Whiskey Ginger with Andrew Santino - Reggie Watts

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

Santino sits down with the great Reggie Watts to talk about his ginger roots, future projects, music, the finer point of driving a performance vehicle, and much much more! #reggiewatts #andrewsantino #whiskeyginger #podcast COME SEE ME ON TOUR!!! https://www.andrewsantino.com ORDER SOME MERCH!!! https://www.andrewsantinostore.com Join our Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/whiskeygingerpodcast ============================================================ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! ROMAN Get 20% OFF your order https://ro.co/whiskey BESPOKE POST PROMO CODE: Whiskey for 20% off your first box https://boxofawesome.com RABBIT HOLE $5 OFF with Promo Code: WHISKEY https://rabbitholedistillery.com/drizly Follow Santino on Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/cheetosantino/ https://twitter.com/CheetoSantino Whiskey Ginger Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeygingerpodcast/ & https://twitter.com/whiskeyginger_ Whiskey Ginger Clips: http://www.youtube.com/c/WhiskeyGingerPodcastClips Produced and edited by Joe Faria IG: @itsjoefaria Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What up, Whiskey Ginger fans? Welcome back to the show. We got a good one for you today. Like my man Steve Harvey done say, it's Reggie Watts. Reggie Watts, baby. What a talented, interesting, fun, cool dude. I love having him on the show. Appreciate my boy Reggie Watts for coming and hanging with me. Also, I want to tell you, it's the end of the year. I'm doing four shows, two nights in Boston. I've said this again. Let's help make the end of the year. I'm doing four shows, two nights in Boston. I've said this again. Let's help make the end of the year a good one for your boy in Boston. So any Bostonians that you know or anybody in the New England area, send them out.

AndrewSantino.com is where you're going to find those tickets. AndrewSantino.com. Come see me, Boston, the 30th and the 31st. Come party with your boy. Enough rambling. From me, let's go to the episode. In here, we pour whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, boy. Enough rambling. From me, let's go to the episode. In here, we pour whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. You're that creature in the ginger beard.

Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Gingers are beautiful. You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Gingers are hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Whiskey with Ginger. My guest today is one of my favorite people on earth. I say that for all my guests, but I mean it. Once again today, it is the partial ginger, Reggie Watts. Good morning. Good morning. Good day. Finally, finally we're here.

You said that you're partial ginger before the show but are you but is that uh is that natural did you die it's oh natural my mother is french and she well she was french and i guess she will always be french and she's a redhead yeah really yeah yeah a beautiful ginger french mother yeah that's awesome. You're fluent in how many languages? Only French, really. I know chunks of other languages and I can kind of fake the sound of languages. That's fun.

Do you want to have a conversation in another language? Sure. Well, I know maybe partially you speak German. I speak a little German. A little. A little. A little. A little. Maybe partially, sprichst du Deutsch? Ah, ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Ja. Ein bisschen. Ein bisschen. Ja, ein bisschen. Ja, right, bisschen. Es freut mich, sie kennenzulernen.

By the way, Joe, to my editor, just mistranslate everything that we just said down there and make it make no sense. You know what I learned? The way I learned bisschen was because my teacher would say ein bisschen zu laut, which is a little too loud. Oh, too loud. Yeah.

A little too loud. Ein bisschen zu laut. Which I thought at one point maybe naming like an album or something, ein bisschen zu laut. And then I was like, that's never going to... That's so good. People are never... But people are going to Google and be like, what is this?

What is this? They're never going to say it right. Only Germans are going to get it. Right, right. It's a specific audience. I don't want to narrow it down just for the Germans. I get it. Just for the germs. Just for the germs.

That would be a good alpha. Just for the germs. This one goes out just for the germs. It's like, ooh. Interesting. Yeah, interesting. We'll see. Yeah, I guess we'll see. Netflix is like, guys, we have to change that for the germs.

We can't go out like that. Although Netflix these days, would they care? No, they don't know what's going on over there, right? No, they wouldn't care. They're just like, whatever. We're trying to figure out how we're going to make money. I feel like Netflix used to be this very specific, well-curated – it was as if they really, really paid attention. You know when you go into a shop that has knickknacks and trinkets, but they're

somehow organized perfectly. Yeah. And now Netflix is like, um, those beautiful sound boards, uh, where you're just plugging in and, and, and putting into new, I think they're just trying everything. Yeah. It sounds like, yeah, it's like a modular sense. Yeah. It's a modular sense.

Yeah. They're just like, how does this sound? Oh, bad. And then they'll put it in something else. no more of those and they just like patch over the hole and say like no more of those and then they'll just keep doing that until eventually i guess they'll just be left with like maybe six holes out of like a hundred yeah yeah six holes out of what what used to be uh all of the holes yeah all of the holes i know but that's fine we'll see i don't know it's funny it's actually an interesting thing to watch and see how everybody's going to figure it

all out. Cause Disney just got Iger back and all that stuff. And, you know, so hand it over the key to someone else. Like, I don't like that. I would take them back, you know, pull the Leno. Drive my car. Give me back my car. Yeah, totally.

That's kind of like, that was like what happened. Well, I mean, you know, from a surface level of like with Conan and Leno with The Tonight Show was very much like, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Give it back. Yeah, totally. That was exactly. Such a weird feeling. Such a strange thing to watch too.

Yeah, I know. I know. I know. And it was really, I didn't quite understand it. And I've done Jay, I've met Jay a couple of times, obviously years and years. And obviously I opened for Conan when he did his I cannot do anything except for tour tour. And and it was awesome. And that was really great.

And I'm a huge Conan fan. But it was kind of like I was I remember asking my post this. I was like, is it OK for me to do Jay Leno or whatever? And they're just like, no one. No one cares. You know, Conan's over it. Jay's Jay's. This is nothing but a sweet guy to me.

So, you know, and who knows the politics of why that happened? Who knows? Whatever. But anyways, he was always nice to me. And so I was kind of nervous at first. And then Jay was just like, yeah, come on by my car museum and, you know, check it out anytime you want. You know, I was like, wow, this guy's really sweet. Yeah, I've heard he's a super sweet guy.

You know, I was like, wow, this guy's really sweet. Yeah, I've heard he's a super sweet guy. In fact, he still does like those, invites people to those local car shows that he does. Yes. Warm and inviting is what I, I mean, I don't know much about any of that world. I mean, you're, this is an odd little piece of information that means nothing to anybody but you and I. But when Corden was here for the first like run when he was in the States, and the show was going to get going. Oh, look at this. Look at this.

Let's give it up for Carlos. There's that sugar-free record. Merci, Carlos. Tu es très gentil. Merci. Merci, mec. Grazie, grazie, grazie. Grazie, mec.

Grazie, grazie. All right. It's great seeing you. If you need anything, we'll be in here, okay? We'll be in here, Carlos. Thanks, buddy. He's doing his own podcast right now. Yeah. It's called's called red bull walks he just goes and gets red bull for everybody on the street i get it it's nice saint james uh when corden was in um he was like meeting with comics

and not to be writers on the show but just to like to contribute bits maybe or something it was kind of vague but i remember sitting there and i was asking him about the context of the show and um with ben and uh he said you know who i really want to get on the show like bad and i was like oh who and he's like i want reggie watts to be like the house musician for it and i was like really and he's like do you know who that is i was like yeah he's fucking great and he was like yeah that's that's definitely who we're going for that's like, do you know who that is? I was like, yeah, he's fucking great. And he was like, yeah, that's, that's definitely who we're going for. That's like who I've wanted from the jump. And in my mind, I thought, yeah, okay. I don't know. I mean, ask him. I don't mean, you know what I mean? Like, I was just like, but I could feel that he really wanted you on the show, which was very sweet seeing you be a part of the show and years, you know, years of you on the show.

It was just interesting because i've been a fanny i love your stuff for years i think you're phenomenal but when he said that i thought yeah i wonder if you will do it right i i you know i don't know but it was so wild to watch how much he actually really truly wanted you on that show so bad i was like well you know what other style would you want if you couldn't get him he's like no no we were we'll do whatever i'll do what it takes to get him on the show oh man so i mean it's a little sweet thing for you to yeah but it was it was cool to see him kind of he had it constructed in his brain the way that i think he wanted the show to look and feel and you were a big proponent of the conversation of that and i thought i hope you fucking get him

you know i was like i hope it works it's been a fun run right that's so cool no totally it's been a fun run it's been really cool um yeah it's been crazy i mean i expected i expected him to want to get out of it at some point you know because he kind of i just i just got that vibe from him you know it's like he he wanted to do it for a while and see how it goes and you know and then probably move on to something else you know and that's kind of what he did everything that he said that he said that he wanted the show to do and how he wanted, or specifically how he wanted me to be involved in the show, all of it was completely accurate.

He didn't make up anything. He didn't sell something and then not do it. A little bait and switch? None of that. No, he was just straight up, here's how I want it to be. This is what it's going to be like. And it was exactly that way. So I'm pretty.

What's the timeline now? You guys are coming to like a close? Yeah. April 28th is the last show. Wild. Yeah. This is what's interesting is like as a comedian and a performer, there is that what he said kind of sounds like stuff that we like where you're like, I do want to get out of something at some point. We only like to do things for so long.

And then we also get very bored and we're like, I can't, I can't, I can't. So it's kind of a blessing where you're like, yeah, because it's probably a great gig. But also you probably want to do something else, too, and have more time to do that. Yes. Do you have a thing that you have been working on that you're wanting to do when the show comes to a close that you're ready to go do? You know, I have a few things out there that we're have been working on that you're wanting to do when the show comes to a close that you're ready to go do you know I have a few things out there that we're pitching there's a kind of a music show project

that I'm doing with Eric Andre love and Rick Rubin so we'll see how that goes it's gonna be straight up

like music show me being a host and like having bands play live oh nice but the main number one rule is no playback no playback tracks no playback tracks no they have bands play live oh nice but the main number one rule is no playback no

playback tracks no playback no they have to play live love that i will not allow well that's very on brand for you right yeah i just don't i mean i get it when you're on tour or whatever and you or like you can't afford a couple musicians or something like that but i'm like for this show figure it out you're playing live and it's called figure it out you're playing it live yes it is yeah figure it out figure f i o f i y p y p l y p l yeah there you go ypl is so good it's such a good show really good figure it out you're playing it live yeah totally it's like oh shit i didn't know it's like yeah i'm pretty sure you did we sent you the contract it's in the damn title yeah figure it out you're playing it live it's like i just thought you guys were joking no man dead serious okay well the thing i just saw about ruben that i really you know beyond all the the history of that guy what i appreciate and love

about that guy i saw him they did a piece about his home recently and how minimalist he is and he was explaining like why he doesn't like feel the need for junk and i've tried to hold on to that my whole life my parents like never had we never had like cluttery stuff around my house like no trinkets or knickknacks or tchotchkes or whatever yeah and i try to do that but i find as you get older it gets so hard because you just acquire on people give you stuff yes and you're like you find stuff with this stuff i know i know i i'm the same way. My house gets really, like, full of stuff because it would be like, here's a gift bag. Here's another gift bag.

Here's another gift bag. And you're like, oh, cool. And then you're like, oh, and you know what I really wanted to buy? And you buy that thing and you're like, I don't even want fucking, why do I buy it? I don't want that thing. I know. I know. It happens all the time.

I have so many headphones. So many headphones. Sitting around. I try to sell them, you know, know i try to find friends to give them too but it's like i really got to figure out my shit but yeah no but i you know i think in all seriousness like i'm i'm i'm excited about moving on and and um you know there's a possible reggie watt show that's being should be generated um which i think would be really really fun and um tim heidecker is involved in that and so we'll we'll we'll see but uh i really love tim and i trust his sensibilities and i hope that we

can do something together definitely be sick but yeah stuff like that but it's nice that you're gonna see the the light at the end of the tunnel where you get to just kind of feel like uh it's nice it's it's kind of like i just shot an hour and i'm done with this hour that i'm putting out and the anxiety is high because you're also like oh i'm kind of starting over a little bit yeah but it's also like super exciting because i'm like oh you know what is what's the next turn gonna be and you're like i don't know but i'm i'm stoked to see what it feels like even if it's taking a little bit of an l for a little while and writing new shit and making new stuff and putting it back out and, you know,

it is exciting. It's nerve wracking. What's it coming out on? January 10th. On what? Netflix. Oh, cool. Nice.

The people we just made fun of at the beginning of the show. Oh, no, that's HBO. Yeah. What are the other ones? What's Showtime? Oh, yeah. I think that's what it is.

Yeah, it is. And what's, what's the other premium networks? I don't know if I know any others. Well, now everybody's a streaming premium network. HBO. Yeah, there's Paramount Plus, which I'm not sure what that is. Disney is just – every time that plus comes on, I always expect it to make a sound or whatever.

But that's another company that does that. I can't remember. Yeah, somebody else does a click. Yeah, but that's another company that does that. I can't remember. Yeah, well, somebody else does a click. Yeah, they do this like weird click. Because you're so musically inclined, do you see ads and stuff like that that annoy you when you hear them and you're like, God, you could make that sound so much better? Oh, for sure. I mean, yeah.

I mean, mostly I notice when I can't stand the music. I'm not necessarily saying like this could be better. I'm just like this sucks. Yeah. I mean, maybe on something I like, I would be like, oh, I think they could do better. I mean like this sucks yeah i mean maybe maybe on something i like i would be like oh that i think they could do better i mean i like the porsche sound you know oh yeah that's that's really good you know that has a very like uh yeah that is very it's because i feel like it is what porsche should be

for some reason you know what i mean like? Like some people will get that so – like would you ever do stuff like that if they were like, Reggie, we want you to just make sounds for our company to represent the name of our company? Of course. Yeah. Audio logos. Audio logos.

Yeah, I would do that. Big business. I love all that stuff. I love audio logos. I love like coming up with theme songs and ad campaigns. Like I just like have kind of an advertiser's head, but all my stuff is like, you know, I just, I think it's funny. I think advertising is funny.

It is funny. And it's just like an interesting gig, but it's also so, sounds funny, but like it's just so easy because it comes so naturally to me. To you, yeah. I'm just like, oh yeah, here's the tag. Here's the log line. Here's the theme. And everybody's like, oh my God.

You did it. He's the tag. Here's the log line. Here's the theme. And everybody's like, oh, my God. You did it. He's a genius. Took you six seconds in your slides at home. Just watched. Six of a cup of coffee. Two minutes. One note on a keyboard. Done.

You're like, oh, my God. It's like, this guy's really good. I'm like, thanks, man. I got to go to my next gig. I mean, like, that would be a dream gig, just me walking in, like, as a consultant. Just, like, walk in and go, that's cool. I don't like that. That's cool.

I think you should do this. See you guys later. And then I would love to do that. If that's what I did all day, I would be very happy. Just a pillowcase and you're like, put the checks in here, please. Yeah, totally. Thank you so much. I just have someone, like, walking behind me.

Yeah. It's my check boy. Like a Catholic church or something like that, just passing around this basket. Yeah, yeah. Pass the basket. All the executives, put money in, please. Please. You will have to.

It's not optional. By the way, that should be what it should be like. Sometimes you go to those meetings, you're like, you guys, I put some money in the basket for me before I get out of here. Yeah, totally. Just like, I'm just feeling it.

Yeah. Just throw it in. You guys have it. You guys all got it to give. Because I think that like, with your ability to hear that stuff you do say it's easy it is funny but for somebody for the average joe schmo like most people don't think about that why it clicks and why like the sound is so like associative and why it works yeah but

you see it in a different way kind of like people that are like um what is it synesthetic you know that like yeah yeah do you have any of that at all? Do you feel sound in a different way you think than some people? Do you see it in a different way? I don't know if I – yeah, I don't honestly know if that's true. I mean, obviously, like, you know, you hear something and you're like, oh, that's tasty, you know, whatever. But I don't know if that's quite the same thing. But I just have like a – I think I just have more of a ear for why things get into your head you know like what what what turns people on or like what what what activates something

like a sound that makes someone go oh perk up and um just again because i was an only child and i i just grew up watching tv you know like so much so much tv and i and i love the commercials you know and and was so interested in how And I love the commercials, you know, and was so interested in how they're doing the commercials and the angles and the phrases and stuff. So I think it's so deeply ingrained in me. Plus I'm a musician. So I think that just kind of just became a hobby,

like just a part of myself. Is there a commercial that stuck out to you when you were a kid that like embedded itself into your brain? There's a bunch i mean there's like a bunch of logos like you know by men and you know like that always comes in or nabisco um but there's one i think it was for for a detergent laundry detergent and the line was like ancient chinese secret huh and it was like this chinese couple running a um oh i remember like a laundromat or dry cleaning business or something like that.

And I was kind of scared to go back and see the commercial because I think someone had compiled a bunch of commercials from the 80s or whatever. And I was a little scared. I was like, is this going to be super racist? And it's not. It was actually not really racist at all they're because they're pretty chill like they're just they just have a business and they're just chilling and someone comes in there and you know it's like oh this is so clean or whatever like yeah you guys are great or whatever then someone then is i don't know someone his wife or someone comes out and goes like hey uh and they they have no accents at all they're just like american that's right which i just love i was like okay i was

really afraid because in my mind i was like, did I, I remember their voices just being like a straight kind of flat American accent, but like maybe I was wrong. And then it was just like, oh, hey, it was just like people hanging out doing a scene.

And I was like, thank the gods. But at the end of it, like she's like, yeah, here's Cal, not Calgon. It was some product. And they're just like,

oh, I think we need more of this or whatever. And then the person, you know, the customer is like ancient Chinese secret, huh? And the guy's like, oh, I think we need more of this or whatever. And then the person, you know, the customer is like, ancient Chinese secret, huh? And the guy's like, whatever. Whatever, man. You'll be back.

Yeah, you'll be back. You're not doing this yourself. We're still doing it for you. So I guess you'll probably be back if you don't have the time. It is funny how many of those commercials you do look back on and you're like, whoa, we got away with that? Oh, yeah. Holy shit. God, man.

Like you see them getting away with stuff that you're like, I can't believe, like I watched that documentary a couple of weeks ago about the guy who tried to sue Pepsi because they offered him a, they put a jet. Did you see this? Do you know about this? It's called like, where's my money,

Pepsi or something. It's essentially Pepsi ran this campaign. When was this? I want to say it was in the late eighties, eighties, early nin it was about uh pepsi had pepsi bucks remember marlboro miles yeah yeah which by the way we'll talk about white trash i collect my dad well my dad and uh every girl he ever dated would smoke and so like when i started to learn i was like you could get a jacket from just smoke and i was like so i would rip off all the marlboro miles and collect them yeah and send them in yeah dude how trash but pepsi started kind of a similar campaign i think it was the same company that did that they said in the documentary it was like pepsi bucks or

whatever but you'd collect them and you would get memorabilia and of course in the commercial they ran this ad that was like um for a for a harrier jet you know like a like a military jet and it lands outside of a school and it says i think it said like oh god i'm so dumb i just saw but it was like a million pepsi bucks or a pepsi points or whatever you know and obviously they did it did it in jest but this kid found out a way that you could you can physically pay for pepsi bucks through this catalog so he found an investor and was like we could actually they owe us a jet if we do this the right way

whoa yeah and it was this whole court case about you know the legality of the language involved and of course you know pepsi you know flicked him right off but they did keep trying to go back to pepsi continually to see like what they could get out of this thing for false advertising is they wanted to sue them yeah and that's kind of of course was probably the birth of like legal language being heavily embedded into commercials now that you see every commercial as like- Oh, that's right. You know, it's a brick of legal language at the bottom because, you know, Pepsi said,

oh, you'll get a jet. And this kid was like, I'm going to try to get a jet. And also a piece of me is like, they owe you the jet. Give them the jet. Give them the jet, Pepsi. Jesus, you're Pepsi. You're Pepsi, dude. Like, who cares?

It would be a cool pr move for them to they they if they were smart like in retrospect of all these companies when these things happen you're like make it a move that makes you guys look cool again give him give him a jet for tv pay him and just be like whoa look at this dope thing we did but it's the only one we're ever gonna do i know i mean just add that language like it's the only one we're ever gonna do i never really get. Make it a bit. Just add that language. Like, it's the only one we're ever going to do. I never really get why. That's the thing that always blows me away when there's an obvious right thing to do. Yeah.

And a company just chooses not to, where it's more valuable to have the goodwill of people than to save money. Yeah. I never really get why they make decisions like that. I guess it's just more powerful more yeah and the core and big corporations don't want you to they don't want to you know look like they lost anything so they're like you know what i'm saying like they just they have that attitude they're like you don't get to beat us at our own game like we're tricking people

to give us money right we're not giving you money that's we're the best at that we're the con artist yeah we've been you know rob the thief we've at that. We're the con artists. Yeah. You don't rob the thief. We've been doing that, man. You're right. Yeah. It's pride almost. It is, yeah. Whiskey Ginger will be right back.

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whiskey for 20% off your first box. Boxofawesome.com. Code is whiskey. Ginger. I like gingers. But I think in its, I'm stuck on it now, but I think in its infancy, I think advertising probably was more genuine than it became. Sure. Like, you know, it was really like, look at this product.

I really want to show the world. I watched a thing about the history of Legos, which was fascinating, and how they discovered that they stuck together. Because for years, they were just building blocks that were stacked right yeah because they couldn't snap they couldn't snap and when you discovered snap and when you like made this when they made this advertisement about how they could snap the technology was sold to um it was like a vacuum company it was wild for like attachments or something yeah man and then uh the original inventor bought it back because they just

kind of were just they weren't doing they weren't doing anything with it yeah and he was like well give it to me back yeah so i can show people this cool toy for kids that i really want to have as like this you know dope thing kids could like have these imaginations and grow stuff out of you know out of nothing which i think was the original intention he was like no no i want people to have like engineer imaginations to build whatever they've ever thought of that's right right and now it's you know well now it's like predefined like like here's all the steps right you want to build the you want to build the death star you have to yeah you have to go step by step by step yeah you have to actually do it which is cool it's constructive for kids a hundred percent but i mean like i think

like creative kids are just going to get a Lego set probably build it right once and then it just gets thrown into the big bucket and you just like build whatever you want well do you feel like we had you know like I feel like we had to make more with nothing a little bit sometimes as kids like did you find yourself were you always

was music always a big part of your life when you were a kid or no did you find it later no I mean studied music starting at age five so i was doing yeah i was i was doing um uh private lessons at five till 16 and then um yeah and then violin for eight years in the school public school system so i took private private piano i didn't really play piano in school and then i took violin started violin in fourth grade i think in elementary school and and then was in uh a school orchestra in junior high and high school up until about 16 is there any instrument that you that you wish you could play but you like don't either don't have time or just haven't invested in it that

you're like, I really love that thing. I wish I could do it. I mean, I'm trying to think. I mean, I love guitar. Um,

and I love bass guitar. Yeah. Sexy. Bass is so sexy. Bass is like pro I'm going to say it's probably my favorite. Although guitar is really cool because like you have much more, more chordal possibilities although thundercat would beg to differ it's just gonna say yeah uh but those guys

just like what yeah but i mean you know these playing like six string fucking bass you know that's just like it's just uh it's just a bunch of strings with a thick neck and they're just like all over it yeah different inversions and shit but But I've always wanted, I tried playing bass, but I don't have the wrist for it. I have really like kind of delicate wrists. Dainty is the good word. Yeah, dainty, delicate, and kind of delicate hands. And I've always been that way.

So I guess I was always destined to be a keyboard player, a synth player. Right. Because synthesis is all like fine adjustments of like these little knobs and buttons and switches and stuff like that. And effects pedals, technology, interfacing with technology. So I became in high school, I think I was 16.

I got my first synthesizer, which was a Roland W30, which was the world's first branded music workstation. So it had a quarter inch input for a sampler so you could like get a microphone sample stuff and then like put it on the keyboard and you know lay it out how you want to and it had a sequencer 16 track sequencer in it and it had a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive you could save songs on there and it was a pretty pretty rad piece of machinery for for a kid my age i got really lucky but um and then I played synth bass. So I mean, I have an appreciation for bass guitar. I just think bass is one of my favorite.

My bass player that I play with, Hagar, is one of the greatest musicians I've ever played with in my life. And every single day, she's so casual. She'll just casually lay down some line. And I'm just like like what are you like she's like can do anything like she's amazing and and my guitar player tim young as well um again i would argue that he's one of the greatest musicians on the planet right now easily and that's not even hyperbole did you have you know like for music for the show you did james kind of give you

full reign to do whatever you wanted but i mean truly was he kind of like whatever man you you make your you make your section your section and do what you want to do yeah he was he was he was like yeah do whatever the hell you want to do it was great i was like okay i knew exactly who i wanted you know i was like i knew i wanted Tim and Steve Steve's the keyboard player and and and I told them you know

basically I said I want to choose the musicians I'll put together the band I don't want the band to have I was thinking about a horn section for a little bit but then was like I think it'd be better

if it's more of a rock a rock style formation band so we just have drums bass guitar keys and then myself and that way everything's covered and um i didn't want to told him i didn't want to be wearing suits um i didn't want i didn't want to we have on occasion but not that much thankfully i don't

want to back uh solo artists like be the backing band for solo artists that's guesting on the show. I think it just looks tacky. It's always bothered me since a kid. You know, like you're watching Letterman or whatever, and it's like, you know, Paul Schaefer is just like going, ooh, yeah, like just laying down the cards. I mean, he's a cool guy. He's a hyper accomplished guy. But you know what I mean?

The styles don't matter. You've got like this young, sexy, whatever, solo artist, and they're singing. And then you've got these middle-aged guys behind there like, hey, man, that's groovy. I was just like, I don't like that. It just feels a little cheap. It feels like, why didn't you spend the money and get your own band? That kind of vibe. Yeah, yeah.

So I didn't want to do that. And I didn't want to rehearse. I wanted everything to be improvised. And so I made them make sure that we had a comm system so we can talk to each other and not be part of the show and make decisions on the fly. And, yeah, and that was kind of it. All the music on a late night show with a band when they're playing out or into commercial or even for an introduction or whatever or a theme for a game or whatever, they're all like maximum what? Like 30 seconds? I was going to say. 20 seconds?

Probably closer to 10 to 15, yeah. probably closer to 10 seconds yeah like if it's a if it's a if it's just a you know like um i mean it's like five seconds like we're like introducing something and then when we go out to commercial break sometimes they'll it's variable obviously like how much time they need in the show or whatever but usually at maximum you're going to get like 20 seconds maximum so in my mind i was like that we don't need to be rehearsing like why would we rehearse for that right there's no time at all just feel it and was like, we don't need to be rehearsing. Like, why would we rehearse for that? Right. There's no time at all.

Just feel it. And no covers. And we wouldn't do any covers. That was the other thing I didn't want to do. So I was like, let's just improvise. But then the thing I didn't really realize is that by improvising, we are generating our own material. And so we still have to put it on the sheet that shows all the names of all the bumps that we did for publishing. And then I gave equal publishing to the whole band.

So we're all sharing equal publishing because we're all like coming up with shit. Even though in the beginning, I kind of generated most of the ideas. Then the band started submitting their own ideas. And then now we're logging those ideas, right, because they were naming them. And then they're registered. And then Tim, the guitar player, he's got a, I guess you'd call it a photographic memory. He can remember any piece of music he's ever played. What? Yeah, it's crazy. It's insane, his memory.

And so he remembers those. So he's writing those down. But then we're also remembering the songs. he remembers those so he's writing those down but then we're also remembering the song so over time the band is actually remembering writing and then remembering these this catalog that we're and now we've got thousands and thousands and thousands of of bumps what we call them and they're just like partial ideas you know like it could just be a groove could have two sections could have three sections depends and then we just call them out now so you know tim at the top of the show be like uh we're gonna do uh uh whatever park park geek and we're gonna do uh mother's shoe or what you know all the dumb names that we come up with and and then that's our

playlist so now when because the show's syndicated um now all that publishing comes to us huge because it's all of our own music but But I wasn't thinking that in the beginning. It just kind of happened because I was like, I don't want to be rehearsing. I want to sit around and go like, let's rehearse the thing that we're going to do live anyways. That's so cool to think that you're like, we didn't plan for it. But man, it was a good no-plan plan. Yeah. It was a good accidental plan.

Oh, totally. And that's the thing I noticed about the best thing about being on the show is me making notes about what kind of a show I would like to do. Sure. Yeah, totally. And that's the thing I noticed about, you know, the best thing about being on the show is me making notes about what kind of a show I would like to do. Sure. Yeah, learning. Totally learning and just seeing how does production work, you know, how's the camera guys, you know, where are they moving, what are they doing, what is the, who am I thinking of,

the gaffers and the grips. Right. How do they coordinate and how do they communicate and what's the director? Oh, spam risk. I love getting calls from spam. Answer it, dude. No, come on. Let that spammer know what's going on.

Hey, listen. I love taking risks. I'm a big thrill seeker, but today I told myself no spam risk during this podcast. Yeah, you got to be risk averse. I promised. I said, no way.

I'll look at the phone to see who it is, but I will not take it. You cannot take it. You can't. No, but that worked out great. I mean, that's a pretty brilliant way to work it out. And kudos. Sharing the publishing and all that stuff is a very cool move. I mean, I don't know the world of music if that's standard or if it's like, well, that

was just the way it worked out for you. It's not standard. It's not standard. It's not standard. I first started in my original project in Seattle in the 90s because I was, you know, my band was, I mean, they were kind of like nudging me pretty hard about it. But they were just like, because like the way that it works, it's like you have half the publishing goes to, I think, lyrics and melody. And then the other, or no, I think one half goes to lyrics or something like that. Maybe melody is included. And then the other half is all music. So what ends up happening is a lead singer

who is a songwriter in a band can technically make like 60% or 75% publishing. Wow. And then the rest goes to the band right something like that i know someone listening out there be like it's actually that's not true it's 64 it's 64 so actually what you deduce the no but i mean it's it's at least half let's let's say that sure you could take half of that chunk of publishing and for me it just didn't make any fucking sense. I was like, we're jamming.

Even if I come up with a bass groove or whatever and like a partial melody in my head and I bring it into the band room and then we all start jamming on it and then like finding other parts to do. Even if I'm directing them like, ooh, what was that chord? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's use that for like a bridge or something like that. Even if I'm doing that, everyone's still writing their parts. Sure. So to me, it just averages out. So why not just from the get-go just say like we're all in it together?

Because I'm also – I get tired. Like I almost get like too emotional about it. But I get tired of musicians getting assed out. I get tired of drummers getting the short end of the stick. I get tired of hearing guitar players that put so much energy into stuff only like making a fraction of what they should be making or any artist for that matter. It's always the star people, the people who get like that spotlight that really have to decide how are you going to use this wealth? Because for whatever reason, now you have to be the person to decide so if that person's an

asshole they might just keep all that shit and be like hey that's industry that's industry standard man i'm just i'm just going with the the industry that's just how it is as a songwriter this is how it is or like a ghostwriter i have a good book coming out soon and i'm working with this ghost writer and i'm always like give letting the ghostwriter make some creative decisions because he's you know he's trying to channel me or whatever and but i like to give him that that and he's like you gotta realize this is very unusual for someone to be whatever like this kind of like open about having you you know and i would totally like tell people who he was i'm not gonna pretend like i wrote the book it's like i I wrote the book, but like I didn't write the book.

He mechanically wrote the book, and then he infused his own experience and style to make it my voice. I think that's a huge part of it. I know there's supposed to be ghostwriters, but I just have a personality where I have to let – I have to give people credit for the work that they do. And I think I got that from my mom. I think my mom is such a hard, hard worker.

I think that we probably have similar hardworking parents. My mom still works, which is like... Really? Yeah, I think it's hard for her to give up. I think she had a moment where she was like, I think I want to stop. And then we've got my family and my bloodline. Everyone's always been

yeah where'd you grow up chicago oh i had a feeling i was like i had a midwest vibe from you well and everybody always had this like what am i gonna do once i quit anyway like i kind of want to if i'm if i enjoy it why would i stop which is kind of like helpful to be in the careers that we're in where you're like you know if, if somebody was like, when would you stop doing whatever in comedy? He's like, I don't fucking know. It's your brain. I guess when I die,

I guess when my system turns off and it's like, you're going to go to sleep. And I'm like, okay, then I'll stop. The last words you say on your deathbed are like,

I retire. I was like, now he retires. I wish you would have done that. Until he finally, jeez. Jesus, he would never retire. Wait a minute. When you say retire, you mean expire or retire?

It's the same thing, Mark. Don't do that. Okay, okay, okay. All right. Yeah, it's a very like, it's embedded into, I feel like, you know, the joke with my grandmother was like, she'd sit on the curb to watch a dog fight. She wanted to be involved and she always wanted to go do something or be a part of something or you know create or make or it was just it was tough for our family to sit still we're not sit still or so you have

lots of brothers and sisters no but no i mean i i have only one by my by i'm i'm one of one from my original parents and i have a and i have halves all over but yeah um but just like our whole my mom's side of the family everybody like everybody wants to do something all the time nobody is yeah nobody's like oh just chill out yeah yeah yeah no yeah no no lazy bones my yeah my mom was like always fucking working she was a house cleaner for uh the base because my dad was in the air force yeah and we lived off base but uh she was a private, whatever, cleaning contractor. And she was the best. You know, she was always getting calls.

So she was slammed all the time. And couldn't say no. She couldn't say no because she was making that money. And she also liked nice stuff. So she would save up and, you know, lay away. And she collected Liadro, which is like the, you know, the ceramics or whatever, porcelain stuff. like the ceramics or whatever, porcelain stuff. And our house is really pretty and well-made,

and she cared about fancy stuff, so she worked her ass off really hard. My dad, too. He worked on the Ohio Turnpike. He's from Cleveland. And so during high school, my mom kicked him out because he was getting kind of a little too aggro. And I was starting to get aggro. And she was just fearing both of us, like, just to have a fist fight.

Was he a big guy? Fist fight. He was not a big guy. He was like 5'10", 5'10", very slight build. He was a judo guy. He was a black belt in judo. Or he was a brown belt in judo. But, belt in judo um but you know he got sicker as he got later in life with infancy he was a smoker like a like he and my mom smoked a shit

ton and eventually caught up with him and he had heart problems and he got emphysema and so i just like you know kept notching him down kept notching him down so you know so but in high school he definitely had the energy for sure, but he had had like the heart attack, you know, so he wasn't as ferocious as I think he could have been. So it might've worked out, the heart attack worked out. Take off the heart attack, slow it down a little bit. But Evelyn heart attacks, let me tell you,

when you have to have open heart surgery, oh boy. It sets you back. It does, it really does set you back, if not lays you out. But yeah, so, but he, you so – but he was always hustling. He was working at a meat plant, meat packing plant. We managed that in Great Falls.

And then he was working at the Ohio Turnpike and he was getting a degree in management. And my mom was working all the time. And so I come from a family of hard workers. And all my mom's family is all like in France. They were all paramedics uh gendarme uh you know it's kind of the military police and the regular police and farmers and uh hunters so everybody everybody in my family my dad's side of the family the all hard worker black community cleveland ohio from akron cleveland channel area or whatever and

you know like not a lot of money but his parents like got their shit together and could bought a house, a tiny house, you know, in a black neighborhood in Cleveland. In fact, I visited it recently when I went to see Nine Inch Nails, but like, you know, everybody in my family, hard worker, me on the other hand, I was always just like, oh, come on, man. I just want to lay on the couch. Just let me do it. But I will say that I do have that ethic on a social level.

Right. I'm the only one. When I show my schedule to people, if I show them the month view or whatever, they're just like, what? Are you crazy? For me, I feel like I do have tons of time. I feel like I'm a lazy. I've always felt like i'm lazy i'm just like you know but you're not you're working constantly i am working constantly but

i think the reason why i think i'm lazy is because i don't rehearse so you know what i mean but even better i know it is it is better but like when i see my friends like i can't go out tonight i got to finish this thing and i'm like oh okay cool all right i'm like well i guess i'm just gonna play video games i don't know you know like like my friends work so hard around me and they're just putting in so much time and i guess my thing is like you know when when it's time to do something that's when i that's when i'm working but some would say whatever you do during that downtime is your rehearsal i i know as weird as that is. That's interesting. I was trying to explain to a family member, you know,

was about our process. I get, I understand that it's hard to conceptualize when someone's like, I do comedy for a living. And they're like, do you? And you're like, I do.

I mean, it's yes, I do. But they're like, what do you do to the bits? You know, people are always like, how do you come up with the bits?

And you're like, well, my life is my rehearsal so your downtime to me is kind of part of that rehearsal because it's where you find it works the best by the way if it wasn't working it wouldn't be working true so obviously true obviously obviously those legos are snapping together yeah yeah yeah right no you're right because otherwise i just feel like there's no right way to do it i had a friend of mine said to me he was like how come i've never physically seen you pen to paper but i feel he's like but i feel like there's no right way to do it. I had a friend of mine said to me, he was like, how come I've never physically seen you pen to paper?

But I feel, he's like, but I feel like you are writing a lot for stage. And I'm always like, because you're never going to be there when any of that happens. I do it on my little time. Yes. It's just in my little nooks of time where I find it.

Yeah. But I know what he means by that because most people in society want to see you do it. That's why they want to see you. You know, I want to see Reggie at rehearsal so we know that they're getting ready, so we know that they're serious. Yeah. It's like people like regiment because it makes them feel comfortable, regardless of the product outcome. Yeah. You know, it's the idea of why offices got closed down or whatever after the pandemic is people are like, I want to know that you're there.

Yes. You're like, yeah, but I do better from here. It's like, I want to know that you're there. You're like, yeah, but I do better from here. It's like, I want to know that you're there. I know. It's like, they want to get their money's worth. Right. And I get it. Or they don't believe it. Or they, you know what I mean?

Like you need some tangible thing that like justifies why. Or it's like, if I'm going to suffer, you have to suffer. Oh my God. I didn't even think of it that way. I went through it. You have to go through it. That's so true. I know. It's so it you have to go through it that's so true i know it's so it's

so you have no idea like the phone calls that i'll get where we're like i'll get hired to do a thing and like like i don't know like an advertisement for something or whatever and uh like a computer thing or something and uh and they'll want a creative call right you know like producers whatever so i get on the call and they're like, yeah, could you, um, uh, or what was it? I think it was for like some awards thing I was hosting or doing music for. They're like, can you send us an example of some of the, you know, music you'll be doing? And I'm like, uh, I don't, I'm an improviser, so I don't, I don't really have, I don't have anything. Or I mean, I'm not, basically I'm not going to put together anything for you for that. But if you want to see what I do, there's tons of examples online.

Like you can go online and you can see like there's what you see me doing there. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'll do for you guys. And then you give me some parameters and I'll work within that. And I'll make sure it's within this amount of time. And I'm pretty sure you'll like it. That's probably why you're asking me to do it. But, but, but you know what I mean?

Like you have to convince, like people are like, they, they are shocked or they, they just don't believe that you're going to be able to do that. It's like, this is a huge ad campaign. This is, this is a multimillion dollar ad campaign and you're just going to walk in and just do, and just, and just do your thing. Like, yeah, that's, that's right. That's what I do. Yeah. You like me, right? Yeah. you like me right yeah you like no we love you we love you yeah totally we just want to know that you can do it differently than the reason that we like you oh my god that's

so funny to me but what's great is like when i prove them not necessarily wrong but i just i just walk in and they're like oh that was easy i'm like yeah that's what i that's why i do what i do i i'm only doing this to make it easy i'm the type of guy that you walk in and they're like, oh, that was easy. I'm like, yeah, that's why I do what I do. I'm only doing this to make it easy. I'm the type of guy that you walk in, like, that was really nice. That was really fun. That's what I'm shooting for. I'm not trying to be difficult. I would never want to do that.

I just want to give you exactly what you want, but I also want to give you a little bit extra, just so you think, oh, I'm glad we worked with that guy. In here, we pour whiskey. This episode of Whiskey Ginger is brought to you by Rabbit Hole Distillery and their one-of-a-kind Kentucky bourbon and rye whiskeys. I've talked about these guys for so long now. I want you to jump down the rabbit hole with me.

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Enjoy responsibly. Drink up. Have fun. Be safe. Happy holidays. Ginger. I like gingers. Do you imagine that if you did start prepping stuff,

like if you did, you think the work would suffer? Prepping. It depends. It depends. I mean, I used to do a lot of experimental theater in new york i did i think ended up doing like five pieces for the public theater and a couple

other things you know and those are like hour-long pieces that had other actors in them and so forth so but i had a writing partner and we worked really really really, really well together. So, yeah. So, for instance, we would have a weed cookie, sit down, and then I would just see stuff and say stuff. And then... He'd pen it out. He would pen it out. And then he'd be like, well, what color do you see it as?

Okay, cool. And how long do you think it would go? I was like, oh, it's like, do you think it would be blah, blah? And be like, yeah, you know what? Actually, no, you're right. Like, what do you think? Well, I think maybe like, do you think it would be blah, blah? And be like, you know what? Actually, no, you're right. Like, what do you think? Well, I think maybe, you know, that was our writing process, right? And that would only take maybe 45 minutes.

So in 45 minutes, we'd have basically an hour-long theater piece. And then we'd create the skeleton of it. And it was just a bunch of structures. And then we just focused on transitions. So the creative part was the transitions. Everything that happened that I would be involved in were mostly improvised and then then you know we then we would start rehearsing it with the actors and then we would start you know defining some things or he would like make a short monologue for someone to say something or whatever because he was a writer and and it would just happen that

way so i can i can prepare for things if it makes sense for what the outcome is. Sure. You know, when you're talking about multiple people working together. But even since then, I've just thought about – I just thought about like the way that I would like to create things and the way that I would like them to feel for people involved in the project. And how do i make this the simplest so that people don't have to prepare they can do what they do in that moment i'm

choosing people that are good at that and but we still get a result that looks like it was rehearsed for hours and hours and hours and hours because that's my that's my goal it's almost like i don't really care about the creative aspects as much because I find that creativity just happens right generally if you're around people that you dig of course things are going to bubble and things are going to happen so I'm never worried about that I just want to make sure that the structure there's enough of a structure or skeleton that it gives the illusion that it's a very very well rehearsed thing and that's what I get off on. I get off on that more than actually creating the thing. If that makes any sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I want the end product. Someone go like, dude, how long did that take you to make? It's like a third of the time that it normally does. And I just think that that to me is like the reward.

That the whole time you're playing some beautiful piece with these other talented people, the whole time you're thinking you like beautiful piece with these other talented people all the time you're thinking like i'm getting one over on these people yeah yeah yeah it's like they think they think that was like one of the shows that i want to do where i just want to kind of like pick a song that's popular right now like some hot song that's at the top of the charts go into a studio and like within a couple hours just make a track that sounds pretty, not like, it's not a verbatim thing, but in the same spirit,

with the same high gloss production level. And then people go like, how long did that song take? Well, it took seven songwriters. It took about, I'm going to say about three weeks, you know, to generate blah, blah, blah. It's like, how long does your song take? It took about two hours to make it

and about an hour to mix and master it. And it's already out on Amazon. But you can buy it. You can buy it right out. And it sounds just like, what do you mean? It's like the same level of like in a Dua Lipa track or whatever. And they're just like, holy shit, how fast is it? Because I love that idea of just kind of letting people know that creativity,

there is no, I mean, you said it earlier, but there is no right way to do anything. And you can just go for it. Like there's like some things, like if you've got a mind that loves to, that knows an outcome, that can feel an outcome, and you've got the skills and you pick good people to work with,

you can generate stuff so fucking quickly. Like I would love to generate a short film in like record time, but have it look like something that someone toiled on for months and months and months, but it really only took like a week of shooting. I mean, there are plenty of examples of that. I'm just not, I'm not unique in that way,

but there are many examples of that. But I want it to look like it took a lot of energy. It took a lot of energy, yeah. To really like, we sat down in a room with eight writers and it took forever, you know, it's like. Grinding. Yeah, we ground it out. Because I appreciate my friends that work their asses off.

Like I have so many writer friends that work in writing rooms and stuff like that. And I romanticize like I'm sitting in a room. Like if I was in a writing group, I would be playing the role of a writer. You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't fully be a writer in that room. I would, I mean, I would, I would do my best to be helpful, but the whole time I would be doing it, I'd just be like, isn't this crazy?

I'm in a writer's room. Like I'd be more about like the reality of where I was instead of like actually, no, we're here to make something. Like, oh yeah, yeah, no, we'll do that too. But also, isn't it crazy that we're actually doing it? It's not that we're making this, right? I feel that way. I do feel that way sometimes, though.

I think everyone does have that. Like when I've done, you know, like I've done a few seasons here and there for Andre's show where I'll go on Eric's show and just go write stuff and write bits. And then like we helped with Bad Trip. And there are moments where we'll sit there and we'll be throwing just nonsense into the sky and laughing at it. And I will take a second and be like, this is so funny that this is what we're supposed to be doing. Because like in the idea of a structural thing that gets put out for people to pay for to consume, you're like, oh, but the way to get that done is for us to just kind of goof and, you know, nonsensically argue about if flavored pistachios shelled are better than unshelled.

Yes. Because that'll take 20 minutes, by the way. That'll take a long enough time where someone will come up with something because we were fighting about that. Oh, man, I so feel that. I think in those situations, it's great. That's why I really do look forward to working with Tim Heidecker because we riff really well. Yeah.

Like, we can riff, but I also have a passion for coming back to the thing that we're supposed to be doing. Sure. Even though I'm like, all over, I'll be like, so anyway, so when you were talking about, like, I love bringing it back and like moving advancing right so we go and like creative flourishes come back you know uh put something down move forward whatever um and uh because i do that to me that doesn't feel like writing that's just like hanging out in your blah blah blah as long as someone's like marking the ideas and like getting them down well it's almost like you're the uh you know everybody a a lot of people have like a trip counselor. When everybody is tripping, there's always like one person that can recenter. If everybody starts to feel like we're all – everyone is getting a little too gone, there's always one person that's like, let's focus and chill out.

Let's get right back to it. You're like a trip den father or something. You're like – Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I know that we're enjoying this. We also need to center for a second because we're getting, some people are feeling a little overwhelmed. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, it's so like I've, I've.

Are you the responsible person when you trip with other people? I'm kind of like oddly, you wouldn't think so. But I, I really am. Like, I, I, I mean, I've been on some really heavy ketamine trips where that shit, like that zeros you out, man. That shit. that shit like that zeros you out man that shit like if you're in a k-hole like you're not really there is no impulse to talk or to create logical structures like that's not the point right but i weirdly have this ability like let's say i'm let's say it's a lighter k-trip so you're able to talk and stuff like that uh it things will get so

crazy so abstract so fragmented and i'll still like come back to something we were talking about earlier and and it's i don't know how you do that i don't well you know it's a funny thing because i've been doing it all my life like since i've been uh i mean it could be a chaotic situation not even drugs related sure or an emergency situation for instance something about i don't know what it is an emergency happens i go and i get really focused and i go and prac and pragmatic and most people are like i know like fuck and i'll just be like looking at all the angles going like okay where's it coming from where's it is how long when did it happen okay of course how are you doing okay what do have? You know, like that kind of stuff. I always think in that mode.

And when I was a kid, you know, we'd be out to like do LSD one night. And I had to like pick up my mom from bingo from like a party that I was at at a friend's house. And then like meet and then have my friends meet me or meet my friends somewhere else. And so like I just had this always had this ability to kind of like find the eye of the hurricane. You know, just find that calm place in the high and just be like, okay, this ability to kind of like find the, the eye of the hurricane, you know, just find that calm place in the high and just be like, okay, I'm in a car right now.

And this is the rear view mirror. These are side view mirrors. You've done this a million times. This is, this town is a grid. It's late at night. There's low traffic. Let's just go for whatever.

Not, I'm not vouching for driving. No, no, but it's impressive that you can have that functionality because I was never able to do that. Like I was never, when I'm gone, I feel like I've kind of given myself up enough where I'm like, I got to let this one take me. Oh, that's beautiful though.

Yeah, it is. But also because sometimes when I try to center, you know, that's when I kind of lose the fun sometimes. And I don't mean fun like – I just mean sometimes I get – that will induce anxiety. Yes. You know, when I start to center too much and if I'm trying to like – I see. Interesting. Like I kind of just need to be like –

You're trying to force yourself into something that you're just not naturally wanting to do. Yeah, my brain is like, what are you doing? Where are you going? It's safer over here. Yes. Where we're having a little party. But I try to go back to that analytical or pragmatic part of my brain. And that's, to me, that's like a weird machine that's, it's like I walked in the room and

everyone's working. They're like, get out of here. Before the boss comes back. You're not supposed to be here, dude. If they catch you, you're in so much shit. Get out of here, man. Get out of here, man. Get out of here, man. You're in his bed.

You're like, hey, what's going on, guys? We told you, girl. What happened? I don't know. I tried something I shouldn't have done. That is exactly how I feel when I don't. Like if I, yeah, I was never good at like i knew friends that could get even get stoned when we would get stoned and go back to somebody's parents house and they

knew how to um you know uh like hide it or whatever yeah go to norm core i didn't i never need i not i never really wanted to hide it i would just kind of be like well it is what it is if they know i'm stoned i know i'm stoned I kind of, I kind of just didn't care because I felt there was more anxiety in trying to hide it. I totally get, yeah. Unless it's, I think,

I think the thing that you've made me sprung into my mind is like, if it's not a game, then don't do it. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like if there's a game to it, like I'm going to be like, you know,

I mean, obviously if you're not doing it, like I'm just going to show up at the job site and weld some shit and I'm going to hide that I'm high. Yeah. I mean, not that shit, but like, but like if it, if it's like, Ooh, I wonder if I can pull this off, you know, like if it's that, then go for it. If it's not, then you're going to just be what you've just described. You're going to be babbling yourself. Yes.

And being like, I'm supposed to be doing this. Why am I doing this? You don't need to be doing this. This is giving you a lot of anxiety. Yeah. And being like, I'm supposed to be doing this. Why am I doing this? You don't need to be doing this. This is giving you a lot of anxiety. Yeah. And then like just getting in that spiral. Like when I used to get stoned in high school and I would come back from lunch, I would go with a group of guys and we would go get stoned at lunch and we'd come back. And what I love, my high school was very like dense.

I mean, there was, I think it was somewhere around like 3,700 people in our whole school. Yeah. Each class was almost a grand. So it was very big. But the hallways were like just dense. I remember how dense they were all the time, like just thick. It was almost this wild dance where when I wasn't stoned, you're like anxiously weaving through people, like missing people. And there was almost this kind of beautiful dance happening of crossing, almost like the streets of Tokyo when people are just so chaotic.

You're like, how is this working? But high school was always like that. Like people are frantically going where they need to go and everyone's trying to make sense of it and just miss hitting this kid. And when I would get stoned, I loved it so much because it became, I felt like I was in a video game.

I was like- Yeah, obstacle course. This is, yeah. And you're watching your brain like terminate your lens, you know, like in section out where I need to go and how quickly I need to step aside. That to me was like the game that you're talking about. I can play into that. Oh, that I love. Then I'll just immerse myself into that world. Yes. Those were fun. Those were fun days for high school. Oh my God. That's so funny. I used to always like when I was in high school oh my god that's so funny i used to always like when i was in high school my high school was what was it i think it was i want to say it was like 1300 kids or like in the whole

school 1500 kids yeah in the whole school um but still like i and i'm not totally sure about that but but anyways i it was big enough and it was like an old school, you know, American style, whatever, like John Hughes looking high school. And so my favorite thing was just cruising down the halls and like, you know, like someone's reaching, you know, up for their lockers and I go in between like them reaching, like going under the door and like just like, you know, fluid movement to try to get to my next class or whatever. And yeah, and I understand that. And I used to think to myself like this is training for the real, for the adult world. Yeah, yes. Because like, if I can navigate this and like make it to my classroom. I can make it anywhere.

I can make it anywhere. And then when I went to New York, I was like, it's kind of like that. It is. New York is a constant game of how do I not break stride into where I'm going, but not interrupt somebody else's stride into where they're going? Yes, yes. I know, I know, I know. And, you know, it's funny, and I know we're jumping all over the place, but it's kind of funny that these things kind of come up.

And I'm like, I've always wanted to talk about that. But, like, I use that in traffic. Like, when someone, like, for instance, there's a street at the end of my street where I turn to go to work, and there's a stoplight, and it hooks up to Silver Lake Boulevard off of Berkeley. And so you stop at this light, and oftentimes people, when they want to turn left, the light is so long. And sometimes it'll skip. It'll turn red for the other ones, and our light will stay red, and it'll turn green again. And it's so frustrating. So I always make sure that I get as close to the center line,

the yellow line, as possible so that if I'm taking a left, people can get around me. Ah, very polite. Right? Thoughtful. People do not think about that. They'll think about what's in front of them, and they don't think about who's behind them.

And for me in traffic, because I love driving so much, I'll use any excuse. If someone's like, oh, I need to pick up a thing, I'll be like, oh, I'll take you. I just love driving. I love driving so much I'll use any excuse if someone's like I need to pick up a thing I'll take you like I just love driving I'm driving all the time because it's such a game for me to like see like who like for instance this is the first time this has ever happened I was driving back from work I was on Beverly Boulevard and this car wanted put on his turn signal I always reward people that use turn signals, first of all, because I over-indicate. I'll indicate, like, if I have to get into another lane for a second and move back, I'm like, left turn signal, right turn signal. And I also wait for at least one blink because I hate it when someone, they indicate and move at the same time.

That's not the point. The point is to go like, this is where I want to go. Cool. I'm going. So I, so this guy put on his turn signal and then I did a double flash to say like, go ahead and move in, you know,

whatever. And so he did. And then he did what I've done before, which I didn't think anyone would even give a fuck about is he did a double tap on his brake lights. Thank you for, thank you. Thank you.

And I was like, can we continue this? I like this so much it is the best is the greatest feeling when you get those polite moments in traffic yes where you're like oh that was sweet i just let you do because it's a it's a game right for me it's like i want to be assertive i'm going to take it if someone's being slow as fuck i'm looking for the gap because i want to get i want to get away from them i don't want i don't want them to be in my life and if they think they if they're if they're thinking that they're trying to punish me by blocking whatever the things,

I'm like, I am in a very fast car and I'm an efficient driver. I will be out of your hair in less than a second. Just let me through. You won't even know I was here. Yeah, you'll never even know. You'll never have to raise your eye or ever again. But people take it as a personal challenge. It's funny, all the psychology and traffic there is so much and there's the

there's so many unwritten rules of it but i do think the language of cars is interesting what you're talking about it would be cool if we could create kind of a social norm of like what what signals indicated what because i've always said this to somebody um uh like you know you've seen like people i've seen scrolling messages on like inside of a car someone has like a digital sign yes yeah i wish we all had a thing where you've seen like people I've seen scrolling messages on like inside of a car. Someone has like a digital sign. Yes. Yeah. I wish we all had a thing where you could indicate like as if the car itself could indicate to another car, you know, and without getting vitriol.

It's like obviously there's moments when you want to be like, fuck you. Yes, of course. But it'd be better if they were more positive influence because then everybody would it would be more promotional of like, oh, thank you. Or something simple. Yeah. Like like you know what i mean i think that's there could be a cool language built around that because the psychology of driving is i love driving we like i'm a big i love cars and yeah i think it is from you know from 50 000 feet it's like 3 000 pound machines of total death and destruction that we have to like video game like high school stone the same way.

We have to delicately balance. Otherwise, a ball of nonsense. You know what I mean? It turns into a Terminator. It's just like, you have to be careful and respectful. But when it works, oh man, it does feel really good. It's oddly rewarding. It's the best.

I mean, there's those days where I'll be like, I really need to get somewhere you know and and i'm like i'm gonna hold this lane i have a good feeling about this lane you know and you're holding a lane and like someone else because you always do you ever pick a car that you're kind of like i want to try to stay ahead of this car so i'll do that a lot and and you know they'll drive by me i'll be like damn it i'm like but i'm gonna hold this lane holding the lane and then when then weirdly you're like going down maybe like four or five six blocks later uh for some reason three cars will decide to get in the left turn lane and like a clear lane i'm like see you later i'm so glad i held my way until i held that lane man and you know and then other times i just practice being calm you know because like when you're because like when you're in a car that's capable of going very, very fast, half of it – and that's why I like electric cars.

Like, you know, I lived with an electric car for so long because I'm like, well, how do you – that power is a responsibility. How do you manage that power? These cars that they're selling now, you know, these electric cars, you know, they're going to zero 60 in like, you know, two second rains. And these are, this is a car that anybody could buy. If you got like, you know, whatever, make payments and, you know, get a loan or whatever, you could get this car. Yeah. And they're so fast.

They're so heavy because they're electric. Yeah. So they weigh 5,200 pounds, you know, 5,300 pounds, whatever. Well, you know, obviously gas cars are lighter, But anyways, point is, you have access to this machine and like you're saying, you have to use it responsibly. And for me, I call the game inertial management. And so I go like, I have this amount of weight, I have this amount of power.

What is this car capable of doing safely? But I'm slightly more on the assertive edge, right? And there are moments where no one, where like no one's around. I got my radar detector going on and I will just blast for a little while, but there's no one around. It feels safe, you know, or I'm on a bridge, for instance. Like there's no cop on the bridge, no aerial surveillance. And what I do is I call them light jumps.

They're like I've spooled up the FTL drive and i just launch and then i just erase that bridge just like oh it's just erase it feels so good yeah and then you're like oh and then i'm gonna make this corner oh it's gonna be real smooth oh yeah nice nice hug in the corner oh there's a pothole i'm avoiding that okay i'm slow down i'm looking under the cars make sure there's no feet under the cars that no one's going to walk out. You know, like it's just a constant situational awareness, rewarding thing. I don't know. No, I love, you're speaking my language. I love it so much. I like it.

When somebody asked me one time, like why I like a fat, fast cars, um, I was like, because the feeling is it's like, um, it's responsible aggression. Like I, I do, I want to rock i want to feel it yeah but i'm but i'm i'm doing it with such conscious like conscious ability i know exactly what it does and when you learn how to drive quicker cars well truly you're you have so it's odd how much power you have over over it that you're like i know exactly the limits to take it to yes it's really interesting because you yeah my dad's uh best friend is a huge car guy and my dad asked him when he bought his first turbo s and he was like you know what do you want you to do with this you

know my dad is very much like what would you do what are you doing with this thing anyway yeah and he's like where would you even go that fast that's a constant question people say where would you even go it's la and my he said the. People say, where would you even go? It's LA, da, da, da, da. And he said the best response. He goes, you pick your spots. And I was like, perfect. You pick your spots. It's not a long-term thing.

You pick your spots. And when he said it, it was just glee. I knew that he was like, hey, I know exactly where my spots are. I was like, me too. I know exactly where my spots are. Man, I'm so feeling that and also la is a place where you have those spots oh yeah like people don't really understand when they say i say that la is my favorite city it's if you're a driver la is where you want to live oddly enough

it is weirdly and everyone's like no because the traffic's like terrible and like no no you got to know you got to know traffic you got to read it also, you got to know when to chill when traffic is what it is. Just chill, put on fucking cruise control, and just chill and listen to a podcast or whatever. But I've had the most fun driving. I remember what I met when I first started, kind of came out as a car person. When I came out to my friends and family as a car guy. It was shocking. It's like, I like cars. It's like, good for you. That's it. It's like, no, no, there's more.

But, you know, and I met with these, I met up for a drive one day at this guy, Sergio, who's a really amazing, really cool, like kind of like a good guy lawyer who like helps people that can't help themselves. One of the good ones. Really one good one, but he's got. But he has an insane car collection. I mean, he's got Testarossas. He's got two Testarossas. He's got like this amazing old school. Or he's got a Phantom.

He's got like, he has a couple old Ferraris. And he has, basically has like on hand like 10 or 11 incredible iconic cars anytime in his garage or whatever, his locker. And so we show up, and there's a dude driving a Ferrari. I can't remember what it is because I'm not a Ferrari guy. But it was like a super fast something or super Leggero or something like that. Anyways, we're there. And then we end up driving. And we go on this long drive.

then we end up driving and we go on this long drive um you know and everyone's like someone has gone ahead to scope if there's any rocks on the on the curves or whatever so that and then they report they're like roads are clear um blah blah blah blah we didn't see this we didn't see that and then um i have a radio detector and a couple other people have radio tech so then they like book in the radio detector people and then just go on these canyon runs. Right. And when we were done with the canyon run, it was like me and three other Porsches, three 911s. I had a Carrera 4S at that time, 992. And so we just, and they were all driving like 996s and stuff like that, like cool classic, you know, Porsches.

And we were just swimming through traffic on our way home. And it was like four cars, like a school of dolphins. And I know that I've had friends go like, man, I'm in this car that's doing the thing that I always hate when I see on freeways. Yeah, but it's so fun. It's so much fun. And if you're a good driver, I know the difference between someone who knows what the fuck they're doing and someone who doesn't. And like when you see someone that's like their whole game is fluidity. I don't want to be hard braking i want to like be reducing speed at just the right amount so that a gap opens up and

then i can cruise through that gap and then i'm just going to lay off the accelerator and coast for a while putting it neutral let it flow for a while okay and there we go now i'm going to take advantage of that like that's what it's to me it's like it's this it's respectful in that i'm trying to be safe i am being safe but i'm taking it's respectful in that I'm trying to be safe. I am being safe, but I'm taking advantage of these gaps because I'm in a machine that can do that. And it can stop. And it can, I've gotten out of the way of stuff where I'm like, I can't believe the car can do this. Yeah.

Where I'm like, oh, there's a thing. And it's like, you know, I'm just like, and I'm in another lane. It's the greatest machine ever built. This is like the this is like a heavy audible car porn for people that are oh my god they're like yeah yeah tell me about the vibrations i can feel each time but it is it is it is something uh it's something special if if it's something that you're into it's yeah it's whatever people that's why when someone's like you know what's your thing or whatever i don't really have any other niches that I'm like obsessed with thinking about or understanding or wanting to like see more about outside of cars.

But anyway, it is – it's very specific. Some people are like, I don't know. Like I have friends that are like, I couldn't care less. Oh, I know. I know. I have friends that really do not. And I totally get it. Although I'm always excited like when we're driving.

I'm just – I'm like – I sound like a driving instructor, you know, they're like holding on or whatever. And I'm like, I'm like, I know it feels scary, but I promise you this car, when you're in a performance car, this is what the thing is. Like if you're, if you're somebody who's just driven like a condo cars all your life. Yeah. Right. It does feel weird.

It feels weird when you see a machine like that, you just think like, oh, that's an asshole. I would say 80% of the time, probably an asshole. Yeah. But there's a 20% of people who are just enthusiasts and they just love driving. And they're responsible. So if you understand what a car is capable of doing, then you start to understand why people are driving the way that they're driving. And that's what I kind of get off on. I'm like, if I see a dude in a big- ass car and he's just cruising, I'm like, this is

a cruiser. Yeah. This is a guy that likes to take his time or a woman that likes to take her time and they're just chilling. Then you get like the nervous drivers are like every, every little tiny thing. And you're like, well, I want to get beyond you. So I'm going to, I'm going to get around you. So just let me, you don't want me by you.

Cause I'm the sound of the engine is going to make you nervous. The movement of the car is going to make you nervous, whatever. So I want to get – but you notice like all these psychologies. But when you understand what a car can do, all I'm going to say, all you people out there, wherever you are, just understand that when you see a car weaving in and out of traffic, if it's not jerky and if it's smooth, then probably a good driver. Most likely. All right. I want to ask you one favor before we go, because I appreciate it. We end the show a certain way, but will you do me a special?

Sure. As short and quick as you can, just knowing the show or looking at this, what do you think the theme song should be of this show? It can be just a noise or a sound or something tiny, but just because I know you can see something in it maybe let's see hold on let's see if we can do this whiskey ginger that is absolutely perfect uh that's the way. That is absolutely perfect.

That's the way we usually end the show, with one word or one phrase. I'm going to take that as the one word or one phrase, because that was fucking incredible. Thank you so much for being on the show. I can't wait to maybe get invited to go toy around in the canyon with you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll go. That's fun. Thank you so much.

All right. Cilantro. In here, we pour whisk, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. You're that creature in the ginger beard. Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Gingers are beautiful. You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse.

Gingers are hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers.