January 2, 2025 • 16 mins
David talks about being dumb and honest.
Also he:
• Examines Norm Macdonald’s approach to comedy and authenticity
• Shares personal anecdotes involving aptitude tests and self-awareness
• Discusses key comedic attitudes and emotional honesty
• Explores the role of AI in shaping comedic content
• Questions the ethics of using technology in creative fields
• Considers the impact of fame on mental health through Avicii’s story
• Encourages a commitment to honesty in artistic expression
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy New Year everybody.
I'm going to share my NewYear's resolution with you all.
In this episode I'm going totalk a little bit about what
I've learned over this Christmasbreak.
Oh man, that's rubbish.
(00:32):
That's rubbish.
I ran into a cool interviewlarry king and norm mcdonald,
norm's in my mount rushmore andevidently I didn't know this,
but Norm Macdonald was likegraduated high school at like 15
.
He's a super high IQ,incredibly smart man, uh,
academically and in many otherways.
But sort of acted like he wasdumb and he said on the Larry
(00:56):
King show you, you don't wantthe audience to to think that
you think you're smarter thanthem.
And so he intentionally dumbedhimself down.
You could tell this sort ofstyle delivery, et cetera.
And I got to thinking aboutthat.
And obviously there arecomedians that don't do that who
are very effective.
(01:16):
You know Seth Meyers, dennisMiller, bill Maher, but Norm
MacDonald thought Bill Maher.
But Norm Macdonald thought BillMaher was, he hated him.
Anyway, I thought it made mewant to explore dumbing, getting
dumber.
I watched Nate Bregetsky's newspecial, which I highly
recommend.
He does it so well.
I mean his attitude, his entireattitude, the whole show is I'm
(01:40):
stupid.
Look how stupid I am.
Look at how much I don't know,and I think that's kind of fun I
have played.
I used to get hired a lot,acting wise, to play dumb people
, and so I like being dumb and Ithink I am dumb in many ways.
I remember taking an aptitudetest to figure out, you know,
(02:02):
what I was supposed to be goodat.
It was like what a parent doeswhen their child is like kind of
directionless, I think, andthey're worried about him.
And so I went and took one ofthese like four hour tests where
they to test like musicalability and deductive reasoning
and I scored pretty, you know, Iwas fine in every area.
(02:22):
I was fine in every area exceptdeductive reasoning, in which I
scored like incredibly low.
And I remember thinking like,wow, this test is really awful,
I've just created an insecurityfor the rest of my life that I
have no deductive reasoningskills.
And then there was this blurbin the test that deductive
(02:56):
reasoning was like the mostimportant thing in life and it
was like the most correlatedskill you know, or aptitude for,
for success.
And so it's like, wow, what an,what an incredible test.
Right, you go in there tofigure out what you're good at
and you find out that you'regoing to be.
It's going to be a terribleuphill battle.
In my defense, the deductivereasoning like part of the test
was all about.
It was like what sentencedoesn't belong here and those
(03:21):
kinds of sentences like I get socaught up, caught up in.
Look, I'm not going to makeexcuses.
I think my deductive reasoningskills are pretty shit, but it's
only because I'm so creative.
No, I don't know.
As a side note, the highest Iscored was music, like tones and
being able to identify melodiesand instruments, and it's like
(03:47):
a highly sensitive ear, whichalso doesn't make a ton of sense
.
I think this test was garbage,but anyway, at least it was
expensive and at least it gaveme crippling insecurity for the
rest of my life.
Anyway, this is a digression,but exploring being dumber on
stage or at least kind of,there's something very effective
(04:10):
about a bewildered stand-up.
Who's just like what is goingon?
And then I'm like what?
Huh, huh, I don't know.
And she was like what?
And I was like but what are youdoing?
And I was like what are youdoing?
(04:31):
It's funny.
There's an exercise where youkind of Without words, you just
play the attitude.
So, like you know, as I'vementioned in previous episodes.
There's sort of these four majorattitudes that almost every
stand-up effective stand-up willembody as they do their bits.
And it's like isn't it weird,isn't it scary, isn't it hard
(04:56):
and isn't it stupid?
So, like, hard is just like ohman, dude.
And then I go I don't know if Ican DMV, and I was just like oh
man, dude.
And then I go I'm fucking dmv.
And I was just like oh, andthen scary is like, and I'm like
what are you doing?
I don't even know.
And then, um, stupid is like.
(05:17):
You come to town, what do youdo?
Like uh, sebastian, uhmanoscolo, what sebastian Like.
Uh, sebastian, uh Montescolo,what Sebastian, his whole thing
is is basically that's my prettybad Sebastian Manoscolo
(05:47):
impression.
So his whole thing attitude islike isn't it stupid?
And then I said scary, stupid,hard and weird and weird, it's
like I don't know what is it.
And you may think that's reallyridiculous.
What I'm doing right now butthat's actually an exercise in
(06:08):
these classes is to basicallyremove words and just embody the
attitude.
And a lot of times, if you'renot getting laughs, they say
like, listen to the tape andmake sure that you're is the
attitude clear.
And I have noticed like andit's the same with acting on
(06:28):
stage or in film and TV it'slike, if you're feeling it, it's
almost like the people aren'tlaughing at the jokes, they're
laughing at how much you'refeeling what you're saying.
Of course, there are very drycomics, you know, but, um, it's
that combination of feeling itin words.
So, anyway, this is all to say.
(06:49):
I think I'm going to explorebeing stupid.
Yeah, so happy new year'severybody.
2025, be a wild ride.
Uh, here's my new year'sresolution.
I'm going to share it with you.
It's a single resolution.
Here we go.
Is this true?
(07:10):
Is what I'm saying true?
Yes, that's it.
That's my new year's resolution.
All truth, as as close as I canget it all the time.
My mindfulness of cocaine fiveminutes.
I did a mindfulness cocaine.
I transcribed it, I put it intothe clod and I said help me,
(07:35):
make this tighter and funnier.
And then I read what that AIcame up with.
I don't think there was acouple jokes in there that were
mine.
Most of that was AI andlistening back definitely the
funniest thing I've done.
Or like the the concept, Ithink, is obviously mine, but
(07:56):
the jokes were not and AI isgoing to get this is the worst
it's ever going to be, rightright now, and and when I do
rants and I ask it to put ittogether into a tighter stand-up
set.
It is very good at it.
It's very good at getting thesetups.
Its jokes are okay.
If I did it for you, if I readyou the full AI version of my
(08:18):
rants, it would definitely feellike stand-up and it would feel
like, oh, wow, he's makingprogress.
The jokes were kind of therewere some good ones in there.
You know they're good.
Okay.
So now we're in a situationwhere AI can basically take the
loose ramblings of my mind andmake a decent stand-up set.
(08:39):
Now that feels very similar towhat a lot of stand-ups do is
get help from writers.
So it's like when you have acomedy buddy, you go through it
and they help.
They're like, what about here?
What about here?
And they're helping you withyour jokes.
So what's the difference betweenthat and an AI doing it for you
?
Obviously you're gonna tweakand come up with it, but is this
(09:02):
immoral?
Is this plagiarizing?
Is this me and ultimately,almost every rant?
I've been doing it and I knowit feels wrong to skip the step
and it's happening with allpeople.
I look at my children, who it'svery important to me that they
(09:23):
learn how to write.
Well, I think it's a superpower, but is it still going to need
to be If you can just basicallyblurt out into a voice recorder
just your garbled thoughts andsay, please help me make this
coherent and organized and makethe sentences punchy and, you
(09:44):
know, contrarian?
You can ask it to do anythingand it will just spit it out and
it will only get better andbetter and better.
So do my kids need to learn howto write?
I always thought the belief isthat if you're learning how to
write, it's really learning howto think.
You can't figure out what youactually think until you write
it down and you see the words.
And that's why Twitter or X, Ilove it so much is that the
(10:07):
minute you go down to write,you're like, ooh, that doesn't
sound right, like I'm not sayingwhat I actually mean, and then
you have to take the time andyou have to edit, edit, edit,
edit, edit.
And then you're like, yes, thatis what I mean, and then it's
like a discovery.
Writing helps you discover, andthat's part of the reason I
love stand-up so much, or I'mfascinated by it.
(10:28):
I don't love it yet because I'mdrawn to it, but I haven't had
an experience, you know, sort offor the surfing metaphor like I
haven't caught the wave whereI'm just like, holy shit, I'm in
.
But I've made a commitment tomyself and I believe and I'm
sticking with it, because thereis a wisdom inside that says
this is a path, this is theright path.
(10:49):
There is an adventure, a deep,many-layered adventure ahead of
you if you stick with it and youcontinue to do the hard thing.
And I believe it very deeply,despite the tremendous amount of
doubt and resistance thatarises throughout the process.
So my New Year's resolution toreview is just really to be way
(11:17):
really honest with myself.
There's sneaky ways that we lie.
As we talk Every day, we're alllying in many ways, many little
, little little ways.
I think there's a tremendousadventure and power by being
able to catch yourself.
I can feel it Sometimes.
(11:40):
I'll start writing.
I wonder why this is so hard andI realize I'm doing something
for someone else as opposed tojust really getting in there.
What do you actually think,dude?
What is true, what do you know?
And what he quickly realizes?
I don't know anything, but I doknow what the thoughts are that
(12:02):
are coming up, and I do knowhow I feel about it and that's
ultimately all you can reallysay.
So how do I feel about this AIthing?
It feels disingenuous, it feelsscary, it feels exciting, it
feels like a shortcut, it feelsincredibly helpful, it feels
(12:24):
like a superpower to be able tohave.
It will shorten the amount oftime it takes to develop
material, to just be able to putit in and say help me with the
setups, tighten these setups,tighten these setups.
And I've scoured the internet onthe Reddit stand-up subreddit,
which has hundreds of thousandsof people.
No one's talking about AI yetwith stand-up, and stand-up is
(12:47):
bad, it's all dad jokes.
I mean, sorry, ai is bad, it'sall dad jokes.
You know, if you do it, it'snot very good at humor, but if
you take your original stuff andyou ask it to just help you out
, it's pretty amazing and Iencourage you to try it.
Just voice record, you know,some stand-up bit you have or
(13:09):
some idea, and that's what'scool.
I think people who are listeningto this they're starting to.
You know there's a littleticker.
He's like everyone can do it,everyone can go up and and try
to make people laugh, you know.
And I will say like the beautyof it all is like these open
mics is like no one's funny, noone's funny.
(13:31):
So it's like almost the stakesfeel so high and everyone talks
about you know how ballsy it is,but in a weird way and I'm not
saying it isn't, but in a weirdway it's like I think it's way
more ballsy to like do yoursecond hour after your first
good one, you know.
Or it's like the second albumafter your hit album.
It's just like that.
Oh God, it's like theexpectations now are so high.
(13:55):
How do I deliver and get evenbetter?
That to me, is the ultimateballs that I'm.
The respect I have for allartists who kind of continue to
deliver under the pressure of,of fame and fan expectation,
just mind blowing.
(14:15):
I watched the Avicii documentaryon Netflix today it's New
Year's day, by the way, happynew year's everybody.
And uh, man, it was so sad, butI highly recommend it.
But just the pressure, the headfuck of fame, especially at a
(14:36):
young age, poor kid.
That anxiety man, I mean theamount of anxiety, that fame For
a sensitive soul and that greatparadox that's like so much of
the good art is coming from likeprofoundly sensitive people and
how on earth do you handle thecolossal head fuck and avalanche
(15:01):
of energy that adulation andexpectation and fame has on you
while being sensitive?
So of course they're all doingdrugs and masking their pain.
Of course you'd be doing theexact same fucking thing, so sad
.
Rip Avicii.
What a beautiful documentary,Highly recommend.
(15:23):
Anyway, I didn't want to rambletoo much.
A reflective New Year's episode, really excited for the year
ahead.
Appreciate all the support I'vebeen getting from various
friends and you know who you areand you know some strangers and
I wish you all an incredible2025.
(15:44):
Let's go get it.
Wishing you so much love,adventure, joy, peace, fun in
the year ahead and, of course,just tons of skin on skin
contact venery throughout it.
All Lots of love, thank you.
Happy New Year everybody.
I'm going to share my NewYear's resolution with you all.
In this episode I'm going totalk a little bit about what
I've learned over this Christmasbreak.
Oh man, that's rubbish.
(00:32):
That's rubbish.
I ran into a cool interviewlarry king and norm mcdonald,
norm's in my mount rushmore andevidently I didn't know this,
but Norm Macdonald was likegraduated high school at like 15
.
He's a super high IQ,incredibly smart man, uh,
academically and in many otherways.
But sort of acted like he wasdumb and he said on the Larry
(00:56):
King show you, you don't wantthe audience to to think that
you think you're smarter thanthem.
And so he intentionally dumbedhimself down.
You could tell this sort ofstyle delivery, et cetera.
And I got to thinking aboutthat.
And obviously there arecomedians that don't do that who
are very effective.
(01:16):
You know Seth Meyers, dennisMiller, bill Maher, but Norm
MacDonald thought Bill Maher.
But Norm Macdonald thought BillMaher was, he hated him.
Anyway, I thought it made mewant to explore dumbing, getting
dumber.
I watched Nate Bregetsky's newspecial, which I highly
recommend.
He does it so well.
I mean his attitude, his entireattitude, the whole show is I'm
(01:40):
stupid.
Look how stupid I am.
Look at how much I don't know,and I think that's kind of fun I
have played.
I used to get hired a lot,acting wise, to play dumb people
, and so I like being dumb and Ithink I am dumb in many ways.
I remember taking an aptitudetest to figure out, you know,
(02:02):
what I was supposed to be goodat.
It was like what a parent doeswhen their child is like kind of
directionless, I think, andthey're worried about him.
And so I went and took one ofthese like four hour tests where
they to test like musicalability and deductive reasoning
and I scored pretty, you know, Iwas fine in every area.
(02:22):
I was fine in every area exceptdeductive reasoning, in which I
scored like incredibly low.
And I remember thinking like,wow, this test is really awful,
I've just created an insecurityfor the rest of my life that I
have no deductive reasoningskills.
And then there was this blurbin the test that deductive
(02:56):
reasoning was like the mostimportant thing in life and it
was like the most correlatedskill you know, or aptitude for,
for success.
And so it's like, wow, what an,what an incredible test.
Right, you go in there tofigure out what you're good at
and you find out that you'regoing to be.
It's going to be a terribleuphill battle.
In my defense, the deductivereasoning like part of the test
was all about.
It was like what sentencedoesn't belong here and those
(03:21):
kinds of sentences like I get socaught up, caught up in.
Look, I'm not going to makeexcuses.
I think my deductive reasoningskills are pretty shit, but it's
only because I'm so creative.
No, I don't know.
As a side note, the highest Iscored was music, like tones and
being able to identify melodiesand instruments, and it's like
(03:47):
a highly sensitive ear, whichalso doesn't make a ton of sense
.
I think this test was garbage,but anyway, at least it was
expensive and at least it gaveme crippling insecurity for the
rest of my life.
Anyway, this is a digression,but exploring being dumber on
stage or at least kind of,there's something very effective
(04:10):
about a bewildered stand-up.
Who's just like what is goingon?
And then I'm like what?
Huh, huh, I don't know.
And she was like what?
And I was like but what are youdoing?
And I was like what are youdoing?
(04:31):
It's funny.
There's an exercise where youkind of Without words, you just
play the attitude.
So, like you know, as I'vementioned in previous episodes.
There's sort of these four majorattitudes that almost every
stand-up effective stand-up willembody as they do their bits.
And it's like isn't it weird,isn't it scary, isn't it hard
(04:56):
and isn't it stupid?
So, like, hard is just like ohman, dude.
And then I go I don't know if Ican DMV, and I was just like oh
man, dude.
And then I go I'm fucking dmv.
And I was just like oh, andthen scary is like, and I'm like
what are you doing?
I don't even know.
And then, um, stupid is like.
(05:17):
You come to town, what do youdo?
Like uh, sebastian, uhmanoscolo, what sebastian Like.
Uh, sebastian, uh Montescolo,what Sebastian, his whole thing
is is basically that's my prettybad Sebastian Manoscolo
(05:47):
impression.
So his whole thing attitude islike isn't it stupid?
And then I said scary, stupid,hard and weird and weird, it's
like I don't know what is it.
And you may think that's reallyridiculous.
What I'm doing right now butthat's actually an exercise in
(06:08):
these classes is to basicallyremove words and just embody the
attitude.
And a lot of times, if you'renot getting laughs, they say
like, listen to the tape andmake sure that you're is the
attitude clear.
And I have noticed like andit's the same with acting on
(06:28):
stage or in film and TV it'slike, if you're feeling it, it's
almost like the people aren'tlaughing at the jokes, they're
laughing at how much you'refeeling what you're saying.
Of course, there are very drycomics, you know, but, um, it's
that combination of feeling itin words.
So, anyway, this is all to say.
(06:49):
I think I'm going to explorebeing stupid.
Yeah, so happy new year'severybody.
2025, be a wild ride.
Uh, here's my new year'sresolution.
I'm going to share it with you.
It's a single resolution.
Here we go.
Is this true?
(07:10):
Is what I'm saying true?
Yes, that's it.
That's my new year's resolution.
All truth, as as close as I canget it all the time.
My mindfulness of cocaine fiveminutes.
I did a mindfulness cocaine.
I transcribed it, I put it intothe clod and I said help me,
(07:35):
make this tighter and funnier.
And then I read what that AIcame up with.
I don't think there was acouple jokes in there that were
mine.
Most of that was AI andlistening back definitely the
funniest thing I've done.
Or like the the concept, Ithink, is obviously mine, but
(07:56):
the jokes were not and AI isgoing to get this is the worst
it's ever going to be, rightright now, and and when I do
rants and I ask it to put ittogether into a tighter stand-up
set.
It is very good at it.
It's very good at getting thesetups.
Its jokes are okay.
If I did it for you, if I readyou the full AI version of my
(08:18):
rants, it would definitely feellike stand-up and it would feel
like, oh, wow, he's makingprogress.
The jokes were kind of therewere some good ones in there.
You know they're good.
Okay.
So now we're in a situationwhere AI can basically take the
loose ramblings of my mind andmake a decent stand-up set.
(08:39):
Now that feels very similar towhat a lot of stand-ups do is
get help from writers.
So it's like when you have acomedy buddy, you go through it
and they help.
They're like, what about here?
What about here?
And they're helping you withyour jokes.
So what's the difference betweenthat and an AI doing it for you
?
Obviously you're gonna tweakand come up with it, but is this
(09:02):
immoral?
Is this plagiarizing?
Is this me and ultimately,almost every rant?
I've been doing it and I knowit feels wrong to skip the step
and it's happening with allpeople.
I look at my children, who it'svery important to me that they
(09:23):
learn how to write.
Well, I think it's a superpower, but is it still going to need
to be If you can just basicallyblurt out into a voice recorder
just your garbled thoughts andsay, please help me make this
coherent and organized and makethe sentences punchy and, you
(09:44):
know, contrarian?
You can ask it to do anythingand it will just spit it out and
it will only get better andbetter and better.
So do my kids need to learn howto write?
I always thought the belief isthat if you're learning how to
write, it's really learning howto think.
You can't figure out what youactually think until you write
it down and you see the words.
And that's why Twitter or X, Ilove it so much is that the
(10:07):
minute you go down to write,you're like, ooh, that doesn't
sound right, like I'm not sayingwhat I actually mean, and then
you have to take the time andyou have to edit, edit, edit,
edit, edit.
And then you're like, yes, thatis what I mean, and then it's
like a discovery.
Writing helps you discover, andthat's part of the reason I
love stand-up so much, or I'mfascinated by it.
(10:28):
I don't love it yet because I'mdrawn to it, but I haven't had
an experience, you know, sort offor the surfing metaphor like I
haven't caught the wave whereI'm just like, holy shit, I'm in
.
But I've made a commitment tomyself and I believe and I'm
sticking with it, because thereis a wisdom inside that says
this is a path, this is theright path.
(10:49):
There is an adventure, a deep,many-layered adventure ahead of
you if you stick with it and youcontinue to do the hard thing.
And I believe it very deeply,despite the tremendous amount of
doubt and resistance thatarises throughout the process.
So my New Year's resolution toreview is just really to be way
(11:17):
really honest with myself.
There's sneaky ways that we lie.
As we talk Every day, we're alllying in many ways, many little
, little little ways.
I think there's a tremendousadventure and power by being
able to catch yourself.
I can feel it Sometimes.
(11:40):
I'll start writing.
I wonder why this is so hard andI realize I'm doing something
for someone else as opposed tojust really getting in there.
What do you actually think,dude?
What is true, what do you know?
And what he quickly realizes?
I don't know anything, but I doknow what the thoughts are that
(12:02):
are coming up, and I do knowhow I feel about it and that's
ultimately all you can reallysay.
So how do I feel about this AIthing?
It feels disingenuous, it feelsscary, it feels exciting, it
feels like a shortcut, it feelsincredibly helpful, it feels
(12:24):
like a superpower to be able tohave.
It will shorten the amount oftime it takes to develop
material, to just be able to putit in and say help me with the
setups, tighten these setups,tighten these setups.
And I've scoured the internet onthe Reddit stand-up subreddit,
which has hundreds of thousandsof people.
No one's talking about AI yetwith stand-up, and stand-up is
(12:47):
bad, it's all dad jokes.
I mean, sorry, ai is bad, it'sall dad jokes.
You know, if you do it, it'snot very good at humor, but if
you take your original stuff andyou ask it to just help you out
, it's pretty amazing and Iencourage you to try it.
Just voice record, you know,some stand-up bit you have or
(13:09):
some idea, and that's what'scool.
I think people who are listeningto this they're starting to.
You know there's a littleticker.
He's like everyone can do it,everyone can go up and and try
to make people laugh, you know.
And I will say like the beautyof it all is like these open
mics is like no one's funny, noone's funny.
(13:31):
So it's like almost the stakesfeel so high and everyone talks
about you know how ballsy it is,but in a weird way and I'm not
saying it isn't, but in a weirdway it's like I think it's way
more ballsy to like do yoursecond hour after your first
good one, you know.
Or it's like the second albumafter your hit album.
It's just like that.
Oh God, it's like theexpectations now are so high.
(13:55):
How do I deliver and get evenbetter?
That to me, is the ultimateballs that I'm.
The respect I have for allartists who kind of continue to
deliver under the pressure of,of fame and fan expectation,
just mind blowing.
(14:15):
I watched the Avicii documentaryon Netflix today it's New
Year's day, by the way, happynew year's everybody.
And uh, man, it was so sad, butI highly recommend it.
But just the pressure, the headfuck of fame, especially at a
(14:36):
young age, poor kid.
That anxiety man, I mean theamount of anxiety, that fame For
a sensitive soul and that greatparadox that's like so much of
the good art is coming from likeprofoundly sensitive people and
how on earth do you handle thecolossal head fuck and avalanche
(15:01):
of energy that adulation andexpectation and fame has on you
while being sensitive?
So of course they're all doingdrugs and masking their pain.
Of course you'd be doing theexact same fucking thing, so sad
.
Rip Avicii.
What a beautiful documentary,Highly recommend.
(15:23):
Anyway, I didn't want to rambletoo much.
A reflective New Year's episode, really excited for the year
ahead.
Appreciate all the support I'vebeen getting from various
friends and you know who you areand you know some strangers and
I wish you all an incredible2025.
(15:44):
Let's go get it.
Wishing you so much love,adventure, joy, peace, fun in
the year ahead and, of course,just tons of skin on skin
contact venery throughout it.
All Lots of love, thank you.
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