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July 15, 2025 69 mins
In Episode 376 of Airey Bros Radio, we’re joined by Brad Upton, a former high school teacher and track & field coach who’s been grinding the stand-up comedy circuit for over 35 years. Brad shares the steady evolution of his career—from coaching sprinters and teaching high school, to opening for Joan Rivers and Jeff Foxworthy, to finding unexpected viral success online in his 60s with more than 250 million views. This isn’t a story about overnight fame—it’s about doing the work, sticking around, and letting your voice find its audience.

🎙 In this episode:
  • Coaching high school track & field in the '80s

  • Leaving teaching to pursue comedy full-time

  • Touring the country long before social media

  • Opening for legends like Joan Rivers and Foxworthy

  • The mindset he carried from coaching into comedy

  • The reality of “going viral” after decades on stage

  • Staying sharp, grounded, and grateful

📍 This one’s for teachers, coaches, comics—and anyone trying to keep showing up.🎧 Now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
☕ Fueled by Black Sheep Endurance Coaching
🔗 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aireybros



📓 Show Notes / Timestamps
  • 0:00 – Intro & how Brad caught our attention

  • 4:30 – Life in Yakima, running track, and teaching high school

  • 10:15 – Coaching track & field and why he loved it

  • 14:00 – Open mics and transitioning out of the classroom

  • 19:00 – Touring in the ‘80s and opening for Joan Rivers

  • 26:30 – Life on the road as a stand-up before internet comedy

  • 32:45 – “Viral” at 60: how it actually felt

  • 41:10 – Comedy now vs then & staying consistent

  • 50:00 – Wisdom from decades of performing

  • 1:00:00 – Final Four: books, breakfast, favorite comics, best mile time

  • 1:08:00 – Outro & upcoming tour dates
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Airy Brose Radio. Be there or B
Square because it's all killer, no filler. This is Brad
Upton and you're listening to Airy Brothers Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Ladies and gentlemen, Howdy you knowlha, Welcome to another episode
of Airy Bros. Radio. We are here, you are there,
and we appreciate you tuning in. Today we're stepping back
onto the track and onto the stage with the true original,
the one and only Brad Upton is joining us this evening.
But before we get rolling, you all know the drill.
Please make sure you like this episode in all episode

(00:45):
of Air Bros Radio on YouTube, drop a comment, everyview,
review and share helps us grow and give back to
the sports we love. Follow us on Instagram, Spotify and
Apple Podcasts. This episode, as always, is fueled by Black
Sheep and durham Ks for all your ultra marathon coaching
and nutrition coaching needs. And let's not forget why we

(01:07):
do this. We're over here at Aarry Rose to shine
a light on the program's coaches and mentors we wish
we had access to growing up. If you were somebody
you know is looking for the right fit at the
next level or the inspiration to chase their dreams. Please
share this episode with them. Onsen. Tonight's guest, Brad Upton
is joining us. As I mentioned, he's a former Division

(01:27):
one and high school track and field coach who placed
athletes in the NCAA Finals the Olympic Trials, coaching from
Pascal High School to the University of Washington. He's a
thirty seven year stand up comedy veteran went viral in
twenty eighteen with his Dry Bar comedy special, now with
two hundred million plus views online. He's open for Johnny Mathis,

(01:50):
Joan Rivers, Dolly Parton and performs regularly at the Grand
Ole Operate. From a fourth grade teacher and hurdle coach
to comedy legend b the blueprint, blueprint for trusting your
gut and going all in on your passion. Without further ado,
Brad Upton, it is an honor and a pleasure to
have you joining us this evening. We do greatly appreciate

(02:12):
your time. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you asking.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Me absolutely, We're honored to have you. We're honored to
chat with you and hear about your cool story track.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
And comedy is what you guys like, and I'm in
a pretty small niche of people, so yeah, I'm glad
you found me.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Absolutely, And you know, we kind of like to consider
ourselves in a pretty small niche here too, where we
cover sports like cross country and track and field, but
we also cover wrestling, which some people fall in both
of those those barrels, but a lot of times it's
a very niche. So yeah, we'll bring our niche with
your niche and we'll have a great conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah. Absolutely, before we get too.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Far into it, Brad, if you have anything coming up,
anything you would like to plug or promote, anything where
you want us to send the fans on social media,
any of that stuff, Any shows, any tours, The floor
is yours.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
July fifth and sixth. I am in Portland and Seattle
at It's all on my website at Brad Upton dot com.
And I have a couple of dates later on in
Edmonds and Woodinville, Washington, which are all right around where
I live. I can drive to all of these things.
I'm gonna fill up my August, September, October, November soon.
I took some time off. I had my knee replaced,

(03:23):
in March, so I took some time off and I'm
just getting back into it. So I don't have a
lot of specific dates right now, but my calendar will
fill up in the next probably three weeks.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
All right, Well, if we can, let's get you down
here to Greenville, South Carolina at the Comedy Zone. We'd
love to come see.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Oh yeah, i've been down there before. I think i've
been to Greenville.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's a nice little club.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah yeah, I do you get to get back there?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah? I wish I knew someone over there. I could
get you set up. But we'd love to love to
come see. How's any how's a knee recovery?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's doing pretty well. I was. I had some remorse
buyer's remorse for a few weeks, but I'm starting to
see it's a little over three months, so I'm starting
to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I actually I've been walking. I can walk fine. And
then yesterday I told my wife I'm going to try
and run here just a little tiny bit, and it worked.
All right, I've got I've got as much range of

(04:17):
motion as you can hope for.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So, okay, doing pt or you all finished with that.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
My last one is this Thursday. Then I'm done.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, awesome. How's any scarring or anything like that?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh I got a gigantic scar Yeah, gigantics here. I
probably let's do this right now here.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
You go, Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, it's a big one, Brad.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Was that wearing tear or was that sud of an injury?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah? I had a heart of the cartilage taken out
when I was between my junior and senior year and
high school, and then I competed on it for seventeen
more years, and then you know, I trained hard, and
into my forties, I trained like I was still competing.
And then I had a little more of the carlage
taken out when I turned fifty. Yeah, it was wear

(05:06):
and tear, but I had I had a couple of
knee surgeries and then it just it was just getting
worse and worse and worse and worse, and I went,
I gotta do something about this. The left one is fine,
I'll never have to do anything to the left one.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Is that your lead leg or your trail leg?

Speaker 1 (05:22):
That is my lead leg?

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Okay, okay, so the trail leg's got to come up
tight into your body when you go over a hurdle,
and I just can't bend it enough.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
I can't get my heel in close to my butt.
So I've been over a hurdle every year up until
this spring. I went over them last year. I still
hurdled in practice, so a little bit not fast, but
I can still get I could still get over them.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Did you coach the spring?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yes? I did. Yeah, I got two girls into the
state meet.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, it's hard to get kids into the state meet.
I mean it's pretty you know, in the whole state,
they're only six sixteen kids get in, and I got
two of them in the hundred hurdles and one in
the three hundred hurdles.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Okay, Now in your Washington correct? Yes? How many? How
many divisions do they have for the state in Washington?

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Probably seven, I'm guessing seven. There's little, tiny, tiny schools.
I don't really small schools. And then one, A, two, A,
three A. I think there's seven divisions and we're in
triple A, so that's the second to the largest.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, yeah, pretty students in the school. Are we talking
about thousand?

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh yeah, more than that probably, I'm guessing twelve hundred maybe.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Okay, yeah, right, So we like to do through lines
let our audience know how we've come to know our guests,
how they came on our radar. And we had Coach
Hoyt from AZUSA Pacific. He was at Jack Brie show
and he was talking about him kind of how he
runs his program and how he's running throughout the years,

(07:04):
and he brought you up that you know, you were
someone who coached hurtles for him and you were a
stand up comedian and how that kind of worked and
Rich and I's kind of ears perked up and was
like a stand up comedian and maybe we got done.
I went, I looked you up and I was like, Rich,
we got to have him on and we just we
just had Mick Bettencourt on probably about two months ago.

(07:27):
He's another comedian that we love. We love is writing
and stuff that he does. But we've also had Brandon
Tobler on the podcast as well. So anytime we have
an opportunity to get a comic gun, we're gonna do
our best job.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
To get Greg Warren. If you had Greg Warren.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Trying trying hard for us, yeah, yeah, he's a great guy.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, a great act got a bunch of funny wrestling material.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh yeah, some some good stuff that hits home some
some of his doctor's office bits about his way at
the doctor's office. Right, so you were you taught, but
you were also for a long time coached and were
torn right.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
So yeah, I started. I did my very first open
mic in nineteen eighty four. I was twenty eight years old.
That's kind of old to start comedy. But I was
living in Pasco, Washington, a long ways from any comedy,
and I went and did an open mic in Seattle
and went really well. And then I started performing as

(08:33):
much as possible, which was hard to do where I
was living. But I was coaching at the time, you know.
I graduated in nineteen seventy nine, went right to work
as a fourth grade teacher in a high school track coach,
and then for a couple of years I was doing
both when I first started stand up, and then I
quit in eighty six to do comedy full time. And

(08:53):
I've been doing stand up full time ever since. But
I always coached because I liked it, you know, I
always coached on this. There was several years, about about
six where I was still competing and and doing stand up,
but I used to tell people I was the best
hurdler hurdler comedian in the world, because I'm pretty sure

(09:18):
I was the only one. But I was competing and
doing stand up at the same time. And I've always
coached on the side. I've always enjoyed it. Every spring,
I have those hurdlers that I work with, and sometimes
I turn down gigs if it's a big meet and
I want to be there, So that's kind of That's
kind of how I've been stuck with it ever since.

(09:39):
And every year I think I'm going to quit, and
then I get a freshman that's pretty good, and I go, oh,
I got to see this one all the way through
till they.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Got so how much?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Sorry, Rich? How much did be in an athlete and
being a coach help you for just the grind of
stand up comedy, doing the open mics, the reject having
people not pay attention to your or boo yeah, and
then having a all right, I gotta go do this again,
or oh, I gotta go find another open mic. Do
you think being an athlete being a hurler that helped

(10:12):
you for your stand up comedy?

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Absolutely, It's the work ethic and the mental process of
it too, the mental toughness, the way you face things,
that absolutely helped me. I think being an athlete I
learned right away when I first started, because a lot
of times when you start in comedy, you do these
competitions and you're competing against other which is weird that
you're competing in comedy, but that's what you do. And

(10:37):
watching these other comedians freak out about the other comics,
you know what I mean, They're all looking around at
the other comedians. What are they gonna say, what are
they gonna wear, what are they gonna do? And I
remember right away I was one of my earlier competitions.
I was like, you can't worry about these other people.
You only can worry about yourself. And I took that
directly from track. You know, when you're standing at the

(10:58):
starting line and you're looking down at ten hurdles in
front of you, ten hurdles right there. Yes, you're racing
the guys on each side of you. You are racing
the guys on each side of you, but you're also
you have to execute those ten hurdles perfectly, and then
it'll the the guys on each side of you that'll
take care of itself, and I recognize that. When I

(11:18):
was in a comedy competition. Right away, I'm like, I
can't worry about these other guys. All I can do
is worry about me, execute my set, and everything else
will take care of itself. So right away that paid off.
But yeah, the grind, the work ethic and not getting
down and getting back up every time, huge difference.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Well, Brett, I heard you talk about your lack of
success in high school early on in baseball. That kind
of led you to your career in track and field
with that origin story, and then you got right into
teaching and coaching right out of college. Where did what
led you to stand up comedy and what made you
decide that you wanted to do an open mic? Did

(11:59):
you do theater and things like that in school or anything?
Or I just class clown?

Speaker 1 (12:05):
No, not even the class clown. I was just drawn
to it. You know, Back when I was in high
school in the seventies, the only place you ever saw
comedy was on the Johnny Carson Show. So I was
always drawn to stand ups. I really liked him, and
as I got older and into college, I thought I
want to try that. I kind of want to. I
think I can do that. I want to try it.

(12:27):
But this was late seventies, early eighties, and it was
like where do you learn? Where do you go? And
then comedy really started to take off about nineteen seventy
nine eighty. All of a sudden there was this boom
where it was spreading all over the country and I
finally I didn't have the guts to try it. I
was scared to do it, and it took me until
I was twenty eight years old. I was writing the

(12:47):
whole time, though, I thought I want to do this,
I want to do this, I want to do this.
So I was writing in notebooks stuff that I thought
was funny. And then I finally I thought, you're not
getting any younger, so you better try this. And I
did it at twenty eight and I quit teaching at thirty.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Do you remember what your first joke at that first
open mic wash?

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah? I made fun of the MC that had just
this is there was a mass murder, And this is
a good premise for a joke, But there was a
mass murder in Seattle in nineteen eighty three in a
gambling casino. These Asians robbed this. These Asian guys robbed
this poker game and they killed thirteen people and took

(13:29):
all their money. And then a year later they had
caught two of these guys and one of them was
still on the lamb. And the guy that brought me
up that night was Arnold Mukai. He was a Japanese
local Japanese comedian, and they were moving, they were trying
to find him. They thought they were about to capture him.
And I went on stage. I said, I don't know
why they're having so much trouble finding. I can't think

(13:50):
of the guy's name I go, but I think he's
our MC tonight, and got a big laugh, got a
big laugh, and I was able to go because it
was my first time on stage, and I got a laugh,
and I was able to just kind of settle down
and then do the jokes as I had written them.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Okay, so the first the first night went pretty well.
To how many open mics did you do before you
had your first bomb?

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Uh, Well, my first open mic ever went great, and
I got into the Seattle Comedy competition, and I truly
did not know it was anything other than an open mic,
but apparently it was an audition and I passed the audition,
and the lady came up to me after I got
off stage. She said, we thought you were great. We
want you in the competition, and I said, I don't

(14:33):
I don't understand. She said well, I said, isn't this
an open mic and she said yes, but it's also
an audition for the Seattle Comedy Competition. We thought you
were very funny and we want you to be in
the competition. And she explained to me what it was.
To come back next Tuesday and the competition would start.
So my second time on stage, my first time on stage,

(14:55):
I was at an open mic. My second time on stage,
I was in a competition with nineteen firofessionals, and all
of a sudden, I didn't look quite as good to
the audience as the other the previous night. So I
had done the same I did the exact same jokes
that I'd done the previous Tuesday, and it did not
go as well, and I didn't know what to do.

(15:16):
I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't know.
I didn't know. I was like, why didn't that I
did the same jokes? What happened? And now I realized
they don't always hit the same and that night in
with those professionals, my amateur status was probably showing very much.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Brod. You mentioned for years writing in those notebooks before
you really started going on stage a lot. How much
of your writing when you first started translated? How much
was oh, this is only funny in my head, And
how much does it just depend on the crowd in
the night?

Speaker 1 (15:52):
The crowd that I'd absolutely make a difference. But I always,
I was just telling my kids this a couple of
weeks ago, talking about it. I always I just instinctively
knew how to write for stand up when I first
started and started writing jokes and writing a monologue, I
just I just because I'd watched so many stand ups

(16:13):
on TV. I understood the rhythm and the beats of
the jokes, and so I kind of I got that
part right away. So I think that's why I was
able to succeed pretty quickly, because I knew how to
write instinctively. I wish I could tell you how I
learned that. I don't know just by watching stand ups.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I suppose what's the difference of writing a script and
write in a monologue for stand up?

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Well, a monologue, you're just you're just trying to be
really efficient with your words. Just get out all the
dead weight and get to the joke, get to the funny.
Where you're writing a script, you can tell a story
and and have a lot longer to set things up.
So I find it hard to tell a story because
I want to get to the joke. I want to

(17:01):
get to the laugh. I have a lot of laughs
per minute in my act. I'm getting better at it
as far as being able to tell a story, but yeah,
you just have more time when you're writing script to
tell the story.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Brad be based in Seattle and having as the success
that you've had for as long as you had early
on as you were going through the process, was there
any ever any thought to like, oh I need to
I need to be in La, or I need to
get to New York or We've heard people like Josh
Wolf and Joey Diaz talk about, you know, the Seattle
comedy scene in the nineties and how good that was

(17:34):
and how much stage time was available at that time,
what really helped them Brodie Stevens grow. Was there was
there ever all those guys?

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, was there ever thought to go La or New York?

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Or were you Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about it.
And this in nineteen ninety three, I'd done like three
television shows, national TV shows, and it was like I
had a little bit of heat, and I thought, man,
it might be time. You know. I was talking to
my wife and she was pregnant at the time with
our first, first child, and we were talking about maybe

(18:10):
it's time to move to la And then I had
been at that point, I had been a volunteer assistant
at the University of Washington for seven years and the
day my son was born in April of ninety four,
the following morning, my wife was diagnosed with kidney cancer

(18:30):
and given a fifty percent chance to live. And so
we got that news while we were holding our one
day old baby, and right at that moment, I went, well,
my comedy career is over. And there was a job
opening at the University of Washington assistant track job open,
and I said, I need to get that job because
I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here. I may not

(18:50):
be my comedy might be done, and I might be
a full time track coach raising an infant child while
my wife is dying. Now she's fine, and she that
was thirty one years ago. We had a daughter three
years later. Everything turned out well, but at that moment
I went, I'm not going anywhere. I am staying here.
And then, you know, as we had the kids and

(19:12):
we were raising I'm like, I don't want to move
to LA and take my kids to LA or New York.
And I'm doing fine. I was doing fine as a
comic here, being based here in Seattle. So I never went.
But there was a time when we thought about it,
but I never I never went.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Did you did you take a step back from comedy
during that time and take that full time job or
did you kind of things kind of work out before
you how to make that decision.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Well, I was still Yeah, I took the job. It
was a full time job, and I didn't tell anybody
in comedy that I'd taken it, because sometimes in comedy,
if you tell people I'm taking a full time job,
they think, oh, he's getting out and I'm going to
quit calling and offering him dates. So I didn't tell anybody,
but I was still taking dates. I was working all
over the Northwest anything I could, and the University of Washington,

(20:02):
the guys I coached with were very nice good about
letting me have some time off. I went out in
each summer. You know, what are you doing, track coach
in the summer, You're not doing anything. So I took
dates in the summer, and then I would also sometimes
I would if there was kids that I wanted to
recruit around the country, I would book a date, like

(20:23):
in Denver and go down there for the weekend and
then rent a car and go visit a couple of
kids in Denver and do some recruiting while I was
on the road. So I was able to do that,
And yeah, I went from doing probably in the early nineties,
I was probably doing GEE two hundred and fifty shows
a year, and then those three years that I was
coaching full time, I was probably doing about ninety shows

(20:43):
a year. It cut way back. But then in ninety seven,
the new brand new track coach that came in at
the University of Washington. They hired a brand new head
coach and he was also a hurdle specialist. So he said,
you've done a great job, and I really appreciate everything
you'd done, but we don't need you anymore. And at

(21:06):
the time I was pissed, but it was the you know,
it worked out great. I went back doing stand up
full time, so it was good.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
To do. Topic of you being a stand up comedian
never come up in recruiting calls.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Uh yeah, sometimes I would also, I would back then
you didn't email or text or anything. You actually sent
letters and cards right to these kids, and I would
always I was always writing funny stuff, and they would
tell me later, You're you're different when you recruit. All
the other people are real serious and you're not, and
I'm like, that's just my That's just it's just who

(21:43):
I am.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, you know now that you mention that Tracker Fields
is people take it seriously, sometimes too seriously. Sometimes they
take themselves too seriously, and sometimes it's just a laugh
or a joke at the right moment that can take
an athlete from you know, being anxious or overthinking things
and kind of calm them down. I'd imagine your comedy

(22:08):
has probably helped a lot of athletes in that regard,
you know, pre mei jitters and those sorts of things
where you know you can kind of tell their hey,
you're you're maybe overthinking this, your wasting energy. You probably
crack a good joke and make them, make them laugh
and absolutely easy.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, absolutely, you can diffuse the situation like that or
make it a little lighter and let them know this
isn't all that important. I mean there's more things. Yes
it is important, but uh, it's not the end of
the world. So yeah, I can. I've done that a
number of times.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Do you have any track specific jokes that you crack.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
And not in my act? You know, because I know
Greg Warren does a great job about talking about his
wrestling career, But I've never people when you, for me,
when you start talking telling them something you do off stage,
they think it's a setup and they don't believe you, right,
you know, they're like, where's this going? And he was
never a hurdler, This doesn't make sense. You know, they
don't believe you. So I've never really done any track

(23:05):
specific stuff. I've done stuff about tearing my hamstring.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Right, correct me if I'm wrong. But you were still
competed in the hurdles until your thirties, correct.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, yeah, I just ran unattached. You know, on track
and field. Once you get out of college, if you're
still competing and want to compete, you can run unattached.
So I ran unattached until I was thirty four. You know,
most a lot of guys that do that are usually
distance runners that just keep running a few more years.

(23:36):
Every once in a while you'll get a jumper or a
hurdler or somebody wants to keep competing. And I actually
got better after I got out of college. I ran
faster and more consistent. After I got out of college.
I pr'd at thirty, and I just kept competing. I
kept training and competing because that's what I'd been doing.
It was my lifestyle. It was weird because when I

(23:57):
was on the road with these other comedians, you know,
they'd stay up late and drink and I may too.
But the next day I would find the local track
and go run some intervals and they're like, what are
you doing. I'm like, I gotta go run some three
hundreds or find a hill that I want to run,
or some stairs or something. So I just worked out
on the road and trained and competed till I was
thirty four.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
So you said you pr when you were thirty, and
I'm gonna guess you probably graduated college when you were
like twenty two twenty three, So there's some time there.
What point was your comedy. How long were you into
your comedy where you felt like you were, for lack
of a better term, hitting prs or kind of finding
your groove.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
I started in eighty and then I started full time
at eighty six, and it was probably a couple of
years later because I moved up pretty quick. I didn't
realize it at the time, but I kind of moved
up the chain pretty quickly. And I've learned since that
people that end up being professional doing well in comedy,
they all moved up pretty quick because it's like any

(25:01):
other skill, you're just better at it, you know. I
Mean there's some people that first time you're show in
some Algea bro they get it right away. They're just
better at it. There's guys that throw one hundred miles
an hour in baseball, they just can they're better at it.
That's the way it is with a lot of athletes
and stand ups kind of that way. The people that
are good at it are usually pretty good at it initially,

(25:24):
and they move up pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Do you have a show or a comedian that came
into town that next thing you know, you're opening for them,
or you're doing the intro for them, and you had
to kind of pinch yourself.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Early on, I worked with a whole I was in
awe of everybody I worked with. At the very beginning,
I was absolutely in awe. I got to work with
more music acts early on, got to open for more people.
I opened for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton when I
was only been doing comedy about six years. I opened
for John and Twistle from the Who. When I was

(26:00):
first starting out, Eric Burden, I opened for some a
bunch of music acts that I was like, you got
to be kidding me, this is great.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
How did that come about for you?

Speaker 1 (26:11):
It was from an agent's they they wanted, you know.
It used to be more common that comedians opened for
music acts, and music acts opened for comics. It's not
as common anymore. The first comedian I ever saw live
in my entire life was George Carlin when I was
fifteen years old, and he was at the height of
his fame, and he had a guy, Kenny Rankin, who
was a guitar player, and Kenny Rankin opened for him

(26:34):
and it was really and I became a Kenny Rankin
fan that night. But that used to be more common,
and so it's still that's how I've you know, I
worked with Johnny Mathis for eighteen years. He just retired
in May, but I was with Johnny Mathis for eighteen years.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
So you bring up opening for George Carlin, who is
one of them.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Well, I did not open for George Carlin.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
I just watched saw him.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
You saw my bad right, so you know he's a
mount rush More and he's not really a clean comic.
But I've seen that you are a clean comic. Does
that do you have to try to do that or
is that just who you are to beginning?

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Oh well, when I first started, I figured my mom
was going to come see me at some point, and
I didn't want to piss her off and make her
listen to her complain because I knew, I knew who
she is. She would have just you know, started telling
me how terrible I was. And so when I first started,
I just made sure, can I do this in front

(27:37):
of my mom? And my mom is ninety five years old,
she's still alive, so maybe when she kicks, I'll turn blue.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Well, brad our mom listens to the podcast and we
do a clean podcast because we've had too many talking
to so watch our language, so.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Right, exactly, we can relate And I just said, pissed me, Sorry, mom, Brad.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
You know, there's this thing we were talking about as
a coach, you know, cracking some jokes to get some
people to relax before their race. But you've competed at
a very high level. I'm sure there's some anxiety that
maybe comes not now, but the first time performing on stage,
of the first couple of times performing on stage. Is
there a comparison between gearing up or getting into the

(28:25):
starting box for a big race and having someone, you know,
the MC bringing you up to do one of your
first sets.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Oh. Absolutely. It's just like when you're standing behind the
curtain and that you can hear the introduction and that
you know that curtains about to open, you're about to
walk out. It feels the same way is when that
starter says runners to your marks. It feels the same
way mentally, like okay, here we are, it's time to go.
It's very much. It's very similar. In fact, I've told people,

(28:54):
you know, like nineteen ninety that was my last year,
that was my last year competing, and that would have
been my sixth year in comedy. But I remember standing
there at the starting line right before a race when
I was thirty four years old, and I remember thinking,
I'm more nervous now in my twentieth year of hurdling

(29:14):
than I am when this gun. You know, I'm standing
behind the blocks, sweats off, stand behind your blocks, gentlemen.
And I remember thinking I'm more nervous now than I
ever am before a comedy show, and so that I
missed that part of it, that that fuck buzz. But
it's very similar. As you're walking on stage, is the

(29:35):
same feeling as runners to your marks, and.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
On the flip side of that, you get the same
kind of you know, runners high for lack of a
better term, after a big pr at a big meet,
as you can absolutelyage after killing it.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean a race is only fourteen
and a half seconds and you may be up there
for an hour. But it's very very similar, absolutely very similar.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
You still get that today, Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
And you know it's never whenever I'm on stage, I'm
always there's always some point where I go I get
to do this, I get to do this for a living.
You know, It's never lost on me. How lucky I am.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
So brad you mentioned that how lucky you are, and
you have to remind yourself from time to time. I
get to do this, right, Because there's probably a goal
ofviers to be a comic, and there's not really a
conventional way to become a stand up comedian.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Right.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
It's probably a little bit easier nowadays than when you
got into it, just because there's open mics everywhere in
every state, and there's a lot of podcasts, And because
there's a lot of podcasts, there's a lot of people
who want to want to be stand up comedians. Do
you have any advice for a younger comic who kind
of wants to get into it. They might have a
little stage fright, they might have some writer's block. Any

(30:50):
advice you would give someone want to get into stand up?

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, go to an open mic. Don't sign up, just
go and watch and you'll see some of the most awful,
full comedians you've ever seen in your life. And you'll
cringe worthy comics and you're like h and you'll sit
there and you'll go, I can't I'm not that bad.
And I've told people that just go go watch a
couple of open minds. If you really want to get
on stage and try it, and you'll go, oh, I'm

(31:16):
not that bad. I can do that.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Have you ever had an athlete that you coach that
you got into stand up?

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, a couple of them. Do you know Bo Johnson? Who?
Bo Johnson's all over the internet right now. He's a
very funny comic. He was a Shortcress that's where I've
coached for the last seventeen years. He was a Shotcress
track kid. I didn't really push him into it, but
he maybe I don't know if he knew I was
a comic, but yeah, he's doing he's doing really well.

(31:46):
And he was a Shortcress kid. And then one of
the one of the guys I coached at the University
of Washington, the Hurdles, Skip Moody tried. He tried stand
up for a while in Seattle, but didn't didn't stick
with it, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
So what's it like for you to see an athlete
that you coached that's a stand up now.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Well, it's it's it's great. I like it. But you
know when they think, oh, a lot of people think, oh,
they meet you and they talked in two a year
of the year coach, and they think, well, if you
can do it, I can probably do it too. In fact,
the guy that used to live across the street from
me decided he wanted to do comedy and I just
for like rolled my eyes and he says, oh, I
can do it. I'm funny, I'm you know, you're doing it.

(32:26):
And so he went and did open mics for about
five or six months and then quit. You won, Yeah, exactly.
But people, that's the thing about stand up to is
the you know, when you're it looks easy. If you
do it well, it looks really easy. That's the beauties
stand up. It looks how hard can that be? He's

(32:47):
just up there talking. That's not that hard. Okay, go
ahead and give a shot. That's the beauty of stand
up though. If it looks easy.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Same same thing in Track of Fields, you know, like, oh,
I'm you know, it's like poetry in motion. They make
it look very fluid and very easy. But all the
work and everything that goes into it, there's a lot
and it's hard.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Oh. I tell people that all the time. I go
lit those marathoners, and you watch those marathoners that's considered
distance where they're running slow. I go those world class
distance runners are running thirteen miles an hour for two hours.
You ever see somebody on the gym at the gym,
they set the thing up to ten miles an hour
and they're just flying, and then everybody in the gym goes,

(33:32):
what's this idiot doing? Sprinting on the treadmill and they're
only running ten miles an hour. The world class marathoners
are running thirteen miles an hour, and it looks really smooth.
And if you're standing on a track, I mean you
guys have been. If you're standing on the track, you're
watching a five thousand meters or ten thousand meters. Those
guys are rolling when they go past you, and they're

(33:54):
so fluid when they go. Yeah, it's the same way
I've told people. Like a high jump. You see somebody
jumping seven six or seven seven or seven eight on TV,
and it looks cool when I go, if you ever
get a chance, go stand next to the pit when
they when they're jumping seven eight, because you'll go, holy crap,
that's high.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I'm sure you've probably seen a lot of high level
track and field. Do you have any any like top
three performances that you've ever seen that stick out.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, well, I don't know that. It's a good question,
really good question. I went to the seventy six Olympics
in Montreal when I was twenty years old. My best
friend and I drove all the way back to Montreal
and spent ten days in Montreal and we watched all
kinds of track and field at the seventy six Olympics.
So any iconic moments from that, I was there for
most of those I was at. I was at the

(34:50):
NC two A Championships since in like ninety three, ninety four,
ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven, I was at all
those meets, at the Olympic trials and ninety six, I've
seen all kinds of great performances.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Have you been to the new Hayward Field.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I have not. I have not been there. I've been
past it. I have not been inside it yet. Our
track team, our high school track team, competed down there
this year and it was it was about four weeks
after I had my knee surgery and I was not
ready to travel yet. But it's spectacular. I mean, it's beautiful.
Have you been in it?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
I have not. I've only been in the old the
old facility.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
But yeah, same with me. I've been in the number
of times.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
When they were first starting to break around and do
all that stuff, it was controversial. A lot of the
old heads were a little upset by it. But when
you see the state of the art stuff and the
Bowerman Tower and all that stuff, it is, oh yeah,
it's quite impressively.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
It's remarkable. It's it's it's the best track and field
facility in the world.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Yeah right, I'm curious to how your process writing Joe,
coming up with jokes. Has that changed. You're still putting
them in a notebook and then going up on stage.
How's that?

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Absolutely? I still write them down. It's harder now for
me because I have this level of expectation for myself
and I'm doing you know, when I perform now, I
do about a seventy minute set each night, So to
try three new minutes to throw it in somewhere, it's
kind of hard for me to do it. I still

(36:27):
do it, but I can also get lazy and go
I'll try it tomorrow night. I'll try it tomorrow night.
But if I got something new and I think it's working,
I'll stumble through it. Early in my set because I
figure if it doesn't go well, I'll dig myself out
of it. But yeah, it's still the same process for me.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
How how do you turn them over? How long do
you kind of get that seventy minutes harness that in
for a special or CD? How how much you try
to get get new stuff in and put the old
stuff out?

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Well, it's a that's a good question, you know, because
you know, until I exploded on when I went viral
and all of a sudden everybody'd seen all my stuff.
I went on stage every night for the most part,
pretty anonymously. People didn't know who they were seeing. They
were going to see comedy. And then I'd come out
and I had an hour and it'd killed every night.
And I really got away with doing the same hour,

(37:21):
pretty much the same hour for several a number of
years because it worked really well. And then all of
a sudden, I went it went viral, and I go, oh, crap,
I got to write some new stuff, so I did.
I started writing new stuff. Most of the stuff from
those two specials that are on YouTube I don't do
in my act anymore. I resurrected some old material that

(37:41):
was thirty years old, it was still good, but I
just didn't do it anymore. I've resurrected some old stuff
and I've written more and gotten I can write pretty
I can be pretty prolific when I sit out and
make myself do it.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
How often are you making yourself sit down and do.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
It this week or normally normally? Like it goes for me,
it goes in streaks. As far as how I create,
it just goes in streaks. Sometimes I'll like, Oh, that's funny,
that's funny, write that down, write that down. And then
sometimes I'm like, I haven't thought anything funny in ten days.
It just goes in streaks.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Do you believe in writer's block or is that a
myth um.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I've never really had it, so I don't know. I
absolutely believe it's probably for some people. It's probably a
real thing. For me. For a while, I was just lazy,
and once I decided, once everybody'd seen all my stuff online,
I'm like, oh, crap, I got to write some new stuff.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
And you mentioned going viral, and I think richid at
the beginning of the show it was twenty eighteen when
you went viral, so you had already had thirty plus
years as a Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
A year thirty four of my career and I was
in the comedy business. I was known, but the general
public didn't know who I was. I was I had
a very successful career in year thirty four. I was
doing great. I was working all the time and making
decent money. And then all of a sudden, that dry
bar video got It got twelve million views in forty

(39:13):
eight hours, and it had thirty three million views in
ten days, and that just changed everything. It just changed everything.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
So thirty four years and you were supporting a family,
you made a career out of it, and then twelve
million views and like that. But it wasn't like you
were trying to do that. That just happened because you
were putting the time in all the time, and the
right people saw it at the right time. You hit
the algorithm. Well what was that for you? Was that just, oh,

(39:44):
this is payoff. I've been doing this for thirty four
years about time.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Well, no one was more surprised than me because that,
you know, that material that blew up. I thought, I've
been doing this in my act for ten years. Why
is it so big now? But the right people saw
it and then shared it. You know, I was surprised,
and to be honest with you, I've told people I'd
almost given up in year thirty four, like nothing's ever
going to happen. That's okay. I've had a good career,

(40:09):
I've had a wonderful career, but nothing BIG's ever going
to happen. I think when I quit Karen, it's all
of a sudden when things pop for me. When I went, ah,
nothing's going to happen, then it finally happened. It was
very odd. It's still odd to me in year now.
I'm year forty forty one or something like that, and
I'm surprised. I get recognized quite often, and that's always

(40:33):
odd to me, very odd to me. I'm grateful for it.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
We mentioned before that video you kind of had a
successful career. People came, maybe not necessarily to see you,
but they were just coming to see comedy. After that,
did you see an uptick in now people are coming
wanting just to see you specifically?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, And it was very mentally, it was a big
change because you know, for all those up to year
thirty four, I was headlining clubs all over the country.
I did a lot of corporate events, which because I
work clean and corporate events make money, and I was
opening for several acts, and I was working a bunch
of cruise ships, which pay well. So I was doing

(41:16):
very well up until year thirty four, but always on stage.
Up until that moment, I knew walking on stage, these
people don't know who I am, and I hope to exceed,
and I generally exceeded their expectations because I'd come out
and I'd kill and these people all this guy was great.
And then all of a sudden, after thirty four years,

(41:39):
I thought, these people know who I am, and will
I meet their expectations. So mentally it was kind of
a kind of an adjustment to make, like, oh boy,
I hope I don't let them down. Where in the
past I was like, oh, these people are in for
a big, big fun. I've gotten pass that a little bit, like, Okay,
these people are here to see me, and they're excited

(41:59):
to see me, so there's no pressure there because they're
giving me the benefit of the doubt. Whereas before people
sit there with their arms crossed, go and I hope
this guy's good.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Is it like like a musical act? Now when people
are coming to see that know you do they want
to hear the hits? Like, are they do they wanting
to hear the stuff that they saw on drybar?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, that's always it's always hard for comedians. It's one
of those things were always talking about, like, because people
see certain bits online and they love them, and then
they come and if you don't do them, they're disappointed.
And some people go, oh, I've already heard all that.
So I never know what the answer is. I really
never know what the answer is. So when I do
my show, I'll give them some a couple of greatest hits,

(42:43):
but hopefully they hear stuff they haven't heard before. It's
really always a hard question because I know comedians I've
worked with for years, and I'm like, I want to
see this guy do that bit because I love that bit.
I want to see it, and I think sometimes the
audience is that way too. But I never know, because
sometimes I'll get people sending me messages DMS or something

(43:04):
like I've heard all of that crap, and I'm like,
I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
I think Jimmy and I fall into that camp a
little bit. I think we've walked out of a comedy
show or two that we're like, oh, we've heard all
of that, Yeah, but we've also there was a time
we went to Helium in Philadelphia to see Ari Shafir
and we left that show and we thought said to
each other, I think we were the only two people
in that room that knew who he was.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Kind of relate to what you were saying, is like
people come. People just go out to see comedy as
like a Friday night or Saturday night. That's kind of
their night out where. And Jimmy and Ice cases like
we were going specifically to see people because they were
in our area, and it was like, this is an opportunity.
But I guess there's a whole population of people that
just go to see comedy, regardless of who it is,

(43:50):
just to be entertained.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Right exactly. You know, all there's comics, you know, Jim Gaffigan,
People go to see Jim Gaffigan. They want to hear
him do hot pockets, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (43:58):
And and oh god, drawing on white tater salad.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, It's just certain things you want to hear
out of guys because that's their hook. What's his name
that comes out the machine, Burt Kreisher. People want to
hear that story and they want him to take a
shirt off. I mean that's they If he doesn't do that,
they're going to riot. So there's certain guys that have
bits that they have to do them.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Brad, you mentioned doing doing clubs. You mentioned doing the
corporate gigs. Do you have a particular gig or a
set that they say, you know, you die a thousand
deaths or you had you had a Heckler one that
kind of just stands out and kind of makes you
cringe when you think about it.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
You mean a corporate gig or just a bar gag.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Any any gig in general that was either a nightmare
or you wound up turning around and it was hilarious.
Any any stories like that.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Oh, I got a bunch of stories like that, But
probably the worst one I've ever heard. Did was in
high River, Alberta. And it was a little bar. It
was a kind of a sports bar in high River, Alberta,
which is I think about an hour south at Calgary.
It's the middle of nowhere. And the locals this bar
had just been purchased by an East Indian guy and

(45:17):
so they were all the people in the sports bar
are already upset because the old owner had sold it
to this Indian guy, and they were all these white,
racist guys. And the show was supposed to start at
eight o'clock and there was like twelve TVs. It was
in a bar, and they all had on the Calgary
Flames game. And this Indian guy went around at eight
o'clock and it was the middle of the second period

(45:39):
and he turned off the game all through the bar
because he wanted to start comedy. And we're all like, no, no,
let's wait till the game's over. And as soon as
he started turning off the TV, every guy in that place.
It was near riot and the owner went on stage,
the new owner, which they hated already because he was
the new owner of their sports bar, and he was

(45:59):
making changes and they're just yelling at him, turn on
the game, turn on the game, turn on what are
we doing? And he goes, no, shut up, we're doing comedy.
Comedy starts at eight o'clock. Shut up, we're doing comedy.
S No, no hockey, We're doing comedy. The first guy's
an American and he just turned and handed me the
mic and I was like, oh, my god, I had
to walk on stage and face these guys. I did

(46:21):
thirty minutes. It was awful. The stage it was a
picnic table with a piece of plywood on it, and
I remember looking up at the spotlight and the spotlight
was a headlight in a Folgers can. And I've told
people in comedy you never know if you're in the
big leagues, but you know when you're in the minor leagues.
And that night, I was like, this is just awful.

(46:44):
This is just horrific.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Well, on the flip side of that, do you have
some favorite rooms in the United States so you like
to perform at.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
There's a lot of good clubs. I get to work now,
you know, I've done the Grand Old Opry now I
think eighteen or nineteen times, and that's just I mean,
it's iconic. It's the Grand Old Opry. You walk out
and you stand in the circle, you know, I mean,
that's everything in the world, and that audience is just
always red hot, and it's you know, it holds forty
four hundred people and it's usually close to full. So

(47:14):
that's performing at the Opry is an ultimate. But there's
a lot of good clubs in this country, and now,
like I said, everything's changed because people are buying tickets
to see me, so it's it's much easier now.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Is there a difference in the pre performance jitters from
a four thousand person room maybe supposed to like one
hundred person.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Not really, not really, it's kind of the same. You know.
The first time I ever did the Opry, I told
my wife she was with me, and I was pacing
around backstage. I go, God, I'm nervous. I haven't been
nervous in thirty years. I'm kind of nervous. And that
was odd to be that nervous because I've hadn't been
nervous before. You know, you're a little bit anxious you
want to start. But I was like, I hope this

(48:00):
goes well. And actually, the first time I did the Opry,
I mean I did like twelve minutes, and this was
right after that video had gone viral, right, so everybody
knew the bit and I did that material, and when
I walked off, I told my wife, I think that's
the best set I've ever had in my life. And

(48:24):
since then, I've gotten to go back like eighteen nineteen times.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Rad forty one years in and obviously this is your career,
this is what you do. But as an athlete, I'm
sure you have goals, you have stuff that you want
to achieve. Do you have any goals or any kind
of buculus you want to check off?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
That's another good question. I'm actually gonna I'm doing another
special late this year. I'm going to shoot another special
and it'll probably be on Nate Land or eight hundred
pound Gorilla and hopefully maybe Hulu or something like that.
And then, because it'll be a bunch of good exposure,
I'll be able to do a bunch of dates. But
I don't want to do a bunch of dates right now.

(49:11):
I'm at the point in my life where I'm going
to back off a little bit. I've been doing it
for forty years. I am sixty nine years old. My
younger brother passed away last spring from cancer, and my
older sister is terminally ill right now, and I think
the universe is telling me maybe it's time to start

(49:31):
checking some stuff off your bucket list, not comedy wise,
just go back and see some things in the world.
You know, I told you I work cruise ships for
twenty four years. I've been all over the world and
there were all kinds of places that I went to,
and I thought, I want to bring my wife back
here someday, and it's time to do that. I'm going
to keep performing, I'm just not going to do I'm

(49:52):
not going to do one hundred and fifty shows a
year anymore.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Can you care to share any of those other outside
of comedy buckets things you want to do?

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Yeah, I want to go. I went to you know,
I went to Estonia and Poland and Sweden on a
cruise ship and I just was like, oh, I want
to I want to go back there in the South Pacific, Tahiti, Bora, Bora, Fiji,
those places I went to South America. I'd like to
go back to all of those places. I'd love to
do those. And one of them actually I made in

(50:23):
junior college. I ran, I ran track with a guy
from Senegal, and uh to the miracle of Facebook, I
found him again several years ago, and he has an
open invitation to come see him in Senegal. And my
wife has no desire to go to Senegal. So I said,
I think I'm going to go to Senegal and see
my buddy. So that's going to happen sometime soon too.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
That's great to hear. I have two things off of that.
Jimmy and I are both junior college all Americans. So
the junior college system and what that does for athletes
and students is near and dear to our hearts. So
now that you've added that to our little conversation here, yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Same with me. I went to Spokane Community College and
at the time, the community colleges here in state of
Washington were really strong, and the Spokane Community College I
am in that team from nineteen seventy six is in
the en Whack Hall of Fame and it was called
perhaps the greatest junior college track team ever. I think

(51:21):
there were sixteen of us that left there and went
Division one. I really wish the junior colleges could support
track and field like they used to because it was
such a great stepping stone. So many people that came
out of high school and two more years of junior
college and then they got to compete and move on
to a four year school.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Yeah, we've had quite a few junior college coaches, both
from wrestling and from cross country and track, of who
actually not too long ago had West Miller on from
South Plains Community College. Down in Texas.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
They are.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
They just won their fifth consecutive men's JUCO national title
and track and field outdoors.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
So yeah, there's still some good JC track teams in
the South. There's still they still exist here in the Northwest,
but you know, they are poorly funded and not enough
money to really travel and have a lot of like
it was in the seventies. It's too bad.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yeah. Going back to the cruise ships, man, I'm curious,
what is that experience, like, are you performing every night
or do you have one night while you're on the
cruise and you get to hang out and enjoy.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Yeah, it's a pretty good deal. It depends which cruise
line and how much you're working. Some of them now
they do have you working seven nights a week and
you do thirty minutes twice, and you can do the
same thirty minutes over and over and over because people
don't come in and see them more than once. The
ones I was working on, you usually had to do
two different forty five minutes shows, So I'd be on

(52:48):
the cruise ship for seven days and only had to
work twice, So it was a good deal. In the
other five days, I'm just a tourist with no responsibilities.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
That sounds amazing.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Yeah, it's a good gig, that's absolutely a good gig.
But at the same time, you're on a cruise ship
by yourself, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
It's like you don't get to bring your wife.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Well, you can, but you know, my wife was raising
kids and she's always worked full time, so it's hard
to do. I've done it a couple of times, but
most of the time, ninety five percent of the time,
I'm your I'm by myself. And you're on a cruise
by yourself, and it's like when you work in Vegas.
People go, oh, you're working in Vegas. That must be fine.
I go, I'm in Vegas by myself. It's the worst

(53:29):
place to be by yourself. It's some comedians will tell
you it's like being in working cruise ships is like
being in the nicest prison in the world, because you
are in the same way. In the cruise ship. The
first two days you're anonymous. You're just walking around the ship,
nobody knows who you are, and then you perform, everybody
sees you, and the next day, all of a sudden,
you're a star, right and people want to talk to
you and you know, stop and tell you they're horrible

(53:52):
jokes that they think you're going to laugh at, and
so you're kind of stuck with them for the rest
of the week.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
The best of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Brad going viral has that changed the way you kind
of see, you know, you don't have to get on
stage to make material, especially in the world that we
live in now with social media. People you know, hold
their phone out in front of them to put some
captions over next thing, you know, they have a video
with a million views. Have you kind of tried to

(54:25):
dabble on that avenue at all?

Speaker 1 (54:27):
No, not really. And my manager keeps telling me he
needs more content, he needs more content, and I'm like, Dowie,
I always they said you got to post every day.
I'm like, that sounds annoying to me.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
It is.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I try to I try to do some of it.
I was doing some stuff when I was first rehabbing
my knee. It was kind of fun, and I quit
doing that. But yeah, that's that's the thing about comedy now.
There's some people can get famous from some videos and
they don't even have an act, but they can sell
tickets and people out and they go, oh, I've seen
this guy online. He's really funny, and then they come

(55:03):
see him live and he's terrible live because he's not
a stand up. He's just funny on these clips.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Right, Brad, do you have any comedians now that you
love seeing that you If you see that they're going
to be in the club by you, you're going to
go and see them with your wife.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Oh, there's a lot of them. Greg Warren makes me laugh.
I told you that earlier. Greg Warren makes me laugh.
There's a lot of them. Brian Reagan makes me laugh,
and Jim Gaffigan. There's some Leanne Morgan who's a friend
of mine. She's a great comic. I've known Leanne for
twenty plus years. She's the same way. She blew up
older and now she's a big deal all over the place.

(55:43):
But there's Yeah, there's a lot of good comics. And
then you know, you, guys, if you're comedy fans, there's
a lot of good comedians in this country that people
aren't that they don't know their names.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Yeah, Brad, one last one I have for you if
Rich doesn't have one for you. Before we get into
the final for is there anything that we haven't talked about,
or any advice you'd give athletes that you don't want
to go to the unconventional route. Maybe not a stand
up but just something that you know, when they tell people, oh,

(56:14):
I want I want to be an actor, I want
to do theater, they might what you're not funny, Like,
why would you want to do that? You have any
advice for people.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Yeah, follow that, because you know I had. I just
had a really strong voice in my own head, I
guess telling me to try it. You can do this,
you can do this, you can do this. I mean,
I was teaching school in Pasco in the early eighties.
What makes you think you can do stand up? But
I really believed I could do it before I did it,
and I was right. So if there's somebody that has

(56:45):
a dream like that, give it a shot. I mean,
when I started doing stand up, the plan was if
this doesn't work out, I'm going to go back and
teach and coach. That was plan B and it's still
plan B. But I've never had to go back. And
that's the same way with anybody else. Any athletes that
have a different path they might want to take, do it.
Do it you're an athlete, You've worked hard. You know

(57:06):
how to put your head down and grind, give it
a shot, and if not, that's all right. It's the
same way with athletics. I tried. I didn't compete. I
didn't run as fast as I thought of, but I
did try.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Thank you. A lot of people need to hear that.
I know I need to hear that, So thank you.
I appreciate you sharing it. And Eyehlied, I have one
last thing. You said you had to Spokane Community College,
and I know that was I think you said seventy six,
so it was a little before. But were you around
when they shot Vision Quest up there?

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Yeah? Yeah, I knew one of the guys. He was
a wrestler from Pasco where I taught. That was my
first coaching job in Pascal and one of the wrestlers
in there was from Pascal High. He was I don't
know what his character was, but he was in the movie.
I remember that very well. Not a not a lot
of wrestling movie, a lot of track movies. I was

(58:02):
in Prefontaine, did you I saw that year?

Speaker 2 (58:06):
There were two of them, Visions Without Limits in Prefontaining.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Prefontaine, I was in Prefontaine in the very climactic scene
when Pre driving his car and he flips the car
and he's laying there dying. I run out of the
house and I try and save his life, and just
me and Oscar winner Jared Leto doing the scene together
and I try valiantly to pull the car off of him.

(58:31):
But I am not successful. And perhaps I could have
saved Pre's life, but I was I could get that
sports car off of him.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
Well, I gotta go back and watch.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Now, you gotta watch it. I'm in the credits, this
neighborhood man.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Okay, Yeah, I brought that across Riche's plate when we
were doing research for the podcast. And I'm curious because
you said you went to the seventy six Olympics. Do
you remember when Prefontaine passed away? Oh?

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Absolutely, because I was at Spokane, and you know, I
mean he was he was a Northwest icon, obviously, and
he we'd been in a couple of meets where he'd
been the you know that pre had been in because
you know how it is in the Pacific Northwest. You
go to a meet and it's you know, it's WSU,
it's Washington, it's Oregon. It's Oregon State, it's Spokane Community College,

(59:22):
it's it's central of Washington. You know how meets are
a bunch of people. And uh, I remember when he
passed and how devastated I mean, how devastated are all
all the distance runners were just in awe of him
and loved him. And yeah, I remember very clearly. It
was a shock.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Yeah. I do have one last one for you, brad
At as a track guy being in Washington, have you
seen the recent I guess the recent news coming out
of Washington State.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Oh, it was awful. It was just horrible. I coached,
I went up and worked in the eighties and nineties.
I worked at their track camp up every year, spent
a week on the campus and coach the hurdlers. And
it's just awful. Man, It's just terrible. I think I
think of some of the non rev sports are in
trouble right now. I hate what's happening in the n

(01:00:13):
C two A. That was just awful. WSU has a
wonderful history of track and field greatness and to cut
that program like that, I just was heartbroken.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Yeah. I mean, as a distance runner, I've always known
you know, ws US as a distance school. But I know,
losing the field events like that is it takes a
quite a few.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
That's not a track team. If you take that's not
a track.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Team, not a not a power five school, you know
what I mean, it's not a you know, you don't
see that. You see that at some of the smaller
mid major schools where they have to focus on distance specifically,
but you hate to see that for an institution as
big as Washington State.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Final Floor Red.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Yeah, let's do it all right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
All right? Four?

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Are you coffee drinker?

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
I had to quit just recently. I have a little
heart trouble. I was having trouble. My heart was racing
and trying to get and they said you need to
stop drinking coffee. And I was like completely, how about
one cup a day? And then I was down to
one cup of day and then now you got to stop.
I'm like, it was awful. And that was like April.

(01:01:22):
So I've only been coffee free for about two months.
So I hate it. I hate it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
Does you feel normal?

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
I like the ritual in the morning of sitting there
and drinking a cup of coffee. It doesn't feel right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Has it been hard?

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Yes? I mean I hated it. I didn't have any
withdrawals or get it, cause I cut back from two
and a half cups a day to two and then one,
and I didn't have any headaches or anything. It wasn't
that hard to quit. But I just miss it. And
my wife, you know, I make coffee in the morning
for her and I'm like, hmm, that smells good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
So there's my friend's company. It's called Kafak's Body. They
make an all natural deodorant. They do have a coffee
scented deodorant, so maybe you could just check that out.
And I noticed what I wear it. Every once in
a while, I'll be because I'm a physical education teacher,
so every once in a while I'll be in the
gym and I'll be like someone brewing coffee, and then
I'll remember that I wore the coffee. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Brad.

(01:02:23):
Do you have any daily practices, rituals you do on
a regular basis to show up as the strongest version
of Brad Upton.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
That's a good question. I got some little ticks and
my wife laughs at me about them, and she didn't
even know I had them until I exposed myself to
her one day. And not exposed myself. That's the wrong
set of word I exp I told her about my
little ticks that I had, and now she notices them,
but she had not noticed them. We've been married, we've

(01:02:50):
been together forty I don't know, forty some years. She
never knew those. But I have some little ticks that
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
And I'm not telling you what's that like?

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Some OCD tis Yeah, a little bit, A little bit. Yeah,
no problem, we don't have them.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Yeah, yeah, I think we do.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
It was gonna say you're you're in the circle of trust.
I got OCD, So no judgment here. Yeah, Brad, What
are you listening to right now? Music? Podcast? Audio books?
Are you reading anything? I have?

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
I have had a subscription for yeah, probably since probably
since I was in high school. The National Geographic. I
read that as soon as it shows up every month.
I read that thing right away. So I read my
National Geographic. I don't listen to. My wife has some
good podcasts. She just turned me on to Amy Poehler's
new podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler. That was great.

(01:03:47):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
But you go to and you've opened for some music acts.
Do you have a go to genre? Or your favorite artist.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
I would probably put Steely Dan on the first time
if I had to listen to something right there. I
love seventies soul music. I listened to that on serious
exam the classic seventies soul music. Those are those are
problems that might go to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
It.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Do you listen Tony music before you go on stage?

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
No? Not really?

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Okay, okay, last one. We got to close it out
for you. It's a lighthearted one. Maybe it's a unique
food delicacy up there in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it's
a beverage. Maybe it's something we haven't talked about. Do
you have a guilty pleasure?

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Well, we eat a lot of salmon here in the
Pacific Northwest, so we take it for granted. We eat
a lot of salmon here. We have all kinds of
craft bruise that I enjoy. This is a big craft
brewing area. But I think Carolina's is too, am I right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Yeah, we spent some time in Colorado. We were in
Denver too, so we got a taste of some good
stuff there as well. Do you like I PAS? What
do you like?

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
I don't like I PAS. I did when they first
started and they just got happier and happier and happier.
Now they're just too bitter to me. I like a
coolsh I like those. I like Belgian white. I like
those kind of beers very much.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Okay, I'll get down with that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
In fact, I had a cargarator on my back deck,
and that was one of the worst best, worst decisions
I ever made in my life. My son moved to LA.
He had won a cagurator, and he moved to LA.
He goes, I gotta get rid of this thing. I go,
I'll take it. So for three years I had a
cagurator on the back deck, and I thought that was
the greatest thing in the world. But man, it's terrible.
You're just you drink too much beer. I wan. I

(01:05:35):
got to get rid of this thing because you think, oh,
I would have a beer, and you put it in
the frosty mug and you drink the beer. You go,
I'll have another half a beer, and then I'll have
another half a beer, and I'll have another half a
beer another. Pretty soon you've had four beers. And I
got to get rid of this thing. I can get
rid of it. So I got rid of.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
It, all right, all right, rad, Thank you so much
for joining us tonight. I think there needs to be more.
Kids need to know that you exist because growing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
Oh that's nice, appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
Growing up wrestler runner, like Rich said, we always liked
stand up, but always kind of feeling out of place,
like how how would I pursue this? Like there's no
wrestlers or runners that do this. So knowing that there's
a track guy out there, hopefully you inspire a kid
that likes to crack some jokes because they need to.
They need to see that. And also, I want to

(01:06:25):
apologize if this podcast ever got like Chris Farley talking
to Paul McCartney, just asking basic, basic comedy questions. But
like Rich said, we are fascinated with comedy. So thank
you for your time tonight, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Yeah, I appreciate it. I had a good time. Let's
do it. We can do it again sometime.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
He can't. Well, we get that special up. We'll get
you on here to promote it and get it out
there for you and all right, get you that airy
bros bump.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Yeah, I appreciate you finding me. I think Jack Pointe
turned you on to me. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Sure, yes, yeah, I ran against Jack several times. In fact,
I was like Lee right right at the end of
my career, and I thought, I'm getting beat by a decathlete.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
This is That was at the moment where he decided
you were going to really one of them.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
I'm as I only run the one tens and I'm
getting beat by this decathlete. This is not good. But
he was a very good high hurtler. But I was like, God,
should be getting beat by a decathlete.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
I ran against Dan O'Brien a bunch of times too,
because you know, he went to He went to Spokane
Community College and then the University of Idaho, and I
ran against Dan a bunch of times when he first
came to college. I ran against him a bunch of times.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Okay, Yeah, we talked with coach Hoyd about that because
he was at the I believe he competed at the
ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
Trials, right, yeah, yeah, old Dan and Dane they were competitors. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Well, Brad, we do appreciate your time tonight, and I
was an honor and a pleasure to connect with you
and chat with you, and we look forward to continuing
to follow your comedy, listen to your stuff. It's appreciate
your entertainment and making us laugh. And yeah, enjoy your summer,
have fun and enjoy checking off some of those Bucke
List things with your wife and your family.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
I appreciate it. Jimmy Rich, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, that's brought up to make sure
you check all those links in the show notes for
his comedy and make sure you give him a follow
on social media. Let him know the aer Bros sent you,
and we do appreciate you tuning in tonight and we
will see you next time
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