The Nateland Podcast - #32 New York

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

This episode, we continue our look at all 50 states by exploring the state of New York. To help us understand the Empire State, we're joined by Nate's long time friend and lifelong New Yorker, comedian Yannis Pappas.    Co-hosts: Brian Bates ( https://www.instagram.com/brianbatescomic) & Aaron Weber ( https://www.instagram.com/realaaronweber)   Podcast produced by Nate & Laura Bargatze Recording & Editing by Genovations Media https://www.natebargatze.com https://www.allthingscomedy.com https://www.genovationsmedia.com Email - [e-mail] Find your perfect mattress at HelixSleep.com/Nate

This year is Markham Fair's 180th anniversary, and it's now even better than ever. Bring the whole family along and enjoy a ton of fun, including super dogs shows and horse pulls, midway rides and fairground food favorites, demolition derby and monster truck shows, live music, firework displays, and so much more. There's something for everyone at Markham Fair, October 3rd to 6th. Buy your tickets now at markhamfair.ca. Hello, folks. Welcome to Nate Land.

As always, I'm sitting here, Aaron Weber, Brian Bates. We also have a guest. We have a guy. This guy dropped in town. Yeah. And so we had him in. Giannis Pappas. Thank you. Yeah. You don't know who I am. No one does. Yeah, nobody does. But I'm here to collect my royalties for this podcast. I know.

So a lot of what people don't know, if they're in the comedy scene, you probably haven't seen Giannis. Giannis has his own podcast, Gianni Long Days, History of Hyenas. There's a good chance we're trying not to. You might hear beeps during this podcast, as always. good chance we're trying not to you might hear beeps during this podcast as always it's gonna be tough they're gonna ask for

a little extra pay after this episode yeah this is gonna be going through it me and Giannis started comedy together in New York

and he stopped in in town just did Rogan just did making the rounds just did Joe Rogan yeah so hashtag that that'll help

yeah and then you know those are republican viewers as well yeah uh just let me know what i can't say yeah it's gonna be a lot of it yeah you are eventually we're gonna the intro will just be welcome to nataland you won't even hear yeah that you're here i got big shoes to fill nick novicki was the last guest so big shoe to fill is part of the joke as well. Yeah. Yeah. So the Nate Land name. Yeah.

Actually, Giannis is the one that came up with Nate Land. Yeah. Because you would say, every time you left New York, you're from New York, from Brooklyn. Yeah. Well, you're like a prototypical America. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like a prototypical wide receiver is 6'3", not white.

You know? Yeah. You're just like a prototypical American. You can go to like Colorado, anywhere like five to ten miles outside of any city. Yeah. You're just going to meet you. Nate will just be like, hey, man, you kind of look half golf attire, half like I just. Add on.

Yeah, like college football. Welcome to Nate Lane. Yeah, you dress like you work for Vanderbilt. Yes. And you don't have a college degree. So you're just. Yeah. Yeah, like college football. Welcome to Nathland. Yeah, you dress like you work for Vanderbilt. Yes. And you don't have a college degree. No, no. So you're just, yeah. Yeah.

As I always say, Giannis went to American University, and I went to the University of America. That's what we did. Yeah, and we used to do a college tour together, too. We did. Yeah. Well, we called it a college tour, but it was eight shows that an open mic was set up. Yeah. Sorry, Dan Fregolette, you're not a real comedian.

We did. We did a whole tour we you know it was the dan that set this tour up was he did great at setting this tour up he did it was pretty crazy it was the most money we made at that time oh yeah i mean it was you know we i mean it might have been like a couple thousand dollars a show or something and we were like this is crazy and it was right after your first conan yeah and back then it it still meant something it wasn't just a good tape for the internet like so i remember you made me laugh the hardest because you were after he did his first conan like you just feel like you're gonna be famous you know it's like especially the era we grew up in you know it's like you're on tv and it did it did a lot but lot. But Nate had a hung shirt in the back seat, like a pressed iron shirt.

Yeah. And he said to Dan Frigley, he goes, yeah, if you want, you could sniff that shirt. It smells like fame. It was real funny. I remember that clearly. And the other funny thing you said when we were walking past a pizza place, it said America's choice or the best pizza in America. Yeah.

And he said, they wouldn't lie to you on the sign, would they? Helix mattress. Helix mattress. So we're going to start as usual. We're going to go through the comments. We got Giannis here for all of it. Put him to use, using all of it. That's what I'm here for.

Yeah. I mean, I flew down for this gig. Flew down for it. This is the big deal. Yeah, you put me up in the room next to this. Yeah. So, yeah. It's good.

Yeah. It's a good room. We'll get you moved here. Yeah. You're going to move to Nashville. I'm going to move here. Yeah. Into your house.

There's enough room in here. God knows that. Yeah. Well, we'd love to have you. I mean, I feel like I'm in J.J. Watt's home or something. Yeah. Well. You know, what's funny is you're from here,

and Nashville's not a town where a lot of people are from. So, like, when the South Asian doctor who lives in one of these houses meets you, at first he doesn't think you're a comic. He just thinks, like, you had a family-owned plumbing business and did real well in the area. They think, yes. When I say I'm from here, they definitely don't. He must have a window business.

They wonder why. Yeah. We do the plumbing window business. The Margotzi, yeah. We do the plumbing. We're good at it. Christina Malberg. My husband and I look forward to your show every single week. We try not to talk about any of the episodes until both of us have had a chance to finish it because we don't want to spoil anything for each other.

Wait a second. What was that word? Spoil. Spoil? Spoil. Spoil? How do you say it i think the way america says it spoil spoil yeah you could call it a spoil spoil spoil yeah we don't

want to spoil yeah anything for each other yeah but we love rehashing it and cracking up all over again i get so excited when a new episode comes out because i cannot wait to hear the silliness that you guys bring to the table love it it all. Don't change a thing. She's going to hate this one with Giannis. Giannis and Nate opener one and two. Am I allowed to learn their names yet? Can you introduce me? They don't even know my name.

Are they allowed to make eye contact? Breakfast and Aaron. Breakfast and nice to meet you guys. If you correct, we introduce when we all can. I don't remember. I'm on Coke. All right. Edit number one.

I mean, this is going to be a brutal one. I'm joking. I'm joking. I don't. I meant Coca-Cola. Yeah. Yeah. Chris Merrigan. Hello, folks.

This podcast feels like Brontosaurus. That's the joke. Do you get it? Because his name starts with a B? Yeah. And so everybody, we all call them just different names. Okay. It's a fun whirlwind.

Yeah. This podcast feels like Brontosaurus is an over-prepared substitute teacher with all his research, and Nate and Aaron clearly just wants him to put on a movie. Oh, yeah. Love the podcast. Keep them coming. Goodbye, folks. I'd say that's fair.

That's funny. That's perfect. You do look like a substitute teacher a little bit. You see it, right? Yeah. I don't know if they were talking about his looks, but it's a nice thing he said that. I do a lot of research, and Nate, he's not a fan of learning. He does, but you wouldn't think he'd walk in.

Nate is not a fan of learning. That was a good joke. Give him a second for a beat. I mean, he's not. If you're a fan of Vanderbilt, you're a fan of a lot of things. Not a fan of learning. Vanderbilt's all about learning. Yeah, comedy has spoiled you.

It's spoiled me. It's spoiled you,'s all spoiled you yeah nathan fox there was a comment a few episodes back where a husband convinced his wife that boy scout was nate's father i think watching nate read the comments and having bow flex saying the big words when he's struggling is the very reason why that is believable lie as a new father it's inspiring to see brought worse still being a new father it's inspiring to see bratwurst still being a loving father to nate forget parenting books i get all my inspiration from this podcast look forward to every wednesday for this thank you guys i'm proud of you buddy

it's good yeah you're doing a lot better reading yeah i get through it i get that trouble reading like floyd mayweather trying to get through it yeah it's tough yeah i mean he's progressed a lot though he's doing good tough yeah chris langmoe nate i think it's about time you hired some non-local help to come on full time love the podcast but come on beefy and silver surfer i know you guys can do better nate killing it as always i was saying i should get different people yeah and you was he calling me beefy? Beefy and silver surfer. That's a tough one because I'm the B, but you're the B. Yeah, I'm the B. I think that was pretty obvious.

Yeah. What is silver surfer? What does that even mean? I would imagine you have a lot of gray hair, but you don't have gray hair. I have gray hair. You got some shine. Yeah. Yeah.

Look, I'm definitely – I'll pull that comment aside, think about it. Get some new guys in here, you know what I mean? Well, they said new talent. You know what I mean? You didn't do that. Yeah, you brought a new guy. Need some New York funny in here, don't I? You do.

I mean, Nashville's a big city now, though. It's not even really that southern. Yeah. No, it's not. I mean, there's a lot of people from a lot of places. My cul-de-sac is full of, no one's from ohio new jersey uh louisiana you got one from yeah china yeah neighbors are chinese uh they would fly there every week it's pretty crazy every she would go uh you did they would fly there every week every yeah yeah pretty crazy trip they fought a chime every week she was

flying a lot uh and then so and we haven't really talked to him much because she was they were gone so much they're gone but she we know her kids her kids come over and then they come over after they flew to china no they did like give give my daughter seven to ten days please yeah yeah there's a play going on i feel like your fan base would appreciate that one yeah yeah yeah tim shockley you've had it huh i've had it yeah you've had i've had covid yeah yeah took him down yeah he has antibodies yeah no i have the antibodies i'm fine don't worry about it he was a big problem for his family and y'all down here you kind of believe in it not a hundred percent no yeah when did you have it uh about uh yesterday was uh when a symptom stopped i think

i'm good i think i'm not a doctor but yeah no i'm kidding he got nervous like yeah he's like i'm 70 i don't want to die yeah i'm 70 kill me yeah um no i i've been good for a long time i was i i it was uh november beginning of december so yeah i did the antibody test. I got Nature Shield, red, white, and blue. Yeah. Red, white, and blue. I got the natural flag. Yeah. Good old immune system that was born and bred in the U.S. of A.

You know what I mean? Brooklyn, New York. You know what I mean, Brooklyn? You know what I mean, Brooklyn? Yeah. Tim Shockley. Nate, you are right about landlines. They are still a thing.

I work in IT, and we use landline phones to test our fax lines. Ask Barley. i'm sure he still uses them since he's like 80 wow just they go after yeah that's what you called uh god just tagged that yeah i mean the timing of that couldn't have been better one two punch right to your old face we're all three guys in our 40s yeah but you but you look 70. Yeah. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He's young. How old do you think he is? I almost don't want to hear it.

Yeah, I know. I'm going to go 30. Close. 27. 29. 29. 29. That's a big gig for you, man.

Yeah. Yeah, I didn't move out of my mom's house until I was 38. You're doing good. Thank you, man. Yeah, I go back time to time. Yeah. Quarantine. Had to move right back in. man yeah yeah i didn't move out of my mom's house i was 38 you're doing good thank you man yeah i go back time to time yeah quarantine had the moms right back in yeah yeah they still you still that house no i just live in it still yeah oh and the in your your parents has to know i'm trying to you know i have a wife and a kid now if i was still living in my mom's house are you still

are we even still friends anymore no but you still have you gotten so big you just don't think i have an income anymore i had never thought you had income like you had a good run that's why i'm here i want to talk to your podcast i want to talk to your producer slash came out yeah i want i need royalties on nateland yannis came out hot 2000s early 2000s snl 1980s 1980s he did yannis came out real hot with uh and then it really cooled off you got were doing SNL audition. I mean, out the gate. I was like dinner food left on the table overnight. Came out hot and then got cold.

Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. I started off auspicious start, and then the career really cooled down. Yeah. And then now it's been in the microwave. Now it's doing good. It's reheated, but it doesn't taste good at all.

Yeah. But people eat it. Yeah't taste good at all. Yeah. But people eat it. Yeah. People do eat it. When nothing else is around, people will eat it. People will eat it. Joyce Breckenridge.

I feel like Aaron holds back a lot of his thoughts. Maybe so Nate won't beat up on him. I love you all, but stop being mean to Aaron for being thoughtful. You can be mean to brochure, though. That's just funny.

So they just call you every name with a B. Yeah. Apparently. Yeah, it's fun. That's why I wasn't sure if they meant me by beefy. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, you guys get it. Dan Pitts. I want to know, do you hold back? No.

The theory is he's a secret genius because he went to notre dame he uses a lot of words whatever word you just use auspicious auspicious beginning yeah i mean i mean you might know that i mean yeah no that's stuff that he uses they used at the dinner table yeah i say that to you i might as well be saying it to a fish like there's just no chance you're gonna know that word i didn't know i figured it means that you had a chance at a career early on and then it fell is that is that the i don't know the definition i mean it's a good guess it's a good it's it's in the ballpark it's in the ballpark yeah i mean but you're right yeah it means yeah you started off strong and then yeah it's kind of tapered off

yeah it's a nice way to say it yeah uh dan pitts i need advice from nate aaron and beefcake it recently snowed here in minnesota and we drove by a lady in a wheelchair that was shoveling her driveway my daughters and i went back home to grab the shovels to help when we drove back we noticed a suburban in the garage and a kid playing outside when she was shoveling i got to thinking maybe she would be insulted if i stopped to help you just because she was in a wheelchair so we drove by a couple times of times because I didn't know what to do. My daughter said, this sounds like something they would talk about on the Nate Land podcast. Maybe not, but I do wonder what would you guys have done? So she has help. Like she likes doing it maybe. Apparently, because she had kids there just

playing and not helping her. I mean, how young are these kids? You know, if it's like a five-year-old, then they can't help her. Maybe she would like to help. But if they were, you know, old enough to be helping. How old before you start shoveling snow as a job? When did y'all shovel? I mean, you grew up in New York. I grew up in New York. I think I started shoveling around 10, 11.

That's like cutting the grass down here. That's what I was going to say. That's what I was going to compare it to. Yeah. Yeah, you guys don't get, you just get a dusting once yeah yeah you'll get like a full blown yeah no no i mean we we definitely get some snow but it's not like in it's not nor it's not a thing that you worry about you don't go like there's a nor'easter coming in no like boston yeah we probably worry about it more than they do but if we should we shut down yeah if we get a

dusting school's out yeah that's funny i mean's over yeah it's like in la when it drops before below 70 people putting on like you know north face jackets yeah oh wearing gloves yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i think they did the right you know you do what you do you drive by a couple times see if you think you need it probably made her even more worried i mean after you drive by a couple times, see if you think you need it. Probably made her even more worried. I mean, after you drive by a couple times, it's like you can't stop because she's like, you're the car that's been driving back and forth? You got to kind of bellow then. So it ended up being it is what it is. Yeah.

If you didn't help right out the gate, then it's, you know, the effort was there to help, and then you contemplated it. There's no harm in asking, though. I don't think this woman would have no harm in asking though i don't think this woman would have been offended yeah uh yeah i don't know i mean maybe maybe she would ask her why she's in a wheelchair yeah is that what you're gonna ask her you're gonna come out just out what happened no ask her if she needs any help well right she's like why did y'all stop oh we were gonna help you but then we just got curious. Why are you in a wheelchair? I don't know if I even believe you're in a wheelchair.

Why are you crippled? Ben Shaw. When I was a camp counselor, I was driving a boat full of 11-year-olds when I spotted a bald eagle flying down to catch a fish in its claws. I stopped the boat, turned off the motor, and called the attention to the eagle. As camp counselors do, I gave a quick speech on the glory of our nation's symbol and how powerful it was. Just as I finished my speech, an ugly buzzard flew up, perched on the tree above the eagle,

jumped down and stole the eagle's fish and flew away. I was at a loss. I said, well, you can't win them all, guys. And we motored off. I'm so glad that I finally found some other folks that might enjoy that story. We're talking about eagles. story. That's when a kid- We're talking about eagles. Yeah, that's when a kid gets his first lesson about nature.

Yeah. It's just like, yeah, it's- They don't care. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. It's brutal out there. Yeah.

An eagle can just take your house. Yeah. That's what we're talking about. It's a very funny idea that an eagle can- Well, you had an eagle that was living in your living room at some point, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Moved in. Yeah, at some point, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Moved in. Yeah. Like it was right outside your house. Yeah. And what do you got to do there? You got to contact the service like.

Yeah, it ended up leaving, but I think you got to call someone and say, I don't know who you call 1-800-EGLE. It's kind of rare to have an Eagle

like nesting in your backyard. There's like 10 Eagles left. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you didn't do anything. You didn't tell anyone uh it ended up moving it didn't care for the neighborhood yeah

and then uh wasn't up to its standards you know what i mean the hermitage yeah that's when um we didn't have enough american flags for its liking yeah uh in your house yeah we put more out since then uh Jack Rotten. Rotten. Ratten. Hey, guys. I'm a 20-year-old college student in Georgia, and I love listening to y'all's podcast every week. Huge fan of Seinfeld and The Office as well, so it's even better to get every joke you say.

This past week, I went on a date with a girl to impress her. I said I like eight of Nate's jokes as my own. Oh, to impress her, I said like eight of Nate's jokes as my own during dinner, and she was laughing the whole time, thinking I'm coming up with all of it on the spot. Things are going well so far, but I've worked my way almost all the way through full-time magic, entering Tennessee kid territory.

I mean, the kid is a hack. Yeah, he's using other people's material. Imagine that going on a date and quoting somebody else. your own stuff he's entering tennessee kid territory is going to be risky since it's on netflix but it may have to be done brick oven pizza and airplane y'all are awesome as well and definitely help the literacy rate in the room improve i think if your daughter was a guest she would help yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, Daddy, let me read that. I think it's a... I like when they...

Yeah, no, that's funny. It shows your material travels. Yeah. You know? Yeah. He could do the stand-ups. He could do the stand-ups. Yeah.

Comedy Central, Half Hour Presents. No one finds that. I have a CD. No. CD? No, Comedy Central's a great place to put your special if you want to hide it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. You're like, I want to hide it. You're like, give it to Comedy Central put your special if you want to hide it. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. You're like, I want to hide it. You're like, give it to Comedy Central. I think you got too many. Yeah. I don't know. Mine aired on the same night of the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. Yeah.

That was actually really funny. His special aired opposite the Mayweather. I remember that. Atlanta, I remember talking to you about that. You said he didn't even watch it. He said, I didn't even watch my own special. We watched the fight. Yeah.

Yeah. The best. Have we talked about that on this? With the Norm MacDonald one? Mm-mm. Supposedly with Norm MacDonald. From what I heard, I don't know, this is just what I heard, but his aired the same night of, what is it?

Earth Day. So they tell everybody to turn the TVs off for Earth Day, and his special aired that night. That's real funny. Henry Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Borde funny. Henry Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Bordeaux. Henry Bordeaux.

Hello, Nate Aaron and Bowflex. He's got a hard enough time to say it in English. Don't put any French words in here. Don't get fancy on us, Henry. You got a first name Henry getting fancy on the back half. Hello, Nate Aaron and Bowflex. I've realized the man at the starbucks by my house has actually been calling me memphis this past two weeks i thought that's what he's been saying but never

really paid attention this morning he definitely said have a good one memphis i feel like i've gone too far with not correcting him after the first couple of times do i just become memphis with this person my fear is i will go here with my wife and they will refer to me as memphis and then i'll have to explain i just want to live my life i need advice bye for now why was he calling him memphis i don't know don't they ride on the cups your name yeah that's just out there i think you're just memphis dude i think you enjoy joy walk in there and you're memphis dude like that's a that's a fun yeah when someone calls me the wrong name i it's the funnest thing you just become whatever that you don't correct really yeah really i used to do to my friends which is a fun. Yeah. When someone calls me the wrong name, it's the funnest thing. You just become whatever that name. You don't correct.

Really? Yeah. Really. I used to do to my friends, which is a fun little trick the fans can do. If you want to have some good, wholesome fun, what you do is if someone doesn't know the name of it, you tell that person a different name for that person. Like I did that once to Damien Lemon at State of New York. He was like, what's the bartender's name again?

And I went, Randy. And his name was not Randy. And he goes, thanks, Randy. And I was like, what? I like that too. His name's not Randy. And he looked at me and I was dying laughing.

Yeah, it's a fun little game. Yeah, because they say with such confidence. Confidence because they just learned it and they didn't know it. So now they want to just like say it like,

I always knew your name, Randy. Randy, come on, Randy. And then they just, yeah, it's a fun one. they just yeah it's a fun one it's a fun game yeah it's a fun game it's a fun game i like always pointing people out if they if you think they look like someone given some of the wrong numbers fun too that's a fun one yeah you know what another fun one is too if you're walking with somebody and you knock their hand up and you go excuse me and then the person turns around and your hand's just up you're like uh do you know what time it is or you know yeah you know it's all right so uh since yannis is here we've been talking about states uh we wanted to uh you know uh as as a new yorker yeah we wanted we wanted to have someone in that is from new york the real deal the real deal yeah born and raised yeah tell

me i have no culture never lived uh two blocks from his mom that's right that's right yeah but i'm the one you're you've been to bahrain you thought it was a person i've been to bahrain yeah still more culture yeah wherever you were open to bahrain i mean i've never been to bahrain no what's the farthest you've been um i didn't open for angela johnson oh you went to get to see it. Yeah. Well, Bahrain was just for the soldiers. Yeah. But you did go to Sweden. You did.

I did go to Sweden. Yeah. You did good over there. I would go there for five years. I went there straight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And what's good about that is because I was nobody. Not like I'm anybody now, but like I was truly had nothing. Yeah. But then you go over there and they're just like, you know, they think you're American. So the internet was big back then, but it wasn't as big as it is now so i just yeah i just kind of pretended like i was you know i was chris rock i'm like yeah i'm one of the best comics in new york yeah i guess you are he's american don't clash americans great yeah and so like yeah sold out shows kind of at festivals and then you come back to new york and it's just back at the lantern

for eight people. It was really depressing. The reality. The reality hits you. The reality of being a comic in New York. How was doing shows there though?

Would they understand? Totally. They speak English very well. They're very cerebral people. They're not like they don't they laugh like cognitively. He even knows that word.

Yeah. So it's like everything kind of goes to their mind and then they clap a lot. They're very like They don't laugh out loud. They laugh but it's more of a word. Yeah. So it's like everything kind of goes to their mind, and then they clap a lot. They're very like, oh. So they don't laugh out loud. They laugh, but it's more of a clap. Yeah.

Like you'll have to pause for a clap. Because it sounds like the shows didn't go that good is what you're telling me. Yeah. And you're making them sound like they would. Yeah. It sounded like a political speech. I mean, that's like, yeah. Yeah.

Someone has a bad show, and you're like, oh, this crowd just doesn't laugh like normal crowds. They're not laughers. Sounds like they appreciate you more than- Yeah. Yeah. No, I didn't do that good. They said, we appreciate you coming. Yeah. And you laugh like normal crowds. They're not laughers. Sounds like they appreciate you more than- Yeah, no, I didn't do that good. They said, we appreciate you coming.

Yeah. And you're like, wow. They were just too polite to tell me they didn't like me. Yeah. That's probably what it was. Yeah. But no, the countries are clean. It's crazy.

They have the highest quality of life in the summer. Then in the winter, I guess I have to say, unfortunately, they have the highest suicide rate. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But summer- I know you just can't joke about that. but summer is great summer is great and then the winter it's

just just too dark i mean the sun comes up for 12 minutes yeah yeah oh that is bad it's bad yeah because they're in the north i don't know i know he knows how that works but yeah but the summer yeah it depends on where you look it seems like a weird place to be like now summer's well summer is great only because it's not winter on where you're located. Well, it seems like a weird place to be like, no, summer's perfect. Well, summer's great only because it's not winter there. Yeah. It's not even that great. It's like 50 degrees. I mean, they live in the North Pole.

Yeah. I mean, like, I don't know how they do it. Beautiful people, though. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful people because they, you know. That's good. Viking blood.

Viking blood. Yeah. Yeah. Everything that was, yeah, the Vikings were brutal and harsh. Yeah. And then now they're just like. Good looking people. Good looking people just like good looking people who wear long coats and Chuck Taylors. It's funny how that, if their ancestors could see them, they'd be like, really? Yeah, this is what we became.

Yeah, we used to cheers and scold. So you could walk around and be like, hi, welcome to H&M. We'll have cheap. Just hang out till winter. You know what I mean? Then you're going to see. Carhartt. Aren't they all wearing Carhartt over there?

No, that's Boston. That's Boston. Yeah. That's like Goodwill hunting. Yeah. I know that's what it's like here. Imagine your dad. Your dad looks like he's a blue collar guy.

No? No, not really. No? No. They went to Notre Dame. Are any of y'all the real deal or you just have the accents? Just frauds. He's from-

I went to MIT actually. Well, he went to Notre Dame. he's he went to notre dame his whole family what are you doing doing comedy uh i don't know man it's for people like us who are like you know have no issues you went to american that's a good school american i'm smarter than nate for sure yeah we know that yeah yeah yannis is super smart yeah i i'm so smart i know you got vanderbilt underwear on right now yeah am i right I right? I wear Vanderbilt all the time. Yeah. I got enough Vanderbilt stuff here.

Oh, no. So I'll let it know. No, yeah. Like I walked in, like I said, I thought work for the school or something, but. I'm a big fan. We got a lot of good things happening over at Vanderbilt. I think the game just got postponed tonight for COVID. But the thing about you is like you're a loyal guy.

Yeah. You're still friends with a lot of the people you were friends with you know you got successful and i told i warned all our friends i said give them a year you got to give your friends a year to to adapt to success because then they start saying things like you know you know you're not this is for you got to ride the train you know stuff like that yeah so but you're loyal you're a loyal guy how would you say loyal you're a loyal guy i'm a loyal guy. How would you say loyal? Loyal. You're a loyal guy. I'm a loyal guy. I know him so well. I know the words that he can't say.

And Vanderbilt, you were a fan of Vandy when you started comedy. I met you in 2006. Yeah. You know, when you had the Superman joke, you know?

Yeah. And you used to shave your own hair to cut your hair. Yeah. You know, and you were living off your wife. Yeah, yeah. You guys used to do a podcast together, right?

We did a very unsuccessful podcast together. We got in. I always say our podcast was basically like hearing about Google and then just getting and selling our stock real early. I mean, we were in early. We were in early. Podcasts were- But the thing is we did nothing right.

No. We were recording off of Mac and we bought uh you guys would know we bought like a what was it a snowball snowball mic which they're not great yeah and yeti snowball there's a snowball mic i remember i i remember going to buy it it was a hundred bucks we each put in 50 which was a lot which was a lot and we and we bought it and we're like we're gonna start this podcast yeah hooked it all up first 10 episodes first 10 episodes the mic we didn't connect it we didn't yeah so it was more than 10 episodes we did like two years thinking that we were recording out of the snowball we we had it plugged in just the webcam and it was just the

webcam mic yeah that was recording yeah and we were like we were like we're doing great we got like seven eight listeners it was like one of your super fans and my dad would listen to it. And we're like, we're building. We're building. We're building. Yeah. It was- And Chris Laker.

Yeah, and Chris Laker. And they, yeah, it was so funny to realize, though, that we were never recording. I mean, it's just the audio, we're like, it just didn't sound great. You never thought, this mic isn't that great. You just had nothing to compare it to or what? I mean, dude, podcasts were so new that it wasn't like you had all this mic isn't that great you just had nothing to compare it to or what i mean dude podcasts were so new that it was it wasn't like you had all this stuff or you had now it's like everything so you can do them on your phone and it's professional and then you just couldn't and uh it was like 2008 9 so it's like i don't even think the iphone was out yet

right when did the iphone come out 2007 we talked We talked about it yesterday. It had just come out, but we could not afford the iPhone. When you saw the iPhone come out and you could swipe, how did you react to that news? Because Aaron gasped. Aaron said he remembers watching it on TV and he goes, He just dropped that thing? No, not that he sees it.

He just sees them talk about it on TV. I watched the keynote live. I remember watching it. And they swiped up and he gasped. I've never been blown away by a new technology like that i gasped yeah yeah that's funny yeah yeah i mean i was blown away by it but i didn't make a noise like yeah i mean spaceship going to the moon he's he's well whether they go to the when they go to mars are you a new a noisemaker not really man i was that was just such a special moment for me yeah i was like this is the coolest thing i've ever seen that's funny some guys are noisemakers you know they sit in a chair like yeah there's just always oh i make those noises yeah for sure

yeah i make all those. Yeah. So when I moved to New York, so we talk about New York. And I moved to New York in 2004, October of 2004. Started a comedy, Boston Comedy Club, which is always funny. These people, that never makes sense. But there was a comedy club called Boston Comedy Club. And when we were getting started, and that's where me and Giannis would have met, New York Comedy Club.

We met at New York Comedy Club. New York Comedy Club. We used to do shows in those side rooms. There was this side room, and it was a dump, and there was a pipe by the stage. Do you remember? Yeah. That had the heat in it. Yeah. So it was like, and like, you know, when you're working on jokes, or you're just not a good

comic, which is what I was, you just lean on stuff for support. And like, there was about 10 times I leaned on that pipe and just burnt my hand that's new york heating is always it's all this gas uh yeah you live in an apartment it's like the the heat is you always hear like it sounds like tea like you're cooking tea it's like you're cooking tea and your landlord controls the heat so it's like you have the window open more in the winter because the it's the heater is so hot than you do in the summer. Yeah, I do remember that. You would always have to just to balance it out because it would get so hot.

And doing New York in that room, it was a side room. And so you would stand on stage and you would face forward and you would just see the wall. There could maybe be one table in front of you and then everybody had to sit to the side. So you'd have to turn a lot. You did comedy like you were crossing a highway, just looking this way, looking that way. You'd have to tell a joke, and you'd have to let it breathe all the way across. He did a lot of faces and stuff. Yeah.

He was real animated. Yeah, he used to make fun of me. He would say, here's Giannis' act. He'd take the microphone and bang it against his head. Remember that? Yeah. Because I was a physical comedian yeah yeah where nate would just make him kill him with just like his mouth i would have to like really it's with words and then he

would yeah be like oh what am i a cowboy and he makes a microphone like a lasso and then he rides in and sits on the stool he needs everything on the stage he's there someone i would need i'd call volunteers up yeah yeah i need i need everything but jokes i would's there someone i would need i'd call volunteers up yeah yeah i need i need everything but jokes i would use everything but i didn't have jokes i would use everything that i had at my disposal yeah yeah uh so yeah so we started uh so started in new york you're born and raised brooklyn new york yeah i was about to just remember that brattleboro show we do every year in brattleboro vermont yeah that was back at like the beginning when you didn't have many credits so you just inflate like there's a paragraph describing who you are like yeah he did he does uh he's a regular new york comedy club it is like eight lines of

stuff that you're like that shouldn't be in your bio but you're like i just want it to look big you wanted to look good yeah we that was a fun little gig we'd look good. That was a fun little gig. That was a fun little gig. We'd go up there. It was a nice little town. Yeah, Brattleboro. We had it. That was the only gig I kind of had that I booked. Yeah. Because they brought me up.

They saw you and then I think you brought me. Yeah. Yeah. And then so we'd always go up and we would drive up. That was the, when you started in New York,

it was all about going to Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey. Like that's where you would go and make any kind of money. Any money, yeah. Like $300 maybe. I've driven,'ve driven yeah i mean when i started i remember driving to like cincinnati columbus for like 150 bucks which sold joel it was like 150 bucks and i remember you started making a little money and it was like you drove somewhere for like five hundred

dollars yeah and then that's when you start saying like is the money enough that i would drive to somewhere to get and have someone hand me 500 yeah and if it's too little start saying like is the money enough that I would drive somewhere to get and have someone hand me $500 and if it's too little I won't do it if the money is like yeah I'll drive two hours for someone to hand me $1000 then you would do the gig that's how you would know to do it or not if it was

just would you drive at the beginning you're like 100 miles for 100 bucks you're like absolutely I'll do that and then it just gets more and more and you know what the funny thing is like those days are over now because we have families and stuff but those were the best yeah i mean it was just the best time did you realize it then in the moment no you i think you realize it looking back it's like you know when you look back at like playing sports and stuff at the time and you're like oh man hanging with the team and the bus was like the best.

And then at the time you're having fun. And when you look back, maybe it's just like, cause you don't have any money and it's just innocence. And like, man, just offstage, the fun we would have,

how hard we would laugh. And like, you know, we had good time. You're in your, you're in your world. So you're in your group. So it's you against the audience in a way.

Like it's, these people were coming in and you're trying to put on a good show. And group, so it's you against the audience in a way. Like, these people are coming in, you're trying to put on a good show, and there's those New York days at the beginning. I mean, I wouldn't trade that stuff in. That's what made me even the comic and made him the comic that we are is because of that. That's why I think New York comics are the best.

They are. Because we had a hang every single night, so it was, you know, four or five years, and I was there for almost nine but so you almost nine but towards the end you start traveling a little bit so you're not around each other as much you're you're kind of going in and doing spots and doing a show and you're leaving so you're not getting to hang but that beginning four or five years you're around each other i mean more than you're around your family you're every night for eight hours and it's just jokes and it's just making each other laugh and that's why i think your comics i think without a doubt without

a doubt are the best and then when you do those first road gigs like it's amazing because you're working you're grinding in the city every night and then it's like i got a gig and so you'd go with your friend or whatever and it's like you're on the road you know like you're a young comic on the road and it was just like fun you felt like and performing in front of it's like you're on the road. You're a young comic on the road, and it was just fun. You felt like you were doing something. And performing in front of an audience that you're going to a comedy club that they want to be there. Yeah.

What made New York Comics so good is we performed in front of people that didn't want to be in the room they were in. Oh, yeah. And that was most of them. It was like tricking them into coming in. Oh, we got a free show down there. I mean, people were just talking me in off the street. Did you bark a lot? No, I didn't bark a lot. I didn't. I down there. I mean, you're just, people were just talking me in off the street. Did you bark a lot?

No, I didn't bark a lot. I didn't. I didn't. I was from New York. So the way I really came up was I did like black rooms, like kind of have their own circuit down there. Like, you know,

black rooms always like have their own self-produced shows. So I do a lot of those and then I would start my own rooms. And then I just kind of got in at sort of the B and C clubs. And that's where me and Nate met, like on the nights where if you were newer, you could get up.

Like this guy, Dustin Chafin, he's a good friend of mine still. Dustin Chafin really hooked us both up, got us in. I started doing sets with Donnell. Donnell took me on the road to the Chappelle Show Tour. Donnell Rawlings. Donnell Rawlings, another comedian.

That was early on. And then, yeah, we would drive and do any gig. Soul Joel would have a lot of gigs in jersey and like you would find someone that would produce a lot of gigs and so then he would have like soul joe would have me him uh soda vecchione a lot of us would do a lot of his gigs i remember doing soul joe gigs someone no one would show up soul joe soul joe by the way soul joe's cooking right now yeah he's the only club like in the Northeast. Like outdoor shows, right? He's getting like Seinfeld to do it.

It went from like- He did? No, I'm just saying like all the good comics are doing it now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's like nothing else going on. He just knew how to run shows.

I mean, he just knew how to do it. But I mean, but we were around him when he was starting out too. So some of those first shows, now he's cooking. Now he's actually, he makes and doing really good shows. He's got his own club. He's got his own club. He's got his own club in Royersford, PA. Oh, wow. That's where Big J got attacked on stage, right?

Yeah, by a fan. That's what happens when you go on the Legion of Skanks. They love you so much, they hate you. I remember doing one Soul Joe gig, and no one was there. And it's like, you still got to go up. And you're like, I don't want to. Let's just not do it. But it's like, to get the money, you got to do something.

You're doing a show for like one guy. But that was at the beginning when he was still figuring out his world. Yeah, he was like us starting out. Yeah, he was like us starting out. He quit his job in like sales and is like, this is what I want to do. For you, like you would not have become the monster you are without New York. No. And what was always really oppressive about Nate is, yeah, New York, you really had to grab him.

Because in New York, they're going like, you know, they look at you. If it's a free show, first of all, forget it. They can just walk out. But it's like, they're looking at you going like, hey, man, I could be here. I could be doing a million things. It's not that special. And you were like an understated comic. Yeah.

So like you, being in New York, youork you had to like if you're making people laugh if someone who just stands there and like like nate does and makes people crack up that's a dude who's really funny because you got to really perform to get these guys you know what i mean and you would do it yeah and you learn how to learn how to do yeah i think you got better and better and better because and only out of necessity because if you're in another place you wouldn't have had to do that you have no you have no choice yeah you're in another place where people want to be there i mean that that's what new york teaches you and that's why that's why i mean the comics that are in new york that people don't even know who they are are better than most famous comedians i mean they're they're

just so good because they're just constantly like almost having to talk your way onto a show and you're having to convince this audience that, I mean, I remember people that wouldn't speak English. Yeah. You'd have a lot of people that, I remember going to Broadway Comedy Club and we would do those shows. I mean, I would do those shows. It'd be midnight.

It'd be midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. We'd be on. Those were like first club shows. Those were the first club. That room ended up becoming, Dustin ran that upstairs. It would start at midnight and that room was great. It was great. It was great. And so it was great and so we

would all just hang out in the hallway the crowd i mean it started off not that many people in the crowd to then be in these packed shows yeah and you would go on stage and you would just i mean it was just it became a thing and it was just a kind of a smaller room that could come nice and packed one of my favorite rooms in the city it's actually it was actually like a perfect comedy room yeah we got left alone up there yeah uh you know so it was like dustin we'd all just run like nice and packed. One of my favorite rooms in the city. It was actually like a perfect comedy room. Yeah. We got left alone up there. Yeah. You know,

so it was like Dustin, we'd all just run it. I mean, we'd help Dustin run it, but you just got left alone. You were just up there in your own little world. They come in with a ticket.

You get paid a drink ticket. No money. Just a drink ticket. You get one drink ticket, you get yourself a Coke or a water. Yeah. Yeah.

Some sort of juice yeah and you would just be there no edit job there yeah we would do but it was it was just such a yeah i mean i i can't say enough that i i definitely say because i when people ask what kind of comic i am or where i i always say i'm a new york comic you are a new york because i that's where that's where it was now you're. Now you kind of go and, you know, I got Zany's here in Nashville and that's my home club. And they're lucky to have you. That's what I tell them every day. I tell them every day I'm Nate Bargatze. There we go.

Not even that, right? No. What do you think cursing is? I don't know. I forgot I was doing a children's network. That's, I mean, that's the problem with New York, dude. I would hear stuff on the subway. Come on.

That word I just said, that's like the marijuana of curses. It's not that bad. People think it's bad, but you can smoke it. How hard is it just to not? I mean, what do y'all do growing up? I have been so good here. We've been going for maybe 20 minutes. I'm doing a church show.

I'm doing good. If this was the only complaint that one show i would get my money you'll hand me an envelope after the show i could do i could have been doing this in a pulpit is there i know is there not enough is there not enough shows cursing for you don't not enough don't you guys forgive huh i'm also i'm also christian we do uh yeah uh you're not gonna be in the main gates but you'll be you're gonna be up there you're gonna have to talk you're gonna talk me in i'm like we're we will always talk through a fence yeah that was that was some of the jokes we used to use they would just go yeah I would just say something like well at least I'm not going to hell

so yeah New York has that I remember riding on the subway and you would see the language in New York it would blow me away just to see

kids my daughter's age it's like listening to construction workers. I mean, they're just like, rah, rah. And you're like, what? And the parents talk like that? Yeah. Cursing was not even a thing. Not even a thing.

No, like even my in-laws now, they're from Long Island, which is like its own country. And yeah, we just curse. Yeah. We do curse. You just, yeah. There's no like, yeah. But there's no power behind it, right? No. It's just fun. It's words. Yeah country. And yeah, we just curse. Yeah. We do curse. You just, yeah. There's no like, yeah. But there's no power behind it, right? No.

It's just fine. It's words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I appreciate no cussing. I appreciate it. Yeah. No one, listen, there's no one getting offended by the cursing. No, I've hung out with it.

I'm sorry. No. Yeah. But it's the idea of like, I would have grown up you would have never used that language you never curse you don't curse and you don't curse in your act you don't curse in life

yeah it's you're committed you know it's good well I always think if a young comics listener if you want to practice not cursing you should

you got to practice in your regular life you should you got to get it out there and it is good not to curse because it gives you a wider appeal which is good

right like well it's true it's well the idea of it too now is that's all so many people do that i took it as a comic it's like this makes me sound different if i don't curse i choose different words to use where i would have where you would curse yeah and so that to me i think is your rhythms and all this stuff and these different words you choose. It makes it, it just makes you sound different. Yeah.

And you stick out like that's not, it's even more about that. Just you sound different. And so if you were in a field of everybody that we're all making jokes about only so many topics. So you got to sound, you got to have something that makes you sound different. And then that,

that was a way to do that. I think it's impressive too. As a comic, I just think it's impressive to not curse because I think it's impressive too. As a comic, I just think it's impressive to not curse because I think it's a little harder, to be honest with you. And there's only a few guys who can do it. It's like Gaffigan, you, Seinfeld. Ryan Hamilton.

Ryan Hamilton. Regan. Regan. Maybe Sebastian doesn't curse. I don't think he curses. Maybe he'll do like one or two, but he could go without him. He could go without him. He does very little cursing.

Nobody else. I think if you barely do it, should do it without it who simba and by the way simba is hysterical that's great simba is maybe the most underrated comic he's my father-in-law's favorite comic yeah and he's a sicilian guy from long island yeah so there you go jim brewer might be pretty clean jim brewer's clean now yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's pretty interesting i mean it's just yeah in new york no one was starting like but we would do that's that was clean. Jim Rowe is clean now. Yeah. It's pretty interesting. In New York, no one was starting. That was the hard part. We would do all these uncensored shows. You'd have to just do them.

That's how we started. It was called the Uncensored Show. You'd have 10 new comics who were not that great just going... Nate would come up and be like, hey y'all. Harkins, Taff. You from Tennessee? i have a friend who lives in kentucky yeah yeah well what was that how was that joke go uh florida florida yeah i'm from tennessee i got a cousin lived in florida oh that's good are we just naming states yeah

we have a compass yeah i had a compass a lot of compass material i one early joke you had that i really always thought was good was the your friends would just tell you yeah man just park it there you're like is it legal they're like yeah yeah they don't you know because your friends don't care if you get it oh yes yeah yeah we just tell you and then you're like just pull it over there you're like there's a car on fire over there yeah you're good right there they don't care they just went out of the car yeah so they don't care what happens to your car yeah that was a very new york joke of like people getting your car you guys don't have to pull into spots here right yeah yeah no no new york i was i could park yeah you you're i got you're a very talented driver yeah a lot of people don't know you drive with

two feet you know that i drive yeah just with two feet really like walter white's kid man yeah yeah i was uh uh miss woods uh the teacher at my high school, and she would drive me home, and she always drove with two feet left for the brake, right for the gas. And so I've always done that. You learned it from Miss Woods? I just saw her doing it, and then so it always stuck with me, and then I just kind of started doing it. It makes sense.

Once you get used to it, I know how to brake with my left foot. It's because you don't know how to brake with your left foot, but I do. Now, I will switch back and forth, but I can drive with both feet. But in New York, you were only driving that way. Yeah. Only recently did you go back to the warm foot. Well, it's like I'll still do it, and it just kind of flows. I do both.

But I could park. I mean, my best parallel parking was I parked touching bumpers of both cars. I got into a spot, i was touching both both cars you're a smooth driver yeah really you're a smooth you're a good driver and you used to drive professional like not professionally but like i delivered fedex when i first moved to new york so i would deliver in uh manhattan was easy for fedex because it's all grid so it's easy just go up back and forth and you get a lot of tickets there because you couldn't really park so you just had to double park and run in and try to drop the package off real fast uh but the hard part hard places to deliver was Queens and when you because you go to Queens and the streets were just there's no grid and so I mean this is back

you had to have I did a map so you had to actually use a map and uh I remember delivering we had a big snowstorm once I got caught out in that and had to – I mean, I went sliding down MLK Boulevard, I believe, and I was just sliding down the hill and had to get it turned. And I remember some guy was going to help me move, but he wanted me to give him money to help him. And, I mean, I was like, I don't have any money. I was 25 years old, no money. And I was like, I don't.

And then he's like – And then he left me. And then I finally got it. I got it where I could just slide all the way back down the hill. And then I drove back to the... We were all so poor back then that it was impressive that Nate had a house. It wasn't a house, but he had a living room. You had a grown-up living space. Oh, Laura.

When Laura moved there. Yeah. And then we were... Yeah, because she worked. She worked. So we just had an apartment. But I think our apartment was like $1,200 a month. Yeah.

Which was a lot to us. Which was insane. Yeah. I mean, I lived in a rent-controlled apartment with Jesse. We were all living... I don't know how... Rent-controlled is huge in New York. Huge.

We were talking about New York. Rent-controlled is... that's what you wanted. There's people that lived in the village, in the West Village, and people would try to get them out and they would just keep passing it to their family, right? Yeah. There's a loophole in the law. So it's like because the market keeps going up, New York real estate is so expensive, they would carve out these apartments that were not subject to the market. So they would be capped in order to keep New York for New Yorkers, which you'll probably

see in Nashville soon. People are like, we need some locals here. They need to be able to afford this place. But I mean, people would be paying like 500 bucks a month for a place that they could sell for $4 million. Yeah, really. But they can't sell it. But they can't sell it.

Wow. And then they don't ever leave. They do that to make it affordable for people who grew4 million. Yeah, really. But they can't sell it. But they can't sell it. Wow. And then they don't ever leave. They do that to make it affordable for people who grew up there. Yeah, pretty crazy. They should start doing that here. So how did you get yours? My rent control? Yeah.

Yeah, it was through a friend who grew up. My neighborhood, Park Slope, got really gentrified. So my buddy who grew up- When you grew up in Park Slope, Park Slope was- Well, Park Slope, where I lived, was always kind of good. But it was kind of good. And then New York's the type of place you go one block. You walk one block and you're in a totally different world.

Yeah. So it was like, we used to not go below 6th Avenue, which is three blocks from my house. Yeah. And then you're just like... So it wasn't like you had to get in a car and go to the bad side of town. It was like, the bad side of town was like, you could see it. Yeah. It's like, I guess Israelis and Palestinians,

like they don't like each other, but they're that close. You're just going like, I can't go over there. My mom said I can't cross this street. You can really just go to the edge of the street and that's what it was. So, but then it got like really gentrified. It became like, I mean, all of New York did. It just exploded.

So he lived down on Fifth Avenue and Park Slope, which was like a lot cheaper. And he had, his family had a rent-controlled apartment. So he was one of my roommates. And then he left, and me and Jesse stayed there. And so we would just write the check by money order. So the landlord just thought he was still there. And then he sort of found out slowly.

We were there eight years. And he found out that he wasn't there, because him and his wife at the time bought a house in North Carolina. So then the landlord would come and like knock on our door and we would just hide. Yeah. We just wouldn't answer the door, not make a noise. We would just sit there. How often would you have to do that?

We probably did it about 10 times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just pretended not to. I mean, imagine just living in your, living in an apartment and you have to act like you don't live in that apartment. Like just the anxiety of that.

Yeah. It was anxious. Yeah, it was anxious. Yeah. It's adorable. And it was always more anxious if I was alone. It's funner to go through with someone, like hiding from an authority figure, I guess. I don't know.

And because, I mean, how much was your apartment? My apartment, the apartment was $900 with a three bedroom. Yeah, park slope. Yeah, and it was like a, you remember how small it was. I remember, yeah. It was a good apartment. I mean, it was a New York apartment where where you think two bedrooms and then yeah we painted the living room yeah we did everything and uh it was 900 so it was uh my rent was 300 which in new

york is uh i mean a thousand dollars is unheard of yeah like 1200 that's an affordable park slope i don't think you could get no you couldn't rent a bedroom off of someone's apartment for $900. No, you could not. You could not rent a bedroom for less than like $1,500. So we had a whole apartment. It was a tiny apartment and very old, but it was 300 bucks I paid. Yeah. So that's how I was able to do comedy.

You have to figure out a way to do comedy. You can't work some sort of job or have a wife with a job or live off a girlfriend or sell candy. It's a joke. Don't break the law, guys. Don't break the law. It's not good. What's some New York...

Well, I had a question. Since the show is supposed to be about the whole state of New York, hit me, Beefcake. The New York City... Hit me, Brewster. Do you look at the rest of the state very differently? Yeah.

New York is Colin Quinn's book, which I recommend. It's a really good book he just wrote about all the states, talking about states. Yeah. His first line about New York is the best one I've ever heard, Colin Quinn. He said, New York, the quiet state with a big mouth. Yeah.

I mean, is that like... So New York City is like New York State's big mouth. Yeah. I mean, is that like... So New York City is like New York State's big mouth. Yeah. And then the rest of New York is quiet, bucolic, and beautiful. Yeah. You know? Tennessee. It's every other state.

It's like Tennessee. Yeah. And then New York City is just... That's how America is. Yeah. It's Nate Land. You go at 5, 10 miles. Everywhere's Nate Land.

Yeah. They're just like, who's your favorite comic? And they all got that accent for some reason. Yeah. You know? You could be in Maine. They're like, what's Nathalie. Yeah. They're just like, who's your favorite comic? And they all got that accent for some reason. Yeah. You know, you could be in Maine. They're like, what's up, buddy? What's going on? I'm going to Nate Bargatze concert, bringing my kids, my grandkids, their grandkids, my

grandma, the great grandma, everybody's welcome. My pastor, my priest, my teacher's going. Yeah. All right. So the state, the nickname's Empire State? Yeah. Do you know the state bird? The state bird.

Now, that's a good question. Let me just give me a second here. Is it a pigeon there? Is it a pigeon? I would figure it would be a pigeon or a squirrel or something. New York City is the pigeon. For the state,

it's the bluebird. The bluebird. Bluebird. Pigeon. That's y'all just, I mean, y'all just really went with it. I mean, there's pigeons. They're everywhere.

They're everywhere. They're like rats with rings. Yeah. Y'all don, I mean, y'all just really went with it. I mean, there's pigeons. They're everywhere. So it's like. Yeah, they're like rats with rings. Yeah. Y'all don't care for them. No, we don't care for them. Is that why you have to have all your windows? You got to have like knives. Well, you know, New York is a rough place.

Like there was a little while where like there was somebody like harming the pigeons. Yeah. I'll say harming. They were harming the pigeons. And they were like. Really? Yeah. It was like the guy had to get caught.

And he was just doing, I mean. Like what made did he get yeah he was like a he was like a uh he was a serial harmer of pigeons yeah i'm doing good producer yeah i'm doing good wherever the producer is yeah you could say serial killer it's the other words we don't oh yeah he was a serial killer of pigeons yeah killing pigeons yeah yeah i mean just and it was his new story yeah they had to find out like find him yeah yeah he was like you know did people were people cheering him on you know probably something was secretly just let him let him have at it yeah you know yeah because he was like the son of sam of killing pigeons yeah he's sitting in his living room talking to a dog i'll get them all was son

of sam you were in new york when that went i was i was like a one-year-old baby okay yeah that was the summer of that was a crazy summer in new New York because it was a blackout, meaning the electricity went down. It was a hot summer. You don't think we don't know what a blackout means? Is that what you think? Well, y'all got generators. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it goes down.

We go to the back. We're okay, babe. Yeah, we had a full blackout. And then there was this roaming serial killer who was killing women in cars. Yeah. Yeah. Son of Sam. That's why we need comedy, guys.

It's dark. Yeah, a lot of dogs on that route. Yeah. Empire State. Why do they call it the Empire State? Does it have anything to do with Jay-Z? It does not. George Washington called it that.

Oh, good old G-Dog. Oh, because he saw the Empire State Building and he thought, oh. Yeah. And he's like. Makes sense. Yeah saw the Empire State Building and he thought, oh. Yeah. And he's like, makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. He goes, oh, yeah. Just called that.

Five U.S. presidents have been born in New York. Right. Martin Van Buren. What is it? Oh. Those are tough. Those are tough.

Those are bottom, those are tough. Yeah. Those are, and I only slipped twice. Yeah, but those are the ones. Yeah, because you those are tough yeah those are and i only slipped twice yeah but those are the ones yeah because you can just go silent on them yeah they go silent on them and it'll be fun for the audience yeah not even that bad i said darn yeah i said darn and i didn't we don't put up with anything yeah don't put up with anything and we even can't say

darn it yeah what do you do when you stub your toe uh i mean there's plenty of words man there's a lot of words you know yeah you just say what? I mean, there's plenty of words, man. There's a lot of words. Jiminy crickets. You know? Yeah. You just say what everybody else on earth says. Yeah. You're not original. I'm not original. And that's a big problem.

It is. That's where we're at where we're at. Actually, I got some original ones if you want to hear them. Yeah. I bet you do. I got some goodies. Yeah. I bet we do.

Sorry. That'll be for the Patreon. Listen. No, we don't. Let Bacon speak. Go ahead, Bacon. Do you know who the five presidents are from New York? I don't know, bookhead. Could yeah do you know who the five presidents are from new york i don't know bookhead could you name one five presidents from new york uh trump

teddy roosevelt yep um hillary clinton she won that election this is born in new york joking yeah born in new york trump was he born in new york trump right yeah trump's born in queens oh trump teddy roosevelt um yeah all right that's fun three yeah yeah frank lindy roosevelt miller phil moore and martin van buren yeah there's a gang in new york the van buren boys yeah thank you brooklyn baits why not right they love it i mean they're going crazy at home they're throwing towels yeah, calling them bacon. New York City has more spoken languages than any city in the world? Yeah. Over 800?

Yeah. And that's just Nate's old neighborhood. That's how diverse Giannis is. New York is a universe crammed into a city. I mean, there's countries you don't even know we're countries until you meet somebody and they're like, I'm from Bolivia. You're like, what's that? Do you speak any other languages?

Can you hang in any of them? A little bit of Greek. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's where his family's from. Yeah.

Great. Are there a lot of Greek speakers in the wild like in New York? Greek speakers in the wild? A story. A story. These guys got to... I mean, he hit one zinger and then you hit with a very funny way of saying something. Are they Greek?

And you just... You're too much of a headliner. Yeah. I mean, give these guys some credit. What was the one he hit before? It was funny. Yeah. You didn't even remember.

You should have wrote it down. He said it's the only funny thing you've ever said. Yeah. And then what did he say? He just said, are there any Greek speakers in the wild?

That's our funny way of saying it. Yeah. We're highlighted. Yeah. We're making it louder. louder yeah you told me like when they say something funny like confetti comes out or something like that yeah i know yeah it's still up there yeah we're waiting to pull it yeah that's funny man i like that they're uh yeah there's gradually aaron congratulations thanks man appreciate it guys they're uh if i wasn't here it

would just you know it would just go we'd probably be talking. And there's Astoria. Astoria is all great. Astoria is for the Greeks, yeah. That's all Greek, right? Astoria is for the Greeks. You have them here. Whatever diner you have in Nashville is owned by a Greek. Most of the restaurants you'll probably see in Nashville,

there's a lot of Greeks down here, right? What's the Greek diner in Astoria where all the money is on the ground? Well, the money is on the ground because at weddings, they throw it at you. Dancers, we're the original make it rain. The Greeks on the ground. Rob Markman Well, the money's on the ground because at weddings they throw it at you. Dancers, we're the original make it rain. The Greeks are the original. We throw the money if you're dancing at you. Rob Markman Yeah, at a wedding. Rob Markman At a wedding or something.

Rob Markman Yeah, did we do that at your wedding? We did. Rob Markman Yeah, it happened at my wedding. Rob Markman Yeah, that's right. Rob Markman Yeah, you were upstairs rudely playing video games and watching the game while the wedding was going on. Rob Markman We were watching the UFC fight. Rob Markman Yeah, you were watching the UFC fight.

Rob Markman He got married at a castle. Rob Markman Yeah. Rob Markman Giannis comes from, Giannis married into old money. Where was your wife, by the way? Why didn't she come to the wedding? I forget. Yeah, it would have been nice to have, because she would have like been,

she would have kept you downstairs. She would have loved it. That's what comics do. They come to your wedding and then they go upstairs, like they're on the road, like they're doing a gig and they play video games.

We watched UFC fight. Yeah, like Dan Soder brought his video game console. It's like, grow up. You're 47. You have a roommate who's got gray hair. You can't have a roommate with gray hair. Yeah. Am I making fun

of the old people now? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, you're old. Exactly. I'm allowed to say it. You are. Yeah. The Woodstock Music Festival was actually held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York. Yes. Woodstock would not allow it.

What? I thought it happened, though. It happened, but the city of Woodstock would not allow the Woodstock Music Festival. Oh, I didn't know. That's why it was called that. Yeah. I didn't know it was an illegal happening. Yep.

So Woodstock said no, so they moved it to Bethel. Yeah. Lake Placid, New York. I've been to Lake Placid. Only city to host the, New York only city to I've been to Lake Placid host the Winter Olympics twice yeah I've been to Lake Placid great movie great documentary about

Lake Placid alligator movie wow so Olympics were twice at Lake Placid yeah Winter Olympics nobody cares about

the Winter Olympics yeah except for like Finland and Russia yeah and Canadians so I met there's a chiropractor

here that did bobsled just call him a fake met i there's a chiropractor here that did uh bobsled just call him a fake doctor yeah and there's a fake doctor here chiropractor you're against chiropractors they're just not real doctors a lot of people a lot of people do get mad at them yeah because they're not it's not a real thing it's like they just like massage you yeah i'm you may have a chiropractor fan out there i support the hustle hustle. I support all hustles. Yeah. Like if you can claim to do like, talk to whomever and you can make a buck, that's a great show.

Yeah. That is a great, I know a lot of actual comedians who you are 10 times more entertaining than. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nobody should ever ruin those.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Just like, it's funner to be like, yeah, the Long Island. Yeah. There's like a,

there's like a housewife in Long Island. That hears people. Who can hear. Yeah, like if you go there. What's her name? The Long Island Medium. She goes there. I'm from Long Island.

Teresa Caputo. I hear like, do you have like a dog? Does anyone have a dog? Yeah. Which starts with a B? Everyone's like, no, it's not a B. So let me get this right. You can talk to dead relatives relatives but you got a bad connection

what are you what are you talking it's a tough connection you got t-mobile yeah i mean how do you have that great far away dude yeah they're far away i guess that's what it is like i hear faint it's like you don't even get better service yeah yeah don't we have one here the music city medium the music city medium yeah i don't know do we yeah i Yeah. I mean, those dudes crush. Yeah. John Edward. Remember how he would crush? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so the,

the, the chiropractor. So he was, uh, he won a, I think they won a, I want to say silver medal in the bobsled, but I asked him about it.

I was like, how is it? You know, cause obviously we're in America. You're not like, you know who the bobsledders are, but he was, he was like Russia and all those places.

I mean, that is the Superbowl to them. I mean, they, they, they lose it and they go, they go so fast. And I was like, can you ever, I mean, that is the Super Bowl to them. I mean, they lose it. And they go so fast. And I was like, can you ever –

I mean, there's other like tournaments and stuff that they play in. It'll be just – I mean, thousands and thousands of people at these things. And I was like, can you hear them like cheering? You know, because you're moving so fast. He's like, you hear like – he's like, you go through it. You hear like – like that's how like – Oh, as you pass them. Yeah, as you pass them.

Yeah, just like – As they just sing. Like that's all you hear like, oh, like that's how like, oh, as you pass them. Yeah. Just like, oh, as I just seen, like, that's all you hear. You just cut. Cause it's just so loud. Yeah. And you got your helmet on and just,

oh, yeah. Did we do good? I don't know. I heard, I heard something, you know, but they, they lose it.

That's a great sport where you get to watch a sport for a split second. I mean, just a split second. And that's all guys that are like sprinters, because he was a sprinter. And so the ones that can't make it in the actual competition, but they're very fast, they tend to be like, hey, why don't you come do this?

Because you're fast and you can run. That's funny. Was that with the Jamaican bobsled team? Weren't they sprinters? Yeah. And look how good they did. Yeah. They have a good movie about it, Cool Runnings.

Yeah, Cool Runnings. John Candy. He was in that. He was the coach. Cool movie about it. Cool Runnings. Yeah. Cool Runnings. Yeah. John Candy. He was in that. Yeah. He was the coach, right? I've seen Cool Runnings. I didn't know he was the...

All right. I've seen a John Candy movie. Yeah. Question. All-time greats. Is John Candy in it? Yeah. We've talked...

I'm a big John Candy fan. I think John Candy's unbelievable. All-time great what? Comedic actors? Comedic actor. Like if you put him in that like John... He wouldn't know belushi or yeah i like him more than john belushi yeah that wow wow yeah will farrell more will farrell uh uh gene wilder some good ones i mean yeah this is i don't know this is when you guys watched movies so yeah you're three years younger than me so i love what

you act like you're in your 40s and you're and your face says 55 yeah yeah your hair has said different since your 30s yeah my hair is great quick yeah you've shaved it yeah you were you and anderson cooper looked 50 at 25 uh i i'm a big john candy fan i think he's very underrated that's the thing that's what i forget about that's what i brought up because some people like it came up recently somewhere i was at and like half the people were yes half the people were like well the one he's compared is john candy or chris farley chris farley come on dude chris who's funny well it was it's chris farley the was so funny yeah and then i would almost think you could put chris farley and will ferrell more together than john candy

and the fact that if john candy would have given you way, if he would have been alive still, the roles he could have given you would have been crazy. He was a very, very good actor. And he's just so funny. I agree. But Chris Farley died very early. Yeah. But I mean, Chris Farley, I think would have, I think was like good.

And it was like just in this compact life where john candy if he would have still been here i mean he would probably would have won an oscar like he was like he was like that kind of guy he was funny he was funny and there's a couple classics plane trains automobiles yeah that's my favorite his role in vacation was very funny when he played the the park worker yeah yeah yeah the how you said adirondack park adirondacks yeah uh it's the largest national park united states wow over six million acres it's larger than yellowstone glacier everglades and grand canyon combined dude wow for real yeah that's crazy according to the internet yeah yeah i mean it takes up it looks like a third of new york state was bigger than yellowstone would y'all go to upstate New York a lot?

I live up. Not now, you do, but I'm saying growing up. I went to camp up there. Camp's a big deal in New York, right? Yeah, because you get out of the city, so your parents send you to camp for like four, eight weeks. And you're just gone. You're just gone. Four, eight weeks.

You're just gone. That's a giant thing. The one below it. Look how, well, the state of New York up there. Look how big. Man. Man. Yo, most people don't know that.

I thought Yellowstone was going to be there. I mean, that's like a third of the state. Yeah. Wild. I would, so like camp. Wow. Did y'all go to camp? We never had camps.

You go to camps? They were like a couple weeks at most. Yeah. I mean, New York, their kids hated, their parents hated their kids. Yeah. I mean, the whole summer. I mean, four to eight weeks. We got to let them see some grass every now and then.

I know, but four to eight, would your parents come visit you? Yeah, it would be parents day. It'd be like one parents day, but we loved it. It was like a time away. It was like the best. Yeah. After like the first or two days of like homesickness because you're a kid and then yeah i would always get homesickness because i you know i'm a weak person yeah so uh but then after

that it's like the greatest yeah the greatest greatest yeah yeah yeah you do everything for the first time there read your first book yeah you know yeah so then uh get the crew laughing again nate i'm crushing and then you would do yeah because we uh i mean i've seen up there where those camps are i always find that interesting because i don't uh go into camps for that long to me every new yorker has camp stories like it's uh it's such a common thing. I mean, it'd be packed. I mean, it just, yeah. Yeah, because, you know, like, I think maybe the Jewish people in New York kind of started that kind of a summer retreat, like, because they would go to the Catskills, where comedy really started. Yeah.

The Catskills is in New York. That would have been a good fact to pull up, because we're all comedians. But comedy really started. It's on here. I just thought, maybe you let me get to it. You don't put it, I'm sorry. You never put it past. What is the Catskills fact? Bananas. I don't know. I made that up.

You don't have it? You missed it? It's a comedy episode. But yeah, the Catskills. So they would go. There was a train that would take them out of New York City and they would go to these resorts in the Catskills for the summer and they would comedians would do shows and whatnot. Yeah. You would crush back

then. Yeah. You met your first Jewish person when you moved to new york i moved with a jewish person yeah but that was chicago but he was the first jewish person i mean i i believe so like he was you know no one ever yeah new york was the first time i ever moved where people really asked like where are you from where's your family from where's your name from yeah that was no one ever asked that here well my buddy chris di stefano who we do the podcast history hyenas together history hyenas he was from a neighborhood in queens that was like so working class whenever he didn't meet his first jewish person until he was 23 yeah and that's in new york that's in new york that's in new york where it's like that's crazy very blue collar very fair and very just queen just queens he grew up in queens around the border of brooklyn That's in New York. That's in New York. That's crazy. That's in New York where it's like, that's crazy. Very blue collar. Very. And very.

Just Queens. Just Queens. He grew up in Queens, around the border of Brooklyn. With Queens and Brooklyn, they would have mixed. You didn't. No, back then you didn't move around. There was no internet. You knew your neighborhood.

And like, he even says he wants, he thinks the world should go back to that. Like it was better before the internet. We're like, you knew the people in your neighborhood and like, you didn't worry about like what was going on. Yeah. Yeah. Would y'all go to Manhattan a lot? I would go go to manhattan yeah going to manhattan was like a big deal you had to have like a some reason to go to manhattan there's some some people who didn't go

to manhattan ever yeah they just be in brooklyn just never brooklyn yeah never go and they've ever been there you're like you gotta think how maybe school you go school trip like maybe a school trip to the school trip you take a subway yeah you take a subway to the museum yeah maybe that you gotta imagine how big and dense new york city is long island alone which is behind new york city has nine million people in long island yeah nine million yeah what's nashville's what one two three four million yeah well just nashville itself like 600 000 but the greater nashville area is like 1 million 1 million so long island on its own yeah has 9 million you're talking about the new york metropolitan area you're talking 20 25 30 million people who probably live like well there's 19 million people in all of new york state so wow

it's like but then you add jersey you got to add jersey and connecticut that's why i call it the new york area yeah because people live in like stanford connecticut and they still go to new york that's why they live do you remember riding the subway the first time um yeah when i was my mother was a human rights lawyer yeah um so she was always big into like the moral thing yeah so like i remember yeah you just diminish her when you're young all her work yeah i did i just she wrote a you know seminal you know human rights for children book for night yeah but when you're a young kid it young kid, it's like if someone was yelling at their kid on the subway. I remember when I was little. My mom was a little woman.

And there was this big woman yelling at her kid and jerking the kid around. And the subway in the 80s was a dangerous place. But my mom just went over and yelled at the woman. And I was a little kid going, there's nothing more mortifying and scary. But my mom would just like yell. She didn't care. And the woman was about a hundred times. And then the woman recoiled.

She didn't, I don't know. My mother would get like fiery. And like, it was wild. That was my first memory of the subway. Yeah. And then riding the subway was nuts. I mean, it was just- Nuts back then. Yeah. Nuts, man. Yeah. And then riding the subway was nuts. I mean, it was just- Nuts back then.

Yeah. Nuts, man. And then, yeah, Times Square was nuts. Nuts. Would you ever go to Times Square when it was that bad? No, I was young. Well, yeah. I mean, when I grew up, you didn't go to Times Square.

When I grew up, this is a true story. You would have mugger money on you, which is what they called. You would carry money on you in case you got mugs so they wouldn't hurt you. 30 Minutes Like your parents would give you the- 31 Peter Vissacki Everyone had mugger money. It was a thing in New York. You had mugger money. 32 Peter Vissacki That is insane. 33 Peter Vissacki That's insane.

34 Peter Vissacki Yeah. The windows in your car, you would say, no radio. It's already been taken because they would just break in. Someone broke into my dad's car. True story. He had an Audi 5000. 80s, I guess. Close to 90, maybe 88, yeah somebody broke into my dad's car outside of our house during the day while our door was open and we were getting ready to get in it yeah that is a true story so our door was open we were putting on our jackets yeah so within like a couple of minutes someone had had broken into the car. And God- He got so mad, my dad punched the hood of the car and broke his hand. Yeah.

Wow. Because it was like the 18th time someone had... So then eventually he had to just park it in a garage and he parked it in a garage. Yeah. And there was a time in New York where a lot of people did that. If you had like a semi nice car, you wouldn't park it on the street. You just couldn't. Couldn't do it.

They would take you radio. Yeah. Your sneakers, you always tell me that, Ninja. I got, well, yeah. I mean, I got my sneakers taken. I got my Timberland boots taken off my feet. And I got my Christmas money stole. Yeah. Yeah.

We'd carry around bus passes. So if you were a student, you would have a bus pass so you could ride the subway or the train. So you'd always have like a bus pass folder. All the kids had it. And so I had like 80 bucks of Christmas money. I used to work at my dad's office. I'd make a little money.

So that was my Christmas money. I was going to buy gifts or whatever. And so I just got jumped by like 15 kids. And they just like, and then they took the money, everything. And then the one kid was like, yo, man, what size do you wear? And I was like, oh, no. And I told the truth. I didn't want to tell a lie because I'm an honest.

So you don't want to lie in that situation because that's the same yeah so i told him my size and i just walked home in the freezing cold and it was wet with just socks yeah you just walk home and it's a 15 minute walk yeah so you just walk and you're stepping in slush yeah are your parents just like my yeah they get mad at you ever like you know like it was they got it it was like a there was a time in new york where that was just it happened a lot it would happen you know and you have mugger money yeah mugger money i mean they broke into cars and took things in the trunk they took my dad's briefcase he had like a very important work related thing in there it happened all the time if you had a hat on in new york you couldn't keep the hat yeah

you wouldn't keep a hat. The hat would get stolen. Yeah. It would just be gone. It'd just be gone. What would happen in New York, and this is no exaggeration. You can ask anyone who grew up in the era that I grew up in. This is what it was.

This is no exaggeration for a fact. You would turn a street corner, and there would just be like 20 kids, and you would just go, you know, you just knew. There we go. It was like, you know, have you ever watched Game of Thrones when Queen Cersei walked? There's shame. Shame. You're just going through, and something's going to happen. Yeah. You just knew. It was like, you know, you've watched Game of Thrones when Queen Cersei walked through. Shame. Shame.

You're just going through and something's going to happen. So if someone called you something, you got your hat taken and that was it, that was a good day. You're like, these are nice kids. They come from good families. You take a beating. A lot of times you just take a quick beating and you run. Yeah, you just took a quick beating and that's just what happened.

And just go about your day. You go about your day. It was so normal, it's weird to think about. Yeah, it is crazy. How normal is what... It's weird to think about how normal it was. Yeah, it sounds awful, man. It was horrific. When I left... And that's why when I talk... It's funny, because you talk to these

New Yorkers and they're like, man, New York's changed. And I'm like, yeah, it's great now. What are you talking about? It's like, it's not the way it was. I'm'm like what the way it was was horrific if you were there there was nothing great about so when did it start to feel different mid-90s it started giuliani was a mayor he was a he was a very tough mayor it's a tough town i think in my opinion it requires that new york requires a tough perhaps leaning right yeah kind of mayor just kind of does it's a money town it's a town where people come to live their dreams a very tough competitive town and this is nine million

people on a small island you need like order you know and yeah so it started changing the 90s but it wasn't just him it was like things got so bad they only get better from there everything's cyclical and then the the boom came you know wall street started booming the tech boom came the clinton era everybody started having money. And things just kind of picked up. What about the mafia? The mafia was massive in New York. Yeah.

My dad, my granddad, like a Greek, he owned a diner down on the docks in Red Hook, which is where the docks still are. And so he had- And it's crazy to think these areas now are so expensive to live in. Red Hook is expensive. Park Slope is nuts. Do you still have your parents' house? I still have it there.

I mean, like, yeah, when you ever sell your family home, I mean, it's whatever you want. My dad bought it for $28,000 from an Irish family that, like, didn't have a gas stove like the Murphys. You're home now. Yeah, and now it's in millions. Millions. $28,000.

$28,000. 1959. 1959, $28,000. And now you could sell it for millions. So the mafia was just part of life. And it's interesting hearing my dad tell it because they didn't look at it like it was all crime. It was like, you got to think back then,

cops were paid off. It took a while for cops to get there. Everything was cash. There was no credit cards. So robbery happened all the time. So the mafia was a way for you not to get robbed. So my grandfather, Albert Anastasia, the famous gangster Albert Anastasia, his brother would run Red Hook Docks.

That was his area. They would have areas. And so my grandfather would pay what year is this like this we're talking about like this is the 30s 40s yeah so my grandfather would go my father remembers he would go sit in alberta anesthesia brother's car hand him an envelope and that was like protection money yeah it was like saying like you can't come there and mess nobody's gonna mess with it yeah it's crazy yeah yeah i wonder how much they paid him like i don't know you just pay him like whatever a week it was like a business yeah so it's crazy yeah yeah i wonder how much they paid them like i don't know you just pay them like whatever a week it was like a business yeah so it's like they didn't charge you enough so you'd

go broke yeah you know and and it's almost like you had to do it because what are you going to do if you don't do it they might be the problem you have right and so well if you don't want any other problems you're like i just want to be a nice restaurant people come in and eat it's kind of choose in between two evils yeah so it's like you choose the lesser I just want to be a nice restaurant. People can come in and eat. It's kind of choosing between two evils. Yeah. So it's like you choose the lesser. Yeah. A lesser by a lot.

A lot of people looked at it as a good thing. Yeah. Because they ran the neighborhoods and the neighborhoods, they didn't allow any bad stuff to happen. Yeah. So. Yeah. It was like almost a better. Nobody would come in and mess with that neighborhood.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. And when did all that stuff start going away? Giuliani was a big one who put them all away. Yeah. He ended the mob. You know, now there the Russian mob is big

and stuff like that. I mean, the Cosa Nostra was kind of like it had its era. And then, yeah, Giuliani in New York

really broke them up. And I don't know, you know, when there was less cash, I think a lot of it had to do with just there being so much cash. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, now it's starting getting credit cards. That's why a lot of stores don't even do cash. Yeah. Because like it's, you know, if you have have a staff closing up, what's there to rob? Are you going to rob the lettuce or the chicken?

Yeah. If there's no cash, nothing to steal. Yeah. Do you know how New York or any of these boroughs got their names? I don't. So the Dutch settled New York. They called it New Amsterdam. Oh, that's right.

And then- Brooklyn is also like a Dutch name. They're almost all- Brooklyn, yeah. Yeah, they's right. And then... Brooklyn is also like a Dutch name. They're almost all... Brooklyn, yeah. Yeah, they're almost all Dutch names, but then a few years later, the English took over

the Dutch, and they changed it to New York after the Duke of York. What do you think? Do you think growing up in New York, do you...

Like, did y'all think about the rest of America ever? Yeah. Never. Never. We didn't even think about... I didn't even know Canada. When I found out

there was a country up there, I was like, what? What? Yeah. That's wild. I i mean y'all just think you're the world we do think because there's so because so many people from different places there so i mean you didn't tennessee never crossed your mind such a big city it feels like you're your your universe yeah yeah yeah and like yeah you never you know someone talked about going to California. You're like, I don't even know what that is. Seems so foreign. Yeah. Yeah.

I didn't even understand. I remember when we got two major league sports teams here, the Titans and the Predators, and it just was the greatest thing ever. You have two of every major sports team. Everything. It's crazy. It's so crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the population, it just can support anything. We could probably do a third or fourth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And where was the first city you went to outside of our state probably dc yeah because my brother went to

school there yeah so probably dc yeah yeah but then do you remember going even farther like middle of country i didn't leave we would go to greece a few times yeah so that was a greece and dc because my brother went to school there. Other than that, I went nowhere. Yeah. We wouldn't even go to Long Island. Yeah. We wouldn't even go to Queens. Is this your first time to the South?

No, I've been to the South. This is the first time to Nashville. First time in Nashville. Yeah. First time in Nashville. Yeah. Yeah. Which is a way as a comic just admitting you haven't been booked by Zanies.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're a comic. You haven't been somewhere the other comics like i guess he hasn't worked that club yeah yeah yeah well comedy is really what

made you start going to different places right and like seeing all the different things right that's what i always found it when we would always talk about that like we would always joke and make fun of each other but they're saying like i wasn't cultured but it's a very weird different kind of thing technically you're he's not cultured either even though i'm not cultured in the fact that i don't know you know so many people from so many different places there's so many different countries and we're i mean like just these whole other worlds you're around like you're these way these people grow up and you're and i was never around that but i have traveled more and i've been in more different situations and different lived in different cities yeah and it's uh but

yeah it's there i mean you could i mean guys are not leaving their blocks they're not leaving no no you know families you're and so you're you're i mean your grandfather to your dad to you you're on brooklyn yeah i mean it's kind of insane that you don't live where you do i guess when your brother moved to dc was kind of crazy he moved yeah he moved away that's a big deal big deal yeah yeah why are you going to dc he went to school there yeah no i'm saying like there's DC was kind of crazy. Rob Markman, He moved, yeah. He moved away. Rob Markman, That was a big deal. Rob Markman, Big deal, yeah. Rob Markman, Yeah. Big deal. Rob Markman, Why are you going to DC?

Rob Markman, You went to school there. Rob Markman, Yeah. No, I'm saying like there's your family thought like- Rob Markman, Yeah. Well, when my dad went to Ithaca, he played football and my dad went to Ithaca to go to college, my grandfather who was an immigrant from Greece was like, why are you doing that? Rob Markman, Yeah. Rob Markman, Why are you leaving?

Rob Markman, Where would you go to college in Brooklyn? Just Brooklyn? Rob Markman, Brooklyn College, Hunter College. Rob Markman, Yeah. Rob Markman, There's a bunch. But yeah, it was like, that generation was like, I have the restaurant for you. Take over this business.

Traveling was like a... There's a different personality in Brooklyn and Queens and New York. So like Sam Morrill, very funny comedian. Manhattan Kid. Manhattan Kid y'all did not put up with. They're different. You think like a Manhattan, you're rich.

Which is always the case. Yeah. But Sam Morrell is just a good old New York City, doesn't celebrate Christmas. Yeah. Doesn't?

No. No, yeah. Yeah, you've been offstage for a little while. I mean, that was, I'm trying to say in the cleanest way possible that he's Jewish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't pick up on it. He's got that hat, but it's a lot smaller yeah smaller yeah let's just say his december's quite busy yeah uh yeah he eats chinese food one more day a week than you made it you know what i'm talking about you know what i mean uh so yeah but sam was in manhattan i remember sam going on the road for the first time was like him leaving manhattan no license when you get your license? Yeah, 20s.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, no driving. It's an impediment to have a car. Yeah. Because of parking and like traffic. And they're stealing it and they're breaking into it. They're breaking it and stealing it too, yeah.

One less thing to not get broken into. Exactly. Is a good thing. Exactly. And the train is so efficient. You can get pretty much anywhere within a couple blocks with the train. The G line came and that was... The G-Line took... That was to go to Queens. The G-Line

was terrible. G-Line was terrible, but G-Line would take all the gentrifying, the white kids who gentrified Williamsburg home. It used to be a bad train line, and now Colin Quinn had a great truck where he called it, it looked like a ski lift. It was so white, it like a ski lift yeah it was so white he's like it's a ski lift i think uh it was willis mcgahee when he got drafted

by the bills he thought that was new york city he said he just thought buffalo new york and he got there and he's like where's all the buildings yeah he really thought he was going to new york city till he arrived in well it shows you everybody that lives in your town you don't really pay attention to anything else now I remember going to New York. I mean, obviously you hear about New York. And I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty. And so, I mean, I would go look at it a lot. And I would always remember, every time I saw it, I was like, I can't believe I'm looking at the Statue of Liberty.

And I thought that for nine years. I always looked. I looked at it before I left. I just always would go to it and go, I can't believe I'm seeing the Statue of Liberty. That's so crazy. With my own eyes. I'm looking at it before i left i just always would go to it and go i can't believe i'm seeing the statue of liberty that's so crazy with my own eyes i'm looking at it where you would have i mean it was just like i don't even think i went to the statue of liberty till like last year yeah it was just a thing that was there it's part of what you grew up it's crazy it's like yeah that's where we all came from yeah well most of us well not most of us but like anyone who lived in new york

and their parents or grandparents came through there. Your grandparents came through there at some point? I think we skipped it. I think we missed it. We went a different route. You went a different route,

but you have some Italian in you. Yeah, we have some, but we went... I tried to look it up when I went, and I couldn't. I couldn't find my name, but we could have been spelled

under a different name. Yeah. But we think they came... We do think they came through a different way because some people did come through i think the carolina this says 40 percent of americans can trace their ancestry through ellis island insane 40 almost half of the country yeah wow yeah yeah yeah yeah man we were already here i mean that's what you like to tell yourself and i applaud your patriotism but at some point you had an ancestor who was going, we live as we are already here.

When did you come? Your grandparents? Grandparents. Yeah. Grandparents. And then my mother came. Yeah. My mother was born in Greece.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm a Greek. Greek Orthodox? Greek Orthodox, how I grew up, which is Christian. Yeah. You celebrate Easter every day? We do celebrate Easter.

We talked about the calendar. Yeah. We have a different calendar. Yeah. It's all Roman Empire stuff. Huh? Your Easter's about to come up. Our Easter changes every year, and I make the joke always that it always comes after

your Easter. Yeah. It's like seven days later. Yeah. I always say, because yours is like a dress rehearsal for Jesus. It's just like trying out his stuff, and then he does the real show for the real people. Yeah. Yeah.

For the real Greeks. Panos. It's a Panos joke. It's Mr like trying out his stuff and then he does the real show for the real people. Yeah. Yeah. The real Greeks. Yeah. It's Mr. Panos joke. Yeah. It's Mr. Panos. Yeah. Like, yeah, my comedy,

the last thing to get popular of me was me. Yeah. Yeah. This is, I was, Nate had a funny joke. The joke is Giannis has never made it as himself.

Yeah. A straight white comedian. Yeah. He's only made it as other. yeah an old greek man an old greek man a trans puerto rican one trans puerto rican i saw you at caroline so when marisa was big and you were just selling out every show i did yeah i was i was earlier it was i was like the first of our crew to have any sort of that type of ticket selling success yeah you're

the first of the crew where you were we knew what you made and it was like yeah it was nuts yeah and we couldn't believe it yeah uh it was it was crazy i mean he had a he was getting recognized everywhere his videos would go viral and uh i was with him with uh uh maurica when he came up maurica that's crazy that's right yeah that's right uh if that's right and you you did it we did a show for a radio some show for some guys doing some radio which you convinced me to do and i was like this sounds super you're like trust me it's gonna be great yeah it's gonna be good why you wanted to do it we're just because it was doing it we were performing live but it was going out on the radio and uh and then i told you to do marisa i was like and i told those guys i go he

does this very funny marisa care this is like perfect to do it on. No, that's not how it happened. I thought that's where it was. No, I'll tell you exactly how it happened. There's a lot of success for you between now and then. You forgot it. Yes. Because you just have so many sold out shows in your head.

Yeah, there's a lot going on. No, yeah. So what happened was, and then you'll go, oh yeah. So we had to come up with a few characters to pretend to be Collins. So me and Nate went to this diner on broadway yeah and we sat down and that's when yes so we were thinking of characters and one of the characters we thought it was like two southern guys who always just said get off my property which i thought was hilarious so that was your idea get off my problem so it was fake

radio collins so we call it as these characters and so it was two guys going like just everything was get off my property because like southern guys are all about their property yeah so get off of it yeah and we want you off of it we want you off yeah we love our property and i don't want you off we were like yeah it was like if you want to talk you could talk that over there you say whatever you want over there it's not my property it's not my property you come over here you're on property different story this is my property yeah and i want you off i want you off yeah and then we were sitting there and there's like I used to do this

like Rosie Perez impersonation so this was before I created the character so I just started thinking of characters and I was like thinking nobody's

ever done a trans character it's kind of like a new thing so I just said like I just said a line I riffed a line to Nate I was like

my name is Marisa I'm trying I just riffed it and he laughed and he never laughs you know him right like he barely laughs. You know him, right? Like he barely laughs. Yeah.

I'm not around comedy a lot, but go ahead. Part of it's because he's funny, you know? So if he was, and I was like not connected to why it was funny, but I saw him laugh because I was thinking of stuff. I was like more in my head, but for some reason he was cracking up. Yeah. And I was like, oh, and then I just riffed like another line about socks on her feet and he laughed again yeah and it was like and then i started working it out on stage and then one show i was hosted in new york comedy club and i was

waiting for sherrod small he was running late and they told me to stretch and i was like let me just try to keep going with this character not do joke so i started doing the character on stage and i just sort of it really came to life that night. I think I did like 30 minutes or 20 minutes as her. And I built her whole story, what her deal was, what the goals were. And then we shot it after that.

But it was sitting with Nate and because of that show, that was it. I mean, it was a big, big deal. I mean, it was, because he was- That's where I created her, in that diner.

Yeah. So I remember the diner. I thought we did it on that radio episode too. Do you remember it now? No, yeah, yeah. No, I always remember the diner. I we did it on that radio episode too but uh do you remember it now i know yeah yeah no i always remember the diner i thought we also it was something but maybe we were doing that radio show and then we are we doing that show and then we went to that diner that's what i could walk you to that diner it's by union square right like exactly uh i mean i could it's a famous new york diner yeah i could i could go to that diner and every time i've i

went in that diner once with david tell we ate late one night and I would go sit and I was like, I could show you the booth. I definitely remember it. Cause it was, uh, because it just, it was the first thing that we saw as a comedian. You were the first thing that kind of took off.

We had fans. So none of us had fans and none of us had people that even knew us. And so Giannis was the first one to go like, Oh, you're selling out. I mean, we go to Caroline's. It was crazy.

Like it was a sold out weekend. It's making go to Caroline's. It was crazy, dude. Crazy. It was a sold out weekend. He's making a ton of money. He's doing these characters. Mr. Panos. He had the Panos fan, all the Greek fans. Because Panos took off too. Panos was earlier, but there's only like one million Greeks in the country.

Yeah. So if I was Indian, it would be odd. But there's only like one million Greeks. And Greeks are like very, like they come out with their grandparents, parents, Greeks like, whenever I did a show with Nate,

my family would like Nate more than they'd like me. So Panos was smaller and then I did a video with Panos called The Greek Financial Crisis that took off with the financial crowd. So I was doing like weird finance gigs. I'd like go to Canada, Graham K opened for me for words like this big hedge fund guy's birthday gave me a bunch of money and like it was his birthday

so it's like i did a bunch of those and then i do a lot of greek shows too that's where i met my wife at a greek show but maurica was another story it was like it connected like it was just people loved it and that was like where you're going like that's when you started to go like the internet's this thing that kind of i shot that video in my living room for nothing. Yeah, didn't you have like J-Lo and you had- J-Lo, Pitbull, Mark Anthony. It made its rounds. Beyonce's dancers.

Like, it was making its rounds amongst- Joe Button came to a show once. It was like, it was out there. Yeah. It was out there. It was really only big in New York, Miami. Miami and New York were the biggest sam fran cal la yeah it was a few places yeah it wasn't like a mainstream thing but you know but it was nowadays

that's what you want you want like a little niche that yeah you know comes out but it was it was it was just it was very fun to see because it was very fun to like you know just be a part of it as just of our friend as you know me and yannis one of my closest friends and and then get to see that and see that rise it was the first sign of any the first sign of any success i saw with someone i knew like we were we were around uh schumer and uh aziz i would see that you'd see people blow up and we were friends with all them but it was the first like yeah well this is my dude yeah and then he's like and now he's sold out of this club and these people are losing it. We were doing the podcast during that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were still doing the podcast. That was 2011, beginning of like the very beginning of 2011, a long time ago. Yeah. And then you quit the podcast. Then I quit the podcast, which was the best thing that ever happened to you.

So don't worry about it. Tied up with me. I thank him every day. Yeah. So what happened to Marisa? Did they worry about it. Tied up with me. I think of him every day. So what happened to Marisa? Did they just run its course? It kind of ran its course. Like I always knew.

The thing about it, like I was 35. Like I got back into comedy like around 20, like 2005, 2006 when I met Nate. It's really when I started, to be honest. Like I started 2000 and did it for like- Yeah, I don't ever count that. Huh? I don't ever count you starting the first time. You kind of did it, but you did- I didn't't you were doing more sketch stuff and i didn't i just stopped like

for a while i was like dealing with other stuff like um so i didn't really start to 2005-6 when i met you is when i really started yes so i was like in my late 20s or something like that and then um yeah then so that you know i didn't have and make any money until I was in my mid thirties. Yeah. So, and so I was older, so I knew, I was like, this is going to run its course. Let's just juice it. First year, we sold 10,000 tickets in New York City in a year. So it was like, I just kept doing shows because I knew it was like lightning in a bottle.

It was like, you know, there's a character. Yeah. Get as much as you can. So we just like booked shows. Like, and yeah, I did the thing. I went different. I was like, I want a full door deal. People like, I did the thing. I went different. I was like, I want a full door deal. People are like, that's not the way it works.

I'm like, I'm putting the full audience in there. So give me an off night. I don't care about a weekend. Give me a Tuesday. I want 100% of the door. I know you make your money on drinks. And part of that is because I worked in the club business, so I knew. Before I worked in nightclubs, I did the door.

I did lists and whatever. So I just got 100% of the door. And I was just like, we just kept adding shows. And then we go to Jersey, add shows. And so, yeah, it ran its course. Everything does. Everything has its, you know, everything. Yeah, it comes back down.

It comes back down, yeah. Here's a fun fact about Manhattan. You know how much it was bought for from the Native Americans? Very cheap. $24. Wow. That's like an appetite. That's like two for 20 at Applebee's. When was that?

I mean, this is the 1600s, but they traded goods that are worth $24 US. Yeah. And you know what's funny is the Indians probably thought they were getting a good deal because they don't even know what money is. They're like, yeah, we'll give them this paper and we'll give them the island.

You want to guess how much that is now 24 24 and 16 1609 was when it was 16 uh a couple hundred thousand dollars no two million no not even 50 bucks 1500 bucks oh yeah wow so basically would be getting it for 1500 bucks you get manhattan yeah that Yeah. That'd be good rent now. I'll be honest with you. Right now, I don't know if it'd be worth it. Yeah. It's not worth it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the headache alone. I mean, yeah. That's funny. That's funny. New York City was the capital of the US. Yep. Yep.

Remember that? I do know that, yeah. Do you remember it? I didn't remember it. It was the 1700s. Yeah, okay. 1785 to 1789, George Washington was sworn in there. Yep. Down by Wall Street. yep remember that I do know that yeah do you remember it I didn't remember it was the 1700s yeah 1785-1789 George Washington

was sworn in there yep down by Wall Street yep wow New York City yep was there a lot of

finance guys like a lot of you around all that like Wall Street Brooklyn yeah yeah

my friends became that's all that's what you would that be what a lot of people wanted to become that's a lot

a lot of guys in Brooklyn all the like the guy they made the movie with. Jordan Belfort? Yeah, all those guys. Queens guys, Long Island guys. The Wolf of Wall Street?

Yeah, they all become these cheesy business guys who are like, move money. Yeah. Yeah. And my best friend growing up became like a chop shop broker. Yeah. Stocks.

Where do you work? Yeah, we're with simpson you know thomas and panucci yeah and our office is in a strip mall in long island yeah yeah we said listen i got a good deal it's a company it's called you know it's called you know uh cbdf you know what is it is what we do so you know we're doing the creams at the athletes you know it's just like it's a vitamin company get in on it and it's like there's no company and you find yeah yeah there's all that going on yeah it's all that going on oh yeah oh it's all that going on that's all still going on that's still it'll always new york comes with a little criminality yeah it just comes with it it's part of the business yeah that is it is

what it is it is what it is i almost respect that though it's like the idea you're like yeah yeah even the clubs i mean let's be honest. I'll just say it now because we're all getting independent. It's just true. It's like, yeah, come down. You can even hear the voice going, yeah, come perform my club. $25 on Tuesday. But then magically on Saturday we can afford $75.

It's the same crowd. Same amount of people in there. But, you know, it's a $25 set. It's a Tuesday. It's a different day. And you're going, it might make sense. You're going, wait a second. That does not make any sense. Yeah, how we would get paid. But the. It's a Tuesday. It's a different day and you're going, it might make sense. You're going, wait a second, that does not make any sense.

Yeah, how we would get paid, but the tickets are cheaper on Tuesday. Well, I mean, they don't make their money. So that's how we would get paid in comedy is 25 bucks

for Sunday to Thursday. You would get 25 bucks a set. So you would do, everybody would do 10, 15 minutes depending on the club and you could do as many sets

as you can get to and all over the city and you'd be 25 bucks and the weekend you'd get 75 bucks. The host, you on the club. And you could do as many sets as you can get to and all over the city. And you'd be $25. And the weekend, you'd get $75. The host, you'd get $125. Yeah. And that money never, you'd get $100, $125, or $150. And that money never went up.

So it's like, that money's got to go up. You've got to adjust it for inflation. So every year, not only were comedians not making more, they were making less, technically. Well, that was a big Ted Alexandro. When I first moved there, it was Ted. Well, it was because of him that it got raised from like five dollars to 25 yeah i think it was like 20 yeah maybe 50 for the weekend and maybe 15 or something for during the week yeah but ted uh very funny comic and ted did ted they kind of uh did a pro protest

him and russ meneath yeah yeah And because they weren't paying the people enough and it was getting more expensive for cabs and you'd have to do cabs or trains to get all these spots and these clubs were charging more money. Well, just by inflation, you got to increase people's pay. It's like the worth of what money is. So if you're not increasing it, then you're actually getting a paid decrease.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's one of those things in your comic that i don't know if that era will be there after this i think it might be there i don't know it's interesting because things are changing so much where like clubs need the comedians in there like if you have a fan base now or like a podcast or a digital presence or you're selling out through uh you know streaming services like you and stuff it's like they need you in there it's like all like it's gonna get a little more fairer i think you know it's like yeah i get it you got expenses and stuff like that but you can do those on those nights yeah where it's like new comics but like you know i'm not gonna go in and do a set you know what i mean like yeah take my name off the thing or whatever yeah you

can't yeah like doing a real set is like if you go do if you're actually selling tickets because that's when you when you and on the road like we have that at zany's where we pop in a lot on this new material night no one's advertised and we don't know if we're coming as much but a lot of local comics do that it would be unfair it would be unfair if you were coming through on a on a new material night yeah and like i'm not gonna say zany's but any club was like nate bargat you know i mean yeah that's not fair yes that's not fair well yeah because then you actually have your show that, like, we have a Ryman show that hopefully going to, I bet it's going to be October now, but it's been rescheduled for a year and a half because of COVID.

And so you have all those tickets. And so people, I just hope people hold on and we'll be there in October. But like, that's the Ryman's the, yeah, that's the things that you start selling. So you have to do, you do have to be careful that you can't, your name can't be on these. And that's the, yeah, that's the things that you start selling. So you have to do, you do have to be careful. Your name can't be on these. And that's the, you hope people stop by. And that was big with New York, where Chappelle was stopping by. And all these people unannounced, Chris Rock. I mean, they pop in.

All the time. And New York has made it's kind of, the clubs are kind of known to that. A, you're seeing great comedians that will probably be something someday. But you also are about, like about who's going to stop by. And there was a moment in New York. I mean, when we were there at the end, I mean, it was Louis C.K., Chappelle. I mean, someone was almost always there. Yeah.

Rock, Seinfeld. I mean, it was – Gaffigan. You got to give Gaffigan – Gaffigan's just so humble about it. No, Gaffigan's stopping. He would just come in. come in and the guy does arenas you know yeah yeah i think african yeah yeah it's funny though because pound for pound one of the probably highest selling tickets oh for sure like uh selling the most tickets that any comedian and the most places

he did russia yes for sure gaffigan went to russia guy performed for the pope yeah yeah i mean that gaffigan's uh you know i mean, Kevin Hart sells a lot of tickets, but I don't think, I always say the wealth of tickets that Gaffigan sells, as far as, you know, Gaffigan's going to cities you've never heard of and doing their maybe arena where they, he can do whatever they do, the fairground they have there, and he'll sell it out. And going to these, I mean, these tiny cities and these markets, it's everywhere it's every market every you know and then be able to go to russia and go to mexico and do all these can't anywhere in canada sweden it doesn't matter russia was

great and he sold out russia yeah that's crazy yeah man he's a great comic yeah yeah uh phone this is new york state has 18,000 cattle they're the third leading producers of dairy products in the US how do you feel about that it's great

yeah you know it's Nate land baby how many how many count 18,000 it seems so low I know

does it 18,000 yeah and they're doing and that's more than most third leading producer of dairy products yeah 18,000

doesn't seem like a lot I want to get 18 million yeah yeah you know what it is yeah 18 000 doesn't seem like a lot i want to get 18 million yeah yeah you know what it is it's like uh yeah that's not a lot but milk is on the decline because of almond milk and all this other stuff like milk is really struggling struggling yeah yeah did you ever see a cow yeah i've seen cows bronx zoo bronx yeah i went to the bronx zoo and there was a bull there and i was like you gotta be kidding me yeah i think maybe the first cat was bronx yeah yeah you would see no ant what animals would y'all get running through there pigeons rats and yeah cats and dogs that's it that's it that's it that's

it you would i mean no coyotes or you see something sneak in no yeah not even a blue bird no come through once in a while you see a weird bird. It's not a pigeon. You've seen it as you're on the ground and they're plummeting you as you take your sneakers and you're looking up. It's a bluebird. It's a bluebird. Bang, bang. You just get hit and you wake up.

The New York Post was established by Alexander Hamilton in 1803. It's changed just a little bit. It's the longest running newspaper in the U.S. Longest running newspaper. Yeah, still going. Still going. Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn.

We claim him, but yeah. Lived there until he was five. Really? Until he was five. And how much of y'all write on that? New York's claim on it. Oh, yeah. You love it.

He's one of us. He's one of us. He was born here. That's how he became great. Yeah. New Yorkers like to think that, yeah, the geography is what made somebody great. Yeah. And then they think maybe-

You're very proud people. Very proud. Very proud. Very proud. But a city that smells like dung. We're pretty- Yeah. Can I say dung?

Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. We're- That one's on the fence, actually. We're going to debate it. But it's cool because I stumped you guys. Yeah.

Because dung technically kind of occurs, maybe. Yeah. Maybe. We're in the other room. We debate what you guys. Yeah. Because Dung technically kind of a curse, maybe. Yeah, maybe. We're in the other room. We debate what you said. Yeah. We might cut you out of this whole thing. But there's – I'm going to just talk to this light behind me.

New York does have – you have a very – your attitude is – I mean, people know real New Yorkers. Because it's always like I like – you're there. You're New Yorkers because it's always like I like you're there. You're New York. I'm a New Yorker. You're Brooklyn. You're New York. It's not outside.

You're not, you know, because I mean, I don't like even the people that try to say, someone says they're from Buffalo and they go and they tell someone from New York, you're like, come on, you know what you're doing. I meant New York, New York. If someone was from Queens, do you still have that as you've- Yeah, they're New Yorkers. They're New Yorkers. They're New Yorkers.

It's got to be one of the boroughs. It's got to be one of the boroughs it's gotta be one of the boroughs staten island staten island for sure i mean you can't get even that's like the most new york yeah yeah new york is an honest manhattan you know no yeah a little bit you look down like yeah but you're not blue collar you're not us you didn't go through it yeah a little bit but manhattan wasn't always like it was when you were there you know man. Manhattan had a lot of neighborhoods and stuff. But New York, even the business side, we kind of like that. Everyone likes the thing about New York. And New York is a tough, honest town.

It really is. All these cities are great and stuff, but you could never imagine another city being the spot where people go to make it. Because everyone's too nice. Like, hey, man, it was great. It's like, no. New York's just so cut cutthroat it's like yeah you gotta be good yeah you gotta be good that's why that's the the uh the idea of moving there and making people laugh was so big of a deal because you go there and it's tough it's it's the hardest place to make people laugh yeah there's so many shit like

you said there's so many shows they can go to there's broadway you're next to broadway yeah i mean there's there's phantom of the opera professionally is just two blocks away we can go to that yeah and we're in this room watching you you better be worth it and it's pretty crazy the great thing about being a comic too and it's important to say now because everyone is so divided on these teams and stuff. Being a comic, we're like the ones who know the most about how similar people are. Oh, yes. Just like everywhere you go. And like they're yelling at each other because they don't know each other.

They don't see each other. They don't get that. They don't have that privilege that we have to just go to all these. We've gone from Elks Lodges to big theaters to small towns to different cities to different countries and at the end of the day underneath it all it's just like dudes and yeah dudettes have you ever heard of an elks lodge yeah i've done a show just because the comedy yeah wouldn't have heard it before right i don't remember an elk lodge going up but yeah we did uh elks lodges yeah we went into uh it's like a Moose Lodge, right? It's the same kind of – Yeah, Vandy Ford a game I watched at the Elks Lodge.

I listened to it at Vandy Lost, and then I listened to it in my car, and I remember I was hosting, and so I would kind of just go back to my car. I had Sirius. Just had to get Sirius. It's kind of new. And I had my dad's old car, and it came with Sirius. And so I had it. So I'd go back and listen to the car,

and I remember walking back to the Elks Lodge, and we're done. I it. So I'd go back and listen to the car. And I remember walking back to the Elks Lodge and we're done. I'm like, let me go back and listen to the end of this game. And I remember just looking down and I saw a room below. And I was like, what's going on down there? And there's a TV and the game's on and the TV. So I was like, I could have been down here watching the whole game. I've been sitting down in this car in the woods listening to this Vandy Florida game. You know what gives comedy, I think, the advantage over music a little bit as far as bringing people together?

Like music, everyone has a different taste. Yeah. Everyone's like, I don't like that. But comedy, people have a certain taste. But in the room, no matter where you are, rich, poor, you know? We're all the same. Ethnicity. It's like you're laughing or you're not.

Yeah. And like a good comic just like will make the people laugh. Yeah. Puts a lot of people, I feel like you get to know people. When you see people laugh, it shows that person's personality and what they can handle. Music, you can sit and just like nod and you could be like, and someone could be like, oh, I hated it. And you're like, oh, you were smiling.

It's like, I can show any reaction. But making someone laugh, you could just, I mean, you could sit someone in a room and show them, you know, playing trains and automobiles. Just see what they laugh at. You can get a gauge on what kind of person that is. Any kind of comedy. It's very hard to make someone laugh.

Comedy's the only thing that if you had a live show and there was like black dudes over here who listened to strictly hip hop and then you got like people who strictly listen to country music and are from like rural Tennessee, you know, and and then inner cities of chicago and all in the same audience and then nate bargazza it's the only thing where you would get those people to all like the same thing yeah you know we have some tourists from norway in there and you throw some california hippies there and a couple of uh radical feminist san francisco people and like, if you wanna, like a comedian, a comedy show's the only thing that would bring that, bring the humanity out of everyone.

Where they- I think New York City might be the only thing to bring those people together. New York City, yeah. We don't have those shows here. No, but comedy can do it. A good comic can make everyone have a good time. Whereas a band or a movie or something, they can't do that.

It's comedy. That laughter is like, we're human. It's like saying, I know what you're saying. I recognize it. And the laugh is underneath all that bull. Yeah. What comedy, do you remember the first comedy show you went to?

Live one? Yeah, in New York. First one I went to was in DC, and I was in college, and it was Chris Rock working on stuff. That was before I knew, like a guy would just come and sit on a stool and kind of phone it in when he doesn't care the improv working I saw him and the improv in DC and I saw him doing the material that ended up becoming um bring the pain yeah he was kind of bombing with it which is interesting I didn't

know now as a comic I know oh that's what he's doing yeah he's dropping by just kind of hearing it working it out yeah that was cool it became that big of a special that's crazy that big of a special that big of a special yeah he was sitting on a stool just going through it bombing

I remember going to New York I bought a ticket at Broadway Comedy Club which was the improv which we were and I went and bought it I remember buying a ticket to that

right when I first kind of moved there it was like let me go just see a show and you said I went in with everybody and sat in the crowd and watched that

and that was the first that was the first, that was the first, like in New York, like getting just like, it was a Saturday night, just watching whatever comics that go up. This is a showcase. Yeah.

Just showcase. You remember anybody who was on it? Uh, I don't always, I want to say Ben Bailey or Gerbarns. I remember seeing them and, I don't really remember. I remember going to,

uh, the comic strip and seeing, uh, uh, I'm blanking on his name but he just died actually uh jj romero no uh oh uh vick henley unfortunately i know rest in peace yeah yeah great guy uh so i remember seeing vick henley and i was a great guy from from the south and i remember watching him at the comic strip and he was running the host and i remember

he ran on stage and said i don't even know know. He goes, I just ran down here. They told me I was in my apartment. They're like, this comic's not showing up, so I got to come do a set. And I remember just being like, what? That's so crazy. This guy's on stage now doing jokes, and he was at home, and they just needed him to come. And you don't – it was his job.

It was his job. But at the time, it was just blown away by that. By that, that could happen. I remember just being like, I want to do that. I want to just be called and have it to go up and figure it out. And it was crazy. Yeah. All right.

Yeah, New York. That was New York. That was great. We did it. That was great. We did it. I think that was a little different than usually we read a lot of facts. We got the real deal

here. The real deal. Yeah. You're the real deal from Tennessee as well. Yeah. We're the real deals. That's why we like each other. That's why we like each other. We're the real deals. We're a great example of it. Two different people. We like you to be where you're from and be happy about it. I cuss. You don't cuss.

We're different, but we're the same. We're comics. We're people. Be proud of where you're from. Yeah. There's nobody prouder than where you're from and be happy about it i cuss you don't cuss no yeah so we're different but we're the same we're comics we're people be proud of where you're from yeah and there's nobody prouder than where from than you are i mean you got vanderbilt underwear on right yeah yeah i love it anchor down do you still have to have did i ask that question already do you still have to have a piece of vanderbilt clothing on you at all times uh no not at all times i you know i kind of took it as I've done so much Vandy stuff that I think I'm associated with him a little bit and I like that.

But I have it, I'm always around it. I always still do the anchor down like on every special or tonight show I always throw up the V. Did you guys know that for a while he had a superstition

that he had to have? Yeah. You used to have a wrist bandana. I didn't know it was a policy. Yes, it was a policy. It was a policy for a while. When you get older and I used to wear a policy. Yes, it was a policy. It was a policy for Rob. When you get older, and I used to wear

basketball shorts. Yeah, like when we would share a hotel room, yeah, we'd share a hotel room on the road or whatever, he would have to get undressed twice. Like he would take his pants off and then there'd be like

basketball shorts underneath. I'd go to bed, I'd have to just peel off, warm up clothes. I think that's a big New York thing. Y'all used to wear double basketball shorts. No, no, you're a little off.

We used to do that. Play a little ball in Brooklyn. We played a little ball. Play a little ball. I didn't have jeans on over and spend my day in the shorts. He called them his mugger jeans. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. There you go. That was a goodie. Breakfast served late today. Yeah. All right. As always, Giannis Pappas, Gianni Long Days, his own podcast, which I'm a big fan of, and

that's what you do. Imagine if you're going to go listen to it, it's going to be some language. There might be a couple languages you might enjoy. Long Days podcast, and then History Hyenas. Yes. Go check those out. Giannis, one of my long friends in comedy. Yeah.

We've been friends for a long time. 16, 17 years. Yeah. We met in 2005 or 6. Yeah. Five. Five, I think. Five.

So that's 16 years. 16 years. Yeah. Yeah. Still going. There's a teenager going through puberty. Loyal. I don't let go.

No, you're loyal. You're loyal. You're loyal. You're loyal. You're from Mount Julia. You come in, you come in. Yeah. You're not spoiled.

You're loyal. Yeah. I'm from Brooklyn. I'm from Brooklyn. All right. As always, thank you guys for listening, and we will see you come in. You're not spoiled. You're loyal. Yeah. I'm from Brooklyn. I'm from Brooklyn. All right. As always, thank you guys for listening, and we will see you next week. See you. Thanks, everybody, for listening to the Nate Land Podcast.

Be sure to subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, you know, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And please remember to leave us a rating or a comment. Nate Land is produced by me, Nate Bargetti, and my wife, Laura, on the All Things Comedy Network. Recording and editing for the show is done by Genovation Consulting

in partnership with Center Street Media. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to catch us next week on the Nate Land Podcast.