Ep. 3 – Dealing with Shady Managers - The Funny Life Podcast with William Lee Martin - The Funny Life with William Lee Martin

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
On this week, we're dealing withrejection. Plus it's bookers, managers and
agents. Oh my, on thisepisode how to kind of succeed in comedy
and life. Welcome in everybody.Hi, I'm William Lee Martin, the
host of this fine podcast for broadcast, and we're glad to hear I had

(00:24):
a great weekend weekend where my wifewas completely out of town, so I
was on my own and and sowe were off from the tour. Want
to thank everybody who tuned into thefirst two episodes and if you were looking
for the second episode for a longtime, you're like, why didn't you
put it on the website? Ifyou kept putting it on Facebook, It's

(00:47):
because I am a moron? Howabout that? Yeah? No, I
was supposed to put it up,and I had it in the drafts and
instead of you know, scheduling likea person would, I didn't. And
so now it's up there. Andthanks for all the people that are going
and tuning in to this thing.You know, Uh, we're really glad

(01:07):
that you're joining us on the themebecause uh, you know, I have
tat tried my attempt. The thingthat's we're going to get the fact that
my go to word, apparently inthis stupid as podcast is the thing because
I said it me and me andLisa decided we'd have a drinking contest on
the number of times I said thething last week. So now I haven't

(01:29):
introduced to you yet, so youdon't even get to talk yet. No,
no, don't don't put a nameup there yet. Man, don't
put her name up there yet.So uh, I want to go over
the tour schedule real quick, becausewe do have tour dates available. I'm
in Lowell, Arkansas this week.Uh uh on well this uh actually when
this airs is I'll be on stagein Lowell, Arkansas, but all this

(01:53):
weekend, then next weekend Tifton,Georgia, and Do't in Alabama, and
then two weeks after that we're inBaton Rouge, Louisiana and Ocean Springs,
Mississippi. It's funny when it clickedagain right there when I was saying it
was like Rom was cutting me off, but he wasn't. That's just at
work. So tickets are available atWillem leemartin dot com. And let me

(02:14):
say this to you, thank youto everybody who keeps making this brand that
we're doing grow without you guys buyingall these tickets to come and see me
do the comedy thing. None ofthis is possible and it's not possible without
you, and I certainly do appreciateit. And I love the fact that

(02:35):
you guys like what we're doing thesedays. And uh so now to welcome
in my co host and who gigglesat me more than is allowed for somebody
that I pay, But you thinkthat, Yeah, so it's Lisa Bruce
and there you go. And thenbehind the controls as always, Uh,

(02:59):
there is beautiful Phillis he is,you know, and welcome in everybody.
So, uh, what a greatweek it was. But yeah, we
did notice that that I said thething, the thing, and we're going
about you know, the thing,and then over there with the thing,
and when you put the thing andshe was in the thing, and that
there was a thing, like nobodyknows what you're talking about. I know,

(03:20):
And so I have to complete mythoughts, is what it comes down
to. And and you know,I'm still getting used to being a host.
As a as a stand up comic, you work alone, and this
is absolutely an ensemble, and wewanted to feel like an ensemble. Like,
like, you guys get a glimpsein what the world is of stand

(03:40):
up comedy and really the business worldof entertainment that we deal with every day.
But uh, you know, uhI uh, if I'm going to
be picked on about the thing though, Ron, I'm going to pick on
her because she has the sniffles forfour years four years, so this office

(04:00):
is either too cold for her allthe time, but whatever. I feel
like we're in the eighties Scarface movie. Uh and she's uh yeah doing the
cocaine part because she's always if I'mcold, but nos is running so and
she's always cold because she's she's atiny human and I try to point that

(04:21):
out. I'd like to also pointthat out as well. She makes me
look bigger on the podcast because she'sso tiny. You're what four foot two
right close? Fivefoot you know,she makes you look bigger, Bill,
But I thought you were using thecomputer to hide that. Yes, oh
wow, yeah, thanks. Thanks. On episode three, it's the last

(04:50):
episode with this group. Right here, Bill is accepting resumes for new producers.
Funny, it would be just likethe Ready Bunch. We just you
know, we'll just go or actuallybe witch, we'll go just like Bewitch
and not even mentioned that, never, never talk about it. So but

(05:12):
one of the things I wanted totalk about was and it's funny we can't
tie all this in to swap outhusbands and everything else. Because my wife
was out of town this weekend andso my brother Skeeter, uh he he
wanted me to go with him ashis wingman to North Side to go where
you know, people go dancing,and uh, y'all, I gotta tell

(05:36):
you, I do not ever wantto be single again ever, Oh my
god, just to watch the people, it's it's too much worse. It's
sad to watch them just walk aroundwith that like you want to dance.
I don't know, you want todance. And then and there's that fear

(05:57):
of everything, of rejection again.And there we went to Rodeo Exchange and
we've always called it Rodeo Exchange.Yeah, And we go in there and
literally me and my brother are inour you know, mid and late fifties,
and we were the young whipper snappersthere until about ten o'cloonner. You
know, we're walking through there andyou could hear people going, one of

(06:18):
them kids doing here, but they'rehere to call some trouble for ruckus and
so, you know, but towalk around that that room and to be
in that realm of rejection. Andthat's why I started thinking about the whole
idea of rejection, because everything aboutstand up comedy is the process of rejection.

(06:42):
Everything that we do, everything fromcalling bookers to even what the audience
thinks about you and social media andeverything else, is about rejection. But
I wanted to talk about this wholegoing out and dating at our age first
and the rejection of it. So, Ron, how long have you been
married? This will be my twentyninth year, and for you, Lisa,

(07:06):
twenty seven. You and Mike havebeen twenty seven. And for me
and Michelle, I we've been togetherfor fifteen fourteen years and we've been married
now for twelve. I think that'sit, right, Yeah, I think,
Yeah, we got married in twelve, so it's now twenty four,
So yeah, twelve, And Ijust I don't now. I want to

(07:28):
see my wife live just so Inever have to get out there again.
And I'm a pretty confident dancer,but I don't dance. I don't dance
when Michelle's not there. Now she'sthere, I'll dance with everybody in the
building, but Michelle. Yeah,and Lisa's a pretty decent dancer. My
husband doesn't dance, and Michelle's ahorrible dancer as well. We don't say

(07:51):
horrible. She doesn't dance. I'mlike your husband. I do not dance
like Mike won't. Well, I'vealways loved dancing, A always loved every
part of the dancing. And andI used to go out dancing five six
nights a week, you know,in my younger days. And I still
can cut a rug pretty good.My mom and dad were ballroom dancers.
They taught me how to dance.But Skeeter, you know square dance,

(08:13):
Well, I sure did. WhenI was in high school. I square
danced right here for Worth. That'swhere my parents did. I forgot where
it was. Is that probably wasit? Did it have bleachers? I
don't remember that it had bleachers.I remember just hanging out, I mean,
because I was young, like underten and hanging out on the bleachers
while my parents. My mom sewedher dress and my dad's close to Yeah,

(08:39):
that's that's why I would never bea square dancer, because you got
to wear the same clothes as asyour wife. It's so funny when you
go out to a dance, youknow, Joe Regord club, and you
see a couple dressed alike and yousee that. Yeah, but you get
there and and there are there arepeople, lots of people on that small
dance floor. It's not is nota big one at all. And but

(09:01):
Skeeter was so and I can Iguess I can say this out loud.
I guess I am going to Uh. He was afraid to walk up to
anybody and ask him out of thatfear of just being rejected. I would
be the same way, one percent. Why because I don't want to be
turned down. I don't want tobe rejected. But see, I've always
had rules of that kind of stuff. So like if I was ever going

(09:24):
to ask somebody to dance, Ialways made sure that there was an exit
behind. No. It's true.So like if I walked up to you,
you're a pretty girl, I walkup and go, Hi, would
you like to dance? Just sayno, No, I'll just look at
my watch and go twelve thirty andwalk right past you. And now everybody
in the bar just thinks that youasked the time right there, Nobody thinks

(09:46):
I just got rejected, because rejectioncan follow you, that stench can follow
you. Yeah, yeah, soI would literally I had all kinds of
rules, like I would never aska girl to dance if she had a
purse, because it was too easyfor the rejection to be there. No,
I don't have anywhere to put mypurse. I would never ask a
girl. And it's gonna sound verysexist in it is. I would never

(10:07):
ask a girl to dance if shewas sitting down either, never ever,
ever, because if she was sittingdown. First of all, I didn't
know how to think that, butit's gonna be. It's when they get
up. When they get up,you know, they got a small shoulders
and everything else, and they getup and they just go, well,

(10:33):
I want to see what pear ofshape got. Because again, back when
I was doing it, you know, I was single. So if you're
guilty by association, so you know, you you pick and choose. But
there was this this this girl thatwas about you know, my brother is
shorter than I am. I'm sixtwo and he's probably five foot six,
right, quite a bit difference inheight. And uh, there was this

(10:56):
perfect girl to ask to dance andshe was cute and she turned around and
you know apparently she had a newfront end put in for her and uh
so perfect kind of and he justbecause he won, he he never would
dance at all. You know,My mom wanted she'd asked me if I
want to dance, and I woulddance along with her, you know,

(11:18):
and she taught me all the stuff. And then when I went out,
I danced all the time, uh, in those country bars. Uh.
But he never learned. And now, but I'm tell him that floor is
so packed. I mean, atwo step is literally one one one one
one one. It's literally just ifyou just kick and slide, kick and

(11:39):
slide. That's basically all you gottado. And then every once in a
while, if you want to getfancy with him, push him out with
that left hand there, and thenwhen they come back in, you just
twirl it around and bring it rightback in, put that arm around there,
and you just kick, slide,slide, kick slide, slide.
So uh, but the rejection thingis something that people have a fear of,

(12:00):
I think, And how do youovercome that in your own lives?
Because no matter if you're single ornot, you I mean you always have
to put up stuff like even tryingto get a job, right, Oh
yeah, for sure. I no, I just I just don't do it
for now. I find that fascinatingbecause, let's face it, Ron put

(12:20):
a picture of you back up there, okay, Now, put a picture
is isolated on me, okay,and then put a picture on her.
Now, of all of us,she probably shouldn't be the one with the
insecurity, right, So let's let'sjust explore some of this. Now,
why would you have a fear ofrejection? I don't know, it's just

(12:43):
it's because you've maybe been off themarket for soul. So I don't know.
It's not an introvert, which isprobably part of it. Are you?
That's my big deal? I knowpeople freak out whenever I say I'm
an introvert and they're like, no, you're not. I was an outside
sales rep for years and everybody's like, I can't believe you're in I guess
I'm the most extroverted introvert there is. I don't know. That's a great

(13:05):
T shirt. Would you probably dothat I'm an extrovert introvert? I'mn extroverted
introvert, So yeah, well,it's hard, especially when you're going up
for a job or anything else.I mean, all those kind of things.
And sometimes you wonder if people succeedjust because or don't succeed just because
they don't have right they won't putthemselves out there, put themselves out there.

(13:26):
And that's what I wanted to tellmy brother, and I still haven't
yet, and I probably will becausehe just watched this. Yeah, he
just he doesn't watch podcasts. He'sa nice looking guy. He's a good
looking kid, and I was realjealous of him growing up. He was
he was shorter than I was,but he had the great teeth and you
know, I had the big teethand I was skinny as a rail and

(13:48):
all the girls loved him. Andhe had the great name too, Skeeter.
Oh that was perfect comic. I'mtelling you. I was like,
was he hispanic? Because that wasawesome? But I was always jealous of
him. And then and then whenwe're walking around this bar and he's like,
well, why don't you just asksomebody to dance? And I was

(14:09):
like, oh, well, whenMichelle's not here, I don't. I
don't feel comfortable with you, especiallywhen she's respect though. Yeah, that's
absolutely respect. Your your wife,So you don't ask somebody to dance when
she's not there to okay, yeah, well Michelle, Michelle's okay. Yeah,

(14:30):
she'll push me out there and sayget out there and go dance because
she knows how much I love it. You just don't want to put yourself
in that position for someone to beable to say it is something. Yeah,
it didn't happen. Well now withmy life on social media and everything
else, you know, the lastthing I want her to do after coming
off of the shoulder replacement and kneereplacement is to see her husband out swinging
some old gal right social media.And it's like, oh, but if

(14:54):
she's there, you know, I'lldance with and she encourages it. You
would speculate why it's not there?She right, So yeah, no,
I see it. That's that's mutualrespect. And uh, I do love
dancing with Michelle. When she getsto there's a window of drunkenness that I

(15:15):
can dance with. Yeah. Yeah, So it's funny. You know,
she's like a fifty seven Studa baker. You got to give it just a
little bit of gas, but nottoo much otherwise you'll flood it. And
that's exactly what happened there is thewhole damn night. So with her,
you got to get her just alittle tipsy. And then I know when
it's gotten too much because she'll holdon my hands too hard and twist my

(15:37):
fingers into my ring and everything else. And so if you ask her,
the last time we were in LasVegas, I threw into the bandstand and
that's why she had to have mereplace it. So uh, but with
this business, let's get let's getonto the business of the comedy business.

(15:58):
On the reject. You know,the number one question that I get from
young comics is Wendy. It's sofunny. They'll say, when do you
get a manager? And I'm like, well, first get an act because
when you first go to these openmics, you know, I've been there
before and these guys are just doingopen mics, just doing open mics,

(16:18):
and uh, they'll have a managerthere, and uh, I'll ribble,
Michael, why'd you get a managerso you could double your bar bill?
Right, And that's the only reasonwhy you would. Uh uh. But
it's scary out there to try tofind a manager, an agent or what
do we call it managers, agentsand bookers or bookers, all the kind

(16:42):
of part of it. But allthat stuff is some of the hardest rejections
that you'll take are from those threepeople, because at some point in your
career you think I got to havethe perfect manager and they can move you
along. Now there are some managersout there that can absolutely change your career.
Judy Marmel right now is one ofthe most powerful managers out there.

(17:06):
And she's got everybody from LeeAnne.I think She's got Leanne Morgan, she's
got Sebastian, She's part of Ithink Nate's group, Nate Bargatsi's group,
and she But the reason I loveher is that she came from the ranks.
She was the door girl what's calledat a comedy club thirty years ago,

(17:30):
and then I think it was acocktail waitress for a while at the
club, and then moved up andmoved up and moved up, and now
she is one of the biggest playersin all of stand up comedy. So
she's done it at all levels.She's done it all. But it's hard
to get that kind of a manageronce they get there. I've had more
bad managers than a waffle house inSouth Carolina. I've had a lot.

(17:56):
Yeah, I had one manager whotried to rip us off. Remember that
guy. Uh we just call hima dean. Let's just call it.
Yes, I want to say lastthing because I don't know how to spell
it. So this guy, thisguy approaches me on a carnival cruise ship,

(18:21):
you know, and uh we Iwas on his podcast and he talked
a great talk. I mean,he had this great rap about all the
people that he worked with and everythingelse. And then we worked with him
and it was the most awkward kindof of thing that I'd experienced. Yes,

(18:42):
and I know I just said thing, but it was an awkward thing.
It was it was a thing.It was a thing. And yeah,
and you had him come to stayat your house shortly thereafter we just
started working here too. Yeah,And they lived in California and he brought
us that well, he brought hiswife. And he gets there and he
is different. I mean he showsup and like he's wearing the gloves without

(19:04):
the fingers, which is he's kindof a rule right there. But you
know, he's he talked a greattalk, and that's the whole thing.
And and when you deal out ofdesperation, which a lot of people do,
and you deal out of desperation,you tend to overlook some things that
you know you shouldn't. And Ithink that that's true, if not only
comedy, but also in dating aswell, when you're absolutely overlooking all those

(19:30):
those benchmarks, all those signs,all those things where the Lord is saying,
hey, stay away from this person. That's another T shirt. We
go fag rip flag. I likethat red flag. I'm a red flag.
But but so Deine, Uh,that's what we'll call him. That

(19:51):
was his first name. Uh,but it really was so uh it didn't
work. They come into town andthey help with tournament for cowboys who care.
And by the end of it,I knew he wasn't our guy.
So we let him fly home himhis wife. And then the next day
I said, you know, it'sjust not working. And we had this

(20:14):
handshake agreement that he was only herefor the audition of the gig, that
he wasn't getting paid on any ofthis stuff that he was doing at pro
bono is what he wanted. Hewanted it to be pro bono. He
wanted to work for two weeks forme on this to show what kind of
a manager that he was. Andthen then we get the two specials on

(20:34):
Amazon Prime and they both come outin November twenty nineteen and December twenty nineteen,
and I get a bill from himfor what was it? It was?
He was like, eighty thousand dollars. Lot. Yeah, I got
a bill for eighty thousand dollars.And he said that all the work that

(20:56):
he had done, he was goingto charge me, uh, what he
would charge his corporate rates. Now, this is more than I pay my
attorney his hourly rate was. Andsuddenly he had no agreement or anything else,
and and he said, you know, we can settle if you pay
within ten days for thirty thousand dollars. And I was like no, And

(21:22):
and by then I'd already signed withthis other manager, right, and this
other manager he's like, well,that guy said that he was with Hoodie
and the Blowfish and might have beenexaggerated a little bit on that story,
but that's a difference. Yeah,that's what she's he was with that kind

(21:45):
of go That's not even what Imeant. But he just blew That's that's
what you mean. He just suckedhe sucked an he was a great guy,
great guy, just not really he'snever done anything comedy wise, and
that was the other red flag.But he was already like, well,
we went through this with who theyand the blowfish, and you just need

(22:07):
to pay him to get rid ofthem so they go away. And I'm
like, I'm not paying the guyred Nickel, right, And then it's
going on and then and then he'ssending emails to Michelle like why don't you
and your husband also claim to beChristians? Why don't you do the Christian
thing? And paid been thirty thousanddollars right and basically, and then he

(22:27):
started extorting, trying to extort themoney. He's like, I'll go to
social media and I'll let everybody knowwhat kind of people that you really are
that you don't pay your bills.And we had nothing, There was no
agree The agreement that we had wasthat he got no money in the two
weeks. And even then I offeredhim. I said, okay, listen,

(22:51):
I paid for your flight out,we paid for all your meals and
everything else, and you stayed herefor free. Right, I'll give you
two thousand dollars and you just goaway, here's your thing, and he
was like nope, and he andthen he started adding an attorney to it
and really making it look right.And then I was laying in bed.
Now I vetted the guy by googlinghim and that kind of thing, and

(23:15):
when it first happened. But I'mlaying in bed, and I still remember
it's January, so it's two monthsbefore the pandemic this part. Yeah,
So I googled him and he hadbeen arrested and did time in prison in
Australia for fraud, for being theycalled named Dodgy Dean in Australian papers,

(23:38):
the American who had fleeced about sevenor eight women out of their money with
this dating kind of thing and everythingelse. And I just think again,
but he was dating these girls,like seven or eight women that he fleeced,
plus he had impersonated a federal officerto get on an airport premises.

(24:02):
He knew where some of the gunsand m were, and he did like
three years in an Australian prison,and then they finally got rid of him
there. And so I screenshot ateverything and I said, well, go
ahead and talk all you want to, and I'll make this public knowledge of

(24:22):
everything, and then that's the lastwe ever heard of Dodgy Dean. Yeah.
It's like, if you're thinking you'regoing to spill the tea, you
better bring receipts. You had receipts. He didn't have anything. He had
nothing. And that was I mean, that was twenty three years in my
career. Yeah, you know,and when it comes to when it comes
So that's managers, So be learlyof managers. First of all, you

(24:45):
know my old mentor who's retired,a guy named Steve Cox, who was
a Colin Ray's manager, and Stevemanaged my career for a short period of
time but again didn't know comedy.But we remain friends for twenty five years
and he's now a consultant for meas you know, you guys don't know,
but Steve helps me with my musicand trying to get it out there

(25:08):
and Myriad publishing. But Steve alwayssays the number one thing to ask anybody
who wants to be part of yourcareer is one simple question, what's your
plan? Not not what what allyou can do for me and everything else,
what is your plan? Because whatyou find is most people don't have

(25:30):
a plan at all. You know, we we experienced a little bit of
that hiring here, a little bitgets sold easily on on what they say
they can do. But what's yourplan? How are you going to get
there? And you better have aplan when it comes to sharing that money.
And then when you get agent,you know, and I've had,

(25:52):
I've had some of the more powerfulagencies in the country. I was part
of the William Morris Witness Protection Programof two thousand to two thousand and four
because they did a great job ofhiding me for four years. Wow,
yeah, brought no and I spentyou know, I spent the entire time

(26:15):
that I was at William Morris sayingI didn't know I was gonna pay for
that. I didn't know I wasgonna pay for that. Like I was
out on tour with George Jones,and when they first told me about the
money that I was going to makeon the George Jones tour, I mean
it was five years into my careerand I really thought, Wow, we
are finally making it. And Iborrowed money from people for the first five

(26:37):
years of my career just to survivebecause I didn't go looking for another job.
Remember, I was only going todo stand up And now I get
this George Jones tour and I'm thinkingI'm going to make a ton of money.
And I called everybody, I'm goingto be able to write your check
for four thousand run, I'm goingto be able to write your check for
twenty five hundred. You know,please answer my phone calls. Now nobody

(27:00):
was, you know. And thenwhen I get out on the tour,
like I didn't know that every nightthat we were in Canada, they would
give us a clean up room.Like we traveled on the buses and these
big arenas that we were playing.They even had showers in the back of
these arenas. You know, it'sthe locker room and stuff with the fresh
towels and you could take a shower. But no, this was a big

(27:21):
time tour, so they had whatthey call clean up rooms. So that
means every place that we went therewas a hotel room for me that was
there that we didn't sleep in becausewe got back on the bus after you
took a shower and you had yourown little space. But every night I
was paying two hundred to two hundredand fifty dollars a night for hotel rooms

(27:41):
only for me for me to saythat I weren't staying in just and they
call them clean it. Now,if they would have told me from the
beginning, hey, we're going tohave a room for you every night in
a hotel room, you know,just to give you three hours by yourself
so you're not always on the bus. And I understand why they do it,
but with two hundred dollars, let'ssay, two hundred dollars a night

(28:03):
for you know, eighteen nights ina row, it adds up, and
it adds up quick. You know, they got a motel six you just
need. And it's also Canada,so there's conversion rates and everything else too.
And so I spent the entire andthen and then the managers of it
didn't understand why I was so upset, because we immorse is huge, right,

(28:26):
and I made them look silly forbeing small time, and and uh,
maybe I wasn't ready. Maybe Iwas small time at the at the
time, but I was certainly tryingto survive. And two hundred dollars a
night was not exactly in my budget. Oh that's a lot of money.
Now, the third one that we'regoing to talk about, so let's recap
real quick. Managers be delivery ofokay, if they don't have a plan,

(28:49):
they don't have a plan. Agentsalways try to establish one thing with
an agent that there's a reason whyyou make nine of it and the agent
makes ten percent. But they'll makeyou feel like you work for them and
not the other way around. There'sso many agents. The reason why I

(29:10):
don't particularly like a lot of agentsis I don't understand why they have a
phone that actually dials out because theydon't use it. They're only taking the
incoming phone calls and order taking andeverything else. So the difference is just
so you know, in stand upa manager is the agent is there.
Let me start that again. Instand up comedy, the agent is there

(29:36):
to get you work. The manageris there to guide your career, to
make sure that it's the correct workto take. And that's what they're supposed
to do. Now. Bookers arethe people who put you in these venues.
Now, whether or not you gothrough an agent, a manager,
or your book it yourself, that'swhere that's where you experience the most rejection

(29:56):
in the early part of your career. And we go through it now with
theaters not as much on rejection.They're just not using right, yeah,
or they just don't get back withyou, and that's frustrating. That's how
often do we send out messages andemails to different venues and hear nothing,

(30:18):
dead silence. It's like, arethey in business still? Yeah? And
the one thing that you have todo through all of that is not take
it personal. Yeah, And thatis I guess that's the best advice that
I can give in this episode,is that you have to make sure that
you don't take any of this personal. And that's the hardest thing because this
is your life and your likelihood andwhen you're when you're dealing out of desperation,

(30:41):
it gets even worse. Yeah,you take it like a champ.
I'm over here going I'm all pissedoff. Well, yeah, I've been
rejected enough in this business, youknow. And it's funny we have this
right here. This is this isour pixie Dust. And I have a
manager for a while to sent usto me, and this is the one

(31:02):
of the best things that she everdid for me, is send this to
me. Because I took a meetingroun with this group and the guy tells
me they invited me. I didn'tinvite myself. I didn't seek him out.
They said, hey, we're seeingyour stuff online and we would love
for you to come over to theoffices and we'd love to talk to you

(31:22):
about managing all the tour dates thatyou're doing. This was what three years
ago, four years ago maybe,and right before the pandemic. And I
go over there and they they're sayinghow much they loved me and think that
I'm funny and all the other stuff. And we have two meetings and they
meet my wife and they love her, and they love everything that we're doing

(31:45):
and how we're doing it and allthese other things. And then we had
the third meeting, and then thefourth meeting, I go over and he
goes, you know, we hada discussion about you, and we just
decided that some people are sprinkled withpixie dust and they become stars, and
we just don't think you're that guy. Why did you Why did you invite

(32:07):
me? Why'd you waste all thattime for me for me? Why I
didn't seek you out? You soughtme out, and now you sought me
out just to punch me in thenuts. Was that your goal this whole
time was that your goal me.I don't know what it was, but
I don't believe in the and maybeI'm wrong, but I don't believe in

(32:27):
that some people are just sprinkled withpixie dust and then it happens. I
think there is some luck involved inthis business. I absolutely believe that.
But there's also opportunity that you haveto be ready for, right. You
know. I talked to a comicthirty twenty seven years ago, and he
had a great meeting. They flewhim out to meet with Disney, and

(32:50):
back then they would give comics andthey don't give them as much anymore,
called development deals, and a developmentdeal is basically they give you fifty thousand
dollars one hundred thousand dollars and youthen have to develop some sort of sitcom
or show for them, okay,and it's called a development deal. So
they fly him out to talk tohim about his development deal, and they
say, we think you're great.We want to be in the whatever his

(33:13):
name was business, the old showbusiness thing. And they go, so
what do you got and he's like, what do I? God, that's
that's why I flew out here fory'all to tell me what we're going to
do with this thing, And theysay, well, no, now,
what do you see yourself in arow? How do you? And he
said, that's what I thought youguys did. And I learned that lesson
at that point that one of thesedays, when the opportunity arrives, I'm

(33:37):
not going to sit in a roomgoing what do y'all got? I That's
why, that's why I continued writeforever without any success quite frankly, with
my with my sitcoms, or withmy screenplays or any of those other things,
because if I ever get in thatmeeting, if I ever get in
that room and they say, whatdo you got, kid, I'm gonna

(33:59):
say I I I made my ownpixie dust. Yeah, so let's do
it then. And if it doesn'twork out, I mean, it doesn't
work out, maybe they were right. Maybe I just didn't have any sprinkled
on me enough. But do youthink, I mean, honestly, do
you think that it requires a pixiedust that we can't see? And be
honest, do you think that thathas something to do with it? Either

(34:22):
one of you young put her onthe spot. I know you did.
It's like I can't see myself,but I kind of see myself. I'm
on spot. Like you said,I think it just has to do with
luck being in the right place atthe right time, especially with social media
and how people I mean, theycan put one thing on social media and

(34:43):
it takes off and it's like,who is this person? We've never heard
heard of them, but now Igot to know about them, and now
they're selling out arenas right. Well, and I look at it like this,
Bill, because the pixie dust isreally what you bring to the table,
and it's not it's not something that'sjust magical. It's what you bring
to the table. Because nobody willbe more into your you know, job

(35:06):
in your comedy than you, evenyour managers. Nobody takes it more serious
than you do. So you're yourown pixie Does you make your own luck
as far as I'm concerned, Well, and I feel the same way that
Ron does. And I'm gonna capon what you said. You said they
put it on social media and thenit hits right. The key is is
that you don't hit anything that youdon't swing at, correct, And that's

(35:30):
where I think that y'all both havethe right answer together. I think that
there is some luck involved but youhave to stick your head out there.
You have to be not afraid ofthe rejection that people are gonna scoff at
you, that they're gonna mock you, that they're just not they're not gonna
watch it. I mean when itcomes to this podcast, you know,

(35:51):
that's what I always joke about withthe toens of people that might watch this.
Right. But the only way thatyou grow anything is that you have
to put it out there. Youhave to swing for your own fences.
You have to be able to walkup to the girl and ask her to
dance. You just can't go andstand for three hours in a damn bar
and not ask happened and you didn'thave a good time? I mean,

(36:16):
what's the worst that could happen toyou? She says no or he says
no. But is that really alsobad? Maybe that's I've always looked at
it like that's the dear Lord going, Hey, you just dodged a bullet
right there. Brother, you don'tknow what I know about that girl,

(36:37):
and just find it as a blessing. You know. The The number one
thing that I did early in mycareer to get booked everywhere was I had
a phrase persistent wears down resistance.So every day, every week I would
callus, well maybe a little,maybe a little, but persistence is there.

(36:59):
There is a key to that,especially in the stand up because you
got to figure there are fifteen hundredstand up comedians trying to get fifty two
jobs in a club. So whatI did was take the old business adage
that I just made phone calls everyweek. So I had a list of
bookers, and you'd be amazed howsmall the booking world of stand up comedy

(37:20):
really is, especially in the comedyclub business. There's only about forty five
people that control all the clubs.And the beauty of it is is that
I knew if I went down thatlist of forty five people, and this
back when there were voicemails, SoI left forty five voicemails every Tuesday until
I could mark somebody. They eithersaid get the hell out of here or

(37:44):
they said callmulater. So many ofthem didn't want to say yes, so
they would literally push you off andgo, well, we're not and send
me a And I used to tellso that say send me a video clip
of yourself, and I said,well, I sent that, and they
go well, we haven't received it, and I would. I would call

(38:06):
two days before and ask who thedoor guy was that answered the door or
whatever, and they would say hisname, and I go, well it
was signed by John Smith and uh. He's like, oh, well yeah,
then it's here. Uh and hegoes, give me a week and
I'll watch it. I've never sentit, okay, I never sent it.
And then the next week I calledhim and I say, well,
can I call you. I'll callyou a Tuesday. Wondn't even ask for

(38:28):
a yes or no, I'll callI need to call you a Tuesday at
ten am or Tuesday at two pm? Which one would do you prefer?
And they'd say two pm. Andhe said give me a week and I'd
call him on and I go,did you enjoy it? Yeah? I
watched your tape. It was good. Never sent the damn thing. Never
sent the damn thing. And Iwould get booked into the club and then
I'll go do the work. Sothere you go. So you know,

(38:51):
we're trying to keep this thing atthirty minutes, so we're gonna wrap this
thing up. Okay. But ifif you were out there and the one
thing that's holding you back is simplyasking out of fear rejection. I will
say that you can't get rejected onceyou're dead, okay, And you got
to get out there, you know, especially if you're if you're later on

(39:14):
in life and now you're alone andyou don't want to be alone every weekend
and you'd like to go out withsomebody. You know, there is still
a little bit of romance on ahardwood floor. There's still the same people
sitting on the same barstools at RodeoExchange down on the north side. I
try to leave it with this nicepositive you know, have hope, and

(39:35):
what she says is clean your gunand be sad. So anyway, for
thanks for tuning in on how tokind of seer. Oh yeah, go
to my website we leemartin dot com. Most of y'all know. There's also
Facebook, TikTok while it's still lastand uh YouTube and then uh YouTube.

(39:59):
You know, we've got a lotof stuff on there. We've got some
of the full length comedy stuffs onthere. And then we're excited because we
do have my fourth one hour televisionspecial recorded. We haven't sold it to
anybody yet, but we have itrecorded. It's an editing. It's almost
good and uh, but for LisaBruce and for Ron Phillips, I'm William

(40:22):
Lee Martin, and you know,go out there and try to be kind
of successful.

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Ep. 3 – Dealing with Shady Managers - The Funny Life Podcast with William Lee Martin

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 3 – Dealing with Shady Managers - The Funny Life Podcast with William Lee Martin