The Nateland Podcast - #79 Leanne Morgan

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

On this week's episode, we're joined by our friend and fellow comedian Leanne Morgan. We hear about Leanne's unconventional start in comedy, how she was once hired for a gig to make people laugh and t...o teach them English, and how her career took off in her mid-50's.   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 - Nateland@NateBargatze.com #nateland #natebargatze   Solo Stove - SoloStove.com   Let the gifting begin! Shop Solo Stove’s Holiday Sale for huge sitewide savings now through the end of the year. And get $10 off with promo code NATE. Plus a lifetime warranty and FREE 30-day returns. Get an extra $10 off Holiday deals at solostove.com, promo code NATE.   Hello Fresh - HelloFresh.com/Nate16   Go to HelloFresh.com/nate16 and use code nate16 for up to 16 free meals AND 3 free gifts! That’s HelloFresh dot com slash nate16 and use code nate16 for up to 16 free meals AND 3 free gifts HelloFresh: America’s #1 Meal Kit   All Form - Allform.com/Nate   And Allform is offering 20% off all orders for our listeners at ALLFORM.COM/NATE. ALLFORM.COM/NATE for your new favorite sofa. That’s 20% off all orders at ALLFORM.COM/NATE.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, folks. Welcome to the Nateland podcast. Sitting with Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, as always. Welcome, everybody, to the Nateland podcast. We're also sitting here, the very funny, the lovely, the real deal, Leanne Morgan. Welcome. Thank you. This is it. This is it. Thank you. I guess we'll be the thing that changes your career.
Starting point is 00:00:36 I can feel it. Maybe for the worst. Who knows? Oh, my darling. Well, I got to tell you that I do. I feel like this gives me street cred. I feel like I'm legit now. And I also want to say that I tormented little Brian, worried him to death.
Starting point is 00:00:52 When y'all were talking about the Bell Witch, I felt very left out and very, well, I just thought, what do they mean they're talking about the Bell Witch and not having me? Because I was raised in Adamown City with the Bell Witch. I know. And so when I saw that, I felt... I read it right. You went to high school with the Bell Witch. Let me get this straight. My husband says I'm the Bell Witch. But yeah. So
Starting point is 00:01:17 anyway, I've always wanted to be on here. I feel very honored to be here. Thank you, my darling. And this is very nifty. Yeah, it's nice. It's a fun little room. It's exciting you, my darling. And this is very nifty. Yeah, it's nice. It's a fun little room. It's exciting. It is exciting. And all of these have been framed and matted in the same frame. All of mine's in terrible-looking frame.
Starting point is 00:01:36 And look at all this. It is. It's very nifty. Well, I did it. It was one afternoon. Decided to put them all in frames. And it was. I didn't do any of this. But it does. It looks like put them all in frames. And it was. I didn't do any of it.
Starting point is 00:01:47 But it does. It looks like it's a real place. It does. It looks like you've accomplished some stuff. You put on a show. Yeah. It's all. You're like, I did something.
Starting point is 00:01:58 They'd be, all right, I don't know. This all wasn't a lie. We get a lot of comments about the set. They like it. Oh, yeah. People love it, and they love analyzing what's behind us. It's like the Seinfeld set. They pick out little things that they spot and talk about it.
Starting point is 00:02:13 Yeah. I need to switch some of it out. I don't know what we need to do. Let's start with some of your comments. So we read the comments that we get. Okay. They're all very pleasant usually saying how great we are and donuts dolls how do the video guys not get their giggle boxes turned
Starting point is 00:02:34 over do they ever laugh at you guys i know they are professional but my gosh it has it's to be hard for them to keep it together while they film y'all. Yeah. What's up? Y'all don't care. We're laughing. There's just not loud enough for you to hear. They said if you didn't hear it, he said it's not his cup of tea.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Yeah, no, I see y'all laughing. They laugh. They laugh. Yeah, they don't laugh loud. You do need to be professional. They yawn sometimes too. Yeah. They leave most of the show uh that'd be great if that no one was there we're like no one's there yeah and that's
Starting point is 00:03:12 the main uh now they y'all do very well and y'all laugh and it's nice when you see you laugh and i can tell they've got a sweet spirit both of them yeah my name curtis b has there in has there been any thought about selling autographed copies of the show notes that everyone used during an episode maybe support a charity or something sort of like how people sell autographed copies of scripts for movies or tv shows being a big as big of a nateland fan as i am getting a signed copy of the notes from the next court north carolina episode would be kind of neat. I don't know how the logistics of how something like that would work. Just a thought.
Starting point is 00:03:49 Looking forward to seeing Nate and whoever else is on the bill in Durham next March. Yeah. I mean, you sell them, maybe give Brian straight cash. I'll rape and sell them. You're the,
Starting point is 00:04:01 I don't know. This is like an option. Like you're going to be the charity. Like where's this charity going to be the charity. Like, where's this charity going? The Human Fund. It goes to helping humans. Money for people.
Starting point is 00:04:11 Money for people. Yeah, I mean, if someone wanted to buy them, I would just send them to you. I didn't even figure a way to get them to you. Just email me directly
Starting point is 00:04:19 and if you send me some money, I'll make you as many copies as you want. Yeah. There you go. We'll sign them. Yeah. You got to give straight cash for his baby.
Starting point is 00:04:28 He's got to pay for this baby. I know. I know. You know, you got to write him a check. The doctor. It's coming up. You write the doctor a check. Just get my checkbook out.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Did we write a check? I think we might have wrote a check for something. No, I did a credit card. I think I tried to do it as a joke. When you have a baby, and maybe you can jump in on this. When you have a baby, don't you pay for it? Like in the room. I think we paid her a credit card or you write a check.
Starting point is 00:04:52 You pay the hospital. You might have been busy doing other things. I was busy birthing. So Chuck Morgan, I guess I probably paid your deductible, right? And then, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because we're not gypsies.
Starting point is 00:05:06 I mean, you know, he didn't have to pay out of pocket. If I could be anything, I'd be a gypsy. I love gypsies. We need to do an episode of gypsies. Can you say gypsies still? I don't know. I don't know. Oh, Lord, can you not say it?
Starting point is 00:05:19 I'm a big fan. Leigh-Anne just got canceled. I always loved them on Gilligan's Island. You know, there was always a band of gypsies. Somebody coming through. Yeah. Yeah. I always loved them on Gilligan's Island. You know, there was always a band of gypsies, somebody coming through. Yeah. Yeah. I dug it.
Starting point is 00:05:28 Yeah. I've always enjoyed them, and I would like to be a part of them. That's all I'm saying. I feel like they should be talked about more in positive terms. Yeah. Don't they? I like what they do. Weren't they always on a sitcom? Y'all are younger than me.
Starting point is 00:05:42 But always on a sitcom in a kind of a covered wagon with stuff hanging off of it. Gunsmoke? Yeah. Gunsmoke. There were gypsies coming through. Gunsmoke. I was a guess. Bonanza?
Starting point is 00:05:54 Probably though. Bonanza? There was probably a bunch of gypsies. Yeah. Bonanza. That's such a funny name for a TV show. What does that mean? Does that mean something or they just made it up?
Starting point is 00:06:04 Bonanza? Yeah. Doesn't it mean like an extravaganza, mean something or they just made it up? Bonanza? Yeah. Doesn't it mean like an extravaganza, like a party? Oh, it does? I thought so. Bonanza. What would that mean for them though? I mean, they had a good time. Yeah. Well, there was a restaurant Bonanza. Yeah. And then they lived on
Starting point is 00:06:17 the Ponderosa, which is also a restaurant. I think they changed the name from Bonanza to Ponderosa. The restaurant. What does Bonanza mean? in context of that show? Yeah, I don't know. It's a good name for a TV show, Bonanza. I don't know, but for my- You watching Bonanza?
Starting point is 00:06:34 It's a situation or event that creates a sudden increase in wealth, good fortune, or profits. So you struck oil or something like that. Well, they were hooptie doo people They were hooptie doo ranch people They had servants So it makes sense And there was a gypsy episode of Gunsmoke You're right
Starting point is 00:06:54 Talking about gypsies and slavery So Murder Murder You didn't have to say it from Adams, Tennessee Oh, murder. Getting right into it. You didn't have to say it from Adams, Tennessee. Y'all, is that a bad word? No, I'm joking.
Starting point is 00:07:11 Okay. I'm joking. Oh, murder. I'm starting to sweat. Oh, murder. We say murder all the time. Thank you. Well, because comics murder. So he's murdering.
Starting point is 00:07:21 So you say murdering. We say it nonstop. I was killing. I was killing, murdering, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Chad Ryden. I'm a big fan of Chad Ryden.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Yeah, we know Chad. Nate, anti-Payton Manning sentiment is something we have in common. I went to UT at the same time as Payton. I ran into him on campus two or three more times. And every single time he acted like he was too cool for school. So my attitude toward him changed. I can't tell you the rest of this story without incriminating myself. If you, I wish you all knew Chad Ryden, because that's beautiful.
Starting point is 00:07:56 I just love that Chad. I can picture him. Chad did something to Peyton. Chad did something. Probably would get him arrested. That Peyton remembers and Chad remembers only. You think we could get them two in a room together and Peyton would be like, or Chad would go, what took you so long?
Starting point is 00:08:15 Now, you're not anti-Peyton Manning in general. No. I just wanted to fight him that day, but then he was a big. Why? What happened? You know, I went to UT. When they beat Vandy. Oh.
Starting point is 00:08:26 I just was like saying I wanted to fight. You ran into him at Gus's Deli. Yeah. And then he was big. He had a center with him. So he had someone to help protect him. So I wouldn't fight him. Oh, you really wanted to fight Peyton Manning.
Starting point is 00:08:39 We barely lost. He ran a stupid naked bootleg. Why would someone. Naked. What do you say? Naked. Naked a stupid naked bootleg. Why would someone, naked. What do you say? Naked. Naked. A naked bootleg.
Starting point is 00:08:50 Dead gummit, Peyton. I've met Cooper, but I've never met Peyton. Cooper introduced me at a UT thing. He was darling. Yeah, he was cute. We had a chemistry. Nothing unbiblical, but I mean, we kind of had a chemistry. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:07 And he was cute and fun, and we had a ball. And his brother owns part of the graduate hotel chain. Yeah, his brother Eli? Cooper. Yeah, Peyton's brother Cooper. Peyton's brother. The oldest one, Cooper. Yeah, there's three.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Yeah, the one that didn't get to play. Yeah. But was a brother. The oldest one, Cooper. Yeah, there's three. Yeah. The one that didn't get to play. Yeah. But was a good ball player. Wildly successful. Yeah, and he's got that Bowie arch. It's a number one quarterback. Number one quarterback.
Starting point is 00:09:33 Everybody's wondering where he's going to go. I know. I'm excited about him. Yeah, that's fun. I bet he does go to Tennessee. You think he will? I don't think he goes anywhere they want him to go. Eli went to Ole Miss.
Starting point is 00:09:46 Like, Ole Miss seems like it runs a little bit. Peyton was the outlier, right, to kind of go to Tennessee. They're kind of Ole Miss people. And I could see him going somewhere else just to be like, why do you want to go? You're chasing this name. Like, maybe you want to be like, I'm going to go do my own thing. Yeah, go to Vandy.
Starting point is 00:10:02 Blaze your own trail. Do your own thing. Come to Vandy. Change Vandy. thing. Yeah, go to Vandy. Blaze your own trail. Do your own thing. Come to Vandy. Change Vandy. Why does he not come to Vandy? That would be dumb if he did it. Kai Patrick. Kai?
Starting point is 00:10:13 K-I? I think so. Probably right. I studied Seinfeld in college. I even wrote a paper for a post-modernism class. The episode I focused on was the lost in the parking lot episode. They cover a ton of post-modern theory throughout the show. It was the
Starting point is 00:10:30 first sitcom that did not have any characters learn a lesson or be a better person from the experiences of the episode. Truly a genius show. There you go. What's post-modern mean? I don't really know. There you go. I know. Let's Google that.
Starting point is 00:10:45 I'm learning. Smart people listen to y'all. Well, usually Aaron's our go-to guy. Oh, yeah. I think they're – because our listeners are – It means after modern. Yeah. Everybody that listens to this is like doing real stuff, you know.
Starting point is 00:10:58 Working, doing. Working. But you could have excelled in college if that was a class. If I could have – if Kai was teaching it, I would be Kai. Seinfeld. Postmodernism is a late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematic relationship with any notion
Starting point is 00:11:21 of art. So would comedians be postmodern? A lot of them are for we we would have uh we're we have a problematic relationship with any notion of art like we don't ever consider ourself in an art like if someone you know if a comic was like and sometimes you gotta say it because you're like you're doing an art like you are doing an art it's an art yeah but if if you go uh you know if some if a comic was like uh you know i love my art you would be like well you're the worst person that's ever existed if a stand-up comic said that you know i think i'm doing some of the best art i've ever done i would throw up and then i would assume that they're the
Starting point is 00:12:03 worst comedian that's ever lived right leah says that to me all the time it's an art that you make it up there uh the audience has art just there but like that's what i would think that's so we are that so that's why that would be like that because the seinfeld is larry david are both that we're not about art we're not about it's like just about being we're stupid. We're being stupid. So let us be stupid. Don't take us,
Starting point is 00:12:28 comics I don't think take themselves as seriously as, you know, other people do. Like painters or whatever the other arts are. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:36 Some people would say it's more of a science stand-up comedy because we have a formula for our jokes and we put stuff together. Yeah, but then it would be,
Starting point is 00:12:44 it would be recreated. And so it's hard to recreate, like, you're, you do have a formula for our jokes and we put stuff together yeah but then it would be it would be recreated and so it's hard to recreate like you're you do have a formula when you tell the jokes but it's you can't like because you're always looking for this system because then i'll be i can write all i could write for the rest of my life if i can figure out the formula in the system to tell a joke i'll never i'm good to go i'll just i'll write an hour every day because it's like i would know the formula uh in your it's so specific the science like i don't think you well maybe you don't find it like you would find something in science somebody i guess some comics would be you know yeah sometimes set up punchline tag i think it's more of a fit you know yeah i look at
Starting point is 00:13:25 it as like more of a feel like i've learned like now where i'm at is you can tell stuff you say is funnier than it you just know how to say stuff funnier and so some more stuff you can talk about more stuff because it's just becomes funnier uh because you know how to be funny, I guess. But you don't know how. You just, I don't know, it just happens. You just sense it. I'm scared for it to go away every day. I mean, I swear. Wake up every day and you're like, oh, God, it could all be gone. That's how I feel.
Starting point is 00:13:58 Yeah. It's over. I'll never think of another funny thing. Oh, yeah. Just reading that, y'all Just reading that I just shut down And thought what are they saying Are we going to talk about ice cream and cake Oh there you go
Starting point is 00:14:11 You're going to fit in great for this podcast Matt Hawkins So I thought I would take a little inspiration From Nate Land When I was asked to give our high school Pep rally speech I am the junior high assistant principal. So a bunch of that's like the Dwight in the office.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Regional manager? Assistant to the original manager, the junior high assistant principal. So a bunch of these kids already didn't like me from past experiences. I thought I'd throw in some humor with a few tasteful jokes about our opponent during my speech. Turns out they didn't think I was nearly as funny as I think I am. It was total crickets, but I told them anyway. I have a newfound respect for what comics do.
Starting point is 00:14:57 I will say, though, it was pretty great to find out what it feels like to bomb in front of a thousand people. Man, that's great. Keep up the great work. front of a thousand people. Man, that's great. Keep up the great work. Yeah, a thousand people. That's tough. It's hard. It's hard to bomb in front of that many people. You know, Brian, you probably have something to say on this.
Starting point is 00:15:15 Yeah. I'd say it's not even that hard. Yeah. I do it pretty easily. Bombing in front of a thousand people, you it's tough though in front of four people it's but I just want to quit
Starting point is 00:15:29 oh god call somebody and tell them you're quitting yeah yeah I I had one of those shows this weekend
Starting point is 00:15:36 I called Leanne on the way home I know I was in bed with my husband yeah and I said we're watching a movie and he goes I need somebody to talk to
Starting point is 00:15:43 it was bad it was very bad in kentucky yeah oh yeah yeah we'll get further than that but uh i mean they did not like me yeah it was office christmas party it was one of those where they had no business booking a comedian nobody wanted it yeah they had a guy drawing caricatures off to the side they had on the other side one of these photo booths where you push the button to do a different backdrop and i mean everyone's having a great time until it's time for the comedian when they have to shut everything down and make everybody go sit down yeah and listen to me talk to them for what was supposed to be an hour yeah what'd you do 40 yeah and I think everyone thought that was the right decision
Starting point is 00:16:25 the lady who paid me yeah the character when you got done he drew a picture of you bombing on stage like that would've been
Starting point is 00:16:34 unreal if he comes in and he goes I just felt like this I have a picture it's a picture of you sweating and everybody's just
Starting point is 00:16:41 quietly everybody's audience is asleep yeah that'd be pretty funny. Yeah, that'd be great. Those are tough. You got to do those.
Starting point is 00:16:49 That's what it's about. You do comedy in front of places that don't expect it. They don't expect it and they don't want it. Henry Cho, I worked with him this weekend. He said, whenever they say, don't worry, those people stick around for the raffle afterwards. That's when you know it's going to be a bad show. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:04 Yeah. If there's a ramble. If there for the raffle afterwards. That's when you know it's going to be a bad show. Yeah. Yeah. If there's a ramble. If there's a raffle. Or just anything where they have to bribe people to stay. Yeah. The raffle's keeping them there. Yeah. When you do colleges and they have free pizza, that's like, you know, it's like, how's the
Starting point is 00:17:16 crowd going to be? Pretty good. We were giving pizza out today. And you're like, oh. And the only reason you have an audience there is because they gave free pizza. And the kids don't, and they have no money, and they're that hungry that they'll go sit through your comedy show. See, I never, because I'm a mom, and nobody ever hired me to do colleges,
Starting point is 00:17:33 I never went that route. And I always wondered what it was like. I always did horrible corporate private things, fundraisers, you know, terrible. I have one that was at Christmastime in Pigeon Forge. It was people that owned cabins. It was before the economic downturn, and they were so wealthy, and they had all these cabins, and they had Cornish Hen on the menu. And they asked me beforehand, they go, do you speak Spanish?
Starting point is 00:18:02 And I said, no, I don't. Do you need me to get somebody who can because i came from san antonio lived down there before um i came back to knoxville and um i said i can find you if you want a hispanic comic i've got a bunch that i know that would be great and she was like no they need to learn english anyway and i get there and it's precious guatemalan people and little women with babies standing in the back you know rocking a baby and did not know one thing i said and then a few of the people that were english speaking that felt very uncomfortable and um and then so i went through that, sweat bullets, probably got done in a short amount of time.
Starting point is 00:18:49 Then a man stood up and told everybody about Jesus. And that was in a real hateful way, not in a loving, sweet way, you know, about sweet Jesus, but mean way. Yeah, you're all going to hell if you don't accept jesus they should hear it they need to know where they're going yeah he had some hair tips and then um they let me go but i tell you i i think and brian talked and we talked about this i think at christmas parties maybe you should just have music somebody playing a guitar something universal for everybody
Starting point is 00:19:25 that everybody can enjoy. I agree. You know, Guatemalans don't want to hear about me. My kids do doing on a t-ball field. It was that long ago. It was that kind of material. They're in pigeon forts. Don't you know that scared those precious people half to death?
Starting point is 00:19:42 I love that. Well, now they didn't learn it anyway. That's such a good, that's such a funny thing. Well, all right. Do you speak Spanish? And then just the hassle of trying to get another Spanish-speaking comic. It's like, they should learn to speak our language anyway. All right, we'll do it.
Starting point is 00:19:58 Yeah, show's on. And I wanted it so bad. I had a terrible gut feeling when they said they needed to learn English anyway. I had a terrible gut feeling. But I they needed to learn English anyway. I had a terrible gut feeling. But I needed the money and I needed the gig. And the whole time I thought, what am I doing here? But anyway, that was years ago. I don't know if those people are still in business.
Starting point is 00:20:15 Anyway. What was I going to say? I don't know what I was going to say. I'll move on. I'm doing a Christmas party this Wednesday. Congrats. And it'll be so fun. What?
Starting point is 00:20:29 That sounded sarcastic. No. Congratulations. Congrats. It'll be fun. Yeah. It'll be a good time. Hopefully they'll be drunk.
Starting point is 00:20:41 Tim Agee. Yeah, Tim Agee. I'm a preacher and listening to Nate's comedy advice about putting yourself into the joke instead of making it generic really jumped out to me. I found the same thing is true on the impact of personal sermon illustrations and getting across the point you're trying to make. I had to slow down on the... It was like driving through a speed bump.
Starting point is 00:21:02 It was like personal sermon illustrations. If you turn it into a generic situation, you lose people's attention. But if you tell it with all the pertinent details, you are much more likely to keep people engaged. Keep up the great work. Such a wonderful podcast. There you go. Sweet, Tim.
Starting point is 00:21:25 Sweet. That's what we do. Sweet, Tim. Sweet. That's what we do. We change lives on here. He's up there just rambling about. Who knows? I know. You've told him how to reach people. Yeah, he goes, the other day, he goes,
Starting point is 00:21:38 there's a bunch of people not in here but out there going to hell. And he goes, you know what? You're going to hell. He made it specific. He goes, yeah. And they go, me? not in here but out there going to hell and he gives you know what you're going he goes yeah and they got me and he goes no lean lean over you yeah scoot over it you and then everybody's like everybody listens he personalized he personalized yeah you guys know i've been talking about this other church that doesn't get it. Guys, it's you. He just starts really going hard on his own church.
Starting point is 00:22:11 You know, every week y'all hear me talking about this church, and you're like, man, it's just a bad church to go to. Well, it's always been about you, and I just never personalized it. I've been watching Nate Land, and I would like, I got a lot of problems with you people. It's time you hear it. What is it? Yeah, Jerry.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Frank. Frank Costanza? Yeah. Fest. Frank. Frank Costanza? Yeah. Festivus. Yeah. Got a lot of problems with you people. My voice is still. All right.
Starting point is 00:22:35 Pat Rick. How do you feel about comics having openers that they don't like in order to make themselves look better? I always feel like that's such a bad thing to do to your fans. I'll tell you what. It's hard to find one that's good. You know, I look everywhere. I have two people at this table that do that with me. Because I want them to be good so bad, and it's just hard. Anyway, no.
Starting point is 00:23:04 I agree. I don't have, I bring good, I mean, I bring comics that are good, that I believe are good, that make it hard for me. I want it to be hard to follow. I want it to be, you don't want to clean up the mess. I mean, when people bomb, and you're like, dude,
Starting point is 00:23:19 I wouldn't bring someone that bombed, because it would be, I have to change that energy that you put out. I know, I always heard there was some comics that would do it, but I don't know if they intentionally bring someone. I mean, sometimes if you're bringing an opener, you've been doing it long enough, it's going to be just hard to be, it's probably just compete people you're friends with.
Starting point is 00:23:43 Some comics just have one guy. I know Carlin had a comic, that same guy that opened for him. He was just a very different act than Carlin. But it was like they were buddies, and they were always on the road everywhere. So it was like they just took him. But I think it's good to – Chris Rock did it when he took people. And I'm not saying because I was a part of it, but he took like Hannibal out, Anthony Jeselnik, I went out.
Starting point is 00:24:08 Like he took all the comics that we're all kind of headlining on our own. And he wanted to see if his stuff could follow because we're going up and doing 10, 15 minutes and just murdering because it's. So you do want to go. I think it makes you a better comic. I think it'll make you a worse comic if you've got someone bad, right? Oh, I had to dig myself out of a hole recently. Not you, Brian.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Yeah. Not you because you do a wonderful job and you set me up wonderfully. But I had to make a quick decision and had some fallout. And so I had to get somebody. And they were not ready. They were not ready for a big theater for that many people. And you really, somebody said this the other day, and I think it's true, you kind of need a headliner to open at these big, beautiful theaters and arenas.
Starting point is 00:24:58 You really need a headliner to open. Yeah, someone that can really do the act. Like that is very good they can keep their attention because when people are there to really see one person they're they want to see that person that's why like i usually bring a couple people but they've all been on the podcast and i like it because it's like they're you know they're getting people are following them outside of this and some of it's like you just want people to see these other comics that are good and being like, you know, just to be like, hey, here's some guys you can watch.
Starting point is 00:25:30 You know, here's some comics I bring out with me. And then so they get to see them. But, yeah, you've got to bring people that can do good. And know what they're doing. How much time are they both doing? I think everybody does 10. Maybe if it's Vecione i usually he does 15 sometimes but me and mike kind of started together he's been doing comedy for a very long time uh
Starting point is 00:25:51 so it's like if you bring someone that you know vecchione's headlining on his if you bring some guys like that you'll be uh a bit 10 to 15 yeah and i'm so if i have two, I'll each do 10. Or if we had three in Cleveland, they each did 10. So it's always going to be somewhat around 25 to 30 minutes before. And then I go up and I usually do around an hour. So the show is about, the actual show time is hour 30, hour 40, which is what you should do. And then usually you start late. Just because it takes people a long time is hour 30, hour 40, which is what you should do. And then usually you start late.
Starting point is 00:26:25 So just because it takes people a long time to get in, it's like a two-hour thing. Yeah. Probably when it's all said and done. I've been going way too long, haven't I, Brian? No. You've been going longer than you need to. I mean, now that people are bored. It's the same thing.
Starting point is 00:26:43 I don't know. I've been doing like an hour and 20. An hour and 20 is good. I want to do an hour and 15. I just haven't built myself up to go that long yet. I'm still like, but that's a goal I'm working on is trying to get to an hour and 15. I do it right now. I can do 60.
Starting point is 00:27:01 I've done 65. But I'm trying to make myself get to an hour. Like the way I write is like I just kind of come up with the hour. And then it's hard for me to – I'm not going to add stuff if I'm trying to get over the – just get over the time. Yeah. But I look at it as like I'm just trying to make that hour. But I would love – i want to start doing like an hour 15 just me and if whether it's this tour or not it'll be i mean it'll be an hour over a
Starting point is 00:27:33 little maybe a little bit over an hour but then i eventually i want to like the next after the next special it's like all right let's really try to be an hour 15 hour 20 maybe and then you're and then you just maybe bring two comics age 210 and then how do you feel about encores i don't do one people think i it's just you know when i did i have done them it's very weird and i would do them as a i did them as a joke do you do them no and he tells me all the time why don't you come back out and do because people want to hear she has some classics everyone wants to hear. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:28:05 I would go do that then. But I'm scared that if I say, good night, people get their pocketbook and start walking out and then I come out and I go,
Starting point is 00:28:13 wait a minute. I got a couple other things I'd like to run by you. I was always scared of that too, but if you keep the lights down, they usually expect it to be. Right. There's ways to like signal
Starting point is 00:28:24 that something else is going to happen. Like I have them bring the lights up and I have, you know, to be right there's ways to like signal that something else is going to happen like i have them bring the lights up and i have you know to be like go flash says it's it okay no i don't say that but i'm joking i go get on out here now uh i have it i i did do them you know what i started doing when I was doing encores? The problem, too, is some of the jokes they want to hear, Starbucks and that kind of stuff, I can't remember. But when I was doing it, I would just say, like, I would do my last joke, and then I would be like, all right, that's it.
Starting point is 00:29:01 It's something. Good night. I'm going to do an encore. I'd make fun of the idea of going over there and standing and coming back. I would just make fun of the idea of the encore. And then I'd go, so here's your encore. And then I would just stay out there the whole time. And so I would do that.
Starting point is 00:29:13 And I would get a laugh and all that. But weirdly enough, you need to, you need to be out there. Like you can, that's a, it can be a safety net, especially if you do it like that.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Now, if you walk off stage, it's not a safety net. But when I was doing it that way, it's like, there's kind of a safety net there. you do it like that now if you walk off stage it's not a safety net but when i was doing it that way it's like there's kind of a safety net there because it's like i'm not closing on the thing that i'm actually i need to be able to leave on the my act that joke needs to be good enough for me to leave on if it's not if i'm not putting it giving it the pressure that it needs which is kind of in you know maybe i'll do this if i don't if i don't have a good closer and i do need to close with some old stuff it's like i need i'm trying to make sure i can get out on the high
Starting point is 00:29:52 note that i need to get out on but you sometimes got it you got to just get out on that last joke because you got to make sure that that last joke is good enough for you to get out on because otherwise you can kind of skate by and then just be like all right and here's some old stuff you know and like you know you want it to be like it's like it's obvious i think the joke i have in now is like where it's it feels like it's like yeah that's it that's the end of the show like you know you wanted the joke to feel like that but yeah you can walk off come back well i don't know what to do and also mean, I have just one person go with me. But we're flying and, you know, we're not on a bus.
Starting point is 00:30:32 But there's shows coming up where there's two a day. And the logistics, I'm not going to be able to make it. I'm not going to be able to get there. And so I may have to rent a bus. And then I'd have bunk beds. I was telling the people I was meeting with today, they go, would you like a back bedroom with your husband? I'm like, oh, no.
Starting point is 00:30:51 I don't want to have to, you know, do nasty stuff. And, you know, ride down the road and fix chicken salad. I mean, I can't be doing all that. You know, and then be funny and get my girdle on and all that. I'd like to have bunks like you had where I can have my own space. You know what I'm saying? Right, right. But that's when you can bring fun, all the people you love with when you've got a big bus.
Starting point is 00:31:15 That's what it's about. It's about bringing, you have a group out. It's fun to go around with your buddies. You know, it's like, you all, you know like you all relatively kind of come up together. You get to give back. You get to like, you know, and then they do it. And eventually they stop. They won't open anymore.
Starting point is 00:31:32 They start headlining. It's like that's just the way it goes. And it's the greatest thing ever. And I always think that shows to the audience to be like, that's what everybody's dream of is. And even if you're in the audience, you think if I made it, I always brought Tech to Entourage. That's why Entourage was such is. And even if you're in the audience, you think if I made it, I always brought to Entourage. That's why Entourage was such a great episode, a great series, because you always watch Entourage and you go, if I made it, I'd be them.
Starting point is 00:31:52 I want to be them. It's like you do the cool stuff. You have the parties and celebrities. But at the end of the night, it's you and your boys and your buddies that you grew up with and the dudes that have known you your whole life. Or they're the guys that you end up with at the end of the night. And that's what something, that's what Entourage did and why I believe it was such a great show and such a hit, hit show because it was like everybody could see themselves in that.
Starting point is 00:32:16 It's not about, you know, when someone's like, I don't, I talked to someone that's some celebrity and they're like, they don't talk to anybody from their home. And I'm like, you don't talk to anybody from high school. And they're like, no. And I'm like blown away. I'm like,
Starting point is 00:32:27 why you wouldn't, that's almost all I talked to is like, you know, you got your other friends that you meet in this industry. That's why I like this podcast. Like having you on, like we have other comics on or whoever. I usually bring someone on that.
Starting point is 00:32:40 I think the audience is like, you would be like, you will like this person. You could hang out with this person. Like that that's that's what we want this to be that's what your show should be your show should be like oh i could you could come sit and eat with us and it would be like we're just all hanging out because that's what and when you when you give that i think it shows and i you know and that's when you get on the bus you start bringing people and you're like yeah dude this is how i would do it too you know because that that's when you get on the bus, you start bringing people and you're like, yeah, dude, this is how I would do it too.
Starting point is 00:33:06 You know, cause that's the dream. Otherwise you're like, nothing's real. You see two like celebrities talk and I see like in there, you're like, what are they even talking about? They have nothing to talk about. So when we meet, someone asked me that this weekend, they're talking about being like celebrities. And I was like, yeah, you meet some man. And then you're like, and some of them, you're like, like yeah it was really cool to get to meet them but you're like i don't want to like be friends with that person like it's you know at the beginning you kind of
Starting point is 00:33:31 like can't believe that you're getting to meet them and then as you get to meet people you kind of then look at it like well the ones that i do talk to regularly eric stone street's a wonderful person is he yeah and so eric is is us. He fits in with us. He would just be us hanging out. And then those are the ones that you become friends with. The ones that you're like, yeah, this dude gets it. Jason Sudeikis is like, he's that. That's the kind of dude he is.
Starting point is 00:33:55 He's just a good dude. So then you see that it's wonderful when you see them in Hollywood because you're like, y'all stuck to it. Y'all did what you're supposed to. Like you're just still who you are and you're still hanging out you know that they still talk to everybody at home just as much as they talk to brad pitt or something i don't know whoever i don't know brad pitt at all but uh but it's like whatever it is and that's what i mean i love that like that's you know and that's the ones that you end up becoming friends with because you're like you know you kind of go like oh yeah dude I could hang with you and like talk with you.
Starting point is 00:34:26 We could trash talk. We could do whatever. It's like, it feels fun and safe. It's not like there's some agenda, you know, whatever. And you felt that way, I'm sure, with Jeff Foxworthy. And that's why you shouldn't bring your husband on the road. Yeah. Well, I just can't be doing all that.
Starting point is 00:34:41 He would be wanting to touch me. Foxworthy is the same way. Jeff Foxworthy, I thought was precious. And it's like somebody I've known all my life. If you met Jeff Foxworthy, you would, like listening to this, if you're listening to this and you met Foxworthy, he's what you want him to be. And he's just going to be like, you know, he's like polite, nice,
Starting point is 00:35:02 makes a little joke, you know. When we went out to eat. Like, so people recognized him and they just know him. He just wants to hang out and, like, talk comedy and, like, all the stuff that you do at the beginning. You just want to do that again. Jay Leno's like that. Jay Leno's like just a blue-collar dude.
Starting point is 00:35:21 These dudes get super successful. They have a ton of money, but they don't ever lose that. Like, I don't think Jay ever. He has all these cars. They do cool stuff because they can afford. They won the lottery. So they do that fun stuff, but Jay's never going to make you feel like he's better than you. And that's what attracts me to a lot of these people.
Starting point is 00:35:41 Yeah. Well, I haven't met a lot of people, but I thought that Jeff Foxworthy was precious. I have met some country music people. And for the most part, I think they're pretty down to earth, country music people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. A lot of them are. Like Shea. We had Shea on here from Dan and Shea.
Starting point is 00:35:56 Shea's the best. But the ones that aren't, I would never hang out with them. I wouldn't have them on this podcast. Because it would be like, I don't know like I'm not gonna be you're just like some of them you gotta be close with or something like I usually become close with them and that's when it would be not that I wouldn't have someone on this podcast uh that but it's like I usually end up being close like I end up like that you kind of end up like talking to them and like talk to them more than just like like, occasionally out and about. And then that's when that's, like, you know, it works out.
Starting point is 00:36:29 Yeah. You've never brought anyone on just for an interview. It's always been your friends or people you personally like. Yeah. And we get asked. Yeah. And it's – but, yeah, it's always been just – you know, and it's not against any of the people that I would –
Starting point is 00:36:44 I'm not saying I will never. I don't know. I'm always open to, like, maybe there's been just, you know, and it's not against any of the people that I would. I'm not saying I will never. I don't know. I'm always open to like, maybe there's a time you're like, well, maybe I want to talk. Maybe if I think this guy is cool or this person. A big expert that your sister used to work with. Yeah. First guest, we almost, well, Augustine was our first guest. And then the second guest was like a guy that worked with my sister.
Starting point is 00:37:03 So, I mean, it's it's you know then we met you and now you're selling out the rhyme like it doesn't matter we have whoever it's like if we can get along with them so yes some people will be people that i think maybe i'll be like yeah uh there's someone i've been talking to that's like i don't really know we i've just known her for a little bit but like she might come on and uh, you know, but I just go off, like, if I think I could, like, could they be cool? And if I don't think they can be cool and I could, like, hang out with them or be too, like, weird, then they won't come on.
Starting point is 00:37:34 Because they'll just be weird. And it's like, I don't want that. I want only people that people could hang out with. That's what I think. Oh. Yeah. You should make that into a T-shirt. Well, you know, I had a podcast called Sweaty,
Starting point is 00:37:47 and I hate to say this ugly word on here because I know the pastors are watching, but sweaty and pissed. Oh, my gosh. I know. What is? Good night. Yeah. That's a cuss word in the state of Tennessee.
Starting point is 00:38:01 Yeah. Sweaty and? We're going to be on that. Menopause and more. We'll have – your episode's going to be the only episode that has that PG-13. Explicit warning. Explicit warning. You're going to send us into a new category of just –
Starting point is 00:38:15 But we never had – we were in Knoxville. We never had any kind of nifty gas down. It was just us talking about medical women's menopause. Yeah. But I always thought, oh, I'd love to have somebody famous and talk about their menopause, but nobody wanted to do it. We did talk to John Reap, and I know y'all just had him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:34 John Reap came on and talked about his testosterone lowering, and we had a ball. Yeah. And he was darling and very upfront and very real about how, and he bought something at Walgreens, and it got better. Yeah, I don't even know. How do you know it goes down? Do you got to get tested or something?
Starting point is 00:38:53 If you're hateful, if you start getting hateful and irritated, that can be low testosterone in a man. It's not looking good, Nate. I'm frustrated by this conversation. And you feel like you're losing some muscle tone a little bit. But by the time men are 50, they have half what they had at 25. Yeah. And you can get supplements and just rev it all back up.
Starting point is 00:39:19 Or, you know, playing tennis, being active, you know, exercising helps it come back up naturally. But anyway, that's the only – and I'm not the medical person. Oh, I've got tested years ago. Mine's been low. I've done the whole gauntlet. Yeah. I mean, mine was off the charts low.
Starting point is 00:39:37 Yeah. Was it, my darling? I took supplements for a while, but those are dangerous. They can lead to some other stuff. Well, did they give you synthetic? Now, see, they have bioidentical. It's not bad. I don't know if mine was bioidentical or just identical.
Starting point is 00:39:54 I don't know. When they looked at yours, they go, look, when you were born, we weren't starting from a great spot. Like, just out of the gate, let's go ahead and say we were not ideal. And so you're like, all right, well, let me know where I'm at now. You go, now? He goes, I don't know if you've ever been. You've never felt the top of the top. We want to send you to Harvard to be studied.
Starting point is 00:40:16 Yeah. You've never. They would be like, have you ever punched a man? You're like, I've slapped a cat before. You're like, see, this is what I mean. It's like stuff like that. Like you've never You're like, I've slapped a cat before. You're like, see, this is what I mean. It's like stuff like that. Like you've never. I mean, there is some truth to that.
Starting point is 00:40:29 I mean, because it does lead to like aggression and stuff like that. The working out part, that's debatable whether that means anything. Some doctors say that doesn't help. But some say it does, especially if you're competitive. To be a man-man, you know, That does help raise lifting weights, stuff like that. Yeah. Well, Chuck Morgan, my nurse practitioner that I did that podcast with, she said his has gone back up, Leanne, from playing tennis every day,
Starting point is 00:40:57 and he's competitive and wants to rip somebody's throat out. And he's got plenty of testosterone. Just let me say that. And it was a real drag when that went back up. Because he has lowered a little bit. Because it's natural. It just happens. But anyway, John Reeves is the only fun person we had on.
Starting point is 00:41:13 I think we may have had other guests. But nothing like people I've played golf with that have got number one hits. It's not those kind of people. Well, we've got a lot of Medical issues at this table Right now I have gout Yeah Gout Brian had a stroke
Starting point is 00:41:29 Two weeks ago Two weeks ago Nate has diabetes We think we have type I think we have type 2 diabetes You think you have type 2 diabetes Someone wrote in And I don't see why
Starting point is 00:41:37 They would lie to me about it So He also has dyslexia I have dyslexia Oh I forgot about that We haven't got that tested But Cher's got that And Tom Cruise Cher and Tom Cruise.
Starting point is 00:41:45 Cher and Tom Cruise. I mean, that's not a big deal. We're doing good. Yeah. Yeah, we're all. You compensated from the dyslexia and became this artist. Yes. I'm an artist.
Starting point is 00:41:56 Stand up. You know what? I am. I'm going to be the one that says the art. You know, someone showed a picture of Cher from the 70s or something until now, and she looks the same. It was crazy. She's just the exact same. I know.
Starting point is 00:42:11 It was like 50 years. I bet she's not eating white flour and sugar. I can tell you right now, she's not eating white flour and sugar. You don't think? She doesn't have type 2 diabetes. No. I think that stuff makes you age, and I'm eating it. Her hair changed, but that's it.
Starting point is 00:42:32 Look at her nipples. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. That's a thing. Sorry, I didn't see what was going on in that picture. My bad, everybody. You and Leanne on the same side of the table. We're getting filthy over here.
Starting point is 00:42:44 That little Sonny. God love him. God rest his soul. Had that ski accident. I do the bad news on this show, Leanne. When did it happen? The old snow ski? 15 years ago, maybe.
Starting point is 00:43:00 20 years ago. Never done it. Oh, you got to do it. You got to do it. Snow ski? You haven't? My wife does it. Iowskating, y'all haven't? My wife does it. I've only done like, I did like the lessons and I never left off.
Starting point is 00:43:09 I never, it was as, when I was on, it was like the flat of this table. Like I never even went down. Yeah. I don't enjoy it. I've gone for years because my husband loves it and we wanted our children to enjoy it, but I don't like it. But I encourage other people who have little children to get them in it because it is good for little children.
Starting point is 00:43:27 Fun for kids. Yeah. I like to watch people that are in Prada outfits and wonder, who are these people? You know, it's that kind of sport. Are you all good at it? I'm a sport. Chuck Morgan is and does double blacks and all that.
Starting point is 00:43:40 Yeah. And my son loves all that. And my girls do. You guys come from money. That's a very money thing. We do not. We're mobile home people. Leanne Morgan,
Starting point is 00:43:51 the old seeing-haired love of you, Leanne. You come from that. We get our ski stuff from a consignment store
Starting point is 00:43:57 and Chuck makes us stay in a real bad-looking apartment and we buy all of our groceries and I cook just like I'm the hell and we we don't stay skiing ski out he makes us ride a shuttle and carry all that up a mountain
Starting point is 00:44:11 you know and then you gotta go you gotta ski all day to get our money's worth out of it you know it's work it's so hard so hard and he makes y'all train right well we don't but yeah he says nobody's coming back unless y'all somebody's doing some lunges and squats. I've had it. Cause you, cause you really have got to be in good shape to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:29 Oh, uh, John Fletcher. I appreciate when a comic gives an in the moment, real chuckle at their own jokes. I've always heard comics. Aren't supposed to do that. What do you guys think?
Starting point is 00:44:40 Uh, I don't, you don't mind it. If it's real, it's when it's not real is when I mind it. So that's the answer. Are people out thinking that? Oh, yeah. I mean, oh, yeah. It's nonstop. How can you laugh at your own joke that you've said 1,000 times? I mean, I will laugh if I hear someone in the crowd and I can hear that I've got them laughing. Like, I'll laugh that I can't believe they're laughing that hard.
Starting point is 00:45:11 So that would be the only time I'd really, like, laugh. And it's not like there's no emotion in the joke, but it's just my job is to tell the jokes. It's not to be, I shouldn't be laughing at myself. But if you ever see someone up there that's like, hold on, I can't get through this joke. Y'all go keep. That's not real. There's no way that's real. It happened once may be real.
Starting point is 00:45:30 And then they kept going. Do y'all have this going through your mind? I don't think I'm not laughing at my own jokes. I'm thinking, am I worthy? And what am I doing? Should I have become a therapist? Yeah. You know, I go through my mind.
Starting point is 00:45:45 Are you in your mind thinking, did I leave the iron on? I mean, like I've had conversations with myself. Yeah, yeah. But I try not to. Not every night. Be in the moment. Not every night. I try to be in the moment.
Starting point is 00:45:59 You got to try to be in the moment. That's something you got to work on. I used to be really bad at it. I'm getting better at it. But after the Tennessee Kid, I was really bad at it. I would catch myself just be – I would be on another planet. Autopilot, right. And so – but I consciously now try to really, like, not do that
Starting point is 00:46:19 and really be in it. You have jokes placed, and you got to think of what you're excited to, what jokes you're excited to get to. I go off what I feel like I like in my act. Right now, I'm pretty lucky that there's maybe a spot or two that I'm not excited to get to. Overall, I'm kind of excited to get to everything where I'm kind of like, this will be fun. I'm excited until this part and this part. And that's what you want. And then you can feel it, though, when you're like, I'm not excited to get to that. And I don't like it.
Starting point is 00:46:54 And it could be a good joke that works, but you just for some reason don't like it. Yeah. That's all right. And sometimes you got to just be like, all right, well, I need to make myself like that. I don't make myself like it. I need to make the joke where I like it. And then if I like it, it's going to be better for the audience. I think because I'm going through this whole mind thing of things,
Starting point is 00:47:15 of being more successful and being so thankful for that, and it's a blessing from heaven. But at the same time, I think I'm in the stage of, is this real? Am I real? I've been doing this 22 years, but can I it am i worthy am i so i go through all that and then josh wolf called me and when he was at the height of chelsea on tv he said lean i remember being just fearful it was going to go away and don't live in that and then he said you got to remember this every night you go out there and i thought this was so sweet and not to sound arrogant but he said this he goes lean you're somebody's george
Starting point is 00:47:49 straight yeah you're somebody somebody's been saving up that ticket and and has come to see you and you're there george straight yeah you know they've been waiting and you're there big you know and i thought what but um but i know I know that that excited me. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I've got to be the best I can be for these precious people. Yeah. That's another, hey, you're from Adam's tent. Most people say Derek Jeter or something. Look at what Josh Wolfe said, George Strait.
Starting point is 00:48:19 He really did. Josh Wolfe did. Maybe he's thinking that would be my time again. It resonated. How do I talk to this lady from the middle of nowhere? Imagine you're someone's Walmart. When a Walmart goes to a new town, they can't believe it's there. You're their Walmart.
Starting point is 00:48:40 Well, and they should have said, you're their Earth, Wind, and Fire. That's who I would have loved. Yeah. Earth, wind, and fire prince. Yeah. You do got to remember. Or bargain hunt. It is good to always remember that.
Starting point is 00:48:55 But you don't want to lose it. It's not about, I've switched now. It's almost not losing. I don't want to lose the audience. So I don't want to, it's, and it's, I guess if you, there is, but my fear now is not, I don't think it's as being funny. Maybe it is about like, it's daunting to think like, I got to take this special and then, and I've got to have a new hour. Like, it's very daunting to always think, well, how am I going to come up with a new hour?
Starting point is 00:49:20 But there's also now it's like, how can I make sure it's better than the one that I did? How can I do that? And so that's the thing that's daunting. And how do you keep this audience? How do I, so it's not almost like it's not about, it's not inward. It's outward.
Starting point is 00:49:33 We're going like, well, how do I make you stay? How do you, how do I know that you want to come back here? I make sure that I give you the time that I think you deserve as an audit. You should be able to come and have a great time.
Starting point is 00:49:44 And so that's the fear now is, is almost losing them. And that's what you don't. Oh my God. That's a lot of fear coming. And I got fear now. I know, but that fear is just like, it's excitement and work. It's the excitement of the work. And you use that instead of fear being like, oh my gosh, that scares me to death. Well, if I didn't care, then I would hate these people. But that's more of like a fuel for you. Yeah. I mean, that's like, when people. But that's more of like a feel for you. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:06 I mean, that's like, you know, when you see someone that like performs and they hate their audience, that's insane to me. Like, how could you ever, why would you ever create something where you hate your audience?
Starting point is 00:50:14 And there's a lot of people who do that. That hate their audience. They don't like what they represent. They don't like what they do. They don't like, you know,
Starting point is 00:50:21 who's coming to see them. They don't think, because they don't, they don't want to be them. Where I, I look at every audience and I am you. There's, you're not, when I talk to people afterwards, I'm like, I can't believe they're talking to me. Uh, I can't believe like, I'm like, I don't know. It's like some of them, you know, it's like, you're just like, I'm all of you. Like, you're not, you're my parents. You're my, I would, y'all would be just coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Like, I don't, you're us. You're my parents. Y'all would be just coming to our house for Thanksgiving.
Starting point is 00:50:46 You're us. You're no different than any of us. And so when you see that, you're like, well, I don't want to lose that. And so the fuel is to being like, I've got to impress them. It's not impressing. You want this other stuff, obviously being Grammy nominated, like all this kind of stuff. You want all that stuff, but it's about impressing those audiences that they're the reason you even get to live a life that you get to live.
Starting point is 00:51:09 That's why I never assume people hate them. Because you're like, the reason you get to think you're better than them is because of them. Because if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't, you would be where you are. But because you get rich and people get famous and they get out of touch with stuff, they think they're better than their audience. And I don't think it's everybody, but I do think it's way more than, I think it's more than you think. I think.
Starting point is 00:51:35 Oh, my Lord. Because his mama came to my show in Pensacola and she was precious. She thinks she's better than you. That's what, Erin told us that. Erin told us that. She probably thought, I didn't know her butt was that big. Leanne's butt looks awful large lately.
Starting point is 00:51:54 But no, I know what you're talking about and I see them out in the audience and I think, oh my gosh, every town I think, I would be your best friend. We would be going and doing, we'd be going to TJ Maxx and then to Jazzercise and having a ball.
Starting point is 00:52:07 Yeah. And they're precious. And they send me, you won't believe the cookies I've gotten for Christmas. Oh, yeah. And the Dewey's, yeah, sent me a big box and toffee. And my kids are like, wait, what? And things for my grandbaby and precious. Yeah, you can't believe people want to send you something.
Starting point is 00:52:24 It's crazy. Oh, just, I want your grandbaby to have a new blanket. Yeah. And I'm like, I could bawl my eyes out. Yeah. That's where mine, I don't feel worthy, and I feel like I need to go and clean people's houses. That's what I, every show I think, look at these darling people.
Starting point is 00:52:38 I need to vacuum their car out as they're leaving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God love them. Why me? How precious. You want to give them something more than just the ticket because you think, like, it. God love them. Why me? How precious. You want to give them something more than just the ticket because you think it's not worth this. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:50 You can't think that you're buying. You're like, we should make a – I should give everybody something. Yeah. Just because – and you can't. But that's why you want to make the show as good as it can be because you're like, well, the only thing I can control and that I can do is to make sure that you are, like when people, their face hurts from laughing, you're like, that's what I can give you. And so I need to make sure I can continue to do that. And that's what you do, too.
Starting point is 00:53:17 And that's good. Thank you, Nate. That's why you bring Brian on the road. It's easy to follow. But tell them, Brian, tell them about these precious women. Are they darling or what? They're very darling. That's what I would say. They bring
Starting point is 00:53:31 recipes and stuff like that. And they're so tickled by him having a baby. When you go out, you're like, look at all these young ladies out there. You go out, you're like, oh, these are pretty hot women out there. I do think my age helps because, you know, they identify with me more than say you took a 20-year-old for sure.
Starting point is 00:53:50 But I do get a lot of, I'll get a grandmother, somebody 80 with somebody my age, 50, and then their college-age daughter or 20-year-old daughter. So I get a lot of that. They can go and, yeah. So there's some young women out there, and I think, oh, God, love them. I need to give them makeup. There's no one really doing what you're doing. And so that's the positive, and that's the good thing.
Starting point is 00:54:16 And you're seeing the demand of it to be, you know. People talk about even like it's an idea of being clean. It's not about you could – just a competitive point. Why would you not be clean? If you have – I don't care if you hate any reason for being clean or not being religious and the reason just competitively, why would you not do it? That's what I don't understand.
Starting point is 00:54:41 Why would you not? You're competing against – your competition is pretty low versus everything else is not. So just competitively or artistic, as we make fun of, you want to be artistic. It's like, just do it the other way just for that. Just to be like, well, I want to sound different than everybody else. And that could be your reason. That was the best I had to read. Oh, good.
Starting point is 00:55:04 I love all those things. Yeah. Yeah, I like them all too. I can't believe that bunch of people can make a couch that quick and send it to you. Isn't that wonderful? Yeah, it's amazing. Because it does. It takes now because of this COVID, it takes 30 weeks to get a sofa.
Starting point is 00:55:22 Right. If you go to the, yeah. COVID started. I ordered one, it took me about seven months to get it. And I'd forgotten about it by the time it showed up. Forgot about a couch. Yeah, because it had been that long ago, dude. Can you imagine?
Starting point is 00:55:37 It's exciting. Just every, like, just think about growing up. And if we, my parents ordered a a couch there was a chance my dad would go oh that's right i forgot we ordered maybe the most important thing inside the home uh-huh that ever happened it's seven months and there's a lot going on in the world you know and then what so what were you sitting on you weren't reminded we had an old beat-up couch we just wanted to get a new one to replace the old one and then then when it came, you were like, it was the best day
Starting point is 00:56:06 of all time, dude. Yeah. Who's at the door? You thought? Two big dudes with a... I know, but you thought that was a rain... Did they call
Starting point is 00:56:12 before they were coming? They did call that. They called that day. And they said, we're coming to your couch and you go, what? We got to the couch and I was like,
Starting point is 00:56:19 oh yeah, dude. I was so excited. Is it performance fabric? I don't know. What does that mean? That means that if you, if y'all do have babies or that cat scratches or vomits on it, that you can just wipe it off. Oh, it's definitely not that.
Starting point is 00:56:34 Because it's all. A cat owns that thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. People would love to come over and sit on it. I need it all for him, dude. I need it all for him dude i need it all i mean you do yeah there's when you go to someone's house and there's just cat hair everywhere or dog hair and you're like
Starting point is 00:56:51 oh man and they're like just sit down you're like are you aware i don't think people are aware when they're done when they walk out and there's cat and dog hair all over them and then you just see them out and you're like do you not mean, are you even see what's going on? And they're like, why don't you do it in my house? Because it smells like a dog pound. If you at least address it. And the food tastes like dog. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:18 Or like dog smell. They feed it to us in bowls. But Brian, your house doesn't feel that way with that little bitty hazel. Well, she doesn't shed. And y'all have got a non-shed thing. And she's as big as this cup, too. Yeah. Your little dog doesn't shed.
Starting point is 00:57:31 No, Holly doesn't. Yeah. But now they're genetically making dogs to be perfect. So you're not supposed to buy a dog like that. We got our cat from a sewage drain. Yeah. Did you? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:42 Yes. It sheds everywhere, dude. Did the sewage drain, did they put it up for adoption? I was going to say, what's the... Was it abandoned? It was, yeah. It was found. It was found in the alley.
Starting point is 00:58:00 You found it? No. It was an alley cat. Yeah, somebody found it in an alley in downtown Nashville. I think where it probably was thriving. You found it? No. It was an alley cat. Yeah, somebody found it in an alley in downtown Nashville. I think where it probably was thriving. You think? For some reason, I feel like cats do really well. I feel like it's got a pretty good life now.
Starting point is 00:58:13 It was probably doing okay. Yeah. I just like cats. Alley cats are just such a thing that you're like, I think they... Well, we talked about Disney World, how those feral cats just live there, come out at night. Yeah. Is this a female or a male? It's a male.
Starting point is 00:58:30 Oh, then yeah, he was having a big time downtown. Doing horrible, horrible Sodom and Gomorrah. Down at Printer's Alley. You're probably like, ruined his game. Yeah. He's got some of these losers. You and Lucy's in there. You're probably like Ruined his Yeah Game He's got some of these
Starting point is 00:58:46 Losers You and Lucy's In there What are y'all doing tonight Nothing Let me guess Nothing West Wing
Starting point is 00:58:55 Yeah Tom Sykes When you do a TV appearance Like the Tonight Show Do you get Do you get paid for that I guess that question Is just for Nate When you're On tour at a theater Tonight Show, do you get paid for that? I guess that question is just for Nate.
Starting point is 00:59:05 When you're on tour at a theater, do you have to get permission to pay or pay the musicians for intro music? Again, I guess Nate. Nate, on the current tour, I saw you come out to Strombela's and saw a video of you coming out to 21 Pilots. What is your favorite song to come out to? Right now, I'm coming out to Strombbellas and then i walk at then i leave on 21 pilots you know i like mixing it up the strombellas is very good we had a uh a promoter chaney who uh picked the strombellas song and i loved it and i was coming out to 21 pilots and you just kind of change you know you just i like change and so i'll end up like right now
Starting point is 00:59:42 we're just doing it with the strrumbellas and with 21 Pilots. I love ending with that 21 Pilots song. It's almost kind of like – it's a very nice song. It's fun. I love the 21 Pilots, which I've wore their thing. We went to their concert. But they're – I mean, they're – Strum 21 Pilots, people talk about having this podcast, I have them.
Starting point is 01:00:01 And they're the best, dude. And, like, that's people that you would hang out with. They're the great. Tonight's show, you get paid like $1,500, I think. $1,200 or $1,500. Do they pay you to get there? Sometimes they do.
Starting point is 01:00:15 Sometimes that's... Sometimes it's always a battle sometimes. I think if you're promoting a movie, if you're promoting something, you don't get paid. And so like when I did my special, if I was doing stand-up on the show, then Netflix would pay you. I mean, Tonight Show would pay you and Netflix would pay for the travel. But if you're just promoting it and I'm not doing stand-up, I think they try to get Netflix to pay for the travel.
Starting point is 01:00:41 There's like all that kind of stuff. And that's like every business. I mean, it's funny to see some like regular business-y kind of stuff where you're like, well, who's paying for this guy's hotel? And then Netflix and NBC go, well, I'm not paying for it or something. I don't know. But at the beginning, yeah, that night show is paying for it. They would pay you and they'd give you a hotel. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:00 So, yeah. And you don't pay. I don't pay. I owe Chaka Khan a bunch of money. If I'm supposed to be paying her, it said, do you get permission to use that musical pad? No, no, not on the specials. So we had to do this last one with Drew Holcomb.
Starting point is 01:01:21 Yeah, so you can either pick a song. If there's a song, I want to say that the Full Time Magic and the Tennessee Kid are both songs that are made to sound like a Lumineers song. So there's ways to do that where you just walk out the intro. It's kind of a generic sounding song, but it's kind of along the lines of one that you would want it to be. For the stand-ups, they did Lumineers, and they actually would want it to be uh for the stand-ups they did lumineers and they actually paid for it to be used and then for this one we i know drew holcomb yeah but i think we paid we paid with drew holcomb like you know it's like we went through songs and i wanted to use a real song uh i like using a real song so we you know you know, Greg Garcia helped me pick it, and he sent it to me,
Starting point is 01:02:07 and I was like, this song's amazing. And when he did it, I was like, dude, I think, I was like, I know this dude. Like, we were about to golf, and we'd been texting. Yeah. And so it was like, ended up being perfect, and then we got it. I let him know we were using it, but we did it through the proper channels. Right. Like, you know, I don't want to text him.
Starting point is 01:02:22 And I know I've seen that. What song is it? Because I've watched it. Family. Family know I've seen that. What song is it? Because I've watched it. Family. Family. Family in the kitchen. Because I've been to their festival, Moon River in Chattanooga, that Ellie and Drew do.
Starting point is 01:02:35 Yeah. I did a charity. I did a benefit with Ellie. I've met her at a Christian school fundraiser. I met her, but I've never met Drew, and I wasn't performing or anything. I just got to meet her. They're darling. I mean, they're so talented.
Starting point is 01:02:51 Very talented. So you're walking out to Chaka Khan? Chaka Khan plays when it's over. I'm every woman. And then I've been walking out to Casey and the Sunshine Band. I was doing Earth, Wind, and Fire. But you're right. I feel like I need to change it up.
Starting point is 01:03:09 I thought that that would be my thing, but I want to change it up. Yeah. Well, at least you're not dating yourself. Sorry. That's pretty good. I know. Well, I thought about playing little Kim. She got out of prison. Why don't you celebrate about playing little Kim when she got out of prison
Starting point is 01:03:26 but why don't you celebrate that with little Kim you should walk out to little Kim I did listen to some of it it was just so
Starting point is 01:03:34 nasty you know that I think oh these little women are be clutching a purse you know your mama probably wouldn't want to hear
Starting point is 01:03:41 little Kim mother you know all that business. I've been going and doing. But I don't know. I do need somebody to help me pick out a hip or song. Those songs are good songs. Those are great songs.
Starting point is 01:03:55 I just, the joke was there. Oh, the audience loves it. It's perfect. I had to take the shot. No, that's okay. I get it. But I want to be hip. Maybe I should be doing 21 Pilots. No, no, no. You got it. But I want to be here. Maybe I should be doing 21 Pilots.
Starting point is 01:04:05 No, no, no. You got to do what? Lincoln Park. Yeah. I would do Lincoln Park. That would date me. I would love to do Lincoln Park. You just pick what, like, you know, the, you just kind of pick, I don't know, like, you
Starting point is 01:04:20 just kind of think it's important. I always think of 80s when I made some really bad decisions. Yeah. Yeah, Earth, Wind & Fire. That brings it back. Yeah, that brings back some. Yeah, Prince. All that.
Starting point is 01:04:32 That was my heyday. She encourages me to come out to music. And I feel like it should be just left for the headliner because that's kind of their thing. And we were in Indianapolis and Brian dorfman was there without back and i said brian what do you think do you think i should come out in music he said they're all here to see her it doesn't matter what you do that's very very honest yeah brian should come out the guys that open for you they don't come out to anything no i i've tried it but it's like yeah
Starting point is 01:05:05 it's kind of it makes it you know it's a lot of it's about the you know when you come out like there's they don't see you until the you until you come out and like that kind of stuff and it adds to it and you know it's like i i would never do i'm not very i don't move a lot on stage anyway and so it's like i kind of like a little bit of the lights. They kind of flash, and then you come out to a good song, and it plays. And it just makes it very fun and exciting, and that's what I think you want to do. But I think your songs that you're choosing are great. I mean, people want just fun.
Starting point is 01:05:38 It's about – I would choose those songs. I just want fun. So I want it to be in the mindset of being like fun like you're like when you walk out it's a pleasant song that you're like this song makes me in a good mood and so that's what those songs would be a lot of times you have to go to older songs because some of these other songs are i don't ever listen to what the words are saying so i don't know what you know but like some of them can be you you know, just downers. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's why I like tournament pilots.
Starting point is 01:06:09 So I was fortunate. Will Carsey. I was fortunate enough to see, I would call him Will Carseat. Carseat. Carseat. Carseat. Carseat. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:23 My buddy Will Car seat. Yeah. But a wheel car seat over here. I would do it in that joke of if he said something knowledgeable, I'd go, listen, a wheel car seat over here. He invented the car seat. You ever talk to him about it? He'll tell you. And he would be like, why does he say that? And they'd be like, there's no reason.
Starting point is 01:06:42 I was fortunate enough to see Nate at my church in Houston, Texasxas he had an amazing performance and we all had a great time what are nate's experiences in church environments and how does he change his routine routine to accommodate i'm not particularly rigid religious but i sure wouldn't pass up the chance to see a great comedian uh that's very funny at his church yeah he goes i go to church I'm not into it, but it's like, you know, we look for something to do Sunday morning. I thought.
Starting point is 01:07:08 I'm not religious, but I'd go. Movies aren't open, so I thought I'd go see this. This guy tells story every week. Buy tickets to that. Do you remember that church that he's talking about?
Starting point is 01:07:21 I think so. Was it Joel Steens? Yeah. I didn't remember that? I think so. Was it Joel Osteen's? Yeah. I didn't remember that. I think, yeah. The Astros. Well, there's been a couple, so I'm not sure which one, but I do think I know which one he's talking about.
Starting point is 01:07:37 But it's, yeah, I don't know. When I go do church, if I do a church, I mean, I don't really have to change my act that much. But if I, like, you know, when I talked about church, if I do a church, I mean, I don't really have to change my act that much, but if I like, you know, when I talked about in the old special, uh, Tennessee kid about Annie,
Starting point is 01:07:49 the dog dying. And if people listen to this, they know that joke. I wouldn't do that joke. I didn't do that joke at a church. Cause it was like telling the dogs, not like, you know,
Starting point is 01:07:57 telling Harper, the dog's going to die. I would not do that. And, uh, so that would be the only thing I wouldn't do if I was talking about something like that. But, uh, other than that, I can, I wouldn't do if I was talking about something like that. But other than that, I mean, everything else I can say.
Starting point is 01:08:09 I used to say that I think the pastors are more edgy than I am. Like they might make a drug joke or something like that. I'm always like, you know, good night. What is wrong with these people? Leanne, you're probably too blue to work at churches. I can't talk about, you know prostituting myself to Chuck for money. Yeah. That's not good.
Starting point is 01:08:30 Yeah. But other stuff I can. I feel like I can do it. But see, it's different for me. If they hire me, it's women's group. Yeah. Well, you're talking about women out to have a good time at a big women's group church thing where they're selling Mary Kay in the lobby.
Starting point is 01:08:47 There's a taco truck out front. I mean, that's a good time. That's a good time. And I could come out and go, and they just go throw their purse in the air. It's so fun and easy. I mean, they're just so darling. They're so tickled to be out and about. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:06 You know? And there's a lot of church female comedians, but I'm not like them. They do testimonies and somebody comes up and maybe even play a song. I don't do any of that. No. God did not want me to. No. He doesn't want me either.
Starting point is 01:09:23 I remember trying to do it. Sometimes they were like, am I supposed to do it? And then you're like, I don't know. I can talk. I do think I could do motivational speech. I like talking about goals and that kind of stuff. And that stuff's just fun to talk about. But yeah, when you just do your act and you're like, but this is not.
Starting point is 01:09:43 I was looking at church. You're like, their whole existence is preaching. So I need to just give them a break. Be funny. Yeah, be funny. Even though I could tell a really good testimony. I've got one. You got one ready?
Starting point is 01:09:57 Really twisted. Yeah. I don't have one ready. But I could pull it out of my butt. Yeah. And he has a joke now about that. And he was doing a church, and he goes, oh, my gosh, what if I go through my material?
Starting point is 01:10:09 I said, tell your testimony. And, you know, he really doesn't have one. Brian's really never done anything bad, but I've done some bad stuff. My 80s were pretty sketchy. Yeah. Yeah, I could tell that. Yeah. But I haven't had to yet.
Starting point is 01:10:23 I mean, normally they just want me to be fun, you know. It'll come out eventually. I'll write a book and have to tell all the horrible things I did. Your kids, you got to read. I don't know, you can't. They know some of it, but some of it they don't. Yeah, they'll find out. They're in their 20s.
Starting point is 01:10:42 They'll be all right. Yeah. Nate Roloffs. Roloffs. I'm wondering when and how you make the jump from one size venue to the next. When do you get to the point where you can make the jump from a theater, which would be a few thousand people, to a stadium, which would be 15,000 to 20,000 people?
Starting point is 01:11:00 Based on what you guys have talked about, wanting the room to be full for the best show, when do you risk not filling the entire room for a bigger venue what a good question this is a good question uh i think we're both going through this right now of like where we were i'll let you guys take this one yeah you get started aaron let's start at the bottom so when you want to sell out a bar show here's what i don't even know how to do that you want to go uh yeah i think we're me and you are exactly going through this right now where it's you go to different venues our venues are becoming bigger and you build up you go up so you first like after comedy clubs you kind of go to
Starting point is 01:11:40 thousand seaters 800 seaters there's a lot of 800 theater seats or 1,000, you know. And so you try to do that. Chicago, the Vic in Chicago is, I think, 1,000 seats. And that's a big one. That's usually a lot of people's first theater because Chicago is a good market. And, you know, the Wilbur, too, in Boston is another one where, like, you know, they've got such a good following.
Starting point is 01:12:05 The actual theater does for putting on good shows that they sell tickets just alone. Just the fact that they're a great theater. So you kind of do that and then you kind of spread that out. And then you slowly just start, you know, when you start adding shows and you start doing stuff and you look at the tickets and you look at,
Starting point is 01:12:21 you know, it's a thousand seats, 15, you know, I remember when I did Atlanta was the Cobb was the biggest, it was 2,800. That was the biggest. And that was right before COVID, I think. And that was at that point was the biggest I've ever done.
Starting point is 01:12:34 Like, it was like, I was, I was there with Fallon and I was like, I can't believe this is 2,800 people. And then now, you know, in Nashville, I did two operas in a rhyme which that was almost 12 000 people like it's so then it's is it just continues to grow it just really is the demand is there you just keep going to these towns it's how you build it up everywhere you go to these towns over and over again and people you know a lot of mine is word of mouth i believe you probably a lot of word of mouth people sharing clips and showing people and being like, you've got to watch this person and this person.
Starting point is 01:13:08 And then you go to their town. The next time they come see you again and they come see you again. And it just keeps growing. And I think you build a fan base that will stay with you, which I think. But for 20 years, I mean, I couldn't get arrested. So I couldn't get arrested. So, you know, I would be, I couldn't sell tickets. And then I'd go, we'd get two other comics, call it something. We would try to do three to 500 seats.
Starting point is 01:13:36 Not really sell out. Yeah. But sometimes we would. But then, you know, and then by myself, I i couldn't i could not move up and that when this happened to me it went from zero to a hundred i don't know just like a supernatural i'd say yeah but at first when they first announced my tour it was a thousand seats i like a thousand seats yeah thousands great i like three but i don't, but I like all of them. When you go to five, you're like, well, five is great. Well, but okay, so now I'm in 2,000 to 3,000, and I'm scared to death.
Starting point is 01:14:10 But, I mean, it's going great, and I think my first 4,000 is Detroit, the Fox this year. Yeah. But you and I did the arena in Tupelo. Tupelo. That was between 4,000 and 5,000. Yeah. Guys, I did that too.
Starting point is 01:14:28 Come on. That is true. You did. He's a part of it. Yeah, I mean, it grows. It just grows naturally. You end up getting a great team. Nick Nusiforo is my agent at UTA and like he's at Gaffigan and Sebastian
Starting point is 01:14:45 and Larry the Kid got fucked worthy. I mean, he's done so many people. So you kind of get with those guys. You know, people that know how to, they've seen an act come up and they kind of go like, here's the, you know,
Starting point is 01:15:00 I use, I basically do everything Gaffigan does. Like there is, like and Gaffigan told me he's like i did what john panett did and like you just kind of do that kind of thing so i'm following a lot of his blueprint that's been laid out and you go you know because if you're if you're kind of similar to someone they're like all right you're kind of this kind of play you know you fit with this kind of audience and you kind of, you know, that's the blueprint.
Starting point is 01:15:25 Maybe it changes, maybe blah, blah, goes many different ways. But you just kind of know like, all right. I mean, you got to still be good. I mean, you know, that's the thing is like it can all go away if you are not good. So you're you want to just keep, you know, you got that's that's the that's the nervousness that you get now, is like just to stay as good as you think these people want you to be. And now I think it's changed, especially like you've done two specials for Netflix.
Starting point is 01:15:56 So every year, then you grow more and more from that special and growing those audiences. So then you'll go to arenas. Hopefully. Yeah, you will. Hopefully. You will. So then you'll go to arenas. Hopefully. Yeah, you will. Hopefully. You will. I know you will.
Starting point is 01:16:09 I know, but you are. I mean, but I don't have a special. So if I ever got a special, I think it would help me get to the next level. Yeah. You know, because these two to three are freaking me out. Well, that's what's crazy is you're at where you're at without it. So you've been doing comedy for 22 years. So you started in probably 2000, something like that, like 1999.
Starting point is 01:16:32 I started in 03. And you were 30 or something? You were in your 30s? I was 32, and I had my last baby. So I had three babies. Yeah. And did you always want to do it? Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 01:16:43 Yeah. But I didn't know how. I didn't know where. I wasn't in a place to do it. And did you always want to do it? Yeah. But I didn't know how. I didn't know where. I wasn't in a place to do it. Where were you living? When I got started, I was living in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and Chuck had a used mobile home business. And there was not a club in Knoxville at the time. And I just started out doing like little stuff like the rotary club like i take my babies to to mom's day out and go do something for the rotary and they would give me a gift card you know that kind of thing and then i drove to zany's i somehow talked brian dorfman into letting me open and i opened for um um oh gosh that guy billy gardell oh yeah and i i did the opening like you know the drink of the
Starting point is 01:17:27 night is tequila i was scared to death i'd had i had an 18 month old baby drove i think i drove back in in the same night and i and brian dorfman got me in the back and said leanne i think you've got something yeah but i've told this story many times but he said i think you've got it i really do but how are you gonna raise three babies doing this you just he said roseanne bar raised him in a parking lot in a station wagon and it didn't turn out well i don't know what's happened to her children but um i'm sure they're fine but but he said and it's and it he said you just cannot come up the the way like in comedy clubs if you you're going to raise your own children. Yeah. So then, and it made me mad, but he was right. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:07 And I thought, I'll just find another way. And then we moved. My husband sold that business, and we moved to San Antonio, and that was the first time I lived in a town with a club. And I started doing open mic, and they moved me up quickly. And I opened a lot for people, and would put me on the um late show where everybody was high on marijuana yeah and i was talking about doo-doo balls on a t-ball field and everybody was high and drunk and midnight you know and i had to get up the next morning
Starting point is 01:18:36 take people to school so that was hard but then i started driving back and forth to um cap city comedy club in austin and that was such a great club. Yeah. And they believed in me and moved me from an opener to a headliner for the first time in their history, which was a terrible week. I was scared out of my mind. But in all that, I just couldn't go and leave because my husband's an executive with a big company, and he traveled.
Starting point is 01:19:00 Yeah. So somebody had to raise – and I wanted to be home with the children. Yeah, yeah. So then I just – God put people in my life that lifted me up. And so I got the Southern Fried Chicks. And that's when I was talking about three women. It was after Blue Collar. And they were like, we need women to do this.
Starting point is 01:19:16 So we had a guy out of Nashville that was old school and had booked the Judds and Garth Brooks early on. And he did not take no for an answer. And he put us in every nook and cranny all over the United States. And I worked on the weekends, and took care of the children during the week. And then I'd get a television deal for a sitcom. I've had several of those. But in between those, there were times I could not get arrested,
Starting point is 01:19:42 couldn't get booked. But I would think okay maybe this isn't working and then i'd get a television deal and hollywood would be after me and i'd think okay well i do have it and then nothing you know they it wouldn't make it and then i'd go i'd do churches not a lot of churches i haven't done a lot because i didn't want to i'm a believer but i did not want to get in that space and be under that title. I just thought that's not a good thing for me. I think we have that worry. I think, like, yeah, I think we're the same.
Starting point is 01:20:11 And you always have that worry. You just don't want to be – I don't want to be labeled anything. So I didn't want to be labeled Southern. I didn't want to be labeled clean. I didn't want to be labeled Christian. I just don't want to label. And I just wanted to go out from there. And so that's why, yeah, we do what we do.
Starting point is 01:20:25 Yeah. So I'd done a lot of private corporate, and I did so many clubs a year that Chuck knew he needed to be off and take care of the kids, and I did the same clubs that always brought me back. And they were good clubs, like Cab City Comedy Club. Yeah. Had a lot going on.
Starting point is 01:20:43 Montreal, I got Montreal once. I hope I get to go back. But, I mean, they always asked me to audition. And so I was always in the mix. Yeah. And it was enough to keep me going, you know. And then my children are all gone. And to me, this could not be any better timing.
Starting point is 01:21:04 What I thought it was going to be was when they were younger, and I think about if we had to move to L.A. and I had to raise these children in L.A., that wouldn't have been what I wanted. And then God knew better than I did. And then now they don't need me anymore. And, I mean, I'm very close to my children, and they're over all the time but they don't need me
Starting point is 01:21:25 yeah and I can go and do and it's just so much sweeter and more wonderful than I even dreamed it would be I never dreamed that I would have these big audiences in these theaters because the southern front cheeks we were out and and then three other ones tried country cool me and Trish and little Karen Mills and we were out doing everything we could trying to sell tickets and you know we we did okay but it was nothing was happening you know and you just try to throw something out there and see if it works but anyway then this happened to me and it's unbelievable and talk about what happens like what happened to you how did you go from here to here well you know I have social I have social media, but I'm barely, you know, I'd put up something. You know, my kids, you know, just went to, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:22:12 I just didn't. Yeah. Yeah. I really did not know what I was doing. And people would say to me in the business, you need to work that social media. I'm like, well, I don't want to do it. I'm not going to do it. And then I was watching you and I was watching
Starting point is 01:22:26 Jim Gaffigan. And I told my manager, I go, something, they are doing something. Somebody's doing their social media. And I think I need to do that. And at the beginning, he said, that's too expensive land. And I don't think you should hire anybody. And I, so I kind of let it go. And then we started talking about it again. And I hired these two boys, I say boys, they're y'all's age, and they're, they're darling, they've got children, but I think of them as like my children, my children, but they, I got them, and hired them, and they got all my stuff, you know, that I had filmed, and, because I never put stuff like that up, I never put clips, it was really stupid, now that I think about it, I wasn't doing anything I was supposed to, that up. I had never put clips. It was really stupid now that I think about it. I wasn't doing anything I was supposed to. Anyway, they put out a second clip. They started in October of 2019,
Starting point is 01:23:11 and I was moving my youngest into school in New York, and we were in a hotel room, and they had put out, I think, I thought it was the first clip, but it may have been the second that they ever put out of me, and I had, me. And it was about taking my husband to go see Def Leppard and Journey and old people at concerts. And I had never done that bit before, and we just happened to film that in Chattanooga at the Walker. And I had been to take Chuck to see Def Leppard and Journey, and I told that story, and I never told it before on stage.
Starting point is 01:23:45 Somebody got it on film. These boys released it, put on the graphics, old people going to concerts and that must have grabbed people. And I noticed when we were in that hotel room in Manhattan, I said to my family, something's happening. I could feel it. I could physically feel it. I said to my family, something's happening. I could feel it. I could physically feel it. People were sharing thousands of shares, and it was just going up, up, up, millions. And I said, something's happening.
Starting point is 01:24:16 And they all went, shut up, get that luggage, and let's get in the Uber. I mean, nobody cared. I think all my life, my children, I think they think I'm funny. And my husband has been very supportive of my career, but I think they've kind of thought, oh, kooky mom, kooky mom, trying to be a comedian. And when I said something's happening, they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got to go and get her in this dorm room. But I felt it. I knew it was happening. And I knew it was supernatural. I know I say that, and i don't mean to say that other people can't do it like you've got to be touched by god i don't want it to sound like
Starting point is 01:24:50 it has to be that you know but i know that it was it was something beyond anything i could have done i mean i just know it was i thought that that clip at that time and people started sharing it well then they started looking what else does she do? So they started looking up. I'd done a dry bar. Yeah. And I had done this dry bar special, and I remember, this is how my career was going.
Starting point is 01:25:18 Dry bar, nobody knew about dry bar. My manager said, there's this thing that the Mormon people are putting on in Salt Lake City, and he said, I don't think it'll hurt you yeah he goes let's let's go let's do it i don't think anybody will ever see it yeah he said you've already you're gonna be in omaha um where was i going dubuque you're gonna be in Dubuque, Iowa doing the Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Yeah. That's how my career was going. He goes, you're going to be in Dubuque doing that luncheon,
Starting point is 01:25:52 which my friend Barry always hired me to do that. And I'm not saying anything because Dubuque, they're darling. But I did that luncheon. Because it snows there all the time, they just drink alcohol all the time. And so they had alcohol at that luncheon they all because it snows there all the time they just drink alcohol all the time and so they had um alcohol at that luncheon and i'm not a big drinker but i had not eaten i drank a mimosa i got buzzed and had to go sit on the toilet and put both of my feet on the toilet and i was holding on in the in that because the room starts spinning like when you're in college. And then I had to get up and do that show at the Dubuque luncheon.
Starting point is 01:26:32 Anyway, did that, Chamber of Commerce. Then I fly to Salt Lake City to do that for Dry Bar. And I had gotten a spray tan. And I don't know why, I took a shower and all that spray tan came off right here. And the rest of me was just like a pumpkin, band spray tan came off right here and the rest of me was just like um like a pumpkin band spray tan and i had um a necklace on from the loft that i thought i'll wear this choker and be cute i had a thyroid nodule that had poked out and that that choker got cocked up on that nodule i can't even watch that special. I wore a cuff, a big cuff and a jean that really cut
Starting point is 01:27:08 my leg off. Really did. Looked terrible. And I was scared. I had not done that material. He goes, just do some old material. You'll get a clip from it. You'll never see these people again. That's how he said it to me. And I go, okay, I did this old material I can barely remember.
Starting point is 01:27:24 And but darn, if that didn't get millions and millions of views. But I think that was because there were very few women in it, and I was at the beginning. And Dry Bar was new, and it was just going like gangbusters. And so that had millions of views. It got me fans. But that didn't do, that was about a year until I hired these boys. And when I hired these boys, that changed my life.
Starting point is 01:27:47 And they say, Liam, you did it. We didn't. I mean, we just helped you get there. But I think that I have an audience that is underserved. I think nobody, not that Hollywood doesn't care, but Hollywood doesn't understand. Yeah. And they are everyday people out here in the United States that are darling. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:28:08 And I hit a niche. And I think once they saw the Def Leppard one, because a lot of men like that. And then they started sharing that, and then they went and watched Dry Bar. And those numbers went up. And then they started looking for, you know, if you became a fan of mine, started looking for everything I'd done. And I had a podcast, Sweaty and Pissed. And then a Pause and More.
Starting point is 01:28:31 Say it again. And that had like, you know, I don't know what's the good, but like 25,000 downloads, you know, of episode. And we had Reese Witherspoon shared it. Oh, wow. Awesome. Yeah, and that was a niche because that's medical and entertainment. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:28:49 And so that started growing, and people wanted that. No one's going after the medical entertainment market. John reaps testosterone. Yeah. You might want to hear about testosterone and a little humor. Menopause and a good time. But anyway, that's what happened, and it was crazy. So I've been doing this for a long time.
Starting point is 01:29:12 And in my mind, I thought I'd be a sitcom star. Yeah. From the time I was five, I thought I'm going to be on television, and this is what's going to happen. And, you know, I've had wonderful writers, and I've had wonderful deals and all that, but they just didn't make it. You know, it's like winning the lottery, getting something on TV.
Starting point is 01:29:31 Well, they say it's hard. There was a saying, Nick's wife. I can't remember exactly what she said. It's like the idea of like it's – she said it once. She has a hard time remembering it. I'm always like, remember it. Her name's Till. And I was like, Till, just remember it because I loved it so much.
Starting point is 01:29:50 But it was like – I i mean it's impossible uh it's something it's like it's it's like uh something like it's impossible to even get a script sold and then uh it's even more impossible to get it to shoot a pilot and even in like almost non-existent impossible or something it was not like those words but it's like the idea of it was like everyone was to even get it to even get them to pay you to write a script is insane it's insane i mean there's looking at so many scripts the fact that you get to that and that feels like nothing because they say no to it you don't get that pilot well you're like, you're in just, I mean, it's a tiny group that you're in. And then did you shoot a pilot? 10 of them? I mean, they might buy 10 scripts out of a hundred, 200,
Starting point is 01:30:35 like at the, you know, it's insane to be in that. And then, you know, to get in the, get the, and then get past and get the show made is. Yeah. Well, I was talking to Fortune Feimster. I was on her podcast, and she said, Lane, I had, I think it was ABC, Tina Fey was her executive producer. Annie Potts played her mother. And she said, and it didn't make it. I mean, when you think about, and all that she's got going on.
Starting point is 01:31:01 You know? You've got to create something that you, it's about you. And I think I'm learning it now is more like, you know you got to create something that you it's about you and i i think i'm learning it now is more like you know something that i never took advice up when when selling a show uh you know and i mean in some like we like it's like in some ways we've had similar like you know i've had a bunch of the tv deals and all that kind of stuff. And none of them really go. And like, you just keep plowing ahead. But there it's, it's when you create a show, it's like,
Starting point is 01:31:31 they'd always say, write the show that you want. And then if it doesn't go, you can at least walk away and go, well, I wrote what I wanted and y'all didn't want it. And that's okay. Instead of writing the show that you think they want, that's what you can't do because you, do. Because what they want changes on a dime.
Starting point is 01:31:48 If they want Everybody Loves Raymond, but then the next day, The Office got the most views of all time. Well, now they don't want Everybody Loves Raymond. They will give us The Office. And so if you took six months to write Everybody Loves Raymond, because Everybody Loves Raymond is the biggest show on earth. And then the day you turn it in, the office becomes the biggest show on earth. Now your script is pointless. Because then they go, well, I want that thing now. And this is that old thing. Even if Every Brother's Raymond does good, they don't
Starting point is 01:32:17 care. We could all be like, we're all like that in a little bit. And the fact that you kind of just, the new thing kind of grabs you and you want that. And so you got to like, it's eventually, it's like, write the thing that you want to do. And then that's, you know, and that's where you get, you get held. I mean, I agree with you. We're talking about feeling something too. Like, I understand that you feel, it's just, I know what you mean. Like it's, you always feel like you're getting prepared.
Starting point is 01:32:44 Like, I feel like I'm getting very told to be prepared. Like it's like there's a preparation that you're, you don't know, you're like, you're just kind of getting everything in order. And you're like, you just feel like it suffers a lot more than it used to be. And it's, it's just different. And it's different than it's ever been. And it's, you know, you don't take it for granted. You're always like grateful.
Starting point is 01:33:05 You try to always remind yourself that kind of stuff, but that's what you're going through, and it's happening. But that's why your rise is so great because the people that you're talking about, it's not a niche. It's every single person on earth. It's not even just America. It's earth. It's all of the people on earth except everybody's just families.
Starting point is 01:33:24 That's what they are. It doesn't matter where you go. It's all of the people on earth, except like everybody's just families. That's what they are. It doesn't matter where you go. It's a family. You're sitting, you know, most people are sitting there with their family. They're the ones wanting to watch this stuff. They're the people that don't get a show or something kind of built around them. You know, it's built around this other thing or this. Sometimes it's like, you know, I gotta watch these like like uh or what's that
Starting point is 01:33:45 vampire movie twilight that was huge right like you're making stuff and that's a huge thing but you're like that no one's no parents are watching that or no that's not made for them and so sometimes they hollywood wants young and so they go young and then they want to make stuff even more young when you're like well that's not young's not watching you it's my age is watching is watching you. It's 30 year olds, 40 year olds, 50 year olds. They're the ones watching you. They're the 50 year olds. They don't want ads. They're the ones that got money. They're the ones buying this stuff, the ads. The 20 year old's not buying this stuff. A 50 year old is. And so that niche is just a huge, and that's where your success, that's why it blew up. If you were a niche, you wouldn't have blown up the way you blew up.
Starting point is 01:34:27 You blew up big because it related to everybody. Well, thank you, my darling. And I guess you're right because when I had my first deal with ABC, I went out to L.A. and they wanted me to do a showcase at La La Factory. And this is before we sold it to ABC, but they had NBC. Back then, it wasn't streaming, so it was ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox came out to watch me. And we walk up to La Laugh Factory, and my producer at Warner Brothers said,
Starting point is 01:34:57 oh, that's odd. They're calling this Sultan of Comedy Night. And he goes, what does that mean? And I thought, Sultan. And my kids were little, and I thought, oh, that's that Disney show on the magic carpet. Aladdin. Aladdin, Sultan.
Starting point is 01:35:13 I said, is it something to do with Aladdin? And come to find out, it was Middle Eastern night. And they had me in a lineup with Gilda the Mean Turk, Peter the Persian, Basil the Armenian. And Aladdin. And Aladdin. And they gave me 20 minutes.
Starting point is 01:35:33 And, you know, sweet Middle Eastern people, I don't think they get a lot of time. So they were pissed. And I remember somebody giving me the light, and I'm going to say, they've given me 20 minutes. I'm doing a showcase for all these networks. But I was got i was scared out of my mind i thought i was going to die and i got up and i talked i did my act and and they and it went well and then that night my producer said lean i figured it out people want to say you're a southern comedian but you're not they this i know you got a thick accent, but these Middle Eastern women
Starting point is 01:36:05 are trying to find balloon jeans to fit over their stomach. These Middle-aged women are having to prostitute themselves to their husband for money. What you talk about is universal. And that was a big time in my career when he said that to me, because I did feel that way. And I felt that way this whole time. Even in 22 years, I felt confident. And I thought, I know I've got something. I know I've got something. I know I can do this.
Starting point is 01:36:32 But when it happens to you, I think this is normal to go through like an imposter thing. Imposter syndrome. Yeah. And that's why I've been listening to podcasts and people talking about going through imposter syndrome because I was trying to figure that out. Because then I felt like, oh, no, I'm not worthy. How is this happening to me? Because I do know so many talented people in this business,
Starting point is 01:36:53 and I've worked with so many talented people, and this won't happen for them. It doesn't happen for everybody. And so I have. You and Nate, you've heard me say this before, y'all have a lot in common. You're positive in your comedy
Starting point is 01:37:10 in the sense that you're both from the South, clean, but you don't put down the South. You're proud of where you come from. You say things,
Starting point is 01:37:18 even in a sarcastic way, in a positive manner. You both love your spouse. You make fun of them, but you talk about how you love your spouse. And that resonates with people. It's not so dark. It's not so negative. It's not talking about just very depressing topics. It's for families, like you said. Yeah. I mean, I think it's... I mean, look, that's why Ted Lasso did so good,
Starting point is 01:37:41 because it was a positive kind of kind of thing and it was and that's what I think people want and you were lucky to be in a time that I think that's uh it can be at times hard to find and so we're lucky that we're to we're getting to be grateful enough to get to take advantage of this time but you do always feel that like that imposter feeling and I mean that's you do feel like it's not happening to you and I think you want it to I think you want to not feel like it's happening to you. You want it to be, you know, you got to look at it like you're the vessel. It's not you.
Starting point is 01:38:11 It's like, it's not about you. It's not about my accomplishments or my, it's about what you're giving to somebody or something. Or I think like the, it's easier to think of it like that. Maybe that's the case. It's like, you don't want to, you know, you don't want to you know you don't want to you know because you can like it's weird to you do sometimes you're murdering and you're up there and you're like and i'm like maybe i'm a great comedian and that pops in your head and then you're but i'm like i don't want that thought in there you're not supposed to be here like that's not what this is about and you try to get that thought
Starting point is 01:38:44 out because it's like i that's a bad, I don't think it's a road that you can, no one can handle, is to go down that road of being like, I'm, it's me and I'm, and you know, it's about, it's got to go out. It's got to, everything's got to go out. And like, you can't come in. And the end is what I think messes people up. And I think when people can't, because you can't, then you can't live up to even your own standards that you think you're,
Starting point is 01:39:09 because you make them up to something. So you're like, well, how can I live up to what I think I'm supposed to, if I think this? And you think it. You don't not think it. It's not, I think that stuff, that stuff pops in my head all the time. I think, you know, man, I'm doing really good. I feel like my act's different than anybody.
Starting point is 01:39:26 I think I'm better than most comics. Like you can, that stuff can pop in your head, but then you're like, but I've got to ground myself to be like, I'm not, I'm an idiot. I don't know how to read. I don't like, you know, I probably have type two diabetes, maybe three. Like there's all this stuff that you have that's like, why don't you calm it down a little bit and get back into reality and just be like, I'm happy that I'm going to do what I want.
Starting point is 01:39:47 And I need to make sure that that audience is, and that's where it becomes about them. And it's like, you want to make sure that they have a good time and that they have fun and they get to laugh and you get, and they get a break from their lives. And just like we need a break from lives. Just when I watch Angel Has Fallen, I've watched all the Gerard Butler movies. And he's giving me a break. Oh, yes, I've seen those. Yeah, they're great. They are. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:40:09 They're fun. It's fun. You just mind your own business and watch Gerard. So come to our shows or watch Gerard Butler. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's it. Long story short, buy tickets to me, Leanne, or Gerard. Anything Gerard.
Starting point is 01:40:22 But if you're at least going to Gerard Butler or something, we will allow it. Well, and I think that if this had happened to me younger, when I was thinner and prettier, you know, because I was pretty cute. If this had happened to me. You're still very pretty. Thank you, doll. Thank you. But I look at pictures.
Starting point is 01:40:40 Poor Brian has to film me going out on stage. And it's just, it's like you're in the coma. It's just like a big butt walking out. And it looks like you could put a cafeteria tray on the back of my butt. Is that where he set the camera at? And so then he got to where he was just trying to get an elbow. He goes, well, what if I just do your arm? So if you notice it, in any of my videos, it's just an arm out there because I thought, oh, my gosh, my breasts.
Starting point is 01:41:07 Whose breasts are these? I mean, they're just like big feet sacks. Anyway, I do. You just start now doing just pictures before everybody sits down and you just go, can't wait for them tonight. This is a picture of the seats. Yeah, we do a lot of that. But, yeah, and I talk to John Crist about a lot of it too.
Starting point is 01:41:25 And he worries like, you can't help, but you want everybody to have a wonderful time. You worry, are they going to buy tickets? Are they going to love me? What is going to, you know, it's just pressure, but it's sweet. Yeah, it's hard to not have that pressure. It's hard to think, am I, A, we don't get a gauge. There's not like a system. I know they're talking about like I'm on Gaffigan's blueprint like well there can be a blueprint but it doesn't mean I'm going to hit
Starting point is 01:41:51 everything maybe the time he hit everything doesn't mean I might hit something faster I might not hit something faster I might do there's you know it's a different time like I look at like what were you really look at like when he was 40 like was that the hot pocket hot pocket was like when he was 40 and so you look at that now i'm 42 and then you're like so you kind of look at stuff to be like all right we but you're trying to gauge where am i am i selling who's doing you know you start looking at who's doing what who's doing we talked about today with some show being like they were at this theater i'm like well where am i at am i there i think we're adding like but you're trying to gauge to be like all right you want to see your success uh and there's a competitiveness to it and you should have that or you won't have
Starting point is 01:42:31 a drive uh but you got also like you know it's like there's no real it's hard to we're in a business that there's no there's not a system there's not rules there's not like yeah this is what happens it happens yeah you got a medical school and you become a doctor yeah it's like it can be it doesn't matter how you get there you're getting there whether it takes as i was not i'm 19 years in you're 22 years in you know it's like it takes people a long time it takes people sometimes it doesn't sometimes it takes people no time and they become famous super quick and sometimes you can have pockets you could always have someone be jealous of your your whole You could always have someone be jealous of your whole career.
Starting point is 01:43:06 You'd have someone be jealous of your whole career. Even when you thought no one was, there was someone that was probably like, well, why don't I get what she gets? And so everybody's going to have that, and you always go. And that's when you just got to always be aware that you're thinking that, I think, and then get back to the game plan of just being like, just try to be better and better every day.
Starting point is 01:43:28 You're very tough-minded, too. I'll ask her, was it tough for you as a woman on the road doing these terrible, terrible gigs? And she'll say, no, everyone really always treated me great and everything. And then later, she'll tell me some awful thing that some man said to her. I'm like, Leanne, that's clearly because you're a woman. She's like, oh, well, I guess you're right. I just dealt with it.
Starting point is 01:43:48 So you don't let that get you down. You just roll with the punches. No, I mean, I feel like I've been treated well most of the time. You know, stuff happens. But, yeah, I guess I am pretty tough. I'm a mom, you know. I've had three children. I've been through about everything.
Starting point is 01:44:04 And so, no, I've never felt like on Twitter, people get to fight and then women are angry that are in comedy. And I've never felt that. I've always had people be great to me. I mean, there's been some instances, but nothing that would bring me down. Well, you don't think it's an overall thing? I don't, but that's my experience. But maybe I have a church lady vibe where nobody's going to say, I don't know. I haven't had many people be mean to me. I haven't had hecklers for the most part.
Starting point is 01:44:36 I mean, I've had every once in a while somebody, a drunk woman will yell out C-section. But for the most part, I mean, Brian and I just had somebody. I don't even know if you'd call him a heckler. That was just a, I brian and i just had somebody i don't even know if you call him a heckler that was just uh i don't know just a i don't even know a problem yeah yeah but i i think people i don't i think i have a uh personality that people don't want to be mean to me or mess with me i just don't yeah well it's what you present and i think that's what back to like people not hating your audience, you're your audience. You wouldn't go yell at someone.
Starting point is 01:45:07 So why would they? I wouldn't scream out. Why would someone? People get drunk and they do stuff. I've had that happen, but it's not all the time. It's, you know, and that's why when it happens that you don't feel, I don't feel like I ever got to really be mean to them because you're like, I don't think, I think they're going to be embarrassed about this tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:45:25 And I hate that it's happening now. And I don't want it to ruin everybody's time, but because you're like, I don't think, I think they're going to be embarrassed about this tomorrow. And I hate that it's happening now and I don't want to ruin everybody's time, but it's not like we're all just sitting there going like, yeah, one of us has got a little too much to drink. We've all been, you know, maybe you've all been there. We're doing something you regret. And then you just get through it and then you just move on. Yeah. And that's what you think.
Starting point is 01:45:43 And that's, and I think that comes off and like, that's where your audience would be like, yeah, we're you. you just move on. Yeah. And that's what you think. And I think that comes off and like that's where your audience would be like, yeah, we're you. And you're them. Yeah. And I've got my audience. I mean, it's like Erin's mama. She ain't going to do something crazy. You know, they're precious people that have raised a bunch of kids
Starting point is 01:45:58 and they just want to have a good time. I mean, they're darling. They are. I mean, and they're everywhere. And it's, I know I've said it. Everybody's great. Yeah. I was to say, I think it's 99% of humans on earth are the greatest people you ever meet in your life.
Starting point is 01:46:17 I think so too. And then say like 1% is like the worst. But like if you just started covering the pot if you were like yeah you know what actually everybody's pretty awesome and then just talk talk about the awesomeness and quit bringing up the mean you would be you'd be like man it is a pretty crazy you know riding with a pin riding in the big bangs and riding on this paper Whatever. There's a lot of sweet people out there. I think there's more good than there is bad. Yo.
Starting point is 01:46:48 I think. Yeah. They're not even close. And I think people want it to seem like it's bad. I say 99% is good. I mean, I don't even know. That's how high I go. I think everybody is.
Starting point is 01:46:57 Yeah. I think people get talked into different stuff that they shouldn't be, and I don't think they would be talked into it. I think it's someone leading a lot of people into a wrong thing. It's very easy. I would be very influenced when I was younger. It's very easy to get swayed into something that you don't think you should be in. But I always think everybody, if you got them alone, I just think they would be wonderful.
Starting point is 01:47:21 And it's like they just get wrapped up in the wrong kind of thing, and it's hard to get out of that sometimes. And so, you know, but overall, yeah, everybody wants to have a good time. Everybody wants to have fun. Everybody likes jokes being made. Like everybody's like trying to live their life doing stuff. Yeah. And if somebody needs help, they go help. I think.
Starting point is 01:47:38 They go help. Yeah. I mean, everybody wants to help. I mean, America's got to be one of the more charitable countries in the world. I don't know if that's true or help. Yeah. I mean, America's got to be one of the more charitable countries in the world. I don't know if that's true or not. I would think so. But that's what I – that's all back to the cancer. Remember, we were talking about how they not solved cancer.
Starting point is 01:47:56 But you're given so much money. You're given trillions of dollars. And you're like, you know, I don't know. I don't know if that has anything to do with anything. People often ask me. My charity rant. They're going, where are they putting this money at? People often ask me, is her accent real or is that just a character she does on stage?
Starting point is 01:48:16 And I say, if anything, she dials it down when she's on stage. People say that to me. They go, is that real? And I'm thinking, do you think I really, I'm too tired to put this on. You know, this is it. But I've had people say that to me. And I think, well, you've never been to Adams, Tennessee, where the Bell Witch is.
Starting point is 01:48:35 Yeah. Yeah. Where we grow dark-fired tobacco. Yeah. Because we all sound like that. So the Bell Witch, so then you grew up there. And it was just like everybody talked about it. Were y'all annoyed that it was there?
Starting point is 01:48:49 Yeah, we were annoyed. And if there was like a 4th of July picnic in the town, in the little, it's a little bitty town behind Bell School, is where they would have the barbecue and all of that. And there would be a square dance late at night. And all my family's danced in it, and I was really a good dancer with my Uncle Roy, who was on the Grand Ole Opry, Louisiana Hayride with Hank Williams Sr.
Starting point is 01:49:17 Yeah, so we really, I mean, are some good dancers. I mean that. Yeah. Okay, so. Nate didn't believe you, but. Yeah, but there was a. Well, you know what made me think about that like you know
Starting point is 01:49:25 I'm talking about like thinking about yourself you don't want to think about yourself now it's like the way you talk about yourself being a good dancer everybody does that
Starting point is 01:49:33 everybody talks about when I was little I was just this cute little thing I did the dance and it's a positive way that's almost the way you got to think
Starting point is 01:49:39 about your life now is like that that's what I thought of when you said that it's like that and no one ever thinks that's what you said is everybody would say that and it's a very sweet thing i was not a bad little basketball player back in the day you know it's like that's almost how you gotta think of yourself now i think is like you gotta think all right doing all right
Starting point is 01:49:55 it's pretty good you know like you're almost like even though it's in the present a little bit but it's like you know it's always like you think picturing someone else i don't know that might not be true at all so don't listen to anything say. But that's what I thought of when you said that. Well, at the Bell Witch, when they would have the 4th of July picnic, they had all these festivities throughout the day. And right in the middle of it would be a coffin with a dummy in it. And they would say, that's Kate Bantz and that's the Bell Witch. And as a little child, it ruined things for us. There, gosh. You know, there'd be a talent show.
Starting point is 01:50:27 There'd be, you know, all kinds of festivities going on through the day, and then they'd put a – and it looked real. And I would have – my grandmother would have to give me a bunch of Tums because my stomach would get upset, and I'd think, oh, my God, there's a witch. I mean, so it was – to me, it was scary, and it was – and I always had these cousins that were a nightmare, and they would go, oh, she's in here. And we've said her name 12 times, and we've turned around, and she's in the mirror.
Starting point is 01:50:52 And I'd be like, what? And I didn't want all that. I don't like stuff like that. And my little bitty Methodist church across the road was a cemetery with the Bell family in it. So these boys from Vanderbilt fraternity football team, whoever, trying to haze somebody, would bring them down, put them in that cemetery. They would get so scared they'd come and beat the windows out of the
Starting point is 01:51:14 Methodist church. And my pastor would say, they beat the windows out again, and we're going to have to take up money. Put these windows back in here. And then there's a cave. I've never been to the cave.. Put these windows back in here. Yeah. And then there's a cave. I've never been in the cave. Why don't y'all just leave the door unlocked? We've left our door unlocked for...
Starting point is 01:51:30 I know, but why don't y'all just leave the door unlocked at the church? Oh, I know. You're right. Let's just let people come in. So when he takes up the offering... You're right. I know when he takes the offering, it's a church. And so when he takes up the offering, you should have just wrote a note.
Starting point is 01:51:43 You go, I'm not going to give you money, but I think I'm going to save us all money. And you go, just read that note. Let's just leave the door unlocked. We're not even locking our doors at our houses. We didn't. We didn't. You're right. My mom and daddy, okay.
Starting point is 01:51:55 But yeah, it was not, I didn't enjoy it, but I've always been scared of demons. I don't like to bring demons into my... Somebody asked me on something the other day about the Bell Witch, and they said, did you have seances when you were little? I was like, no. I don't like demon stuff. Yeah, I don't think most people did have seances. Whoever asked you that is kind of crazy.
Starting point is 01:52:17 Freaky little woman. Maybe like a Ouija board, that kind of stuff. Yeah, a Ouija, and people had Ouija. My cousin's dead. Is it a cave? There's a cave. It's right there on the road? It says temporary closed.
Starting point is 01:52:28 Is that because he died? He died, yeah, and I don't know what his children are going to do. But yeah, they find stuff. No, my family does. Yeah. Would you say they find stuff? They find bones from animals and Native American. I think they found some native american bones in there oh my god remains i've never been in it because i don't like demon
Starting point is 01:52:53 stuff but you know the whoever's owned it through the past there was a little old man that owned it when i was growing up and he didn't want people to come into the cave, and he would yell at people and run them off, which is crazy, because he could have had an income from that. It's never been utilized like it should, because people, honest to goodness, come from all over the world to see the Bell Witch. And we're just not, we don't have the infrastructure. There's one little man named Tim Henson, and he's got the museum up at the bell school
Starting point is 01:53:27 and he's got a lot of stuff and there's some a lot of weird old photos that look freaky and um and they're in the Red River Boys were boys that I went to high school with that tried to make it the music industry and they did all right and he's got huge posters of them and then there's one tiny picture of me and my dad gets so mad and he goes you're really the only And he's got huge posters of them. And then there's one tiny picture of me. And my dad gets so mad and he goes, you're really the only one that's got anything going on. You got more going on than the Bell Witch. Yeah. And why wouldn't he have that up there?
Starting point is 01:53:54 Yeah. But I've thought about maybe doing a limited podcast series on the Bell Witch. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. That'd be amazing. And digging into it. But I had a um high school history teacher that's no longer with us he was from heaven his name was mr man tooth and he was
Starting point is 01:54:11 so interesting and a wonderful history teacher or he went to heaven he went to heaven but he was darling and from heaven oh yeah he was from there and there now yeah but uh mr man tooth and he was a wonderful history teacher and would tell us, he was the kind of history teacher that would tell you all the interesting stuff behind just the, you know, you didn't just spit out, bring in information and spit it out. He'd tell you stuff like how they tortured people by putting their eyelids in with toothpicks and made horses run at them.
Starting point is 01:54:41 You know, fun stuff. So anyway, not just like facts, but like, oh, yeah, well, everybody was pregnant on the boat coming over on the Mayflower because they didn't have anything else to do but eat. And so there was a lot of unwed mothers. There was a lot of young girls that were pregnant on the Mayflower. Never thought about that, no. Yeah, they were doing it.
Starting point is 01:55:01 Anyway, he would tell us about the Bell Witch and i wish that i'd listen but i was probably flirting with people but um but he would tell us stuff about really what went on with the bell witch do y'all want to hear it yeah yeah he says that there was a man that came through adams that was a genius and a ventriloquist and could throw his voice and was a mathematician and very brilliant, and that he fell in love with Lucy Bale, the daughter, and she did not like him back. She did not reciprocate that. And so he's the one that threw his voice when they thought they heard voices
Starting point is 01:55:38 in the – and Andrew – was it Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson? Jackson. Jackson came to investigate, and the wagon wheel was locked up, and he had to turn around. It was that man who was throwing his voice and doing all that, and he's the one that poisoned John Bell and killed him. Oh, my gosh. So he was like a sociopath.
Starting point is 01:55:55 Yeah, yeah. He came through and was trying to woo Lucy. She wasn't having it. She wasn't having it, and that he had all of these talents and could do freaky stuff to people is what my sweet Mr. Manteo thought it was. Now, other people think that Kate Bantz was the woman in the town that was crazy and that she died and she came back and haunted people.
Starting point is 01:56:15 She was the dummy in everything we ever did. There would be a dummy and they'd go, that's Kate Bantz. Ruined everything. Think about it. Being nine years old, being like, you're in somebody's dead body. It really wasn't, you know, but, oh, horrible. And what if Kate Batchelor is like just a nice lady? She may have been.
Starting point is 01:56:33 Yeah. But John Bell did die. He was poisoned. He was poisoned and murdered. Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, there's been several movies about it. Did y'all talk about that? No.
Starting point is 01:56:43 C.C. Spacek and Donald Sutherland did the last one. Oh, wow. Yeah. That was American. American Haunted. American Haunting. Yeah. Oh.
Starting point is 01:56:53 Tommy Lee Jones was in it, right? Was he? Maybe I'm wrong. I watched it, but I can't remember. It's about the Bell Witch? It's about the Bell Witch. And then. Is it good?
Starting point is 01:57:01 Did they call it the Bell Witch or they just base it off of that? I thought that was based on the Bell Witch. Yeah, I think they may be based... I don't know in the movie if they call her the Bell Witch. Oh, they called her the Bell Witch. Call her John Bell and all that. But I had a good friend that I grew up with, and he lived in the big house that was built on that land,
Starting point is 01:57:21 and they had a black dog. She came... They said that the witch came in the um in the uh form in other forms yeah of like a black crow a black dog and there was a black dog that would always come up on their property and had a bullet hole in his head and you could see the bullet and um they said that was the bell witch that she that dog lived way too long with a bullet hole yeah and they heard stuff and stuff his mom had a lot of antiques she had a vitrola is that how you say it the
Starting point is 01:57:52 record player and it would start playing and they would hear people going up stamps and all that i did not i did not bring demons into my life yeah i think you can you can. Yeah. And I don't, I don't like all that stuff. So I never, I had some cousins who dug all that and tried to bring it, but I don't,
Starting point is 01:58:11 I don't like that. Yeah. I don't like that stuff, but. It could be, you could be thinking about it. Like if you want it, if you want it,
Starting point is 01:58:18 it's like it could be there. Yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah, that's crazy then. I mean, yeah, you could be.
Starting point is 01:58:27 I mean, so many people, it is true. So many people around the world want to know about the Bell Witch. Is it the most famous witch? Most famous ghost, yeah. I mean, she's really a ghost, right? Yeah. They call her Bell Witch, but spirit. Spirit, yeah, spirit.
Starting point is 01:58:43 Yeah. An American haunting of the Bell Witch. Yeah, is it good? But Spirit Spirit Yeah Spirit Yeah Yeah An American Haunting Of the Bell Witch Is that Yeah is it good I don't I can't remember Is it on
Starting point is 01:58:52 I can't remember I saw it But you're right It was Donald Sutherland Not Tommy Lee Jones Is it got a good ratings I might watch it tonight You know
Starting point is 01:58:59 You know Rotten Tomatoes Yeah 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. All right, maybe I'll give it a nice breeze through. Murder. Or maybe I got enough from you, and I don't need to go watch it. Oh, my gosh, that is bad.
Starting point is 01:59:15 There was one made in Pigeon Forge, and I'm scared to even say this because that man, I've said before that it was bad, and he came after me. But the reason why it was bad is that it was not it was said in east tennessee in a holler well in middle tennessee we don't have hollers and they were doing an apple harvesting and we grow dark fire tobacco and that's what we're known for in middle tennessee and especially in adams and that's why the Bell family lived there and they were very prominent. Adams was going to be the capital of Tennessee because of the rich farmland, but then they decided on Nashville.
Starting point is 01:59:55 But anyway, they made this movie. That's why your family moved there because you were like, all right, we're going to get a head start. And then they go, we're moving it. And you go, dadgummit. We'll give you all a witch though. Yeah. But they did a movie up in Pigeon Forge, and nothing was accurate. And I guess it wasn't supposed to be historically accurate,
Starting point is 02:00:14 but the story itself, it was bad acting. It was like, hello, I am the bear witch. You know, that kind of thing. And I just said that on the local radio in Knoxville. And yeah, and he was like, you don't understand what art is. Yeah. Hey, boo-boo. Hey, boo-boo.
Starting point is 02:00:36 Hey, my darling. This is a little bit longer one. This is good. Yeah, we had fun. This is our. Didn't y'all really? Oh, yeah. I've had fun. I don't think good. Yeah, we had fun. Didn't y'all really? Oh, yeah. I'm having fun.
Starting point is 02:00:46 I don't think the audience did, but we did. No, it was great. Oh, you angel. This is our last episode of the year. This is our last episode of the year. We're going to title it Bell Witch because then we barely talk about Bell Witch.
Starting point is 02:00:59 It's our last, yeah, our final episode of the year is today. Wow. It's you. I got some 2022 final episode of the year is today. Wow. It's you. I got some 2022 predictions I'm going to make. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This is the big one.
Starting point is 02:01:12 Yeah. I got one for you. You're going to put out a special in 2022. Ooh. That's mine for you. I'll make sure that I don't have a thyroid nodule. I'll really watch my gluten. Thank you, Brian Bates.
Starting point is 02:01:24 I'm like the Wizard of Oz I'm just giving out gifts You're going to do A late night set That sounds good That's good I got two for you What is yours going to be?
Starting point is 02:01:33 I'm going to have a baby And I'm going to help raise it The actually Probably the most accomplished The most unlikely A couple months ago If you just said it. You're going to play Augusta.
Starting point is 02:01:49 I'm going to say that. You'll finally play probably the nicest golf course in America, right? Yeah. And you're going to meet Jerry Seinfeld and get to know him and have his number and become friends with him. Oh, man. That's a big, how exciting would that be? I don't really know him, so not that exciting.
Starting point is 02:02:09 Harper's not impressed. That would be, those are two good ones. Yeah. I like it. All your ones for this year were correct, right? Or maybe it was a little. I can't remember what they were. What was it for you?
Starting point is 02:02:19 I don't know. Oh, you got married, which I think you're already engaged. So that's crazy. And you did Just for Laughs. Yeah. New Faces Montreal. Yeah. There you go. That're already engaged. So that's amazing. And you did Just for Laughs. Yeah. New Faces Montreal. Yeah, you got that one. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:02:28 So it's looking good. I don't remember. Yeah. Do you remember what it was for him? No. Sorry. Okay. She has one for Bob Ripple Vance.
Starting point is 02:02:37 Your name will be more popular that more people will be calling you that, Bob Ripple Vance. That's a good prediction. That's a good prediction. That's a good prediction. More people will know who Bob Ribble Vance is. It's well on its way. Yeah. I like him.
Starting point is 02:02:50 Awesome. I think you will be, I think this next year will be your biggest year. Well, 2021 was my biggest year. So it will be. 2022 will be your biggest. Well, thank you.
Starting point is 02:03:01 I hope so. On your own, headlining your own world. It'll be a good thing. Make it $200. That's what it should be paying. We clarified. Brian will do any show.
Starting point is 02:03:14 The offers are still coming in. Yeah. 150 bucks per two hours. Not even an hour. It's more than. No. Everybody, we love you uh we hope all of you have a wonderful uh new year we can't wait to see you next year uh as always you're the only reason we're here so thank you for everything and we will see you uh next time all right thanks everybody for listening to nateland podcast be sure to subscribe to our show on itunes
Starting point is 02:03:57 spotify you know wherever you listen to your podcast and please remember to leave us a rating or comment nateland is produced by me nate bargetzi, 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.

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