking about getting into sports journalism. Yeah,
and I'm glad I didn't dude.Yeah, could you imagine I mean,
going to school for something like sportsjournalism, getting really good at writing,
you know, maybe something kind ofwitty and like a punchline to your
headline, you know, and thenyou open up Twitter and there's eight million

(55:52):
guys that are doing it for free. Yeah you know, and that it's
just a hobby they're doing and itYeah, you know, it's it's a
weird time you stand ups like that, like I I saw, I used
to put I used to write,dude. I probably have like thirty thousand
posts on Twitter, like when itlike just from writing every single joke that

(56:13):
popped in my head. And itwas like there's a lot of fucking input
for very little feedback, you know, because even if you get like a
million likes or something it goes viral. It's like what can you get out
of that? Yeah? Yeah,I like I remember there was like I
think it was like Bloody Elbow orsomebody one of these like MMA publications that

(56:37):
probably doesn't even exist anymore. Iwrote like a joke about like an M
and a fight, and they're like, hey, can we use that?
And I was like sure. SoI got a little credit on it with
my symbol. Yeah, but it'slike didn't do anything for me. Yeah,
you know, like it didn't helpme in any way other than like
I think, I said, likethe screenshot to my brother. I was

(56:57):
like, yes, that was it. Yeah. One of my tweet was
in the Des Moines Registered one time, nice because I was making fun of
the IOWA football team was in abowl game. They're getting the ship beat
out of him. I said,I saw better tackling than Tom Arnold and
Roseanne's sex tape. Wow they putthat on there. Yeah, well that's
in the Des Moines Register. Ithink you're allowed to have the key to

(57:19):
the city for that. Yeah,you get to be mayor for the day.
Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And
Tom Arnold's a big IOWA fan too, so that was that was pretty cool.
That's a good way to That wasa good way to rub it in
about his favorite team and his exwife. Yes, absolutely, double yeah,

(57:42):
Hey, what's that nothing? Oh? I was just gonna say I
never had Tom Arnold on my bingocardas beam like the hero in all of
that ship. Like now that likepoor uh, poor old Roseanne lost all
her marbles. Oh yeah, didyou ever hear so Tom Arnold was molested

(58:04):
as a child. I remember that. I remember ever heard the story about
so he he performed, he wasperforming at the Domine Funny Bone. Uh,
and he found out that the dudethat molested him. I have heard
that he confronted. Yeah. That'sfucking crazy. Yeah, yeah, fucking
awesome. I don't know if thatwas in the register or not, but

(58:25):
well, I don't know. Imean it might have been below your your
gag. Yeah, yeah, reallydunk it on that victim there, Kurt,
Yeah, all right, hell,hell yeah, man, this has
been awesome. We'll wrap it uphere. We almost hit an hour or
so. Okay, man, ifanybody is listening me and a J if

(58:51):
you're in Montrose, Colorado, Iforgot to put it there at the bottom
of the scrolly thing. But Augustthird, where in Montrose, Colorado at
can In Creek. Yeah, gothere and then go take a trip to
Ray, Colorado and buy us somebeers, buy us some beers. Yeah
all right, dude, cool?Well thanks for where can people find you

(59:14):
on? You're not much on socialmedia? But no, no, you
know I still do the well it'sx now at aj Comic and then the
Eddie and AJ podcast. That's right, go listen to his podcast. It's
fantastic, awesome. Well yeah,thanks for coming on man Antide. Yeah,
I hope to see you again soondoing shows together. And hell yeah

(59:37):
we have a good time in Montrose. Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
All right, take care, buddy, all right, catch it later.
Man, all right, thanks,alright, bye bye