February 14, 2024 • 54 mins
Join beloved Midwest comedians Mat and Dwight in an episode full of laughter, life stories, and incisive look into comedy. In this riveting episode of "Mat and Dwight Just Might", these comedians share how they weather illnesses and setbacks, plug away at their routines and bring humor to even the mundane aspects of life. Their discussions span from the confounding algorithms of social media to the nuances of engaging with modern audiences. An adventure through everyday struggles, strange hobbies and the undying passion for football awaits listeners here.
From on-stage experiences to off-stage preparations, Mat and Dwight offer insights into the reality of the comedy world. As they navigate the realm of securing gigs, building followings, reacting to audience tendencies and dealing with shifting audience cultures, listeners are offered a candid, humorous journey through the intricacies of being a modern-day stand-up comedian. Explore how these comedians strategize to overcome challenges, capitalize on trends, and continuously learn and grow.
Peek behind the comedic curtains as the two delve into their experiences producing comedy shows, teaching comedy classes, and collaborating on inclusive performances. Unearth the rewards and pressures of teaching comedy to a varied audience and immerse in the intricacies of orchestrating an all-female comedy show. This episode encapsulates the journey of a performer engaging with an audience living within digital distractions.
The episode wraps up exploring the craft and strategies that go into constructing jokes, from personal anecdotes to observational humor. Mat and Dwight decode comedy mechanics and discuss techniques for engaging the audience. Rounded up with a Q&A session and possibilities for future plans, this episode is a comprehensive guide for comedy enthusiasts, served with a generous sprinkling of humor.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:09):
Hey everybody, welcome back to Matt and Dwight Just Might, a podcast about two
Midwest-based comedians who are trying to figure it out, trying to rally,
trying to push through when they're maybe a little under the weather for unknown reasons.
That's beautiful.
You know the podcast is going to be great when you start with,
we're trying to push through. We're trying to make it.
(00:31):
Isn't that what we're all trying to do though? So, I mean, really,
on any day-to-day basis, you know, like, I feel like I could very easily just
take this into, like, a suicide cult monologue here in a second.
But anyway, aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of just trying to push through?
Buy these Nikes and join us on the spaceship ride, everybody.
Buy these Nikes and say the motto that nothing that you do matters.
(00:55):
Welcome to the podcast, everybody. It's a very uplifting, accommodating advice podcast. podcast.
Matt and Dwight just might. Matt is feeling a little bit under the weather.
It sounds like he has a bug.
I was dealing with something similar last week, so hopefully this doesn't linger
too much for my man. Did you have shows when you were feeling this way?
Dude, I just started feeling this way today. So luckily I had shows all weekend
(01:20):
and I had to teach class yesterday.
There was someone in my class who was sick.
Yeah, I stayed away from them the whole time and they had
a mask on most of the time okay now i'm wondering
if i didn't maybe get a little a little baggage from them
i don't know teaching teaching these damn kids matt i
told you what's yes it wasn't it
(01:40):
wasn't even like one of the students it was someone who works at the facility
too okay so yeah yeah you know they they they are fully gainfully employed and
have health insurance so good for them and now i have their full strength health
insurance cold i mean how How how how strong is this cold if someone with health
insurance had it and now I got it?
I mean, I know through a mask and everything.
(02:01):
I know that's now how sick would you have to be to actually cancel a paying
gig? Oh, barely, barely sick at all.
See, I have I have I have this thing called a wife with a job.
And so, you know, I'd be like, oh, I do want to say that this person said that
(02:21):
they did test and it was not covid.
And so I don't think I have COVID or anything and we'll see I don't know man
I I have had to cancel when I've been so basically if I'm sick enough that I.
Like my voice is not there and i gotta
do an hour and i just know it's not probably gonna happen or if
i've just yeah so if i feel like i've if i have like the flu
or above then i will you know yeah but
(02:44):
yeah if i'm a little sick i'll i'll rally i'll just napalm
it with as much you know theraflu and tylenol you
know day and night quill mixed up together i
like to blend them together i like to have a little tylenol twilight
quill you know yes you take that little tab
that has the directions on the bottle and then you
set it on fire yeah exactly in the trash
(03:06):
no one needs that yeah uh we're not
athletes i'm not doing a michael jordan
flu game to prove a point this is although i did but i was at the festival where
i was not getting paid and i was i felt like absolute dog shit and i was like
the people need to see this eight minutes sorry atlanta i gotta They needed
(03:30):
to see you in that suit is what they needed.
That's what it was. You're like, I packed this suit.
Well, in that case, you're already there, you know? And so why?
Yeah. If I was doing like a weekend run of the club or something like Goonies
or something in Rochester, Friday, Saturday, and I woke up Saturday feeling rough.
Well, I'm already here, you know, like we're going to get through it.
We're going to do the thing.
(03:50):
But to actually, yeah, if I had not left my house yet and I'm running like the
slightest of temperature and then I'm like, I can't.
I can't do
this yeah i i personally
am recovering from i just recovered from the usher halftime show at the super
(04:14):
bowl so i was like i can't do anything i am just sick i was as excited as a
a middle school girl in 2003 when he came on stage.
Okay. Ooh, and an odd in front of my family. Like he was on roller skates.
I did the deaf comedy jam, started knocking over furniture.
(04:34):
No, he didn't. No, he did not. So did you not know that he was going to be on
roller skates? Had you not heard about his Las Vegas residency show?
No, I, so I, I did the full thing. No spoilers. Okay. I didn't even listen to
his new album, which he dropped the week before.
Okay. Yeah, I treated it like a Marvel Cinematic Universe premiere.
(04:56):
No spoilers. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to see I want to see my man,
man. I grew up as an Usher fan. Yeah.
I don't know if it was, we were just looking up other things to do,
but when Denise and I went to Las Vegas to see U2 at the Sphere,
I found out about Usher's show because people were talking about it, his residency.
And it was like full-blown Starlight Express, which is a lesser-known Andrew
(05:18):
Lloyd Webber musical where everyone is on roller skates the entire time that I saw in high school.
And I thought, is this what Broadway plays are? They're all rollerball,
basically, but with singing.
Singing so i i was i was like oh it's in vegas he's
gonna just do he's gonna adapt the vegas show
he's been doing so i was already expecting it i've not actually seen
(05:39):
the halftime show i was producing a comedy show during the
super bowl and i just haven't gotten around to
looking it up on youtube yet so i did see uh your
posts and several other people's posts about his performance though and
i think i got i think i got it it was yeah you know what it
is it was real horny i guess right yeah yeah it
was super duper i was watching with my mother-in-law and
(06:00):
he as one does when you're in
your 40s you take your shirt off to perform at
the super bowl yeah i was like i don't know if i'm in the right company because
we were also with our three-year-old niece who very audibly she was like why
(06:20):
is his shirt off okay and i was like we don't talk to me in a decade.
Well i was gonna say i think it's that's better
than if she were like 10 year old niece that would
then it would give you the uncomfortable like three years they're so
young it's like okay they're not looking at this in the same lens
of why they don't understand why this is awkward they
(06:42):
just think it's like why is that singing man on roller
skates taking his shirt off right you know he's hot you know
he's out there working he's working my god yeah i
was i was like that's a performer right there
we talk about some people perform their jokes my
man performs perform it wasn't like
last year it was rihanna and her special guest was
(07:04):
her baby her yeah no she just stood there the
whole time i did well exactly rihanna and i was like this
is amazing but there's a different sort of energy
and flow yes yeah hers fully
like it hinged on the idea of like how
crazy the stages were they were like the floating multi-level
stages they were like this is an old school
(07:26):
video game reference but they were like joust do you
remember joust where i don't remember this is
one of the very first like sort of atari games like so it's pre-u you
know i don't know if you grew up with like pre-u it was pre-u existing no no
it's one of the first like home video games like on atari and everything but
basically it had the same sort of level design where the different levels that
(07:47):
you would fly up to fly up to and that's what it looked like to me i should
have used a more current reference.
She up there on that super smash bros screen you know what i'm saying is that better is that,
Well, I mean, some people, some people live off of data references and I am
one of them. I know. Exactly.
I have the jokes about 50 cent. I have jokes about usher and anyone born after
(08:10):
the year 1997 are like, what the frick are you talking about, dude?
Well, now look at your usher. Now that's the main reason you're excited.
It's like finally these usher jokes are going to hit again. I can finally start posting these.
They're going to start hitting again. Yeah. Now we do call this. I'm sorry.
No, go ahead. No, I was going to say, we do call this a comedy advice podcast.
How do you think we're doing so far in the first eight minutes?
(08:32):
You know, I think people need to know our, like our full selves,
you know, they need to know where
we're coming from on a wide variety of topics so that they can really.
They can really understand where this comedy advice comes from.
We're, we're fully flesh human beings.
We're not, we're not like open micers that are hashtag grinding,
you know, that all they do is go to open mic after open mic after open mic.
(08:55):
We have full rich lives. lives and also is
it rihanna or rihanna because i always pronounce it rihanna and
someone corrected me the other day and they were like it's rihanna and i
was like i don't think it is but i just let it slide yeah that's
that's not a person you want to talk to okay yeah that's
not a person you knew in your life that's ridiculous get out it was my
it was my wife so i am okay well yeah and
(09:17):
she's a huge fan she's a huge fan
and i'm like i didn't want to push it
but i was like where did you get at that pronunciation of it and like i don't
my thing is like i'll send you a i'll send you a list of songs where rihanna
says her own name and then that's the only evidence that you can casually play
them in the background yeah rewinding the part specifically.
(09:43):
No my thing is i think that she heard because
like have you ever seen this i don't care i already
said i'm under the weather we're fucking if we talk anything about comedy
in this entire episode we're like a we're like the mr miyagi
of comedy yes exactly no it's happening
until you have no idea how this is all gonna like pay
off for your comedy career uh no but
(10:05):
my assumption is because denise does love rihanna rihanna
however you want to say it and she watched she watches
all those the specials she does on streaming
that are like fashion shows those uh what is
it fetty savage is that her brand right yeah yeah and
so i'm like was there there like some weird like british announcer or something
on one of those that said the name wrong and then denise locked
(10:26):
it in her brain like oh that's how you say it yeah that's
my assumption all right i'm thank you i'm you sent me send me some songs and
i'm just gonna yeah i got you you know i just call it re-re because oh okay
good yeah like that yeah okay you know and that's island culture too you know
that's you know you know anyway all right that's been this episode everybody thanks for tuning in.
(10:51):
Dwight, you did us a little bit of a tease there. You were down.
Wait, no, you were off this weekend, right? I was off this weekend.
We've already heard about the fantastic time in Atlanta.
And so you were off just chilling, pregame and getting ready for your Usher halftime show.
I really was. Yo, last week was great. I didn't.
I am still doing the pages in the morning.
(11:11):
I did miss a day because full disclosure, I was hung over. And then the Super
Bowl Sunday was actually able to get up and write a little bit.
Felt good. Felt like I got some productive stuff done before spending the day
doing Super Bowl activities.
(11:31):
If you don't know me, I'm a big football fan. I am completely addicted.
It is the NFL's the worst, one of the worst corporations on the planet.
It, but it has the most addicting product to my brain and I can't quit it.
And I was enthralled yet again.
I don't know what you want me to do. People use Amazon and I'm addicted to the
(11:55):
NFL for 18, 19, 20 weeks out of the year.
There is no ethical consumption in a post-capitalistic society.
And, and I think that gives you your pass. You can be into the NFL if you want
to, you know, like, hell yeah, dude.
Yeah. And I like that every time, like if, if someone gives you any, any guff about it.
You'd be like, you shopping on Amazon? Now I want to hear about it.
(12:18):
You shopping at Amazon? I'm watching the NFL on Amazon Prime.
I'm doubling down. There you go.
No ethics. I'm posting my crowd work clips. I don't have values anymore.
I work for the algorithm.
No kidding. It sounds like we're definitely getting into talking about comedy now.
(12:39):
Well, I did post a clip this week. how did your clip do how was the clip it
was fine it was black history they never do well they never like anything about
race from my mouth usually doesn't hit the like 200.
Likes on instagram i get like a lot of comments i posted on tiktok and i got
(13:02):
like 30 likes in the first 90 seconds i was like holy shit and then they got
buried and then they they immediately You got buried in the algorithm and I
was so never saw it again. Yeah. I don't know.
I have no idea. I have no answers. I was like, this is the one that's about to take off.
Uh, but the Usher one I posted the 50 cent Usher one did okay.
(13:22):
That's good. I have been just stockpiling sets that I need to sit down and edit
and go through and clip up.
And I discovered that this is what's healthy for me or manageable for me is to do it in ways.
And I know that's not what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to be
consistently cranking it out.
But for my mental health i have to take
(13:43):
a break and step away from it and not be posting all
the time and content and so what i've settled on is like
i will collect you know eight
ten shows worth of you know and then
sit down spend a couple days going through and clipping out crowd work or
little throwaway jokes or anything topical spend a
couple days editing and then just every day post one
(14:04):
of those until i run out of them but i i'm you know
like every comedian listening to to this podcast and every community
that we talk to we're always in this back
and forth struggle of kind of hating it but
having to do it and also not really being
able to figure it out even people who get you know you've had you've had clips
go viral and it just it's there's no rhyme or reason to it it's just like yeah
(14:28):
exactly and you would think once you have one or two of them go viral then it's
going to start cascading and sometimes it just doesn't happen like that you know yeah Yeah,
like if a clip like I've gotten consistent new followers on Instagram and I've
noticed they'll go through and like a bunch of clips.
OK, that's good. So hopefully that translates into over time saying more.
(14:52):
Yeah, just like, you know, setting
these micro goals of trying to get to a certain number of followers.
Hopefully that moves the needle to, you know, secure bookings and sell tickets.
It's that's the whole gambit of this game baby so we'll see we'll see but it
is though it is the most frustrating process because you're like if i could just repeat this.
(15:15):
If we could figure it out, everybody would figure it out, and there would be
no need for this podcast.
Yeah, that's true. There would be no need to send booking emails into the void. Yeah.
But I don't know. How's booking going for you this year? Are you seeing a lot
of response? Are you seeing creation?
My schedule has been decent. I needed to get back on it because like,
(15:40):
you know, I'm just trying to always remain thankful because I am still in this
kind of place now after 15 years of doing it where I can fire a text message
off to somebody and get a show.
Usually you know or send an
email off to can you know i have a network of
people that i've worked for before that know
(16:03):
me trust me like me and i can almost always get a
weekend at their club you know that you know
sometime in the year usually or every other year depending
on what the rotation is and what i may ask for but my
march was pretty open i didn't have much going on
and i did fill one of those weekends up with
a feature weekend because i have really
(16:24):
kind of settled in on what i think my dry bar submission
is going to be i've started running it last weekend oh hell yeah like i moved
away from just trying to get the little five to seven minute like clean submission
set for festivals and things like that i kind of i got one that's it it's not
perfect but it's pretty good it's pretty good and we fixed the audio on it and
(16:45):
everything so it's pretty strong.
I'm still going to like go to the attic on Thursday and do the open mic.
And I'm going to do that seven again to try to just get the perfect version
of it. Right. Because why not? I'm in town. I might as well go do it.
But I'm moving towards working this feature length set that is all clean.
And so I did just hit up a club and I saw one of my open weekends in March.
(17:07):
I was like, hey, can I come feature for this person? This is a club that I normally headline.
And they were like, yeah, we don't have it booked yet. It pays as much.
Is that OK? And I was like, yeah, because in my head, I wasn't even really worried about the pay.
I'm like, I need a contained, I walk on stage, do my 25 minutes clean and walk back off stage set.
And so I'm excited. And hopefully I've broken the curse of the taping curse
(17:30):
that I've been dealing with.
People listening to the podcast know all about the various little technical
issues and things that were happening.
But so as far as that goes, I'm trying to remain, you know, a positive and happy
and, And, you know, and I got a somewhat positive response on doing shows in
London while I'm there, which is coming up.
And so booking wise, I feel pretty okay about it, but also looking at my calendar,
(17:54):
like, you know, it's just like, oh, there's, you know, I got to get back on
it because May is pretty open. April is pretty open.
You know, I've got a couple things here and there, but it's just like, yep.
You know, I got bills to pay and I got, you know, I got weekends that are open
that should not be open, you know?
And so I'm getting ready to ramp back up on that. This is interesting because
(18:16):
I cannot tell you what I've been doing.
I haven't been doing clips. I haven't been working on booking.
I don't know what I've been doing the last couple of weeks.
Well, we are in the limestone season, so that does happen.
And I am doing a lot of limestone work. Yeah. So, I mean, the first half of
the year disappears when it comes to like planning this festival.
So it does. You do need separate.
(18:39):
I like the idea of structuring things. Like you said, you're going to sit down
and batch out editing because that's the only way to do these things without
going absolutely insane.
It's sort of like what we did with the booking challenge last year,
where it was like, all right, just for 10 days, this is what we're going to focus on.
And then we see the results results.
We see it pretty quickly. Actually, I thought, yeah, I thought so too.
(19:03):
And I think it's something worth revisiting this year as well.
And we'll, we'll definitely issue that for everyone. and all of our listeners
as well to join us in that challenge.
But yeah, man, you know, I don't know. We're getting there.
I had a full weekend of shows. I told you before we started rolling that I didn't
really start feeling like ass until I took a nap today.
I've been on the run the last several days, doing a lot of driving,
(19:25):
doing shows, doing producing shows, teaching a class where I had a lecture for
three hours, you know, with like a 10 minute break in the middle last night.
And that's with a, you know, a three hour drive, you know, an hour and a half
up, hour and a half back. And so I've just been like running,
running, running, running.
And so today I got up in the morning
and I worked on limestone stuff until lunchtime, took, ate my lunch.
And I was like, all right, I might as well have a little post lunch nap.
(19:47):
Hell yeah, right? Feeling good. And then I woke up feeling horrible.
But that being said, yeah, I have been actually doing some stuff.
I know I feel like I've been just lost in a fog or whatever.
But yeah, I've been getting some stuff done. Before I recap my shows this weekend,
there are a couple of things I wanted to talk about with that and share with you and the audience.
Where are you going to be we always bury these at
(20:08):
the very end of the podcast and let's let's do it a little bit sooner let's
plug those shows my friend where are you going to be at this next weekend
plug them up i am plug them up
what anyway i will be in stevensville michigan friday february 16th and then
back in indianapolis doing a don't tell on the 17th also want to announce on February 22nd.
(20:34):
I will be at Monarch Brewery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Very excited about that. It looks like a dope venue, so I'm excited about that.
So if you're in any of those places, please come check me out.
Oh, almost forgot one. The 21st. I'm in Indianapolis again. That's a a Wednesday.
(20:55):
I am at Turner's bar and the studs building doing a black history showcase.
So if you want to be a good ally.
And you live in Indianapolis. Go to DwightSimmons.com and get those deets.
Okay, nice. All right on. I was going to say, Monarch Brewing,
(21:16):
I think I've done that show.
I think it's a great room, if I recall. I've done definitely some sort of brewery
show in Louisville one time.
And I remember the room was a lot of fun. Pictures look great.
And you know me, a beer drinker. So check and check plus. And I'm excited.
I didn't get to work on anything new, obviously. I didn't have any shows this
past week, so I've got some new stuff that I want to, I want to get taped and
(21:41):
clipped up and I think it's ready.
So, um, I'm excited to get back to it. What about you?
Right on this weekend, I will be in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Saturday, the 16th at the main.
And then on Saturday, the 17th, I'll be at Coral Gables and Saga talk Michigan.
Yep. So, yeah. And then real quick, just the following weekend,
(22:04):
the 22nd and 23rd, I'll be at Laughing Skull in Atlanta, Georgia,
one of the best comedy clubs in the country.
Just a fun, fun show, fun place. They do it showcase style.
It's always, you know, just a murderer's row of comics getting up and doing 10 minutes.
And then on Sunday, the 24th, I'm featuring at the High Cotton Comedy Club in
Memphis, Tennessee, which is a new monthly there at High Cotton Brewing.
(22:25):
So, yeah, put on by old Charlie.
What is Charlie's last name? I can't remember. Yes, thank you,
Charlie Virgos. Yep. And so that's where I'll be in the next couple of weeks.
And of course, you can get tickets for all those at my website,
which is madelonamartincomedy.com. Every one of those words has a hyphen in
between it, except for comedy and common, which there is a dot.
But that's enough looking forward. Let's look back. And I will tell you about
(22:47):
my shows I had this weekend.
I had a lot going on. He texted me and he left me on pins and needles.
So I've been waiting for several days to hear what happened with your weekend.
Weekend well yeah i texted you during the saturday show
because and it's a well we'll get there we'll get there with like
since we since we started the
(23:07):
podcast we have tried to avoid texting each
other like little like updates on what's going on we're like we'll save it for the podcast we'll
save it for the podcast and every once in a blue moon i
think actually last time you were in saga or the last time you were in michigan
is like uh one of the times that you broke that rule and texted me yeah uh when
you were at whatever what's that place called oh the yeah that place was like
(23:29):
hey matt you're gonna be brooksville but not brooksville yeah god.
But anyway so i'll get to
that here very shortly but no on let's see
on friday night i was at books and
brewers in brownsburg indiana this is
a danny browning production laughing dead shows and
he's been getting a little bit more out there he's danny's
(23:52):
been producing shows i think for a couple years now at least minimal but
it seems like he's starting to get a few more rooms and you know this is like it's like
a bookstore slash game shop like in
a strip mall in brownsburg like in a nice like new strip mall
and it also has a bar side a beer side
but it's a one small room you know and of course
it was the classic thing we're like oh last last
(24:13):
month when we did this show is standing room only and he's sending
me pictures or whatever and you know it was our good friend brent
terhune and i don't know about you know this about me
but i'm not brent terhune as far as removing those tickets none
of us yeah so there was plenty of
available seating at my show but it was
a good time it was it was all a good time though it was it was
(24:36):
a lot of fun and thad mckee was on
the show and that originally was supposed to host and then i guess the feature
bailed and so danny hosted and bumped that up to to featuring oh which is good
yeah so and he did great and they were a fun crowd it was a small crowd but
it was a fun crowd and i have confirmed something that i i don't know if i've
talked about this on the podcast yet I mentioned it to Denise.
(24:57):
I know, and a few other people, but as I've been clipping up videos and also
as I've been previewing the submissions for Limestone, like to make sure the video works.
I usually watch like the first 30, 40 seconds or whatever of it.
I've noticed that there is a trend now in audiences where some people,
instead of laughing, are hissing.
(25:18):
They're going, that's how they're responding to jokes, which traditionally I
would get that if I was performing like at a gay club or opening for a gay comic
like Aaron Foley or Fortune Feimster.
And they didn't like a joke, like instead of groaning like you would at a dad
joke or something, they go, come on, you know, not like not like a black uncle
(25:40):
would laugh where he's like, yeah,
no, it's there's no laugh aspect to it.
It's just literally like a little hiss and at first
i thought it was going insane that this was like the this was
like some like thing that only i was hearing and
i was manufacturing it in my brain but i've now confirmed it because at that
show dead set right up front was a table of young 20 somethings and it was like
(26:03):
five of them and they were great they were like but they weren't like super
into laughing at the show but they were smiling and being into things everyone
Everyone else around them was,
you know, late thirties and up. Right.
And I visually very clearly could see the difference between how both groups
are reacting to jokes and this table of 20 somethings when they laughed at stuff.
Most of them did the thing.
(26:26):
And I know if it's like something from tick tock, I don't know what it is,
but it's, it drives me insane for one thing.
But I've learned to just get over it and accept it. But also,
I then saw it happen on Saturday, and then I saw it happen on Sunday when I
was just producing a show.
Oh, my goodness. It's like some weird new way that young people are laughing
(26:48):
at jokes as they're just going, The re-rise of the Dark Lord is almost complete.
Slytherin, right? And not all young people, obviously.
But, I mean, now that I've said it, you're probably going to start noticing it.
I know, and it's going to drive me insane. saying i have noticed like a dip
in energy between like you know younger audiences i think.
(27:11):
We've we've talked about this on the podcast where they just don't
know how you're supposed to act in a comedy show because they've only
watched comedy on their phone on tiktok yeah and so when
you get them actually at a comedy show they don't know that you're
supposed to be either that or they're all so pumped
full of ssris that they can't actually react you
know not to be like old men talking about young
(27:32):
people like we have qualms with every age
group oh yeah yes like last week we talked
about older drunk white white white exactly yeah well meaning drunk white women
of a certain age yeah so it's just funny to look at how every group there is
like the trend of people that have never been to a comedy show depending on
(27:53):
what age they They are, it could be wild.
Like it could be older people that have only watched, uh.
Crowd work clips or heckle clips and they this is what we're supposed to do
right uh people that don't know how to be in public yet because this is like
the first thing that they've done,
yeah they have to sit and watch uninterrupted well
(28:13):
yeah so they're uninterrupted they know that they they'll get
yelled at if they're on their phones and then also yeah they
don't see i think the thing is and i'm sure there's you know graduate
students working on this right now and psychologists studying this i think
that even when they're in a physical space and they
are part part of a participatory event like
being in a comedy show that they still they're
(28:36):
they're maintaining a sort of distance and separation from it and it's not just
with comedy also i mean you know some of my friends who are in the music industry
have said that they've noticed more and more you know if a band is sort of like
a band of the moment that you know isn't that doesn't have like diehard fans
but they've got maybe a song that's on the radio right or something like that.
The audience comes and ignores the band what like so many young people come
(29:01):
and they just completely ignore the band until that song is played but the whole
rest of the concert they're just kind of talking with each other maybe occasionally
checking in on the band they're like.
Instagramming themselves it's like more important to document oh i'm
at this cool concert than to actually be at the concert and
enjoy the concert yeah is the thing that they've already started noise
and i think again also it's part of this this generation
(29:22):
and the way that they've been raised on phones to be
always separate like whatever they're
they're viewing and that they're taking in they're not part
of it they're somehow distanced from it i don't know if then again i'm
an old man this might all be bullshit i don't know you know maybe maybe
they just don't like my jokes you know what i'm saying do you
know like so for this specific example you know
(29:45):
you're like everyone else is having a good time you're gonna narrowly focus
in on yes the one one table where you're
like they're they're being great but they're not doing it the
right way exactly damn it these kids as i
shake my fist at the sky yeah no and the thing is
like they are smiling and then they are like occasionally you
would get and one of the one of them at the table was was laughing a little
(30:07):
bit in a more traditional way of laughing and then and i thought oh they didn't
they weren't feeling me because i'm an old man right that's kind of what i was
thinking right but then one of them came up and just got my venmo and then tipped
me and it was it's very complimentary.
It was like, we love the show. And so it was just that kind of stuff.
Like they didn't buy merch, but
they just, but she got my scan me Venmo thing and it tipped me like $7.
(30:30):
And I was like, cool. You know, thank you. An OG laugher. Do that.
Scan a QR code. Know what a Venmo is. Yeah. It's like, Hey, I dug you a sec. Can I write you a check?
How can I support? Let me go get some change out of my car. How can I find out
where you're going to play next? Yeah.
I don't have social media. Yeah. Yeah. I don't trust email.
(30:54):
They turned off my internet man yeah anyway that's
but that's something i've noticed and if anyone out there listening has also noticed
this rise of the hiss of that's that's what it is it's like that's the response
and if you haven't yet if you're a comedian go back and watch your clips go
watch go watch your tapes of your recent sets and tell me if you don't have
(31:15):
a few of these people in the audience doing this shit the next night we were
down in newberg indiana Jennings station.
And I've done this room before Newberg is right outside of Evansville,
Indiana, where I had gone to college and spent a few years post-college and everything.
So it's always nice to kind of go back down there, sold out show that one was sold out.
And when I was texting you, it's like, there were a lot of things happening, right.
(31:36):
That just seemed like this is going to be a nightmare of a show. Right.
And it turned out to be great. It honestly turned out to be great.
Like the PA Danny's pre PA just stopped working for some reason.
And then all I heard was like, So we're going to have to just use this karaoke speaker.
And so I'm like, Oh no, this is not, this is not great. And again,
(31:58):
so that show, it's still a small room, right? It's not a massive room.
You know, like 70 people probably packed into this little space.
Like, you know, wait, now is it to the audience?
No, no, no. To me. Okay. Oh, okay. I got there. He's like trying to fix his
PA and he's like, I don't know what happened.
Like it was something. And he's like, he's like, we're going to have to use
this wireless mic and this karaoke thing.
(32:18):
And I'm just like, like i'm a trooper like i'm you
know i'm already here i already drove down but it turned
out to be fine it was perfectly enough speaker for the room
you know i didn't have to blow my voice out like the
other watching the opening comics they were a little bit more lower energy as
far as like projecting and stuff like that right could hear them perfectly fine
it was good you know so it was one of those things where it did turn around
(32:41):
and be okay okay you know yeah that is i nothing Nothing stresses me out than like watching.
This is what I thought happened.
You were watching the show as it was going on.
And then the mic went out. No, no. Yeah, I've done. I've done so many of those
where they're like, oh, here's a wireless microphone.
We definitely didn't check to make sure the batteries are fully charged.
(33:02):
No, of course not. We just handed you this thing.
Oh, my God. Yeah, that that makes me sweaty. So I'm glad that it worked out
because that is the easiest way to lose an audience and never be able to get them back.
Oh, I know, you know, and they paid money and then they can barely hear what
you're doing or whatever, you know? Yeah. It's just, it's a recipe for disaster for sure.
But it actually turned out to be okay and everything.
(33:25):
And yeah, man, like, you know, there's some other stuff that we're going to,
you know, like, I don't use like sometimes you're in a weird head space and
so I'm texting my boy and I'm like, cause I think it was just that where I'm like, well, great.
Now this, and you know, it was one of these things where I tried to go to like a nice,
like local restaurant before i like i saw it on google maps
like it's right down the street and i got there and there
(33:48):
was like zero parking i don't know how anybody goes to this restaurant it's
like the historic part of this little town and like literally the
closest parking was like four blocks away so i
was like fuck that and i went to taco bell and like because
i'm also like just thinking about like timing and how much time i had for the show
and everything i was like yeah so i'm gonna go pay to park in this public lot
four blocks away walk down to this restaurant hopefully i can get in get my
(34:10):
food go back to the car drive to the bin you know something i'm just gonna talk
your mindset was already like i don't have the patience.
Right and so that i went through all that and then got there and then like walk
in to find that the pa is not working and like well great,
(34:32):
so you did go to text white to danny browning
event yeah back-to-back shows you've mentioned he's been
booking for a long time and i've worked with him i will say
danny does know how to set up a room but he
is a lot before the show yeah i'm not
the guy that wants to like chat have full-blown let's
catch up conversations before the show so yeah
(34:53):
i'm also like professional so i'm trying to be there 15 minutes
early at least yeah yeah so some
bookers are like i need to talk to you about out
everything that's happened in the last two years and i'm
like i just ate at a fucking taco bill so let
me put my set together yeah i'm the same way like i want to stay focused like
(35:14):
i want to stay focused i want to watch the show beforehand and i know what you're
saying but i will say for this time i danny was not really like that this these
two shows yeah maybe i got him when he was going through you might you might
have got him when he was all hyped up when you say when he's when there's a divorce. Yeah.
Well, yeah. He might have, I was like, I don't want to hear about you.
And you're like, I don't give a shit about this man.
(35:36):
I'm that cold i'm trying
to i'm trying to structure the set of bringing
rachel humor to lower kentucky and
you are talking to me about very important stuff that's
happened to you yeah no i i thought it was fine
i mean it was like but i did really like that the jennings station
has like basically this sort of almost secret back
(35:58):
hallway thing that i could just pace around with and be completely alone
like because that's the same thing i'm the same way i don't want you
know anybody to just come up and chat my ear off
yeah you know which happens sometimes you know you
know like famously you know rest
in peace the late tom sobel was known
for that he was a promoter and if you did his shows
(36:19):
you just knew that you had the part of it was
you're just yeah if you you either had to
hide until right before you went on stage or you were just
going to get talked at not to just talk
that in your ear stories the entire time the
entire time and so you just had to
like well that's just part of the deal you know and so i'm
(36:40):
yeah i'm with you like i don't want to hang out i don't want to talk talk and
chat before the show you know i'll say hi you know even like i mean i love that
that's super fun and you know cool and like even he and i were not chit-chatting
during the show like before the show we're both watching danny we're both like
in our our heads, like, I know what we can do, you know? All right.
And so anyway, so those were both fun shows that went well.
(37:02):
And then on Sunday I produced the Galentine's day show at Cardinal spirits, always a lovely time.
That's the annual all female comedian, female identifying comedian show.
And we had a banger and this year I usually would go up and I would just like, welcome everybody.
And just like, Hey, you know, here's how the entry slips work.
You know, you, since you're here, you get entered into a chance to win badges from limestone.
(37:24):
And then I would just get out of there. I wouldn't do time or anything.
Right. But then this year I was like, I shouldn't even be on stage.
Galentine's day show. It should be, there should not be a man on stage. So.
Shout out to Shanda song who we shout out a lot on this podcast,
but I had her basically do that, host the show, do a long host set up front.
You know, I gave her like 15 minutes after she did the rules and interviews.
And it's just so nice to have somebody that you can just depend and lean on.
(37:48):
It's like, you got this, you're going to, it's going to be great.
But you know, so I, I'm just in the back producing, setting up the PA and,
you know, tearing it all down and all kinds of stuff, which I turns out it's
pretty, pretty good gig.
If you can get, if you
could just bring in the pa set it up hide in
the back area eat really really delicious food from cardinal spirits
yeah and not have to work not have
(38:11):
to work joke around with the other comics a little bit while we're all
eating dinner together now you're the problem break it out
i was the problem what do you guys want to talk
about you guys heard this
you heard this hissing yet you guys while you're up
there pay attention for the hissing yeah yeah but no.
It was a great show and a good time and i
(38:32):
missed the super bowl entirely and then yeah and
then i taught my class last night the second class of the
session up in carmel indiana yeah and
i had a good group how's that going what week
are you guys on this is the second week yeah okay
i guess you don't know how it's going until the graduation class where
someone makes a transphobic joke even though you
(38:53):
told them not to we you start to get a sense as
it's going as they're building their five minute set like they did one minute of
material yesterday like last night and next week
when they do the three minutes of material will be when we start to
see some people showing their colors a little bit
and you know it's it seems like it's a good group
honestly there was one guy that his his opening joke was
(39:14):
like maybe started to like
dip a toe a little bit into inappropriateness but
then pulled immediately back out of it and then
the rest of his three the rest of his minute or minute and a half or whatever
he did was completely fine and even like did a thing that we subverted like
a racial stereotype and like as a white guy made it at the white guy's expense
and did it in like a good way right like all right maybe this guy's gonna be
(39:38):
okay but i did comment on the opening a joke i was like you know that opening
joke is like you're tiptoeing towards like this this is not going to be okay.
And he was like, yeah, I see that, you know, and everything.
But yeah, I mean, it should be good.
Do you think the comedy mothership in Austin, Joe Rogan's club also runs comedy classes?
And if yes, what are, what's the curriculum?
(40:00):
It's just, it's like an hour long class of why you can say everything. I'm sure. Yeah.
Yeah, man, you know, it's a,
I was, I was telling Denise about this last night when I got home from it.
She was asking how the class was and i was like you know what we've got,
We've got one black guy in the class and one openly gay guy in the class.
(40:21):
And I think their existence is going to keep everybody else in line.
No one's going to do anything that we're like, like, cause if it was just all
straight white people, some of them might say something that's out of pocket
racially or homophobically.
And it's like, Nope, your classmate, this person that you're bonding with and
you're coming up with as you're learning comedy, hopefully is going to,
you're going to be like, maybe I shouldn't do that joke. Yeah. That's real life.
(40:42):
That's what would happen. If you just walked into a comedy club to do an open
mic, you'd be like, like oh there's some black people here maybe i get rid of
the maybe i get rid of my closer.
Where i'd say the n-word and run off stage oh don't you miss crackers comedy
club open mic was that somebody's closer they said the n-word and ran off stage
man i'm not gonna name the person because they seem to be doing okay put it
(41:06):
in the chat put it in the chat but my god like Like,
it's just common sense for people sometimes is so, so lacking,
but that's what it is called an open mic.
And people are like, I'm going to take this literally, you know,
that guy, remember? Oh, yes.
Oh, yes. And that's an old, this is a name I, you know, I can quote Obi-Wan
(41:29):
Kenobi. That's a name I've not heard in some fight sometime.
Yeah. That person does seem to be doing well, but they're doing well in that
comedy mothership scene yeah uh edgelord dip shits i'm sure they're probably
still doing that closer yeah probably.
Except not running and yeah not running
yeah just like you know getting a standing o or
(41:50):
whatever yeah if you
guys haven't figured this out we are two liberal cucks and
we i wouldn't change it
for the world baby no there's i just it's
very funny i'm glad you're teaching this class i'm teaching a
class in the summer as well and i am
using your syllabus just
(42:13):
with a few tweaks but you when
i just send me my 20 baby yeah franchise fee
franchise fee i will send you the 18 that you
are rightfully owed do it for the cause i'm glad i was excited that i saw that
you were gonna be teaching a class and i'm honored that you're using the syllabus
that i put together shanda the aforementioned shanda also took over teaching
(42:37):
the class down here in bloomington and she did the same thing she was like she
took the basic structure but then tweaked it and,
restructured it and made it her own which she should you know and you definitely
should but yeah man i mean it's like not to be egotistical but like i put together a pretty academic.
Stand-up comedy class like like last night was a big was
the second night is the big lecture night where i basically have to
(42:58):
talk for three hours essentially really getting into like
the nuts and bolts of like joke construction and the mechanics of
jokes and the psychology of jokes as i was going through the psychology part
because i've also improved it every single year i've taught it like
my examples are way more concrete and i'm also like
the language is more clear as far as like making
these examples but as i was getting into the psychology part i was like i bet
(43:18):
a lot of fan of comedy classes don't get into this like why
people laugh at things yeah like the the psychological idea
of like laughing in an agreement with something or
laughing because of the us versus them dynamic that
you can create in a joke you know all this kind of stuff that you
know is subtext and subconsciously comics
no and audiences no but to really
(43:39):
lay it out i was like oh this is a pretty good class i'm you
know they're getting their money's worth i should increase the fee i
should make some more expensive class well yeah you
take you kind of take yourself out of the equation you see
a lot of comedy classes that are marketed as just here's how
this person would write the joke and they're going to teach you how to write
the joke in their voice and that's just yeah that to me is a waste of money
(44:02):
that's why comedy classes get bad reputation because they're just like we're
gonna teach you how to be funny and it's like no we're gonna teach joke construction
and why things work from a net and bolts way.
Right. Performance theory, different way. Yeah. So yeah, most classes,
not most, a lot of the comedy classes are, and I say this in the beginning is
(44:23):
like, this class is not how to do comedy, the Madelano Martin way.
Like to man, this is going to be an episode of callbacks because I always think about it.
And I sometimes will say this in the class, like Charlie Vargas has this great
joke where he talks about.
Da Vinci when he made the David. Is it Da Vinci who made the David?
Who made the Statue of the David? I'm going to check this before because it's important.
(44:44):
Yeah, it's Michelangelo, right? Michelangelo. Thank you. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
So Michelangelo once said that he did not create the David. The David was always
inside the block of marble.
All he did was remove the parts of the marble that were not the David.
And Charlie has this amazing joke where he takes that to this like nth degree
and how there's like there's tiny little Davids and everything, you know?
(45:07):
It's like there's a tiny little David in the stool, the leg of the stool and stuff like that.
But that idea is kind of like the original Michelangelo idea is something that
I try to convey to the class.
Like all we're doing in this class is whatever is funny about you,
we're removing all the stuff around it.
We're like revealing your sense of funny, what's funny about you.
Do and i just chipping away at all the stuff that
(45:29):
makes a joke bad like too much
too much too wordy you know you know say
in the end you know it's all those things you know now but like just chipping
away at all the stuff that isn't the joke you know isn't the funny part of the
person and so that's the way that i i think about it and i mean i don't know
like the class sells out every time so i guess it's we're doing okay i'm actually
(45:52):
teaching an advanced class for the first time Oh, good.
Later on this year, there's going to be more of a practicum slash inside the actor's studio.
Nice. And so I might be bringing you in as one of the guests to kind of talk
about your process and all that kind of stuff.
And don't worry, there is a Taco Bell gift card in it for you.
Oh, we eating chalupas tonight, baby.
Easy Gordita Crunch, here I come. They just put a cantina downtown Indianapolis, so. Yeah.
(46:19):
Yeah yeah there you go this podcast is sponsored by taco bell cantina tonight
it is yeah today it is oh yeah we we did get a question of the week and i want
to get to that before we run out of time today if anyone out there has a question
of the week or if you've experienced that,
oh i just realized maybe i've just been performing for a lot of asmr people
(46:41):
and that's how they They laugh at that or they're owners of cats. They're cat owners.
Anyway, you can email us at the official email address of the podcast,
which is mattanddwight at gmail.com.
That is M-A-T-A-N-D-D-W-I-G-H-T at gmail.com.
We'd love to hear your questions or feedback on the podcast,
and we will give you our take on things.
(47:02):
We got a new question this week from a frequent questionnaire and listener of
the podcast, Trent Babb.
Trent, thanks for sending in another one. And this is one that is referencing
an older episode of the podcast.
So this will be good for people that are new to the podcast and encourage you
to go back and listen a little bit.
Trent says, a few weeks back, you guys got excited about a listener's comedy
(47:23):
goal of writing less personal jokes and more observational.
Both of you really perked up this goal. And I was just curious,
do you think the personal approach to comedy is overdone or are you just ready
for, have you ever noticed material again?
This question has been swirling around my head for weeks now,
and I appreciate your your insights so I can get a decent night's sleep.
Love the podcast. Keep it up.
And Trent, I'm sorry, you should have wrote earlier.
(47:46):
You've been keeping you up for weeks. He is referencing, of course,
to what Anam Chalendry had written into the podcast.
And they had talked about their goals. It was the, what are the three things
you're proud of that you did in 2023? And what are your goals for 2024?
And one of the things they were proud of was that they had kind of moved away
from very autobiographical material to more observational material which they
(48:08):
thought would be better for connecting with audiences as a muslim woman of color in.
The middle middle west yes you know yeah so
i think our excitement i almost wait for you but my
excitement was just that she was taking on a new
challenge and pushing herself to write in a new way it wasn't
specifically that she was moving away from observational i would have been just
(48:29):
as excited if she or any other comedian had written and said you know i've been
doing a lot of observational material i i grew up really loving seinfeld and
you know and that was my model but but now I'm ready to start talking about my real life.
That was the thing I was excited about was just a comic pushing themselves and
growing and reminding all of us that, yeah, you can switch up.
(48:51):
You can get out of that lane that you've been in and try to,
you know, write new material.
So I, I'm not over observate or personal related jokes or observational related jokes.
I love good jokes, whatever it's going to be. Yeah. And you know,
Dwight and I are both a mix and you know, most comics are, most comics will mix it up.
You know you have some stories from the real life and then they'll have some stuff
(49:13):
that's strictly observational maybe a political joke here or there you know
some some silly kind of puns or whatever just dropped in you know a lot of this
work and all a lot of the different colors of stand-up you know from our palette
and so i'm not tired of personal comedy like to me if it's like if that's some
of the realist stuff comes from so i don't think i'm ever going to get tired
(49:34):
of that but who Who knows? You know? Yeah.
I mean, personal, it's my favorite.
It's my favorite. I think, you know, you nailed it.
It's anything you're going to do to push yourself or to try something new,
because that is a very scary proposition to like, all right,
I'm going to try this new thing for a while to see if I like it, if I'm good at it.
(49:55):
And if it helps strengthen what I've already been doing, like you can always
come back to the personal. It's your life.
You know what I mean? But it's like when you, you know, you've been doing this
for 15 years and you are now trying to get clean tape, like a clean half hour.
That's something that's exciting because it's a different vein.
(50:16):
I think it ultimately will make any comic better to step outside of their comfort
zone and just see and just try because, you know, things can get stagnant.
You can you can try to write your
life story over and over and over again but if you
don't like have a way to switch lanes
(50:38):
be more versatile i think your audience
quote-unquote your fans quote-unquote kind of see the formulaicness of it yes
at least i do as a as a stand-up comedy fan like with the comics like i was
like oh yeah i see what i see what they're going to do here because they've done it a bunch.
(50:59):
Yeah, that's, I think, a great note.
And it's one of those things where you're just adding it to your arsenal,
a different type of joke, or different types of jokes, so that you can switch it up.
Because it's like boxing, if an audience.
Get your rhythm if they figure out your rhythm like it
makes it harder for the punch lines to be surprises yeah it
(51:21):
makes the and if they know like okay we're settling in for
another story about how we grew up or whatever and they can still be great and
still be a funny joke but if you were also just randomly throwing
these out of the nowhere yeah like if you drop like
a super silly absurdist joke out of nowhere yeah
you know like i i love it personally and
i think it works better because you're keeping the keeping the audience on
(51:41):
their heels a little bit you know they don't know you know and
a big part of that is also in like delivery and and you know if
all of your jokes are short one-liners you know unless you
are as good a writer as like david tell
has such a specific rhythm right now and like
all of his jokes work for the most part fall into it but he's
such a strong writer that that they still work
(52:03):
but if he was not as strong a writer.
People would start to get lulled into this monotone thing
of like oh it's the same rhythm over and over again end so yeah but
yeah that's where we are on it i don't know if anyone else out there is
maybe getting tired of personal material and
they want to go back to like you guys uh guys
what's the deal with y'all seen
(52:28):
this y'all seen this y'all notice i just love
a young audience hissing at seinfeld type jokes oh
my god yeah again like i'm just waiting for a bunch of emails like you're an
insane person we don't hear this at all uh you're just bombing old man that's
just the sound of bombing this
is the first step to dementia like someone sends you a web mp page sure,
(52:53):
i i accept my fate that's why yeah auditory hallucinations.
Again when i started noticing other people's clips then i was like it's not
just me i'm not I'm not projecting this on myself. That is incredible.
Uh, I won't be able to unhear it. Yes. I've now cursed you. It's like the ring.
(53:14):
Thank you everybody for checking out this episode of the podcast.
We have a lot of fun doing it. And I was, that dad was actually asking me how the podcast was going.
I was like, it's great. I just get to hang out with one of my best friends and
we just chit chat for an hour. It's super fun.
And we're very happy that other people out there are enjoying it.
I'm going to throw something out. I've not run this past Dwight,
but I'm going to put this out there.
Maybe this is the manifestation. I think we would like to take the podcast to
(53:38):
a comedy festival if we have anyone listening who's producing comedy festivals
that have live episodes of the podcast.
I think Dwight and I would be open to that possibility if we're available that
weekend and you have the Taco Bell budget.
We would be down for that because I think it would be fun to do a live episode of the podcast.
And we're not those types of comics that we're going to book ourselves on our own goddamn festival.
(54:02):
Oh, but could you imagine? imagine yeah opening night
of limestone in the theater in the 600 seat theater it's
matt and dwight just might and then opening for roy
wood jr on the sunday it's matt and dwight and they're also opening every other
show yep yeah yeah yeah some of those festivals out there but that's we're not
(54:24):
gonna do that yeah so thank you everybody for checking it out we will see you
next time on that invite just might.
Music.
Music.
(00:09):
Hey everybody, welcome back to Matt and Dwight Just Might, a podcast about two
Midwest-based comedians who are trying to figure it out, trying to rally,
trying to push through when they're maybe a little under the weather for unknown reasons.
That's beautiful.
You know the podcast is going to be great when you start with,
we're trying to push through. We're trying to make it.
(00:31):
Isn't that what we're all trying to do though? So, I mean, really,
on any day-to-day basis, you know, like, I feel like I could very easily just
take this into, like, a suicide cult monologue here in a second.
But anyway, aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of just trying to push through?
Buy these Nikes and join us on the spaceship ride, everybody.
Buy these Nikes and say the motto that nothing that you do matters.
(00:55):
Welcome to the podcast, everybody. It's a very uplifting, accommodating advice podcast. podcast.
Matt and Dwight just might. Matt is feeling a little bit under the weather.
It sounds like he has a bug.
I was dealing with something similar last week, so hopefully this doesn't linger
too much for my man. Did you have shows when you were feeling this way?
Dude, I just started feeling this way today. So luckily I had shows all weekend
(01:20):
and I had to teach class yesterday.
There was someone in my class who was sick.
Yeah, I stayed away from them the whole time and they had
a mask on most of the time okay now i'm wondering
if i didn't maybe get a little a little baggage from them
i don't know teaching teaching these damn kids matt i
told you what's yes it wasn't it
(01:40):
wasn't even like one of the students it was someone who works at the facility
too okay so yeah yeah you know they they they are fully gainfully employed and
have health insurance so good for them and now i have their full strength health
insurance cold i mean how How how how strong is this cold if someone with health
insurance had it and now I got it?
I mean, I know through a mask and everything.
(02:01):
I know that's now how sick would you have to be to actually cancel a paying
gig? Oh, barely, barely sick at all.
See, I have I have I have this thing called a wife with a job.
And so, you know, I'd be like, oh, I do want to say that this person said that
(02:21):
they did test and it was not covid.
And so I don't think I have COVID or anything and we'll see I don't know man
I I have had to cancel when I've been so basically if I'm sick enough that I.
Like my voice is not there and i gotta
do an hour and i just know it's not probably gonna happen or if
i've just yeah so if i feel like i've if i have like the flu
or above then i will you know yeah but
(02:44):
yeah if i'm a little sick i'll i'll rally i'll just napalm
it with as much you know theraflu and tylenol you
know day and night quill mixed up together i
like to blend them together i like to have a little tylenol twilight
quill you know yes you take that little tab
that has the directions on the bottle and then you
set it on fire yeah exactly in the trash
(03:06):
no one needs that yeah uh we're not
athletes i'm not doing a michael jordan
flu game to prove a point this is although i did but i was at the festival where
i was not getting paid and i was i felt like absolute dog shit and i was like
the people need to see this eight minutes sorry atlanta i gotta They needed
(03:30):
to see you in that suit is what they needed.
That's what it was. You're like, I packed this suit.
Well, in that case, you're already there, you know? And so why?
Yeah. If I was doing like a weekend run of the club or something like Goonies
or something in Rochester, Friday, Saturday, and I woke up Saturday feeling rough.
Well, I'm already here, you know, like we're going to get through it.
We're going to do the thing.
(03:50):
But to actually, yeah, if I had not left my house yet and I'm running like the
slightest of temperature and then I'm like, I can't.
I can't do
this yeah i i personally
am recovering from i just recovered from the usher halftime show at the super
(04:14):
bowl so i was like i can't do anything i am just sick i was as excited as a
a middle school girl in 2003 when he came on stage.
Okay. Ooh, and an odd in front of my family. Like he was on roller skates.
I did the deaf comedy jam, started knocking over furniture.
(04:34):
No, he didn't. No, he did not. So did you not know that he was going to be on
roller skates? Had you not heard about his Las Vegas residency show?
No, I, so I, I did the full thing. No spoilers. Okay. I didn't even listen to
his new album, which he dropped the week before.
Okay. Yeah, I treated it like a Marvel Cinematic Universe premiere.
(04:56):
No spoilers. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to see I want to see my man,
man. I grew up as an Usher fan. Yeah.
I don't know if it was, we were just looking up other things to do,
but when Denise and I went to Las Vegas to see U2 at the Sphere,
I found out about Usher's show because people were talking about it, his residency.
And it was like full-blown Starlight Express, which is a lesser-known Andrew
(05:18):
Lloyd Webber musical where everyone is on roller skates the entire time that I saw in high school.
And I thought, is this what Broadway plays are? They're all rollerball,
basically, but with singing.
Singing so i i was i was like oh it's in vegas he's
gonna just do he's gonna adapt the vegas show
he's been doing so i was already expecting it i've not actually seen
(05:39):
the halftime show i was producing a comedy show during the
super bowl and i just haven't gotten around to
looking it up on youtube yet so i did see uh your
posts and several other people's posts about his performance though and
i think i got i think i got it it was yeah you know what it
is it was real horny i guess right yeah yeah it
was super duper i was watching with my mother-in-law and
(06:00):
he as one does when you're in
your 40s you take your shirt off to perform at
the super bowl yeah i was like i don't know if i'm in the right company because
we were also with our three-year-old niece who very audibly she was like why
(06:20):
is his shirt off okay and i was like we don't talk to me in a decade.
Well i was gonna say i think it's that's better
than if she were like 10 year old niece that would
then it would give you the uncomfortable like three years they're so
young it's like okay they're not looking at this in the same lens
of why they don't understand why this is awkward they
(06:42):
just think it's like why is that singing man on roller
skates taking his shirt off right you know he's hot you know
he's out there working he's working my god yeah i
was i was like that's a performer right there
we talk about some people perform their jokes my
man performs perform it wasn't like
last year it was rihanna and her special guest was
(07:04):
her baby her yeah no she just stood there the
whole time i did well exactly rihanna and i was like this
is amazing but there's a different sort of energy
and flow yes yeah hers fully
like it hinged on the idea of like how
crazy the stages were they were like the floating multi-level
stages they were like this is an old school
(07:26):
video game reference but they were like joust do you
remember joust where i don't remember this is
one of the very first like sort of atari games like so it's pre-u you
know i don't know if you grew up with like pre-u it was pre-u existing no no
it's one of the first like home video games like on atari and everything but
basically it had the same sort of level design where the different levels that
(07:47):
you would fly up to fly up to and that's what it looked like to me i should
have used a more current reference.
She up there on that super smash bros screen you know what i'm saying is that better is that,
Well, I mean, some people, some people live off of data references and I am
one of them. I know. Exactly.
I have the jokes about 50 cent. I have jokes about usher and anyone born after
(08:10):
the year 1997 are like, what the frick are you talking about, dude?
Well, now look at your usher. Now that's the main reason you're excited.
It's like finally these usher jokes are going to hit again. I can finally start posting these.
They're going to start hitting again. Yeah. Now we do call this. I'm sorry.
No, go ahead. No, I was going to say, we do call this a comedy advice podcast.
How do you think we're doing so far in the first eight minutes?
(08:32):
You know, I think people need to know our, like our full selves,
you know, they need to know where
we're coming from on a wide variety of topics so that they can really.
They can really understand where this comedy advice comes from.
We're, we're fully flesh human beings.
We're not, we're not like open micers that are hashtag grinding,
you know, that all they do is go to open mic after open mic after open mic.
(08:55):
We have full rich lives. lives and also is
it rihanna or rihanna because i always pronounce it rihanna and
someone corrected me the other day and they were like it's rihanna and i
was like i don't think it is but i just let it slide yeah that's
that's not a person you want to talk to okay yeah that's
not a person you knew in your life that's ridiculous get out it was my
it was my wife so i am okay well yeah and
(09:17):
she's a huge fan she's a huge fan
and i'm like i didn't want to push it
but i was like where did you get at that pronunciation of it and like i don't
my thing is like i'll send you a i'll send you a list of songs where rihanna
says her own name and then that's the only evidence that you can casually play
them in the background yeah rewinding the part specifically.
(09:43):
No my thing is i think that she heard because
like have you ever seen this i don't care i already
said i'm under the weather we're fucking if we talk anything about comedy
in this entire episode we're like a we're like the mr miyagi
of comedy yes exactly no it's happening
until you have no idea how this is all gonna like pay
off for your comedy career uh no but
(10:05):
my assumption is because denise does love rihanna rihanna
however you want to say it and she watched she watches
all those the specials she does on streaming
that are like fashion shows those uh what is
it fetty savage is that her brand right yeah yeah and
so i'm like was there there like some weird like british announcer or something
on one of those that said the name wrong and then denise locked
(10:26):
it in her brain like oh that's how you say it yeah that's
my assumption all right i'm thank you i'm you sent me send me some songs and
i'm just gonna yeah i got you you know i just call it re-re because oh okay
good yeah like that yeah okay you know and that's island culture too you know
that's you know you know anyway all right that's been this episode everybody thanks for tuning in.
(10:51):
Dwight, you did us a little bit of a tease there. You were down.
Wait, no, you were off this weekend, right? I was off this weekend.
We've already heard about the fantastic time in Atlanta.
And so you were off just chilling, pregame and getting ready for your Usher halftime show.
I really was. Yo, last week was great. I didn't.
I am still doing the pages in the morning.
(11:11):
I did miss a day because full disclosure, I was hung over. And then the Super
Bowl Sunday was actually able to get up and write a little bit.
Felt good. Felt like I got some productive stuff done before spending the day
doing Super Bowl activities.
(11:31):
If you don't know me, I'm a big football fan. I am completely addicted.
It is the NFL's the worst, one of the worst corporations on the planet.
It, but it has the most addicting product to my brain and I can't quit it.
And I was enthralled yet again.
I don't know what you want me to do. People use Amazon and I'm addicted to the
(11:55):
NFL for 18, 19, 20 weeks out of the year.
There is no ethical consumption in a post-capitalistic society.
And, and I think that gives you your pass. You can be into the NFL if you want
to, you know, like, hell yeah, dude.
Yeah. And I like that every time, like if, if someone gives you any, any guff about it.
You'd be like, you shopping on Amazon? Now I want to hear about it.
(12:18):
You shopping at Amazon? I'm watching the NFL on Amazon Prime.
I'm doubling down. There you go.
No ethics. I'm posting my crowd work clips. I don't have values anymore.
I work for the algorithm.
No kidding. It sounds like we're definitely getting into talking about comedy now.
(12:39):
Well, I did post a clip this week. how did your clip do how was the clip it
was fine it was black history they never do well they never like anything about
race from my mouth usually doesn't hit the like 200.
Likes on instagram i get like a lot of comments i posted on tiktok and i got
(13:02):
like 30 likes in the first 90 seconds i was like holy shit and then they got
buried and then they they immediately You got buried in the algorithm and I
was so never saw it again. Yeah. I don't know.
I have no idea. I have no answers. I was like, this is the one that's about to take off.
Uh, but the Usher one I posted the 50 cent Usher one did okay.
(13:22):
That's good. I have been just stockpiling sets that I need to sit down and edit
and go through and clip up.
And I discovered that this is what's healthy for me or manageable for me is to do it in ways.
And I know that's not what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to be
consistently cranking it out.
But for my mental health i have to take
(13:43):
a break and step away from it and not be posting all
the time and content and so what i've settled on is like
i will collect you know eight
ten shows worth of you know and then
sit down spend a couple days going through and clipping out crowd work or
little throwaway jokes or anything topical spend a
couple days editing and then just every day post one
(14:04):
of those until i run out of them but i i'm you know
like every comedian listening to to this podcast and every community
that we talk to we're always in this back
and forth struggle of kind of hating it but
having to do it and also not really being
able to figure it out even people who get you know you've had you've had clips
go viral and it just it's there's no rhyme or reason to it it's just like yeah
(14:28):
exactly and you would think once you have one or two of them go viral then it's
going to start cascading and sometimes it just doesn't happen like that you know yeah Yeah,
like if a clip like I've gotten consistent new followers on Instagram and I've
noticed they'll go through and like a bunch of clips.
OK, that's good. So hopefully that translates into over time saying more.
(14:52):
Yeah, just like, you know, setting
these micro goals of trying to get to a certain number of followers.
Hopefully that moves the needle to, you know, secure bookings and sell tickets.
It's that's the whole gambit of this game baby so we'll see we'll see but it
is though it is the most frustrating process because you're like if i could just repeat this.
(15:15):
If we could figure it out, everybody would figure it out, and there would be
no need for this podcast.
Yeah, that's true. There would be no need to send booking emails into the void. Yeah.
But I don't know. How's booking going for you this year? Are you seeing a lot
of response? Are you seeing creation?
My schedule has been decent. I needed to get back on it because like,
(15:40):
you know, I'm just trying to always remain thankful because I am still in this
kind of place now after 15 years of doing it where I can fire a text message
off to somebody and get a show.
Usually you know or send an
email off to can you know i have a network of
people that i've worked for before that know
(16:03):
me trust me like me and i can almost always get a
weekend at their club you know that you know
sometime in the year usually or every other year depending
on what the rotation is and what i may ask for but my
march was pretty open i didn't have much going on
and i did fill one of those weekends up with
a feature weekend because i have really
(16:24):
kind of settled in on what i think my dry bar submission
is going to be i've started running it last weekend oh hell yeah like i moved
away from just trying to get the little five to seven minute like clean submission
set for festivals and things like that i kind of i got one that's it it's not
perfect but it's pretty good it's pretty good and we fixed the audio on it and
(16:45):
everything so it's pretty strong.
I'm still going to like go to the attic on Thursday and do the open mic.
And I'm going to do that seven again to try to just get the perfect version
of it. Right. Because why not? I'm in town. I might as well go do it.
But I'm moving towards working this feature length set that is all clean.
And so I did just hit up a club and I saw one of my open weekends in March.
(17:07):
I was like, hey, can I come feature for this person? This is a club that I normally headline.
And they were like, yeah, we don't have it booked yet. It pays as much.
Is that OK? And I was like, yeah, because in my head, I wasn't even really worried about the pay.
I'm like, I need a contained, I walk on stage, do my 25 minutes clean and walk back off stage set.
And so I'm excited. And hopefully I've broken the curse of the taping curse
(17:30):
that I've been dealing with.
People listening to the podcast know all about the various little technical
issues and things that were happening.
But so as far as that goes, I'm trying to remain, you know, a positive and happy
and, And, you know, and I got a somewhat positive response on doing shows in
London while I'm there, which is coming up.
And so booking wise, I feel pretty okay about it, but also looking at my calendar,
(17:54):
like, you know, it's just like, oh, there's, you know, I got to get back on
it because May is pretty open. April is pretty open.
You know, I've got a couple things here and there, but it's just like, yep.
You know, I got bills to pay and I got, you know, I got weekends that are open
that should not be open, you know?
And so I'm getting ready to ramp back up on that. This is interesting because
(18:16):
I cannot tell you what I've been doing.
I haven't been doing clips. I haven't been working on booking.
I don't know what I've been doing the last couple of weeks.
Well, we are in the limestone season, so that does happen.
And I am doing a lot of limestone work. Yeah. So, I mean, the first half of
the year disappears when it comes to like planning this festival.
So it does. You do need separate.
(18:39):
I like the idea of structuring things. Like you said, you're going to sit down
and batch out editing because that's the only way to do these things without
going absolutely insane.
It's sort of like what we did with the booking challenge last year,
where it was like, all right, just for 10 days, this is what we're going to focus on.
And then we see the results results.
We see it pretty quickly. Actually, I thought, yeah, I thought so too.
(19:03):
And I think it's something worth revisiting this year as well.
And we'll, we'll definitely issue that for everyone. and all of our listeners
as well to join us in that challenge.
But yeah, man, you know, I don't know. We're getting there.
I had a full weekend of shows. I told you before we started rolling that I didn't
really start feeling like ass until I took a nap today.
I've been on the run the last several days, doing a lot of driving,
(19:25):
doing shows, doing producing shows, teaching a class where I had a lecture for
three hours, you know, with like a 10 minute break in the middle last night.
And that's with a, you know, a three hour drive, you know, an hour and a half
up, hour and a half back. And so I've just been like running,
running, running, running.
And so today I got up in the morning
and I worked on limestone stuff until lunchtime, took, ate my lunch.
And I was like, all right, I might as well have a little post lunch nap.
(19:47):
Hell yeah, right? Feeling good. And then I woke up feeling horrible.
But that being said, yeah, I have been actually doing some stuff.
I know I feel like I've been just lost in a fog or whatever.
But yeah, I've been getting some stuff done. Before I recap my shows this weekend,
there are a couple of things I wanted to talk about with that and share with you and the audience.
Where are you going to be we always bury these at
(20:08):
the very end of the podcast and let's let's do it a little bit sooner let's
plug those shows my friend where are you going to be at this next weekend
plug them up i am plug them up
what anyway i will be in stevensville michigan friday february 16th and then
back in indianapolis doing a don't tell on the 17th also want to announce on February 22nd.
(20:34):
I will be at Monarch Brewery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Very excited about that. It looks like a dope venue, so I'm excited about that.
So if you're in any of those places, please come check me out.
Oh, almost forgot one. The 21st. I'm in Indianapolis again. That's a a Wednesday.
(20:55):
I am at Turner's bar and the studs building doing a black history showcase.
So if you want to be a good ally.
And you live in Indianapolis. Go to DwightSimmons.com and get those deets.
Okay, nice. All right on. I was going to say, Monarch Brewing,
(21:16):
I think I've done that show.
I think it's a great room, if I recall. I've done definitely some sort of brewery
show in Louisville one time.
And I remember the room was a lot of fun. Pictures look great.
And you know me, a beer drinker. So check and check plus. And I'm excited.
I didn't get to work on anything new, obviously. I didn't have any shows this
past week, so I've got some new stuff that I want to, I want to get taped and
(21:41):
clipped up and I think it's ready.
So, um, I'm excited to get back to it. What about you?
Right on this weekend, I will be in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Saturday, the 16th at the main.
And then on Saturday, the 17th, I'll be at Coral Gables and Saga talk Michigan.
Yep. So, yeah. And then real quick, just the following weekend,
(22:04):
the 22nd and 23rd, I'll be at Laughing Skull in Atlanta, Georgia,
one of the best comedy clubs in the country.
Just a fun, fun show, fun place. They do it showcase style.
It's always, you know, just a murderer's row of comics getting up and doing 10 minutes.
And then on Sunday, the 24th, I'm featuring at the High Cotton Comedy Club in
Memphis, Tennessee, which is a new monthly there at High Cotton Brewing.
(22:25):
So, yeah, put on by old Charlie.
What is Charlie's last name? I can't remember. Yes, thank you,
Charlie Virgos. Yep. And so that's where I'll be in the next couple of weeks.
And of course, you can get tickets for all those at my website,
which is madelonamartincomedy.com. Every one of those words has a hyphen in
between it, except for comedy and common, which there is a dot.
But that's enough looking forward. Let's look back. And I will tell you about
(22:47):
my shows I had this weekend.
I had a lot going on. He texted me and he left me on pins and needles.
So I've been waiting for several days to hear what happened with your weekend.
Weekend well yeah i texted you during the saturday show
because and it's a well we'll get there we'll get there with like
since we since we started the
(23:07):
podcast we have tried to avoid texting each
other like little like updates on what's going on we're like we'll save it for the podcast we'll
save it for the podcast and every once in a blue moon i
think actually last time you were in saga or the last time you were in michigan
is like uh one of the times that you broke that rule and texted me yeah uh when
you were at whatever what's that place called oh the yeah that place was like
(23:29):
hey matt you're gonna be brooksville but not brooksville yeah god.
But anyway so i'll get to
that here very shortly but no on let's see
on friday night i was at books and
brewers in brownsburg indiana this is
a danny browning production laughing dead shows and
he's been getting a little bit more out there he's danny's
(23:52):
been producing shows i think for a couple years now at least minimal but
it seems like he's starting to get a few more rooms and you know this is like it's like
a bookstore slash game shop like in
a strip mall in brownsburg like in a nice like new strip mall
and it also has a bar side a beer side
but it's a one small room you know and of course
it was the classic thing we're like oh last last
(24:13):
month when we did this show is standing room only and he's sending
me pictures or whatever and you know it was our good friend brent
terhune and i don't know about you know this about me
but i'm not brent terhune as far as removing those tickets none
of us yeah so there was plenty of
available seating at my show but it was
a good time it was it was all a good time though it was it was
(24:36):
a lot of fun and thad mckee was on
the show and that originally was supposed to host and then i guess the feature
bailed and so danny hosted and bumped that up to to featuring oh which is good
yeah so and he did great and they were a fun crowd it was a small crowd but
it was a fun crowd and i have confirmed something that i i don't know if i've
talked about this on the podcast yet I mentioned it to Denise.
(24:57):
I know, and a few other people, but as I've been clipping up videos and also
as I've been previewing the submissions for Limestone, like to make sure the video works.
I usually watch like the first 30, 40 seconds or whatever of it.
I've noticed that there is a trend now in audiences where some people,
instead of laughing, are hissing.
(25:18):
They're going, that's how they're responding to jokes, which traditionally I
would get that if I was performing like at a gay club or opening for a gay comic
like Aaron Foley or Fortune Feimster.
And they didn't like a joke, like instead of groaning like you would at a dad
joke or something, they go, come on, you know, not like not like a black uncle
(25:40):
would laugh where he's like, yeah,
no, it's there's no laugh aspect to it.
It's just literally like a little hiss and at first
i thought it was going insane that this was like the this was
like some like thing that only i was hearing and
i was manufacturing it in my brain but i've now confirmed it because at that
show dead set right up front was a table of young 20 somethings and it was like
(26:03):
five of them and they were great they were like but they weren't like super
into laughing at the show but they were smiling and being into things everyone
Everyone else around them was,
you know, late thirties and up. Right.
And I visually very clearly could see the difference between how both groups
are reacting to jokes and this table of 20 somethings when they laughed at stuff.
Most of them did the thing.
(26:26):
And I know if it's like something from tick tock, I don't know what it is,
but it's, it drives me insane for one thing.
But I've learned to just get over it and accept it. But also,
I then saw it happen on Saturday, and then I saw it happen on Sunday when I
was just producing a show.
Oh, my goodness. It's like some weird new way that young people are laughing
(26:48):
at jokes as they're just going, The re-rise of the Dark Lord is almost complete.
Slytherin, right? And not all young people, obviously.
But, I mean, now that I've said it, you're probably going to start noticing it.
I know, and it's going to drive me insane. saying i have noticed like a dip
in energy between like you know younger audiences i think.
(27:11):
We've we've talked about this on the podcast where they just don't
know how you're supposed to act in a comedy show because they've only
watched comedy on their phone on tiktok yeah and so when
you get them actually at a comedy show they don't know that you're
supposed to be either that or they're all so pumped
full of ssris that they can't actually react you
know not to be like old men talking about young
(27:32):
people like we have qualms with every age
group oh yeah yes like last week we talked
about older drunk white white white exactly yeah well meaning drunk white women
of a certain age yeah so it's just funny to look at how every group there is
like the trend of people that have never been to a comedy show depending on
(27:53):
what age they They are, it could be wild.
Like it could be older people that have only watched, uh.
Crowd work clips or heckle clips and they this is what we're supposed to do
right uh people that don't know how to be in public yet because this is like
the first thing that they've done,
yeah they have to sit and watch uninterrupted well
(28:13):
yeah so they're uninterrupted they know that they they'll get
yelled at if they're on their phones and then also yeah they
don't see i think the thing is and i'm sure there's you know graduate
students working on this right now and psychologists studying this i think
that even when they're in a physical space and they
are part part of a participatory event like
being in a comedy show that they still they're
(28:36):
they're maintaining a sort of distance and separation from it and it's not just
with comedy also i mean you know some of my friends who are in the music industry
have said that they've noticed more and more you know if a band is sort of like
a band of the moment that you know isn't that doesn't have like diehard fans
but they've got maybe a song that's on the radio right or something like that.
The audience comes and ignores the band what like so many young people come
(29:01):
and they just completely ignore the band until that song is played but the whole
rest of the concert they're just kind of talking with each other maybe occasionally
checking in on the band they're like.
Instagramming themselves it's like more important to document oh i'm
at this cool concert than to actually be at the concert and
enjoy the concert yeah is the thing that they've already started noise
and i think again also it's part of this this generation
(29:22):
and the way that they've been raised on phones to be
always separate like whatever they're
they're viewing and that they're taking in they're not part
of it they're somehow distanced from it i don't know if then again i'm
an old man this might all be bullshit i don't know you know maybe maybe
they just don't like my jokes you know what i'm saying do you
know like so for this specific example you know
(29:45):
you're like everyone else is having a good time you're gonna narrowly focus
in on yes the one one table where you're
like they're they're being great but they're not doing it the
right way exactly damn it these kids as i
shake my fist at the sky yeah no and the thing is
like they are smiling and then they are like occasionally you
would get and one of the one of them at the table was was laughing a little
(30:07):
bit in a more traditional way of laughing and then and i thought oh they didn't
they weren't feeling me because i'm an old man right that's kind of what i was
thinking right but then one of them came up and just got my venmo and then tipped
me and it was it's very complimentary.
It was like, we love the show. And so it was just that kind of stuff.
Like they didn't buy merch, but
they just, but she got my scan me Venmo thing and it tipped me like $7.
(30:30):
And I was like, cool. You know, thank you. An OG laugher. Do that.
Scan a QR code. Know what a Venmo is. Yeah. It's like, Hey, I dug you a sec. Can I write you a check?
How can I support? Let me go get some change out of my car. How can I find out
where you're going to play next? Yeah.
I don't have social media. Yeah. Yeah. I don't trust email.
(30:54):
They turned off my internet man yeah anyway that's
but that's something i've noticed and if anyone out there listening has also noticed
this rise of the hiss of that's that's what it is it's like that's the response
and if you haven't yet if you're a comedian go back and watch your clips go
watch go watch your tapes of your recent sets and tell me if you don't have
(31:15):
a few of these people in the audience doing this shit the next night we were
down in newberg indiana Jennings station.
And I've done this room before Newberg is right outside of Evansville,
Indiana, where I had gone to college and spent a few years post-college and everything.
So it's always nice to kind of go back down there, sold out show that one was sold out.
And when I was texting you, it's like, there were a lot of things happening, right.
(31:36):
That just seemed like this is going to be a nightmare of a show. Right.
And it turned out to be great. It honestly turned out to be great.
Like the PA Danny's pre PA just stopped working for some reason.
And then all I heard was like, So we're going to have to just use this karaoke speaker.
And so I'm like, Oh no, this is not, this is not great. And again,
(31:58):
so that show, it's still a small room, right? It's not a massive room.
You know, like 70 people probably packed into this little space.
Like, you know, wait, now is it to the audience?
No, no, no. To me. Okay. Oh, okay. I got there. He's like trying to fix his
PA and he's like, I don't know what happened.
Like it was something. And he's like, he's like, we're going to have to use
this wireless mic and this karaoke thing.
(32:18):
And I'm just like, like i'm a trooper like i'm you
know i'm already here i already drove down but it turned
out to be fine it was perfectly enough speaker for the room
you know i didn't have to blow my voice out like the
other watching the opening comics they were a little bit more lower energy as
far as like projecting and stuff like that right could hear them perfectly fine
it was good you know so it was one of those things where it did turn around
(32:41):
and be okay okay you know yeah that is i nothing Nothing stresses me out than like watching.
This is what I thought happened.
You were watching the show as it was going on.
And then the mic went out. No, no. Yeah, I've done. I've done so many of those
where they're like, oh, here's a wireless microphone.
We definitely didn't check to make sure the batteries are fully charged.
(33:02):
No, of course not. We just handed you this thing.
Oh, my God. Yeah, that that makes me sweaty. So I'm glad that it worked out
because that is the easiest way to lose an audience and never be able to get them back.
Oh, I know, you know, and they paid money and then they can barely hear what
you're doing or whatever, you know? Yeah. It's just, it's a recipe for disaster for sure.
But it actually turned out to be okay and everything.
(33:25):
And yeah, man, like, you know, there's some other stuff that we're going to,
you know, like, I don't use like sometimes you're in a weird head space and
so I'm texting my boy and I'm like, cause I think it was just that where I'm like, well, great.
Now this, and you know, it was one of these things where I tried to go to like a nice,
like local restaurant before i like i saw it on google maps
like it's right down the street and i got there and there
(33:48):
was like zero parking i don't know how anybody goes to this restaurant it's
like the historic part of this little town and like literally the
closest parking was like four blocks away so i
was like fuck that and i went to taco bell and like because
i'm also like just thinking about like timing and how much time i had for the show
and everything i was like yeah so i'm gonna go pay to park in this public lot
four blocks away walk down to this restaurant hopefully i can get in get my
(34:10):
food go back to the car drive to the bin you know something i'm just gonna talk
your mindset was already like i don't have the patience.
Right and so that i went through all that and then got there and then like walk
in to find that the pa is not working and like well great,
(34:32):
so you did go to text white to danny browning
event yeah back-to-back shows you've mentioned he's been
booking for a long time and i've worked with him i will say
danny does know how to set up a room but he
is a lot before the show yeah i'm not
the guy that wants to like chat have full-blown let's
catch up conversations before the show so yeah
(34:53):
i'm also like professional so i'm trying to be there 15 minutes
early at least yeah yeah so some
bookers are like i need to talk to you about out
everything that's happened in the last two years and i'm
like i just ate at a fucking taco bill so let
me put my set together yeah i'm the same way like i want to stay focused like
(35:14):
i want to stay focused i want to watch the show beforehand and i know what you're
saying but i will say for this time i danny was not really like that this these
two shows yeah maybe i got him when he was going through you might you might
have got him when he was all hyped up when you say when he's when there's a divorce. Yeah.
Well, yeah. He might have, I was like, I don't want to hear about you.
And you're like, I don't give a shit about this man.
(35:36):
I'm that cold i'm trying
to i'm trying to structure the set of bringing
rachel humor to lower kentucky and
you are talking to me about very important stuff that's
happened to you yeah no i i thought it was fine
i mean it was like but i did really like that the jennings station
has like basically this sort of almost secret back
(35:58):
hallway thing that i could just pace around with and be completely alone
like because that's the same thing i'm the same way i don't want you
know anybody to just come up and chat my ear off
yeah you know which happens sometimes you know you
know like famously you know rest
in peace the late tom sobel was known
for that he was a promoter and if you did his shows
(36:19):
you just knew that you had the part of it was
you're just yeah if you you either had to
hide until right before you went on stage or you were just
going to get talked at not to just talk
that in your ear stories the entire time the
entire time and so you just had to
like well that's just part of the deal you know and so i'm
(36:40):
yeah i'm with you like i don't want to hang out i don't want to talk talk and
chat before the show you know i'll say hi you know even like i mean i love that
that's super fun and you know cool and like even he and i were not chit-chatting
during the show like before the show we're both watching danny we're both like
in our our heads, like, I know what we can do, you know? All right.
And so anyway, so those were both fun shows that went well.
(37:02):
And then on Sunday I produced the Galentine's day show at Cardinal spirits, always a lovely time.
That's the annual all female comedian, female identifying comedian show.
And we had a banger and this year I usually would go up and I would just like, welcome everybody.
And just like, Hey, you know, here's how the entry slips work.
You know, you, since you're here, you get entered into a chance to win badges from limestone.
(37:24):
And then I would just get out of there. I wouldn't do time or anything.
Right. But then this year I was like, I shouldn't even be on stage.
Galentine's day show. It should be, there should not be a man on stage. So.
Shout out to Shanda song who we shout out a lot on this podcast,
but I had her basically do that, host the show, do a long host set up front.
You know, I gave her like 15 minutes after she did the rules and interviews.
And it's just so nice to have somebody that you can just depend and lean on.
(37:48):
It's like, you got this, you're going to, it's going to be great.
But you know, so I, I'm just in the back producing, setting up the PA and,
you know, tearing it all down and all kinds of stuff, which I turns out it's
pretty, pretty good gig.
If you can get, if you
could just bring in the pa set it up hide in
the back area eat really really delicious food from cardinal spirits
yeah and not have to work not have
(38:11):
to work joke around with the other comics a little bit while we're all
eating dinner together now you're the problem break it out
i was the problem what do you guys want to talk
about you guys heard this
you heard this hissing yet you guys while you're up
there pay attention for the hissing yeah yeah but no.
It was a great show and a good time and i
(38:32):
missed the super bowl entirely and then yeah and
then i taught my class last night the second class of the
session up in carmel indiana yeah and
i had a good group how's that going what week
are you guys on this is the second week yeah okay
i guess you don't know how it's going until the graduation class where
someone makes a transphobic joke even though you
(38:53):
told them not to we you start to get a sense as
it's going as they're building their five minute set like they did one minute of
material yesterday like last night and next week
when they do the three minutes of material will be when we start to
see some people showing their colors a little bit
and you know it's it seems like it's a good group
honestly there was one guy that his his opening joke was
(39:14):
like maybe started to like
dip a toe a little bit into inappropriateness but
then pulled immediately back out of it and then
the rest of his three the rest of his minute or minute and a half or whatever
he did was completely fine and even like did a thing that we subverted like
a racial stereotype and like as a white guy made it at the white guy's expense
and did it in like a good way right like all right maybe this guy's gonna be
(39:38):
okay but i did comment on the opening a joke i was like you know that opening
joke is like you're tiptoeing towards like this this is not going to be okay.
And he was like, yeah, I see that, you know, and everything.
But yeah, I mean, it should be good.
Do you think the comedy mothership in Austin, Joe Rogan's club also runs comedy classes?
And if yes, what are, what's the curriculum?
(40:00):
It's just, it's like an hour long class of why you can say everything. I'm sure. Yeah.
Yeah, man, you know, it's a,
I was, I was telling Denise about this last night when I got home from it.
She was asking how the class was and i was like you know what we've got,
We've got one black guy in the class and one openly gay guy in the class.
(40:21):
And I think their existence is going to keep everybody else in line.
No one's going to do anything that we're like, like, cause if it was just all
straight white people, some of them might say something that's out of pocket
racially or homophobically.
And it's like, Nope, your classmate, this person that you're bonding with and
you're coming up with as you're learning comedy, hopefully is going to,
you're going to be like, maybe I shouldn't do that joke. Yeah. That's real life.
(40:42):
That's what would happen. If you just walked into a comedy club to do an open
mic, you'd be like, like oh there's some black people here maybe i get rid of
the maybe i get rid of my closer.
Where i'd say the n-word and run off stage oh don't you miss crackers comedy
club open mic was that somebody's closer they said the n-word and ran off stage
man i'm not gonna name the person because they seem to be doing okay put it
(41:06):
in the chat put it in the chat but my god like Like,
it's just common sense for people sometimes is so, so lacking,
but that's what it is called an open mic.
And people are like, I'm going to take this literally, you know,
that guy, remember? Oh, yes.
Oh, yes. And that's an old, this is a name I, you know, I can quote Obi-Wan
(41:29):
Kenobi. That's a name I've not heard in some fight sometime.
Yeah. That person does seem to be doing well, but they're doing well in that
comedy mothership scene yeah uh edgelord dip shits i'm sure they're probably
still doing that closer yeah probably.
Except not running and yeah not running
yeah just like you know getting a standing o or
(41:50):
whatever yeah if you
guys haven't figured this out we are two liberal cucks and
we i wouldn't change it
for the world baby no there's i just it's
very funny i'm glad you're teaching this class i'm teaching a
class in the summer as well and i am
using your syllabus just
(42:13):
with a few tweaks but you when
i just send me my 20 baby yeah franchise fee
franchise fee i will send you the 18 that you
are rightfully owed do it for the cause i'm glad i was excited that i saw that
you were gonna be teaching a class and i'm honored that you're using the syllabus
that i put together shanda the aforementioned shanda also took over teaching
(42:37):
the class down here in bloomington and she did the same thing she was like she
took the basic structure but then tweaked it and,
restructured it and made it her own which she should you know and you definitely
should but yeah man i mean it's like not to be egotistical but like i put together a pretty academic.
Stand-up comedy class like like last night was a big was
the second night is the big lecture night where i basically have to
(42:58):
talk for three hours essentially really getting into like
the nuts and bolts of like joke construction and the mechanics of
jokes and the psychology of jokes as i was going through the psychology part
because i've also improved it every single year i've taught it like
my examples are way more concrete and i'm also like
the language is more clear as far as like making
these examples but as i was getting into the psychology part i was like i bet
(43:18):
a lot of fan of comedy classes don't get into this like why
people laugh at things yeah like the the psychological idea
of like laughing in an agreement with something or
laughing because of the us versus them dynamic that
you can create in a joke you know all this kind of stuff that you
know is subtext and subconsciously comics
no and audiences no but to really
(43:39):
lay it out i was like oh this is a pretty good class i'm you
know they're getting their money's worth i should increase the fee i
should make some more expensive class well yeah you
take you kind of take yourself out of the equation you see
a lot of comedy classes that are marketed as just here's how
this person would write the joke and they're going to teach you how to write
the joke in their voice and that's just yeah that to me is a waste of money
(44:02):
that's why comedy classes get bad reputation because they're just like we're
gonna teach you how to be funny and it's like no we're gonna teach joke construction
and why things work from a net and bolts way.
Right. Performance theory, different way. Yeah. So yeah, most classes,
not most, a lot of the comedy classes are, and I say this in the beginning is
(44:23):
like, this class is not how to do comedy, the Madelano Martin way.
Like to man, this is going to be an episode of callbacks because I always think about it.
And I sometimes will say this in the class, like Charlie Vargas has this great
joke where he talks about.
Da Vinci when he made the David. Is it Da Vinci who made the David?
Who made the Statue of the David? I'm going to check this before because it's important.
(44:44):
Yeah, it's Michelangelo, right? Michelangelo. Thank you. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
So Michelangelo once said that he did not create the David. The David was always
inside the block of marble.
All he did was remove the parts of the marble that were not the David.
And Charlie has this amazing joke where he takes that to this like nth degree
and how there's like there's tiny little Davids and everything, you know?
(45:07):
It's like there's a tiny little David in the stool, the leg of the stool and stuff like that.
But that idea is kind of like the original Michelangelo idea is something that
I try to convey to the class.
Like all we're doing in this class is whatever is funny about you,
we're removing all the stuff around it.
We're like revealing your sense of funny, what's funny about you.
Do and i just chipping away at all the stuff that
(45:29):
makes a joke bad like too much
too much too wordy you know you know say
in the end you know it's all those things you know now but like just chipping
away at all the stuff that isn't the joke you know isn't the funny part of the
person and so that's the way that i i think about it and i mean i don't know
like the class sells out every time so i guess it's we're doing okay i'm actually
(45:52):
teaching an advanced class for the first time Oh, good.
Later on this year, there's going to be more of a practicum slash inside the actor's studio.
Nice. And so I might be bringing you in as one of the guests to kind of talk
about your process and all that kind of stuff.
And don't worry, there is a Taco Bell gift card in it for you.
Oh, we eating chalupas tonight, baby.
Easy Gordita Crunch, here I come. They just put a cantina downtown Indianapolis, so. Yeah.
(46:19):
Yeah yeah there you go this podcast is sponsored by taco bell cantina tonight
it is yeah today it is oh yeah we we did get a question of the week and i want
to get to that before we run out of time today if anyone out there has a question
of the week or if you've experienced that,
oh i just realized maybe i've just been performing for a lot of asmr people
(46:41):
and that's how they They laugh at that or they're owners of cats. They're cat owners.
Anyway, you can email us at the official email address of the podcast,
which is mattanddwight at gmail.com.
That is M-A-T-A-N-D-D-W-I-G-H-T at gmail.com.
We'd love to hear your questions or feedback on the podcast,
and we will give you our take on things.
(47:02):
We got a new question this week from a frequent questionnaire and listener of
the podcast, Trent Babb.
Trent, thanks for sending in another one. And this is one that is referencing
an older episode of the podcast.
So this will be good for people that are new to the podcast and encourage you
to go back and listen a little bit.
Trent says, a few weeks back, you guys got excited about a listener's comedy
(47:23):
goal of writing less personal jokes and more observational.
Both of you really perked up this goal. And I was just curious,
do you think the personal approach to comedy is overdone or are you just ready
for, have you ever noticed material again?
This question has been swirling around my head for weeks now,
and I appreciate your your insights so I can get a decent night's sleep.
Love the podcast. Keep it up.
And Trent, I'm sorry, you should have wrote earlier.
(47:46):
You've been keeping you up for weeks. He is referencing, of course,
to what Anam Chalendry had written into the podcast.
And they had talked about their goals. It was the, what are the three things
you're proud of that you did in 2023? And what are your goals for 2024?
And one of the things they were proud of was that they had kind of moved away
from very autobiographical material to more observational material which they
(48:08):
thought would be better for connecting with audiences as a muslim woman of color in.
The middle middle west yes you know yeah so
i think our excitement i almost wait for you but my
excitement was just that she was taking on a new
challenge and pushing herself to write in a new way it wasn't
specifically that she was moving away from observational i would have been just
(48:29):
as excited if she or any other comedian had written and said you know i've been
doing a lot of observational material i i grew up really loving seinfeld and
you know and that was my model but but now I'm ready to start talking about my real life.
That was the thing I was excited about was just a comic pushing themselves and
growing and reminding all of us that, yeah, you can switch up.
(48:51):
You can get out of that lane that you've been in and try to,
you know, write new material.
So I, I'm not over observate or personal related jokes or observational related jokes.
I love good jokes, whatever it's going to be. Yeah. And you know,
Dwight and I are both a mix and you know, most comics are, most comics will mix it up.
You know you have some stories from the real life and then they'll have some stuff
(49:13):
that's strictly observational maybe a political joke here or there you know
some some silly kind of puns or whatever just dropped in you know a lot of this
work and all a lot of the different colors of stand-up you know from our palette
and so i'm not tired of personal comedy like to me if it's like if that's some
of the realist stuff comes from so i don't think i'm ever going to get tired
(49:34):
of that but who Who knows? You know? Yeah.
I mean, personal, it's my favorite.
It's my favorite. I think, you know, you nailed it.
It's anything you're going to do to push yourself or to try something new,
because that is a very scary proposition to like, all right,
I'm going to try this new thing for a while to see if I like it, if I'm good at it.
(49:55):
And if it helps strengthen what I've already been doing, like you can always
come back to the personal. It's your life.
You know what I mean? But it's like when you, you know, you've been doing this
for 15 years and you are now trying to get clean tape, like a clean half hour.
That's something that's exciting because it's a different vein.
(50:16):
I think it ultimately will make any comic better to step outside of their comfort
zone and just see and just try because, you know, things can get stagnant.
You can you can try to write your
life story over and over and over again but if you
don't like have a way to switch lanes
(50:38):
be more versatile i think your audience
quote-unquote your fans quote-unquote kind of see the formulaicness of it yes
at least i do as a as a stand-up comedy fan like with the comics like i was
like oh yeah i see what i see what they're going to do here because they've done it a bunch.
(50:59):
Yeah, that's, I think, a great note.
And it's one of those things where you're just adding it to your arsenal,
a different type of joke, or different types of jokes, so that you can switch it up.
Because it's like boxing, if an audience.
Get your rhythm if they figure out your rhythm like it
makes it harder for the punch lines to be surprises yeah it
(51:21):
makes the and if they know like okay we're settling in for
another story about how we grew up or whatever and they can still be great and
still be a funny joke but if you were also just randomly throwing
these out of the nowhere yeah like if you drop like
a super silly absurdist joke out of nowhere yeah
you know like i i love it personally and
i think it works better because you're keeping the keeping the audience on
(51:41):
their heels a little bit you know they don't know you know and
a big part of that is also in like delivery and and you know if
all of your jokes are short one-liners you know unless you
are as good a writer as like david tell
has such a specific rhythm right now and like
all of his jokes work for the most part fall into it but he's
such a strong writer that that they still work
(52:03):
but if he was not as strong a writer.
People would start to get lulled into this monotone thing
of like oh it's the same rhythm over and over again end so yeah but
yeah that's where we are on it i don't know if anyone else out there is
maybe getting tired of personal material and
they want to go back to like you guys uh guys
what's the deal with y'all seen
(52:28):
this y'all seen this y'all notice i just love
a young audience hissing at seinfeld type jokes oh
my god yeah again like i'm just waiting for a bunch of emails like you're an
insane person we don't hear this at all uh you're just bombing old man that's
just the sound of bombing this
is the first step to dementia like someone sends you a web mp page sure,
(52:53):
i i accept my fate that's why yeah auditory hallucinations.
Again when i started noticing other people's clips then i was like it's not
just me i'm not I'm not projecting this on myself. That is incredible.
Uh, I won't be able to unhear it. Yes. I've now cursed you. It's like the ring.
(53:14):
Thank you everybody for checking out this episode of the podcast.
We have a lot of fun doing it. And I was, that dad was actually asking me how the podcast was going.
I was like, it's great. I just get to hang out with one of my best friends and
we just chit chat for an hour. It's super fun.
And we're very happy that other people out there are enjoying it.
I'm going to throw something out. I've not run this past Dwight,
but I'm going to put this out there.
Maybe this is the manifestation. I think we would like to take the podcast to
(53:38):
a comedy festival if we have anyone listening who's producing comedy festivals
that have live episodes of the podcast.
I think Dwight and I would be open to that possibility if we're available that
weekend and you have the Taco Bell budget.
We would be down for that because I think it would be fun to do a live episode of the podcast.
And we're not those types of comics that we're going to book ourselves on our own goddamn festival.
(54:02):
Oh, but could you imagine? imagine yeah opening night
of limestone in the theater in the 600 seat theater it's
matt and dwight just might and then opening for roy
wood jr on the sunday it's matt and dwight and they're also opening every other
show yep yeah yeah yeah some of those festivals out there but that's we're not
(54:24):
gonna do that yeah so thank you everybody for checking it out we will see you
next time on that invite just might.
Music.
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