December 15, 2024 • 40 mins
Ever wondered how stand-up comedy has transformed over the years? Join us as La Josh Preston, a humorous force from Southwest Virginia, takes us through his comedic journey from 1993 to now. La Josh has seen it all—from the bustling stages of Roanoke to the exhilarating experience of performing for Kenan Thompson. He talks about the evolution of comedy, highlighting how inclusivity has reshaped the field, urging comedians to abandon outdated norms like racism and bullying. Let La Josh's unique perspective enlighten you on the perseverance and authenticity required to thrive in the comedy world.
Get ready for a hilarious and heartwarming anecdote about La Josh's unforgettable opportunity to perform with Kenan Thompson's Funniest Comics. Discover how a video clip with Kenan became his personal badge of honor, convincing his family that his trip wasn't just about gambling in Atlantic City. La Josh shares how his distinctive jokes drew the attention of producers and audiences alike, proving that originality can set you apart even among comedy legends. He also reflects on the profound influence of comedy icons like DL Hughley and Bernie Mac, whose ability to unite diverse audiences continues to inspire his work.
Aspiring comedians, take note: La Josh brings valuable insights into the comedy grind, emphasizing the crucial role of open mics in honing one's skills. He shares tales of long drives for precious minutes of stage time and the relentless hustle to keep evolving as a comic. The Roanoke comedy scene, filled with challenges and camaraderie, has taught him the importance of staying true to oneself amidst competition and negativity. Join us to learn from La Josh's experiences and gather tips on making your mark in the ever-changing landscape of stand-up comedy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no ID Podcast.
I have here with me comedianproducer host MC creative.
You've seen him working withKenan Thompson's Funniest Comics
.
I never met this man before inmy life, but I came across him
(00:25):
on a Facebook ad and I've been afan of his work since the one
and only.
La Josh Preston.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm Facebook famous.
I've heard that a couple oftimes.
Probably man.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You can heard that a couple of times.
Probably you are man.
You had the pose.
It was like, it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's showing the power.
That's that power right there.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I thought it was like the Michael Jordan, you know
last dance.
It was like yeah, like you know, like oh man Jordan, you know
last dance, like yeah like youknow, like oh man, I'm a I'm a
fan of your work, man.
I see what you're building upthere in Northern Virginia.
You're traveling and doing yourthing, so it's great to see
other comedians travel and dothey thing.
(01:19):
Man, how is the comedy scene upin Northern Virginia man?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
well, I'm in a place called Roanoke Virginia.
It's actually SouthwestVirginia, you know is that?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Southwest okay.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, southwest Virginia here I am trying to
make a scene here and it's beengoing well.
I have three open mics that Ido here in Roanoke and then I
have one in Salem that I do, andusually with my open mics I
usually have in Roanoke, andthen I have one in Salem that I
do, and usually with my openmics I usually have a feature
comedian come and do show, do ashow, or I'll even have a full
(01:52):
show and do an open mic afterthe show.
So so the comedians who arehere in Roanoke can get what I
call getting their reps in andjust keep on practicing and
practicing, because that's whatyou need in comedy you need to
get on stage, for you to getbetter and better in this
profession correct me, and Ilike everything that you're
(02:15):
doing.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've never been to a place where they had actual show
, and so you know what?
We got an open mic as well, toright behind us, so that's
actually pretty unique.
That's actually pretty dope.
So how long have you been doingcomedy, josh?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I started doing comedy in 1993 and I did it for
eight years and because, beingmarried and having to have a kid
with my wife, it was very hardto be on the road and being a
husband and a father, so I hadto make a decision.
(02:51):
So I made the decision tobecome a husband and a father,
focus on that a whole lot morethan comedy, and that's that.
And then after that I, once thekids start being grown and be
able to take care of themselvesand stuff like that I was able
(03:12):
in 2021, in October so it's beenthree years ago I was able to
say you know what and this waspretty much after the pandemic I
said you know what?
I want to go back and do comedyagain.
So I talked it over with mywife.
My wife was on board with itand so I started doing open mics
in a place called the Idiot Boxin Greensboro, north Carolina,
(03:35):
because there was nothing herein Roanoke as far as open mics
go.
So I went there and met somegreat comedians from North
Carolina and so I went there anddid start doing open mics for,
I'm going to say, about sixmonths and then one of the the
the owner there, just said hey,why don't you, instead of
(03:56):
driving two hours to do openmics, why don't you just do open
mics and rowing them?
And I really never thought aboutdoing it myself and I really
never thought about doing itmyself.
But I said, but by her sayingthat, which gave me the
confidence, because if, um, hername is Jenny Stencil from, uh,
the Idiot Box, and she said, andfor her to say something like
(04:16):
that, it felt like that she hadthe confidence that in me to
actually do it.
So what?
So she says it, I say, well, ifshe believes it, I'm gonna
start believing it.
So I went up and start doingopen mics and just kept going
there and then, from there, juststart doing shows and was able
(04:37):
to do my first show march of2022 and I played some verses
here and wrote and rollingoveroke and bought a bunch of
comedians from Virginia andNorth Carolina and then just
took off from there yeah, forsure, that's what's up, man.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And you said 1993 is when you started.
So how was comedy then comparedto now?
Because now it's morecensorship, more cancel culture.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Gotta be this friendly and that that's so
friendly yeah, you can say a lotmore things back in 93 that you
can say now.
And I thought about, and whenpeople talk about being canceled
and stuff, and let's be honest,I mean, who's really being
canceled because of somethingthat they said?
It's not, it's not really that.
(05:27):
It's just people are using thatcancel culture thing to pretty
much boost them up because theyfeel like, oh, I'm going to say
this and watch me get canceled.
It's like, man, nobody'sthinking about you.
(05:50):
Right now there's just too much, too much comedy for anyone to
focus on one person and cancelthem like in 1993.
Because right now people are soupset because they can't say
like the f word or the r wordand things like of that nature,
but they like it back in the daywhen you could say that.
But the reason why we can't saythat now is because we as
humans, we evolving.
I mean we want here and say andwe want to stop stuff like
racism and bullying and thingslike that.
(06:11):
But when it seems like when itcomes to comedy, they're upset
because we don't toleratebullying and racism like we did
back in the day.
I think we're getting better ashumans if we're not believing,
if we don't want the racism andthe homophobia, being a
homophobe and being fat shamingand all this stuff.
(06:34):
If we, as we as humans, don'twant that around, why are we?
Why should we accept it incomedy if they don't accept it
in comedy?
That means we're evolving aspeople, you know.
Yeah, I mean, that's just myopinion.
I, just like I always got, I'malways that person that I want
(06:55):
comedy to be.
I don't want it to be shockcomedy.
I don't want people to be justsaying things to be offensive.
No, we as humans, we should bepast that.
We shouldn't be doing that.
We should be being creative.
Our creativity is what makescomedy and people who are
creative, they're soaring Allthese offensive people.
(07:16):
We're tired of it.
I mean, we're about to have anelection and one person is
nothing but a bully, talks aboutpeople and stuff like that.
We don't like that when he doesit.
But people who are in comedyand they do it oh, you should.
We shouldn't be censored, weshould know you should be
censored too.
All right, because we don'twant to hear that.
(07:36):
We're here to have a good timeand listen to funny jokes,
creative jokes.
That's what we're here for, notfor all that bullying and
homophobic and fat shamingthings of that nature.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We're not here for that I'm glad you said that, man
, because when I first started Iheard it and I was like I ain't
doing that shit because I Ican't do it because I have
something called integrity and Iwant a legacy for my like.
I have a legacy like I.
If I was to have children, Idon't want 10, 20 years from now
(08:09):
, them kids see me using thosetype of words.
Right, and I appreciate youstanding up for that, because a
lot of people don't realize thetrue essence of comedy is
vulnerability and a lot ofcomedians focus on the crude
humor.
They do the shit excuse mylanguage, I know you're not
really a cuss accustomed, butthey do the shit.
That just seems like they'regonna get a laugh or it's gonna
(08:30):
be like oh, make it cringe.
But if you listen to I mean Iknow he had his, his flaws, like
he listened to, like a richardpryor or eddie murphy or kevin
hart, they were very vulnerableon their stage talking about
their life experiences and stufflike that.
It wasn't a lot of crude humor,especially Kev I've seen Kevin
laugh before.
(08:51):
I did not hear no crude humorwhatsoever.
All that dark word or the Rword or the homophobia, none of
that.
I didn't hear it and I'm like,oh, thank you Somebody.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Damn.
Like I said, we're evolving it.
As humans, everybody wants to.
It seems like racism, just likewith the racism and oh, I can't
say racist jokes.
No, we're grown people.
Stop Stop with it, man.
I mean there's a couple mayberacist jokes that you know you
(09:23):
don't mean, you know peoplearen't offensive, but nobody's
doing that.
It was like what was it?
Mickey Rooney or sitting therejust talking about every kind of
people?
No, we have grown, we're tiredof it and Can't live through it,
man.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Now I'm going to go all around, because no idea is
all around.
We don't have one specific waynow.
You did work with the keenanthompson's funniest comics and
you actually did a show with thekeenan thompson experience, am
I correct?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
how was that?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
how was that?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
it was a great experience and a lot of people.
With the Kenan Thompson thing,people are always saying, oh,
they're just using you for moneyand they're just.
You know, you got to pay themto do all this stuff.
You don't have to pay themanything If you're good.
They're going to say, hey, canyou do this show?
And if you can, you can.
If you can't, ok, we'll justwait for the next one, the Kenan
(10:25):
Thompson one.
He was there and I was picked byanother producer in New Jersey.
His name is Matt Bridgestone.
They said pick comedians thatwould go up there and do a great
job and for me, being fromVirginia, I did a show with him
in Bridgeport, connecticut, andhe told me you are the only
(10:51):
comedian that I can rememberbeing funny.
So he went and picked me, a guyfrom Roanoke Virginia, to do
shows in Atlantic City in frontof Kenan Thompson.
I mean, I'm sure he had friendsin New Jersey, probably in
Pennsylvania, all around there,but he picked me from Roanoke
Virginia and it felt real great.
(11:14):
I felt honored doing thatbecause I'm one of those
comedians that I'm veryrememberable.
I'm not doing jokes that peoplewake up the next morning and be
like man.
What did he say?
Because you get a lot of that.
People say oh he was funny.
Well, what joke did he say hewas talking about?
I don't remember.
(11:36):
At least I know what my jokespeople will remember.
One or two of my jokes are likeoh he does the DMX thing or the
Martin Luther King thing or thetrap baby.
It's a lot of jokes that I dothat people will remember it.
And I just say with the KenanThompson, he was a very, very
nice guy.
I was the only person that wasable to do a video with him
(11:58):
because he was just sitting.
He came, he was just sittingthere and nobody was talking to
him.
I don't know if they werenervous or whatever.
I just went up to him and said,hey, I explained myself.
I said I introduced who I was.
I said can I do a video withyou?
And I did it as a joke.
So I want you to do a videowith me so to prove to my wife
(12:19):
and kids that I'm actually herewith you doing a comedy show and
not Atlantic City gambling upall the money.
Because I love to gamble.
I play blackjack and craps.
That is my thing.
That's why, if anybody's inVegas, anyone who's in Atlantic
City, anywhere where there's acasino, if you call me up and
say, hey, would you like to do ashow?
(12:39):
Let's go, because I am there.
And so we did a video.
I showed it to my wife and kidsand they were like, oh so you
really are with him.
Huh, because my wife loves SNL,I was glad I was able to do
that for them.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It is a blessing man.
Yeah man, I remember when thatthing first rolled out a couple
of years ago.
Actually, I got selected my dagon stuff.
I just I don't know what.
I had other projects going, butthat's dope.
Kenan Thompson, that man is alegend I'm talking about.
We talk early 90s, mighty Duck,all that, fat Howard.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, that's right.
I actually meet a celebrity ofthe now.
A lot of people meetcelebrities that were
celebrities maybe 20, 30 yearsago.
To meet a celebrity that is acelebrity right now, that's a
good thing.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Now, when those celebrities are like yeah.
I was hot back in the 80s.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Hey, no Comic View six times.
I wasn't no celebrity, I washot back in the 80s.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You don't definitely know me.
I'm on Comic View six times.
Now you're here with me doing abar show.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You get that so much.
Man, who are some of yourinspirations in comedy?
Who was those comedians?
Who was that comedian you'slike?
Why are you gravitated to moretowards?
You's like you know what?
I gotta try this because you'vebeen in different eras of
comedy.
You've been in the deaf comedy,jammed comic view era to the
netflix special era.
(14:18):
So who is?
Who are those comedians?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
well, in the beginning it had to be dl hewley
and bernie mack, and the reasonwhy I say that is that I wasn't
even planning on being acomedian.
I I went to a comedy show ingreen.
It was 1993, july 16th, Iremember I went to a show.
It was dl hewley and berniemack and I sat there and I was
(14:44):
just watching them being becausebefore that they had a comedy
contest and I believe a guynamed Sherman Golden won.
I was like, oh, he's just a newcomedian starting out and he
won this and he was able to goon tour.
And I was like, oh, that'spretty cool.
And then Bernie Mac and DLHewley started doing their show.
And what got me is that thepeople around it was black
(15:09):
people, white people, latinos,asians, middle Easterners, it
didn't.
Rich, poor, they were male,female, it didn't matter.
We were all sitting therelaughing and having a good time.
And I say this is the kind ofatmosphere I want, because I'm a
(15:30):
very diverse person.
So I wanted that kind ofatmosphere.
You know, I want black people,white people, asian, rich, poor,
tall, short, all people comingto my shows and that's why I'm
pretty much, when it comes todoing my shows, I don't.
I'm not the type it comes todoing my shows.
I don't.
I'm not the type of person tosay just be a decent human being
(15:50):
, that's what I want.
Comics well, what kind of showshould I do?
I said just be a decent humanbeing, that's all you.
You know what?
What?
Um jokes that are gonna bepeople gonna be like offensive
and stuff like that, that's all,that's all you want to be.
And me watching them to performand all those people laughing,
(16:10):
don't matter who they were.
I was like that's the kind ofplace I want to be.
So I was like yo, I'm prettyfunny.
I got, I got a few jokes that,uh, I can think of.
So I went and wrote.
I remember july 17th, I wrote myjokes, some of my jokes, and I
went to the Roanoke Comedy Club.
They had open mics I believe itwas on a Tuesday or a Thursday
(16:31):
and I went there and tried outthe jokes, got some laughs and
the same people black, white,whatever were laughing.
I was like see, this is what.
That's what happened when Iwent to Greensboro.
So I talked to the owner and hesaid keep coming back.
Keep, that's what happened whenI went to Greensboro.
So I talked to the owner and hesaid keep coming back, keep
coming back, keep coming back.
And I, and that's what I did.
And then about I say it took meabout six months to it.
(16:52):
Now, it took me about a year tofeel real comfortable to start
hosting and it took me about twoyears to feature and that's
what I was I've been, I wasdoing so I guess you could say
dl hewley and bernie mack theway they performed got me really
started to come.
But as for, uh, eddie murphywas the first person I seen do
(17:18):
stand-up comedy.
He was the first person becauseI wasn't.
I loved sitcoms, I love, I likeshows like martin and Living
Single and all those differentworld Cosby Show.
They were.
It was funny, but also they hadserious moments.
So it wasn't always bang, bang,funny, funny, funny.
(17:38):
It wasn't until I saw EddieMercury's Raw comedy where I saw
whoa, there are people you canbe funny like constantly.
I mean it was when I say likeover an hour, like an hour and a
half, just being funny straightthrough.
I was like, oh so so I startedgetting into standup comedy and
start looking at other comedianslike Richard Pryor and, uh, so
(18:01):
so many George Carlin and people, people of that nature, and I
started digging into stand-upcomedy because of that.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
I just watched Delirious, probably for the
third time this week and it wasNovember 3rd, so obviously I've
been watching it constantlybecause they had it free on
Pluto and Raw is a genius thing.
Now Bernie Mac is forever willbe goaded as a beast.
And dl hugley, I think when itcomes to the original kings of
(18:33):
comedy, he's a sleeper.
Yeah, he's a sleeper.
People don't realize that manalready had two specials out
prior to him actually doing def,not def comedy, jam, kings of
Comedy.
Like he had that third when HBOused to do those 30 minute
blocks, a stand up special, andhe had the going home joint when
he wore that yellow canary suitcool guy.
(18:58):
I got to open up for him once.
Cool guy.
But it was so amazing and I seeit now like what I like about
it like you was talking aboutbeing a decent human being is I
appreciate that because, like Isaid, I see a lot of crudeness.
I see a lot of undercutting,because I don't know if you
experienced the undercut in roadnote, but it's like a lot of
(19:20):
undercutting.
It's like let me take six of myhomeboys with them with me and
I'm to put them on every showand the rest of y'all got to
fend for yourselves.
And I'm going to throw somebodythe bone, but I don't want that
person throwing a bone to bebetter than me, right?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
right.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I'm going to shit on them.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
The problem I have at Roanoke is because I'm pretty
much the only one doing comedyshows here.
If there were no comedy, if Ididn't do any comedy shows here
in Roanoke, there'd be one openmic.
That's done once every whoknows two months.
But since I'm doing the openmics and having people come on
stage, I'm getting I don't evenwant to say it, well, I'm going
(20:01):
to say it.
I'm going to say it.
I get a lot of hate here inRoanoke.
But there's a lot of comediansthat support me and they
outweigh the hate, and so I'mjust out here just doing my
comedy show.
I've told the comedians I knowyou don't like me, I know you
(20:21):
don't Just go over there andjust leave me alone, just let me
be, and I'll be over here doingmy comedy show.
But the problem is is that theysee what I'm doing and then
they want to come in andundercut you.
I don't know if you saw thething on Facebook when I did the
(20:41):
thing about Corey Holcomb, whenhe said these people will go
through the front door if theycould, and that's what they've
been.
It'd be.
Just, I have been minding mybusiness for doing my comedy
shows, not messing with anyone.
And here they come, goingthrough my comedy shows and
stuff and I'm telling them hey,man, if you want, if you want
(21:04):
this to really work, we got toair some stuff out.
But as soon as you try to airit out, they always got
something to make it blame onyou or saying that it's your
fault.
You're the reason why I had acomedian sit there and just say
you're just mad, you're notbooking me on your shows because
you're just mad, because we'rebetter than you, I don't book,
(21:26):
you're not booking me on yourshows because you're just mad,
because we're better than you.
And I said do you know whatyou're?
What you're saying right now?
So I'm not booking you on myshow because you're better than
me.
So you know what you're saying?
That all the people that I bookon my show aren't better than
me.
And you're also better thaneverybody who ever booked on my
(21:49):
show.
That's what you're saying rightnow.
And when I bring stuff backbecause when it comes to the
Internet, people will say stuffon the Internet and they just
think it's over, not with me.
When you say something on theInternet, I'm going to respond.
And if I meet you in person,I'm going to respond the same
(22:15):
way.
I keep that same energy,because I just did a show on
Saturday, a comedy competition,and a person knows he doesn't
like me, know I doesn't like him, but during the show, this dude
going to try and stick out andshake my hand.
No, keep that same energy thatyou do on Facebook or anywhere
else on social media.
Keep that same energy when wemeet in person.
That's it.
(22:35):
Keep the same energy.
Don't act like we're friendsbecause you know we're not and
just leave me alone.
Let me do my open mics and mycomedy and peace.
Do your own thing, but theycan't and it's I know.
And I hate, I hate to be sittinghere saying this and being on
nagging and stuff, because I'm avery positive person, I like
(22:57):
talking about good, good stuffand everything, but sometimes
you got to sit here and say youknow, enough is enough.
It's time for me to stop beingtrying to be the bigger person
all the time.
I'm done being the biggerperson.
I'm going out here and I amgoing full force.
Usually in Roanoke I was likeokay, I got enough stuff in
Roanoke, I'll let y'all get thisor get that, do whatever.
(23:20):
Now I'm at the point where youknow what.
I'm just going to just doeverything, anything and
everything possible to get moreshows, to get more people on,
because there are comedians herein Roanoke, virginia, that if
they get enough reps, get enoughtime in their hands, they are
going to be great.
I say, give them like anotheryear.
(23:40):
They're going to be some greatcomedians coming out of Roanoke
and I'm just trying to steerthem in the right direction.
This is what you need to do toget where you need to be, and
hopefully they'll listen to meand they'll stay with me, stick
with me and we can grow together, because that's what I want to
do.
I want to grow Roanoke.
(24:01):
When there's comedy, peoplewill say, hey, come to Roanoke,
virginia, they got some goodcomedians there, you know.
So that's, that's all I'mtrying to do right now.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
That's my main thing you know there's some people
that's out here listening andwatching.
This is my first time talkingto Josh, so I'm gonna just say
it seems like a very genuinething, because as comedians
right, you do see a lot of theundercuts and I have this saying
that I use when I say everybodywants to be a big shark in a
small pond and those big,wannabe big sharks are drowning
(24:35):
consistently, consistently.
The hate is real.
The undercut is real.
The beefs are fucking real.
The beefs are real Cat whims.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This shit is big beef People who are scared of cat
and of you.
Nobody knows what cat waspopping up with and it was like,
oh, cat tripping.
No, it's legitimately real.
I personally have had my beefs.
I have one still floating inthere, the rest of my squash, I
have one floating to the pointwhere I would not speak to this
(25:11):
person at all.
That person has bashed me forover a year and some change now
online and to other people andall those people got on his side
and just I was like you knowwhat I know y'all at because I
felt energy.
But I noticed that when you dosomething big, the more the hate
comes.
You understand what I'm sayingand they like what.
(25:35):
They trying to figure out whatyou doing, right.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
The same comedians are sitting there saying that
I'm jealous of them.
I have performed in more statesthan they have done open mics
this year.
How am I jealous of you?
I'm doing four comedy showsjust by myself.
What are you doing?
And I left it like that?
How am I jealous of you?
What have you done?
You get no response, but you'llget the hate, though.
(26:05):
You'll get the hate, I'll getthe hate I'm like I just laugh
when people are saying that I'mjealous of them.
Of what have you seen?
Have you checked my resume andcompare it to yours?
Please explain why I'm jealousthat too, that cricket.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And then you know what's crazy is like.
There's always those comediansthat don't book work, not funny
rush day process.
Uh, don't post, so don't postcomedy clips.
I noticed that too.
I'm not.
I'm not, I'm not talking trashabout nobody's not posting a
comedy clip, but I want youcomedians to listen to this when
(26:45):
you submit for a comedy club orcompetition or a you submitting
to an agency, booking agencies,whatever they always ask you
two things what's your websiteand what is your social media
handle?
And if you don't have anythingon your social media handle,
(27:09):
they will not be like well, Idon't know if he do comedy or
not.
All I just see is a fly he bedoing a fly to making chicken
wings and a fly he could bedoing a fly to making chicken
wings and rolling over chickenwings.
I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
They'll do still pictures.
You don't hear them.
It's just a bunch of stillpictures posing.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
With a motivational video, a motivational music
playing in the background.
I came up from the ground Onceyou put Wi-Fi in the background.
I came up from the ground Onceyou put Wi-Fi in the microwave
it turns up a little bit.
I'm like what, let us know youdo comedy.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Now we're here Playing in the background.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Come on, man.
Oh yeah, I had seen onecomedian here in the 757 who
legitimately will repost Drewskiskits.
She will repost a Drewski skit.
They was like man.
She got over 60,000 followers.
I'm like bro.
(28:10):
It's algorithm.
If Drewski is popping right now, if she reposted him, it's more
than likely they're going to goto her page and think that's
Drewski is popping right now.
If she reposted him, it's morethan likely they're going to go
to her page and think that'sDrewski, that's what he's doing.
You are falling for it.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
That frustration is real with some people, like the
YouTube, just Jokes do getstolen.
Some people do end up soundinglike it's nothing but a genuine
conversation.
So a lot of times it's just amistake because you're around
each other, but that's anotherconversation.
(28:49):
It's like yeah, it was relaxed,man, it's not that deep.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, the YouTube comedian.
I have no problem with theYouTube comedian.
Only thing I have a problemwith are the people that's doing
Walmart pranks and they thinkthey're original.
I say, hey, walmart pranks.
And they go and do the sameWalmart prank that someone else
did and you're trying to tell methese are original.
And when you go on stage,you're trying to tell me that
(29:13):
you're doing original comedywhen you can.
When you go on stage, you'retrying to tell me that you're
doing original comedy where youcan.
When you go on YouTube, all youdo are Walmart pranks that
you've seen other people do.
And just because you wentTarget doesn't mean it's not a
Walmart prank.
It's still a Walmart prank.
Don't care if you went FoodLion, it's still a Walmart prank
.
All these people and it's funny,every thumbnail got a person
(29:34):
with a big ass, a woman with abig ass.
That's their thumbnail rightthere so you can click on it.
Get out of here, man.
Oh, this the gold digger prank.
Everybody got a gold diggerprank.
The dude, can you borrow somemoney?
Oh, no, then they hop into oneof these nice cars.
Oh, that's your car.
I'm like like I know y'allain't trying to think that this
(29:55):
is we think this is real.
Right, I know you're not tryingto act.
This is this is you know thisis fake, but there's some people
that just try to act like that.
This is real, this is, this ishow it really happens, like,
yeah, she, you even put amicrophone on her too at that
time.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, that was yeah we didn't see the tripod with
the camera set up on down theway that's getting different
angle cuts.
You know this is what it is.
What's some advice that youwould give?
Well, you already said be adecent human.
What's some other advice youwould give to a comedian or
somebody looking at getting intocomedy?
(30:31):
What advice would you give them?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I would write your own jokes.
That's, that's the main thing.
Don't don't look at oneperson's joke and be like, oh,
if he just changed, if I justchange it like this, I can use
it as my own.
No, it's their joke.
Be original, be creative,that's the one thing.
And two go to open mics, go.
(30:58):
I started with my open.
I drove two hours and peopleare saying you drive two hours
just to do five minutes.
Yes, I would drive three hours,I would drive four hours.
I will drive If I got a chanceto do an open mic.
If I'm sitting at home like man, there's nothing to do.
Kids are sitting there playingvideo game.
Wife is watching tv.
You know what?
(31:18):
I'm gonna just go to an openmic.
If I just find out where's anopen mic and I'll just go there,
I'll just pop up and that'swhat I tell people.
Go to open mic.
People sit here and I thinkthey're too good to do open mics
.
There's people that wonder whythey don't get booked like.
There's one person thatactually came to me and said how
come you don't book me for yourshow?
And I say because you, whereare you working?
(31:42):
You're not working anywhere.
I don't see you at any openmics.
I don't see you doing any shows.
So if you're not working, I'mnot going to book you.
I'm booking the people that areworking out here doing the job,
doing what they need to do toget ahead.
Because I'm thinking, if you'renot working and you want to get
booked, if you go do a showyou're gonna to me.
(32:04):
You're gonna just do hackycomedy, you're just gonna do, or
you're gonna do, comedy thatyou did two years ago.
I mean you have.
There's no growth.
I tell.
I tell comedians all the timesee what you've done in one year
compared to like last year andcompared to what you did this
year.
Compare the two and see ifyou've gotten any better.
(32:25):
Nine times out of 10, theyhaven't even gotten any better.
They're just doing the samejokes over and over again.
At least with me, when I do doa joke, I will do one joke and
then next year it could be thesame joke.
But I've changed stuff around.
I've used different names.
It's a longer set.
(32:45):
Usually you do a joke it's likeonly one minute.
Now it's four or five minutes.
I've constantly tried toimprove even the old jokes that
I do.
I constantly improve thosejokes.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
No-transcript you got a big fix.
(37:36):
You got to have those differentstyles Clean.
Church clean, corporate clean,church clean is that right there
?
I'm still learning, that's abeast.
Church clean, club club clean.
You got theaters clean.
You got theaters.
(37:59):
It's like different ones.
I can do both.
You know how.
You was a kid and you heardthat song on the radio that had
all the cuss words in it.
But you're in the car with yourmom and you don't want to cuss
you all the cuss words.
Instead of saying ass, you saybutt or handy or something.
I'm like, yeah, that's what I'dbe.
I'd be like I gotta do it thatway, but I dare you.
(38:26):
I dare you.
Josh brother, I reallyappreciate the interview, man,
and the time that you took witheverything.
Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.
(39:30):
That's big facts.
If the people want to find you,man, how can they get in
contact with you?
See your stuff, what can theylook for you at?
Okay,
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no ID Podcast.
I have here with me comedianproducer host MC creative.
You've seen him working withKenan Thompson's Funniest Comics
.
I never met this man before inmy life, but I came across him
(00:25):
on a Facebook ad and I've been afan of his work since the one
and only.
La Josh Preston.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm Facebook famous.
I've heard that a couple oftimes.
Probably man.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You can heard that a couple of times.
Probably you are man.
You had the pose.
It was like, it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's showing the power.
That's that power right there.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I thought it was like the Michael Jordan, you know
last dance.
It was like yeah, like you know, like oh man Jordan, you know
last dance, like yeah like youknow, like oh man, I'm a I'm a
fan of your work, man.
I see what you're building upthere in Northern Virginia.
You're traveling and doing yourthing, so it's great to see
other comedians travel and dothey thing.
(01:19):
Man, how is the comedy scene upin Northern Virginia man?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
well, I'm in a place called Roanoke Virginia.
It's actually SouthwestVirginia, you know is that?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Southwest okay.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, southwest Virginia here I am trying to
make a scene here and it's beengoing well.
I have three open mics that Ido here in Roanoke and then I
have one in Salem that I do, andusually with my open mics I
usually have in Roanoke, andthen I have one in Salem that I
do, and usually with my openmics I usually have a feature
comedian come and do show, do ashow, or I'll even have a full
(01:52):
show and do an open mic afterthe show.
So so the comedians who arehere in Roanoke can get what I
call getting their reps in andjust keep on practicing and
practicing, because that's whatyou need in comedy you need to
get on stage, for you to getbetter and better in this
profession correct me, and Ilike everything that you're
(02:15):
doing.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've never been to a place where they had actual show
, and so you know what?
We got an open mic as well, toright behind us, so that's
actually pretty unique.
That's actually pretty dope.
So how long have you been doingcomedy, josh?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I started doing comedy in 1993 and I did it for
eight years and because, beingmarried and having to have a kid
with my wife, it was very hardto be on the road and being a
husband and a father, so I hadto make a decision.
(02:51):
So I made the decision tobecome a husband and a father,
focus on that a whole lot morethan comedy, and that's that.
And then after that I, once thekids start being grown and be
able to take care of themselvesand stuff like that I was able
(03:12):
in 2021, in October so it's beenthree years ago I was able to
say you know what and this waspretty much after the pandemic I
said you know what?
I want to go back and do comedyagain.
So I talked it over with mywife.
My wife was on board with itand so I started doing open mics
in a place called the Idiot Boxin Greensboro, north Carolina,
(03:35):
because there was nothing herein Roanoke as far as open mics
go.
So I went there and met somegreat comedians from North
Carolina and so I went there anddid start doing open mics for,
I'm going to say, about sixmonths and then one of the the
the owner there, just said hey,why don't you, instead of
(03:56):
driving two hours to do openmics, why don't you just do open
mics and rowing them?
And I really never thought aboutdoing it myself and I really
never thought about doing itmyself.
But I said, but by her sayingthat, which gave me the
confidence, because if, um, hername is Jenny Stencil from, uh,
the Idiot Box, and she said, andfor her to say something like
(04:16):
that, it felt like that she hadthe confidence that in me to
actually do it.
So what?
So she says it, I say, well, ifshe believes it, I'm gonna
start believing it.
So I went up and start doingopen mics and just kept going
there and then, from there, juststart doing shows and was able
(04:37):
to do my first show march of2022 and I played some verses
here and wrote and rollingoveroke and bought a bunch of
comedians from Virginia andNorth Carolina and then just
took off from there yeah, forsure, that's what's up, man.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And you said 1993 is when you started.
So how was comedy then comparedto now?
Because now it's morecensorship, more cancel culture.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Gotta be this friendly and that that's so
friendly yeah, you can say a lotmore things back in 93 that you
can say now.
And I thought about, and whenpeople talk about being canceled
and stuff, and let's be honest,I mean, who's really being
canceled because of somethingthat they said?
It's not, it's not really that.
(05:27):
It's just people are using thatcancel culture thing to pretty
much boost them up because theyfeel like, oh, I'm going to say
this and watch me get canceled.
It's like, man, nobody'sthinking about you.
(05:50):
Right now there's just too much, too much comedy for anyone to
focus on one person and cancelthem like in 1993.
Because right now people are soupset because they can't say
like the f word or the r wordand things like of that nature,
but they like it back in the daywhen you could say that.
But the reason why we can't saythat now is because we as
humans, we evolving.
I mean we want here and say andwe want to stop stuff like
racism and bullying and thingslike that.
(06:11):
But when it seems like when itcomes to comedy, they're upset
because we don't toleratebullying and racism like we did
back in the day.
I think we're getting better ashumans if we're not believing,
if we don't want the racism andthe homophobia, being a
homophobe and being fat shamingand all this stuff.
(06:34):
If we, as we as humans, don'twant that around, why are we?
Why should we accept it incomedy if they don't accept it
in comedy?
That means we're evolving aspeople, you know.
Yeah, I mean, that's just myopinion.
I, just like I always got, I'malways that person that I want
(06:55):
comedy to be.
I don't want it to be shockcomedy.
I don't want people to be justsaying things to be offensive.
No, we as humans, we should bepast that.
We shouldn't be doing that.
We should be being creative.
Our creativity is what makescomedy and people who are
creative, they're soaring Allthese offensive people.
(07:16):
We're tired of it.
I mean, we're about to have anelection and one person is
nothing but a bully, talks aboutpeople and stuff like that.
We don't like that when he doesit.
But people who are in comedyand they do it oh, you should.
We shouldn't be censored, weshould know you should be
censored too.
All right, because we don'twant to hear that.
(07:36):
We're here to have a good timeand listen to funny jokes,
creative jokes.
That's what we're here for, notfor all that bullying and
homophobic and fat shamingthings of that nature.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We're not here for that I'm glad you said that, man
, because when I first started Iheard it and I was like I ain't
doing that shit because I Ican't do it because I have
something called integrity and Iwant a legacy for my like.
I have a legacy like I.
If I was to have children, Idon't want 10, 20 years from now
(08:09):
, them kids see me using thosetype of words.
Right, and I appreciate youstanding up for that, because a
lot of people don't realize thetrue essence of comedy is
vulnerability and a lot ofcomedians focus on the crude
humor.
They do the shit excuse mylanguage, I know you're not
really a cuss accustomed, butthey do the shit.
That just seems like they'regonna get a laugh or it's gonna
(08:30):
be like oh, make it cringe.
But if you listen to I mean Iknow he had his, his flaws, like
he listened to, like a richardpryor or eddie murphy or kevin
hart, they were very vulnerableon their stage talking about
their life experiences and stufflike that.
It wasn't a lot of crude humor,especially Kev I've seen Kevin
laugh before.
(08:51):
I did not hear no crude humorwhatsoever.
All that dark word or the Rword or the homophobia, none of
that.
I didn't hear it and I'm like,oh, thank you Somebody.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Damn.
Like I said, we're evolving it.
As humans, everybody wants to.
It seems like racism, just likewith the racism and oh, I can't
say racist jokes.
No, we're grown people.
Stop Stop with it, man.
I mean there's a couple mayberacist jokes that you know you
(09:23):
don't mean, you know peoplearen't offensive, but nobody's
doing that.
It was like what was it?
Mickey Rooney or sitting therejust talking about every kind of
people?
No, we have grown, we're tiredof it and Can't live through it,
man.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Now I'm going to go all around, because no idea is
all around.
We don't have one specific waynow.
You did work with the keenanthompson's funniest comics and
you actually did a show with thekeenan thompson experience, am
I correct?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
how was that?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
how was that?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
it was a great experience and a lot of people.
With the Kenan Thompson thing,people are always saying, oh,
they're just using you for moneyand they're just.
You know, you got to pay themto do all this stuff.
You don't have to pay themanything If you're good.
They're going to say, hey, canyou do this show?
And if you can, you can.
If you can't, ok, we'll justwait for the next one, the Kenan
(10:25):
Thompson one.
He was there and I was picked byanother producer in New Jersey.
His name is Matt Bridgestone.
They said pick comedians thatwould go up there and do a great
job and for me, being fromVirginia, I did a show with him
in Bridgeport, connecticut, andhe told me you are the only
(10:51):
comedian that I can rememberbeing funny.
So he went and picked me, a guyfrom Roanoke Virginia, to do
shows in Atlantic City in frontof Kenan Thompson.
I mean, I'm sure he had friendsin New Jersey, probably in
Pennsylvania, all around there,but he picked me from Roanoke
Virginia and it felt real great.
(11:14):
I felt honored doing thatbecause I'm one of those
comedians that I'm veryrememberable.
I'm not doing jokes that peoplewake up the next morning and be
like man.
What did he say?
Because you get a lot of that.
People say oh he was funny.
Well, what joke did he say hewas talking about?
I don't remember.
(11:36):
At least I know what my jokespeople will remember.
One or two of my jokes are likeoh he does the DMX thing or the
Martin Luther King thing or thetrap baby.
It's a lot of jokes that I dothat people will remember it.
And I just say with the KenanThompson, he was a very, very
nice guy.
I was the only person that wasable to do a video with him
(11:58):
because he was just sitting.
He came, he was just sittingthere and nobody was talking to
him.
I don't know if they werenervous or whatever.
I just went up to him and said,hey, I explained myself.
I said I introduced who I was.
I said can I do a video withyou?
And I did it as a joke.
So I want you to do a videowith me so to prove to my wife
(12:19):
and kids that I'm actually herewith you doing a comedy show and
not Atlantic City gambling upall the money.
Because I love to gamble.
I play blackjack and craps.
That is my thing.
That's why, if anybody's inVegas, anyone who's in Atlantic
City, anywhere where there's acasino, if you call me up and
say, hey, would you like to do ashow?
(12:39):
Let's go, because I am there.
And so we did a video.
I showed it to my wife and kidsand they were like, oh so you
really are with him.
Huh, because my wife loves SNL,I was glad I was able to do
that for them.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It is a blessing man.
Yeah man, I remember when thatthing first rolled out a couple
of years ago.
Actually, I got selected my dagon stuff.
I just I don't know what.
I had other projects going, butthat's dope.
Kenan Thompson, that man is alegend I'm talking about.
We talk early 90s, mighty Duck,all that, fat Howard.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, that's right.
I actually meet a celebrity ofthe now.
A lot of people meetcelebrities that were
celebrities maybe 20, 30 yearsago.
To meet a celebrity that is acelebrity right now, that's a
good thing.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Now, when those celebrities are like yeah.
I was hot back in the 80s.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Hey, no Comic View six times.
I wasn't no celebrity, I washot back in the 80s.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You don't definitely know me.
I'm on Comic View six times.
Now you're here with me doing abar show.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You get that so much.
Man, who are some of yourinspirations in comedy?
Who was those comedians?
Who was that comedian you'slike?
Why are you gravitated to moretowards?
You's like you know what?
I gotta try this because you'vebeen in different eras of
comedy.
You've been in the deaf comedy,jammed comic view era to the
netflix special era.
(14:18):
So who is?
Who are those comedians?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
well, in the beginning it had to be dl hewley
and bernie mack, and the reasonwhy I say that is that I wasn't
even planning on being acomedian.
I I went to a comedy show ingreen.
It was 1993, july 16th, Iremember I went to a show.
It was dl hewley and berniemack and I sat there and I was
(14:44):
just watching them being becausebefore that they had a comedy
contest and I believe a guynamed Sherman Golden won.
I was like, oh, he's just a newcomedian starting out and he
won this and he was able to goon tour.
And I was like, oh, that'spretty cool.
And then Bernie Mac and DLHewley started doing their show.
And what got me is that thepeople around it was black
(15:09):
people, white people, latinos,asians, middle Easterners, it
didn't.
Rich, poor, they were male,female, it didn't matter.
We were all sitting therelaughing and having a good time.
And I say this is the kind ofatmosphere I want, because I'm a
(15:30):
very diverse person.
So I wanted that kind ofatmosphere.
You know, I want black people,white people, asian, rich, poor,
tall, short, all people comingto my shows and that's why I'm
pretty much, when it comes todoing my shows, I don't.
I'm not the type it comes todoing my shows.
I don't.
I'm not the type of person tosay just be a decent human being
(15:50):
, that's what I want.
Comics well, what kind of showshould I do?
I said just be a decent humanbeing, that's all you.
You know what?
What?
Um jokes that are gonna bepeople gonna be like offensive
and stuff like that, that's all,that's all you want to be.
And me watching them to performand all those people laughing,
(16:10):
don't matter who they were.
I was like that's the kind ofplace I want to be.
So I was like yo, I'm prettyfunny.
I got, I got a few jokes that,uh, I can think of.
So I went and wrote.
I remember july 17th, I wrote myjokes, some of my jokes, and I
went to the Roanoke Comedy Club.
They had open mics I believe itwas on a Tuesday or a Thursday
(16:31):
and I went there and tried outthe jokes, got some laughs and
the same people black, white,whatever were laughing.
I was like see, this is what.
That's what happened when Iwent to Greensboro.
So I talked to the owner and hesaid keep coming back.
Keep, that's what happened whenI went to Greensboro.
So I talked to the owner and hesaid keep coming back, keep
coming back, keep coming back.
And I, and that's what I did.
And then about I say it took meabout six months to it.
(16:52):
Now, it took me about a year tofeel real comfortable to start
hosting and it took me about twoyears to feature and that's
what I was I've been, I wasdoing so I guess you could say
dl hewley and bernie mack theway they performed got me really
started to come.
But as for, uh, eddie murphywas the first person I seen do
(17:18):
stand-up comedy.
He was the first person becauseI wasn't.
I loved sitcoms, I love, I likeshows like martin and Living
Single and all those differentworld Cosby Show.
They were.
It was funny, but also they hadserious moments.
So it wasn't always bang, bang,funny, funny, funny.
(17:38):
It wasn't until I saw EddieMercury's Raw comedy where I saw
whoa, there are people you canbe funny like constantly.
I mean it was when I say likeover an hour, like an hour and a
half, just being funny straightthrough.
I was like, oh so so I startedgetting into standup comedy and
start looking at other comedianslike Richard Pryor and, uh, so
(18:01):
so many George Carlin and people, people of that nature, and I
started digging into stand-upcomedy because of that.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
I just watched Delirious, probably for the
third time this week and it wasNovember 3rd, so obviously I've
been watching it constantlybecause they had it free on
Pluto and Raw is a genius thing.
Now Bernie Mac is forever willbe goaded as a beast.
And dl hugley, I think when itcomes to the original kings of
(18:33):
comedy, he's a sleeper.
Yeah, he's a sleeper.
People don't realize that manalready had two specials out
prior to him actually doing def,not def comedy, jam, kings of
Comedy.
Like he had that third when HBOused to do those 30 minute
blocks, a stand up special, andhe had the going home joint when
he wore that yellow canary suitcool guy.
(18:58):
I got to open up for him once.
Cool guy.
But it was so amazing and I seeit now like what I like about
it like you was talking aboutbeing a decent human being is I
appreciate that because, like Isaid, I see a lot of crudeness.
I see a lot of undercutting,because I don't know if you
experienced the undercut in roadnote, but it's like a lot of
(19:20):
undercutting.
It's like let me take six of myhomeboys with them with me and
I'm to put them on every showand the rest of y'all got to
fend for yourselves.
And I'm going to throw somebodythe bone, but I don't want that
person throwing a bone to bebetter than me, right?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
right.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I'm going to shit on them.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
The problem I have at Roanoke is because I'm pretty
much the only one doing comedyshows here.
If there were no comedy, if Ididn't do any comedy shows here
in Roanoke, there'd be one openmic.
That's done once every whoknows two months.
But since I'm doing the openmics and having people come on
stage, I'm getting I don't evenwant to say it, well, I'm going
(20:01):
to say it.
I'm going to say it.
I get a lot of hate here inRoanoke.
But there's a lot of comediansthat support me and they
outweigh the hate, and so I'mjust out here just doing my
comedy show.
I've told the comedians I knowyou don't like me, I know you
(20:21):
don't Just go over there andjust leave me alone, just let me
be, and I'll be over here doingmy comedy show.
But the problem is is that theysee what I'm doing and then
they want to come in andundercut you.
I don't know if you saw thething on Facebook when I did the
(20:41):
thing about Corey Holcomb, whenhe said these people will go
through the front door if theycould, and that's what they've
been.
It'd be.
Just, I have been minding mybusiness for doing my comedy
shows, not messing with anyone.
And here they come, goingthrough my comedy shows and
stuff and I'm telling them hey,man, if you want, if you want
(21:04):
this to really work, we got toair some stuff out.
But as soon as you try to airit out, they always got
something to make it blame onyou or saying that it's your
fault.
You're the reason why I had acomedian sit there and just say
you're just mad, you're notbooking me on your shows because
you're just mad, because we'rebetter than you, I don't book,
(21:26):
you're not booking me on yourshows because you're just mad,
because we're better than you.
And I said do you know whatyou're?
What you're saying right now?
So I'm not booking you on myshow because you're better than
me.
So you know what you're saying?
That all the people that I bookon my show aren't better than
me.
And you're also better thaneverybody who ever booked on my
(21:49):
show.
That's what you're saying rightnow.
And when I bring stuff backbecause when it comes to the
Internet, people will say stuffon the Internet and they just
think it's over, not with me.
When you say something on theInternet, I'm going to respond.
And if I meet you in person,I'm going to respond the same
(22:15):
way.
I keep that same energy,because I just did a show on
Saturday, a comedy competition,and a person knows he doesn't
like me, know I doesn't like him, but during the show, this dude
going to try and stick out andshake my hand.
No, keep that same energy thatyou do on Facebook or anywhere
else on social media.
Keep that same energy when wemeet in person.
That's it.
(22:35):
Keep the same energy.
Don't act like we're friendsbecause you know we're not and
just leave me alone.
Let me do my open mics and mycomedy and peace.
Do your own thing, but theycan't and it's I know.
And I hate, I hate to be sittinghere saying this and being on
nagging and stuff, because I'm avery positive person, I like
(22:57):
talking about good, good stuffand everything, but sometimes
you got to sit here and say youknow, enough is enough.
It's time for me to stop beingtrying to be the bigger person
all the time.
I'm done being the biggerperson.
I'm going out here and I amgoing full force.
Usually in Roanoke I was likeokay, I got enough stuff in
Roanoke, I'll let y'all get thisor get that, do whatever.
(23:20):
Now I'm at the point where youknow what.
I'm just going to just doeverything, anything and
everything possible to get moreshows, to get more people on,
because there are comedians herein Roanoke, virginia, that if
they get enough reps, get enoughtime in their hands, they are
going to be great.
I say, give them like anotheryear.
(23:40):
They're going to be some greatcomedians coming out of Roanoke
and I'm just trying to steerthem in the right direction.
This is what you need to do toget where you need to be, and
hopefully they'll listen to meand they'll stay with me, stick
with me and we can grow together, because that's what I want to
do.
I want to grow Roanoke.
(24:01):
When there's comedy, peoplewill say, hey, come to Roanoke,
virginia, they got some goodcomedians there, you know.
So that's, that's all I'mtrying to do right now.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
That's my main thing you know there's some people
that's out here listening andwatching.
This is my first time talkingto Josh, so I'm gonna just say
it seems like a very genuinething, because as comedians
right, you do see a lot of theundercuts and I have this saying
that I use when I say everybodywants to be a big shark in a
small pond and those big,wannabe big sharks are drowning
(24:35):
consistently, consistently.
The hate is real.
The undercut is real.
The beefs are fucking real.
The beefs are real Cat whims.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This shit is big beef People who are scared of cat
and of you.
Nobody knows what cat waspopping up with and it was like,
oh, cat tripping.
No, it's legitimately real.
I personally have had my beefs.
I have one still floating inthere, the rest of my squash, I
have one floating to the pointwhere I would not speak to this
(25:11):
person at all.
That person has bashed me forover a year and some change now
online and to other people andall those people got on his side
and just I was like you knowwhat I know y'all at because I
felt energy.
But I noticed that when you dosomething big, the more the hate
comes.
You understand what I'm sayingand they like what.
(25:35):
They trying to figure out whatyou doing, right.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
The same comedians are sitting there saying that
I'm jealous of them.
I have performed in more statesthan they have done open mics
this year.
How am I jealous of you?
I'm doing four comedy showsjust by myself.
What are you doing?
And I left it like that?
How am I jealous of you?
What have you done?
You get no response, but you'llget the hate, though.
(26:05):
You'll get the hate, I'll getthe hate I'm like I just laugh
when people are saying that I'mjealous of them.
Of what have you seen?
Have you checked my resume andcompare it to yours?
Please explain why I'm jealousthat too, that cricket.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And then you know what's crazy is like.
There's always those comediansthat don't book work, not funny
rush day process.
Uh, don't post, so don't postcomedy clips.
I noticed that too.
I'm not.
I'm not, I'm not talking trashabout nobody's not posting a
comedy clip, but I want youcomedians to listen to this when
(26:45):
you submit for a comedy club orcompetition or a you submitting
to an agency, booking agencies,whatever they always ask you
two things what's your websiteand what is your social media
handle?
And if you don't have anythingon your social media handle,
(27:09):
they will not be like well, Idon't know if he do comedy or
not.
All I just see is a fly he bedoing a fly to making chicken
wings and a fly he could bedoing a fly to making chicken
wings and rolling over chickenwings.
I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
They'll do still pictures.
You don't hear them.
It's just a bunch of stillpictures posing.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
With a motivational video, a motivational music
playing in the background.
I came up from the ground Onceyou put Wi-Fi in the background.
I came up from the ground Onceyou put Wi-Fi in the microwave
it turns up a little bit.
I'm like what, let us know youdo comedy.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Now we're here Playing in the background.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Come on, man.
Oh yeah, I had seen onecomedian here in the 757 who
legitimately will repost Drewskiskits.
She will repost a Drewski skit.
They was like man.
She got over 60,000 followers.
I'm like bro.
(28:10):
It's algorithm.
If Drewski is popping right now, if she reposted him, it's more
than likely they're going to goto her page and think that's
Drewski is popping right now.
If she reposted him, it's morethan likely they're going to go
to her page and think that'sDrewski, that's what he's doing.
You are falling for it.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
That frustration is real with some people, like the
YouTube, just Jokes do getstolen.
Some people do end up soundinglike it's nothing but a genuine
conversation.
So a lot of times it's just amistake because you're around
each other, but that's anotherconversation.
(28:49):
It's like yeah, it was relaxed,man, it's not that deep.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, the YouTube comedian.
I have no problem with theYouTube comedian.
Only thing I have a problemwith are the people that's doing
Walmart pranks and they thinkthey're original.
I say, hey, walmart pranks.
And they go and do the sameWalmart prank that someone else
did and you're trying to tell methese are original.
And when you go on stage,you're trying to tell me that
(29:13):
you're doing original comedywhen you can.
When you go on stage, you'retrying to tell me that you're
doing original comedy where youcan.
When you go on YouTube, all youdo are Walmart pranks that
you've seen other people do.
And just because you wentTarget doesn't mean it's not a
Walmart prank.
It's still a Walmart prank.
Don't care if you went FoodLion, it's still a Walmart prank
.
All these people and it's funny,every thumbnail got a person
(29:34):
with a big ass, a woman with abig ass.
That's their thumbnail rightthere so you can click on it.
Get out of here, man.
Oh, this the gold digger prank.
Everybody got a gold diggerprank.
The dude, can you borrow somemoney?
Oh, no, then they hop into oneof these nice cars.
Oh, that's your car.
I'm like like I know y'allain't trying to think that this
(29:55):
is we think this is real.
Right, I know you're not tryingto act.
This is this is you know thisis fake, but there's some people
that just try to act like that.
This is real, this is, this ishow it really happens, like,
yeah, she, you even put amicrophone on her too at that
time.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, that was yeah we didn't see the tripod with
the camera set up on down theway that's getting different
angle cuts.
You know this is what it is.
What's some advice that youwould give?
Well, you already said be adecent human.
What's some other advice youwould give to a comedian or
somebody looking at getting intocomedy?
(30:31):
What advice would you give them?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I would write your own jokes.
That's, that's the main thing.
Don't don't look at oneperson's joke and be like, oh,
if he just changed, if I justchange it like this, I can use
it as my own.
No, it's their joke.
Be original, be creative,that's the one thing.
And two go to open mics, go.
(30:58):
I started with my open.
I drove two hours and peopleare saying you drive two hours
just to do five minutes.
Yes, I would drive three hours,I would drive four hours.
I will drive If I got a chanceto do an open mic.
If I'm sitting at home like man, there's nothing to do.
Kids are sitting there playingvideo game.
Wife is watching tv.
You know what?
(31:18):
I'm gonna just go to an openmic.
If I just find out where's anopen mic and I'll just go there,
I'll just pop up and that'swhat I tell people.
Go to open mic.
People sit here and I thinkthey're too good to do open mics
.
There's people that wonder whythey don't get booked like.
There's one person thatactually came to me and said how
come you don't book me for yourshow?
And I say because you, whereare you working?
(31:42):
You're not working anywhere.
I don't see you at any openmics.
I don't see you doing any shows.
So if you're not working, I'mnot going to book you.
I'm booking the people that areworking out here doing the job,
doing what they need to do toget ahead.
Because I'm thinking, if you'renot working and you want to get
booked, if you go do a showyou're gonna to me.
(32:04):
You're gonna just do hackycomedy, you're just gonna do, or
you're gonna do, comedy thatyou did two years ago.
I mean you have.
There's no growth.
I tell.
I tell comedians all the timesee what you've done in one year
compared to like last year andcompared to what you did this
year.
Compare the two and see ifyou've gotten any better.
(32:25):
Nine times out of 10, theyhaven't even gotten any better.
They're just doing the samejokes over and over again.
At least with me, when I do doa joke, I will do one joke and
then next year it could be thesame joke.
But I've changed stuff around.
I've used different names.
It's a longer set.
(32:45):
Usually you do a joke it's likeonly one minute.
Now it's four or five minutes.
I've constantly tried toimprove even the old jokes that
I do.
I constantly improve thosejokes.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
No-transcript you got a big fix.
(37:36):
You got to have those differentstyles Clean.
Church clean, corporate clean,church clean is that right there
?
I'm still learning, that's abeast.
Church clean, club club clean.
You got theaters clean.
You got theaters.
(37:59):
It's like different ones.
I can do both.
You know how.
You was a kid and you heardthat song on the radio that had
all the cuss words in it.
But you're in the car with yourmom and you don't want to cuss
you all the cuss words.
Instead of saying ass, you saybutt or handy or something.
I'm like, yeah, that's what I'dbe.
I'd be like I gotta do it thatway, but I dare you.
(38:26):
I dare you.
Josh brother, I reallyappreciate the interview, man,
and the time that you took witheverything.
Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.
(39:30):
That's big facts.
If the people want to find you,man, how can they get in
contact with you?
See your stuff, what can theylook for you at?
Okay,
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