Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Dusty Slay

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Neal Brennan interviews Dusty Slay (‘Workin’ Man’ on Netflix, ‘We’re Having A Good Time Podcast’) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro 2:59 Country Music Joke 5:38 Starting Standup 7:20 Substance Abuse  33:40 Religion 50:23 Work Life Balance ---------------------------------------------------------- https://nealbrennan.com for tickets Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ----------------------------------------- https://www.mintmobile.com/NEAL for $15/month PLUS free shipping https://www.rocketmoney.com/NEAL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's me, Neil Brennan. My guest today, you saw in the thumbnail, if you're not familiar with him, he just had a Netflix special drop called Working Man. Before that, he had a Netflix half hour on the stand-ups. I knew nothing about him until I saw him on the stand-ups, and he's Bargatze affiliated. He's part of that click- heavy Southern, the Southern mob. Absolutely. I mean, it's a huge deal.

He's on Nate's podcast. He's got a podcast with his wife called We're Having Fun. His name's Dusty Slay, ladies and gentlemen. Anything I left out? Well, the podcast is We're Having a Good Time. We're Having a Good Time. Sorry. That's what he, it's a thing he says.

We're having a good time. Having a good time. Sorry. That's what he, it's a thing he says. We're having a good time. And when probably when he's, it works best when you're bombing. That's where it came from. I mean, it's like I was doing a show at a pizza place in New York City and I just was not doing well. And I just kept saying, we're having a good time.

And the more I said it, the more people got into the show yep as a old man named dave chappelle once said to me you can tell how funny someone is by how they bomb well i think that's right uh i've never thought of that but i think that's right and i find that if you uh move around enough awkwardly touch your glasses enough your hat your face your nose people will be like, this guy's weird, but I'm into what he's doing. Yeah. So I should touch my face. I mean, that's what I do. I don't even know why I'm doing it. I touch my glasses on three mics so much, it annoyed me and I didn't even know I was doing it. Yeah. I mean, I watch videos of myself and I think, oh man, stop waving

so much. But when I'm up there, it feels fun. I'm into it. That's how I get physical with it. Go on and get physical with it. Yeah. Where are you from? I am from Alabama, a town called Opelika, Alabama. I live in Nashville, Tennessee. And Dusty Slay is a fake showbiz name to sound Southern, right? No, it's the real deal. I'll tell you this. On my government paperwork, my name is listed as Dustin, but no one in my family ever called me Dustin, even my parents. So I'm like, is it really my name if no one ever called me that? They just wrote it down. And why they do, if they had no intention of calling you Dustin? My mom says I was named after a character on a soap opera named Dusty.

And my dad says I was named after the wrestler Dusty Rhodes. So I don't know where they came up with Dustin. What's great is neither one of them are especially classy. No, absolutely not. Like from the soaps or from wrestling. Either way, you're in Alabama. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a classy Dusty. I can't think of one, but go ahead and write on it in the comments if you can think of a classy dusty i mean dusty no george

straight uh had a movie called pure country his his name was dusty i mean that's like you know that's texas classy i think so you're you have my favorite joke about country music i don't like country music i'm not like i don't hate it just doesn't work on me and i do a thing where instead of if i cut to the joke it'll get copyright flag so i have a new custom where i i made brian reagan just do old bits and i would like you please if you may it wasn't too good for brian reagan so let people know about the country music one i'll tell you i mean the fact that you like that joke uh i already liked it but i was like oh that makes me feel really good about the joke that i specifically liked yeah because i i figured you weren't a country music fan yes but i say you know

a good country song can have you reminiscing about times you never had like i never went to the lake growing up my family wasn't like a lake family but i hear a country song about the lake i'm like yeah i remember that you know what i mean and that's it's like it's like that with a lot of country there's a joe diffy song where he where he talks about home where i guess he's describing his home. And I listened to it and it makes me think about my childhood, even though it was nothing like mine. Like he says, home was an easy chair with my daddy there. And I'm like, my parents were divorced. My dad might've had an easy chair, but it wasn't at our house. you know yeah it might have been his mistress but it sure

as hell wouldn't yeah for you yeah and it's like so i mean my my life much i liked my childhood a lot but it's like you listen to these country songs and it's like it just just describes this great family what's funny is i could i grew up not country at all and i'm a cult coastal elite kind of and i was like yeah country music does that yeah where it just that guitar it's like hypnotic and it makes you believe that you you got a girl that got just all the shit that all the country and you i got a pickup truck and i wear boots and I don't. Yeah. And yeah, it's a vibe and you get into it. Yes. Maybe more than any other genre. That's why a lot of new country I feel like is losing that vibe, right? It's something about a fiddle and a steel guitar that really brings it in. And we're not doing a lot of that these days. What is what's new country sound like? don't know i feel like all music sounds the same now

like it all sounds like a japanese video game to me yeah all genres are like the same now it's just different accents yep you you make a good point um alabama so when did you start doing stand-up i moved to charleston south carolina when i was 21 beautiful city city. I love it. I did a show there one night. It was like enchanted. It's so great. I moved there when I was 21 fresh out of a trailer park. It's a very classy city. I had a hard time adjusting. I

started doing improv. What's the name of the improv place there? Theater 99. I think I did a show there. I bet so. If you've been there, I bet you've done Theater 99. Real small place above a show there. I bet so. Yeah. If you've been there, I bet you've done Theater 99. Real small place. Yeah. Above a bicycle shop.

It's great. Is this a country song or this is actually? No, this is the real thing. It could be. But Charleston is such a, and I did improv. I did stand up a little bit back then, but I was drinking a bunch and really partying, getting into a vibe. And then, so I quit comedy.

And then in 2008, started doing it again when I was about 26. And I felt like I, when I was 21, I was trying to make up all these things. I was trying to make up all these cliched Southern things. I was wearing overalls. I was doing no shoes. I mean, this was, you know, I had no idea what was going on my whole life. You literally wearing overalls with no shoes. Oh yeah. My first time ever doing standup, i went on stage and overalls no shoes uh you know i was trying to you know and not even that layering the cable guys taking it that far but i was trying i mean no shoes is un is incredible it really would you ever make your feet dirtier no no but

i mean you know you're walking around assembly because this was like the music farm in charleston which all the rock bands would come there at the time so just walking on that floor is sure i mean that's walmart feet immediately you know but a cute case of walmart feet yeah uh well i want to know about the because it's not really on here well i guess it is on here oh yeah yeah. Substance abuse. So, and drugs and alcohol, we'll ding it. All right. What was the, what was the premise of all the drinking and drugs? And not like there needs to be other than just like, that's what you, it seemed like you should do. Well, I think, you know, out of high school, I was like, you know, we, we grew up in a kind of small town, but right next to Auburn university,

right? So you had this, I don't know, we just felt like we had this access to different drugs, you know? So we got into acid a bit right out of high school. And we would just, we did that a lot. There was quite a crew of us doing it. None of you guys go to college? Yeah. Some of us went to college. I mean, most of us were, you know, we graduated high school, but we weren't really doing a college thing. Right. I mean, you didn't graduate like by a lot. You weren't like. No, no. We were, you know, we were happy that it happened, you know, it was, you know, and, you know, and not to throw my sisters under the bus. They're 10 years older

than me and kind of had a different life. But, you know, I was the first one of my mom's kids to graduate high school. My two older sisters got GEDs. So, you know, so it was a real celebration just for the diploma. And but yeah, I mean, it's just like, you know, you just get bored in a small town. And this is not a tiny town, but you get bored. And like, you know, we just kind of, you know, there's a couple of private school kids. One guy, he actually did go to college. I think he's a rocket scientist out in this area now. Very smart guy. But he was the biggest drug guy of the whole crew, you know? What does that look like? Every day he's doing drugs or it's like? I don't know. I wasn't around, but he could get the best stuff. I mean, the worst experiences I

had on acid came from stuff he gave me you know yeah well he didn't give it you know but uh you know we just you know we didn't know what we were doing you know there's no there's no regulation at all you're just getting things and i would also it sounds like this is before the internet oh yeah and you can't express to people how little there was to do before the internet. It's so true. It's there was fucking, I mean, seventies, eighties, not like I was alive in the, I was whatever social in the late eighties, nineties. And there was nothing to do.

It was like, you, you was like, we were all shipwrecked and did, we were just in this land and had nothing to do. We didn't have phones. We'd just walk around and go, what's going on? Let's go see if anything's happening over there. Yeah. I mean, we would stay up real late and go to Walmart at 4 or 5 in the morning and just play in the toy section because there's nothing to do. Yeah. And we would drive around.

We would, you know, as the sun started to come up, we'd all be on acid driving around and we'd be the only car out there on the road. I remember driving, biting the steering wheel as, you know, we're just out of our minds. Did you ever get arrested for it? I never. No, I mean, I did get arrested one time, but it was like of all the times that was like the least I should have been arrested for. You know, I mean, there did get arrested one time, but it was like of all the times that was like the least I should have been arrested for. You know, I mean, there were times where you told the cops that, right?

You should have been here last week. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like if I'd gotten pulled over on acid, I mean, who knows what that would have been like? I might have blew the cop's mind. You might have changed all the police work. Yeah. If you've said it right.

Yeah. What were've said it right. Yeah. What were your acid experiences like? I mean, it's mostly, you know, like you say, I mean, you know, we're sitting around listening to Pink Floyd, watching old SNL VHS tapes, staring at our own faces. Best of Will Ferrell. We had Chris Farley and Adam Sandler. Great. Just that kind of stuff. We're just sitting around, you know, making little fires. And, you know, I got a videotape of us doing it one night.

But it's not really that exciting of a video. It's just four or five dudes in a house looking at the camera. You've got sitting on the floor. You've got two guys on the floor. Yeah. You got your under overalls on? No, no. I think, you know, the overalls, that's part of trying to make it.

Now my dad wears overalls every day of his life, so it's not totally made up, but you know, that was part of me trying to make up. What is the appeal of overalls by the way? Just, you know what I mean? Like, all right. So your dad wears them. Why do you think he wears them? You got a lot of pockets, you know, you got different things.

Don't you lose shit though? If you have that many, but I guess you wear it every day yeah i mean my dad has you have a front pocket right here he used to keep his chewing tobacco and a small pistol in there and i think now we're just literally a small pistol oh yeah did he ever take it out not not he's never had to use it that i know about yeah but you know it in there. He's taking it out to show me that he has it. You know, we were in a waffle house and I was and my dad kept saying something about this guy with a lot of tattoos in there. And I was like, you know, you got to chill out. That guy may have a gun. And he goes, me too. You know, and then he shows it to me. Great. Yeah. Does it make you more hungry or less hungry? I was pretty indifferent to it you know i don't think i really thought anything about it you know the southern culture of guns as someone

who hasn't didn't grow up there and has so little experience with guns it's just like a thing that you get used to yeah i mean it never like i i don't even know if it's a thing you have to get used to you just kind of grow up with it and you don't even think about it. Like I took hunter safety courses, you know, I'm a pretty good shot. But, you know, we did. We also learned to like not play with guns. Yeah. You know, like my dad had a gun.

He may still have it. He had like a, you know, the gun belt hung around his bedpost with a gun in it, like my whole childhood. And we just knew. Plus the overall pistol oh yeah i mean we just knew not to mess with it it wasn't locked he had some guns in a cabinet but no safe you know this is a funny thing of like why have if you've got one on your bedpost and one in the in the in the front What are the, what are the shelf? Well, you don't sleep in the overalls, you know, so. Well, no, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. I got, I see that. I have a counter for that. That's why he's got it next to the bed. Yeah. What are the, what are the, the, the showcase guns for?

You mean like in a cabinet? Yeah. You know, you'll have the rifles and shotguns for hunting. Okay. So, you know, you're not really show. Well, I guess you are showing them off. You want, you know, you want other hunters that come over to know what you're working with. I got a home video of my dad. I think this was my dad. Like he got a video camera and was trying to, uh, in case he got the guns got stolen, but it's like him showing every gun, reading off the serial number, reading the brand. I mean, it's like him showing every gun reading off the serial number reading the brand i mean it's a whole video going through the whole thing and is he proud or is it just like this is informational i i think a little of both i mean he's definitely proud he's like look at

this thing so it's a funny it's i mean i get it but i it also the thing that no one ever there was a reddit thread the other day about killing a home intruder what it's like to kill a home intruder it's a joke i've never been able to do was so if someone breaks into my house i have to shoot them and then we just have to sit there and wait till the cops arrive for probably 10 minutes and is it does it become like a small talk situation? Like what? So what made you pick? You're just sitting there. And then there's I mean, in the in the Reddit, there was things about like little kids. And it just seems like I just take my TV.

I don't want to kill someone. Yeah. Take my TV. I don't give a shit. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a wild thing. I mean, I you know wild thing. I mean, my dad has never had to shoot anyone. I've never shot anyone. I've gone hunting. I've killed small animals when I was younger, but I've never killed a deer. I went hunting a few years back.

And as I was sitting there, I was thinking, if a deer actually came, could I shoot it at this point? And I don't know if i could i like animals i like nature and i understand hunting i like eating meat uh but i just don't know that i could do it well that happens in war a lot yeah that there are guys that sign up enlist get drafted go and then i think world war ii they were just shooting in the air because they didn't want to kill people. Oh yeah. Which is like, there's a, there's also a statistic about in terms of a repeat murderers, someone, if you killed someone once, there's a 1% chance you'll do it again.

Wow. So 99% of people are like, did it. Don't know. Thank you. And I get, I did it once and I don't think i that wasn't helpful for me yeah for my life overall yeah i couldn't i don't think i could live with it i accidentally

killed a groundhog in my backyard and uh i still with a gun uh with a well with a trap i was trying to get something else and i got the groundhog what were you trying to get well i was trying to get something else and I got the groundhog. What were you trying to get? Well, I was trying to trap the groundhog and take it away. And question it? Yeah. Well, I just wanted to get rid of it. It was eating my garden. I wanted to get it in the cage and then it died in there. How long was it in there for?

I don't know. I feel bad about it. No, it is weird. Even killing, even mousetraps is a bit like I don't love this process. No, I left and I accidentally left the cage set up, the trap set up, and it died in there. And I it's I still feel bad about it. Like I wanted it to stop eating my vegetables. Yeah.

You had a simple. Kill it. No. And, you know, I tried to save a turtle the other day. It was a big snapping turtle and I couldn't get it off the road because it kept trying to snap at me. So I was like, I'm going to go home. Can you go up behind it or they're pretty fast? Well, they're pretty fast. So I was like, I'm going to go. And they have those necks that like dart. So I was like, I'm going to go home and get a bucket

and I'm going to get this thing out of the road. And by the time I i got back someone had ran over the turtle and killed it yeah and now you have a relationship with the turtle and i yeah i'm like i i almost had you yeah and you just go fuck it's happening all the time all around us all the time yeah for millions of years animals eating being eaten eat just over and over and over and over and over. Yeah, there's an Instagram, natureismetal. Yeah, I'm with it. I watch it, but I'm just like, oh, man. But most of the time, it's like how it's pro-animal. Yeah.

Natureismetal. It really is about how a lot of it's just about like, can you believe how fast this cheetah is? Yes. yes the one the cheetah in the savannah in africa the one that's like the football play where you can't believe how fast the it's like a trail and there's there's a people in the van or whatever and you can't believe how fast it is oh yeah it's that's the medalist of all the metal okay so it's funny i don't know where you are with drugs and alcohol now but i'm in the spiritual use of drugs or at least that's what i tell myself yeah uh but i would argue it is now it's a god experience every time i do it and not like god i saw god like it's a genuine

god connection are you have you evolved in any way around the drug use well i don't do anything now i i kind of i was doing weed for a long time. I like to say doing weed. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. I was doing it for a long time and just recently I quit and not for any reason. I just was like, I kind of was just taking a break and I'm like, I don't know. I feel fine. I've just been doing it. And I actually, I got a joke about it on the special, but weed is too strong for me now. Yeah, that's a good joke. Where I'm like, I just do a little bit of it and now I'm freaking out.

And it's not every time, but it's enough to where I'm like, it's just not that fun to do. And again, it's the weed that used to be available was garbage. Oh, so bad. Like it was like no one knew how to do it. No one knew how to grow. Like by the time it got to people, it was garbage. Oh, so bad. Like it was like no one knew how to do it. No one knew how to grow. Like by the time it got to people, it was junk. Yeah. I mean, you had to know a friend or just go. We would just go to an area of town where we knew people were selling weed and you just drive up and then they come up to your car and you give them the money. And sometimes they would just have it or other times they'd be like, all right, I got to go get it. And then sometimes they come up to your car and you give them the money. And sometimes they would just have it. Or other times they'd be like, all right, I got to go get it.

And then sometimes they come back. Sometimes they didn't. There was no quality control. No. And then like, you know, even if you get robbed in this neighborhood, the next time you need weed and don't have it, you're like, well, let's go again. Let's see. Let's just see if it works out.

Statistically, we shouldn't get robbed this time, but who knows? And it never was like, I had. Rob, would you get robbed with guns? No, I just would get robbed works out. Statistically, we shouldn't get robbed this time, but who knows? And it never was like – Rob, would you get robbed with guns? No, I just would get robbed by them just not. Oh, they just would go like, all right, I'm going to go rob a building. Now, I did have some friends that went late at night on acid to get weed to this area. Would this be a black area or white area? It could be either.

This particular one was a black area. And the guy stuck a gun in his side and said, just give me the money. And we're talking $25 here. And so instead of my friend giving him the money, he just took off in the truck and the guy started shooting. And my friend threw my other friend's head down in the, just threw it down in the floorboard and a bullet hit the back glass and then went through the front glass. And then if you sit in the truck after that, like where the bullet went through

would have been right through his head had my friend not thrown him down. And it's just wild. So your friend's the one who hit the gas? Yes. And knew like action movie style. Yeah. Thrust your friend's the one who hit the gas yes and new like action movie style yeah thrust your friend down yeah and i mean he you know it's you know it's his fault that they were in that situation in the first place yeah but i'm saying he saved his life that's incredible and also

it's 25 dollars right maybe it could Don't shoot. Don't shoot. Is that worth it? And is it worth it to drive away? None of them are worth it. Everyone, they're all getting Fs for that. None of it was, the whole thing was wrong. Did the acid mushrooms, anything? A little bit of mushrooms.

Did any of it change your outlook because because you have a cockeyed point of view as do i as if any decent comedian just you just don't see things correctly yes um or you see them you don't see them the way you're supposed to you see the way you see them and you can't undo it and that's what absolutely that's what comedy is but did the drugs have any effect on that i don't know i. I mean, you know, we did think that we were all, you know, that was the whole thing with acid back then. That's what they would say. You're expanding your mind. You would say we're opening other parts of the brain. And we don't know if that's true. I don't know if it's true, but that's what we would think. We're opening new parts to our brain. So, you know,

we would, you know, we loved like taking ass and listening to a Pink Floyd album and just thinking we understood the world for a little while. And then- But it's so funny because you don't, you're not, you're just listening to Pink Floyd. It's like everyone listens to the same eight things. Yes. And lining it up with Wizard of Oz and all those goofy things. Oh yeah. All those like folk tales. But we listened to disc one of The Wall and we analyzed that like we, because, you know, there's no internet. So there's no, there's nowhere, you can't just Google it and go, what's this mean?

What's this about? We didn't have any, we just had the disc. It might even been a burned disc. We didn't have the album covers. So we're just listening and we're just analyzing this thing to death. And we, you know, we just felt so smart. We felt like we were just uncovering the world out here. Beyond that, what was it like to be on Acid as you? Well, I don't know. I don't know. You know, that's been so long ago. This was, you know, over 20 years ago when I was doing this, but I don't know. don't know you know that's been so long ago this was you know over 20 years ago when

i was doing this but um i don't know it just felt wild you know i i had you know i had a good childhood but i you know i grew up fairly sheltered in a way like i went to the city school but i grew up in the country right so it's like you have all those jokes about the trailer park right i grew up in a trailer park uh which wasn't that fun so not sure why they call it a park you know yeah my parents are divorced so i live with my mom in the trailer park and then i live with and then uh you know every other weekend i was with my dad on a farm uh but even the trailer park was in the country like it was a small, I don't know, 10, 15 trailer park, 10 trailer, 15 trailer trailer park on a dirt road, woods to either side of us. So it's like, that's what I did my whole childhood was just explore the woods. And did you realize like, I think differently at any point? any point oh yeah i mean i i felt like i'm for sure like the weird kid of my friends but not weird in a way that i'm not cool yeah if that makes sense no i'm weirdly people aren't

picking on me saying you're weird but you know we used to play i remember we used to play like horse you know the basketball but we we came up with all these different style horse i don't remember any of them but we had a notebook and it was like all right you do this and then you do you know it's like so we're just always creating something and you you were like spearheading it or your friend if seinfeld has an observation that i i actually think is very true he's like when i was in high school everyone was funny and then they stopped and i just kept doing it where it's you guys are riding a horse you're like have a ledger oh yeah which is funny and weird and then they all become whatever they become and you go well

i'm gonna keep riding horse yeah i mean of those kids, I mean, it's like, you know, one, you know, it's like, uh, one guy's an electrician. I'm still in touch with him. Another guy, I don't know what he does, but you know, it just, he's regular. Yeah. And then another guy, uh, is dead. And, uh, um, so it's like, uh, you know, everybody goes their own paths, but nobody's still creating horse except for me it's now it's now streaming creating horse dusty slide okay so you just so the drug thing was just like purely recreational and purely time filling and not even necessarily character building or just like i don't know it's just nothing to do let's do do that. Yeah, I remember my friend, he was smoking a joint outside my car.

It's my best friend and I had not seen him in a long time. He moved away and then he came to visit me and I just hung out with him while he smoked his joint. I was like, you know, I'm like, I don't mess around with it. I don't, you know, I'm not judging you, but I don't do it. And then we hung out. And then, you know, like a year later, maybe not even, you know, I'm now I'm drinking, you know, you get into drinking. The first time I ever smoked

weed was when I was drinking. And then you just, I don't know, things just start to unfold. You're like, well, drinking, I did that. And that was fun. I did a weed and that was fun. Now it's like, let's try these other things. Yeah. When they call weed a gateway drug they totally ignore beer oh yeah alcohol it's like that's the gateway drug they sell it fucking everywhere yeah and and it leads to no one jumps alcohol to go to yeah no the first time i had weed i was drunk at a party at my own house and some guys were smoking weed so was everyone yeah no one's ever just you just that's how it go that's the that's the that's the school that's like seventh grade is weed and then eighth grade i'm seventh grade is alcohol and then eighth grade is weed yeah and see i was late to the game especially for a you know a trailer park kid i

mean you you think you know trailer park in alab mean, you think trailer park in Alabama, I was drinking in sixth grade, but I'm like, I'm 17 before I ever got drunk the first time. But I was like, this is great. Like it just- Did you like the feeling of alcohol? Yeah, I think what I still miss about alcohol is that- You stopped drinking. Yeah, I haven't drank in 12 years,

but it's like what, and I don't really consider myself an alcoholic. I was just like, this is becoming a problem for me. You stopped drinking. I want. I can. And it's like this super free feeling like you're free from your mind. You're free from being like, oh, I shouldn't say this or, oh, you know, you're just free to do whatever you want to do. You know, but the problem is that, you know, there are consequences. I mean, to quote Donald Rumsfeld, freedom is messy. Freedom's untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is. It is. And I mean, I loved it.

And that's why. Cue Britney Spears knife dancing. Yes. Freedom's untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. You want her free? OK. Absolutely. She's going to knife dance.

Yes. And you want to be free? Who knows what you're going to say and who knows who you're going to say it to and how they're going to take it when they're drunk because two people that don't experience consequences anything can happen people piss all kinds of places people puke all people fuck the wrong people they don't all of those things yes i mean i would drink i mean i several times i would be drinking and i would go out back or go to the bathroom throw up and then come back and keep going you know i wasn't making myself throw up but i'm like oh i had mimosas all morning and now i'm doing whiskey it's like

i like when drunk people blame their methods you know like you know what i did what my mistake was that i did wick liquor before beer. It's like, no, it's all poison. Yes. Yes. It's just the sequence of poison. You're going to puke no matter what. So, yeah. And I was like, it's like I read about this type of alcoholic.

I still don't consider myself that. But I it's like when alcohol gets in your blood, it's like you're like ready to go. And that's me. I'm fine without alcohol. But if I did, if I had a beer, I feel like immediately I would be like, oh, this is what I've been missing. Let's do this. Yeah. And do you kind of keep yourself from it? Cause you just know it'll, it'll, it will hit the gas and there's no break. When I stopped doing it, my life got so much better. And I'm like, I don't even want to chance it. I was in a church one time.

And most of the churches I went to growing up, when you would do communion, you wouldn't do it every Sunday. But when they would do it, it would be grape juice. I went to a church after I quit drinking, just a few months. I'd never been there. They did communion, took a shot. And it was pretty big. And it was wine. And I sat there for a minute in that church, like, am I going to go to brunch now

after this? I mean, like, I was like, I mean, it was wild. Jesus, are we doing this? Yeah. I mean, it was wild. Father God. And it passed. But I was like, it was scary for a minute i was like i'm about to go well i know people that did that did that drug addicts like greg giraldo like greg giraldo was the kind of had the kind of brain that if you added once he added cocaine to it and i didn't even know giraldo well but i could even when he was sober it was so kinetic and then when if you add i think it was just like like a alive in a way that he couldn't

fathom yeah and with alcohol i feel like that's the same way with certain kinds of people oh yeah aren't even the trouble isn't isn't like sloppy and all that it's like no i'm so activated it's i'd be a sucker not to drink yeah i mean that's like it's like if i drink i'm like this if i get high i go i go down and i'm like you know it's that's why weed was never as much of a problem for me because i i can't do comedy high so uh know, on days that I am doing a show, I don't smoke weed, you know, maybe till after, but it just keeps me from doing it all day, every day. But drinking, of course I can do comedy drinking. So yeah, yeah. Mint mobile ads are easy for me because I'm living this life. On average, it takes about 30 days for a person to break their New Year's resolution.

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Switch to Mint Mobile and get your first three months of premium wireless service starting at just $15 a month. To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month and get the plan shipped to your door for free, go to mintmobile.com slash N-E-A-L. door for free go to mint mobile.com slash any al that's m-i-n-t-m-o-b-i-l-e.com slash any al cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mint mobile.com slash neil additional taxes fees and restrictions apply see mint mobile for details okay and then what's your really what's the gods where are you with god and don't be shy because you're in LA. No, I mean, I've always been a Christian. But when I quit drinking in 2012, I really started to

read the Bible in a way that I had never done before. And I just feel like I was opened up to new things. And it just sent me on a journey really to, you know, work on myself and, you know, and just, you know, try. What do you think the theme as someone who I've grew up Catholic, but I haven't read the Bible. What do you think the theme or the point of the Bible is like, it's like I go, I've never read it. What is it? What's it about? Well, I think it's many things, and it's like, I feel like a lot of Christians today only go New Testament, right? And I feel like, yeah, obviously, Jesus is the major point. But I don't know. I like the old testament is like more hand to hand like whispering in people's ears and kill people and smiting and right but see i'm into

a lot of old testament stuff i feel like jesus did away with all that stoning and he's like you know because he says to jesus was like new new age. Yeah, he's like, he says, he who is without sin cast the first stone, right? Yeah. Which to me says, well, none of us are able to cast a stone right here. So we're all guilty. So let's not be trying to stone people anymore.

But, you know, I like a lot of Old Testament stuff. I don't eat pork. I don't eat shellfish. I gave that stuff up. I don't do a lot of traditional holidays. I try to keep kind of biblical holidays like Passover and whatnot. I'm not Jewish, but I, you know, I, and, and I don't think that you have to be to do those things. Do you, what do you, when you said work on yourself because of, obviously, there's no parts of the Bible that are like work on yourself. But what are the things?

So, obviously, judgment for cast the first stone. What things do you feel like it made you work on? I just feel like it can cause you to treat people better because you know that God is always watching you. Right. So you're like and not from a necessarily a fear sense, but like, you know, we we act differently if someone's watching us as opposed to not watching us. if someone's watching us as opposed to not watching us. And I just feel like if you know that God is always watching you, then you, you know, you're like, I'm going to be a better person.

Yeah. You know, I try to be nice to people when people don't see, you know, in a way where I'm not trying. That to me is the best repercussion of religion is I call it super cop it's like god is super cop yeah and like when they they say it's cause of all wars and it's also the cause of people not getting punched in the face or cars stolen or candy yeah or merchant whatever like right yeah and also

you know and i feel like you know i it just helps me realize that everybody is going through something. So it's like even when people and it's hard. I mean, you know, I'm not perfect. I get irritated out here, too. But it's like when people do approach me with an attitude or give me an attitude, I try to have a you know, I go, I don't kid saying something to someone at McDonald's, like, you know, well, that's, you know, or not even to them, but just to myself, like, well, that's why you're working at McDonald's. And my sister was like, you don't know why they're working here. You don't know what their circumstance is. And that always resonates with me too. And I feel like that. Yeah. Also you're wearing overalls with bare feet. Right.

Right. It's like, you know, it's like, who are we to judge anybody, you know? And that, that's just how I try to live my life. And, you know, and I think that helps me. I think the, the, it helps me to, and also it's like, you know, it's a dark world out here in a lot of ways. And, you know, there's hope that when I leave this world, I go to a better place, that this is not everything. To me, it would be a little sad to think that what we have here, and not that my life is not good, but that what we have here is everything, that we have these incredible kind of

spirits living inside these bodies that no other animal seems to have i mean you could argue that dogs and cats have it yeah a horse that you've been riding for a long time the opossum that you caught what did you catch right uh what did i say uh uh well we thought it was a cat right though but he i heard he specifically had and the turtle simon turtle had a great person oh oh yes yes but you didn't do it in time so but it's like you know these things you don't you never come across like a turtle village where they're like living in houses drinking tea you know let me push back on that that's not the sign of a of a they have their village they have their their pods, they have their communities.

Just because like, well, where are your books, turtles? Like that doesn't, I'm vegan, so I don't eat animals just because I don't need to. I just feel like I don't need to. Someone did a joke a long time ago where they go, I think it was Dan Cronin. He wrote for a comic and he goes he goes what did we what did chickens do to us that we're doing this to them like at this point we're just rubbing

it in like let's do nuggets of them just this sadistic ass approach to all that but my my But my experience with having not read the Bible, and I got here from basically dry ayahuasca and DMT and MDMA, is that it isn't literal. I don't take this literally anymore. And it's not actual. It's like almost a metaphor or something for an actual. I don't think we have any sense of what's actually happening yeah i mean that well that could very well be true maybe we don't you know and i but i think but i do believe that we are infinite spirits caught in these bodies and because you can remember as someone not didn't even know you you've been you since your first fucking memory. Yeah.

And I wonder sometimes if not for pictures or mirrors, if we would even know that we've changed, right? It's like, because you're just living your life. You think about yourself. I have a great memory and I remember things from my childhood very vividly. I mean, I'm sure everyone does, but I just feel like I'll tell a joke or I'll say something on a podcast and a friend will message me and say, man, I can't believe you remember that. Yeah.

You know, but it's like, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I agree that, I mean, all that turtle very well could have had a home that he was making his way back to. Yeah. Right. But I just think that we're different as humans. I think we're so much different. And I just like to think that, you know, when we die, it's not just over for us. What do you think of nature? Because I now think of nature as.

nature as i and again i did this is all from i believe that every religion has the right uh idea which is that there is a central creation force and um this is all an expression of that yeah for sure i mean i'm a respecter of all religions because i you know i who am i to you know i i grew up you know i've changed my beliefs but i've stayed in the same religion right essentially but uh you know i don't know what to tell someone it's also a certain a joke i tried that wasn't funny enough where i was like when you hear jewish people describe their god muslim people describe their god and christians describe their god it's like i think you're christians describe their god it's like i think you're talking about the same guy it's like a police description with slight differences yeah

like what are the odds that this is a different thing individually and then if you look at islam and judaism half of their holy sites are identical right they're like the the most the temple on the rock is this it's 300 yards from the muslim sacred so it's like guys it's all the same person or or yeah and i don't you know and it's it's supposedly all stems from abraham in the bible so um yeah so it is yeah you know or it's it is that in i don't know if the quran incorporates abraham as well but like it's the same thing you're just describing it in a different way i don't know that's why i say supposedly i don't know but you know the idea being that abraham had two sons isaac and ishmael yeah and that's what someone told me i don't know that ishmael

would have islam would have come from him and and him. And Islam's from I don't know. But it's all like, OK, maybe we got the different names, but this is the same. We're all talking about the same thing. And to me, all these arguments and fights and wars become about real estate and human power. I mean, even Christian denominations, they're not necessarily fighting each other, but they get into fights and split. And that's why you have Baptist, Methodist, non-denominational. You have so many, all I guess, deriving from Catholicism. It seems silly. Even like I've gotten to know a lot of, well, I don't know them,

but I've interacted with a lot of Amish Mennonite people. How come? Well, we have a lot of that in Tennessee and I have a cabin that I have built in a smaller part of Tennessee where a bit built by Mennonites. And so it's like, apparently- Are they cheaper or less cheap? More expensive around there? I think they're more expensive than Amish. Is that what you mean? Or just regular laborers. I think cheaper than just regular stuff. Cheaper.

Cheaper, yeah. Great. But now, I don't know, if you buy some Amish furniture, now that's a different thing. Well, they're charging. They got that oven, right? Yes. Yeah, that's a- But like, you know, I was told like Mennonites split off from the church because they wanted to be a little more extreme.

And then Amish split from the Mennonites because they wanted to be even more extreme. And I like Mennonite. Amish. You think that's the right amount of extreme? I think so. Mennonites, do they do TV? They don't do TV or radio, apparently, but they do electricity. Oh, that's pretty cool i mean i you

know it's like we talk talk at the beginning of this about not having the internet and how boring things were and i agree um but in a way i'm like sometimes i'm like do we just have too much do we have too much entertainment a million percent have too much and i have a new theory about western or whatever modern life that it's we all have these decadent emotions and expectations of everything because we're all everything's catered to us so yes we all have these decadent sexual needs and decadent emotional needs and decadent like food and deck, just all this, like, no, I want it. I want, is it available? Get boop, get, bring it to me. Read me a book. It's all so insane. Yeah, it is. I was at my hotel this morning and then I turned on the shower and like it took a minute for the hot water to come. You were furious. I was like, come on. I'm going to fucking call. Yeah.

I mean, you know, it wasn't so extreme, but I had to check myself to where it's like, you know, hot water is coming and I'm going to get an amazing shower and then I'm going to put on clean clothes. If I don't like those clothes, I'll put on the other clothes that I have. Yes. Which are dirty. Kind of. Yes. They're dirty from the airplane that you were on. A lot of people haven't flown. Yes. Well, planes. I mean, what a wild experience that is. I mean, I got on a flight last night from Tennessee and in four hours I was here. And that would have been a lifelong journey that people might not ever come back from years ago. Yeah. Like it would have been five months. They might not have even made it. They might not have. And then when they got there, they're probably never coming back. Well, yeah. Once you get out here yeah you've been here yeah but yeah no it was a

shit was real different and we have it real good and we're so spoiled completely spoiled about everything all the time yeah and i we sound a million years old saying this, but I promise you appreciate, you have to get up at like four or five in the morning because that's when they turn the water on. And he's like, you got to get all your buckets ready to fill it up, because if you miss it, then you just don't have water that day. I was talking to somebody last night about AI, artificial intelligence. You know, within five years, it's going to be we're all going to have our heads hooked up to whatever. you know within five years it's going to be we're all going to have our heads hooked up to whatever and they're going to be a billion people on earth going hey do you think i could just have a toilet before we go to this brain thing do you think i could live through the period where i have running water and a fucking toilet can i just experience that quickly before i jump to this weird ass singularity like

we're so separated in terms of our experiences today and that our guys india has rolling blackouts every day electricity every day not some days when it's rainy every day yeah yeah and work and you're like i'm gonna fucking sue this hotel hey hi neil brennan here hey um how scrupulously are you checking your bills are you like you just kind of like yeah and then yeah that's my impression of you checking your bills my point is if you check them quickly and and you kind of just go like, yeah, I don't know, or you see a subscription that maybe you thought you canceled that you didn't, and then you forget, and then you get caught up. You start listening to your podcast.

You know how you get. Rocket money is the thing for you. The other day I got charged for, I can't say what it was, but I subscribed a long time ago and I forgot about it. It was an annual charge. And it's one of those things where I'll do the sample and then I'll be like, I'll cancel it. Then I forget to cancel it, whatever. Long story short, Rocket Money was there for me. Rocket Money helped me. Rocket Money, Rocket Money, Rocket Money. Here's what's great about Rocket Money. I can see all of my subscriptions in one place. Now I see something I don't want, I can cancel it with a tap.

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Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash N-E-A-L. That's rocketmoney.com slash N-E-A-L. rocketmoney.com slash Neil. All right here's some more blocks work-life balance that's interesting to me well i you know i i'm my wife used to do comedy we met doing comedy she's from canada i was living in charleston south carolina we met at an open mic in new york city that you signed up and they gave you how long do you live in new york for i never lived there i spent a month there i have a i had a there. He had a room come open. I wanted to spend a little time. I said, would your landlord let me rent that for one month?

And he got his landlord to do it. So I just went for a month. I had saved up money and I just went and just did open mics every day. I mean, in, in Charleston, you, you were lucky to get two open mics a week. Yeah. So I was like, to me, I was like, is it still like that? Uh, maybe worse. Wow. Yeah. Cause we had a nice community for a while. I don't know what it's like, but it could be better. It could be worse, but it's not much better. But I was like, I want to do one open mic every day for 30 days. I mean, to me, this was a wild idea. I realized people are doing, and I ended up doing 47 in a month.

And I was like, I was just like, this is amazing. Yeah. But I met my wife at one of those open mics. We didn't start dating then, but we stayed in contact. And so she was doing comedy for a long time. She moved down here. We got married. We never planned to have

kids. And then in 2018, she stopped. But you specifically didn't want to have kids. Yeah, we talked about not having kids. What were your reasons? I don't know. I feel like the world's always going to end at some point. And we're, you know, just what you're talking about. All our brains are about to be hooked to computers. And I just thought, why would I bring kids into the world? And then 2018, my wife stopped doing comedy. The road was too much for her. She was great at comedy and she was really booked up, but the road was too much. She just didn't want to do it anymore. And then COVID happened and we're just kind of stuck at home. And for whatever reason, we decided that we wanted to have kids. Like, and it still makes no sense to me that my whole worry this whole time was that things

were going to get really bad. There was going to be a pandemic. And then like, when it's the worst it's ever been in my life, I just felt like I should have kids. And my wife was into it. We just, I don't know, something just changed in us. And so we had our daughter in 2021. And then I had a son in, I don't know, 2023.

So they're about two years apart. And so now I'm like, and my career was going well in 2018 i mean things were really happening uh that's when it started to happen and then in 2020 it was going great other than the fact that what was i see because i had no sense of until i saw you on netflix i didn't know anything about you well i was just working the road you know just out here that's where i moved to national lining clubs in the just on the road and selling out or just like. Not selling out, but, but, you know, hitting my guarantee, hitting my, my guarantees. Got it. But it's like in, you know, in 2018, I did, uh, just for laughs, uh, new faces unwrapped,

had a great set. Uh, I, I got a, I signed a development deal with ABC for a show that never got made, but I made a little money. And then I got that experience, which was cool to write a script. Obviously not good enough, but no, I think it was great. And then I did The Tonight Show that year for the first time, which really did a lot for me. And I got management and agents and then suddenly rooms that I couldn't even- Maybe I did see on the Tonight Show, yeah. Rooms that I couldn't even get in to feature, now I'm headlining.

So things are going well. And then in 2019, I got Variety's top 10 comics to watch, felt really fun. And then here we go, 2020, boom, all stopped. But it was a nice break for me at first. I was like, this is really great. I've been traveling for, I don't know, at this point, six years straight. Every weekend, if I can, I'm going out doing comedy. So it was a nice break. And then things came back and started going again. And then we had the kids. And so the career's going really well, but now it's like the best it's ever been. And so my career.

Yeah. And it's like, but now I have two kids and I want to be a good dad. I don't want to be so focused on my career that I'm not there to raise my kids. Did you feel a change? I've been told that when you have a kid, a part of your brain opens up that you didn't even know existed. 100%.

I mean, when I had my daughter, I don't know that it was all that real to me until my, and I didn't stand down and watch the baby come out, but I stood at my wife's shoulder and then I saw this human being come out that we had created. Yep. created yep uh and i was i was changed in that moment where i'm like oh now i gotta be a better dude i gotta be a better guy i gotta i have to live now it's funny how did that compare to the bible well you know the me do you know what i mean and just in terms of like the bible it's sort of Do you know what I mean? And just in terms of like the Bible, it's sort of.

It's sort of ethereal or kind of like you should you might want to and then this like I think the Bible was morally better. And they my daughter was like, just like I got to take care of my health better. I have to, you know, you know, just take things more serious. Now I have to, I can't just sit at home and watch YouTube all day. I need to like, now I have to really get in gear as a, as a man to take care of my daughter. Yeah. Because, you know, you know, they say like, you know, women's example of, you know, their first example know they say like you know women's uh example of you know their first example of a man you know is their dad or whatever i don't know what the expression is yes but it's like yeah i mean i want um you know uh my daughter to expect to be

treated a certain way yeah so i feel like i'm the guy that needs to show her how you pay for all of her dinners and stuff. Yes. When she starts to eat and she'll expect that. Exactly. Okay. So the thing about work-life balance, I've just been thinking a lot recently about basic gender differences. It's one of my areas. Yeah.

And when you think about your performance as a man father, how much of that is like i just need to earn well there is a part of that because i don't want my daughter to grow up poor i mean right but i'm saying like it how much of it's emotional and how much of it is just practical i need x amount of dollars i don't care how i get it i'm gonna fucking get it for these kids. I don't know. I don't think there's so much of that. Okay.

I think I, I don't think there is any number figure on it. I mean, not necessarily number figure, but like safety. Yeah. I mean, it's like,

it is like, yeah. I mean, I want to, you know, make sure they have, you know, you know,

I don't know. I want to, you know, I want like my house, my mortgage to be paid off. So we don't lose our house ever. Like if something crazy were to happen, we wouldn't lose our house and they're, they're always going to have food and things like that. So I want to make, you know, the right kind of investments, uh, to, to ensure that that's, that's in place. But another thing is like, I just want to stay married to my wife. I grew up with divorced parents and even in I'm 41, it still affects my life. I still can't do holidays with my parents together. And now they're getting older. It's like this year, I took my dad to my mom's Thanksgiving. And my mom had, I have two older sisters that are

my mom's kids, not my dad's, right? So I took my dad to that Thanksgiving. First time ever. First time ever. And I got them agreed to do it. Why'd you do it? Well, I did it because, you know, both of my parents are getting old, right? And I'm like, I want to spend Thanksgiving with both of them. But now I have a busy schedule. I have my own things going on.

I have my own kids. I can't do two Thanksgivings like I've done my whole life. So I'm like, I need you guys to just be together. But it was so weird for me. I was like, cause I don't know, they can't be cool with each other. They're not fighting, but my whole life, it's like, they're always like, I have this thing where it's like, I feel like my problem with my parents is that they both wanted me. Like a lot of people have, you know, neglect issues where their parents are like pushing them off to the other one. Mine is like, both my parents wanted me to be with them.

Which is a different kind of tension. Yeah. And so, and rather than working it out, they worked it out through me where they would be like, you know, tell your dad, you're going to stay with me this weekend. Or my dad would be like, tell your mom, call your mom, tell her you're going to stay an extra day. And then, and, and then just instead of my mom knowing that my dad put me up to this and going, yeah, it's okay. She would, you know, put the guilt on me. And it's like this whole, so it's like, yeah, that's still in me now. So I show up, my, my daughter, uh, doesn't really have a lot to do with my dad. She doesn't see him that often, but- Your daughter's three, four?

She's two, two and a half. Yeah. So she doesn't want to sit with my dad. She doesn't want to do any of that with my dad. He's kind of a stranger to her. And she sees my mom more often. So my dad came to visit me for two days. My daughter would not hang out with him at all. And then we all show up to my sister's house where my mom is. And my daughter immediately runs up and gets in her lap. And I'm like, he didn't say anything, but I know he saw it. And it's just like, and so I'm, so I got that emotion in me. I got guilt now for my daughter who doesn't have any of that guilt issue. She doesn't care at all if my dad's- When she hears this podcast.

Right. She doesn't care at all if my dad's feelings are hurt. Do you regret trying to make it happen? I don't regret it. Would you do it again? I don't think I would do it again. Yeah. Unless I have it at my house. If they all come to my house, little different. I feel like it's, you know, it was at my sister's house so i feel like

i really put my my not on enemy territory i put my dad not on enemy territory but i don't know the word for it that not the not probably in a way game yes for sure okay so what do you how do you do you so you feel guilty on the road or do you feel like, like, ah, I wish there was another way to. Yeah. I don't feel guilty on the road because I know it's my job, but it's like this week in particular, right. I'm coming, I'm coming to LA to do things like this. I'm fortunate enough to have, you know, you let me do your podcast. So, um, you know, here I am, I, you know, I have a few of these tough decisions. I really waited hard. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. Well, I am happy to be here. I mean, this is really great.

Yeah, I'm happy to have you. But I'm spending a couple extra days out here in LA, and then I fly to Milwaukee where I'll do three days of comedy. So now I'm gone for five days. So I think my daughter gets it a little bit. She knows dad travels a lot, but my son is an infant still. And I think my son is like, where's that guy that's here sometimes? Well, you know, they don't have memories until they're like three. Yeah. And I hope he doesn't even notice. Here's the thing.

You're still going to be on the road. Yes. Three, four or five years. Yes. I guess it's just a matter of like. on the road in yes three four or five years yes i guess it's just a matter of like it is an interesting thing where it's a new not a new phenomenon where men are like i would like to be around that i want to help yeah make the kids be emotionally healthy whereas there is a big part of men that is there it It's easy to just be

like, I'm just going to earn and I'm a mule and I'm just going to get out there. I'm a beast of burden. I'm trying to get the money for these babies. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, absolutely. I mean, and you got to do that. Yeah. Right. It has to, you know, it's like if you're, if you're home all the time, then you probably don't have any money. Yeah. Because even if you work from home, you may physically be in the house. Yeah, but you're in your office or whatever. So it's like you got to go earn. So I just want to minimize that.

Well, what do other people say about it? What do other comics say about it? Are they bad? Do you not care? I guess I don't talk to enough say about it what do other or are they bad it does do you not care i i guess i don't talk to enough people about it but i also don't really care because i i don't know i feel like i live differently than a lot of people in a lot of ways so i'm just like you know i just want to i like to analyze i like to see what's going on see how people are living their lives and see how it's, you know, it affects. You have a lot of ambition or for your work stuff.

Like, where are your ambitions more the emotional safety and health of your kids? Or is it the I want to make it more? I want to do bigger venues and I want to. I don't know that I am so ambitious. It's like I was a pesticide salesman. I would go to Lowe's and Home Depot stores and sell pesticides. And tell people the punchline,

which we kind of figured. I don't know if you can tell that by looking at me, but... Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know if you can tell that by looking at me. Yeah. But, you know, and I started doing comedy as a hobby

and then I won a competition in Charleston. I made a thousand bucks. And then the next year, in between that one and the next competition, I quit drinking. And then by the next year, I won the competition like by way more votes. And it's like, so I was like, oh, maybe I got something here. So I was like, oh, maybe I got something here. So I start trying to figure out how to make money doing comedy. But I don't know if it was so much ambition as it was, I hate the other job that I have. And if I can make money doing this, I mean, I always said, I don't need to be famous. If I can make a living doing this, then that's better than what i was doing it's so it's a such a much better way to do it yeah just like just do you have a job that's better than selling

pesticide not like regional a regional pesticide guy driving from parking lot to parking lot, texting the guy that you're here. Yeah. And then, so it makes you see comedy in a proportional way, which is it's better than pesticide sales. Yeah. I mean, even when I was making less money, because it was a good job, right? I had health insurance. I had a car allowance.

I had a salary. Same hair, same beard, same glasses. Well, I had health insurance. I had a car allowance. I had a salary. Same hair, same beard, same glasses. Well, I had this hair at one point. I did try to professional it up for a bit. I cut my hair, tucked in the shirt, wore a lot of khakis. I was really trying to do it for a minute, but I was also drinking a lot. So what you had to do, you would have to drive to the Lowe's store and then go inside and you had to call in on the Lowe's phone to a system. That way they knew you checked into that store. You couldn't do it from your cell phone.

That was like the way to get yourself fired instantly if you called in from your cell phone. Okay. But I would be- So I had that part wrong, but you did have, I knew you had to call in. But I would be hungover. But I would be- So I had that part wrong, but you did have, I knew you had to call in.

But I would be hungover. So I would go show up, call in on the Lowe's phone and then go back out to my car and sit and smoke cigarettes and listen to the radio for an hour and then go back in, you know? Oh, so you were there, so you didn't even have to, you weren't there to sell to the store, you were there to just sell in the store.

Yeah, set up displays, do things like that. But it's like a lot of times you go in and just sell in the store yeah set up displays do things like that but it's like a lot of times you go in and you're like there's nothing really to do today this store is set up it looks i was i just spent three days at a low's last week on a commercial and it wasn't crowded yeah it's like tuesday wednesday thursday in the morning it's just not it's like it's just not the busy time yeah i. I mean, I had it all mapped out. I mean, there was one store in a place called Vidalia, Georgia, where it was really far to get there for me. And they had a great buffet basically behind the Lowe's. I would go clock in. Why? Well, it was a restaurant.

Okay. Yeah. It wasn't just some guy out there. Yeah. So I would go clock in, walk through the store, go, it looks good. I would find some employee. I would go, you guys do a great job here. I really appreciate it. And then leave, go to the buffet, eat, come back, clock out, go to the next store. And did it matter that you hadn't sold any pesticide? No. In fact, that store would prefer I didn't do anything in their store. They were like, we know what we want to do in here. We don't want you messing up anything.

So I would, so it would be great. Great. And then comedy is, is better than that. Yes. Yes. Do you, how are your nerves with comedy? I actually don't really get nervous. I mean, despite how I move around and Twitch and, and, and, and it just seems like I may

have a nervous energy, but I've done enough cool things now to where I'm like, I don't really get that nervous. I mean, I've done the Grand Old Opry like 30 times. And to me, as a lifelong country fan, to do the Opry is huge. And there's 4,400 people in there when it's sold out. Is the Opry the one that's downtown Nashville? That's the Ryman. That's the old Opry. Okay. But even the new Opry has been there since like the seventies.

But yeah, I mean, it's like this, and I've done the Ryman, which is also like the first time you do the Ryman, a lot of nerves. You do it several times. Yeah. You just get used to it. Even that, you know, I've done the tonight show. I just did my fourth appearance on the tonight show.

And it's like the first time I think they thought they had made a mistake booking me because I was so nervous. Yeah. But this last time I did it, I wasn't nervous at all. I was like, all right, I've done this. Let's do it. I'm happy to be here. Now, on the other hand, I did the cellar to prepare for the Tonight Show. And I'm still nervous there because it just seems like

the coolest place. Actually, the first time I did the Comedy Store and the only time I did the Comedy Store, I was in the main room and I tripped down that little step going out. I was the first one, no host, no warmup. I got five minutes and I trip coming off that step. Wonderful. But I still was able to recover and had a great set. Yeah, it was awesome. Great. But it's like, I don't know.

I found a way to use the nerves. It's like, if I am nervous, the only thing that anyone can notice is that my voice, if you know me really well, you can tell in my voice I'm a little nervous. Yeah. But other than that, all the moves are still the same. I may touch my glasses a bit more.

So you seem like a pretty healthy guy. I mean, like in terms of values and like perspective, you seem like, yeah, this is pretty pretty going good you seem like a nice guy it's like well i'm just uh i'm very happy to be doing what i'm doing i i don't look at it as like look how far i've come so you don't seem to have an axe to grind where everyone gets in here get moves out here to like grind axes like where to where's the axe where's the fucking the thing i can get my axe on and show everyone and prove and i'll you know i just think it went away when i quit drinking when i was in my 20s i feel like that was my my whole thing i had built

up this idea that people in high school were, one day they'll see, you know, and when I quit drinking, I just, I don't know, I gained a whole new perspective. And I don't think it's drinking for everyone, right? Like I always talk about drinking. I don't think drinking is a problem for everyone, right? So I don't, that was my thing. For other people, it's weed. For other people, it's something, that's was my thing for other people. It's weed for other people. It's something else. Me and my wife have the opposite thing. My wife has a real problem with weed, right? She doesn't do it because she, I mean, like I can make a bag of weed last months. I would do a little puff here and there. My wife gets involved. It's gone in a day.

But for me, it's drinking beer We have beer. My wife will drink, but we have beer in our fridge that's been there for months. But if I'm involved, there never was a liquor cabinet in my apartments because me and my buddies would buy a bottle of liquor and it's a wide waste. It's not going to be in the cabinet very long. Yeah, we're going to drink this. That's why we bought it. This is the cabinet. Yes. Right here. Exactly. Exactly. So, but when I quit drinking, I don't know, I just felt like over time, all that went away that by the time I, I actually got something, you know, like a tonight show or JFL, something that was really cool. I wasn't like, I'm going to show people. I'm like, I, I feel okay about who I am. And just, I feel good about this. And

then that's why it's like, now I feel like I only say positive things about my hometown. I'm not like, you know, screw my home. I'm like, no, I'm like, I'm happy to have grown up there. And I love to go back and visit my friends. And I only want to say good things about where I grew up it's funny because you seem weirder on stage than you are off stage well it's like a kind of usually if someone's weird on stage they're fucking crazy weird off stage well comedy makes me weird I like weird comedy like you know. Like a Neil Hamburger, I saw Neil Hamburger at the poor house in Charleston years ago. I had no idea what I was seeing. My friend took me and I was so blown away by that, that I was like, if he can do that, then I can do anything with comedy. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And I love it. The Neil Hamburger Hot February Night album is one of my favorites. I'm like, I can't tell if the audience hates him or if they love him. Well, it's this similar thing where Neil Hamburger can't really bomb. Yes. Because he's already bombing. Right, right. So you can either join him or not.

Yes. But he's going to go and bomb. Yes. And he doesn't think it's going good. You don't get a sense that he has any idea what's happening. Yes. Of course he does. Right. But it doesn't

matter what the audience does he's gonna do what he's gonna do yeah and and it's like so i like weird comedy like that i think that's fun and i am a weird guy but i you know i also feel like you know we're having a like a one-on-one conversation. I just, I'm like, I don't know. It's just not in me to get real weird with it. With a one-on-one conversation? Yeah, I had this boss I used to work with, and he played football for the Buffalo Bills in the 60s. And he was my boss as the pesticide salesman before I became the boss.

And he was like a real mentor. When youman before i became the boss and he was like a real mentor when you murdered him and became yes yes and he became a real mentor for me and and he we used to have a lot of one-on-one conversations when i was in my early 20s and i was very uncomfortable but we would sit in his truck and he would smoke cigarettes and we would talk and i i talked to him about that and he goes well, one on one, you don't get to be a character. You don't get to be the entertainer. You're having real conversations with people when you're when you're in front of multiple people. You can become, you know, the entertainer version of yourself. Yeah, I went somewhere this weekend and the guy there was a guy who just kept saying, like, you don't seem funny. And I was like, I'm I know I don't, but I can show you tape.

Right. Right. What do you want me to do? Because being funny in a conversation with a stranger is weird. I can go for jokes, but you're not you don't even know what i'm like normally so let's set up what i'm like normally and then we'll go we'll build out from there yeah and even like telling you the joke yeah that you already like yeah uh was very uncomfortable it's incredibly uncomfortable that's what's so that's what's so wonderful about it doesn't make people do it's just a copyright issue i mean i understand it's absolutely dreadful.

I mean, I don't mind doing it. Sure. I've done so much radio. When I first started doing radio, I used to go in where I would be like, all right, these are my setups. And I would just have them hit me with the setups and I would just do the jokes. But when you walk in and it's just one other guy and he's doing the setups it is like the most uncomfortable thing because whether he laughs or not it's like if he laughs it feels like he faked it if he doesn't laugh i'm bombing on the radio what if he says it's gonna be this thursday guys this thursday through sunday said one show sund. Um, uh,

all right. So very good. You're you're, I like talking to you. You're a good man. Uh, anything we didn't cover. Uh,

I don't think so. I mean, you know, I, I think we talked about the special. I'd love for people to go watch. It's very funny. It was in the top 10 for over a week,

I think. Yeah. Very exciting. Yeah. Uh, and it's, you know, it's fun.

It's, it's, uh, you know, I would, did it improve? Cause you have a joke about web traffic, about your website. How much did the traffic go up? It did go up quite a bit. Yeah. It went up quite a bit. What was the peak day? I don't know. I'd say there for about a week after. It took about a week before my email would say web traffic is down today. Got it.

It would say up every day and then finally it was down. But even when it was down, it was like, it's only down from what it was up. I mean, it's still up from the original numbers. It has to be. And yeah,

it's great. I mean, I got, I had my weed joke about weed being too strong, really went viral on Facebook. Great. And I feel like that's where all the old dudes are at. They're like, yeah, it is too strong.

On TikTok and Instagram, they're like, you're weak. It's not strong enough, pussy. All right, buddy. Well, you're so funny. Watch a special. Watch a half hour was great and the hour was great. you and uh dusty sleigh everybody we're having a good time