The Nateland Podcast - 159: #159 Sales
Episode Date: August 2, 2023Nate's in Australia so this week Greg Warren returns to sit in with the guys. The guys debate which city they'd like to be drafted to for comedy, Brian shares an awkward moment at the Opry, and Greg a...nd Dusty share stories from the road and try to sell a pen to Aaron as they talk about sales.Â
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Today's episode of the Aaron Land Podcast is brought to you by AG1 and our old friends Babbel.
Of course, this is not the Aaron Land Podcast. This is the Nate Land Podcast. I'm here with Dusty Slay, Brian Bates, and in lieu of Nate Bargetzi,
we have an old friend, our old pal, the apple of our eye.
Greg Warren is in the building, everybody.
Hey, guys.
How you doing, man?
Happy to have you back.
You're a fan favorite.
Everyone likes you more than us.
I don't know about that.
Well, I do because I read all these
comments. Really? Yeah. A lot of people
we've covered wanted you instead of Dusty.
I mean, but...
We've had one of the last ones for like a day.
But you lived in St. Louis. That's the only reason.
That's the only reason it worked out.
I wouldn't offer the position,
Dusty. I would have covered some moving
expenses, you know?
Like the moving van or whatever. You might even just be able to sleep in here. Yeah, I'm have covered some moving expenses, you know? Yeah. Like the moving van or whatever.
You might even just be able to sleep in here.
Yeah, I'm real comfortable in here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was just watching the draft.
There's been like Major League Draft, NHL Draft, all recently.
If you were a young, just finished comedy school, what city would you want to be drafted to for comedy?
Nashville.
Well, let's say other than the city you currently live in yeah i would say uh well it's interesting right because you don't want to go
with the best comedy scene because you're not going to get on stage right right unless you got
insane confidence and insane ability which that happens yeah um because you started in st louis went to went to new york
and then they kicked you out and you came back home right oh i had about nine cities man really
houston and then uh cincinnati and then living on the road la st louis new york uh st louis i i think
um nashville is good, but I think now
there's a lot of stage time here, right?
You can get up every night. Pretty good.
Better than it's ever been,
I'd have to guess.
I got a wild card I'll throw out. Yeah, go ahead.
Louisville.
Oh, jeez.
Oh, no.
I'm not
talking about the Oakland A's of cities.
You're going to get drafted.
I'm talking about for comedy.
They've got three different comedy clubs there.
Yeah,
they do.
And they're all,
so you get on,
so you go out there and it's a good separate location in the middle of
America and get to a lot of cities pretty quick.
Yeah.
That being said,
I would say St.
Louis,
actually,
I'm not saying stay there for too long,
but yeah,
there's three clubs and they're very local heavy with the support acts you know
and if you and there you know there's a lot of opportunity to get stage time a lot of opportunity
to get weeks there's probably not as many like uh indie shows as you guys have you can get on
stage every night here with an indie show right between chicago and nashville it's um the in that
in there's you could live
anywhere in there and be in a good location to travel wait that's what i think chicago
so effingham i mean what well that might not be a good city but you're saying just radius
kokomo indiana you could travel and hit hit lots of different cities. Yeah, pretty much the Midwest. Anywhere in there, yeah. Yeah. I think I had one and I forgot.
Oh, Phoenix has got a zillion comedy clubs.
It does.
Yeah.
And you're not that far from LA.
But I kind of like what you're saying.
I would say somewhere in the Midwest.
Yeah, it's too hot in Phoenix to be there all the time.
That's what I think.
I like it, but it's too hot.
I was just trying to think of a city that's got enough clubs you can-
Well, I'm just saying you got to weigh out all the things, right?
Are we just picking it just based on comedy or are we looking at other stuff?
I think that's the point of this thought exercise.
Well, listen, man.
I mean, I'm going to say right now, if you want to start being a comedian, that's all you need to think about is comedy.
Yeah, Dusty.
You can't.
Put in the work. Yeah. You got to be serious, that's all you need to think about is comedy. Yeah, Dusty. Put in the work.
Yeah.
Why you're not going to make it?
Charleston. I'm just saying,
if we're asking to be drafted to
a good comedy city, you've got to
weigh out some other...
Like Denver
is a great comedy city.
But you're not close to anything
if you want to get out of there. You're not working the road. That's what I Great comedy city. But you're not close to anything if you want to get out of there.
You're not working the road, man.
That's what I'm talking about.
But you're saying other stuff.
If you're thinking you're going to get drafted first round and go be a great comedian and you move to a city because you like the opera scene there and you like their zoo, you can't.
But they're grass.
You've got to be focused, man, that first 10 years.
Do they have a good opera scene?
Do they have a good zoo?
And do they have a good comic?
Oh, like San Diego.
Maybe that's the best of all three of those.
Yeah, but if you're hanging out at the zoo three days a week,
you're not getting on stage.
And I'm telling you right now,
you're not going to make it in this business.
Who makes out at the zoo that often?
What if you end up writing a lot of zoo jokes?
I mean, I didn't think about that.
I mean, come on, guys.
I mean, San Diego, your traffic is an ocean. I haven't seen a good zoo comic in a while. I know, you didn't think I mean, come on guys. I mean, San Diego, your traffic is an ocean.
I've seen a zoo comic
in a while.
I know you don't see
enough of it.
Yeah.
That's a really a market
that is not being hit.
You could do zoo
show a zoo tour.
I once again,
I'm going to put a word
in for St.
Louis.
We got top three
or four zoos.
Okay.
Yeah.
I've never heard anyone
talk about the St.
Louis zoo.
Then you haven't,
then you haven't been
paying.
No, it's a great zoo.
It's free.
It's free.
How up on the zoos are you, though?
It's a free zoo.
I mean, people talk about zoos around me.
I listen in.
Give me the ones they talk about.
Because I know-
Columbus, Ohio, San Diego.
Yeah, you're missing one.
Cincinnati?
Not Cincinnati.
St. Louis?
Other than St. Louis.
St. Louis is right in there with those.
So Chicago's got one that's free.
It's not great. I petted a camel than St. Louis. St. Louis is right in there with those. So Chicago's got one that's free. It's not great.
I petted a camel in Cincinnati.
What?
I petted a camel in Cincinnati.
At a zoo?
Not at a zoo.
It was just on the street.
Outside of Go Bananas.
He smokes a camel in Cincinnati.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Omaha, guys.
Omaha's got a camel.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I didn't know that.
I did a show.
No, I knew that.
I did a show in the Omaha Aquarium at the zoo.
It was a night show.
Got to hang out.
It was pretty cool.
See, this is what I'm talking about.
Yeah, you don't get that kind of home.
Where's the good aquarium market?
Man.
Atlanta?
Yeah.
Chattanooga?
I thought Chicago's got a great aquarium.
Yeah.
I think Boston does, too.
Did you do the show with the Great Lakes Aquarium?
They can use some other entertainment. The backdrop of your show was like a beluga whale? uh, did you do the show? It was the, yeah, the great lakes aquarium.
The,
uh, the backdrop of your show was,
was like a beluga whale.
It was a conference room with,
first of all,
you're not getting a beluga whale in an aquarium.
Are you?
Oh yeah.
The Atlanta.
Yeah.
Really?
They have a beluga whale.
Yeah.
Now that's impressive.
It's not as exciting as you would think though.
I saw it and I was like,
well,
this is cool.
But at this point it's like looking at it on TV.
Really.
To me, it is.
Really?
Yeah.
This guy's tough.
I will say, man, I did some cruises there for a while.
And that Alaskan cruise, there's a day where you just sit there on the boat and you just watch whales all day long.
Oh, yeah.
That's pretty cool.
I see.
That's what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
That's what you need to do, man.
So Fairbanks, maybe that's where we need to get drafted.
You get drafted to Fairbanks.
It's going to be a long road.
So do we think Louisville is the,
that's the number one draft spot for,
uh,
for comedy?
I mean,
I think so.
Well,
I'm in Louisville in two weeks,
so I kind of regret traffic.
Yeah.
So bad.
I should say the people there are lovely.
There are.
I mean,
Salt Lake City's got three wise guys.
Salt Lake City is a great place to start because Keith, he uses his local guys.
And it's, yeah.
It's also a fun city.
Yeah, but again, a little isolated.
Yeah, it is a little isolated.
You got to get on a plane to go do a road gig.
There is a college that I did there south of Salt Lake City.
Mormon School.
I forget what it was called.
SLC?
That's the airport. Salt Lake College? called. SLC? That's the airport.
Salt Lake College? Is it the airport?
It's the airport code, man.
He's never left the airport.
Who's booking the same
Salt Lake City airport? It's the Wolverines.
I know it's the Wolverines. That's Michigan?
Yeah.
Well, the Mormon School is
down there south of... Was it Utah
Valley? Utah Valley. Brigham Young. Utah Valley's not a Mormon school, I don't think- Was it Utah Valley? Utah Valley.
Brigham Young.
Oh, Utah Valley's not a Mormon school, I don't think, is it?
Everybody that took me to lunch at the Applebee's was Mormon.
Well, it's a state school.
It's called Utah Valley State.
I don't think-
Utah Valley University, UVU.
Yeah, you're right.
UVU.
Maybe, maybe not.
They had a good wrestling team.
They were all, they were like, you got any questions?
And I was like, are you all Mormon?
And they were like,
yes,
we are.
That's really all I had.
But conversation ended right there.
I don't know.
Sounds like some Bates crowd work right there.
Because Bates,
he just asked some questions.
Oh,
I did some Monday.
No,
it was,
it was Dustin Nickerson show last weekend.
We were on.
Yeah.
And I asked somebody in the audience,
who's from out of town. Somebody said, we're from Illinois. I'm like, Chicago. And they we were on. And I asked somebody in the audience, who's from out of town?
Somebody said, we're from Illinois.
I'm like, Chicago?
And they go, no.
And I'm like, all right.
And then I'm like, who else?
Man, this guy's good.
He just moves right on to the next one.
And they were like, Maryland.
And I had nothing to say about Maryland.
So you got a built-in Chicago joke.
And you're like, Chicago?
No.
Okay.
I mean, exactly what?
You had even less to say about Maryland. You don't even know a city in Maryland to follow up with. Okay. I mean, exactly when? You had even less to say about Maryland.
You don't even know a city in Maryland to follow up with.
Baltimore, never heard of it.
Yeah.
Chicago though?
Yeah.
There's a home video that I have where my mom is filming.
She's just filming these people in Gatlinburg and they turn and look and she's like,
smile, you're on camera.
And then she goes, where are you from?
And they were like, Pittsburgh.burgh she goes oh great like she i don't even know why she asked you had nothing
to say shit she came from the baits yeah yeah oh great i did the uh i did the opry this weekend
and i closed on a joke about bombing at a church and launching into a fake testimony about
being addicted to drugs.
What?
It's a really funny story.
That's my closer, Greg. That's not the funny part.
Yes, it is, man.
That's hilarious.
Well, thank you.
It's a little underhanded, isn't it?
It doesn't go that well on stage,
but it killed right now. I imagine it It doesn't go that well on stage, but it killed right now.
But I imagine it probably didn't go that well with the church.
Well, I don't do it at a church.
At the church, they didn't know it was fake, though.
They were like, he's really doing it.
So you're just like, it's going bad, and you're like,
yo, I got to tell you something.
And was it true what you told him?
This don't get in the way.
He's not trying to burn his closer on the podcast.
Sorry, man.
I don't want to tell the whole thing.
Yeah, I don't want to let him buy the curtain.
Can I get to the point of the story, Greg?
Yeah, yeah.
I'm sorry, buddy.
It's a lot.
You're an Opry mill.
So that's what I call it.
It does great at the Opry.
The next guy following me, it's his debut at the Opry.
His name's Ben Fuller.
Oh.
And when the announcer introduces,
he said,
this guy's a Christian artist.
He overcome 14 years of drug addiction,
blah,
blah,
blah.
And I start,
my ears start peeking up like,
Oh,
and then he goes out there and sings a song about how Jesus saved and gets a
standing ovation.
Then he shares his testimony on stage about how he was basically tells
exactly what I just said in the joke.
And audiences crying.
He's crying.
Then the announcer even brings them over and talks to him.
He's like, well, we had two testimonies tonight.
One from Brian, one from you.
I'm so thankful, first of all, that I went first because I would not have been listening to what he was doing.
And I would have went out there afterwards.
They just all thought I was mocking him.
Even so, it felt a little bit somehow, even though I went first, like I was mocking him.
Yeah.
The point where afterwards I was like, hey, man, I had no idea that in your story.
He was very cool about it.
And he's like, I made it up to.
He's like, I've never done a drug in my life.
Yeah.
But it was quite funny. Yeah, yeah man i want to see this it's a good bit yeah should we get any of these comments sure what do you think you got the comments here these come from by the way we're
asked a lot these come from twitter instagram youtube apple podcast reviews and if you want
to send us an email that's very easy to do. Just email us
at nateland at natebargetzi.com
First comment. You know what? Yeah.
These are the wrong comments.
Are they really? This is
uh...
Yeah, this is last week's comments.
This is last week's comments, yeah. They are.
See, it's normally Nate who prints these out and gets
everything set up for us. So when he's not in town the whole well charade what about this where were you guys at last
week oh where you been where you're going yeah where you guys at i went to toledo ohio to love
it to the funny bone at a great time yeah it was a hot hot weekend um yeah it was great nothing to
report really people were very nice.
Hotel right across the street.
Hotel right across the street. Only one elevator was working and the pool was shut down. So that was a little disappointing.
Oh, yeah, man. You like a hotel pool?
I don't get in, but I like it to be open.
You like to have the option?
Yeah, I like it to be open. It feels like the hotel's doing well.
Yeah, man. It feels like fun.
If it's open, yeah.
I was staying in a hotel here last night. I walked by, I was like, man. It feels like fun. If it's open. Yeah. I was staying in a hotel here last night.
I got to walk by.
I was like, man, these guys are having a great time.
Yeah.
You like to see it.
Yeah.
You like to see people enjoying their lives.
Yeah, man.
I don't get in there.
Right.
You go, that does look fun.
And that makes you feel good about the country when you see people having fun.
On the road.
Yeah.
But, you know, I'm just in my room, you know you know going i wish it would rain so i don't feel
bad about being in here yeah uh yeah it's kind of a little cul-de-sac of a mall there yeah nice
starbucks uh yeah juice place and a nice pizza oh juice juice oh yeah man yeah yeah they got they
had this one restaurant called Hangover Easy.
That's what it was called.
But they were really a really dumb name, I think.
And they were really- Oh, I like the pun.
Yeah, but they were-
It's not bad.
Really using the initials to Hangover Easy, H-O-E, for everything in the restaurant.
Is this a- I'm not getting the pun.
Is it a breakfast place?
Like you're like-
Overeasy like eggs.
Okay, yeah.
Hangover.
You're like, hey, you know we're all drunk, right? Yeah. You drunk right yeah that kind of thing but they were using the initials hoe for everything okay
i always talk to will o'donnell a guy you know about that because we always hate how restaurants
are like making everything like dirty like you take your kids in now you got to explain to your
kids what hoe is that i was i was reading the menu and they go, you know, get eggs with some hoe fries.
And I'm like, is this a typo?
Like you meant to put home fries in?
And then they, instead of homemade,
it just said homemade.
And I'm like, well, I don't think
that's how I want my food.
No, no.
Well, I don't know.
You don't want to put it.
People can do whatever they want.
Label hoes, you know,
like they're probably good in the kitchen. But I just, it's too can do whatever they want. Label hoes.
But I just, it's too much.
It's like, just take it easy.
Here's the website right here.
Big message.
Yeah.
Welcome to Ohio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The food was delicious though.
It was really some of the best breakfast food I've had.
Is it right there in the mall there?
Yeah.
Near the club. How have I missed that?
That's got to be new.
It's got to be new.
Because I mean, there's a little pizza place.
Yeah, it's across from the pizza place.
John, the guy that used to run the club down there.
Oh, okay.
Basil, I think it's called.
Basil, yeah.
That's good.
Yeah, I've been there a couple of times.
There's a thing called the Hippie Bowl there.
Okay.
That's some good food.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like it.
What about you, Brian?
Where were you at?
Well, I was at the Opry Friday night.
Thursday night, I did a taping at Zany's with Killer Bees.
Oh, the buzz.
Oh, man.
Yeah, the comedy buzz.
And the shows were great.
And supposedly, he's going to air on Amazon Prime.
Oh, cool.
That's great, man.
So I had a good set, and it was a hot show.
Standing ovation?
No, I didn't get a standing ovation.
Why do you got to do that?
Well, I just talked about his dry bar taping,
where everybody's supposed to get a standing ovation,
but didn't you say that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You are?
But it did just sound like you were going,
yeah, how good was it really to get a standing ovation?
Well, no, it sounds like that thing that when you know, you know, he did something great, but you shoot for something higher, so it doesn't seem great.
I thought you were saying that because I just told the story about the guy at the Opry who got a standing ovation.
Oh, no.
Yeah, my dry bar.
You got a standing ovation at your dry bar, didn't you?
I don't remember.
I don't think so.
Well, I'm not going to tell that.
He's like, yeah, I don't take stock in such things, Brian.
Maybe I did.
Maybe I didn't.
It's not about that.
It's not about that, man.
It's about the creative process.
I'm not even going to tell the story, man.
We've got our comments now.
We can get into them.
I don't know what you guys are teaching down there in Louisville,
but it's about the writing.
It's about the performance.
You're too attached to results.
I've always said that about you, man.
Yeah, that's true.
That's where you're making up stories about church.
I'm making a crowd work comment.
It doesn't even go to church, really.
Yeah.
Here are the comments, ladies and gentlemen.
Once again, they're from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcast Reviews, and nateland at natebargetzi.com.
Let's dive in.
The first comment is from jennifer marbach
marbach aaron said i love that on the first name here we are yeah it's like all right we're back
at it yeah it's a tricky one jennifer m aaron said on last week's podcast that columbus ohio
was the sixth largest city in the country i repeated this fun fact i learned on nateland
to several of my co-workers and everyone was as surprised as I was. I finally decided to Google it and found out it is ranked
14. I'm a little embarrassed, but I guess it isn't the dumbest thing I've said at work.
It is all about how they structure out the thing. St. Louis actually would be one of the larger
cities, but they only include the metro area. Well, no, metro area is the big part.
Okay, so whatever the city.
So Columbus, probably a lot of people live within city limits,
so it rockets up there on the city.
Metro area.
I actually looked this up.
It's 32nd metro area.
So, Aaron, you look even dumber.
Well, he wasn't talking metro area.
He was talking city.
I think when I said that,
I said it's like the sixth largest city.
It's big.
And like six and 14, pretty close.
14's not bad for,
you didn't think Columbus was the 14th largest. Of course.
I mean, how many cities are there?
A couple hundred?
And 14 is up there.
14's not bad.
Eight.
It's eight all.
But based on just Population of the city
Nashville would be bigger than Atlanta
Oh
Well that's not even
Okay
Yeah but metro area
Atlanta's what five or something
Yeah Atlanta's huge
So what's metro area
LA, New York, Chicago
Houston may be above Houston's fourth New, New York, Chicago. Houston may be above.
Houston's fourth.
Houston's fourth.
New York, LA, Chicago, Houston.
Columbus.
And then Phoenix.
Columbus in the mix.
Yeah.
Top 20.
Yeah, sure.
Columbus is in the discussion.
Well, I'm not sure.
I think it's 32nd.
But anyway.
Well, thank you, Jennifer.
Sounds like really interesting conversations you're having at work.
It's 12.
I'm just trying to get the water maybe focus on work yeah yeah step away from the water cooler for a bit get
some work done drew guswa if you're flying solo on southwest i contend that a1 is not the best
because then you have no say in who sits next to you. A 15 to 30 is the sweet spot.
You can scope who's already sitting and then decide whether to join them or claim an open spot.
Interesting. See, I don't really care who's sitting next to me. I just want an aisle seat
close to the front of the plane. You say that. Yeah. But if you're at the aisle, you're free.
You're free out in the, even if you're doing this. Yeah. But if you're at the aisle, you're free. You're free out in the, even if they're-
Yeah, but you're doing this.
Yeah, but you're still free out here.
You do.
There is some freedom.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's all I want.
You can get out of there if you need to.
Yeah.
But I'll make multiple trips to the bathroom.
Me too, man.
Yeah.
And I feel bad about it, but I don't want any judgment.
Yes.
And, you know, like if I say, hey, you know, I'm going to ask nicely, but if I get any
kind of attitude, I'm like, we can switch.
You know, we can switch. You were the one that wanted to ask nicely, but if I get any kind of attitude, I'm like, we can switch. You know, we can switch.
You were the one that wanted to sit out here.
Right.
We can switch.
Like when they start to set up the laptop, I want to go, don't even get all that out.
I'm going to ask you to put that out.
But do you really have to go?
You're limiting their workflow.
Yeah.
You're not going to want all that out.
Just a heads up. You're not going to want all that out. Just a heads up.
You're not going to get anything done this flight.
I don't know how I ended up at the window,
but it's just too bad.
This flight's not going to go the way you think it is.
Well,
Greg and I,
at our age,
we actually have to go that many times.
You probably just go in there to what?
Well,
I can come out of water.
Yeah.
But I also,
you know,
I want to see what's happening in the bathroom. I like to walk through the plane just to see what people are up to yeah
i yeah i go but i mean to be honest it's been that way my whole life i mean i you know i think
my age has something to do with now but i mean i just even as a kid i remember my dad being like
are you kidding me yeah yeah well the moment i'm about to get into any situation where it will be weird
to go to the bathroom i'm like i gotta go uh man i freaked i think i talked about that last time i
was on here i uh got one of those sleep tests where they hook you up with all the wires and
immediately i'm like well yeah i have to ask permission to go to the bathroom so now i gotta
go yeah a lot and i i And I quit. I quit.
You quit the sleep test?
Last time.
You went home?
The first time I went home, I bailed.
But I just want to tell you guys sort of a nice way to tie the bow or whatever.
Put a button on it?
Put a button on it.
Thank you.
I did it.
Thursday night, I did it.
Wow.
I went back and I did it.
When do you get the results?
Doesn't matter.
I don't care about the results.
It's just about overcoming your fear.
No, I like the idea that you're like, you know what?
I don't have a problem sleeping.
I just pee a lot.
So you're like, actually, I just figured it out.
I don't need this whole test.
No, to be real honest, I did talk to them on the way in and they were like, there's
nothing wrong with you.
And so now I've spent a lot of money to rule out.
I just need to go to
the urologist i think is what probably what i need to do i don't have a sleep problem i don't have
really yeah and bates was telling me you said for sure i i still feel that way yeah they said
could you tell just listen to him right now man that is such because the doctor said the same
thing yeah i showed up he goes, your dad snore?
I'm like, yeah.
He goes, open your mouth.
Oh, yeah.
You need to sleep.
Wait a minute, man.
You cannot tell that.
Yeah.
I love those guys that are so.
I went to the dentist one time.
And he just, he looked, he had me open my mouth.
He goes, oh, you're a grinder.
He goes, you're definitely a grinder.
He goes, don't feel bad. He goes, picked up People Magazine. He goes, he looked, he had me open my, he goes, oh, you're a grinder. He goes, you're definitely a grinder. He goes, don't feel bad.
He goes, picked up People Magazine.
He goes, Mel Gibson, you can tell right here.
He's a grinder.
Mel's a grinder.
Don't feel bad about it.
Wow.
Yeah.
I mean, they all think they know something.
They want to impress you.
They want to go, oh, I had no idea.
To me, I'm like, if I have no idea, what's the problem?
Yeah. You know what I mean just grind them it's like they're talk show hosts where just make make a make a
call really firm whether you believe it or not yes my brother was a soccer referee when he was
in college and he would go there hung over and he had no idea what was going on but every call he
would make it with a lot of authority.
That ball is out, right?
Oh, yeah.
No idea.
Even the replay comes in, you're like, no, no, bad angle.
And everybody believed him, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Used that example last time, Greg.
Reruns.
Did I really?
I said that one?
I don't remember that at all. Man, this is going to happen a lot on this podcast.
I wasn't here.
I've been on here too many times.
It's all new to me.
You got to call me up.
You saw me going into it.
You could have cut me off before. I know. Surely he's not going to tell too many times. It's all new to me. You got to call me up. You saw me going into it. You could have cut me off before.
I know.
Surely he's not going to tell this story again.
The soccer thing I told you.
Buzz Killington.
I'd never heard that before in my life.
Can we cut this?
This is terrible.
No, no.
It's all new to me.
This is terrible, man.
It's all new to me.
It's all new to Dusty.
I appreciate you telling us.
You had two choices there.
Okay?
You can cut me off before I do it and say, Hey man, don't tell this.
You're going to sound like an idiot.
Okay.
Or you can just let it go.
But now you might,
my confidence shaken.
I can't,
I don't know what I'm like.
Look,
Dusty tells the same C4 story at the airport every week.
So I don't know what that is,
but the candle,
the candle.
Oh yeah.
Well,
they have new machines now.
And now they tell you,
they can tell the difference between a candle and a stick of C4. And I'm like, Oh, the candle. Oh, yeah. Well, they have new machines now. And now they tell you they can tell the difference between a candle and a stick of C4.
And I'm like, oh, you couldn't do that before?
You know?
So before, we're just slipping through with dynamite this whole time and not lighting it on the plane?
I mean, you know.
I called you the C4 story at the airport.
I thought it was the gate.
Yeah, that's what I did, too.
But I'll tell it every podcast if I can.
Okay, man. Well, I still feel like an idiot.
Thanks, Bates.
Maria Rivard.
I tell you guys I sold Pringles.
Maria Rivard.
Can we please revisit
physics? I consider myself relatively
intelligent, yet cannot grasp that the Earth spins, and when we jump up, it doesn't move under us.
It's an argument I've had with my family for years.
How come when the space shuttle crew or any satellite is up taking pictures of the Earth, it's not blurry if it's spinning?
I'm just saying what Dusty was thinking the entire episode.
Well, don't pin it on me now.
I'm just saying what Dusty was thinking the entire episode.
Well, don't pin it on me now, but, you know, don't have this old comment and then go, you know, this is not my thoughts.
These are Dusty's thoughts.
But you're right, though, Maria.
But I think the short answer is for both us down here on Earth and for the space shuttle orbiting the Earth, we are also spinning.
So from our perspective, it does not look like the earth is spinning,
but we're spinning with it.
For the same reason, if I'm driving in a car and I throw a tennis ball up in the air,
it's not going to fly back and hit the back windshield
because the tennis ball is also moving with the car.
What if you don't have a windshield?
A sports car?
Yeah.
Like convertible?
No, like no windshield. Oh, okay yeah the wind would probably blow it yeah the wind might blow it back yeah but it's still it's it's not gonna fly back
like it would are you yeah is you're throwing the ball up in the car or out of the car i'm
i'm trying to let's say i'm driving i'm i'm driving i'm driving left hand on the steering wheel i
got you juggling a tennis ball my right hand okay all right like that's how i drive usually
just to keep myself squeeze it yeah i scream at the windshield a lot yeah i'm having trouble
but i'm let's say i'm throwing it up okay when i throw the ball in the air, it's just going to go straight up and come right back down.
Right.
If I'm inside a car,
I'm with you,
man.
That's the same reason that if you jump up right now,
the earth doesn't just spin under you.
It's because we're already,
we're already moving with the earth.
Okay.
But isn't this also have to do with the speed of the spin?
I mean,
it's pretty slow spin.
It's a pretty fast spin it's
just the earth is so big yeah yeah you know okay it goes all the way around in 24 hours
and it's pretty big i guess it is yeah thanks for that uh tennis ball i thought you were throwing
it up outside the car and i was like well then it wouldn't yeah yeah that's different that's that's
good but if you're on a train enclosed, it would come right back down.
Yeah.
I say we try it.
What do you mean?
Let's test it.
I don't know if this needs testing.
I think Maria
Rivard wants it tested.
We'll put one up on the Patreon.
I want to say, though, back to this Southwest
thing. The other day, was on, I was boarding.
I was A3 and all these people.
You're about to say C4 out of this.
All these people, I could see them lining up.
And I had, I pulled out my paper and I was going to tally how many people went in front of me.
And then I was going to email Southwest about it because I thought there was a bunch of people from another flight that was about to board.
Oh yeah.
And then I got to like, I don't know, eight. And then they were like, all right,
now you can board. And I was like, all right, well, that's not worth it. But if we'd got up to
20, I was sending out an email. You don't want to be tallying anybody, man.
Yeah. If anybody, if you're tallying anything, people get real suspicious. Like what are you,
what are you counting? Well, I was, and i was tallying people in wheelchairs at
that point so it did not look good it doesn't look good at all but because that's who was
boarding but i was like all right so this is a person in a wheelchair but also a person with them
and that person's not pushing them the the employee's pushing them so they're just kind
of tag it's like in theory y'all should be able to just grab the chair in front of you, and then one person brings all of you like a train.
Yeah.
I'll push a person on.
I don't feel like that's safe.
I like that.
I'll go, you know what?
I'll take one.
Let me be A1.
I'll take a person.
Dude, I was at the Midway Airport this weekend, and I saw an employee pulling three different people on wheelchairs to their gate. Wow.
Impressive. I don't know if they're just
understaffed or if he just wanted to show off.
That's the world.
Nobody's working.
But it was kind of
impressive to watch. He was hauling too.
You guys all have automatic
check-in on Southwest?
I don't think so. I'm A-list preferred.
I think I got automatically checked in.
What's that mean?
Like, do you have to go in 24 hours
ahead of time?
Yeah.
How do you get automatic check-in?
I just figured,
well, you said A-list preferred.
If you get to A-list,
you will have automatic early bird check-in.
I was on that
the greatest year of my life.
It was great.
I have to go on 24 hours ahead of time yeah and check in and
other day it just shows how many people now have somebody that's preferred or something ahead of
time because i'm ready to go eleanor drops her sippy cup you know my chicken's 855 she drops it
854 i milk goes everywhere that's my wife. That's my daughter.
I know who Eleanor is.
And I jump up and cleaned up real fast.
Jump up to check in.
It is now 855 or whatever.
C8.
I can't believe you cleaned the sippy cup first.
Just go ahead and get yourself secured away.
You told that story two and a half years ago.
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, man.
I wasn't going to say anything about it.
I think it was episode 18 yeah
good episode kyle tracy i was taking care of my morning business at the pilot truck stop in
montauk new jersey montague i'm gonna say montague on that montague what a great way to start a day
huh and a guy came in and sat in the stall next to me a few seconds later a horse with no name
was playing i said aaron land he said he's been doing that every day since that episode and i'm the first
one to make the connection i didn't stick around to meet him but anyway there's a lot of truckers
that listen that's amazing i'll start a movement that is amazing do you know the backstory for this
backstory but i love the band america yeah yeah in the country i what i do you know i don't like a bathroom where it's
quiet in there yeah so if there's no music playing if there's no real loud kind of white noise i will
play horse with no name by america on my phone really and that's just sort of my my calling card
i guess exactly yeah i love that i can't imagine what it's like at a pilot truck stop in the morning
i mean i've sat in a lot of home depots in the morning and the bathrooms and it is wild in there
and i can't imagine what's going on at a truck stop you've been eating hot dogs and drinking
coffee and it's just like somebody says next to you you I'm going to go ahead and get out of here.
Man, I remember.
Great song.
Yeah.
Bates, if I, if I have told this, would you stop me?
But there was this bathroom on the road.
I think I was working Toledo, but I had, I was eating a lot of grapefruits back then.
And for some reason I just had to go.
Yeah.
And, uh, and I, I went in this gas station.
There was, it was a small bathroom.
There's a guy in there. Uh, I think he was, you know, uh, sitting down and there was just a journal and I w and I was like, I just, this is going to, this is going to have to happen, man.
And I just walked in there. He's in there. He just goes, he goes, it's, it's not that kind of
bathroom, meaning it's not meant for two people to be in at the same time. I was like, sorry, dude.
This is a horrible thing that I'm doing to you,
but there's a worse thing that's going to happen.
Wow.
Yeah.
The way he said it, it was, it was really tactful way to say it.
It's not that kind of bathroom.
I know, man.
I know.
And I'm sorry, but if it's not, it seemed like he could have locked the door. And this is not a normal kind of situation I'm dealing with man. I know. And I'm sorry.
If it's not,
it seemed like you could have locked the door.
And this is not
a normal kind of situation
I'm dealing with.
It's not.
Right.
Hadn't happened since.
Brutal.
Grapefruits are,
yeah,
they can do it to you.
Yeah,
I was eating
like two,
three a day.
Yeah.
Two or three a day.
Yeah.
That's a lot of time
just peeling.
Yeah,
that's a lot of,
that's a lot of grapefruit.
It is, man.
Yeah.
I mean, these were.
Is this your wrestling days?
No.
These were good size grapefruits.
Okay.
Eat them on a road trip.
Yeah.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Thomas Nielsen.
Dusty mentioning his family history.
May be curious.
So I did some research and found his oldest sleigh ancestor.
Sir Edmund Sleigh.
S-L-E-I-G-H.
They changed the spelling at some point.
The High Sheriff of London.
Wow.
He lived in London from 1590 to 1656.
Also found this picture of Grandpa Guy and the other sleigh boys from 1939.
Oh, yeah.
That's my granddad right there.
The one with his tie. Well. On the right? No, no. Two over. from 1939. Oh, yeah. That's my granddad right there. The one with his tie.
Well.
On the right?
No, no.
Two over.
Right there?
Oh, yeah.
That's Grandpa Guy?
Yeah.
How about that?
Amazing.
Have you seen this picture before?
I don't think so, but I know what he looks like.
Wow.
So this guy was able to find that?
Yeah.
Wow, that's amazing.
Yeah, thanks, Thomas.
I knew that the last name had changed had changed but yeah that's pretty wild
it's kind of weird that two of the guys ties are very windy and the other two are just kind of
sitting flat they got tie tacks they're like windmills in rural illinois right dusty that's
right half of them are blowing half of them are that's true some of them are just whipping through
the air but my guess is this guy's got a little tie clip. Well, that's interesting.
Sir Edmund Slay,
the High Sheriff of London.
That's interesting.
I think the guy in the far left
might have tucked his tie.
I can't tell.
No.
It's got a little
got a little blow to it.
Yeah.
Okay.
There's a tie tack
right there about
that's a third of the way up.
Pin.
Probably with a... That would have been about eight years before my dad
was born.
1939. Wow, that's amazing.
Thank you, Thomas. That was very cool.
Next comment is from
Nishikant.
Nishikant.
Okay.
As professional stand-up comedians,
Brian, Dusty, and I will take this one.
How do you handle sorry greg can't get in on it oh greg can hop in for sure all right
as professional stand-up comedians how do you handle unfunny stories
wow you might be able to do this one brian how do you handle unfunny stories or jokes from okay from close friends family members or in-laws i struggle to find humor in my girlfriend's jokes
but i don't want to hurt her feelings by telling her that well that's a that's a tough dilemma for
sure break up with her i mean just get right out of that relationship well i think there's a uh
a real key question that we need to answer. How long are these stories?
How hot is she?
Yeah, I mean,
how often is she telling them too?
I mean, is she telling you jokes every day?
Are these nonstop?
Or is it once in a while?
Also, get a fake laugh.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I can do it.
But we all have people after shows come up.
I got one for you.
I had yesterday at church, a guy came up.
I got two jokes for you.
I'm like, all right, this hero.
And I fake laughed.
And then you move on.
What was one of the jokes?
One of them was.
That's good. I thought that was real
that was pretty good
yeah
one of them was
something about
his kids
got a part in a play
and
his son's part
was playing
a husband
okay
and then I said to him
well congratulations
maybe next year
you'll get a speaking role
that's pretty good
that's pretty good
that's pretty cool
yeah
that's not bad.
That's a gift that he gave you because you got a liner.
Now I got a new closer.
Yeah.
I don't know if I'd go closing with it, but it's real good.
At least an opener.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Start with that.
That is a thing, though.
You know, like if somebody will shout something out in the audience and you're just so conditioned
to be like, this is stupid, stupid, stupid.
Like probably four times I've been like, that's, wait a minute.
What'd you say?
That's really good.
That's why I don't do crowd work.
I'm afraid there'll be funnier than me.
Yeah.
But I took, took one of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I was like, well, that's going in the act.
That was, that was good.
I've had people message me things.
Hey, you did this joke and you should add this at the end.
And 90% of the time I'm like,
no way.
Yeah. Once in a while.
Yeah.
You know what?
That's the problem.
Yeah.
I remember.
Do you remember,
do you mind me telling,
I remember one specifically that somebody gave you after a show.
Yeah.
You had a joke about peeing on ants.
Oh yes.
And a guy came up and said,
that's trickle down economics.
Yeah.
I just put that joke on the internet and people are like,
this is genius.
Yeah. That guy's good.
You made it work.
He just gave you the turn.
What about the one in Duluth, Minnesota that someone gave you one time?
That not good.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, dude.
Brian, stop me.
I think I might have told this one before.
Cops are going to get you on that.
me if i think i might have told this one before i had a i had an old bit that i haven't done in a while but about when your cat dies what are you supposed to do when your cat dies and at one point
in the joke i said i don't know what the etiquette is like what am i supposed to do it's a long bit
and the word etiquette not important to the joke at all. After the show, a woman comes up to me and she goes, got a little idea for your cat joke.
I said, yeah, let me hear it.
She goes, etiquette.
Etiquette?
I was like, yeah, I go, that's great.
That's wordplay.
And I went back to Dusty and we were talking like the show would change immediately
if i were just like etiquette huh it would be like wait what are we watching
people have been like what kind of show is this etiquette etiquette
yeah that's the worst one i've Good times. What's the next comment here?
Mary May.
Mary May.
Great name.
Yeah.
Mary May Camarda.
Just finished watching the documentary Inside Jokes on Amazon about up and coming comics auditioning for the Just for Laughs Festival.
New faces. I was so happy to catch the smallest cameo from our boy Dusty.
Was the new faces show what launched his career is
that show as big of a deal for new comics as they make it out to be well i don't know the the
documentary itself i don't know but i was there doing uh new faces unwrapped so we weren't really
a part of that documentary but for whatever reason when they did that one shot where i'm
standing there we got in on it but yeah it, it was, it really did launch things.
It was big for me.
Yeah, it was great.
Yeah.
2002, I think I did it.
Yeah.
I was, yeah, it was like, I mean, and it, back then I was like, well, this is, I'm either
going to have to quit or I'm going to be a superstar.
And it wasn't either of those things.
Definitely.
As it turns out, there are a lot of other options.
Yeah.
There was.
Yeah.
You make in my head.
I was like, I'm going to be super stupid because they make it back then.
Comedians were getting big deals and stuff like that.
So I just, I did like, okay.
You know, uh, but I look back and like, I could have done so much better.
Yeah.
And I wish I would have waited a year or something like that, but yeah.
Well, that's how I feel.
And actually I, it had kind of been offered to me the year before, but there were some different complications. So I couldn't do it. And then it got, it wasn't necessarily offered to me, but it felt like it was, but then there was something I had going on that I couldn't do it. So I got offered the next year and I was very happy to have that extra year of just working on jokes.
Right.
Because I went in hot.
I mean, I was ready to go.
That's great.
I was ready to roll.
Yeah.
I wish I would have maybe waited a little bit, but it was still pretty, it's still pretty
cool.
First time, whatever the industry, somebody in the industry said this guy exists and then
other people acknowledge that you go ahead and exist.
That is, that is a big part of what it feels like.
You feel like, oh, I'm in the system. Yeah what it feels like you feel like oh i'm in the system yeah you know what i mean like i'm in the mix anyway
but that's cool that they were doing the documentary the year you did it yeah and they
yeah so i was just like standing on stage at some point and yeah like with other people but you know
i got a hat so much like the titans video unrecognizable even at the glimpse that's like your last comic
standing appearance too exactly a lot of those cameos if you pause it at the right time you
can see dusty in the background yeah yeah trey nichols greg can roll his eyes whoa wow man
maybe nate can read i pulled the nate yeah a Nate. I pulled a Nate. Tracy Nichols.
Greg can roll his eyes at Nate for saying Pringles aren't chips,
but you would never grab a Pringle to eat dip.
Chips go with dips and Pringles stand alone.
Hold on a second, man.
The logic is flawed.
I agree.
That's where she's at here because who's dipping lays?
Excellent point. Who's dipping here because who's dipping lays, you know? Excellent point.
Who's dipping lays?
Nobody's dipping lays.
I hate to say it.
I don't care for some
of their business tactics,
but that's the
kind of the gold standard
of potato chip, right?
They're the Coca-Cola.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Pepsi, actually.
I know.
Yeah.
Well, yeah. You know, but if if a chip doesn't need dip doesn't that make it a better chip
i think so i mean if you gotta dip it is it really that good yeah i mean i don't think
really potato chips what potato chips are you dipping ruff I don't need it. I don't need it.
Ruffles.
Ruffles do people.
Doritos I don't think are built for dipping.
Look, I think it's a pretty awesome move when you do use them to dip,
but I don't think they're built that way.
I mean, you know.
I think only corn tortillas. Tortilla chips.
Tortillas.
And be a cope on this, Bates,
because I know I've discussed this on the podcast before.
We'll see.
No, I have. I'm just telling you right up. I have. Actually. cope on this baits because i know i've discussed this on the podcast before so we'll see no i have
all right i'm just telling you right up i have so actually um
i just want to say i talked about tarangos which was when we tried oh yeah we tried to uh get into
the corn chip market because we wanted to rangos tarangos it was a sort of a pringles and we had
the wrong price point and there was a divability issue there.
That'll get it's supposed to be dipped.
It's supposed to be.
And it was marketed that way.
It was.
Yeah, it was, but it was too thin, too thin.
And Oh man, through the roof expensive.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
You don't want expensive chips breaking off in the dip.
No.
Infuriated.
You're like, what am I eating?
A, a, you know, a salad now.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a, yeah, it's like turning a pie into a cobbler.
Yeah.
I don't know why Tracy's attacking me on this deal.
Amy Lewandowski.
I showed my husband a clip of Dusty doing stand-up, and his first comment was, his hair is really straight.
Which I never really thought of, but now I'm wondering, how does Dust comment was his hair is really straight which i never really thought of but now i'm wondering how does dusty get his hair so straight well i love that that's your husband's
first comment a lot of women make that comment to me i don't hear it a lot from dudes but how
does it feel yeah it feels good i mean i like it you know i appreciate that dudes are noticing
a hair straightener no it just is like this i don't i't do anything. I wish it had a little curl to it.
Really?
Yeah.
You'd be a much different-
I don't think it'd be the same hat.
Yeah.
I don't think it'd be the same hat.
I'd be a very different hat.
Well, who knows?
I might be a CEO of something if my hair had a little curl.
I think a lot of your life would be much different.
You think?
If you had a little bounce.
Yeah.
It was a little voluminous.
If you had bounce, I don't think you'd be going corporate. Bounce. Yeah. It was a little voluminous. Yeah. But now it's just bounce.
I don't think you'd be going corporate.
I think you'd be going like lion, lion show or something, you know, big catch.
Oh yeah.
It might be like a circus performer.
Yeah.
Big, you know.
Yeah.
You're talking like weird Al Yankovic hair, like that kind of, that kind of.
I was thinking about Tiger King.
I said bit of a curl.
I mean, that's as curly as it gets.
Yeah.
That's permed out for sure. Weird Al. I mean, that's as curly as it gets. Yeah, that's permed out for sure.
Weird Al.
I mean, like a flow to it.
Like a Head & Shoulders commercial.
You could get a sponsorship.
Yeah, not like a Weird Al.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's...
That looks pretty nice, though.
You think?
Yeah.
I don't think so.
Kenny G is even curlier.
Kenny G is awful similar to Weird Al in a way
Yeah he is
What a weird career that guy's had
Very successful but no one seems to like him
Do you know what I mean?
Like I don't know anybody that's like a Kenny G fan
I think it became cool to hate him
Michael Bolton
Yeah him and Bolton
Same hair though too
Doesn't Michael Bolton have similar hair?
Not anymore
No he went bald?
No, he just cut it.
It looks good.
No, I think it just became like Nickelback.
Everybody, it was cool to hate Nickelback.
And Kenny G was like, yeah, because it's not like rock and roll music.
It's sort of.
But I think he's also made fun of by real jazz enthusiasts because they think he like
popified jazz in a way that they don't like.
Sure.
I think it's kind of watered down, not real jazz music.
Also, he made a lot of money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it.
And I can't name another saxophonist in the world right now.
Yeah.
David Sanborn.
Okay.
Is he good?
Yeah, he's real good.
Dave Coz.
I know him.
Maybe I do know a couple.
Bill Clinton.
Clinton was, yeah.
He's made a lot of money.
Not necessarily from the saxophone.
Right, right, right.
Not much of it came from sax.
Yeah.
We'll move on from that.
Kristen.
Oh, Jay Custis.
My dad has spent thousands having his wiring repaired on his car because of chipmunks and squirrels in rural Indiana, just like bygone baits.
I have been waiting anxiously for Brian's dry bar special to come out, hoping it makes enough money for Brian to build a garage.
I'd love an ETA on the special.
Well, I wish i knew
they are secretive about that they are how long did it take yours
not that long but okay early on all right no mine went really well they put it up
i was on the plane and it came out they are so secretive they streamed his lives it was uh season two yeah um and uh so that you know
they didn't have a lot of inventory back then whatever they did they put it out and um but my
buddy who is a buddy uh brendan air shot one years ago man and it's not out and this guy's
he's a great comic so but they just they won't tell them they're just I think they just have
a ton of them
that they shot
and they sort of
get to them
when they get to them
you know
this is my second one
the first one took
about two years
to come out
wow
this one
I've checked in with them
every so often
two years
I mean it was close to it
wow
this one
I mean I shot this
last October
and I
well if they gave you
a second one
obviously you know
it's going to come out
yeah
I'm just trying to
answer the question
yeah I'm not
I feel like
you're making me
feel bad now
like maybe it won't
come out
it's going to be okay
man
yeah
it's not like
you're not a terrible
comic man
we'll still love you
it's not like
they tossed it
maybe they were like
he did these
on the first one
no your medicine
but I will say that already I think about what I did and you know,
like I had so many specials,
but I wouldn't want to record something and then it come out.
God, no.
Either I've already got new jokes that in your mind,
whatever your newest joke is your favorite.
This is the best thing I've ever did.
I wish it was on the special.
Or I just started some jokes that I did tell on it,
but now I feel like I tell them better.
Right.
That,
that is,
I don't think there's a comedian in the world that would say you put it on
tape and then,
uh,
two weeks later you figure out how to do at least three of them better.
Yeah.
Just driving,
driving down the street.
Yeah.
That's just every,
there's no,
there's no way to stop that.
Yeah.
So thank you for asking.
I wish I knew,
I don't know,
but they tell me soon,
but they've been telling me that for a while.
Yeah.
What about the garage?
Any update on the garage?
Yeah.
The squirrels.
Well,
the squirrels,
thankfully no new problems to report.
I got a hawk now.
That's kind of helping me out with the squirrels,
but you know,
we have to stay indoors i
can't take my baby or dog out now i got a mole that's really doing some damage to my just get
to my yard yeah but uh squirrels thankfully no new damage to my car to report okay good yeah
by mole you mean the road right not somebody within the family that's sharing sharing information yeah
yeah yeah yeah an actual mold yeah kristen flavel flavor i like flavor flavor yeah yeah i got a
little bit of flavor too you know as a fellow millennial i love when aaron throws in harry potter references
and watching the older gents reactions would love to see a harry potter episode with aaron
explaining the story and the guys reacting especially dusty you would have to spiritually
cleanse the room afterwards how do you feel about that dusty uh yeah? Yeah, I mean, I don't want to be a part of it, but I've.
I think Dusty will be out of town when we record that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, you could do a whole Dungeons and Dragons and Harry Potter thing.
Yeah.
Completely unrelated.
But, you know.
I just.
They called Dusty and Bates and Nate older gents, which makes me downright geriatric.
Yeah.
You and I are pretty close to the same age.
I got you probably by about four years.
Oh, is he talking about us?
The older gents reaction?
Oh, yeah.
Who do you think?
I don't know.
When I hear older, I never think they're talking about me.
You're the same boat with me, buddy.
Micah Johnson.
I bet your sponsors are raking in the cash.
I switched from Skippy to Jif and recently bought Spectracide for an ant problem, and these items aren't even officially sponsored.
Micah, get in touch with me.
I'll get you something.
That's solid decision-making right there.
It is. The Spectide uh is the best ant
killer you're gonna get yeah but ants can't hide from spectracide is what they say and uh i like it
i believe it well that's what we're talking about this week we're talking about sales uh your
special is called the salesman yeah i haven't seen it but i'm assuming that's what it's about
and um what yeah i was gonna get okay go ahead dusty well i just'm assuming that's what it's about.
Yeah, I was going to get – okay.
Go ahead, Dusty.
Just take over.
No, I mean, it's just been a while.
We've not even – I see I have number one here, and we've not done any.
We only got two. We only got two this week.
Okay.
All right.
So you do your thing.
I thought you had forgotten, too.
I had not.
I was about to get to it.
But go ahead.
I want to hear the segue you were going to do.
Did you already have it planned in your head?
The segue to Athletic Greens?
Yeah.
No.
I was just going to wait until it comes up organically.
Speaking of buying good products.
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I worked my first job out of college, my first real job out of college, I guess you could say.
I worked essentially as a telemarketer.
I sold sales leads to salesmen.
And I hated it and I wasn't good at it and I got fired from that job.
And I was rightfully like, I should have been fired.
Really?
Yeah.
I didn't even know when they told me, I was like, yeah.
You're like, this makes sense.
Yeah.
I was like, yeah, I hear it.
It was about time.
You're like, I feel better about the company knowing that you're getting rid of me.
Yeah.
Well, that sounds like you got to sell to a salesman.
Yeah.
Well, we had agreements with these companies.
So I would qualify the leads over the phone and then just deliver
via email so i was just on the phone you're like hey are you somebody that's going to be
interested in buying something if somebody calls you no i will i was kind of i kind of have to be
dishonest to these people about what we were doing we'd present i would present myself as oh i can
help you find the right software for you and And then, you know, I just sell their information to companies.
We did help people, but I was just very bad at it.
I think we were supposed to make like 100 phone calls a day.
And I remember when I got fired, my boss was like, you made seven calls.
I was like, oh, geez.
He's like, we got security footage.
You played ping pong quite a bit.
I would play a lot of ping pong.
Yeah?
Yeah, I was just about.
Why'd they have ping pong in there, man?
Like real ping pong or like on the computer?
No, there's a ping pong in the break room.
Oh, so you're like.
Yeah, dude, I'm not even at my computer.
You got to get a Bluetooth.
How you.
Ping pong while you're making calls.
Yes, there you go.
They were a good.
I was just not.
I was not a good.
I think I was fun to have around on some level. They have security footage, there you go. They were a good call. I was just not a good one. I think I was fun to have around
on some level. I love they have security footage
if you play it.
Just by myself.
I love that they thought
that they had to have, you know, where you were going to be like,
no, no, man, I made a hundred.
I never even touched a ping pong
paddle. Why don't you take a look at this
tape right here?
I don't even know how to play ping pong. And you don't you take a look at this tape right here? I don't even know
how to play ping pong.
And you're like selling it
that it's not you
and they're like,
if you apply this to the job.
Yeah, yeah.
Where was this?
On the January 93 call short.
Yeah, not even close.
That is the thing, man.
That if you're interviewing
for somebody to be,
it's like when you want
to have an agent.
There's people like,
that guy,
he was a little bit pushy.
I'm like, yeah, yeah. You might want him, you agent, there's people like, have that guy. He was a little bit pushy. I'm like,
yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
You might want him,
you know?
Yeah.
You don't want the guy like,
listen,
do whatever you want to do.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Have you ever done a sales job?
Never.
Never.
I think I'd be terrible at it.
We worked at that camp store.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
That's kind of like sales.
I mean,
you're a cashier,
but I mean,
people,
you ever upsell? Oh, you're you're like hey how about the king size
that's a good point yeah i mean that would be the world's work they say all of life is sales
yeah and that's probably why things are going the way they are but yeah um no i've done sell
me this pen dude i don't even know. Do you guys know what?
Or not.
All right. You want me to do it?
Yes, I'll do it.
Aaron, before I get started here, what are you looking for in a pen?
Who said I was looking for a pen?
I got plenty of pens.
So you got plenty of pens, you're saying?
Yeah.
Okay.
So you need no more pens?
I don't think I do, no.
You see, there you go.
You don't know how many no you see there you go you
don't you know you don't know how many pins you have man i mean you're right about that i don't
know how many i have i'm sure i got at least one you're a you're a comedian right yeah yeah and
you you imagine you do some form of writing for your jokes right oh you haven't seen my act greg
uh but i need to for sure i know know I need to. Yeah, you do.
And let's say you're just in the Starbucks or wherever.
Where do you do your writing?
Just at home, I guess.
Yeah, yeah.
You're there at home and you are on to something.
I mean, you were on to something.
You feel like this is it, man.
I can't do that.
You don't have any pen runs on ink.
What are you going to get up and go to Walgreens?
No. No.
No.
You want to keep, I'd say, probably a year's supply of pens right there.
And I can get you six months right now for the price of three.
This is intense pen sales.
I don't even know what this means.
I don't even know what that means.
I mean, six months of pens.
You like gel pens?
You like Sharpies?
All in one right here.
My mom uses this pen. It's the best you can get. I don't care for that. I like a pens? You like Sharpies? All in one right here. My mom uses this pen.
It's the best you can get.
I don't care for that.
I like a-
It's the best you can get.
There's a Uniball.
Uniball.
Two bucks.
I'd say most of my-
I'll take it.
I'll pay you later.
You're buying his pen?
You tried to sell me on a six month subscription to a pen.
Dude, I only needed one.
Do you bring in a personal story to sell?
That's what a guy told me when I was selling pesticides.
He goes, I always like to go, my mom uses this stuff and she loves it.
That's good.
He said, people love, if you say your mom uses it,
puts a family element into it.
Should have used some of that in there.
I should have, man.
You guys are both rusty, man.
You were going for, he's selling you one pen.
I like to go low low low items you know quantity
over quality is what i'm all about okay let's knock it out what are you talking about you
sold him one pen i was trying to sell him six months worth of pen i know but i can sell one
pen to everybody in the store all right i'm learning something here yeah i'm like boom boom
boom all the techniques to be honest with you, they did not work for me.
The stuff, the tricks didn't work that well for me.
We went to this, and Bates stopped me if I've told this.
That's my new favorite thing on this podcast.
Well, it's-
I know.
I don't know what I'm nervous about.
And he almost baited you, right?
Because he brings you in to talk about sales,
knowing that you've already been on here talking a lot about sales.
We didn't know anything else to talk about.
Is this the pen
you're talking about, by the way? This uniball right here?
It doesn't look exactly like that.
That's a good pen.
Does it have a...
Oh.
That's a good pen.
Cap, no click. You don't like a click?
I like a cap.
I like a cap, too. It just no click. You don't like a click? I like a cap. I like a cap too.
Yeah.
And I mean, it just glides.
I mean, some of the jokes I've written with that pen.
There is something about getting a new pen or a new pad where you're like, I'd like to write in this.
It feels good, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It feels good.
I got a lot of notebooks that have got a few pages written.
It feels good.
Then you sit down and then I'm like, I got nothing to say.
Just let it flow, man.
Get up, go to the pool for a bit.
Play some ping pong.
Yeah.
Did I tell you about the negotiation seminar they took us to one time?
It was like how to negotiate.
And they had us like sit across from our partner and the guy was like, now the
first, uh, first rule of sales, the first rule of negotiation is no matter what, what
the person sitting across him, no matter what their first offer is, you have to be shocked
and offended by that offer, no matter what it is.
Okay.
And then he had us sit across from each
other and practice the face that we would make to indicate that we were indeed shocked and offended
by it. So we were grownups, like, just like, like just making faces at each other. And this guy,
probably, he probably got paid 25 grand to
come teach us how to improv class yeah it's yeah like yeah and you're doing sales like i was doing
where it's like you're selling to retail stores we had a guy come at our meeting and speak to us
his name was steve martin it was not steve martin okay uh but he was pretty excited when he saw the
itinerary though i was like i knew my company wasn't doing nothing but it was like that's what they had they had some guy he was going to teach
us how to sail and he was like selling big items there was this long drive i'm like i'm just trying
to get the store to order a few more cases of my weed and grass killer you know what i mean yes i
saw that guy in the bathroom.
He was peeing in the urn.
He was like, all right, only one more hour to go.
Like he knew none of us were into what he was doing.
Retail set.
Cause I called on the stores for a while too.
I was grocery stores and I was calling on those guys.
They teach you all these techniques and stuff.
And those guys are like, all right, man, I got, I got 15 seconds. What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?
I'm like, I got a, I got a quarter pallet here that I'd just like to set here on the aisle and try to boost my sales a little bit.
They're like, nah, put it on the next aisle over.
Who do you guys even, when you walk into a store, where do you go?
Do you go to the cashier and say, where's your manager?
Well, yeah, if you hadn't been there before.
I mean, you try to find him and they would hide from you.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And every now and then I would have to try to find him and they would hide from you. Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And every now and then I would have to go to the lady up front of the-
Service desk?
Service desk.
And, mail, there's a salesman here to see you.
Already I'm sunk, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They would run for, I would go into the store and like you would see like the department manager because they had all my boxes in the overhead.
They would have to get the forklift to get it down.
So I would need them to do it.
But then I would do all the work.
But I would walk in and they would run because they knew I was going to ask them to drive the forklift.
And it's just like, just get the thing down and I'll stock your shelves here.
How did it get there?
Well, the night stocking crew comes in and puts it up top.
So your company delivers it there and
then they put it up top and then you...
Yeah. You can't drive the forklift, right?
No, we're not allowed to drive the forklift. You're not forklift
certified. In my
position, not being an employee of the store,
we're not even allowed to get certified.
Man, one time
my friends and I, we were just
out of college. I was living in Houston.
I lived with two guys from college and we went to this office depot or somewhere. I used to work at office
depot too. And we were like, we had to get a, we wanted to get a chair, office chair or something,
something for work, you know? And there was a guy in there. He was like an assistant manager,
just a guy that worked there. And I can't remember his name. Was this Opelika? No, this was, uh, this was Houston.
Okay. Houston. Okay. Similar. And, uh, we go, Hey man, we want to buy this thing. And the guy's
like, you could tell he was like, didn't quite know what he was doing. And he probably shouldn't
have been alone in that store. So goes that's in the it's in
the thing and we were like okay so we went back we weren't we're not supposed to be back there
in the storeroom and it's up there and he's like oh man i uh i can't get it because uh i i uh
i can't drive the forklift and my buddy marcus goes i can drive forklift and this guy was like
okay and i'm like oh man this we're getting this
guy in a lot of trouble yeah so my buddy my buddy's on the forklift he's a customer he's on
the forklift in the back of an office depot and he's he's driving there and the dude's manager
oh no he goes, Wayne. Yeah.
He goes, who is the gentleman driving the forklift?
Oh no.
And this, and this poor guy's like, oh, it's a customer.
And this guy, we were customers, so he can't yell at us, but he just kind of looked at
us like, you guys knew what you were doing to my employee that knows nothing.
You guys, you guys are jerks. You guys knew what you were doing. Who employee that knows nothing. You guys are jerks.
You guys knew what you were doing.
Who is the gentleman driving the forklift?
Wade.
I love that.
I mean, I know that whole thing all too well.
I mean, when I worked at Office Depot, we had like no employees.
So when people would buy chairs, I would go back there.
I would get the forklift.
I would raise it up to where the chair was. Then I would climb the shelf,
unload it onto the forklift and then climb down and then lower the forklift.
Why didn't you use the, you didn't know how to-
It wasn't on pallets. It was just, it was a platform that another person was supposed
to ride up and they were supposed to have these things that you're strapped on. And I would just
climb up there because there's no one to help.
I don't think my manager knew I was doing it, but I was like, this is efficient.
No, he did not.
This is efficient here.
Yeah.
Man, that's a lawsuit right there.
Did y'all have like a uniform or a name tag that you wore when you did Spectracide?
I had a uniform.
No, I had that.
We had, you know, wore back in the day, I think I wore a suit into the-
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Wore a suit into the stores.
Like Kroger?
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
I wasn't that far back.
We were beyond the suit by the time I was coming around.
We had polos.
Yeah.
But I had a vendor vest that I had to wear in the Lowe's store, a gray vest that said vendor on it.
Yeah, I don't like that.
Greg would walk into Kroger dressed like these guys. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like that. I don't like it either. Greg would walk into Kroger and dress like these guys.
Yeah.
Back in the day.
It's because it's high tech.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, similar.
Yeah.
You had your sleeves rolled up and you had to get, sometimes you had to do quite a bit
of like, like a shelf reset.
Did you battle with the competition?
Yeah, man.
I mean, there was, you know, there's some dirty tactics going on.
Yeah, we used to do a lot of that.
You did?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, we weren't.
I didn't do it, but.
We weren't dealing with food.
So, you know.
They're dealing with poison.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What kind of stuff did you guys play?
Well, you know, we would, you know, like if somebody builds a display, right?
Yeah.
Like a little quarter pile there on the aisle.
Yeah. If somebody builds a display, like a little quarter pile there on the aisle, then we would tear the display down, put all their stuff in the overhead in the single so it's harder to get down.
And then you take the display case, go to the back and throw it into the compactor so that it crushes it. That's such dirtbag stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
You did that all the time.
That is just –
All the time.
I can't – that's dishonorable.
Well, it's like –
Dishonorable.
Shame on you, Dustin.
It's not something I wanted to do, but when they –
Yeah, it is.
Well, when they do –
You felt good doing it.
When they do it to you one time, you're like, oh.
Oh, they did it to you.
Oh, we were doing it to each other all – and they had way more people than I had.
Who were your competitors?
What –
Well, see, I was Spectra side, but I had like Scott's brand, which has Roundup.
They have all the brands that everyone knows.
They're the big guys.
They have all the people.
And then there was also Bayer, which is probably a bigger company than Scott's.
The aspirin company?
Yeah, they also own a lot of pesticides.
I think they own Roundup now.
I think so.
Yeah.
And then there's-
Did a gig for them.
There was Central Pet is another.
They used to be Pennington.
Yeah.
And those were the four competitors, really.
So did you have an attitude of, we're the little guy in this conversation?
I got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder?
We weren't the small, at least representation-wise, I would say we were second.
Oh, really?
Products, the other companies might have more products, but have more, more people except for Scott's. Okay. So we were kind of,
but it was like, you know, our whole mentality, they were always trying to pound into us.
We work harder than everybody else. That's what they wanted to get us on. Like, yeah,
sure. They have more money. They have more people, but they can't outwork us,
right. But they could, I mean, they totally- They can't kill the spectricide spirit. Yes.
We were the company.
We were the big ones.
We were the big dogs, Crocker and Gamble, but mostly because of stuff that I didn't sell, like Tide- Oh, that's why you weren't doing the dirty tactics, because you were big dogs.
See, the little guy, who was the other one?
Jiffy?
Yeah.
Jiffy.
Oh, sorry.
Sorry.
We've been over this.
It's Jiffy.
Jiffy?
Jiffy is corn mix, corn muffin mix.
I love how serious you got here.
Jiffy is a popcorn that you shake over an oven.
Jiffy pop. And Jiffy is oil changes. It's not peanut butter. It you shake over an oven and jiffy is uh oil changes
it's not peanut butter it's jiff jiffy lube yeah jiffy lube yeah it's not my mistake jiffy
yeah i mean i i loved it i mean some of the old school guys would tell me they would take people's
stuff and they would shrink right they'll put it on a pallet and they would shrink wrap it
and then they would take the hose and fill the shrink wrap with water. No. And then they would put their business card
inside of it. No way. Oh, with the Joker. One time I hid, I took a grill box and I hid all
their products in a grill box and stuck it up near the grills. And what retail outlet is this that you're doing?
Lowe's and Home Depot.
Lowe's and Home Depot?
Yeah.
Wow.
So you've got enough privacy there at those big stores.
You can kind of do whatever you want.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you can.
Once they think you're a vendor, you can just roam around in there.
Walmart is not that way.
I had to call in a couple of Walmarts.
They're not playing that stuff.
Oh, really?
Walmart doesn't play.
Wow. What would they do? They won't even let you in the back. Oh, really? You try to go in a couple of Walmarts. They're not playing that stuff. Oh, really? Walmart doesn't play. Wow.
What would they do?
They won't even let you in the back.
Oh, really?
You try to go in the back.
They're like, no, no.
What do you need?
The baler you couldn't get in the thing that crushes the cardboard?
They don't let you do anything at Walmart.
Okay.
They set up a display for you?
Well, you know, they might get your stuff and bring it out to you.
And then you can set it up.
I didn't have to do a lot of Walmarts.
I did tell a guy one time I needed to set up a display. And then you can set it up. I didn't have to do a lot of Walmarts.
I did tell a guy one time I needed to set up a display.
I was told to do it.
And the guy was like,
he was like,
you're not going to be able to do it. I go,
listen,
I'm going to do it.
I said,
even if I got to build the display,
take the picture and then take the,
tear the display back down.
I said,
I'm going to build it in here.
And he goes,
all right,
just do it.
Really?
At the end of the day,
they don't care.
Nobody cares.
Well, the thing is, like, there used to be, I came in on the tail end of it, used to be more independent, you know, grocery stores.
And there weren't as big mass stores like that or hardware stores.
And there was a lot of decisions made at the store level.
So it was in this, the company's, a lot of companies best interest to have somebody out there influencing people at the store level. So it was in this, the company's, a lot of companies best interest to have somebody out there
influencing people in the store level. But as things moved up and up now, it's like,
it's all done at the headquarters and they just implement whatever they sell at the
headquarters. So you don't have a lot of professional salespeople at the store level.
They're just more like they're laborers is what they are.
And I had a real attitude problem because I was an alcoholic and I was hung over every day,
but I also knew what I was doing. So I was hung over every day, but I also knew
what I was doing. So I was like, let's get this done, people. Quit playing around with me in here.
So you mean to the customer you were that way?
Sometimes, but mainly to the employees of the stores.
Okay. Well, yeah, that's the customer, man.
Oh yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that's who you're calling.
Oh yeah. I mean, I'm not saying I was the best, but I did a good job, but I had
just, you know, some people were my friends, had a lot of these stores that were my friends,
but others, it was like, I knew what I had to do. We, and we had these corporate plans that
had been sent down and they were like, you can't do it. And I'm like, listen,
this is the corporate thing. They're telling you, you got to do this. So either you're going to let
me do it, or I'm going to go get the manager. The manager's going to go, yeah, you got to do it.
And then we're going to do it.
So we're going to do it now.
Are we going to, I'm not going to get you in trouble.
You know what I mean?
This is all good.
I think Dusty was really good sales.
I agree.
I mean, I was sort of that arrogance.
Maybe I should have.
Yeah.
I mean, I was working it in there.
But are you guys really selling?
Sounds like you're just showing up and putting up your stuff.
Man, this is, you're just trying to bait me.
I'm not.
Like, what are you selling though?
That's the kind of thing that Nate was doing when I was in here a couple months ago.
Yeah, I was selling.
You go up against some of these people.
I know, but what are you – I don't understand.
Don't you already have it in the store and you're just going to restock?
Well, I mean, yes.
No, distribution.
Man, we went over this.
Distribution is not –
I don't listen to that.
I never remember anything.
You're presenting yourself
in a way to sell
more products
so you might be
the stuff might already
be in the store
but maybe it's in the overhead
so you bring it down
put it on display
and Dusty's mentioned
secondary locations
so you got it on the shelf
they're carrying
SpectraSign
clip strips
clip strips
end caps
you get an end cap
man you're set I don't know what any of that is Yeah. You get an end cap, man. You're set.
I don't know what any of that is.
Yeah.
What's clip strip or end cap?
You go into a grocery store, right?
Yeah.
And you have the aisles. Okay. But at the end of the aisle, there's stuff that's facing
perpendicular to that.
Oh, and you prefer that?
Well, that's a secondary location.
If you walk into the store and boom, there's your ant killer right on the end cap. People are like,
I'm just going to grab it and go.
If you take your boss in there and he sees that, you're getting a promotion. Yeah. Oh, so the end ant killer right on the end cap. People are like, I'm just going to grab it. You take your boss in there and he sees that you're getting a promotion.
Oh, so the end of the aisle is the end cap. At least getting a handshake.
And those usually cost a lot of money to get. And now they're kind of planned at the corporate
level. But I did selling at the store level. Then I did, you know, I would sell at the corporate
level. I was, I was calling on the headquarters and setting up, you know, Hey, I'll give you guys,
corporate level. I was, I was calling on the headquarters and setting up, you know, Hey, I'll give you guys, you know, $50,000. If you put an end cap up at all the, you know, Pringles up at
all the stores or that kind of thing. This is the thing I like to do. I like to do this. Like
you're, you're like, you're allowed so many facings. Like say you go in and Wasp and Hornet
Killer has three facings. I like to go in and like push the other people's down to two facings and make myself like five
facings.
It's dirtbag tactics.
And that is, that is, it's, it's just dirtbag tactics.
That's what I love.
It is man.
And I had to deal with stuff like that.
I had to deal with these chisels like community coffee coming in.
Community coffees are nobody.
And I would go in and they had somebody like Dusty calling on them.
And I would, I would go in and I'm like, really?
Folgers is at three facings and communities got seven.
But the way that you talk.
But if you weren't stocking your shelves and it was low, I was like, we got to fill in this space here.
Yeah, that's what they say.
It's such dirtbag stuff, man.
Who decides how many facings you get?
It's a planogram.
Yeah, the corporate office.
What's a planogram?
A planogram is like, it's like those shelves it's a planogram a planogram is like it's it's like those shells
that you see at kroger every spot on the shelf is mapped out on this is how many faces supposed to
get now you'd have dirt bags like this going in there trying to you know chisel away your spot
yeah but the way that we would argue on those planogram things it was like there's a lot of
data that goes into it and the way that we would argue be like bob we can't do this folgers has is doing 63 of the sales and we only have 58 of the faces it was like an injustice compared to
apartheid like this you can't you can't have this this is this is an insult to us this is your
customers are gonna hate it you know yeah so that's the sales part of it yeah we go in with
data and we'll be like you know
and then you know this is to the manager of the store no this is to the guy at the headquarters
you know kroger let's say kroger has a district manager he might have several stores would you go
go to the district manager district manager was a thing back in the like a retail he had like 10
stores yeah i would go to the buyer that's making the decision for 150 stores. But those
district managers back in the day, I'm not sure it's, they did used to have some juice, man. If
you could get with them, they had some pull. I went to a store one time, big district manager
kind of thing. I got, I was in Myrtle Beach. I got real drunk out on, and then I showed up to work.
I was so hungover, but still a little drunk. Yeah. And I nailed those meetings.
I mean, I was crushing it.
That district manager loved me.
I was set.
I was like, I had no, later on I got depressed because I had been so hungover, but I cried
a little bit maybe on the way home, but it was, it was big.
This was a district manager meeting or this was just, you ran into it?
The district manager was there.
And then all the store managers from that area was there.
And I was running through my products.
I was selling it.
And I was like, I was a rock star in there.
It looked good.
Did you guys work on commission?
No.
No.
So what was your motivation to sell?
Company pride.
Love of the game.
Love of the game.
Love of the game, man.
And you want to get promoted and moved up and and then you do get to make more money.
But yeah, just-
You had a company car.
Company car.
I had a car allowance.
Did you?
They gave me a certain amount of money for a car, yeah.
Had a company car.
Did you have a pager?
Did not have a pager.
Did they ever pay you some for the cell phone?
Yeah, I think I had like-
Well, it was back before everybody had cell phones.
I had like a card that we'd go to pay phones, you dial in your code and then you can call anywhere you want.
What, man?
That was a different era for sure.
I don't know what, man.
I don't know what's.
Aaron's probably never seen a pay phone.
Y'all were agreeing on everything.
And then you said pay phone and Dusty goes, oh, geez.
I mean, yeah, I'm a little older than Dusty.
I mean, you know, but guys like me paved the way for guys like him.
That's right.
That is true.
He walks so you could run.
If I was doing it during your day though, I could have got real dirty, I bet.
Oh yeah, man.
Because there's stuff going on at the, a lot of stuff is going on at the store level back
then.
And, and I, and we didn't, we tended to put most of our money in TV ads.
Okay.
So we had the consumer sort of pull it through.
Yeah.
And then our competitors like Frito-Lay, they staffed up on guys in the store like you.
So we're not in there as much as they are.
And they're just pulling all kinds of-
That's a push versus a pull.
Exactly.
Push versus a pull.
There's a businessman. There you go. And it was was like and they all had a lot of stuff man they the frito-lay guys that
they had a lot of uh baseball cards i mean baseball tickets they had baseball tickets
oh giving away things yeah the giveaways yeah man some john do giveaways we a little bit we
never scott's always had all the giveaways you get away tickets to your shows i did get a few people out here and there but it used to be uh like we would do these events
like in the spring when all the pesticide stuff's ramping up and everybody would have their little
tents and i remember the scott's guys had this giant like 40 foot inflatable ant and i had
mosquito repellent wipes you know yeah i mean mine's more useful
but there's look good they're grilling up oh dude i had i we had uh inflatable sunny light bottles
oh yeah and i got one of those that was and they didn't do anything just put that thing i put it
up on a roof one time uh and it blew over i got a call on a saturday i was out fishing i was like
hey man your sunny delight bottle blew off the roof.
That's the kind of stuff.
I mean, it's 24-7.
Yeah, you're always on call.
I was at a gas station.
I can't remember where.
And they had a Sour Patch Kids display.
And it was a giant Sour Patch Kid.
It looked hilarious.
And it was just giant Sour Patch kid. Yeah. It looked hilarious. Yeah.
And it was just in the middle.
And I was thinking,
there's probably a price where this guy will just let me buy.
I thought I wanted to buy it
and put it in here,
in the studio.
Yeah.
But there's a price, right?
So I went up to the guy
behind the counter
and I was like,
I know it's going to sound weird.
I want to buy that Sour Patch, the display.
Yeah.
How much would you take for that?
He did not speak English, but I really...
So he had no idea what I was saying.
He was like, just get the candy.
What do you want?
He had no clue what I was trying to say.
There's no candy inside that.
But I think there probably was a price for the guy.
Yeah, for a guy working at the store.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
The Sour Patch Guy will do anything to get
more sales. So it'd be like, yeah,
it broke.
The Sour Patch Guy thing broke.
You know what you needed when you went in there?
What's that? Babble.
Oh, wow. That's good.
That's right, man.
That was smooth. I'm glad, smooth. Were you waiting for that?
Yeah, I figured you had a story about a guy that didn't speak English.
Let me ask you a very important question, Brian.
All right.
You know what that means?
I heard very in podcast.
Very was not in there. Podcast was.
That was Polish.
I thought I heard movie. was do you like the podcast okay
and you would know that if you used babble it's the language learning
service that we are offered i'm bombing on this ad let's start over real quick hold on real quick
you think you think that there's something to reading the comments that's destroying your ability to read i don't know i think it's just
maybe nate was a real scholar before this podcast started i mean go back and watch the early
an interesting thing because you don't realize i don't know if y'all felt this way but you don't
realize that there's something unique about the way your family does stuff until you're going up against another family.
You're like, oh, we are different in a lot of kind of profound ways.
Yeah.
Anyway.
You wouldn't know, Greg.
But anyway.
Yeah, I'm always like, oh, your families are married?
Oh, that's cool.
Wait, what do you mean?
Well, my parents are divorced and all kinds
of relatives are divorced. So when people are like,
oh, you're like your mom and dad
get together for Thanksgiving.
That's cool. Yeah, there's a lot more.
Can I throw some sales
stats at you? Sure.
What do you guys know the terms B2B
and B2C? Business to
business, business to consumer.
Everybody knows that? I did not know. So what they're talking about, they're B2B. I mean business, business to consumer. Everybody knows that?
I did not know.
I didn't know.
So what they're talking about,
they're B2B.
I mean, yeah.
Because they're selling
two Home Depots or Lowe's.
But you know what?
I would sell to the customer
while in the store.
If I saw them looking
at some Roundup or something,
I'd be like,
you know,
let me show you this
Spectracide Weed and Grass Killer.
That's a very committed employee.
Yeah, I would do that.
But then they would go
buy it at, they would go buy it at
they wouldn't buy it from you right i actually have a broken bottle out in the car if you want to
do you have some damages out there yeah we had we had damaged a lot of man that was like the
black market because if you had damaged coffee cans or whatever you'd go trade him to the diaper
guy you know or trade him to the you know the trade him to the Pringle. The diaper guy is tough.
I had Folger stuff.
And back then, if you had a dented 39-ounce can of coffee, the grocery store didn't want it, so I had to pick it up.
But that's still good coffee.
Yeah, coffee's not hurt.
And that was going back for like $10 back then.
Why are you guys making your cans so weak?
Well, I mean it –
Saved the consumer a little money. They weren't weak.
They weren't weak.
Forklift drivers.
They did move to,
I mean, they did move to plastic.
Too many forklift drivers
letting customers drive around.
There's probably some of that.
Yeah.
What would somebody do?
Dusty has a great garden.
If he wanted to start selling his vegetables
Thank you, Brian.
to Kroger kroger yeah how do
you get into like a major grocery store with your product kroger hey i got i got five or ten peppers
well let's just say you kept growing yeah for example like how does somebody get their product
in a store well i mean you know you got to go to the, uh, to the headquarters. Um, I don't know all this stuff
because obviously our stuff was all taken care of, but I mean, there's all just, even before you
walk in there, it's got to have a UPC code. It's probably got to be past some sort of licensing or
something like that. Who makes Kroger brand items? I just keep saying Kroger, but Kroger,
you know, private label is, a, I didn't care for
the store brands.
I've always had a problem with them because it's a, and to be honest, a lot of times it
may be a specter side might make, we would make the store, make the private label store.
We would have the store brand.
Yeah.
They would make, yeah.
There's some of that.
I don't think we did a lot of that, but I didn't care for them.
It's not fair because it's their store and their product. It's they're stacking the deck. I've always said it's
like, uh, you know, like a, uh, literally kid whose dad's the coach, you know, he's going to
get the best position and all that. Right. Right. Well, Tim is terrible. Well, you know, Tim has
got the highest margins. Yeah. You're right, man. The margins were good on that stuff. And, uh, and they, man, they would
come, they would always bump right up against a lawsuit with us. Like if you notice, like
some of those private label brands look a whole lot like Jif.
They're like Jif with a J.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're called Jif.
Yeah. It's so close. And you know, we're reluctant to sue them because they're also our customer, but they would cross the line sometimes.
We'd be like, no, guys, sorry.
I don't care.
You can't call it Jeff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
It takes an average of eight cold call attempts to reach a prospect.
You guys probably never cold called.
I didn't have to cold call.
Never.
And that's why guys like Nate or my dad said that I wasn't really in sales. Sales is not only cold calling.
Dude, cold calling is the worst. You did it? Yeah. That's when I started to be like,
I'm going to get fired from this job. And they switched me to a cold calling thing.
I was doing inbound leads. And then I started doing outbound, which is where I just had this
list of like thousands of numbers that I had
to call.
And dude,
I,
I was never a guy who could be,
who could do that on a phone.
I would get,
yeah.
Just be like,
Hey,
do y'all want it?
And they'd be like,
nah,
I'd be like,
nah.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
I sold timeshares in Charleston for about a week.
Wow.
And I was like,
this is not for me.
I would talk to people for a long time,
but when it came time to actually make the sale, I was almost like, you don't want to do it.
You get to know them, you don't want to waste money. I've enjoyed talking to you. I don't want
to tell you. They're going to harass you all day down there if you go. Yeah. They'll give you some
stuff, but you're going to get harassed. Yeah. Oh, where you get the trip. Yeah. I get them to
go down to the meeting. Oh yeah. And then because they go to the meeting, they get free
stuff for their vacation. Yeah. But
they got to spend hours in there getting harassed
by timeshare people.
Now, the yield must be pretty good
on those if they keep doing that. I think so.
That's a trope. I've seen that on a million
sitcoms. Yeah. That storyline
where they go to, you know, let's just
sit through the timeshare pitch and we'll get
a jet ski or something.
Are they still a thing?
Do they end up getting one, a timeshare?
No.
But there's all those ads on especially Sirius Radio about there's a whole industry based on getting people out of their timeshare.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, there's a guy who's always like, I can get you out of your timeshare.
And it sounds so convincing.
I'm like, I just want to get a timeshare and then get out of it.
Yeah.
Because this guy sounds so convincing. I'm like, I just want to get a timeshare and then get out of it. Cause this guy sounds locked in and then they start raising rates.
Yeah.
Cleaning fees.
And yeah,
yeah.
You get stuck in there.
I didn't know timeshares were still a thing.
I feel like that's my parents had a timeshare,
but I feel like it's like Crossville,
Tennessee.
Wow.
Wow.
Two hours away.
I've stayed there there's it's like
wow that's the bates family in a nutshell
well the bates family would you live in lebanon but we we summer in it's an hour 15 from lebanon
we summer in cross crossville it's like i just stayed in a Hampton Inn off the freeway there on the way to somewhere.
Well, you could have stayed at my parents' timeshare.
You could have stayed at that timeshare.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You missed out, buddy.
That's hilarious.
Yeah.
Wow.
It was a hot summer.
Did you go there with them?
A few times.
What would you guys do there?
Well, there's not a lot to do.
Board games.
Shuffle board.
Was there a lake or anything?
There's a lake around there.
I think Crossville is like the retirement community of the world.
There's a lake around there.
There's a lake around there.
We didn't go to it, but yeah, there's one around.
See if this place still exists.
It was called Mariner's Point.
Mariner's Point.
Crossville?
Yeah.
If there wasn't a lake,
it's called Mariner's Point.
They sold us on it.
Mariner's Point Drive.
Mariner's Point Resort.
Look at that.
That's pretty nice.
Did you ever walk around the lake like that?
I don't remember a lake like that,
but they had a picture.
That bridge seems like it's been there since that time.
Mariner's Point Resort is in the heart of the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau.
Set in the midst of the Cumberland Mountains,
the area's unmatched natural beauty
will leave you breathless.
Look, they're selling it on me
pretty good, actually.
You did a nice job on that read.
It's the golf capital of Tennessee.
I've heard that about Crossville.
Is your dad a golfer?
No.
Dad thought it was a use of a good cow pasture.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, this is one for you, Greg, to get back into sales.
63% of remember the stories told, only 5% remember statistics.
So you got to give them a good story.
That's why the mom line works.
Yeah, that's why he bought his pen from Dusty and not you.
Well, that's true. I was going for a bigger sale.
He was.
You were swinging for the fences.
Yeah, he was wholesale.
You're a home run hitter.
Yeah.
This is just a stand-up.
My dad sold insurance, right?
He sold Aflac for years.
And the big thing that everybody wanted to sell was cancer policies because that's the big money item.
But my dad lived in a more rural area
where he had like these truckers and pulp waters and all that. So he would sell accident policies.
So an accident policy is not as big as a cancer policy, but he would sell so many that he would
always be a top salesman and he would always win the trips and all these things because he was top
salesman, but because it's just getting those little sales in. Yeah, I like that. The irony
is all those people are cancer prone too, right but they're less prone to buy a big that's a big policy yeah
but your dad was probably really liked in town because somebody has a bad something bad he's
gonna help them out because athlite gives you cash right so if you get hurt they would they
would be like hey i went to the doctor so my'd come see my dad and he'd send the policy and then they would get
like money
and they were like
yeah
they loved it
and Guy Slay
great name for a salesman
yeah
oh Guy was your dad's name
well he went by Richard
his name's Guy
his first name's Guy
Guy Slay
I'd buy something from Guy Slay
I'd buy some insurance
that guy
well the other guy there
that's Guy Slay
I don't even think
he had a middle name
he was just Guy Slay
Guy Slay
probably a lot of brothers got pretty generic there towards the end I don't know this one's Guy Slay. I don't even think he had a middle name. He was just Guy Slay. Guy Slay. Probably a lot of brothers got pretty generic there towards the end.
I don't know.
This one's Guy.
Yeah.
I just remembered we used to, when we had like, we'd have like decks, you know, like a presentation, you know, when we go in and tell like the plan for Sunny Delight for the year or whatever.
And it was back in the day.
It was like when PowerPoint first started and we got real real uh clip art happy you know like you know clip art so every
presentation we'd get from the headquarters the first page was like uh it was it was just some
clip art of like bags of money okay as if the buyer was gonna to be like, well, Grace, hold my calls here. Hold on.
This guy's talking about money.
And I mean, a lot of money.
I mean, it's piled up here.
Dollar signs on the bags.
And then like one of these.
Yes.
That was the first slide.
As if they got.
Well, hold on a second.
I need to talk to this.
I wasn't going to pay attention.
But now I will.
Now they're talking money.
Got my attention. And then the last slide was always the clip art of two hands shaking.
Oh, yeah. As if the guy was going to be like, I don't like what you're saying, but
shows us shaking hands here. So you got yourself a deal. Yeah, like that. That was the last slide on every page. We got real cute with the clip art back then.
Yeah, they love to do that sort of stuff too. They love that. We would have these sales meetings. I remember one time there was a guy on stage at the sales meeting and he was doing this chant and he goes, who's got it better than us? And everybody said, nobody. And I was like, I didn't know I prepped me on this.
I just felt it.
And I feel like I didn't say nobody because I was like, all the other companies have it better than us.
Yeah.
They all seem to be doing better.
Maybe you guys are not in my area, but I'm really outmanned.
I'm hungover.
I mean, I covered Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Myrtle
Beach.
Yeah.
Right.
And in each of those areas.
The research triangle.
Yeah.
And each of those areas was a Scots rep.
Each one of them.
And I was the one covering the whole area and they each had a Scots rep with their own
employees.
And then it sounds cool because I was going to fun areas, but they wouldn't give me much money for a hotel.
So I would always be in the shadiest areas.
I mean, I stayed in some very shady Myrtle Beach places.
I'm still not a big fan of Myrtle Beach because of those days.
And you're covering three cities and the Scots guys only got one.
Yeah, they got one.
And they're like, why and the Scots guys only got one. Yeah, they got one.
And they're like, why are you not – got more displays?
I'm like, well, the moment I leave the city, they just tear them down.
Who's got it better than us?
I was in a – Scots.
I think I was in like a hotel one time doing a gig when there was like one of those Mary Kay conferences.
Oh, yeah.
And they get – they go crazy.
The pink Cadillacs and everything.
Yeah, but I mean they're, they're, you know,
just fired up.
Yeah.
And you can just see
right through it.
Like this,
this is all false enthusiasm.
Nobody believes anything
they're yelling about.
They're just hanging out.
Yeah.
They're just coming to hang.
Feels important.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, somebody's making money.
Oh, yeah.
Mary Gay.
Yeah, they're making money.
Yeah, she is.
Yeah. I mean, if you're driving the pink Cadillac, you're probably making more money, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, somebody's making money. Oh, yeah. Mary Gay. Yeah, they're making money. Yeah, she is. Yeah.
I mean, if you're driving the pink Cadillac, you're probably making more money, right?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Is that like the top, top, top earners?
I think so.
Yeah.
That was the big thing back then is you would get a pink Cadillac.
Yeah.
We would do, my mom would do like Tupperware parties.
Pepper Chef.
Pepper Chef.
Pepper Chef.
We did a few of those.
Yeah.
That's how Leigh-Anne Morgan started.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
She would sell Tupperware.
Really?
Or not Tupperware.
I think maybe makeup or something.
It might have been Mary Kay.
It might have been Mary Kay.
Have people over at her house, and she would just murder.
Wow.
I should do this.
I can see that.
That's what they said.
My dad said Jerry Clower used to be a fertilizer salesman.
No.
He came to his town and he said when Jerry Clower would come to town, people would just come in off the street to listen to this guy tell stories.
And he's just selling fertilizer.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah, that guy, he's got the greatest voice.
Oh, yeah.
It's unbelievable.
Subject line.
This is for emails.
I don't know if you ever had to fire up some work emails.
I don't agree.
Subject lines with more than three words experience a drop in opening by over 60%.
Really?
This helps me out with clubs.
Please book me.
If you're sending the veils, that's what you're doing.
That's why I think selling pesticides really helped me when I started getting into comedy because I'm like, I'm selling myself now something I believe in a bit more than the pesticides. And so, yeah, I mean, I really got into it was the opposite for me. Yeah. Early on the career. My act was nowhere near pringles oh yeah there's you could shoot some holes in what i
got yeah yeah um but yeah i think i definitely just talking to club bookers and stuff like that
uh early on oh yeah it was a lot easier i've did it with corporate for a while i i decided this was
not that long ago i don't, seven or eight years ago.
I was like, man, I need to start getting into corporates and I don't know how to do it.
And this buddy of mine, Kent Rader, did a lot.
And he was like, here's a list of some people.
And I just, I was like, I know how to do this.
It's been a lot, but 20 years or something.
And I just got on the phone for like three weeks and I would just call him.
Cold call.
Yeah, it was cold calling.
And it was, you know, it's not fun, fun like you said you're calling corporations to be like it was like more associations and
okay it's like hey hey it's you know whatever you guys feeling down um you know i'm a comedian
yeah i'll come down there and entertain you yeah did you ever cold call comedy clubs
back in the day i think i did i mean i'm
trying to it was yeah back when i was like a feature act and i was i would call up and it
then i realized you know the way to do this is to get either a comic to recommend you which is okay
but get a get a club owner to recommend you now you got something yeah i had this guy freddie
demarco that would just make some calls for me that he worked at he owned the comedy club in missouri and he would uh he made some
calls for me i remember you guys don't you would call as him right one time i did because he could
do a good impression yeah i called dorf's brother andrew andrew man got to book this kid, Greg Warren, man. He's very funny. Andrew loved Fred.
Yeah.
All right, we'll take a look at him.
Hey, Greg, you know this guy, Greg Warren, man.
He's very, very good.
So Fred was like, he was the guy that was like, when I went to college,
that was the comedy club.
And he was like, sort of like a comedy dad to me or whatever.
And so I worked for him at the comedy club in the summers i'd
work the door or whatever and uh and then when i quit my job freddie i don't think freddie ever
thought i was like gonna he liked me but i i don't think i was his style of comedy and he just
didn't see it but he liked me a lot i knew he would take care of me but i i was like i'm not
gonna use fred's name man i'm gonna do this on on my own i'm going to do this on my own so the first person i called was colleen
quinn in omaha and i was like hey my name's greg warren she's like i don't know who you are you
know she said we got a lot of guys that want to feature at these clubs she had like two clubs that
she was booking and i was like well i know you know i gave like three headliners that would vouch
for me she's like unimpressed unimpressed, unimpressed.
And I was like, right away.
I was like, well, you can, you can call Freddie DeMarco.
I just right away.
Just, you know, and she goes, she goes, listen to me.
She goes, Freddie is one of my best friends.
He's one of my best friends.
I've known him and he has never mentioned your name.
And a lot of people say that Fred recommends them and he doesn't.
So I'm going to give you a chance right now because I'm going to call Fred after I get off the phone.
If Freddie doesn't know you, not only are you not going to work for me, there's a lot of other places you're not going to work.
Wow.
And I was like, yeah, you can call.
Just call.
And of course, she called him.
And Freddie, come on, Colin, give the kid a chance. Give the kid a chance. And so she, you know, she called him and Fred, come on, Colin,
give the kid a chance.
And so she called me like 30 seconds later.
She's like,
okay,
I have you in Omaha on this day.
And I have you in,
yeah,
it was like,
it was like completely switched.
And she's great.
Yeah.
She's awesome.
She's like,
she's,
she,
she's so cool,
man.
And she,
yeah,
she loves,
loves you,
man.
I was,
I haven't met her.
No,
I just wasn't there.
Oh,
we were just there together.
Okay.
I was in town for doing a corporate,
uh,
uh,
hates bait,
but no,
no,
she just,
Aaron was coming through for the first time.
And I happened to be in town for like a corporate and we did radio together and she,
she had never seen Aaron and really liked him.
But,
uh,
yeah,
she's,
I would say she's one of the few club owners
that still loves standup comedy.
She just, she just,
she loves comedians
and she loves standup comedy.
She'll watch shows
and she's just a fan of the whole thing.
Standup comedy and liquid death.
Liquid death.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The water.
Her son, Dan,
is like the number two guy in that company.
Oh yeah.
Crazy. Great club. Oh, yeah. Crazy.
Great club.
Oh, it's fun.
That's all sales.
Here's a good sales type.
91% of customers say they would give a referral if the salesperson asked, but only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals.
Okay.
So in this case, Freddie would be, I guess, the customer.
The referral. Yeah. If you ask for him to give you a referral, Freddie would be the, I guess, the customer. The referral.
Yeah.
If you ask for him to give you a referral, he would.
But most people don't ever ask anyone to give them a referral.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm always like, well, used to always be looking for a referral.
Yeah.
Who's not asking for referrals?
I don't know, man.
You do feel like you're bugging people at some point.
Every time I get a rental car, the person at
enterprise goes, please fill out the survey and put my name down. It's the only way I can advance
in this company. They say that? Oh yeah. They're like, this is huge for us. This is how we get.
And I always go, yeah, I got you. And I've never, they never asked me for that. And maybe I look
like a guy that's not going to be doing it. Yeah. Like this guy's going to, I try not,
I try not to rat anybody out almost ever.
Yeah.
Even if it's the worst customer service ever.
And I'm just like, you know what, man, there's been times when I've performed horribly or
what, I don't want people telling on me.
So I do like, I just really, and even though I'm furious, I'm like, this was, this was
a horrible situation.
If people are really.
I'm not going to tell on you.
If people are really rude to me though,
I will do it. Yeah, you should. Yeah. The funny thing is though, now- Southwest. I've done it to Southwest. Have you?
Yeah. Now though, everything that you do,
there's a survey. Every time you buy, hey, how do we do? So you would think with all these surveys
out there that customer service would be improving markedly and it's not. I don't think they get the
point of these surveys. I don't think they get the point of these surveys.
I don't think they're actually reading the service.
I listed the guy's name one time and I go,
I don't want him to be fired.
I don't think he should be fired.
I just want someone to be like,
Hey,
don't do this to people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He got fired.
Well,
he should be fired.
Yeah.
I went to a Chick-fil-A at the Albany airport this weekend, and it was the most unfriendly people working.
Yeah.
Albany?
Yeah.
New York?
At a Chick-fil-A at the airport.
Oh, okay.
And when you think Chick-fil-A, it's almost synonymous with over-the-top friendly customer service.
So I kind of enjoyed how rude they...
It kind of made me laugh.
Yeah.
Because it blindsided me.
I remember that with, cause it used to be before Starbucks, you know, now it's just,
there's just in the last two or three years since pandemic, nobody can get anybody to
work anywhere.
But you know, I don't know, 10 years ago, Starbucks was, they were always the most friendly
people in the world.
Really?
They were known for that?
Amazingly good.
I felt like too.
I don't remember that. High end customer service, except at the world. Really? They were known for that? Amazingly good. I felt like too. I don't remember that.
High-end customer service, except at the airport.
Yeah.
Except in there and in New York City.
Those two places in their employee manual is like, hey, you need to treat customers
with respect unless-
You're in New York.
You're in New York, then do whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always felt like that was good too.
Starbucks is not that way now, for sure.
No. They just- I never knew that was part of their brand. They seem not that way now, for sure. No, they just-
They never knew that was part of their brand.
They seem like they're so overworked.
They're all like-
Completely over, you can't complain about them
because there's a billion of them,
a billion customers and two kids.
What are you gonna do?
They're running around the whole time.
They're hustling.
You gotta imagine,
all I would get at Starbucks is black coffee.
So you gotta imagine,
I see the drinks people order
and then they complain that it's not, like they make their own drink get at Starbucks is black coffee. So you got to imagine the, I see the drinks people order
and then they complain that it's not like they make their own drink and then complain that it's
not good. It's like, well, you made that. Yeah. Yeah. This is on you.
Yeah. This is not the way you make a Greg special. Yeah.
What about LinkedIn? Do you guys ever use that or use it now?
That was way after i was in the
out of the game i have an account i got an account now i was trying to make jokes on it for a while
people are not there for that no i always forget i have one all right i'm gonna give you guys a tip
though okay yeah all right that i learned on this last special you know that next door app
yeah yeah okay i just for fun when my special came out i was like just uh i was like well i'm
trying to get everybody to watch this thing and i just put a link up on next door and just said
hey guys i'm your neighbor i'm a comedian uh i recorded this thing uh you guys might want to
check it out and i'm not kidding man a ton of people a ton of people watch that thing
that that's that's where you were gonna say it's good because see i'm seeing um just a disaster
like now all everybody in the neighborhood knows you no i mean no because it's not like you see
these i don't know any of them yeah but i mean because it's a pretty big area at least one but
it's just a way to get a bunch of views on your, on your special.
Yeah.
I'm telling you it's, it's, uh, that's the, that's the next deal.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
When I started doing comedy, I thought I, I need to dive into this.
I'm just going to burn my, like, just make my LinkedIn like a joke so I can never go
back.
Like get rid of this.
Oh no.
My LinkedIn, my LinkedIn, like, uh, somebody endorsed me for tap dance as one of my skills.
And then a bunch of real ones.
But then neck.
I don't even know what that is.
And toilets?
Wheelchairs.
Learning disabilities.
Love of learning.
Puppies.
Ballet and Latin dance.
I was like, yeah, my LinkedIn is just awashed.
That's great.
How many followers do you have?
I don't know if they're connections is what they're called.
How many connections?
I don't know.
I haven't logged onto this in years.
It's at 269.
Look at my job right now as a janitor at the school.
School hard knocks.
All right.
Just an internship, but I've been working there.
You've been working there since 69?
Working there for 54 years.
Wow.
Yeah, it's just a mess you do all this man there's a couple times
where you post something on uh twitter or facebook or whatever and i'm like i and it's
and i believe it well there's a comment just made about your uh your video apparently never
talked about on the podcast but your um key and pill kind of video that went on.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that was fun.
Yeah.
Do you ever see that one where it's like the key and pill kind of people who have been affected by it?
Yes.
I saw that.
That was great, man.
That was fun.
But the one that a lot of people believed was the one with the crowd work with the guy where you ask him how much money he made.
Oh, yeah.
That was Brad Sativa sitting in the empty Zanies at noon yeah i did a video making fun of crowd work essentially oh because everybody's
doing it now yeah or it's just me asking how much money do you make and he's like doesn't answer me
or so it was just like very stupid and that went very a club a club used it for his promo video
the whole point of the video is it's me purposefully doing bad comedy.
That's great, man.
And I was doing the Stress Factory, and they used that clip.
They used that as a clip.
And they were like, come see Aaron do this crowd work.
That was horrifying.
And within an hour, there were like five comments going, this guy's horrible.
And I go, that's the point, is that it's a joke.
I asked, please.
Bates was like, that's pretty good.
Yeah.
I wish I would have thought of that. Is that it's a joke? I asked, please. That's pretty good. Yeah.
I wish I'd have thought of that.
Oh, yeah. That's good stuff.
I was always told when to email clubs, don't do it like on Monday morning.
They said that would be the worst time because after the long weekend, that's the last time they're going to be going through that.
Yeah.
Or don't ever email them on Saturday
because they know you're not working.
Well, that's a good point.
This one guy told me, he was a club owner,
he said that this guy,
I guess it was some guy that had worked at a club before
and he thought the best way to do it,
the best way for me to get back in there
is to have a bunch of my friends call and be like,
hey man, why don't you bring back Larry? But they were all calling the owner's cell phone.
That only you would have been able to get on.
The only way that he, you know, they were, these friends were posing as fans. Man,
I really liked that guy when I saw him. I was like, no, you call the club.
you call the club this is what I like to do
I like to go like
in the subject
like clean comic
from Nashville
you know something like that
where I'm like
I'm trying to
because I was thinking
figure
it's probably harder
to find clean comics
so let me just put it
right out there
oh when you were
trying to get work
that's a good idea
yeah that's pretty good
well for sales calls
it said the worst days of the week,
Monday mornings from 6 to noon or Friday afternoon.
I think that makes sense.
Friday afternoon makes sense, I guess.
Yeah.
Best days to call are Wednesdays or Thursdays.
But this says either from 6.45 a.m. to 9 a.m.
I'd be furious if somebody called me that early.
6.45 a.m.
Yeah.
Or from 4 to 6 p.m.
Hey, you getting ready for work?
Well, let me pitch you on some stuff.
Put your Bluetooth in.
Talk to you while you're tying your tie.
I used to call when I, I didn't start till mid 2000.
So I barely got in on the whole calling thing.
But Zany's used to once a month, if you want to get on the open mics you call like the first
monday of the month at one o'clock or something like that yeah and ron carson i don't know ronny
yeah i know ron i called and i didn't even know like what i was supposed to say and he's like are
you calling about the open mic and i'm like thinking this is an open mic this is zany's
this is a big deal so i'm like no no I'm calling about getting on the thing, whatever.
He got so frustrated with me that he just hung up the phone on me.
And at the time I was so mad.
I thought if I ever make it big, I'm going to boycott Zany's or something like that.
You're going to take it to him?
Yeah.
And then three months later, not only did I realize I wasn't going to do that, I realized he was right to be so frustrated with me because I didn't know
what I was doing.
I was holding up the line.
Yeah.
And he died a few years ago.
Ronnie did.
Yeah.
Oh man.
So how does that make you feel?
I wasn't going to bring up that point,
but he's nice.
One of these days I'm going to stick it to him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Russ's soul. Back when I lived in LA, if you want to go up on the open mic,
you had to show up at the Laugh Factory.
You had to show up at noon.
They just form a line.
But they would start getting in line
at noon, 10 a.m.
And you had to wait outside all day long
because the owner liked people to drive by
and see something's happening at the Laugh Factory.
So you stand out there.
And it was you and a few comics,
but there's also just homeless guys
that would go up on the open mic
because they just had nothing else to do.
Wow.
I want to be standing somewhere.
Might as well be in a line.
Yeah, they were like,
I didn't even realize I was in a line here.
Yeah.
I did it one time.
It was a long, long day.
How'd it go?
I did well.
I was one of two legitimate comedians it at one time it was a long long day how'd it go i did well you know i did i mean because it was
like i was like one one of two legitimate comedians in the group of 15 or whatever and then they were
it was kind of a scam they were like okay well now you you made it to the next level where you
don't have to wait in line and then you know you'd get to the next level and you do well and they'd
be like do you have a manager you know i'm like yeah i got a manager and then that was about it they were just they were kind of looking for people yeah yeah that
makes sense yeah i was in new york city just visiting for fun but hanging out at comedy clubs
and one of the days i was there they did one of those auditions at caroline's where you go stand
in line all day i can't remember what it was but i i'm like well i'll go do this i got down there that morning
and the line was so long and after maybe 30 minutes i'm like i'm only in new york a few days
do i really want to spend all day here just standing in this line so i just left good for you
and i went and decided to see whatever i was going to do i came back like that was like 8 30 in the
morning five o'clock that afternoon the guy who was standing in front of me was still in line oh and i i was glad i did not regret that you go up and
you go you see my spot that's gonna get back in line you don't mind right yeah worth trying yeah
what was it for dear uh you know at the time when it was yeah it was one of those uh i can't remember
now some is that guy in line famous now wouldn't that be something
the nbc stand up for diversity showcase
i guess they're there all day like no white guys i don't remember what it was but at the time i
knew it was one of those like um remember cso that channel that yeah short-lived i think they
were juggernaut they were doing some type of, you know,
they were just going for content.
They were going to do live from Carolines or something like that.
That's cool.
Yeah, all the stuff that I think I remember doing.
I remember America's Funniest Home Videos or something one time.
I was just in Houston in a park.
And we just, you know, wait in line and you do something.
You just do something silly, you know?
And, I mean, I didn't think anything of it. And I don't know, like two years later, my buddy's like, just you know wait in line and you do something you just do something silly you know and uh
i mean i didn't think anything of it and i don't know like two years later my buddy's like hey man
i saw you on this uh america's home videos or something like that it was just like a yeah huh
afv it was terrible i mean it was yeah it was it was terrible what i did i guarantee it was
terrible you didn't win the ten thousand No. Or whatever the prize money was.
No.
The Bob Saget days.
Is that what it was?
I think it was some show.
I used to love that.
Maybe it was like whatever the thing that was copying off of it.
What a time he had.
America's Funniest Home Videos and Full House at the same time.
Big time.
He was killing it.
Big time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When I was in sales, I always wanted, because I sold pesticides, I always wanted to be like a beer rep.
I always felt like the beer reps had it going on.
Yeah.
It seemed cool.
Yeah.
They were doing a bit of manual labor, but it seemed much cooler.
That was where my ambition was at the time.
Really?
I liked to get out of the pesticide game into the alcohol.
Into a different poison.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's what I always wanted to do. I like sales, out of the pesticide game into the alcohol. Into a different poison. Yes. Yeah.
That's what I always wanted to do.
I like sales though, in a sense.
Not that, I don't want to be cold calling, but I liked what I was doing.
Yeah.
It sounded like, it sounds like you were good.
Yeah.
I liked it.
I was into it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I was.
You got to believe in your product, right?
Yeah.
And if the product was good.
I always say bad things about the company because they made me mad, but the products were great.
Yeah.
I still buy Spectracide. I can't bring myself to buy the competitors.
Me too. Me too. I can't do that.
Yeah.
I, man, we had Duncan Hines, the cake mixes and brownie mixes and stuff. I mean, cake mix was, that was the main part of the baking mix category cake and frosting and
uh i would just bake i got into baking oh yeah and i would just i would just bring in cakes for
the secretaries i mean i was i was every time i walked in an appointment i had a cake or cookies
or something like that and they they thought it was cute that like a 22 year old boy was baking
oh yeah richard you need to Richard, you need to put this,
you need to put this flavor in. He made a good cake.
Oh, well that's the way. Yeah. I was working. Yeah. I was like a,
like a 1950s, uh, cheerleader that was trying,
that was sweet on a football player.
So I just always showing up with baked goods all the time yeah i mean i i could make a
i could make a uh a good a good cake cake with frosting not a real good froster but you still
baking yeah yeah i bake a lot wow yeah i just made my dad the same you guys heard of rugelow before
my dad grew up in new york uh he was jewish. And there's like a cookie that they make up.
My grandma used to make called rugelach.
And I learned how to make it.
And he loves it.
Oh, that looks delicious.
I may have had that before.
On his birthday.
I don't know what that's called.
Yeah, or Father's Day.
And I made it for Father's Day.
He loves that stuff, man.
It is not easy.
It's like basically basically you're almost like
you're making a pie crust and then you roll it up with stuff in in the middle yeah yeah it's not and
you gotta you gotta let the dough chill the night before i think that's that's a tough day labor of
love yeah i made a i made a french silk pie for uh thanksgiving this past year and that's the best
thing i've ever made that is that is a really oh
yeah man that and it's a lot of work and i'd buy like equipment new equipment okay i'm not a baker
i can't bake i can cook but i can't bake i'm not a baker i'm interested in the garden do you yeah
i'm a girl yeah i'm growing some stuff i got to work together i got tomatoes i got peppers i got
all kind of peppers all kind got all kinds of tomatoes.
I've never been successful at broccoli.
I've grown- I heard it's hard.
I've grown a few carrots, some beets, cucumbers.
Grapes?
Grapes.
I got grapes growing.
Yep.
Yep.
I got strawberries.
Really?
Strawberries?
I got all kinds of herbs, thyme, basil.
Let's see.
I got a watermelon growing right now.
I got a squash growing.
Man, I'm real impressed with all this. Yeah. I got a watermelon growing right now. I got a squash growing. Man. I'm, I'm real impressed with all this.
Yeah. I mean, I'm into, I got kale and lettuce. I go out and cut down a stalk of lettuce and then
we just able to make a salad just right out of the lettuce, right from the garden. Chop up some
cucumbers. Oh man. That's where it's at. Yeah. That's yeah. I'm, I would love to be able to do
this. I mean, I'm near about trying to sell to Kroger. You know what I mean? That's what I-
We got, yeah.
I'd like to go down and go, hey, how much you give me for four peppers? Because-
Man, I called on him all the time.
I got all I can handle.
I don't know if I still got any connections.
I'm making pickles now. I got pickles in the fridge. I've been into sandwiches lately. I mean,
I'm back into sandwiches.
I've been into sandwiches.
You've been growing sandwiches. Well, I stopped eating sandwiches for a while and now I've just
gotten back into it and it is, I like to get artsy with the sandwich, you know, fold the meat and
stack the cheese. How you cut it? Yeah. Well, cut it diagonally. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's always
gotta be a diagonal cut. I agree. You put a toothpick in there? I don't, I don't do the
toothpick, but I usually eat it too fast for the-
What kind of bread are you using?
Well, I like a sourdough bread or there's a Dave's-
Dave's Killer Bread?
Yeah, sprouted grains.
That is the best.
That is-
I'm just realizing y'all have never been on the podcast at the same time.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I'm enjoying y'all hitting it off.
Dave's Killer Bread is-
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good.
It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good is It is good And it is It has got some You know it'll stand up
To whatever you put
That's killer
I recommend
Peanut Butter Sandwich
With Dave's Killer Bread on it
Yeah
Or Peanut Butter
On the Dave's Killer Bread
That's
Yeah that's good bread
It is good bread
Put a little Jiffy on there
Yeah man
It's
It's not that funny
That was honestly
That's it
You said that joke before
Boom
Callback
Alright
Well what
Well I'm gonna be
In Austin, Texas
This weekend
At the Paramount Theater
On Saturday
I have one show
Huge
Wow
One show
Huge
Very excited about it
So I need it to sell out
So I look good
And so that it's more fun Man that's gonna be You're gonna love it I'm so excited about it. So I need it to sell out so I look good and so that it's more fun.
Man, that's going to be, you're going to love it.
I'm so pumped.
Austin's.
I did it years ago with Burt Kreischer.
So I'm pumped to be going back now, doing it myself.
That's amazing.
So that's exciting.
One of my favorite towns.
This Saturday, whatever that date is, I'm going to look just to really solidify it here.
Let's look at selling really well.
There's barely any seats left.
It's selling really well.
You're close.
There's some room in the balcony.
I'm just kidding.
It looks really good. That's awesome.
I'm pumped.
August 5th. Saturday, August 5th.
That's where I'll be. Big time.
Yeah, I'm pumped.
You got a great bio.
Did you write this yourself?
I hate that bio, actually.
Yeah.
Somebody else wrote it, and I've been trying real hard to get that bio to go away.
No, it's never going to go away.
I know.
I've got some old ones that somehow they find them.
Yeah.
I got a new one now on my website that I like a lot better, but I hate this one.
No, mine.
Yeah.
It's out of date.
First off.
It makes you look like you're 36.
They've added some stuff here at the end.
Yeah.
They got your Netflix special on here.
Yeah.
This is new.
But it's very poetic.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, they did a good job at the time.
I was doing a lot of trailer park jokes.
I was all right with it.
Yeah. But I'm like, I'd like it to go away.
It's not going away.
I know it won't.
It's not going away.
August 27th, I'm in Irwin, Pennsylvania at Community Church.
A little backyard picnic and comedy from me, a little back to school thing.
And then September 2nd uh appleton wisconsin
skyline comedy oh nice dude have you been up there before i've been there once with dustin
nickerson okay great my first time headlining it's a great club yeah yeah yeah you can go up
to lambo lambo's close yeah yeah we check it out we toured it last time but okay but maybe i'll do
it again great uh gift shop there at lambo it is good restaurants me and aaron ate somewhere in
that town one time just at some random place.
We didn't even go all the way to the stadium.
We just-
In Green Bay?
Yeah.
We just stopped on the way back from probably like Harris, Michigan.
Uh-huh.
Or maybe Egg Harbor.
That was a wild trip.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This weekend, this Sunday night, I'm headlining Denver Comedy Works.
Downtown.
Downtown.
Yeah.
Downtown.
Larimer Square, man.
Is that where it is?
Yeah.
You can't beat that club.
That's so good.
I'm very excited to be there.
So if you are in the Denver area, come on out.
And then after that, if you'll allow me to just quickly throw some dates out.
I just want everybody to know where I'll be.
I don't have any control. August is gonna be yeah it feels good there's no one here to like
pressure me into doing this quickly we can kind of settle in this is erin land let's just settle
in here let's move it along yeah but let's do it right yeah i mean we are trying to leave it's
gonna be august is very exciting because from now to the end of the year i got a bunch of dates august is denver and then i'm in louisville then i'm in cleveland doing
hilarities for the first time very exciting pittsburgh the pittsburgh improv that's a great
club and then boston i'm doing laugh boston and then i got a show in cape cod in uh kotuit
massachusetts that so if you're in any of those areas, come on out. All right. Lansing, Michigan?
Michigan State?
No, not anymore.
Okay.
Sorry to all the Spartans out there.
I'm going to plug one day.
I'm going to be August 16th.
I'm going to be at Zaney's, Nashville.
Nice.
If Bates hadn't shut them down by then.
Yeah, but yeah, I'm going to be doing a show in Nashville,
and I'm real excited about it.
I love that club.
Oh, that's awesome, man.
That's awesome.
Let's pack that out.
Yeah.
All right.
Awesome.
Well, you opened, you closed.
You know what I mean?
Well, how about a thank you to our sponsors, AG1 and Babbel.
Yeah.
They brought this episode to you.
Part of the millions of warnings.
This is a fun
I enjoyed.
All right.
Okay.
It is tough to dismount.
It's not that tough.
You're right.
We're having a good time.
Have a good night, everybody. Thank you, Brian. Good work.
Thank you.
There we go. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Brian. Good work. Thank you. Okay.
There we go.
Thanks, guys.
I love being here.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
Nateland is produced by Nateland Productions and by meate bargetzi and my wife laura on the audio
boom platform recording and editing for the show is done by genovations media thanks for tuning in
be sure to catch us next week on the nateland podcast