January 16, 2025 • 13 mins
In this 14th episode David Walton shares updates from his comedy writing camp in New York City, including watching Dave Chappelle perform at the Comedy Cellar. He announces exciting changes for the podcast, including plans to feature more interviews focusing on comedians' origin stories. David also reflects on his own comedy journey, the craft of storytelling, and teases an upcoming interview with a rising social media star.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Oh man, that's rubbish.
That's rubbish.
Well, hello, welcome toStarting Stand-Up.
My name is David Walton.
Thank you for joining.
Starting Stand-Up is basicallyan audio journal of my quest to
become good at stand-up.
And I'm in New York City.
I'm back, I'm here writing.
We're calling it a comedy campand my good friend, jeremy's
(00:42):
sister, who's been on the show,is here with me.
He had a few days off from work, so we're throwing out that
kind of 22 year old unemployedenergy right now.
And we saw, I got to see DaveChappelle last night.
I went to see a band first, buttoday has been all writing.
It's a day of all writing andthen a very exciting guest.
(01:05):
I think a lot of people haveresponded to me just not talking
the whole time, which Icompletely understand, and I'm
very pleased to report that nextweek or the following week,
depending on how hard this willbe to edit, because all
technological disaster but avery meteoric rising social
(01:26):
media star is going to come onthe show and it was really fun
to listen to him talk about whatthis ride has been like for him
.
He's basically had a job infinance and then started posting
videos and within six months,had hundreds of thousands of
followers.
He's incredibly funny andtalented.
He's a lovely guy and so I'mexcited to share the hour and 20
(01:50):
hour or so interview we justdid and he came over.
It was in person.
It was really fun and it wasreally fun to see a young guy
who kind of took a pivot in hislife and is following his dreams
and is having success and it'salmost like it feels like tip of
(02:10):
the rocket ship and I just loveit.
And so it made me think aboutkind of a as I think about this
show and what it is, or thispodcast, and I've always said
that this thing is, is morphingand developing and growing and I
don't know where it's going.
There's no real strategy,except that I commit to a weekly
journal entry, if you will, and, um, it sort of came
organically today.
It's like I really would love tointerview people who are and
(02:33):
just talk about origin stories.
The start uh, it's very helpfulfor young people to see how
things develop and and and howpeople get their breaks, and so,
while I do like an entire lifeof humans if I had my dream,
every comic I love that makes melaugh, literally every single
comic that I see at the ComedyCellar that I see online.
(02:56):
I would love to talk to themabout their beginnings, really
focus on the beginning, thestart, starting, stand-up, but
I'd also like to expand it toyou know, just anyone who has
comic sensibilities, whetherit's online or on the stand-up
scene anywhere.
So I'm going to put that outinto the universe.
(03:16):
And so if you are listening tothis and you think you know
someone it doesn't have to beanyone famous, honestly, but
just people who are doing stuffthat you know you think have a
cool starting story please hitme up.
I would love to interview them.
So we're going to ramp up moreinterviews, which I think will
be a huge relief to a lot of you.
(03:37):
I will also say it's been veryfreeing watching people on, you
know, social media not careabout production value.
As someone who was born in 1978and grew up like where
everything has to look good,like in the movies and TV it has
to look really good andexpensive, and it's kind of
(03:57):
freeing that this youngergeneration doesn't seem to give
a.
They don't care.
They don't care aboutproduction value, they just want
good stuff, and so, in thatvein, I would like to report
right now that, because oftechnical issues.
Today's podcast is being doneon an iPhone and I'm just
talking into an iPhone, so if itsounds okay, I encourage you to
(04:22):
take that as a good thing.
If it sounds bad, well.
I thank you for being here andwhite-knuckling your way through
this.
This is not going to be a verylong episode, but it's going to
be back to the roots of just areal journal entry.
And again, seeing Dave Chappelle, I need to talk about him.
I caught about 20 minutes ofhim At 1.30 in the morning.
(04:42):
He had had done an hour.
We went to a different show andat the comedy cellar they have
the, where whenever you go tothe bathroom, they have the five
screens of everyone performing.
It's sort of a simulcast.
And I was like, oh my god, Imiss dave chappelle.
Like how did I miss that?
He's, of course, it's always asecret when he's gonna do there,
but he's prepping for his snl.
(05:02):
He He'll, I think he's hostingthis weekend on Saturday, so he
was prepping.
But, um, when I got there atone 30 and I'm not kidding, at
one 30 in the morning, I wasthere for 20 minutes.
He had four tequilas, a jointand half a pack of cigarettes.
I don't know how he did it thatfast.
And if I had consumed that, Uh,the the level of brain debt, the
(05:25):
level of nonsense that would becoming out of my mouth uh would
be extraordinary.
And I may do an episode where Itry to match uh Dave
Chappelle's intake and andrecord it for you to see, uh,
what it's like for a kind ofvery low level brain to consume
that and then to have an otherworld.
He's an alien.
I I now believe he's fromanother world, another planet,
(05:48):
because he was, he was had somuch in his system and he was
razor sharp he was.
He was making this crowd scream, laugh, like I don't think I
can recall any specific jokes.
He was doing crowd work andstuff, but there was that sense
of you know, like I'm a tennisplayer, I love tennis, I love,
love tennis.
It's my number one uh sport atthe moment.
(06:10):
It's sort of a recent kind ofmiddle-aged thing, um, and I
sometimes it's like when youwatch, when you, when you play
someone who's worse than you,you feel really good and then
you play someone who's just likeone level up and you just get
destroyed and it's verydiscouraging.
It sort of feels like, ohthere's, you go to this hopeless
phase.
And I I got a little pang ofthat as I watched chapelle and
(06:34):
that might sound ridiculous, butit's like the only reason I'm
doing this is because I think Ihave the delusion that I, that I
can be really good at it, thatI that I can get pretty far in
stand-up, and when I watchedChappelle I was like I can't
even.
I can't even remotely go there.
So what's the point?
But that's a stupid thing tothink.
(06:56):
You just got to do what youenjoy.
And this is a challenge as ajournal, I think one of my
biggest.
It's not a mistake that I'vebeen doing, but there's a sense
that it's really hard, almostlike you're a tinker on a car or
a motorcycle.
These stand-up sets it's a lotof like technical work, almost
(07:20):
like getting rid of things, likerealizing that you don't need
to say almost anything,realizing that you don't need to
say almost anything.
You know where I want to talkabout, let's say, the concept of
kids needing more shame, likethis generation has too little
shame, and I want to do likefive or ten minutes just
(07:41):
exploring that idea and in thatexploration none of it's really
that funny.
And then you realize that inthe stand-up vein.
All I have to say is, you know,kids just don't have enough
shame.
And then I go right into thejokes, and so that's been a
pattern of this.
For those of you who've beenaround and listening to all the
(08:01):
episodes, you'll hear me say itover and over again it's just
realizing how little you have tosay.
And for all of us who tellstories at dinner tables and
stuff like that, you'll notice,with the people who can control
a room and everyone's like sortof riveted and not losing
attention.
And we all know, like when Itell a story, I'm so sensitive
(08:23):
to people, like I can tell,unless I'm hammered drunk, I can
tell that like I'm losingpeople and it's because I'm too
verbose, as you can see, butit's, it's a skill and if you,
if you do value telling goodstories and you value, uh, you
know, being good company and agood conversationalist, it's
like oh yeah, like this ispeople's time, don't need you
(08:47):
just become a little aware oflike when the details are
extraneous and when you're justsaying too much and you can lean
it up.
And I think the greatstorytellers, they just have a
knack for knowing what'snecessary to say and what to
leave out.
They're like real-time editorsin a way, and I'm not, so you're
(09:08):
getting privy to this sort ofverbal diarrhea and I thank you
for that.
I always thank you for that.
How is your venery going?
Has the new year started well,by the way?
Yeah, I always feel like youknow, not enough, but that's
just me's.
Just, that's just me, and I, Igenerally hope everyone's
(09:29):
getting enough cuddles andenough contact and is feeling it
, and if you aren't, you know Ireally do hope that you'll, uh,
you'll find ways to to, you know, to get that venturi going in a
way that that's, that's goodfor your soul.
Okay, so that's the update.
Actually, today, when this comesout it comes out every Thursday
(09:50):
I'm going to be doing threeopen mics in the city with this
material that I really, way, waymore than I ever have, have
really honed writing and it'sexciting.
I've got that feeling of likeoh, I think I have.
I really have now maybe six,seven minutes, and so the goal
(10:15):
when I started this thing was toget a 20 minute set going and I
would say today in a reallycool way, celebrating our wins.
Today feels like that 20-minutekind of goal is possible in
this next year.
The mystery guest that Iinterviewed today, his manager,
(10:36):
came along, young Buck, and hesaid something interesting.
This guy's been cranking dailycontent for the whole year.
He's a real process overresults and his manager calls
the year.
They just had year zero and nowthey're just beginning year one
, and I like that.
I feel like everything up tothis point up to tonight for me
(10:58):
is year zero and in a weird way,I feel like I'm turning the
page and we're just beginning.
We're just starting now, soI'll leave it there.
That's my journal entry.
It's a short one.
This week I wanted to do, Ithought about putting together
this interview, but we actuallyvideoed it, so it'll be my first
(11:20):
one that can kind of coexist onYouTube and it's going to take
a lot of work.
Again, I don't have anyproducer.
I'm doing all of this myselfand it's a tremendous amount.
This will be a big lift, butI'm going to use it as an
opportunity to get like brandingon the video and just try to
get a little bit more of aprofessional operation.
(11:42):
That is my commitment and it'sreally what I owe this very
generous, very talented, veryfunny.
I mean huge, huge fan of thisguy.
I discovered him when Ireengaged with Instagram and he
was one of the first videos thatkind of came in through the
algorithm.
I immediately followed him.
So it was a real trip to all ofa sudden be in his presence and
(12:04):
having a grand time, and reallyhe's a friend now.
I mean, we've got some friendsin common and so it was super
fun and I'm really excited and Ireally have the bug now to talk
to people and to get intopeople's start.
So, once again, if you knowanyone that you think would be a
(12:24):
good fit for me to talk with,and at any level, please hit me
up on direct message or if youhave my phone number or email,
I'm all for ideas.
So thank you.
Thank you for listening.
This has been a really raw you.
(12:47):
Thank you for listening.
This has been a really raw onan uncut journal entry and my
goal today was to not edit asingle thing, and I think I have
.
So thank you for joining.
If this was your first startingstand-up episode, thank you for
being here and I hope you havea wonderful day and a wonderful
week and I hope all your dreamscome true and I hope that you
once again live a life full ofadventure, fun, peace and uh and
(13:12):
venery.
All right, see you next week.
Very exciting, thank you.
Oh man, that's rubbish.
That's rubbish.
Well, hello, welcome toStarting Stand-Up.
My name is David Walton.
Thank you for joining.
Starting Stand-Up is basicallyan audio journal of my quest to
become good at stand-up.
And I'm in New York City.
I'm back, I'm here writing.
We're calling it a comedy campand my good friend, jeremy's
(00:42):
sister, who's been on the show,is here with me.
He had a few days off from work, so we're throwing out that
kind of 22 year old unemployedenergy right now.
And we saw, I got to see DaveChappelle last night.
I went to see a band first, buttoday has been all writing.
It's a day of all writing andthen a very exciting guest.
(01:05):
I think a lot of people haveresponded to me just not talking
the whole time, which Icompletely understand, and I'm
very pleased to report that nextweek or the following week,
depending on how hard this willbe to edit, because all
technological disaster but avery meteoric rising social
(01:26):
media star is going to come onthe show and it was really fun
to listen to him talk about whatthis ride has been like for him
.
He's basically had a job infinance and then started posting
videos and within six months,had hundreds of thousands of
followers.
He's incredibly funny andtalented.
He's a lovely guy and so I'mexcited to share the hour and 20
(01:50):
hour or so interview we justdid and he came over.
It was in person.
It was really fun and it wasreally fun to see a young guy
who kind of took a pivot in hislife and is following his dreams
and is having success and it'salmost like it feels like tip of
(02:10):
the rocket ship and I just loveit.
And so it made me think aboutkind of a as I think about this
show and what it is, or thispodcast, and I've always said
that this thing is, is morphingand developing and growing and I
don't know where it's going.
There's no real strategy,except that I commit to a weekly
journal entry, if you will, and, um, it sort of came
organically today.
It's like I really would love tointerview people who are and
(02:33):
just talk about origin stories.
The start uh, it's very helpfulfor young people to see how
things develop and and and howpeople get their breaks, and so,
while I do like an entire lifeof humans if I had my dream,
every comic I love that makes melaugh, literally every single
comic that I see at the ComedyCellar that I see online.
(02:56):
I would love to talk to themabout their beginnings, really
focus on the beginning, thestart, starting, stand-up, but
I'd also like to expand it toyou know, just anyone who has
comic sensibilities, whetherit's online or on the stand-up
scene anywhere.
So I'm going to put that outinto the universe.
(03:16):
And so if you are listening tothis and you think you know
someone it doesn't have to beanyone famous, honestly, but
just people who are doing stuffthat you know you think have a
cool starting story please hitme up.
I would love to interview them.
So we're going to ramp up moreinterviews, which I think will
be a huge relief to a lot of you.
(03:37):
I will also say it's been veryfreeing watching people on, you
know, social media not careabout production value.
As someone who was born in 1978and grew up like where
everything has to look good,like in the movies and TV it has
to look really good andexpensive, and it's kind of
(03:57):
freeing that this youngergeneration doesn't seem to give
a.
They don't care.
They don't care aboutproduction value, they just want
good stuff, and so, in thatvein, I would like to report
right now that, because oftechnical issues.
Today's podcast is being doneon an iPhone and I'm just
talking into an iPhone, so if itsounds okay, I encourage you to
(04:22):
take that as a good thing.
If it sounds bad, well.
I thank you for being here andwhite-knuckling your way through
this.
This is not going to be a verylong episode, but it's going to
be back to the roots of just areal journal entry.
And again, seeing Dave Chappelle, I need to talk about him.
I caught about 20 minutes ofhim At 1.30 in the morning.
(04:42):
He had had done an hour.
We went to a different show andat the comedy cellar they have
the, where whenever you go tothe bathroom, they have the five
screens of everyone performing.
It's sort of a simulcast.
And I was like, oh my god, Imiss dave chappelle.
Like how did I miss that?
He's, of course, it's always asecret when he's gonna do there,
but he's prepping for his snl.
(05:02):
He He'll, I think he's hostingthis weekend on Saturday, so he
was prepping.
But, um, when I got there atone 30 and I'm not kidding, at
one 30 in the morning, I wasthere for 20 minutes.
He had four tequilas, a jointand half a pack of cigarettes.
I don't know how he did it thatfast.
And if I had consumed that, Uh,the the level of brain debt, the
(05:25):
level of nonsense that would becoming out of my mouth uh would
be extraordinary.
And I may do an episode where Itry to match uh Dave
Chappelle's intake and andrecord it for you to see, uh,
what it's like for a kind ofvery low level brain to consume
that and then to have an otherworld.
He's an alien.
I I now believe he's fromanother world, another planet,
(05:48):
because he was, he was had somuch in his system and he was
razor sharp he was.
He was making this crowd scream, laugh, like I don't think I
can recall any specific jokes.
He was doing crowd work andstuff, but there was that sense
of you know, like I'm a tennisplayer, I love tennis, I love,
love tennis.
It's my number one uh sport atthe moment.
(06:10):
It's sort of a recent kind ofmiddle-aged thing, um, and I
sometimes it's like when youwatch, when you, when you play
someone who's worse than you,you feel really good and then
you play someone who's just likeone level up and you just get
destroyed and it's verydiscouraging.
It sort of feels like, ohthere's, you go to this hopeless
phase.
And I I got a little pang ofthat as I watched chapelle and
(06:34):
that might sound ridiculous, butit's like the only reason I'm
doing this is because I think Ihave the delusion that I, that I
can be really good at it, thatI that I can get pretty far in
stand-up, and when I watchedChappelle I was like I can't
even.
I can't even remotely go there.
So what's the point?
But that's a stupid thing tothink.
(06:56):
You just got to do what youenjoy.
And this is a challenge as ajournal, I think one of my
biggest.
It's not a mistake that I'vebeen doing, but there's a sense
that it's really hard, almostlike you're a tinker on a car or
a motorcycle.
These stand-up sets it's a lotof like technical work, almost
(07:20):
like getting rid of things, likerealizing that you don't need
to say almost anything,realizing that you don't need to
say almost anything.
You know where I want to talkabout, let's say, the concept of
kids needing more shame, likethis generation has too little
shame, and I want to do likefive or ten minutes just
(07:41):
exploring that idea and in thatexploration none of it's really
that funny.
And then you realize that inthe stand-up vein.
All I have to say is, you know,kids just don't have enough
shame.
And then I go right into thejokes, and so that's been a
pattern of this.
For those of you who've beenaround and listening to all the
(08:01):
episodes, you'll hear me say itover and over again it's just
realizing how little you have tosay.
And for all of us who tellstories at dinner tables and
stuff like that, you'll notice,with the people who can control
a room and everyone's like sortof riveted and not losing
attention.
And we all know, like when Itell a story, I'm so sensitive
(08:23):
to people, like I can tell,unless I'm hammered drunk, I can
tell that like I'm losingpeople and it's because I'm too
verbose, as you can see, butit's, it's a skill and if you,
if you do value telling goodstories and you value, uh, you
know, being good company and agood conversationalist, it's
like oh yeah, like this ispeople's time, don't need you
(08:47):
just become a little aware oflike when the details are
extraneous and when you're justsaying too much and you can lean
it up.
And I think the greatstorytellers, they just have a
knack for knowing what'snecessary to say and what to
leave out.
They're like real-time editorsin a way, and I'm not, so you're
(09:08):
getting privy to this sort ofverbal diarrhea and I thank you
for that.
I always thank you for that.
How is your venery going?
Has the new year started well,by the way?
Yeah, I always feel like youknow, not enough, but that's
just me's.
Just, that's just me, and I, Igenerally hope everyone's
(09:29):
getting enough cuddles andenough contact and is feeling it
, and if you aren't, you know Ireally do hope that you'll, uh,
you'll find ways to to, you know, to get that venturi going in a
way that that's, that's goodfor your soul.
Okay, so that's the update.
Actually, today, when this comesout it comes out every Thursday
(09:50):
I'm going to be doing threeopen mics in the city with this
material that I really, way, waymore than I ever have, have
really honed writing and it'sexciting.
I've got that feeling of likeoh, I think I have.
I really have now maybe six,seven minutes, and so the goal
(10:15):
when I started this thing was toget a 20 minute set going and I
would say today in a reallycool way, celebrating our wins.
Today feels like that 20-minutekind of goal is possible in
this next year.
The mystery guest that Iinterviewed today, his manager,
(10:36):
came along, young Buck, and hesaid something interesting.
This guy's been cranking dailycontent for the whole year.
He's a real process overresults and his manager calls
the year.
They just had year zero and nowthey're just beginning year one
, and I like that.
I feel like everything up tothis point up to tonight for me
(10:58):
is year zero and in a weird way,I feel like I'm turning the
page and we're just beginning.
We're just starting now, soI'll leave it there.
That's my journal entry.
It's a short one.
This week I wanted to do, Ithought about putting together
this interview, but we actuallyvideoed it, so it'll be my first
(11:20):
one that can kind of coexist onYouTube and it's going to take
a lot of work.
Again, I don't have anyproducer.
I'm doing all of this myselfand it's a tremendous amount.
This will be a big lift, butI'm going to use it as an
opportunity to get like brandingon the video and just try to
get a little bit more of aprofessional operation.
(11:42):
That is my commitment and it'sreally what I owe this very
generous, very talented, veryfunny.
I mean huge, huge fan of thisguy.
I discovered him when Ireengaged with Instagram and he
was one of the first videos thatkind of came in through the
algorithm.
I immediately followed him.
So it was a real trip to all ofa sudden be in his presence and
(12:04):
having a grand time, and reallyhe's a friend now.
I mean, we've got some friendsin common and so it was super
fun and I'm really excited and Ireally have the bug now to talk
to people and to get intopeople's start.
So, once again, if you knowanyone that you think would be a
(12:24):
good fit for me to talk with,and at any level, please hit me
up on direct message or if youhave my phone number or email,
I'm all for ideas.
So thank you.
Thank you for listening.
This has been a really raw you.
(12:47):
Thank you for listening.
This has been a really raw onan uncut journal entry and my
goal today was to not edit asingle thing, and I think I have
.
So thank you for joining.
If this was your first startingstand-up episode, thank you for
being here and I hope you havea wonderful day and a wonderful
week and I hope all your dreamscome true and I hope that you
once again live a life full ofadventure, fun, peace and uh and
(13:12):
venery.
All right, see you next week.
Very exciting, thank you.
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