EITM interviews Derrick Stroup

EITM interviews Derrick Stroup

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Derek Streup. Hey, Hey,hey, how y'all doing. I am
doing fantastic, sir, how areyou? I am great? Man,
Thanks for having me. I reallyappreciate it. Oh dude, it's my
It's my pleasure. A couple ofthings as we get going. Number one,
I will tell you this. Acouple of friends of mine within I
don't know, probably the last sixmonths or so, have seen you live

(00:24):
doing stand up and dude, theywon't shut up about how good you are.
Oh man, well, that's thecoolest thing ever to hear. I
appreciate you telling me that. Andthen the second thing I want to tell
you is your record is fantastic.My record, well, you know what,
the special, the audio special?Oh yeah yeah, the album.

(00:46):
Yeah, thank you so much.Yeah, I really appreciate that. Hey,
can I can? I ye eatingdinner twice? Man? That I
got that. I'm with Larry thecable guy. Here, get her done
record label. It's the coolest thingever. Okay, So two things about
that is it is it a littlenon traditional, like cause you feel like
like with with with comedy, right, I feel like we've gotten so used

(01:07):
to it being you know, comedyspecial that that you watch that you don't
listen to. That's it just seemsa little non traditional to me. Yeah,
it is. It's uh something thatpeople aren't doing much anymore, which
I found the you know, whichkind of intrigued me. And I loved
comedy albums growing up. That's kindof what I you know, specials were

(01:30):
rare. Seeing the person do thehour, you'd be more likely to listen
to it, and uh and Ireally, I like, I liked the
idea of that and jumped on theopportunity. And it's been cool. The
feedback has been great. I alsodidn't know that Larry the cable guy had
a record like a record company.Yeah, I mean I didn't know until

(01:53):
we spoke, until we spoke aboutit, and I mean he's got some
he's got some other great comics onthere too, and I mean his platform
is huge, and so it's Yeah, it's been really cool that he's taken
me under his wing. It's helpedme a lot. Hey, Derek,
can I ask you this, Likeyou said, like early on, when
you were young, like that is, and you're right, like that is,

(02:13):
you had comedy records or comedy albumsthat you would listen to. Obviously,
back then it was on vinyl,but now like Yours Eating Dinner Twice,
it's iTunes, it's Spotify, it'sApple Music, Amazon, YouTube,
all of that, And that's great. Accessibility is so much easier. But
what comedy records were you listening towhen you were a kid? Man,

(02:35):
I really go all the way backto like George Carlin, Richard pryor some
of the stuff back in the lateeighties early nineties that my dad would have
laying around the house I would listento, and even like some really country
stuff, Like there was even someRodney Carrington laying around. He had some
albums back in the nineties than mydad had as well, So and you

(02:58):
know, I would just be sittingand living room, you know, and
you'd just be listening to them andit was a really cool experience and you
just kind of visualize the act outand what it looked like, and you
could kind of have your own imaginationto go along with the jokes and stories,
and it's a cool thing. Andalso, like you said, accessibility
is huge. Tons of people areon Spotify and looking for things to put
in their ears, and so thatwas also a fun angle to try to

(03:21):
take. Hey, so when youwere when you were listening to those records
and they're your dads. You're fromHarvest, Alabama, which Derek fill in
the blank, that is a populationof that's gonna be about thirty seven hundred.
Now, oh my god, now, now what was it? What
was it back in the heyday?Man? When I was I'm thirty nine,

(03:43):
when I was growing up, itwas probably you know, it was
probably closer to like nineteen hundred,two thousand. It's it's more like a
community outside of Huntsville, Alabama,and you know, Harvest, Alabama.
That's like, I mean, that'sthat sounds made up. That's a little
that's like being from Tornado, Oklahomaor something that very accurate sounding. You
know. But can a kid livingin well, I mean the answer is

(04:05):
yes, because we've seen it happen. But when you're a kid living in
Harvest and it's it's a community oftwo thousand people, and like your dad's
comedy records are around, like,do you do you allow yourself to dream
of like one day I'll be youknow, listen, I'm I love the
record and I think it's great.I'm not ready to put you up there

(04:25):
with Richard pryor yet, But like, do you, yeah, for sure,
do you allow yourself to to dreamof like I'm gonna do that?
Like it just seems like being inHarvest that yes you could hear the records,
But where was the closest comedy shop. I guess Huntsville. Yeah,
it would be Huntsville. But Huntsvilledidn't even really you know, have comedy

(04:45):
No, it never it wasn't adream of mine as a kid because that
just didn't seem accessible where I lived, and not like in a stay out
oppressed way, it's just in thething. It just never really crossed my
mind, you know, be fromwhere I'm from, it's a really unique
area. Huntsville is the home ofuh you know that. We've got a
lot of NASA there, the RedstoneArsenal, a lot of people don't know

(05:09):
how smart to get. Like halfmy friend's parents were cotton farmers and the
other half were literal rocket scientists.The demographic there was really interesting, right,
But uh yeah, so you knowI didn't really dream of that so
much. You know. I meanif somebody would have told my mom that
I was going to be a comedianwhen I was a kid, it would
have helped her a lot because shecouldn't she couldn't figure out what was going

(05:35):
on. I mean, so yeah, I didn't. It's not something you
know, I had different layers.I thought I was going to be a
preacher at one point, and thenyou know, you find out that's not
really your route. And so yeah, it wasn't something I dreamed of.
But so it makes it even moresurreal to be honest with you. Hey,
So at what point, Derek,did you pick up and move to

(05:55):
Like I know you've been there forI want to say, like about a
decade, but what what what madethe move to Denver? You know,
I I really it was it wastime to go. I'd been doing comedy
in Alabama for three years without ascene or like an open mic. I
was just I ran a bar andI would get up about every three months
and do like thirty to forty minutesjust because I mean there was like music

(06:19):
every night, and if I heardwagon Wheel one more time, I was
gonna jump out a window. SoI decided that I was just gonna tell
some jokes, and that just kindof built over the years, and then
that dream did start to happen becauseI you know, it felt more of
like a reality when I was holdingthe microphone and people were seeming to enjoy

(06:39):
it. And so in Denver seemedlike a place where I wasn't going to
be swallowed alive. La and NewYork and those normal cities that people go
to seemed overwhelming to me. SoI wanted to go somewhere where I could
kind of, you know, getused to it and not be swallowed by
the way. And you picked theperfect spot. Going back to the going

(07:00):
back to the record eating dinner twice, dude, I could listen to you
talk about the crunchy hippies forever.Yeah. Man, a different world,
man, They're just a different versionof white people that I grew up with,
you know, And it's just,uh, it's fun. It's fun
to talk about it, you know, it is, and and it's fun

(07:23):
that I made these bits talking aboutit to their face, you know.
So you know, like that carheart bit that I do. Sure it
almost I almost got to that tooearly, because I'm in like I'm at
ground zero for hipsters. So youknow, I literally walked outside one day
and everybody was dressed like chicken farmersthat worked remotely, and I was like,

(07:46):
this is insane, and but therest of the country hadn't really seen
it yet. You know, thatwas three or four years ago. So
it's been really interesting living in sucha hipster place and being where I'm from.
The perspectives are so contrasting that it'smade for some fun riding. I'm
still wearing long sleeve Champion T shirts. Oh yeah, Champion, Now that's

(08:07):
that is a white trash Why you'retrash, Derek, Yeah, I mean,
listen, in the nineties, itwas for sure, you know.
I mean, back in the dayKmart's flagship brand, none of us wanted
to wear it. But uh,now you know, now it's I mean,
it's a very popular brand. Imean, I'm sure Champions just as

(08:31):
shocked as I am. There's nothere's no way they saw this coming.
I Like, I'd like to thinkone day they woke up and they were
like, there are these people inBrooklyn that are wearing our stuff. Like,
I mean, there's no way theysaw this coming. You know what,
Libe really made me laugh, AndI hope this doesn't upset you because

(08:54):
of all the material on there.But nobody, nobody needs lotion like Tammy's
heels. That's yeah, man,that's tammy bit. Uh, that's a
fun one that that comes from areal person. So yeah, we all
know, we all know Tammy.And that was followed by when you're talking

(09:16):
about, like again just like beingout in Denver and all the hipsters and
you talk about you do the wholebit about like hiking and why it's why,
why it's a bad date, andon and on. I do like
where you go say, Andrews,save some sex for us, buddy,
Yeah, talking about the guy withthe shinhai socks and cargo short song.

(09:39):
Ye saves some sex for us?Pick doc? You're out here? Hey?
No is it on your nose?Yeh is? Is? Is Alyssa
from? Is your girlfriend from Denveror from Alabama? But she's actually from
Kansas? Oh yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, I got. She's

(10:03):
from a little town in uh inKansas, Iola, Kansas. So yeah,
I mean she's from a town smallerthan where I'm from. I mean
I never thought that I could havethat happen, but we went and visited
you know where she's from, andI mean they don't even use phones.
They just yell at each other.There's you know, you can just yell
to your neighbor. They're close enough. Now, where was the where was

(10:24):
the meeting? Like? Where wasthe where was the connection between you two?
We met in Denver? Oh okay, yeah we uh yeah, yeah,
yeah we ended up meeting here anduh yeah, I mean invited her
to a comedy shows as soon asI could. I knew that, you
know, I wasn't gonna get herwith looks. I needed to tell her
that I had this fused ingers.And is the is the story true that

(10:50):
the for for you two are engaged? Right? Is the yeah we are?
Is the story true that you boughtthe ring eight months before for you
got engaged? Yeah, that's onehundred percent true. Yeah I love that,
And and just and and talking abouthow uh you know, you need

(11:11):
to you need to have a littleaccountability. You know, I didn't have
a proposal date set yet, soeverything's kind of hanging in the balance.
And the jokes about how we'd bein the kitchen and she'd get a little
sarcastic and I'd be like, nottonight for sure? You know, uh,
well you you you on a summerwedding. You gotta fall attitude,

(11:33):
You gotta nail something down yeah.The uh, the men laugh harder at
that joke than the women do.I have to tell you that. And
by the way, what was Ireading you posted something online? Derek?
What was I reading like? Itwas? It was obviously while you were
while you were on the road andtraveling around. What is the thing that
you snuck into Camden Yards in Baltimorefor? Oh? It was, uh,

(11:54):
that's funny you saw that. That'suh. It was some type of
a golf event that they were havingin there, and yeah, man,
we just played it cool and walkedbehind a few ropes and before I knew
it, I was swinging a nineiron onto the infield. I mean,
I mean, I'm gonna tell yousomething. We're standing there in line and

(12:16):
these guys next to us, they'relike, man, this event was sold
out. It sold out in tenminutes. And they go, uh,
we we who could only get twotickets? We tried to get four?
They go, how to go fory'all? And I was with John christ
and I looked at him. We'velooked at him, told him we were
like we we just walked behind thatopen gate down there, and these guys

(12:37):
turned white. I mean, theydidn't think it was funny. They didn't
like it. They hated us.We were the two people that probably took
the spots that they needed. Butyeah, it was a fun afternoon to
get to walk around Camden and forfree. What a beautiful place that was.
But you're right, the picture ofyou like in like some like up

(12:58):
in one of like the mid sectionswith like a little patch of like AstroTurf
plucking balls into the field is hysterical. Oh, it was the most random
afternoon. I had just got donejust pounding crabs heads in with a mallet
just fifteen minutes before, and thenjust walked on to the I mean we
were just gonna take a picture outsideof the stadium and then we were like,

(13:20):
I think they're hitting golf balls.And then you know, if you
look confident enough and you know,have dark enough sunglasses on, you just
cruise in. Well listen, dudeeating dinner twice. It's out available now.
It's streaming on iTunes, Spotify,Apple Music, Amazon Music YouTube.

(13:41):
Derek, like I said, Iknow a couple of people that have seen
you out on the road in thelast six months. The record is great.
I appreciate the time. My friend, Hey, thanks for having me
I really appreciate y'all and have agreat day. Hey, you do the
same. Thanks Derek,